by Simon Archer
The alchemy lab was a busy, fascinating, and surprisingly comforting space. The lab buzzed with busy energy as Sahar’s alchemy assistants constantly read or created or tested something. Though she claimed that she spent time with me of her own accord, I knew better than to assume that she didn’t report to the Queen. They continued to run tests on me, testing my physical and mental abilities in the comfort of the lab. At first, it was unnerving and frustrating to be kept in the dark about what they were doing with me, but it slowly became routine.
I sat at my desk, thinking of how Sahar spoke about the Queen and her connections to the history of Constanta. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was doing so for my own benefit. Why? I had no clue.
A knock sounded at the door, and my head whipped up from the desk to look at who would appear. It wasn’t even fully dark yet, so dinner couldn’t have been served already. Adriana’s familiar form entered through the door, and I relaxed a bit.
I let a smirk tug at the edges of my lips, not wanting my previous relief at her presence to show. “Well, if it isn’t my royal bodyguard. It isn’t even dinner time yet. Did you get lonely out there? Need some company?”
Adriana ignored my taunting words, her eyes guarded and shoulders tense. “The Queen requests your presence at dinner in her private dining quarters tonight.” The smirk fell from my face, and my teeth ground together. “Be ready for me to escort you to dinner by full dark.”
“I think I’ll take a rain check,” I said, not moving from my seat at the desk. Adriana turned toward the door, but my words gave her pause. When she turned around, it surprised me to see that she now wore a smirk on her gray face.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she replied vaguely.
I narrowed my eyes at her, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back in my chair. While I wanted to stand up and confront her, I didn’t want her to know how much she intimidated me. Plus, she was far larger than I was. Standing would only emphasize our great difference in size.
“Why’s that?” I asked, my tone a little too sharp.
She smiled at me then, a full toothy grin, her yellow cat-like eyes shadowed beneath her bushy brows. It was slightly unnerving.
“If you refuse to attend, I have direct orders to ensure that you do.”
It shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did. I hid it with a scowl.
“Fine, but it better be a delicious feast. And she better not expect me to wear anything fancy.”
Sahar had a few extra outfits sent up to my room earlier today after realizing I had been wearing the same clothes every day since I’d come to live in the castle. They were all comfortable and casual for men, a pleasant surprise considering I had only ever seen her in elegant, expensive silk tunics.
Adriana rolled her eyes, an oddly human gesture for such a beastly creature, and left the room without another word. Once the door clicked shut, and I was alone, I finally stood up from my chair at the desk and let the apprehension wash over me in waves.
What did the Queen want from me? Was she finally going to punish me for my thievery? Or had she stewed long enough in my bold accusations that she finally snapped and decided to execute me for that?
I kicked myself for my short temper and sharp tongue. While I had always lived on the edge of the law, this was, by far, the direst situation I had gotten myself into. After all, vampires lived here. Creatures that could easily kill me if they wanted.
I stood there, frozen, letting all of the crippling thoughts pour through me. If I died, what would happen to my family? How had they fared since I had been gone? Were they looking for me? Would they be able to find another source of income without me?
I gazed into the oval-shaped mirror above the stone sink and barely recognized the person I saw. My tousled light brown hair was limp, and my usually darker complexion had paled slightly after staying indoors since I had been at the castle.
Most noticeably different, though, were my eyes. The hazel orbs were endless wells of mistrust, pain, and loneliness. I tried to smile in the mirror like my mother had taught me to see if it would make a difference, but the smile just looked fake, and frankly, pretty sad.
I gave myself five minutes. Five minutes to get out all the hurt and anxiety over the uncertainties. All the loneliness and frustration that came with being responsible for the well-being of my family only to be ripped away after a desperate attempt to do well by them. I yelled and screamed at my reflection in the mirror until my five minutes were up. When they were, I stood up once more, rinsed my face again, this time without looking at my reflection, and returned to the main room.
I changed into one of the fresh outfits that Sahar had left. I decided on black riding pants and a blue, form-fitting shirt. I laced up my knee-high boots, and as if on cue, there was a knock on the door, and Adriana entered. She looked me up and down once and gave a stiff nod of approval.
“The Queen’s council awaits your presence.”
I stiffened in my seat on the bed. She hadn’t said anything about the Queen’s council, just the Queen.
“The Queen’s council? You said that the Queen asked for my presence, not her council.” My voice was strained, anxious. I hated it.
To my surprise, the gargoyle’s harsh eyes softened at the sudden panic in my expression. “The Queen often eats dinner with her counsel. She prefers their company, and they have much to accomplish.”
I nodded, but her words didn’t do much to ease my worries. I still had no idea what to expect, and I was about to be at the mercy of not just the Queen, but her council as well. Before my time spent with Sahar earlier, I would have thought that they followed her blindly, catering to her every whim, but the sorceress had told me otherwise. She hadn’t spoken much about the Queen’s three closest friends, but Sahar seemed to have positive feelings towards them. Not that that meant much for me.
I sighed. One step at a time. Right now, all I needed to think about was surviving tonight’s dinner and finding out what the Queen really wanted from me.
“Right. Let’s get this over with.”
Adriana led me upstairs to an unfamiliar floor. When we stepped out of the stairwell, I realized it was the Queen’s floor. The Queen’s guards dotted the place, stationed all along the hallway at different doors. Adriana nodded, respectfully at each of them as we passed by. When we reached the fourth door on the left, the guard stepped aside, and Adriana led me into a standard-sized dining room.
A long table stretched across most of the room, and floor-to-ceiling windows made up the far wall. Embers burned low in the fireplace in the far left corner of the room. A few chairs and loveseats sat out around it, and a table was positioned in front of it, which held a plate with a teapot and a few cups on top of it. On the wall to the left of the entryway was a giant map of the kingdom, pinned to a corkboard. Below it was a basket of rolled-up maps. The Queen sure loved her maps. It was then that I realized I hadn’t spotted the Queen yet, nor any of her council for that matter.
To my right, someone cleared their throat, making me jump. I whipped my head around to come face to face with the Vampire Queen herself. Behind her stood three figures whom I assumed were her council. I recognized one of them at once.
The Doom Bringer stood to the Queen’s right side. To the left of the Queen stood a very small Asian goth chick with a serious case of resting bitch face. Her pale undertone and tiny fangs tipped me off to the fact that she was a vampire.
To the right of the goth girl stood a tall, beautiful red-headed faerie with a calculating look in her eye. Though she wore elegant purple silks and lace, I knew a brilliant mind when I saw one. My gaze slid lower, and the calluses on her delicate hands gave me reason to believe she was some sort of scholar or artist, someone who uses a pen or brush a lot.
“Thank you, Adriana. You may take your leave. I will have someone fetch you when we’re finished here,” the Vampire Queen said.
“Your Highness,” Adriana replied, before bowing and exiting the room.
When the door clicked shut, the Queen’s gaze fell on me. She took a step forward, and I stood my ground, despite the spike in my pulse. The Queen stopped a foot away, but I still had to lean my neck down a little to meet her unreadable eyes. Her lips opened to speak, and I braced myself for the worst.
“I visited Henry.”
Wait. What? “Uh… what?” I asked, trying to catch up with what just happened, hoping to the gods she hadn't killed the man and taken back the carving.
The Queen’s lips twitched at the corners, increasing my confusion even further.
“I apologized for holding onto the sun carving,” she clarified, restrained amusement coloring her tone.
Snickering came from behind her, and the Queen turned around to glare at the goth chick who was no longer sporting a resting bitch face, but the amusement of an older sister watching her younger sister court a boy unsuccessfully.
What the hell was going on? Had I hit my head on the way down? Had I been led to another dimension where a thief could question… no, insult a Queen, and the Queen would actually listen and do what was right? I blinked up at her silver eyes, dumbly.
“You apologized to Henry?”
The Queen nodded as a feminine voice from behind her spoke. It was a soft, tinkling sound filled with honest confusion, no judgment, and it came from the red-headed faerie.
“He doesn’t seem too intelligent. Are you sure Sahar has the right boy?”
The Queen cocked her head at me, her gaze filled with intense curiosity and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“Can’t you see the faint glow around him?” The Queen waved her hands around my head as she spoke, and I failed to hold back a flinch. The Queen’s hands stilled and dropped to her sides, hanging loosely. “We do not hit men or women here.” Her voice was brittle like I had offended her. “You have no reason to flinch around me.”
“R-right.” I stuttered a bit before catching myself and taking a deep breath. “Why am I here?” Not even two beats went by before the Queen responded.
“Because you tried to steal something from me.”
I gave her a look that said, ‘you know that’s not what I meant.’ “Why am I here in this room?”
“We made a deal, remember,” the Queen replied. I deflated, feeling the last of my hope slip away.
"I know you all think I look dumb, or whatever," I waved my hand at the council, "But I'm not dumb enough to believe that the Vampire Queen would simply allow a thief to go free and then… live happily ever after in her castle."
The Queen smiled at me, and it was a genuine and gorgeous smile, making me blush slightly.
“I’ve looked into your history. Your father died in the war, and you’ve been taking care of your mother and your two younger siblings ever since.” I stiffened at the mention of my family, the only people in the whole world I cared about, but the Queen kept going. “As we already discussed, I am prepared to have your family taken care of financially while you’re here. They will live more comfortably than most. Your middle brother can even start his own tattooing practice.”
I blinked once. Twice. A third time.
“I think he is going into shock,” the other vampire said from behind the Queen looming over me.
The observation had me snapping out of the dumbfounded silence. I stepped back, creating a little more distance between the Vampire Queen and me. I crossed my arms over my chest, the fog of the shock finally fading away.
“That’s a lot of money--”
“Not to me.”
Right. Rich Vampire Queen. Besides, hadn’t I just recently resented her in my head for living such a lavish life within the castle walls while my family and people like us starved in the village? It was an opportunity for my family that I would not pass up.
“Well, it is for me. Obviously. What will I have to do in return for that to happen? What do you really want?” I asked, my arms still folded over my chest. My gaze flicked to the three figures behind the Queen. “And why are they here?”
The Queen was unaffected by my bluntness, putting me even further on edge. She stepped back and turned to face her companions.
“This is my council, the Queen’s council.”
I had gathered that, but for once, I said nothing. She gestured to each of them, individually, introducing them, starting from my left with the Doom Bringer.
“This is Anix, but you probably know her as the Doom Bringer. She is the commander of my armies. I’m sure she needs no further introduction than that.”
The giant, strong yet strangely adorable looking gargoyle gave me a small nod of her head, the small horns above the edge of her brows glinting in the lantern light. I didn’t know what else to do, so I nodded back.
The Queen gestured to the goth chick in the middle, and her tone softened ever so slightly, leading me to believe she really cared about the woman. Perhaps a lover?
“The other vampire is Rachel. She is my second in command.” I cocked my head at that, unable to hide my curiosity. The Queen did not miss the small action. “I’ve known her since I transitioned nearly two hundred years ago.” A pause and a ghost of a smile lit up her lips. “A story for another time, perhaps.”
The purple-haired goth and I shared a nod, and just like that, she was moving on, introducing the last person, the red-headed faerie.
“And, finally, this is my mapmaker, Aerywin.” She looked back at the faerie with a small smile before turning back to me. “As beautiful as she is, she is even more brilliant.”
That earned her a bright, straight toothed smile from the mapmaker. She really was beautiful, and her pale blue-grey eyes were soft and kind while taking in every detail of the scene silently. They all had that same look, I realized. All of them were quiet, restrained like they were afraid of spooking me.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” I said hesitantly before turning back to look at the Queen. “But you still haven’t told me why I’m here or what you want from me.”
The Queen gestured to the long table where plates, silverware, and napkins were already set out. She and the other three members of the council slowly drifted towards the table to their designated seats near the fireplace.
“Shall we sit and discuss it over dinner?”
Full dark had set in by now, and I suspected that dinner was being served down in the Great Hall this very moment. I briefly wondered if the Queen ate the same meals as everyone else in the castle or if she had the chefs in the kitchen make her and her council special meals. She probably even had her own personal chef. I stared at the long dining table like it was going to come alive suddenly and attack me. The Queen chuckled, a low but light sound, looking back at me over my shoulder.
“We won’t bite.”
“Speak for yourself.” The deadpanned comment came from Rachel.
Deciding to ignore her, I took the seat next to hers. Her dark, charcoal-lined eyes met mine, and there was surprise along with something like pride in them. She and the Queen shared a look, and it reminded me of the gargoyle twins I had met on my first day here, Lauren and Lorelia. It was the kind of look that only siblings who were close enough to speak without words shared.
A pang of nostalgia and bitterness coursed through me. My two younger siblings often shared that same look. I missed them terribly, but perhaps the best I could do for them at the moment was to solidify this bargain. That was, as long as these supernatural’s intentions were true.
I lifted my gaze and took in the four others at the table. Across from me sat the red-headed faerie, Aerywin. To her left sat the Doom Bringer, and to her left, my right, the Queen sat at the end of the table with her back to the fireplace.
“The servants should be up any minute with dinner,” the Queen began, her steady gaze meeting mine. “Like I said, we brought you here to further discuss why you're here.”
I watched the vampire and the other women staring at me around the room, still wondering if I would soon become their prey.
“Special? What does that mean? My blood isn’t special. I am human,” I finished, my tone insistent.
The Doom Bringer shrugged, and it was such an oddly human gesture on such a deadly creature that it was almost comical. Aerywin spoke up next.
“The sorceress seems to think otherwise,” the faerie said, her tone matter of fact. “You see, she is not only a sorceress and an alchemist but a seer as well.”
After the day I spent with her yesterday, this did not surprise me. I nodded slowly, sitting up straighter. “So she sees the future? What has she seen?”
The four shared a meaningful look. “We only know what she has told us. That your blood is special and that it is best to keep you here,” the Queen said at last.
“Like a prisoner?” I stiffened and held my breath.
The Queen looked insulted at my words. “Of course not. You've been free to roam the castle. We can send an escort with you if you would feel safer, and you are even free to go back to your village. But you would live here for the foreseeable future, and like I said, I will take care of your family, and you as well. Much like any other worker in the castle.”
I looked up at her then, surprised. “Do you take care of the families of your servants as well?”
The Queen shrugged again, a nonchalant gesture. “I make sure that they make a livable wage and have suitable housing. We encourage most to live within the castle walls. It breeds trust and unity, but I do not deny those who prefer to live separately. I still pay them a livable wage.”
I was surprised at her openness. And generosity. I had no idea she took such good care of her workers. It comforted me to know going into the deal, but something else ate at me that I couldn’t ignore.
“Why don’t you hire more humans? Almost everyone in the castle is a supernatural, living a comfortable life while the humans in the kingdom starve, barely making ends meet.”