Winter's Dream (The Hemlock Bay Series) (12 page)

“Here’s your room, miss,” Emma said, standing next to a giant oak door. I followed her in and wasn’t surprised to see a bedroom very much like the one I had had in Jordan’s fortress.

She folded back the bed covers and asked, “Is there anything else?”

I gaped. “Uh, yeah. How about you let me in on what happens next?”

She gave me a curious look. “Next you sleep. It’s the middle of the night.”

I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not but the way she fluffed my pillows and pulled a long linen nightgown out of the wardrobe I guessed she wasn’t.

“Uh, already got one,” I said, opening my coat and pointing.

Emma wrinkled her nose. “I’m sure this one is much … drier. I’ll be back in the morning to fit you for some dresses.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What is it with you jinn and playing dress up with me?” I asked, my scowl seeming to become a permanent thing.

Her eyebrows arched and then quickly went back down and her face smoothed over. “I’m not jinn. And you didn’t bring any clothes with you, so …”

I inspected her more closely, moving closer to the dim candle light. Her face was round and her eyes a middling size. She had a slight widow’s peak and the dimple in her chin was just off center. “Are you human?” I finally asked.

“Yes.” Her face quivered just slightly. I couldn’t tell if she was lying or about to cry and she cut me off before I could ask. “You really should get some rest.”

I glanced around the room again, my eyes finally landing on the door. “That have a lock on it?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “No, why?”

“I’m not sleeping without a lock on my door.”

Emma glared. “I’m not sure what you’re insinuating, but I can assure you Luka is a gentleman.”

I barked out a short, harsh laugh. “Yep, I’m sure he’s great when he’s not busy having kidnapped women transported to his lair.”

She pressed her mouth into a thin line and left the room without saying a word. The flame of a candle wavered in her passing. Shadows bounced around the corners of the room, illuminating only the area with the bed. I ran across the room, slammed the door shut and leaped into bed.

Fear was finally getting its chance to take over and I could no longer deny that I was scared—really scared.

I didn’t know what this new jinn wanted and I already knew there was no getting out of the bracelets by myself. The aunt’s quick explanation of the curse ran over and over through my mind. If I wanted to get out this, I needed to solve the curse and in order to do that I needed to know more about it.

Asking Luka was out of the question, I wouldn’t believe anything he had to say. But maybe Emma could tell me something. With a sigh I settled back against the pillows and prepared for a sleepless night.

Instead I woke up in the general store. The lights were on and there were customers in the store for once. A woman perusing the beef jerky gasped at my sudden appearance then laughed. “Oh, it’s just you,” she said, turning back to the display.

I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Was Nightmare Town a real town somewhere with real people or a ghost town, like the aunt’s had said? I shuddered at that thought. That would mean everyone was a ghost.

Abe looked up from helping a customer with hunting books and gave me a curious look. I gave a smile and shrug and he mouthed, “I’ll find you later.”

I nodded and let myself out of the store and found it was still a sad, halfhearted winter outside. The cold didn’t touch me like it had before and I looked down to see a padded hunting jacket, complete with cameo and bright orange patches. Thank goodness I hadn’t arrived in a nightgown. I had read somewhere people could master their dreams to the point of determining what they wore in them but I had never been able to do that. Although, I guess I didn’t really have normal dreams.

The woods outside Abe’s store were silent and still and grey. I hated it. Remembering the last time I had been to Nightmare Town I kept my head up while I made my way back to my house.

At a little creak behind me I jumped around, sure it was Jordan following me again. A thin grey squirrel cocked its head at me before skittering up a tree but I was frozen with fear anyway. Jordan. What was going to happen when he saw the new bracelets on my arms?

I sprinted down the road to my house with my arms tucked in the jacket trying to hide the bracelets—not that he wouldn’t be able to see the smoky chains pouring out the sleeves and trailing behind me.

My house loomed ahead and I raced to it, churning through the frozen, shredded leaves littering the yard. I banged in the side door and slammed it shut behind me, grateful to be in my home again. But the lights were all off and the house was silent and I realized again that Lincoln wasn’t there. It felt like I was never going to find him again. First the aunts, then Luka …

I resolved to solve the curse, get back to the farm and run away, back to Hemlock Bay and find my brother. “Right,” I muttered to myself. “Just get out of a centuries old curse and run halfway across the state dressed like an Amish person, no problem.”

The house was cold and I wandered through it, wondering if there was a thermostat anywhere. I found nothing on the main level and while trying to find one on the second I ended up in an abandoned part of the house that felt much higher than two stories. A door at the end of a dark hallway had a bright line of light at the bottom and with a great deal of curiosity I opened it.

A little gasp escaped my lips and then a laugh. It was Lincoln’s treasure room, or at least that was what I had dubbed it. The door opened onto a small platform that overlooked the whole room. It took up an entire corner of the house and had floor to two-story-tall ceiling windows. It was also entirely crowded with junk.

Dream Lincoln insisted it was all important and kept everything displayed on tables or artfully arranged in corners or in display cases like the ones in Abe’s store. One case was entirely filled with costume jewelry, flashing hot pinks and teals in the harsh sunlight coming in through the windows. I made my way down the rickety stairs and passed several fake potted trees and a pyramid of antique tube televisions. Behind that was an entire living room set up from the forties, complete with a tea set and doilies. I couldn’t imagine real Lincoln ever doing anything like that and couldn’t imagine why dream Linc would.

I passed the bizarre displays and drifted over to one of the windows, taking in Lake Michigan. Watching the steely waves crash in on the beach, I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. How long I stood watching the waves I wasn’t sure but my spacing out was finally broken by a movement along the edge of the trees on the far side of the property.

With a better view from the north facing windows I could barely make out a figure. With my face pressed against the glass and my eyes squinted I could see that it was Lincoln. He was talking to someone who had on a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and his back towards me.

“Linc,” I yelled through the window, banging on the glass. He didn’t even look up. “Linc!” I yelled louder, hitting the glass with both fists. He couldn’t hear me.

Determined to talk to my brother, even if it was only the dream version of him, I raced up the stairs and back down the dark hallway. As I ran it never got brighter and finally I realized I had my eyes closed. I opened them to find a wrought iron bed frame stretching above me, almost to the wood planed ceiling.

I groaned and sat up. For just a second I had forgotten about the new jinn and my new set of bracelets. A sharp knock at the door had me scrambling out of bed but Emma was letting herself in before I could find a proper weapon.

She gaped at me holding up the candle holder from last night. “What are you doing?” she asked.

I looked from her to my hand and back again. “I was going to throw this at you. Well, not you, I was going to throw it if it wasn’t you.”

Emma shook her head slowly. “You really don’t need a weapon here, or to be afraid. No one here would hurt you.”

I shrugged and tossed the candle holder onto the bed. “Sorry, I’ve already met some of these jinn and it didn’t exactly go the best for me.”

She cocked her head and looked me up and down. “You seem all right.”

“Yeah, well, they sort of let me go.”

“Then they can’t be all that bad,” she said and turned to the wardrobe, cutting off the conversation. “How about this?” she asked, pulling out a long dress.

“Whatever,” I said, not even looking up. “I’m used to being dressed like a giant doll.”

“Wonderful, then you won’t mind me doing your hair,” she said and sounded genuinely happy about it. Maybe if I complied she would give me some of the information I desperately needed.

Emma ushered me through a small door in the room and I stopped in my tracks, totally speechless. It was a bathroom, but not like any one I had ever seen. A huge claw foot tub sat in the middle of the cream tiled room, surrounded by vanities and mirrors and sinks all sparkling and glowing. A tiny portion of the room was walled off and when I opened the door I found what I had been hoping for, a small water closet.

When I came out Emma was already running the water for a bath and I had to ask her, “So you guys have running water but no electricity?”

Emma shrugged. “That’s how Luka prefers it,” she said, piling fluffy towels onto a bench next to the tub.

It was the most amazing bath I had ever taken. The tub was large enough I could submerge my entire body in its sudsy warmth. Emma poured something in the water that smelled like chamomile and I rested against the wall of the tub with my eyes closed. It was a little awkward having her in the room but I had suffered worse things over the last few years.

“Can I wash your hair?” she asked as I began to drift off.

I shrugged sleepily and didn’t open my eyes as she poured pitchers of water over my head and worked the shampoo into lather. By the time she was done and I was climbing out of the tub, I was more relaxed and sleepy than I had been in weeks.

“That was amazing,” I said as she pulled me over to one of the benches in front of a vanity and began pulling a comb through my hair.

She chuckled. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Sorry about last night,” I said after a few minutes. I was surprised that I actually meant it.

“It’s all right; most of the girls are pretty scared when they get here.”

I bit my lip, trying to decide on my next question. “Have there been a lot of them?”

“Oh yes, over time, a lot.”

I nodded and she shot me a look in the mirror. I was supposed to be holding still while she did my hair. “Sorry. So how long do I have to—I mean, how long do they usually stay?”

“It varies for each girl. I suppose long enough for the curse to realize that girl isn’t the right girl.”

My eyebrows scrunched together over my eyes. “And how does it know that?”

Emma gave a little laugh. “I have no idea.”

This was not going how I wanted it to. “So tell me what you do know,” I asked. “I got a two sentence explanation before I had to come here.”

“All right,” she said combing my hair into sections. “I’ll give you the long version.”

“Good,” I said, settling back into the bench, eager to finally get a real explanation.

Chapter Twelve

“A
very, very long time ago
the master of this palace had a sick horse.”

I gave a questioning look. “Really? All this is because of a sick horse?”

The comb stilled in my hair again and she frowned at me in the mirror. “Just listen.” She waited for me to grunt my agreement. “It wasn’t any old horse, it was his favorite mare who had been breed with his favorite stallion and she was due to birth what he hoped was going to be a new, perfect breed. He loved horses, he made money trading and selling them, it was his hobby and passion.

“So when his mare carrying his precious new breed began to falter he tried everything. New types of food, hay, water from different sources, a larger stall, a larger field, new stable master, everything. But the horse slowly stopped eating and stayed out in the pasture longer and longer until finally she wouldn’t come in at all or let anyone near her.

“He searched high and low for an answer, for a solution and eventually heard about a human woman living in a nearby village that was especially good with horses. The rumors said she could break wild ones, heal broken and sick ones and calm the skittish with only a few words. So he sent for her. Back then it wasn’t so uncommon for jinn and humans to interact and the village the girl was from knew of him.

“So he went to her village and found her and asked if she would be willing to come minister to his horse. She said no. He wasn’t stupid, he was expecting that. So he waited until they were all gathered for their Sunday morning worship service and locked them all inside. He called out what he wanted and sure enough within a few minutes she came out.”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “Just like that? He locked them up and she agreed to go with some big, spooky jinn?”

Emma met my eyes again. “No. He threatened to set the church on fire with every one inside. Including the children.”

I shuddered. Was Jordan capable of something like that? Or David? “Okay, so obviously she agreed to his weirdo demand.”

“She did. And she wasn’t what he was expecting. She was beautiful and brave and kind, even to him. Right away he wanted more from her than just to heal his horse but she politely brushed him off while still submitting to his threat. Very quickly he became enamored with her and wanted much more. In an attempt to soften her to him he promised to let her go as soon as his mare was healthy and birthed a healthy pony. The horse girl, Miriam, silently went to her house where she packed a few things and then left with him. One of the girls from her house couldn’t bear to see her leave with a monster like that and followed along. Miriam tried to discourage her but the girl followed anyway.

“When they got to his palace—this palace—Miriam went to the horse right away but it ran from her again and again. She ordered several kinds of feed and bedding and told the jinn it would take several days before she would be able to coax the horse to her, let alone get it to eat. She also warned him the birth wasn’t far off and the mare would most likely die from it. He wasn’t dissuaded; he believed she could fix her.