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“Please, tell me, where is my family? Are they safe? Can I see them?”

Ilona ignored my queries and motioned to the gypsy girls. “Help her. ”

I was forced up out of the chair and made to walk between them. I shuddered with each step. They led me down long narrow corridors and down the steep staircase to the main hall below. Tears fell down my cheeks throughout the journey. I strained to see into every room we passed, but I never caught a glimpse of my family.

They led me through the doors into the dining room.

On the table a full meal was laid out. The food looked and smelled so delicious; I actually felt hunger until my gaze was drawn across the table.

“No! No! No!” I fell to the floor. “Father! Father! Oh, God, Father! No!”

At the foot of the table, impaled on a huge golden ten-foot stake, was my beloved father. His face was frozen in a scream of terror and pain, his eyes bulging out, his mouth stretched wide in his death cry. His skin was a ghastly shade of blue and his body seemed shrunken, a mere husk of the man he had been.

“Take him down from there! Oh, please, take him down! It is hurting him!”

I was incoherent, overcome with grief and horror. I ripped at my hair with my hands as I rocked on the floor.

“It cannot hurt him. He is dead,” Ilona said.

“No! No! Please! Please!”

Ilona walked slowly down to the end of the table and gestured to a gold goblet on the table. “The Prince has offered you a choice. Would you like this or the meal we prepared for you?

I could not take my eyes from the form of my father hanging on that stake. I could not even begin to understand Ilona’s words.

Ilona picked up the goblet from the table. Approaching me, she offered it me. “Drink this. Restore the life that was taken from you. ”

I stared into the goblet and the dark, thick liqui

d within.

Blood!

I gagged and slapped it out of her hand. It spilled all over her gown, but the gypsy did not flinch.

“I see you are strong. Your rebirth will not be tonight, but it will be soon. You will fight it. I see it. You will not go peacefully into the grave to rise once more. ” Ilona took a deep breath, then gestured to several men. “Take her to her sister as the Master ordered. ”

“May! Where is she?”

This time I tried to walk as they led me up a series of staircases and down a long corridor before a door was opened for me. I was gruffly pushed into the room and the door slammed shut behind me.

“May! Where are you?”

“Glynis!” May crawled out from behind one of the huge, long trunks that were stored in the small room. “Oh, Glynis!”

I embraced her and tried hard not to cry out in pain as my slender little sister clung to me. I rocked her gently in my arms and kissed her forehead. Her pale face was smudged with dirt, and her fair hair was a tangled mess. She had been weeping, her eyes swollen.

“Oh, Glynis, I was so scared! After they brought us into the horrible place, I fainted. I don’t know where father and mother are! I woke up here alone! I am so frightened. ”

“I’m here now, May,” I said. I was so relieved that May had not endured the horror I had. “I am here now and I am going to try and protect you. ” I could not bear to tell her what I had seen in the dining room. I simply could not.

“I hate that horrible Prince! He’s evil, Glynis! Truly evil!”

Slowly, the two of us sank to the floor and held each other tightly. We were both crying, trying in vain to comfort each other.

After a long while, we sank into silence as we huddled together. Sleep came to us, and we both fell into light, fitful slumber.

I wakened abruptly, and my movement drew May from her dreams.