The Bride of the Immortal (2 page)

Some of the candidates behind her were giggling, making improper remarks and drawing the attention of Mrs Enderby to them. Mairin could only imagine that the man’s impressive and slightly devilish appearance together with the aloof expression on his face were cause for the girls’ fascination, but standing so close to the source of the disturbance she was sincerely hoping they would stop before inducing one of the head teacher’s notorious punishments. Even as Mrs Enderby frowned upon them, they continued to foment trouble and when a maid was sent towards them, Mairin anxiously pushed forward. It was one of the few occasions on which it paid off to be younger, smaller and less significant than the rest. Unlike before, her endeavour turned out successful and she managed to slip past several girls without further complications, getting closer to the pedestal than she had dared to hope.

While the head teacher had difficulties keeping the young candidates in rein, the demonic looking servant seemed to observe the excited crowd of girls without taking much notice of their immature behaviour. From time to time he halted, probably focusing on a certain lovely being and after a short while he simply closed his dark eyes.

Curiously Mairin inspected the faces of the girls around her to see their reaction to his peculiar behaviour. None of them seemed worried about it and safe from being discovered, blatantly stared at the stranger without a sign of reservation.

“You!”

Mairin flinched. The immortal’s servant had opened his eyes again and pointed into her direction.

“Come to me.”

Despite his command nobody moved.

The man’s face darkened as quickly as the sky before a summer storm and an alarmed Mrs Enderby started rushing towards her.

“Silly child!” she whispered and grabbed the arm of a blond girl who was standing in the front row. “Get moving!”

Petrified Mairin watched the angelic creature walk towards the servant as gracefully as it was possible, being dragged by the corpulent woman. Seeing such beauty, she felt silly for even having flinched.

 “No, no, no... not her!”

The immortal’s servant disapprovingly shook his head.

At first Mairin sympathised with the girl who had been about to curtsy, but then entirely different thoughts came to her mind. The person he had chosen, had to be standing in the same line as her or in one close to it. Apparently other girls shared her idea and while some puzzled over who it could be, others weren’t willing to admit defeat.

“It must be me!” one of them called out.

“He clearly pointed at
me
,” another one corrected her.

Mairin didn’t know what they thought to achieve by doing so but being pushed and pulled there was no time for reasoning. From one second to the next, being so close to the pedestal had turned into a disadvantage. Frightened and desperately looking out for help, she covered her head with her hands to prevent an attacker from tearing at her hair. Mrs Enderby was bewildered, unbelievingly watching the ridiculous scene while the maids vainly turned towards her for instructions. Not long ago Mairin had thought of the girls like princesses but it had only taken so little to turn a lot of them into frilly armoured amazons.

Scared to earn additional bruises and even more to ruin her Sunday dress, she didn’t offer much resistance as she was pushed away from the pedestal, where the headmistress was standing, furiously signalling Mrs Enderby to intervene.

Unexpectedly someone else decided to call a halt to the spectacle.

“Have you all gone mad?” The servant had leapt up from his seat and ignoring the stairs effortlessly descended the pedestal at its front.

The quarrelling stopped immediately and the devilish looking man self-confidently walked into the crowd. Since the beginning of the commotion, several girls had gotten between Mairin and the pedestal, especially those, who were unlike her, keen on getting close to the servant, and Mairin curiously looked out for someone even prettier than the blond fairy-tale princess Mrs Enderby had thought to be chosen. While there were a few candidates who caught Mairin’s eye, none of them could match the girl’s beauty. Bearing mixed feelings Mairin watched the approach of the scowling man who to her astonishment continued to walk past the candidates as if they weren’t more than pretty flowers on the meadow he had decided to cross.

Suddenly she felt a push in her back. A girl had helplessly stumbled into her, sweeping her along. Mairin stepped on the hem of her dress and could already see herself face-down on the floor, yet the next moment the servant was at her side and quickly grabbed her arm, only barely preventing her fall.

“Careful,” he said.

Mairin hadn’t been the sole beneficiary of his actions and she was wondering if his words had been directed towards her or the unfortunate candidate, who, saved from tumbling, apologised and quickly vanished into the crowd. Recognising the girl she had met earlier in the hallway when she had tried to evade Mrs Enderby, she could guess whom she had to give credit for the incident.

The servant’s actions hadn’t remained unnoticed and once it was clear that his intention hadn’t merely been to help, it was only a matter of seconds before the silent murmuring of displeased girls and parents had grown into a chorus of outrage. Mrs Enderby finally recovered from the shock and rushed over to them, only halfway remembering to release the blond angel she had been dragging along. Hastily she led the both of them to the nearest exit.

“Such an astonishing choice,” the head teacher muttered to herself and continued vociferously, “What fine judgement you have! She must be a diamond in the rough.”

If it hadn’t been for the strong grip of the immortal’s servant, Mairin would’ve thought to be dreaming. To her it was just as impossible that she had been chosen, as it was that Mrs Enderby had found anything good to say about her.

“Well, perhaps not a
diamond
…” the elderly woman murmured in puzzlement, returning at least a fraction of reality to Mairin.

The headmistress’ voice sounded through the hall, drowning out even the threatening turmoil. Looking back over her shoulder, Mairin could see that the staff of Sunflower Garden was following her instructions and forming a wall to protect them.

Much to her regret, there was nobody to protect her from the immortal’s servant, who ruthlessly dragged her out into the corridor.

Mairin’s arm hurt. The immortal’s servant hadn’t loosened his grip until they had finally reached Mrs Enderby’s private quarters and she had been ungently forced down on one of the chairs. She wasn’t impressed by the rough manner she had been treated with and sullenly rubbed her wrist to make the pain go away.

“Are you listening to me?”

Mairin nodded even though it wasn’t entirely true. She had been busy with recovering from the shock and her efforts to pay attention had turned out to be less successful than her decision to avoid the servant’s frightening gaze. Instead of listening to the man who was revealing her future to her, Mairin kept her eyes busy, inspecting Mrs Enderby’s usually well-guarded office.

Three large windows in the back made it possible for the room to be flooded with sunlight. Mairin was amazed by the neatness and cleanliness of the Spartan study. Even the simplistic portrait on the wall behind the immortal’s servant showing three young ladies seemed to be exactly centred. Besides the impressive wooden desk, the painting and the three armchairs they were sitting in, there was only a large vase in one corner of the room, harbouring a lonely sunflower.

“He inquired after your name, girl!”

Mrs Enderby’s voice managed to draw Mairin’s attention.

“M-Mairin, Sir,” she mumbled and chanced a look at his face.

The demon cleared his throat.

“Alright then, Mairin. I will pick you up in a fortnight. After that you will be living with the immortal and if it is his wish you shall become his wife. From the moment you are entering your new home you won’t be allowed to get in contact with anyone who hasn’t been approved by the master. Your family will be well compensated but you won’t ever be able to see them again. Do you understand?”

Mairin slowly nodded. After all, this was what her sister Renga had hoped for. Her family wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore and maybe Mairin would be able to receive a proper education. There was no reason for the lump in her throat.

The servant removed a sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his suit and unfolded it in front of her on the table.

“Sign it,” he requested.

“Sign?” Mairin inclined her head to one side.

“Write your name there,” the servant said and drew an X next to a line at the bottom of the document before offering his writing instrument to her.

Mairin took the strange object from his hands, wondering how he had been able to produce the cross with it, and nervously moved it to the marked spot.

“You know how to write your name, right?” the servant asked quietly.

Mairin blushed and hastily nodded.

“Here?” she asked unconfidently.

“Mhm.”

Her hand was trembling. Perhaps it was due to the man’s harsh treatment and the precarious situation in the hall. Mairin attempted to read what was written on the paper but the letters were misbehaving and no matter how hard she tried to force them to make sense, they didn’t want to yield.

“What- What am I signing this for?” she asked hesitantly.

“By signing, you confirm that I explained to you the conditions of becoming the immortal’s bride.”

Mairin cast a look at Mrs Enderby who nodded approvingly.

Slowly she put the tip down on the sheet and started to draw the multitude of lines that amounted to her name.

Mairin –
she was merely half done and even though only a few letters had appeared on the paper written in a shaky hand, it seemed to her that she had filled several pages.

Mairin Muriel
.

Upon finishing the final loop of the letter L she cast out a deep sigh.

When had writing her name become this difficult?

“Are you alright, girl?” Mrs Enderby sounded unusually worried.

 “Mhm,” she managed to lie.

Tiny black clouds started floating in front of her eyes and soon the room, once flooded with sunlight, turned into a pool of darkness.

Mairin was soaked with sweat. She had regained her consciousness slowly, yet she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she had been violently brought back to her senses. The body she had always been able to trust in, was weakly quivering as she wiped watery pearls off her cheeks. It took a moment for her to realise that someone had to have carried her all the way to the dorm room and put her to bed. Frightened to find out that the immortal’s servant was still close, she pulled the blanket further up over her nose to muffle her sniffing and dried her eyes to improve her blurry sight. Carefully she looked about the room and only when she could be certain that nobody was about, she slowly got up on her elbows.

It was impossible for her to tell how much time had passed since she had lost her consciousness but considering that the room wasn’t completely dark despite most of the curtains being drawn and that none of her roommates were in sight, it couldn’t be past bedtime yet.

With some effort Mairin managed to drag herself out of bed. The floor was uncomfortably cold under her bare feet and her drenched nightgown stuck to her body quite unpleasantly. Mairin retreated to the foot of her bed and started to search for a shawl. Kneeling on the mattress she rummaged around in the clothes that were piled up on top of the trunk close to it. Most of them had been carelessly cast aside by the other girls in her room and it took a while until she was able to produce her own warm shawl. With a self-content smile she put the find around her shoulders and mentally prepared herself for treading on the stone cold floor. Whoever had changed her clothes obviously hadn’t been thoughtful enough to leave a pair of slippers.

Aware that the cold should be the least of her worries, Mairin finally got on her feet and weakly tiptoed towards the door of the dorm room. The closer she got the more certain she became of being able to make out the voices of a man and a woman talking to each other. Carefully she sneaked to the only exit and paused to listen. If Mrs Enderby and the immortal’s servant were close, it was possible that she would overhear something important.