Dance Macabre: Tales from a Cursed Land

VIII: Deadly Nightshade (1/2)

Amber eyes lazily watched a large mirror hanging on the wall. It was not the man's reflection the polished surface showed, but countless fragments of images. Countless little pieces of lives.

The Outcasts were his servants, his network to keep aware of everything that happened in the realm. Sometimes single individuals rose above the rest, proving themselves valuable assets, but overall...mere cattle. A source of income and new servants, not much more. Still, they belonged to -him-, and probably of all Dark Lords he was most tightly tied to his servants. Neither man nor monster was allowed to kill them without his permission. Thus he gave them powers that - if grouped together - could have possibly threatened even him, and bound them with thorns to make sure rebelling would be impossible.

"Master?" a quiet voice asked. "You sent for us."

He turned his gaze from the mirror to the doorway where two children of 12 years old, a girl and a boy, stood. Both were blond and blue-eyed, almost mirror images of each other. Their faces were completely expressionless, their eyes empty.

And that was exactly how the Viscount of Shadows wanted it to be. Noel and Nea, twins taken from their parents almost as soon as they had been born and raised in his hidden castle. Now they were nothing but soulless dolls to do his bidding, his perfect soldiers who felt neither fear nor regret.

"No, I told you to come see me in the morning," he waved them away. "It's not dawn yet. Come back later."

"As you wish, master," they said almost as one, bowed and left.

Yes, those two would certainly prove useful, but they were also boring. Outcasts weren't much better in that aspect either, having been bound to slavery from very young age. Although those who had been old enough to remember their family and understand that they had been sold - he did not allow stealing of children, it had to always be a trade of some kind, whether or not it was considered "fair" - did sometimes provide some amount of amusement with their quests for their lost pasts.

His favorites by far were those who agreed to strike some kind of deal with him. Sometimes it was temporary. Sometimes not. He didn't need to -own- people if he could keep them coming back to him on his own terms.

Just like Nightshade had brought that lovely silver vixen to his debt. Certainly, she was allowed to act independently, but whatever was asked of her...she could not refuse. And the irony of it was that for her this kind of life was "freedom". Despite the chains of gratitude it was still what she had wished for.

~*~*~

Tessa's childhood had been safe and happy, her hometown protected by the Shepherds - mysterious pale beings who wielded powerful magic - and their soldiers. Yet it had also been strictly restricted by rules and customs. As a girl she had been raised to take care of home and children, to become a good wife and mother as soon as she became an adult. The highest honor that could be bestowed upon her would be to give birth to a son strong enough to be accepted to the ranks of the Shepherds' soldiers. Yet she had never been allowed to pass beyond the fields and grazing lands for cattle outside the town.

According to her father, beyond them were sea on one side - where only menfolk were allowed -, the woodlands of the Shepherds on another and the mountain range cutting their peninsula off from the rest of the world on the last. There was a single pass guarded by the Shepherds' soldiers, so no outsiders could enter. This isolation was supposedly the only way to ensure their safety.

That had all felt normal. Until one day a handsome stranger arrived. And suddenly there was a whole new world out there, beyond the safety borders that had been set around her.

Tessa, 14 years old and just reached womanhood, had been just walking around the streets and chatting with her friends when she came across some kind of commotion. Her father and three other men had surrounded someone wearing black and dark blue clothes the kind of which she had never seen. He had black hair barely covering his ears, beautiful hazel eyes and slimmer build than most men she knew.

"I'm just a wandering minstrel, hoping to earn a meal and perhaps a few silvers," Nightshade tried to defend himself. Even non-humans had never been this hostile to his arrival. "I don't believe in violence."

"Then you'd better turn around now and get out of our lands," one of the men warned. "However you got past the sentries in the mountain pass, you are not welcome."

"There's really no need to be so hostile. All people need a cheerful song or a touching ballad to soothe their hearts every now and then. And I bring news from outside this area-"

"We don't want your news!"

Tessa's father nodded to the others. "Let's escort him out."

"Father!" Tessa rushed to them. "Please don't harm him! I'm sure he means well."

Nightshade's attention was instantly pulled to her. A silver-haired girl, young, but with such emptiness in her heart.

"Go back home, Tessa. This is for men to deal with."

"But-"

He slapped her. "Don't argue with me, girl."

Tessa fought back the tears. "Yes, father."

She pretended to obey, but instead followed them at safe distance when they roughly dragged the minstrel outside the town and left him on the road leading towards the mountain pass. When they had still been small, her older brother had taught her how to move unnoticed. Now he was gone, taken by the Shepherds and transformed into one of their soldiers.

Nightshade sighed when he was left alone and, instead of leaving as he was told to, headed to the cover of the woods. He could sense strong magic deeper in, but he should be safe enough staying at the outskirts.

Once he found a nice, sun-warmed spot under the canopy, he unstrapped his lute from his back, sat down and started playing a simple melody, his eyes closed in concentration. After a while his eyes opened again and he stopped playing. "Come on out, Tessa," he called out, his voice gentle. "I know you've been watching me for a while."

Reluctantly she left her hiding place and approached him.

"Please don't be afraid. I don't hit girls like your father does."

"No, he's right. I shouldn't have started arguing with him."

"Is that the way of your people? Men do whatever they wish and women stay quiet?"

"I...guess so?"

Nightshade snorted. "That's stupid. Power should belong to those who earn it."

"I don't really care about power."

"Really? Then what do you care about?"

She didn't have an answer to that. Getting married, having sons, possibly losing them to Shepherds like she had lost her brother...She had thought there was no other way of life. But she had also thought there was nothing outside their peninsula but monsters.

"I have to go home before anyone notices I'm gone," she muttered and hastily departed.

Nightshade just resumed playing his lute. She'd come back.

And she did come back. Often, in fact, usually bringing him some food stolen from her house. Nightshade found himself liking her, watching with interest as every story of the "world outside" he told her sparked something new in her eyes. She was a strong one, of people born and bred to be warriors. It was kind of pathetic how much potential they wasted with their ridiculous views of gender roles.

Tessa did dream of the bigger world, true enough. Of traveling all over the world to see...well, everything there was to see. Of marrying the man she loved, not who her father thought would provide for her and sire strong children.