Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (9 page)

“Where is the boy? Bring me that fool. He’s had enough time to ready himself.”

Five minutes later Axel entered the room, his jaw set and his blue eyes dark and stormy. Dirt streaked his face and arms like war paint and the scent of earth and animal that clung to him overpowered even the garlicky scent of the vegetable soup I was eating.

“Is this the way you should be dressed when you enter the dining hall?” Ollie giggled behind his wine glass before taking a sip. “You stink of dragon’s dung.” He crinkled his nose theatrically. “It’s offensive to the ladies in the room.”

“Including you?” Axel muttered beneath his breath.

“Dragons?” Noah shouted from the other end of the table. “
Actual
dragons?”

Everyone ignored him. They were too busy watching the exchange between Axel and Ollie.

“That’s because I have been shovelling dragon shit since I washed up on the shore of the castle, at your orders.”

Ollie turned to me and smirked. “You obviously didn’t work hard enough or quick enough or else you’d be dressed and ready to serve. Poor old Anya has been doing all your work serving, and you know how frail she is.” Ollie frowned, his bottom lip jutting forward. “I hate working her.”

The old lady raised her brow and muttered something beneath her breath, something surprisingly filthy for an old woman. My respect for her grew.

Ollie clicked his fingers at Axel, who was now shooting invisible daggers from his eyes straight at Ollie’s head.

“Now bring Amber some bread.”

Axel sighed and stared down at his hands. “My hands are unclean.”

Ollie tossed down his spoon. “Disgraceful. Come here.” He beckoned Axel with an index finger, like one would do a two-year-old child, all the while casting side glances at me and grinning like a proud peacock. Did he actually think I was getting a kick out of this?

Axel came to stand between us. Though my head was already tilted in his direction, I kept my eyes downcast. I didn’t want him to think I was enjoying this.

“Look how filthy he is, Amber. And he smells rotten, doesn’t he?” Ollie sighed, as though in agony. “Should I punish him, Amber?”

I set my spoon down and finally stared up into Axel’s dirty face. He was covered in dirt and sweat and yeah, he smelt like shit. His bright blue eyes bore into mine, his shoulders tense, like rocks beneath his shirt. I was sure his one desire right now was to pummel Ollie’s pale face with his dirty fists.

I shrugged and reached forward to swipe one of the little bread rolls from the basket in front of me.

“Don’t ask me. I’m a farmer’s daughter. I love the smell of a hardworking man. He smells fine to me.” Knowing Ollie was watching me, I stuffed the entire roll into my mouth and then smiled.

The king laughed again and when I snuck a glance at Axel, he was staring at me, half grinning, his brows raised in surprise. When I grinned back, Prince Ollie’s eyes brimmed with tears and he pounded against the wooden table with his fists.

“Get out of my sight and return when you do not smell like my chamber pot!”

Axel moved away from the table, kicking Ollie’s chair leg as he went, but Ollie ignored him and turned to me and smiled. Great. So I hadn’t disgusted him with my rude eating habits.

“That one should have been drowned at birth. And to think, if his own brother hadn’t drowned, or if Axel wasn’t such a coward and had saved him, there would be two of them. Imagine two like Axel?” Ollie shuddered and clinked his glass with mine but I did not meet his gaze or sip my wine.

I stared after Axel with a softened heart. So not only had his brother died, but, by the sounds of it, Axel was being blamed for his death. I knew how that felt. I glanced around the table. Claire was deep in conversation, or laughter, I should say, with Reece and Reuben, sitting opposite. The king, Bruce, and Kyle were having an intense discussion about surfing. I tried not to spit up my soup when Kyle described the inside of a wave-roll, a tube ride, as the tunnel to heaven. We all knew Kyle had never left Red Gum until twenty-four hours ago. He’d never even seen the beach. But he was a good swimmer and practically lived in our local pool, winter or summer.

Kyle caught my eye and smiled when the king said, “Tell me more about this ‘hang ten’ you mentioned earlier. Ten what? Ten men?” I smiled back.

I leaned forward, stuffing a forkful of roasted chicken into my mouth, only realising now just how hungry I was. While I chewed the succulent meat, I watched Jacob, Noah, and Bella. Noah’s head was nearly spinning as his eyes moved from wall to wall, which were lined with paintings that were so detailed they seemed real. The pictures depicting dragons seemed to capture Noah’s interest the most.

Jacob sat rigidly in his seat. Bella had shuffled her chair in so close that it was touching Jacob’s and she kept leaning over to reach for pepper or salt or more bread, desperately trying to get his attention. But it was almost comical to see the old woman, Anya, who’d served my soup, get to the items first.

Jacob looked up suddenly, as though he had felt my stare, and half smiled before Anya noticed his empty plate and loaded it up with more roasted potatoes and chicken. I grinned at his mountain of food and he raised his brows and put his hands to his stomach as though he was too fat for this and I grinned again. I couldn’t believe how much communication I’d had with Jacob in the past few hours, more than in my entire lifetime of knowing him.

“Who is that clown at the end?” said Prince Ollie. “The one stuffing his face like a wild boar.”

I stopped grinning and turned to face Ollie. The way he was leaning into my personal space and holding my gaze without blinking prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. I hated when people did that. It was so intrusive and made me nervous. To reduce the awkwardness, I kept looking away to reach for my fork or knife, or another bread roll, although I’d eaten three of them the past two minutes.

“Well, out with it. The oaf’s name?”

Ollie’s breath stank of onions, and not the nice roasted ones served on silver platters beside the chicken, but old, rank, sour onions. I slid my chair closer to Claire’s. Anything to be away from him.

“I don’t see any oafs.”

Ollie laughed hysterically. He sounded like a giggling five-year-old. Weird. Most of the table stopped talking and eating and leaned in to stare at him. The king’s weathered face tinted pink and he asked Kyle, rather loudly, to tell him more about “this point break you speak of.” Out the corner of his wrinkled eye he glared at his son, lips peeled back in revulsion. So what Axel said in the aeroplane was true.

Ollie, oblivious to everyone’s stares, continued to giggle until finally, after clutching his stomach with small, pale hands, he turned to me and said, “You are too humorous, Amber.”

I picked at a potato on my plate, stabbing it with my fork. “I wasn’t being funny. There are no oafs at this table. And the person you are referring to as an oaf is my friend and I’ll thank you to not speak so rudely about him. His name is Jacob.”

“Ah, I see, you’re sweet on him and he hardly notices you.” Ollie leaned in. “I’ve read a lot of novels. We clean out ships and metal birds, the ones you call aeroplanes, whenever they stumble into our world, and I have quite the impressive collection. I’m partial to the romance novels.” His dark eyes glittered. “And I know a broken-hearted girl when I see one.”

He turned to the king and shouted across the table. “This one’s broken, father, I must keep her. She isn’t to be a challenger. It’s not safe for her.”

Everybody silenced.

The king threw down his chicken leg and glared at his son, his face turning redder by the second.

“Have you gone mad?” The king shook his head from side to side. “
Look
at her, son! Just look at her! Look at the size of those shoulders and biceps. She’s ten times stronger than you and quite possibly stronger than everyone else in this room. Yes, including the guards. And you want to keep her
here
? With
you
?”

The guards behind the king frowned and narrowed their scrutinizing gaze at me.

I tried to pull my shoulders in and appear small and delicate—girly—but when I looked down and saw Claire’s tiny hand beside my big, bony man-hands, I groaned inwardly and shoved them under the table.

“Thank the Goddess that the fate of the kingdom does not rest in your hands, son.” Spittle landed on Kyle’s and Bruce’s plates, but they didn’t notice because their eyes were on father and son.

“Because you will never see your mother if you keep our best specimens from seeking the dead. Never! Is that what you want?”

Great. So I was a specimen.

I could hear Bella laughing and when I glanced over, Jacob was glaring at her. Noah pretended to be lost in one of the dragon paintings, which could well be true, but I knew everyone was avoiding my eyes because of pity. I didn’t know what was worse, pity or accusation.

“Don’t be bashful, Amber. I can see your cheeks are burning. You are beautiful,” said Ollie, rather calmly for someone who’d just been verbally ripped in two by his dad. “Don’t listen to him. I have always admired unusually tall girls ever since reading a science fiction novel about an especially tall female alien who had crashed landed on earth. She had three breasts and was originally from the planet Tozora.” Ollie’s dark eyes glazed over as he took my hand in his and raised it to his lips. “And I have always wanted one for my very own.”

I choked on my potato and stood up to skol my wine and clear my throat. Snatching my hand from Ollie’s, I eyed the king. “Will you please excuse me? I need to lie down. I feel sick all of a sudden.”

I glared at Bruce, who sat opposite me, hoping he’d put an end to all of this. He did promise my parents he’d look after me. It said so on the permission slip. But he was raising his empty wine glass over his head and motioning for Axel, who had returned freshly dressed and with damp, clean hair, to refill his glass.

The king shook his head. “No. Hear me out first. I must speak to you. All of you.” He stood and tapped his glass with a knife.

Everyone set their cutlery and glasses down. They were just as eager to know more about our situation as I was.

“By now, I’m sure you are aware of the fact that you are no longer in your own world. And that you have been brought here for a purpose.”

I shared a glance with Kyle, who’s tanned skin seemed to pale dramatically. He was scared. So was I. And we weren’t the only ones. When I put my hands onto my lap, Claire closed her fingers over mine, giving me a squeeze. I didn’t look at her. If I did, then maybe I’d cry. She hadn’t come this close to me, let alone touched me, for such a long time. Instead I kept my eyes on the king, wanting to memorise his every word.

Something in me, despite what I’d heard on the plane with the boys, felt like this was possible. Despite the two against two million odds. That I could actually bring my brother back. And if I did, everything in my life would be okay again. Okay was all I wanted. I was fine with okay. I just wanted everything back to the way it was before Sam died.

“Well, that purpose is to journey through the Veiled World to the Land of Resting Souls.” He took a sip of his red wine and swallowed thickly, his bony Adam’s apple bobbing up and down inside his thin neck. “The world we are in is not like yours. We are, at this present moment, at the gateway to the Veiled World, which is a place where the dead live out their heavens and hells for eternity. At the heart of this Veiled World lies the Land of Resting Souls. A place all souls, good and bad, come to rest.” He nodded in thought and met each of our gazes. “Ever since our ancestors have been sucked into this world, we have attempted to reach the Land of Resting Souls. Historical documents state that this has happened twice in the past. But we have been failing of late. The past fifty years have seen the kingdom reduced by ninety-five percent. There is hardly anybody left. All have gone to seek the dead only to become dead themselves. The more I have sent out to retrieve those newly dead the more I have lost.” Wine spilled over the edge of his crystal goblet. He set it down with shaking hands.

“You are our last chance.” He sighed and stared across the room to what I guessed to be a portrait of his beautiful wife. Long black hair framed a beautiful, round face with full lips and large, round green eyes. “My wife has been dead since my son was born. Taken by his birth.” He frowned at Ollie, who was at this moment motioning for old Anya with the crook of his finger to take his plate. The king, temporarily distracted, raised his brows at his son and cleared his throat.

Then he slammed his fist down on the table. “But I will not rest. Not until my wife is back.”

Anya began collecting plates of those who had finished but the king stopped her in her tracks with a glare.

“As I have said, we have documentation from our ancestors. Information that will help you on your journey. So listen closely to what I have to say. Those who were marooned here, those who accidentally slipped through the portal that brings us here, just the way you did yesterday, they are who will guide you. Their sacrifices will be what aid you. They documented the changing landscapes, which you have now witnessed for yourselves; your first taste of it. Beyond this kingdom, no landscapes are ever the same.” His eyes scanned our faces. “And why is that?”