Mona stood. Her bed was so massive that she couldn’t roll off the side, the way she was used to getting out of bed in the morning. She walked, three steps to the edge, and hopped of the side.
A motion of her arm and she tossed her nightgown to the floor at random. It didn’t matter where she left her dirty clothes. Every day a servant came to gather and clean them. But never when Mona was in the room. Nobility were used to the servants. They were like helpful ghosts moving about in the background. Certainly not equal observers. It would be silly to feel embarrassed or ashamed in their presence. They were servants; the Hydes were nobles, and Mona was their guest. Moreover, an apprentice to the head of the Hyde family. She was practically nobility. Yonafrew had even said that she looked like one. It made Mona twist her lips and ask the great question: What should I wear today?
All the choices were good ones. It was hardly possible to mess up. Yet that was going by her old standards: those of a stupid girl caught up in an ordinary life. I must develop an eye for detail. Aristocratic taste. It’s the only way I can become one of them.
Mona desperately wanted to fit in. With friends and business partners and other visitors to the Hyde family coming and going every day, she didn’t want them to notice her. Not in a bad way, that is. It wouldn’t do to have them wonder, ‘who is that plain girl they keep around the house? What could they possible want with her?’
The Hydes had a reputation to maintain. Mona in no way wanted to drag it down, and embarrass them. And she had a reputation of her own to build from scratch. Yonafrew was very kind to her, but she hardly ever spoke with anyone else. Only Augustus and Lord Julian, the odd time that they happened to cross paths. He was about as talkative as a politician in a courtroom. Julian might as well say, ‘I plead the fifth,’ every time Mona pestered him with a question. She had to ask herself, is it him, or me?
Hence the haircut. Hence the clothes, and the fussing.
I want to be like them. Elegant. Perfect.
Mona yearned for it.
She hated mirrors.
When the bath was full, she could hardly stand looking at her reflection in the water. Seeing the scars. What they must think of me…I’ll have to come up with a story for when I become true nobility. Something better than the wretched truth: that I was trying to become a Demon Hunter.
It was time Mona started being more assertive. It’s the only way to get what you want out of life.
Fully naked, she stood in front of the giant window in her room. It was easily twice as tall as she was, and she had to stretch her arms out all the way to grip the windowsill on either side. While looking out over Lodum, at the tiny specks bustling around the streets below, she couldn’t help but think of them at ants. So far away and busy with their small lives. They couldn’t even fathom how important she was, now that she was tied to both the seed and the Hyde family.
Mona made her morning toilet on the cherry wood floor. A clear urine, as she had hardly eaten anything the day before. Then she flung open the door to her bedroom and called for a servant.
She watched as they cleaned it up, clenching and unclenching her fists as she tasted the thrill of power. The servants didn’t seem to mind. It was their job, after all. Their purpose was to do whatever she wanted. They should be happy to be made useful.
It only took a minute, then the servants were gone. Closing the door with a bow, pale faces expressionless. And leaving Mona once again alone. A cocktail of emotions shivered through her body. She took some time to look around her room. Really look around it.
A twenty-foot tall ceiling with a large chandelier. A bed so enormous that she had walk to get out of it. Bedposts that were more like pillars. Solid silver, going all the way to the ceiling. It only took up a small section of the room.
There was a white couch and matching table. A reading chair, next to a large, stone fireplace that was only dark because Mona didn’t want it otherwise. Two doorways, one leading to the bathroom, another to her walk-in closet. To the right of one of the doors, in the space between the doorframe and the wall that further on held the large window, was a heavy bookshelf, complete with a tall, sliding ladder.
There were two bird cages, as large as Mona was tall. They were enchanted so that she couldn’t hear what was inside. Mona liked that; she enjoyed watching, but hated the chirps. It was easy to ignore the birds that way, and she didn’t have to take them out of the room while she slept. The walls were decorated with stuffed animal heads, the spoils of a hunt. On the floor next to her bed, where she stepped on twice a day, was the fur coat of what had been a massive grizzly bear. Another, of a large polar bear, was in the bathroom in front of the sink.
But of all the many fine things, best was the open space. There was room for Mona to do cartwheels. Pace. Stretch her arms and spin around. So unlike her previous accommodations.
I must have the seed.
Mona’s smiled dropped, replaced by a wrinkled forehead of deep thought. Pondering what to do, she went into her closet and selected a cream-colored outfit set with emeralds. The top was a pearl-button dress shirt with a laced collar, and a vest of the same color to go over top. For the bottom, a pair of shorts that ended just above her knee. The suspenders were a touch whiter in color than all the rest.
She was barely changed when a knock came at the door. A moment later, Augustus slipped inside. He carried a silver platter with a silver cover on it. He set it on the table by Mona’s couch and sat down with a smile. “You look lovely,” he said. “I’m sorry that we haven’t seen each other lately. It’s my fault. I should have come sooner.” He took the top off the platter. A burst of steam came out, rising from Yorkshire pudding, sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, sausages, small salami slices, cheese squares, and a bunch of grapes.
Mona’s stomach gurgled. She held herself back from running, and quick walked to the couch and sat down. Augustus snapped off a grape and popped it in his mouth. He smiled again, and held Mona’s eye for a long three seconds.
He’s more handsome than I thought.
His clothes were, shockingly, a simple jeans and white tee-shirt. Tailored, of course, to fit him perfectly.
“I was afraid,” he said. Mona stabbed some salami and cheese with one of the forks on the platter and started chewing. She hadn’t known she was this hungry. “But I heard you don’t mind that we’re vampires,” he said, cheerily.
“I suppose I don’t,” said Mona. It was kind of odd. She couldn’t remember feeling anything when Lord Hyde divulged the information. Aren’t vampires really bad? Shouldn’t I be scared? The thoughts came, and went. Quickly brushed aside.
Mona went back to eating, wiggling her toes happily.
The pair of them ate brunch over the course of one hour. They did not speak much, preferring to comfortably share the silence.
The food was delicious, but not so much to distract from conversation. For there was a conversation; the one that is always going on, every moment that you are around another animal. The language of bodily shifts and sighs, stray glances, posture, the manner in which a piece of food is forked and eaten. Noticed by both Mona, and Augustus. Both were sensitive to it, the thrumming aura between them. The passing of energy between their bodies, as they were sitting so near. Words were unnecessary. Things were being said without the flapping of lips.
Augustus, on his side, as betrayed by his choice in clothing, made great effort to behave calm and relaxed. Perfectly at ease with Mona, in her room, despite having many pressing engagements. He had decided, days past, to build a friendship with his one-time schoolmate. That way, when the time came…
For Mona, it was quite the opposite. After willing herself into adopting an aristocratic personality, she found Augustus’s casual manner at odds with everything she had come to learn about the Hyde household. And so she struggled between following Augustus’s lead, fully relaxing in his company, and proving to him that she was ‘one of them.’
Four servants came in at one point. Both pairs carri
ed large, gold framed paintings of beautiful scenes in nature. Colorful, and enchanted to rustle and move as if the branches of the trees were responding to the conditions outside. The servants set them high on the walls, filling the empty space.
“To tell you the weather,” Augustus explained, after the servants left. “Come,” he said, washing his hands with a napkin. “I want to show you something.”
“I am supposed to meet your father in fifteen minutes,” said Mona.
A crease of annoyance formed between Augustus’s eyebrows. “I won’t keep you long,” he said. He stood, held out his hand. Mona took it, letting him play the gentleman and help her to her feet. It was the first time that they touched skin-on-skin.
They had just started up a set of stairs when, down the hallway behind them, ran a large group of armored men wearing the colors of House Hyde.
Guardsmen. What are they doing?
Augustus did not know either. He ran after them, and Mona went close behind. It was more than a jog and less than a sprint that kept her on Augustus’s tail, down to the main floor. She stopped, approached the group slowly and heard Augustus speak.
“What’s happening?” he asked “Why are you rushing about?”
“We are under attack, my Lord,” replied a tall, elder guardsmen with a five o’clock shadow and a long chin. “Someone has attacked Turndour Keep. We go to reinforce.”
As with all the noble families, the Hydes had many properties across Lodum. So many that Augustus had never seen, much less visited, all of them. They were not worth the trip. But Turndour was not one of those properties. It was important. It was where the Hyde family kept their prisoners.
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“Summon my steed,” Augustus snapped at a servant, who bowed and ran out the door. He pointed at two of the guards in the group. “You two, go to the kennel master. Tell him I want ten of his best hounds at Turndour. You will be his bodyguards while this thing plays out.”
Mona watched with hidden awe. This is his true self. The heir of the Hyde family.
She ran the top of her thumb over the bottom of her little finger. Thinking, wondering how she could get involved without simply ‘tagging along.’ It wouldn’t do to act like a child and demand that Augustus take her with him. But she felt compelled to prove her worth and, even more, to discover what was going on in Lodum.
Mona knew nothing about Faerie beyond the generic books she had read, and the long-winded warnings of her former teachers. All she had seen of it was the Hyde estate, and what was within view of the windows: a sprawling city, full of life, and alien.
Yonafrew had hinted at an enemy force. Rebels, attempting to usurp the balance of power in Lodum—in all of Faerie. All because the weak masses don’t know their place. They have forgotten to fear the strong.
For such wretches, chaos was preferable to order. They would have the noble families dragged through the mud.
Augustus and the guardsmen left through the door. Mona went after them. She fought to regain a sense of entitlement. The sheer expectation nobility had of the other classes to meet their needs.
Of course it was natural for Mona to come along. Whatever she did, it was allowed. She was bound to a behelit. Permission was a given.
“I’ll ride with you,” she stated, firmly.
Augustus looked back over his shoulder from atop his mount, surprised to find Mona standing outside in the front yard with him and the rest of the reinforcements.
He and Mona were the only ones unarmed and unarmored. All the others had been prepared, employed and waiting for just such an attack to occur. Steel breastplates shone brightly under the noon sun. Gauntlets with sharp-tipped fingers gripped the reins of horses, that snorted and stamped, feeling their owner’s urgency and eager to take them to battle.
The elder guardsmen, the captain of the group, adjusted his conquistador helmet and turned his horse in a quick circle. Looking back to check on Augustus, and the cause of delay.
“Meet with my father,” said Augustus. A touch of his heels sent his steed trotting forward, down the lane of crushed stone, away from Mona and the Hyde estate. “He will think poorly of you, if you skip a lesson.”
And better of me if I help win this battle. If I can prove myself as a woman of quality.
She thought she knew Yonafrew. She was certain that her decision to fight in the name of his family would earn her merit. Greater influence in Lodum, the most important city in both Earth, and Faerie.
The emeralds shimmered in Mona’s cream-colored clothing. Starting at the large one on her neck, then down, like a shooting star passing through them all. When the shimmer reached the edge of her shirt and shorts, it turned back, following the line of gems up again. And so it went on, bouncing through the lines of gems without slowing.
The behelit’s power blossomed. It doubled—tripled the size of Mona’s well of magic. It was more than she knew what to do with, and she was not about to test her limit. She grabbed only a little, raised one arm with her fingers splayed out.
A bolt of lightning cracked through the clear sky overhead, without a boom of thunder. It was a magnified version of a small electricity spell that she knew by heart. Her large magic pool allowed her cast it, and the emeralds saved her from falling into a coma.
The horses reared in surprise. The guardsmen quickly regained control, looked around, wondering if it was an enemy attack. They paused by the outer wall and gate that led out to the city proper. Mona casted a levitation spell, strengthened it with the power of the seed, and soared through the air. She landed behind Augustus, on the back of his horse. “Move forward,” she said, pressing up close against him.
Augustus spun his upper body and saw Mona’s confident face. He looked her over, and nodded. He shifted forward in his saddle, giving her room to squeeze in behind. It was a tight fit. Mona’s chest pressed hard against Augustus’s back.
The portcullis rose, well-oiled and without a single creak. The guardsmen rode under it, through the ten-foot thick wall of enchanted stone, and onto a sparsely populated street in Lodum’s noble district.
It was the smallest of the districts, and up on a hill that overlooked the city. Unless one was called to appear in the royal palace, there was nowhere to go but down.
The clatter of a score of horseshoes against Lodum’s cobbled streets gave the pedestrians time to get out of the way. The guardsmen, and Augustus, were not official keepers of the peace. They were more than that, acting with the authority of a noble bloodline.
The elder guardsmen led the way down into the city. Through another gate that was larger than the Hyde’s and manned on either side of the portcullis by towering creatures wearing hard, black armor. They raced out of the noble district, down a winding street. Their passing caused one carriage to quickly divert course. A wide-eyed driver pulled hard on the reins controlling a team of horses, making them change direction mid-gallop. Mona craned her head as Augustus’s steed took them flying past. She watched the carriage almost run someone over, and crash into the side of a building.
Fae filled the streets. The ordinary folk, mostly ungifted. Living only by what they could scrape together with mental power and physical strength. It was sad to see them walking around in their drab clothes and poor posture. Watching the passing horses with excitement, glad for a spectacle to distract them from what was otherwise another uneventful day.
Still, Mona had to admit that the buildings were beautiful. Even down here, in the lower districts, the fae had a pale shadow of pride. The buildings were clean, for the most part. Freshly painted and colorful, if also small and lacking in adornment. Simply shelters for them to store things in, including themselves. They lacked the ability to make anything better. Worse, they think that what they have is good enough. The great gulf between the blue blooded and everyone else.
Mona had time to think about these things. All she had to do was grip the sides of the running horse with her thighs and keep hold of Augustus. The first part was easy; her legs wer
e strong enough from her old training that she didn’t have to worry about bouncing off. Keeping hold of Augustus was…pleasurable.
It was rare to see a noble dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt. The looks that Mona caught on some of the faces of the ungifted told her that was true. Maybe that was what held their gazes, more than the brilliantly shining armor and purebred horses cutting through the city.
The streets were long, wide, and the people up ahead were warned of the approaching horses by the movement of the crowd, and the loud sound of twenty-some horses racing over the cobbles.
It was exactly how Mona had wanted to see the city that she had before only looked down on from her window. That is quickly, directly, and above everyone else. There was no time for her to be tangled up in a web of greetings and all the little social interactions that keep everything civilized. She could simply look at everyone, one face quickly replaced by another, but all pretty much the same. See the stores and the houses, the parks and the fountains and statues, without having to decide where to go next, or wonder how long it would take to get there. The city unfolded itself to her, everything laid bare as the horses raced on, too fast for the dust from the street to sully Mona’s clothes and hair.
It was a long ride. Turndour Keep was old and near the edge of Lodum. It was not known to belong to the Hyde family. It was expressly forbidden for nobility to keep prisoners of their own. Naturally, all of them did it anyways. But only the most powerful families dared to build, or had need of, a prison separate from their estate.
It did not surprise Mona, upon seeing what could only be Turndour Keep, that the Hyde family had so many enemies. Their greatness had made them a target. Bad were the times that a noble family could not live in peace.
Small fires, the result of pottery filled with alchemical fuel and flung over the walls of Turndour Keep, burned in patches on the dirt courtyard.
The guardsmen, Augustus, and Mona dismounted. The horses were trained well enough that they were not terrified by the fighting taking place. They trotted off to a safe distance from the fighting, but not so far that their owner’s could not find them.
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