The Grey Dawn

by Stacey DeMichael

  Fritz shoved his furious face forward so that his nose and his ferocious scowl were thrust between the bars. “You mean there was a schematic of this underground warren, and you didn’t tell us? Didn’t you think that might be helpful?”

  Ellalee’s face drew down. “I don’t think it was fully accurate. Lord Valen had drawn on it and added to it.” She rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. “I’ll go back for it, after I’ve found Lord Valen, and I’ll see if there is some tool in the barn to cut the bars.”

  A keening filled the hallways echoing down the corridor.

  “Suddenly, I’m glad to have bars between me and the specter that haunts these halls,” Charlie said. “Oh, sorry Ellalee. You better run.”

  “Can one outrun a ghost?” Mark asked.

  Ellalee turned her back toward the bars and lifted up her skillet.

  “Can you wallop a ghost with a skillet? I think it’ll just go right through,” Mark continued, “Ow! Charlie, quit hitting me. Oh. Sorry Ellalee, that probably wasn’t encouraging. All the same, I’m glad to be behind these bars now.”

  “It can probably go through bars too. Did you think of that?” Charlie said.

  “Ow!”

  A shadow had appeared on the wall. Too hunched to be human, too tall to be animal. She was sure it was just a trick of the torch light casting longer shadows down the corridor, but that sound, that horrible sound! She couldn’t imagine anything this side of hell that could make such a horrible, sad noise. She backed up until her back hit the bars. The men had grown silent as well. Ellalee hardly dared to breathe.

  Let that thing turn around, she prayed silently. Let that thing go back the other way, Lord.

  But it continued to come, still keening, that inhuman howl that brought back every feeling of despair she’d ever felt. She wanted to cover her ears, but she dare not let go of her skillet. She could feel sweat pouring off her brow and her arms began to shake, so great was her terror of the thing coming. The keening seemed to draw all the strength from her body.

  Then one of the spectral black wolf-dogs came around the corner. This one wasn’t silent, but its growl was unlike anything Ellalee had ever heard. Its head went down as it approached. Its ears lay flat, and the hair across its back stood on end. It was enormous, the biggest dog she’d ever seen, and its sad keening voice was as unnatural as its size.

  “Grab her!” came a yell from behind her. The men seized her from behind, yanking her back against the bars so hard that she gasped. The men pinned her there against the barred door. One arm wound around her waist and hands gripped both of her arms tight against the bars. She could feel one of the men breathing on her neck. The swift, unanticipated attack of the men from behind her cause her to drop her skillet.

  She thrashed and screamed, but the men held even tighter. She tried to kick backwards but only managed to bruise her heel on the bars. She gasped in shock of the pain.

  “Shut her up!” shouted Fritz, and one of the men clamped his hand over her mouth and then began swearing.

  “She bit me! Can you believe she bit me?”

  The dog loped forwards. Its teeth bared. Between one heart beat and the next, Ellalee remembered that the disappearing stranger hadn’t said he had a friend in the manor. He had said friends. Plural. More than one. She had trusted these men. Fool that she was! Now they meant to see her dead. She made one more effort towards freedom, thrashing with everything she had and screaming at the top of her lungs. It was futile. There was no escape. The men pulled her so tightly against the bars she might as well have been shackled there. The dog launched itself straight at her. In less than a heartbeat, she could feel its hot breath and the spittle as it roared towards her face. She could see it meant to tear out her throat, and she couldn’t even move a hand to divert the attack.

  The wolf-dog let out a final keening howl as it sailed towards her, lips curled behind enormous bared teeth. Ellalee couldn’t seem to look away from its teeth, but in the last instant before the beast reached her, she closed her eyes and turned her head. She felt the impact but not of teeth against her neck, but rather of its body against hers. She opened her eyes. As if in slow motion, the beast dropped at her feet. Ellalee stared in dumb disbelief at its crumpled body and gasped as she looked down by her side at a bloody sword projected through the bars by her chest. Fritz pulled the sword back from between the bars and wiped the blade on his pant leg. Her arms were released, and she spun away from the bars panting.

  “You are stubborn and stupid,” Fritz said frowning furiously. “There is no one in this entire castle that doesn’t know you’re here now.”

  “You were trying to save me,” Ellalee gasped.

  “Well, what did you think we were doing?” Charlie asked.

  “She certainly isn’t as bright as we have given her credit for,” Mark added, shaking his head.

  “Run, you fool girl. There is nothing you can do now,” Fritz repeated and then added, “and for what it’s worth, I’m willing to believe your story about the wolf-dogs.”

  But it was too late to run, far too late. Indeed she had been stubborn and stupid, and now there was a price to pay.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Shackled and Beaten

  Mistress Murray came around the corner with a short sword in each hand. Ellalee bent over and picked up her skillet. The old woman’s eyes flicked to the fallen form of the wolf-dog and then returned to Ellalee, “Leave the cookware dear. You won’t need it. Wouldn’t you like to see the earl? I’m here to take you to him,” she smirked.

  “I’d feel more comfortable with it, actually,” Ellalee said with more optimism than conviction.

  “If I have to lop off your hand to make you drop that skillet, I’m more than well-trained enough to do just that.” Mistress Murray gave Ellalee a slick smile.

  Ellalee frowned and slowly laid the skillet back down by her feet.

  “Pick it back up, Ellalee. I think we can take her,” Charlie said.

  “Really? And how are we going to do that?” Mark replied.

  “The wolf? Let’s just grab her again,” Charlie replied.

  Ellalee quickly stepped away from the bars. “I’ll come.” She gave the men one last glance over her shoulder and then approached Mistress Murray who jutted out her chin back the direction they came. Ellalee walked on, and Mistress Murray followed.

  “Hey! How about us?” a voice trailed from behind Ellalee.

  “In a day, their mouths will be dry. In two, they will be in pain from no water, and by the end of the third, they’ll be mad,” Mistress Murray whispered to Ellalee. “Not that I plan to be here long enough to enjoy it.”

  Ellalee shivered and changed the subject. “That wolf-dog is what made the keening sound that we could hear through the walls.”

  “Go to the right,” Mistress Murray said.

  “And your brother is the man I met in the north field. Those other wolf-dogs were his as well?” Ellalee continued, but Mistress Murray was not taking up the conversation.

  “But why? Why do all of this?”

  “Move or I will carve my initials in your back. Turn left here and then right.”

  “Did you dislodge the stone that nearly killed me?”

  “That was my brother. Elise was kind enough to bait the trap. Turn right again and walk faster. The earl will lose patience.”

  They walked in silence for a while with Mistress Murray giving her instructions. Ellalee was desperately trying to remember how to return, right, left, right, second right, first right, first right again, and left.

  She entered a cavernous room made of the same grey stones used in the creation of the castle walls. The chamber had only two open entrances, the one she had come through and one on the opposite wall. The chamber was roughly twenty by thirty paces with a high pitched ceiling lit with fires burning in cast iron braziers in each corner as well as wall lamps every few feet along the walls. On the long wall to her right was the Earl de Avium, savagely beaten and hanging from manac
les above his head. His head was bowed and his feet had collapsed under him. His hands were purpling from supporting his body.

  Ellalee screamed, “No! No, no, no!”

  Ellalee knocked past Mistress Murray as she flew to his side and tried to lift his body back onto his feet. His body was dead weight, and all of her efforts to relieve his poor hands were futile. His shirt had been torn by a whip, and he bled freely. His face was contused, purple, and swollen, and he had a cut over his left eye which still trickled blood.

  “I should not have left you. I should not have gone,” Ellalee wept into his chest.

  “No, not you. Not here,” Valen moaned, his head lolling to the other side, half conscious.

  “Oh, please stand up. We all came back. You are beloved. Please stand up,” Ellalee cried.

  “Leave,” groaned Valen, not opening his eyes.

  “No, I will not leave. Not again,” she said placing one hand on his scared cheek. Valen flinched away from her touch, but she placed her hand even more gently on the ruined side of his face and ever so softly kissed his lips. “I love you. Please stand.”

  There was a long moment of silence, but then with a mighty groan, Valen shoved to his feet, opened his eyes, and stared at her with such a sad look of longing that it took her breath away.

  “We all came back,” she repeated. “None of us will leave.”

  The man Ellalee had thought of as the disappearing stranger stepped into the room from the shadows of the hallway beyond, carrying a blood-stained whip. He wore a sword on one hip and a dagger on his other. She turned her back to Valen and faced the stranger as he spoke.

  “So, it is as I suspected. You brought a new betrothed to the manor and believed you could hide her from me by having her pose as a servant. I’ll grant you, it did initially work. I believed that she quite fully detested you. That was quite the masquerade with the knife you took from the kitchen. It may have worked had I not learned you were literate. Did you think when I learned she could read that I would stay fooled? Ah, no. I wanted you to know that I knew so I thought you might enjoy finding her body in the same place where I left your last betrothed,” the man laughed. “Is that how you knew where to look?”

  “It is not true. I am a bond servant,” Ellalee stood in front of Valen shielding him.

  The stranger snorted. “No. We are far beyond this sad farce. Tell me, brother, was I right? Did you love her?” The man sneered. “Answer me or I will deliver your next round of punishment to her.” He twirled the whip, and Ellalee shuddered but didn’t move.

  “Yes, it is true. I fell in love with her when she came to my fire half dead. I can’t even imagine how she got that far in the condition she was in. The next morning when she tried to save her brother and sister at cost to herself, I decided to bring her to Avium.”

  Ellalee leaned against Valen who groaned, “Don’t lean too hard, love. Broken ribs.”

  Mistress Murray stepped forward. “The chit has killed your pet.”

  “It matters not. It served its purpose. Our debts will be settled this night. The halls are done being haunted.” The stranger raised an eyebrow and cocked his head appraising Ellalee. “I trained the dogs to fight the sword. It never occurred to me to teach them to fight pots and pans. You have been most surprising, Ellalee. I find that very…stirring.”

  “Do not hurt her, Vasin. It all ends when you are done having your fun, and you kill me. The Avium line ends with me. She has no part in this.”

  “Yes, but she knows doesn’t she? Alright, brother, I will take her with me. It will give me pleasure to claim something else that was once yours after I secure your treasure that Shefton gathers even now, and set fire to what remains. But first, I will render her voiceless. It will be just the first of many strokes that will bring her strong will under control.” Vasin stepped forward, reaching out to touch Ellalee’s hair.

  Ellalee slapped his hand away. “You will not touch me.”

  “Charming.” Vasin gave her a sour grin. “You will learn your manners much the same as those dogs learned.”

  Ellalee felt sick. “How did you make them voiceless?”

  “Interested now, are you? I poured hot lye down their throats. For some reason it didn’t work on one, but she ended up being her own gift. I taught her to sing. Every time Valen would find and seal up one entrance into the castle, I walked her down the passages inside the walls where she would sing her song so that my brother would know the futility of his efforts. It was a haunting melody was it not? Did you enjoy it?”

  Ellalee shivered. “It certainly terrified Elise or was that a ruse as well?”

  “Oh, no. I offered her freedom the same as I offered to you and many others over the years. In exchange for a few favors. After she tied your brother’s kitten, she refused to help me further. I don’t think she realized until you survived who my target was. Under duress, however, she agreed to one more very simple task. One that I knew would bring Valen tearing around to the north field to save you, and he did not disappoint. Had you not arrived, it may have been over that day, but alas, here we are.”

  “You promised her help and killed her?”

  “I promised her freedom and gave it to her. She is now free of the Castle de Avium, is she not?” Vasin replied dryly.

  Ellalee shook her head. “Why have you done all of this? If he is your brother as you say, how can your hurt him?”

  “Half-brother, actually. We had the same father.”

  Ellalee’s mouth dropped open. She realized in that moment where she had seen the stranger’s likeness. He had the same eyes, nose, and chin of the portrait as the upstairs hallway of Lord Vortimer. She stood back and looked from Valen to Vasin. The eyes. They had the same eyes. She understood.

  “Your mother was Vortimer’s love from the village. The woman who was banned from Avium lands. You are her son.”

  “And the rightful Earl de Avium.”

  Valen snorted.

  “You dare? She believed that deceiver would marry her. He should have kept his word, but instead, he destroyed her, cast her out. She travelled through the woods, starving nearly raving, when she was found by a woodsman. He brought her home where she recovered. My mother learned herb lore from a hermit woman living alone in those woods. She learned certain remedies to avoid child bearing and poisons. By that time, I had a sister.

  “My mother killed that woodsman and returned to Avium by night. We found the entrance into the underground, the very one that Vortimer used to sneak out of the castle to visit my mother. Ironic, don’t you think? I spent my childhood learning its passageways and creating others. My mother made sure that Vortimer paid the price for his villainy. She was determined to end his line.

  “Oddly enough, your mother was smart enough to hide her pregnancy until the last month. She refused all drink and food unless it came from Vortimer’s own hand, and Valen was born despite all efforts. There was no choice left to my mother. She snuck into your mother’s room and suffocated her, but Vortimer came in before she could turn her hand to you. When the old earl saw his wife dead and my mother hovering over your cradle, he killed her. Then he took my mother’s body, wrapped her in bed clothes, and burned her. But I paid him back. I burned him, didn’t I? You should have burned as well.” Vasin shook his head. His eyes burned with madness. “Gladlia might have been able to save you from my poisons, but she couldn’t save you from everything. I decided then that you should die slowly. Your sanity, your reputation, and your future would all go first. I have savored these years, brother. My sister became my eyes and ears. Others from your staff joined me. Shefton funded me from your own accounts. But now it is time for the games to end. Now you will die.”

  Ellalee flung her arms wide in front of Valen. “You shall not hurt him.”

  Vasin tucked his whip into the back of his trousers, strode forward and backhanded Ellalee with such a force that it sent her flying to the ground. Her cheek burned, and tears filled her eyes. Vasin drew his sword.

/>   Ellalee lifted her head at a loud metallic crash in the direction of the hallway through which she had come.

  “You shall not hurt either of them.” There stood Daniella, hair streaming around her face, glowing in the fire light. She stood over Mistress Murray’s prostrate form clutching the skillet. Behind her, Fritz, Charlie, and Mark strode into the chamber swords drawn followed by Walter with a bandaged arm in a sling and Winslow. Ellalee’s jaw came unhinged.

  Vasin stepped on Ellalee’s wrist making her scream and held the point of his sword at Valen’s throat. “We are at impasse are we not?”

  Just at that moment, Christopher crutched into the other entrance babbling away with Sir Kent trailing him. The knight’s right hand was wrapped and bloody.

  “Hey, Lord Valen! Sir Kent and I took care of the rest of those wolf-dogs. He’s bleeding pretty badly though. Irwin didn’t want to hurt them. He thought he could tame them eventually. Michael and Irwin are coming. They took a different turn when we split up.” Then his mouth drew up, and his eyes widened. He looked from sister to sister and sputtered, “Hey, what’s going on?”

  Valen rolled his eyes heavenward. “I really had hope for the other two.”

  “Come closer, and they die,” Vasin growled.

  “If they die, you will also die. You cannot escape,” Fritz said drolly. He moved casually to the center of the chamber whisking his sword around in a nonchalant practice stroke.

  Vasin gave a humorless chuckle. “Tonight the Avium line ends. I am not afraid to die and take this tainted blood from the world.”

  Ellalee tried to jerk her wrist from under Vasin’s boot, but he ground down on her wrist until she screamed.

  Christopher crutched closer, make a great show of incoordination on his crutches. Ellalee’s eyes widened. She’d seen this act before. She’d orchestrated it.

  God help us, she prayed.

  They needed just a moment more. Vasin was turning towards Christopher, lifting his sword. Ellalee screamed, “Don’t hurt him, he’s just a cripple!” She could see Vasin gritting his teeth, tensing for a strike, waiting for the boy to come within range, and so was she.