Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

M alissa spun to face the sound, raising her black gown to cover her naked front.

She half expected to see a pair of guards standing in the doorway, come to stop her from escaping. Or perhaps Dr. Jaeger, come to silence her before she could reveal his disloyalty to the king.

What she saw, however, was the king himself.

Wulfgang stood in the doorway, breathing heavily from his climb up the stairs. He had a candelabra clutched in one hand, and the flames lit his face from below with an eerie, orange glow. Somehow, he looked even worse than he had an hour before. His white hair stuck out at wild angles from beneath the rim of his crown, and his eyes were bloodshot and crazed. Malissa could smell the wine on his breath from across the room.

"My wife," he slurred. "My faithful wife…"

He stumbled toward her, and Malissa tried to back away, but she soon found herself cornered, with the bed on one side of her and the bedside table on the other. Wulfgang leered at her drunkenly.

"My lovely Indira, why do you hide yourself from me so?"

"Malissa."

"Eh?"

"My name is Malissa."

"Ah, yes. Of course, of course…"

He clumsily set his candelabra onto the table beside her, nearly scorching her bare arm in the process. He smelled as if he were sweating pure wine. Malissa desperately wanted to get away from him, but at the same time she didn't wish to raise his suspicions. In his drunken state, Wulfgang had not seemed to notice that the gown she was clutching to her body was not the same one she had worn to the feast.

"Let me look at you," he said. "Let me look upon our child."

Not yours , Malissa thought.

The idea was even more repulsive to her than the sour stench of his wine-laced breath. She kept her black gown clutched tightly in front of her, and Wulfgang's features twisted with drunken frustration.

"Let me see! "

He grabbed Malissa's gown, and with surprising strength he ripped it out of her hands, leaving the front of her body exposed to the candlelight and his wild, bloodshot eyes.

"Wulfgang, please! " Malissa gasped.

She wanted to cry for help, but she knew it would be useless. What would the guards do? Stop the king from having his way with his bride? Of course not. Besides, her immediate goal was to get out of the castle, and it was going to be a lot harder to do that with a bunch of damned guards standing around.

She covered her naked breasts with her hands, but the king wasn't looking there. His eyes were on her belly. Although she was only in the third month of her pregnancy, she looked as if she were approaching her sixth.

"My heir," the king said greedily. "My heir."

He swept his bony fingers across Malissa's skin. She wanted to swat his hands away, but she thought better of it. Doing so would only anger the man, and delay her escape. After a moment, he lifted his eyes from her belly and gazed into her face with a look that made her recoil in disgust.

"My lovely Artemesia," he said. "I knew your fertile body would give me an heir."

He slid his hands over her own, which were still covering her breasts.

"Lie down," he said. "I want to have you."

Malissa went cold.

"There's no need for that," she said. "I'm already pregnant."

Wulfgang grinned.

"Come now, is that any way for a wife to welcome her husband after his triumphant return? I've missed your company these past months, and the sight of your fertile body has me excited."

"But—"

"I said, lie down! "

He shoved her hard, and she fell back onto the bed.

"Be careful!" she cried. "The baby!"

Wulfgang was already on top of her, trapping her beneath him. His body was light, but his muscles had a wiry strength.

"The baby is fine," he said. "He's strong, just like his father. Don't worry, my lovely Elora. I will breed you gently. Now lie still."

"What about your wound?" Malissa said. "I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Only a scratch, my dear. As you can see, it has done nothing to diminish my ardor for you."

He settled himself between her thighs, and indeed, she could feel the stiffness of his arousal pressing against her bare sex. A sick feeling took hold of her stomach and twisted. He brought his face very close to hers, and she thought he was going to kiss her, but instead he whispered to her, assaulting her senses with his foul breath.

"Do you want to know a little secret?" he said, giggling. "There never was any wound. That was only a ruse. As soon as I saw the demon who serves the queen of Galadon, I knew our army would never stand a chance against that fell beast. But here within the walls of Drachenval, I will be safe… and so will my child."

He's not yours! Malissa wanted to scream.

But she held her tongue.

Wulfgang shifted his weight off of her and started to remove his clothes.

Now's my chance , Malissa thought.

Her eyes went to the candelabra on the bedside table. It was made of pewter, heavy enough to serve as a bludgeon… and it was within reach.

But she hesitated.

What if it didn't work? What if she failed to knock the king unconscious? Worse, what if she did? She wouldn't be able to let him live after that. She would have to beat him to death, and she wasn't sure she could do that. There were too many ways for it to go wrong. Too many ways her child might get hurt. Too many ways her escape could be foiled. She turned her face away from the candelabra and shut her eyes.

She would just have to endure it. She had done it before, she could do it again. She would do it for her child's sake.

One last time, then she would be free forever.

There was a rustle of fabric as Wulfgang pulled down his breeches and hose, then a soft curse. Malissa assumed that, in his drunkenness, the man was having difficulty removing his clothes. Then he cursed a second time, and she looked.

The stiffness she had felt earlier had not been the king's arousal. It had been his codpiece, which was now shoved down around his withered thighs, along with his silken breeches and colorful hosiery. His actual manhood, if one could even call it such, dangled between his legs, soft and limp as a dead worm. It was a repulsive sight, but it filled Malissa's heart with joy.

"Too much damned wine," the king grumbled.

He reached down and jiggled his flaccid member, but to no avail. It would not be waking up any time soon.

"Too much…"

He slumped facedown on the mattress next to Malissa and began to snore. She watched him for a moment, just to make sure he was really asleep, then she carefully rolled away from him and climbed down from the bed.

Thank the Creator , she thought, Or whoever .

Holding her hands over her belly, Malissa carefully padded across the room to the door, which was still standing wide open following Wulfgang's noisy entrance a few minutes before. She peered out into the corridor beyond. It was empty. Good. She quietly shut the door and latched it. Then she returned to the bed.

The king was lying on top of her black gown. Her good-luck gown. She could try to tug it out from beneath him, but if she did that, there was a chance she would awaken him. Not worth it.

Malissa went to the wardrobe and took out a different gown, a midnight blue one that would blend into the shadows nearly as well as the black. Once she was dressed, she went back to the side of the bed and stood over her sleeping husband. It was funny to think of him as such. He meant nothing to her. Nothing at all. She belonged to the demon now, body and soul.

She slid her wedding ring off her finger and placed it quietly on the bedside table.

"Goodnight, Wulfgang," she whispered. "And farewell."

Then she blew out the candles.