by Emma Hamm
“Your time?” Then Danielle realized what her mother was saying.
The queen believed her daughter was dead, and that Danielle had come to help her die. The mere thought made her want to curl up in a ball. This was the woman who had rocked her to sleep at night. The woman who had convinced her daughter nightmares could be bested.
And the queen wanted to die. She wanted to die so badly but no one would let her go. Even the spectre of her daughter.
Tears spilled down Danielle’s cheeks. She knelt in the refuse and took her mother’s hand. “No, no Mother. I told you. I’m not dead.”
“But the monsters got you.” Her mother searched her gaze for answers she could understand. “Your father said the monsters attacked. They came to your betrothal ceremony and he let them take you away from me.”
“They aren’t monsters.” Danielle leaned closer, trying to reassure her mother in the only way she knew how. “They wanted me to be happy with them. You know Father better than any of us. You know I had to get away from here.”
“The monsters are dangerous, Danielle. They attacked us both.”
“Because all they knew from humans was war. I met one. I spoke with one and we struck a kind of... friendship. Mother, they aren’t what we thought they were.”
Her mother dropped her hand. “You must not be my daughter then.”
The words struck Danielle in the heart. How could her own mother, the only person in the palace who understood her, be so willing to renounce her?
Danielle let her hand slide off the side of the bed. “You were the one who taught me not everything is as it seems. You were the one who put the stories in my head that bad people can be saved.”
“I told you that because I wanted your father to be a better man.” Her mother coughed into her hand, the sound weak and thready. “But I didn’t want you to lay with beasts.”
“I didn’t. I would never.” She’d thought about it, though. “They’re good people, mother. Not monsters.”
“Then why didn’t you stay with them?” Her mother’s sunken eyes turned back to her. “Why would you return to this haunted castle?”
“For you,” Danielle whispered. “I wanted to come back and save you.”
Something shifted in her mother’s eyes. A darkness, just like Diana, that dark worm in their soul. “Some of us aren’t meant to be saved, my daughter. Some of us should burn for all the things we’ve done.”
She leaned closer, trying her best to convey the need and desperation of their situation. “I don’t know what you have done, mother. I don’t know what father did, I only know the few things the Dread have told me. But I also don’t know if those are true. How can I help you, if I do not understand what happened?”
A voice split through the darkness. “I might help with that.”
Blood seeped from underneath the bed, sinking into her pants and spreading underneath the plates littered around her.
“Alchemist,” she growled.
He stepped from the behind the curtain of her mother’s bed. This wasn’t the same one who attacked her, but he looked very similar. The undulating hood. The strange darkness that shadowed his face. All of it was so familiar she could have been in the cave once more.
“Hello, Princess,” he murmured.
“You aren’t welcome here.”
“On the contrary. I am most welcome here. Am I not, Your Majesty?” He reached across the bed and stroked a hand across her mother’s forehead. The Queen arched into his touch.
Danielle’s stomach rolled. How could her mother enjoy the touch of a man who left a bloody streak in his wake?
She let out a slow breath, counting to ten before she responded. “What are you doing here?”
“Did you think we were so foolish we wouldn’t know where the Emperor would send you?” The alchemist chuckled. “No, dear one. We know the Dread better than they know themselves.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“You don’t have to. I don’t care if you believe the truth or not. But now you and I are in the same place.” He gestured toward the chairs in front of the dead fire. “Shall we sit together? I’ve searched a long time for you.”
She should bolt out the door and run as fast as her legs would carry her. The alchemists were the reason Raphael had sent her out of the Hollows. He’d thought she would be safe here, and clearly, she was not. She could run far and they wouldn’t be able to catch her.
“Princess, do nothing foolish. I only want to answer your questions,” the alchemist said, his voice a soothing rasp. “You want to know what happened to your parents and the Dread, don’t you?”
She did, but she also recognized a trap when she was in one. Danielle stood, dusted off her knees, and made her way to the chairs. She sat, then gestured toward the other chair. “Join me then. No more minced words, however. I have little time for stories and even less patience for answers.”
The alchemist chuckled. “So much like your Dread, aren’t you?”
She inclined her head. “I take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t meant as one.”
The alchemist sat down across from her, then did something she hadn’t expected. He reached up and lowered the hood of his robe. His hands were even thinner than her mother’s. Tattoos covered the fine bones, but it was his face that was most startling.
There wasn’t much flesh left on him. Sores had broken out across his forehead, open wounds seeping down his face. He grinned at her, a toothless dark grin so different from the filed teeth she’d remembered.
She shifted in her chair, breathing in through her mouth to calm her nerves. “When the Dread came to my ceremony, he threatened my father with telling everyone what he’d done to my mother. What was that?”
“You don’t enjoy idle conversation, do you?”
“Answer me.”
He looked at the empty fireplace and replied, his words like an omen of death. “Your father knew the opening to the Dread’s kingdom was somewhere near the river. More people had seen the Dread near that place than anywhere else, but he couldn’t get the Dread to reveal themselves. So he used your mother as bait.”
She frowned. “Why not use any other woman? Why use the queen?”
“Because a crowned woman in a brocade gown is far more likely to draw attention than a peasant.” The alchemist tucked his hands into his sleeves. “So he sent your mother out into the wilderness, alone, and waited until she returned. He expected her to tell him the location, but what the Dread sent back was a madwoman rambling about monsters in the darkness digging out of the ground.”
The King had sacrificed the Queen. It made twisted sense, although Danielle now realized it had backfired. The people of Hollow Hill had worshiped her mother. They loved her more than they loved their own family. Or at least, they had. Before she lost her mind.
Danielle nodded. “Why did my father attack the Dread?”
“Because they were attacking him.” The alchemist shrugged. “The Dread were created to kill, Princess. That’s what they do best.”
She didn’t believe it for a second. She could argue the proof for hours. The Dread were weavers, blacksmiths, and storytellers. They had the hearts of artists and the minds of historians. They were good people to their very core.
The alchemists could deny this all they wanted, but they were wrong. So very wrong.
“And why were the Dread attacking my people?” she finally asked. “Why do you want them to attack Hollow Hill?”
“You needn’t know that.”
So he wasn’t as foolish as she thought. The alchemist wanted to tell her everything she desired to know, but nothing she could use against him.
Danielle leaned back in the chair and reclined. “You won’t tell me everything, after all.”
“No.”
“Will you at least tell me why you want me dead?”
The alchemist’s sunken gaze sharpened. “A single woman is like a matchstick in a pile of tinder. You must b
e contained or you will set the whole thing ablaze.”
“I fully intend to ignite whatever box you put me in.”
“That’s fine, Princess. As long as you only burn yourself.” The alchemist stood. “For now, you’re more useful alive than dead.”
“Why’s that?” she asked, hoping to catch him in a trap.
“Because with you here, the Dread will come to the palace and we won’t have to drag them out of the Hollows. The King has already sent his missives to them, you know. There’s to be another battle, and all we had to do was get you here.”
A battle? The Dread weren’t prepared to fight, and the Emperor couldn’t be back yet. Raphael wouldn’t do something so foolish. “The Dread have no desire to attack.”
“They protect what’s theirs. Now, the humans will die or the Dread will die. Either way, the alchemists control this kingdom as it should have been long ago.” The alchemist snapped his fingers, the sound harsh and crackling in the silent room. “Obtaining control is like snatching a butterfly out of thin air. Difficult to do, but once you have it, you can crush it between your hands and then its power is yours forever.”
Footsteps echoed down the hall outside. Loud and thundering, they were the steps of a hundred soldiers marching to the Queen’s door.
“What is your plan for Hollow Hill?” she whispered. “Why are you doing all this?”
The alchemist stood in the center of the ruined room, his back to her. The red robe warped around his form and for a moment, he looked as though he were not there. As if he were a figment of her imagination. A nightmare come to life.
“Hollow Hill is but the first kingdom,” he murmured. “Soon, others will fall under our spell. We don’t want Hollow Hill, princess. In fact, I’d argue this kingdom is the weakest in Ember. But it is the first, and the first is power.”
“You want to control all of Ember,” she choked. “But why?”
The alchemist turned to her. His ruined face twisted in a smile and the oozing sores dripped like rivers. “We feast on power, Princess. We feed on madness and destruction. When we control Ember, this entire continent will be chaos incarnate. And we will rule.”
The doors burst open and soldiers poured in. They walked through the alchemist as though he weren’t even there. They grabbed her arms, pulling her from the room without a word.
Danielle struggled against them. She shouted for her mother to look at her. “I will return for you,” she screamed. “Mother, look at me. I will come back. Stay alive!”
But her mother turned her face away and stared out the window. The guards dragged Danielle out the door, but not fast enough. She watched them throw the curtains up over the rod again, drawing them tight so her mother was once again in her tomb.
“Are you so cruel?” she snarled at her captors. “You force an old woman to stay in darkness. You won’t even let her see the sun?”
“The Queen needs the darkness to keep her mind at ease,” the nearest guard replied.
“No, she doesn’t. She needs sun and fresh air.”
All the guards chuckled, even as they dragged her up a stairwell she didn’t remember. “Princess, you aren’t a healer.”
“And who is the healer who said she needed this?” But she already knew the answer.
“The red robed men. The ones who will save the kingdom.”
There, in their eyes, she saw the same madness as in infected her sister and mother. The darkness which twisted in their souls. It was an infection spreading through the palace.
They dragged her all the way to the highest tower, the one which used to be storage. Now, she could see it was a prison. There were bars on the door’s small window and a lock which could only be opened with a single key.
A guard unlocked the door and revealed a bare room beyond. No chairs. No bed. Nothing but silver floors and silver walls. Windows surrounded the entire room, but she knew how empty it was. So this was the silver room. A room for madness to breed.
The guards threw her inside and slammed the door shut. They locked it, the sound echoing. “Good luck, Princess. We’ll feed you when we remember.”
They marched away, the sound of their footsteps thundering through the halls until she could no longer hear the sound.
She held onto the bars on the door’s window and stared down the hall. Willing someone to move. Someone. Anyone who might help her.
“Fancy meeting you here,” a voice came from behind her.
Danielle whirled and there, curled up in the farthest corner, was a blonde man she recognized well. “Milo!” she gasped.
She rushed to his side, falling onto her knees and reaching for his face. Twin, swollen black eyes made it difficult for him to see. Bruises covered his bare arms, and he shivered even though it was warm in the room.
“Move into the sun,” she said, helping him shift. “It’ll help you get warm.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again,” he replied through chattering teeth.
She curled herself around him, rubbing his arms and tucking him against her side. “What happened?” she asked.
“Father,” he replied.
She’d never heard her brother sound so angry or hateful. He was the neutral party, no matter who was on either side. He didn’t want anyone to think of him as anything other than Milo. No thoughts in his head, no stances to be taken.
Now, that appeared to have changed.
“Why?” she whispered. Danielle held him closer to her chest, sharing what little warmth she could give.
“He said he didn’t want me to be different anymore,” Milo said. “He wanted me to be someone else. Like those damned red robed men wanted him to be. They’re devils, Danielle.”
She knew that well. It appeared the alchemists had been here longer than she had. Licking her lips, Danielle tried to think of a plan which would get them out of here.
And failed miserably.
She pressed her lips to her brother’s greasy hair and said, “I don’t have the faintest idea how to help now.”
“Your friends aren’t coming?”
Danielle looked to the sky. “Oh they’re coming, but I fear they will all die or they will kill everyone in their wake.”
Milo grunted. “Maybe destruction wouldn’t be a terrible thing. This kingdom needs to be wiped clean.”
Chapter 33
Raphael walked through the gardens with his brother and new sister, surprised at how quickly his life had changed. And how easy it was to slip into a comfortable silence with them.
Amicia had offered to feed him, but he wasn’t hungry. He wanted to prepare.
He wanted to find their siblings. He wanted to spread the blessing which had been bestowed upon Alexandre. And perhaps, if he could figure out how to bestow that blessing upon himself.
“I’m not exactly sure what altered the curse,” Amicia said as she trailed along behind him. She held her hands tucked at the small of her back, and a frown marred her face.
They passed by a hedge of roses so colorful he almost thought they were fake. A few fat bumblebees flew around them, humming as they worked.
“Tell me again,” Raphael said.
“I had left because the alchemists tricked both of us. When I returned, I fought to be by his side and then... I said I loved him.”
“Perhaps it was the words.” He couldn’t think of Danielle saying “I love you”.
His heart started beating too fast and his vision blurred. Could she love him? Impossible. He had done nothing worthy of winning her love. Raphael had tried to kill her. He’d taken her from her family and gotten her banished from her kingdom. He’d locked her away underground and refused to allow her to see the sun, even though he had known she wanted to see the rays more than anything else.
Perhaps he was a cruel man for it. And good women didn’t love cruel men.
Amicia paused in her wanderings and reached for a rose. She snapped it off at the stem and held it out to him. “For Danielle, when you see her next.”
He took the rose and marveled at its beauty. A single droplet of water hung on a crimson red petal like glass.
“I don’t know if this will make the trip,” he breathed.
“I think it will. You’d be surprised how roses react to Celestials.” She glanced over her shoulder, then pointed at Alexandre. “They like you more than humans.”
He watched his brother and was surprised to see the roses reaching for Alexandre. Not just leaning, but twisting toward the golden figure. They held out their petals, moved their roots, desperately trying to touch him as he stood nearby.
Mostly, Alexandre didn’t seem to care very much. Every now and then he’d reach out and brush his shoulder or a finger against one of the rose bushes. It would then shrink away from him like a fainting woman.
“Why do they do that?” Raphael asked.
“I’m not sure. We don’t know a lot about your people, and even though Alexandre is free from the curse, he still has to remember centuries of knowledge.” A bee flew by Amicia’s head. It circled her for a few moments before seeming to sigh in happiness, then leave. “I can’t rush his memories anymore than he can, which means we’re flying a little blind in the meantime.”
“I understand.”
He knew how hard this must be for his brother. All this meant Alexandre was their savior, the man they would all look to for answers. And yet, he didn’t have the answers just yet. Perhaps he never would when his memory had been stolen just as the rest of them.
Raphael looked to the sky and watched the clouds roll past. The beauty of this place would be hard to leave when he knew what waited for him in Hollow Hill.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “Many people to help and so much hurt to mend.”
“You said she’s a princess?” Amicia asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ve never met a princess before.” She reached up and situated the bun at the top of her head. “I suppose it will be useful to have her around, however. Most kingdoms won’t speak to a peasant.”
“A what?” Raphael paused in their meanderings. “A peasant?”