They just never do. Even when they perform the tasks I assign them.
It’s like a cruel joke.
The ring does work for leaving the grounds. As long as the slave caretaker has the ring on, he can walk through the gates. And as long as I’m with the slave caretaker, I can walk through those gates too.
I can’t stay away long. Grant and I did many experiments on this back when he was new and eager. Four hours is about the limit. And fifty miles. Anything further away or longer in duration and I just disappear and end back in my tomb like I never left.
The nearest town is Granite Springs, and that’s as far as I’ve gone in almost thirty years. There is no point in venturing further. And I’m not really interested in the wider world. I want the curse lifted, but I am a creature of another time. What happens to me if I do escape?
I didn’t think about this much until Grant came along. The world is always changing, but the events and discoveries of the past fifty years have been something like a fiction.
And every time I think about what’s happening out there, the word ‘magic’ comes to mind.
Two thousand years I’ve been in this world and only the last fifty or so have been able to stun me silent.
I place my hand on Tarq’s tomb where the door should be. “Open,” I command it.
But, of course, it does not respond.
I sigh and look around at the other tombs nearby. I don’t know any of the monsters in this cemetery. And new tombs pop up all the time. Who is putting them here, I have no idea.
Are they dead? Do they see me out here? Can they hear me?
I would like to think they can. I would like to think that Tarq waits for me to come and tell him the news.
But it’s unlikely.
Even if I do get the tombs open, there’s probably nothing in there but bones. Or worse, they are empty.
I look down the hill at the flickering lights of the cottage. I like it, I decide. The look of it being used. It’s depressing to look around and see nothing but darkness down there. Sometimes, when the moon is full, I can make out the shimmer of light on the surface of the lake that lies just beyond the walls.
But tonight, there is no moon so if that girl was not in the cottage, it would be dark and depressing.
I sigh again, then pat Tarq’s arm. “I have a lot to tell you, friend. But not tonight.”
Then I turn away from him and start walking towards my own tomb, ready to go inside and go back to sleep. But I catch sight of the cathedral out of the corner of my eye and turn that direction instead.
When I get inside, I go up the stairs and right back into the apothecary room. Tomas is asleep on the lounger, an open book lying over his chest like he was reading it.
It’s Grant’s last notebook.
I pick up the book and leave the apothecary. But I don’t know where to go. There are no lights in my tomb, so that’s out of the question. Across the great hall is the greenhouse. Not a place one reads, so I strike that off the list.
There are some benches around the perimeter, but they are made of stone. And why should I stay in this room? This cathedral is as big as a palace. Hundreds of rooms tucked away down long hallways or up hidden staircases.
They are all magical, of course. All cursed, right along with me. You never know what you’re going to find when you explore the hidden interior of Saint Mark’s Sanctuary.
But at least you know none of it can kill you since the curse won’t let you die. So I walk down the stairs one more time, but instead of going outside, I turn and look behind me. There are three staircases. The center staircase leads up to the great hall. But it’s the other two I’m interested in.
I’ve been up both before but it’s been long enough that I don’t have much recollection of either.
I choose the one on the right.
CHAPTER SIX - PIE
Despite being cursed, losing my best friend, and getting a lecture on how to be a good slave by a monster with horns and hooves, I slept pretty good in the little cottage.
In fact, I slept so well, I wonder if the water is drugged. But it’s a well. There is a pump over the sink in the kitchen, so unless someone is drugging the water under the ground, that’s not it.
I don’t want to admit that it might just be the comfy, cozy nature of the place because I fully intend on getting the fuck out of here today. I will not be putting on that ring, that’s for sure. I think there’s a loophole in this curse as long as the deal isn’t sealed. So I’m gonna find it.