Amicia touched a foot to the ice and paused when the entire lake heaved a gurgle of protest. The ice was only recently frozen. Though it had been a cold fall, she still wasn’t certain the lake was solid.
But, she was so close to warmth. She could almost feel a fire crackling at her side and her toes finding feeling once more.
There hadn’t been a road to the chateau. Only the great lake circling it. The mere idea of having to trek around the entire chateau to double check was enough to make her body tremble. She couldn’t manage that. It wasn’t possible for her to continue on much longer. If she risked walking around the chateau, then she would find herself face down in a snowbank and that would be the end of her.
She placed her other foot on the ice and tried to disperse her weight. Amicia had once seen a man fall through a pond in Little Marsh. He’d been playing with his friends, jokingly trying to run across the not quite frozen water.
The man had fallen in four steps away from the land, but it was still too far for him to find his way back easily. He’d laid across the ice and crawled his way back once he’d pulled himself out of the frigid water.
Of course, the pond had been much smaller than the lake she now struggled to cross. If she fell through in the middle of this lake, then she wasn’t getting back out. Her skirts weighed enough to drag her to the bottom.
Amicia shifted the torch lower, staring down at the ice to guess its thickness. White bubbles had lifted and frozen in place, giving the entire lake a spotted texture. She wasn’t sure why the snow wasn’t sticking to the surface. The white flakes blew across the ice until it resembled a mirror.
Every step felt as though it would be her last. Every time she moved, the lake seemed to as well. Amicia paused each time, exhaled long and slow, then continued forward.
It might have been hours to cross the lake, or only a few moments. However long it took, she found herself with her feet touching land.
The muscles in her legs loosened in relief, sending her down onto one knee for a moment. She pressed her fist into the cold ground. Would she ever catch her breath again? She heaved gulp after gulp of the frigid air until her lungs ached.
You made it, she thought. Now get back on your feet and continue.
She shoved herself to standing and shuffled forward. This close, the chateau appeared even larger. It loomed over her like the peak of a mountain, dark and ominous.
From across the lake, it had seemed only a forgotten lord with a handful of servants might inhabit such a place. Now, staring up at the broken windows and aging pillars, Amicia wasn’t so certain there would be anyone within the walls at all. Perhaps the Dread had already done their work here.
Some inner voice whispered she was in danger, and she hesitated. Shards of broken glass littered the ground, not ice. Vines and branches poked through windows where plants were growing within the walls.
No one had been in this chateau for years, it appeared. This place had long been abandoned.
The question was why? Who would leave such an opulent home to rot? Or had they?
A bitter wind blasted through her clothing, sending goosebumps across her flesh. But this time, she didn’t feel the cold. Not at all. Instead, all she felt was a numbness that frightened her more than the Dread.
There was no choice. She had to go inside this forgotten chateau.
Amicia circled the building, looking for a side entrance that servants might have used. That seemed far safer than waltzing in through the front door. Although it looked abandoned, she didn’t know what creatures had made this place their home.
A small door on the side of the building had been left open. Perhaps in their attempts to escape? Amicia imagined the Dread attacking a building like this. How they would have destroyed the windows, torn up the beautiful artwork within the walls of this place. They would have turned something so lovely and beautiful into nothing more than rubble.
She placed a hand on the open door. Three deep grooves marred the mahogany wood, nearly from top to bottom. Her fingers didn’t even reach between the expanse of them. Whatever had made such a mark was a great beast indeed.
Her stomach twisted. She should go. She should leave this haunted place, but there was nowhere else to go.
“Strength,” she muttered to herself. “What would Father say? Be strong, because there is no one else to be strong for you.”
Repeating the words and hearing them in her own voice, not her father’s, only made her remember just how alone she was.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she dashed them away. She had little time for emotions like this. First, she needed to find herself a safe place to rest her head.
Holding the torch higher, she stepped into the abandoned chateau.
This was the servants’ quarters, and the door led into the largest kitchen she had ever seen in her life, although it had been a hollow shell for many years. The blackened remains of food littered a large table that could have seated twenty people in the center of the room. One wall was lined with so many stoves she couldn’t imagine how much they might have cooked at once. The other wall was lined with pots and pans, each with a thick layer of grime.
Despite the clear neglect and age, this place was still beautiful. The table’s gilded legs might have shone if she polished well enough. Each stove was carved with a story, although she was too tired to figure out what they were. A fairytale, perhaps? She couldn’t hazard a guess. None of the depictions were familiar.
The kitchens were a fine place to sleep for the night. She could even check to see if there was charcoal or wood left in the stoves. But she wanted to know what this chateau was. If the floors of the kitchen were made of the finest marble, what did the rest look like?
Curiosity sang in her ears like the ringing of bells. Her father used to tell her stories about chateaux such as this place. He’d claimed they were a haven for tinkers. Secret doors. Hidden switches. Passages that led all throughout the castles so servants would never be seen by nobility.
She wondered if any such secrets were hidden within these walls.
She made her way through the kitchen, then pressed a hand against the door leading out. Her own curiosity was getting the better of her, but she still closed a hand on the doorknob. Anyone could live in this chateau. Even the Dread might have taken it over, although she couldn’t imagine the creatures living in such a beautiful place.
Amicia turned the doorknob and opened the door. She stepped out of the servants’ quarters and into a long hallway that took her breath away.
The ceiling was hand painted with scenes of knights on noble steeds, their hunting dogs racing away ahead of them after a white hart. Each painting was more detailed than the last, stretching so far down the hallway that she couldn’t even see the end of the murals.
Chandeliers larger than she was tall hung from the ceiling. Delicate pieces of glass shifted in the wind coming through the broken windows, creating a clinking music that danced through the hall. On the walls, gold braziers hung just above white marble statues of the most beautiful people she’d ever seen in her life. The closest was a woman wrapped in a robe, one breast bare. Her face looked as though she had been frozen in a moment of time, for no artist could carve a face that perfect.
Holding up her torch, Amicia stepped down the hall. Her boots crunched broken glass shards everywhere she went, but she ignored the danger. Instead, she allowed her eyes to feast on the sights before her. She couldn’t get enough, drunk on the artwork, the beauty, and the splendor she would likely never see again in her lifetime.