PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 1 by Shinobu Wakamiya

Author:Shinobu Wakamiya [Wakamiya, Shinobu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2015-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

14

The faint hiss of burning candlewicks.

Gilbert awoke, surfacing into a dull headache.

He seemed to have been blindfolded with some sort of cloth: His field of vision was pitch-black. He could tell that he was seated in a chair. His arms and legs had been lashed to the chair’s arms and legs, and he couldn’t move them at all. —He’d been tied up.

He’d had tea in Dahlia’s room, and then he’d collapsed.

That was as far as Gilbert’s memories went.

Where…am I?

He’d awakened to find himself a prisoner.

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been odd for someone in his situation to feel confused or frantic, but Gilbert was calm.

He might have had a headache, but his thoughts were sharp and clear.

He didn’t immediately raise his voice. Instead, he used his free senses to explore his surroundings. In the air, he caught the lingering scent of blood. When he listened carefully, he heard faint breathing, as though several people were watching and waiting. They had Gilbert surrounded. Was Dahlia among them? He couldn’t tell that much. …But.

…She set me up?

Why? He didn’t know.

He was fairly sure that Dahlia had mixed a sleeping potion into his tea.

On top of that, the sweet fragrance that had hung in Dahlia’s room had probably been a type of incense, compounded to dull the senses. Something to keep him from noticing the drug in his tea… In that case, her methods had been meticulous and sophisticated. It meant she’d counted on Gilbert coming to the mansion from the very beginning.

At length, he heard one sharp footstep, and someone addressed him. “Are you awake, chosen ‘sacrifice’?”

The voice was a woman’s…but not Dahlia’s. It wasn’t a voice he recognized.

Although it was superficially cool, a dark fanaticism lurked deep within it.

In an indifferent tone, without flinching in the slightest, Gilbert asked a question of his own:

“So you’re the ringleader?”

“I’ll thank you to refrain from using that boorish term. —Call me the ‘Great Mother.’”

“That’s quite a name.” Gilbert sounded mildly disgusted.

“Heh-heh! You’re a steady one. I suppose I’d expect no less from a son of Nightray.”

Gilbert was a bit startled.

Did the woman know what it meant to do harm to one of the four families, to whom the crown had granted vast authority? On top of that, even among the four, the House of Nightray’s position was unique. Did she know how serious a matter it was to lay hands on a Nightray?

From the woman’s words, he could tell that she did know, and had done so anyway.

Clack, clack. The woman’s footsteps approached Gilbert.

“That is precisely what makes you a worthy offering for our god.”

As she spoke, the woman’s hands twined around the back of Gilbert’s head, and the blindfold fell away.

Gilbert found himself looking at a woman’s enraptured face. She seemed to be somewhere between thirty and forty.

Although her features were regular, they gave the impression of being somehow warped. The fault lay in her eyes. They were the eyes of one in the thrall of a mad obsession. Her showy, provocative dress clashed oddly with the old book she carried carefully under her arm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.