I. The Nursery

Ember lived in her nursery for the tiếp theo few months, only being let out occasionally to go to the toilet. All she saw were the four walls around her but it wasn’t all bad.
The room was painted a pretty sky-blue and the carpet was thick, fluffy and a deep midnight blue. There was a giường and a huge white wardrobe with the most beautiful, cổ hủ, cũ thời clothes inside.
Rich velvets cloaks, soft lông, lông thú stoles, bright silk dresses, every item of clothing needed to make a young lady of society look beautiful.
But Ember was not a young lady of society living in Victorian times. She was a thirteen năm old girl living in the 21st century with no parents, no Những người bạn and a life of imprisonment stretching ahead of her. She spent all of her time either at the tiny window staring out at the village below hoặc at the bàn writing. There was a plentiful supply of paper and pencils and she wrote stories about fairy-tale creatures, fair maidens and dashing knights.
She didn’t know this but Abraxas would take them to her uncle while she slept and he would read every one of them. It hurt him to see that every evil sorcerer hoặc villain was described as being exactly like him. He regretted having shouted at the little girl, his temper had always been short and years of living alone, mouldering in his chamber caused him to be rather awkward with people. But his pride wouldn’t let him apologize, he wasn’t about to beg forgiveness off a little girl!
And so he remained, too proud and haughty to put things to rights while his niece languished alone in her room and cried herself to sleep every night. Eventually his guilt grew too much for him though he would never hiển thị it and he decided to go abroad for a while. Abraxas was to go with him and he would leave the girl to take care of things. Before he left he sent Abraxas with the keys to every room in the house to give to Ember. She could go where she liked he didn’t care. Ember was delighted yet frightened at the prospect of freedom.
“You can’t leave the mansion but bạn may explore wherever bạn like.” đã đưa ý kiến Abraxas as he handed her the keys. “There are exactly 100 rooms in this house and I’m sure bạn will find something interesting in each one. But be careful. bạn never know what bạn might find.” And he left, his coat-tails flapping behind him. Ember clutched the keys her ngọc lục bảo eyes wide with excitement. She was free. She couldn’t leave the house but there was a hundred rooms in the mansion and she could go where she liked. Some of her old spark seemed to come back with the promise of freedom and a little colour appeared on her sứ, đồ sứ cheeks. She resolved to start exploring as soon as she could.
Her uncle left the tiếp theo morning.