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CHAPTER 1
Uncle Vlad made sure that nobody but he and my nanny ever entered my room. Miriam has been my nanny ever since that day my uncle brought me here. She has tried her best to give me a relatively normal childhood, even though I've never seen another child in person. The only interaction I've had with my uncle, until recently, was when he brought new books in for me to read. Those books were my education and my way to escape these bedroom walls.
Miriam taught me many things about the world and life in general. In fact, she taught me to read when I was only two years old. It was easy for me. I just understood it. A lot of things have come easily to me. There are some things I just know. I've always thought this was normal, but now, as I near the age of twelve, I'm noticing that there are more and more changes happening in my surroundings that only I seem to be able to see.
It's early in the morning, and the sun is just about to break the horizon. I'm not allowed a clock in my room, and Miriam has told me that there are no clocks in the house at all. Uncle Vlad's jealousy of his brother and the way he could fix clocks has intruded into the lifestyle of everyone who lives here. I've been raised to wake when the sun is rising and go to bed when the sun is setting. This is the schedule Uncle Vlad insists that Miriam keeps me on.
Today, Uncle Vlad left to go on a business trip. Miriam has promised me that, once he's gone, she will come to my room and allow me the chance to finally explore his estate. She tried to give me the chance to explore when I was around the age of four. However, just as I was out of my room and barely twenty feet down the luxurious walnut hallway, she came running up to me and snatched me into her arms. My uncle had come back home because he wasn't feeling well. She had to rush me back into my room as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't find out that I had been let out of my prison.
This time, though, she's making sure he's been gone a few hours.
Suddenly I hear Miriam's key entering my door lock. I turn in my bed to watch the lock change color as it is manipulated from the outside. No two objects ever seem to be the same color. Metals gradually shimmer to a bluish teal color when they are being changed, and that's what happens to my shiny, brass lock. It really is quite beautiful. Just as the lock reaches its full color, Miriam comes through the door.
"Good morning, sunshine! Are you ready to go on an expedition today?"
Miriam is so good at making my life in this prison a new adventure every day. The wrinkles on Miriam's face give away that she is older, well past the age of having her own children, but she has said that the Monarch blessed her the day I came here. She said that because He protected me from the fire, He allowed her the chance to raise one of His little ones — one of His special ones. That's what she has always told me.
I bound out of bed, having already gotten dressed in my long jean skirt and flowery T-shirt, and clumsily skip across the room. I must've grown since I last wore this because my bony ankles are poking out from under the hem, and the top is tight across my widening shoulders. My red hair is still a sleepy mess, but I don't care as I run to hug her.
I love Miriam as I would've loved my mother. She's short, barely two inches taller than me, and she's soft in all the right places. Her gray hair is held back on the sides with little gold clips, and she always wears a tattered, red plaid apron. She folds me in her arms and tells me that today is the day. My uncle has boarded the flight to the States, and we have nearly eight hours to explore this grand palatial estate.
"I'm very ready, Miriam! I've been waiting hours for you to change the lock to blue!"
"Blue?" she asks. "Why would it change to blue?"
"Because you were unlocking it, silly! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" I ignore the puzzled look on her face as I grab her warm hand and pull her toward the open door to my freedom and to the secrets waiting for me to find them.
The hallway is dark, as dark as I remember it being back when I was four. As we walk down the hallway, I notice that it curves around my room. There is one other door and a window to my left that looks out onto the sky and the tops of old oak trees.
"Where are we, Miriam?"
"This is the tower, sweet child. Your uncle was quite determined to keep you safely away from anyone who might find you and sway you to do their bidding. He wanted to keep you pure."
"Pure? What do you mean? And how would I do anyone's bidding?"
"There are things you know now, and there are things to come, but the things to come haven't made themselves known to you yet because you're not ready. There is more to who you are than you realize." Miriam leans over toward me and squeezes my shoulders. I'm puzzled as to what she is talking about. What kinds of things? When am I going to be ready? I'm ready to know now! I decide to just let it go and continue on with my exploration. I can tell from the look in Miriam's eyes that she isn't going to go any further with the discussion anyway.
The curved hallway seems to have a downhill slope, and soon I see a staircase going down. I look to Miriam, my eyes pleading to proceed, and she nods. This is so scary and exciting!
There must be at least twenty steps, and they wrap around in a spiral all the way down to the floor below. As I slowly wind my way around, I can sense something calling to me, something drawing me onward. I step off the last step into a long, dark walnut wood hallway. I walk through the hallway and see door after door on the left side of the hall. I can tell by the color of most of the doorknobs that they're locked. There is one door in the bend of the hallway that's not locked, and it is bigger and more ornate than the others. I'm surprised when it starts to glow as I go closer.
"Look, Miriam! It's glowing!"
"What's glowing? All I see is a lot of dust that I will probably get yelled at for not cleaning."
"That door!" I exclaim as I point down the hall. "It's glowing. Don't you see that?"
Miriam looks at me with a puzzled look that melts into understanding. It seems as though Miriam knows a lot more about me than she lets on. For now though, I just want to get through that door.
The closer I get to the huge, adorned door, the more it glows. The door is engraved with a beautiful picture of a forest. There is a tree winding up the left side by the hinges, and its leaves blend into clouds at the top. The rays of sun shine down onto a river that has an assortment of rocks in it that turn into gems the closer I get to it. As I get up next to it, the scene engraved into the door becomes alive. The tree looks so real that when I touch it, I can feel the sap running between the scales of bark. The clouds appear fluffy like cotton balls but are only moist air to my touch. The sun warms not only the door but my hand as I follow the rays down to the river that is gurgling over diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.
Miriam stopped about three steps behind me. I look back at her, and she has her hands folded in front of her over the old, tattered apron. She smiles and asks, "What do you see?"
"I see paradise."
CHAPTER 2
"Don't you see it? Can't you see the tree moving in the breeze or hear the river lapping over the gems?"
Miriam gazes at me with a twinkle in her eye. "You have to let me see it, Patrina."
"How can I let you see something that's in front of both of us? Am I standing in the way?" I move to the side to make sure she can see past me, but she just looks at me and grins.
"In a manner of speaking," she replies. Miriam comes closer and takes my hand, and when she does, the door casts a light across her face. Now when she looks at the door, her eyes light up like she's able to see it for the first time, and she gasps. "That's beautiful, Patrina! Simply stunning ..."
As she lets go of my hand, the glow from the door fades from her face. I'm not sure I understand what's happening.
"Miriam, how could you see it when you touched me but couldn't see it when you weren't touching me?"
"Sweetie, there's a lifetime of mysteries wrapped inside your DNA. You are special, much more special than you realize. Some of the things you see, only you can see unless you let others around you see them too. I don't know how to tell you how to do that, but I do know that others like you are able to open the eyes of those around them. When I touched you, I was able to momentarily glance into what you're seeing. I can only do it for a short time because it's too powerful for me now."
"What happens if you hang on to me for too long?"
"When you choose to open the eyes of those around you, it's like you're a buffer. It would be easier to compare it to sunglasses. Without sunglasses, the sun on a very bright summer day is too much to handle and can end up causing a headache. That's why we wear sunglasses. You are the sunglasses, my dear. When you open the eyes of the people you want to be able to see with your mind, you shield them from the intensity of the power that is before them. But when they just touch you, they are getting the full force of the vision. It's like throwing open the curtains in a dark room and letting in the full afternoon sun. Only the special ones can handle that. That's how your mother explained it long ago when we were helping someone."
I knew that Miriam knew my mother, but I didn't know the extent of the relationship. I only knew that Miriam was able to tell me stories about my parents.
"How close were you and my mother?"
"We were friends a long time ago ... a very long time ago," she says as her gaze drifts off. She quickly refocuses and says with a grin, "Well, are you going to open the door or what?" I grin and turn to find the handle. The doorknob is masquerading as a ruby in the river. I stick my hand in the icy cold river and grasp the perfectly round ruby. It's a little slippery, but I'm able to turn it. Slowly the door returns to wood again as it glides open to reveal wall upon wall of books as high as I can see. This must be Uncle Vlad's library.
The room is huge. The ceilings are at least twenty feet tall. It has a ladder that can roll around against the shelves so someone can reach the books that are up high. There is a big dome-shaped window in the wall at the far end of the library, letting in the morning light that illuminates swirling tornadoes of dust particles in the air. A dark mahogany desk sits in the middle of the room, with a high-armed desk chair neatly tucked behind it. Piles of dusty papers decorate the corners of the desk and flow over the edges to form heaping mounds of papers on the floor. There are folders strewn across the top of the desk as though someone has been searching for something.
I walk toward the nearest wall of books, but my mind is so focused on the myriad books displayed before me, it is as though I float to the wall. There are big books and old books, new books and hardcover books, books of maps, books promising secret treasures, books about myths and angels, and even books about animals.
Miriam stays back at the doorway to the hall and watches me explore. She smiles at me, and I smile back as I turn to a new wall of books and find that I am within inches of the ladder. I grab the sides and climb about four feet. I can see through the dome-shaped window out into the backyard behind the estate. It's glorious! There are little white picket fences around gardens of different flowers and huge ornate topiaries guarding the entrance into something that seems to be a maze carved out of hedges. I recognize some of the flowers from a book that Uncle Vlad brought me recently.
I'm so entranced that I nearly forget I'm standing on a ladder four feet in the air. Suddenly the ladder jolts me back into the library. I could swear it jiggled beneath me!
Climb higher, a small, still voice whispers. I look behind me, and no one is there. Miriam is still at the door, now leaning against the doorframe, looking at a fraying hole in her apron. I look below me, and no one is there either.
Climb higher, it whispers again.
"Miriam," I call out, "did you say something? I thought I heard a voice."
She looks up at me, shrugs, and shakes her head. "What did it say?"
"He told me to climb higher," I say, clinging to the sides so I don't fall off.
"If he whispers to your heart, then you are to do what he tells you to do. That is The Guide leading you in the way you are supposed to go next. It's okay. Let him lead you."
I start to ascend the rungs, higher and higher. I don't know how far I'm supposed to climb. The whisper wasn't clear. Just as I am about to give up, now nearly fifteen feet in the air, with only five shelves before I reach the ceiling, I hear it again but I realize that it's not from outside of my head that I hear it. It's in my head, like it's whispering right to my heart.
This is good. Now, let it glow.
I don't understand. Let what glow? How can I let something glow? Shouldn't it just glow by itself?
Calm yourself, dear one. Breathe. And then let it glow. The whisper is kind and gentle. It calms me. I quiet myself, slow my breathing, close my eyes, and release the tension I was holding within as I was climbing to this great unknown.
I slowly open my eyes as I feel myself at ease. I start to see a glow on the next shelf up than the one I'm facing; it's dim. I wouldn't even say it was a glow — maybe a glimmer. I breathe in deeply and let it out, feeling the air leaving my lungs. My chest lowers, my shoulders relax, and then it glows as bright as a star in the darkest part of the night.
This is yours, Patrina.
The whisper tells me something I somehow already know in the deepest caverns of my being. I stretch my hand out and grasp the glow that is above me. I slide it off the shelf and see that it's a book but not just any book. This book is leather and old. It's tied shut with a leather strap. I untie the strap, letting it drop and billow in the breeze that is circling me. I carefully crack open the binding, and on the very first brownish-yellow page, there is something written in black ink. As the glow fades, the words become clear, and I'm able to read what it says: "Diary of Izabella Palinski."
This was my mother's diary.
CHAPTER 3
I am so stunned at finding my mother's old diary in my uncle's library that my feet teeter on the ladder rung, and I nearly fall off. I quickly grab the side of the ladder, steady myself, and then wrap the smooth leather strap back around the diary. I gently tuck it in the pocket of my skirt and start the long climb down the ladder.
When I look down, I see that Miriam is no longer waiting for me at the door; she is hanging on to the ladder at the bottom. She is watching me as I climb down, and the look on her face tells me she is about to burst with anticipation.
"What did The Guide tell you? What do you have? Is that a book? Where did you put it?" She's asking so many questions that she can barely breathe in between them. By the time I reach the bottom rung, I'm pretty sure she has asked me at least twenty questions.
I hug her when I reach the bottom, and the smile on my face feels like it's about to break through to my ears. "Did you see the book glowing? It started glowing on the shelf! The Guide told me to let it glow, and I did!"
"Patrina, only you can see the glow, but I did see the expression on your face and knew something great must be happening. What happened?"
"The Guide told me to go higher and higher, and then it finally told me to stop. I didn't know what to do, and I sure didn't think I went that high! Then he said I had to be calm and let it glow. So I did what he told me to do, and when I opened my eyes, there it was! It's my mother's diary!" I exclaim as I take it out of my skirt pocket.
Miriam's face shows how stunned she is, and we both come to the same conclusion at the same time. Why is it in my uncle's library? Uncle Vlad is a collector of things, mostly rare antiquities, but there are some items that he likes to collect, and nobody but him knows why.
"Why would he have this, Miriam? This seems too personal for him to have," I say, holding onto the worn leather book.
"I don't know. Your mother and Vlad were always at odds with one another. Vlad loved your mother, more than any other girl around, but she didn't feel the same. Instead, your mother loved Vlad's younger brother — your father, Konrad. Konrad made her so happy. She told me years ago, when she and Konrad were just dating, that whenever Vlad was around, all of the hair on her neck would stand up. She could always feel his presence."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Tenth Virtue"
by .
Copyright © 2016 M. C. Meinema.
Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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