Shadow Magic

by Joshua Khan

  Tyburn merely looked down at the boy.

  Lily smiled at Thorn’s bravery—and his stupidity.

  “Hades is one of the family,” said Lily. “We look after our own.”

  Thorn bowed. “Thank you, m’lady.”

  Lily almost laughed but saw that Thorn was trying hard to act properly. She returned his politeness with a small curtsey. “You’re welcome. There’s plenty of information in the diary about how to take care of Hades. You and I will go through it later.”

  And with that, Old Colm and Thorn left.

  Pan slammed the door and glared at Lily. “Stay away from that boy. He’s nothing but trouble.”

  “Someone needs to be on Thorn’s side.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’m not going to let Gabriel hurt him,” said Lily.

  “Gabriel Solar is a fool,” said Tyburn. “If Thorn can’t outwit Gabriel, then he really is of no use to anyone.”

  “Tyburn, that almost sounds like a compliment.”

  “The boy’s likeable and has many useful qualities.”

  “‘Useful qualities’?” repeated Lily. This was too much fun. The whole castle was in an uproar. Every Shadow squire wanted to be Thorn’s best friend. “He just rode in on a giant bat. I think that counts as rather fantastic, don’t you? Still, we can deal with Thorn and Hades later,” she looked around the room, double-checking that it was just the three of them now. “I want to talk about what Rose told me. She saw Gabriel put poison in my cup, Uncle. What more proof do we need?”

  Pan shook his head. “This again? You cannot be serious.”

  “This is about the Solars trying to take over Gehenna, Uncle. I’m very serious.” She would never let that happen. She’d heard that the Solars were already hiring stonemasons to put windows in. Never!

  Lily would not be remembered as the Shadow who let light into Castle Gloom.

  “Lily, be reasonable. Why would Gabriel want, or need, to do such a thing?”

  “But she saw him.”

  “Who knows what that silly girl saw?” Pan grunted. “And the word of a mere servant against the heir of Lumina? No one would believe her. If the duke was here, he’d demand she be whipped for her impertinence.”

  “No one touches Rose.” Lily wasn’t giving up. “I don’t see why her word means less than Gabriel’s, or anyone’s, when it’s the truth. Gabriel’s evil! He tried to poison me, and he tried to have Thorn killed. Wade told me that Gabriel had his squires chasing Thorn with knives, Uncle.”

  Pan scoffed. “As I said, that Thorn is nothing but trouble.”

  Tyburn shook his head. “Gabriel is not the poisoner.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “He lacks the guile.”

  “Are you quite sure?”

  “It’s my job to be sure, m’lady.”

  Pan folded his arms and considered the executioner. “Then who is this mysterious poisoner?”

  “The man I’ve been hunting for the last five months. The sixth brigand.”

  It was as if a cold hand had seized Lily’s lungs and was squeezing the breath out of her. The pain grew every second as the agony of her family’s deaths became fresh all over again.

  Pan swallowed his wine. “He must be long gone by now, Tyburn.”

  Lily’s hands shook. Despite the crushing tightness in her chest, she forced herself to speak. “Six men were responsible for killing my parents and brother, Uncle. We found five. Let Tyburn finish.”

  “Your father’s carriage was ambushed in Spindlewood. Why would brigands pick such a spot? There is little traffic in that part of the woods. Little chance of a rich merchant or well-to-do farmer traveling through. No, there are better places, with richer pickings.” Tyburn met her gaze. She knew he’d been loyal to her father, but there was no emotion in the man’s eyes. No sense of loss or pain. Lily turned away.

  Tyburn continued. “They were there on purpose. Not to rob, but to kill the Shadows. No mere brigand would risk taking on a sorcerer as powerful as your father. It would have to be someone special.”

  Lily whipped around. “They were assassins, you’re saying?” Her eyes flashed as the idea sunk in. “A special kind? But you caught five and…took care of them. That doesn’t sound so special to me.”

  “Five were pawns, I think. Mere hired hands. The sixth one, though…he was injured by an arrow but escaped. We searched Spindlewood with troops and hounds, and we found nothing. No trail, no mark of his passing.”

  Tyburn paused, resting his hand on his sword hilt. The shadows were heavier in the faint candlelight, deepening the wrinkles and creases in his face. “I have spent months searching and still haven’t found him. No man has ever evaded me for so long.”

  “It was sloppy of you to let him get away in the first place.” Pan’s hands tightened around the goblet. “I gave you extra men to make sure they were dealt with properly.”

  “And you think the sixth brigand and our poisoner are one and the same?” asked Lily.

  Tyburn didn’t answer immediately; he seemed to be weighing his response. Lily knew he didn’t like to guess. “Most likely. He would have had to lie low to recover from his arrow wound—that would account for the last few months—and now he is back to finish the job. Remember, m’lady, you were supposed to be in that carriage, too. You were meant to be killed alongside the rest of your family.”

  Pan put his hand gently on her back. “Enough, Tyburn. Can’t you see you’re upsetting her?”

  “No, it’s all right. I need to know this.” Lily stared at her hands, clenched fiercely into fists. “I want to help,” she said. “I want to know who this man is. I should—”

  Pan squeezed her shoulder. “Leave this to Tyburn, Lily.”

  “They were my family. I owe this to them, Uncle.”

  Pan spoke to Tyburn. “Do you think he’s still nearby?”

  “Near enough to put the life-bane in the goblet during the feast. I am questioning the various servants….”

  They weren’t listening to her. They weren’t going to let her do anything.

  After five months, she thought her heart had started to heal, but hearing about the man responsible for killing her loved ones had torn it apart again. She had to find him, but she knew she’d get no help from Tyburn or Uncle Pan.

  It’s time to stop playing by the rules.

  So now she needed to break them, starting with the biggest one of all.

  The next evening, Lily took K’leef and Thorn off to explore Castle Gloom.

  They started with a secret doorway behind a statue of Baron Moloch Shadow, standing at the head of the Corridor of Woe.

  Thorn peered down the unlit passageway. “Why do I think this is a bad idea?”

  K’leef looked down the same passageway and nodded. “A very bad idea.”

  Lily glanced back at them. “Don’t tell me you’re scared?”

  K’leef straightened his robes. “Of course not. I was just…worried for Thorn.”

  “I’m a lot less scared than you, K’leef,” snapped Thorn. “Back in Stour, Dad and me went hunting—”

  “All right. You’re both very brave.” Lily huffed and tugged K’leef’s sleeve. “Come on. I need to find this poisoner.”

  “Are you sure it’s not Gabriel?” said Thorn. “He’s a louse.”

  “Tyburn’s convinced it’s this sixth brigand. Whoever he is.”

  So down they went.

  “What are we doing here, exactly, apart from getting covered in cobwebs?” asked K’leef, brushing his cloak.

  “We’re breaking the rules.”

  They stopped in a small chamber while Lily figured out which way to go. Thorn listened at a door. “Can you hear that?”

  “Hmm.” Which arch should we go through? The first one or the second? Or the third?

  “It’s just that I can hear something.” Thorn reached for the door handle.

  “I wouldn’t.” Lily slapped his hand. “That’s the Hall of Forgetfuln
ess. Going in there would be a very bad thing indeed.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t remember.” She peered this way and that. “Left, I think.”

  Lily led them farther into the depths of the castle, down winding staircases and through hidden doors, and the air grew staler and the cobwebs thicker.

  “Are we there yet?” said Thorn as they marched through another empty chamber. “Wade and the other squires were heading to the fair. I was gonna go with ’em.”

  “This is more important.”

  “For you, maybe.”

  Lily scowled. Why had she brought him, anyway?

  “Don’t worry, Lily, I’ll help you,” said K’leef, grinning back at Thorn, who picked up his pace.

  A pair of black marble doors barred the way.

  Carved into them were leering, monstrous faces and grinning demons, each frozen in terrifying detail.

  “This is the Shadow Library, isn’t it?” K’leef took a step backward. “Lily, I hope you’re not planning what I think you’re planning.”

  “Library?” said Thorn, blushing. “I can’t read.”

  Lily crossed her arms. “This is the only way I can find out what’s going on. The only way I can save Gehenna. The only way I can protect it now that my father’s gone. I need to learn magic, and you, K’leef, are going to teach me.”

  Thorn spluttered. “Are you insane?”

  Lily poked him in the chest. “It was you who told me to start breaking the rules!”

  “Yeah, break the rules, not upset the natural order of the world!” Thorn shook his head. “I ain’t having it. I’m in enough trouble as it is. Let’s go back before anyone knows we’re missing. My grandpa always said—”

  “Oh, shut up about your grandpa, Thorn.” Lily smirked, and it was sly and more than a little wicked. “Or do you want to stay here for a year?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I am Lady Shadow, you know. If you help me, I’ll give you a sack of silver and a ship to take you back home. By next week.”

  “And what will Tyburn have to say about that?”

  “Tyburn works for me.” Lily looked over at K’leef. “And the same applies to you, or have you gotten too comfortable being Solar’s hostage?”

  “I gave my word to the duke I’d not try and escape.” K’leef frowned. “Anyway, the Solars would catch me before I got a mile from here.”

  “The duke doesn’t know the secret ways through Gehenna, K’leef. This is my country. I could have you back in yours before the snow falls. Provided you teach me magic, that is.”

  They scowled. They frowned and crossed their arms and kicked the dust, but she had them.

  We’re all the same, with the same desire: home.

  “All right,” said Thorn, a slow, big smile spreading across his face. “It’s a deal.”

  Lily turned to the Sultanate boy. “And you, K’leef?”

  K’leef didn’t have the same smile as Thorn. “I don’t know….I gave my word.”

  “Does your honor mean so much?”

  He started as if she’d slapped him. “It is all I have, Lily.”

  “It’s all you have while you’re away from home,” she clarified. “If you help me, you will gain something much more important: freedom.”

  He nodded, though he still looked troubled.

  Lily drew out a key made of bone, the Skeleton Key, and put it in the lock and turned.

  With the sound of grinding rock, the doors unfurled like petals on a giant flower. A stale, cold wind blew out, shaking the dust and cobwebs.

  She’d never been inside. There’d never been any need; after all, it was a library of magic, no place for a girl. Lily had always been envious when her father took Dante down for a lesson. Secrets that only father and son could share.

  “We could use some light,” said Lily.

  K’leef blew gently across his palm.

  Candles hissed to life. Torches in wall brackets spluttered and bright flames awoke, spreading golden, dancing light on the dark gray walls.

  Waves of illumination spread outward as more candles brightened along tunnels and endless corridors, and in alcoves and nooks among dusty parchments and ancient scrolls.

  How far back did the library go? She had no idea.

  “Wow.” Thorn entered, gazing about him. Then he stopped, mouth agape. “Who. Are. They?”

  As the candlelight revealed more and more of the library, they suddenly realized that they were standing within a circle of statues.

  Not just any statues, but titanic gods of stone, each over seventy feet tall.

  K’leef gazed up at them in awe. “The Six Princes.”

  The ancient founders of the six Great Houses of magic, the first sorcerers the world had ever known, and the most powerful.

  “I…I never seen nothing like it,” whispered Thorn. “They’re your ancestors?”

  Lily nodded. “K’leef’s, too. And Gabriel’s.”

  “We inherited our magic from them,” added K’leef.

  “Is it true they were brothers?” asked Thorn. “The children of a barbarian king and his elf wife?”

  “She wasn’t an elf. She was the daughter of a demon lord,” said Lily.

  “You’re both wrong,” interrupted K’leef. “She was a desert spirit. She’d been trapped in a bottle, and when he freed her, she fell in love with him. She passed her magic down to their six sons. That’s the true story.”

  “And I bet House Coral will swear she was a mermaid.” Lily shrugged. “Elf, demon, or spirit, it just means she came from the otherworld, a place of pure magic.”

  Thorn just shook his head in wonder.

  Lily continued educating Thorn. Her heritage had been drummed into her—and every noble—since the crib. She pointed to a statue of a sorcerer surrounded by birds. A pair of massive eagle’s wings rose from his shoulders. “That is Prince Typhoon. Master of the element of air. Those descended from him call themselves the wind lords and live far to the east, beyond the Eagle Mountains.”

  K’leef joined in, pointing at the next great statue—a merman rising out of cleverly sculpted waves with sharks and dolphins surfing alongside. “Then you have Prince Coral of the element of water.” He moved around to a figure wreathed in marble-sculpted flames. “This is my ancestor, Prince Djinn. He founded the Sultanate of Fire to the south.”

  Thorn faced a figure with bark-like skin and antlers jutting from his forehead. “And this is Prince Herne, lord of the earth, yes?”

  Lily smiled. “You know much about him?”

  “I grew up next to Herne’s Forest. I know plenty. They say he’s still alive, sleeping in a deep cave guarded by a black unicorn.”

  K’leef nodded. “So they say. Herne didn’t believe in the more formal traditions, and neither do his descendants. They’re called druids, aren’t they?”

  “We’ve got one in Stour. You have a sick animal and old Birch’ll fix it right up.” Thorn shrugged. “No grand palaces or castles for the druids. They’re happy sleeping in meadows.”

  Lily pointed at the last pair of statues. “Prince Solar, lord of light, and finally, Prince Shadow, the founder of my house, my family.”

  The lord of darkness loomed over them. Carved out of black marble, he was hooded and attended by cavorting skeletons. In the folds of his cloak lurked ghosts and phantoms.

  “So, since we’re here, can you teach me some magic, too?” Thorn asked K’leef. “It don’t need to be nothing fancy.”

  “Sorry, but I can’t.” K’leef picked up a book. “You have to have the blood of the princes in your veins to be able to create magic. It also dictates which type of magic you can create. If you’re descended from Prince Djinn, like me, then you will only ever cast fire magic. The same goes for the heirs of Prince Coral. They will only ever be water magicians.”

  Thorn pointed at Lily. “But what if she marries Gabriel? That’s light and darkness.”

  Lily paled at the thought of it.

&n
bsp; K’leef continued. “One blood will dominate. Any children would have light or darkness, but never both. It’s impossible to cast more than one element. And even if you have the blood of the princes, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to use magic.”

  “Like my uncle, who can’t cast a single spell,” said Lily. “The blood’s been diluted too much. Each generation is slightly weaker than the last. The blood—and the powers—of the Six Princes runs thin nowadays.”

  K’leef wove the flames through his fingers. “This is the best I can do. My ancestors were able to turn the whole sky ablaze.”

  It was similar for Lily’s family. The Shadows were once masters of the undead, but it had been many decades since any of them had been able to summon a single ghost or zombie. Her father had tried, and the effort had wiped him out for a week. Iblis Shadow had known three spells, and that was considered a lot in these times. The ancients would have known hundreds.

  Lily looked up at Prince Shadow. What would he make of the sorcerers of today?

  He’d think we were ants.

  They moved past the circle of statues and farther into the heart of the library.

  There were objects other than books. Armor, weapons. Boxes with no openings, and bracelets and random cups and circlets.

  Thorn picked up a sword of black iron. “This is nice.”

  Lily barely glanced at it. “It’s the Sword of Midnight. Prince Shadow used it to cut time into three, thus creating the past, present, and future.”

  “Wow, does it work?”

  “No. It’s a fake.” She picked up a crown. “Most of this stuff is. My uncle spent years searching for magical artifacts. He lost a lot of gold buying useless bits of armor, weapons, and rings from swindlers and cheats. My father would check each item, then tell him that all he’d gotten was another piece of junk, but it didn’t stop my uncle from buying more.”

  Eventually they reached a circular chamber with a large table and plenty of space around it.

  “This will do,” said K’leef. He looked around him and up at the ceiling. His face darkened. “I didn’t expect to find him here.”

  The painting on the ceiling covered the whole central chamber. A man, masked and armored, dominated the middle.