“And how many tigermen are there?” I asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Well, where are they now?”
“We don’t know that either,” Darcy replied. “The tigermen only appear when our master does. We have never seen them around the Tower except for when we are called for assembly.”
“Okay, one, stop calling him our master,” I said. “He’s not our master and calling him that isn’t helping. Two, they have to be around here somewhere. This building is underwater. It’s not like they’ve got scuba gear in one of the armoires and can just swim to the surface.”
“Scuba gear?”
“Forget it.” I began to pace. My hand absentmindedly reached for my stomach. The last time I’d eaten had been in the village before we entered the Passage Perelous. I should’ve been starving by now. Yet I felt an uncharacteristic lack of hunger.
That’s when a crazy notion hit me.
I closed my eyes and thought back to the moment before I passed out from the electrical shock of the baton. The way this room had flickered, it seemed like … like it wasn’t real.
“Darcy,” I said. “How long have you been here?”
“I am not sure,” she said. “A while.”
“What about you, Shiondre?” I asked. “How long have you been here?”
“A while.”
Their responses made my crazy notion get all tingly as conversations I’d had with other girls throughout the day came back to me.
“And when was the last time either of you ate?” I asked.
“What?”
“You heard me,” I replied. “You said you never see the tigermen or Daverose or any other outsiders except during the assemblies. I’ve been all over this Tower and haven’t found a single staff member, let alone a kitchen. So that begs the question—where do you get your food from?”
“We’ve eaten,” Shiondre insisted.
“Okay, then tell me when, where, how?”
Darcy pursed her lips and frowned. “We must have. I mean, we’ve been here—”
“A while, I know,” I interrupted. “It’s funny. I’ve asked a few other girls that same question and they all said the same thing, but no one can tell me any specifics.”
“Crisa, what are you getting at?” Darcy asked.
“What I’m getting at is this place makes no sense. You all claim to have been here for a while, but there is no food anywhere. Aside from the one I woke up in, the bedrooms appear to have never been slept in. And there is not a speck of dirt on any of your dresses even though that’s the only thing you ever wear.”
“Crisa …” Shiondre tried to interject.
“And if we’re underwater,” I went on, “How are Daverose and his tigermen able to come and go? If they are not in the Tower, then they would have to leave somehow.”
“Maybe there is a way out through the Little Cabinet?” Darcy suggested.
Shiondre elbowed Darcy and gave her a frightened look.
I frowned. “I heard Daverose mention that. What is it?”
Despite Shiondre’s reluctance, Darcy answered. “The Little Cabinet is a test, Crisa,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “For the most part, Daverose leaves us alone within these walls. The only thing we are forbidden to do is enter a room Daverose calls his Little Cabinet. He trusts us to obey this one rule and never go inside. Since that is the only place in the Tower that none of us have ever gone into, I have to imagine that Daverose’s way out is through there.”
My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “Why didn’t you tell me this before? If there’s even a possibility of a way out then why haven’t any of you gone to investigate?”
“Because the Little Cabinet is a death sentence,” Darcy responded.
“More so than waiting around here?”
“Yes,” Shiondre interceded. “Crisa, please. You cannot go in there. You will die. You think you’re the first girl who’s wanted to escape through the Little Cabinet? There have been others, and all of them met the same end—a gruesome fate that Bluebeards have been bestowing upon disobedient brides for millennia.” She shook her head and shuddered. “Any girl who passes through the Little Cabinet vanishes from the Tower. But soon after, Daverose assembles us in the ballroom, and …” She turned away with a sob.
“What?” I asked.
“He shows us their heads,” Darcy finished for her friend.
I took a step back. “Wait, you mean like—”
“I mean like he and his tigermen gather us in the ballroom and he holds up the head of the girl who went through the Little Cabinet,” Darcy said. “Shiondre has seen it happen twice. I’ve only seen it once. But believe me, it makes an impression. So that is why we don’t go into the Little Cabinet. We’re not stupid; we know there could be a way out through there. But we also know the brutal fate that awaits us if we try and take it.”
I let the information sink in. It fit with the Bluebeard narrative—the whole “forbidden room filled with death” thing. Actually, now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure I remembered reading a couple of eclectic versions of the story in my Fairytale History class where the chamber that held the bloodied bodies was referred to as a Little Cabinet.
Goosebumps crawled up my skin. I’d been all fire and determination the moment Darcy had mentioned the Little Cabinet, but now I was hesitant. Even though I had miraculously come back to life once before, I wasn’t sure how my life-restoring capabilities worked. Could what happened in the Shifting Forest occur again, or was it just a one-off? And did that ability only apply to certain forms of dying? I was clearly capable of resurrecting myself from an arrow through the chest, but was being beheaded an entirely different form of death that my powers couldn’t protect me from?
Furthermore, what if the technicalities didn’t even matter? This choker inhibited my magic. So if I faced off with Daverose again, I wouldn’t be able to use my powers to save myself. Without that, or my wand, how good were my chances against such a barbaric monster? I would only have myself to rely on.
I exhaled deeply and centered.
That would have to be enough.
Time was running out on so many levels—I still had to find my friends, beat Alex and the antagonists to Excalibur, complete our quests before the Vicennalia Aurora, and save Jason from his imminent fate. I hadn’t even had a chance to warn him this morning that his death was close at hand.
Daverose’s threat was scary, but I would risk anything and everything for my friends and to stop my enemies. My head included. I turned back to Shiondre and Darcy.
“Are you guys going to show me where this cabinet is, or do I have to find it myself?”
Darcy and Shiondre walked me to a stairwell at the back of the Tower in silence.
There was a secret passage behind a tapestry. Typical. We climbed down it to the basement level of the compound. We arrived at a long, narrow stone corridor lit by two torches. At the end of the corridor was a single metal door.
“Best of luck, Crisa,” Darcy said. “I hope … I hope we don’t see you again.”
“If I find a way out I will come back for you. I promise,” I said.
Shiondre just nodded. “Goodbye, Crisa. Remember, we tried to warn you.” Then she yanked on Darcy’s arm and the two of them headed back the way we’d come. I marched toward my supposed doom, halting just before the door.
Deep breath.
In spite of the monsters that potentially awaited me on the other side of this door, I couldn’t stay and cower when there were people and realms counting on me. Not now—not ever—would I forget that I had a responsibility to them first.
I reached for the iron handle and pulled. The unlocked door creaked outward and revealed blackness inside. Not blackness like a dark room, but like a void straight out of one of my nightmares.
My fingers stretched into the abyss. It felt cold and damp. I didn’t know where this would lead me, but I was certain it was a way out of this place and that was good e
nough. I stepped into the darkness.
I gasped loudly as blood rushed to my head.
The moment I’d stepped into the void, it’d felt like I was falling. Then I suddenly sat up to the sound of small jewels clattering to the floor.
What? Where?
I continued to gasp for breath as my racing heart tried to calm down. At first, I could only make out a bright blue light overhead and the wash of dark crimson that seemed to consume everything. Then I closed my eyes, concentrated hard, and inhaled deeply. When I opened my eyes again, clarity had returned to my vision, but not my understanding of the situation.
I was in the ballroom of Bluebeard Tower, but it looked very different. While the window wall remained the same, the lower parts of the other walls had stone beds jutting out of them like shelves. Every girl from the Tower was asleep on top of a stone bed. It was bonkers. I was on the level closest to the floor. The next row of shelves was just a few inches above me when I was sitting up.
I swung my legs over the edge of my bed shelf and my boots dangled an inch from the floor.
My boots!
I was no longer in heels. I was wearing my familiar boots and leggings, though I still had the same red dress on over them. Also returned to their place were my SRB and Alex’s wristband. I reached up to my bra strap and sighed with relief. My wandpin was there too. Which meant there was only one thing left to check.
I held up my hand and focused. A single golden spark flew from my fingers, but the attempt to produce anything more caused me great pain. I wasn’t alarmed though; I knew that pain. It was Magic Exhaustion. Bringing myself back to life in the forest must’ve drained me pretty thoroughly. I barely had any power left.
Still, even though my magic was exhausted, knowing that it was there was a relief. Based on the Magic Exhaustion, and the vague ache I felt in my chest where I’d been shot, I concluded that it hadn’t been long since I’d faced the magic hunters. Which meant it hadn’t been long since I’d been separated from my friends.
I hopped off the stone slab to the checkered tile but almost slipped. My choker was lying on the ground with the rubies scattered everywhere. I touched my neck. Weird. Somehow the necklace had come off and shattered apart.
I hurried to the center of the ballroom. The epic electric chandelier was still there, seventy feet above me. The cobalt throne remained at the top of the twelve-step staircase with the dais at the base. However, aside from the bed shelves there was another key difference about the space. There was now a ladder in the room.
And I wasn’t talking about the kind of ladder you’d use to paint a house or change a light bulb. This was an extensive stone ladder by the window wall that went from the ground to the ceiling. It reached up to an open doorway near the roof. I raced toward it but before starting to climb I took out my wand, transformed it into a knife, and cut the hem off my gown six inches above the knee. I tucked my wand back into place then began my ascent. The steps of the ladder were huge, so it took quite a lot of effort. From the size, I surmised that this ladder was built solely with Bluebeards in mind.
I arrived at the doorway and found myself in a small landing area where an enclosed stairwell zigzagged upward at least eight stories. I raced to the top and found another door. This one was closed. When I burst through, the sunlight nearly blinded me. I was standing on a bridge that stretched over a massive, crimson lake. The water was gruesome in color but glassy in appearance. I walked out onto the bridge.
The doorway I’d come through was housed within a simple yellow stone building that looked like a small fort floating on the water. In the distance, rocky gorges soared into the sky, and from them red waterfalls poured into the lake. Although they were miles away, I could hear the thundering boom as the water broke the surface.
A deep grinding sound abruptly turned my attention the other way. On the opposite side of the bridge was a thick forest. I watched disgruntled birds flutter into the open as the trees moved.
The Shifting Forest …
I had escaped Bluebeard Tower! The possibility of reconnecting with my friends and recommencing with my mission was right over there! However, when I tried to move my feet in the direction of freedom, my body seized up. I couldn’t leave. The other girls were still trapped inside. I’d promised Darcy and Shiondre that if I found a way out I would go back for them. I’d meant it. Moreover, Daverose had to be stopped. Not just in his efforts to control these girls, but permanently. I couldn’t walk away from here without seeing to that.
Taking one more glimpse of the forest and a final breath of fresh air, I went back inside the stone fort and shut the door. Hurriedly I descended the enclosed stairwell and the stone ladder until I reached the ballroom floor. When I arrived, I carefully took stock of the environment again. I walked over to the nearest wall of sleeping girls. The first girl I approached was a blonde who I hadn’t met yet. Her hair was in two braids and her red dress was one-shouldered. I felt her wrist for a pulse and found one.
“Hey, wake up,” I said, snapping my fingers in front of her face and shaking her shoulders.
It didn’t work. I gingerly put my index finger on her eyelid and pushed up. Beneath the lids, her eyes were glowing bright purple.
Yikes.
I gazed at the dozens of unconscious girls. They looked peaceful but comatose. And they all wore ruby chokers.
Wait. Not rubies.
I studied them closer. That’s when I realized the tiny red gems on the girls’ necks glowed meekly. These most certainly weren’t rubies like I’d originally thought. Nothing about this place was what any of us originally thought.
The girls had been lied to. Bluebeard’s chokers didn’t prevent magic; they had magic in them! The chokers were clearly keeping the girls in some kind of shared enchanted sleep. Exiting through the Little Cabinet had broken my enchantment, blown my necklace to bits, and allowed me to exit the fantasy. Getting these necklaces off was therefore my best bet for rousing the girls from their magic slumber.
I tilted the blonde’s head to the side. Unlike the chokers I’d seen in the enchanted sleep version of Bluebeard Tower, these had ties on the back. I simply had to undo the knot. I gazed around the room. There were a lot of girls in here. This could take forever. I stepped back and did a proper count.
Ten, twelve, eighteen, twenty-f—
A bone-chilling noise caused me to freeze.
The ballroom doors.
I pivoted sharply as they opened. Daverose and a half dozen tigermen stood in the doorway.
Crud.
The tigermen charged at me immediately. They were as agile as the cats their faces resembled. I yanked out my wandpin.
Lapellius.
Knife.
My weapon morphed, emitting a pale glow in the shadowiness of the room. I ducked under the first tigerman’s swinging fist and jabbed him in the shoulder with my blade before pivoting around to duck the second creature’s assault.
Shield.
The animal’s claws scraped against the metal.
Spear.
I swung the staff out as the other tigermen reached me. I managed to slam it into two of them, but their catlike reflexes paired with human limbs made their movements unpredictable and faster than most of my previous opponents.
Shield.
Knife.
Spear.
Axe.
Yikes!
I was plucked from the fray. While I had been fighting the tigermen, Daverose had calmly approached. I could not stop him from grabbing me by my weapon-wielding arm and lifting me off the floor. He dangled me for a moment before roughly tossing me to the side like a sack of dirty laundry.
I hit the checkered floor. My wand, still in its axe form, slipped from my fingers. I rolled to a stop with the wind well knocked out of me. Despite being dazed, I jumped up and tried to make a break for my wand. The tigermen cut me off. Daverose sauntered toward me looking unruffled and almost amused.
I tried to summon my magic, but nothing but a
few sparks arose. I still didn’t have enough strength. Too late to think of another plan; Daverose loomed over me. He abruptly swatted me with the brute power of his backhand.
I was glad that he wasn’t wearing the same big ring as before (weirdly, none of the tigermen were wearing their rings either) because that would have been like getting hit with brass knuckles. Nonetheless, I went sprawling over the tile again. My head spun.
“I had a feeling you were going to be the next one,” he said.
I tried to get to my feet, but Daverose was already standing over me. His enormous gloved hand grasped my neck, lifted me a bit, then slammed me back against the cold floor. I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t; my vision darkened. In the next instant, sight and sound slipped away and I blacked out. But not before Daverose’s final words echoed in my ears.
“Take her to the Chamber.”
didn’t often have peaceful dreams. But at the moment I found myself staring up at a chilled gray sky that filled me with calm.
I was lying on the grass beneath a tree. I glanced over and saw Daniel beside me, his hands folded behind his head and his deep brown eyes focused on the branches above us. The branches were blackened—charred like they’d been burned—but small buds of green had sprouted here and there as the tree came back to life.
Without warning, words began coming out of my mouth. It was happening again. I was participating in my dream on autopilot like when I’d dreamed of Mark.
“Hey, Daniel,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“I can’t imagine going through this without you.”
There was a short pause then Daniel responded. “Good. Because I promise you’ll never have to.”
At that, I gently drifted awake and found myself in a setting that was the exact opposite of the tranquil dream I’d just been in. I was in a dungeon.
My wrists were cuffed and attached to chains dangling from the ceiling, keeping me in a standing position. The stone-walled square cell was dark, dank, and smelled like death and metal. To my right was a stairwell. It led up to a trapdoor in the ceiling that I could only barely make out. My chains allowed for very little sideways movement. I couldn’t take more than a step in any direction.
Crisanta Knight: To Death & Back Page 25