Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Breakfast was an awkward affair.
I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I didn’t know when my next meal would be, so I ate as much as my stomach would allow without heaving it all right back.
The princesses had excused themselves early, citing a visit from their noble cousins, leaving me to suffer the unadulterated presence of their father and brother.
I avoided their eyes all throughout the meal.
As we were finishing our coffees, Wilhelm looked at me from over the rim of his mug and asked, “How do you do it?”
Confused, with remnants of the headache still throbbing in my head, I blinked at him. “Sire?”
“The actual process of turning anything into gold. What kind of magic is it?”
On the verge of panicking, I drew from what Roderick and Gertrude had told me, cobbling together the closest thing to a vague answer. “It’s alchemical magic, the only kind I can manage.”
“So, you can’t do any other kind of spells?”
“No, Sire.”
He nodded, pleased. “Good.” Finishing his drink, he stood. “I would like to see the process myself today.”
“Why would you, Your Majesty?” I wheezed, suddenly sweating despite the cool weather. “It’s time-consuming and I’m certain you have better things to attend to.”
“I’ve heard stories of this ability my entire life,” he said, coming to a pause behind my chair. “You would deny me the chance to witness it with my own eyes?”
I kept my head lowered as I stood. “No, of course not.”
“Follow me,” he ordered, then flicked a hand at Heinrich. “You too.”
Heinrich instantly obeyed, falling into step with me behind his father.
To distract myself from my mounting dread, I tried to examine the artwork crowding our path.
There were many portraits of previous kings and their families.
One was of Empress Matilda, who had once ruled the Northlands when they were one empire.
A replica of the same portrait hung in Schwarzdorn Castle back in Avongart.
There were also busts of Campanian emperors from the south of the continent as well as statuettes of gods, some carved from previous stones. I wished I could stop and stare at each, giving them the admiration they deserved.
Perhaps, once I did as he asked and he was pleased, things would change. Maybe then I’d have what I had arrived here expecting, a soft life of appreciation and adoration.
As we passed through a section with wider windows, I caught glimpses of the grounds, the lush gardens still verdant in the winter, hosting ancient ruins as decoration.
I wanted to go out there, to explore and to witness, to enjoy my time here.
But none of that would be possible unless Roderick’s brutal deal worked as I hoped it would.
“Here we are,” announced the king as we arrived before a set of gilded doors.
The guards bowed us in and we slid into a vast marble-lined room, past sparse furniture and built-in bookcases before we stopped at an iron vault.
“Go ahead,” Wilhelm said brusquely.
I looked from him to Heinrich, confused. “But I can’t open it.”
Wilhelm let out a frustrated grunt. “Turn the door first, then I will let you see what’s behind it.”
“Oh.” I wiped my sweaty palms down my skirt as I approached the vault, eyeing its helm-like handle, and, and my reflection its polished surface. How big and sad my eyes looked. If this failed, I’d spend the rest of my life in a dungeon.
“Here goes nothing,’’ I whispered to myself, before setting my hands onto the smooth, cool surface.
The bracelet Roderick had enchanted onto my wrist grew warm, spreading a painful, tingling sensation down to my fingertips. The effect was mirrored in my left hand as I pressed both against the metal. Their eyes burned into the back of my head, raising my body heat to a sweltering fever.
If only I had made Roderick test this ability, but I hadn’t had a chance to even think of it at the time. All I could do now was breathe and hope this worked.
Murmuring a litany of “Please, please, please,” under my breath, I felt a buzz start at my toes and spread up my body, taking the warmth with it to focus them in my hands, where the tingling had heightened into a burning sensation.
Cold set in everywhere but my palms, but a flicker of relief rose as I watched a yellow patch grow out from underneath my touch, a precious stain heightening the value of the metal before me.
I heard Heinrich’s sharp intake of breath, and felt his father’s oppressive presence drawing closer.
The gold spread out rapidly to all four corners of the vault, all with a faint, flickering sparkle, like that of bubbling cider.
By the time every inch of the door had turned to gold, I felt as cold and worn out as a wet rag thrown out in the snow.
I unstuck my hands from the surface, their warmth fleeing along with the prickly numbness, and I swayed on my feet.
Heinrich caught me as I swooned. Head resting against his shoulder, I watched him dazedly. All I could think about was how this moment had such romantic potential, a setup for a scene straight out of the books I’d read aloud to Gertrude.
His father had to ruin it by opening the vault with a deafening screech.
“For years, I have fantasized about what this would look like, but seeing it in person is far more than I had imagined,” Wilhelm said, presenting to us what lay hidden inside.
Wall-to-wall wealth greeted us as the daylight shone onto the silver coins, the bronze sculptures, the cut and uncut gems scattered along the piles of money.
Worn out as I was, I couldn’t help paying attention to every piece that stuck out. Mind like a magpie’s, sending my unstable focus to anything that shimmered and filling me with the urge to grab it and run.
Wilhelm stepped in first, kicking coins aside to make space for his feet. We followed him in, slowed by my unsteady weight.
“To settle your debt,” Wilhelm said, arms spread out to encompass the whole vault. “You will change every piece in here into gold.”
“I can’t,” I whimpered. “That door took all I had. Perhaps I can start again tomorrow—”
Wilhelm shook his finger in my face. “Not tomorrow. Today.”
I swallowed. “Tonight then? I just really need to rest before I attempt that again.”
“You’ve rested your entire life,” he argued, loud and verging on angry. “Now you get to work for the first time, to pay for your privileges, and you expect I’ll let you sleep the day away?”
I wanted to argue that I had never known privilege, that I had worked hard my entire life. But it was either holding my tongue and doing what he said, or outing myself for treason.
“Please,” I begged. “I’ll transform this entire room, but let me rest in between efforts.”
Wilhelm gave me a dull stare then motioned for Heinrich to step away from me. I almost fell back without his support.
“Can’t you just—” Heinrich waved his hands around. “Magic the whole place and be done with it?”
“If I could, don’t you think I would have done it by now?”
Wilhelm passed me, flinging a few coins my way. I lousily caught some as I watched him hustle his son out of the vault. “You can rest here.”
Panic clanged within me like an alarm bell. “No! Wait!”
I tried to chase after them, but was too uncoordinated from exhaustion.
I had only managed to reach the door as it shut in my face. “No! Please! Don’t leave me in here!”
“We’ll check on you tonight,” Wilhelm said, half-muffled. “In the meantime, get to work.”
I banged on the door, the sides of my hands smarting with pain. “You can’t leave me in here! Please!”
But they did. I was going to be locked in here for who knew how long.
The panic worsened, stifling my breathing. I ran around the vault, tripping a few times to land on the hard piles, scraping my hands and knees. I banged on the walls, yelling as I felt the parameters grow narrower and narrower.
The air felt shallow, and there was no telling when I’d run out. I could feel the walls closing in on me, the ceiling lowering, and the darkness eating at me.
I panted in between howls for help, and tears burst from my eyes as I desperately tried to find a sliver of light from the gaps in the door. But there was none. I was trapped in an airtight metal box, and there was no way out.
Time stretched on for who knew how long, and my chest grew tighter. Soon my legs collapsed out from under me and I landed hard on my knees, coins digging into through the thin fabric of the dress.
This was now the world’s most expensive coffin, because I was going to die in here.
“Please!” I rasped, throat and eyes burning. “I’ll do anything you want, just let me out!”
There was no response. They had truly gone and left me in here til nightfall.
Even though I knew crying would use up more air, I couldn’t stop myself from bawling.
My eyes burned from the boiling tears that poured down my pained face, and into my open, panting mouth, and I let myself be as loud as I could, for the dumb hope that either of them might have pity on me and release me.
Lightheadedness grew exponentially, and I could feel the air grow scarcer. I sank further into the coins, drowning in the cold wealth hoarded by a brutal king.
As my eyes slid shut, a loud buzz pierced the thinning air, and wind fanned my tear-stained face.
Hands dug into the piles weighing me down, and arms came under my knees and my back, lifting my limp form from their freezing embrace.
Roderick’s voice, now the best sound in the world, broke through my dimming consciousness. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Then everything went totally dark.