by Jane Routley
Despite what Hagen had told me, I really wanted to confide in Eff when she poked her head in at the door to check on us. The idea that the mages had taken to poisoning each other was so frightening. Where might it stop?
But Auntie Glisten’s stentorian tones called Eff away to some kind of hostly duty, and I thought better of sharing the secret before she returned. I’d tell her when everyone was gone.
The idea comforted me. I felt able to leave Lucient with only Sharlee for company and go and see if there was anything I could do to help. Going down the stairs, I saw Hagen leaning against the bannisters on the third floor chatting to one of the local maidservants. I remembered that I had unfinished business with him. Thinking of Klea and her letter, such a nice, predictable, unsinister problem, lifted my spirits. No doubt Klea would have been most unimpressed to know that. I wondered if she had any idea what was going on up here.
To my surprise, Hagen left the maid and joined me on the stairs.
“Don’t let me interrupt you,” I said. “You looked to be doing so well with her.”
“Jealous?”
“Oh, searingly,” I said, pleased to discover I’d got the sarcastic tone of voice right. Now how to get the truth out of him?
As we reached the bottom of the Eyrie stairs, I was comforted to see that the tables had already been set for luncheon. Someone was keeping things running in an orderly fashion, even though the world was turned upside down. Probably Thomas. He took comfort in such things. Habit made me stop and run my eye over the place settings.
“So will the family leave tonight as planned?”
“Yes,” said Hagen. “Lady Splendance will not hear of salting or pickling Lady Blazeann’s body, so they need to get back to Elayison quickly for her funeral.”
I must have shuddered, because he touched my arm and said kindly, “How are you?”
“Still having trouble comprehending.”
He squeezed my arm. “I—”
“Hey! You! Ghostie!” shouted a voice from above. A distinctive husky male voice: Illuminus.
Fright seared down my spine. I would have run, but a force had seized me and I was pulled backwards into the air and up into the gallery.
Below, Hagen’s face was wide eyed with shock. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand was clamped over it before anything could come out. My ankle banged painfully against the banisters as I was yanked over them.
Illuminus gripped me against him, arm around my waist, and twisted my arm round behind my back. His stubble stung me as he thrust his mouth against my ear. He was hovering above the first floor balcony.
“Where is he, you little rat?” he snarled. I could smell the vinegar scent of wine on his breath.
“What are you talking—?”
The tendons in my shoulder cried out as he dragged on my twisted arm.
“I’m sick of your games! Tell me where he is. I know he’s still here.”
“I don’t know—”
“You’re determined to make life hard for yourself, aren’t you?”
“No!” I screamed, but was silenced as his hand clamped back over my mouth. For a moment he was holding me up only by my twisted arm and the pain was awful. His other arm took me round the waist and we were gliding. The door between the Eyrie and our wing of the house flew open and slammed shut behind us, and then we were flowing down the hallway towards my room.
“You almost had me convinced that he’d gone with that woman, but even witless peasants don’t believe in a haunting without reason. Someone saw a ghost in your room yesterday, and we both know who he is.”
The hallway was empty of potential witnesses. Once we were inside my room he could do what he liked to me. Would Klea be there? And would she reveal herself and help me if she was?
He still had his hand clamped over my mouth. I tried to swerve into the wall or brace myself against some furniture, but he was using magic to move us and I could get no purchase.
“Stop struggling,” he hissed as my door flew open before us. “I could pop this arm out of its socket in a snap; and I will, if you don’t tell me where he is.”
I heard the door slam behind us. The room was empty. Only an unmade bed. No Klea. Oh, no.
“Right. Show me where he is, or I’ll break something. I want that ghost.”
He wasn’t going to take his hand off my mouth, so I couldn’t scream. My mind ran around and around, trying to think of some way out of this.
“Come on, quickly! No, don’t shake your head at me. I know he’s here.”
He yanked my arm back further. The tendons at my shoulder stretched like hot wires. It hurt so much I screamed into his hand.
“Stop that!” shouted a stern voice and Klea jumped up from the other side of the bed.
“What are you doing here?” snarled Illuminus.
“I said, let her go!” shouted Klea. Her crystal flashed and I felt the force of her magic shake Illuminus.
“Stay out of it, rat!” shouted Illuminus, but he dropped me. Luckily we were standing just above the floor; but even so, I fell flat on my face. As I lay there trying to will my stunned body to flee, magical force streamed past me.
With a creak, my huge old wooden bed tipped sideways and Klea disappeared behind it.
I scrabbled forward, not knowing where I was going, simply getting away from Illuminus. A dark shape loomed over me and the huge wooden bed leg thudded onto the floor beside my head. I think I may have screamed like a child.
Klea must have tipped the bed back into place, almost braining me in the process. At least now I was safely underneath it.
“How dare you?” The low hiss of Klea’s voice made my blood run cold. Air rushed and flesh slapped into flesh, and Illuminus started gagging. I could see Klea’s boots on the other side of the bed, and Illuminus’ feet dangling off the floor, kicking at the air.
Something smashed against a wall.
“No, you don’t, you prick,” snarled Klea. He must had thrown something at her. “You—”
The door slammed open.
“Lor—Stop that! Let him go.” The room was full of the rushing of magic. I—hero that I was—huddled under the bed, my hands over my head.
“Who are you?” cried a woman. “How dare you attack one of the family? Are you harmed, Lord Illuminus?”
She didn’t know who Klea was!
Two sets of feet by the door. More retainers, from the look of their boots. And from the way the air was tingling with magical force and full of crystal light, they must have a good hold on Klea. Her boots were still and she’d risen from the floor.
“Let me go,” shouted Klea. “I’m... Ooof!”
It sounded like someone’d hit her in the stomach. Then came the sound of a slap.
“My lord, should you...?” said the woman.
“Hold the rat still, will you?” croaked Illuminus and there came another thudding body blow and a groan from Klea. And they were letting him hit her, because he was family and they were new family retainers and clearly had no idea who Klea was. I had to do something.
“Nooo!” I screamed, pushing myself out from under the bed and grabbing Illuminus’ legs. “Stop him.” And for want of anything better to do, I bit him on the calf. Dry mouthful of cloth.
“Argh, you rat!” shrieked Illuminus and I felt him grab my hair, felt his force gathering against my body and—
“What is going on here?”
For once I was actually glad to hear Impi’s voice.
“Stop this disgraceful... Klea, what are you doing...? Let her go, you idiots—this is Lady Splendance’s daughter, Lady Sparklea. Illuminus, what do you mean by this appalling behaviour?”
They must have pulled their magic back because Klea dropped to the floor. She was clutching her chest. A breast blow, the dirty pig!
I crawled over to her, murmuring anxious questions. Her eyes were screwed up in pain.
“Lord Illuminus! I demand an explanation as to why you would strike a fellow family member. And where is Shine? W
hy are you mistreating her?”
“I’m here, my lord,” I called out. “She was protecting me. I think he’s really hurt her. Can you sit up, Klea?”
Auntie Eff was there, helping us both up. Klea was still bent over in pain and we heaved her onto the bed. No help from the mages, who were too busy being shouted at by Impi.
“My dear, are you harmed?” cried Eff, clutching at me. I shrugged her off. I was too worried about Klea, who was lying curled up on the bed.
“Did he hurt you?” I whispered to her.
“Leave her quiet so that she can heal herself,” hissed Eff.
Klea opened her eyes and gave me a twisted smile and a nod and closed her eyes again.
“Come,” said Eff, putting her arms around me and drawing me towards the door.
“Hold him!” shouted Impi, and sure enough, there was Illuminus’ crystal lit up, trying to get out of the window. “Lord Illuminus, you will explain this disgraceful behaviour to me. What do you mean by trying to harm a member of the family like this?”
“This is a private matter between these women and myself. I can only say that my anger against this creeping little rat was entirely justified.”
“But striking her is not. Not in this house.”
“Perhaps I allowed my temper to get the better of me, but if you knew—”
“Rubbish,” I shouted. “He’s a—”
To my astonishment, Eff clapped her hand over my mouth.
“I will speak for my brother,” said a voice. Toy stood in the doorway in a swirl of gauzy green robes. I wondered if anyone else heard Klea’s gasp. I turned back to look at her and thought I saw alarm in her eyes. She closed them and seemed to curl further up into herself. I guessed she hadn’t found the letter, and was now giving up all hope. I tried to go to her, but Eff was drawing me slowly but surely out of the room.
“It is me that my brother is defending.” Chatoyant gestured at me as she stepped into the room. “This little beast is in the pay of this disgraceful creature here. I have a letter which shows the terrible shame that this creature has brought upon this family, and this mundane has been trying to steal it from me. My dear brother was merely trying to warn off the mundane and to find out where Klea is.”
She was wearing her righteous avenging Goddess pose. A hateful pose. I tried to push Eff’s hand away and set the record straight.
“Later,” hissed Eff.
“Oh, wonderful,” sneered Impi. “My lady has lost her first-born, her beloved Matriarch-in-waiting, and all you lot can do is make uproar in the house over some trifling falling-out. I am fed up with your little plottings.”
“Oh, no, Lord Impavidus, this is no small matter. This is a scandal that eats at the very fabric of our society.”
“Really,” huffed Impi. “No doubt you can substantiate this claim, Lady Chatoyant? Perhaps you will tell—”
“In front of all these witnesses? This is family business. I think this requires the Matriarch’s attention.”
“You know the Matriarch is indisposed.”
“But Lady Glisten is not. And what better than to take this creature before her?” Toy strode to the bed and hoicked Klea up.
“Klea!” I called.
She shook her drooping head.
“Very well,” said Impi “My dear, are you well enough to travel?” he asked Klea with most un-Impi-like kindness. This was, after all, the man who had cut off her allowance just for living outside the Family House. “Let us go up to the Eyrie and have this out. And you!” He took my arm out of Eff’s grasp and held me firmly but quite gently by the uninjured shoulder. “I think you had best come with us and give your witness.”
He nodded at a couple of the retainers who were hovering by the door. “You two see that Lord Illuminus comes with us and gives us his side of the story.”
Eff pulled a face at me, and for the first time I thought of the ghost.
“Get away as quick as you can. We need to take him up to the old mine,” she breathed in my ear.
Then Impi and I were gliding down the hallway surrounded by the crystal lights and rustling silks of the noble folk. Ahead, Klea was being helped by one the retainers, who was clearly apologising for her rough treatment at Illuminus’ hands. Chatoyant was a minty green shadow at Klea’s other side. Her hand kept straying to Klea’s shoulder and Klea kept flinching away.
“Lady Chatoyant, will you please stop that?” snapped Impi as the double doors opened to let us into the Eyrie. “I think Lady Sparklea has suffered enough at your family’s hands, don’t you?”
“You won’t be this way when you know...”
But Impi brushed past her and we were streaming up the Eyrie as fast as ash up a chimney. Impi was almost as strong a mage as a woman. Instead of holding me by my limbs and dragging me round as Illuminus had, his magic held my whole body up. Which was a relief. My poor arm felt as if it was ready to drop out of its socket.
Only the woman helping Klea kept pace with him, and even so, Impi was first over the balcony. A shriek came from Auntie Splen’s room and Splendance came rushing out, the crystal shining in her forehead. Her hair draggled down at one side like a curtain only half tied back, but she had already changed into dark mourning robes.
“Klea’s here?” cried Splendance. She saw her daughter coming over the balcony and launched herself at her, arms out, meeting Klea in mid-air and wrapping herself about her in clinging black cloud of draperies.
“My poor wounded darling,” cried Splendance. “My last precious child.”
Klea’s face took on a clenched look, and Impi cursed in my ear; Two, who was hovering in the door way of Splen’s room, seemed to shrink under Impi’s stern gaze. Last precious child seemed a bit rough coming from a woman who still had three other living children and Cousin Two as well.
“Splendance,” roared Glisten, from the door of her room. “Let the child come to me. Stop smothering her. Chatoyant has a claim against—”
“Chatoyant!” cried Splendance. “You!” She dropped her hold on Klea and still hanging in mid-air rounded on Chatoyant. “Haven’t Flara’s get wounded me enough? Is there no limit to your ambition?”
Impi put me gently on the ground and took Auntie Splen firmly by the arm. In the back of my mind I knew I should take the opportunity to run off, but I could not bring myself to leave Klea before I found out what was going to happen to her. So instead I followed everyone into Auntie Glisten’s room.
“All of you who are not family withdraw,” said Glisten, with a wave of her hand as she sat down upon her chair with a stately spreading of robes. With pointed patience, she waited as people muddled around, retainers leaving and Cousin Two and Auntie Four coming in. There was no sign of Lucient or Scintillant, though in both cases that was hardly surprising. As for Great Uncle Nate, who should have been here, I could hear his snores echoing up the Eyrie. Nobody asked for the pointless old fellow to be woken.
Klea stood beside Glisten, head bowed, with Splendance hanging off her like a cobweb. She looked like different person, smaller, thinner, like a wounded captive, all her usual jauntiness quenched. Cousin Two and Auntie Four hovered anxiously near the door and Impi hovered at Splendance’s back.
Chatoyant strode up and down in front of Glisten in a wild swirl of minty green silk draperies and when the last retainer had gone out of the door, she made it slam after him.
“Now!” she said.
But Glisten wasn’t having Chatoyant running the show. She turned to Illuminus, who had draped himself with elegant nonchalance over one of the chairs. “So, my boy! I have been hearing very serious rumours about you, and now I find you mistreating a mundane, against all the rules of Shola’s pact. What have you got to say for yourself?”
“I told you, Auntie, Illuminus was protecting me,” cried Chatoyant.
Glisten cut her short. “I think not. Shine, tell us why Lord Illuminus was mistreating you. I believe you have some evidence of illegal moneymaking actives on his part.”
I felt myself shrinking as everyone in the room turned to me. The direct attention of all these powerful people couldn’t be a good thing.
“No, I... I don’t. He thinks I do, but I don’t,” I stammered, completely unprepared for this question. “I, um...”
“Don’t be frightened, child,” said Glisten. “Illuminus is not going to hurt you anymore. He is coming back to Elayison under house arrest with me until his activities can be investigated more thoroughly. Tell us what he thinks you have.”
Don’t be frightened, she said, after how she had treated me last time! I couldn’t tell the whole truth, and what if she caught me in a lie? I fought down the rising panic and took a deep breath. I had to avoid mentioning the ghost. With that one proviso in mind and no idea how deep the well I was standing in front of was, I decided I might as well leap in and see if I could stay afloat.
“Bright said that he’d discovered Illuminus was involved in crystal smuggling. He said he had evidence. I didn’t really think it was possible, but Illuminus kept trying to search my room. I think he thought Bright had given me some evidence, but I don’t have—”
“This is a lie,” shouted Illuminus, over the gasps from the rest of the room.
“What travesty is this?” shouted Chatoyant. “You listen to the lies of a mundane and an... an invert—a disgraced piece of filth—against my noble brother?”
“Bright’s not filth. You’re filth,” I shouted. “Raping Lucient and...” I was about to accuse her of poisoning Blazeann, but I stopped in time.
“How dare—?”
“Shut up, all of you,” snapped Impi.
“Shine is not my only source of information, Lady Chatoyant,” roared Glisten. “I have heard enough of a disturbing nature against your brother to wish to investigate further.”
“And I tell you this is all lies. My brother was protecting me against this little sneak.” Chatoyant turned on Klea. “How can you turn your back on my accusations against this woman? This woman has had a child. Examine her and you will see it.” A new gasp rose from around the room, for a new baby in the family was big news. It was the last thing I had expected to hear. “But where is this child? I’ll tell you where. This woman—this disgraceful creature—has done the unthinkable. She has given her own child, a daughter, a child of our family, up for adoption. And money has changed hands.”