Shadow in the Empire of Light

by Jane Routley

  “Hmm,” said Blazeann.

  I heard Chatoyant’s feet gliding away towards the roof top stairs again. She was probably doing her Salute to the Setting Sun. Chatoyant was very assiduous in her religious observances, and believed in the discipline of mind and body. She went on about it often enough. “Oh, and by the way, you owe me twenty lumins for that Dew of Edilon you just broke,” she added.

  Blazeann was moving too, though she was going for the stairs.

  “Twenty lumins?” she said, in a voice almost as nonchalant as Chatoyant’s. “Don’t be penny pinching, darling. When we get rid of Impi, all of us will be getting much bigger allowances. You’ll be able to bathe in Dew of Edilon.”

  The moment Blazeann was out of the room, I saw the glow of magic again and heard a slushy crunching sound. When Chatoyant had gone back upstairs and I was able to climb out from under the bed, I saw that she had gathered up the broken bottle and spilled ointment and slopped the lot into a bowl on the perfume table. No doubt when she had finished her precious exercises, she would spend some time separating the skin lotion from the rubbish and put it in another bottle. I could imagine her having that level of magical control; and that level of thriftiness too. No doubt she’d still extract the twenty lumins from Blazeann as well. Rat. Child of a dog.

  I was deeply tempted to knock the bowl back over—no, to steal it and toss it down the jacks. But I kept my hot red anger in check and scampered off as quickly and quietly as I could.

  Curse those two rats for planning to ruin tomorrow’s Blessing. Did they have no conscience, no sense of responsibility to the mundanes who relied on our family? Think of the omen if the Matriarch collapsed during the ceremony. The mundanes would be so shattered the harvest would probably fail.

  And tomorrow Splendance would be blessing all the new babies. Bright Lady! Imagine what a blighted life such children would lead. They would be marked forever as unlucky children, and maybe their children, too. Damn the mages. Why did they have to involve the mundanes in their little political schemes? I had to put a stop to this. But how...?

  Dusk was falling. Up here in the Eyrie, the candles had been lit and servants were rushing in and out of rooms carrying robes and buckets of hot water as everyone dressed for dinner. I could hear Lumina shrieking at some unfortunate. I wondered if any of our girls would be brave enough to take service with her this year, and if they would last or come trailing home after a couple of weeks with a black eye like the last brave one had.

  As I hurried past Auntie Splendance’s room, I heard Lucient’s voice call out my name. I stopped and peered tentatively round the door frame. Splendance’s bedchamber, the second biggest in the house, was hung with ivory and blue, and Auntie Splen was lounging on her bed, sharing a long dreamsmoke pipe with Great Uncle Nate. Lucient was packing another from a blue and white jar on the dressing table. The men were also wetting their throats with glasses of a gold-coloured alcohol. Honestly, the ability of my family to absorb befuddling substances never ceased to astonish me. Mixing drink and dreamsmoke would have left me dribbling, but to them it was merely a little pre-dinner nerve toner.

  “Darling, we’ll sit together at dinner, won’t we? And you’ll come and spend the evening with me again?” asked Lucient.

  I smiled and nodded, though inwardly I sighed. How was I going to do something about Blazeann and Chatoyant if I sat in Lucient’s room all night? My eye fell on the jar on Splen’s dressing table, no doubt the very jar that Blazeann would later pollute with the ghost drug. The sight sparked something in my brain. I knew how to foil the plot. And Lucient would be the perfect ally.

  “Of course, Lord Lucient,” I cried, giving him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek as if we really were having a Blessing affair.

  By the time I’d washed, dressed, fussed over Katti—who was curled up on my bed and seemed to be healing well—resolved a heated dispute between Hilly and Tane over whether we needed to cook ten or fifty extra rissoles after the feast (“What about the late night snackers?” wailed Tane, as if the mages might die of hunger over the lack of a few rissoles) and scampered downstairs for dinner, I’d formulated a plan. Find out when Blazeann drugged Auntie Splen’s smokeweed and replace it as quickly as possible with some clean weed. Splen would keep the weed close all night so the switch was most likely to take place when the women were assembled upstairs for the Blessing prayers.

  My biggest problem had been getting some clean smokeweed to replace the polluted stuff. Smokeweed was way beyond the means of us at Willow-in-the-Mist. But as I had hoped, Lucient had plenty and when I whispered to him what I heard in the Retiring Room, he was furious and more than happy to supply me.

  “Those rotten rats,” he kept muttering. I don’t think he cared much about the failure of the Blessing, but he was clearly excited to thwart Toy.

  The other benefit of confiding in Lucient was that after dinner, he sent his extremely efficient valet, Busy, to watch Auntie Splen’s room. Instead of ducking round the balcony trying to avoid being seen, I was able to relax in Lucient’s room, drink a delicious after-dinner digestive and listen to the singing and playing of his heavily pregnant little maid, who had a divine voice and was clearly the apple of Lucy’s eye.

  “If only I was mundane and could pair-bond with Sharlee,” sighed Lucient into my ear, leaving me in little doubt that they were lovers. I wondered cynically if Sharlee would have wanted to pair-bond with a mere mundane, but she seemed fond of my cousin.

  “Lady Blazeann has gone into her mother’s room,” said Busy, appearing at the door and bowing. “Does my Lord have instructions?”

  “No, Busy, take yourself down to the party now. I won’t be needing you again tonight. Sharlee, go get me some of those nice spiced nuts we had at dinner, will you? I find myself a little peckish.”

  Once the servants were out of the way, Lucy gave me his blue and white porcelain jar of smokeweed.

  “Mother bought these jars as a pair,” he said fondly, explaining why the jars looked so similar. “Thanks so much for doing this, Shine. I know Mother isn’t the best Matriarch in the world, but believe me, Blazeann would be a lot worse. At least Lord Impavidus pays the servants.”

  I thought I did a very good job of slipping into Splendance’s room without being seen, though since most of the mages in the house were at evening prayers or off looking for the night’s lover, it wasn’t very hard. The smug feeling lasted until I tip-toed up to Auntie Splen’s dressing table and realised that she’d locked her smokeweed jar into another of those cursed mage-proof strong boxes. Did no one in this cursed family trust anyone else? And what was the point when untrustworthy people like Blazeann knew the code?

  Lucient would probably know it, because someone as vague as Auntie Splen could not be expected to remember it without help. I tiptoed back to the door and opened it.

  Hagen Stellason stood in the hallway, hand poised to turn the door knob.

  This time his reaction was different. Fast as lightning, he thrust me back into the room, slamming the door behind him. He pushed me back against the wall so violently, I lost my hold of Lucient’s drug jar.

  “What are you doing here?” he hissed as the drug jar slammed to the floor and shattered.

  “Hell!” I cried before a hand was shoved over my mouth.

  “Quiet,” hissed Hagen. Such was the authority in his voice that I stood passive while he held his hand over my mouth and stood listening. I was beginning to think about struggling when he relaxed and looked down into my face.

  “What are you doing here? Are you going to scream if I take my hand off your mouth?”

  I shook my head and he took his hand away.

  “As if I’d scream over some stupid mundane like you,” I hissed at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “This and that,” he said. He looked at the mess on the floor. “Are you stealing Lady Splendance’s drug jar? Why?”

  “It’s not hers. It just looks like hers.”

  “Why are you
in here with an identical drug jar?”

  “This and that,” I said, pointedly

  “I wouldn’t have thought you were so friendly with Lady Blazeann. Did she offer to send you to university?”

  “Blazeann. No! She wouldn’t help me.” I saw where his questions led. “And I’m not helping her. Never.”

  He sighed and seemed to come to some decision.

  “So you know Lady Blazeann has drugged Lady Splendance’s smokeweed.”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “You can’t steal the smokeweed. There’d be an outcry.”

  “I’m not,” I snapped. “And now thanks to you there’s going to be an outcry anyway.” I crouched down and started collecting the pieces of the jar.

  “So you’re stealing Lady Splendance’s weed and replacing it with another identical jar. That’s very good. You’re quite the intriguer, aren’t you?” Patronising sod, but at least he looked impressed.

  “But I haven’t managed to do it yet,” I snapped. “And we’re going to have to get a mage in here to clean up this mess. Hundreds of lumins worth of weed wasted.”

  “Brush it under the carpet for now. The maids are going to be in any minute to put in the warming pans. So you haven’t made the exchange yet?”

  “Not yet,” I said. I looked at the box. “I don’t have the combination.”

  He smiled, but it was an understanding smile. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it.”

  He stepped to the chest, spun the little wheels till he was happy and opened it. He took a package out of his pocket and unwrapped that.

  “Curse it,” he said. “I need something to put the fouled stuff in. Have you a handkerchief?”

  I pulled it out. It was clean, if ragged.

  “How’d you get the combination?”

  He grinned. “All the mages know it, and most of the servants too.”

  He spread the handkerchief out, tipped the contents of Splendance’s drug jar into it, ran his fingers round the inside of the jar to check it was clean and poured the contents of his package into the empty jar.

  I picked up the handkerchief and tied it securely.

  There were voices in the corridor outside.

  “Someone’s coming,” I hissed.

  “Quick! Under the bed.”

  He seized my elbow and I didn’t think twice about following him.

  One of the maids who came in was very quiet and serious and went quickly about her business. The other two, local girls here for the Blessing festival, hovered in the doorway chattering and laughing about the coming party and speculating as to whether they could both give a rose to Lord Scintillant that night.

  I was very aware of Hagen Stellason’s body leaning against my side. His hand was on my shoulder. Halfway through the maid’s conversation, his fingers began stroking my neck. My favourite touch. The delicious feel of it flowed all the way down into my belly. He pressed his lips against my temple. I turned my head to glare at him and he kissed me on the lips. I suppose I should have pushed him away, but he was a lovely kisser. I only shoved him away when I noticed that the room was quiet again. I shot out from under the bed.

  “You’d better get out of here,” I snapped. He smiled up at me from the floor, a slumberous smile full of offers.

  “Yes, I enjoyed it too,” he said, holding out his hand. “Here, give me the weed.”

  “No. It has to go back to the person who lent me that stuff we spilt.”

  “They’d be very unwise to smoke it.”

  “That’s up to them,” I said, dancing backwards as he made a grab for my ankle and darting out the door before he could get any more ideas.

  AS I WAS scuttling along the landing with the bundle of smokeweed clutched to my chest, an imperious voice called “Marm Shine! Come here.”

  My Great Aunt, Lady Glisten, was standing at the end of the balcony beckoning to me, while the rest of the women who had attended family prayers on the roof of the Eyrie filed down the stairs behind her. Had she seen me come out of Splen’s room? I couldn’t be sure. Maybe I should confide in her about Blazeann’s plot. Lady Glisten? She was clearly close to Blazeann. A doubtful prospect, and one not to be tried unless desperate.

  I followed her into her room and stood before her as she arrayed herself in her chair. Her current consort, a tall, white-haired retainer with overly regular features, made to leave, but Glisten held up her hand and he relaxed back into his chair by the fire. She had left the door open, too. So this was not to be a private conversation.

  This chamber had originally been earmarked for Splendance, as it was the best one in the house. When she had arrived, Lady Glisten had greeted Eff with an airy, “Don’t worry about me. Put me in any room,” but as a member of the Council of Family Elders (among many other things) and an older generation, Lady Glisten outranked Lady Splendance, so Eff bumped Splendance down to the second best bedroom and put Glisten in here.

  Lady Glisten was not only an important member of our family council. She was a major player in the Great Council that shared power with the Empress. The mages appointed the Empress and voted on her policies. Politics was a major pastime for them and Glisten was deep into it.

  “If you don’t show Great Aunt Glisten all possible respect, she sulks, and then there’s all kinds of trouble,” Eff had once told me. One thing Eff was good at was understanding family politics.

  With this in mind I bowed as low as I could to my great aunt.

  “What’s that lump in your robes?” said Lady Glisten, pointing to the smokeweed, which I’d stuck haphazardly into my body shaper.

  “It’s smokeweed. For Lord Lucient.”

  “Oh, yes, just what I meant to talk to you about, child.”

  The ‘child’ made me blink. Though clearly meant to put me at my ease, the tone in which it was said chilled me.

  “Lady Lumina tells me you are not eating meat. She says that you refuse to start breeding.”

  A knockout blow from Rat Queen Lumina. I felt breathless from the sheer gall of it. And from the fact that Lumi was obviously watching me closely.

  “What is the point of Lord Lucient wasting his time and his seed on infertile ground? It’s wasteful and most improper of you to give him your flower. You should be wearing the long robes. Or better still, eating meat and breeding daughters for this family, Marm Shine. That is your family duty.”

  Suddenly I was furious. To tell me who to give my flower to was a blatant breach of Blessing etiquette. And the rest of it was blatantly unfair. All my frustrations came out.

  “How can I breed children with a clear conscience when I have no income? I have no profession and no chance to get one. I work hard all day for this family and am paid no wage. And no one will allow me to draw the allowance that is my right under my mother’s estate. Why should I do my duty when this family does no duty to me?”

  “How dare you!”

  Lady Glisten’s eyes had widened almost to bursting. The sight of her shocked face made me falter. I had lost my temper with a noble and in front of witnesses. Bright Lady!

  “You wretched, ungrateful creature. How dare you talk like this? We feed you and clothe you.”

  The anger rose up again.

  “My mother’s estate feeds and clothes me!” I shouted. “This family does nothing for me except turn up every year and eat us out of house and—”

  “Shine! Stop.” Eff’s voice rang out from the open doorway.

  “And who, may I ask,” resumed Lady Glisten, “allows you to live on this estate? May I remind you, mundane, this is not your estate? This is your mother’s estate, to be inherited by a mage. You live here only on the good graces of the family. If you wish to make another choice, you are perfectly welcome to leave.”

  Too late, I saw the precipice I was heading for.

  “Yes, I thought so,” she said. “You gentry. Always talking of your ‘rights.’ You are just mundanes. Be grateful that we do anything for you, Marm Shine.”

  It came into my head to
assert my right to an allowance again, but I quashed the thought. I had no mage to support me in claiming my allowance and I knew it. So did Lady Glisten.

  Eff came forward and took my wrist in a vicelike grip.

  “I apologise for my foster child’s manner, Lady Glisten. She’s young and foolish and she does not mean to be disrespectful.”

  “She seems a most ungrateful girl,” snapped Lady Glisten.

  “The young,” said Eff. “You deal with them so often, my lady, and you know what they are like.”

  “Yes, well. She clearly has little sense.”

  “But she is a hard worker. And clever. She is making this place pay. You would not get such good work out of a paid servant.”

  “That is true.”

  Eff turned and took me by the forearms, placing herself between me and Lady Glisten.

  “Apologise to your noble Great Aunt for your disrespect.” This from radical Eff, who believed everyone was equal. How had we come to this point?

  We had come here because I had opened my big mouth, of course. As always.

  “Do it,” mouthed Eff, her face sharp, her fingers digging into my flesh.

  “I apologise, Lady Glisten. I spoke out of turn.”

  As Eff let me go and turned back to Lady Glisten, I made a low bow.

  “Very well,” said Lady Glisten. “We shall say no more of it. You may go. But I wish to see you eating meat tomorrow, girl. This family needs daughters, strong magical daughters. There will always be money for them.”

  So now she was implying to me that I would be paid for breeding children. It was rubbish. The children would come and I would have nothing. We would live on Eff’s small allowance as we always had, eat the produce of the farm and wear cast-off clothes and shoes from the Great House. Until they finally decided who would inherit my mother’s estate and we were cast out or exiled somewhere worse.

  “You may go, girl,” repeated Lady Glisten irritably. Eff took my arm and gently led me to the door.