Ghosts of the Shadow Market

by Cassandra Clare

  “Oh good,” Tessa said faintly. “The intervals between contractions are getting shorter. I thought there would be more time. Are you sure we shouldn’t be more concerned about whatever broke all the windows?”

  “Everyone always thinks they’ll have more time,” Magnus said. He was still looking right at Livvy as he said it. “And no. I don’t think you have to be concerned at all. I would never let anything happen to you. Think of it as part of the christening! You know that when they christen a ship, they break a bottle of champagne against the forward bow. Your baby just gets the deluxe version. Imagine her voyage! Her life, I predict, will be full of wonders.”

  “Come on,” Jem said. “Let’s get inside the house. Magnus, will you bring my cello?” He took down his violin from the cabinet, and with his other hand, he took Tessa’s arm and began to walk her toward the house, over the dark ground strewn with broken glass.

  Magnus said, “Oh, Livvy.”

  “I almost—” she said.

  “I know,” he said. “But you didn’t. Go find Kit and stay with him. I’ll come to you in a little while to fetch Tessa’s tonic.”

  * * *

  Kit seemed relieved, actually, to have company, even if company was only a ghost. “What happened out there?” he said. “What happened to the conservatory?”

  “I think that was me,” Livvy said. “I didn’t mean to, though.”

  “Is this the kind of thing that you’ve been getting up to at the Scholomance?” Kit said. “Is that why you came to find Magnus?”

  “No!” Livvy said. “I haven’t done anything like this. Well, not until today. I think I smashed some plates at the Los Angeles Institute. And I made the lights go out in Dru’s room while she was watching a scary movie.”

  “Nice,” Kit said. “So, like, basic poltergeist stuff.”

  “I didn’t mean to do any of it!” Livvy said. “It just sort of happened. I’m sorry I wrecked the conservatory.”

  “Maybe you could try not to do anything like that again,” Kit said.

  “Sure,” Livvy said. “Of course. I don’t want to do anything like that again.”

  There was a glint off something Kit wore on a chain around his neck. “Oh,” Livvy said, looking closer. It was a heron made of silver.

  “It belonged to my mother,” Kit said. “Jem and Tessa gave it to me a while ago. I found it again this morning. I’d forgotten about it.”

  “It’s so pretty,” Livvy said.

  Kit said, “I’d give it to you if I could. She used it to summon Jem and Tessa to her side when she was attacked. In the end, it didn’t save her. So I guess I have a grudge against it.”

  Livvy said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Why?” Kit said. “You didn’t kill them. Anyway, everything’s okay?” He was looking at his hands very intently, as if he thought there might be something wrong with them.

  “What?” Livvy said. “Yes. Everything’s fine. Oh. You mean Ty.”

  Kit didn’t say anything, but he nodded. He looked as if he wished he hadn’t asked at all, and also as if he were listening with all of his being.

  It was ridiculous, Livvy thought. You could tell how much he missed Ty. As much as Ty missed him. She didn’t understand boys at all. Why couldn’t they just say what they felt? Why did they have to be so stupid?

  “He’s okay,” Livvy said. “He’s doing well at the Scholomance. He has a Carpathian lynx in his room! He doesn’t really have any friends, though. He misses you, but he won’t talk about it. But other than that, he’s fine.”

  As she said it, though, she realized that she wasn’t sure at all that Ty was fine. The strand that bound her to Ty—that filament of magic—felt wrong, somehow, as if it were slackening. She could feel Ty reaching for her, but weakly.

  “Livvy?” Kit said.

  “Oh no,” she said. “No, I think I have to go back. I think I shouldn’t be here.”

  Now Kit looked truly alarmed. “What’s wrong?” he said.

  “Ty,” she said. “It’s hurting him that I’m here. Tell Magnus I’m sorry, but I have to go. Tell him to come find me. I have information for him about Idris.”

  “About Idris?” Kit said. “Never mind. I’ll tell him. Go!”

  And Livvy went.

  * * *

  She must have been back at the Scholomance in the space of a breath, although to be fair, since she didn’t breathe anymore, she was only guessing that was how long it took. She was in Ty’s room, but Ty wasn’t there. Only Irene, looking accusingly at her from the door, which she appeared to be attempting to chew open.

  “Sorry,” Livvy said, and then felt ridiculous. This time she let her awareness of Ty, where he was, pull her toward him, and yet that was not where she found herself. She found herself, instead, hovering once more over Dimmet Tarn.

  “No!” she said. And, feeling as if she were fighting her way to him through some impenetrable and gloomy dark chasm, she came at last to her brother.

  He was lying in a bed in the infirmary, looking very pale. Catarina Loss was by his side, and a boy that Livvy recognized from Ty’s classes. Anush.

  “He just collapsed,” Anush was saying. “Is it food poisoning?”

  “I don’t think so,” Catarina Loss said. “I don’t know.”

  Ty opened his eyes. “Livvy,” he said, so softly that her name was barely a sound at all.

  “What did he say?” Anush asked.

  “Livvy,” Catarina said, laying her hand on Ty’s head. “His sister. The one who was slain by Annabel Blackthorn.”

  “Oh,” Anush said. “Oh, how sad.”

  Catarina Loss said, “His color is improving a little, I think. Are you good friends?”

  “Uh, not really?” Anush said. “I don’t know who his friends are. If he has friends. I mean, he seems like a good guy. Smart. Super focused. But he kind of keeps to himself.”

  “I’m going to keep him in the infirmary overnight,” Catarina Loss said. “But if it occurs to you to come back to visit him, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Everyone needs friends.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Anush said. “I’ll come back later. See if he needs anything.”

  Catarina Loss poured a glass of water for Ty and helped him sit up to take a drink. “You fainted,” she said in a neutral voice. “Sometimes new students take their course of study too seriously and forget about things like getting enough sleep or eating.”

  “I don’t forget things like that,” Ty said. “I have a schedule so that I don’t forget.”

  “You came to me the other day about the lynx,” Catarina Loss said. “How is she doing? I see there are scratches on your arm.”

  “She’s great!” Ty said. “She eats everything I bring her and she’s drinking fine too. How long have I been here? I should go make sure that she’s okay.”

  “You’ve only been here a little while,” Catarina Loss said. “When Anush comes back, you can tell him to look after her for tonight. I think he’d be happy to do that. Do you think you could eat something?”

  Ty nodded, and Catarina Loss said, “I’ll see what delights the kitchen can supply. Stay in bed. I’ll be right back.”

  When she was gone, Livvy said, “Ty!”

  Ty frowned at her. He said, “I could feel you getting farther and farther away. It hurt, Livvy. And you were getting stranger and stranger, the farther away you got. I could feel you. But you didn’t feel like you anymore. You felt—”

  Livvy said, “I know. I felt it too. It was scary, Ty. I was scary. You’re going to have to write that down in your notebook. I don’t think it’s good when I’m away too long. I think the farther away from you that I get, the more dangerous it is for both of us. The longer I stayed away, the more I forgot things. Like who I was. Like you. Why I should come back.”

  Ty said, “But you did come back.”

  “I came back,” Livvy said. “Almost too late. But I’m here now. And just in time. Irene is gnawing her way through your door.”
/>   She grinned at Ty reassuringly, and Ty smiled back. Then his eyes closed again.

  “Ty?” she said.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “Just really tired. Going to sleep for a little while, Livvy. Will you stay with me while I fall asleep?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Of course I will.”

  He was asleep when Catarina Loss returned with a tray of food, and still asleep when Magnus Bane came through the door several hours later in a puffy scarlet down parka trimmed in black fake fur that came all the way down to his ankles. He looked as if he had been mostly swallowed by a very fat eiderdown dragon.

  Catarina Loss was with him. “A girl!” she said. “I’ve been knitting a blanket for her, but it isn’t done yet. Wilhelmina Yiqiang Ke Carstairs. That’s quite a big name for a very small baby.”

  “Mina for short,” Magnus said. “Oh, she’s lovely, Catarina. She has Jem’s fingers. A musician’s fingers. And Tessa’s chin. So how’s our patient?”

  “He’ll be fine,” Catarina Loss said. Then, “Though what was wrong with him in the first place isn’t quite apparent to me. He seems perfectly healthy. I’m due to teach a class. Will you still be here in an hour or so?”

  “I’ll be here or somewhere close at hand,” Magnus said. “Come and find me when you’re done.”

  When Catarina Loss was gone, Magnus said to Livvy, “Well. There is apparently something that you must say to me. And then there is something that I must say to you.”

  Livvy said, “I know. I think I know what you must say to me. But first let me tell you about Idris.” And she told him everything she had heard Zara and Manuel say.

  “We knew that sooner or later they plan to attack us,” Magnus said at last. “But now that we know they are spying on us, we will have to find out how. And perhaps if it is possible for them, then it is also possible for us to spy on Idris. But I don’t think we can risk you doing it again.”

  “No,” Livvy said. “Because every time I get too far away from Ty, things start to go wrong. I start to change. I get stronger, I think. I can do things! Like I did with the conservatory. I broke dishes, too, and I think I almost hurt Tessa’s baby somehow. And Ty, it’s bad for him, too, when we’re apart. That’s why he ended up in the infirmary. Because I was gone too long.”

  “Yes,” Magnus said. “Smart girl.”

  “If I had stayed away longer,” Livvy said, “would he have died?”

  “I don’t know,” Magnus said. “But the magic he tried to use to bring you back from the dead was dark magic, Livvy. Necromancy. A spell from the Black Volume of the Dead! And a failed spell, at that. When the spell failed, the thing that kept you here, that bound you, was Ty. Your twin. That’s not normal for ghosts. Most of them are bound to an object. Things like a ring or a key or a house. But you’re bound to a person. It makes sense that you need to stay close to Ty now. And that he has to stay close to you. I think that when you are away from him for too long, you become less yourself. More powerful. Less human. More a hungry ghost. Something dangerous to the living.”

  “When I was in the conservatory,” Livvy said, forcing the words out, “I felt as if I could swap places with Tessa’s baby. That I could be alive again, if I were willing to take her baby’s life. Her baby’s place.”

  Magnus said, “Necromancy is a very dark art. Yes. Perhaps you could have. Or perhaps you might have killed the baby or Tessa, and ended up with nothing at all. Magic can have a high price, Livvy.”

  “I don’t want to hurt anybody,” Livvy said. “That’s what Annabel did. I don’t want to be like Annabel, Magnus. I don’t! But I don’t want to be dead, either! It isn’t fair!”

  “No,” Magnus said. “It isn’t fair. But life isn’t fair. And you died bravely, Livvy.”

  “Stupidly,” Livvy said. “I died stupidly.”

  “Bravely,” Magnus said. “Though I admit that sometimes I wish Shadowhunters were a little less brave and used their heads a little more.”

  Livvy sniffed. “Well,” she said. “Ty is good at that. Using his head.”

  “Ty is exceptional,” Magnus said. “I expect great things from him. And from you, too, Livvy. Because if you do not do great things, then I fear you may do terrible things. The two of you have remarkable potential.”

  “Me?” she said. “But I’m dead.”

  “Nevertheless,” Magnus said. He reached into his pocket and said, “And I have a present for you. Well, it’s from Kit, too. It’s for you and Ty.” He held out a silver chain from which hung the figure of a bird. A heron, Livvy realized.

  “You’re bound to Ty,” Magnus said, “but it’s a necromantical bond. I was poking around for something to use that might work to bear a little of the weight that bond must be on you and Ty, and Kit asked what I was doing. He gave me this, and I have altered it a little. Given it some potency. If Ty wears it, it should shield him a little from any side effects of being bound to the dead. And it should sustain you a little. It should ease some of the strangeness of being in the living world. You can touch it. And, too, should you or he feel in need of help, you can use it to call on me. Or Ty can. Once it belonged to Kit’s mother. It was given to her by Jem, so that when she was in danger she could summon him. Now it will serve you and your brother.”

  Livvy stretched out a finger. Stroked the silver heron. “Oh,” she said. “I can! I can feel it!”

  Magnus said, “Yes. Well. Good.”

  “Like one of Ty’s fidget toys,” Livvy said. “Like Julian’s lighter.” She was running her fingers along the chain now. “Is the baby okay? Mina?”

  “Yes,” Magnus said. “She’s fine. Everyone is fine. The conservatory, on the other hand . . .”

  Livvy thought, suddenly, of Dimmet Tarn. She said, “You’ve been here before, to the Scholomance?”

  “Yes,” Magnus said. “Many times, over the years.”

  “Have you ever been to Dimmet Tarn?” Livvy said.

  “Yes,” Magnus said. “A most unimpressive body of water. You must find it a sad change from the Pacific Ocean.”

  “Yeah, well, there are stories that it’s supernatural in some way,” Livvy said. “But nobody knows how. Ty and I were trying to see if we could find out anything about it.”

  Magnus said, “Let me see. There were stories about it, but I never paid much attention to them. What was it?”

  He sat in silence for a minute, and Livvy sat companionably with him. Ty stirred as if he were dreaming in a way that made Livvy think that he would wake up soon.

  “Yes!” Magnus said. “Of course. The story was this. That if you went to Dimmet Tarn and looked into the water for long enough, you would see something of your future. That was the enchantment placed on it by some warlock or other. Funnily enough, I believe he was from Devon, actually. Dimmet is a Welsh word. Why? Did you go there? Livvy? Did you see something there?”

  “No,” Livvy said at last. She tried to think of what it had been like, sinking into that vast dark nothingness. “I didn’t see anything. It was nothing at all.”

  “I see,” Magnus said in a tone that suggested he saw everything she wasn’t saying. “But let us say that there was someone who happened to look into dismal Dimmet Tarn and let’s say they saw something they didn’t like. Something that suggested a future they didn’t want. And let’s say that this someone came and talked to me. Do you know what I would tell them?”

  “What?” Livvy said.

  Magnus said, “I would tell them this. That the future isn’t fixed. If we see a path in front of us that we would not choose, then we can choose another path. Another future. Dimmet Tarn be damned. Would you agree with that, Livvy?”

  He stared hard at Livvy and Livvy stared right back. She couldn’t think of anything to say at all, but finally she set her mouth and nodded.

  From the bed, Ty said, “Livvy!” His eyes opened and found her, and he said, “Livvy,” again. This time he didn’t sound despairing. He hadn’t noticed yet that Magnus was there at all.
/>   A terrible wailing came from the doorway as Ty spoke. It was Irene, her whiskery jaws stretched open and all of her fur standing on end. Livvy would not have thought that such a tiny animal could have produced such a large noise. Still wailing, Irene leaped onto the bed and butted Ty in the chin. The noise she was making changed to smaller, angry inquiring trills like a hot teakettle who had a lot of questions but suspected she wasn’t going to like any of the answers.

  “What on earth is that?” Magnus said.

  “This is Irene,” Ty said. “She’s a Carpathian lynx.”

  “Of course!” said Magnus. “A Carpathian lynx. How silly of me.” His eyes met Livvy’s. “A boy, a Carpathian lynx, and a ghost. Truly I expect great things from you and your brother, Livvy. Here, Ty. This is for you.” He dropped the Herondale necklace into Ty’s palm. “Livvy will explain its purpose. Suffice it to say that if you need me for any reason at all, you can use it to summon me. Livvy’s been telling me about Idris, about what she overheard. But I have been up all night long, and I need some strong tea. I’m going to go find Ragnor Fell and make him find me some strong tea.”

  He made as grand an exit as anyone can make when they are wearing an oversize down coat, and as he exited, Anush entered, his arms bloody with scratches.

  Anush gazed after Magnus in astonishment. “That was Magnus Bane,” he said to Ty. “Was he here to see you?”

  “Yes. He’s our friend,” Ty said.

  Anush said, “I knew that you know him, but I didn’t realize you had a just-dropping-by-the-Scholomance-to-see-you type of relationship! Sorry about that animal. I went to your room to see if I could bring you back a book or some clothes or something, and she got away from me. She’s so pretty. But she’s so mean.”

  “Her name is Irene,” Ty said, looking fondly at the lynx curled up beside him.

  Anush said, “Again, rhymes with ‘mean.’ Do you want me to go get some scraps from the kitchen for her?”

  When Anush was gone, Livvy told Ty everything that had happened while she had been in Los Angeles and in the conservatory in England. Ty said, “I’m so sorry, Livvy.”

  “For what?” she said.