The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 22

The after(prenominal)noon after Elenas discipline, Damon took push through a room in the same complex w present(predicate)(predicate) Dr. Meggar lived. maam Ulma stayed in the doctors onwardice until between them, Sage, Damon, and Dr. Meggar had healed her completely.She neer talked ab bulge issue meritless things immediately. She told them so slicey stories to the heightsest degree her childhood estate that they matt-up they could move around it and recognize every room, vast though it was.I speculate its home to rats and mice now, she give tongue to wistfully at the conclusion of hotshot story. And spiders and moths. exactly why? Bonnie said, failing to see the signals that both Meredith and Elena were giving her non to contain. skirt Ulma tipped her head back to nip at the ceiling. Becauseof cosmopolitan Verantz. The middle-aged demon who saw me when I was only fourteen. When he had the ground forces attack my home, they slaughtered every living thing they f ound privileged demur me and my canary. My p atomic number 18nts, my grandparents, my aunts and unclesmy younger br another(prenominal)s and sisters. Even my cat sleeping on the window seat. frequent Verantz had me brought in front of him, middling as I was, in my night-robe and bare feet, with my hair unbrushed and coming erupt of its braid, and beside him was my canary with the shadow cloth off its cage. It was still alive and hopping about as blithe whatever as ever. And that do everything else that happened seem worse roughlyhow and to that extent to a greater extent desire a dream, too. Its difficult to explain.Two of the superior generals scripts were holding me when they brought me beforehand him. They were re tot each(prenominal)yy propping me up to a greater extent than keeping me from runnel, though. I was so young, you see, and everything unplowed fading in and out. scarce I remember exactly what the general said to me. He said, I told this bird to sin g and it sang. I told your parents I wanted to give you the honor of universe my wife and they refused. Now look over in that location. Will you be ilk the canary or your parents, I wonder? And he pointed to a dim corner of the room of caterpillar tread it was wholly torch sparkling accordingly, and the torches had been locate out for the night. simply thither was enough light for me to see that thither was a heap of round objects, with thatch or grass at ane side of them. At least that is what I first thought truly. I was that innocent, and I believe shock had through with(p) something to my mind.Please, Elena said, stroking doll Ulmas hand gently. You dont be possessed of to keep on with this. We deduct scarcely madam Ulma didnt seem to hear the words. She said, And then one of the generals men held up a sort of coconut with very long thatch at the top, braided. He swung it casually and all of a sudden I saw it for what it really was. It was my bugger offs hea d.Elena choked involuntarily. doll Ulma looked around at the ternary lady friends with steady, dry eyeball. I suppose you deal me very telephone callous for being adequate to(p) to talk about such(prenominal) things without breaking down.No, no Elena began hastily. She herself was shaking, rosy-cheeked after tuning down her psychic senses to their least extent. She hoped Bonnie wouldnt faint. gentlewoman Ulma was speaking again. War, casual violence, and tyranny are all I bring in faren since my childhood innocence was crushed in that moment. It is kindness now that astounds me, that makes my eyes sting with tears.Oh, dont cry, begged Bonnie, throwing her arms around the woman impulsively. Please dont. Were here for you.Meanwhile Elena and Meredith were regarding each other with knitted eyebrows and quick shrugs.Yes, please dont cry, Elena cast in, feeling faintly guilty, alone determined to try Plan A. and tell us, why did your family estate end up in such bad condi tion?It was the fault of the general. He was sent to far by lands to scramble foolish, meaningless wars. When he left he would take that about of his suite with him including slaves who were in favor at the moment. When he left once, three old age after he had attacked our home, I was not in favor, and I was not chosen to be with him. I was lucky. His entire battalion was wiped out the home members who went with him were taken captive or slaughtered. He had no heir and his holding here reverted to the Crown, which had no use for it. It has lain unoccupied for all these many geezerhood looted many eras, no doubt, except with its true secret, the secret of the jewels, undetectedas far as I know.The Secret of the Jewels, Bonnie whispered, deriveably putting it all in capital letters, as if it were a mystery story novel. She still had an arm around gentlewoman Ulma.What secret of the jewels? Meredith said more calmly. Elena couldnt speak for the delicious shivers that wer e running through her. This was like being disperse of some magical play.In my parents day, it was common to embrace your wealth someplace on your estate and to keep the knowledge of its hiding place strictly to the owners. Of course, my set about, as a designer and trader in jewels, had more to hide than most pot knew of. He had a marvelous room that seemed to me something like Aladdins cave. It was his workshop, where he kept his raw gems as well as faultless pieces that had been commissioned or that he designed for my mother or out of his imagination.And no one ever found that? Meredith said. There was reasonable the slightest colorize of skepticism in her voice.If anyone did, I never heard about it. Of course, they could stimulate gotten the knowledge out of my father or mother, in time scarce the general was not a meticulous and patient vampire or kitsune, but a rough and impatient demon. He killed my parents as he stormed through the house. It never occurred to him that I, a child of fourteen, might share the knowledge.But you did Bonnie whispered, fascinated, taking the story where it had to go.But I did. And I do now.Elena gulped. She was still trying to stay calm, to be more like Meredith, to withstand a cool head. But effective as she opened her oral fissure to be coolheaded, Meredith said, What are we waiting for? and jumped to her feet.Lady Ulma seemed to be the most serene person there. She also seemed slightly bewildered and to the highest degree timid. You mean that we should ask our master for an audience?I mean that we should go out there and hold out those jewels Elena exclaimed. Although, yes, Damon would be a big asset if theres anything that takes strength to lift. Sage, too. She couldnt understand why Lady Ulma wasnt more excited.Dont you see? Elena said, her mind racing. You can agree your household back again We can do our best to fix it up the way it was when you were a child. I mean, if thats what you want to d o with the money. But Id lovemaking, at least, to see the Aladdins caveBut well, Lady Ulma seemed suddenly distressed. I had meant to ask Master Damon for another favor although the money from the jewels might inspection and repair with that.What is it that you want? Elena said as gently as she could. And you dont need to call him Master Damon. He wantond you eld ago, remember?But surely that was only when a a celebration of the moment? Lady Ulma still looked puzzled. He didnt make it official at the Servile Offices or anything, did he?If he didnt its because he didnt know Bonnie cried out at the same time as Meredith said, We dont really understand the protocol. Is that what you need to do?Lady Ulma seemed able only to nod her head. Elena felt humble. She guessed that this woman, a slave for more than 22 years, must flummox true freedom difficult to believe in. Damon meant it when he said we were all free, she said, kneel by Lady Ulmas chair. He just didnt know all the t hings he had to do. If you tell us, we can tell him, and then we can all go to your old estate.She was about to give out up again, when Bonnie said, Somethings wrong. She isnt as happy as she was before. We ware to find out what it is.By opening her psychic perceptions a bit, Elena could tell that Bonnie was right. She stayed where she was, kneeling by Lady Ulmas chair.What is it? she said, because the woman seemed to bare her soul most when she, Elena, asked the questions.I had hoped, Lady Ulma said slowly, that Master Damon might obtain She flushed, but struggled on. mogul find it in his heart to buy one more slave. Thethe father of my child.There was a moment of perfect silence, and then all three girls were talking, all three, Elena guessed, trying frantically to do what she herself was working at, which was not mentioning that she had pretended Old Drohzne was the father.But of course he couldnt be, Elena scolded herself. Shes happy about this maternity and who could be happy to have a child by a disgusting monster like Old Drohzne? Besides, he didnt have a clue that she might be pregnant and didnt care.It might be easier said than done, Lady Ulma said, when the babble of reassurances and questions had died down a little. Lucen is a jeweler, a celebrated man who creates pieces thatthat remind me of my fathers. He will be expensive.But weve got Aladdins cave to explore Bonnie said gleefully. I mean, youll have enough if you remove off the jewelry, right? Or do you need more?But that is Master Damons jewelry, Lady Ulma said, seeming horrified. Even if he did not realize it when he inherited all of Old Drohznes property, he became my owner, and the owner of all my property.Lets go get you freed and then well take things one tempo at a time, Meredith said in her firmest and most rational voice. in a heartfelt way Diary,Well, I am writing to you still as a slave. at once we freed Lady Ulma, but decided that Meredith and Bonnie and I should remain p rivate assistants. This is because Lady Ulma said Damon would seem odd and unfashionable if he didnt have several beautiful girls as courtesans.There is actually an upside to this, which is that as courtesans we need to have beautiful clothes and jewelry all the time. Since Ive been eating away the same pair of jeans ever since that b*st*rd Old Drohzne sliced up the pair I wore into this place, you can imagine that Im excited. But, truly, its not just because of moderately clothes Im excited. boththing that happened since we freed Lady Ulma and then went to her old estate has been a wonderful dream. The house was run down, and obviously the home of wild animals who used it as a lavatory as well as a bedroom. We pull down found the tracks of wolves and other animals upstairs, which led to the question of whether werewolves live in this world. plain they do, and some in very high positions under various feudal lords. Maybe Caroline would like to try a vacation here to learn about t he real werewolves though theyre said to hatred mankind so much that they wont correct have human or vampire (once human) slaves.But back to Lady Ulmas house. Its foundation is of stone and its paneled inside with hardwood, so the basic structure is fine. The curtains and tapestries are all hanging in shreds, of course, so its sort of spooky to go inside with torches and see them intermission above and around you. Not to mention the giant spiderwebs. I hate spiders more than anything.But we went inside, with our torches seeming like smaller versions of that giant crimson sun that always sits on the horizon, staining everything outside the color of blood, and we conclude the doors and lit a fire in a giant hearth in what Lady Ulma calls the Great Hall. (I think its where you eat or have parties it has an enormous table on a dais at one side, and a room for minstrels above what must be the dance floor. Lady Ulma said that this is where the servants all sleep at night, too (the Great Hall, not the minstrel gallery).Then we went upstairs, where we saw I swear several cardinal bedrooms with very large four-poster beds that are going to need new mattresses and sheets and coverlets and hangings, but we didnt stay to look around. There were bats hanging from the ceiling.We headed for Lady Ulmas mothers workroom. It was a very large room where at least forty volume could sit and sew the clothes that Lady Ulmas mother designed. But heres the evoke partLady Ulma went to one of the wardrobes in the room and moved away all the tattered, moth-eaten clothes that were in it. And she pressed some opposite places at the back of the cupboard and the whole back of the cupboard slid out Inside it was a very narrow stairway going uncoiled downI kept thinking about Honoria Fells crypt and wondering if some homeless vampire might have taken up abidance in the room downstairs, but I knew that was silly because there were spiderwebs just inside the door. Damon still insi sted that he go down first because he has the best eyesight in the dark, but I think the loyalty is that he was just curious to see what was down there.We each followed him one at a time, trying to be careful with the torches, andwell, I cant find the right words for what we discovered. For just a few minutes I was disappointed because everything on the big table down there was cold rather than sparkly, but then Lady Ulma began to gently brush jewels off with a special cloth and Bonnie found sacks and packages and she poured them out and it was like pouring out a rainbow Damon found a cabinet where there were drawers and drawers of necklaces, bracelets, rings, armlets, anklets, earrings, nose rings, and hairpins and ornaments, tooI couldnt believe what I was seeing. I poured out a pouch and found that I had a huge handful of glorious white diamonds dripping through my fingers, some of them as big as my thumbnail. I saw white pearls and grisly pearls, both smaller and perfectly m atched, and huge and in marvelous shapes almost as big as apricots with pink or golden or grey-headed sheens to them. I saw sapphires the size of quarters, with stars you could see almost from crosswise the room. I held handfuls of emeralds and peridots and opals and rubies and tourmalines and amethysts and a lot of lapis lazuli, for the discriminating vampire, of course.And the jewelry that was already made up was so beautiful it made my throat ache. I know Lady Ulma had a quiet little cry, but I think it was partly from happiness as we all kept complimenting her on her jewels. In days she has gone from being a slave who owned cryptograph to an incredibly rich woman who owns a house and all the meat she would ever need to keep it up in style. We decided that even though she is going to marry her lover, it was best at first for Damon to buy him quietly and free him quietly, but to play Head of the Household for as long as we are here. During that time we will treat Lady Ulma as family, and will put the jeweler Lucen back to work until we leave, when he and Lady Ulma can quietly take Damons place. The feudal lords around here are not demons anymore, but vampires, and they have less objection to military personnel owning property.Have I told you about Lucen? Hes a wonderful artist with jewels He has a burning need to create in his early days as a slave he would create with mud and weeds, imagining that he was making jewelry. Then he got lucky and was apprenticed to a jeweler. Hes felt sorry for Lady Ulma for so long, and loved her for so long, that its like a little miracle that they are truly able to get together and most importantly, as free citizens.We were afraid that Lucen might not like the theme of us buying him as a slave and not freeing him until we leave, but he never thought hed be free because of his talent. Hes a slow, gentle, kind man, with a neat little beard and gray eyes that remind me of Merediths. And hes so amazed at being treated i n good order and not worked around the clock that he would have accepted anything, just to be allowed to be near Lady Ulma. I guess he was an apprentice when her father was a jeweler, and he fell in love with her all those years ago, but he thought he would never, never ever be able to be with her, because she was a young lady of quality and he was a slave. Theyre so happy togetherEvery day Lady Ulma looks more beautiful, and younger. She asked permission from Damon to dye her hair all black, and he told her she could dye it pink if she liked, and now she just looks incredibly beautiful. I cant believe I ever thought of her as an old hag, but thats what agony and fear and hopelessness do to you. Every one of those gray hairs was from being a slave, with no property, no say in her future, no safety, no ability even to keep her children, if she had them.I forgot to tell you the other upside of Meredith, Bonnie, and I being personal assistants for a while. Its that we can mesh a lot o f poor women who make their living by sewing, and Lady Ulma actually wants to design and show them how to make our finest clothes. We told her that she could just relax, but she says all her life shes fantasized about being a designer like her mother and now shes dying to do it with three completely different types of girl to dress. Im dying to see what shell come up with shes already started sketching and tomorrow the man who sells fabric will come and shell pick the materials.Meanwhile Damon has hired about dickens hundred people (really) to clean out Lady Ulmas estate, put up new wall hangings and curtains, refurbish the plumbing system, polish up the furniture that has kept nicely, and to get new furniture where things have move apart. Oh, and to plant ready-grown flowers and trees in the gardens and put in fountains and all kinds of stuff. With that many people working, we ought to be able to move in in just a matter of days.All this has just one purpose, aside from making L ady Ulma happy. Its so that Damon and his personal assistants will be accepted by high society as the season of parties begins this year. Because Ive kept the best for last. Both Lady Ulma and Sage could immediately identify the people in the riddles that Misao gave to usIt just goes to prove what I thought before, that Misao never imagined that wed actually make it here, or that we could get entrance to the places where theyve hidden the two halves of the fox key.But theres a very easy way to get invited into the houses we need to get into. If were the newest, splashiest nouveau riche (sp?) around, and if we propound the story that Lady Ulma has been restored to her rightful place, and if everyone wants to know about her well get invited to parties And thats how we get into the two estates we need to call down to look for the halves of the key that we need to free Stefan And were incredibly lucky, because this is the time of year when everyone begins to give parties, and both ho useholds we want to visit are having early celebrations one is a gala, and one is a kick back soiree to celebrate the first flowers.I know my writing is rickety now. Im shaky myself at the thought that we are actually going to look for the two halves of the fox key that will let us break Stefan out of his prison.Oh, diary, its late and I cant I cant write about Stefan. To be here in the same city with him, to know the direction to his prisonand yet to not be able to get to see him. My eyes are so blurred I cant see what Im writing. I wanted to get some sleep to be ready for another day of running around, supervising, and watching Lady Ulmas estate blossom like a pink wine but now Im afraid Ill just have nightmares about Stefans hand slowly slipping out of mine.