Chapter 24

The castle was like a giant coffin at night since everyone – save for the guards at their posts – was asleep. As Mykella waited in Barbus’ bedchamber for word to get back to her, she found it amusing to think that it was night inside a dream; that she had passed several hours from early evening to dark. And after another half hour staring out through the only tiny window in the room, boredom crept upon her young anxious mind.

Since this was a dream, one that she didn’t dare wake from, she decided that no harm would come if she took a self-guided tour around the castle; she had never been inside one after all.

She stood up from the chair that was brought up to his room and went over to the door and hesitated before opening it. She tried to listen for any sign of someone walking the halls, but all was as silent as it had been when she was secretly ushered into the room. She pushed the door open and poked her head out first. There was a secret rush of adrenaline at the thought that she might get caught in an area where she wasn’t allowed to go.

No one was in view so she stepped out into the torch-lit hall. She walked with short steps at first until she felt comfortable enough that no danger was in sight. While she walked, with her back almost up against the wall, she found that she kept looking behind her.

It was a dark, horrid place really, and she was beginning to ask herself why she even wanted to leave the safety of Barbus’ room. What was she thinking, wanting to go out without someone who knew where they were going? In a few minutes she had decided that she would return to the room.

But first, there was a peculiar noise she wanted to investigate which seemed to be bouncing off the walls in low, almost inaudible moans and cries. She thought the noise was actually coming from below her, somewhere in the lower level. She didn’t know if she really wanted to venture down two flights of stairs in the middle of the night in her enemies’ lair.

However, being a young woman who had been locked away her entire life, curiosity got the better of her and so she had decided, after little mental deliberation, to find the stairs and find whatever was making that odd noise.

Where was she going to find the stairs in this place she didn’t know? And where the hell has Barbus gone? He was supposed to be back in his room shortly after dark. She let her mind wander and she kept walking straight ahead until she came to a door only an inch or two taller than she was.

Mykella turned around and saw that the hall was still as empty as it had been minutes earlier when she first left Barbus’ room. She turned back to the wood door and gently knocked on it. For some reason this door was important to her but she didn’t understand why. She lowered her head and tried to remember her journey to Barbus’ room and then it hit her – they had come through this door as they had walked up the stairs.

She pulled on the iron handle and felt the door open. She moved to one side, just enough to get her body through the doorway. She moved her head past the door and saw that, just as she remembered, a spiral staircase made of stone led down. Here torches were lit as well along the curved wall.

Mykella took one slow step at a time as she descended the stairs and was relieved to find that she had reached the first floor undetected. But as she had thought, she had heard the noises from the lower level. She had to find another set of stairs that led one more floor down.

Down on the first floor the moonlight danced off every metallic structure which created a very luminous floor, regardless of what time of night it was.

No matter how much light there was in this part of the castle, there was nothing that could raise her spirits as she walked around the graven Great Hall. Here, in this gigantic hall, she spied a dozen or so sleeping men and women as they had fallen asleep on the eating benches or else on the floor lining the walls.

She was careful to walk through the hall because she really didn’t want to wake anyone because she was afraid that they would be in a bad mood if they got woken too early.

Mykella found her way to the enormous kitchen (of course it was enormous; it had to feed an entire fortress!) and found another set of stairs that led down into the bowels of this fortress – almost hidden behind the larger hearth. She would not rest her mind until she found the source of the noise so she walked down this flight of steps as well.

And now as she walked down these steps she could hear the low moaning as it got a little louder – it sounded like they were muffled moans; as if someone were trying to quiet themselves. She found the floor several minutes later and listened for the noise as she walked from door to door.

This level of the castle was just one long, darker hall with doors lining the walls. Since the doors were closed, she had to put her ear up to everyone she passed.

At last she found the door she so needed to find and very gently, she placed her hand on it and gave it a light push. When it was open just enough for her to get a small view of the room, she was sickened by what she saw.

She had found the young Orion although she had thought that she would never find him in such a ghastly act as she saw upon peering into the room. In that brief twenty-second glance she had noticed a low table carved from stone, a tall chair, and a large fireplace devoid of flames. She saw, too, another door at the opposite side of the room.

But what frightened her, what made her stifle a cry before turning away, was the view of Orion (Fear – she must remember that name) standing in front of a woman, both naked with sweat making their flesh glisten in the torch light. The woman had her back to Orion and his hands were squeezing her buttocks so ferociously that he had left red marks on each cheek.

The moans were coming from the young woman who had her wrists chained to either side of the fireplace. Mykella saw that blood was flowing down her arms from where the shackles cut into her wrists.

Mykella didn’t want to watch any more so she turned and as she did, her shoulder nudged the door causing a thud louder than she had hoped it would. Just as the door closed she heard Orion shout “Who spies?” She didn’t dare answer the call but ran the way she had come.

The door burst open just as Mykella reached a third of the way to the stairs. “Halt!”

She didn’t stop. She realized that, hypothetically speaking, she was four years older than Orion (he was sixteen and she, twenty) but she also knew that he had certain powers given to him by Ilias.

“I said halt, damn you! Guards!”

Mykella stopped and turned around to look at Orion. He wasn’t running. Why? And then she understood – the sound of many feet thundered down the stairs just out of view.

She stood there frozen in fright as she glanced at Orion and then the steps. Now was not the time to fight Orion – she was most certainly out-numbered.

Then a sight momentarily changed her feelings when she saw that it was Barbus who emerged from the stairwell first. He stopped just as he approached Mykella – there was a look of wonderment reflected in his eyes as he realized that it was her. He grabbed her arm and addressed Orion. “My Prince,” he began, “this is Grendel blood. Allow me to take her to her Queen before we sentence her.”

Orion laughed. “Sentence? She has been sentenced to death already.” He walked up to Mykella. “You present a familiar likeness,” he replied and then looked at her clothes. “Though interesting garments my mother makes you wear.”

He reached out and touched her red hair and a peculiar sensation ran through his body and he turned to Barbus. “Very well, Master Whitaker. Take her to her Queen so she can tell her farewell.”

Barbus bowed his head with an “as you wish, my Prince.” But before Orion took his leave to return to that awful scene Mykella had recently witnessed, he looked at Barbus.

“And Master Whitaker, I want her in my chambers immediately after. I wish to discuss matters with her,” he said and took one final look at her. Where have I seen her?

Barbus fought back the sigh but merely bowed his head a second time and turned around, still holding her arm. Once he was sure Orion was out of earshot, “I thought I told you to wait for me in my chamber,” he whispered in a scolding manner behind gritted teeth.

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“I just thought,”

“No; think not of the present but of your future. Come, I need you to meet someone.”

“The Queen,” replied Mykella as she looked at him.

“Perhaps she could tell you how she foresaw the prophecies. I meant what I said,” he said and looked into her young face. “She is your blood.”

Mykella stole a glance behind her and saw that Orion had disappeared inside the same room and then she stopped and turned to face Barbus. “You mean that I have Lady Samantha’s blood?”

Mykella wasn’t really sure if she wanted to meet the Queen; she was, after all, Orion’s mother. And from what she has heard from her father, the Queen wasn’t fighting the war to maintain peace – it was to make sure her prophecies came to pass.

Barbus was already inside the dark room when he noticed that Mykella had hesitated. He turned back around and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Please, it will be alright.”

“Where were you when you left me in your room?” She had to make sure that everything was indeed all right as he had promised – she needed to trust him.

“I was in here, talking to my Queen. I went up to get you, but you had already gone.”

She shook her head in doubt. “I would have seen you – we should have passed each other.”

Barbus tried hard not to laugh, especially since he was in his Queen’s cell chamber, but a small one escaped nonetheless. “Fear does not know all of the passageways in this castle. It was his father, actually, who showed me a quicker way to the second floor.”

“Barbus,”

He fell silent as a weary voice called out to him from the darkness. It was a beautiful soft voice that told the story of agony and defeat. He turned his head in the direction of the Queen’s voice.

“With whom are you talking?”

Barbus turned back to Mykella. “Come with me and talk with your Queen.”

Before she could say that she had no Queen, he took her soft hand and drew her inside the room. She was surprised to discover an enormous room, lack of any decoration, with several smaller cages – all but one had been unoccupied.

“Darvon does not like to keep prisoners,” explained the Queen when they approached her cage. It stank of urine and feces and the cage itself wasn’t much larger than her mother’s bedroom back at the apartment.

Mykella didn’t know the proper etiquette when meeting royalty but when she saw Barbus had bowed his head, she mimicked the gesture. How could all this be happening inside a dream? Meeting the Queen was one thing, but she really didn’t know how this could affect her own real time.

“You are living inside Orion,” the Queen said as she read Mykella’s thoughts.

“You read minds,” commented Mykella behind a grin. “And you know his other name.”

Nanaac smiled. “He has told me that, after tonight, he will change his name to that of Orion; name of his god,” she said. “Everything that happens inside him – his dreams – will affect his person. So you must be cautioned.” Then she turned her attention to Barbus. “Leave us; I wish to talk with her in private,” she said and Barbus nodded his head, turned around, and went back to the door where he opened it. He made sure no one was in the hall before slipping out and closing the door behind him.

Once the door was closed, Nanaac leaned forward with such speed that it frightened Mykella. She grabbed the bars. “You must kill him…tonight.”

Mykella backed away several feet. “I thought you wanted your prophecies fulfilled.”

“He is going to sacrifice me tomorrow. I am afraid to die.” Tears were running down the Queen’s face as she fell to her knees and pushed her forehead up against the cold bars.

“You saw that happen?”

“Nay,” Nanaac replied, “Darvon told me himself. He thought it would give him pleasure to see my reaction.”

Mykella went back to the cage and placed her hands on the Queen’s. “Barbus is helping me, but you must know – you must believe – that whatever happens, God will take you in with open arms. This I have seen…this I know.”

Nanaac closed her eyes and nodded her head shamefully. “I know now why you were chosen. For sixteen years I had abandoned God,” she said and then looked at Mykella with a sorrowful smile on her young face. “You speak the truth. No matter what will come to pass, I have my place in the heavens…because of you…you have opened the gates once again.”

Mykella didn’t know what would happen any more than the Queen, but now, as she watched the Queen kneeling before her, she finally understood what she was meant to do; and it had nothing to do with saving mankind in a mortal sense.

Mykella stood up and bowed to the Queen. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said and then turned her back to head back to the door.

“Many thanks, Mykella. You have already saved me. You are my Queen,” called Nanaac as she watched Mykella open the door.

She found Barbus standing in the hall guarding the door and when he saw her emerge from the room, she looked up at him. “Well, now what do we do?”

Barbus laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “That is a secret,” he said and she pushed away from him.

“No – no secrets. I’ve lived twenty years full of secrets. I want answers, damnit.” She could no longer hide the anger and frustration. She was in a war – bloodless as it may seem now – and she had no time for any more secrets.

“I have sent word to the House of Grendel. An army should arrive in two days.”

“Two days? We can’t wait that long. We need them here tonight.” She was surprised to find herself shouting and had to calm herself, otherwise Orion might hear and return.

“M’Lady,” he said, “Grendel Keep is in the Eastern country – across a large sea. Two days is the quickest any man could travel such a distance.”

Mykella sighed in defeat. “Then it’ll have to be up to you and me to fight him.” She didn’t like the sound of it any better than Barbus; but the fact remains that ever since their meeting in his office this afternoon, she had changed her mindset. She was ready to launch her own war by herself just this morning, but when she met Barbus, she was hoping for a lot of men with weapons to back her up.

“I do not think that will be possible, M’Lady,” he replied. “As I have already told you, half this castle is in legion with Fear.”

There was still hope. “Then you must know those who are against him.”

Barbus lowered his head and cursed himself for his loose tongue. “Aye,” he said with a sigh.

“You must find them…now…tonight.”

He shook his head. “They are either asleep or drunk beyond standing. There is no chance of getting that many men ready so quickly.”

“Then we sneak into his chamber and slit his throat,” she said as ideas were running thin.

“You would have more of a chance to assassinate either Darvon or that Pope.” Barbus tried not to laugh at her idea. He knew she was trying her damnedest. “Fear has more guards than his father – why, I do not know,” he explained.

“There must be something we can do.”

Barbus thought for a moment and then came up with an idea. “I shall go through with my original plan – steal that cursed book of his. He will most likely notice it missing and I will let Fear know it is I who has it. He will undoubtedly put his guards after me and that will give you the chance to strike at him.”

Neither one liked the sound of it. Barbus didn’t especially like the thought of being chased by Fear’s guards – at least a hundred – and Mykella didn’t like the idea of attacking Orion by herself, on his territory. But they both agreed that this was the best idea they could come up with under the circumstances.

Mykella sat in the same chair that had been brought up to Barbus’ room, trying to work out a plan of attack. Occasionally she would let her mind wander as she tried to imagine a normal life; one without living in fear. And then she would take a glance over at the sleeping man in his bed.

When Barbus had offered to make a bed for her, she had declined, reminding him that she was in a dream already and would not require rest. She told him that she would not rest until Orion was dead.

As she watched him sleep, she wondered why he was in the Queen’s cell for so long. Surely Nanaac would have agreed to the attack the second he had suggested it. So why the long delay?

Was there something he wasn’t telling her? Was he really working with Orion and was waiting for the proper time to kill her? No matter what worries she had, she knew that she had to put her trust in him. If this mission failed, so what? Orion had told her to find him in the future.

Mykella leaned back in the chair and pondered her mission. She had told Orion that she wanted to know more about him and here she was trying to kill the young man-child.

She closed her eyes and sighed, trying to figure out what the hell she was doing. Did she really feel she had what it took to kill Orion as a child? Maybe she’d have better chances seeing the beast in his present state.

She opened her eyes and was about to stand, to reach over and wake Barbus to tell him that she had decided against her plan. But she felt a strong hand close over her mouth as someone reached her from behind. She struggled to pry the hand off her mouth, which had covered her nose as well, in an attempt to shout for help, but in a matter of a couple of minutes she felt consciousness slipping from her; and in that last moment, she thought it ironic that she should be losing consciousness inside a dream.