The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 11

It was early the next evening when I awoke, but even though sunset had hardly begun, Illy was already gone. I climbed out of bed and went to the window, which was open. The harsh cold wind blew in like a waterfall, but by some illusion of the mind, I thought maybe I saw a large black bat disappear as it soared away over the land, so I left the window open, just in case. I returned to my room, still very confused by the entire endeavor. I ran into Ebony in the hall and practically latched onto her arm to get her to explain.

"Do you know about the pretty guy roped up in Master's closet?" I asked, almost laughing at myself for asking such a seemingly ridiculous question.

"Of course," She said brightly, "He stays there whenever the Queen is dead so he can eat our dreams." But seeing it made nothing clearer, she continued, "His name is eleven, and he is the only slave of the Queen who is expected to live. He is a dream eater, so he needs to consume dreams to live but is otherwise much like an immortal version of a human, as long as he gets enough food. Eleven became her slave about a thousand years ago and for whatever reason she became incredibly attached to him, probably because he was quite abstruse but very dedicated. After a while she roped him up because she became attached, and he had no objections, and now he stays tied at all times when he is not by her side, and refuses freedom from anyone else."

"So he eats dreams," I said.

"Yep, but depending on the quality of the dream and the sleep the flavor is different, which I'm sure you already know, as he doesn't hold off on telling anyone about it." She looked a little giddy and insisted she had to go so I let her leave and returned to my room to ponder it. I found a simple blue and white checkered dress laid out for me and a small blue suitcase with a note on it instructing me to pack all I needed for a week of travel, neglecting clothing as someone else would take care of that. I threw in a couple things and a book about the Chinese language and etiquette before landing upon my phone, which had a couple new messages from old friends who had heard of me and thought to text.

As I had time and had heard from Illy I was allowed to text I sent a few of my best friends replies stating I had settled in and my master was kind but I wasn't allowed to tell them many details about my new life, besides that I no longer lived in England and my new owner traveled often. I also, remembering Clifford, decided to text him about my new life, leaving out the loss of my arm because I figured it wouldn't make much sense now that I had my arm back. He wrote back almost immediately telling me about how he had traded masters and was much more content in the hands of this one, who turned out to be quite rich and was now living in the East of China. We slipped easily into conversation with all we had in common, and I ended up talking a little to him about my dilemma with both hating my Master and liking her but knowing I shouldn't because there was no hope in that.

But after a while he said he had to go and I got back to packing just in time to finish as the Silver twins arrived at my door. I picked up my suitcase expecting to go but they motioned for me to set it down again. "The trip has been postponed for another day and we shall leave tomorrow evening instead." They said in unison.

"Why?" I asked, but they just shrugged and left, so I plopped down on my bed and read a while before going out to the parlor to find Illy in her usual place. I slipped into the chair opposite hers.

"You don't have to wear that anymore." She said, looking up, "We don't leave until tomorrow now so you can change back."

"I'll do it later," I said, "Unless you want me to do it now." But she shook her head no and turned back to her work sketching out documents while I decided to read. I had become so immersed in the book that when she did call to me I hardly heard and she had approached and yanked me by the chain of my neck before I was shaken from the book. The golden twins were occupied in the corner, and now it was almost dawn so I thought for a moment she wanted me to go to bed, but when she plopped down beside me on the sofa I realized that wasn't the case.