Voices of Legend: Ode to Logathara

Chapter 4: The Laugh of a Priestess (Part 1.0)

Finally, the corridor no longer smelled of spiced potatoes and pig belly. It took Melly three buckets of water, seven stained rags, and two pouches of perfumed scrubbing salts to clean up the mess made by the new kitchen girl.

"It would serve her right if Mistress Daler slapped her bum," Melly grumbled under her breath. Mistress Daler, the large, pink-cheeked Mistress of Kitchens of the Northern Estate, had no tolerance for mishaps or foolery. Had the new girl not been lost, Melly might have paddled the girl herself.

She grabbed the last bucket of water and poured its contents out of the open window. This inconvenience had taken up far too much of her time. She still needed to attend to the king's quarters, before taking her rest for the night. The king's sleeping quarters were her responsibility, and she did not take that lightly. No one else could be trusted to properly return the floor and walls back to their original spotlessness.

"Melly, miss," came a small voice from behind her. "Would you like me to take the buckets back for you?"

Melly stood and looked at the girl for a moment. If she let the girl take everything down for her, she could go ahead and see to the king's room and be finished with her evening much sooner.

"I would be grateful. Thank you," Melly replied. "And please take those rags to the launderer. Be sure to add them with the kitchen cloths." She did not want to risk staining other laundry items with turmeric and swine grease.

"Yes, miss." The girl hurried and retrieved the bucket in Melly's hand, then made her way to the other buckets in the center of the walkway. She tossed in the stained rags, then made her way out towards the servant's staircase.

After watching the girl disappear down the steps, Melly lifted her hands up to her face and inspected their front and the back.

"They're a bit too dirty to touch the king's things," she thought to herself. Deciding to go to the King Steward's study to clean her hands, Melly glided quietly down the corridor until she reached the steward's door. This room connected to the king's waiting room, so she wouldn't waste too much time washing her hands in here.

Stepping inside, she closed the door gently behind her and walked to the back corner of the room where the steward kept his water basin. Melly was accustomed to the room's layout, so she decided it was unnecessary to spark a lamp.

The water in the basin was fresh and cool to the touch. She rubbed her hands together slowly under the water. A faint floral scent wafted up to her nose as the water swirled. She'd added a couple of drops of perfume in the water a few days ago, as the king's steward was particular about the aroma of a room and the smell of his person. The two of them had not been to the Northern Estate in some time, but one could never be too ready for a surprise visit from the king.

Satisfied with the amount of time she used to wash her hands, Melly shook them gently, then dried them on her apron. She could not inspect them in the darkness of this room, but she assumed they were clean enough.

This time, Melly walked around the back of a sizable wooden desk where the king's steward sat most days when they visited this estate. On the other side of the room was the door that led to the king's waiting room.

The moon must have been bright because Melly could see light pouring in under the door. Opening it, she entered the empty moonlit waiting room. She usually attended to this room last, so she proceeded to the king's bedroom. She opened the door and stepped inside. And froze.

Across the room was a figure. The figure was black, darker than the pit of a well. It was crawling across the back wall on all fours, unnaturally, inhumanly, towards the king's bed.

Just as suddenly as Melly saw it, it saw her. What might have been its head, quirked backward, its unseen eyes locking with hers. A second later, Melly felt as though her throat was on fire. Reaching up to touch it, her hands came away covered in something warm, something slippery. She raised her hands to see what was on them, and in the darkness, she knew it was blood.

Falling to her knees, Melly reached up effortlessly trying to hold together her gaping neck. But her vision darkened, and her body gave way to the floor. Before her life slipped out of her body, Melly thought she heard the words, "Comi vampi apolar."

***