Page 10 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

Three

ZEL

“ I t’s a washroom,” Zel said with no small level of disappointment. He hadn’t been certain what he expected, but given the intricacies of the key, something more magical than a place to relieve himself and wash up at the end of a long day.

“Every home needs such a space, does it not?” Ulrich said.

Zel’s old home had one, but only because he hadn’t been able to risk using a public bathhouse.

Otherwise, it was rare in smaller homes.

“Wait.” He looked back into the tower proper, then forward into the washroom again.

Both were equally spacious, which shouldn’t have been possible.

From outside, the tower looked no larger than the main room.

“Close the door, relock it, and give the key a half turn next,” Ulrich instructed.

The key was magic, Zel realized, and he hastened to do as told to see what the next room contained. Half a turn of the key, and he reopened the door to one of the largest rooms he had ever seen, filled to the brim with treasure.

“I hardly remember anymore what is in there.” Ulrich regarded the contents of the room as if he were looking upon something entirely benign.

“Anything important to me is on the shelf in the main area. If we are to wed, all that is mine will also be yours. You are free to remove anything you like from this room and claim it as your own.”

“Anything?” Zel almost dared not enter the magical space.

Everything he’d ever needed had been provided by his parents or the guild, and his wants were forced to be minimal.

The only item he had ever been able to keep from a mission was a silver cloak clasp, which Lothar had given him after his first kill.

The only other item of value he owned was the pendant from Rudy.

“I need none of it.” Ulrich gestured Zel inside. “Go. Pick out something as a betrothal gift for thus far proving worthy by following all of my instructions.”

Where was Zel to begin? There were mounds of gold and gemstones.

Overflowing chests, which themselves were jewel encrusted.

There were statues. Fine art. Armor. Weapons.

On one weapons rack was a dagger so lovely, it put Zel’s recently gifted dagger to shame, but he couldn’t very well choose a weapon as his first trinket.

Stepping inside the room, Zel turned to his right and saw a large open chest with piles of silks, other rich fabrics, and spun thread waiting to be made into bolts or as embroidery. Beside the chest was a walnut-colored loom.

“Is there something special about that loom, my lord?”

“You have a good eye,” Ulrich said. “That loom is one of my most useful treasures. There are different types of magical spinning wheels and tools for weaving cloth. Some can contain dangerous spells. Some can change the nature of what it creates. That loom, at the introduction of thread or even full fabrics can turn the materials into whatever manner of garment the user envisions.”

“I could… have that?”

“You needn’t even remove it from this room to call it yours. Should you wish to use it to turn any of the fabrics or spools of thread into garments, you can do so at your leisure.”

Zel stood in awe. His parents could never afford much for gifts. Rudy giving Zel the pendant had been a gamble. All treasure was guild property, unless Lothar deemed it otherwise, and magic in the hands of common folk was practically unheard of outside of elves, and most of them were enslaved.

“Your ensemble is lovely for our first meeting,” Ulrich said, not entering but leaning against the doorframe, seeming all the more magical for how the gemstones and fine metals glittered near him, reflecting off his periwinkle skin and twilight hair.

“It was my mother’s,” Zel said.

“It suits you. But what would you make, Zel, if you could create anything to wear?”

Zel had never been asked that. What would he have, what would he want if he could have anything?

He approached the loom and all the fabrics and materials for weaving beside it.

“I would have a simple dress, one lovely and colorful but all one piece, with no complicated bodice, and no need for corset or petticoat beneath. Instead, I would wear linen trunks like a man, or perhaps breeches.” Zel yanked his hand back from where he had set it upon the loom. Why had he said all that?

“Do not be startled,” Ulrich said. “If you touch the loom, it plucks from your mind what you truly desire, so you need only will its use. Let me show you your room next, and should you wish to return here to create a garment before dinner, you are welcome to.”

How dangerous to have admitted that Zel would prefer to wear clothing that was a mix of masculine and feminine, yet Ulrich seemed neither bothered nor suspicious to have heard so. “Thank you,” Zel said.

He exited the treasure room, relocked the door, and Ulrich told him to give the key a three-quarter turn this time.

When Zel looked into the next room, it was a spacious bedchamber, complete with canopied bed, wardrobe, chest, a desk of its own like the one in the main room, and a mirror on the wall with an intricately carved frame like the one in Zel’s parents’ bedroom, only this one was made of gold.

Even more miraculous was that Zel’s things that had been in his horse’s saddlebags were on the bed waiting for him. Zel raced over to check the contents, and all was accounted for.

“And the horse?” He looked back at Ulrich.

“Returned to your family with my gratitude.”

“Will they be able to attend our wedding?”

“Should we wed, they will be welcome to join in celebration the following day.”

Then Zel was on his own until his mission was complete, be that his wedding day or sooner if he learned Ulrich’s secrets.

He had not expected any help, but anything new he learned would aid him in forming his plan.

“I will leave you now to settle in until you are ready to join me.” Ulrich bowed his head and turned to go.

“My lord!” Zel called after him. “May I assume that a full turn of the key opens into your bedchamber?”

“It can.” Ulrich peered over his shoulder.

“A full turn can lead wherever I wish it to. Take your time, change if you desire, explore to your heart’s content, and please, catalog whether there is anything you require that I have not provided for you.

When you are ready, use the key with a full turn to find me. ”

He left and closed the door behind him.

The nervousness Zel had been able to hold at bay until now swept over him.

He was here. He was doing this. And at least so far it seemed as though Ulrich’s intentions were genuine.

He wanted a bride as payment for Zel’s parents’ trespassing, and he had given Zel everything he could want to ensure his comfort.

Zel, who was going to do everything in his power to slay the sorcerer before the month was over.

There would be no slaying tonight, so Zel unsheathed the dagger from beneath his skirts and hid it under his mattress.

He unpacked what little else he had into the chest and wardrobe, discovering that his cloak and furred surcoat had already been placed within the wardrobe on metal hooks.

He set his silver hairbrush on the nightstand between the bed and window.

There was a window here, just like the one that faced the heart of the kingdom.

Zel approached it to look out, and it faced the neighboring kingdom of Hallin.

Zel was certain a second window could not be seen from the outside and assumed that this one, in this magical room, was invisible to anyone who looked at it.

How wondrous; but as enchanting as the sorcerer had proven to be, Zel could not falter. His future, his life depended on it, as did the lives of his parents if forced to face Lothar’s wrath.

He would change, he decided, and removed his flowered crown before venturing back into the main chamber.

The sorcerer was not there. The room remained lit by candlelight and sconces, and Zel allowed himself a moment to look it all over, especially the original treasures that had tempted his parents.

Everything was immaculate, all expensive looking or ancient, like fanciful leather tomes tucked between strange trinkets that Zel dared not touch when he did not know their purpose.

He was surprised, even pleasantly so, to see some of his favorite collections of poems and bard tales among the sorcerer’s books.

Some were even quite modern for a being who had supposedly lived here for centuries.

Did that mean the sorcerer sometimes left the tower, or did he acquire such things from unwanted guests?

Zel spared a glance outside the window, wondering how far along the path through the wood his parents had gotten, and how surprised they would be when they returned home and found Zel’s horse waiting. He hoped Rudy would be well too, following in their wake.

He should dress for dinner and rejoin the sorcerer.

Ulrich , Zel reminded himself. It had never suited him to know the names of his victims, but in this case, he must use it.

He needed to charm Ulrich to better learn his secrets, his weaknesses, his undoing, without charming him so much as to be found out.

Would Ulrich go back on his promise to wait until they wed to bed him? If he grew too eager, the ruse would be over. Zel had to take this one moment at a time and always come out ahead as the true manipulator of what was to come.

He took the key and used it to return to the treasure room.

“ Y ou look lovely, Zel. Shall we dine?”

Zel had assumed—and hoped—that his full turn of the key would not yet bring him into Ulrich’s bedchamber. If it had, he worried his seduction might take a dangerous turn too soon, but his guess was right, and instead, the door opened to reveal a stately dining hall fit for the Queen herself.