Queen of SorrowEpisode 2
Cameron Jace
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About the Author
Second Original Edition, December 2014
Copyright ©2014 Cameron Jace
First published as Blood, Milk, & Chocolate Part1 & Part 2
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Created with Vellum
1
When I opened my eyes, I was surprised I had no time to see my reflection in the water.
Before I fully looked at the rippling waves of the pond, someone's arms pulled me from behind and dragged me. I first guessed it to be my father; he'd caught me before I succumbed to my selfishness and sent my family and land to hell.
But the hands were too aggressive to be my father's. They weren't loving hands. They meant me harm. They were the hands of an enemy.
I couldn't see my captors, whoever they were. They began choking me. In all my years in the castle I had been trained to ride horses and even use a sword, but none of this was good enough to handle my kidnapper. All kinds of sinister scenarios flashed before my eyes.
What will happen to me?
It didn't take long before I began fainting. As my eyelids draped my vision into darkness, I heard someone utter the name I feared the most—at least, I was taught to fear it. A name I had only heard on the tongue of my father. Someone was praising their king: Night Von Sorrow.
2
When I woke up, I was tied up in chains in some underground dungeon. Realizing I was in some dungeon was the easy part. It was dark and filthy, not like anything I had ever seen. Grey walls and vaults with a small barred window, too high for a normal human being to reach. I was surprised I didn't panic yet.
What I saw later made me panic.
Desperate, I tried to free myself from the chains, kicking, swearing, and foolishly threatening my enemies that my father was going to hunt them one by one. It was all in vain. All I got back were some hissing laughs, reeking of blood and mockery.
Then I realized that the chains were bolted to four sides of the walls, keeping me afloat in the air, not knowing what was underneath me.
How was that possible?
As I kicked and screamed, a strange smell soaked my soul. It was a collection and mixture of odors and scents I had never experienced before—at least not together.
What was this? I needed to focus, rather than trying to separate each smell on my own.
The first smell was unmistakable, and actually easy to identify. It was blood. A lot of it, fuming like a spreading disease up my nostrils. It was coming from right underneath me, but I couldn't twist my head enough to peek down there.
What could hold such amounts of blood? A pool?
The notion made me nauseated, but it also made me realize I was wet. Turning my head, I saw blood trickling down my arms and legs tied to my sides. Had I been soaked in that pool and brought up again? Why?
I followed the trickling blood and pressured my body to a brief twist, which hurt my limbs and made me scream in agony. Finally, I could barely glimpse a surface underneath me. This time I could see what it was.
I was floating above a bathtub. A bloodbath of sorts.
The bathtub was filled with blood. But not only blood.
There were other liquids I couldn't recognize immediately—because seriously, it didn't make any sense to mix them together.
What kind of mixture was that, and why?
The blood was mixed with something white, which spread like swirling tree branches through it.
What was that? Milk?
Then there was something else I hadn't enough time to see with my eyes. My limbs ached and begged me to turn back to a normal position.
But I could smell it.
It was something rare and preciously desired by kings and queens at that time. A treat for the elite only. Chocolate. Dark chocolate.
I knew it because, similar to the Vampire Craze, there had been a Chocolate Craze in my time. In Styria, chocolate had been prohibited, and the poor couldn't afford it anyway. Only the likes of my mother had a few precious amounts she offered for the elite kings and queens who visited us. The reasoning behind the prohibition had been announced after renowned physicians from London and France claimed chocolate caused madness. And madness had always been linked to diseases, which recently had been linked to being a vampire.
But there was no more time for me to analyze why I had been dipped into that mix while my body was hung in the air. I decided I would annoy my captors with the only weapon I had.
My scream!
I screamed and screeched and squealed from the top of my lungs, wishing for a response or clarification why I was here—and where was here?
All the shouting I did could not free me. The dungeon smelled of all things evil. It was as if the walls were smeared with rotten apples. I could tell there were tens of cloaked men and women standing silently in the shadows, not uttering a word. But I didn't understand why they didn't talk. Was this some kind of a ritual? Where they waiting for someone?
A few moments later, I could see a raven and dove fluttering beyond the barred windows near the ceiling. That was when my torturers slowly emerged from the darkness, pulling their black cloaks back and staring at me. Men and women with pointed teeth. Pale but beautiful faces, even with their unusual golden eyes. Those were definitely the Sorrows, my family's greatest enemy since the days when my ancestor escaped Transylvania.
One man came a step closer to me. Everyone was sure to grant him enough
