by P. Mattern
His words confused me. Wasn’t my report enough validation? Everything Dr. Renauld had done to creep me out and make me feel as though he were feeling me up rather than examining me had actually happened. I couldn’t imagine that the Prince would minimize it by questioning the seriousness of it.
“Why are you here?” I asked, in as icy a tone as I could muster.
“I thought you would want to see your handiwork,” he told me. To my alarm he began to undress, unbuttoning his vest and throwing it on the floor, and then pulling up his tunic style shirt and turning around so that I could see his back.
It was brutally marked, crisscrossed with lash marks that themselves were jagged on the edges, as if he had been flayed with the whips that had pieces of glass or metal embedded in them. I had assumed the doctor was a vampire, and that any marks caused by his flogging would have healed without leaving any permanent scars.
This was clearly not the case.
When I found my voice I said, “Are you not a vampire doctor? Then what are you?”
He jerked his shirt back down and stared at me with malevolence in his beady eyes.
“I am a dhampyr, Princess, a half vampire. If I had been human the flaying would have killed me. As it is I will have scars on my back for the rest of my existence, thanks to your gracious mercy.”
I knew he was trying to guilt trip me and as badly as I felt about the permanent marks I was having none of it.
“You are welcome,” I told him, ”You know FULL WELL what you did! You have probably been doing it to other women among the Royals and Nobles for centuries, and because you think yourself clever in the way you violate us, and because it leaves no physical marks, you think it is your right to treat us as whores! I am never glad to inflict punishment, and perhaps I would have reconsidered if I had known that you were only half vampire—but you were long overdue to be punished for your perversions and I am GLAD that you were!”
He did not flinch or look surprised at my diatribe, and I was taken aback when he answered me.
“I think I have a way to pay you back for your so-called mercy Princess,” he told me calmly, ”You see, when you left the table last night, and then I saw the Prince’s First Counselor Oliver leave right behind you, I became curious and decided to follow…
I heard, and saw every bit of your exchange. My, my, you have been busy haven’t you, you Earth Belly slut! Fucking both the Prince AND his First Counsellor!”
He approached me, coming menacingly close, so close that I could smell his sweat.
“What do you think the Prince would do if I reported all that I saw and heard? I think he might just separate your beautiful head from your lovely neck—that’s what I think.” He finished.
My mind was racing. I knew the Prince probably wouldn’t believe him. But it might raise suspicion in his mind, and that was something I couldn’t risk.
“That is ridiculous gossip, and my Prince will see it as exactly that,” I answered coolly, with a confidence I didn’t feel, ”He will do worse to you than what you just showed me for slandering his Bride to be. If it is my word against yours, who do you think he will believe?”
Dr. Renauld looked taken aback for only a moment, then he got a shrewd look on his face.
“You may have forgotten, Princess, as you live out every little Earthbelly girl’s fantasy of a Prince Charming that , though we have chosen to live our lifestyles with Medieval flair that we also have access to the luxuries of modern life and its advanced technology. Just a whisper, a mere whisper, mind you, in the Prince’s ear and he can have the DNA of the child tested before or anytime after the child is born.
So, do you feel lucky, Vampire Princess Tristina? Whose sperm ultimately fertilized your egg? Are you willing to bet your pretty head that it was your husband to be? Or do you suspect, deep down in your heart of hearts that it is his First Counselor Oliver Winston Barrett? It’s a toss of a coin really, 50/50, even chances…
Do you feel lucky, Princess?”
As he finished his diatribe and said ‘Princess’ he ended on a taunting note. Although I kept my composure I was inwardly panicking. I had never dreamed that someone lurking in the shadows of the Silo would be extorting me.
“What do you want?” I asked in a cold voice, ”Money? Gold? Diamonds?”
He smiled. It was an evil smile, as if he had gained an advantage somehow and he knew it.
“Ah, that is a good question, a very good question. Perhaps. Or perhaps I shall want a more intimate gift from you Princess Tristina. Something you can’t seem to get enough of. I shall ponder your question and let you know. “
He bowed deeply, one hand nearly scraping the floor, but I knew his exaggerated bow was no sign of respect.
“Get out,” I told him between gritted teeth, ”Leave my chambers now or I will call my guard!”
“No need for that,” he told me, straightening up and taking his leave, ”I will go. But I will be in touch, rest assured.”
As I watched him walk away, I felt myself flushing hot and cold. He was a vile creature. His very existence was an insult to me, and that was a fact.
Dr. Renauld had ruined my plan to avoid Oliver, especially since I desperately needed his input on how to handle the Doctor. I told myself that I was not alone in this, not really, and it gave me some measure of comfort.
I heard the tower gong strike the hour and realized that Theda was coming to visit me, and I must compose myself. I had been looking forward to her visit that morning, and had envisioned us laughing and celebrating our pregnancies and enjoying the warm feeling of sisterhood that had always existed between us.
Now I was no longer in a lighthearted mood. I wondered if I could fake a smile and pretend that everything was fine, when that was far from the truth. I wondered if I should instead take Theda into my confidence. I knew she would never judge me, and that she would be on my side no matter what foolish thing I had done.
As it turned out, I ended up doing exactly that.
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
“I’LL KILL HIM,” Theda said instantly when I tearfully made my confession to her, ”He is already under suspicion and in disgrace. I will catch him unaware and push him off one of the most high parapets and he will tumble screaming into the ice abyss below. You know he likes to smoke out there from time to time. I can make it look like an accident.”
I looked fondly at my best friend. She looked lovely, dressed in a blue silk gown that I had sent over, with an eye patch to match, which reminded me that even before we were friends she had sacrificed an eye to save my life. She was my own personal angel and I didn’t deserve her.
I hugged her tightly. She was farther along in her pregnancy and I could feel her baby bump between us. And yet even given her condition she was willing to put both herself and her precious baby in jeopardy and get ride of Dr. Renauld for me.
As much hatred as I felt toward the man I knew that I could not allow her to kill him. I would not allow her to have blood on her hands because I had fallen in love with two men.
“No,” I said, after literally crying on her shoulder and thanking her for being my friend, ”I can’t allow you to do that, even for me Theda. I know that at some point I will have to face the consequences for my actions.”
“Tristina , remember how when we were in High School there was always a lot of buzz about ‘making good choices’? Like when a teenager would get in trouble with drugs or sex or even with the law there was always rhetoric about ,”They should have made better choices?”
Well I think that was bullshit and I will tell you why. Sometimes the best choices aren’t clear, and sometimes circumstances well beyond our control force our hand. It’s not as simple as ‘making a good choice’-far from it. Sometimes we just have to make the best of a complicated situation.
I could never blame you, my friend. I chose to lose an eye rather than be with him. I had heard that he was spoiled and selfish and cruel, so I actually didn’t do you any favors letting yo
u beat me in the fight.
But you changed him Tristina. That is not something anyone could have predicted. And then your woman’s heart wanted more than he could give you, you turned to Oliver for tenderness. The fact that the Prince came around and learned how to show you the same love you ran to Oliver for could not have been anticipated. I would not blame you if you were involved with Oliver still.
But—and there is always a ‘but’ and I AM going to chide you now—you risked greatly in following your impulses and your heart. What you’ve been doing could cost you AND Oliver your lives! I won’t let you take those kind of chances and you should have told me about it from the beginning!”
I lowered my head in shame.
“I am sorry that I didn’t. I hope you can forgive me. I’d hoped that I could handle everything on my own, Theda.
But you can see I can’t. I will need your counsel and support.”
Theda looked at me, her eyes serious as she reached out to smooth my hair from my face.
“Can you stay away from Oliver Tristina? Because that is my counsel. Stay away from him. Refuse to share his bed another night. There is enough love between the two of you so that your friendship should survive.”
“But even if we never touch each other again, and I am sure that he cannot stand the sight of me at the moment, what if…what if…”
“What if he finds out the child is not his? I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. You have a 50% chance it is, and he is a vampire after all—they are known for being studs. Just make sure that you do not continue in your clandestine trysts with Sir Oliver and everything will be fine.
As for the Doctor I will make no promises but I will be watching him.”
Oliver and Lady Deborah Carrolton were married in a simple evening ceremony the next day. The bride was beautiful, blonde and demure in an off white silk gown with seed pearls and crystals sewn on the bodice and on the train of her bridal gown. Oliver looked older and uncharacteristically stately in his official First Counselor’s uniforms. The Prince and I exchanged kisses with both the bride and groom, and Oliver avoiding looking at me. When he kissed my cheek his lips were cold.
Months passed and Theda and I were showing our advanced pregnancies. We looked like two pot bellied china dolls, all dressed up in fine velvets and brocade. I was shorter than Theda and in no time at all I found that I couldn’t see my feet.
The Prince couldn’t seem to get enough of looking at my changing body. He would come in the morning when my maids would rub a special crème all over me after my bath, supposedly to prevent stretch marks. My belly was prominent, my breasts were rounder and fuller, my nipples a deeper rose shade and larger also. As my body prepared for the birth and feeding of the newborn the Prince lusted after me more and more.
He would politely talk to me while I was getting my morning massage. By the afternoon he was in my chambers, dismissing all the servants and making love to me.
He still had his peculiar sexual needs, but he had put away the flays, nipple clips, and other sexual toys when he found out I was carrying his child. In the chambers where he had practiced perversions on me, especially after I had first arrived at the Silo, now he satisfied himself with binding me with ropes and chains or suspending me spread eagled and bound in the air before we had intercourse. He was much more careful than he’d ever been before. I think he was afraid of doing anything that would hurt the baby. He didn’t even spank me with his hand any more.
It was an easy life to love.
Oliver was still assigned to protect me to a certain extent. After a while we settled back into our old routines. Theda and I would grow bored and ask him to organize a trip into the fresh air from time to time, to pick berries and view the wildlife from our sleigh. Always I asked him to go past the Ice Palace. I hadn’t been back since I’d run away a year earlier, but I still though about it.
Most of the inhabitants in our Svalbard Kingdom seemed to avoid it as a cursed place, but I thought it was beautiful. I always badgered Oliver to take us inside. We usually traveled with an entourage of a baker’s dozed soldiers and Guardsmen, fully armed, so I felt safe. The Ice Monsters seemed to be off doing other things and hadn’t been sighted for awhile.
One of the main reasons I wanted to return was to see the dark haired woman I’d met, the one who had introduced herself as the Caretaker of the Ice Palace. When I had asked the Prince about her he said that he wasn’t aware of her, that if there was a staff at the Ice Palace it must have been something his parents had arranged when he was a child.
One evening at dinner, Oliver announced that he and Deborah were also expecting. I noted with shock when the couple stood to make the announcement that Deborah had started to show her pregnancy, and I was puzzled that Oliver had waited so long to make the announcement.
“Oh but that is customary,” Theda told me the following day when I remarked on it, ”After a Royal pregnancy is announced it is customary to put off any other pregnancy announcements by the staff so as not to detract from the celebration of the Royal Child to be.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said slowly between mouthfuls of delicious lobster bisque that the chef had prepared for us for lunch, “Butt I swear that she looks nearly as pregnant as I do. She was so thin before too—her condition is really obvious.”
“How do you feel about Oliver becoming a father?” Theda wanted to know. Theda always had a way with bringing things out in the open, and I knew she wondered if the fact that Oliver would be a father bothered me, especially since we had been lovers.
“Um… I’m fine with it really,” I answered awkwardly. The thought occurred to me that somehow my circumstances had gotten Jerry Springer Show messy. My mind recoiled from even trying to do the math.
Oliver could potentially be the father of two children from two different’ Baby Mamas’.
Or…
He might possibly be the father of zero children. What if the Prince had impregnated Deborah during the Prima Nocte Ritual? If he were the father of my baby also, then potentially the Prince might be the father of two offspring.
Or…
(And I prayed this were true)Perhaps the Prince was my baby’s father and Oliver was the father of Deborah’s baby. That would mean that all secrets were safe and that everyone would have a sort of victory, at least in my mind.
But then…the reverse might be true. Oliver could be the father of my baby and the Prince might have an heir growing in Deborah’s womb instead of mine!
The horror of my last thought prevented me from commenting any further, but as I raised my bewildered eyes to Theda’s I knew that she had had the same thoughts.
“Please don’t fret,” she told me, ”The Gods have a way of arranging things to ensure the best outcome. And the Prince is very fertile. And you will be married to him, and once that is the case then only the children from your womb will be considered legitimate heirs to the Throne. Any illegitimate heirs would be Wards of the Royal Court with no claim to the throne Tristina. I know all of that to be true!”
I hugged my friend. She was more than my friend, she was my sister and protector.
“I wish I had done it right Theda, like you. Are you sure that the Prince is not the father of your child too?”
Theda smiled happily.
“The Prince thinks so highly of my Guardsman husband that he actually wore a condom on our Prima Nocte. He had me put it on him. He gave us the gift of knowing that our son was the result of OUR coming together.
This is why I am always asking you to give the Prince the benefit of the doubt, Tristina. He has much good in him, and I believe your love has brought it out of him. He is much different than he was before you came to this Silo in Svalbard. His concern for others has deepened. I believe ultimately he will be everything you have ever wanted.”
I relaxed at hearing her gentle words. I purposed to be as good a wife and lover as my Prince deserved.
I was completely sincere in my determination, but the
fates had other ideas.
The second attack by the Ice Monsters was more frightening than the first, although we were prepared.
The first attack had been in the time of the Midnight Sun, when there is no darkness, only a perpetual twilight. This one took place in the dead of night, because between November and the end of January here on our archipelago it is total darkness 24/7.
I was awakened by the sirens going off, and the dull red emergency lights in the corridors casting an eerie glow that shone underneath the doorway. The Prince had taken to spending the nights with me in my chambers, and he sprang out of bed instantly, pulling on his heavy boots and conferring briefly with the Guard outside the door.
All of those I dearly loved converged on my chamber at once. Oliver and Theda were there, as well as Oliver’s bride Deborah. Oliver herded us all down the corridors to the Prince’s chambers and through the hidden passage to the Citadel. The Prince felt that we would be safest there, as it was literally part of the mountain it had been built into and considered impenetrable.
I shivered as I struggled to keep up, whether out of fear or because they were cold I knew not, but I missed the Prince the second he left my side and my heart was fearful for him. I remembered Oliver’s words when he’d told me that he thought that I was finally growing a woman’s heart, and also remembered him saying that it was sure to be a painful process. He was right. I had matured, and the love and devotion I felt toward the Prince caused me to quake in fear at the thought that I might lose him.
Oliver led us past his quarters and further down a long and narrow corridor. I realized that we were traveling more deeply into the core of the mountain. The air was warmer and more humid, and it was lit by torches that flickered with a warm breeze that seemed to flow continually through the passageways.
