A Black Destiny - Chapter 4

At dinner the servants again appeared, bustling noiselessly to and fro with a plate of this, a dish of that. It still amazed Maharani how they just seemed to kind of form from where so ever they chose at a particular time. As she ate, Lord Cromwell sat across from her and watched. She caught him once from the corner of my eye, his tongue sliding across his lips in a most predatorial way. A chill ran the length of her spine once more. Yet, despite all of the mysteries held by Sir Cromwell, she wanted him. 1

"MiLady, I will see you later this evening. I am weary from travel and must go lay in my chambers." He said as he rose from the table. As he began to walk out of the room, his cold fingers slid over Maharani's shoulder and gently up her bare neck. He turned, looking her in the eye with an expression of animal hunger, and proceded out of the dining hall. She left with out waiting to see the servants mutely scramble to clear her plates.2

The corridor ran in a long line from east to west. Her chambers were at the far end of the eastern hall, she had seen no staircase. Therefore, she thought it rather clever of herself to conclude that the staircase must then be at the western hall's end. She started down the corridor, gazing into the blazing flicker of the candles on the wall in there little candleabras. As she walked further and further down the hall, her eyes scanned the stark, graying stone for any sign of a doorway. Suddenly, a clammy, cold hand closed around her shoulder. Gasping, she whirled about.3

There stood Gertie. "I be beggin' your pardon miss, and I may lose my Master's favor for this, but ye be wantin' to know where the crystal ballroom is, don't ye?" She questioned. She was speaking oddly, a small, hurried whisper was all she would make of her words. Maharani nodded slowly. "Well Master Cromwell, he been forbidden the household to tell you where it is and we's to keep you outta there come what may, but I thinks you oughtta see wa's in there, I do." 4

"Please, Gertie, take me up there." She whispered. Gertie straightened her stance, and nodded curtly. She turned to a tapestry hanging beside us and ran her fingers along its edge. Slowly, she peeled it back to reveal a door way. There was a staircase going down, and a staircase going up. Maharani began to start toward the staircase going downward, her curiousity getting the best of her. Gertie grabbed her fiercely. 5

"No! Beggin your pardon, Missus, but you cannot be goin down there. I'll lose my hide for sure. It's up here ye be wantin'." She lead her up the steep stair case to the top landing, and through a long corridir which lead back through the middle of the house. Finally, they came to a door and stopped."This is as far as I be goin', Milady." She curtsied and turning, bustled off down the hallway. 6

Maharani turned and grasped the large brass handle to te door infront of heer and pulled. When the door opeed, she gasped at what she had found. Stepping into the glass domed room one could look up into the darkened night sky and see every constellation known. That, however was not the amazing secret the room held. In the center of the room, a book floated, suspended in mid air. It floated just above the surface of a small stand and it was glowing, faintly giving off the same green glow as the spring in her room. She walked hesitantly forward, drawn by the book. As Maharani gazed down upon it's pages she read her name many times, in many tongues,from many ages. She read a prophecy of her life, and her previous lives, and her destiny in the next life. 7

Lord Cromwell was a Noblemen, four hundred and eighty seven years past born by this time, as the text read. And yet it also read that when he had a mere Nineteen years to his credit, he fell to the children of darkness. He had not struggled, nor had he opposed being taken to a life of dark halls and immortality. For his willingness to serve and his faithfulness to the King of the Vampires, Lord Aelfric Cromwell was promised an ounce of his former human dreams would come true. He was promised Maharani, the countess of Moldovia. For four hundred and sixty six years he had failed when trying to court her. In her past lives he'd kidnapped her, killed her lovers, and held her brother captive. He had tried many other things in her past lives to get her to concur to love him. You see that was the catch. The prophecy said that she had to give herself to Aelfric willingly or he could not have her, and he would remain a lonely, tortured soul forever. Maharani covered her mouth, which had gone dry, and backed away from the book. 8

"So, Gertie has betrayed me." Aelfric drawled. Maharani turned to see him standing in the still open doorway. She curtsied, trembling from head to toe. It explained why he was so pale. It explained the servants, the undead servants. It explained the green irridescence to certain things. 9

"Maharachtadun." She murmured. Vampires, much to her brother's disdain, had been her passion and interest lately. She was well learned in the matters of the magic of the Ancient King, a power called Maharachtadun. 10

"Yes, I am the only existing child of darkness for the past hundred years, you see. All of the old Powers belong to me now." Aelfric said lazily. He looked...defeated. "I wanted to be gentle with you. I wanted to make you love me. Now you know I am a monster and you will fear my touch." He looked at Maharani, his sorrow welling in his eyes. "In another lifetime then, love. You are free to go." 11

She didn't understand why, but she fled. She knew then and there, standing in the glass domed room that she loved his foresaken soul, and she ran from that castle. She ran until she was picked up by a merchant's carriage and taken back to her home. But the tale of this lifetime did not end on the doorstep of her own home, oh no my friends. Maharani's brother had yet to have his say in her destiny.12