Eerily silent.
The temple’s pillars were arranged in a semi-circle, leaning into each other. Some already succumbed to time, while others sat crumbling or broken in half. The stones encompassing her were chalk white, with only a few unbroken pillars reaching haphazardly towards the sky–a sky that Lenna squinted up at…
A sky that shifted–replaced with a swirling vortex of darkness…
Lenna reached out her hand in wonder as ashes swirled down, landing against her bare skin.
A rustle out of the corner of her eye startled her enough to drop her arm, turning to find the source of the noise. A black stone gargoyle, larger than a horse and more terrifying than the rendered paintings in the Manor, stalked towards her on all fours. Lenna tried to scream. No sound came from her throat.
Closer…its huge wings tucked tight at its side, its depthless eyes fixated on her…
Lenna tried to move, tried to run, but her legs burned and locked up. The gargoyle neared…stopping three feet shy of Lenna.
“I am looking for you...” the gargoyle spoke around a mouth filled with jagged, black teeth, its voice both gravelly andsmooth as silk.
“I am looking for you…” it raised a stone finger, sharp talons pointing at Lenna’s heart as it beat wildly against her ribcage.
Crouching, the gargoyle sprung towards her–
Chapter four
Lenna
“M’Lady!”Olivera’scurtshoutjarred through her subconscious. Lenna jolted back into reality a millisecond before the stone gargoyle’s maw would have wrapped around her throat.
Water surrounded her.
Cold water.
“Did you fall asleep? The captains are alreadyhere, Leon isasking for you,”the handmatron hissed, grabbing a towel as Lenna stood up from the tub on shaky legs. Reeling from the nightmare, she chanced a dazed look around the room, but no giant beasts came into sight. “You need to get dressednow.”
Lenna couldn’t form a single word as she snatched the towel from Olivera and scrambled out of the water. Another nightmare.How had she drifted off? How long had she slept?She hastily dried her body, squeezing out the water from the ends of her curls.
“Shit,”Lenna gasped, expertly conveying the gravity of the situation. Wrapping the towel around herself, she bolted towards the dress and undergarments neatly laid on the bed while Olivera waylaid two younger housemaids from the hall, snapping at them to start working in sections to dry Lenna’s hair and to put light make up on her.
“Just use the comb and towel to dry, and your fingers to twist the ends of the curls. Thankfully, her whole head isn’t wet.” Olivera instructed the first maid, a scrawny dark-haired girl no older than sixteen. The maid threw an insolent look in Lenna’s direction. “You,” Olivera snarled, pointing at the older maid, “light rouge,lightpowder, on the Lady’s face. Grab the sapphire necklace from the jewelry boxand don’t even think of pocketing any of it.I am watching you.”
Olivera was in her element. Lenna sat stiffly as the two maids blanched in front of the snarling matron before rushing around the room, starting their assigned tasks and not daring to utter a word.
The two girls did well considering the pressure of Olivera constantly breathing down their necks while they worked. Lenna stayed quiet the entire time, as if Olivera’s sharp tongue would snap at her if she moved or opened her mouth, but she kept replaying the words the gargoyle whispered to her.“I am looking for you.”
It was not real.A bad dream, she reassured herself firmly, as Olivera flitted across the room, unbuckling straps on low heels for Lenna to slide her feet into. Gargoyles were a symbol of the gods’ protection. Besides the ostentatious paintings Leon revered, gargoyles were carved and chiseled on temples by master stoneworkers, their likeness pressed reverently upon the spiritual books Lenna emotionlessly chanted from at service each week. Some shopkeepers even purchased statues of the horrendous beasts to keep the sea birds from roosting on their roofs. And the only monsters Lenna knew were very much human.
After the maids were finished, and Olivera appraised Lenna up and down, clicking her tongue with approval, Lenna hurried to the dining hall to begin her act of dutiful wife.
“Ah, there sheis. Finally,” Leon slurred, as she opened the wooden door to the dining hall and gave him a small curtsy as an apology.
Leon and the captains lounged at the table, heaps of pheasant and roasted vegetables neatly spread out around them. Even with the delicious smells coming from the large platters, the men were more interested in the three bottles of rum illuminated by candlelight. Seeing as Leon’s poison of choice was brandy, Lenna speculated the captains provided the rum to get him good and drunk before talking salary expectations for upcoming travel.
“Many apologies, husband,” Lenna mumbled as she slid meekly into the seat to the right of Leon, who leaned back in his chair at the head of the table and ignored her in favor of the rum. Three of the captains barely looked up or acknowledged her presence as well. However, the fourth burped loudly as his eyes roved Lenna’s body, surveying her ample hips, her hair, gently curling from the bath, and pausing to stare at her supple breasts. He was easily the oldest captain, all white-haired and fat, with a huge grey mustache and soulless eyes. The captain grinned hungrily, revealing teeth missing from his top gums, making Lenna recoil. Lenna was suddenly very grateful to Olivera for choosing such a modest outfit. It was apparent in the man’s demeanor that she was no more than property to claim. She shrunk back into her chair, trying to make herself smaller, to disappear completely from his leering view.
Four captains had come to talk with Leon, all bigger, louder, and hairier than the last. With Leon’s slicked back hair trying desperately to cover bald spots, and a thin frame from many nights of alcohol instead of dinner, these men looked beastly by comparison. Thankfully, the conversation of shipping vessels and route timelines snared the white-haired captain’s attention, breaking his predatorystare from Lenna.
He roared with laughter after Leon uttered a dirty joke on timing the tides and how they compared to women, pouring himself a hearty swig of rum.
A twinge of pain shot though Lenna’s temples, causing her to grit her teeth. She hoped it was due to the din of Leon and the captains talking over each other and not the start ofanotherheadache that would end in a nightmare. Contemplating ways she could excuse herself, she stared down at her hands neatly folded in her lap. Nothing came to mind that wouldn’t pique interest or divert all eyes her way.
It took all her willpower to not stand up and leave, excuses be damned. Frustration reared through her before she tamped it down swiftly, resulting in another jab of head pain.
