The Bride of the Immortal (6 page)

BOOK: The Bride of the Immortal
9.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

After a multitude of attempts Mairin eventually succeeded and exhausted stretched herself out on top of the cupboard, more aware than ever of all the bruises and strained parts of her body. She could hardly believe that she would soon have to climb up once more with even less time to her disposal. Pulling herself together one more time, Mairin started to clumsily arrange the blankets in a way it wouldn’t take long to make use of them later on and was interrupted by a knocking at her door just when she was about to remove a spider web in the corner next to her. Mairin flinched and bumped with her head against the ceiling.

“Miss Muriel! Oh Miss Muriel, have you forgotten about dinner again? Come out at once or I shall retrieve you myself!” Without a doubt it was Mrs Enderby’s voice, singing dangerously, like always when she pretended to be friendly while insinuating that in fact she wasn’t.

Mairin held her breath and inflated her cheeks. Whatever she did now, it was vital not to mess up the whole situation by making the wrong noise or being impolite. She didn’t even want to imagine what Mrs Enderby would do if she found her lying on the wardrobe.

“I’m coming! I’m so very sorry… but please don’t come in, I’m not properly dressed yet!” Mairin exclaimed while desperately trying to crawl backwards as fast as she could. Soon after with at least five more bruises added to her collection Mairin arrived at the ground completely out of breath and rushed to the door. Half a moment later Mrs Enderby decided that she had waited long enough and opened the door.

“Oh dear…” she mumbled when her eyes fell on Mairin. Looking down on her dress Mairin saw at once why the headmistress’ sister was so shocked. Her gown was creased and covered in dust. Mairin gulped.

“I was preparing for tomorrow’s journey you see,” she said apologetically, hoping that Mrs Enderby would buy her petty excuse. To her surprise the corpulent woman simply shrugged her shoulders instead of asking any questions, turned around and left the room muttering a series of words Mairin didn’t care to understand. As soon as she had recovered from being perplexed she hurried herself to follow, trying to get rid of as much dust as possible on her way downstairs.

Maybe it really was her lucky day.

 

 

Adrijan unbuttoned the lower part of his cassock and put on his sturdy boots and his long black coat before he stepped out into the darkness. He had spent the whole way from his study to the kitchen trying to come up with an excuse for leaving the house this late. Just when he had been at his wit’s end as to how to avoid arousing suspicion the problem had resolved itself. He had discovered Miss Sophie sitting in the rocking chair near the hearth, sleeping peacefully with her knitting on the lap. Even though the elderly woman sometimes scolded him like a school boy, she more often ended up mothering him, giving him the feeling of being cared for – an emotion he wasn’t accustomed to. Despite the precarious situation he was in, the thought of Miss Sophie dozing and snoring in the warmth and safety of the small cottage managed to put an impish grin on his face.

Adrijan looked out for the servant while he continued walking towards the stables. There was no sign of him. He had probably withdrawn to his chamber after the rain had ceased. Calming the horses in the wet and stormy weather had to have worn the good man out.

Unwilling to lose more time by fetching help, Adrijan was forced to saddle his riding horse on his own. It reminded him that he preferred the more comfortable methods of transportation outside
Traumstadt
that also didn’t require him adjusting his priest attire. Neither trains nor cars, nor motorcycles were impressed by stormy weather and prancing uneasily in a night like this as the residents of his stables were.

At least he knew that he could trust Nebel, a grey the immortal had given to him a year ago when Adrijan’s duties had kept him from leaving
Traumstadt
.

Adrijan gently led the stallion to the small path in front of the cottage before he mounted it and set out for the centre of the artificial town. Against his expectations he was hoping that the night would end soon and the promised help of the immortal’s top trusted security members would arrive before the morning, stealthily of course, without giving the people the feeling to be victims of an alien invasion. It was only a matter of time then, until the corrupted staff members would be neutralized. With a little luck his master wouldn’t be suffering from one of his moods today and get the idea of delaying the venture any further. Adrijan had already spent too much time on the phone trying to find the culprits and reporting to the immortal.

“Try to stay alive until help arrives,” he had said and his voice had sounded disturbingly indifferent.

Adrijan sighed. He wished it was only his life he had jeopardized by carelessly trusting the enemy and nobody else would have to suffer for his naivety tonight.

 

 

“Good night, Miss Muriel”, the servant mumbled silently. The guilty conscience was written all over his face. With his gaze affixed to the floor he opened the door to her room and stepped aside to let her enter. Mairin tried her best not to show how nervous she was and firmly wished him good night as she walked past him. He in turn seemed to be completely oblivious to her reply and made haste to close the door behind her. The sound of the door clunking shut and the key being turned around robbed Mairin of the last bit of self-control. With the candle shaking in her hand and the faint shadows the flickering light summoned, Mairin soon felt surrounded by a wild dance of demons. Even so she watched herself starting to move despite her fear like a puppet on a string, controlled by her subconscious, first putting the candle on the table then slipping past the curtain with feline grace.

Although it was pitch-black on this side of the room she found her way to the window effortlessly without even so much as touching any of the furniture in her way. While her body kept moving with ease as if she were fulfilling an everyday task she was well aware that any moment the door to her room might open and give way to her walking nightmare. Again her skilful puppeteer paid no heed to her turbulent emotions and induced his slave to open the window. Bit by bit Mairin heaved the linen and let it drop down the wall of Sunflower Garden not bothering to prevent any noise it might produce. The more girls took notice of her alleged plan the better. Trying to thwart her escape they would perhaps even end up aiding her instead.

Finally gravity took pity on Mairin and relieved her of her work by tearing the rest of the sheets down. Aware that it was impossible to close the window from outside Mairin decided to leave it wide open and with the makeshift rope dangling down she hurried back to the table. There she paused for a moment to strain her ears for any noise the approach of the villain would cause. Nothing – there was still time. With a knotty feeling in the pit of her stomach she blew out the candle and started to climb on top of the wardrobe. Fortunately she had learnt something from her first try and managed to overcome the last hurdle much faster this time. Soon she found herself wrapped up in the blanket she had prepared.

Mairin wasn’t sure if she was shivering because of her nervousness or the cold that was slowly creeping into the room. Once some time had passed and she had calmed down a little, telling herself, that she might not be visited tonight after all, she realised that there was a slight flaw in her plan: She was sometimes afraid of the dark. Mairin couldn’t quite explain why it was worse on some days than on others but she had to admit that today she had all reason to be scared. The thick darkness kept her from making out anything in the room and gave her the impression that she was watched from all sides. It was just the right time to remember that earlier today she had missed her opportunity to remove the spider-web in the corner of her room above her head. She was wondering if it was this that she felt, the eight tiny eyes staring at her, ready to signal their owner to attack with the eight scrawny little legs. In her thoughts Mairin called herself an idiot. How could she possibly concern herself with something like this? As much as she tried, once she had summoned the thoughts, her imagination kept playing tricks on her. In one moment she felt scuttling on her forehead, then on her neck and on her hand and in the next she had the impression hands might suddenly grab her from underneath and tear her from her hiding place. Mairin did her best to hide under the blanket. Her heart was beating fast. She was wondering if the horrid nightmare was ever going to come to an end.

 

 

Over the years he had come to know
Traumstadt
well. In the end it had been him who had planned every part of it – always considering the wishes of the immortal of course – and even though he had despised it in the beginning he had acquired a liking for the place bit by bit. Especially the comfort of his small cottage and the ideas of the scientists who resided in the artificial town had grown to his heart. More than once he had been amused by new inventions, variations of items that had long before existed outside the borders of
Traumstadt
. Recently for example he had been introduced to the “rolling metal-horse” as its inventor called it, a vehicle that was easiest to describe by picturing two bicycles without pedals joined together. Adrijan was sincerely hoping that not everything would go to rack and ruin tonight.

Not being slowed down by a coach, he had reached the wayside shrine that was on a small path leading to Sunflower Garden in far less time than it had taken him to travel home earlier that day. Sometimes, after finishing business in the town centre, he had rested on the bench next to this shrine, observing the buildings of the boarding school in the distance, wondering about the fate of the little girl he had chosen. Ten years had gone by so fast.

Adrijan dismounted Nebel and loosely tied his reins to the back of the bench. In the dark he could hardly make out the two candles that were standing in front of the small shrine. Wind and rain had extinguished their light. Adrijan took a votive candle out of the saddle bag, lit it and placed it next to the others. Once the flame had grown bigger, the painting the shrine was sheltering became visible. It portrayed Virgin Mary, almost completely enveloped in a cloak of the same brilliant blue as lapis lazuli, her dark eyes sorrowfully looking at the passer-by with her hands folded in prayer. Adrijan was still hoping, that he was only imagining the danger.

“Hilf, Maria, es ist Zeit, Mutter der Barmherzigkeit,” he whispered, turned around and continued his way to Sunflower Garden.

 

BOOK: The Bride of the Immortal
9.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Purebred by Bonnie Bryant
Right Wolf, Right Time by Marie Harte
The Fire by Caroline B. Cooney
Unexpected Gifts by Elena Aitken
Fault Lines by Natasha Cooper