Chapter 18

I burst out laughing.

Dornell frowned. “I’m serious!! There’s really just no other explanation. Unless somehow we were drugged, and a lot more time passed than we thought, then– “

“I’m sorry, but is this really Dornell I’m talking to?!” I asked. “You know, my best friend, the one who always has a perfectly logical explanation whenever something weird is going on? Sorcery?? Gods! I never thought I’d say this, but I’d almost rather be talking to Torvis…”

Torvis.

I stopped laughing and looked my friend in the eye; he remained completely serious. Well, this certainly didn’t fit in with Dorny’s typical brand of humor. I had to admit; after what had just been suggested, Torvis’ notion of hidden passageways didn’t seem so outlandish after all.

Besides – if someone could simply walk in and transmute a couple thousand square feet of solid brass (I was guessing about the total amount) into a different material overnight, then who was to say they couldn’t conjure additional ways of coming and going just as easily?

I collapsed into a chair next to him. “Dorny… How likely do you think it is that there are hidden passages within the Estate? Even here in Mannerly Hall?”

He smiled as though amused. “Torvis spoke to you, I see. Veille, I think it’s impossible that there aren’t a plethora of secret exits and entrances that we don’t know about. I mean, just look at the Estate: it’s an emporium of rare and exotic experiences which I gather aren’t exactly street legal elsewhere. The entire operation must revolve around keeping secrets, and I don’t just mean the ones that they’ve kept from us. Such a place would require there to be plenty of ways to move about unnoticed – probably some emergency shelters, too. I’d say it’s likely there are a few places that none besides Madam Dro herself even knows exists.”

“That… could definitely affect our plans for getting out of here” I said, “for better or for worse.”

Suddenly I felt tired. All this talk was going way over my head. “I’ve never even been outside, D. I don’t know the first thing about what rules and customs exist beyond the walls of the Estate. Can you even be sure that molestation isn’t common everywhere you go? Because I sure as hell can’t.”

I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back. “Sometimes I wonder if escape is really worth all this effort” I murmured. “Maybe we’d all be happier if they’d just told us we were slaves from the very beginning. At least then it wouldn’t have come as a shock. Perhaps… Perhaps even knowing better is the cruelest punishment of them all.”

Dornell was silent for several moments. Then, I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders and give them a squeeze.

“Don’t talk like that” he quietly demanded, “don’t ever.”

It wasn’t very long before one of the maidens found us like that. His thick arms crossed in front of a chest built like a barrel, and it seemed that before I could even blink we were shuttled off to another part of the Hall and made to practice a dance we’d already done ten-thousand times before.

~

A sinister shape moved in the shadows…

My hands and legs were bound with ropes of darkness. The darkness writhed, like an eel, seeking to cloister my mouth and eyes with its suffocating grasp – and all the while those eyes continued watching me, ever present, ever intense, their desire unclear.

I tried to move, but it was useless. An animalistic terror took hold of my mind and squeezed, squeezed it until I felt my adrenaline run dry and only the hopelessness of death continued to engulf me.

The dark shape was moving closer to me now. When its face came into view, I wanted to wail; not a face at all, not really, more of a blank spot that itched painfully at my memory. Was the face feminine? Masculine? Animal? Machine, even? I felt that I should know it from somewhere even as it appeared to me now, cloaked in shadow; that if only I could see the mask it usually wore during the day, then I could name it for what it was… or for what it claimed to be… an unmasking performed in reverse. But even without, I knew that I had met this demon somewhere before.

And those fiery eyes staring at me from beyond it… What terrible beast or god did those eyes belong to?

~

A scream erupted from my lips as I awoke, shivering and sweaty  – but made no sound. A hand was pressed firmly over my mouth, preventing me; I stared, numbed by fear, at the darkness above my head, until soon a face swam into view with eyes bulging equally to my own.

Maiden Threwon looked around herself frantically. I was in the bunk room, I realized, still lying upon my bed. It was the dead of night.

She hissed quietly to me as a warning. Then, slowly, she removed her hand from my face, letting me breathe again.

“Scream and you’ll regret it” she warned me, her eyes harsh like diamonds.

“L… Lady?” I choked, staring at her in disbelief. “What are you… What are you doing in here? What time is it?”

“Not the time for that” she said simply. “Listen; I need you to do something for me. I meant what I said to you the last time we spoke, do you remember? Meet me just outside the lunchroom tomorrow before your first bite of food. Make an excuse to leave and say you’ll be right back. It won’t take very long.”

“What are you– “

But then, maiden Threwon was gone. I barely heard the rustle of her clothing as she swung down from the bunk. I heard the door to the chamber whisk open moments later, and saw the dim bit of light floating in from the hallway before she closed it again.

Faint footsteps sounded briefly outside before vanishing away too – and then suddenly, all was quiet and still in the night once more.