Chapter 1 - Alone
The woman put her ear to the wall, straining to hear what was being said on the other side. The boards separating her and the person in the other room were thick and, try as she might, she couldn't hear a peep of what was going on next door.
A knock sounded on the door, and a young girl opened it. A chill went through the older woman's spine. The child was never anything like her father, who was a wicked and cruel man, without regard for the life of another being. Unless of course, that other being could offer him something. But that was not his way with Abriella. Abriella was treated harshly, as would be expected from her father, but he seemed to soften, if just a bit, when he was around the girl.
She had long blond hair, which was so pale that it was almost white, and pale skin that had only a hint of peach color to it, just enough to make her seem healthy and acceptable to other human standards. But people would still assume that she hadn't seen the sunlight in years. That wasn't the only thing she inherited from her father, though. Her eyes. The older woman shuddered again. She loved Abriella dearly, but if she could change one thing about her daughter, it would be her eyes. The older woman likened them to a glass of water: blue, and yet without color. Abriella's eyes had the illusion of color. They frightened the other woman because the girl's father had the exact same eyes, but with the added coldness that seemed to jump from those pale blue eyes and into her heart, evaporating any courage she'd ever had.
The plain white dress Abriella wore made her skin seem washed out and colorless, as if all the color from her skin had drained out of her face and arms and been soaked into the wood floor she stood on. The dress didn't suit her slight form at all. Instead, it made her appear ghostly, like an apparition. If the older woman had been in the Wayless Wood, among all the trees, she would have mistaken the girl for one of the phantom White Women, which haunted the forest as though searching for a half-dead mortal to take back with them. It was made worse with the way her colorless blue eyes stood out against her pale face in such an unnatural way. No matter how forlorn and ghostly the child looked, it always came back to those eyes she had that filled her mother with such a chill that she had to turn away from her daughter, so the girl couldn't see the look in her eyes.
"Mother," Abriella began in her whispery voice that created a haunting image behind the woman's eyes, "what are you doing? We're not supposed to be eavesdropping on the Adderhead. You know that."
"Shh!" Abriella's mother hushed her. "Be quiet! I have to know what they are saying."
"But why?" She demanded, putting her hands on her hips. She raised her voice. "You know that Mortola would be furious if she found out you were spying on the Adderhead. And so would he!" She was practically yelling.
"Be quiet!" Her mother commanded, although it was to no avail. The girl didn't want to listen to anyone, least of all her mother.
It was then that Mortola decided to enter the room, wielding a whip in one hand, and the other was clenched in a fist.
"What's going on here?" She demanded. "Why is there all this yelling?"
"Nothing," Abriella's mother said immediately. "We were just having a philosophical discussion, is all."
Mortola raised her eyebrows and turned her sight towards Abriella. "What is going on here?" She demanded in a menacingly low voice that sent shivers down the girl's mother's spine.
Hanging her head with humility and shame, the girl spoke in a small voice, "She was listening in on the Lord Adderhead's conversation."
Mortola raised her gaze to look at the girl's mother, and then ordered Abriella out of the room. The other woman knew what would come next, and she prayed that it wouldn't last long.
Abriella left the room with an apologetic look on her face, and her mother faced the punishment that was about to be dealt to her.
-
I wanted so much to listen in to what was going on, but I didn't dare. Not after what had just occurred. I shuddered to think of what Mortola might do to me if I was caught eavesdropping on her and my mother. I shuddered even more when I heard my mother's screams as they echoed across the hallway and into my bedroom.
My bedroom was right across from my mother's room, which was right beside the Adderhead's room. His excuse for this arrangement was that he wanted to keep an eye on my mother and me. I personally think he was ready to kill his own china doll of a wife and take my mother instead, as she was beautiful and available.
Besides, taking the mother of the daughter of Capricorn as his own would be another one of those rumors that he would be happy to spread, so that everyone knew that no one was safe from his grasp.
He hadn't done it yet because the wife he had now had born him a son. But I felt sure that it was only a matter of time.
Not even Capricorn's daughter safe. Because I, like my mother, was under surveillance. I knew about the secret passageways that passed my room, allowing people like Firefox and the Piper to peep in on me. I knew that they did it, which was why, whenever I was changing my clothes, I did so behind a screen, where none of the paintings that had obviously had the eyes cut out could see me. That way, if they were peeping while I was changing, they wouldn't see me.
I also knew that if I ever tried to escape, that would be short-lived.
The door opened, and my mother came in. I immediately went to my chest of healing herbs, which my mother and I used whenever Mortola beat one of us. Usually, it was my mother who was the butt end of the beatings, and Mortola took special pleasure in beating my mother because my mother had been foolish enough to think that she was safe from the old woman.
Who knew that a grandmother and mother could be so heartless and cruel?
I pulled out the best herb remedy I had for cuts, and immediately began to apply it on my mother's back and arms. They were cut, bleeding, swollen and red. I also applied the ointment to the cuts on her back that were not bleeding; the ones that had been administered the previous week.
Mortola enjoyed the weekly beatings she gave my mother. I had no idea why she did, but she did. It was only after the fact when I realized that most of the time, it was because I had brought attention to some things that my mother was doing, which she wasn't supposed to be doing, and therefore brought upon the punishment that befell my mother.
"It was worse this time," I said. My mother didn't reply. All I heard was a small weeping sound, and I knew that she was crying.
She was crying because I was the reason she had received the beating, and all the other beatings. I knew that my mother would never be what Mortola wanted because, unlike Mortola and Capricorn, my mother was soft-hearted, and didn't know the meaning of the word, 'selfish'. She was always thinking of others.
Except when she was being beaten.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. I knew there was nothing I could do that could take away the pain of her daughter causing her this anguish. But I had to say something. I loved my mother, and I couldn't bear to see her hurting like this, and all because of me. "I didn't realize what I was doing at the time," I said, as if that could qualify as a good enough excuse. "I'm so sorry." My voice was below a whisper, so soft that I myself had to strain to hear it. I felt my cheeks become warm with my shame.
If it had been anyone else, I couldn't have cared less. It was because it was my mother – a woman who had done nothing to harm anyone – that I cared as much as I did.
"It's not your fault," she whispered. "It's His fault."
I knew she was talking about my father. Capricorn. She blamed him every time she was given a beating.
Before Capricorn disappeared, there were never any beatings. But then Firefox took over, and he took my mother for himself. She was lucky when the Adderhead stepped in and brought her to his castle.
I hated Firefox more than anything or anybody. Even more than I hated Mortola, if that was possible. He had grabbed my mother for himself the moment that Capricorn had disappeared before his eyes, when Capricorn had been watching as Basta teased and menaced the fire-eater, Dustfinger. After the shock had worn away, Firefox had immediately grabbed my mother from her bedroom and thrown her into his.
And there was nothing she could have done about it.
From the beginning, Firefox had wanted my mother for himself, even before I was born. This was because she had been the most beautiful of the maids. But Capricorn had decided that he had wanted my mother for himself. He had never been attached to any of the maids, and he had made sure that all of them bathed in vinegar, which was supposed to prevent a woman from becoming pregnant. But it hadn't done any good in my mother's case. Capricorn had only had her for one night, but one night was enough. Two weeks later, according to my mother, she was throwing up uncontrollably, and Mortola gave her a nasty beating because she was useless as a maid until I was born, and my mother could recover.
When Capricorn disappeared, I was just surprised that Firefox didn't take the wench who appeared in his place, since she was just as beautiful as my mother, if not more, since blond hair was supposed to, at the time, be the more beautiful look.
The beatings had started when one of the younger fire-raisers had wanted me in his bed. My mother, knowing what it would do to me, had hit that boy so hard, he hadn't been able to see or speak for a month.
So Firefox had beaten her until she was black and blue.
But he had never let anyone touch me.
Mother had always said that Capricorn would be my downfall, and my safety. She always said that he had valued only three things: First, his life, second, his money and third, me. I always had a hard time believing her, but when Firefox killed a man for grabbing me, I knew that he was still terrified that Capricorn would return, and kill him for allowing such a thing.
If there was one thing I knew, it was that, no matter how hard I tried, my past, and my father, would always follow me, wherever I went.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
AN: For those of you who are reading this and going, "I've read this before! This is plagiarism!" I can assure you that this has not been plagiarized. This is an original story, which I had previously written on a different account, but deleted because of personal reasons. I stopped writing on that account because someone was stalking me (I won't go into detail about it) and therefore I have changed the name to what the name of the next in the trilogy is supposed to be (Inkdeath) and have posted it here on this account. If you have never read this before, then press the pretty purple button and let me know what you think! No flames, please!