Cursed

by Monica Wolfson

  “You wouldn’t be able to get a cart through here,” Evan remarked surveying their surroundings. They were in the thick of the trees that rose endlessly into the sky. It was a beautiful forest, peaceful with the trilling of birds and light scamper of the little feet of squirrels and rabbits. Sasha loved nature and its positive energy. It was a shame there was so much evil lurking about because the forest was a place worth investigating.

  “Maybe this is the hiker’s route?”

  They continued to walk toward their destination. The castle came into view about a mile down the dirt road from Glenbury’s shack. It wasn’t what she expected. She’d seen castles in pictures and books and even visited one in England.

  The Tysseland castle was made of a gleaming white stone. Despite its light appearance it was foreboding. Its walls were smooth like glass. Sasha guessed the material was marble but in certain light she thought it resembled ice. The walls were sheer drops and climbed several stories before the first parapet. Windows were only visible four stories high. There were no ledges or footholds to aid in climbing the walls. That was probably a deliberate defense design.

  Glenbury had warned them they wouldn’t be able to get into the castle through the gate or over its walls. He had drawn them a map of underground tunnels that lay beneath the monstrous structure. They were sewage tunnels that flowed into the Danu River. If they waded upstream they’d be able to sneak into the castle via underground caverns.

  Glenbury swore they were large enough for a human to travel through. Occasionally they got clogged with debris and workers were sent below to clear out the mess.

  Without modern technology it would have taken decades to build the castle. How old was the queen? It was clear some in Tysseland had technology. How did they get it?

  Glenbury told them that Tysseland was an ancient realm. No one had electricity except the queen and some of her most trusted allies. The power was generated by an enormous wind turbine behind the castle. The device probably could have powered hundreds of homes but the queen would not share.

  Glenbury said the queen often sent sorties to other worlds to pilfer technology. That’s where the guns and lightweight armor were found as well as other goodies. Most of the items taken don’t require power because there isn’t much of it in Tysseland. If her armies travel far, they can’t recharge or refuel any weapons they planned to use.

  Guns don’t need power and are the perfect weapon for the queen’s troops that have no magical abilities. It was such an obvious selfish existence that Sasha didn’t understand why the queen’s subjects didn’t overthrow her in an uprising.

  Glenbury had laughed and called her knowledge of authority juvenile.

  “She has more than electricity and guns silly girl,” he said. “She has more magical power than anyone in the realm. No one can go up against her and win. It’s unfathomable.

  “Even your mother has only a slice of Vania’s abilities. Vania is unbeatable.”

  The realization of what they were up against was daunting and depressing. For the first time Sasha wondered if she’d taken on too much. Were she and Evan destined to die here? She didn’t want to be responsible for Evan’s death. Keeping him alive was her top priority ahead of finding and destroying the talisman.

  For a second she thought about tricking Evan into staying with Glenbury. It would be hard enough trying to find the talisman without being distracted with keeping Evan safe. He didn’t give her the chance. He was the first one packing up supplies and out the door walking to the castle. She would have had to tie him up to keep him from following her.

  She resigned herself to her fate. They were facing a tough opponent they knew nothing about and they could die. She didn’t like her odds.

  Glenbury gave them burlap sack robes to wear over their jeans and T-shirts. He had nothing to disguise their shoes except to cake them in mud and hope that no one looked at them too closely.

  “Did they bring back mass-produced shoes and clothes from the other realms?” She asked.

  Glenbury smirked. “The queen has the finest tailors in the world. What would she need with poorly made rags?”

  “I mean for her subjects,” she said.

  Glenbury shook his head and didn’t answer with words but his actions said it all. The queen didn’t care about the comfort of her subjects.

  The river was easy to find and thankfully there was no fresh sewage floating in the brown water. They walked along the shore until they reached a set of twin tunnels that fed the river. The openings were buried under some brush.

  They dragged away branches and other debris to clear the entrance. Glenbury hadn’t said there would be two openings. Evan suspected they were both sewer tunnels and would lead them to the same place.

  Sasha put a hand on Evan’s shoulder as he crawled into the tunnel.

  “Just a sec,” she said. “I have to talk with you.”

  Evan stood up brushing dirt from his burlap poncho. She didn’t know why he bothered. Evan was covered in mud. Glenbury had put a layer of dirt on Evan’s jeans from the knees to the ankle that could be seen beneath the sack. The effect worked if no one inspected them too closely.

  “Nice dress,” she said laughing.

  Evan gazed down at his outfit and shrugged.

  “It’s all I could find at the last minute,” he said.

  Sasha picked up his hand and rubbed it against her cheek. She kissed the palm and marveled at its softness.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said as a mist of tears filled her eyes. She blinked fast to prevent them from dropping down her cheeks. “I would really prefer if you stayed with Glenbury.”

  She took a deep breath.

  “Once we go in the tunnel, there’s no turning back,” she said gazing into his electric blue eyes. They emanated warmth and sparkled with intelligence.

  “I’m good with that,” he said bending his head and brushing his lips across hers. His hand gripped her shoulder and squeezed lightly. She grimaced at pain from the bullet wound but didn’t cry out.

  Spontaneously she slipped her hand behind his neck and pulled him to her with a fierceness she didn’t know was in her. She felt warmth spread in her belly as the kiss depended. She clung to Evan as if she was parched and he was a drink of water in a hot desert.

  His hands slipped around her hips, pulled up her dress and he hoisted her in the air. She wrapped her legs around his middle, the kiss never breaking. She felt a hunger that she feared wouldn’t be satisfied. She was overcome with an urge to tear off his clothes and feel his bare skin. If this was going to be one of the last moments living, she wanted to revel in it.

  Evan came to his senses first and gently put her on the ground.

  “We can come back to this later,” he said hoarsely. Sasha was afraid to speak. She felt as if 17 years of wants and wishes were in her throat. She swallowed several times before gaining control.

  “I only wanted to say,” she stared at the ground afraid to meet his eyes, “that if something happens to me you need to save yourself.”

  “I’m not going to leave without you,” Evan said.

  “Will you at least consider it? What if I’m dead?” she said softly.

  “You’re not going to die, but if it makes you feel better, if you’re dead, I’ll go home,” he smiled.

  Relieved Sasha gave him a peck on the cheek.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  It was dark inside the tunnel. Glenbury had given them a candle and some matches but they held off using them. The light from the end of the tunnel was still providing illumination. There was a fine stream of liquid running down the centre of the tunnel. Sasha crept comfortably on her hands and knees. If needed she could get into a crouch and walk a bit on her feet with her hands holding the side of the channel for support.

  It was slow going because of the physical limitation. They didn’t talk while they crawled. Sasha knew from Glenbury’s drawing they had to inch along for at least a mile before reaching
the castle.

  Sasha froze when she heard a scratching noise.

  “What’s that?” she whispered. She was following Evan and couldn’t see anything. The light from the tunnel opening had long faded as they climbed into the depth of the sewer tunnel.

  “Do you want me to light a match?”

  She didn’t really want to know what kind of vermin was sharing the tunnel.

  “No,” she said and they continued to clamber down the slick chamber. The stench of sewer had finally hit her nose and she found it hard to breath. She tried to ignore the scratching noise when she heard it again. She couldn’t control screaming when she felt something with sharp claws squirm across her hand.

  “Eeek,” she screeched.

  Evan stopped moving ahead of her and she bumped into him.

  “Are you ok? Do I need to squash something?”

  Sasha panted as if she’d been running. Her heart was racing in her chest and felt like it would explode. She hated bugs. She hated mice. She hated anything that was small or big that made noise while it moved.

  She tried to calm herself. She was appearing supremely weak in front of Evan. Pull it together, she screamed to herself.

  “I’m fine,” she said her voice strained.

  “I kill creepy crawlies for my grandmother all the time,” he said. She didn’t know if he was insulting her by comparing her reactions to his grandmother’s or if he was trying to comfort her.

  “I’m ok,” she said more relaxed. “Keep moving.”

  They continued down the disgusting tunnel in a seeming endless journey. Sasha had no idea how far they’d travelled or how far they still had to go. Not knowing was killing her.

  At one point a flood of water rushed down the tunnel making the muck slippery. It wasn’t so much water that Sasha lost her grip. It was only a bowl full, she figured.

  “If I haven’t said it already, I really, really owe you Evan,” she said as she dragged herself through smelly gunk. “I mean this is like the fourth or fifth favor you can redeem.”

  “Have you seen Star Wars?”

  “Sure,” she said fighting an urge to scratch her nose.

  “Do you remember the scene when Hans Solo and Princess Leia are trapped in the garbage chute?”

  “Sort of,” she said. She saw the movie recently when it was re-released in theatres in 3D. “Wasn’t there a huge snake or something in the bottom and it almost killed Hans Solo?”

  Evan ruminated over his analogy.

  “Ok maybe that was a bad example except they got out and were fine if a bit smelly,” he said.

  “Ok,” Sasha said. “So what you’re telling me is we are going to make it out of this tunnel even if we are partially eaten by rats.”

  “Exactly,” he said laughing.

  “I like the way you think,” she said grinning.

  They continued crawling and every once in a while something would crawl over Sasha’s hand. Instead of squealing like a girl, she swatted it away in a violent motion that usually resulted in her smacking her hand on the tunnel side. She gritted her teeth in pain but didn’t complain. She could endure rats if she could break the curse. She kept chanting silently that mantra. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

  “Let’s take a break,” Evan said halting. He struck a match and lit the candle. The soft glow of the light showed Evan had streaks of grime across his face.

  “Hold this,” he said handing her the candle. She took it and he pulled up his burlap dress and wiped his hands on his jeans. He dug a tissue from a pocket, spit on it and used the moisture to clean his hands. He unwrapped the cloth covering the small bundle of food Glenbury had given them and broke off a small piece of bread.

  “Open up,” he said and Sasha parted her lips. He dropped the bread in her mouth and then ripped off a piece for himself. She chomped on the bread, grinding its stale hardness between her teeth.

  He bit off a piece of cheese and then offered the rest to Sasha. Her hands were filthy so she motioned to him to put it in her mouth. She chewed the food slowly. The bread was stiff and the cheese tasteless but she was starving so everything seemed very edible.

  “I’m sorry about your dad,” she said. Sasha hadn’t intended to bring him up but she’d been thinking about Evan’s family situation. It seemed as sad and similar to her situation with its death and drama except he wasn’t in danger. They’d never really talked about his dad dying.

  Evan shrugged. She couldn’t see the expression on his face very well but he looked indifferent. “It was a long time ago,” he said.

  “Do you ever see your mother?”

  He shook his head vigorously. “I have no idea where she is.”

  “Oh. Does that bother you?”

  Evan sighed deeply. Sasha immediately regretted trying to delve into his feelings. She didn’t want to pry and yet he never talked about these things. How was she going to get to know him better if she knew nothing about him?

  “Not really,” he said. “I haven’t seen her in years and when she was around, she wasn’t really around, you know?”

  Sasha nodded relieved she hadn’t offended him.

  “I know it looks bad that I don’t care about my mother,” he said looking down at the grime on his jeans. “But she doesn’t care about me either so it’s a two-way street.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up something that was painful. I just thought…”

  He shook his head. “I’m not offended. It was bound to come up some time.”

  Evan picked at the crumbs that lay in the cloth and sucked them off his finger.

  “It was a long time ago. I don’t really think about either of them. I was just a kid when it all happened.”

  They sat in silence for a moment both wrapped up in their thoughts.

  “What’s it like living with your grandmother?” Sasha asked. She was genuinely curious. Queen Vania was obviously tainting her feelings about grandmothers. Her dad’s mom was dead, so she’d never really had a grandmother.

  “It’s alright,” he said. “It’s easier for me than her. Instead of retiring, she’s working so I can go to college.”

  Sasha didn’t know what to say. She’d never met Evan’s grandmother. She remembered he said he needed to work to pay some of the bills.

  Evan pulled his burlap sack over his jeans and blew out the candle Sasha was holding.

  “We should keep moving,” he said. Sasha nodded and then realized he couldn’t see her.

  “I’ll follow you,” she said.

  They continued to crawl through the muck in the tunnel for a short time before Sasha bumped into the back of Evan not realizing he’d stopped.

  “Shussh,” Evan whispered. “We’re at the end.”

  Sasha scuttled beside him. Her eyes had adjusted to the murky interior. While a series of fist-sized tunnels connected with the main channel for the past half mile, the tunnel ended at a metal door with a long handle.

  “There’s no other way out,” she said. “We have to turn it and see what’s on the other side.”

  Evan gripped the handle and pulled it up. The mechanics of the lock made a grinding noise as they turned. The noise was extraordinarily loud in the tunnel as the sound bounced off the walls.

  “I hope it’s not as noisy on the other side,” she said.

  The door popped open with a creak of its hinges. Evan carefully eased the door open enough for him to see on the other side. Once he was sure it was safe he pulled the door open wide and crawled out of the opening. Sasha followed.

  Sasha’s body ached from crouching and crawling. It felt so good to stretch out her back and stand up. The tunnel had led them into a small room with large pieces of rudimentary equipment. The room had a small window with bars on it that allowed in some light.

  Sasha surveyed her clothes. The burlap robe was covered in muck. She wished she could take it off but it was part of her pathetic disguise.

  “I’d love to wash my hands,” Eva
n said. “But I don’t think we can risk running around looking for water. Let’s just get what we came for and get out.”

  “Agreed,” Sasha said. “Just one thing.”

  She nudged Evan to turn around and rose onto her tippy toes. She planted a soft kiss on his lips. She wished it could last longer but couldn’t touch him with her disgusting hands. Her lips dropped away when her toes screamed in protest.

  “That’s for being the greatest guy I know,” she said.

  She could see Evan smile in the dim light.

  “Anytime,” he said.

  Evan eased out of the room and Sasha followed. They were in a long hallway made of dark stone. It was cool to the touch and slightly slimy with a green moss growing on its surface.

  “My guess is we are underground,” Sasha said.

  Evan grunted a reply. They continued down a dark hallway until they came to a staircase. They ascended the stairs as quietly as possible. When Evan opened the door above, it led to a well-lit hallway with wood floors.

  “We are probably in the servants quarters area,” Evan guessed.

  Sasha heard the banging of pots and rush of water. “Maybe near a kitchen?” she suggested.

  They continued down the hallway trying out doors as they passed. They were all locked. They wound their way around the kitchen passing a dining hall obviously used by servants with its long tables and benches for seating. An adjacent room had wood burning stoves. Several women dressed in long plain dresses bustled about cooking and washing pots and pans.

  “Where to now?” Sasha asked as she heard a commotion behind her.

  She peaked over her shoulder to see men dressed in paramilitary garb. “Who’s that?” one said to the other.

  Sasha turned around and pushed Evan.

  “Run.”

  They sprinted past open doors and other rooms until they got to a grand opening with a huge staircase. Sasha tripped over a statue in the foyer and sprawled to the ground.

  Her pursuers were on her in seconds.

  “Go,” she screamed at Evan. “Find it.”

  Evan waved at her and continued running. Sasha was seized in an iron grip by her arms. She struggled heartily until her hands were yanked behind her back.