Fractured Dreams

by Greg Alldredge

  “I didn’t do all this when you took over Hayline.” Hope spread her arms wide. The enormity of it all still filled her with fear. She wasn’t sure how she would line up the people of her realm for the ritual.

  “You’re correct, I didn’t. I had to do it the old fashioned way, from afar, from mirrored surfaces. It also took nearly ten years, and I wasn’t certain the effects would take until he left the keep for the wilds. Do you want to wait that long?”

  “You know I can’t wait.”

  Giblet chuckled. “Besides, at the time, I thought I might have a hard time convincing your ten-year-old self to take such drastic steps to take care of your older brother.”

  “I don’t think you understand how badly I wanted that bastard to pay…” Hope walked to the two young girls suspended from the rafters. “But why do they need to be awake?” She wanted to slit their throats now, let them die while they peacefully slept.

  “If you keep asking questions, we will never get through this night, now will we?”

  “Just answer the question,” Hope pressed.

  “Since we are summoning a demon to enter your man, the more fear we have in the room during the ceremony, the greater the chance of it taking. You want a powerful demon, don’t you? Listen, we could bypass all this craziness if you just accepted me into your heart. Once we become one, no one can touch us.”

  “That all sounds good on the surface, but I’m not sure I want to risk my life, my sanity, by being the first to try this experiment. Tanner is much more… suited for that task. After him, we will see.”

  “Look, I think the two girls are waking up. How long till your man wakes?”

  “It shouldn’t be long. I only cast a spell on him. He is not drugged like the girls. He should wake with the snap of my fingers.”

  “Do you remember the chant?”

  “We will never get this done if you constantly question my capabilities.”

  “Yes, you are right, I’m sorry. It is just we have been waiting so long for this chance.”

  “Let me guess, ten years?”

  “Oh no, much longer than that… centuries…” Giblet let the words sink in before he said, “The first one wakes, slit her throat and start the chant. Remember to stay out of the pool until you’re ready for me.”

  The first girl rolled her eyes in fear as she realized something was strange. The gag stuffed in her mouth kept her screams from being too obnoxious. Desperate to escape, she contorted her body to free herself from her bindings. Once Hope was certain she was wide awake and frantic, she pulled out her short blade and, with a tug over the girl’s soft flesh, slit her throat ear to ear. The screams were reduced to a gurgle as the young woman bled out. Spurts of crimson pulsed into the shallow pool below.

  Hope started chanting, “Veni ad me, invoco te, veniunt ad me,” as she backed away from the red shower filling the pool. She kept her chant up while she reached the second victim.

  The second girl began to scream as well. It did her no good. Hope sacrificed her with the same coldhearted flick of her wrist.

  It took less time than she thought it would. The beat of the two young girls’ hearts racing pumped their life from them before Hope could remove her clothes.

  “Wake the giant now all is ready,” Giblet screamed from the mirror.

  Once satisfied her skinny body in the white witch skin looked as seductive as possible, Hope snapped her fingers. The giant Tanner’s eyes popped open.

  “Do it, do it now,” Giblet cried louder from the mirror.

  With a flick of her fingers, Hope motioned for Tanner to come to her through the pool of blood.

  He looked down at his naked body. There was no telling what went through his feeble mind, but Hope would bet her life it involved sex. He stood. His body already reacting to her call, he stepped unwittingly into the blood and half-stumbled to her.

  The candle flames in the room shot high, and the blood sparked a strange iridescence. The flow of the energy lifted the sparkles up the man’s legs to the knees. Tendrils of the red fluid reached higher, to his chest. Nothing slowed him down. He reached where Hope stood waiting for him, chanting, “Veni ad me, invoco te, veniunt ad me.” He dropped to his knees and fell face-first onto the floor. Hope jumped back to keep from being crushed by the man.

  “Did it work?” Giblet asked.

  “How the hells do I know? I did just what you told me to do.” Hope stepped over the body of the nude man half-covered in the blood of virgins.

  “You’re certain the two were virgins?”

  “As certain as I can be. It’s not like there is a test…”

  “Roll him over, see if he breathes.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Hope knew there was no chance of her lifting the massive man’s frame. She bent down and listened for his breath. “He still breathes.” A quick slap on the back of his head did not deliver the desired result of waking him. “How do we know if it took?”

  “When he wakes, if he does not kill you and does as you order him, we know all is good.”

  “What?”

  From under her man, there rose the most sickening cackle of a laugh Hope had ever heard. She took three steps back to her workbench and grabbed the dagger she used to slit the girls’ throats. She doubted it would stop the monster of a man if he attacked her, but it was better than nothing.

  Tanner stood, and his eyes burned red with the fire of the candles. He cleared his throat and said with a voice from the depths of the hells themselves, “Oh, my, that feels so good.”

  Hope took a step back, trying to place her workbench between her and the monster she had created. “What have I done?”

  “You have freed me from a lifetime of pain, agony, and torment, lady. Do you have a chore for me to accomplish?”

  It seemed like the man she once knew as Tanner was still in there. “Tanner, are you all right?”

  Quick as a switch, the red in the eyes dimmed, and she could recognize her part-time lover standing in front of her. “Yes. I am here. It is the most amazing feeling.”

  “I think it worked like we wanted,” Giblet called from the mirror. “Now it is your turn. Get in the blood.”

  Hope shook her head. “Not yet, I want to try a few more before my turn.” She turned back to Tanner. “Go fetch me the two guards outside the door. I need them.”

  Tanner had never been the sharpest sword in the armory, but his eyes brightened with a new intelligence. “Yes, m’lady.” He bowed and went to the heavy door that protected her workroom. The sound of the bolt slapping back echoed in the stone room. The sound made her jump. His brusque voice called out, “You two come in here.”

  Not caring she was still wearing a dead woman’s flesh, she stood in all her skinny glory, waiting for the two men. Once inside, the guards did their best to not gawk at her form in the dim light. From across the room, she couldn’t tell what they could see of her body.

  “Take your clothes off and come here,” she called across the blood-filled pool.

  The moment of apprehension should have been longer, but the guards who stood watch outside her door were the most loyal and trusting of the men who served her. They did as they were told without question. Maybe this would be easier than she thought. Once she had a body of soldiers converted from the men who served her, it should be easier to force the others of the city to take the plunge. She giggled at the thought.

  The two men stepped into the gore as Hope chanted, “Veni ad me, invoco te, veniunt ad me.” The process was repeated. The blood sparkled about their feet and rose up their legs until they reached the far side, where both passed out in a heap.

  Hope jumped with glee. “It worked.” She ran to the full-length mirror. “I can’t believe it worked.”

  Giblet tried to contain his excitement, but his eyes glowed with anticipation. “I told you it would. Now we will work on more of your citizens, and soon we will rule the world. Accept me now, and we can get started with this new world order.” He reached hi
s hand out for her but hit the mirror instead.

  “Not yet… I’m not ready for that kind of a commitment. How do I know there are no lasting side effects?”

  “I can guarantee you there will be lasting side effects: immortality and power beyond your wildest dreams.”

  “I can dream pretty wild.”

  “How about queen of all the known lands?”

  “What about the lands that aren’t yet known and beyond?”

  “Only your imagination will stop you.”

  “I still need to get my people to walk through a pool of blood, nude.”

  Giblet smiled. “They don’t need to be nude.”

  “What? You said,” Hope growled.

  “I said the blood needed to come in contact with bare flesh. You stripped them down. I can’t help if you misinterpret what I say, now can I?”

  “See, that is why I hesitate to bond with you. I am concerned there might be other things you are forgetting to tell me, or only telling me half-truths.”

  Giblet placed his right hand over his chest. “I swear on my mother’s grave, I would never lie to you.”

  Hope raised her eyebrow. She didn’t trust the little demon, but what he said had come true so far. Maybe it was time to join with him. She was ready to reach out to the mirror and speak the words when something caught her attention.

  Strange scuffing sounded near the door of her workroom.

  “Just a moment,” she said and padded off to check the door.

  Chapter 20, Chastity Shoemaker:

  “There are different types of magic all about you.” Verity’s words still echoed in Chastity’s ears. Since returning from the visit with Meyers, Chastity took to staying in Verity’s chambers. The rumors about her sister Hope and the strange experiments she conducted grew exponentially.

  When word reached the court of Ollie’s death… Chastity feared a revolt might be growing. If her father had not done such an outstanding job of culling the more ambitious from the court before he died, they might already be in the midst of a civil war. Chastity did not want to be a casualty of an uprising.

  She even heard a noble lamenting about the good old days when all they needed to worry about was her crazy brother Hayline, and they all wanted to kill him. She must be cursed and come from a family of crazies.

  Chastity’s magic never came. Verity told her it might not. She had barely reached womanhood. Some things took time, but that was something she remained certain she didn’t have. When the time came for her to be murdered, she was sure time wouldn’t wait.

  So much of the world had been held as secrets. Knowledge should be shared not locked away for others to keep as a treasure. How could the cities ever advance if they didn’t know the teachings from the past?

  Books were hard to come by. It wasn’t fair that the really important ones were held in private collections by people who didn’t have the time to study them. All the learning might as well be lost forever for the good it did others. Few people remembered facts past what their parents told them. Chastity wanted to learn what happened over one hundred years ago, even a thousand… How far along might the city be if they embraced changes instead of burying them?

  Two scullery wenches went missing, sisters. Their mother happened to clean Verity’s chambers. She came screaming for help to find the two girls. Her concern was if the princess regent caught them, they would never be seen alive again.

  Chastity understood the cleaning woman’s fears. That was the reason she remained hidden with Meyer’s mother, fear of her sister. Hope had become obsessed with virginity. Too many people seemed to disappear because of it. Who would have thought virginity would become a fatal flaw worthy of death?

  That was how she found herself padding down the dark hall toward the dead end that bore the door to Hope’s private workshop. Chastity envisioned it as her sex pit.

  Again, the rumors abounded that she had developed strange tastes for sex with all sorts of men, animals, and demons. It was easier to hate a person someone held no respect for. The first stage of defeating a ruler was to mock them to obscurity. Chastity knew she wanted nothing to do with leadership.

  “There are no guards,” Verity whispered.

  Chastity peeked around the older woman’s body, and sure enough, no one stood guard outside the door to their target. Stranger still, it looked like the door remained cracked open. A slight sliver of light could be seen filtering around the door.

  “I want you to stay out in the hall,” came the next whisper. “If the worst happens, and I fall, you need to run as fast as you can. Escape the keep and the city. Hope will surely kill you if she finds you.”

  This whole situation was about to get more real than Chastity ever imagined. She wanted to learn about magic and glommed onto Meyers’s mother to learn from… and for protection. Now… she wasn’t ready for some duel to the death with her sister. Especially since Chastity showed no aptitude for controlling the power of magic.

  She witnessed zero evidence Verity could cast a single spell. However, she had once seen Hope light the torches in the great hall of the citadel. When she asked her teacher about this, she said, “The powerful have nothing to prove.” That answer didn’t give Chastity confidence in what was about to happen.

  As far as she had learned, all magic remained different. The diverse energies needed to be formed into action by a controlled mind. Each person who could cast normally controlled magic in a slightly different fashion. So the way Verity created the spells would be different from every other person who could cast. That was why it became so difficult to learn how to control the slippery energy. No two people would do it the same, and each would cast a different spell, even when trying to duplicate the results.

  Verity told her, “Do not try to force the energy, it will come. When you’re a hammer, the world looks like a nail. Don’t be a hammer.”

  The words had meant nothing to Chastity, but she smiled and nodded anyway.

  Verity pushed the door open with her fingertips. Crouching low, she slipped into the room.

  A woman’s voice drifted out from the room. Just out of comprehensive range, the sound tempted her, drawing the young woman closer. Ignoring Verity’s warning, Chastity followed her into the room and brushed against a bookcase near the entrance.

  Hope said, “Just a moment,” turned to the door and took a step forward. Her hands moved rhythmically, and the candles burned brighter.

  “Kill her,” Hope shouted and pointed at Verity.

  From across the room, her man Tanner bellowed and charged the older woman.

  Verity did nothing to stop the giant and instead crouched into a fighting position, pointing both hands at Hope, and a wave of force blasted from her fingertips. In an instant, a look of shock, surprise, and horror filled Hope’s wide eyes when she flew off the ground and was bodily thrown across the room.

  The force of the blast shoved a clear path through the clutter of the space, shattering a mirror that stood against the wall.

  Chastity heard not only the roar of Tanner’s inbound attack, but also Hope’s scream of pain, and another equally loud male voice shrieking from the far side of the room.

  Hope bounced off what looked like two naked women hanging from the ceiling and dropped into a pool beneath.

  Verity turned to face the attack coming from her left, only to find the giant held in place a few feet from her body. His hands were outstretched, reaching to snap the older woman’s neck.

  Chastity had reacted like Verity told her she would. Seeing the giant attack, she had reached out with her hands and mind to stop the beast. She did her best and grabbed him before he reached her friend and protector. He surely would have killed her in his grip.

  Verity smiled at the young woman who proved she could use at least some magic in a pinch. “Looks like you did learn something.”

  Beads of sweat formed on Chastity’s upper lip. Holding the monster was becoming more of a strain with each passing second. She could not s
peak, holding him took all her strength and concentration.

  Verity must have recognized the young Shoemaker’s grip slipping. She used a single hand to wave at Tanner in a backhanded motion. The force picked him off the floor and threw him across the room. Furniture was crushed in the shockwave. The wreckage covered Hope and the bodies on the far side of the room under a pile of debris. The man splatted against the far wall, leaving an imprint of blood from the impact with the stones.

  The older woman turned to face Chastity. Her face was serene after the horrors of combat. “If you keep practicing that, you should be able to control it better,” Verity said.

  Sucking in air through her clenched teeth, Chastity was able to eventually grunt out, “I’m not sure what I did.”

  “I can tell you, you saved our lives… Regent.” Verity curtsied deeply.

  “What?” It never occurred to Chastity, or she refused to think about it, but with Hope’s death, she became the de facto ruler of Perdition, with all the headaches that came with it. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.” After the heartache she witnessed her sister go through, the responsibility and the grief proved huge.

  “Don’t worry, I will help you.” Verity reached out and touched her shoulder. “If you need to cement your power, you can always marry Meyers.”

  That was the deal Hope tried to make to make her position more secure. Chastity glanced at the pile of rubbish that covered her sister. I’m not sure that is a good idea, she thought as she looked into Verity’s eyes and only smiled. Decisions on the future could be made when there was less stress about her.

  “I will send some guards down to clear this mess up. The whole court needs to learn what your sister was up to here in secret. The foul stench in this room needs to see the light of day so the healing can begin.”

  The pair turned to leave the destroyed workroom. A sinister laugh filled the room, and Chastity’s blood froze in her veins. Fear gripped her when a voice cried out, “I am free!” It sounded like her sister’s voice but dropped two octaves lower. The walls shook with its volume. The whole of the keep had to hear the rumbling sound.