The Girls of Ohmer Chapter 18 Emelia breaks bad

The Girls of Ohmer Chapter 18
Emelia breaks bad

Hilario was amusing the girls with stories of being a boy in the jungle when tom stepped into the sleeping quarters.

"I thought I told everyone to get some rest." Tom said as he swayed from the influence of the mango brandy. He raised a finger and pointed at Hilario. "You must be an adult and take control of the sitch e ay shun!"  Tom staggered back a step and sat down, missing a bench and landing hard on the floor. He howled in surprised pain as he rubbed his backside, then rolled onto a thick rug and fell right to sleep, snoring loudly.

Hilario stood shaking his head while Erika and Vay giggled. Bear Dog continued to stay in canine form. Erika had begun to worry that she would stay that way forever . The dog was nice but a little sister was so much better.

Hilario lifted  Tom and placed him on one of the many cushions that were arranged around the floor." Here you go my friend." He said as he arranged a pillow under the snoring mans head.

Tom snored loud enough to wake himself, rolled over and went right back to sleep, luckily for the rest of the group he was more or less quiet for the rest of the night.

Hilario looked at the girls. They were yawning as they looked at them expectantly. "Is there something you need?" He asked Erika.

She looked at him through tired eyes that could barely stay open. "Tell us the story about the monkey and the lizard again." She pleaded.

"No girley girl,  it is time for us all to sleep. Now lay down with your sister and close your eyes." As Erika complied, Hilario pulled a blanket off of a nearby shelf and laid it over them. Vay was already drifting off to sleep and Erika was not far behind. Hilario admired the girls, they reminded him of his little sister Bienta. At the thought of her he began to feel sad. She was a slave somewhere and he should be helping her. Instead he was mixed up in this outlander business. He could not however leave these little ones to their fate. He would see this through and then enlist the help of his new friends to save his own family.

Hilario laid down on another cushion, and drifted off  to sleep, wondering where Nina was and if she was alright.

++++++++

Bill Brace usually frowned everywhere he went. So much so that when he arrived at the dungeon, the guard asked if he was alright.

"Why would you ask such a question?" Bill replied.

"Because you're smilin." The guard answered. "I've never seen that before. I didn't think you could." The guard smiled back at Bill. "It's good to see you in better spirits."

Bill stopped smiling and glared at the guard. "Are you being pert with me? Wipe that grin off of your stupid face before I make you regret waking up this morning!"

The guard snapped to attention." Yes overseer, pardon me sir."

Bill squared his shoulders. That was more like it. There was no room for familiarity with the guards, it was disrespectful. He motioned for the guard to unlock the door and stepped through without another word.

He was lost in thought as he walked the dim corridor to the torture chamber where he would subject Emelia to her morning session. "It's because of Nina." He mumbled to himself.

Just saying her name fluttered his insides. He felt like a young man swooning over the lovely lass in the holding wing. He was captivated. He was enraptured. He could not get her off his mind. Even when he was able to sleep he dreamed of her. Every waking moment was spent daydreaming about her lovely eyes, her smooth skin, her soft brown hair.

He had imagined taking her on a picnic in the meadow south of the mountain pass. He had imagined how she would blush and then ecstatically accept when he ask her to marry him. He imagined their wedding and the cottage he would build for her. He would quit this dirty business and become a blacksmith or a farmer. He would bring her flowers in the evening and she would cook his dinner they would...

A voice interrupted his thoughts. Bill stared not comprehending at first.

"Sir are you alright?" The second guard he'd met asked.

Bill was standing in front of the torture chamber door staring at nothing and grinning like the village idiot. "Wha, huh, Ahem." He gathered his composure and eyed the guard. " Well! Open the damned door already lets get started!"

His heart wasn't in it. They strapped the wet nurse to the to the torture rack but she seemed different today. She wasn't pleading of fearful, she was smiling. That combined with the distraction if knowing Nina was just a scant two minute walk away, discouraged him from continuing. He just wanted to get the feeding started so he could go see Nina. Just her name made his heart skip a beat. He longed to see her again, to hear her voice. Oh to kiss those perfect soft lips...

The Overseer straightened, trying to snap out of this perplexing mood. He looked at Emelia stretched out and smiling at him, he looked at the hot irons smoldering in the glowing coals. He looked at the guard and said. "Todays torture will be her knowledge that tomorrows will be tripled. Let her down and take her to the feeding chamber."

Emelias smile was replaced with a grin as the overseer, love struck Bill Brace, turned and walked out if the room. She knew there would be no torture tomorrow or ever again.

++++++++

Nina heard movement in the hallway. She stood and walked to the door to peer out the hatch. She was a picture of stunning beauty, her lips full and soft, her cheeks slightly blushed, her hair framed her beautiful face perfectly. But those eyes were the key to any mans heart. Golden orbs that mesmerized and sparkled. One could be lost in those deep pools and never care to return.

In the corridor, a guard was leading Emilia to the feeding room. Only today she was not being dragged by her hair or kicked along in front of him. The guard walked slightly ahead and to the side of her. When he got to the door he didn't even look on Ninas direction. He unlocked the door and held it open as Emelia entered the room. She was not hobbling or limping. There was a certain regal assurance to her gait. She glanced at Nina with black eyes before turning into the room without acknowledging her.

Nina shivered despite herself. The woman across the hall was not the same at all, she was obviously basking in the dark power she had discovered. Nina felt a new urgency to get the baby as soon as possible. Emelia, in this state, would be a formidable opponent should the need to confront her arise. Nina breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the guard lock the door across the hall and walk away.

Moments later Nina heard whistling from down the corridor, followed by footsteps. The whistling  continued low and melodic. Was that ...yes it was, It was the gruff overseer whistling an old tune about endless love. Nina recognized it from when she had sung the song as a girl
She grinned, this was going to be easier than she thought.

When the overseer approached her section of the hallway, he did not go directly to the door across the hall as usual. Instead he turned to peek into Ninas quarters instead. He stopped suddenly and a wide smile spread across his face as he realized Nina was right there in front of him, only a stout door separating them, and he had the key.

"Uh, my lady," he stammered " I was looking forward to seeing you today." He shuffled back and fourth absently holding the swaddled baby in his arms. "I was thinking of paying you a visit after I take this baby to be fed."

Nina pushed power out toward him as she batted her eyes. "Oh sweetie, I adore children! Why don't you bring the little one in with you. He looks sleepy anyhow. You could set him on the bed while we get more acquainted." Between the sultry lilt to her voice and the tendrils of power wrapping themselves around his ego, the man was lost.

"Be careful darling" she warned in a cooing voice. "Don't drop him."

"Oh I Wouldn't do that my lady." He said, pulling the bundle close.

"Oh silly, call me Nina." She smiled and tilted her head ever so slightly as he reached for the keys in his pocket. She continued in a more secretive tone, "Although I could be your lady if it pleases you."

Bill Blade Blushed. The keys rattled in his hand as he tried to single out the correct one without dropping the baby. Behind him, unnoticed by Nina or Bill, dark tentacles of magic like wispy hairs of smoke, lingered through cracks in the door. They reached toward the overseer just as he was saying, "You can call me Bill."

Bill had just a fraction of a second to realize the alarm in Ninas eyes as he looked up into them.  Nina was too late in seeing the stringy smoke of black magic that wound it's way around his throat. Bill gasped and dropped the keys. He reached one handed to try to loosen the band of pain that was ever-tightening around his neck.

Nina screamed as she saw the face of Emelia framed in the open hatch of the door across the hall. Emelias eyes were black as pitch,  her grin was insidious. She started screeching at the overseer, berating and cajoling him. All the while sending more deadly tendrils to wrap him tight and strangle him. "We'll see who's smiling now!" She screamed.

Nina begged "please don't hurt the baby." She stared in horror as the black tendrils coalesced into a thick rope of hate and slowly lifted the overseer as if lynching him.

Other tendrils reached out and swaddled the child in darkness, pulling him out of Bills grasp and setting him aside on the floor of the corridor.

Emelia laughed."Stupid woman! You think I would harm my own child? I'm protecting him from this mad man!" She looked crazed as she twisted the dark power around him. His helpless body flailed,  he struggled to breathe but before he could pass out the black noose relaxed.

Bill gasped, drawing in fresh air. Instead of begging for his life, he twisted his head to gaze at Nina. " Oh my sweet," he gasped "If only it could have lasted longer." His yearning gaze made Nina pity him at that moment.

Emelia, was enraged by the fact that her torture of him was spoiled by his rapture with Nina. The tendrils of smoke cinched tight around his body. Then dragged him screaming through the small hatch in her door. He was sliced into strips from the feet up as he was dragged through the bladed bars. Bills screams echoed down the hall almost drowning out the snapping and crunching of bones as his body compressed to fit through the hatch. The whole episode ended with a sickening splat of dead flesh on the floor behind the door.

The door was then wrapped in the same black tendrils and crushed in on itself. Iron bands snapped as it was wrenched from its hinges and compressed into a single rod of composite wood and iron woven together by hate. The rod clanged to the floor,  seemingly weighing much more than it appeared.

Nina saw the horror of what remained of the overseer. Strips of flesh and torn clothes piled unceremoniously in a splatter of gore. She shut her eyes to avoid the sight when black tentacles shot forward and grabbed her head.

Nina pushed hard against the door as Emelia pulled with her tainted magic, trying to drag Nina head first through the bladed bars on her own door.

As much as she detested the darkness of that magic that she commanded, Nina dipped into it, knowing it was her only choice as the blades started slicing into her face.

In an instant Nina let loose a blast of hate, shattering the door and sending splinters of
wood and metal at Emelia. Ninas face was lined with five deep cuts, her nose split in two, but she was alive.

Emelia countered by blocking the shards of debris and forming a spear with her power. The black point struck forward like a viper directly toward Ninas heart.

Nina countered by wrapping her own power around the tip of the spear holding it in place for just an instant as she focused all of her will. That combined with Emelias unrestrained power, was directed on the trap inside her that held the light magic, Ninas true power, out of her reach.

It was a gamble, but it paid off in that the invisible shield shattered. Nina was filled with the power of light and love. She basked in the sun of a thousand days, relishing the return of her true power. The shock of it was ecstasy!

Nina opened her eyes and they glowed gold in the midst of the black smoke that surrounded her. She sent a rush of power out from her core to clear the air.

Nina squinted through the blood that obscured her vision. Emelia was no where to be seen, but the baby was safe and sound on the floor in the hall. Nina stepped forward to retrieve her grandson when a dense rod of wood woven with metal flashed in her vision a moment too late to be avoided.

The rod connected with her forehead, knocking Nina senseless as she pinwheeled back into her chamber. She lay on the floor motionless. Blood pooling around her head.