Cursed

by Monica Wolfson

  Sasha swore she saw the queen’s chest puff out with pride. Suddenly the queen seemed to remember Sasha was in the room.

  “I was really hoping we’d do this in your world,” the queen said. “I had them video tape every attack. I was planning to send your mother the video every year on your birthday. Unfortunately, I’m sure you’ve noticed we don’t have a lot of modern technology here.”

  Sasha laughed and couldn’t control her temper. “Did you keep copies of all your failures?

  The queen showed no emotion. The woman was as tough as granite.

  “It’s hard to get good help these days,” she said. “Hiring quality people from such a long distance is challenging. It’s not like I can supervise directly. I have a kingdom to run.”

  “Ruin you mean, don’t you?”

  Vania’s face froze. Sasha could tell she had scored some pain.

  “I think I’m going to enjoy seeing you die.”

  “You’re sick,” Sasha snapped.

  “No, no. I assure you. I’m 100 per cent healthy.”

  Sasha rolled her eyes. This woman was dense. Maybe she could work that to her advantage.

  “This isn’t exactly a fair fight,” she said. “I can’t use my magic.”

  Vania smiled.

  “It’s my castle.”

  She gave a big sigh, frustrated. They were just talking in circles and she hadn’t learned a thing.

  “I can’t believe you are this petty,” Sasha said going on the offensive. Why not tell the truth? Maybe it would rattle the old bag of bones. “So my mother doesn’t show up to a party and you have a hissy fit? Is that the kind of parent you are?”

  Sasha stood from the settee and took a step toward the seated queen hoping it would intimidate her.

  “My mother would never force an unwanted marriage on me,” she said in an even tone. “My mother is strong. My mother is a lovely person who loves her family and doesn’t demand anything in return. You could learn a lot from her.”

  The queen’s smile faltered slightly and then her expression hardened. She didn’t comment on Sasha’s speech.

  “What do you want from me?” Sasha said frustrated. She wanted to find the talisman and get out of this hell hole.

  The queen smiled widely.

  “Take off the pendant,” she said.

  The queen was crazy if she thought Sasha was going to kill herself.

  “No.”

  “You’re too much like your mother,” she snarled. “I can take it from you. I just thought we’d do it the easy way.”

  Sasha shrugged as if she were bored with the insults and lame threats. She felt fear grip her belly but she knew she had to act tough. “Go ahead.”

  Vania rose from throne, smoothed out the skirt of her ball gown and seemed to float over to Sasha.

  The queen really was beautiful. It was a shame she was so evil.

  Sasha stayed where she was standing. She wasn’t going to fight the queen over the pendant. The queen had guards all over the palace. It was silly to put up a physical fight. She was just hoping her mother had added an extra layer of protection.

  The queen leaned over and touched the skin around Sasha’s neck. She seemed to be testing how close she could get to the pendant. When she felt comfortable, she gently touched the leather cord. When nothing happened, she got bolder and let her fingers skim the necklace until her fingers came into contact with the pendant.

  Flames ignited and engulfed her hand. The queen screamed, tore her hand away and stumbled backward. She fell off the dais and landed on her rump on the cold marble floor. The flames looked hot and Sasha got a little bit of pleasure watching the skin on the queen’s hand bubble into blisters.

  The queen moaned in agony. She conjured up a gust of cool blue air that enveloped her hand and smothered the fire. She froze the wind until her hand was encased in ice.

  Sasha felt some glee and relief that her assumption about her mother was correct and that her pendant kicked ass. She felt so proud of her mother’s magic. She felt like gloating but judged it wasn’t the right time. She still wasn’t safe. The queen could throw her back in the dungeons until she figured out a way to get the pendant off her neck. Then she was a goner.

  The queen got to her feet as she muttered a spell under her breath and the ice melted and the blistered red skin of her hand started healing. It took a while. Eventually the red skin faded to a pink and the blisters melted away. The queen protected her injured hand by tucking against her chest as if it were in a sling.

  The door at the back of the room creaked open drawing the queen’s attention.

  “I said I want no interruptions,” she screamed.

  The queen swallowed the rest of her words as Evan walked into the room carrying a flaming red sword. Where did he get that?

  Sasha was so relieved to see him, she gave a tiny wave. Evan nodded at her. He had bruising on his left cheek that appeared fresh. She made a run to him when she felt an arm slide around her neck. The queen hugged her close careful to avoid touching the pendant.

  “We haven’t finished our visit dear granddaughter,” she said, not quite as confident as she was earlier. She dragged Sasha away from Evan. Sasha tried to break free but was unsuccessful. The queen was surprisingly strong for an older woman.

  “I have to take care of this boy before we continue,” she growled.

  Evan walked confidently toward them, swinging the sword casually as if it were part of his arm.

  “I have some surprises for you,” he said with a broad smile.

  The queen lifted her hand, murmured a spell and a green ball of energy materialized in her palm. She gave it directions and it zipped off at a fast clip. The ball flew toward Evan’s head and then darted away when he swung at it with his sword. Evan spun around, keeping an eye on the energy ball.

  The energy ball wasn’t like the ones Nefar threw. This one was intelligent and had strategy and tactics. It was teasing Evan while also trying to strike him.

  When it dove toward him, Evan hit it with the sword like it was ball pitched to a baseball batter. He swung hard connecting with the energy ball and directed back toward the queen. Surprised, the queen ducked to avoid the ball and lost her grip on Sasha. After tumbling to the floor, Sasha broke free and ran toward Evan. He was advancing on the queen and the energy ball.

  “You people sure like magic,” he said with gusto as he approached the queen and stopped a few feet from Sasha. Where did he get all this fighting spirit? Last time Sasha saw him he was running for his life with guards in pursuit. The energy ball flew back at Evan much like a heat seeking missile trying to find its target. Evan ducked, spun around and then hit the energy ball again, directing it toward the queen.

  Startled, the queen didn’t have time to react and the green energy ball hit her in the chest. Electricity coursed through her body making her hair stand up much like those static electricity experiments at science centers. The queen’s body jolted with a convulsion and then she collapsed onto the hard tile floor.

  Evan ran over to Sasha before admiring his handiwork.

  “Not bad,” he said smugly. He lifted the sword that burned like it was on fire. Sasha realized it wasn’t on fire and instead it was just the light reflecting off the red of the steel.

  “Where did you get that?” She said in awe. Who was this guy? She liked the new Evan.

  “We don’t have time,” he said grabbing her hand.

  They ran from the room as if they were being chased.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The hallway was empty when they ran from the queen’s throne room. They crept to the end of the hallway, hiding behind a tapestry hanging on the wall when they heard footsteps. The woven cloth was dusty and depicted an older woman picking red apples from a tree. The image was pleasant and out of place in the queen’s castle.

  She took a deep breath and pictured the map Deal drew for her. Since Deal anticipated she’d be brought to the throne room, she was fairly certain where
she needed to go. She grabbed Evan’s hand and they jogged down the hallway. They made several turns, her head spun with confusion and she lost her confidence. What way to go right or left?

  “Where are we going?” Evan asked pulling her into an alcove that shielded them from view.

  “I have a map to the secret room,” she said scanning the hallway for anyone coming their way.

  “I’ve been all over this castle,” he said oozing confidence. “There’s no secret room.”

  She ignored his pessimism. “There is an ogre statue somewhere.”

  “What’s an ogre?”

  She shrugged. “Something big and ugly,” she said. “I think it’s 400 pounds.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “A little bird-thing visited me in the dungeon,” she said and told Evan about Deal’s visit.

  Evan laughed. At first she thought he didn’t believe her but his grin wasn’t mocking.

  “I met the same guy. He’s a Horum,” Evan said, his eyes twinkling.

  “What’s a Horum?”

  Evan shrugged. “A race of really small people?”

  “I think that insults small people. Microscopic is more like it.”

  Evan nodded, throwing up his hands. “Really, really tiny people.”

  “How did you meet him? How do you know it’s a he?”

  He grabbed her hand and they dashed down the hall. The small electric lights along the walls were small and dim. She wanted to ask him where they were going when he pulled her into a tiny room. It was dark, the only light coming from under the door.

  “We needed a place to talk,” he said. “I’ve hidden in here before.”

  She ran her hand over the bruise on his face.

  “I’m so glad you’re alright, I was so afraid,” she said. Evan picked up her hand and kissed the underside of her wrist. She loved it when he did that. Her pulse raced with the feel of his lips.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  She shook her head at his relaxed attitude.

  “Nothing can happen to you Evan,” she said her voice getting tense. “You aren’t supposed to be here. If anything happens to you, it will be my fault. I don’t think I could forgive myself. I keep putting you in danger. No more risks Evan, please.”

  Evan leaned over and softly kissed her lips. She wanted more but pulled back.

  “We’ll talk about that when we get back home.”

  She frowned. They didn’t have time to argue and she needed his help to find the talisman.

  Evan recounted his story of meeting Deal. He was hiding in a storage closet. He could hear guards running up and down the halls searching for him. They were shouting out a description of him. He found a pile of wooden stakes. For a minute he wondered if the stakes were carved to kill vampires.

  “Are there vampires in this world?” He asked Sasha.

  “No idea but don’t rule it out,” she said.

  He nodded and continued. He was peering out the door, trying to find a moment to get out when Deal appeared in the dark.

  “He’s quite spectacular, growing from a speck of light to the size of my finger. I was impressed,” he said.

  “Ok, ok, you can ask him how he engineered it later. Did he say he was a he?”

  Evan paused and closed his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe I just assumed. He looked like a he didn’t he?”

  She shrugged.

  He shook his head and continued. Deal told him he needed to get this special sword for an upcoming battle. It was in a special room where the queen stores magical objects.

  “You know,” he said scratching his head. “I didn’t really ask Deal a lot of questions. I assumed I needed the sword to fight the queen. Do you think that’s why he wanted me to have it?”

  Sasha gaped for a moment. He didn’t know about the ogre. Deal didn’t tell Sasha how to fight the ogre or even how to wake it up. He just said she had to get past the creature, and in order to do that she had to kill it. She felt really uncomfortable. Did this mean Deal expected Evan to fight the ogre? She had assumed she had to do it.

  “Uh,” she stammered. “Didn’t Deal tell you about the ogre?”

  He gawked at her with a blank look on his face.

  “Again ogre?”

  She swallowed nervously. “Finish your story first,” she said.

  Deal told him about a stash of magical objects but it was protected by spells. It was in a tower and only accessible through this one door. The room had no windows. He snuck into the room and Deal took down the magical wards without a problem.

  “The sword was in his cherry wood case. Deal never said why he wanted me to have that exact sword. There were others around along with really strange looking things. I wish you could have seen them.”

  She smiled. She wished she could have seen them too.

  “Tell me later,” she said. “Did Deal tell you what the sword was for?”

  He shook his head negative. Deal disappeared after he took the sword out of the box. He was leaving the room when a guard came in.

  “I had to fight him Sash or I would have ended up in the dungeons like you,” he said softly. Sasha rubbed his arm sympathetically.

  “It’s ok. You had to do what you had to do.”

  The room they were in was dim so she couldn’t see if Evan’s eyes were filled with tears. His voice broke as he described the fight which answered her question.

  “I was just trying to knock him out,” he said. “He was a little guy. More like your height. I knocked off his helmet thinking he’d go out but he kept fighting.”

  Evan stopped for a minute. Sasha sat waiting for him to finish his story.

  “I realized he wasn’t going to stop fighting. I had to end it.”

  Evan slipped his hand over hers and squeezed it lightly.

  “When he fell on his back, I stabbed him with the sword.”

  Evan’s head drooped and he wiped away tears with his free hand.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” he said. “He didn’t leave me a choice.”

  “I understand. It was your survival or his Evan,” she said almost in a whisper. “Don’t feel bad. He would have killed you if he could.”

  He nodded. “I know. It still doesn’t feel right.”

  Sasha felt some anger burn in her belly. “We shouldn’t have been put in this situation Evan.”

  Evan slipped his arms around her. They sat hugging each other for a minute. His arms were warm around her. After the drama of the last few days, she felt secure in his embrace. She didn’t want to leave his arms. She pulled away dreading the task ahead. She ran her hands through her hair. How does she tell him about the ogre? He was already tortured about having killed a guard earlier today. Could he kill again?

  “Anyway I’ve been roaming around the castle since. Hardly anyone noticed me. I kept the sword in a satchel. I heard your voice while scoping out the hallway behind the ballroom. I think it was just luck that I found you.”

  She gave him a moment. “I need your sword.”

  Evan pulled away. “Why?”

  She opened the door to the storage room slowly and peered out. Nobody was there.

  “I have to kill an ogre.”

  “How?”

  “I have no idea but that’s what Deal told me I had to do to get at the secret room. It’s somewhere near the ogre.”

  “I think I know where it is.”

  “You do?”

  “Does it look like a fat, ugly Buddha?”

  “Maybe.”

  Does the ogre resemble a Buddha? She didn’t know but it was worth finding out.

  “Take me to it,” She said slipping her hand in his. They eased out of the storage room. The hallways were dimly lit with artifacts hanging on walls. There was a beautiful stained glass window at the end of one hallway backlit with small lights. The image showed wolves in a forest following a woman with long black hair. Her face was hidden but Sasha had a feeling it was a portrait of the queen in her younger days. The woman s
eemed innocent, unaware of the danger following her. Was the queen ever innocent? It seemed hard to believe.

  They came upon the ogre unexpectedly. The stone statue was set back from the wall in a deep recess. It wasn’t visible from the hallway until they came upon it. It was as tall as the eight-foot hallway and five-feet wide. The head was round with pointed ears and bulging eyes. The legs were as wide as tree trunks. While Deal said it was 400 pounds, it was hard to tell its weight. It was big and bulky. It was also stone. How was she going to kill a stone statue?

  The ogre was an inanimate object. It wasn’t alive so there wasn’t anything to kill. She analyzed around the statue, inspecting it from chest to toe. Even on tippy toe she couldn’t feel above its shoulder.

  “I don’t get it,” she said after studying it. “I don’t know how to kill stone.”

  “You think it’s a trick?”

  “I don’t know why Deal would fool us. He seemed quite humorless.”

  “We don’t know anything about Horums.”

  “True, but I don’t think that’s it.”

  Evan, being taller, ran his hands along the statue’s shoulders and back.

  “I think I found something,” he said. “There’s a lever on the back of his neck,”

  “Don’t do anything,” she hissed panicked. She wasn’t ready to fight the ogre yet. “Give me the sword.”

  Evan ignored her. He flipped the switch, jumped off the ogre and pushed her down the hall. She fell to the ground hitting her head on the stone wall. Her vision blurred. She saw Evan withdraw the sword from its bag and stand ready.

  Nothing happened at first. Then the ogre shimmered and shape shifted. The skin went from stone to grey flesh. Sasha yelped when the statue’s eyes popped open revealing grey eyes. The ogre grunted and twitched as if coming awake from a long sleep.

  It was then when Sasha realized the ogre wasn’t a statue. It was an ogre frozen as a statue maybe as a punishment or pay back for misbehavior. For a second she felt pity for the creature clutching a spiked club.

  The ogre lumbered slowly to his feet.

  “What do I do?” Evan said.

  “Deal said I had to kill him,” she said analyzing the ogre’s body for weaknesses. “My guess is a beheading.”