4.

A nagging foreboding woke Vesper. Not a shred of light penetrated her room this morning. 'It must be foggy,' Vesper thought sleepily and stretched on the featherbed, feeling as happy and content as she had ever been. An uneasiness was still there, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and slept some more. She dreamt of walking a white trail on a gently slopping mountainside. The skies above her were impeccably blue, and the trees along the trail heavy with ripe red fruit. The trees ended and to her delight she saw that the rest of the slope was a field of roses and there were far more flowers on these bushes than there were leaves. The red field stretched to the horizon, as far as she could see... A few maidens of her age were collecting rose petals in large sacks and then spilling their fragrant bounty into a cart. A scarlet mount grew reaching for the sky yet the field still looked red if not a single flower was plucked off the thorny branches. Vesper walked to the cart, passing by the two placid russet horses, whose tails whipped lazily against the summer flies, and dipped her hands into the petals. The rich, oily smell was overwhelming, but instead of resisting dizziness she fell readily into the velvety depth of the flower-mountain. Its top collapsed undercut by the weight of her body, and the petals spilled all over her... The maidens stopped their work and looked at her, laughing merrily; as their heads moved when they laughed, hundreds of petals fell from the roses woven into their hair to settle on their cheeks and bare bosoms and arms...

The pesky little thing, the annoyance that woke her for the first time refused to go away completely, however, and broke into her dream, making Vesper see blood where the petals were before and twisting girls' smiling faces into the grimaces. They screamed, not laughed.

I am drowning in blood...

Frustrated and scared, Vesper set up in her bed, groping for the blankets... there were none. She started leaning over, to the floor but no matter how far she extended her hand all she could feel was the endless featherbed. She moved then and her hand finally touched to something warm soft and alive. 'Another girl' she thought immediately, still under the spell of her dream. Whoever the maiden was, she was not screaming. She breathed softly and evenly. Vesper could even hear laughter bubbling in her chance mate's throat. As shy as Vesper was to wake up a stranger, there was no other way to get a myriad of questions swarming up in her mind like a locust of poisonous insects, answered. It was so dark, that Vesper's eyes did not adjust like it usually happens. Blackness walled her. So she followed the sleeper's body up to the shoulder, coated with thick, silky hair, with one palm. With a sudden jolt of shame Vesper realized that the sleeper was naked. Hastily she touched to her own body only to confirm her own nudity. All that the kidnappers left on her were the garnet earrings which weighed her ears heavily.

Vesper squealed in terror, remembering all the stories of virgins sold into the Pashas of Calimshan harems. She listened to her own body, trying to detect if it was dishonored by a man while she had her rose dreams. She did not feel... assaulted. She felt as if she has had a long and restful sleep. The happiness she experienced earlier was all spent however. It took her a few moments to swallow her own bile, that fear stirred in the pit of her stomach and pushed up her throat.

Cringing Vesper gripped at the girl's shoulder and shook with all her might. The body rolled limply towards her, its breath as even as it was; her cell-mate was still soundly and happily asleep.... Vesper crawled around, finding another three or four bodies - in the dark she could not tell one from another for sure. None of them would come awake at her prodding and slapping. Their peaceful unconsciousness frightened Vesper more than she thought the moans and weeping would.

But the real horror awaited the paladin's daughter when she finally reached a wall. She was not expecting it, and cried out loud when her hand found a wooden edge of a shelf. She crawled along, guiding herself with her hand, until she counted four corners. There was no door, as far as she could tell. Only endless shelves packed to the brims with the cold rounded shapes. Her trembling fingers found empty sockets, jagged edges of the bones and long wedges of teeth. There could be no mistake - those were skulls. Human skulls. Desperate, Vesper curled small on the featherbed that covered the crypt's floor and started weeping with quiet, unconsolable sobs until she had exhausted her tears. Then she laid still, resolved to her destiny. There was nothing she could do.

Vesper could not hear a sound when they walked in. It was the smell of rose oil that announced their presence. She thought that her dreams were returning and was grateful, but she wished to fall asleep and to be unconscious of her coming doom so much, that this desire instead made her alert. Light - a feeble, unwholesome light of a dungeon drew an uneven square in the blackness and then permeated the space. Vesper saw what she had guessed at earlier - a small chamber lined with the shelves from the floor to the ceiling, full of skulls and three women on the padded floor. One of the newcomers carefully placed yet another one on the floor and shook off his cloak as if after the rain and the rose smell intensified. Droplets glistened dimly on the woman's skin - they must have bathed her with the rose incenses...

'That is truly a royal gift, Lord Gayan,' the man said not bothering to lower his voice, gesturing into the crypt. For a mad moment Vesper thought that the object of her yesterday's dreams had come to rescue her, until he answered: 'Of course it is. I intended it for a Queen after all. I hope she would be pleased.'

Gayan lingered and then stepped over the threshold. Vesper closed her eyes hastily and tried to steady her breath. She sensed that there somehow was a worst danger if Gayan discovered that she was not submerged into delusional slumber. Cold emanated from the man as he kneeled by her and his fingers were icier than she remembered, when he moved her hair aside and caressed her neck.

'I hope she would be pleased,' he repeated softly. 'I would have wanted this one for myself.'

His companion chuckled: 'Do not even think about it after you went into all the troubles of breaking the wards on the paladin's house. She is the Queen's now.'

'You do not have to remind me,' Gayan said with disgust and lifted an earring. 'She is a gift carrying a gift... If I cannot enjoy her, let her bring me Queen's favor at least.'

'Enjoy?' the second man sounded amused. 'My dear Gayan you have a rotten taste. A paladin's daughter... Brr. Pray that she does not hurt your teeth.'

'Rotten?' Gayan snapped back. 'Would you say that the Queen's taste is rotten as well? No, my commoner friend, I wish you could understand the refine pleasure of draining a body birthed of goodness, steeped in righteousness, almost holy in its innocence... It would hurt, yes... but not your teeth. It would hurt your throat and then it would burn your chest almost as the sun would, I imagine. For a few moment you would feel as if you still have a heart... It's the most exquisite pain, Eber.'

Vesper felt cold lips barely touching her throat, and then drawing lower to her naked bosom, and their pressure intensified. She was too scared to feel ashamed - and would a piece of meet be ashamed of a feasting man's mouth? She imagined that she could feel the points of the vampire's fangs closing around her nipple, when Lord Gayan was pushed away from her roughly.

'You fool,' Lord Gayan hissed, 'I was nowhere near her throat!'

'Does not hurt to be careful anyways. You would not want to scratch her, do you? The Queen would not drink your leavings,' Eber said to the still growling Gayan.

'You are right,' Gayan replied hoarsely after a pause. 'Take me away from her... and let us hunt. She makes me feel starved.' With that the pair left, pulling one of the shelves tight behind them. Vesper slowly expelled her breath. Pasha's harem suddenly felt appealing.

There should be light and music and other women there. And they say that some Pashas have so many concubines that some stay forever untouched...

But she was not going to a harem. She was going to die on a Vampire's Queen plate.

'Why can't I just be asleep like these other maidens?' Vesper thought gloomily turning the earring in her ear. As if someone lit up a torch in her mind she knew.

The garnets... the elvish earrings...

Master Noirier used to make her memorize the healing properties of gems and the garnets were famed for warding the nightmares off. Unfortunately for her, the garnets did brought her mind back from the Dreamscape, where her unfortunate counterparts still lingered, under the vampire's spell. Yet, they could do nothing it seems to help her with her waking nightmare. Hurriedly Vesper pulled the earrings from her ears and squeezed them in her palm. Maybe it will help her to think of something... She screwed up her face, trying to remember what else the garnets were good for.

'Garnets protect one from the thieves...' she heard her schoolmaster's dry voice. Too late for that, she chuckled alive with her renewed hope. 'To repel insect and drive away demons... to ensure that friends would meet at parting... and to prove love...'

She sighed, repeating it again and again after her imagined tutor. 'And to prove love... that will have to do.'

Vesper opened her palm and whispered into the unseen stone the name of the man whose love she doubted and whom she needed by her side right here, right now. Keldorn Firecam

Father... please...