Chapter 1

Part 1

The Maid and the Count

- Jake -

Jake didn't remember a lot of things about his mother. She had never been the doting kind. One thing he did remember though, was a bedtime story she used to tell him on days he had been mean to the servants.

Once upon a time lived a Count in the darkest part of the great forests to the north. He was cruel and terrifying and possessed by a grotesque demon. Every now and then he would visit the villages and towns of the lands he owned to devour the children, who had been naughty, to satisfy the hunger of his demon.

Well, Jake didn't know about eating children, but to reach his goals he had done plenty cruel things and played so many terrifying schemes that sometimes he could indeed hardly imagine a more befitting depiction for himself. He had not expected, however, how easily the people believed that a bedtime story had become blood and flesh to haunt the lands for real.

"You are making that face again," Nathaniel said in his annoying voice.

Jake glanced at the figure of a man that demon pretended to be.

Towering tall and scrawny limbs, almost too long for being comfortable in the limited space in the carriage. Dressed entirely in fine black garments, black hair neatly slicked back, sitting so still it wasn't humanly possible, he looked like a deadly spider, waiting for prey to get trapped in his net.

Jake wouldn't. He knew Nathaniel meant to upset him in some way out of boredom, but Jake wasn't in the mood, and he was upset enough already. They had been on the road for way too long and his shoulders were stiff and sore from the travels.

He looked back out through the hazy window lined in red satin curtains of the fine carriage he had won in a rigged game of cards a few nights back.

Up ahead the little town lay between soft mountain tops and rich forests, peacefully quiet like a painting of a fairy tale setting in a children's picture book. To the south there was a lake, in the north the castle oversaw the small houses and farms. It stood tall like a fortress, with long brick-built walls protecting it, yet it somehow had the feeling of a family home to it. One side was overgrown with plants, olive green tendrils crawled the building up onto the red scaled roof, on the other side of the castle fine gold ornaments were clear to see even from the distance.

"I hope the Baron has as much money as you say he does," Jake eventually grumbled.

It wasn't unlikely for men of power to put a glamour to show while their subjects already suffered famine. The memory of the town of New Hamsville they had recently visited, where the Lord wouldn't even offer sickbeds to his people dying from a horrible disease, darkened Jake's face even more.

"Contrary to what you might believe, I do not enjoy it when you are in a bad mood, so leave your thoughts be or say what's haunting you already," Nathaniel remarked rather uninterested.

"Liar," Jake said.

The demon smirked.

The carriage rattled when they reached cobbled streets instead of the muddy forest paths they had been travelling before. First houses passed by the window and Jake glimpsed at people stopping their daily chores to ogle their high visitor. A butcher's shop, a hairdresser, a clockmaker, a blacksmith, the little town seemed to run good in business, no sick children dying on the streets either.

Jake allowed himself a deep breath and his tension to ease. He would already like Burgate better than New Hamsville.

"Are you clear on your role?" Nathaniel asked.

Jake looked at him with a frown. "Are you?" he said then. "I don't want any more men or women crying their broken hearts out at our departure. You are to stay away from them. All of them."

"I cannot help it. The lover's game is the easiest way to make people trust you enough to spill their secrets. You should try."

"Stay away from them!"

Nathaniel rolled his coffee brown eyes. The one thing about the man that did look human. The one thing Jake detested the most to look at about him. It was a constant reminder of what Jake had lost and what he stood to lose should he fail. The country. Family. His life.

"I wish you would let me play at the role of the Lord for once. How much fun that would be." Mischief glimmered in Nathaniel's eyes.

"And how much ruin. You destroy everything you touch," Jake snapped.

"Such is the purpose of my existence."

The carriage slowed down, having arrived at the castle gates. Slowly it rolled about the spacy forecourt where the Baron's servants stood gathered for the welcome.

Jake leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He recalled his goals and purposes, and repeated his story like a prayer, like a spell to enchant himself. Like he always did.

Not like he had ever forgotten them even for a second, but still. He saw the steps he needed to take before him like moves in a game of chess – gold, pawns, weapons – until every piece was in place for a quick win. Then everything would be back to what it always should have been, and Jake would be free of his curse.

When he opened his eyes again, he was somebody else.

***    ♕   ***

- Elly -

The Count of Malinijak.

People said he was a horrible monster. One story was he had slaughtered an entire village because he hadn't liked the food they had served there. But not with his hands, no, he was more sinister than that. He had cast a curse on the lands and people alike until there was nothing left but the horrors of death and devastation.

Another said he devoured children. He haunted the nights and stole them from the shadows, that he was part of, when no one was looking, and they would never return.

And on and on the people talked.

To Elly he looked like an ordinary man. Tall and slender built, broad enough shoulders though, with full brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard, and too young to have committed all the horrible deeds the people said he had. No shadows clung to the sharp edges of his carved face, no touches of sinister magic seeped out of the sleeves of his doublet, no claws and no fangs.

But there was an air around him, the way he moved and talked, that was something else entirely. More like a King than a Count, with a sense of authority better not to be questioned, that left one a little bit scared and awed at the same time.

The Baron next to him, welcoming him and showing him around the castle, with his crouched back and bad hip, looked like nothing more than the crooked old man that he was.

"Don't stare like that," Elaina whispered to Elly and giggled like a child. "We'll have enough of him later."

"How indecent. You are married!" Ricarda whispered back from Elly's other side.

Elaina only giggled some more and twisted a lose strand of her copper hair around her fingers as she angled her entire slim frame to spy at the Count, despite her words.

But even if she was not married, a maid had nothing to do with a Count besides serving him.

"Hush, girls," the head maid scolded. As soon as the Baron and the Count had turned around the corner, the bellied woman returned to repeating the orders she had been pleading the last few days over and over already.

"The Baron wants you on your best behaviour. Every need of the Count is to be satisfied. And if he asks you to bark like a dog, you better grow ears and a tail as well, are we clear?" the woman said in her stern voice.

The girls nodded.

"Now, to work!"

Elaina, Ricarda and Elly left the row first, all the servants had been lined up in to be displayed to the Count. They hurried down the arched corridors of the castle, upstairs to the quarters prepared for the Count, the finest room on the second floor with a good view over the village, to make sure everything had been put in place properly. Even if they had done that the very first thing in the morning and the last thing the night before.

"Do you think he really eats children?" Ricarda asked with a pale face, rearranging flowers on the table in the middle of the room with trembling hands.

She had been the least pleased to be chosen as one of the maids for the Count. Elly suspected she had only agreed because of the good money paid, same as Elly herself. Her father's business wasn't going too well lately and the bonus for serving the Count those few days during his visit at the castle would help greatly.

"Are you out of your mind? Of course not. That's just people talking," Elaina said. She brushed the blanket on the wide canopy bed straighter as it already was and stared at it with an odd grin. "I'd not mind if he'd devoured me though."

On that comment both Elaina and Ricarda giggled.

Elly could not quite enjoy their tease. Both of them were married and knew what they were talking about, while Elly was not.

Not yet, in any case.

The girls finished their round just in time. As they closed the creaky door behind them the Baron led the Count down the corridor towards the chambers.

The girls bowed deep while the men passed.

Elly couldn't help but be curious about the man that had the whole village on their toes ever since the notice of his visit had come. She glimpsed at him from the side. When she accidentally caught his eyes her breath stuck in her lungs. She hadn't ever seen such unnatural blue eyes. The colour of the finest summer sky, clear as a crystal. Deep and thoughtful and burdened by shadows too heavy for such a young man.

The way he looked back at her had her entranced. It was a soft breeze of late summer whispering promises of adventure in her ears, while her heart trembled, knowing the dangers of them.

Only Ricarda's elbow to Elly's side had her stop staring. With heat in her cheeks she forced her eyes to count the fuzz on the carpet the girls had missed to clean up properly.

The door closed with a sobering rattle and a strange tension she hadn't noticed crawling up on her released in Elly's body.

What a mistake. Already. A maid was to be as unremarkable as the furniture, not staring at their masters like they were a piece of rare candy. But there hadn't been many occasions to practice such behaviour since the Baron seldomly had guests and it had been only last winter that Elly had ended her training period as a maid.

Elaina took her stand-by position, as she was assigned the first shift. She wouldn't stop twisting her copper hair around her fingers and grinning to herself with dazed eyes.

Ricarda and Elly found their way down to help in the kitchen. There was going to be a rich banquet celebrating the Count's arrival in the evening. And it had to be the best, just in case there was any truth to the rumours.

Elly's mother among all the other castle cooks had been preparing since the early morning. And the strain was obvious. Her round cheeks were flushed, some strands of golden hair had loosened from the long braid at her back, the skirts were stained.

Elly sneaked up on the woman to spy for any samples to taste.

"I hope that hunger of yours dries up soon, otherwise you'll end up round as a barrel and no man will want to marry you anymore," the woman scolded as soon as she realized her daughter's presence. She smacked Elly's fingers away from the plate on the long counter, that filled about half of the kitchen room. Cooks and other servants hustled along the narrow space in between. Every free space on the fine marble interior was filled with dishes invarious states of finish, filling the hazy air with delicious scents.

"Oh, let the poor girl be, a little bit more flesh on her hips would do her good," the cook next to Elly's mother defended her.

Elly grinned and stuck the piece of sweet potato she had stolen in her mouth. "Besides, father said he has someone to be my husband already."

Finally.

Elly couldn't wait to marry and leave the monotonous life in the small village behind. As much as she loved the quiet of Burgate, her eyes craved to see a sunrise over an unknown horizon. As much as she enjoyed to twaddle with everyone about everything she had known all her life, she was excited to talk about new things with new faces.

Elly's mother frowned with a deep worry Elly could not quite understand. She pressed her lips to a thin line for a second before she spoke. "Yes, so he said," she remarked then simply and turned back to work with a sour expression.

"I will write every day. I promise," Elly meant to comfort her mother. "You won't even notice I am gone, besides all the additional food you'll have left to spare."

To that the older woman gave a soft smile, but the sadness did not fully leave her grey eyes. "Now put your hands to work. There is still a lot to be done," she said over her shoulder.

Elly playfully saluted like she had seen her brother David do on his last visit home to confirm the order received. Her mother laughed at that.

Satisfied Elly turned to the kitchen counter. She brushed a strand of her blond hair aside and rolled up the long sleeves of her uniform before preparing the food's adornment. Of course, she could cook, she had learned from the best teacher possible, but on days like this she liked the more challenging task of carving beautiful flowers out of vegetables better.

When her cheeks flushed, it was because of the heat from the blazing kitchen furnace, not because she imagined the Count enjoying the dishes.

***   ♕   ***