Her eyes did not immediately seek out the man sitting behind the desk. The shadows were moving in the room in a dizzying way that struck her as another episode coming on. His presence among them was sinister and she instinctively recoiled as he stood, pushing the long locks of golden hair over his shoulder. The shadows seemed to leap along the surface of his flesh, creating a terrible halo around him, twisting his beautiful features.
She tried to regain control of herself, digging desperately for the light within her. He stepped forward, away from the desk, with a welcoming smile on his face. She almost didn’t recognize the traveler until she got a good look at that smile and his inhuman eyes.
Real fear skittered through her as he approached. His nostrils flared and he tsked as he reached forward and gently took her hand. She nearly slapped his hand away when the black tendrils tried to attach to her wrist. Sweat popped out on her skin as she restrained her impulse. She wondered how much of this was her madness and how much was him in close proximity. Magic was clearly in his skillset, demonstrated by his restraint of Charu and the manner in which he’d captured Apane.
She’d tried to avoid his eerie eyes, but he stepped closer, invading her space as his fingers tightened around her hand until she was forced to look up at him. His smile widened when he saw that he finally had her full attention.
“Meredith, it is such a pleasure to meet you at last.”
She swallowed nervously. “I can’t say the same, though you look more cleaned up since the last time I saw you.”
He tilted his head to the side and regarded her with fascination.
“Really?” he murmured. “Did we meet before? I am quite certain I would remember.”
Meredith firmly pulled her fingers from his grasp and curled them into fists at her side, trying to ignore the monstrous forms of the shadows. It took all her willpower not to turn and run out of the room. The traveler had haunted her nightmares for weeks.
“Not so much as ‘met’ but were in the same unfortunate place at the same time. I was working in the restaurant you decided to pillage when you arrived in Ashton.”
He inhaled deeply.
“Ahh. Now that you mention it, there is a certain familiarity to your scent. Your perfection was sadly drowned out among all that fodder. How sad that you slipped through my fingers.” His lips quirked into deviant grin. “But then again, my appetites were not kind enough to think toward the care of a female at that time. It is perhaps for the best.”
Meredith shivered under his perusal, feeling contaminated everywhere his eyes touched. The shadows gained definition, leering as they crept closer. Her heart beat quicker and her breaths became shorter as she struggled for every mouthful of air.
After a long moment, he stepped back, and the shadows pulled back to a short distance. The lauchume circled around to his desk, draping himself in his chair with a practiced grace. He picked up and twirled an expensive fountain pen between his fingers, his eyes never leaving her. The spinning of the pen was hypnotic and everything in the room appeared to move and dance to the kaleidoscope of colors reflecting off it from the desk lamp.
“I imagine you are curious as to your place here. Do not worry sweet Meredith, you won’t be possessed, nor will you be harmed. You are very special to me, to us really.”
Everything within her screamed not to trust him. The mouths of the shadows worked with silent laughter, mocking her fear as the warnings of Ischar and Apane cycled through her head. He could be telling her the truth about not physically harming her, but she knew that nothing in this would turn out well for her.
Movement near the corner of his desk drew her attention. At first, she ignored it, certain that it was the shadows playing with her, trying to draw her fully into their mad dance. Eventually she looked directly at it and froze as she watched the long tentacles of an acila slide around the corner of the desk, seeking like monstrous feelers.
Her breath wheezed out of her far too loudly. The lauchume’s gaze followed hers and he smirked. He opened an ornate airlocked box on his desk and the nauseating scent of fetid flesh filled the air as he pulled out a morsel and flung it to his pet. The tentacles snapped around it and disappeared, and the box mercifully closed, cutting off the horrible stench. Meredith gagged at the lingering scent and turned her face away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him steeple his fingers as he watched her thoughtfully.
“I see that you are not convinced. Don’t let my little acila disturb you. They are all over the grounds but will not harm you. Everything will become clear soon enough. There are, after all, just a few days left until the day of shadows when worlds naturally draw closer and spirits pass freer.”
She snapped her attention away from the shadows that seemed to be inching closer to her.
“Shadows?”
He sighed. “I believe you call it All Hallows Eve, or Halloween in this recent era.”
“Oh. What’s important about Halloween?” Of all things, the lauchume was speaking of a frivolous holiday.
“Dear girl, everything. Our worlds are so close that for a moment they merge, and it is beautiful.” He brought his hands together, demonstrating as he interlaced his fingers.
He giggled in a blood-curdling pitch and her skin crawled. A small creature with long, terrible claws and a wicked snout moved between the shelves, making her stumble back toward the center of the room. The lauchume pursed his lips in a moue of sympathy.
“You are having a bad time of things, aren’t you? I would like to say that my magic could push back the madness from your mind—but where is the fun in that? I suspect I might enjoy seeing you embrace it. Once all is said and done, I will take just the edge off so that you will be controllable, but how beautiful you will be running wild through these halls.”
Meredith’s fingernails dug deeper into her palm, the bite of pain a merciful distraction. He continued speaking, oblivious to her deteriorating condition, or simply just not caring. For all she knew, he was taking sadistic pleasure out of watching her mind unravel in front of him. The shadows reached for her, their whispering growing louder. He thumped his pen on the table to pull her attention, just barely, to the present. His expression was hard as he stared at her.
“Just one thing, my Meredith. Until the passing of the day of shadows, you will be restrained to the estate. You may go anywhere you please that is open on the main floors during the daytime hours only. At night you will be restricted to your rooms as you were in Ashton. Guards are, of course, posted in areas you are not permitted. Do not try to get by them. It will not work in your favor and will result in swift repercussions. Naturally, it goes without saying that you are not to leave the building for any reason.”
Sweat poured off her body as a vaporous talon uncurled towards her from the deepest mass of darkness just beyond the lauchume. She managed a nod and barely noticed his smile of satisfaction.
“I believe that is all for now, my dear. Let me summon Palearas to return you to your room. You do not look well.”
The patronizing tone of his voice with its false concern followed Meredith as the large brute of a wulkwos lumbered into the room and took her arm in his meaty palm. The lauchume didn’t say anything more as she was escorted from the room, and Meredith was glad. She was barely holding it together and focusing on placing one foot in front of the other to make it back before she collapsed.
The hallway seemed to never end as they left one floor and made their way along another. At long last, Palearas opened a door and he pushed her inside. The familiarity of the room didn’t register at first. Panic welled up in her as the entire space swam in darkness with only a single bedside lamp lit. The door slammed behind her and the lock clicked loudly.
She spun around, terror clawing at her throat, as her eyes flickered to the hidden movements. The voices grew louder and something, she was certain, was moving in her room. She couldn’t be alone. It flicked at the corners of her visions and streaked through the room in short spurts too fast for
her to discern.
Meredith choked, her eyes widening with terror. There was an acila under her bed. She was certain of it. She could see the tentacles flicking there. Surely it could hear her breathing. She tried to stop, but her lungs burned and refused to allow her the respite from being heard by the things hunting her in the dark.
Something brushed her and a scream ripped from her throat. She turned and scraped her fingers along the door, uncaring if they broke or tore in her desperation. They stung with pain but it barely made it through the fog of fear that gripped her. She twisted the doorknob and shook it, throwing her weight into it.
Meredith flattened herself against the door, her eyes pulled to that small beam of light in the room. With desperation, she flung herself to the small corner beside the lamp as if clinging to the minimal light it offered. There, she curled into herself, crying and screaming as the night crawled by. She struck at her skin repeatedly as she felt things crawling over her. Something gouged into her skin and tore. Her wails raised above the din in her ears, breaking the night’s silence.
Chapter 25
Sunlight streamed through the bedroom window, slipping through the gap of the curtains to lay in a narrow strip stretching across the floor. Meredith squinted her eyes against the beam in her face and brought up a hand to rub her eyes. She was exhausted. Her blurry eyes found the only clock in the room.
Nine o’clock.
Damn, it was early. Too early.
It was still early enough that she could easily get a couple more hours of sleep without losing too much of the day. She could pull back the bedding and slip between the sheets. She didn’t know what the hour was when she finally fell into an exhausted slumber, but she was certain that it wasn’t until the barest lights raised touched the horizon. She’d suffered through the darkest hours of the night.
Despite the fatigue weighing down on her, it occurred to her that fewer wulkwos might be prowling around at the early hour. It would be the best opportunity to explore with fewer eyes on her. Yawning she pulled herself to her feet.
A tiny tap at the door alerted her to Apane’s presence minutes before the slight lasa slipped inside. Her eyes widened in dismay at the still made bed and what Meredith could only assume was her own terrible appearance. With a murmur of dismay, the female lit to her side and helped Meredith stumble to the bed. Sitting heavily on the soft comforter, Meredith eyed the spirit and swallowed past the dusty dryness in her throat.
“What has happened?” Apane whispered, her hand sweeping over Meredith’s brow, pushing her hair out of the way.
Meredith grimaced. “Nothing much beyond the new usual. Just my mind trying to destroy itself.”
The lasa frowned, concern creasing her brow.
“The lauchume does nothing to aid you?”
Meredith laughed.
“No, he said that he enjoyed seeing me this way. I’ll get no help from him. I’m not certain if he’d even oblige me if I begged, or if he’d be happier watching me twist like a worm on a hook.”
Apane growled, the sound startling aggressive, like the sound of a cornered vixen protecting her kits. Picking up a soft-bristled brush from the nearest nightstand, she began to run it through Meredith’s hair. Meredith wasn’t sure if it was more for her benefit of having basic grooming, or for the lasa to ease her frustration as she gently worked out the tangles.
“Forgive my ill temper, but it is not right, mistress. He says to all that you are important and must be handled carefully so not to inadvertently harm you. For him to allow you to suffer from the miasma tearing into your mind faster than your spirit can transform... it is disgraceful. She slapped the brush on the table, and gathered up the lengths of Meredith’s hair, twisting them into a french braid trailing down the back of her head.
Her fingers separated and twisted the locks of hair for a time before she spoke again.
“Do you intend to see the mansion today?”
The question was posed so innocently that Meredith was caught off guard. She nodded and the lasa made an approving sound, her fingers tugging on the lengths as she wove them.
“I shall accompany you, if that is agreeable to you?”
Meredith started to turn her head but was immobilized by the grip on her hair. Wincing at the sting of pulled hair, Meredith watched the lasa in the reflection of the bureau mirror.
“You would want to?”
Pale silvery eyes met hers in the reflection of the glass, and a smile tugged on Apane’s lips as she gave the slightest tip of her head.
“I know the estate well, mistress. I could keep you safe from the worst areas where the unvesseled wulkwos sleep.” She leaned forward, her eyes widening in earnest as her voice dropped into a whisper. “There are many gathered here. Only the first among the male wulkwos receive strong enough humans to serve as hosts, though it infuriates the females who are unable to find suitable vessels. The lauchume picked the finest for his own host until he tires of that form and chooses another. They are under orders not to harm you, but they are best avoided. They are foul.”
There was sense in what Apane offered. Meredith would’ve been a fool to turn down an escort when there could be all manner of dangers and unpleasantness hiding where no reasoning person would go. Nothing that would kill her if the lauchume’s influence held so much sway, but it could be enough to hurt her or terrorize her. Neither option held any appeal for her.
“Do you know where Charu is?”
Apane looked away.
“I do, but we cannot go there. The guards forbid anyone but the lauchume entrance to the cell where he keeps him surrounded by his spells. They will not allow us anywhere near it.”
“But you could point it out to me, so that I know where it is,” Meredith cajoled.
“...Yes,” Apane agreed reluctantly. “I could show you the way.”
Meredith stood up with a satisfied smile on her face. Finally, she could make some progress on their containment, even if it was minimal. She may not be able to free Charu yet, but it was a start. All her instincts from weeks alone in Ashton came rushing to the fore. Everything started with information gathering.
“Excellent. We’ll go there first and then you can show me around so I can familiarize myself with this place.”
The lasa assented with a pleased smile and flitted away to retrieve clean clothes for Meredith. Although Meredith grimaced at the fashionable rose-colored skirt and blouse that were pulled out of the wardrobe for her, seeming not at all practical for traipsing around looking for possible escape routes, she endured being dressed in the most feminine ensemble she’d ever worn.
She left her room with Apane close at her side. The spirit gripped Meredith’s hand in her own and led her through the long hallway to an elevator. No one else was to be seen on their route, the hallways silent in the way she’d imagined a haunted place left to fade away. The elevator slid open without a sound and they stepped into the empty car. It was as spotless with polished wood and gleaming metal as one could expect in such a household. Meredith couldn’t help but to imagine terrible creatures of her nightmares in the shaft, bending the cables to hasten them to their death.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Stop it.
The door slid shut with barely a whisper and it glided the two floors down to the main level. Meredith was surprised to see that when it opened it wasn’t to the entryway of the mansion but rather within the kitchens. No doubt it was built to cater toward the instant gratification of the master of the house and his guests long before the lauchume took it over.
Apane squeezed her hand and they slipped through the empty space, their footsteps echoing on the linoleum floors. At the rear of the room, a solid door was firmly shut, a faint blue glow outlining it. Meredith’s breath caught as they stepped closer to it.
She didn’t see the guard until he stepped out from a small alcove to the right of the door. A quick glance took note of a single chair set beside a small table. A plate littered with crumbs s
at at the center of the table alongside an empty glass. Her eyes didn’t linger more than a second before skittering back to the scowling human confronting them.
Built like an aging boxer, he leaned forward and crossed his arms over his chest in a practiced, threatening manner. His eyes were flat and expressionless as he scrutinized them.
“What do you two want?”
Apane smiled sweetly up at him, seemingly undisturbed by his hostile attitude. It struck Meredith as odd from a female who’d practically jumped at everything just a day earlier but counted herself fortunate that she wasn’t having a breakdown in front of the burly guard.
“My mistress awoke and was hungry, so we came to the kitchen to search for the cook to provide for her breakfast. I do not happen to see him, however.” The lasa made a show of craning her head this way and that made the guard snort derisively.
“The cook is off until four, as you should know. Anything you want you have to make do yourself. I am sure her highness can figure her way out around a loaf of bread as well as the rest of us humans.”
He directed a sour look at Meredith following his statement. She didn’t understand where all the nastiness was coming from but decided it wasn’t worth pursuing—not unless it got her through the door, which seemed unlikely.
She allowed Apane to draw into the main part of the kitchen, where the lasa loaded Meredith down with slices of baked bread and fruit. All under the suspicious eye of the guard staring at them from the other end of the room. Meredith made certain to choke down every crumb of food like she was as ravenous as her friend claimed she was before they finally left the kitchen. She felt the weight of his stare with every step until the kitchen door closed behind them.
They strolled through the main floor, taking a moment to peer into a reception room, or what may once have been considered a ballroom when those sorts of things were once in fashion. Another room opened into a conservatory, the lush gardens creating a relaxing place to sit. They were sitting for a moment on a ledge, enjoying the warm sunlight magnified through the glass surrounding outer walls, when Apane giggled and gave Meredith a sly look.
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