Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl and the Dungeon of Despair (9780989878531) (13 page)

Key gripped the chain as Miss Broomble let it go. Its length coiled along the filthy stone floor. It had locked Key to Despair for a century and she did not believe she could do what this witch wanted. It did indeed seem much easier said than done.

Miss Broomble leaned close to Key’s ear. “Break. Your. Chains.” Her tone was complete confidence. She had no doubt about Key’s power.

Key wished she had as much confidence in herself. She held her chain with one hand now. She had imagined countless times what it would be like to break her chains and be free, but she had never truly thought about it, for thinking about it instead of dreaming about it meant that Key would be, in some small way, making plans to do it. And now that she was thinking about it, did she have a plan? “Yes,” she told herself, and then she told herself what that plan was, for it was the only plan she could have had at the time: “Squeeze.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Key tightened her grip on her chains, tighter than she had ever squeezed before – but truthfully, she did not have to squeeze that hard, as she had much more strength than she realized. The iron chain bent easily. So Key squeezed a little harder and the iron chain began to crack in her grip. Now Key squeezed as tightly as she could, putting into her grip all her pressure, all her might, all her anger at having been abandoned and alone all these years.

Then the iron chain crumbled to powder in the palm of her hand.

Miss Broomble smiled broadly. She leaned closer to Key’s opened hand and she blew the powder from Key’s palm. The two watched as the remains of the chain scattered into the air, like pluming smoke, before it dissipated in the darkness.

“Ashes to ashes,” Miss Broomble said. “Dust to dust.”

Key sat still, marveling at a power she never realized she had.

Miss Broomble leaned closer to whisper a precious secret into Key’s ear. “The prisons enchaining us are usually made by others. They’re often more fragile than we realize, until we find the right
key
to freedom.”

— CHAPTER EIGHTEEN —

World in Despair

Miss Broomble the witch stayed with Key for the rest of the night, and Key liked having company. Together they talked about steam and teakettles, about the invention of the clock, about sunrises and sunsets, and about many more topics that kept Key entirely riveted. For many hours they talked, until the sun rose over Morrow Mountain.

Key felt the sunrise, as all the Necropolis Vampires did. Younger vampires like Key fell asleep quickly while older vampires stayed awake just a little longer. But none could resist the sunrise, and soon all were fast asleep, snoring soundly in their coffins.

The Crinomatic had made for Key a lovely nightgown of white lace, spotted with violet tulips. Pega tucked Key into bed and Miss Broomble watched Key sleep for a time. As she slept, the witch could not help but fancy that, while Key was one hundred years old, she still looked as young as a nine-year-old girl. Already the witch liked Key very much; but now she felt she loved her with a sister’s love and devotion.

After that, Miss Broomble decided to extend her stay in the Necropolis for a little while. It felt like the right time to do so, as a friend was in need – and for the witch that was always the right time for kindness.

At the end of the day, when the sun went down somewhere beyond Morrow Mountain, the Necropolis Vampires rose sleepily from their coffins, some yawning, some stretching, some stumbling, some happily because they loved rising early in the evening.

Ghost servants brought the elder vampires blood tea and the younger vampires blood coffee. Elders had blood honey and blood cream with their tea while the young had their blood coffee red. And soon all were as bright-eyed as a vampire can be in the City of the Dead.

At midevening, the Necropolis Vampires gathered in the court of Old Queen Crinkle to discuss the night’s activities. Goblin scouts who patrolled the Necropolis during the day returned to the castle and reported problems to Galfridus Fish, the Queen’s secretary – who had years earlier sent Key a list of things she was forbidden to do. And now Galfridus, who was a sly, round vampire, reported to the Queen about dead uprisings in the Dragon Quarter, about Zombie Trolls invading the Garden Labyrinth, about Toags causing mischief with Killjoy the Kraken at the bottom of Melancholy Moat, and about numerous other problems plaguing the Necropolis. Old Queen Crinkle loved hearing these nightly reports because she loved dealing out punishment and misery, and she did so now with no small amount of enthusiasm.

“Show them no mercy!” she commanded while thirteen vampire scribes hurriedly copied down the Queen’s command for the almost official record books, which would one day be compiled as a slightly inaccurate history of the Necropolis Vampires.

Galfridus was indeed the Queen’s right hand vampire, as he did everything the Queen commanded him to do. But he was always secretly plotting to overthrow the Queen and become the first King of the Necropolis. That night he did his job with his usual cutthroat manner, assigning particularly merciless vampire patrols to ride into the Necropolis on their zombie steeds and punish anyone misbehaving. And, as those vampire patrols rode from the castle, Galfridus also extended his thick hand to accept bribes from those vampires who preferred staying in the castle to play Pundicle.

Miss Broomble watched all this happen from a distance. She was not surprised by the more underhanded dealings she observed, as she herself was no stranger to double-dealing – but only in her younger days, before she found her calling in her immortal life. That night she was tempted to depend on her old ways of doing things, but she would not, because she also knew that Key would only gain her freedom from Despair with fearless honesty. So, when the Royal Court of the Queen finished its evening proceedings, Miss Broomble bravely approached the throne.

Old Queen Crinkle and Galfridus Fish saw her coming and they eyed her with complete distrust, recalling the last burning bur that Miss Broomble sneaked onto the throne. Yes, indeed, they knew her, and they did not like her one bit. Miss Broomble could see this by the way their eyes narrowed and their lips trembled with fury the closer she approached the Queen of Spoons – which was what the Queen with her Crown of Spoons was called behind her back, and usually by Galfridus Fish.

Making a good, logical case before the Queen, Miss Broomble begged her to release Key from the Dungeon of Despair. But the Queen was in a very bad mood that night, and she liked being in bad moods because then she could be extra-specially cruel. And she wanted to be extra-cruel to Miss Broomble because the Queen liked the witch as much as she liked Blood Curdling Beetroot Soup – that is to say, not at all.

However, although Miss Broomble repeated Key’s name numerous times to the Queen, Old Queen Crinkle could neither recall who Key was nor the last time she threw someone in the Dungeon of Despair. “Key?” she asked Miss Broomble. “Key who?”

Miss Broomble tried jogging the Queen’s memory. “Key has bright red hair. Mr. Fuddlebee brought her here about one hundred years ago during your four hundred twenty-seventh birth-night party. You put her in the dungeon straight away.”

Yet for all Miss Broomble’s efforts, the Queen had no memory of “this Key creature,” as she called her, until Galfridus Fish scoured through the almost official record books from one hundred years earlier and found a slight mention of someone called “Dungeon Troll.”

“Ah, yes,” Old Queen Crinkle said, the corners of her mouth coiling in a cruel smile. “Now I recall the Dungeon Troll.” She recalled also that Key had interrupted her birth-night party and, more importantly, that she had been made into a vampire by Margrave Snick. It was at this last recollection that the Queen became even more adamant than before. “No,” she said, “the Troll will not be released from the dungeon. She will stay in Despair until the Hand of DIOS makes her mortal again, and then she will remain in there until she is just dust and bones.”

Miss Broomble argued and argued, but she could do little else, as Old Queen Crinkle had made her decision out of anger. And when the Queen began to feel that Miss Broomble had become an annoyance by constantly begging for Key’s freedom, the Queen summoned her Snooty Suits of Armor, who chased the witch from the Royal Court, hurling insults at her as she tossed back at them hexes and curses and Witch’s Ice.

Miss Broomble eventually lost her pursuers as she dove into the Wandering Scullery, which happened to be wandering by on its way to the dungeon – for that was on a late Wednesday evening.

The witch returned to the dungeon to find Key having already received a new change of clothes from her Crinomatic and ready to go exploring the dungeon, now that she was free of her chains. Miss Broomble related everything that had happened in her conversation with Old Queen Crinkle, how she had tried to win Key’s freedom, but that the Old Queen would not budge on her decision, and that Key would not be released from Despair any time soon.

Key was sad about this news, but her sadness could not last as the reality of her freedom set in, even if it was a limited freedom. Key was at least happy that she had broken her chains. For now, that was enough, because if Key was anything, she was someone who relished the small things in life. And now she was very eager to explore that darkness that had confined her for the past one hundred years.

So she and Miss Broomble set out and entered the darkness together, going along small alleyways and finding hidden passageways. Pega was always there with them, brushing off Key’s clothes when they dirtied, or giving her a Snuckle Truffle when it was time for a snack, as Key was so excited by her limited freedom that she practically forgot to eat.

Key soon came to discover just how gigantic the dungeon actually was. First, she visited the Partly Dead Brownie Folk in their factory under the Castle Kitchen. Then she visited the Beastly Barber whose barbershop was located under the castle Common Room. After that, she visited the Cackling Cauldron Makers who had a shop beneath the Grueling Gardens. She also visited the Hobgoblin Hex Bar, and the Leprechaun Laboratory, and the Skeleton School of Psychology, all of which were located near the Mystical Market under the Bewitched Ballroom. Key and Miss Broomble visited many more places and had many more conversations with several Mystical Creatures, whom Key found to be quite delightful and polite.

Next, Miss Broomble showed her hidden passageways that led from the dungeon up into the castle, behind the castle walls. Through peepholes, Key could see the Necropolis Vampires in the Grand Dining Room or in the Black Billiard Room, or in the Experimental Weapons Room, or in the Very Dangerous Visiting Room, or in the Eerie Entertainment Room, or in the Magic Lantern Room. While she did not like the idea of spying, Key’s curiosity got the better of her, and she could not help but take a peep through the peepholes at her jailers.

She watched the other vampires eating and talking and sometimes making plots. They weren’t talking about her, or about causing much malevolence anywhere else, which surprised Key. They were simply talking about the under-weather, or about Welkin City, or about the latest Pundicle match, or about the newest lights carved out by the Dwarves of Morrow. None seemed to know anything about her; none seemed to care at all about her suffering in Despair. Yet none of the Necropolis Vampires could sense Key or Miss Broomble in the hidden passageways; they could only sense the scent of the dungeon, which to them smelled like mousetraps and cheese.

That same night, Old Queen Crinkle gave orders that Miss Broomble was not allowed back inside the Necropolis Castle, unless she had a written authority from SPOOK or a Warlock’s Warrant from the Ministry of Injustice. Disregarding this completely, Miss Broomble remained in the castle for as long as she liked. Pega the ghost maid prepared a bedchamber for her, next door to the Labyrinth Library. The ghost maid knew Miss Broomble would be very safe in there because Necropolis Vampires rarely ever visited the Library, perhaps only once a century, and then only in direst need; for the Library itself could be quite perilous without guidance from the Lycan Librarian, or without proper knowledge of the Dumbly Decimal System, as books like
Malik Mumford’s Magical Monsters & Other Household Pets
or
Gilda Ghast’s Gory Grocery Shopping
were known to cause internal bleeding. The most popularly feared book was
The 1342 War of Warhag vs. Toags
– author unknown.

Miss Broomble had meals in the grand dining room during the day. She visited Key every night. She would sleep in the dungeon when Key was saddened by thoughts of her mom and dad. The witch would stroke her long fingers through Key’s hair. For Key, those were some of the pleasantest nights she ever had in Despair. Miss Broomble was quickly becoming a good friend.

— CHAPTER NINETEEN —

Glowing Flowers

One night Miss Broomble decided she would show Key that there was much more to life than darkness and emptiness and loneliness. So the witch went out into the Necropolis and brought back for Key some of the more mystical facets of the afterlife, saying, “If you can’t go out into the City of the Dead, then its life will come in to you.” So she brought back enchanted earth from the Vault of Aboretus Oakenax, which sparkled with green and red stones. Next, she brought a spark of Living Firelight from the Sepulcher of Salama the Fire Elemental, which flickered blue and white colors whenever it laughed. Miss Broomble also brought flowers and plants from the Garden Gravesite of Ivy Greenthumbs, which softly glowed all sorts of colors in the darkness.

Some glowing flowers looked like roses while others looked like lilies. Yet the ones Key thought really marvelous had stranger shapes, and some made sounds! Some looked like sapphires while others looked like butterflies. Some looked like mirrors while others looked like books. She particularly liked the glowing flowers that looked like rainbows and musical notes while she marveled at the one that looked like a treasure map. Key adored all these flowers inexpressibly. She loved the beauty of their shapes and colors. Most of all, she loved how they glowed warmly in the darkness.