*~~~~~*~~~~~*
When I woke up, Baslon was watching Cherry. "How did you do it?" he asked me without looking away from her.
"Do what?" I started to sit up and then fell back again. My mind was groggy and I couldn't remember anything.
"That." He pointed at his brother. I started at the sight. Teran was laying in a pool of blood, the rowan stick and garlic sticking through him. Baslon didn't seem angry, but I eyed him suspiciously.
"He just rushed at me and then fell on it," I explained nervously, tugging at my collar, which just now seemed to be too tight. "I guess I was holding it at an awkward angle. I didn't know what I was doing."
The vampire finally looked away from his object of interest and began regarding me with an intensity that made me quite uncomfortable. I studiously stared at the ground. "I am not angry, but you have put me in an awkward situation. Now I am the ruler of the supernatural kingdom, but the last two rulers died unnatural deaths within a day of each other, and I probably will not be accepted. They will think I murdered Father and Teran, and about half will hold it against me, while the other half will support me. Besides, I'm not quite old enough to be a good ruler yet."
"I could say you didn't." I don't know what prompted me to say this.
"It wouldn't do. They would not listen to you. They might listen to Cherry, but she's . . . well . . . sort of . . . ." He gestured towards her bed. It was rather obvious that at the moment she was unable to talk and was quite unaware of what had just happened.
"Who are 'they'?" I asked, sitting up with only a small amount of dizziness.
"The members of the supernatural kingdom. My new subjects. I am not pleased with the prospect." He didn't sound pleased. He sounded indifferent.
"Who are your subjects?"
"The . . . let me think what the translation would be. Elves, of course, and goblins, the ghosts, and the fairies. That should approximate the meaning. Oh, yes, and all the sub species."
"What are the sub species? What about vampires?"
He laughed. It was the first real laugh I had heard come from him. "You are free with your questions tonight! What made you decide to stop being a frightened little puppy?" I bristled at the insult, but did not say anything. Baslon was acting as if he might actually answer my surprising questions. "Well. The sril, the vampires, are a type, or sub species, of goblin. Other kinds include the," he paused a moment, frowning. "It doesn't translate well. The imp, the demon, the weres, the cave goblin, and the devil. The elves include the elven-witches, which are the largest and which Cherry half belongs to, the gnome, the nymph and the leprechaun. The dwarves have all died out. Ghosts are the poltergeists, the angels, the wraiths, the specters and the phantoms. The pixies are either the fairies or the sprites. I have no control over the sirens, salt water or fresh water." He paused, as if wondering if he should go on.
"You are free with your answers," I retorted finally, but without too much enthusiasm. I wanted to see how long I could keep him going. "Is there anything else you want to say?" I prompted toward that end.
Baslon sighed, shrugged, and continued. "The psyche, who are the humans and giants, used to be members of the kingdom of the supernatural, but they rebelled successfully against the vampires, who were the strongest then, because they did not want to send their kind over to keep their rulers alive. It would have been better for you if they had not rebelled, for ever since we left the other kinds be and preyed, as it were, wholly upon the psyche. I suppose the earlier vampires were greedy and took the giants for food first, who were never many to start with. They could not hide from the sun once they became vampires of a sort, being much too large, much too giant, to do so, and perished. So now it is as it is today."
He paused and glanced at Cherry who was still laying on the bed. The only thing that gave away the fact that she was not simply asleep was her pale color and even that was more normal now. She was laying on her side with her hair half hiding her face and neck. I suddenly started and felt my own neck. Baslon saw me.
"Is not your having remembered proof enough? Three days asleep is long enough for me to do it, if I wished."
"Three days?" I squeaked.
"Unless you woke up in the daytime and at night came back to exactly the same position you were the night before, yes. I need you to get rid of the carcass for me. The stench itself is putrid enough. It would be dangerous for me to touch him." I stared at the gruesome body on the floor that I had managed to block out from my mind, extremely reluctant to touch it. The vampire seemed to find my distaste amusing. "Or you could just remove the stake," he offered. This is what I chose to do, and soon had it done, with a trembling hand. Baslon dragged the body out of the room. He did not return.
My attention was suddenly arrested by Cherry, who was shifting in her bed. She uttered a low moan, lay still a moment and groped at the cloth around her neck, trying to pry it loose. Her hand came to a rest on the snake medallion around her neck. She held it protectively to herself.
"Cherry, are you awake?" She gave no sign that she had heard me, but gave a cry and struck out in the air. Cherry began to claw at her face, peeling her skin away. Blood ran down her face in rivulets.
"Cherry!" I screamed. I rushed across the room and grabbed her wrists, pressing them together in both my hands. I shook her, trying to wake her up before she destroyed herself. "Cherry, wake up!" She moaned again, sounding more like an animal than a human or an elf. Cherry would have considered this a compliment.
Cherry grew calm eventually, her eyes opening. She did not say anything at first, only watched me.
"Cherry, are you all right?" She did not answer my first question and this reaction led me to silence. Her close observation of me served to unnerve me. "Cherry, are you feeling well?" I asked again. Her eyes held an expression I can not describe and this expression turned in my direction was aggravating. I tried to distract Cherry with questions. Actually, it was the same question over and over again, phrased differently each time. At last she sighed and turned her head toward the ceiling, away from me. The sigh echoed around the room, hovering endlessly in the heavy air.
"My head hurts."
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"My face hurts."
I didn't mention what I thought to be the reason for this. "Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?"
"My neck hurts. Don't ask me any more questions." I noticed that she said neck instead of throat.
"Baslon bit you." She started looking at me in her unusual way again. I shifted uneasily. "Could you stop looking at me like that?" She copied the procedure that had begun her complaints. She then began to hum in an oddly fascinating way, although I had heard the familiar nursery rhyme tune dozens of times before. I wanted to stop listening, but I really had no choice.
Cherry's quirky habits would haunt me forever. She would stare into space, as though not seeing, or not aware of her surroundings. The next moment she could stare at a person in a way that seemed to pierce your very soul. It was in this way that Cherry had just been staring at me. I could never get used to it, no matter how often it occurred. The humming was no different.
Cherry would hum forever, if she wasn't told she was doing it. The way she did it in was aggravating. A soft tone, barely above a whisper, yet able to be heard in the loudest room. It would seep into your mind and brain, gradually driving you mad. She had a curious way of doing it, so if you listened long enough, you would be driven mad if she stopped, which she was apt to do abruptly. It also wouldn't let you go away. You had to listen until she stopped and if she did not do so soon after she was first heard, you would go insane no matter what, and all the while, Cherry would be completely oblivious of what she was doing.
Now I felt sure Cherry was doing it out of spite. She knew she was doing it, although it wouldn't take long before she had forgotten. The music held me in a stupor, unable to speak or protest against it. And that short, maddening melody! I was completely aware of what was going on. Cherry wouldn't purposely drive me mad, but she would forget the humming, would go into a trance. The humming usually was a sign that she was thinking.
The music stopped. I shook my head, trying to clear the last traces of that unforgettable song from my mind. "Leave," said Cherry sullenly. "I must think and that would be the end of you." I left the room. My sleep that day was restless.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
When Baslon came a few days later, after being gone for a while, he first asked me about Cherry's health.
"How is she faring?" were his exact words.
"Cherry woke up a little after you left. It was almost day, though. You wouldn't have been with her." Baslon nodded and I followed him into Cherry's room. I didn't tell him about how she had woken up.
"Cherry!" he exclaimed. "What happened to your face?"
"I don't know," came the reply. "It hurts," she commented.
"Cherry, other than that, are you feeling well?" Baslon asked. I noticed that Cherry had taken the bandage off her neck.
"I am dizzy," was her reply. "I tried standing up and I couldn't."
"Cherry!" I reproached her, "you shouldn't have!"
"I don't want to stay in bed," she pouted, her voice sounding more like a child than it usually did. "I'm bored."
"You must rest," said Baslon. "You are weak and need to rest. You must not tire yourself with exercise. Have you had anything to eat?"
"I'm not hungry. I'm bored."
"I have had some experience in doctoring and I say you need to eat. I will have some chicken broth sent to you." He placed his hand on Cherry's forehead and a shiver racked through her body. He muttered something in a language similar to Latin.
"What is wrong with her, other than loss of blood, Baslon?" I asked, worried that there might be something other that was causing Cherry's illness.
"Anemia and a bit of cold. The cold is nothing to worry about, even as weak as she is. The anemia is healing itself." I sighed with relief. Anemia was the loss of red blood cells and I knew why that was wrong. Generally the cure was red meat. All I had to do was get her to eat. Hopefully Cherry wouldn't be stubborn.
"You must rest and not hold yourself so erect with your head so high. Little princess, there is no reason to be so proud, especially when you are sick." Cherry was sitting up in bed and Baslon was trying to convince her to lay back down. At last he gave a sound of exasperation. "Michael, you know her better than I do. Perhaps you can convince her to lay down."
I smiled grimly. If Cherry wouldn't listen to Baslon, she wouldn't listen to me. Anyone who she would talk to had an equal chance of getting her to do something after she had already refused to do it as someone she would not talk to. "Cherry, what are those drawings on your desk?" At my question, Cherry would have sat up straighter if she had not already been sitting up as straight as she could to provoke Baslon.
"What drawings?" she asked, sounding as innocent as could be. It was exactly the response I would have expected from her.
"If you will lay down, I will bring them to you." I walked over to the desk and put my hand on the papers there. Cherry settled down in her bed a little and I had to be satisfied with that. She was still propped up slightly, but down most of the way. I brought her the papers.
She shuffled through them a few times as if to make sure they were all there. "Did you look at them?" she asked me.
I felt there was no need for a lie and she probably knew anyway. "Yes," was what I said.
"Did you look at them?" she asked again, turning her eyes this time to Baslon.
"No," came the answer.
At that, Cherry passed her hand over the picture she was looking at. I could not see which one it was.
"Pardon me for breaking your train of thought, but I am interested in seeing what type of drawing you choose to draw."
"I don't want you to see."
"I know," said Baslon. "I recognized the movement. I have often found time to mingle with the elven witches and they have no objection to showing me their tricks."
Cherry glanced at him sidelong, and her grip on the papers tightened, creasing them. "You are a vampire," she said in a low voice.
Baslon looked at her and blinked in surprise. "Cherry, what does that have to do with it?"
Cherry's head slumped down even farther, disguising the distress that was now causing her to rip the parchment slightly. "Vampires can't learn our . . . " she coughed slightly over that word. "Our 'tricks'."
"Perhaps not, but I can recognize them." I did not know what they were talking about, other than that Cherry's passing her hand over the paper was some kind of magic, maybe so the pictures could not be seen. "May I see the papers?" Baslon asked, holding out his hand.
Cherry opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, looking confused. She shook her head distractedly, moving her hands and her drawings further from the vampire. "No."
Baslon's lips tightened and eyes narrowed thoughtfully, then apparently came to a decision. He let his habit of clipping his sentences become a bit more loose in imitation of Cherry's English accent. "You let Michael see." He was following Cherry's example of becoming more like a child, and he was doing it on purpose. Cherry stared at him in consternation, completely at a loss as to how to take this new tactic. She shook her head distractedly.
"No. No." She glared at me accusingly, and I tried my best to look humble. "I did not let him. He just looked."
"Let me see them, please." Baslon was still holding out his hand, and his eyes were wide with guilelessness. Cherry glowered at him, but hesitantly gave them to him. He promptly dropped his childish image as too hard to maintain and glanced through them quickly, raising an eyebrow at what he saw. "Cherry, Cherry, Cherry. How you represent me, I do not think I should like. Are you never complementary? Ah, well. It is a diary, I assume?" Cherry did not answer. She was sitting up again, and staring at her hands. Blackmail is rarely as effective as is hoped when implemented. "You draw well. I should supply you with paints. Would you like that?" Cherry stirred and gazed at Baslon in that unnerving way she had. He looked back calmly. "I could interpret these in several ways. Would you be so kind as to tell me how you intended them to be interpreted?" Cherry still did not answer and she did not stop looking at him. He observed her a moment, judging her resolve, then slowly nodded in resolution and turned to me. "Do you know, Michael?"
"Yes," I answered, staring at my feet. "I think she intended them to be understood in several ways. It saved her the trouble of drawing more."
"A good idea," he murmured, nodding his head. "A good idea." Baslon shuffled through the papers some more. "Would you care to explain at least this one to me?" He handed the picture of the swans to Cherry. She took it. "It won't do for me to be jealous," he explained.
"On the contrary," Cherry said, "it would be a good experience for you not to have your wishes obeyed, for once."
"On the contrary," Baslon mimicked, "my brother gave me quite enough of that. He delighted in preventing me from having what I wanted. Now that I am the king of the world, no one can do that. Your mother would be pleased that I should take such an interest in you."
Cherry froze at the reminder of his high status, and I was surprised to discover that I had forgotten, also. It was easy enough, when he so rarely showed any sign of being a ruler. "Yes," retorted Cherry, her temper beginning to simmer at being pushed and prodded in the direction Baslon wanted her to go. "Yes, but my mother would not be pleased if she knew that I should let you court me in this manner. She takes a great deal of pride in my strength, although she spreads word that I am very weak. She is the peacock." Cherry tossed the picture on the floor without saying anything more about it. Baslon stooped and picked it up, then suddenly looked up at her.
I had been wondering about his interest and tried to see to context of the picture again. I had a sudden thought, as important to me as to the vampire whose attention I was trying to try to avoid, and blurted it out without thinking it over.
"Who is the dove?" Baslon and I asked at the same time.
Baslon glared at me. Cherry looked at both of us in surprise. "Er. . . one of the people who just asked me that question, I suppose it must be. I haven't exactly decided which, yet. Hopefully that person won't be insulted when I announce my decision."
"I won't," I said reluctantly. The dove hovering above two swans or one of the swans themselves was the choice she was given. Baslon didn't say anything, looking through the pictures again. Cherry began to hum again. "Cherry, stop it!" I shouted, putting my hands over my ears before the stupid, simple tune could get into my head. She stopped.
"Perhaps you would care to tell me the meaning of this picture?" Baslon held out the devil.
"That one isn't finished," said Cherry softly. She glanced at Baslon, then stared at the wall immediately next to the bed. "Michael, could you tell me what the time is?"
Baslon looked up sharply and frowned at me, which stopped me from leaving the room to look at the window, then at her, which she did not see. "You wish to get rid of me?" asked Baslon softly. "Do you hate me that much?"
She winced, squeezing her eyes shut. "I don't hate you!" Cherry protested. "I just . . . I just . . . ."
"You fear me that much?" persisted Baslon, placing a hand on her arm. "You wish for me to die?" Cherry whirled around to stare at him.
"No!" she yelled weakly. Cherry shrank back in her bed, cowering away from him. Baslon's voice held an edge of anger in it. It was suppressed, but deadly. "No!" she whispered again.
"Hush now!" said Baslon, laying a gentle finger over her lips. "Do not overexcite yourself. You are feverish and must calm down. You have made a quick recovery, my little pet."
"Stop complimenting me," sighed Cherry, relaxing again, although only a little.
"My little bride," he stressed. "I will marry you soon enough. Quite a strength added on to what I already have."
"I have not got that much." Cherry was staring at him as though he were crazy.
"Quite a beauty," he muttered to himself. "A proud beauty. I think you are strong enough. You were strong enough to resist. You were strong enough to harm me."
"That," said Cherry, "was an accident. I think it was the clothes that did it to me."
"In that case you should have your mother never send you the clothes you wear again." There was a long silence. Cherry didn't answer Baslon. Instead of waiting for her to speak, Baslon left. Cherry stared off into space, just gazing off into nothing. Her eyes were large for her face, yet the reason they was stood out because of the color. This made her look foolhardy, which, at times, she was.
Cherry was staring at the ceiling. I waited a while for her to say something and then started to go out of the room.
"Stay." At Cherry's command, I sat back down again. I waited a little longer, swinging my legs with impatience. At last I burst out with "Aren't you going to talk?"
"Have you ever had a pet dog, before, Michael?"
"What does that have to do with it?"
"If you haven't, then you would not understand my explanation."
"We had plenty in the kennels." By we, I meant my parents.
"No. I mean a pet, one who misses you when you are away. I suppose I should pity you, if you have never had a pet."
"One who misses you when you are away?" I didn't say this to get an answer and I got what answer I wanted. Cherry remained silent, staring at the ceiling. "I've never had anyone miss me."
"Your parents probably miss you now. You just haven't had them tell you how much they missed you yet. You've never gone on a long journey without them before this. How much have you traveled?"
"Not much," I said glumly. "But, Cherry, how much have you traveled? Women aren't expected to travel much, and you're too young, anyway."
"Plenty. I learned most of the languages I know to get along with people in other countries."
"Cherry, who was the dove and who was the black swan?"
"Don't ask me that, please. You're jealous and Baslon is jealous. I don't see why I should have people falling in love with me all over the place. Most girls don't have to put up with that. I'm getting tired of Baslon's courting and your pretending to be brave. I'd give a good deal to just be free. Did you know that my father was afraid to let me wander by myself, for fear that someone would carry me off? I showed him that I could take care of myself, at least as far as humans were concerned and he let me wander at will. He spoiled me, really. My father also didn't believe in the supernatural and mother never told him about her 'powers,' as you might call them."
"What would you call them?" I asked.
"Shedur," she answered. Then she continued with her speech. "When Father discovered that I was missing, he probably thought that I ran away, and he'll scour the countryside for me, but the locals will not come near this castle, so I'll never be found. Of course, they know where I went, but they'll pretend to search for the money."
"What does shedur mean?" My mind was still on that simple subject. I had a much more straight forward mind than Cherry.
"Willpower. Most magic is a matter of mind, spirit and knowledge combined and the combination of the three is called willpower." At this point Cherry began a violent fit of coughing and signalled me to stay away from her.
"I think I should see if the soup is made yet."
"I'm not hungry."
"You are going to eat it anyway." I left before she could protest.
The soup was ready and I brought it back, almost spilling it, but not quite. Then Cherry decided that I was going to become a nursemaid, instead of the Earl of York, and refused to eat the soup. In the end I managed spoon feeding her, after which she quickly fell to sleep and I wandered about the apartments a bit, somewhat bored. I wasn't hungry myself, so I didn't bother eating the remaining soup. I was glad Cherry hadn't been awake to see that, or she would have given it as an excuse not to eat her own soup.
I poked my head into Cherry's room. She was still asleep. I shook my head, wondering if she would ever get better. I sat on the bed glumly. Chances of escape were dim. Cherry's present condition, as well as Baslon's control over her gave her next to no chance. I would not leave without her and, probably, could not leave without her. I yawned, glancing over towards Cherry. I remembered nothing after a vision of her.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I woke up, still curled on the end of Cherry's bed, to the sound of the door opening. A shadow entered the room and shut the door behind it. It crossed the room to Cherry's bed and accidentally jostled it slightly.
"Who's there?" asked Cherry suddenly in the darkness, as one dragged from sleep.
There was a silent moment and the figure chuckled slightly.
"What do you want, Baslon?" asked Cherry, showing that she had already known the answer to her first question.
For answer, the shape, or Baslon, leaned over towards Cherry. I saw the silhouette of Cherry's arm start to brush him away, but it was caught by Baslon's hand as he stood erect.
"It would not do to send your future husband away," he said.
"I will not marry you!" snapped Cherry, tugging on her captured arm.
"Hush," said Baslon, pointing at me. Obviously he thought I was still asleep. I was very good at 'playing possum', or pretending to be asleep. "You do not want to wake Michael up. I did not intend to wake you up," he said grimly.
"I am sure you didn't," said Cherry. "Now, if you will kindly go away so I can return to sleep." I rolled over so I could see them better and also because I knew that a sleeping person will toss in their sleep.
"I do not intend to leave," said Baslon, and his shadow glided into a chair.
"Then you intend to stay here and irritate me." Cherry got out of bed, draping the covers over me. She did not cover my head, so my view was not obstructed. She muttered a few words and a soft white light spilled from her hand. A cough shook her slender body. Baslon reached out worriedly.
"You are ill. You should not be out of bed."
Cherry choked to a stop and knocked Baslon's hand off her shoulder. "I am perfectly well. There is nothing wrong with me. There will be, however, if you do not leave me in peace."
"So says my sworn servant. Did you know my brother is dead?" He was mocking her.
"No." Cherry took a step back and tripped on her long, white night gown. She fell to the floor, turning her head so her long hair screened her face. "Go away. I did not invite you to come here."
"You never do." Baslon offered her his hand and when she did not take it, he simply lifted Cherry off the ground and set her on her feet. The light had not yet gone out. "Lady, you have a very steady train of thought."
"Lord," said Cherry, imitating Baslon's manner, "it is a long lasting spell. My mind does wander easily."
"You hate me and yet you speak to me with respect, even if contempt is mixed in with it. I am not familiar with that form of treatment and very few other races are. Why?"
"I do not hate you. I cannot hate, just as I cannot love. Contempt is simply my way of responding to people who are unhappy in love. Since I can't love, my heart can not be broken."
"I wish you could love." Baslon sounded sad.
"I believe you like that in me. You have no one to be jealous of that way."
"I should know better than to try to deceive a mind reader!" laughed Baslon. "Perhaps I should simply not bother speaking at all and let you practice!"
"I am not an eavesdropper."
"You call it eavesdropping?"
"Of course." Cherry sounded hurt and this left Baslon at a loss for words. There was a silent moment.
Then Baslon said "Would you be upset if you found out that I had been eavesdropping on you?"
Cherry sat on the bed and looked at Baslon thoughtfully and scrutinizingly. "You have been leaving early for many a night recently. You may have done so then." It was half a question, half a reproach. "There has been little of interest to listen to."
"On the contrary, everything about you interests me. Cherry, are you all right?"
Cherry had put her hand to her forehead, swaying slightly. This resulted in the last statement and my nearly giving away the fact that I was not asleep. I managed to put off my sudden movement as shifting in my sleep.
She went off into a fit of coughing, grabbing out at Baslon and almost falling over. Baslon held her hands in his own, looking wildly about him. He was acting nearer to the age he looked and the age I was.
"Cherry, calm down," he said almost hysterically. "Calm down! Oh!" He put his own hand to his forehead and moaned. "Look at me. Stop coughing! I should not have let you get out of bed." Baslon pushed her back down, rather roughly, I am afraid, although he meant to be gentle. She did not resist, being too busy coughing. "Calm down!" he all but shouted. He rushed out of the room momentarily and returned with a glass of water. I saw this by only half the light there had been in the room before, as Cherry's hand was resting palm down on the bed. Baslon attempted to get her to drink the water, but she was still coughing and the only thing he really accomplished was drenching Cherry. At this the light went out entirely and Cherry's coughing gradually died down. The door opened and closed and there was silence. Cherry sighed and I soon heard her soft breathing. I followed her example and was soon asleep. The only trouble I had getting there was that the bed clothes were rather wet and uncomfortable.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I woke up with a jolt and found myself on the floor. I glanced a bit suspiciously at Cherry, but she was still asleep. The gashes she had cut into her face were healing rapidly, but they had detained her from complete recovery of the wound Baslon had inflicted.
"Cherry, are you awake?" She didn't respond. I waved my hand in front of her eyes and Cherry didn't stir. I touched her hand, feeling how cold it was, to wake her up. Suddenly, I cried out. The impudent red weasel had a hold of my wrist, and wouldn't let go. "Cherry, let go!" The shadow of a smile flickered across her face and was gone. She began to look at me in that unnerving manner of hers.
"Michael, are you stuck?" Cherry asked innocently. I wiggled, hardly pulling my arm from the grip of the imp that held me. "You look like a fish on a hook, only I can't seem to find the pole." She grinned at me.
"Stop teasing me and let go."
"Let go?" she queried. "I am not holding you!" With that, the sly demon let go of me and I fell down.
"I wish," I said, "that you had something to amuse you. Your mind does wander easily and that results in your becoming bored easily. Can't you find something else to do than torment me?"
"So you were awake last night!" she giggled, ignoring the question I had put to her. "I thought so. You will also notice that I did not lie and let go of you before I said I wasn't holding you."
"How amusing. If you can't behave, I'll leave."
"Don't do that!" She blinked and all traces of teasing vanished. "I wonder why Baslon hasn't killed me yet."
"If you're worried about that, I think it's daytime."
"I'm not worrying. I am wondering."
"He boasted that he was going to leave you as you are and marry you."
"I am not going to marry Baslon." There was a touch of anger to Cherry's voice.
"I did not say that you would. I am only repeating what Baslon said."
"Part of it is true, though. He will leave me as I am. He will never drink my elven blood and that will give my human blood a chance to replenish itself. Baslon may even consider me an endless well of nourishment, for him and he will never have to kill again."
She had forgotten that I did not know as much about vampires as she did and was speaking as though I knew why he did not drink part of her blood. "Why would he never drink your elven blood, Cherry?"
"Because he was a human before he was a vampire. A true vampire would not be poisoned by elf blood, but a human vampire would. A true vampire is one who was not made a vampire by another vampire. They are the only kind that grow up. There are very few of those in the world and now there are only the two kinds left in the world. If Baslon was a true vampire, I suppose I should be honored that he chose to keep me alive." Cherry did not explain this remark.
"I suppose I should see if there is any soup and if I can get it down your throat."
"Go, then, Michael, but I will see to it that you will have difficulties with the second." I went, wishing Cherry could act the same age all the time, even if it wasn't her own age.
Actually, Cherry didn't protest eating in the least. She just pretended to until I poured the soup from the tureen to the bowl and then ate it with good appetite.
"How is your face?" I asked her when she had finished.
"What is wrong with my face?" she queried back. I leaned over and traced the scars her fingernails had ravaged in her flesh. "Oh." She fingered her skin absent mindedly. "Could we go for a walk today?" Cherry asked.
"You are too weak," I remonstrated, "and you are avoiding my question. How is your face?"
"Michael, I am not weak and you will not get an answer out of me for that question today." She got out of bed, ignoring my protests. "If I stay in this bed any longer, I'll go mad!" I opened my mouth to speak. "Don't say it," Cherry warned, raising a finger. "I am not mad already." I closed my mouth. If she was going to read my mind, then I might as well not speak.
In the end, Cherry got me to go with her on a walk. I am not quite sure how it happened, but as we were walking down the hall to the west tower, Cherry disappeared. I gave a start and rushed to the spot, but she was not down the corridor to the right and there was nothing on the left, either.
"Cherry!" I yelled and the hallways, empty of any other living creature, echoed back "Cherry!"
"Where are you?" I shouted and the answer came back "Where are you?"
Tired of this kind of communication and perhaps dazed by Cherry's sudden disappearance, I bolted. I raced through the halls, searching for Cherry and yelling wildly.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I must have lost track of the time, for all of a sudden I ran into the arms of a woman. I jumped back quivering and she did the same, looking at me apprehensively and making a note of whatever movement I made. At length she spoke.
"Who are you?" she asked, laying a ice cold hand on my arm. "You are human," she said, as if this was all the answer she needed. The woman moved her hand up my arm to my chin and forced my head up. I closed my eyes and reached for my pocket, where I kept my garlic. She grabbed my hand to prevent me from doing so. I gave myself up for lost.
"What are you doing?" At the sound of this familiar voice, I almost opened my eyes, but not quite.
"I found this wandering around the castle in a most disgraceful manner. Even the peasants have more sense than that." Another hand laid itself on my shoulder and jerked me away from the woman and to the floor.
"I have him under my protection for the moment. You will from now on bring any intruders to me, for inspection, before anything else is done."
The woman snorted. "I do not have to obey you. You have no right and I am the more powerful."
"I told you, and everyone else, that I killed neither father nor Teran. Father was caught out in the sun and this one caught Teran with the wood." I felt a dig in my side with the heel of a boot. "Michael, you can open your eyes without danger, now." I peeked up at the two vampires.
"A vampire is not friendly with humans. Humans only exist for reproduction and food. If you do not know this, no one should believe your claim."
"If you can not behave yourself, I'll order you fire lashed by the elves."
"They'd never obey you," the woman sneered.
"You would be surprised how closely they followed my instructions. A human keeps them in line."
"To be sure, he is a pretty boy, but what other talents can he have that they treasure him so?"
"You would be surprised. Now I must escort Michael back to his room." Baslon grabbed my arm and pulled me along at a pace not much shorter than Cherry's.
"Don't you mean Cherry keeps the elves in line, because she will be the next ruler?" I asked.
"Best not to let Mother know that. It will keep my little pet safer that way. Teran always was her favorite, seeing as he came from human stock, like her."
"And you didn't?"
"No." Baslon did not offer an explanation and I did not ask for one. "What are you doing out here alone at night? You would be safer with at least Cherry."
I swallowed. "Cherry's gone."
"What?" Baslon dropped my arm and stopped walking, turning to face me. His face was bleak. I swallowed again. "Gone, disappeared. I didn't see where she went, but she disappeared right before my eyes. I don't think she escaped. This is a little extensive for a practical joke, even from her."
"Then what do you think?"
"I don't know what I think, unless her mother spirited her away."
"That is an idea. Come with me."
"Where are we going?"
"The stables, and then Mt. Negoi. You are going to be used as bartering material." Baslon's voice was low and quivering.
"What?"
"Come on!"
I do not know exactly how it happened, but Baslon dragged me outside and had two horses saddled before I could get what was happening through my brain. Then he would not let me sort out what little idea I had until I was on a horse. The nearest I could get at was that he was going to get Cherry back and maybe threaten her with my life, or else he simply did not want to send me back to the rooms. We were going to visit the elves first and go around Romania until day.
At the gate, my horse suddenly stopped its canter and would go no further.
"He smells the danger in the air," commented Baslon. "There are werepeople about tonight, or they were. We can't wait until he starts going again." He gave the Arabian horse a sharp kick which sent it off at a break neck gallop and brought his own horse up close to the same. My horse stopped again shortly. "Ride mine. He keeps going."
"What about you?" I asked, switching from my Arabian to Baslon's thoroughbred.
"You do not like magic and you would probably call this magic. Now get going!" The horse reared beneath me and dashed off, at a much smoother pace than the other horse I had left behind. I looked behind and saw Baslon crouching down low.
I was dazed at the speed, never having been allowed to go so fast on a horse. My parents did not approve of such daredevil stunts. It did not take long to cover a good distance before the horse started slowing, not through lack of energy, but because the land was starting to rise. Then it stumbled and I fell off. It galloped off, leaving me in the midst of a virtually unknown country. I ran after it a few steps and then tripped on a mass of gravel.
"You would do well not to move," said a low gruff voice from behind me, which I did not recognize, "and you would be even better off had you not warned the vampire."
"Who's there?" I asked, sitting up.
"I told you not to move!"
"Who's there?" I demanded again.
"I will let you see me," said the voice, "but if you scream, I will kill you."
A wolf trotted into view. I bit my lip and covered my mouth to keep from screaming. The word werewolf flitted through my mind. The wolf chuckled.
"A good guess," it said. "Now come. The other is not cooperating." It seized my arm in it's mouth, being careful not to penetrate my skin with it's sharp teeth. "Get on my back." I hung back, looking in the direction from which I had come. At my hesitation, it simply swung me on and bounded off, not giving me a chance to struggle.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
It took me to an opening in the trees that was crowded with many different types of animals. They had somehow managed to tie me up, though I could not see how they had done it, and set me laying down underneath a giant conifer. The animals were constantly moving, always wandering around here to there, to and fro, no particular place with an incessant restlessness. Sometimes one would leave the clearing, or come back. The humans, comprising about one quarter of the group, showed the same restlessness.
Two of the werepeople, one giant cat of some kind, the other a horse, were always near me, never going anywhere further than a yard away. I assumed that they were my guards. They didn't really pay much attention to me and so I was able to listen at will. Not that I could understand much, as it was mostly spoken in a language I did not know.
"Hello, Michael," said a voice I recognized in English.
I struggled into a sitting position and glanced around. I heard Cherry's voice but could not see her. It was muffled and unclear, in some way.
"Sorry about this, but I can't change back. Vervain does this to me."
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Right next to you. I am invisible, which is why you can not see me, but I can't turn back. Vervain does this to me."
"Does what?"
"I can't change back."
"Does what?"
"Hush."
Some of the werepeople had formed a semi circle around us. They were staring at us, or at least me, whom they could see, yipping and yammering and occasionally one would let out a blood curdling howl. A small change began to come over them, gradually, but as the moon set the change came on faster and to more of the animals. They changed back to humans.
Even after the last of them changed they continued to stare at me. There were people of all ages and gender there, but only adults were discussing us. Occasionally Cherry would explain what was said among them to me.
"Right now they are discussing whether to take the gag out of my mouth or not," she said, for instance.
"Why you and not me?" I asked softly.
"They don't care if we yell. It is simply a way to get me to inhale vervain oil." I was speaking in a whisper, but Cherry was using her normal voice.
"Why do they want you to inhale vervain oil?" Cherry would not explain this to me.
"They are also discussing whether or not to put a gag in your mouth. They do not know what to do with you. Catching you trespassing and violating rules you knew nothing about is why they brought you here. You are lucky they were not hungry."
"I would prefer not to talk about that," I said, feeling sick and wishing I could cover my mouth with my hands.
"As you wish," she said, in a voice that pre-informed me that she was about to begin humming.
"Don't start!" I exclaimed. Two of the people came over and poked and prodded at me. Then they poked and prodded at a place about two feet to my right.
"You probably do not need to worry about anything happening. It is an unconscious reaction of my elven side. I think."
"Why can't you just make us disappear from here to somewhere else?"
"Vervain."
"What is vervain? Shouldn't we be talking in whispers?"
"Most of these people do not understand English. Would you care to speak in French?" she asked, switching suddenly to that language.
"Yes, indeed. None of these people understand French?"
"None. Vervain . . . ." She hesitated. "It's a plant. It stops magic. It's terrible. They soaked my gag in it."
"Oh." Cherry lapsed into silence and I did the same.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Twelve hours later, the sun had set and we were on the move. I had been tied to the back of a horse and another wolf beside me had it's fur pressed down, as though with a heavy burden. No sound was heard anywhere, except for the animals howling and growling, which was often. Even the footfalls were silent.
Another wolf came up next to me. It pushed me back on the horse I was on when I began slipping. Then it went around and pushed at something invisible on the wolf on my other side. After we stopped, the wolf seemed to be our especial guardian until about an hour before dawn, when it slipped away into the thick woods. It was smaller than most of the other wolves in the group of animals and blacker as well. It was also silent when all of the other wolves would occasionally howl in unison. The different kinds of animals seemed to take turns making noise. It was not slow in the least, but rather faster than the others. I did not hear Cherry speak to me, so I did not know for certain if she was near me or not.
I was not afraid, but simply bored. I had nothing to do and the werepeople would not permit me the use of my hands or feet. I had no one to talk to, as Cherry was noncommunicative. Meetings were constantly being held and I used my Latin to figure out what was said at these meetings in Romanian. It was not much.
For instance, I heard the words 'slave' and 'money.' I leave you to gather what you may from this.
A man came up and spoke to me, in Romanian. He began to get angry when I did not answer him, which I did not see how I could, since I did not know his language.
"Please, sir," I tried in Latin, "I can not understand you. If you would be able to speak in English or Latin . . . ." I got no farther because of a heavy blow across my face.
The man then said something to the space next to me. I heard a faint whisper beside me in the same language and saw the dirt shift. The man's face pinched in thought and then he bent down and worked at something invisible. A moment later he was tossing a rag away and Cherry was beside me, gasping for breath.
"I hate vervain," she muttered as the people tied another rag around her mouth. "Why?" I asked.
"I already told you!"
"Oh."
"I might try human magic, but any other type won't work. I hate vervain."
"You already said that."
"I hate vervain and sewing."
"I know."
"Did you know that we are going to be sold as slaves? Both of us for one price."
"I made a guess with Latin."
"Oh." She glanced at me slyly. "I really think that I intended myself to be the black swan."
"Why?"
"Black is the color of evil. Hush!"
I got out a, "You're not evil," before a nudge in the side told me that there was a crowd around us. We were both propped up on a tree to face the audience. The going on were similar to an auction. I think we were bought by the woman who dragged us both a little ways from the clearing and said;
"All right. I understand English, so you can't tell me you don't understand me. You," she pointed at Cherry, "if I take the gag off, will you promise not to use any magic?"
"As long as you don't put it back on, or any other gag."
"By your name."
"By my name. I promise."
'Trickster,' I thought. Cherry shoved me a little.
"What about you?"
"What?"
"Will you promise by your true name not to use any magic?" She was speaking to me now.
"What true name?" I was bewildered.
"No name?" she crowed. "You must have a name!"
"Michael," I stammered. The woman had relatively uncombed brown hair and hard black eyes.
"Now what do I do with you? Do I eat you?" She pounced at us. I drew back as far as my bonds would let me.
"You could let us go," suggested Cherry brightly. I shoved her. She dug her nails into me, (not enough to make me bleed) and I bit my lip. The woman noticed this and chuckled without seeming to be amused.
"With me that is not so impossible as it may seem. What can you do?"
"Everything," said Cherry. I looked blank.
"Do?"
"Skills, tricks, services. Almost anything but what you would learn at a regular human's college."
Cherry glanced at me wickedly. "He had a lot of practice being a servant at the castle. If he'd let me I could teach him some magic tricks."
"You're taking advantage of me. What are you good for?"
"Nothing further than ransom," I muttered. The woman reached out as if to strike me, then thought better of it.
"Perhaps not." She went off a little ways into the woods and Cherry and I had a chance to talk.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"You are worthless, as Baslon has so many time said about me."
"You're teasing me. What do you think about the situation, is what I meant."
"Nothing, other than I could teach you to read minds."
I frowned. "Don't tease."
She smiled. "I'm not."
I rolled over on my front and tried to ignore her. I felt her teasing me, just as I felt her mind reach out and stir up the dust under my nose. I sneezed as she yawned. "Find something else to do. Something other than forcing me to read your mind."
"Michael!"
"What." It was not a question. I did not want to feel the sudden pulsing in my head that I knew came from Cherry.
"I am not forcing you! You are reading my mind!"
"No!" I was relatively alarmed. "Stop it!"
She giggled. "I am not doing anything. What is so terrible about mind reading?"
"It's . . . it's . . . ." I strove for a word. "Pagan," I finished, somewhat lamely, I know. I had never agreed with the priests on comparative values of warfare to regain a holy city. How could war be holy? paganism was not something I concerned myself with overmuch.
"It's also pagan to associate with vampires, werepeople and elves," Cherry pointed out, showing another way in which my argument was feeble.
"I didn't have any choice!" I protested.
"You chose to associate with me." I started to say that I had not known she was an elf. "And you still would." I didn't have anything to say, for this was true. I sighed and rolled back over on my back. Nothing had prepared me for Cherry!
She had come into my life like a breeze of mischief. I was irresistibly drawn to her and she built a world of imagination for me. The seriousness in my life was gone when she came. Punishments came harsher and more frequently, but romping through streams with Cherry was better than any political meeting. She pampered me and I never questioned the rich foods she could produce as opposed to her shabby appearance. Of course the daughter of the Queen of elves and the grand daughter of the Earl of Richmond of England would feast. Never should I have thought that this was the way of things!
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"Nothing seems wrong with you, Michael. It is almost night."
"What does that mean with werepeople?" I asked wearily.
"Not much other than that they will be changing back to their alternate forms."
A wolf, the smaller black wolf, came and sniffed us over. It turned out to be the woman, prying about to find out how much each of us were worth. It turned out to be a considerable sum more than she had paid for us and she nipped us both slightly on both wrists to mark us as her own property. I did not much feel like being owned at the moment.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I'm not sure exactly how it happened. One moment I was asleep, the next, awake and struggling violently with someone who was trying to pick me up. The person made a sound that indicated he was swearing, then spoke angrily to a woman standing behind him. She made an imperious gesture. Cherry was awake and staring at all of us with some concealed amusement. Apparently I was enough trouble for the people that they had to turn to Cherry for help.
"Michael, there is going to be no one badly harmed just now. It's a ritual, they say, to ensure this group's survival and well-being." She listened to the people again. Then she stiffened. "They . . . they are going to turn us into weres."
"What?"
"All the races can do it. A person not born to the race that they are is called a zombie, and that's what is going to happen to us. We are going to become false-weres. An angel, a fortune teller, told them they must do this or the clan will die within two decades. That's a very short time to those other than human."
"I don't understand," I protested.
"I do," she said grimly, "and I think I know . . . ."
"I don't think I want to be turned into a were," I said plaintively when it became plain that she was not going to finish her sentence.
"You don't need to. Cooperate, or we'll both be drugged. This kind of thing can always be interrupted, unless one is being turned into a vampire or demon, and the were's way can't be started up again."
"Oh."
I stopped moving, so the man picked me up again and carried me to sit in front of a fire. Then he brought Cherry. She looked around for something for a while before her eye picked up an old man who used a cane to walk on. He knelt between us and the fire, and held a scroll up to show it to us. There were several dark and mysterious tattoos on his face. He said several words, and I recognized our names among them. Cherry answered respectfully, then whispered to me, "He's probably over ten thousand years old."
I gaped.
"It's all right, Michael. He won't hurt you. Just be relatively nice. The weres can't cast curses. That's only humans and giants."
"How is it possible to live so long?" I asked when I began to recover.
Cherry said something to the man, who nodded and smiled. "We live a long time, Michael," she told me then. "Don't say too much, I have to make things up for you."
The man began reading from the scroll. Every so often, he would stop speaking, stand up, walk three times around the fire, and throw some dust in that turned the orange flames blood red. After this had been done ten times or so, he brought out a blackened stick and marked us each on the forehead with it. Then he consulted his parchment again and opened his mouth to speak more, what sounded to me like complete gibberish.
Cherry interrupted with a keening wail that sent shivers down my spine. She raised her voice until I thought I would go deaf. The weres began to shout at her, not quite overriding her voice. Then she let the scream die off until she was only humming a soft lullaby. The old one and I and those closest to her began to fall under her spell, until she cut off, with a challenging stare to the magician who had conducted the ceremony. He made a curt statement and shuffled off.
"Well, Michael, you've been saved from becoming completely a were, although there is no way I could have saved you from it altogether. Was it worth it?"
"Worth what?" I asked. "I'm part were?"
"Yes, and you'll see. They are going to be very angry with me in a few moments. You know, being able to change to a fox whenever I wanted to wouldn't have been so bad. That's the shape they had chosen for me." Then she bit her lip to hold back most of a laugh. "And for you, although it won't happen now, they had chosen a toad. A nice little amphibian, to match what little of your wonderful personality you've shown so far." I flushed. Cherry made a sharp little cry as someone struck her across the face with a big fist. I was too shocked to do anything. The person struck her again.
"Stop that!" I shouted. "Leave her alone!"
Cherry shook her head, then took the next blow without flinching. And the next one, and the next one. By the time they were done, the first hit was already starting to show up. Then the five people who had administered the beating started shouting at her, while Cherry glared at them. They wound down, eventually, and dragged us both back to where we had been.
"Are you all right, Cherry?" I asked with concern.
"Yes," she said dully. "I didn't feel most of it, thanks to a certain . . . experience I've had."
"What do you think will happen now?"
She looked up from the ground and stared at me. "That's right, you don't know any proper languages," she said at last. I began to protest, then thought better of it. "We are going to be ransomed. When I interrupted, they knew it was ruined, so they sent a messenger off immediately. The supernatural don't have any coinage, but in England, the materials we'll be ransomed for are worth about ten thousand pounds. In the morning we'll be turned over to the elves."
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
We were left tied up in a small clearing and 'picked up,' like baggage, by the elves. Vrenkley made a great deal of fuss over Cherry, untying her bonds herself and asking if she had been hurt. She pretended to (not very realistically) half-faint when she saw where she had been bitten, proclaimed her a savior, and heaped food and drink upon her. Her daughter looked disgusted with her, but made a brief speech of thanks, putting heavy emphasis on the elves' power and wealth, indicating with well placed innuendo that these were the only even moderately agreeable qualities her mother possessed.
Actually, while her mother was making a great show about how much she cared for her daughter, Cherry looked like what she most needed was a bath. A few of the females shyly showed me a little spring nearby where I could bathe. I thanked them and rather pointedly refused to begin undressing until they went away, hoping they weren't merely hiding in wait.
When I saw Cherry again, she was as crowded about as she had been at the initiation, making little, trenchant speeches that everyone refused to see the meaning of. Three days later, she somehow managed to get away from all the confining ceremony to talk with me.
"Personally," she said, appearing in a tree above my head, "I would prefer to be married to a vampire than be this." I jumped, startled, and looked up to see a girl of red gowned in white and surrounded by boughs of green.
"Than be what?"
"Be a princess."
"I'd rather be married to you than be Earl of York."
She glared at me. "But it wouldn't make any difference. I might be less of a public figure, but as for politics . . . ." She gave a disdainful shrug and glared out at her mother. "I bet if she had been born to a person of lower status she would be trying, and failing, to become an actress."
That startled me all over again. "You have actresses?"
Cherry looked at me as if I were an idiot and disdained to answer. I felt somewhat as if that were an accurate summation of my mental abilities. Of course they would have such things, when they seemed so similar to humans in so many respects. Even the palace architecture was similar to some cathedrals I had seen, though when I thought of it, it was much more comfortable.
After a few moments, Cherry pointed over at something. "Look."
I looked, but did not see anything unusual. "What is it?" I asked, alternating my gaze between her and the space of her interest.
"Baslon's emissary. Mother is going to come looking for me soon, now. You'll see me again soon . . . maybe." She whisked herself away upward. Several of the other elves showed similar tendencies, appearing to be hunting for someone.
Roughly three hours later, a few lucky ones succeeded in again finding Cherry, although I particularly noticed that the two who escorted her back to her mother showed a marked reluctance when asked give any explanation for the length of time that had been necessary to find her, and when they did, it was mumbled and probably evasive. Queen Vrenkley exclaimed over her daughter dramatically.
"My dear daughter, how well it is that you show such promise of bringing the Mnerecros tribe to such a close relationship with the ruler of all . . ." was approximately what was said, or was as far as Cherry got later translating the speech for me before she was overcome by nauseation. The princess shifted around a bit, embarrassed. The elves showed signs of intense fascination. The vampire, bored and anxious to get back to his resting place, looked on in disgust.
When the crowd dispersed at long last, that person walked stiffly up to Cherry and made a curt bow. "Your Highness," he ground out as if it pained him, then made as if to leave. Cherry raised a restraining hand, then called to me, "Michael, hurry up. I doubt this good man has orders to make sure you arrive safely, and his kind, the zombie vampires, often take their orders very literally." She gave the vampire a pitying look then, and made some slight comment, which he apparently took to be permission to leave. After a few moments of brisk walking, he turned back and took firm hold of Cherry's shoulder to propel her at a speed more suitable to his taste. I was forced to run to keep up. I suppose we made good time, for being on foot, because we made the castle gates in less than an hour. We were abandoned just inside a firmly closed and locked door to make our own way up to our rooms as best we could. Peeking out the window, I could see that we arrived just as the sun set.
Approximately two months after this return, Cherry finished her dress. I once had opportunity to look at her hands, and the fingertips, they were covered with calluses. It was a plain dark green woman's dress and Cherry was quickly becoming a woman. It was a little long, but Cherry said she would grow into it. We had now been almost three years captive.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Cherry," said Baslon one night when she was about thirteen, holding onto her hand. "You must choose sometime, you know."
"Choose what?" she asked, taking her hand back.
"Between Michael and me. I won't force you, but you have to take one. Neither both nor neither will do. Choose who the dove is and who the black swan is."
"White swan."
"Whichever, but you must choose."
"You could draw lots."
"Very funny. But you must. I insist."
"I don't want to," she pouted.
"You have until you are fourteen. That is a year. You are already old enough to marry."
"I can't!"
"I may be only seventeen . . . "
"I thought you were a human vampire," she grumbled under her breath.
" . . . but I say you have to," he continued. "And Cherry, I can't let you go until I either know for certain that you won't have me or I know for certain that you will!"
"I won't have either of you!" she screeched.
"And I won't have you getting yourself exited," he said, looking at me so that I dared not interfere. "In your own culture there is much less respect for women than in mine. You would be freer if you married me than Michael. And you will never be free if you do not choose! Which one, Cherry, which one?"
"Neither!" she cried, standing her ground.
Baslon stood up, drawing himself to his full height. "Cherry," he said in a tightly controlled voice, "I said that neither both of us nor neither of us will do. Will you have Michael or me? You must choose sometime and it must be soon!"
"Neither!" she shrieked, turning tail and fleeing from the room. Baslon reached out for her almost instinctively, a feeble attempt to stop her, then looked at me in such a terrible way that I knew this had broken our tenuous friendship, however doubtful. He stormed furiously out of the room. I had lurid nightmares all night long.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
A few days later I took a box and went hunting through the castle. I soon found what I wanted and returned. Cherry did not look up when I entered. I set the box down and slipped to my own room.
When I came out, the box was still there and Cherry was eying it curiously. I swallowed and said;
"It's yours, if you want it."
She eyed me suspiciously. "You aren't courting me, are you?"
I smiled. "No. I just have a hard time living with you when you are bored or in a bad mood."
"You think this will help?"
"I was under the impression that it would."
She opened it carefully. Her squeal of delight was accompanied by several more squeaks from the furry little creatures inside. "Michael!" she exclaimed. "How could you? Baslon will be furious." I didn't say anything, just sat back on my heels and looked pleased with myself. She gave me a brief hug and I was in ecstacies. "You really should keep out of his way. Stay in your room tonight. I think I shall taunt him a bit about this."
"He will be furious." I grinned.
"I said that and I know that, but he will not harm me."
"He has already done that enough."
"Perhaps." I did not know what that adverb meant with that context, but I do know that she fingered the two small holes in her neck as she said it. She turned to stroke the small brown and black mice sadly.
"What are their names?" I asked.
"I'll try a couple of elven names. Can you think of any?"
"I'm . . . not very good with the languages of the elves." Actually, I didn't know anything about them.
"Yes. I forgot. Actually, there's only one language." She stared at the mice for awhile, with her fingers moving slowly across their backs as they nibbled at the box and tried to get out. Just as I got ready to leave her with her thoughts, she said, "The male is Krantraran and the female is Samaya." This meant that the brown mouse was named Krantraran and the black one, (or rather, the dark gray one,) was named Samaya. I waited a few more minutes for her to speak again, but she did not.
"What do they mean?" I asked.
She just looked at me and I almost despaired of getting an answer. "Happiness and . . . and different." She seemed to have trouble getting the last word out for some reason. "If you'll excuse me, I don't feel well. I think I shall retire." So saying, she left me to myself and my musings.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
By and by, Baslon came. I tried to slink away, but Cherry, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, called me back. I felt sure she was going to press both of us to our limits.
"Sit down," she said lightly and Baslon did so, with a poisonous glance at me. I crouched in a corner in the shadows. "What did you come for?"
"The same thing I always come for. To see you."
"Ah, yes, but you must have something else in mind."
"Not much."
"Very well then, Michael, what are you here for?"
"You asked me to be here." I saw instantly that it was a mistake to say that, as it was just more 'proof' of Cherry's preference towards me (proof which didn't count as much to me, but got Baslon's temper up). Baslon started up and looked as though he would hit me. Cherry caught his arm and pushed him back into his seat, looking pleased with herself. She smiled wickedly. I felt a chill go down my back.
Baslon sat staring at me for a while, while Cherry amused herself by putting the fire out several times, always causing it to reappear. This served to unnerve me greatly. The sixth time this happened, it got Baslon's attention and he glared at Cherry.
"I could order you to marry me, you know," he said.
"I know," said she, "but you won't. You wouldn't dare, considering what I might find to do to you. Perhaps I could have you burnt, or something fine like that."
"Or I could kill you. You know I have the power to do that. Then I could have you do whatever I want you to."
"Temper, temper."
"Perhaps I had better go before I do." Baslon began to stand up.
"Don't go," said she, smiling. The door swung closed. "I want you both here for just a little while." Baslon sat down. The fire flared up brighter. "What are you doing, you little elf?" asked Baslon, squinting.
"Conducting an experiment on how far I can push you until you lose control."
"You crazy girl!" He leaped up, grabbed her wrists and the fire died down. Cherry looked much too surprised to do anything.
"That hurts!"
He simply glared at her, staring into her eyes. By her expression, she was too scared to look away and so she collapsed on the floor, staring blankly into space. "Now for you!" He turned and leaped at me, snarling furiously. My heart sank. Cherry couldn't help me and I was powerless to stop him. The last thing I remembered were my hands, sticky with blood.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I blinked, trying to remember what had happened. I was not like those people in stories who think they are at home when they wake up. No, I had been here far to long to think that. I just couldn't remember what had happened. I thought furiously. Ah, yes! Baslon had told Cherry she must marry either him or me, me or him. Now, there was a happy thought. Maybe she would choose me! No, she had refused to choose either of us. So, what else? Baslon had attacked me. With this, I tried to get out of bed, but I couldn't. I looked around me for the reason. I was tied down, like a prisoner. I was a prisoner. Did this mean I wouldn't get to see Cherry today? I had seen Cherry every day and night for three years. How long had I been unconscious? I didn't know. I didn't think I was a vampire, but my neck hurt. I sat up as far as the ropes would let me. I knew I was still in my room. I wished I knew what had happened.
I now heard voices in the other room, as I had when we first came. If I strained, I could hear what they said. The conversation went something like this.
"Do you think Michael is awake by now?" That was Cherry's voice, but very timid.
"Will you stop thinking about that infernal boy?" This was Baslon.
"I feel responsible for him. He is so weak."
"So are you, Cherry, compared to me. So are you."
"Cherry," I called softly. My neck hurt too much to say it any louder. It got her attention anyway.
"He is awake. He should be told . . . ."
"Sit down." His voice was harsh. "You can see him in the morning."
"I don't want to!"
"My Lady," said Baslon, his voice deadly soft, "you forget who you are. Sit down and forget about him for the time being. That is an order."
"I don't want to . . . ." Her voice trailed off and I could hear her weeping gently. "Don't kill him, please."
"Perhaps, but I will expect a payment. I will even let him go. But only if you give it to me."
"Give what?" She had stopped crying and there was now an edge to her words.
"A promise to stay with me for all time, to marry me. Nothing less."
"You told me I could have until I was fifteen." The sharpness became more pronounced.
"Yes, but I'm only giving him a month to live. If you choose me before that, I let him go. If you choose me after that, I kill him and let him stay here. If you choose him, then I'll turn you both into vampires and drive you out into the woods, to see if you can find someplace to hide from the sun. Those are your choices."
"What if I chose to choose neither?"
"Then I'll have you choose again."
"Why don't you just turn me into a vampire now, when I can't do anything about it?"
"I don't intend to turn you into a vampire unless you choose the boy. You're ever so much more fun when you're an elf."
"What would mother say?" she lamented.
"She would say that if you are foolish enough to prefer a human to a vampire, then you would deserve a worse fate than what I have promised you. She would wonder that you liked him so much that his life could be used as a threat. And a great deal more, all in my favor."
"Let me go."
Baslon chuckled. "What a ridiculous request! Why in the world would I want to do that?"
"To think and to decide. I can think better in the fresh air. Just a week. Please." There was a slight begging undercurrent, but mostly a defiance and refusal to beg.
There was a laugh. "How can I refuse you when your violet eyes are so large? My pet, you have just earned yourself a week on your own. On your own, let me stress. Michael is not going with you."
"I know. Could I untie him before I go? It must be uncomfortable."
He sighed. "Do what you want. I'll expect you gone and Michael here tomorrow. Now I must find something to eat. Good night."
When I woke up, my arms were free and Cherry was gone.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Next to nothing happened to me or about me during the week Cherry was gone from the palace. Nothing of interest existed for me without Cherry. Baslon did not even come by the suite, not that I am complaining about that aspect of my trial. While Cherry was away, having very little to do, I simply wandered aimlessly around the apartments, not trusting myself or the outside world enough to leave them, anxious for something to do. Most of the time I sat or stood, with the curtains pulled back, staring out of the window in lonely boredom, watching for the glimpse of Cherry's bright red hair which never came.
Birds of all sizes and colors circled over the woods, but none ever came inside the walls of the castle. Often a fight would take place among them, with the loser plummeting to the earth and the winner screeching victoriously. A fight. I mused broodingly over that, comparing one thing to another. Cherry and Baslon had fought like that sometimes. The fall was Cherry's pride and the winners screech was Baslon's scream of horror when he realized what he had done. I felt no pity for him, though. He deserved to feel guilty. Any person who harmed Cherry deserved much worse than to simply feel guilty.
I stared at the floor, wondering why any of this ever had to happen. It was a coincidence, a quirk of nature putting Cherry's personality together with her appearance. Cherry was too beautiful and too impertinent for her own good. She had no respect for her elders, which might have stemmed directly from her own parents' foolishness. Who could really respect anyone like them? Her parents might have been liked by Cherry, but not respected. No one would be able to respect any group represented by Ambassador Samuel Tudor and Queen Vrenkley, as far as my experience went. Cherry certainly didn't!
This experience, this kidnapping, might have been good for Cherry in some ways. She would have learned self denial, pain, emotions, and gained much needed wariness and experience of just how dangerous the outside world, the world she had been partially sheltered from and had never truly experienced, could be. But at what a cost! Her want for freedom had made her give it up altogether.
Cherry was crazy. She had perhaps had become so in captivity, but had probably always been somewhat insane. A crazy girl. Or rather woman. We had been here that long and maybe longer. However long I had been unconscious. I was seventeen and wanted desperately for freedom and Cherry. It was well nigh impossible to have both. I just knew Cherry would choose Baslon, for whatever reasons, before the month was out. I sighed miserably, feeling as though my heart was being torn out of my chest and turned away from the glass window.
No one could have everything they wanted in life, but no one should be completely miserable. I believed that during this week I was, completely and utterly miserable. Cherry might have been, but as far as I could see, she was rarely actually miserable. Cherry might be melancholy from time to time, she might be frightened, bored, or dangerously furious, but she could always find a way to be happy in any environment, even in one she hated. She was never miserable, even with all that had happened to her. It was the way her mind worked.
I spent my days watching and my nights catching up on my sleep. I was still quite weak from Baslon's attack upon me, and needed an abundance of rest, even with my nonactive life. That sleep was also something to do, a way to escape. I was reaching a point where I needed that escape, any escape from consciousness, badly.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Cherry came back with Baslon, pleading for a little more time in which to decide. She needed thought before she made such a commitment, was her argument. Baslon's response was to throw her on the floor and laugh at her while every muscle in her body quivered with rage.
"How dare you?"
"Because you have not the power to harm me, and because I have the power to completely control you. You are mine, no matter what. Let me kiss you." He scooped her up in his arms and held her tightly. She looked as though she could not breathe. Could not breathe, or would not, being so close to the object of her hatred. I turned away and prayed that I would die.
"Don't wish that in this house, Michael," said Cherry suddenly. I looked back at her in surprise, then realized she had been reading my mind. I shuddered.
"What is it that he wants?" asked Baslon with faint curiosity, being much more interested in the girl who had escaped from him and was backed up against a wall, shivering.
Cherry wrapped her arms around herself and glared at him defiantly. "Death."
"If he receives his wish, it will be entirely your fault." Baslon laughed. "You are a very nice elf, my pet, but you do have a tendency to endanger others."
"And who would be the one killing him?" she hissed, withdrawing further into herself.
"Are you implying that I would, youngling? What makes you think that?" Baslon took a quick step forward, reached out and caught both sides of her face, looking directly down at her. "No, Cherry, I wouldn't be the one to kill Michael. Someday you will be the one who does that." He stepped back. Cherry stared at him with wide eyes, taking hiccuping breaths that she tried desperately to stop.
"You wouldn't." This was stated in such a small, helpless tone that only someone with a heart as hard as rock would not have softened towards her.
Baslon's face was a mask of indifferent sincerity. His eyes never left hers. "Do you want to push your luck?" Cherry swallowed and slowly shook her head. Baslon nodded with approval, beginning to smile. "Good girl. Now don't try to get me angry again. Indulge me, please, in what I want." Cherry began edging along the wall away from him. Baslon negated that with a warning sake of his head. She immediately stopped. "And now, my precious, would you care to dance?"
"I would rather not," she choked out.
Baslon patted her on the head with an attempt at reassurance, although it only unnerved her more. "Then would you care to go for a ride on the horses?"
"I . . . ." She stopped. I could see that she wanted to, but that she was afraid to be alone with Baslon, no matter how little difference it would make to him in regards of his power over her. "Could Michael come too?"
The vampire frowned slightly. "He can have you in the daytime. He doesn't deserve anything from me."
"I'll come only if Michael can too," she said, slightly rebelliously.
"Why can't I have you to myself? Why does Michael always have to be here? How can I talk freely if your only concern is to see that he is not hurt? You are coming, my girl, if I have to carry you." He seemed quite ready to do it, too.
Cherry's eyes flashed angrily, although she made no move against him. "You already had me to yourself for ten weeks running, a week ago, and I daresay you took advantage of that time well enough."
It was a good blow, which only made Baslon angrier. "All right. I'll admit that, but I will gladly take some more time with you right now. So, Cherry, you are going to come along with me whether you like it or not." Before Cherry could pull away, he rapidly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her outside.
My legs gave out. I fell to my knees, feeling a violent constricting in my chest, and cried out, "Oh, God, please let her be free!"
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Cherry came back on her own, looking very pale. She put off my immediate questions and slept until noon. She didn't eat much and didn't talk much. In fact, she mostly stared straight in front of her without seeming to see anything. She would not respond to me. This worried me, especially when she did not turn around when I touched her hand. It was very cold.
"Cherry?" I moved around her slowly and sat down directly in front of her. Her eyes slowly focused on me.
"Mm?" Her eyes flickered to a spot on the wall and then came to rest upon me again.
"What happened last night?" She refused to answer me, so I repeated my question. A pained expression crossed her face.
"Don't talk about it." Then she shut off again.
"Cherry?" I passed my hand in front of her face. She shot her head forward, opening and clenching her teeth so quickly that I barely got away with my fingers. This shocked me so much that I forgot to be surprised when her chair floated around to the other side of mine. I got up and tottered slowly to get our supper.
Upon bringing it back, I made several attempts at conversation, all of which Cherry put off with words or gestures. She was becoming quite adept at this and never used the exact same method twice. She was fingering the mice, letting the crawl up and down her arm, when I said;
"Why won't you talk to me?" She held out her hand to me. I took it, not knowing what else to do and Samaya ran on to me. I jerked and she fell to the floor.
"Be careful," said Cherry, scooping the little dark gray ball of fur up. "She's pregnant." She did not deign to say any more.
"Why?" A small smile played across her face briefly. "Answer me!" I said desperately.
"I don't think she even knows that you exist," said Baslon, entering the room suddenly. Cherry glanced at the door and it swung shut as I got up to leave.
"What did you do to her?" I whispered, my throat tightening suddenly.
He smiled secretly and bowed to Cherry. "Good night, my Lady."
Cherry stood up and bowed back, not a curtsy, but a bow and I noticed for the first time that she was wearing the clothes of a lad, not a lady. "Good night, Baslon." She watched him sit down and then sat herself. The tableware vanished.
"You are becoming quite adept."
"I was beforehand." In putting me off, Cherry had obtained a habit, for Baslon did not say anything for several minutes.
"Have you reached a decision yet?"
"Not yet. I want my freedom too badly to agree now."
"You will in time. You will have more freedom after you agree than you have now."
"Truly?" Cherry looked up swiftly, leaning forward, her lips parted and her breathing quickened.
"Cherry, no!"
"Shut up, Michael," said Baslon irritably. "Let her make her own decision."
"With you it is more than likely not to be hers," I said under my breath.
"Be quiet, Michael." Cherry sat back with pinched lips. I was quieted by a gloating glance from Baslon. His remark about freedom had been a nearly successful tactic. It wouldn't be long now until he had what he wanted.
"Maybe you'll decide tonight."
"How much longer do I have?"
"Nine months. Two weeks for Michael."
"Michael?"
"Your . . . servant."
"Oh." Baslon looked as though he would fairly dance for joy at this indifferent reaction.
"Would you like to come for a ride with me?"
"Certainly. Just a moment, please." She put Krantraran and Samaya away and walked out with Baslon. I slipped out behind them. Baslon raised an eyebrow at my impertinence, but did not mention it. Cherry showed no knowledge of what I was doing.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Would you like a hand up?"
"I know how to ride a horse, Baslon," said Cherry irritably. "Let me be."
"I was just making sure. I like to know when I can be of service." He stopped, as Cherry got up on the horse. "You mount quickly."
"You have spent so much time talking of me that you have neglected to tighten your girths properly. Do so." I glanced up and laughed inwardly. Whatever Baslon had done to Cherry, she was not changed entirely to his liking. He swung up and discreetly tightened his girth. I checked all the fastenings on the Arabian and got on.
"Will you choose now?"
"No."
"Later, then."
"What if I never choose?"
"Then I'll assume you've chosen Michael and I'll turn you both into vampires and drive you out into the woods, to see if you can find someplace to hide from the sun. I won't enjoy doing that."
"Not to me, at least."
"Of course."
I now noticed that Baslon had purposely chosen the fastest horse and with good reason, too. Cherry urged her horse into a speedy gallop and Baslon would have been hard put to it to keep up on any of the other horses. My horse followed them swiftly, while I nearly fell asleep.
"Cherry, stop."
Cherry brought her horse up swiftly and indeed, it was necessary that she do so. Baslon had stopped his thoroughbred only a hundred paces in front of her. "What is it?"
"The horses must be tired by now. Suppose we get off and walk a ways?" He took his own advice and came off quickly. Cherry watched him suspiciously, but allowed him to help her dismount. I let my horse walk close enough to them to hear their conversation, but did not get off.
"Cherry," Baslon started and then stopped. He had tried to take her hand, but she had snatched it back. His shoulder and head sagged. "You'll never love me, will you?"
"Not though I had all the time in the world, which I have," she replied cheerfully.
"I want you to be happy."
"Then let me go free."
"I can't live without you."
"Then die."
"If I did, I would leave you all by yourself in a world which would always be against you. You were cursed with a great beauty that helped to cage your spirit. I need you. Please say you will marry me."
"As soon as you start trying to work on my pity you will find that I have none."
"That is not entirely true." He tried again to take her hand, and she again eluded him.
"I will thank you not to touch me," she said frostily.
"Cherry, I can let you go only if I know you will come back. If you were my wife I would have that assurance. Michael will no longer do."
"Michael?"
Baslon glanced at me with a chuckle. Apparently he was enjoying Cherry's disregard of me. "Your servant."
"Oh."
"Cherry!" I said.
She turned her head in my direction, but I got the impression that she did not see me. "What?"
I was confused. I had only wanted to attract her attention and now that I partially had it, she and Baslon were expecting me to say something. Undoubtedly what ever it was, Baslon would find some way to ridicule it. "Have you completely forgotten me?" She only looked back at me. I could see her violet eyes glitter in the moonlight. "I want an answer."
"Don't confuse her by reminding her of your presence. It could damage her mind greatly." I must have looked frightened, for he laughed. Cherry shook her head slowly and turned her eyes away from me. Before she could slip away again, Baslon seized her hand.
"Let go of me!" she ordered.
"Calm down, Cherry," said Baslon. He let go of her. "Look!"
Cherry lifted her right hand, the hand Baslon had grasped, up to the level of her eyes. Something glittered on the fourth finger of it. "What is it?"
"Guess."
Cherry drew her brows together briefly, then in a moment of enlightenment, she dashed it from her hand. "No," she said heavily. "I won't take it. You can't make me wear it."
"Cherry . . . ." He raised his hand in a helpless gesture towards her as she ran off. He mounted his horse and trotted after her with Cherry's Arabian following behind. I dismounted, picked up the engagement ring and pocketed it, wondering what would happen to them. Then I walked home.
The reason I went back to the castle instead of towards the nearest town consisted of two things. One, I didn't know where the nearest town was, and two, I had to see Cherry again. There was a two thirds chance I would be set free and a two thirds chance of my being with Cherry after she made her decision. Baslon had said;
"I'm only giving him a month to live. If you choose me before that, I let him go. If you choose me after that, I kill him and let him stay here. If you choose him, then I'll turn you both into vampires and drive you out into the woods, to see if you can find someplace to hide from the sun. Those are your choices."
Complete happiness for me was impossible without escape and that was nearly impossible in itself. Even so, Cherry would never love me and that would make me miserable. I sighed as I put my horse away.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Cherry?" She focused on something just past my shoulder. At least she almost heard me. I thought rapidly, trying to find something that would catch her attention. "What happened yesterday night?" I tried She stared at me vaguely. I tried a different approach. Reaching into my pocket, I put Baslon's engagement ring back on her finger.
It worked.
She screamed. She tried to tear it off, but whether through her own clumsiness or some trick of the ring, it would not come off. "Cherry. Listen to me." I grasped her hands together between my own, trying to get her attention.
"What do you want?" she asked gruffly, looking like she was about to be irritating.
"You to notice me. I think I just got what I wanted."
"Why bother me? Go somewhere else."
"Not until you tell me what I want to know."
She glared at me, but started the story without even asking me what I wanted to know.
"He made me wait while he saddled both horses. He made me ride side saddle! We rode a long ways. At about midnight we stopped and he made me . . . made me . . . ." She stopped.
"Go on," I said.
"He made me . . . look at him. I don't remember exactly what he told me, only that he would have me sometime and soon . . . . Michael, please don't make me say any more."
"All right." I sighed and left her alone.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I wandered into Cherry's bedroom and ruffled through the symbolic drawings again. The strange figures at the bottom of each page held my attention for a few moments before I passed them by. What were they? They seemed to be a signature of sorts, but were no characters I had ever seen before. I frowned, then set the papers down and picked up another one, a new drawing. Baslon had given Cherry paints, so this was in color. It showed a yellow, or golden, coronet attached to thin chains of a similar material. It probably represented Cherry's loss of freedom, even though she could have just about anything else she wanted. Of course, it might mean that if she did marry Baslon, she would loose all freedom. I set the picture back down, looking at the wall, and sighed, waving the pages as a fan.
"What are you doing, Michael?" asked Cherry's voice curiously.
I turned sheepishly. "I just wanted some paper, and . . . ." I jumped back in alarm when the pictures in my hand caught flame. "Cherry?" She looked faintly amused as she left the room.
Absently shaking my hand to clear imagined pain, I tried to think of the good points of Cherry being a vampire, but I stopped when I realized what direction my thoughts were taking. I set the charred ashes aside from the rest, picked up a sizeable quantity of paper, a jar of ink, a pen, and blotting sand, and returned to my own room.
Sitting down on the floor, I proceeded to write an account of the horror my life had become. I knew my parents would be shocked if they should hear of their son writing a book, but I didn't care. This was what had offered itself to me as activity, and I wasn't going to deny myself the consolation. I dipped my pen in the ink and thoughtfully wrote down the first words on the first sheet of paper. The first things I wrote should explain some things about me, and set the pace for the entire story. At least I remembered that much about what my tutor had told me for writing an autobiography. Therefore I needed to say some things about how I had met Cherry. 'I had all of twelve years' experience behind me when was I first formally introduced to Cherry, and was immediately forced to revise some of my ideas about her.'
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
When Baslon came he glared at me and said, "What are you doing here? I thought you had left us and it would have been better if you had." I didn't look up and continued writing. When he went into the living room I slipped in behind him, but wrote on.
"Good evening, my Lady."
"Good evening, Baslon." She spoke harshly and with reluctance.
"Cherry, please, don't be angry with me."
"Why not, if I may ask? You deserve it."
"Cherry!" Baslon looked at her desperately.
"Let me be!"
"Cherry! Stop it!"
"Yes, you don't want me killed, do you?
"I could order you . . . ."
"No, you won't! You don't want my personality changed and you don't want me to start hating you. Not that it isn't too late already!"
"Please, Cherry, calm down. I'll admit I shouldn't have given it to you, if you want. I'll even admit that I took too much blood. Just don't say you hate me! Anything but that. Please Cherry. Forgive me."
"I never forgive." Cherry's chair turned around so Baslon was left facing the back. He stood up and softly walked the few feet that separated them.
"Cherry." She gave a little gasp and started to stand up, but Baslon's hand on her shoulder prevented that. He knelt down in front of her, leaning nearer to her. "I know what your name is."
Cherry's eyes grew wide with fright. Her body grew rigid and she stopped breathing for several seconds. "How?"
"You signed your name to your pictures. I can read elven script." Cherry muttered something unintelligible. "You made a great mistake in . . . ." He didn't finish. Cherry's hand swung around and caught him in the mouth. He stopped speaking, but his grip on her shoulder tightened. A small trickle of blood dripped down his chin. Cherry watched it, fascinated, until Baslon wiped it away. "Are you a vampire yet?" he asked, half laughing. He started to draw her towards himself, but Cherry paled and began struggling.
"No," she whispered. "Can't . . . not hungry."
"If you are not hungry," he whispered, "I am." He continued to bring her slowly closer.
"Someone else." Her speech was slurred.
"If you were a vampire, I wouldn't need to court you. You would simply come to me."
"No."
"Yes." He licked his lips and leaned forward. He placed his teeth on her neck, but did not penetrate the skin.
"Go away."
"No. I love you, Cherry. I love you and will stay with you as long as either one of us lives." She did not move. Baslon pushed down harder and Cherry raised her hand, as if to push him away. This Baslon would not permit and so he grasped both hands and held them down. Cherry struggled no more. She made a queer sound as the teeth slipped the rest of the way into her neck. I bent hurriedly over the sheets of paper in my hand.
"No. Please!" I glanced up. Baslon had slit his wrist and was holding it towards Cherry. She was trying to push it away. He was sitting on an arm of her chair, and his other arm was draped gently across her shoulders.
"My pet, you can not live much longer. This will give you the extra power you need to keep your own personality." He shifted his position on the arm of the chair. "It is what my father did to my mother and what all vampires do when they find a mate. You can't really expect me to be satisfied with simply your beauty! No, your personality is too strong for me to cast it aside."
"Can't."
"Why not?" He stopped pushing his arm against her long enough to tip her face towards him. She didn't exactly look into Baslon's eyes, but in the general direction of them only. He bent closer to her, but Cherry shrank back. He smiled sadly and let her face drop, slipping his cut wrist next to her parted lips. Cherry spluttered and tried not to swallow. "Sh. Drink. The more, the freer you'll be of me and I know how much you value your freedom."
"Please . . . ." Cherry swallowed.
"That's right, that's right," he whispered. "More than just that."
"Haven't promised . . . anything."
"You're too weak to live long. Just until it's time to let Michael go." She closed her eyes. "Don't go to sleep yet. Drink a little more."
"Not hungry."
"You are resisting, Cherry, pet. Keep drinking. You'll come out all right in the end." The blood began to spot her shirt. "Swallow that. You're not an unruly child and even if you were, you can't find the taste that repulsive."
"Like the mind reading," I murmured. Neither of them heard me. I jotted a few more sentences down and watched some more.
"You're ruining your shirt." Cherry coughed a little more, then swallowed.
"Not matter. No more."
"Yes, you must have more than that. I love you, not what you will become. If I give you enough, you'll hardly change at all."
"Don't know that."
"I do know that, and it won't even be enough to seriously weaken me, either."
"Much the worse for me."
"Do you think you are in any shape to fight with me? My pet, you are going to spend your last days alive in bed."
"What if I recover and don't die?"
"Then we'll have to see what happens to Michael."
"Send him off with the elves."
He laughed, but it was coldly and he gave me a hard glance. "So your memory is coming back. I won't take no for an answer. I'll just get rid of the competition if you refuse me."
"Don't see how . . . refuse. Too strong . . . bond. Mice can stay, right?"
"Nothing has to change, except Michael. He must go. And you may have more freedom."
"Be vampire . . . good. Mice nocturnal."
"Yes, pet . . . the mice are nocturnal. And so are my horses, and owls and bats, and sometimes wolves as well. Did you know that a vampire can turn into any living animal?"
"Yes. Some humans can too, and so can some others."
"Such as what?"
"Deadly things. Even when greatly weakened, they are deadly."
"Don't you dare push me away. Was that a threat?"
"Maybe." Cherry's eyes glowed with a startling vigor.
"I don't think you would ever knowingly hurt me. You never have."
"I could kill you."
"You are not drinking. I can spare much more blood. I can spare all the blood in my veins."
"I don't want any more."
"Your mind will always be free if you continue on for a while."
"How long?"
"Until dawn. Or just before."
"I can't keep it up for that long!"
He glanced at the window. "It's not much longer, only an hour or so. Then I'll leave. I won't come immediately tomorrow. I have to look for that ring."
"Michael has it."
"He does, does he?"
"Yes. He tried to put it back on me, but for what reason, I can't tell."
"Maybe we should ask him."
"Michael . . . ." she started.
"To get your attention," I said shortly. "I don't particularly enjoy being ignored." I didn't dare say any more. Baslon didn't like seeing Cherry paying any attention to me. I tossed the ring on the floor so he would not get angry. When he got angry, he scared me.
"Will you take it now?" he asked as he picked it up.
"Later."
"Then," he said, as he put it in his pocket, "I'll just have to see if I can get you to drink any more." He pressed his wrist back against her lips. Cherry leaned back in her chair and looked as though she was trying to faint. "Not that much longer. Just keep it up for a little more."
"Not," swallow, "tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow." He smiled. "Tomorrow you'll be transforming."
"Michael stay . . . wedding?"
"If that means there is a wedding, I suppose. Or he could come back. I really don't see how I can be jealous of someone over my wife." He took the liberty of giving her a quick kiss. "I really must be going now. If you'll agree now, I can carry off a dressmaker tomorrow."
She opened her eyes and yawned. If she had been in full possession of her faculties she would never have said those two words. "I guess." For my part, I guessed that the blood had been some sort of drug.
"I'll have the arrangements started tomorrow night. Good night, sweet Cherry." He trotted out gaily.
As for Cherry, I think she fell asleep as soon as she caused the blood on her shirt to disappear.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Good evening, Cherry!" Cherry coughed a little and turned her head towards Baslon.
"You're late."
"You noticed? That's good. I was busy with a few preparations. Hopefully you remember what for?"
"I made a mistake."
"You won't always consider it a mistake. Where would you like to have the wedding?"
"It doesn't matter."
"I think it does. You'll enjoy it much more if we have it outside. I have a nice large courtyard with a gazebo that I don't think you've ever seen before. I'll carry you there and you can tell me if it's proper."
"I can walk, and since I've never been married before, I wouldn't know if it's proper or not." She got out of bed and stood there, leaning on a bed post.
"I guess I'll just support you," Baslon sighed. "I would like to carry you. You don't suppose you could pretend you were an invalid . . . ."
"No." Baslon sighed again. He took Cherry's hand and began to lead her out of the apartments. I tagged along without an invitation.
We turned to the right. Until now, Cherry and I had always turned left, because that was the way to the door. We always wound up at the door in the end, where Cherry would fiddle with the locks, but never managed to open them. It was a long distance. I had never known any house could be so big, but this castle was, and not only that, it was comfortable, unlike so many English castles. The atrium was not just large, it was gigantic. Large oaks lined the pathways and willows lined the streams. Water lilies floated in fountains as the water splashed over them, with roses blooming around them. The gazebo was almost hidden in the mass of grape vines that covered it. I don't know how, in that cold climate, but birds of paradise were placed here and there and tall sun flowers towered over the bluebells. In short, the garden looked like it was a mixture of all places and hardly a plant was missing, although not all were green and some looked dead. The stars shone brightly because there was no moon to dim them. And Cherry wouldn't raise her head to see anything more than the grass. Not that I minded, but Baslon couldn't show it off to her if she didn't see it.
"Now, he should be arriving soon," said Baslon.
"Who?" asked Cherry, freeing her hand of Baslon's.
"The elf who is to take your servant away."
"Do not call . . . ." The words were lost when Baslon covered her mouth with his, not allowing any struggles. When he broke away from her, a young man was standing near us, the corners of his mouth twitching. Cherry scowled at the ground.
"You would do well to be serious, witch," said Baslon to the elf. The elf instantly bowed once to him and once to Cherry. "Here is the boy. Take him and get you gone."
"Co, sa Wano," said the elf and taking me by the hand, left the atrium.
I remember little of that trip, whether it was short or long, light or dark, loud or soft. It might have been through the air or underground for all I knew or cared.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Hello, Michael," said Vrenkley gently when I was presented to her. "You just stay here for a while so I can make some arrangements for your lodging." She left me behind a tree and a few girls brought me some food. I didn't eat very much, just glanced around me and then sat staring at the floor until just before dawn, when Cherry's mother signalled for me to come forward. I glanced briefly at the elf in front of her and he reminded me painfully of Cherry. His hair was the same ruby of Cherry's and his eyes were purple. I looked away before I started crying.
"Michael," said Vrenkley, "this is Roumlie. You are going to be entrusted to his special care. Roumlie, this is Michael. His Majesty has entrusted him to us and we must be careful not to let him go near the castle until his wedding day." I winced.
"Wedding day?" asked the boy.
"Oh! You have not yet heard? My daughter is going to be married to the king of vampires! The boy seems to have been getting in the way. We are all going to come. Now, I expect you to make sure he behaves himself when we go and keep him as far away from my precious Cherry as possible."
"As you wish." Roumlie bowed to her, took my hand and led me a short distance through the forest. He entered a hole in a dogwood and I followed. The red dirt was packed against the wall and held in place with the roots of the great tree. A bed of leaves was in one corner and two wicker chairs and a table in another. Between them was a fire, with no fireplace. The other walls were lined with cupboards and stained shelves, with some herbs and implements. I stood there, wondering what to do, when Roumlie signaled me to a chair. I looked at him, but before I could register this in my confused mind, he pushed me into the chair he had indicated.
He handed me a plate of food, but I was not hungry, so I stared at it, wondering what to do with it.
"Michael," asked the elf boy, "Are you hungry?" I shook my head and placed the plate on the wicker table. Then I sighed. He ate my portion for me and cleaned up. Then he looked at me for a while from the pallet. I stayed up a long time thinking, but I slept in the end.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
I don't know how or when I woke up, but it must have alarmed Roumlie.
"Calm down!" he said. This served to unnerve me more. Baslon had said that sometimes to Cherry.
"Who are you?" I asked, surprised to find that I could talk. My throat hurt too much to say anything loudly, though.
"I am Roumlie," he said. "An elfish boy."
"An elfish boy," I repeated. Cherry was part elf, or she used to be. "I knew an elfish girl, once."
"Ah. You mean the little half human."
"Yes. She was half human, half elf. Only now Baslon says she is almost entirely a vampire, and Cherry says she might recover and not change at all."
"Baslon?"
"A vampire. A true vampire."
"Likely you are talking about his Majesty. Funny, I never thought of vampires as having names."
"The Lord of Darkness?" I asked.
"Yes, that's another name for his Majesty."
"That's Baslon."
"Your throat hurts, does it not?"
I sat bolt upright. How had he known that? I had taken great care not to let him read my thoughts.
"Yes, it does," he answered for me, going to a cupboard and taking out various herbs, then proceeding to make them into a potion. "Willow bark will take away the pain and the saffron will make it work directly." He looked at me. "I will add some honey so it does not taste as bitter." He held the cup near the fire and then let it cool a few moments before giving it to me. I looked warily at the flagon he handed me and made no move to swallow the mixture. "Drink it."
"Drink . . . ." I paled. What Cherry had last drunk had drugged her in some way and now she could not back out of her agreement.
"It's not blood, if that is what you are thinking." I felt him poking around in my mind and quickly set up a barrier. He accepted the setback with good grace. "It is good for you and will take away the pain." I nearly dropped the cup, though I don't know why and he caught it with amazing quickness and agility. He set it on the table and sighed. "How long are you going to stay here?" he asked.
"Don't know . . . . He told Cherry I could stay for the wedding. Maybe longer."
"Look," I said, "I have to go out for awhile. Will you follow me and promise by your true name not to wander off?"
'What true name?' I thought. Roumlie groaned.
"Never mind. Just stay close, all right?" I nodded. We left the underground tree house.
I remember he kept talking about the things he got from plants, but I can't remember what he said. I do remember what he told me about vervain.
"What does that do?" I asked. "Cherry never explained." Which was only partially true. She had never explained thoroughly enough to satisfy me.
At first his face was indecisive. Then he shrugged and decided to tell me. "It renders most incapable of using their magic. With the humans, I think it has no effect."
"I see." So there was some point to the priests carrying it around. We walked a little farther, then turned back. When he dropped some things and shouted something in another language, I offered to carry some items for him. He accepted my help gratefully.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Roumlie taught me a great deal about herb lore and medicine, as well as woods and forest skills, such as hunting and trapping. Elves don't use arrows, guns, or snares to kill things. They prefer to get right up to the animal they're stalking and kill it up close. Roumlie also proved to be almost as eager as Cherry, if not more, to have me learn to read minds. I think I surprised him by refusing. Sometimes he would glance at me unobtrusively, and I could hear him muttering something about, "Fool humans try to kill themselves. He will die if he doesn't learn." I knew, by the simple fact that I could understand him, that he wanted me to hear. I ignored him.
I began staying in the hole as often as possible, slowly becoming more and more reclusive, as the other elves all talked incessantly of the upcoming event, namely, Cherry's wedding. Roumlie noticed this, although I don't think he guessed the reason and only went out when it was necessary. I was never left unguarded, but I probably wouldn't have tried to run away even if I could. I was a guest, but also a prisoner. I didn't care any more.
"Michael, do you want to go to the wedding?"
"Cherry wanted me to go," I said, glancing up from the floor.
"You do not have to go if you do not want to."
"I don't think that's an option for me." I really didn't know whether I wanted to or not, because I didn't know whether it would make me more or less miserable to see Cherry again.
"Well, if you decide you do not wish to go, just tell me. I think I can arrange it so you can stay here."
"I probably won't change my mind."
"If you say so."
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
They were married the next day. Cherry's eyes were furious, and seemed to be glowing fantastically. They were much, much redder than usual. She wore an elaborate gown of gold brocade, and her hair was arranged up inside a shining coronet. It was like the time before her initiation being replayed, only with a different colored 'sun'. Her amulet also glowed faintly red. I could not understand much of the sermon, so I will include none of it. Cherry was very reluctant to go through with the marriage, and I believe she gave Baslon a good deal of trouble. At one point, it looked almost as if he were ready to strangle her. Cherry went on only after making sure he, and everyone else, knew exactly how much she hated it.
"Michael," said Roumlie as soon as the ceremony was over, "you need to stay as far away from the princess as possible. It would mean my life, probably, if you were seen with her." I glanced at him, thinking that if I wanted to see Cherry, I would simply have to look at him. There was a close resemblance.
"I won't go to any trouble to seek Cherry out," I assured him, "but I won't go to any trouble to stay away from her."
"If you say so. I do not particularly want to be executed." I gave him a half hearted smile and looked over the crowd to where Cherry stood.
Another elf greeted Roumlie at this moment and at the same time Cherry caught my eye. She said something to Baslon and instantly slipped away from him and out of my sight. I was trying to discover where she had gotten to when Roumlie said something angrily to me.
"Michael."
"What?"
"I'd like you to come with me."
"Why?"
"Because if you will not go to any pains to avoid the half human, I will, to keep you apart. It would rest much easier on my mind that way." He quickly and deliberately led me away from the direction Cherry was approaching from, as I now saw.
I followed slowly, hoping Cherry would catch up, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her stop to talk with one of the pompous figures of an elven general.
'Hello, Michael.'
I stopped dead at the voice in my head. "Cherry," I whispered.
"I guess," said Roumlie, putting a supporting hand on my elbow, "that you had better sit down. I'll take my chances with execution." He seated me on a bench and Cherry instantly caught up with us. "Good evening, your Majesty," he said, bowing.
"Not necessarily," she said, bowing back.
"Not necessarily what?" he asked, taken aback.
"A good evening. In fact I would say it has been a very poor evening, no matter what anyone else may say."
"Why do you hold this opinion, if I may ask?" He bowed again. She raised an eyebrow at this.
"Anyone who had to marry a vampire before they themselves were a vampire would likely hold a similar view."
"What?" I looked quickly at her. Although her skin was not as rosy as it had been, it was as red as many a farmers daughter would have. Cherry was herself, not what I'd dreaded she would be. She was a living half elf and could still be exposed to sunlight without damage.
"Yes, it is a strange condition, isn't it?"
"Yes," Roumlie said.
"How could you recover so quickly?" I inquired.
"It is not entirely my blood that the blood that was taken was restored with."
"Oh."
"Baslon made me drink his blood," she explained to Roumlie.
"Baslon?"
"I believe you would call him . . . your Majesty."
"Ah, yes. Michael told me that."
"Good." Then she turned abruptly around. "I'll thank you not to follow me around all the time," she said coldly, glaring at Baslon.
"I like to know where you are at all times," he said with a slight smile. She turned around, not deigning to look at him even the slightest amount. "I won't go away just by your wishing it."
"So much the worse for me."
"But your Majesty . . . ." He stopped abruptly, his smile hovering still on his lips.
"Now, don't start that!" Cherry said furiously, turning back around. "It's enough that my own people call me that, but don't you think you aggravate me enough?"
"Yes, but now that you are my wife, it is true even for me. You're not just a princess, you are a queen."
She stared at him a moment while registering this comment. Then she let out a groan, thought a moment and began swaying rhythmically from side to side.
"I don't know why," said Baslon tentatively, watching Cherry carefully, even nervously, "but I get the feeling the I am not going to like what you are going to do."
I watched her also. The gold wedding dress that Cherry seemed to have so much trouble maneuvering grew tighter around her body and she started actually shrinking. I heard Roumlie give a little squeak at my side. Cherry's hair stiffened and grew into her body. Her skin broke up into separate pieces, like scales on a fish or reptile. She lowered her head just a little bit, scanning her new body and ceasing to sway. Instead of a girl, in Cherry's place was a gold and red adder.
It, or she, coiled around my leg. She crawled up the entire length of my body and settled in several loops around my neck.
"Tell me, Baslon, were you right that you did not like this?" she hissed in a human like voice.
"I would prefer that you tell me what you are going to do before you do it," said Baslon. "You gave me quite a shock."
"Maybe you would have preferred I crawled up you, then."
"Your Majesty?" said Roumlie uncertainly to the serpent around my neck.
"Yes?" The young elf fidgeted with his feet, trying to think of something important sounding to say. Cherry saved him the trouble. "Hold out your hand." He obeyed and she transferred herself to it. He jerked with surprise, but tried (rather unsuccessfully) to remain still. "Be still, young one." She raised her head to look at his face. "Or perhaps not so young. Older than me, at any rate."
"Yes, your Majesty." She was satisfied with that and the snake went back to the ground and became a girl again.
"I'll apologize to all of you gentlemen for my little performance." She switched her view from a neutral point between the three of us to Baslon. "Stay here. I prefer to be by myself." The new queen turned and walked away.
"If you'll excuse me," Roumlie said, trying to leave.
"Only providing you stay away from her," snapped Baslon.
"Surely you don't think . . . ." He stopped at the anger in the vampires' eyes.
"Are you resisting me then, witch?"
"No, your Majesty."
"You will obey me, then?"
"I will do as you command."
"Then take the boy with you."
I frowned. "If Cherry heard you, you wouldn't like the results."
"You will stay away from her Majesty," the other hissed threateningly.
"I don't think you'll do anything to stop me. It might look bad for you to be seen fighting with her." Baslon left before his temper got the better of him, proving I was correct. Roumlie would not allow me to get near Cherry for the rest of the evening.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
Hello, Michael," said Baslon, looking around uncomfortably. He shifted his feet in the dust. He must not have liked talking with me, but I could not see why he would be uncomfortable about it. Angry, yes, but not uncomfortable.
"I'm busy," I said flatly, gripping a sharpened pen that still dripped with ink and the last few pages of my mind's soon-to-end escape. The two of us stood just outside Roumlie's underground tree house, in the middle of the Mnerecros tribe's only permanent settlement, a few miles from Baslon's castle. For one reason or another, just now I was less afraid of Baslon now than I had ever been.
"With what?" He distinctly avoided looking at me directly. That was curious. This was the first time I had thought that he might not like being a vampire himself. He certainly made use of his abilities, though!
"Something to keep my mind occupied," I said tightly. I clamped my teeth shut firmly, glaring at him, then at the ground with equal fury. Whether I did fear Baslon or not, I still hated him.
Baslon took a deep breath that when expelled showed very little vapor on the chill autumn air. "Her Majesty insisted I apologize for making your life miserable."
My head came up in surprise at this, and I licked my lips nervously. "You may tell her that it wasn't entirely you who did that."
"Yes, but I came to apologize, and her Majesty is going to refuse to talk to me until you accept the apology." He made a slight bow towards me. For some reason, at that moment I remembered he was supposed to be a king, and I grinned humorlessly. A king bowing to me, Michael York!
"Tell Cherry I accepted, then, and let me get back to my work." I turned to leave, then turned back with irritation when he spoke again.
"I have a gift for you." He reached into his coat pocket for something.
"As I recall, Cherry didn't like any of the gifts you gave her," I said tightly.
"I didn't know what her tastes were then. And you don't have to like it to take it." He reached into his pocket and drew out a leather sheath. He drew the poniard and handed the hilt to me. The blade was sharp and long, the hilt small. I glanced at him almost curiously.
"What . . . ?"
His black eyes were strangely unhappy. He had gotten what he wanted. Why would he be unhappy? "I was planning to do the same thing if Cherry chose you." I licked my lips again and nodded. The vampire left. I turned around and slowly walked back inside, examining the dagger. It would make a clean cut. There would be minimal pain. This just might be the best route. It was the best route. There was nothing more for me in this world.
That happened only a few moments ago. Now, as I am writing these last few words, the gift and the suggestion Baslon gave me are near. Roumlie is out and I see no reason to not go ahead with my plan. This account may be worthless to the outside world. It was nothing more for me than an attempt to get my mind off Cherry, and it has succeeded thus far. It need not do so any longer. I will no longer think of her always. I will be happy from this time on. That I promise myself.
I beseech to my God that He may forgive me for my sins. There is no reason the religion of these people should have prevented me from friendship, and it has not. Today I am satisfied to be within the home of an elf who has been my friend. Tomorrow is a day I shall not see.
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
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