Page 105 of Into the Heartless Wood
I have a long, miserable walk through the city, all the way up to the gates that lead to the Soul Eater’s palace.
My feet are cut and bleeding by the time I get there. The two men standing watch look at me suspiciously. “No beggars here, girl. Away with you.”
I hold myself very straight. I try not to tremble. “I am not a beggar. I was told there is work, up in the palace. A woman called Carys sent me.”
The name works just as my train companion promised it would.
I am let through the gate and taken up the hill, around the massive front doors of the Soul Eater’s palace, to a smaller entrance around to the side.
It frightens me, being this close to the Soul Eater. But if Owen is truly here, I have to find him.
Protect him.
Get him safely away before my human form falls away and I am once more revealed to be a monster.
I am ushered through a wooden door into a small room.
Flames leap greedily in a stone hearth.
Heat curls off of it. I scramble backward until my shoulders press up against the wall.
The guard who brought me frowns. “What’s wrong with you? Have you never seen a fire before? Sit.” He waves me onto a low cushioned stool.
I obey, sitting as far away from the fire as possible.
The guard instructs: “Wait here.” He disappears through another door that leads, perhaps, farther into the palace.
I am even more uneasy in here than I was in my room in the inn.
I cannot see the sky or feel the wind, and the fire burns and burns, reaching out its many wicked tongues. It laughs at the thought of devouring me. Even from across the room, its heat pulses on my skin.
The inner door creaks open, and a dark-skinned woman in a pretty blue dress comes in. Her black hair is pulled back into a severe bun. She is short and plump. She thunders: “Who let you in here?”
I stare at her, terrified.
“Well?” she demands.
“I–I came about a job. The woman on the train told me to come. Her sister is Carys.”
The woman sighs. “Carys’s sister will be the death of me. Can you actually work? You look like a breath of wind might blow you away.”
I blink at her, confused.
She clarifies: “Can you clean things? Wash dishes and boil laundry and scrub floors?”
“Yes,” I say, though I do not have even the slightest idea what that means.
“It pays room, board, and meals but nothing else. Does that suit you?”
I nod.
“Well then. It’s not like I have a lot of applicants, so you’re hired, I suppose.” She sighs. “I’m Heledd, which is what you will call me. Now, first things first.” She grabs a length of blue and white cloth that was draped over a chair, and hands it to me. “Put this on. You look like a wild creature in that thing you’re wearing.”
I obey, though stripping the dress I bought with my brothers’ money feels somehow like shedding the last of my skin.
I pull the blue dress awkwardly over my head. The fabric is rough. It scratches.
Heledd fastens the back of the dress. “I’ll go and find you some shoes—can’t have you trotting about the kitchens with bloody feet. Back in a tick.” She disappears through the doorway.
