by Joshua Khan
“You scum!” The boy reached for his longsword.
It was a man’s weapon, and the boy’s arms were too short to unsheathe it quickly. Thorn gave him a second to get properly tangled up.
Then kicked the boy’s feet from under him.
The boy yelled—and dropped face-first into the horse dung.
“Oops,” said Thorn.
The boy spluttered and gagged. He tried to wipe his face but just spread the dung over more of it. “What are you waiting for? Get him!”
Uh-oh.
Thorn backed away, clenching his fists. The squires drew out daggers.
“C’mon, lads. That ain’t fair,” said Thorn.
“Fair?” said the biggest. “What’s fair got to do with it? This is about winning.”
A voice called out from the darkness. “What’s going on?”
Thorn didn’t dare take his eyes off the squires, but someone was approaching. All he could make out was someone in black.
A she someone in black.
The girl shoved the biggest squire aside so she stood between them and Thorn. “I asked a question.”
The dung-covered boy got to his feet. “That maggot attacked me! I demand he be whipped!”
“First person who touches me loses their teeth,” threatened Thorn.
“Do shut up,” the girl said to him. She faced the boy. “You’re mistaken, m’lord. You slipped.”
“What?” said the boy.
“What?” said Thorn.
The girl shook her head. “Surely you’re not saying that a defenseless, unarmed stable boy defeated you? If word got around that the duke’s son, armed and surrounded by his guards, was beaten by a commoner, then think of the embarrassment. Not just for you, but for your father.”
Whoever this girl was, she was clever. Maybe too clever.
The boy’s eyes narrowed. He seemed to be thinking. Slowly, but hard. “Yes…I slipped. It is too dark here. You should have more torches in the courtyard. See to it.”
The girl curtseyed. “Of course, m’lord. As you wish.”
The boy and his cronies all stormed off.
Thorn unclenched his fists. “I suppose I should thank you.”
“Are you a total idiot, or merely suicidal? You must be, to insult Gabriel like that,” said the girl.
“Important, is he? This Gabriel?”
“Only heir apparent to House Solar. So, yes, fairly important.”
“Oh.” Insulting the powerful was becoming a habit. “But as my grandpa would say, ‘He started it.’”
“That’s the most stupid thing I’ve heard all night.”
“Look, I’ve thanked you already. Now go away.” He gathered Thunder’s reins. Where were the stables?
“Don’t turn your back on me.”
“Did you hear something, Thunder? No? Me neither.”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him back around.
They glared at each other.
Look at her. Some stuck-up snob dressed in jewels and pearls and acting like she owns the place.
“Will you just get lost?” said Thorn. “I have work to do.”
“I am Lady Shadow,” she said, “and when I give an order, you follow it.”
Ah. Maybe she does own the place.
“You’re Lady Shadow? Nah, you can’t be. She’d be someone more…cackling.”
“Cackling?”
“Mad old woman sort. Y’know, cackling and brewing potions and with only one tooth in her mouth. Real wrinkly.”
“What’s your name?” Lady Shadow asked.
“Thorn”—he bowed like he’d seen Merrick do—“Your Princessness.”
“Are you ill?” she asked.
“Ain’t that how you do it? Bow, I mean?”
“Only if you’re an octopus.” She waved dismissively. “And you call me ‘m’lady.’”
“You ain’t a princess? Where I come from, you can call yourself a king if you’ve got two fields. An emperor if you’ve got four.”
“Well, where I come from, no one uses royal titles. Not since the time of the Six Princes. It’s bad luck.”
“What about the Coral king?” asked Thorn. “He uses a royal title.”
“Him? He’s half man, half fish. Who cares what he calls himself?” She pointed at Thorn’s head. “So what happened to your hair?”
Thorn rubbed his palm over the two weeks’ worth of bristles. “Lice. Tyburn had it all shaved off.”
“You came with Tyburn?” She looked surprised.
Thorn wrinkled his nose. That dung was unbelievably smelly. He found a shovel up against the stable door. “Yeah. I’m his new squire.”
Now she looked shocked.
“What?” asked Thorn.
“There must be something very special about you, Thorn. Have you slain a dragon recently?”
“Nooo….”
“Troll? Ogre? An army of giants? Something equally heroic?”
“Caught a couple of rabbits. Does that count?”
“I’m just trying to understand why Tyburn picked you to be his squire. You do know who Tyburn is, don’t you?”
“Yeah. That’s been pointed out. A lot.”
“And he lets you look after his horse?”
Thorn brushed the forelock from the horse’s eyes. “Thunder? He’s just a big old softie.”
“The last squire who tried that almost had his hand bitten off.” She went to touch Thunder, but the horse snapped his teeth at her, and she backed away. “Er…nice horsey.”
Thorn shrugged. “I’ve always been good with animals. Like my dad. I once saw him scare off a wolf just by whistling.” He looked her over. How could she be wearing so much jewelry and still be standing? “So how long have you known Tyburn?”
“All my life.”
“What’s he really like?” They’d been riding together for two weeks, but Tyburn had kept conversation pretty much limited to “Get up,” “Eat,” and “Sleep.” “Y’know, on his days off, when he’s not being an executioner?”
“Tyburn never has a day off. Tyburn’s always Tyburn.”
“He can’t be. What’s his first name?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. No one’s ever been brave enough to ask him.”
And this was the man he had to serve for the next year? Just great. What sort of world was he in? Bats in swarms as thick as clouds. A windowless castle bigger than any city he’d ever seen, one-name killers, and all ruled by this girl.
They were interrupted by another boy, this time dressed in black. He carried a small bundle in his arms. “M’lady, I’ve got him.”
Lady Shadow took the package and cradled it in her arms. “Thank you, Wade. You may go.”
The boy, Wade, glanced over at Thorn. “Are you sure?”
Lady Shadow nodded, not taking her gaze from the bundle. Wade shot another suspicious look at him, then bowed and left.
“What’s that?” Thorn asked.
Lady Shadow’s face fell, and tears glistened in her gray eyes. “It’s Custard, my dog.”
He could hear the pain in her words. The way they almost choked her. “I’m sorry. You’re going to bury him?”
“Yes. In the Night Garden.” One of her hands gently stroked the bundle. “Gabriel’s been humiliated twice tonight. He’s not going to let either insult go. You’d better come with me.”
“I can handle Gabriel easy.”
“It’s not him that’ll be the problem. It’ll be the ten others he’ll bring with him.”
Thorn ducked as a bat screamed overhead, its wing tip brushing his ear. He shook his head as other bats darted past before rising up into the night.
Lady Shadow laughed. “They’re harmless. Just ignore them.”
“Harmless? Look at ’em. They’re huge. How big do they get?”
“You have no idea.”
“Who’s that?” Thorn asked Lady Shadow.
Ahead stood a black marble statue, twelve feet tall and wearing a cloak that was made o
f bats. Hundreds of them.
What was it about House Shadow and bats?
The statue’s face was gaunt, and there was clearly a family resemblance. “One of yours, I suppose?”
“Lazarus Shadow. He planted the Night Garden.” Lady Shadow brushed her fingertips along a row of rosebushes. Their petals were shiny black, as though freshly painted. The scent was…drowsy, as if someone had perfumed them with dreams. “These roses only grow here. They unfurl at night.”
Pebble-strewn paths branched out in all directions, and there were bushes, flowers, and trees. Thorn didn’t recognize many of the plants, even though he’d grown up beside a forest.
Everything’s strange in Gehenna. I left “normal” behind long ago.
Thorn adjusted the shovel he’d found, swapping it from his right shoulder to his left. “Lazarus Shadow? I’ve heard of him. Wasn’t he a vampire?”
“He just fell in with the wrong crowd when he was younger.”
“This crowd being vampires?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I saw this puppet play last year at midsummer’s fair,” Thorn said. “Lazarus and the Silver Warrior, Michael Solar. Lazarus kidnaps Solar’s love, and there’s this big fight and he gets his head chopped off.”
“Just because he was a vampire doesn’t make him a bad person,” she said.
“Er…I think it does.”
“That’s because you only hear the Solars’ side of the story. They always made us the villains. Look around you. Everyone forgets what a great gardener Lazarus was.”
“Didn’t he use the corpses of his victims for fertilizer?”
“Waste not, want not.”
There was a splash from up ahead.
Lady Shadow tightened her grip on her puppy as she peered into the darkness. “Who’s there?”
Thorn hefted the shovel. Was it Gabriel? If it was an ambush, he’d fight.
“Who’s there?” Lady Shadow repeated.
A flame flared into life, bringing brightness and color to the night. “It’s me—K’leef.”
A dark-skinned boy in a long red robe stood beside a pond, rolling fire between his many-ringed fingers.
Magic. He knows magic.
The flame transformed in hues, ranging back and forth through the rainbow and casting weird, mesmerizing patterns across the pond’s surface.
Thorn stared at it, spellbound. He’d never seen real magic before. “Can you teach me that?”
K’leef looked him up and down before answering. “I doubt it.”
“What are you doing here, K’leef?” Lady Shadow joined Thorn by the water’s edge.
“Throwing pebbles. Watching the ripples.” K’leef looked up. “And you?”
“I’m burying Custard.” She gestured toward Thorn. “This is…Spike?”
“Thorn.”
“That’s what I meant to say,” replied Lady Shadow. “This is K’leef. He’s from the—”
“The Sultanate of Fire. I know,” Thorn said to K’leef. “That trick of yours was a bit of a giveaway. It’s really amazing.”
K’leef blushed, and the flame vanished. Smoke twisted between his fingers for a moment before drifting off in the faint night breeze. He took Lady Shadow’s hand. “I’m really sorry about what happened tonight, Lily.”
He calls her Lily.
Of course he would. The two of them were alike, what with their jewels and rich clothes. They were nobles and Thorn was a peasant and so it was “Lady Shadow.” That’s how things were.
So why did it suddenly bother him?
Lady Shadow pointed to a spot of bare earth between two tall rosebushes and told Thorn, “Dig there. Make it deep.”
She and K’leef stood silently as Thorn dug the grave. The dirt was damp and soft. It didn’t take him long. Soon he scooped the last of the soil and stabbed his shovel into the ground. “There. It’s done.”
“Thank you,” said Lady Shadow. She knelt beside the grave. “Good-bye, Custard.” She kissed the puppy and laid him in the hole. “Go find Dante. My brother will look after you.”
After Thorn had covered the grave, Lady Shadow put roses over the earth. She stared at the spot and bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears.
Why not allow herself to cry? Thorn could see that the puppy had meant a lot to her. Maybe it was one of those rules nobles had. They weren’t supposed to show they were upset and cry. It might make people think they were just like everyone else.
“What happened to him?” Thorn asked.
“Poisoned,” said K’leef.
“Who’d want to poison a puppy?”
“They were trying to poison me, not Custard.” Lady Shadow stared at the grave and sniffed loudly.
“Oh.” No wonder Tyburn had run off like that.
K’leef brushed his fingers. It’s not like he had any dirt on them; Thorn had done the digging. “Any leads, Lily?”
“It was a poison called life-bane. You’ve heard of it?”
K’leef shook his head.
“I have,” said Thorn. He might only be a peasant, but he knew things, too. “You make it out of berries that grow in Herne’s Forest. Dry ’em and grind ’em up into a powder, then sprinkle it on some old meat. We use it to kill rats. Wolves, too.”
“Who taught you that?” asked Lady Shadow.
“My dad. He didn’t want us kids scoffing the wrong sort of berries. You need to know what’s safe and what ain’t.” Thorn leaned on the shovel. “What happens next, m’lady?”
“What do you mean?”
“Seems to me, someone owes you a dog. I don’t know how you do things here, but where I come from, if someone does you wrong, you make ’em pay for it.”
“I know who did it,” said Lady Shadow.
K’leef looked up. “You do? Who?”
“Who do you think? Gabriel.” Lady Shadow frowned. “But how do I prove it?”
Thorn grinned. “Easy. The best way to find out a secret is to go where you ain’t allowed, listen to what you ain’t meant to hear, and see what you ain’t meant to see.” Thorn gazed at the walls, towers, and battlements that surrounded them. A place like this would have thousands of secrets.
K’leef nodded knowingly. “You’ll have to be careful, especially after insulting Gabriel tonight.”
“She insulted Gabriel, too? How?” Thorn was impressed. Maybe there was more to this girl after all.
“Lady Shadow refused to dance with him,” K’leef said proudly. “She danced with me.”
“And that’s an insult? Riiight.” He’d never understand nobles.
“Exposing Gabriel won’t be easy.”
“If life was meant to be easy, then carts would have square wheels,” said Thorn.
“What?” said Lily.
“That’s not a saying around here? My grandpa used to say it all the time. It’s about how making square wheels is easier than round ones, but—”
“I know what it means,” said Lady Shadow. “I can’t be sneaking in corridors and spying at keyholes.” She kicked a pebble angrily. It sounded to him that sneaking and spying were exactly what she wanted to be doing. “There are rules.”
“Stupid ones,” said Thorn. Nobles. They weren’t like normal people. He scraped the mud off the shovel. “I should get back. I wouldn’t want no one else falling into that dung.”
“Wait,” said Lady Shadow.
“Yeah?”
Lady Shadow faced Thorn. He could almost hear her heart racing. “If it were up to you, what would you do?”
“Them rules of yours?” said Thorn, smiling. “I’d start breaking ’em.”
For the squires, every day began the same way. With a predawn run.
Today it was out through Dead Man’s Gate for a lap around the hill, then back for weapons training. Last boy home went without breakfast.
Thorn ran alongside K’leef. He wasn’t sure how the pair of them had ended up together. It was probably because they were strangers in Gehenna and no one knew what to make of
them, yet.
Thorn wished K’leef hadn’t come up to him at the gate. He didn’t have anything in common with him.
But he was stuck with him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
And stuck was right. The Sultanate boy was plowing unsteadily through the mud, gasping with each breath. He’d already fallen once, face-first. In his rich, red-colored robes and dainty embroidered shoes, he wasn’t exactly dressed for running. At least he had dumped his rings and all his other jewelry.
He probably doesn’t want to be weighed down any more than he has to be.
“You’re not helping yourself wearing that. Couldn’t you borrow some clothes from one of the squires?”
“I belong to House Djinn. I dress in red.”
“Right now you’re dressed in mud.” Thorn sighed. “Here, let me help.”
K’leef gave Thorn a weary, grateful smile and grabbed his hand. Between Thorn pulling and K’leef crawling, they managed to get him out of the quagmire of a ditch.
“I’m surprised they let you out,” said Thorn. “Ain’t Solar worried you’re going to run off?”
“Of course not. I gave my word not to attempt to escape.”
Thorn laughed. “You’re joking, right?”
K’leef stared at him so angrily, Thorn worried he was going to catch fire. “You’re not joking?”
“When a noble gives his word, he keeps it,” said K’leef with a huff. “It’s a matter of honor.”
Thorn shook his head in amazement. Nobles and their stupid rules. “What are you doing out here, anyway? Nobles don’t need to run; you’ve got horses. My dad told me the best horses in the New Kingdoms are the fire breeds from the Sultanate.”
“He’s right,” said K’leef. “But we also have flying carpets. Much more comfortable.”
“Flying carpets? Really?”
K’leef laughed, or maybe he was having a heart attack. Thorn wasn’t totally sure. The boy’s face was a dangerous dark red. Eventually K’leef started breathing normally. “No, Thorn. Used to, but all I’ve got back home is a cushion that floats a foot or so off the ground.”
Back home. Thorn saw the brightness in K’leef’s eyes when he spoke about it. Maybe he and this noble weren’t so different after all.
“This run was Gabriel’s idea, not that he’d take part himself. He thought it would be funny.” K’leef spat. “There’s nothing he’d like better than to see me carried back on a stretcher. But I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.”