by Amy Little
Annika looked at him with some hope.
“A thief?” the officer asked the soldier.
The soldier shrugged and said, “Never know with them.”
The officer’s unpleasant smile turned to a snarl. “We need to search her.”
Annika’s alarm mixed with anger and fear. She had no doubt she would be safe, once they found out who she was. But that would mean her father possibly being notified about her attempt to leave. “Step away!”
The soldier said, “Young women aren’t allowed outside the gates, not without a permit.”
“Since when?” she said in surprise, not recalling Zak having to produce a permit on her behalf when he took her out.
“Since a few days. Something about the Councilor’s daughter.”
“What has she done?” Annika asked, pretending indifference, and wondering if her father had found out about her trip outside the castle.
“Not for us to worry about,” grunted the officer. “Our concern is more… illegal… goods.” The man made a lunge for her. His hands slipped around her waist.
She yelped and jumped back.
The officer and the soldier roared with laughter.
Flushed with anger and embarrassment, and pursued by crude comments and invitations from the two men, she ran back to the safety of the castle courtyard.
The room was even colder than in the morning, for she had left the window wide open.
Annika sat on the bed with her eyes closed. Her thoughts swirled endlessly. She could not still herself enough to focus on them. The one thought that kept recurring was the question of what she would do now. How can she leave the castle?
A gust of wind surged in and smashed one shutter against the wall.
Annika started, then gloomily returned to her thoughts, not bothering to close the window. Was there no other way to leave?
Her hands unconsciously played with the satchel that she held in her hands and accidentally opened the main compartment. Packets of herbs that she had carefully packed at the river lands spilled out.
Annika was almost grateful for the distraction. She picked up one packet after another, smelling the herbs, lovingly packing the packages one after another back inside the satchel. She was so caught up in the task that she jumped up in surprise when she heard someone knock at the door.
Annika looked at the door for a few moments, gathering her strength.
Whoever it was, knocked again.
Annika felt herself tense as she went to open it, but it swung open on its own as she neared and Zak stepped in, his open face filled with good humor.
Annika backed away, as though faced with a wild animal.
“Hello, Annika!”
“What are you doing here?” she said, in the harshest tone she could muster.
He closed the door behind him, and then looked around.
“You haven’t changed much in this room.”
“This isn’t my room.”
“It is your family’s castle.”
“The castle is the Councilor’s,” she said, bitterly. She looked around one more time, noticed a thick mantle in the corner she had forgotten about, and went to put it around herself.
“Were you planning a walk?”
“Can’t you tell?”
“The one we took recently went well.”
“An eye opening experience,” she had to admit. “But today’s walk, I’ll take by myself.”
He looked at her speculatively. “You won’t be able to exit through either gate.”
Annika kept her face blank. “Did someone tell my father that we had ventured outside?”
“Not I,” Zak shook his head.
“Then why were the guards at the gate warned not to let me out?”
Zak grinned. “So this would be your second outing for the day.”
Annika did not reply.
“They’ve been instructed to stop any young woman from departing, as soon as you came here,” Zak said.
“They didn’t ask me for a permit when we went out together?”
“That’s because you were with me.”
Annika took a few moments to think it through. If Zak could take her out, then—
“But I won’t help you leave the castle today,” said Zak.
“I haven’t asked you to,” she said. Then, not able to contain her anger, she added, “And in any event, why not? What difference makes it to you?”
“You’re safer inside the castle, Annika, and it would do you good to reconnect with your family.”
“My family!” she said, throwing the satchel on the bed. “My family who wants nothing to do with me!”
“That’s not true.”
“What do you know!” Annika turned around so he would not see her tears. “I’ve wanted to see them, all those years. I dreamed of what it would be like when I meet them again. I knew they were less concerned for me – Cara has always been a cold one and as for my father, I’ve never really known him, now that I think of it. But they have made no effort to connect with me at all. It’s as though they are indifferent to my being here. Why did they want me to come back? Don’t they realize how this makes me feel?”
“They have their reasons, Annika.”
“They are indifferent to me,” said Annika, stubbornly. “I should have known to expect nothing. It would have been better that way.”
Zak took her by the shoulders. “You’re not listening to me.”
She threw his hands off and stepped away. “I have heard enough from you! Why, why… why are you here?”
He took both her hands and brought them to his lips.
Her clenched hands relaxed and despite, or maybe because of the tension and anger, she felt herself drawing closer towards him.
He embraced her. His warm breath merged with hers. His rough hands ran gently down her cheek and neck.
She trembled as his hands slowly caressed her hair and face.
“That’s not what I came here for but… I want you, Annika,” he said to her.
She could not pull away. The spell he had cast on her was too strong. She wanted to press her lips against his. She wanted to feel his hands on her body again. She looked at him, torn between temptation and fear.
As though reading her mind, his lips went to her cheek, then neck. His hands slid under her tunic. They were warm. His hands slid up her body.
She could not contain a deep moan.
Driven by the sound, he pressed her hard against himself. His hungry mouth roamed over hers. Her longing and her hard, deep breaths drew him in, taking him almost to a frenzy. Her skin felt fiery hot under his touch.
Her body seemed to melt under his hands. Grasping at the last strand of sanity, she pulled away.
“I want you,” he said, breathing hard.
“No.” She stepped away.
He reached for her.
She pushed his hands away. She stood across from him, trying to contain her ragged breath, and straightening her tunic.
“Annika…,” he said, his voice hard and his face angry and frustrated.
“I’m not ready. Not for this. Not for you.”
“Not for me,” he repeated.
“There are too many uncertainties. Too many things changing, too fast. I can’t…,” she said. She was speaking to him, but she knew she was also convincing herself. The temptation was there. It was always there when she was with him.
“You don’t want to let me in to your life,” he said.
“You’re already in it, notwithstanding my wishes.”
“But you don’t want to let me in any further.” He paced the floor from the window to the door, as though hoping the movement will help him overcome his agitation.
“Not now,” she said.
“When?”
“Maybe never,” she said, truthfully.
“Never!”
Having regained control over herself, Annika gave him a cool look.
A flicker of mischievous humor danced on his fa
ce as he continued to walk the length of her room, albeit slower now. “Well. It was always either the military or the priesthood for me. This would be something of a blend. A celibate lifestyle can’t be all bad.”
Annika blushed and looked away, keen to change the subject. “You haven’t told me, yet, what you came here for.”
Zak stopped his pacing and leaned against the door frame, at ease and entirely self-possessed now. “There was something I wanted you to see,” he said.
“Another expedition?”
“Each more marvelous than the preceding. Come with me.”
He turned decisively and opened the door and strode down the corridor.
Annika looked after him, blinking, vexed, as though staring into a bright light.
His footsteps receded down the hallway.
“The obnoxious man!” Annika yelped. She looked around again, as though seeking help in making a decision. Her eyes fell on the satchel. She grabbed it and hurried after Zak.
The passage turned a few times before she saw his broad back again.
Annika resented that she had to run to catch up, but he gave her no chance to regroup.
He walked ahead, through a corridor that led to the end of the guest wing before forking into two, with the left turn plunging below the castle. Before taking the downward corridor, Zak plucked a thick white candle from one of the walls.
She asked Zak, “Where are—“
“Shh,” he said, moving ahead and holding the lit candle in front of himself.
How dare he tell me to shush, fumed Annika, half walking and half running after him. But she did not speak, not wanting to be shushed like a little girl again.
There was no light there other than the candle in Zak’s hand. Shadows flickered. They shortened and then lengthened alarmingly like grasping paws. In the deathly quiet, their footsteps sounded loudly like the blows of a mallet.
Annika felt the gloom oppress her. As a young girl, she avoided this part of the castle, which was the oldest part built, and where few ventured.
He turned to smile at her in approving encouragement, before continuing ahead. The corridors in this part of the castle were largely below ground and unlit, unlike the rest of the castle. It grew even colder. The air was stale as though it had not circulated in many months.
After walking for what seemed like hours, Zak stopped suddenly, midway down a corridor. He stood before a blank wall that was made of large, rough stones. “Hold this.”
Annika gingerly accepted the candle that Zak thrust at her, curious at what he was doing.
Zak bent down to the bottom row of stones in the wall, examining them, running his hands along the crevices between stones. In the distance, the end of the corridor was shrouded in darkness. A scurrying sound where they just came from tapered off.
Probably a mouse, Annika thought, looking cautiously into the darkness from which they had emerged. In the silence, she could hear Zak’s soft breath. She placed the satchel on the ground and clumsily transferred the candle from one hand to another, trying not to have any tallow drip on her hands or mantle.
“Aha!” Zak muttered. He straightened up as much as he could, taking up an impossibly large amount of space, and grinned.
Annika looked at him. “What?”
“It just pleases me to be next to you,” he said. He bent towards her in a supple motion and kissed her on the lips.
Her lips met his greedily before she caught herself. She spluttered and nearly dropped the candle.
He took the candle from her and, just at that moment, two of the bottom boulders in the wall began to move. They slid off to one side making a loud, grinding sound as they did so.
Annika stared in astonishment.
From the opening came a blast of cold air. It was surprisingly fresh.
“What is this,” she whispered.
Zak squatted down. He put the candle, the flame of which he had protected against the blast with a cupped hand, before him, and then bent over double and stepped through the opening. “Come in.”
“What’s there?”
“You’ll see.”
“I’d rather not,” she said firmly.
“The stones will shut in less than a minute. I have the only light. Can you find your way back in the dark?”
“You wouldn’t dare!” she said. She did not feel as certain as she sounded. She looked dubiously before her. “In… there?”
“It’s closing in seconds!” he warned.
“Why… I… ah!” Annika exclaimed on seeing the doors beginning to shift again and hopped into the opening after Zak.
The doors ground closed behind with the same, rasping sound.
The sound send shivers along her spine. She clutched at her satchel with both hands, vaguely realizing that some hot wax had dripped on it. She felt so stunned at the secret passage that she forgot to be angry.
They walked silently. The tunnel they were in was too narrow for them to stand side by side; she followed Zak. The tunnel was just high enough for Annika to stand at full height.
Annika noticed with some satisfaction Zak’s uncomfortable stoop.
The walls were made of the rough stone which, after a few hundred meters, became roughly chiseled rock.
The tunnel was cut into the rock under the castle, Annika realized. Who could have done that?
She thought it curious she had never heard of such tunnels. She recalled her nanny telling her the stories of ghost and skeletons that lived in the gloomy dark, which was one of the reasons she avoided corridors in the part of the castle from which they had exited into the tunnel. Those were stupid tales, Annika said to herself firmly.
After continuing at a flat level, the tunnel suddenly turned at a sharp angle and then plunged down at a steep decline.
Annika stumbled and had to stop herself from crying out as she lunged head-first.
Zak caught her with one hands.
“Thank you,” she said, through gritted teeth.
“I’ll walk slower.”
“Don’t strain yourself!” said Annika huffily, arranging her mantle. “Instead, just tell me the next time you plan to stop. What are these tunnels?”
“They lead to the Dragon’s Mouth.”
“The Dragon’s Mouth?!” she exclaimed. “But… isn’t it just a children’s tale? Isn’t it supposed to be… where the dragons hatched?”
“Yes, that’s just it.”
Annika looked at Zak with alarm.
In the semi-dark, his expression was impenetrable.
She walked after him, unsure if she was more afraid of him or of seeing children’s tales come true.
They walked for a long time, before it occurred to Annika that they must be by now outside of the perimeter of the castle.
So this was a way out.
Granted, this wasn’t exactly what she had had in mind when she decided to leave.
Buoyed by the thought, her tired legs seemed to move quicker. She almost caught up to Zak within a few steps. It’s a way out, she kept saying to herself, trying not to scrape her head or her shoulders or stub her toes on the rough rocks. It’s a way out. She would find her own way in this world. Even if it had to lead through grimy rock tunnels, supposedly, to the Dragon’s Mouth, and beyond.
Chapter Five
The tunnel sloped down at a sharper angle with each step.
Annika had to hold on to the walls for support.
The walls were slippery, covered in slime that in the dim light looked greenish.
Annika tried to stop herself from making a disgusted face in case Zak turned around.
It got colder the deeper they went. The air was fresh. Then, came the sound of crashing waves.
Annika pushed ahead, surprised by the sound. She bumped into Zak’s back, causing him nearly to lose his balance and drop the candle. “Sorry!” she exclaimed.
The candle flickered as currents of air blew across it.
“It’s hard enough to stay upright,” he grumbled.
>
“I didn’t ask to come here,” she said. “And I did apologize. Given your response, I don’t know why I bothered!”
He was walking slower than before, stopping occasionally as though to examine the ground before him.
All Annika could see was the dark outline of his back, beyond which the candle light flickered. She was growing impatient, with the impatience feeding her fears. Why did he bring her here? What did he hope to show? Unable to bear the suspense, she eventually asked, “What will we see ahead?”
“There are devilish drops here,” he said distractedly.
She thought for a second. “Do you mean, traps?”
“More like chutes,” he said. “They go down hundreds of meters. At the bottom, the pits are studded with sharpened spikes.”
Annika tried to remember the castellan’s lessons from years ago, but could not recall the castle’s history. “Who set these pits?”
“Whoever built the tunnel,” came Zak’s dry response.
Annika made an annoyed face. “How did you find out about them?”
He stopped to look back at her. His response was just as curt as before: “Trial and error.” Then he returned to feeling out the way ahead.
She would not give up. “Have you been in these tunnels often?”
“As little as I can.”
Annika worried the leather strap of her satchel as she followed him. What was a prince doing in these tunnels, in a castle that had been owned by a rival House for thousands of years? And what does he want to show her? What if it was all a ploy? If so, to what end? There were too many questions. She found her brow deepening into a frown that gave hear a headache.
The air grew colder yet and the sound of the wash that sounded suspiciously like a sea grew closer.
Annika was formulating the next question that she would ask Zak when the tunnel, suddenly, came to an end.
Annika gasped, forgetting her words.
They stood at the mouth of a vast cavern. The roof of the cavern was covered in giant stalactites that glittered like huge shards of crystal. Similarly-sized stalagmites grew from the ground.
“Dragon’s teeth, they’re called,” said Zak.
Annika motioned ahead of them, speechless.
Before them was an enormous molten lake. The liquid in it was a deep, orangey-red. It lapped the stony beach on which they had exited from the tunnel and then washed back again. This was the source of the sound.