Chapter 14 The Gift in the Gardens #2
With a burst of hot mana from the palm of her hand, Katrina forcefully broke Celise’s hold on her wrist. Then she darted down an alternative path that cut horizontally through the hedges. Celise yelped, blowing on her burned hand—she thought it might blister. Then she scrambled after Katrina.
Excited by the sound of their voices—and perhaps by the flash of mana—the monster screeched behind them.
It crashed through the bushes somewhere out of sight.
The sound brought another stab of icy terror to Celise’s gut.
She followed Katrina down the second corridor through the hedgerows.
The path led out of the maze to a part of Gravenmere she didn’t recognize. She was utterly lost.
Shined lampposts with curling motifs lined this new corridor. Katrina grabbed one of the metal posts and, channeling her mana into the shined coating, ignited the lantern hanging from its end. The effort made beads of sweat pour down her pale brow.
Celise blinked in the sudden bluish light from the lamppost.
Before them stood the gates to the Zodiac Gardens.
“No!” Celise gasped. How had they managed to run halfway across the grounds?
The Zodiac Gardens were a long way from the ballroom, which meant help was even farther away.
As Celise’s eyes scanned the horizon, she could see the domed shape of the dance hall illuminated with golden light beyond the maze. It looked a lot smaller than it should.
“How . . . How did we come so far?” Celise stuttered.
“Who cares? At least now we know where we are,” Katrina snarled, releasing the lamppost. The light flashed and went out, leaving them in deeper darkness than before. “I’m going through the gardens—don’t follow me! I order you to lure the monster away! Go now!”
A harsh, ironic laugh ripped from Celise’s throat. This was too much. “Lure the monster away? How am I supposed to do that? Where do you find the audacity, Katrina?”
“It’s what any loyal servant would do! After everything my father has done for you, keeping you at the ranch despite your handicap, you should show some gratitude—”
“By sacrificing myself?”
“Yes! For his real family—”
“I am his real family! Ugh, you are so spoiled!”
A terrible, croaking roar issued from the garden maze, silencing both of the girls. Celise whirled around and stared back down the passageway lined with boxwood shrubs. The entrance to the garden maze looked like the mouth of the Abyss itself—ready to swallow her whole.
Leaves shook. Branches trembled. Flower petals fell to the ground.
Something was coming after them—fast.
Katrina lunged into the Zodiac Gardens with Celise following behind her.
The two girls entered a large courtyard shaded by black maple trees.
The garden beds spread out around them in a circular formation.
At the center of the courtyard, bathed in moonlight, stood the fountain of Valestra, the Mother of Dust and Moon.
The two girls took different paths around the fountain. Celise went left while Katrina went right. Celise knew she couldn’t outrun the creature in the open like this—by the thrashing sounds from the garden maze, the monster was coming on like a galloping horse.
She flung herself behind the statue of the Lantern.
Katrina, unable to find another statue wide enough to hide her skirts, finally ducked down next to Celise. She awkwardly shoved herself between two bushels of night-blooming jasmine.
“I can’t believe you want me to lure the monster away from you!” Celise hissed, her repressed rage boiling to the surface. “You are so delusional, Katrina!”
“Delusional? How dare you!” Katrina hissed back. “I am Luminous, and you’re just a dimlit dunslug! My life is far more valuable than yours. A good servant would obey me without a second thought.”
“I’m not your servant!”
“Well, you’re certainly not my sister!”
Celise bit her lip. After their brief moment of connection in the garden, those words stung more than they should.
“If I had my foil with me, I would show that beast what for!” Katrina lamented, though Celise doubted a mere foil meant for sport would do any good against the creature.
“Hush!” Celise hissed. “It’s coming!”
The oily, misshapen monster arrived at the gate to the Zodiac Gardens. Celise heard the rustling of bushes and the scrape of clawed feet. A bulky shadow paused just inside the wrought iron gates. The crickets in the garden fell silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
A slow, terrible clicking sound began in the monster’s throat.
Celise bit back a moan of terror. Could it smell them? See them?
She risked a glance around the edge of the statue.
The beast’s body, illuminated under the cold light of the moon, was a black mass of writhing legs and poking arms. Such a horrific sight was beyond her imagination.
It seemed out of place in the world, like nothing she would expect of the flora and fauna of Nilos.
No bear, no wolf, no griffon or ogre or water dragon could possibly look so . . . wrong.
With a cold chill, she wondered . . . was this a daemon?
Was this a hellspawn from the Abyss?
How had it come to Gravenmere Castle? Why was it in the gardens?
Celise wondered how she was going to escape such a creature. She held her breath, her hands fisting her skirt, her forehead pressed to her knees, trying to think of a strategy. How were they supposed to get out of this situation alive?
Then, surprising her, Katrina hissed, “Forget this. I’m not staying here to be eaten!”
Suddenly, her younger sister leapt to her feet, emerging from the bushels of jasmine behind the statue. She grabbed Celise with bruising force and dragged her into the open. Then she flung Celise toward the daemon.
“There, you nasty thing! Take her!"
Katrina’s powerful throw sent Celise stumbling through the garden beds. She almost fell to the ground, but she caught herself on a trellis of Abyssal Rose. The spiny, wicked thorns gouged her hands.
"Katrina?" Celise gasped in disbelief, but her sister was already running through the Zodiac Gardens with her taffeta skirts hiked up to her knees.
Katrina dashed around the fountain of Valestra.
A burst of light followed her through the gardens as the lumenblooms responded to her mana.
She was heading for the exit on the opposite side of the courtyard, but to get there, she had to pass frighteningly close to the monster.
The daemon’s long neck swiveled around. For a moment, it looked like the creature would chase after the fleeing girl in red.
Celise’s heart leapt to her throat.
Let her be eaten! The thought flashed through her mind, but it made her immediately ill. She wasn’t like Katrina. She couldn’t live with herself, knowing she had sacrificed someone’s life for her own safety.
What would a courageous person do?
Feeling foolish and reckless, she waved her arms in the air.
“Hey!” she shouted at the monster. “Hey, ugly! I’m over here!”
The daemon’s head swiveled back to her, its neck coiling around like a big python. Past the daemon, beyond its reach, Katrina flew down the garden path and disappeared from sight.
Celise couldn’t run after her little sister—the monstrous beast stood between her and Katrina’s route of escape. Now its attention was locked on her alone.
She left me here, Celise thought. That evil, psychotic brat! She truly thinks her life is more valuable than mine.
It only reaffirmed what she already knew.
Then, with a screech, the daemon flew at her like a tumbling dustweed, all sprawling limbs and dry, clacking claws.
Celise scrambled backward, falling through the bed of Abyssal Roses, long thorns ripping at her dress and catching on her arms. Emerging on the other side of the bed, she fled down an empty path through the Zodiac Gardens.
She passed under a trellis of lumenblooms—the flowers did not react to her as they did to Katrina.
The garden was swathed in deep shadow. Not even the wind stirred the darkness.
The daemon followed only a few feet behind her, trampling the soft flower beds under its clawed feet. It smashed through the lumenbloom trellis but got several long, spindly legs stuck in the gridded wood. It released a croak of fury.
With a desperate sob lodged in her throat, Celise dashed through the grove of black maple trees, down a weedy, overgrown path to a rusty gate she vaguely recognized.
She flew over cracked flagstone and piles of debris.
A sign hung above the gate: “No Trespassing.” But the entrance was wide open. No locks. No chains.
Celise ran through the ancient archway without slowing her step.
Beyond the crooked garden gate lay an unknown part of the Gravenmere grounds that was off-limits to guests.
Celise ran frantically down the dirt path, tripping over rubble and gnarled tree roots.
This area of the castle seemed much older than the Zodiac Gardens, and it carried the distinct feeling of abandonment.
The grass was high and overgrown, the plants wild and unkempt.
A veil of cold mist clung to the moist ground.
The walking paths were unmaintained, no more than rabbit trails through the tall grass, and the only buildings she came across were rotted structures full of gaps and holes: concave roofs, missing doors, empty windows, or entire walls fallen to rubble.
Servants or gardeners might have lived in the little huts at one time, but they weren’t occupied now and hadn’t been in many, many years.