Page 59 of Bosse
On her third trip delivering food to guards stationed along different spots in the hall, she returned to the kitchen and loaded one tray to deliver downstairs for those two guards. She’d been told not to go down there without a guard, but two guards were already present. It made no sense to ask another one.
As she started to depart the kitchen with a loaded tray of steaming stew, she spotted a thin woman with a blue head cloth tied at the nape of her neck and wearing a drab gray dress over her gangly form. Her brown apron seemed to be too large for her as well. She stepped out of the stairwell to the basement food storage, quickly walking across that end of the kitchen. She exited through the side door leading to the hall for Alifair’s sleeping area.
The woman had appeared and departed so quickly that Alifair would have missed her if she hadn’t been watching intently for anything out of the norm.
Strolling calmly out of the kitchen, Alifair glanced to her right at the guards seated at the far end of the hall, who were all busy eating and talking.
She turned left and hurried toward the hall next to the big stairs where the woman should be. Alifair paused at the corner to peek down the long hall where doors on the right marked servant quarters, including hers.
The woman sporting the brown apron walked away from Alifair, moving nonchalantly with her arms hanging loose and no food tray in sight.
At the end of the hall, she turned right.
What was there?
Alifair had been down that dark passage off to the right once, finding only closets.
One door had been locked, which she assumed held items Krol did not want the servants to touch.
If only she were not carrying a tray of food, she could move around more easily and follow this woman. Gripping the tray, she debated and checked the guards again.
None were looking her way.
Now or never. She hurried down the hall and eased up to the corner, peeking around to the right for the woman. That hall was always unlit, but she could make out the woman holding a flashlight and using a key to open the one locked door Alifair had dismissed.
It squeaked.
Alifair pulled back quickly.
The door squeaked again. Had it closed?
She risked one last look, but the woman was gone. She had carried no food, though.
It didn’t matter. Alifair had an idea of where to go hunting next. She pulled back, took a breath, walked quickly without rushing to enter the great room at a normal stride, and crossed it as calmly as her rapid pulse would allow. At the stairs leading down to the guards in the basement cage area, some called the dungeon, she took each step slowly, careful not to fall.
Excitement revved her up in the hope of opening that locked door once everyone was asleep. She’d stay awake for sure tonight. Her mother had been born to gypsies and raised by vagabond musicians in Belgium. She’d been taught useful skills like how to pick a lock. She’d explained to her only child that their magic could not perform every trick.
Alifair knew that better than anyone.
Since her magic was worse than an old-fashioned radio with a weak signal, she’d plenty of time training and adding a few tricks of her own for survival as much as anything.
Taking the last stair step, she had to be careful not to drop the tray that now strained her arms. She wrinkled her nose at the stinky smell of animals, urine, and body odor in the basement. It had to be worse for someone with a sensitive olfactory, like Bosse. His cage had smelled of his wolf and sometimes sweat and blood, but not bad odors.
If he could handle all those days living down here, she could get through this as well.
When the guards playing cards didn’t acknowledge her, she announced, “Here’s your food.” Once they cleared the barrel end serving as a tabletop, grumbling the whole time, she placed the tray so that it balanced on the round surface. Receiving nothing more than grunts as her thanks, she started for the steps again to return upstairs but felt eyes on her.
Hair raised along her neck. Her pulse jumped as if sensing a threat.
Looking over her right shoulder, she met the scary gaze of Beast. He embodied every terrifying physical trait of a boogeyman. Unlike those of legends, he lived.
Why was he staring at her?
Her skin quivered with a strange feeling about that shifter. Had he seen or heard her helping Bosse?
If so, could he communicate with anyone? Based on what she’d gathered from guards who had spent long days and nights here, no one could understand his grunts and grumbles.
They believed he was more animal than man at this point.
