Dreams

Nine

"But Damien-"

"Damien isn't watching now." That's the first time she didn't call him Lord Damien. I watch her, sitting next to my bed, and it isn't the same Tansy I met before. Her soft features form a hard, strong look. The look in her eye shows determination, and sadness.

"How do you know if he's watching or not?" I ask.

"Look at your room."

The bed is the same as it was before, when I went to sleep. I'm about to tell her that I don't understand when I notice the broken pattern. All days before, he showed me my room back at home, and he tested me. He didn't test me today. Why would Damien stop watching?

Perhaps reading my mind, she answers. "It might not seem like it, but Damien still has a kingdom to run, no matter how broken it is. Aside from that, there are days when he locks himself in his study, experimenting with that dark magic of his. The rarest times, is when he leaves his kingdom, but he almost always stays here."

"So which is it now?"

"Experimenting."

"How long do we have?"

"A few days." She turns around and gets a serving tray. "Also, here is your breakfast. Lord Damien won't be eating with you. Technically, you're not really supposed to leave your room, but he won't find out if you do."

"Are you sure?" I ask. Remembering the screams of all those girls in the river makes me tremble a little. "As much as I hate him, I don't want to make him mad."

"Yes, I am."

After a long moment of silence, as she watches me eat, a question crosses my mind. "Tansy?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you helping me?"

"I won't let another girl burn. I just won't."

~

We pass hallways and stairs I've never gone through before. "Tansy, if you don't mind me asking, where are you taking me?"

"To some friends who can help."

Each turn we make, I try to remember. It would do me well to know as much of the castle as I can. I'm sure Tansy would want that to. But after a few corridors, my memory falters. Did we take the second door to the left after the third stairwell, or the third door to the right? I'll need to try harder the next time we go through here.

My head spins trying to recall everything, when we seem to have reached our destination. A delightful scent greets my nose, and I feel my stomach calling despite having just eaten. If I were to guess, Tansy has taken me to the kitchen.

Tansy and I enter, and all heads turn to us. Twenty or thirty people in all, maybe more. Immediately, I feel the heat from cooking fire, and I see the food I eat each night being prepared before my own two eyes.

A stout, round man with bushy eyebrows and an even bushier beard approaches the two of us. His eyes are practically invisible, sinking in with all the fats in his face.

"Tansy!" he bellows, in a deep voice that I don't expect him to have. I see his brows furrow. "What are you doing?" I catch him look at my direction, and I see his face go red. "You shouldn't have brought her...." I can tell he is mad, but I don't fail to notice he is sweating a little. "If Lord Damien finds out about this, the whole kitchen will pay for it!"

"Please, Mortan, hear me out," the young girl starts, "If something bad happens, I promise to take all the blame for it. I just know you can help."

"Help? In what?" It came from one of the kitchen staff, but I don't catch who.

"Yeah, what's so impo'tant you have to bring 'er?"