“Put those down over there girl!” a plump, greasy looking female with a duck’s bill for a mouth squawks at me. “Wait, I don’t recognize you. Do you work here?” She crosses her arms as she gives me a once-over.Crap that was fast, ok think Nuri think…
“I’ve been specially hired to care for the… asset,” I say, giving a little wink to the duck lady whilst lifting my chin a little higher, hoping that I look more sure of myself than I feel. “She must not be kept waiting, she has been asking for her lunch for over an hour!” I snap at the woman, impressed with myself for my acting skills.
“She got her lunch ages ago! I bet those stinking vargs ate it! Here bring her this stew; it’s all we have left until the dinner service. The poor thing looked like she was only skin and bone,” she says, shoving a bowl of greyish brown slop into my hands. I grimace at what looks like a tentacle floating in the liquid before giving her a nod and promptly exiting the kitchen.
I can see a staircase at the far side of the tavern on the other side of the door that I assume leads to the rooms. I swerve and weave my way through the raucous revellers trying not to spill the slop on myself as I go. I have to dodge the grasping hands of drunken fae male more than a few times and scoff at how behind the times this realm feels.Pigs…
Once I am at the stairs a varg steps into my path and growls at me.
“Where do you think you’re going, sweet thing,” he says, sniffing at me. He quickly pulls away with a crinkled snout, no doubt due to my delectable buffalo musk.
“I have been sent with refreshments for… the asset,” I say, giving him a look as if I am in on their secret.
“Asset you say?” he says, looking sceptical and showing me his teeth.
“You were ordered not to harm her and malnutrition counts as harm,” I take a chance snapping back and suppressing my wince, hoping he doesn’t rip my head off for the tone.
“Erg… Very well, but you better be back down here in a few minutes or I will personally come see to your demise,” he snarls back, stepping out of the way, allowing me to slip past and run up the stairs.
There are three levels so I take my chances with the upper level, guessing from my knowledge of fairy tales, that they would lock her in the highest tower. I reach the top of the stairs and am dismayed to see six doors on this level and no indicator of whichone she is in, so I begin with the closest one, knocking on the door.
“Room service!” I call out, hoping that inns in this realm have a similar concept. I am met with a tall, extremely buff man with horns sticking out of his head looking down at me angrily.
“Sorry, wrong room!” I squeak and run down to the far end of the hall trying to get as far away from him as I can. Thankfully, he slams the door behind me. I halt in front of the farthest door on the left side of the hall and take a centring breath.
“Room service…” I call out, a little less sure of myself, I hear the faintest response in return.
“Come in, it’s open,” I recognize the voice immediately and rip open the door.
“Marissa!” I wail, stepping into her room.
She is tied to a chair at the back of the sparsely furnished space and looks as if she has been dragged through the mud. My linen dress is in tatters and covered in brown stains. Her perfect blonde curls look like they have turned into one big matted mess and she has huge dark circles under her eyes. I quietly shut the door behind me before tossing the bowl of stew onto the little round table in the centre of the room and running over to her.
“Nuria?” I hear her cracked voice squeak, sounding as if she doesn’t believe I am real. A sob breaks loose from her scrunched up face and I am already at her feet untying the rope that is holding her down. The knots are impossibly tight so I pull a little ivory handled knife that we got at the market out of my pocket and cut her free. As I move on to her hands I can see a stream of tears streaking down her dirty cheeks and pause to cup her face in my hands.
“I’m here to save you little sis!” I say, making quick work of cutting her hands free. She nods, ever so slowly and stares at me through wide, watery eyes. Her bottom lip quivers, like it used to when she was on the verge of one of her sob sessions when wewere kids. I hack away at her bindings as quickly as I can, hoping to free her before she cries out. When Delia wasn’t around, I was hopeless at soothing her and I doubt now would be any different.
As soon as the rope snaps she flings herself onto me and gives me the biggest hug I have ever received from her. She pulls back to look into my eyes but keeps her arms wrapped around me.
“You came for me!”
“Don’t sound so surprised, Mar. You’re my sister.” I place my hands on her shoulders and look her over. Thankfully she appears unharmed.
“I just… after the party and what happened with Benji, I thought you hated me.” Her bottom lip starts to quiver again.
“Never, Mar. I will always come after you when you get stolen in the night by terrifying monsters. It’s what sisters are for. Right?” I try to ease the tension but the words sound as ludicrous coming out as they did in my head. Her lip stops quivering. An awareness snaps into her eyes that was not there a moment ago.
“Nuria, where the heck are we? I thought I had been dreaming or drugged! There are talking animals and strange people with animal parts! And that thing killed Benji! And how did you find me? And how do we get out of here!?” she shrieks, letting her panic escalate and not letting me get a word in. Her breath is coming in heaves and I fear one of her old panic attacks may be coming on so I panic as well and I do what I have seen done in many movies to rectify this sort of situation…
I slap her.
“Ow! What the fuck, Nuria!” she yells and slaps me back, but it seems to have worked because she is just staring at me completely alert with her usual sassy Marissa look.
“Sorry! I panicked…” I bite my lip.
Marissa lets out a sharp laugh. “Maybe I deserved it.” She pulls back and looks me up and down. “What on Earth are youwearing?” Her eyebrows raise nearly to her hair line as she looks at my frilly blouse and ridiculous amount of cleavage. I scoff and give her a little shove.
“We don’t have time for questions! The varg guard will be up here checking on you any moment,” I say, looking around for a solution for our escape when I see the only window on the left side of the bed looks big enough for us to squeeze through.
