Page 80 of Alien God

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Torrance

After breakfast – which was very good, some kind of fruit preserve slathered on warm, red bread – Aiko asked if I was ready to move my things into the lord’s chamber in the Eve Tower. I scoffed at her mention of my “things,” as if I had a whole suitcase of human essentials to unpack in the new space. All that was in here with me now were my boots, socks, and the clothes on my back. Plus, the toothbrush they’d given me. Even my snowsuit was in Wylfrael’s room, probably still in a heap where he’d left it.

“This is about it,” I said gesturing vaguely to myself, my hand swinging up and down from head to toe. “Oh, I did have a cloak last night, though...”

“Oh, yes! I saw it in the kitchen this morning. It was hanging near the fire to dry. I suppose Lord Wylfrael did that if you know nothing about it.”

I was disconcerted, just the way I’d been when he’d started making the milk drink in the kitchen for me. I hadn’t seen him hang the cloak up to dry, but I wondered about the motivation behind it. I assumed he would have been the kind of proud, impetuous sort to leave it wet in a pile on the floor. Did he not want to leave a mess for Aiko and Shoshen to clean up?

Or did he not want it to be damp and cold the next time I wore it?

He’s probably just a control freak. So meticulous he can’t stand something out of place in his kitchen...

“I’d rather have a tour of the castle right now, actually, instead of going to the Eve Tower room,” I told Aiko. “If that’s alright,” I added. For some reason, I felt a little shy about asking, like I shouldn’t be doing it and that Wylfrael was going to come back and scold me for it. Going from a prisoner to the lady of this castle was giving me whiplash.

But Aiko did that open-close thing with her hands, agreeing happily, and after a quick brush of my teeth, we were off.

We took the stairs down through the tower instead of going through the adjoining tunnel. As we walked, Aiko chattered enthusiastically about the castle, about the marvel of creating it, carving it out of standing trees when Sionnachans usually used crystal slabs or bricks to construct buildings.

“That was Lord Cynewylf’s idea,” she said. “He was said to have loved the natural state of Sionnach and wanted the castle to fit in with the landscape. He used much of his own power to carve out the insides, shaping it into the design he and Sashkah desired.”

I tried to imagine growing up in a place like this, as Wylfrael had. Although I couldn’t imagine someone as intense as he was ever really being a child. There was a luxurious beauty in every chamber Aiko showed me, sitting rooms and storage rooms alike gleaming with jewelled light coming through the crystal walls.

It took us all morning just to get through the tower I’d been staying in, which I learned was called the Dawn Tower. I also learned that Aiko had an exceptionally good memory for the history of this place. “You’re a great tour guide,” I told her as we finally made it to the ground floor of the Dawn Tower.

“Thank you,” she said warmly, obviously pleased by the compliment. “As the castle’s Mistress of Affairs, it is my duty to know everything about the property.”

I could see plainly that Aiko was proud of her role here, and it eased some of the weirdness I felt about everything. It would have been a whole lot harder to work together with Wylfrael if his staff seemed unhappy, or he mistreated them. Nope, seems like he’s only an asshole to me.

We took a different tunnel – the one on the ground, this time – to the centre tower. The tunnel down here had the same intricate, beautifully arranged crystal, but barely any light came through due to the drifts of snow outside. My breathing came a little quicker as the sudden image of collapse, of rushing, roaring, burying snow chilled me to my core.

I thought the tunnel on the ground would be less unnerving than the one way up in the air, but apparently not.

I wondered, briefly, what it would be like to walk through this tunnel in the spring or summer, then remembered that, if all went to plan, I wouldn’t be here to find out. Aiko seemed oblivious to the way I eyed the walls warily, continuing to fill the air with facts about this place as we walked. I learned that there were three high-up, suspended tunnels connecting the three towers to each other in a triangle shape, but there were only two tunnels on the ground, more of a V-shaped line connecting the three towers. That made sense, as when we’d gone out the back door of the centre Day Tower, there hadn’t been a tunnel ahead, blocking access to the barn and forest beyond.

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