“If you already have the magic you need to save the village, why are you killing Aspen?” shouted out Bryony. All the while, I was trying to uncover her from the net. The trees were thinner here so close to the edge of the forest, and we were getting soaked, thanks to the fat droplets of rain falling on us.
“Ah, the ritual, the ritual,” smirked Mali. “The thing is, Sandy likes her creature comforts, and she really likes magic. I am the most powerful sorcerer in the kingdom, but I know my limitations. I don’t want her knowing them. For that, I need magic.”
“You are killing us so you can show off to your whore? Nice! You are right, Bryony, he is old and ugly. It looks like he’s ugly on the inside too.”
“He’s a stupid old man in the throes of a midlife crisis, nothing more!” agreed Bryony.
“I’m going to transport you back to your cottage where I’ll personally see that you don’t get out again until the big day, either of you. Please don’t think about trying anything then either. If you mess up the ritual, the villagers will personally blame you for the Spades being able to attack the village.”
“You don’t even know that they will attack,” I said, finally breaking out of the net.
“Oh, I know. I have intel that they are planning to attack the day after the ritual. It’s all so perfect! The villagers will be so pleased that I’ve saved them, they’ll forgive me my little indiscretion with Sandy.”
“You make me sick!” I stood up and slapped the self-righteous smirk off his face. How on earth could I have ever been in love with this man?
He put his hand up to his now red cheek and pointed at me. There was a flash of purple, and I was back in my cottage. A few seconds later, Bryony appeared at my feet.
I ran to the door and pulled the handle. It wouldn’t open.
“He’s used magic to keep us in.”
“Can’t we bash the door down?” asked Bryony, standing up and dusting herself down. The dust was mud, though, so she just ended up smearing it even more.
“No. We could bash through the door, but not the magic. I think we are stuck here until tomorrow.”
“I’m having a bath!”
I watched her disappear into the bathroom. Minutes later, I heard sobbing coming from behind the bathroom door. I sighed. It looked like we were all going to have to play this horrific charade of Mali’s through. What was worse, Bryony now knew the truth about him. He’d never let her live and give her the chance to tell the rest of the villagers what a complete piece of scum he was. Not that they’d believe her anyway because everyone thought the sun shined out of Mali’s ass, just like I had.
I prepared breakfast for us, using the last of the bacon and eggs. Tomorrow, I’d not have to worry about food as a magnificent feast would be prepared for the bonding. Bondings were huge events, and the whole village would be cooking and preparing food for it.
I poured the last of the alcohol into two glasses. It was not customary to drink with breakfast, but if tomorrow was going to be my last day alive, I figured I might as well do what I wanted.
I placed both plates and glasses on the table and waited for Bryony. When she appeared, she sat silently next to me at the table and picked up her fork. She played around with her food for a minute and then drank the whole glass of wine down in one go. I really was a bad influence!
After we had finished, Bryony went straight back to making the dress. I don’t know why she did it. What I looked like tomorrow was not really a high priority to me, but I left her to it. It was probably the only thing taking her mind off the coming days. I wondered what would happen to her after it was all over. Would Mali let her live, knowing what she knew? Would she even want to without her soulmate? It didn’t bear thinking about. I spent the day trawling through dozens of magic books to find a way to stop what was happening, but there was nothing that would help. I even found an old spell book, but without having any magic, it was less than useless. I found a quiet corner and practiced for an hour, trying everything I could to summon some magic, but it was no use. I had no magical ability at all. I couldn’t summon it, and I wouldn’t know what to do with it if I could. I gave it up as a bad job, and when nighttime fell, I was still no closer to finding a way out.
3rd February
3rd February
The day of my bonding and my death dawned, bringing the sunshine with it. I looked out of the window and saw the perfect weather for a wedding, a hazy blue sky with just a hint of dew on the ground. The sun shone pink in the winter air, creating a mystical feel and colouring the world around in a warm glow. It was the kind of morning that I would usually love to wake up to, but this morning I felt no joy in it. I had hours of pomp and circumstance ahead, which would end at midnight with my death. A night of tossing and turning had done nothing to help my mood. When Bryony appeared by my side with a small breakfast of cereal, it took everything I had to raise a smile.
“I thought a small breakfast would be better,” she said, handing me the bowl and a spoon. “You are going to be eating a huge feast later, and you’ll not want to burst out of your dress.”
She sat on the bed by my feet and waited for me to eat. I picked up the spoon and managed to force a few mouthfuls down. It tasted bland after the past few days of bacon and eggs. Still, I ate it, more for Bryony’s sake than my own.
“I’ve got your dress ready, but I’ll do your hair first.”
It all seemed so utterly pointless, but she’d spent so much time and effort on that hideous rag that I felt I should, at least, pretend to like it. I let her pull me out of bed once I’d finished eating, and once she’d taken my empty bowl and handed me a cup of coffee, I sat on a chair in the living room.
She fussed about with my hair whilst I sat, eyes closed, thinking desperately of some last ditch attempt to get myself out of this mess.
A knock at the door broke my concentration, and I wondered who on Vanatus could be calling at this time of day on my bonding day.
Bryony dropped the bit of hair she was working on and went to answer the door whilst I craned round to see who it was. My first thought was that it might be Mali coming to tell me he’d made a huge mistake, but even I knew that was wishful thinking.
I was surprised to see Lilac standing at the door, a huge bunch of wildflowers in her arms.
“I’m not allowed to come in, but I thought you might want these,” she said.
She looked nervous, and I wondered what, exactly, she’d been told about today. The way she was looking nervously behind her made me think that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. It was normally commonplace for the girls of the village to deliver gifts and flowers on the morning of the bonding. They also usually took the girl who was to be bonded to have a ritual bath at a bathhouse in the woods. Judging by the look on Lilac’s face, that was not going to happen. She looked positively terrified. When Bryony accepted the flowers, Lilac bolted as if someone was after her.
“I guess the magic has been taken off the doors this morning,” said Bryony, placing the flowers on a table next to me.
I’d completely forgotten about that, but she was right. She’d had no problem opening the door to Lilac.
“Let’s go now! We can use the ritual bath as an excuse. We’ll head to the bathhouse and run from there.”
“Do you really think it will work?” replied Bryony solemnly. “Mali isn’t going to let you go this close to the bonding.”
She was right, of course, but what did we have to lose? Absolutely nothing. I grabbed a towel and stalked out of the door with her following closely behind.
The cold hit me as I left the cottage. The warm glow of the sun had lulled me into a false sense of security, and the air had a bite to it. I watched my breath as I exhaled. This was going to be one chilly bath!
I’d never taken part in the bathing ritual before. I’d always felt a bit embarrassed, but I knew what it was about. The girls in the village were all supposed to wash the bonding girl in the bathhouse. It was utterly ridiculous as th
e exact same water was pumped to our houses, and we could just as easily bathe ourselves at home, but it had become a tradition at some point in the past, and every girl did it before her bonding. I think it had something to do with the healing powers of the Club waters. I’d been told they were more potent in nature. I’m not exactly sure what I needed healing apart from a broken heart, but that had been completely obliterated, and no amount of magic purifying water was going to fix it. We’d just got to the bathhouse door when I heard Mali’s voice.
“I wasn’t expecting you to come out this morning, but I’m glad to see you are getting into the spirit of things.”
“Fuck off!” Not the most eloquent of answers, but it summed up how I was feeling.
“Now now, no need to be rude. It’s your bonding day, the happiest day for any woman. I’ll just wait outside and escort you back when you’re done. I wouldn’t want you getting lost and missing your big day!”
I ignored him and opened the door to the bathhouse. The marble took me by surprise. Every building in Yelpish was made from wood. We didn’t even have marble in our family’s castle back home. I associated Marble with the Hearts or Diamonds. I didn’t want to let my surprise show, so I just stalked in, waiting for Bryony to close the door behind us. The room was also surprisingly hot for such a cold day, and when Bryony turned the tap on, hot water drove spirals of steam into the air. The bath was actually a large square marble pool, rather than an actual bath, and could easily accommodate a dozen or so people.
Now that we couldn’t run away with Mali outside, I figured I may as well use the bath and try to come up with an alternative escape plan.
I’d never seen so much steam, which was rapidly filling the air. Tiny windows around the top of the building let in light and let some of the steam escape. We had no hot water in our homes; we usually bathed in the cold. I wasn’t used to this. Even at the castle, we had to heat our water over the fire and have servants bring it to our baths. I’d never in my life seen hot water come from a tap before.
“I need you over here,” called Bryony, standing next to a big marble slab that looked like an altar of some kind.
“Why?” I asked. I could barely see her through the steam.
“I need you to lie on this slab so that I can wash you off. The bath is to rinse off all the bubbles when I finish.”
“Really?”
“I’ve done this countless times before. I know what I’m doing. Now get your clothes off and lay on the slab.”
So that’s what it was for. Feeling nervous, I began to undress, but then a slight darkening interrupted one of the streams of light coming from the small windows.
“Just a minute!” I said. I ran outside and round the back of the bathhouse to find Mali standing on a platform peering through one of the windows, his pants round his ankles.
“You are spying on me?” I looked at the platform. It was a part of the building, not a temporary structure. “You spy on all the girls! You dirty, perverted, disgusting…”
“Now, now, Iris, calm down!”
I didn’t even bother to answer him. I just punched him square on the nose and waited for the inevitable flash of purple to send me home. It didn’t come.
“I’ll let you off because I need you,” he said clutching his nose as blood poured out of it, “But if you try anything like that again, I’ll kill you myself right here! And don’t try to escape. I’ve got people surrounding the village perimeter watching out for you.”
I watched as he used his free hand to yank his trousers back up and then take off into the woods towards the village.
I went back into the bathhouse clutching my hand. I’d actually hurt it when I punched him in the face, but it made me feel a whole lot better.
How was it possible that you could know someone for so long and not really know them at all? I’d never in a million years have guessed Mali was such a sleazeball. Still, I had no time to worry about him. I had my bonding to prepare for.
Back inside the bathhouse, I slipped off my clothes, no longer embarrassed, and laid myself face down on the marble slab. It was already wet and slippery with all the steam and felt a lot warmer than I had expected. I felt something soft on my back, and when I craned my head around to see what it was, I found Bryony with a net sack full of bubble-filled sponges. She was gently squeezing them, so my entire back was covered in warm soapy suds. She hummed a sad melody as she worked on me, moving the sponges up and down my back. The motion soothed me so much that I almost forgot about what had just happened, and what was about to happen.
She worked her way right down my back, soaping my legs and then my feet before working her way back up, making me squirm with her actions. The warm sponges moved up between my legs filling me with sensations I’d not felt before. I wondered if I’d experience the same sensations on my wedding night with Aspen. I could feel my cheeks growing red, embarrassment filled me for enjoying this too much, and I was relieved when Bryony moved the sponges up to my back. The motion made me sleepy and peaceful. The sounds of nature outside, combined with Bryony’s haunting melody, were enough to make me forget the day ahead. I’d have quite happily stayed there like this all day but all too soon it came to an end.
“There!” said Bryony. “All done.”
I almost slipped off the marble slab, dripping with soapy bubbles, and jumped into the steaming hot tub. The burning sensation made me gasp, but it was also welcome. The hotness of the water made me feel like I could wash all my problems away.
“Do you want to get in?” I could see her standing patiently at the side of the pool, waiting with a huge white fluffy towel, one that had been left here just for me, presumably.
She shook her head and looked down.
“Come on. It’s huge. I can’t sit here all on my own.”
“It’s not for me. This bath has only ever been used for girls on their bonding day. It would be wrong to use it when I’m not to be bonded.”
“Who says? Mali?”
“Well…”
“Let’s just say Mali isn’t going to bother us in here. I’m the only one here, and I don’t care whether you use the bath or not. I just don’t want you freezing to death while you’re standing around waiting for me, and I don’t plan on rushing out of this bath.”
She seemed unsure, but she threw her clothes off all the same and jumped in quickly so I couldn’t see her naked body for more than a few seconds. The tiny bit I did see made me feel sorry for Aspen, for what he was going to get instead of her, i.e. me with my not quite perfect boobs, not quite the right size thighs, not quite flat enough stomach. Not that I cared too much about myself and my figure, but Aspen surely would. From the little I’d seen of Bryony, she was perfect in every way, almost like a Heart, but the hearts paid to look as good as Bryony. Bryony was naturally beautiful. I would have told her so, but she was busy trying to hide as much of herself as was possible under the bubbles, and I didn’t want to embarrass her. I could see a redness in her cheeks that I suspected was nothing to do with the heat of the water. Our closeness over the last week had not extended to her being that comfortable!
I busily washed myself with a bit of soap I found and purposefully kept my eyes away from her so she could relax and enjoy it. The water was deliciously hot against the crisp winter air. All we needed was a glass of champagne each, but of course, we didn’t have one of those.
“You are going to go through with it, aren’t you?”
I dropped the soap, which I felt land on my foot and then drift off somewhere in the bubbles never to be seen again.
It was as if she’d read my mind. She was right. I was going to go through with bonding with Aspen. Not for the reason she thought, though.
“I am.”
“I understand. Mali has got the whole village locked down. There’s nothing else you can do.”
She gave me a small smile then, and it nearly broke my heart. The pain in her eyes was clear. Hopefully, my next words to her would ease her pain.
“I’m not doing it because I’m scared of Mali. I’m doing it because I’m going to kill him.”
“What?” The pain in her eyes was replaced with shock.
“This past week has been a living hell for me. I don’t know how I would have got through it without you, but knowing now what I do, he has to go.”
“Iris! You can’t kill someone because they dumped you. I mean, he technically didn’t even do that. I know he’s a scumbag, but…”
“He’s been perving on girls here in this very room. I caught him outside with his pants down around his ankles. There was a platform built specially for him to look through the windows at the naked girls, which tells me he’s been doing it for years. I’m willing to bet he chooses the girls he wants to see naked to be bonded. It has nothing to do with the stars or destiny or whatever.”
Bryony’s eyes flicked up to the windows and her hand flew to her mouth in shock.
“Don’t worry, he’s not there now. I punched him in the face. He’s gone back to the village. This whole bonding thing is bullshit. With Mali out of the way, no one will expect me to actually have sex with Aspen. Yes, ok, I’ll technically be bonded to him because of the ceremony, but bonding only means anything within the confines of Yelpish. It’s not a legal ceremony like marriage is. Neither Vanatus nor the Club Kingdom recognises it legally at all. I’m going to let Mali perform the bonding ceremony, then at some point during the feast and before I have to, you know, with Aspen, I’m going to put a knife right through Mali’s gut.”
My proclamations had done nothing to take the look of shock off Bryony’s face. In fact, she was beginning to turn slightly green.
“If you do that, the whole village will turn on you. He has them brainwashed. Not to mention the fact that The Spades are going to attack any day and without you and Aspen coming together, we’ll never be able to shield ourselves.”
Six of Clubs (War and Suits Book 5) Page 7