Page 15 of Zel
Ulrich fixed him with an unwavering stare.
“The, um, virtue expected of a bride remains intact.”
Ulrich chuckled. “Now that is an honest answer. Are you generally honest, Zel?”
“Generally.”
“As am I. You are not to be mistreated. This month is for me to know you.”
“To assess my worth?”
“Yes.”
“And if I displease you before the month is over?”
“Are you going to displease me?” Ulrich asked.
“I cannot say, but so far you have not displeased me.”
“Another honest answer.” Ulrich leaned forward, lowering his towering height to Zel’s level. “I respond viciously when wronged, against trespassers, thieves, and liars in my midst, but to one who shows me their true self, I can be kind. Shall I show you around the rest of the tower?” He snapped upright again, leaving Zel to mull over the obvious threat.
“There is more to see?” Zel glanced around.
The room was also as his parents had described. A lone window looked out toward the heart of the kingdom. There were shelves of books along the walls and more filled with bottles and jars. One shelf was covered in magical trinkets. There was a chaise in one area and a desk in another beside a second door, which, given the size of the tower, could only lead to a closet or to another set of stairs.
Or so Zel thought.
With a motion of his arm, Ulrich bid Zel to follow him across the room toward that second door. When they reached it, he pulled a key from a pocket inside his robes and handed it to Zel. The key was brass but polished enough that it almost looked gold. It had an intricately shaped bow. The oval within the bow’s empty space almost seemed to shimmer like a rainbow stretched across it. The stem was long, but the three key bits were short, each decreasing in length to an almost tapered end.
“Oh yes,” Ulrich said. “There is much more to see.”
ULRICH
Zel’s parents had indeed been an attractive pair, though Ulrich hadn’t honestly cared whether or not their child would inherit their beauty. He had not asked for beautiful. He had asked for his rules to be followed, and they had been. Those foolish enough to have eaten the lettuce when not bidden to had gotten their punishment, but Zel had not gone a single day since birth without eating at least a leaf of Ulrich’s lettuce.
The green eyes and radiantly golden hair were proof of that.
Zel glowed with all that magic, a truly magnificent bride-to-be and already dressed in a wedding gown. Ulrich was almost tempted to take the young mortal to his bed that night. It had been so long since he had known another’s touch. But he was no such brute, and after all, Zel had asked so sweetly for him to wait.
What a marvelous deceiver. Perfect to be the sacrifice to achieve Ulrich’s goal.
“Go on.” He motioned for Zel to use the key on the lock. “Insert it and give the key a quarter turn. Then open the door.”
Zel seemed cautious, smartly so, but did as requested and turned the key one click to the right.
Three
ZEL
“It’s a washroom,” Zel said with no small level of disappointment. He hadn’t been certain what he expected, but given the intricacies of the key, something more magical than a place to relieve himself and wash up at the end of a long day.
“Every home needs such a space, does it not?” Ulrich said.
Zel’s old home had one, but only because he hadn’t been able to risk using a public bathhouse. Otherwise, it was rare in smaller homes. “Wait.” He looked back into the tower proper, then forward into the washroom again. Both were equally spacious, which shouldn’t have been possible. From outside, the tower looked no larger than the main room.
“Close the door, relock it, and give the key a half turn next,” Ulrich instructed.
The key was magic, Zel realized, and he hastened to do as told to see what the next room contained. Half a turn of the key, and he reopened the door to one of the largest rooms he had ever seen, filled to the brim with treasure.
