Ginny and the Vagrant

Green returned to Wilson Castle and, after several days away, stepped back into his familiar room. But a heavy gloom hung over the entire castle.

Something had happened yesterday, not long after Green left. It began that morning...

Ginny Will was a senior maid at Wilson Castle who oversaw its kitchen. That day, she took two sturdy male servants to a farm outside the city to buy food.

With the Eerie causing so much trouble lately, and the Tower of Yin Spirits adding to it, fear had gripped Landon City and its markets had fallen quiet. For safety, Wilson Castle no longer bought food at the market. Instead, its servants went straight to farms outside the city.

Ginny Will was capable and brisk. The shopping went smoothly until, on their way back, a ragged vagrant suddenly rushed out of an alley at an intersection.

Vagrants like him were common in Landon City. Most were ruined farmers who had lost their land and could no longer survive on it. Forced into the city to make a living, they had no trade to fall back on and ended up begging. This one moved quickly, his eyes clouded as though he were sleepwalking. He paid no attention to carriages or pedestrians. The Wilson Family's Coachman was used to throwing his weight around. When he saw someone rush out, he made no attempt to dodge, certain no one would dare collide with the Wilson Family's carriage.

The result was inevitable. Neither gave way, and they slammed into each other. The horse whinnied, but the seasoned Coachman hauled hard on the reins and stopped the carriage in the middle of the road.

Ginny Will lurched in the rear of the carriage and nearly fell face-first into a basket of potatoes. Getting a noseful of dirt for no reason left her irritated. "What happened? Can't you drive properly?"

"Eldest Sister Ginny, he rushed out so suddenly I didn't have time to dodge," the Coachman explained, aggrieved. He glared at the vagrant sprawled on the ground, then froze. Blood was running from the man's nose and mouth, his limbs were twitching, and he looked close to death!

The Coachman panicked. A scrape would have been one thing, but if he had killed someone, even a carriage belonging to the Viscount would not get him, the driver responsible, off lightly. He hurried down to check.

Ginny Will climbed out of the back as well. She frowned at the vagrant lying in the road. If he had been killed, she would have trouble explaining it. She reached out to feel for his breath and see whether he was alive. But the moment she drew near, the vagrant shot upright. His cheekbones jutted beneath his matted hair, and his eyes bulged unnaturally, as if they might tear at the corners. In a low, hoarse voice, he rasped, "The Eerie are coming! The Eerie are coming! We're all going to die. None of us will survive, none of us..."

Ginny Will shrieked and tried to scramble back, but the vagrant clutched her skirt so tightly she could not break free. She screamed in fright. Fortunately, the two sturdy male servants were beside her. They pried his bony fingers loose, dragged him to the roadside, and dumped him beneath a tree. As they turned away, they brushed their hands off in disgust.

The vagrant did not struggle. He only stared blankly at Ginny Will and repeated the same words over and over.

His stare made Ginny deeply uncomfortable. She wanted to tell the servants to teach the damned madman a lesson, but he looked so frail that they might beat him to death, and that would bring trouble. After weighing it up, she held back. She stopped looking at him, climbed quickly into the carriage, and left.

Had it ended there, it would have been no more than a minor incident.

But that night, around the time Green was cutting a swath through his enemies, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the servants' quarters beside Wilson Castle.

A terrified male servant screamed as he tried to shove away the roommate who had thrown himself on top of him and was savaging his neck.

The maddened servant was one of the men who had gone shopping with Ginny Will that day. Veins bulged across his face, and the pupils had vanished from his eyes. He had already torn a chunk of flesh from his unfortunate roommate's neck. His mouth was a bloody mess, and he was still chewing!

At the same moment, commotion and screams erupted from the room next door, where the other male servant lived. Chaos broke loose there too.

Ginny Will's charge over the kitchen entitled her to a room inside the castle, on its lowest floor.

Now, a filthy, hunched man stood beside her bed, watching her sleep.

As though she sensed him, Ginny suddenly opened her eyes. The sight of the man beside her bed drew a piercing scream from her. She sat up on instinct and kicked at him.

The man neither dodged nor fought back. He let Ginny scream and strike him in a frenzy.

The noise soon alerted the night guards. By the time two armed guards kicked open the door, the vagrant who had appeared from nowhere lay beaten on the floor. One guard went to check him and was startled to find that he was dead!

Ginny was still shaken. Clutching her blanket, she breathed in ragged gasps. When she learned the vagrant was dead, her face grew even paler, her expression fearful and disbelieving. She was neither strong nor trained to fight. It was hard to imagine she had beaten a man to death with her bare hands.

But once Viscount Paul heard what had happened, his concern was not that someone had died. It was how the man had passed through the castle's heavily guarded defenses.

Unfortunately, Doctor Wilkins had gone, and Green had not been there at the time. Wilson Castle had only two junior Magic Apprentices capable of operating the Defensive Magic Circle, and they knew no more than the basics. They could not find a flaw in the Magic Circle, much less determine how the vagrant had entered the castle.

Viscount Paul and Vincent felt as though thorns were pressing against their backs. They immediately ordered tighter security and kept the lamps burning through the night, lighting every room inside and outside the castle.

Ginny Will was questioned for an hour before she returned to her quarters, exhausted and frightened. But familiar as the room was, she could not bring herself to sleep there again. She went straight to another maid she was close to and stayed with her...

A few hours later—

It was a little after four in the morning, when the night was darkest and people slept most soundly.

Another shrill, chilling scream suddenly shattered the peace of Wilson Castle for the second time that night.

The entire castle stirred once more. The guards on night duty raced toward the scream, and Viscount Paul, who lived on an upper floor, received word at once.

Viscount Paul sat fully dressed behind the enormous solid-wood desk in his study. What had happened earlier had given him a sense of foreboding, so he had not returned to his bedroom. Instead, he had rested in the study. At his elbow lay a finely crafted Enchanted Pistol engraved with intricate Runes. It was loaded and ready to fire at any moment.