Chapter 4 The Beast
The next morning Weamar found Jacqueline lounging in a chaise in the den reading the local paper."Good morning m'lady.”, Weamar said with a grin. “I hope you're feeling yourself today."
Jacqueline smiled and set the paper aside. "Good morning. I'm well, and you?"
"I'm fine, thank you.”, Weamar replied. “But a little concerned after meeting my friends last evening."
"What's wrong?", Jacqueline replied, sitting up.
"About a year ago we were travelling near the Falkovnian border with the father of one of my friends.”, Weamar explained. “He left us to mount a rescue mission inside Falkovnia, and now it appears he is in need of help."
"His name?", Jacqueline asked.
"Damon.", Weamar replied. "I feel morally obligated to help my friends in their quest, and so I wish to be relieved of my duties here."
Jacqueline looked away. "Very well. I, I may be able to help. I have contacts that may be able to gather some information.”, her voice changed from being cordial to businesslike. “I hate to ask this but I must. In return for my aid, I require one service from you."
Weamar was somewhat surprised at the offer. "What service, m'lady?", he replied.
"Outside of town there lay the remains of a mansion. Something valuable to me was lost there. A copper locket.”, Jacqueline paused. The next part was difficult for her to say. “The people say that the mansion is haunted and those few who have entered have not returned. I cannot trust this to any of my other retainers. Please recover the locket. When you return, I will have the information you need."
"That seems a fair request.", Weamar replied.
Jacqueline laid back down and looked into the empty fire place. She lifted her head a little and listlessly spoke. "The place is old, it was destroyed for the most part by a massive fire. Everyone escaped except for the master's only daughter. They had the most beautiful rose garden. The locket was part of a shipment of my belongings I was moving from my winter home. I was foolish not to carry it myself but...", she sighed. "A storm struck and the men took shelter in the mansion. They never came back. I don't care about the other things. I just want the locket."
It was midmorning in the inn. Rambis lay on the hearth on his back dreaming. Eliza was watching him, smiling. Lynn and Marinae sat next to her with Marinae telling her about how she found Petrov and what he’d told her. Eliza blanched as Marinae described the gory details, but now she understood.
"No wonder he was so distant.”, Eliza said. “Even more so than normal. It must have been horrible."
"He looked really bad when I found him.", Marinae replied, suppressing the urge to grin.
"Did he touch you?" Lynn asked.
Eliza looked down. "He kissed my hand before he left."
Lynn looked down at Eliza's hand but saw nothing unusual.
"Do you remember everything that happened?", Lynn asked.
Still looking at her hands Eliza whispered "I don't think I'll ever forget."
"I was so worried.", Lynn said. "I feared that he had done something to you. I feared that he was going to take you away from me."
Eliza touched her ring. "I couldn't live apart from you. Even if I go away, I'll always comeback to you."
Lynn turned her head. A tear fell on to her robe. Eliza loved her more than she ever thought possible. Lynn wondered how anyone could care so much about her. A sweet sadness filled her heart.
Just then Weamar entered the inn. He glanced around the inn and spotted his female acquaintances. Eliza looked up as Weamar walked over to her.
"How did it go?", Eliza asked him.
"She's agreed to help us, on the proviso we help her first.", Weamar answered. "Apparently she lost a locket in a now abandoned manor outside of town. If we can find it for her she'll provide us with information to help us locate Damon."
Weamar took a deep breath, then added, "The manor is rumored to be haunted, those who go there tend not to return."
"Easy as that, huh?", Marinae said with a sarcastic grin.
"Yeah, easy as that.", Weamar answered, grinning back.
"Haunted?", Lynn said. Then she turned to Eliza and smiled, "Ghosts!"
Eliza smiled and bit her lip. "I guess we should get going then. Don't want to be there after dark."
The others agreed and soon they were off.
"What would a ghost want?", Lynn asked to no one in particular.
"Life?", Weamar suggested.
“A body?”, Marinae offered.
Eliza was more helpful. "I suppose it depends on how they died and who they were when they were alive."
"Maybe we can trade them something for the locket.", Lynn said.
"At the moment the 'haunted' is only a rumor, there's probably another explanation.”, Weamar said with an air of authority. “Maybe the place is wall to wall pit vipers."
Eliza smiled at Weamar. "We can only hope.", she replied.
For about an hour they rode through the Richmuloise countryside, following the directions given to Weamar. They eventually saw a relatively small estate expanding before them. The manor was but a shadow of its former glory. Only a charred husk remained. In front of the house there was a massive garden and what appeared to be a hedge maze. The latter was quite overgrown. The garden appeared well tended save for the fact that all the bushes were brown and dead. The garden was orderly and relatively free of debris and weeds in comparison to the wild hedge maze A crumbling stone wall surrounded the perimeter of the estate. As they approached they noticed that the front gate was rusted and broken partially off its hinges but had once been beautiful and ornate.
Weamar dismounted and pushed open the gate far enough for their horses to pass through. The gate protested loudly but opened wide. Beyond the gate the hedge maze loomed. The entrance was straight ahead but there were paths that followed the wall that looked as though they went around the maze. Weamar looked at the maze suspiciously and then decided to avoid it. He led Dry around the edge of the maze to the left and the others followed along, happy with his choice.
“How good are you at mazes?”, Marinae thought to Rambis. "If I'd taken a bird as a familiar, I'd be able to send you up to scope out the maze."
Rambis just gave her a dirty look.
"Silly cat. You can climb trees.", Marinae thought. "For that matter, you can eat birds."
With a wall of stone to the left and the thorny hedge to the right they walked on. The sun slowly climbed high into the sky. Occasionally there was the sound of movement inside the maze.
Eliza muttered to herself. "Just the wind. Just the wind."
Marinae got an idea. “Want to go for a ride?”, she thought to her familiar, briefly describing her plan.
“Ok, but drop me and you'll find a little present in your boots tomorrow morning.”, Rambis replied.
Marinae grasped her magical staff and spoke a few words. The tip of the staff glowed faintly and her cat began to slowly float off the ground. Soon he was above the hedge.
“What do you see?”, Marinae thought to him.
“It's a maze.”, Rambis said.
“Um, yes, very good.”, Marinae said, feeling a little silly. “Can you see a quick way through? Creatures following us? Birds suitable for eating?”
“No birds. Nothing following. The maze is very complicated. Hard to see a way through.”, Rambis conceded. “Wait. There's someone at the garden gate. A child. Oh, she ran away.”
“Thanks, soul-brother.”, Marinae replied reeling her kitty back in.
"Lucky for all of us I'm not a prankster.", Marinae continued. "There's one mage at Court who would have just left the cat tethered like a balloon.", then she scratched Rambis' ears to show she was kidding.
The path met an iron fence and turned right towards the fence's gate and another entrance to the maze. The path looked to continue on to the opposite wall and back around to the main gate. Beyond the iron fence they could see quite a number of rose bushes. They were brown and rotting. The smell of decaying plant matter permeated the air.
In contrast Lynn was feeling unusually alive and happy. "Let's do the maze on the way out.", she suggested.
Eliza glanced at the maze and then at Lynn. She moved close and whispered, "Are you feeling ok?"
"I feel...", Lynn began and then stopped. Then inside the garden, hiding behind a grotesque bush she saw the head of a little girl peeking out at her. When the girl saw that Lynn had noticed her, she ducked away.
Eliza took Lynn’s hand. "What is it? Did you see something?"
"I thought that I saw a little girl.", Lynn said. Then she started to sing a little lullaby, hoping that she could peak the girl’s curiosity.
Weamar tied Dry's reins to the fence and walked with Cujia over to the bush. Weamar looked around for footprints but the ground was too hard for there to be any. Weamar found it hard to believe that anything could grow in such bad soil. Only the most tenacious of weeds survived inside the fence. Eliza tied her horse next to Dry and looked around for the little girl.
"Hello? Is anyone here?", Eliza said. No one answered.
"Who wants chocolate?", Lynn asked with a smile.
Eliza shivered in spite of the warm sun. She was growing nervous though she couldn't place exactly why. She looked to Lynn. "Not right now, Love."
"For the girl.", Lynn whispered in Eliza's ear. "But I would have given you some."
Eliza hugged herself. "Sorry, this place is just giving me a bad feeling."
Lynn sent a warm feeling to Eliza through her ring and Eliza returned the feeling. Eliza then examined one of the rose bushes. She stroked one of the blossoms and it promptly crumbled. At that moment everyone felt a chill breeze blow around them and from the shadow of one of the bushes stepped forth the child.
"Hello.", Weamar said to the child.
She would have appeared to be a normal little girl but for that Weamar and the others could see right through her. A cloud passed over the sun and in the dim light they could see that she was quite a beautiful child. Her hair was a mousy brown that would no doubt have deepened to a healthy chestnut as she grew older, had she been given the chance. She was a little over four feet tall, clad in a flower-patterned sundress that was torn and infested with brambles. Her hair was long and tangled and her hands and bare feet were scarred with large, ugly slash marks that appeared to have been made by thorns. With wide blue eyes the girl smiled back shyly but didn't speak.
“Is that the same child you saw?”, Marinae thought to Rambis.
“Yes.”, Rambis replied.
"Can we help you?", Weamar said to the child.
The girl crossed her arms behind her back and thought. She shook her head.
"Are you all alone?", Lynn asked.
The girl’s face took on a cast of fear. In a barest whisper she said, "N-n-no."
"Who else is here?", Lynn asked nicely.
The girl stepped closer. "The B-b-beast.", she said with wide open eyes.
Eliza knelt on the hard ground, coming eye to eye with the ghost child. "What is your name, dear?"
"S-s-sarafine.", answered the little girl.
Eliza smiled at the girl. "My name is Eliza. This is Lynn. That is Weamar, Marinae, Cujia, and Rambis."
Eliza nodded towards the bushes. "Is this your garden, Sarafine?", she asked.
The girl's mood instantly brightened "Yes! Isn't it beautiful? I take care of most of the grounds all by myself."
"How long have you been here?", Lynn asked, going to one knee beside Eliza.
"I've always been here.”, Sarafine answered. “For as long as I can remember."
"Your garden is wonderful.", Lynn said. "We're looking for a locket. Have you seen one?"
Sarafine went to one of the bushes and plucked a rose. She offered it to Eliza who accepted it reverently. The blackened blossom threatened to crumble in her hand but remained in one piece.
"Mother used to have lockets but Father sold them all when she went away.", the child answered.
"Have you ever had visitors?", Lynn asked.
"Many." Sarafine said, then she suddenly looked at Weamar. "Are you a knight?", she asked.
"No, I'm not a knight. I'm a ranger.", Weamar answered.
"What happened to the visitors?", Lynn asked hesitantly.
More clouds passed across the sun and a breeze rustled the roses. Sarafine's eyes flared a haunting blue. She looked sad.
"He took them.”, Sarafine began. “I tried to warn them. I tried to tell them they should run away but they wouldn't listen to me." The light in her eyes faded and she looked at everyone earnestly. "You need to go now. Quickly. He's awake now."
"When does he sleep?", Lynn asked.
Sarafine grew more and more anxious. "Please! No more questions! You must go...too late!"
Sarafine began to cry and the hedges at the paths that pass around the maze began to grow, blocking the way on either side. Biting her lip, Sarafine trembled and stared wide eyed towards the maze. An inky black mass was oozing along the ground from the opening in the hedge.
"Inside! He cannot go in the house!", Sarafine cried out.
Sarafine turned and ran off into the garden. The rose in Eliza's palm disintegrated and the dirty remains were blown away on the rising wind. Lynn hurried towards the house, quickly followed Marinae and Weamar.
Eliza hopped to her feet and chased after them. "Why can't we ever go any place nice?", she complained.
"Let's not do the maze on the way out.", Lynn said as they ran.
As they got to the door Lynn turned around to look at the maze. The oozing mass had reached the garden fence and was sliding through the gaps. It slithered along the path heading for the porch. Sarafine was no where in sight.
"Here's hoping our horses can fit through the doors.”, Marinae said. “It would be a shame if I had to make a new door, it being such a lovely place and all.”, Marinae turned towards the maze. “Wait, the horses!”
The horses were still tied to the fence. Cujia was standing at the bottom of the steps barking at the ooze which was ignoring the horses and advancing on the house. The ooze was about 15ft long and 5ft wide and moved about as fast as a person could walk. Marinae thought that she might be able to get around it, if she was fast enough.
"Keep going!”, Marinae shouted out. “I'm going back for the horses!"
Without waiting for a reply, Marinae wheeled around and hightailed it back to where the horses were tethered.
“Stupid, stupid elf.”, Marinae thought to herself.
Sprinting down the steps and around the thing, Marinae ran as fast as she could. As she entered the garden the ooze immediately changed course and began following her.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid elf!”, Marinae repeated.
“If I get killed for being this stupid, don't you dare use my grave as a litter box, you little beast.”, Marinae thought to Rambis trying to calm her nerves. Inside she was terrified.
Marinae stopped only as long as it took to pull the reins free, then started trying to run all three horses back to the house. The ooze closed in on her and soon had her trapped in a corner. Marinae grimaced as the ooze approached and the horses began to rear a whinny. Weamar, Eliza, and Lynn watched helplessly for a moment, then Lynn got an idea. She took a step off the porch and onto the grass, trying to lure the thing away from Marinae. As Lynn entered the garden the ooze stopped. Part seemed to want to go after her, the other after Lynn. Weamar quickly picked up on what she was trying to do.
"Go that way.", Weamar shouted to Lynn, pointing in direction that would put Lynn more opposite to Marinae. Then he stepped onto the grass as well.
Three lumps of ooze, still bound together, pulled in three different directions, one each towards Lynn, Weamar, and Marinae. For a moment it was immobile. The horses broke free of Marinae and ran up the central path and onto the large porch ignored by the thing. With each passing moment the bond holding the three pieces together grew thinner.
"Let's get indoors!", Marinae shouted.
But as Lynn and Weamar moved back towards the porch, the three blobs slapped together with a sickening sound and lurched towards Marinae. Lynn stepped back into the garden but it was too late. Now mere feet from Marinae, the ooze was intent solely upon her. Weamar drew his bow. Marinae skidded to a halt and turned to face the fast advancing creature. She cast a spell. Three bolts of spiraling light slammed into the Beast causing it to rear up just as Weamar’s arrow lodged into the viscous fluid. From its raised position the thing fell forward towards Marinae, and before she could get out from under it the thing knocked her to the ground and engulfed her legs.
“Stupid, stupid elf.”, Marinae moaned.
Thoughts of her own safety fled from Lynn’s mind as she drew her reddish purple katana and charged the Beast. Standing on the porch Eliza tilted her head up and her eyes rolled back as she murmured soft words. She placed a hand on Weamar's shoulder just as he loosed his next arrow. A flare of white light pulsed across the bowstring and was imparted to the arrow as it took flight. Again it struck true but this time it burrowed a six inch hole right through the Beast. Lynn's blade moved in a shimmering arc and parted the ooze with a hiss. The gaps quickly refilled but it was clear that the creature had been injured by the furious assault. Marinae mumbled some magic words and a sheen of frost formed across the Beast’s surface, slowing its advance up her body.
Lynn desperately tried to help Marinae. "Let go!", she shouted as she slashed at the Beast again.
With Eliza still whispering prayers beside him, Weamar fired another pulsating arrow into the body of the creature. With a low groan the ooze suddenly released Marinae and melted into the cracked earth.
Marinae breathed a sigh of relief. "When I was thinking how nice it would be to be dipped in syrup and eaten slowly, this isn't quite what I had in mind."
Marinae tried standing up, but everything from her waist down was freezing cold. She couldn’t feel her feet and she collapsed as she tried to rise.
Weamar and Eliza ran across the garden to her side. Marinae switched her magic from cold to hot and tried to warm herself but it didn’t seem to help.
"Are you hurt?", Eliza asked as she knelt next to Marinae.
"Can't seem to move my legs...ice...", Marinae said shivering.
Eliza rolled up one of the legs of Marinae’s breeches. The skin beneath was covered with a shifting lattice work of black lines.
"Just another day in the life of a soft-hearted, mush-headed, animal-loving elf, guys.", Marinae said. The cold was starting to spread above her waist. She wondered if she was about to die.
"I like your soft heart.", Lynn said.
The cold had spread to Marinae’s stomach and was encroaching on her chest. Eliza had wrapped her hands around Marinae’s ankle and was praying, rocking to and fro. Weamar felt utterly unable to help, and kept himself busy by keeping an eye out for any other threats. He spied Sarafine looking on with a helpless expression on her face from a nearby rosebush.
"Get me inside the house.”, Marinae gasped. “The girl said it can't get in there. No point in all of us being targets if it comes back."
Just as the chill reached Marinae’s heart and things started to go dim, the cold started to recede.
"Something's happening.”, Marinae gasped excitedly. “It's working."
The sensation fell back, intensifying under Eliza's hands. The shifting black lines began to flow across her hands and up her arms. Through the ring Lynn could feel that Eliza was fighting hard to control whatever malign force was attacking Marinae. Eliza couldn't destroy it in Marinae and so she was pulling it into herself.
Marinae sensed what Eliza was doing and tried to stop her. "No.", she began, but Eliza continued.
Lynn wrapped her arms around Eliza and gave her whatever strength that she could through the ring. As the last of the poisoned force was pulled out of the elf and into Eliza, she fell back onto the hard earth. The lines danced across her skin but began to fade. It appeared that she had it contained.
Lynn gave Eliza warmth, strength, and anything she could. "Put it into me, if you must.", she said.
"No. It would ki...”, Eliza stopped. “I can hold it. It will fade with time."
Sarafine looked up at Weamar with sad eyes. "I, I, I'm sorry."
"Why should you be sorry?", Weamar asked.
"I'm the one who's sorry, stupid elf.", Marinae moaned.
"I ran away.”, Sarafine confessed. “I was afraid. I'm always afraid of him."
"I ran too.”, Weamar replied. “There's no need to be sorry for being afraid."
Eliza's shivers subsided and her lips met Lynn’s. "Don't worry about me. I'll be ok.", she said, but it seemed as though she was as much trying to convince herself of that too.
"No one's ever scared him off though.”, Sarafine said. “He'll be plenty mad now."
"But also hurt, and not so keen to try and attack us again.", Weamar replied with an air of confidence, but inside he was disappointed that it was not dead and wondered how they were going to deal with it on the way out. "Do you know why it can't go into the house?"
Sarafine looked up at the ruined manor. "I don't know. Neither of us go there."
"I don't know if I want to go somewhere an evil thing like that won't go.", Marinae said with a shiver.
Eliza smiled wanly at her. "Don't worry." She tried to stand and managed only barely. "We should try and find that locket."