Malevolent Hall 1666AD (27 page)

“He’s not insignificant!” she screamed in his face, her courage beginning to outweigh her fear.  “I love him and I hate you!”

“At least I stopped that bastard child of his from being born,” he sneered.  “And for your information, yes I knew you were pregnant.  Why do you think I stabbed you in the stomach?”  She wrenched one of her arms free from the demon holding her and slapped him across his face.

As he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, his eyes darkened, his features twisting as he turned back to his true demon form.  His voice lowered to a growl that chilled her to the bone and trembling with both fear and anger, she found herself staring once again into the eyes of the demon who had slaughtered her family.

“Perhaps the babe is one of my pets,” he growled, “maybe he is with your father.” Richard’s mouth gave a bitter twist and standing back from her, he opened his cloak wide.  As it billowed in the non-existent wind surrounding him, Matilda pulled her hands to her ears.  Her face, covered in horror, as dozens of faces hidden within the folds of the fabric, screamed in tortured agony.   Her eyes could not help but search for her father, and as they settled on his familiar face, now wracked with decay and torture, she collapsed to her knees.

“Daddy,” she screamed.  Richard swooped his cloak closed and turned his back on her.

“You bastard!” Matilda cried, her eyes cursing him.

“Bring her,” he ordered, and he walked to the far end of the chamber.

Grabbing Matilda under the armpits, two demons raised her to her feet.  She wept, watching as Richard lifted a hand, and pushed three stones inwards.  Taking a step back, he waited as the walls began to slide apart.

“Had you forgotten your lover’s secret path?” Richard jeered at her startled face, his hand gesturing to another tunnel.

Matilda scarcely seemed to hear him, and her eyes dulled and appeared vacant as if lost to another time.  This was the secret way Eric had come to see her in the tower, through the tunnel, not through the entrance in the fireplace.   Her eyes followed a memory of him as he ran down the tunnel and emerged in her den, in the cave deep in the woodland.

“Ah, I see some recollection,” Richard said, and he entered the tunnel.

The demons holding her dragged her.  Tears streaming from her eyes, she glanced over her shoulder at Mike’s body, slumped on the floor.  The thought of never seeing or being with Mike and Eric again broke her very soul.

They walked for half an hour until coming to an end Richard pushed another three stones and the wall moved apart.

“Bring her,” Richard ordered walking towards the throne.  Her eyes scanned the cave, now illuminated with fiery torches she saw a group of people, dressed in black robes, their faces covered by masks.

“Prepare her,” he ordered.  Three of them took hold of her arms, and led her to the back of the cave.  The wandered down another corridor.

“What are you going to do with me?” Matilda wept as they moved her into a small chamber at the rear.   The three said nothing and Matilda fought against them as they stripped her naked.  Offering her a white gown, she hurriedly put it on.  As the sheerness of the fabric connected with her body, her mind went back four hundred years.

Eighteen-year-old Matilda stood alongside her younger sister, and the seven other young women chosen.  Her long, white gown lifted in the wind and brushed against her skin.

His presence dominated those surrounding him.  Tall, dark, and wearing a black cloak trimmed in gold, Richard stepped forward and began to peruse the line of women.

“Don’t pick me, don’t pick me, please don’t pick me,” Matilda begged under her breath.

Richard however, had made up his mind who he would take, long before the ceremony had been organised.  He had been watching her grow, waiting until she was old enough to be his, and he felt his body stir at just the thought of her in his bed.  The warlocks and the witches awaited his choice as he stepped forward.

“I Richard Tovenaar, head Warlock of this coven, do choose as is my right, a bride from those gathered here today.  He walked straight towards her and stopped.  “I chose Matilda Alice Rhiamon.”

Matilda’s heart stopped dead, her very worst fear coming true.  He had chosen her for his wife.  The pit of her stomach turned over, and tears threatened to gush from her eyes as she glanced to Eric.  Eric held his position, his dark black robes the same colour as his hair, billowed in the silence that had fallen upon them.  He looked at her, and heartbreak clouded his eyes.

Matilda trembled as Richard took hold of her, one arm around her waist, the other lifting to the back of her head as he pulled her to him and kissed her.  Matilda closed her eyes, what was she going to do?  She was carrying his brother’s child; Eric was supposed to be the one she married.  Richard released her lips and stared into her eyes.

“Whoever it is you are thinking of, forget him.  You are mine, now, Matilda.  We will wed at midday, and your gift will also become mine,” he said.  Matilda merely bowed her head, as she had little choice than to agree.

Richard led his bride-to-be back to Malevolent Hall, the newly built ancestral home of the Rhiamon coven.  Tears streamed from Matilda’s eyes, and she glanced briefly at Eric.  Although he didn’t look at her his face frozen, as if stone, told her that his heart was broken too.  She climbed the stairs to the tower in silence.

Entering her bedchamber, she found her bridal gown already lain out across the bed, and a bathtub placed in the room filled with hot water.

“We will return in two hours to help you dress,” one elder said.  Matilda merely sniffed and turned her head towards the bath.

“Watch her.  I know she is seeing someone,” Richard growled as the woman closed the door to the tower.  “No one is to go in with her except you two, do you understand?”

“Yes, my Lord,” one of the women replied, and they both stood with their backs against the door.

Eric bit on his lower lip at his brother’s words. He knew it had been a mistake to wait until the ceremony.  He should have known Richard would pick Tilly, but in his heart, he had hoped his brother would have picked another and then he and Tilly could have wed and still lived within the coven.  He had to take his leave now or he would lose Tilly and his baby forever.

“Richard, I am going to exercise the hounds,” he said, and without waiting for a response, he turned and headed downstairs.

Richard’s eyes glared at his back as he disappeared.

“Traitorous fool!” Richard scorned.  “You think I cannot read you like a book!” he muttered and he moved swiftly along the corridor, following his brother down the stairs.

Eric ran to the stables.  He grabbed the pack of supplies he had hidden earlier and saddled the horses.  He suspected for a while that Richard knew Matilda had a love interest, and as he secured her saddle, he took a glance over his shoulder.  Richard was not stupid he may already know that he was the one.  They had no time left. 

He mounted his steed, and led the other behind him out of the stable.  He glanced towards the hall one last time, wrapped his cloak about his shoulders, and galloped off into the woods.

Richard grabbed his horse from the stable, and riding bareback, he followed his brother, keeping a distance to avoid detection.  He followed him deeper into the woods, and crossed the bridge over the river.

As his brother slowed, the warlock lord held back.  Dismounting he moved towards the edge of the quarry.  Richard glanced across the way and saw Eric’s horse, and Matilda’s mare tied to a tree.  Spotting his brother going into a cave at the bottom of the quarry, Richard shimmed down the ridge after him.  He crept into the cave and just caught sight of Eric as he pushed on three stones.  Richard watched; his eyes wide as a secret door in the cave wall opened.  Eric hurried through and the door closed behind him.  Richard fumed.

“Tilly,” Eric called as he opened the secret door at the other end of the tunnel. Sat weeping on her bed, her heart pounded at his voice.  She turned.

“Eric!” she cried in a whisper, and she jumped to her feet as he climbed through the small hidden door into her room.  As he gathered her in his arms, she hugged him close.

“He knows, Tilly, Richard knows you are in love with someone else and I am sure he suspects me,” he said, and his eyes looked fearful.

“What will we do?” she wept.  He pulled her to him, and, as his lips pressed against hers, her body yearned for him.  “I can’t marry him, Eric.  The baby, he will know it is not his.”

“I won’t lose you Tilly, or our son, not to him.  He does not love you he just wants your power.  I have horses waiting beyond the cave.  We will ride to Scotland and start a new life together,” he said.  He pulled back from her, and his hands swept through her long, dark hair.  “Tilly, he will kill you, me, and the baby if we stay.”

“I know.  Eric, I have prepared an enchantment.  I just knew he would choose me.  The way he has watched me these past years, his lustful eyes, his leering.”  She turned her face away from him, but with a finger, he turned her back.

“What is this enchantment, my love?” he asked.

“It will bind our soul’s together, and if – if he kills us.”

“Tilly,” he whispered, and he pulled her into an embrace.

“It is just a precaution, Eric.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Just declare your love to me, as I will to you,” she said, and she walked to her bedside table and picked up a knife.  “Join our blood and seal it within my book of shadows.”  She approached him and he held out his hand.  Placing the book open on the bed, she lifted the dagger to his palm.

“Eric Tovenaar, you are my one true love, in this life and all others.  No woman may claim you, nor take you from me. I bind our souls for an eternity,” she whispered, and she cut into his palm before passing him the dagger.

“Matilda Rhiamon, you are my one true love, in this life and all others.  No man may claim you, nor take you from me.  I bind out souls for an eternity.”  Eric cut into her palm, they joined palm on palm, joining their blood.  Matilda pushed her hand down into her book of souls.

“On top of mine,” she whispered, and Eric pushed his bloodied palm on top of her print.

Matilda lifted her hands, and as she did, a white light glowed from them.

“Itorma, spelldara conjor moralisa canstarna,” she chanted.

“What now?” he asked.

“Now we run.  If caught, we must recite the same words before we die, or the enchantment will not work.  The enchantment will ensure that when we are reborn we will be drawn together, we will find each other.”

“Based on what I know of Richard, if he discovers the enchantment he will do whatever he can to ensure he’s there when we return, even if it means relinquishing his soul to Lucifer in order to do so.  He already dabbles in the black arts.”

“You are right, that he will.  Give me a moment, I know of a spell that I can use.”

Matilda hurriedly wrote in her book of spells.  She cut her palm once again, and allowing her blood to spill upon the words, she sealed the spell.

“There it is done,” she whispered, turning to him.

“Gather what you need, we must go now,” Eric hurried as he heard voices gathering at the base of the stairs.  “They are coming for you.”

Matilda grabbed a carpetbag and threw in a few possessions.  She grabbed her book of shadows and followed Eric through the secret door.  They climbed the ladder that went straight down to the bottom of the tower.  Eric opened another door, leading them into the room below the tower.  He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the rear of the chamber where he opened yet another secret door.  They followed the tunnel before emerging half an hour later back into the cave at the bottom of the quarry.  Eric stopped just before the entrance.

“Wait here, let me have a look first,” he instructed.  She nodded as she took back her hand.  Glancing down to the book of shadows held close about her chest she took in a deep breath. 

Richard waited, hiding behind a large boulder, positioned in the middle of the quarry.  He was smouldering, fuming, and the blood in his veins turned black as the dark side of his personality took control.

“Matilda,” Eric called.  “Come, quickly.”  Matilda ran to him, and hand in hand, they left the cave.

“See, we will not need the enchantment,” Eric said as he held his one true love in his arms.  “The horses await us, just beyond the ridge.  We shall be in Scotland in a week, be rid of his evil forever, and raise our son, together.”

“Even so, the enchantment is in place, all we need to do is say the words, hold, or touch each other, and we will be together again.  If not in this life, then in another, I love you, Eric,” she said.

Richard’s hands shook in fury at the words his brother spoke.

As they neared the boulder, he drew his dagger from his belt and stepped out in front of them.

“You treacherous bastard,” Richard yelled.  “You dare to steal away my bride on our wedding day!”

Matilda screamed in horror, and Eric pulled her behind him as he withdrew his dagger in response.

“Tilly, get back to the cave,” Eric ordered. “Now!” he screamed.  Matilda turned, hitched her dress, and ran back towards the cave.