Chapter 32:

-

Dark red liquid was poured into a pewter goblet, under the critical eye of Nosferus. “That will be enough,” he said when the cup was more that half way full. “We must preserved it for later.”

“As you wish,” the harpy said. She was their leader, their queen and one of the most hideous one of them all. Dirty hair hung over her dark eyes in tangled clumps like dust coated cobwebs. She held the bottle in hands that were as gnarled and knotted as twigs and the skin covering them was dry as dead leaves. When she pulled back her lips to smile she exposed crooked yellow teeth of various sizes.

Nosferus brought the goblet to his lips. His arm paused when he heard the sighs of his fledglings. “Do not feel too depressed my children. We have escaped with what he have sought to create.” Three large furry heads nestled against his chest and shoulders. “Don’t worry my pets, there shall be plenty of meat for you all.” He brushed his fingers against one of the heads.

“Are you certain they are near?” One of the spirits asked. His form was grayish blue in color and was cloaked in shadow.

“One of my spies have informed me of this,” Nosferus took another long sip from his goblet. “They are here and one of them is who we need to break the seal.”

“What of the others?” The same spirit asked.

“They do not concern me.”

“Should we have them disposed off?”

“No,” he dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. “Not now, we will save them for the feast, after the awakening.”

“Should we spy on them?”

“If you must,” Nosferus yawned. He was getting bored with the unnecessary questions. “Just be discreet about it.”

“Do they know if we are even here?”

Nosferus glanced towards the Straw head who delivered the information .He did not wish to waste his voice on answering another stupid question.

“No one knows where we are,” the Straw head said. “They have no idea we are here. They think we are still in Symphony.”

“Let them think that,” Nosferus licked the little bit of moisture that had gathered on his bottom lip.

-

Luigi stared at his brother as Mario, wearing nothing but his mushroom print boxers and red shirt, continued to check himself out in the large oval shaped mirror propped up in one corner of the room they were sleeping in. Mario continued to examine the insides of his nostrils and his teeth. Luigi tried to shrug that off. What he couldn’t shrug off was when Mario removed his shirt and started to flex and pose.

“Mario,” Luigi was seated on one of the two beds in the room and like Mario he also was wearing his boxers. He had packed his black pair covered in various Boos. However, unlike Mario, he was wearing an undershirt. “Did you forget I was in the room?”

“Nope,” Mario said before he inhaled and curled his arms.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” Mario asked.

“Those poses,” Luigi grabbed onto a pillow. “Knock it off.”

“Why?” Mario asked after he had exhaled and his stomach stuck out to where it usually hung out. “Are you jealous?”

“Jealous me?” Luigi couldn’t believe what was falling out of his brother’s mouth. “You are correct I am jealous.” He placed a hand against his forehead and sighed. “I will never get to live out my dream of being on a swimsuit edition magazine when I am flat like a pancake, while my brother has already moved onto B cup size.”

“Hey,” Mario glared. “Do you think you are funny?”

“No, I think I am being modest. Will you just get into bed already?”

“All right, quit yer whining,” Mario yawned. “This isn’t what I had expected.”

“Neither have I,” Luigi could not get that forlorn face of King Nougat out of his head.

“Getting the best car on the train, treated to a fine meal and given some great beds,” Mario hopped onto the bed.

“What?” Luigi could not believe that was all his brother was thinking.

“We thought we would be either spending the night in either hiding or in a dungeon. That Nougat is all right. Well except for not telling his people why he needs so many fighters.”

“He’s scared,” Luigi pulled his sheets over his lap. “He’s just a kid. He has only been the king for a year. That’s a lot of responsibility for someone his age. Remember what we were like when we were fifteen?”

“Yeah,” Mario placed his arms behind his head. “Freshman year of high school. We both tried out for the sports teams. Me with football and you with basketball.”

“We didn’t even make the freshman teams,” Luigi leaned back and remembered when the notice was posted and he wasn’t even on it. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. Their grandmother tried to cheer him with her homemade tiramisu and their Aunt Callie gave him words of encouragement.

“Then I tried out for freshman baseball and you tried out for soccer, and we made the teams.”

“Yeah,” Luigi nodded. “I miss them.”

“What, the teams?” Mario sat up.

“Our teams, our friends and our relatives. When was the last time we went through the old warp pipe to visit them?”

“It may have been a year.”

“More like a couple of years,” Luigi sighed.

“I know, I know,” Mario nodded. “We will find some way to visit them. Even if are stuck in Koopa form.”

“We might not have ever known them if Kamek had succeeded,” Luigi wasn’t sure why he was bringing up the subject he had seen in the Kammy’s crystal. “There was a reason why I was kept alive when they took me and Pickles.”

“Wait, who is Pickles.”

“That was what our mother named her pet stork,” Luigi shrugged. “I have no idea why she had a pet stork or how she got him.”

“Why were you kept alive?” Mario had pulled the covers over his legs.

“Because of the Smithy and the Shroobs. Kammy had seen that. She wanted both of us alive. She showed me an alternate past of what would have happened if the Yoshi’s hadn’t succeeded. She would have turned us into Koopa hatchlings and raised us as her children.”

Mario gave him the strangest look. “You mean we would have been Bowser’s best friends?”

“Until you betrayed him and rescued Peach. I would have ended up marrying Wendy anyway.”

“Odd how it really turned out,” Mario stared at his hands. “We still ended up as Koopas, sort of.”

“Only when we get angry,” Luigi pointed at his brother. “And also horny it seems.”

“Life is funny,” Mario yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tuckered out. Night Weege.”

“Good night Mario.”

-

Peach sat back in her bed. She was exhausted and was ready to get some sleep but there were two lights that kept her awake. The first was from the small lamp next to the vanity mirror where Daisy was brushing her hair. The second was from the light in the center of the room where Kammy was drawing symbols in a circle with a piece of chalk.

“Isn’t anyone tired?” Peach sat up.

“I’m almost sleepy,” Daisy said. “Brushing helps relax me to the point where I am sleepy enough to just crawl into bed and collapse.”

“I am also tired,” Kammy drew another symbol onto the floor. This one resembled an eyeball. “But I need to set up necessary precautions.”

“What kind of precautions?” Peach asked.

“To make sure none of us are attacked while we sleep,” Kammy sketched out one last symbol. It looked a little like a shield.

“Are you being a little paranoid?”

Kammy removed her glasses and just stared at her. “One cannot be too cautious when staying in a strange castle for the first time.”

“This isn’t a strange castle,” Daisy set her hairbrush down. “And this isn’t the first time for me.”

“It is for me,” Kammy drew a large triangle in the center of the circle of symbols. “I’m an old woman. There is no denying that. Old and yet beautiful, but that is not as important as what I am doing right now.” She moved to one of the points and started to draw something else. She didn’t even look up when there was a knock at the door.

“Mario?” Peach asked.

“I am sorry for intruding,” the voice belonged to Nougat. “I cannot sleep and hope that someone will talk with me.”

“I’ll be happy to your highness,” Daisy stood up. “I hope no one will wait up for me.”

“When Kammy is done I’m going to go right to sleep,” Peach said. She had no idea how long it was going to take Kammy, and had no idea if Daisy would be back before then.

“Is there anything you wish to speak about?” Daisy opened the door.

“Nothing in particular,” Nougat said. “Would you like to go for a walk around the castle?”

“I would love to,” Daisy said. “It has been a long time since I was here after all.” She closed the door behind her.

After a few minutes after they had left, Kammy looked up. “That did seem a little unusual.”

“What?” Peach blinked. “He is a young king and is going through a great deal of stress. I’m not at all surprised that he can’t sleep.”

“Why did he come here?” Kammy asked. “Why didn’t he speak with Mr. Gingerbread, or one of his other advisors?”

“Maybe they were already asleep?”

“Why didn’t he want to speak with the brothers, or Iggy? He wanted to speak with one of us and I feel he wanted to speak with Daisy.”

“He is a fifteen year old boy,” Peach wanted to laugh. “And I think he may have a crush on Daisy.”

“Hmmm,” Kammy tapped the bottom of her chin. “You may be right.” She moved on to another point.

“What do all these mean?” Peach pointed at the circle of symbols.

“The ones creating the circle are all protection symbols,” Kammy explained. “The triangle indicates how many rooms I want to be protected.” She pointed at the first triangle symbol point. “That is for Iggy and Yoshi. The symbol represents reptiles.” The image resembled a turtle and a lizard. “The one I am working on represents women and I am drawing three of them.” The symbols were of the familiar cross and circle. “And the last symbol represents twins.”

“I hope you will finish soon,” Peach slipped under the covers, but did not rest her head on the pillow. She was still overcome with a bit of curiosity.

“Just have to draw the last symbol, add a few drops of pure water and say the spell.” She sat down at the third point.

“Were you trying to protect us earlier, when you wanted us to wait to eat?” Peach hadn’t figured out what that witch was doing.

“Yes, I was doing a test to see if the food was poisonous.”

“Your suspicions were wrong. King Nougat is just a troubled young man and he turns out to be very pilot and sweet. I have no idea about you, but I am going to send some of my soldiers to help him.”

“You will be discreet?”

“It is what he wants.”

“There,” Kammy put the chalk away and pulled out a vial. “Three drops for three rooms.” She allowed three clear drops to fall into the center of the triangle before she sat down and pressed her fingers together. Peach had no idea what she was saying, but something had worked. A ring of light like a water ripple radiated out from where Kammy sat shot out over the floor, up the walls, across the ceiling until it shrank again into a tiny dot.

“That was it?” Peach asked.

“That is it,” Kammy waved her wand and the glowing sphere vanished.

-

“I appreciate you taking me on a small tour,” Daisy said. She fought to keep herself from yawning. She did not want Nougat to think she was boring. She did feel a twinge of guilt. She could easily fall asleep but the poor king couldn’t.

“I don’t know how much of the castle layout you remember,” Nougat said. “I know it would be better to wait to give you a tour in the morning.”

“My friends would be awake and we would love to take together,” Daisy smiled. She remembered the fountains that were in the back of the castle, amongst the gardens, and the entire bee hives.

“Will you step out to the balcony with me?” Nougat pointed to the glass panel doors. The star filled sky and moon was on the other side. “Maybe the fresh air will help ease my mind.”

“I would love to,” Daisy stepped out. The air was still as sweet as she had remembered it last. She could smell the honey from the numerous hives, the melody of mints from the herb garden and several different flowers. “It smells as sweet as it did the last time I was here.” She remembered how she stood on the balcony and was tempted to touch one of the icicles like trimmings that hung from the bottom. She dared to climb over the side and would have succeeded if Sucrose hadn’t grabbed her. She felt a tear travel down her cheek.

“Is there something wrong?” Nougat held out a handkerchief.

“I’m sorry,” Daisy accepted his offer. “I can’t imagine how this is weighing down on you.”

“You do not have to apologize,” the young king smiled. “This is my burden.”

“It doesn’t have to be your burden alone,” Daisy grabbed onto his hands. “We can help you. I can ask my father to send some soldiers to help you out.”

“But they will know.”

“My people will know, they will not tell everyone, but I think you should be honest with your people.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want them to panic and cause riots.”

“You won’t know that for certain. You want your people to trust in you. You will have to trust in your people.”

“We should talk about this in the morning,” Nougat let go of her hands. “With your friends and my advisors. It won’t be a grand council, but it will be a mini council.” Daisy nodded. That did sound like a good idea. “Daisy, I hope you don’t mind, but I am a bit curious. Your friend Luigi was introduced as the husband of Princess Wendy. May I ask why she didn’t come?”

“She is expecting,” Daisy was a little curious why he was asking now, but he may want to be discreet and not seem rude in front of the others.

“It isn’t safe for her to travel.” He seemed to be a bit confused. “Her brother is Iggy. Is she also a Koopa?”

“Yes, it is a bit complicated.”

“I hope the vampire problem doesn’t delay the wedding of his younger brother and Princess Peach,” Nougat placed his hands on the railing. “That is if he does want to assist in the fight.”

“Mario is the older brother,” Daisy said. “I don’t think were would be a delay, and even if there was they wouldn’t hate you for it.”

“You are so sweet Daisy and I am probably keep you up,” Nougat yawned and stretched. “I should get some sleep myself.”

“Good night your majesty,” Daisy gave him a curtsey.

-

Nosferus wiped his fingers across the cool surface of the mirror, washing away the image of whom he was speaking with and returning it to the reflection of the room, zombies and harpies.

“What have you discovered?” He turned around to face the frazzled ghost.

“That old Koopa witch has set up blocks,” the spirit said. “I could not spy on any of them. They know we are here.”

“You are wrong,” Nosferus stood up. “They have no idea where we are. The witch is paranoid. She had thought the royal cooks would have slipped in a few extra ingredients into their food.” He rubbed his thumb and middle finger. “Trust me. They have no idea we are here, and they have no idea what is coming.