Destiny’s Twin—A Multidimensional Fantasy [Excerpt]
All text copyrighted ©️ 2007 by Lancer Gareth Bailey
The door groaned as Katherina tiptoed into the colossal room. She winced at the noise, leaving it partially ajar to avoid the need for more creaking when she left. Two disruptions were better than four, especially when the queen was in her personal chamber. Katherina feared being the slightest disturbance, particularly on nights like this, when she knew Her Majesty had been out.
On these nights, Katherina moved like a ghost, slipping in and out of the shadows, careful to stay out of sight. It was no easy task for the queen’s personal assistant and beauty consultant, but she dared not draw attention to herself.
Katherina was not a woman prone to timidity. Most people feared her, knowing she held the sentence of death at the tip of her finger. She was confident in her ability to commit atrocities if necessary. But the queen—she would not challenge.
Katherina had studied the arts of magic for half a century under the queen's tutelage. The queen, pleased with her pupil's quickness and enthusiasm, had personally overseen her lessons. Now, Katherina was the chief among the queen’s servants, her right hand, her enforcer.
The queen valued her loyalty, especially in running the castle, dealing with the numerous servants, maintaining order, and preparing the queen’s chamber for her monthly baths. However, Her Majesty was known to be particularly testy and prone to lashing out on nights like this, after hunting. These were nights Katherina preferred to go unnoticed.
She carried a small wooden bowl half-filled with alcohol and a soft cloth rag. It was a ritual she performed every evening, but especially on these nights when the queen would sit before her mirror for hours, inspecting every detail of her body, the softness and tension of her skin, its brightness, and the thickness and luster of her hair.
It was Katherina’s duty to ensure that Her Royal Highness saw only perfection in the mirror. The dusty castle required daily cleaning, and this was one chore Katherina dared not neglect.
She slithered across the dark room to a small sitting area adjacent to the queen’s bed. The room, designed like a cathedral, had a ceiling that soared twenty feet high in an arch of stone, making the acoustics sharp. The slightest sound could echo through the chamber like in an immense cave. She could hear soft breathing from the other corner of the room. The queen was still sleeping. Katherina relaxed a bit.
Reaching the small sitting area, she carefully maneuvered around a set of tall brass candlesticks beside a large wooden chair. This was where the queen would examine herself after her baths. The chair, thickly carved from a giant block of dark reddish-brown wood, was ornate, with carvings covering the back and legs. The armrests were shaped like vigilant dragons, their heads capping the handholds, mouths open in fierce snarls. They resembled baby sphinxes with vicious dragon heads. On the seat lay a plump pillow made of thick, crimson velvet.
In front of the chair stood an ornate golden-framed mirror. The oval mirror, as tall as a person and half as wide, stood on a golden pedestal before two giant arched windows that nearly reached the ceiling. The windows were draped with thick crimson velvet curtains.
Katherina inspected the mirror thoroughly. Seeing no smudges or streaks, she decided to clean it again anyway. It was better to be safe than to risk the queen finding a flaw and exacting severe punishment.
She dipped the cloth in the alcohol and began wiping the mirror from top to bottom in slow, meticulous strokes until she had covered the entire surface. Then, she turned to the large chair facing the mirror, dusted off the pillow, and wiped down the back and arms of the chair.
Everything seemed ready for the queen’s awakening. Katherina knew it wouldn’t be long. The queen had been out for several hours and usually enjoyed a brief nap after her outings. When she awoke, she would be ready for her bath. Katherina had yet to make all the arrangements. She needed to hurry.
As she stepped out of the queen’s chamber, she noticed a faint shadow at the end of the dim hallway and stopped.
“You there,” she whispered, careful not to disturb the sleeping queen. A young man in tattered gray clothing reluctantly peeked around the corner. “Come here. I have a task for you. Quickly, there isn’t much time.”
“Yes, my lady,” the man whispered as he rushed toward her, dropping to his knees and staring at the floor. “What is it you wish of me, my lady?” He appeared strong, likely in his mid-twenties, with short brown hair and green eyes. He wasn’t wearing any shoes.
“What is your name?” she asked with disdain.
“Marcos, my lady,” he replied nervously, peeking up to meet her icy glare before quickly dropping his eyes again, as if afraid that looking directly at her would turn him to stone.
“Marcos, come with me. We must prepare the queen’s bath.”
Marcos looked horrified, as if he knew what the task involved. Indeed, he might have, though she could not recall ever summoning him before. To her, all the servants looked the same—mere tools.
Katherina quickly moved toward the end of the hallway where she had first seen the man, but turned right at the intersection, heading in the opposite direction from where Marcos had been going. The hallway she entered was much longer than the one leading to the queen’s bed chamber and was lit by lanterns hung by hooks in the walls. Marcos followed closely behind her.
At the end of the row of lanterns, a staircase twisted down to a lower level where another intersection of long, well-lit corridors awaited. She turned right again.
After passing three evenly spaced lanterns, she stopped at a wooden door on her left. Reaching into the pocket of her elegant red dress, she fished out a small ring of keys. The lock clicked as she turned the brass knob and swung the door open. Just inside was another stairwell.
This set of stairs was different from the polished ebony stone of the hallways above. The steps were made of slate-gray, crudely chiseled stone, giving it the feel of a basement. The light in this stairwell didn’t come from brass lanterns but from bowls carved into notches in the walls, filled with oil and spitting raw flames into the air.
Marcos followed her down the staircase to a small landing at the bottom. Ahead was another door. Katherina found a second key, seemingly identical to the first, and unlocked it. She reached inside and grabbed a wooden torch resting in a bracket mounted just inside the door.
“Here, take this up the steps there and light it off of that fire in the stairway," she ordered the trembling young man. He took the unlit torch and scurried up the steps, returning with a flaming stick, spitting and crackling with burning oil.
"Go on," she motioned him ahead. The room was as black as pitch. There were no lights or fires to brighten the emptiness ahead. The young man hesitated an instant and Katherina shoved him through the doorway into the void. "We're in a hurry. Keep going."
The torch lit their footsteps as they marched along, sending light shooting but a few feet ahead into the passageway and then darkening again once they passed. It was enough light to see where they were going, but not enough to see the end of the rough tunnel. It did, however reveal a network of conjoining tunnels and alcoves, some appearing to lead further down into the bowels of the mountain. Others looked as though they were once used as quarters or stations for officers, possibly assigned the task of watching over prisoners locked in the depths of this underworld labarynth.
The tunnel appeared to have been carved out of the mountain itself. There were no stone blocks lining the walls, no seams of any kind. There was only the same slate gray rock, an eternity of it. Though this extensive maze was built over a thousand years ago, there still could be seen the original grooves and chisel marks made by the ancient masons who had hammered away at the tough material.
As they walked deeper into the tunnel, slender metal doors began to appear on either side of the pathway. Each door appeared to be rusted and locked by heavy iron bars that bored into the rock. Cobwebs dangled throughout the hallway and over the narrow doorways. A thick collection of dust coated everything.
They continued ahead. Marcos was in the lead holding the torch which was throwing a thick smoke into the cramped tunnel, making their breathing difficult. They came to one of the metal doorways that appeared to have fresh scrape marks where the bolt had been slid across the metal. It was clear that this doorway had been used recently.
"Step aside," Katherina hissed, pushing him back away from the door. She then reached down and jerked the metal bar free from the rock hole with a heavy grunt. The door shreiked loudly as it scraped across the stone floor.
Inside there was a small chamber. There was no light in the room except what radiated from the torch behind her that Marcos held, and no furnature, windows or adornement of any kind except for a stone bench carved from the wall itself and a small wooden pot filled with human waste.
As they entered further into the room, Katherina motioned Marcos to bring the light closer so that it would illuminate the back corner that still lay in shadow. Bent and trembling in the corner, was a beautiful young girl. Her hair was a thick, dark auburn tangle. In places, it was matted to her head with clumps of dried blood. Her simple white dress was ripped off of her right sholder and sagging down almost to her breasts. Her eyes were wet and puffy. More dried blood was splattered across the left side of her dress around the waisteline and it appeared that she had several deep gashes in her flesh running across her rib cage and abdomen.
"Hello my dear," Katherina said warmly, reaching her hand out to help the sobbing young girl to her feet. "Sorry to have kept you all alone down here for so long. No doubt you are starving and thirsty and with much desire for a bath and a change of clothing. It shall be so, for you are a very special guest," she smiled politely. "I do pitty you for the treatment you have received and the manner for which you were brought here. You must be frightened beyond imagining."
She placed her hand gently on the girls cheek, making her flinch back as if she were about to be struck. "Such treatment is, in my opinion, intollerable for such a special guest," Katherina smiled again trying to appear as unthreatening as possible, which given her glacial exterior, was a challenge. "The queen has gone to great lenths to bring you here. You will meet her soon. She is very eager to make your aquaintance. She requests your assistance in her royal chamber. You are to have the honor of attending her as she bathes."
Katherina examined the young girl standing before her. "Indeed we will need to clean you up a bit. Such a state as you are in would not please Her Majesty at all. No, we will have a nice hot bath made up for you immediately, please come with me." She reached out and gently grabbed the girls trembling hand. "We have no time for standing around, we must get you ready for your queen."
The girl didn't appear to have been affected much by Katherina's friendliness. She was still sobbing and just as frightened as ever. It just went to show Katherina that kindness got her nothing. She always received better results by being terrifying, however, she didn't have the time to drag a kicking and screaming child through the twisted halls of Kragonhold. It was imperative that everything was in place when the queen awoke. The queen did not appreciate having to wait.
They mounted the staircase that opened into the larger, more elaborately constructed and decorated hallway, where the floors were once again a polished alabaster stone and the walls were brightly lit with dozens of flickering brass lanterns. They turned to the right and headed down the corridor, toward the staircase that led up to the queen's rooms.
Pausing, Katherina spun around to look for Marcos, who had fallen behind when he had stopped to snuff out the flaming torch and place it back in its bracket, just below the staircase. "Marcos, go find a bucket and fill it with hot water. Find a washcloth and some bread...and a hair brush. Bring it to me. I will be just down this hallway, in one of the guest rooms. Quickly!"
Passing that bank of stairs, Katherina and the girl continued down the corridor. Fine colorful tapestries hung from the ceiling along the walls of this hallway branch interspersed with towering columns cut from the same lustrous stone as the floor. It was an impressive collection of artistry with subject matter ranging from breathtaking landscapes resembling the rolling foothills surrounding the area, to scenes of battles with fine, brilliantly armored warriors on horseback fighting giant serpents and dragons. One depicted a mysterious wizard dramatically conjuring unimaginable forces between his outstretched hands and sending them tumbling into the hordes of approaching armies. The skill of the artisans who had created these tapestries was unparalleled.
Once past the collection of tapestries, there came a series of large carved stone doors on either side of the hallway. Each door was identical and evenly spaced along the seemingly endless corridor. Katherina stopped at the first door to her left and opened it.
The room was lavishly furnished. Thick burgundy rugs were thrown all over the floor, Fine, richly embroidered pillows were piled on a massive four posted bed in the center of the room. There was a wash basin to the immediate left of the door and a small mirror for grooming.
"This will do," Katherina said plainly, glancing at the still-traumatized girl she held in her grasp. "Get yourself cleaned up. I have sent Marcos to fetch you some water and cloth." She pointed to the basin on her left. "Don't dawdle. I will be back for you in thirty minutes. I will lock the door behind me so you will have privacy." She shoved the girl into the room and turned to leave. Just then, she saw Marcos come running down the hallway with a bucked in his hand, splashing water across the floors as he ran.
"My lady," he offered her the pail. She motioned for him to set the bucket inside the doorway, so he stepped into the room and set the bucket, washcloth, hairbrush and a chunk of dried bread at the girl's feet. He gave her a brief sorrowful look and then headed out the door. Katherina slammed it shut and bolted the lock.
"I'm not done with you either. Don't make me come looking for you," she gave him a look of stern authority. "I will have further use of you shortly. Be here when I return." She turned and headed off in the direction she had come, back up the stairs and toward the queens rooms.
She bounded up the steps and into the hallway of the queen's person rooms. Instead of turning down the short branch entering into the queens bedroom, she passed it and another doorway to her left, moving to the end of the passage leading to the queen's tower. She opened the door to the tower stair and climbed the spiral staircase.
The landing at the summit opened into a glorious solar. This was the queen's gallery. This was where the queen spent most of her time. Katherina knew, this was the room that Ekwamedhua had slain her father, Lucius, hundreds of years ago.
The room was at the top of the highest tower of the castle. It was a giant circular room with a dozen narrow windows open to the blackened sky. The air was thin in this room. The wind blew through the thin slits of the windows and whaled like crazed banshees. Lightening bolts flickered and sliced through the air just outside, throwing bits of light randomly across the room making the shadows dance like tortured spirits.
In the center of the giant room was a pit of spent coals and kindling. Suspended above the pit hung a sizable black cauldron with delicate pearls rimming its mouth. This was the great cauldron Annwyn.
Along the edges of the room, numurous shelves mounted the walls upon which were an array of glass vials containing a wide variety of ingredients for potions and spells. There was a collection of stones and gems as well, and many ceremonial tools of various nature.
Katherina moved around the cauldron toward her left to a low shelf holding a jumble of stones. Crystals and rocks of various shapes, sizes and colors lay in organized piles on the long, low shelf. She picked out four fist sized amethyst stones and slipped them into the deep pockets of her dress. Amethysts were powerful transmitters of energy. These stones were to be the corner pieces surrounding the queen's bathtub.
A little further around the room was a large cedar chest sitting on the floor. Inside were candles of every color, most of them conical in shape. She selected five black candles, three green ones, and two yellow ones.
Next to the chest was another set of shelves. Upon these shelves sat a golden thurible, filled halfway with sand. There was also a small felt bag filled with little charcoal blocks and an assortment of different types of incense. She fished through the incense and selected a small block of maidenfern, then grabbed the thurible and bag of coal and headed back toward the door.
Back down on the floor below the solar, she turned toward the first door to her right. This was the queen's bathing room. She set the thurible and coal down on a small side table and used her freed hand to open the door. She let it swing open, then picked up the items and entered the small damp room.
The room was nothing more than an oversized stone cell. There were no adornments or furiture pieces in the room. There was simply the bare rock floor that opened in the center and dropped about three feet down to create a large rectangular vat. Suspended directly above the queen's tub were four chains suspended from the ceiling, strung through pulleys and extending across and down the wall to a hefty wooden crank shaft. Two of the chains were connected to a candleabra in the shape of a pentagram, each point of the star designed to hold one small candle. The other two chains hung down lower, through the center of the pentagram, and were tipped with steel manacles.
Katherina set the thurible down at the far end of the tub and removed one block of coal from the bag, placing it atop the sand inside the thurible. She set the small bag with the remaining coal down beside it. She then places one of the green candles, in the center, at the head of the tub, one at the lower right hand corner, and one in the center of the left side of the tub. The yellow candles were placed in the center of the right hand side and in the corner of the lower left hand side.
She fished around in her pocket and collected the four amethysts and set each one at the four corners of the tub, one sitting next to a green candle, and one next to a yellow candle. The five small black candles she took and placed on the floor next to the crank shaft.
She grabbed the splintery wooden wheel of the crank and began to spin it around, bringing the suspended chains lower. Once they were to a manageable height, she again picked up the five black candles and placed each one into a holder on one of the pentagram's points. She dug into her pocket again and pulled out a bundle of matches. Striking one match on the side of the stone basin, she lit all of the candles and set the incense to burning inside the thurible.
She was nearly prepared. Now she just needed to attend to one more thing. She walked out of the room, leaving the candles lit and the incense burning. The room needed a little time to fill with the dense smoke from the crackling block of incense. By the time she returned, it would be perfect. She walked back down to the level below where she had left the young girl locked in a guest room. She approached to find Marcos sitting on the floor just outside the door.
"Get up. It's time," she said as she unlocked the door and swung it inward. The girl was laying on the bed in a fetal position, sobbing softly. She was freshly cleaned and the tangles had been brushed out of her hair. Katherina could tell now that she was a stunningly beautiful young girl, as they all generally were. The queen did prefer them to be lovely.
"The queen awaits you, my dear," she said softly with a menacing undertone. She strode over the the edge of the bed and grabbed the girl by the arm, pulling her off the bed. The girl did not have time to catch herself before she smacked against the floor and began crying hysterically.
"Please don't hurt me," she pleaded as Katherina dragged her toward the door.
"Don't just stand there!" Katherina looked over her shoulder at Marcos, standing just outside the door. "Grab her! We must take her upstairs to the queens bathing chamber."
Marcos stood there petrified for a second and then rushed beside Katherina seizeing the screaming young girl by both arms and dragging her to her feet. He hunched down, picking the girl up, and threw her over his shoulder. She kicked and twisted violently. Her fingernails dug into his back, ripping his shirt to threads and tearing into his skin. She tried kneeing him in the face, but he quickly swung his arms around her legs and secured them tightly. Still, she fought with every ounce of her energy.
They quickly ascended the stairs and rushed down the hallway, the girl screaming bloody murder and pounding her fists against Marcos's back. As they passed the queen's chamber, Katherina quickly glanced over toward the door wondering if the queen was yet awake. The soft glow of candle light escaping from under the door told her that she was.
They reached the bathing chamber, the air now dense with incense smoke, and Katherina swooped around to address Marcos. "Keep holding her. Stand right over there." She pointed to the foot of the stone basin.
As Marcos faught with the thrashing and screaming young girl at the edge of the tub, Katherina quickly rushed over and unfastened the bolts of the manacles, slipping them around the girl's ankles and locking them tightly. She then bolted toward the crank shaft and began raising the chains back toward the ceiling. The girls legs slowly lifted as the chains grew taught.
Once finally suspended, the girl hung just under five feet from the edge of the tub directly below her. Katherina reached around her back and pulled out a shiny silver athame. She reached up and cut the fabric of the girl's dress and with one mighty tug, ripped the whole dress off. The girl hung there, twisting and screaming. Katherine smiled up at her.
Marcos slowly withdrew to the far corner of the room and squatted down, cupping his face in his hands, sobbing. Katherine turned around to leave the room and saw him there. "You may leave now. I am finished with you," she said, flicking her wrist as if discarding a piece of garbage. He stood up instantly and fled the room, running down the hall and dissapearing down the stairs at the far end of the corridor.
Katherina slowly walked around the corner and knocked twice on the queen's door. She didn't wait for an acknowledgement, but proceeded to crack the door open slightly and peek inside. "You're bath is prepared my lady."
She immediately withdrew and closed the door, stepping back around the corner and into the bathing room again. She stood at the edge of the tub, just to the right hand side, mere feet from the head of the dangling girl. Moments later, a tall, slender woman wearing a long, hooded black robe that drug the floor by several feet stepped into the room. She cast off her cloak revealing her stark nakedness. Slowly, she stepped down into the stone tub, sat down in the center and pulled back her long flowing black hair.
Without a word, Katherina reached up and seized the hanging maiden by the chin. With her other hand, she took her athame and ran it deeply across the girl's throat. Blood sprayed out of the girl's neck as she thrashed in mortification. Slowly, the life drained from her and she fell limp.
The beautiful, fair-skinned queen sat in the middle of the pool, mumbling softly some inaudible incantation. Blood showered down upon her. She rubbed it into her arms and legs as it dripped down. She craned her neck back and looked up at the dead and naked body swaying above her. Blood dripped down into her eyes and in her mouth. She stuck her tongue out and lapped it up with delight.