The Talewinder's Servant

"Send in the applicant." the Talewinder told me, as I bowed and walked away.

I'd been in his service for the past seventeen years.  I was twenty six.  I looked nine.  The Talewinder liked me liked that.  He liked to watch me skip down the stairs of his castle.  He wanted me to be nine forever.  So I was.

The Talewinder lived in a castle made of stone and dreams; from the outside, it was enormous, half of it hanging off a dark cliff.  A river raged underneath, only interrupted by the occasional stone that would fall into it with a splash.  There were human shaped gargoyles and beast shaped statues on every ledge, twirled around every cone shaped roof.  The stone was black and green with age, with snakes and crows infesting the nooks and the overhangs.

On the inside, it was even bigger.  There were at least a thousand rooms, and I'd seen them all during my nightly wanderings.  Some had monsters, some had princesses, some had a bit of everything.  Some only locked from the inside, others could only be found if you climbed in through a window.  One was filled with jewels, another with spiders that tried to nest in your eyes.  The most wonderful room of all was the great hall, where the Talewinder conducted his daily business.  It was a room that took five minutes to cross, which left plenty of time for him to sketch out the visitors before they reached him.

They came from all over the world to profit from his knowledge and powers.  Had I had the liberty, I would have stopped them all at the door, but I was small and completely under his control while he was awake.

The walks back and forth were always horrid for me.  I knew, in my mind, that they only lasted ten minutes, but the first half of that was spent by myself, feeling the Talewinder's eyes on my back, trying not to look behind me, trying to stay focused on the black and orange checkered pattern of the floor, till I got to the big, black metal doors.  I always expected them to rust by the time I got there.  They were much too big for me to move myself, which was why I had my pouch.

The Talewinder had given me the pouch on the first day he'd obtained me.  Whatever I put into it would remain there till I took it out.  I had been filling it for seventeen years, with everything I could find that was interesting in the castle, and it still looked mostly empty.  It was a bit heavier than it had been, but it had to be expected.  I had trapped a demon in it one evening.  Had never let it out.

I reached in and took out two square biscuits.  I knew the door-demons liked them and it was the easiest way of making them do what I wanted.  If I begged enough, they would usually open the doors for me, but it took time, and I didn't want to keep the Talewinder waiting.  They licked them up from my palms and the left door-demon licked my face too.  I liked him better than the right one.  They started off on their slow walk, the great chains tied to their collars pulling on the doors, which creaked and groaned.  I would have to climb up and oil them again.  I walked forward, pulling my small umbrella from my pouch.

Outside, a storm was raging.  The applicant was soaked through, and had a pleading look in his eyes.  I couldn't do anything.  There I was, my dark makeup perfect on my nine year old face, my red princess dress, which the Talewinder loved so much, and my tiny black umbrella, looking at him with as cold an expression as he could command me to.

"This way, please."  I said.

The walk back was worse.  The applicants were lost princesses, hopelessly ugly accountants, movie stars in search of that lift; sometimes they were ordinary people, and sometimes, they were demons in search of revenge.  And I had to take all of them across the great hall, to my master, the Talewinder.

"Thank you, Chleo." he said in the soft voice he always used.  "But it seems our guest is soaking wet!  We can not meet while he is in such a state."

The man made a movement to thank the Talewinder, but my master silenced him with a nod of his head.

"Think nothing of it.  Chleo, please take him to the western tower's blue room and fit him with appropriate clothing and bedding.  We will continue this conversation in the morning when you are dry and rested, Sir."

The man bowed, as did I, and he followed me.  The trek took half an hour.  The man's clothing dripped as I took him to the blue room; no one had been in there for years.  Last time, it had taken me three days to clean up the mess.

"Here is the room." I said quietly, as I opened the door.  The room had a large bed, a balcony and countless treasures exposed on the walls and the desks.  I knew my part.  I opened the armoire and took out clothes fit for a prince, laying them out on a chair under his hungry eyes.  I could already tell he wasn't going to make it through the night.  "A few words of advice: you can sleep in the bed; you can wear the clothing I've laid out; you can walk around, even outside on the patio.  Whatever you do, though, don't touch the artifacts around the room, and do not open the armoire.  Understood?"

I can only imagine his thoughts as he stared at a tiny child who was telling him what to do and not do.  He nodded at me nonetheless.

"Goodnight.  I'll see you tomorrow morning."  I walked out and locked the door behind me.  The key went back in the pouch.  Even though I had thousands of keys in there.  I always picked the right one.

I opened a door, kicked back a few snakes and pulled out a mop, and then started wiping up the water left by the applicant.  The mess took at least forty-five minutes to clean up.  I had just thrown the mop into another room off the great hall, when a small, furry demon came running across the great hall, barking at me in loud-pitched yells.

"What is it, you furball?" I asked him.  I knew what he wanted, but it was funny to tease him.  He barked three more times, then ran off towards the north tower.  I followed him to my master's bedchamber.

There, I prepared the bed, ran the Talewinder a bath and laid out his multicoloured clothes for the morning.  I stood behind the screen as he washed himself and held the towel with my eyes closed as he got out.  I helped him dress with my eyes still closed, then when he commanded me, I opened them and tucked him into bed.  He kissed me on the forehead and bid me goodnight, reminding me to grease the doors before I retired.  I nodded and walked out, snuffing the candles as I went along.  With that, I headed to the main doors and waited for him to fall asleep, greasing the joints.

I felt it the moment it happened.  He drifted off and I got my mind back.  While he controlled me, the older part of me was repressed.  Now, I was myself again.  And I had things to do.

I ran to the top floor of the southern tower, to my room.  It wasn't as lavish as the other rooms in the castle.  It had wooden floors and a wooden ceiling, and got drafty in the winter nights, forcing me to wrap the heavy bed curtains tight around the my mattress to try and keep out the cold.  Reaching under it, I grabbed the bag I had packed a million nights ago and stuffed it into the pouch.  I ran for it; down the stairs, past the demons and princes and wizards, past the closets and treasure rooms and ballrooms, past it all, into the great hall.  I fed all my remaining biscuits to the left door-demon; I only needed a crack to sneak through.  He obliged as the right door-demon growled and scratched at the floor.  I ran out the and was almost across the treshhold when I heard the yapping and felt the Talewinder wake up.

"Where are you going, Chloe?" he asked.  He was dressed in the clothes I had set out for him, standing in the doorway, his demon yapping around his feet.

"Traitor." I whispered to the demon.

"Why do you want to leave me, Chloe?  I love...  Please don't leave."

"I have to go, master.  I'm trapped in a body that's not mine anymore.  You never let me out.  You make me kill everyone who doesn't pass your ridiculous tests."

"But..."  The Talewinder looked at me; the rainbows in his eyes turned to sad, rainy skies.  "But to those who pass, I give the lives they always wanted, with fame, fortune, and storybook endings.  I give them perfection, if only they listen...  When you were little, you wished, Chloe...  You wished you lived in a castle.  You walked across the hall and you stayed the night, and you passed the test...  You wished you lived in a magical castle and had all the keys and all the answers...  Chloe, that's what you wished."

"I was nine!" I yelled, my small fists tightening.  "I didn't know any better!  That was seventeen years ago!"

He looked at me.  He still controlled me.  I couldn't run the few feet across the bridge that would release me.  "What do you wish for now?"

"I want to be twenty-six.  I want to be free."

"Do you want to leave me?" he asked.

"If that\'s what it takes."

Above us, through the storm, the wild screams of the applicant could be heard.  "He opened the armoire." I said softly, trying to surpress a smile.

"I can get someone else to clean it up, if you want."

"You know what I want."

Lightning hit the castle.  "Will you stay?" he asked, over the thunder.

"Perhaps."

That was all it took.  I looked at my hands, bigger than I remembered.  My face had changed.  I fished a mirror from my pouch and stared at my older self.  I couldn't help but start crying.

The Talewinder took my hand and walked me back into the castle, commanding the door-demons to close the big metal plates with a wave of his hands.

"Will you stay?"

I smiled.  "I have to.  I'm the only one who knows in which room the mop is."  He nodded and I noticed a seat beside his at the end of the great hall.  I smiled.