Page 21 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
Rosa slid the skeleton key from the keyhole and tucked it into her pocket, closing the door behind us, which I also noticed had a keyhole and not a lock. I’d grown up with those doors, so I was trained to see if I was free to leave a room or not. In this case, we were stuck.
“I’ll prepare supper fer’ ya,” the old woman said, rushing to the open room adjacent to the main one, a lavish kitchen with two wood-burning stoves and a huge table on their backside. It was topped with a massive slab of black stone with spiderweb-likeveins streaming throughout. “Go wash up in those rooms. I’ve laid out fresh clothes for ya when you’re washed up.”
I didn’t know what to think. Fresh clothes? What in the world was going on in this place? And why was this woman cooking us dinner? She had to be a slave too.
Bella shot a curious gaze at me with a raised eyebrow, and I believed I returned the expression. My clothes were tattered, singed, and smelled deeply of dragon. My arms were tainted with black charcoal-like filth from the dragon’s breath blowing back at us, my ankles still bled through the scabs, and my hair was knotting. I couldn’t deny that a bath and clean clothes, regardless of our situation, sounded like the most fabulous dream I could pray for.
“Guess we don’t have a choice.” Bella pulled out the sides of her pant legs; charred and torn. “I’d say let’s race, but I may take my time with this one.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely I am as well!” We both raced to the rooms. She reached hers first because of those long goddamn legs of hers, and she let out the most thrilling scream I’d ever heard from her in my life, and when I opened my door, I felt myself scream. Not from my mouth though, it was a full-on deep gush from within. As I saw the mattress fitted with clean, fluffy sheets and two white pillows, my stomach shot into my heart. My fists clenched and my hands bobbed at the sides of my head uncontrollably. A huge smile lit my face, and at the first sight of the tub filled with steaming water in the room’s corner, I couldn’t tear my clothes off fast enough. I didn’t even close the damn door behind me. Hell, I was so used to being naked in front of disgusting men, what would I care about an old woman who was cooking me fucking supper?
I would’ve jumped into the porcelain tub, but a sudden logic appeared out of nowhere, screaming at me to not waste the hot, soapy water, so instead, I slowly slid my toes in first, then my aching ankle, and then my bare leg. It felt like heaven. After a rideon the most ravishing, thrilling dragon in all of Allovan, that bath took my breath away. I slid in like a rainbow gliding into a soft, pillowy cloud.
I let the warm water rise to my ears, held my breath, closed my eyes, and submerged myself. The soap slathered my hair, and my fingernails scratched my scalp, sending waves of ecstasy down to my core, and beyond. All the pain in me evaporated with the steam, and all was right for those breathtaking minutes.
When the water finally cooled, and my limbs went as limp as banana peels, I dried off with the softest towel I’d ever touched, surely soft enough for a queen. I walked to the bed and sat. The cushiony mattress enveloped my legs, and I looked at the clothes Rosa had laid out for me.
There was a velvety blue top with a low-cut collar and sleeves that went to the bottom of the shoulder; the cuffs were a darker shade of blue and purple stitching. The pants were a deep gray with pockets at the front and back, and a tan leather belt curled beside them. New underwear and a bra were the first to get on, and as soon as the fresh white cloth hit my clean skin, I moaned hard. The sigh that followed might be like how I sounded while a man kissed my neck, but when the rest of the clothes wrapped around my body, a deep moan came as if I had just done so.
Leaping into the air, I crashed onto the soft mattress, laying on my back as if lying in a grassy field in the springtime, peering up at the passing clouds. But something made my ear twitch. It was like a scraping of claws on wood. My stomach lurched up into my throat, and my fingernails raked the sheets.
I wanted to yell out through the still open door, but instead, I reached deep within, hoping it wasn’t a slimy snake or a putrid skunk, or… one of those little tiny furry things with tails…
I pulled my head over the edge of the bed with all the courage I could muster, and to my absolute astonishment, it was none of those things. But it certainly was much bigger!
“A—A turtle? How the hell did you get in here? You sure as shit weren’t here when I…”
The turtle was two feet high from belly to top of its murky green shell. Its legs were like tree stumps, propping up its huge body, and its wrinkled, triangular face angled up at me. Old beyond my age surely, with big yellow eyes streaked with fiery oranges and deep reds. It had blue stripes on both sides of its head, from its beak to inside its shell.
“How in Odiun did you get in here, big guy? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a turtle as big as you in all my life!”
“Turtle?” The animal said the word with such finely articulated clarity out of its beak I nearly wet myself. I shook my head in disbelief at first, but then scampered off the bed, ran to the table at the back of the room, fumbling with nervous fingers for the metal candlestick and holding it between the talking turtle and myself.
“I’m dreaming! I have to be dreaming!”
The turtle slowly moved its legs, pointing toward me. I gulped deep, my palms sweating against the cold metal.
“You’re not dreaming, and if you’d be so kind as to stop calling me by that name, and address me by my proper pedigree: Tortoise, please. Turtles are such… small, simple creatures…”
“You’re… you’re a talking turtle…? I mean… tortoise?” I shook the candlestick, ready to strike. “Stay away from me! Wake up, Ash, wake up. This is so silly. This is the dumbest dream you’ve had in forever. Wake up!”
“You are awake,” the tortoise said, blinking slowly. He smacked his lips, the wrinkles around his beak deepening. “In fact, you’re more awake than you’ve been in your whole life, I might add.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you? What are you? And how did you get in this room?”
The slow-moving tortoise did little to soothe my nerves. Isqueezed the candlestick so tightly I thought I was about to snap the solid metal in half.
“Let’s start with introductions. You are Ash, and I am Cornelius. Pleased to finally meet you.” The tortoise closed his big eyelids and bowed his head slowly.
“You have a name? And you’re talking? Great…” I threw my hands up in the air. “That’s it. I’ve officially lost the roost. I’m insane. It’s official!”
“You’re far from insane,” Cornelius the tortoise said, lifting his head back up to look squarely at me. “You may be the most sane person in all of Allovan. But to be fair, I haven’t spoken to a human in what… a dozen years? Strange creatures you are. Not many things walk on hind legs with their arms hanging like ropes.”
I set the candlestick down on its base and rubbed my eyes.
This can’t be real. This can’t be real. It has to be a dream.
“This is very, very real, Ash,” the tortoise said with an intense, ethereal gaze with his large yellow eyes filled with golds, oranges and a deep wisdom. “Your power has awakened, and so… I have come to show you your path.” His knowing eyes narrowed. “Your life is nothing like what it was before your magic woke. Be prepared, Ash. You are about to change this world… forever…”
