Ellen Under The Stairs Read Online Free PDF Page A

the water, then seemingly
fascinated to see water gush from the spout. He'd explained how to
let the water out after she was through. And with a couple of
embarrassing demonstrations, got the purpose of the stool across to
her. Also the use of toilet paper, people in her world using
sponges attached to a stick, the sponge part washed in a bucket of
water inside what passed for outhouses. How did you explain an "in
house" to a young girl who'd never seen one?
    He'd showed her his bedroom. Told her
she could go there after her bath and get some more rest. Got his
robe for her to wear.
    And that was the best he could do
before his shopping trip.
    First the barber. Followed by a trip
to the vet's boarding place to retrieve one highly indignant
Persian cat named Cream.
    The last task -- clothes shopping for
a girl he hardly knew -- the most daunting of all!
     
    * * * * *
     
Chapter 5
     
    A sound and Platinia was awake. Lying
there, she did not know where she was. Only that it must be
up-light because she could see the room. The walls a color.
Blue.
    Walls should be of stone, or of mud
and straw, or of wood. She had never seen colored walls ... except
in King Yarro's palace in Stil-de-grain. But this was not the
palace.
    The air was warm but dry. There were
smells of ... she did not know the smells.
    She was lying on a wide, deep bed.
Lying on fine-woven covers. She had slept ... but was ... so
tired.
    Then, as if a curtain had been pulled
back inside her mind, she knew where she was, her heart racing! She
was in bed in the other-world house of the Mage, John-Lyon. On the
bed, for she had been too tired after washing to get beneath the
blankets.
    Suddenly, she knew the sound she had
heard! It was the closing of the door. She had heard it once
before. When the Mage had left her. The same sound could only mean
the Mage, John-Lyon had returned!
    Platinia's body felt ... chained
down.
    Her thoughts ... she did not know her
thoughts. And that was the most terrifying thing of all!
    Trying to move caused her to remember
that she had Band Sickness.
    As a test, she strained to lift her
hand, an unseen weight pushing her hand down again.
    The first time she had Band Sickness,
she thought she was dying. But she was not. She had learned that
Band Sickness, though terrible, did not kill. With time, got
better.
    As the door sound faded from her
sleepy mind, Platinia thought about all the things she did not
know. Starting with her childhood -- Platinia picking flowers under
the green sky of Malachite. She did have a sharp remembrance of the
robed priests of Stil-de-grain taking her away to be the sacrifice
of Tenebrae!
    Platinia shuddered. What had always
been a terror in the night was being chained in the small, dark
room in Fulgur's temple. Locked away because she had been chosen to
be the sacrifice of Tenebrae, Lord of the dark. She had been made
his princess, to be tortured, eventually to be sacrificed to
strengthen Fulgur, Lord of light.
    It was in that temple room, in the
dark, tortured, raped, chained up, that she had learned a secret --
though at that time she did not know the secret's name. That she
could use her mind to pick through another's thoughts to strengthen
those she wished. If someone in her presence was happy, she could
make them ... glad. If sad, make them feel more bad. Sometimes, she
could make a priest who wished to rape and torture her to choose
rape only, the lesser of the agonies.
    Such a small defense. But all she had
against the terror.
    Then, wonder of wonders, the soldiers
of King Yarro had come to Fulgur's temple to slaughter all the
priests and steal Platinia away! This was because King Yarro
suspected she was an etherial -- that was the name for her mind's
poor power -- Yarro wishing to control her to make her strengthen
his pleasures.
    He had also raped her -- by herself --
and with others.
    But had not hurt her as much as the
priests had hurt her.
    Later, also learning of her power, the
old Mage of