Death's Priestess

Chapter 3- The Beast

The month that followed the vase incident was peaceful. I spent most of my days reading in the garden or learning horseback riding from Orland. "Miss Cassandra are you excited to take off the bandages today," Alice chimed.

"No not really, I know it's going to scar," I sighed.

"Right miss," Alice frowned. I grabbed her shoulder gently to reassure her. I started unwrapping my hands, my palms were covered in lines both jagged and straight, but my hands could easily be covered with gloves. A face however was much different, my hands shook as I began to unwrap my face. The fabric fell slowly onto my lap, looking at my lap I took a deep breath before raising my face into the mirror. Alice gulped as she put her hands to her mouth in shock. She hadn't seen my face the whole month as Beth took care of the wounds. Alice was sensitive to these kinds of things, she was still very young after all. Even I had not seen my face, I had not wanted to see what Albert had done to me. Sadly it could no longer be avoided and I had to face what happened. I had three large scars spread across my face. The largest one was on my left cheek. It started from my jawline and diagonally reached across my face ending in the middle of my nose. Another one was on my right cheek that also started on the jawline and ended at the corner of my mouth. It was the smallest of the major scars. The last major one was on my right eye, it went started at my eyebrow and went straight through my eye ending at the cheekbone. I had many small scars here and there.

"Who knew a vase could do so much damage," I said my eyes filled with sorrow. I gently fingered at them, they no longer physically hurt; but every time I touched them my chest would tighten. Behind me, the door burst open followed by a panicked Beth.

"My Lady, the Duke has fallen ill," she yelled. I stood up hastily almost losing my balance.

"Take me to him," I requested. I ran barefoot down the hall sliding on the marble almost missing the Dukes' door. "Your Grace," I shouted opening the doors. Albert stood next to the sleeping duke wearing a grin only Maretly, the god of torture and misery, could make.

"It seems my brothers have died from monsters on their hunting trip," Albert sighed waving a letter in the air.

"Impossible, all the monsters were defeated in the war," I yelled in disbelief. Albert clicked his tongue as he walked towards me.

"That's what the King told us, but we all know he's a liar," he laughed. "Monster parts go for a lot of gold on the black market, whos to say someone is hiding some away."

"No, you didn't" I gasped.

"Did I," he grinned.

"The church would never allow this," I shouted.

"Ah yes, the church of Mother Aurelia, perhaps they are part of it," he confessed.

"The Duke won't allow this, he'll stop it he has to," I cried falling to the floor.

"He can't stop me anymore," Albert smiled taking a knife out of his belt. I gasped struggling to stand up slipping on the rug and falling back down to the floor. By the time I managed to stand up, Albert plunged the knife into the Duke's chest. I ran towards him doing my best to attack him, but I was in no shape to beat a former war general. Albert called the guards who restrained me. They held me tightly as they raised me onto my feet.

"I'll kill you," I growled.

"Then I wish you the best, throw her in the dungeon with the beasts," Albert ordered. "It's such a pity that your hair must be filthily but the wench it belongs to has already polluted it," I screamed and struggled against the knights all in vain, I only succeeded in exhausting myself. I was being lifelessly dragged down 3 sets of stairs and thrown into a cage with thick steel bars with hardly enough space to fit my arm through. Locking it tightly before heading back up the stairs one of the knights turned back to look at me.

"I'm sorry My Lady," he said tossing me something metal. It scrapped across the ground before landing just outside the door. It shone in the dying torchlight, I struggled against the bars and grabbed it. It was a small dagger, recently sharpened. The knight was already gone when I looked back up. I crawled into a corner and hugged the knife tight after hearing things shuffle around. The moment the torch died the howling and screaming began. Blood-curdling, bone-chilling screams. Sounds of flesh being torn apart, bones being crushed. I sat in my corner shivering hoping and praying that I was alone in my cell. It felt as though the temperature dropped every second, in the opposite corner of the cell an orange flame began to burn. It lit up the mossy walls and hard cobble floor, but the most shocking was a small creature laying down. I brought my knife up as the creature widened its mouth and stood up. It was only the size of a small herding dog. Its dark green eyes sparkled. Its scales had a white base with a reddish underbelly, red diamond-shaped patterns along the back and forehead. Its horns that curve up in a loose S shape. What looks like a barbed arrowhead was placed on the end of the tail. More horns came out from the back end of the head by the neck. The beast unfurled a pair of wings black as night with a red-spotted design. It was almost like blood splatter had covered them. Eggshells were scattered around the floor.

"Hello," I squeaked.

"Momma," it beamed. It was strange it did not utter a word and only made a small noise but I understood it clear as day. As if it spoke directly into my head, the creature ran over and dug itself into my lap. Its scaled radiated heat warming me right up. Talking through thoughts must be how dragons communicate.

"What are you," I wondered out loud.

"I'm surprised you don't know, then again you are a country bumpkin," a low voice chucked. The figure placed a torch on the wall and lit it.

"Albert," I growled.

"This is our precious baby dragon," he explained. "Her scales are worth a fortune."

"Dragon," I said in disbelief. I looked back down at the creature and noticed that almost her entire hindquarters had no scales.

"Its mother died which was devastating to us, she produced much more," Albert sighed. "I was hoping it would eat you as I haven't fed it in a week."

"You're a monster," I cried hugging the beast. At this size, the dragon needed milk not meat.

"Perspective, I should feed it so I don't lose even more profit," he sighed.

"Momma I'm hungry," the dragon cried.

"Stop your screeching, I swear all this thing does is cry and scream," Albert huffed. I looked at the dragon and realized that I was the only one that could hear her.

"Milk, get cows milk if you don't want her to die," I hissed.

"You mean this thing can't even eat meat," Albert sighed. He rang a bell and a maid came running down, he whispered in her ear quickly before she headed back upstairs. A few moments later she returned with a metal pail of milk and a tankard. Albert opened the cage just enough to place the things inside before locking it again. I gently laid the crying dragon on the ground before going to the bucket. I filled the tankard to the brim and set it on the ground. I ripped a piece of fabric off my dress and placed it on top. I ripped the elastic holding my hair up out and stretched it out so it could keep the fabric on. This was to create a steady flow so the baby wouldn't get overwhelmed. I walked back over to the dragon and sat down, lifting its head I gently tipped the tankard into her mouth. With the single taste of food, she began to drink greedily.

"Slow down, you'll choke," I whispered. She slowed down a bit but finished it within minutes. I went back and forth between the bucket and the dragon giving her every last drop of milk.

"Seems like I need you until the thing can eat," Albert grumbled. He turned out and walked up the stairs leaving the bucket. I used the knife and cut my skirt off thankful that I wore my riding pants underneath.

"We'll get out of here," I promised. The dragon curled up in my lap and I began to plan.