The Wretched

by Brad Carsten

  She had to bring it back to have the curse removed. Kaylyn held her breath, and her small fingers reached for the amulet tucked neatly into his shirt. Alfie had held his breath, in the story of 'The Boy and the Jeweled Chalice,' when he was trying to take the chalice out of the sleeping bandit's arms, and now kaylyn was glad she'd read the story before coming here. He'd also taken off his shoes as kaylyn had done, and had avoided creaking floorboards. The palace didn't have any floorboards—the floors were made of stone, but Kaylyn was sure to step carefully.

  With trembling hands, she slipped the amulet out of his shirt.

  Her father snorted and turned onto his side, and Kaylyn pulled her arm away just in time. She stood frozen to the spot until his snoring started up again.

  Screwing up her face, she reached for the cord behind his neck, and began working the small knot. Her arms began to ache from holding them out for so long, and she pretended that a wizard had put a curse on them, to try to stop her from reaching the bandit's treasure. She would remove the curse, and her father would get better, and everything would go back to how it had always been.

  The knot pulled free, and the pendant slipped down into his blankets. She clenched her fists in frustration. The only way to get it now would be to lean over him, but she was too short.

  She reached out her arms as far as they would go. “Please, please, please,” she whispered under her breath and even stood on her tiptoes, but still she couldn't reach it.

  And then her father turned, and he looked straight at her. “Kaylyn?” His voice sounded raspy. “What are you doing?”

  Kaylyn tried to think of something to say, but her mind was blank.

  “What are you doing here?” His face was hard. He was going to be angry. He was going to shout at her.

  She began to cry, and then his face softened, and he lifted her into bed with him. “Did you have another nightmare? Come lie here with me for a time.”

  As she climbed in, she spotted the pendant in the blankets, and snatched it up, hoping he hadn't seen it. Curling up against her father's stomach, she slipped it under her nightgown, between her knees.

  “What did you dream about?”

  Kaylyn couldn't speak. She was afraid that her father would know what she was up to, and so she kept quiet. He didn't ask her again, and she lay there, listening to the curtains blowing into the room, and feeling his stomach warming her back. This would all be over soon. She'd help him, and everything would be okay again. She waited quietly, until his breathing slowed, and his snoring returned.

  She turned her head back, as much as she could, to look at him, half expecting those dark eyes to be staring at her, but his eyes were closed.

  Quietly, she slid the cold pendant out and looked at it. Even in her hands, it felt too cold—cold and heavy.

  She crept out of the bed, and when her feet touched the floor, she ran. She wanted to move quietly, to avoid the 'creaking floorboards,' but her heart was beating too hard, and she ran. Her father must have woken up, because he said something, but she never heard what it was.

  Those were the final words he ever spoke to her, probably to anyone, and she'd missed it. For years after that, she lay awake at night, hoping that it would come to her in a dream, but it never did.

  She left the door open, and she ran, her bare feet pattering down the cold passage. She realised that she'd left her slippers behind, but she didn't stop to go back for them.

  She tied the amulet around her neck, and slipped it into her nightgown, and only slowed again once she reached the two guards out in the hall.

  “My Lady,” one of the guards said as she passed, and she offered him a small curtsey. At the end of the hall, instead of turning into her room, she carried on to the dining hall. Giant windows overlooking the royal gardens painted blue squares across the tiled floor. She pretended that she was going out to meet the prince without a throne, as Princess Aurora had done in the story of the golden fleece. Kael had shown her the secret way out through the panel in the wall.

  She counted, one, two, three panels across and pushed. It clicked, and she could slide it aside. A small flight of stairs led down to the king's library and out of the apartments.

  The shelf swung open, and she climbed through.

  Rows and rows of Books towered in front of her—books of all sizes and colours. There were thousands of them stacked from floor to ceiling. Most of them were about the different kingdoms and calculations and things that had happened in the past, or they were filled with poems that Kaylyn loved to hear even if she couldn't understand them. The library also held the greatest collection of tales in all the kingdom, even more than the great library that everyone else used. The king had filled the back shelves for her, and even brought a small, padded chair for her to sit in when she wanted to lose herself in a book.

  “Hello,” came Master Byram's old shaky voice. Light from a lantern spilled out from between the shelves, growing larger as his footsteps drew closer. He was still up. The man spent his entire life in the library. He was as much a part of it as the books.”

  Kaylyn crept in the opposite direction, and just managed to slip behind the shelf as he came out to investigate. She ran down the aisle, and through the large double doors at the entrance.

  A large Will tree grew up alongside the palace right by the window. She had climbed down it many times before, but never at night, and she almost lost her footing when she stepped from the window sill onto the fork in the trunk.

  She struggled to climb with Abercrombie in her arms, but she couldn't leave him behind—not on her most important adventure yet.

  She somehow managed to climb down and dropped the last few feet into the grass. The garden was cold and dark. Shadows blew back and forth across the bluegrass and stones. Clouds were billowing across the sky, and Kaylyn was so frightened she almost climbed back inside, but she thought about her father's joy when he would finally hear about what she had done. She could picture him sitting in bed, with that strong smile that she hadn't seen for such a long time. Perhaps then, he'd know that she was good, and that he could let her out of the palace. What reason would they have to keep her locked away if she saved the king's life? People wouldn't be afraid of her anymore, and they wouldn't mind that she could cast, because she was good. People would love her again as they did before her assessment.

  The thought warmed her heart, and it gave her the courage to take that first step out into the night.

  She reached the bottom of the garden where Madam Auralis had arranged to meet her.

  She jumped as a figure in a black cloak stepped out of the shadows.

  “Kaylyn. Thank the light of mercy, I didn't think you'd make it. Did you get it?”

  Kaylyn nodded. “Can you really take the curse off of it?”

  “Of course. Everything will be just fine. Your father will be fine. You did the right thing.” Kaylyn could barely make out her face beneath the cowl. There was something strange about her eyes, and her mouth twitched. Kaylyn wasn't as strong in the power, she could hardly do anything that Auralis showed her, and often marvelled at how strong the woman was. Madam Auralis had always taught her to keep it hidden, but now, Kaylyn could smell it on her. She had been casting.

  Kaylyn touched the amulet around her neck.

  “That's it. Give it to me.”

  Kaylyn looked past Madam Auralis towards the gates. How did she get into the garden? She wasn't allowed that close to the palace. She saw the lumps lying in the grass, and the gate hanging slightly ajar. She saw the still faces of the men, and she grew afraid.

  Madam Auralis turned to see what had caught her eye. “Oh, they're just sleeping, that's all. I had to put them to sleep to get to you. Kaylyn, I had to put them to sleep. Now give me the pendant.”

  Kaylyn began backing away. “Don't be foolish, girl. Give it to me, or your father will die. Do you want to be known as the girl who let the king die? Do you know what they'll do to you? They'll lay your head on the block and chop it
off, and that'll be more than you deserve.” She spat the words out.

  Your name will be as mud to your family.” Madam Auralis snatched for her, but Kaylyn was small, and she slipped free and ran.

  “You wicked child,” Madam Auralis screeched. Kaylyn felt Gaharah gathering. The instructor was so strong, like the three headed hydra that towered above Captain Rumshaw's ship. The ground crawled with it. Kaylyn opened herself to Gaharah, to protect herself, but it was snatched away in Madam Auralis' stream, like shielding a candle on the towers where the wind was strong enough to blow a child off the side.

  Kaylyn tripped in the grass, and hit her knee. She rolled onto her back, crying, as Madam Auralis' shadow lengthened over her. The cowl had come off her head and her eyes were black. Her cloak whipped around her. Kaylyn had felt some of Madam Auralis' power during her lessons, and even then, she'd been afraid, but she now realised that she'd only seen a tiny pinch of what her instructor was capable of. The last time she'd felt like that was when she beat Kael at wrestling. She'd felt so strong until she saw him in a tournament, and realised that he'd let her win. She'd given it everything, she was huffing and puffing, and he was toying with her.

  The sky darkened. It twisted around her. It crackled with energy. “If you don't give it to me, I'll burn it out of your filthy hands.” A dozen threads wrapped around Kaylyn's small body. She screamed, but one of those threads filled her mouth, and nose, and no sound could escape. Madam Auralis voice echoed around her. The doll turned to dust in Kaylyn's hands.

  Kaylyn clutched the pendant, and tried again to open herself to Gaharah. Something flickered. She grabbed onto it, and Madam Auralis began to laugh. “Do you really think you can use that—that worm of power against me? You, a worthless girl, whose parents didn't even want her. The world would be better off if you'd never been born.”

  Tears ran down Kaylyn's cheeks, and her power wriggled free.

  “You worthless girl. You're good for nothing. You bring nothing but hurt and misery to the people around you.” Madam Auralis' threads pull back, digging at Kaylyn's flesh. Her bones clicked as they began to rip free from their sockets. She screamed and choked as the thread buried deeper into her throat. Her power was just out of reach. It was so close. She stretched for it, stretched. She touched it, she made the connection and it swept through her, but instead of stopping there, it was sucked into the pendant, and everything froze. Madam Auralis stood before her, arms outstretched, veins jutting in her neck, but she wasn't moving. Even so, those eyes kept Kaylyn paralyzed with fear. She couldn't move. The air swirled behind Madam Auralis forming a circle in the sky, and a man stepped through. He was dressed like a soldier, and he looked confused. Blood ran down his temple into his shirt, and covered most of his face but Kaylyn recognised him right away. “Kael,” she screamed, and ran to him. She threw out her arms, but she hit into something between them, like glass. She screamed and sobbed for him, but she couldn't reach him. He put his hand out to her and she put hers out to him, and they were stopped just short of touching each other.

  He said something, but it sounded like he was underwater. She couldn't hear him. He said it again, a little clearer this time. He looked angry, or maybe worried. “Rrrrr...”

  And then the words hit her. “RUN!”

  Madam Auralis was beginning to move again. Slowly. Slowly. Her eyes were turning to Kaylyn.

  “Run!” Kael was screaming.

  Kaylyn turned and ran. She stumbled over her nightgown, and tripped more than once. The tree was just ahead. She threw herself at it and climbed, scratching her face and hands and knees on the small branches.

  A moth floated in midair, its wings moving ever so slightly. With a swooshing sound, time returned to normal, and the moth fluttered away. Behind her, Madam Auralis screeched and Kaylyn felt the power drawing back.

  She leapt through the open window, and fell onto the hard floor as the glass shattered above her. Kaylyn scrambled to get up, cutting her hands and bare feet in the broken pieces of glass. She reached the library and skidded to a halt. Master Byram lay sprawled out on the floor with his throat ripped out. Kaylyn covered her mouth to stop from screaming, but couldn't quite hold it back.

  Something dark and spidery rose from behind a fallen bookshelf. Its teeth were like daggers. A low rumble sounded in its throat, growing louder, and louder. Kaylyn couldn't move. The creature slinked forward; those eyes boring into her.

  With a scream, Master Kempsdane ran past her, carrying a spear.

  The creature leapt and Master Kempsdane jabbed his spear into its heart. The creature slammed into him and they both hit the floor and rolled. The creature snapped at him, but he brought a knife up and hit it over and over and over again. Black blood sprayed over his face, but he kept hitting, and screaming until it was no longer moving. He kicked the creature off of him and, breathing hard, he staggered to Kaylyn and swept her up in his arms. “We have to go away for a while.” He looked sad. “Something bad has happened.”

  All around them, Kaylyn could hear people screaming.”

  “I want to see Daddy. Where's Daddy.”

  “I'm sorry.” He pulled her into a hug and his voice cracked. “I'm so, so sorry.”

  She began to scream, but he picked her up and carried her over to the bookcase. She clutched him as she buried her head in his chest, but it didn't matter how hard she cried, she just couldn't get rid of the pain in her heart. “No, you're lying, you're lying, you're lying.” She screamed it over and over until her voice gave in. “I've got his amulet. He's safe. He's safe.” Master Kempsdane carried her inside the tunnel. The light cut off, as he slid the shelf back into place. “I'm sorry,” was all he could say. “I'm so, so sorry, Kaylyn.” She watched the shelf growing smaller behind her, and knew deep down that things would never be the same again. From this day on, she'd be all alone in this world.

  Master Kempsdane led her down the secret tunnel that her brother had once shown her—the tunnel she'd dreamt of using so often over the years. It came out in a flower merchant's shop, where a woman was pacing up and down.

  “Madam Hollis,” Master Kempsdane said. “Have you got the carriage ready?”

  “It's out back with a driver.” She touched a hand to Kaylyn's cheek. “Is she okay? The poor thing.”

  “She'll be fine if we can get her out of the city.”

  “Light failing, Madam Hollis said. “We prepared for this for a long time, but I never thought it would come to this.”

  Outside, fire had spread across the city. Houses were burning. People were screaming. A man lay sprawled out on the street, his insides spilling out around him. The horses were stepping nervously.

  Master Kempsdane bundled Kaylyn into the wagon, but she screamed and tried to hold onto him. He forced her inside, and shut the door and locked it. She hit the glass panel over and over again, screaming for him. He pressed a hand to the window, just for a moment before running around to the driver's seat.

  The wagon jerked, and Kaylyn was thrown back.

  The wagon jolted from side to side as the wheels bounced over things that were lying in the road—things and people. Kaylyn curled up in a ball on the backseat burying her head in the cushion, and covering her ears to try to block out the screams, or the voices telling her that her father would still be alive if she hadn't taken the amulet, but she couldn't escape Madam Auralis' words boring into her head, that the world would be better off if she had never been born.

  ***

  Kaylyn knelt in the shrubs watching, waiting hardly daring to breathe. She'd been holding onto the string for at least an hour, with her stomach growling from not having eaten yet, but she was on an adventure and this was more important than food.

  She'd slipped outside when the sky was beginning to lighten, and now it had crossed the distant mountains. She didn't have much time left. She had to get back into her room before Master Kempsdane came to wake her. Something moved, and her heart quickened. A tiny brown face appeared under one of the shru
bs. Its nose twitched, and it hopped forward, one hop, two hops.

  “That's it,” she whispered. “Just a little closer. There's something delicious under there.”

  Whenever she got up to go to the privy in the early hours of the morning, she'd see the rabbits playing out in the huge manor grounds, and it made her heart flutter. Master Kempsdane wouldn't allow her to have a pet, and Kaylyn begged him, but he was quite adamant about it. He said she wasn't ready to look after something, but she was ten, and she desperately, desperately wanted a little living thing to take care of. She'd love it, and she'd keep it clean, and she'd let it snuggle up to her at night. Winter was coming, and the poor creatures would be cold outside in the snow. Oh, she'd make a wonderful, wonderful mother.

  The rabbit got closer to the box, and Kaylyn's fingers were so twitchy, she pulled the string too early. The box dropped and the rabbit scampered away back into the shrubs. Kaylyn sighed. She gathered up the box feeling dejected, and ended up eating the piece of cake that she'd put out as bait. She'd have to get a new piece tomorrow. For three days, she got up early every morning as the sun was breaking across the horizon, and for three days, she came away empty handed. She tried coaxing them over with all kinds of good things, from honey cake to bread and butter and all the things she liked, but nothing seemed to work.

  She finally brought it up in conversation with Master Kempsdane, in a roundabout way, and he said that rabbits like fruits and vegetables, and that they were especially fond of carrot tops. That evening, Kaylyn picked a tub of raspberries, and hid them out back behind the shed, and she was out first thing the next morning. She collected her box and string, and made sure not to forget the fruit, and she ran off across the manor grounds to where the rabbits were playing.

  A few rabbits came close to the box, but a snowy white one hopped out of the shrub, and her heart melted. She desperately wanted that one. It was so, so gorgeous with its tiny button nose and pink ears that caught the morning light. She clenched her small fists, pleading in her mind for it to come closer. Right then, she wanted him more than anything in her life, ever. It hopped towards the box. She waited, hardly daring to breathe. She was holding the rope so tight, her fingers were trembling, but this time, she wouldn't pull it too early. She wouldn't. Closer it came. Closer. It sniffed the air and then began licking its paws and brushing its ears and snout. “Come on, come on,” she urged.