Chapter 70

Author's Note: Merry Xmas all! My present to you readers is a chapter mostly full of Bafne :D Enjoy!

So Basta knew all about Resa. Dafne supposed that fact wasn't all that surprising. He was Capricorn's right hand person, why would he be kept in the dark about such matters.

"We have to do something," she said in a voice half-determined, half-pleading for assistance, "We have to help her."

Dafne saw Basta's jaw tighten but his expression remained sympathetic.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do little mouse."

Dafne should have expected such an answer but she wasn't ready to accept it.

"Are you sure? Resa's in the nets isn't she? What's to stop us from freeing her and smuggling her out of the village?"

Basta stared at her wildly. His hand closed around the bits of paper he'd previously been trying to show her.

"Smuggle her out..." he began in a loud tense voice but then stopped himself.

He glanced hurriedly down both ends of the hallways. Luckily there was no one around who could eavesdrop. But that didn't stop Basta from carrying on in a more hushed tone of voice,

"Are you crazy? For starters, little mouse, Resa isn't up in the nets anymore. She's locked in the crypt. There's no way of breaking her out without the key and that's in Mortola's possession now, not mine."

He glanced down at his fistful of paper for some reason then back up to her.

"And even if I did have the key, I'd never agree to attempt what you're asking. There are men everywhere at the moment little mouse. There's no way we could sneak Resa out of the village without one of them spotting us. We'd probably end up being fed to the Shadow for our trouble. Do you want that to happen?"

Dafne shook her head sorrowfully.

"No."

Basta looked relieved by her answer.

"Me either," he said, "So just forget this idea about rescuing Resa. I know she's your friend but there's really nothing you can do for her," he placed a consoling hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry little mouse. But that's the way it is."

Dafne smacked his hand away, her disappointment turning into anger.

"The way it is because Capricorn says so," she clenched her hands into fists, "It's not fair. Why should that... madman be allowed to sentence my friend to death?"

Basta shrugged somewhat helplessly.

"He's the boss," he murmured in reply, "Resa committed treason against him."

"Treason?" Dafne shouted, causing him to cringe, "All she did was look for a book. A book that doesn't even belong to Capricorn anyway. He didn't pay for it. Do you really believe she deserves to die because of that?"

"No," Basta replied hastily, "Of course not. But then it's not my decision. It's Capricorn's."

"And because he's the boss you just accept his ruling?" Dafne said scathingly.

Basta sighed.

"You have to accept it too little mouse," he said grimly, "Face it. Neither of us has any choice but to do as he says."

Dafne's anger cooled into despair. He was right of course. Failure and disobedience would be met with harsh punishment as far as Capricorn was concerned.

"It's not fair," she repeated a comment from earlier through gritted teeth.

"I know," Basta said, pulling her into an embrace. He sounded weary, weary of it all. She felt the same.

"I want to leave," she murmured against him.

"We will," Basta replied, sounding like a parent reassuring a child.

"I don't want Resa to die," she said, a sad wish she knew wouldn't come true.

Basta sighed and she expected him to reiterate that it wasn't possible to save Resa. But instead he pushed her away a little so he could look at her face to face. He was frowning with his bottom lip slightly pouted and his brow furrowed. It was an expression he wore when he wasn't too keen on what he was thinking about.

"What if I took you to see her?" he said finally, "Down in the crypt I mean. That way you can at least say goodbye to her. That's better than nothing, don't you think?"

He looked at her imploringly to agree. Dafne cringed inwardly at the notion of farewelling Resa. She wasn't going on holiday after all. But she couldn't reject an opportunity to spend one final moment with her friend.

"When would you take me?" she asked.

"Tonight," Basta replied, "I'll arrange for Orlanda to let you out of the house."

Dafne nodded but didn't smile. It wasn't appropriate to be happy about visiting a person on death row. But she was grateful for Basta's offer.

"Thank you."

Basta smiled weakly. She could tell he wasn't ecstatic about taking to her to crypt. That's why her heart swelled that he had brushed aside this reluctance to make the suggestion to her.

"I love you," she said.

This prompted a stronger, happier smile from him.

"Enough to do me a small favour?" he asked.

He showed her the bits of paper in his hand again. They were slightly wilted from being crushed inside his fist.

"These notes have a curse written onto them," he told her.

Dafne's eyebrow lifted out of scepticism but Basta didn't notice as he was staring down at the contents of his hand,

"A curse I want to put on Mortola. It will make her bed-ridden for quite a while once the magic takes effect."

Dafne looked from the notes to Basta's face, trying not to laugh out of disbelief. Cursed notes that would confine Mortola to bed? It sounded ridiculous. But she could see from look on Basta's face that he believed in the power of these bits of paper. She knew from past experience it would do no good to try to convince him otherwise. He wouldn't listen. His belief in superstition was too strong. So she kept her mouth shut as he went on:

"For that to happen I need to hide the notes in places where she eats, works and sleeps. I was thinking her bedroom since that's where she works and sleeps. I assume she must eat in there too sometimes. That ticks all the boxes."

"You want to hide scraps of paper in Mortola's room?" Dafne couldn't hold her tongue anymore in her amazement, "How do you expect to pull that off? She's definitely not going to invite you in so you can do it."

"Well of course not," Basta said, looking irritated by her unsupportive response, "The notes can only be hidden while she's out of the room. They need to put in places where she'll never find them."

"How do you intend on doing that?" Dafne asked, "She's in her room right now."

"I have a plan," Basta said somewhat haughtily, "It's not like I've come completely unprepared little mouse."

Dafne fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Tell me your plan then," she said, thinking she needed to hear it before she tried to talk him out it.

"Gladly," Basta said through clenched teeth before composing himself, "Here's what I was thinking, I'll get Mortola to come with me using some kind of excuse and then you sneak into her room while she's gone and hide the notes."

"Me?" Dafne squeaked before shaking her head, "No way, forget it. I'm not taking the risk of Mortola coming back and catching me in her room."

Basta sighed.

"She won't catch you. I'll make sure to keep her away long enough for you to be in and out safely. I promise."

But Dafne didn't take any comfort from such a promise. To her the whole thing seemed a stupidly reckless and futile exercise. The notes obviously weren't going to work. They were nothing more than harmless pieces of paper. They would have no disastrous effects on Mortola. But there would be painful consequences for Dafne if Mortola did end up catching her in her room. She had no doubt about that.

"I'm not doing it Basta," she said firmly.

Basta's expression went rapidly from anger to pleading,

"Please Dafne," he eyed her almost petulantly, "I'm taking you to the crypt. Why can't you do this for me in return?"

Dafne glared at him, angry he was trying to use his gesture of kindness to force her into this mission.

"It's too risky," she said, "The notes aren't even going to work anyway."

"How would you know," Basta growled with a touch of resentment, "You don't know anything about curses, you don't believe in them..."

"Exactly," Dafne snapped, "So why should I take the risk?"

"Because it's for your benefit," Basta snapped back.

"How exactly?" Dafne said sarcastically.

Basta pinched the bridge of his nose with a noise of exasperation. He stayed in that position a moment, mustering some calmness before he went to explain.

"Look," he said in a more reasonable tone of voice, "Just imagine for moment the notes do work and Mortola is bed-ridden for weeks. If that happens, she won't be able to make your life a living hell will she?"

Dafne shrugged.

"I guess not - hypothetically."

"So cursing her would be a good thing yes?" Basta said, smiling a little.

"If the notes actually worked, yes," Dafne said, scepticism evident in her voice.

"It can't hurt to give them a try," Basta looked at her imploringly, "Please Dafne. I spend a lot of my time worrying about what Mortola might do to you. If the curse works, it will give me peace of mind to know she's stuck in bed and can't lay a finger on you."

Dafne bit her lip indecisively. She couldn't help being moved by the fact he wanted to do this out of concern for her. But at the same time, she knew these supposedly cursed notes would have zero effect against the woman Basta was trying to protect her from. She sighed, unsure of what to do.

"You know she couldn't lay a hand on me if we left the village," she said.

"I know," Basta said, "But it's not possible to leave at the moment so this is the next best thing. Please."

Dafne looked from Basta's pleading face to the paper in his hand.

Maybe I can agree to hide the notes but not actually do it, she thought suddenly, that way he'll at least be happy for the time being. And when nothing happens to Mortola, he'll just have to accept that the notes weren't cursed.

Yes that's what she'd do. She unconsciously began nodding.

"Is that a yes?" Basta asked.

She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"Yes. I'll help you."

Relief was plain on Basta's face.

"Oh good," he said, pressing the notes into Dafne's hands, "Here, be careful not to rip them or anything."

Dafne stowed them in her dress pocket – as delicately as she could for Basta's benefit. Then she listened to Basta's instructions for her to hide in the broom cupboard, the closest hiding spot to Mortola's bedroom, and stay there until she heard Mortola and Basta go past the door.

"Wait a moment after that just to make sure we're out of sight and then go about hiding the notes."

Dafne nodded in understanding. In her head she was already working out where she'd say she put them. Under the chest of drawers, under the rug and under her mattress, those were the best hiding places. Not that she would actually be placing them there.

Basta stroked her cheek gratefully before she stepped inside the broom cupboard.

"Thanks dear heart," he kept his voice low as they weren't that far from Mortola's room.

Dafne felt a twinge of guilt but brushed it aside.

"Don't mention it," she said.

He kissed her and ended up squeezed inside the broom cupboard with her.

"You know this would be a good place to come if we ever needed to be alone," he murmured in her ear, "No one would think to look for us in here."

Dafne blushed as she felt Basta's warmth breath in her ear.

"Would you just get on with distracting Mortola!" she whispered fiercely, pushing him back out into the hallway.

Basta chose to take the shove with good humour.

"Good luck," he said before closing the cupboard door and leaving her in the dark.

Dafne listened intently. She heard Basta knock loudly on Mortola's door. The creak of the door opening was less noisy but Mortola's voice definitely wasn't.

"What do you want?"

"There's a horde of crows pecking around in the garden," Basta's voice was deliberately loud as his knock on the door, "I thought you'd like to know."

"Blasted things!" Mortola cursed, "You'd think they'd take a hint from all their dead comrades."

Dafne held her breath as she heard approaching footsteps approaching.

"Yeah there has to be thirty of them at least," Basta said as the two passed by the door.

"Thirty, a hundred, I'll shoot every one of them if I have to!" was Mortola's harsh reply, "No bird messes around in my garden and gets away with it."

The footsteps faded and Dafne exhaled, her mouth forming a grin.

What a clever thing for Basta to tell her. Dafne knew how much Mortola loathed the sight of birds in her garden. She went after them with a shotgun. Despite the silence she waited a while longer before emerging from the cupboard. She stepped into the hallway, fully intending to head straight for the kitchen but stopped, turning to look at Mortola's door instead. There was nothing stopping her from entering her room and actually hiding the notes.

What would be the point, she told herself, you know they wouldn't work.

She took one of the notes out her pocket and unfolded it. There were five identical markings written on it, nothing she couldn't have drawn herself. There was no magic here.

Too bad you don't actually work, she thought as she stowed the letter back with the others, if you did, I'd hide you in Capricorn's room.

If he became bed-ridden, the execution would be postponed. That would give Dafne more time to figure out a method to save Resa. But sadly that wouldn't be the case. Resa was going to die tomorrow night and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Dread and grief gripped her heart, making it race. Tonight she would meet Resa to say her final goodbye.

But she had to serve Capricorn dinner first and that meant changing back into the insufferable red dress. His good mood from the morning was still present in the evening as she entered his bedroom.

"Hello Dafne," he said, "Did you enjoy reading today?"

Dafne gripped the tray with anger.

"No unfortunately. Inkheart isn't my kind of a book as it turns out," she replied, trying to keep her voice as even as possible.

"Oh and why is that?" Capricorn prodded as she set the tray down to help him dress for night time.

"I don't like the monsters in it," Dafne said as she loosened his tie.

By monsters she meant Capricorn as well as the Shadow.

"Well that's unfortunate," Capricorn drawled with a smirk, "Since you're about to see one of those monsters in the flesh."

There's already one standing in front of me, Dafne thought as she buttoned this monster's pyjama shirt. But she said nothing, just continued dressing him as quickly as possible so she could move away.

"Aren't you going to ask me how my drive was?" Capricorn asked as he sat down to dinner.

"How was your drive?" Dafne asked in obedient monotone.

"Oh it was rather nice," Capricorn said with a smile, "I encountered a lovely girl riding a horse along the side of the road."

He didn't have to go any further for Dafne to understand what had motivated him to take a drive. He had been out looking for Resa's golden haired replacement. Dafne fought to stop revulsion appearing on her face.

"She looked to be about eighteen or so," Capricorn went on, "Brown-haired but quite pretty. Rather friendly too. Very helpful when I asked for directions."

Dafne grit her teeth. She could imagine the scenario, Capricorn winding down the window to talk to the pretty girl on horseback. It made her feel sick to the stomach.

"Turned out she knew the area rather well, being a local," Capricorn said, "She told me that."

Stupid girl, Dafne cursed, didn't she know better than to talk to strangers.

Capricorn looked horribly smug like a cat who had discovered a rat hole.

"I think she'll make a fine personal maid," he said, confirming Dafne's fear, "Her hair isn't golden but she's too lovely to pass up over that detail."

Dafne stood on the spot helplessly, knowing it would do her no good to protest the injustice of what he was planning to do. Meanwhile Capricorn was staring at her as if goading her to say something. But Dafne bit her tongue and cursed him in her mind instead of speaking.

Capricorn leaned in his chair, his eyes drifted to the ceiling.

"Bringing her here will be a job for your Basta I think," he said as if musing to himself. But he meant for her to hear every horrible word.

Dafne's eyes went wide with horror. Capricorn glanced at her, smiling at her reaction.

"Oh yes. I think it's only appropriate he do it. Basta failed to bring me another girl in the past. This new girl can be his redemption for that failure."

Dafne jumped like a startled rabbit as Capricorn reached to rub the fabric of her sleeve between his fingers.

"And if by chance he loses this one," he murmured, his gimlet eyes boring into her, "His punishment will be losing you."

To be continued...

Mwahahaha Cappy is such a... bad word.

Poor Dafferz, her friend is about to be executed and now Basta is going to have to kidnap a poor girl because he'll lose Dafferz if he doesn't.

On a lighter note broom cupboard! :D I can see Dafne and Basta toppling out of that room when someone randomly comes looking for a broom. Then Basta goes into threat-mode "you didn't see anything!", grabs Dafne and runs off.