Page 11 of The Dragon Maiden

Around midday, a young boy with cropped red hair entered the chamber with two plates. I stood on a ladder to reach the higher shelves and Lord Dracul was still busy reading the papers in front of him, occasionally scribbling something down on a different sheet of parchment. We both looked over when the boy entered, and he visibly blanched at the attention.

“H-h-here is y-your lunch, m-m-my Lord,” he stuttered, setting it on a table before racing out of the room.

To my surprise, Lord Dracul almost looked amused at the boy’s behavior before finishing writing his sentence and standing. “It’s lunchtime,” he announced, walking over to the table.

I descended from the ladder and approached as well. The two plates looked drastically different. What was obviously Lord Dracul’s contained a roasted leg of lamb with potatoes and vegetables. My plate had a small piece of bread with a slice of dried meat and a hunk of cheese. There were two glasses, one filled with what looked to be wine and the other with water. I was surprised at my fare; after my first day, my meals had consisted of more food and were of higher quality. If I did not know better, it seemed like Vimery had prepared this meal for me. Resigned, I reached for my plate only to have Lord Dracul swat my hand away.

“No Dragon Maiden of mine is going to eat this slop,” he growled. I swear I could almost see steam escaping from his ears. “This is an insult to you and therefore to me.” He swiped my plate before stalking out of the chamber with his only instruction being to “Wait here.”

While he was gone, I continued to clean, worry settling in my gut. I did not want the young boy from earlier getting in trouble. If Vimery had put him up to this, she was the one who should take the blame, not him. I attempted to keep my mind busy with cleaning, my ears alert for any sound of Lord Dracul’s return.

It was almost half an hour before he returned, a different plate in his hands, looking remarkably similar to his meal. “Come, eat your lunch,” he called to me, and once more, I came down the ladder.

He placed the steaming plate of food in front of me, the fare identical to his own.

I stopped him before he could take a bite. “You should take the new plate. Yours is cold now because of me,” I said, moving to switch plates.

He blocked my hands and quickly took a bite from his plate. “It’s fine,” he said. “Now eat up.”

“But—” I began to protest.

“Eat up,” he repeated once more, taking another bite of cold food.

I did as he said, feeling terrible that I was eating something hot while his own meal was lukewarm at best.

As he ate, I noticed a ring that I had not seen earlier that morning. The large, swirling, blue stone seated on his right index finger glimmered in the light as he lifted the fork to his mouth.

After several minutes of silence, I spoke. “What happened?”

Lord Dracul paused mid-bite, as if deciding how much to tell me. “One of the other Dragon Maidens thought today would be a good day to play a trick on you since I was not bringing your lunch directly to you,” he said, confirming my suspicions that it was Vimery. “I suppose she thought I would be elsewhere when it was delivered and not see its sorry state.”

“Who was it?” I did not see any point in bringing Vimery’s other misdeeds to his attention and pretended I did not know who it could be.

He fixed me with a pointed look, and I squirmed uncomfortably under his scrutiny. “I think you and I both know who has been giving you a hard time around here,” he said, pointing a fork at me. “And in the future, I would hope you bring these transgressions to me directly. As I said before, any slight against you is a slight against me.”

I nodded at his words, and after a few more minutes, we both had finished our lunch, returning to the work we had started before the meal. By the end of the day, I had finished dusting over half of the books and I could tell by Lord Dracul’s expression that he was impressed with what I had gotten done for the day.

Chapter Nine

Valora

Over the next weeks, I continued to clean Lord Dracul’s quarters. From what he had mentioned, the other Dragon Maidens came in once a month for a day to do much needed cleaning, but that was it. And from the looks of things, a cleaning was very badly needed. Each day, I returned to the cavern exhausted, my entire body aching. But overall, I felt proud of what I had accomplished, the work helping keep my mind off my brother. I was too exhausted at the end of the day for my nightmares to plague me. Some days, Lord Dracul let me spend a couple hours in the afternoon to read books from his library, and I would do that while he continued working at his desk.

Lord Dracul eventually gave me a day off to do what I wanted. From what I could tell, this itself was abnormal—the other Dragon Maidens worked every single day with their Lords. But I was not one to question his generosity, as I looked forward to exploring the caves more. Though I had been too busy to think of Ronan, the thought of escape had never completely disappeared. Perhaps today would be the day I could find a way out. The glimmer of hope had not been snuffed out yet.

I traveled past the main tunnels, coming upon a section where they branched off that I had not seen yet. I picked one at random, not expecting to find anything interesting. As I walked, I could hear the sound of voices, the volume increasing the more I walked. Eventually, after numerous turns, I came upon a giant cavern, one that dwarfed both Lord Dracul’s and the Dragon Maidens’ caverns by comparison. At the top of the cavern was an opening that let in sunlight, keeping the crops scattering the cavern floor alive. People, ranging in ages from young children to the elderly, were picking a section of ripened produce, all while talking and laughing together. The only people who seemed to notice me were a few who were weeding nearby. At the other end of the cavern was another entrance where people came in and out with pails of water.

As I entered the cavern, the people closest to me avoided eye contact. They all wore the same gray clothing, similar to what the other servants in the cave usually wore, bare feet and all. I slipped off my shoes, as well, digging my toes into the cool dirt. It had been ages since I had experienced anything besides stone or rugs underneath my feet, and I relished the feeling.

A small boy raced into the cave, water spilling over the sides of his bucket. People moved out of his way, yelling at him to slow down and be careful, their voices echoing through the cavern. He paid them no heed, running full tilt in only the way a child could. He headed towards me, and I foolishly expected him to move. He was too close, running too fast, and I attempted to get out of his way, but he collided directly with me, spilling the remaining contents of his bucket onto my dress, soaking it immediately.

When he saw what he had done and noticed my clothes, his face paled, all color disappearing. “I’m-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I didn’t see you.”

Silence fell over the crops as everyone froze, having seen what happened. They watched us closely, their gazes trained on me, to see how I would react.

I stood and grabbed the fallen empty bucket, handing it to him. “Accidents happen,” I reassured him. “But next time, you should be more careful.”

He nodded solemnly at my words, remaining silent.

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