“Has she taken the water yet?” the additional male voice, oddly familiar, asked.
“No, and I’m worried about her,” the first man answered. “I’m afraid that she’ll die if she doesn’t drink some soon.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the second man said. “We can’t keep trying to get her to drink. Leave her for now and both of you come with me.”
The door closed a few moments later and the room was quiet. I fell back to sleep again but was awakened when I heard the door reopen. I could tell it was the same three people when they began to talk, but their voices soon dropped to such a low whisper that I could no longer make out their words. Again, I tried to speak to them, but again to no avail. It was at that point, however, that I realized I was no longer cold or numb, proof positive that my little dragon was fulfilling its duty well. Yet I still could not move any of my voluntary muscles; even my swallowing reflex was no longer voluntary. It worked only on its own and only when absolutely necessary. However, there was no denying that I was definitely, albeit slowly, recovering. The amulet just needed a little more time to finish working its magic. If no one interfered, perhaps I could be ambulatory, if not fully cured, in as little as another day or two. My thirst, however, was another thing, for it was even more intense and demanding than it had been at my last awakening and was now overwhelming. I could fight it only by clinging with all my might to Edmond’s promise that, despite Rochere’s tricks, the amulet would sustain me.
The voices around me stopped whispering and rose to a normal volume.
“You’re absolutely sure this is safe, right?” the woman asked.
“Of course,” the familiar man’s voice said, somewhat condescendingly. “She gave me the ingredients to add and precise instructions for mixing it herself. How could you even doubt our Queen?”
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, compliantly.
“I don’t think she was doubting our Queen,” the other man said. “I think she was doubting you.”
“Regardless,” the first man answered. “Let’s just get this over with. I’ve got better things to do with my time.”
Get what over with? What were they going to do to me? My mind no longer questioned but now demanded, who were these people? More importantly, who was their “queen”? Only one name came to mind. Rochere! Had I been rescued by her minions? Had I been under their control this entire time? I heard the floor creak as the three of them walked over to me. I tried to move, to let them know I was healing up just fine without them, that they needed just to leave me alone. I tried to open my eyes, to move my fingers, anything to give them a sign that I was on the mend, but nothing happened; I was just not that restored yet. I felt the bed shift as one of them sat upon it. Then I felt a needle go into the artery at my inner left elbow. I actually felt a liquid enter my blood and I knew what they were doing to me. I felt hot tears stream down my face as they forced Rochere’s poison into me against my will; I was powerless to stop it. The liquid coursed through my veins, quenching my thirst even from the inside as it filled my body with the hydration for which it had been crying. The paralysis turned into a stiff feeling, which then disappeared altogether. My muscles began to work and I could move again. I opened my eyes. I was lying in bed in an unfamiliar room. Why was I in bed? Whose room was this? Whose bed was this? Three people were with me; a man with white blond hair was sitting on the bed holding an IV bag, while another man, a dark brunette, and a blonde woman stood around it.
“Look,” the woman said, excited. “She’s awake, she can move. She’s going to make it now!”
“Thank Arrosha!” the dark haired man said.
“Well, that’s that then,” the blond said, handing the other the IV bag. “You two don’t need me any more.”
“Sure,” the dark man said. “We can take it from here. Thanks for contacting Arrosha for me; I really didn’t feel comfortable leaving her bedside for long.”
“Not a problem. I know you’ve been consumed with taking care of her, but don’t forget, tonight we take essence.”
“Can we bring her with us?” asked the dark haired man. “She’ll need to get some nourishment soon.”
“If it’s approved and if she’s up to it. I’ll set an extra place, just in case.”
The blond man got up, and walked out of the room, the dark one taking his place on the bed.
“Thank goodness you’re awake,” said the man now sitting on the bed. “Can you speak? Can you tell us what happened to you? “
“What happened to me?” I repeated, not understanding the question.
“You were terribly sick. You wouldn’t take the water, you kept resisting it. Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“We were so afraid that you would die that we had to give it to you intravenously.”
I looked down at my arm and the needle sticking into it leading to the IV tube. The IV bag was already almost drained. My body had sucked up the liquid incredibly fast.
“Wow,” the dark haired man said. “You sure did need it. I didn’t know that it could empty that fast. I didn’t think it was possible. How on earth could you be that dehydrated with such a low body temperature and still be alive?”
“I don’t know.”
He took the needle out of my arm, putting the empty bag to one side.
“More?” I asked.
“Are you still thirsty?”
“Yes, very.”
The blonde woman filled an empty glass from a pitcher on the dresser, stuck a straw in it and handed it to the man.
“Here, this is fresh,” she said.
I sat up in bed without effort, took the glass and drank most of it down.
“Had enough?” the man’s voice was gentle and kind as he took the glass from me after I nodded. The woman refilled it and set it on my night stand.
“Here,” she said. “In case you get thirsty later.”
“We’re going to leave you now so that you can get some sleep,” he said soothingly. “You’ve had enough of the water now. You’ll be completely healed after a good, long nap. I’ll come back to get you tonight; you need to take nourishment with us.”
“Okay,” I said.
The woman left the room as the man rose from the bed. On his way out, he patted my head softly and said, “I’m so glad we didn’t lose you. By the way, what is your name?”
“I have no idea,” I answered blankly.
“It must be the trauma,” he said. “Try not to worry about it. I’m sure it will come to you later as you recover.” He walked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
I plumped my pillow and lay down, covering myself with the soft down comforter on top of me. I wasn’t really tired, I just felt a dreamy, cozy sleepiness. I tried to remember my name again or what I was doing here, but I couldn’t. My memories were as blank as those of a new borne babe, a slate with absolutely nothing written upon it. I supposed that I should have been worried about this, but I wasn’t, not at all. I wasn’t in the least bit concerned about who I was or what I was doing here. I wasn’t concerned about anything whatsoever. I simply felt incredibly happy for some reason, so I closed my eyes and drifted off into a peaceful slumber with not a care in the world.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I awoke with more strength and energy than I could manage, bounding out of bed and feeling truly alive for the first time since, since when? It seemed like I’d been sick for awhile, but I didn’t know if that was real or just a bad dream. I couldn’t remember. How did I get here? Where was “here” anyway? I searched my mind but there was nothing there. Funny, but I couldn’t remember of much of anything, come to think about it. That bothered me a little, but I was feeling far too fabulous to be upset by it. Besides, I was more thirsty than bothered, so I reached over to the large water glass that was on my night stand and took a long, deep drink from it. It was the best, most refreshing water that I had ever drunk in my entire life, so I drained the whole thing. Every swallow I took made me
feel better and better, and by the time I put the empty glass down, I felt healthier now than I did just a few minutes ago. I felt young and strong and tremendously perky. It was time for me to step out of this room and get my day going. I just needed to find one of those people that was here yesterday. Hey, I remembered something! I took one step toward the door and realized I felt more like running or jumping, but the room was too small for that, so I skipped over to it instead. I reached for the doorknob, but the door opened before I could touch it.
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “You startled me!”
“You’re up!” the man that had just stepped in said enthusiastically. “Great. I thought you might still be sleeping.”
“Nope. Too much energy for that!”
“Wonderful! I knew the water would cure you.”
“What water?” I pointed to the pitcher. “This water?”
“Yes. Really, any water here.”
“Is it magic water?”
“Sure. You could say that and you wouldn’t be lying.”
“You said it ‘cured me’. Was I sick?”
“You were dying.”
“No kidding. Well, I feel great now. How did I get here?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I don’t remember much of anything,” I told him.
“Darn. It must be a reaction to your illness. You were running quite a fever there for a while. But don’t worry too much about it. I’m sure that your memories will start to come back soon enough.”
“You know, I’m really not particularly bothered by it.”
“That’s good,” he said. “They’ll probably come back even sooner then. Our magic water should help you. My name is Ben, by the way.”
“I’m Ashley,” I said, shaking his hand.
“Hey, you know your name. You didn’t this morning.”
“It just popped in my head when you introduced yourself.”
“See, I told you that your memories would return.”
“Great. Hey, can I get out of this room now? I’ve got way too much energy to be cooped up in here any longer.”
“You most certainly can. Let’s get you something else to wear first.”
“I thought I was dressed,” I said.
“That’s just your nightgown. You can wear it if you want to, none of us will mind, I just thought you’d like to put on something fresh.”
“Oh, yeah. That’d be nice.”
“We don’t dress up much around here usually, as you can see. We all like to be comfortable,” he said, pointing to his own clothes. He was wearing a robe, a flowing, dark burgundy v-neck with a masculine trim, under which he wore a matching turtle-neck sweater. Walking over to the dresser, he opened a drawer, pulled out a light cream-colored robe and handed it to me. It felt weightless and ethereal and it shone with an iridescence that, even without my memories, I knew I’d never seen before.
“Unbelievable stuff, huh,” Ben commented. “I’ve never seen fabric like this outside of the mansion. By the way, your slippers are by the dresser. Please slip them on. I think you’ll find it to be more comfortable than going barefoot. I’ll step out for a minute while you get dressed. Just let me know when you’re ready.”
“You can stay. I don’t mind.” I felt too good to mind.
“Then I promise I won’t peek,” he laughed lightly, a beautiful, open, friendly laugh. I liked Ben immediately. He was quite tall and awfully handsome. Dark haired and young, his smile was disarming, made even more so when his strong white teeth contrasted strikingly against his darkly tanned skin.
He closed his eyes and turned around as I slid out of the nightgown and into the robe, which only took a few seconds.
“Are you decent?” he asked as I finished putting on the ballet-style slippers set out for me.
“Depends on who you ask,” I said, “but I’m dressed. You can turn around now.”
“Ah,” he said, looking at me with approval, “You look marvelous.”
“Thanks. Do you wear robes around here all the time?”
“Most of the time. We like to be comfortable. It depends on what we’re doing, though. We don’t wear them to play sports or to go into the city.”
“What city?”
“New Orleans.”
“Really. How close are we to New Orleans?” I asked.
“A lot closer than you think.”
“Can I go with you sometime?”
“I’m sure that can be arranged later on. After what you’ve just been through, I think you deserve it. Right now, though, let’s just get you oriented and settled in. I want you to feel at home here. I’m so thrilled that you’re still with us.”
“Me, too. One question, though. When I came here, was I wearing any clothes?”
“Yes. We had to wash them because they were pretty dirty, but you can have them back whenever you want. You’ll be rooming with Illea, so we put them in there.”
“Who’s Illea?”
“The woman who was here with us earlier. I don’t know if you remember her.”
“I don’t remember much. You’ll have to point her out to me.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. You were pretty out of it.” he said, his tone becoming serious. “Like I said, there was quite awhile there when we thought we would lose you.”
“And you have no idea of what happened to me?” I asked.
“No. We were hoping you would. We thought you’d probably have some ID on you, but all your pockets were empty.”
“That’s weird.” I thought back, searching my mind, but where this information should have been remained a blank.
“Maybe your tattoo will stir up some memories.”
“Tattoo? I have a tattoo?”
“Yes, and it’s extremely unique. It’s not only drawn into your skin, it’s raised, imbedded in your flesh. It looks like a very expensive job. Do you know where you got it at least? It’s so unusual that your tattoo parlor is sure have some recollection of you.”
I didn’t remember having a tattoo, but then again, I didn’t remember much of anything. I went over to the mirror on the dresser drawer and looked at my reflection. By George, I really did have a tattoo, didn’t I, and it was beauty at that. I had a necklace tattooed at and around my neck. It wouldn’t have been so bizarre if it hadn’t been raised. It looked and felt as if someone had actually imbedded a necklace and pendant underneath my skin.
“Boy, that’s a real doozie, isn’t it,” I remarked, surprised to find something like that in my body. Somehow, I didn’t think that I would have been the type for that kind of body ornamentation.
“So is anything coming back to you?” he asked.
“No, not really,” I said. “My name is still all I remember. That and just some general stuff. Nothing personal, though.”
“Well, it’s something at least. I was so hoping that you’d be able to shed some light on what brought you here when you woke up, though.” He shrugged.
“Sorry, I wish I could help. How did I get here, anyway? Into this house, I mean.”
“It’s so odd,” he said. “You literally landed at our doorstep.”
“Did you find me?”
“Oh, no. Geoffrey did. He’s one of our group, he was here this morning, too. Do you remember him at all?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, well, not a problem. You’ll see him again later, too, and I’ll introduce you. Anyway, Geoffrey was the one who found you. He was the only person in the Great Room when you, for lack of a better word, popped up at our front door. He said that you were banging at it, screaming bloody murder to come in and that you just collapsed into the room when he opened it.”
“Wow. You’d think I’d remember something like that. Was I alone?” I asked, no more memories surfacing with the new information.
“He says you were. He called for help as soon as he got you in. The rest of us rushed into the Great Room, that’s the front room and the largest in the mansion, and then we carried you up h
ere. Illea undressed you, put you in the nightgown and we’ve been nursing you back to health ever since.”
“Did you say mansion? This is a mansion?”
He nodded.
I looked around the room. “But the room’s so tiny.”
“You were so sick when you first arrived. We didn’t know what was wrong with you, so we were instructed to quarantine you. We’re in the servant’s quarters right now.
“It doesn’t surprise me that you remember none of it because you were completely in shock. You were extremely cold and dehydrated for days. It amazed me that you were even still alive. You never even moved while you were sleeping. I don’t know if it was really sleep. It was probably a coma, you were so still.”
The Nightmare Game Page 22