"You think I would send you to bathe if they weren't going to allow it?" For a moment Richter contemplated refusing, but he was covered in blood and he smelled. If he was going to stay here, he preferred not to remain in this condition. He grumbled, rose to his feet, and exited the room. He entered the room across the hall and looked around. The tub was empty and was also the funniest looking tub he'd ever seen. It was about five feet long and about two feet deep and it had an ornate duck's head leaning over it. There was also a waist high cabinet with a large bowl set into it and a matching duck's head.
Holly had been watching him as he entered the bathroom. He stood just inside the room with his hand on the door, as though he was about to close it. He stood there for at least two minutes looking as though he hadn't the foggiest idea what he was supposed to do. Finally, she crossed to him. "Problem?"
"There's no water."
Holly blinked at him. "Your castle doesn't have running water?"
He turned around to face her. "What's running water?"
Holly crossed to the tub and seated herself on the edge of it. Gripping the tap for the hot water, she turned it on. She glanced back at him. He was staring at her wide-eyed. "You really have never seen running water. Do y'all have electricity?"
"What's electricity?"
Holly took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Though the cottages did not have electricity, most of them had running water. She rose to her feet, crossed to the switch and flipped on the light. Richter jumped as though a bolt of lightning had struck next to him. Richter looked up at the glowing light, then he turned it off and back on. "Don't do that, you'll blow the bulb."
Richter continued to stare, then he slowly said, "I'm not even gonna ask about that one."
"Take your bath and get cleaned up. Here's a towel and a change of clothes." She left the room, closing the door behind her. He crossed over to the tub and stuck his hand in the water. It was quite hot. He fiddled with the knobs as he had seen her do and found a more reasonable temperature. When he finished his bath, he pulled the plug. Then he stared at it. Their tubs didn't look like this, but they had plugs and they drained too. He wondered if at one point in time they too had had running water. They knew that the castle was over a thousand years old. As he entered the hallway, he paused to glare at both sets of guards.
He entered his cell - he considered the word, it didn't feel right. This felt like a normal bedroom. Then he looked at the woman in the room. She indicated the table. "Please be seated." He didn't like being ordered around, so instead he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Fine, if you don't want to sit down, I don't care. Do you have any injuries you wish me to attend to? Malachi has ordered me to see to you."
"Malachi, that is a very familiar way to refer to one's King, is it not? Are you one of his many … conquests?"
Holly took a deep breath and fisted her hands at her side. She desperately wanted to claw his eyes out, or at the very least, wipe that smug look off his face. She let it out slowly. "I don't know what kind of relationship your people have with your King, but most of us grew up with Malachi. His mother and father didn't think it was right for his play fellows to always be calling him 'Your Majesty'. You will find most of his friends call him Malachi, and if you ever speak so disrespectfully again I won't refrain from …" She pursed her lips trying to think of an adequate threat, then to her great annoyance, he started laughing.
"Well, I've got at least fifty pounds on you, what's the worst thing you can do, bruise me?"
That was it. Holly lost her temper. She went for him. Richter was surprised as her fist hit, it was a solid punch, after that she became so angry. She was just wildly slapping him, saying as she did so, "I hate you! I hate you! I want you dead!" As Richter struggled with the angry woman, he lost his footing and they both tumbled to the floor. She continued to claw, kick, bite, and do anything she could to hurt him. Finally, he had her pinned beneath him. "Let me go, you over grown ox," she said through clenched teeth.
"Not until you tell me why you're helping me if you hate me so much."
"I told you, Malachi asked me to."
"I can't imagine him asking you to if you hate me this much. Anyways, what did I ever do to you?"
"You burned my farm and murdered my husband. Now get off me!" Holly was trying desperately to hold onto her anger, but she felt it slipping as she felt tears fill her eyes. She tried to glare at him, but the astonished look on his face was making it very difficult. She had expected him to laugh or to gloat, but he moved off of her and let her go. She kicked him and he didn't even try to stop her. "I hate you!"
She was almost to the door when she heard him say in a soft voice, "It wasn't my idea." She paused momentarily, but didn't look back. She walked out and slammed the door. For the next three days, every time she took in his meal, she just slammed it on the table, glared at him, and stormed out. Though he sat up and looked at her every time, he did not speak to her.
Entering his quarters and slamming his lunch down for the fourth time, she turned and headed for the door. "Thank you for the medicine. It's really been helping." She nearly jumped out of her skin when he spoke. She turned back quickly.
"You've not been eating very well. Do you not like the food? Is there something else I can bring you?"
"What do I do to work up an appetite? I sit in this room all day. I'm a prisoner, I don't need to eat." He crossed over to the tray and pushed it in her direction. "And anyways, why should I give Malachi the satisfaction of living long enough for him to execute me?"
"Malachi has not determined your fate."
"I would've thought you would've gleefully ran to him and told him that I attacked you the other day and had me killed on the spot."
"That would be a lie. I attacked you. All you did was protect yourself." She looked at the ground as she spoke.
"I'm sorry about your husband. It probably won't make you feel better, but they all died well, quick and clean." Holly shrugged her shoulders trying desperately to cling to her anger, even though she knew it was directed at the wrong person. She wasn't angry with him, but she wasn't willing yet to admit who she was angry with. So for now, she would continue to force herself to blame him. Richter didn't know why he was continuing the conversation; probably because he'd been alone in this room for four days seeing no one but her. "Were you married long?"
Holly responded mechanically, "Seven years."
"Any children?"
"A daughter, she's almost four." Holly felt her temper rise as she thought about her beautiful wee lass. She loved her daughter. Richter wondered what he had said. She suddenly looked very, very angry. "You're probably judging me to for having the indecency to give birth to a daughter." She turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Richter seated himself at the table and drummed his fingers on it. Okay, I'm going to have to rethink that happily married thing, and what did she mean judge her? He sat there considering this until she brought him dinner.
When she entered, she glared at him. He was seated right where she normally placed the tray. She walked around to the other side of the table and set down the tray, then turned to leave. He moved quickly to grab her by the arm. "Why would I judge you, and what do you care what I would think anyways? What do you mean the indecency to have given birth to a lass?"
She looked down at his hand coldly then back up at him. "I have no intention of having this conversation with you."
"Then why the bloody hell did you start it?" He hesitated a moment trying to understand, then there was a sharp pain in his temples causing him to grimace, but then he saw it all so clearly. "You said you all grew up together. I can't believe I didn't see it earlier. Your friends, they're all your husband's friends. You two didn't get on, did you? You can't tell them that because they're his buddies, but I don't matter. So you can make snide remarks to me and that's why you're so angry with me, because you don't mourn his death. You're glad he's gone!"
Holly jerked her arm free and slapped him hard across the face. "Go to hell!"
"I probably am, thank you."
She gasped and jerked away. She stared at him. She never in her life heard another human being say that they were probably going to hell. "You shouldn't joke about that. It's not funny."
"I'm not laughing."
"Why do you think you're going to hell?"
"Because I'm a bad man and I followed orders. I knew I should've left a long, long time ago. I've always hated my uncle. He didn't like my mother. My mother was a nice person - granted, most of the women are nice women. They're just badly treated. Christian, should've killed him a long time ago. Abby is a good lass. She shouldn't be stuck with him, but I guess God is taking his revenge out on us in other ways." He sank down on his cot.
"What do you mean, God is taking his revenge out?"
"Oh, right, I guess you want me to tell you everything, so you can report back to Malachi. That is why he has you coming in, right? He thinks I'm more likely to talk to you than I would to his soldiers. After four days of virtual silence, I'll talk to anybody."
"I give you my word I won't tell Malachi."
"I know you don't have a lot of women, but how many children do you have under the age of one?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I guess maybe every third woman has a child under the age of two. Why? I mean I'm just guessing, but there are quite a few."
"In the castle there's one child under the age of one. He's eight months old. There are three hundred women living in the castle area. Three hundred and there's one child under the age of one."
She stared at him in disbelief. "That's not possible … That can't be. How many stillborn? How many pregnant women?"
He ran his hands up and down his face. "In the past eight months, there's only one pregnant woman in the castle. It's Queen Roberta, no one else."
Holly continued to stare at him. She wanted to say he was lying, but the look on his face told her he was most definitely not. "Do you have any children?"
"No, no children." He tried to remember the last time he'd been with a woman. It had been more than two years ago. At first he didn't even realize anything was wrong. He just wasn't interested anymore. He figured he'd just gotten bored with the available women; there weren't many he found acceptable. And Richter, unlike his cousin, wasn't interested in women who didn't want him back, even if it was just for a night's entertainment. But then suddenly it all occurred to him, the lack of children, his own lack of desire, their food sources running out. Clearly the area they were living in must be more contaminated than the rest. That was why they were having so many problems. Maybe someone had accidentally stumbled upon something and didn't realize they had contaminated the area. He ran his hands up and down his face again. "It might be environmental, I don't know."
Holly considered for several minutes. Men got very touchy when you asked questions about their manhood. Lord knows her husband had. At first she had thought he just didn't find her interesting anymore, then she had realized it wasn't her; it was him. When she tried to question him about this and offer to help, he had taken it badly and they had scarcely spoken since. "If it's purely environmental, your people could relocate and they might be all right if the damage isn't already done. Have you yourself noticed any …" She hesitated, trying to think of a delicate way to ask it.
Richter laughed. "Four days ago you're trying to claw my eyes out and now you're worried about hurting my feelings. I didn't notice when it started. One day I realized I hadn't been interested in a long time. A wee bit later, I realized I couldn't be made interested." He hesitated. "If you don't mind, I'd like to be left alone now that I feel completely emasculated."
Chapter 11
Holly decided after leaving Richter she needed to go and talk to Malachi. Though she had given her word to Richter, there were things she needed to tell Malachi. She found him in his office, sitting at his desk reading. "Am I interrupting?"
"No, not at all. How goes things with our prisoner?" he asked, tossing the reports on his desk.
"He is a smug, arrogant jackass, but I think I have to agree with Alec; he's not a bad guy, but I just don't like him. I thought I'd tell you a few things I learned. He's never seen electricity or running water. Other than that, I really haven't learned anything about him."
"You do remember, Holly, that you've never been good at lying, right?"
Holly glared at him. "Would you prefer I get more practice?"
"No, but I prefer you didn't lie to me right now. What aren't you telling me?" Malachi sat up in his chair. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"Now don't be ridiculous. I told you I don't think he's a bad guy. He's just a jerk; but then again, you can be a jerk too and you're a really good guy. But on a serious note, I can't tell you anything else because he consulted me as an herbalist. And you know I cannot discuss it."
Malachi looked worried. "Is he really sick?"
Holly considered for a minute, then she thought it was neither telling a lie nor telling the truth if she merely shrugged her shoulders. In truth, she didn't know, so she just shrugged her shoulders and rose to her feet. "He might be willing to have a conversation with you now, I don't know."
Malachi waited until afternoon the next day before he went to see Richter. Arriving, he knocked on the door. Richter opened it and narrowed his eyes. "Do you always knock before entering your prisoner's cell?"
"Whatever gave you the idea you were my prisoner? It's not my fault you stayed in this room." Malachi smiled at him.
Richter glared back. "You telling me those assholes outside would've let me walk around?"
"I merely instructed them to follow you and not to let you leave the castle. I never told them you have to stay in your room." Richter's jaw dropped and he gaped at Malachi. Malachi tried hard but he couldn't help but start laughing. "So I guess you want to go for a walk. We can have this conversation on the move." Malachi turned and left the room.
Richter, who was still speechless, stood there for about ten seconds before he followed Malachi. "You unbelievable asshole!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you made assumptions," Malachi said, still chuckling.
"If I was free to come and go as I please, why did you have my meals brought to me?" demanded Richter.
"Well, since you weren't leaving, I figured your meals had to come to you. Anyways, I wanted to see if you would try to leave without me telling you that you could. I find it very interesting that the cattle gate worked for you."
Richter's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what a cattle gate was. Finally he asked, "What the hell is a cattle gate?"
Malachi looked at him in surprise. "A cattle gate is like a fence put in the ground and you dig out underneath it just a wee bit, perfectly harmless. Won't hurt the cows, they could walk right across it, but for whatever reason they won't, absolutely will not. So it's kind of like fencing them in without the fence. In other words, I kept you locked in your room for a week without a lock."
"You're an asshole." To both Richter's and Malachi's surprise, he said it without heat. He was actually trying hard not to laugh. It was his own fault he was a complete dumbass. It never occurred to him that the guards wouldn't try to stop him.
Malachi was headed for the outside. As soon as they made it out, Richter took several long, deep breaths. "Holy shit! Your castle's twice the size of ours!"
Malachi shrugged. "If you say so; I've never seen yours."
They walked in silence for several minutes. Finally, Richter decided he couldn't stand the silence and demanded, "Why aren't I dead?"
"Well, to begin with, Alec didn't kill you because he said you deserve a chance to think. That you just don't know any better. He says you're not a bad guy. Lucius disagrees, but I think Lucius is prejudiced against your family, and can't say that I blame him. And now Holly says she thinks you're just a … Well, I believe her exact words were 'an arrogant' … oh no, wait a minute, she said 'smug, arrogant
jackass', but not a bad guy."
Holly, so the lass' name was Holly and she thought he was a jackass, great, he thought to himself, but he responded, "What is Alec?"
"Well, that depends on who you ask. There are those who think he's a freak. I don't much hold with their opinion. There are those who think he's gifted. I kind of agree with that one. There are others, like Lucius, who call him a mutation. Don't care for that word, but if you mean what is he exactly? Young Alec is the offspring of two gifted people. His mother was a full-fledged psychic, his father … well, nothing hurts Alec. He also looks damn good for his age. I think he is about sixty and he only looks to be about forty, but Young Alec inherited bits and pieces of both of his parents …" Malachi took a deep breath as he steeled himself for this next part of the conversation. "His sister was like his mother, a true psychic."
Richter glanced at Malachi. His voice had begun amused, but now it was cold and endeavoring to be impartial. He was failing. It hadn't changed until he talked about the sister. He hesitated a moment longer and then decided Malachi brought it up. "What happened to Alec's sister? You said was."
Malachi didn't answer right away. He changed the direction they were walking. He waited until they were at the cemetery. He gestured with his hand. "You see there how the cemetery is broken up into two sections?" Richter nodded. "The front half we had to expand ten years ago after the epidemic. We lost nearly half our number. It was a particularly cruel epidemic, it didn't thin us equally. It took almost all of our elderly and nearly everyone under the age of eight. Of those between eight and sixteen it killed about half; though of the half it took, more than sixty percent of them were women. Of those between sixteen and thirty, it exclusively took women. You will find my men and I avoid the new section of the cemetery. There isn't one of us who doesn't have someone we love in there. I remember the last day I spent with my friends before the epidemic. There were seventeen of us, we were playing a game. The next time the group of us were together was after Olivia's funeral, that's Alec's older sister, there were eight of us and everyone still alive was there." Malachi hesitated a long moment and then he decided why not. "Olivia is buried next to my two older sisters. Three graves down is my younger sister. My mother is buried in the row behind. And though I never got the chance to marry his sister, Alec is like a brother to me. I trust his opinion. Don't disappoint me."
Second Age of Darkness Page 7
