Chapter 16 #2
“No. I haven’t.” I brought the glass to my nose for a sniff. It smelled nice, fruity and fresh with a hint of creamy sweetness.
The princess smiled at me over the rim of her glass. “Try it. Let me know what you think.”
I took a small sip. The taste proved better than pleasant. A wonderful bouquet of flavors exploded on my tongue, leaving a lovely creamy aftertaste.
“It’s very nice,” I murmured, licking my lips.
“Good.” The princess put her glass on the table and, in a suddenly far less friendly voice, ordered, “Now drink it all. And quickly.”
“I...” I tried to protest, taken aback by the sudden change in her tone, but my hand wouldn’t obey me, carrying my glass back to my mouth.
My lips opened as if on their own, and my head tilted back, then I gulped the drink as if my life depended on it. For some unexplained and highly disturbing reason, my body did exactly what Dorelea told me. Following her orders suddenly became the most important thing in my life.
Tal put down his glass, then shoved it away from him with a grimace.
I jumped to my feet. “What did you do to me? What did you put in that drink?”
“Oh, stop asking questions. And don’t move.” Dorelea waved me off.
Anger rushed me. I tried to open my mouth to argue or scream, but not a word came out. I couldn’t even part my lips. She told me not to move, and now I couldn’t move a single muscle.
Fear doused me with freezing cold, but I couldn’t even shiver without Dorelea’s command.
What did she do to me?
And why?
“You didn’t actually drink any, did you?” Dorelea asked her son.
“No. You said not to,” the lord replied.
“Good.” She collected the remaining glasses and waved to the server to come closer. “Take these and make sure to keep the milk. The pollen of glacier saffron is too rare and precious to waste.”
The servant put the glasses back on his tray and left the room.
Prince Arnon entered it next. I couldn’t even turn my head to look at him directly, watching him only in my peripheral vision. Did he know what his wife was up to? Would he help me?
“And how is our lovely houseguest doing?” Arnon asked brightly.
“Fine. She drank the glacier saffron,” his wife updated him.
“Already? You didn’t waste any time,” he chuckled.
Clearly, no help was coming from him.
Dorelea shrugged. “It was simple enough. She’s just a gullible human.”
Gullible?
Until tonight, I had no reason to distrust Arnon or his family. Even now, I didn’t understand why they drugged me or what they were going to do with me.
What could I have done differently to protect myself from this?
It was just a drink...
The pollen of glacier saffron.
Dorelea’s words tugged at my memory. Where had I heard them before?
“You should’ve drank the glacier saffron... It would’ve made things so much easier...”
Leslo had said something like that to me, hadn’t he?
He’d offered me a bottle before I got into his van.
It’d been a colorful, swirling drink, not the milky one like Dorelea had given me.
But the pink shimmer in both was similar.
It certainly would’ve made things much easier for Leslo had I drunk it and become obedient like this.
He could’ve bossed me around without needing to punch me unconscious.
Arnon rubbed his hands. “Well, lucky for us this gullible human has not a shred of magic to protect her. Now, let’s change the course of history. Shall we?”
I’d never seen Arnon smile so cheerfully, and his excitement filled me with dread.
What were they planning to do with me?
I couldn’t ask. I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t even blink, despite my eyes growing dry.
“Come with me.” Dorelea waved her hand, and my body snapped back to life.
As if pulled by an invisible string, I followed her out of the room.
Now that I could move, I could open my mouth again.
I still wasn’t sure if I could ask questions or even make a sound, but I decided not to try, out of fear she’d order me to be quiet.
I needed my ability to speak to scream for help if I saw a friendly face.
There were plenty of people in the palace, many faces, but none appeared friendly.
Servants gaped at me with curiosity. The prince’s courtiers strolled along the marble pathways between the glowing pools.
No one seemed perturbed, appalled, or even mildly uncomfortable when their eyes met my pleading stare.
Instead, they either looked away, indifferent, or smirked expectantly, as if they were in on something I had no knowledge of.
Dorelea descended into a pool up to her waist. Her skirts fanned out around her legs. Her incredibly long hair floated behind her like a black cape as she waded through an open door into the next room.
Were they planning to drown me? Yet I had no choice but to follow the princess, as if attached to her by an unbreakable chain.
A cloaked, hunched figure met us in the partially submerged room. A long slab of black marble was placed in the middle. It was the only piece of furniture in here, or at least the only one above water.
“And here she is,” Dorelea announced triumphantly, presenting me to the cloaked person like I was some prized animal delivered for a sacrifice.
A sacrifice?
The thought that this might be exactly what they planned to do with me sent a chill of terror through me. Yet my feet were rooted in place, not allowing me to run or even to step away.
The cloaked figure lifted their head, revealing the weathered face of an old woman.
Deep grooves crisscrossed her brow. The skin on her cheeks looked like crinkled paper.
The few strands of her pale cyan hair that had made their way from under her hood looked hazy, like the strings of fog that were seeping through her clothing.
“Here she is,” the woman echoed, giving me a long once-over. “The king’s pet. What exactly does he like about her? It’s not like he can even use her to alleviate his male urges, provided he still has any.”
Her cracked voice grated on my nerves like a false note creeping into a melody. Her black cloak seemed so out of place in Olathana’s world of pale, gentle pastels.
“It’s not like he has a choice,” Dorelea scoffed. “Who else would stay there long enough for him to get attached? He killed every siren in the palace who didn’t escape in time. No one in their right mind would spend even a day with him. He has to rely on a dimwitted human for company.”
I sucked in a breath in indignation but bit my tongue, saying nothing. If I still had the ability to speak, I wasn’t going to give Dorelea a reason to take it away from me.
My huff didn’t escape her, however.
“Oh, spare me the outrage,” she snapped at me. “If you were any smarter, you would’ve long run too. It’s not like he put you in chains or locked you in a tower.”
As much as I hated to agree with her, I really should’ve run. That was my plan all along. But the escape had become less of a priority the longer I stayed. I reasoned I couldn’t swim across the whole damn ocean. For once in my life, I gave up. And now I was paying for that.
“Yet there you are, frolicking through Lyrei all evening, like you belong here. ” Dorelea continued in that snide tone she’d been using with me ever since I drank the milk laced with glacier saffron. “Well, at least tonight you’ll get a chance to finally be useful to our kingdom.”
The old hag squinted at me, assessing. “Are you sure he likes her enough, Your Highness?”
The doors opened again, and Arnon arrived, smoothly moving through water.
“He likes her enough to threaten me with naming her his queen,” the prince said with a derisive laugh.
“What? He lost his mind!” Dorelea made a face as if she was about to get sick. “Olathana will never have a human queen. We’re not some lawless gorgonians. He’s making a mockery of the crown. That’s all he’s ever done.”
“In the long run, it wouldn’t mean much even if he married her,” her husband assured her.
“The king doesn’t rule and can’t perpetuate his bloodline.
She’ll die soon, anyway. But just the idea of it.
..” His shoulders jerked in disgust. “A human queen of Olathana? Even if in name only, it’s preposterous. ”
“Well, his affections have always been flitting,” his wife reasoned with a long calming sigh.
“He’d likely tire of her before any announcements are even made.
We’re lucky his interest in her has lasted as long as it has, probably because there is no one else to vie for his attention in that dreadful glass palace of his. ”
They talked about their king without a shred of reverence for his position or respect for him as a person. As if he were an annoying neighbor whom they loathed. Or worse, a trespasser whom they wished to get off their property and out of their lives for good.
I’d told Kye to get some sleep instead of lurking around the islands. Now I wished he hadn’t listened to me and instead would be “lurking” right here, near this place, missing me and wanting to get me back.
Hope sparked inside me. What if he didn’t listen? What if he was lurking? What if he was close?
But even if he was, I couldn’t run out to him. I couldn’t warn him.
I could do nothing.
Hope fizzled out, leaving only a scorched, dead spot in its place in my chest.
Arnon turned to the old woman in the black cloak. “Do you have enough time to get her ready, Grandmother?”
Get me ready for what?
Anxiety buzzed through me, pounding inside my skull. But when I opened my mouth, the question wouldn’t come out.
“Should we proceed as soon as she’s ready?” Dorelea clarified. “Or do you insist on waiting until the darkest hour?”
The old woman raked a hand through the water we all stood in.
The surface glowed in the wake of her fingers.
I noticed the water in this room wasn’t the same as in the rest of the house.
There were no ribbons of seaweed in here, no colorful fish or sparkling shimmer.
Instead, it appeared glassy blue, emitting a neon glow when disturbed.
The hag watched the tendrils of blue light as they spread over the surface.
“Three hours past midnight is when the night is the darkest,” she said in a quiet, rustling voice. “When the sky is as dark as the ocean, the Ancient Ones can ascend unimpeded either by Nanami or Celeste. It will give me enough time to prepare the human for her descent too.”
Descent where?
But this question wouldn’t come out, either, choking me with panic. I couldn’t ask anything, but I wasn’t voiceless.
“No!” I screamed instead, letting out all the fear and anguish that bubbled inside me with one short word.
“Argh.” Dorelea flinched, covering her ears with her hands. “Have I not ordered you to be quiet?”
She’d ordered me not to ask questions. But now, she snapped, “Stop yelling.”
My scream stuck in my throat. It wedged in it, hurting with every breath and swallow.
“Now climb onto the altar,” she ordered next.
Altar? What altar?
Oh God, were they really going to sacrifice me?
The old woman headed over to the black marble that was mounted flush with the surface of the water in the room. With every ripple, a film of water rolled over the stone, leaving it glossy with moisture.
“Come on, jump on it. We don’t have all night,” the old woman cackled, patting the wet stone.
Her black cloak spread in the water, floating around us like spilled ink.
Everything inside me vibrated with terror, but I climbed onto the altar obediently, my hands and knees slipping on the wet marble.
“Now lay on your back and stay still,” Dorelea instructed. “Let Jearda do her magic. It isn’t an easy task to prepare a fragile being like yourself to approach the Gates of the Abyss and survive, even if for a little while.”
Gates of the Abyss... Were they sending me to the literal Hell of Olathana?
I wanted to scream, but of course no sound came out. Panic thrashed inside me. Without a way out, it threatened to tear me apart. But all I did was lay down on the cool, wet marble and stayed still as I’d been told.
“You may as well close your eyes,” Jearda allowed benevolently. “This will take at least a couple of hours, no need to dry your eyeballs.”
My eyelids dropped closed immediately. Apparently, not only Dorelea could order me around, but Jearda too. Maybe anyone could? Any stranger passing by could tell me what to do, and I’d have no power to resist or even to voice my disagreement. I’d just do it.
The absolute loss of control was terrifying. I didn’t just feel helpless. I felt like I was buried alive. Like I was listening to the sound of dirt being dropped on the lid of my coffin, but I had no way to stop it. There was no one to save me.
A cold blade pressed to my shoulder as Jearda cut through the straps of my dress. She then peeled the soggy fabric off my body.
The water in the room sloshed. Then I heard muffled whispers, as if more people had joined my captors. Were they all standing here now, looking at my naked body as Jearda cut my dress off me?
Someone, probably Jearda, ran her fingers around my neck. The sensation lingered on my skin, as if she’d placed something around it.
I didn’t know how many people were in the room with me or who they were. No one said anything.
My eyes remained firmly closed. All I saw was darkness. All I felt was a sickening, shaking fear.
“Don't be scared, my little one,” the memory of Kye’s voice floated through my mind as the only source of warmth and comfort in this cold nightmare that had become my reality.
I wanted to see him. I couldn’t have his hug, but I’d take his smile, that impish squint of his eyes, his magical voice... I needed to hear his voice to stop terror from suffocating me.
Cold fingers touched my throat. Someone prodded my chest, pressing around my naked breasts. It was worse than being unconscious. I felt everything, yet I could react to nothing.
“You will never face the darkness alone,” he had sung to me.
Yet there I was, faced with the most terrifying darkness, completely and utterly alone.
Sharp pain sliced across my neck. A scream boiled in my throat, burning through my insides, with not a sound coming out. Terror exploded through my mind. And I finally, finally passed out, mercifully no longer feeling a thing.