by K C Norrie
****
"We are leaving," Lucas announced. He found us each a chest to fill. "We will fill these with whatever valuables we can fit and then we'll go back to Paris. We will not return again."
Rafe and Sauli had agreed to go back with us.
Lucas and I went together to pack up his mother's and father's jewelry and personal valuables.
We raided the kitchen and storeroom for the red tea. We also found a few bottles of the potion, though Lucas said they had a stock in Paris. I filled most of my chest with the journals and writings of the history of the Chateau found in the library so others would know the grand history of the Chateau de Riene. I had often spotted Monsieur Traver in the garden with a pen poised above a book on his lap. I searched his study and located the journal with his latest writings and packed it into my chest. I found no others.
When we felt we were ready, we dragged the filled trunks down to the first floor and stacked them.
We returned to the carriage house. There were six horses in the stable. Only four belonged to the Chateau de Riene. The other two belonged to the livery in Saint Ange; one brought up by us, and the other by Traver and Gwendolyn upon their arrival during that first storm.
We took them all with us, packing our trunks and luggage into one cart, leaving the sleigh and other carts and carriages behind. Two horses were hitched to our loaded cart and driven up the trail behind the Chateau and into the mountain meadow by Rafe, while Lucas, Sauli and I rode on horseback behind them. Sauli led the extra horse.
We made a camp up there in the cold, hobbling the horses inside a dry cave with some hay. The sky was clear blue and there was no wind. The night would bring a full moon. We found places to sit and waited for the night. Lucas produced a bottle of brandy and it kept us warm as we waited. We bundled ourselves in blankets, and I dosed a little leaning my head against my husband's chest. No one spoke. We were each lost in our own thoughts.
When the sun disappeared, the moon began to rise in the east opposite the sunset.
I tried to memorize how beautiful it all was, knowing I would never again see Saint Ange or the Chateau de Riene as it looked now.
It was time.
****
The four of us walked back down the path to the Chateau in the dark, leaving the horses in the cave for now. Lucas wanted me to stay behind, but I refused as always.
Once back inside the Chateau, it was determined that the four of us would work together. If things got out of hand, we did not want to wonder where the others were.
We started in the turret room. Again, it was Lucas who made his way to the room at the top of the Chateau where he doused the bedding and furniture inside with kerosene and set the room on fire. Next, we set the three tumbled bodies aflame and hurried away to the family quarters where Traver and Merena both died. We opened the windows and set the rooms on fire. We continued drenching and burning throughout the Chateau de Riene, the memories assaulting us at every turn. On the main floor we tossed lit lanterns at the curtains where they caught fire instantly.
We burned the bodies in the dungeon last, after the kitchens. Earlier we had dragged blankets, wood from the woodpile, and sadly, books from the library down the cellar steps in preparation. We drenched them in kerosene then; and now we set it all aflame and ran. There was a door beside the now diminished wood pile that served as our escape. By the time we reached it, the Chateau had filled with smoke and flames.
We climbed beneath the nightened sky, back up to our camp on the mountain—our pathway lit by the flames behind us. Once there, we stayed to watch the burning of Chateau de Riene.
For Lucas it was justice for the deaths of his family, for me it was sorrowful. I don't know how Rafe and Sauli felt, but we watched in silence.
Windows shattered and broke, as countless treasures were destroyed inside. The turret tumbled and disappeared. Flames and smoke writhed and contorted in triumph.
Chateau de Riene, once resplendent and proud, high atop her mountain, had fallen in disgrace. She had become a place of vileness, strangled in secrets.
Saint Ange responded in full as a thousand lights or more bobbed up the path toward Chateau de Riene. It was too late. They couldn't reach her. The path was impassible on foot and there was no way for anyone to put out the fire.
I wondered if Aubrina and the others were among the crowd. At the time I had no way of knowing what had happened to them.
When the fire was over, Chateau de Riene was left in ruin and the smell of smoke permeated the air. The stone walls were scorched black, and most of the roofs had collapsed. She continued to smolder as we readied ourselves to leave for Paris.
Before leaving we said a prayer for each of them, Madame Anders, Madame Merena, Monsieur Traver, the little Mademoiselle, Monsieur Bates, Rondonna, Henrietta, and Ferguson.
****
Beneath the light of the full moon, the four of us would continue on toward Paris with the loaded cart and the six horses. The path across the meadow would lead us to Tromle, a modern city with a proper road, where everything including the horses could be transported back to Paris by train. A driver could be hired to bring the other two horses back to the Saint Ange Livery, and a telephone call could be made to let them know where to pick up their sleigh and carriage.
As we readied to leave, my eyes swept the snow-covered meadow glittering softly beneath the light of the moon. I noticed something bright on the ground. When I looked closer, I realized it was a white flower bathing in the moonlight. I nudged Lucas remembering what he had said about the 'Wizard Vine' flowers and the full moon.
"How amazing," he said as he reached down and plucked the little flower from its place. "Something beautiful from a night of horror. It shouldn't even survive in this weather, yet here it is. Something beautiful to balance the evil that has been done."
Lucas placed the flower in my hair tucked beneath the hood of my cloak and kissed me. We turned away from Saint Ange, and set off for Tromle, where we would not be recognized. We were nearing the edge of the meadow when I felt a little sting from where the flower rested in my hair. I pulled it off worried that a stinging insect had hidden inside it. I touched the sting and came back with a little drop of blood, but before I could tell Lucas, I was distracted by the sight of a white wolf watching us pass. Was this Monsieur Traver's white wolf? It couldn't be. How long did wolves live? We watched each other until the cart led us away.
****
Saint Ange, France
1954
The square with the Angel began to fade from neglect. No one remembered why it was there. The poem could no longer be read; and the plaque with the names fell off, to be buried in the overgrowth and eventually tossed away.
THEY
They came in with the storm. So many lost! So many saved. They hit the ground so hard they were burrowed deep into the earth. The storm was working. Their arrival was hidden.
They made their way up through the ground into the air. They learned the Earth.
We have been here before.
A long time ago.
Where are the humans?
They will come.
What good are the humans?
The humans will help us. They have changed much. They build structures and create art and music.
Not all, just some. Some create art and music and build.
Others enjoy.
The others are destructive and volatile. They will destroy themselves.
We must make sure that doesn't happen. We can help them.
I like the bats. The bats can fly and live under the moon. And the wolves. They run so fast. I love to run.
They will help us. And the humans will help us. But not yet. Did you find him yet? Is he here?
He is here. He has three heads. We are in time. He is moving to the surface. He throbs with evil.
Does he know we are here?
He senses we are here, but he cannot find us. We are cloaked.
We must be patient. We must wait. W
hen he comes to the surface, we will be ready.
Will the humans be ready? They don't remember us. They don't know what to do.
They will be ready. For them it will not be soon. In the meantime, we will offer help when we can. For now, we watch and wait. It is only the beginning.
####
Acknowledgements
Thank you for reading my book. I hope it scared you just a little. I also hope you enjoyed it. Your reviews would be appreciated and can be left at your favorite ebook distributor.
I plan to have the second book completed in the summer of 2020.
Thank you,
K.C. Norrie
About the Author
K.C. Norrie resides in Michigan in a house with a flower garden with her husband and Labradoodle. She enjoys cooking, reading, traveling, bicycle riding and spending time with her children and grandchildren.
