Nadine - The Beginning

9. Hidden

"We followed the scent as long as we could Miculai. Maybe it was just roaming through."

"It wasn't technically on our land."

"It was to close." My dad says as he walks in with Dipak and Dracul.

"The guards are still out. I will go back in the morning and try to pick up the scent again. Maybe we missed something." Dipak sits on a chair.

"Or maybe it's left the area completely." Dracul sits down by Asa and puts his arm around her.

"Or it will be chased off by all the guards out now." My dad sits in a chair. "Servants can you get us some blood please."

"Yes sir."

Tre is sitting beside me on a bench. "What was it sir?"

Asa looks at Dracul. "Was it a werewolf?"

He looks at her surprised. "Yes, but how did you know?"

"Tre came in and told us of a dog smell. I remember that smell from our last encounter."

My mom look worried. "Was it just 1?"

"Seems that it was just 1 my queen. And it may already be gone. The smell was faint and hard to track."

Dipak takes a drink from a servant. "Thank you servant. Don't worry. I'll go back tomorrow morning and see if I can pick up the scent again. But it's likely that it's gone."

Clay looks like he's about to fall asleep on the floor. He suddenly sits straight up. "What if there's a werewolf living in that village alone and keeps killing the girls."

All the advisors and my dad look at each other.

"That is possible." Dracul looks around. "He could be exiled from his pack. He would be alone and just looking for girls to prey on."

Clay gets a big smile and lays back down. He's so proud of himself.

My dad takes a drink.

Dipak looks like he's deep in thought. "A human village would be the best spot to find prey. Hell he might even have a few villages he's roaming through. Leave one for a month or 2 to use another. Then go back."

"What about the castle linen in the girls throat? Anyone got a theory for that?" My dad puts 1 eyebrow up and just back and forth between the 2 of them.

Dipak laughs. "Well as much as these kids eat outside. It's possible it just blew away unnoticed."

Asa and my mom both laugh and nod.

My mom stands up and starts pacing. "Well I'm glad you all have an idea of what is going on now. But it needs to be dealt with. You have to search the human village now. He has to be found. I will not risk my daughters life because you do not want to interfere with human issues."

Dipak looks at my dad. "It's no longer a human issue Miculai. She's right. We have to step in. Hell the 3 of us can do it in the morning. Just walk through and see if we pick up any scents. If we do, we end it fast and quiet. If we don't, we walk out of the town peacefully."

"Then we can throw his a*s in the river." Dracul finishes his glass.

My dad looks around at everyone and nods. "Tomorrow we go in. We'll have the guard surround the village first. In case he tries to sneak out. Guards will remain on high alert through tomorrow morning."

One of the Kings Guards nods and walks out of the room.

Dipak stands up. "Thank you for the blood. I am going to turn in. Everyone have a good night."

"Yes it's time for my children to sleep as well." Mom stands up and goes after Clay first. He's fallen asleep on the floor. "Servant can you carry him."

"Yes ma'am."

I stand up and start walking down the hall. Tre and Mary follow me. Tre gives me a hug. "I'll return in the morning princess. Sleep well."

"You as well. Good night Tre."

I have weird dreams all night. Clay keeps turning into a wolf. Tre leaves without saying goodbye. The pets all get free and eat my father. My mom just watches laughing. I wake up more tired than when I went to bed.

I wake up and shake my head. Those were weird dreams.

Mary walks in. "Someone is already outside waiting for you miss."

I get a big smile. "He said he would be back this morning." I look at the window. "I didn't know he meant so early."

"Your dad and the advisors set out already. I guess they wanted to get an early start. Let's get you in a dress and comb out that hair."

I see another servant walk by the door. "Servant."

"Yes ma'am."

"Can you pack a breakfast for 2 in a sack for me and bring it here?"

"Yes ma'am."

"You look good miss. Go enjoy your morning. And if the guards won't let you out, the ballroom is empty."

I look at Mary and smile.

"What? I'm just saying a nice quiet breakfast sounds nice."

"Here is your breakfast ma'am."

"Thank you." I take it and run out the door.

I run all the way down the front door and open it. Tre is sitting on the steps with 2 guards.

"Good morning princess." He gives me that cute smile.

"You are not permitted to leave princess."

"Come in Tre. I have some food for us."

We walk into the ballroom. Just like Mary said, no one is in it. There are cloths over all the table and chairs. The decorations are all gone. It's just a big clean room.

Tre takes the cloth off one of the tables and gets a couple chairs. Then he opens a door and says something to a servant.

I sit down in one of the chairs and open the sack of food. I start setting everything up and the servant comes back with a bottle of blood and some water.

"Thank you servant." He takes the stuff and sits down beside me. "You're excused."

I just smile at him. "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten yet."

"I would love to eat with you princess."

We share some berries and bread and each have a glass of blood.

"You want to dance princess?"

I look at him confused. "There's no music."

"We can pretend."

I take his hand and follow him to the dance floor.

We start to dance but it just doesn't work with no music. "I'm just glad you're here princess. I could sing if that would make this easier."

We both just start to laugh.

"Do you want to walk around the castle? It's quite nice. Lots of rooms to explore."

We spend the next few hours roaming all over the castle. We look through empty offices and a theater.

"I think we've been through every empty office princess." He walks over to the bookshelves and flips a switch. The shelf moves a bit.

I rush over to look as he pulls it open. It opens to a hidden walkway.

"Oh this must be how Clay got back down to the blood pets after my father had it sealed off."

"What?"

"Oh he told me he found a secret stairway behind a wall or something. It took him to the dungeons."

"Well this doesn't seem to be a stairway down princess." He sticks his head in and looks down the hall. "Want to explore?"

"Yes I do sir." I smile and hurry behind the bookshelf. I don't want him to change his mind.

At first it just seems to be a long hall but then I notice some light on the wall. "Look."

"It looks like it may be an entrance to another room." He pushes it a bit and we are looking at another empty office.

"I guess it's good that most of the offices are empty on this floor. This must be one of the servant halls. I wonder if there are hidden doors in every room that lead to this?"

"I doubt it princess. I bet some of the rooms are off limits to even servants. And some other rooms wouldn't be able to have hidden doors because of how they sit in the building."

"Yea, you're probably right. It's still neat to find though. Oh look stairs. Up or down sir?"

"Your choice ma'am."

I pick up. I really am not ready to see the blood pets again.

We go up and find an entry into an empty medical room. "I wonder if the servants even use these halls?"

"Probably not. Unless they are trying to stay hidden for a special event or something."

We walk to the end of the hall and there are stairs but just going down. I lean back against the wall and fall through it.

Thud. "Ouch my butt."

"Are you ok princess? I didn't even see a doorway there."

"Me either." I start looking around. "There's no windows in this room. Look a desk."

Tre steps in behind me and starts looking at the shelves. "Princess I think this is a hidden office of your fathers. We probably shouldn't be in here."

"What makes you think that?"

He looks at me and smiles. "All the paintings of you and your brother. Oh and your mother."

I walk over and look at the shelves. He's right. There are paintings of us. There's also some old toys from when we were younger. I touch some of the stuff and smile. "Yea we should just go."

I turn around and almost knock over a full size armor standing there. Tre grabs it to stop it from falling and laughs a bit. "Yea time to go princess." He leads me back to the hallway. "Back to exploring ma'am."

We go down a few flights of stairs and end up in the dungeon. I really don't like being here but there are no guards down here. "Do you mind if I check on the blood pets Tre? My dad promised to give them bedding. I just want to see if he really did. Clay said he didn't see any down here."

"Of course princess. Lead the way."

I start walking down a hallway looking around. "Everything looks the same down here. So many hallways. I have no idea where they are."

"Hello?" We hear a girl yell.

"Where are you?"

"Here."

"Keep talking please."

"This way... I'm locked in..." She's getting louder.

"Over here."

"Hello. Are you ok? Have you been given something to eat." We finally find one of them. She's not the same one as last time though.

"Hello? Do you have food?" Another one talks from a room close by.

I walk down the hall a bit and find 4 total this time. They all have bedding but seem to be hungry. "There's more now."

Tre nods and looks at the ground.

"Are one of these yours Tre?"

"No ma'am. It's just weird seeing them. I guess I knew they were here. But it's still weird princess."

"They actually look better. Last time I was here one was all beat up and had dried blood on her. Maybe I can get the servants to give them extra food every day. They seem hungry."

He nods and walks up to one of the doors. "Here I have some berries you can have." He drops them in the window and the pet runs for them. "Let's go princess. Just do like you said. Maybe the servants will feed them more. But it looks like your dad did keep his promise. They do have bedding."

I just look at him and nod. "I just wish I could do more."

About halfway the hallway someone hits the door in one of the rooms and I nearly jump out of my skin. Tre pushes me behind him and gets between me and the door. He looks in the window then looks at me. "No." He pulls me the rest of the way down the hall.

By the time he stops pulling me I'm all confused as to where we are. "What was that about?"

"Your dad wasn't lying when he said there are bad people down here. Promise me you won't come back alone."

"Tre..."

"Promise."

"Fine I promise. But at this rate we'll never be able to leave. I don't know where we are."

"Let's just keep going that way. We're sure to find a stairway at some point."

"What is this?" We seem to have entered a hallway with a bunch of little rooms with no doors. I start looking in them. Some of the rooms have fabric on the floor.

"I think this is where the servants stay princess. Look up ahead. I think there are some up there. They can point us in the right direction."

We walk into the servant kitchen and they all stop what they are doing and look at us.

"Sorry to bother you everyone but we seem to be lost. Can someone point us out of here please?"

One of the servants stands up and walks over to us. "Right this way princess."

We follow her down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. We come out right near the front door. "Thank you for your help."

"My pleasure ma'am."

She goes back down the stairs and leaves me and Tre to finish our exploring.

"Well this is just great."

"What princess?"

"Now I have to get all the servants bedding as well."

We both start laughing.