“Are you ready?” Bogdana asked Astrid when they reached the back of the mirror house.
Astrid motioned Sister to her side. “She’s going to take off your chain.”
Sister’s mouth popped open and she shook her head in disbelief.
“She’s freeing her?” said Yukiko. “But how?”
“An exchange,” said Bogdana. She had a delighted and chilling smile as she lifted the chain over Sister’s head. Sister cried, both in joy and in fear. She pulled Astrid’s hand and shook her head. She signed “No” over and over, but Yukiko did not need to translate.
“It will be fine,” said Astrid. “Yukiko will take you to our cousin, Elliot. He’ll look out for you. I’m tied to the Unseelie world whether I like it or not. But you can go free. You were never meant to be here.”
Sister put her hands over her face, still shaking her head.
“You’ve lost too many years,” said Astrid. “Now it’s your turn to live.”
“Don’t do this!” Yukiko said to Astrid. “How can you help her if you’re a slave here?”
“That’s just it. It’s the only way I can help her. Take her to Elliot.”
Bogdana placed the chain around Astrid’s neck and it tightened until it pressed into the skin. Yukiko watched Astrid gasp and pull at the chain. Then she swallowed, took a few calming breaths, turned to the mirror and muttered something under her breath. The mirror wiggled in its frame.
Sister uncovered her face and looked at the mirror. She backed up until she bumped into a wall of the maze.
“Go through. It is already done,” said Astrid.
Yukiko changed into her human form, complete with the illusion of clothing, not because it was necessary, but because there was no other way Sister would go through the mirror. Yukiko took her hand.
“I’ll take you to Elliot,” she said. If he had found a way to be in San Francisco decades ago, then he may yet be some help. Iolanthe had mentioned an agent, and if the Seelie had poisoned him, then he must be of some threat to them. That might be a good thing.
She would lose her tail for certain, she knew. The girl she had tricked into the Seelie world was now a slave to the Unseelie. There was little she could imagine short of murder that would have been a greater crime to the lawful Myobu. But it didn’t matter. She had to help Astrid and Sister no matter what the consequences. Her fate was already sealed. But Astrid, Elliot’s and Sister’s were not.
Chapter 42
Astrid woke up on her thin straw palette in a small room at the back of the house that she shared with Foon, one of the other maids.
As soon as they had returned home from the mirror house, Bogdana had taken Astrid to Foon for instruction and integration into the household. Foon was a humanoid raccoon. She was bipedal and had somewhat human features, but with a pointed snout and triangular ears high on her head. Thick gray fur covered her entire body. Her face was pale gray except for the black mask around her eyes and though her tail was concealed under her robe, Astrid had seen it when they had changed clothing in their shared quarters. It was thick, striped and luxurious. Her nimble hands were black and slender and ended in thick dark claws. Like everyone in the house, Foon went barefoot, and her claws clicked on the stone floor.
“Get up,” said Foon. “It’s the big day.”
Their room was dark and windowless and though there was a window in the hallway outside, no light came from it. Astrid supposed it would be around four in the morning if they lived on human time. She forced herself out of bed.
During the weeks of her imprisonment, she had mopped, dusted, hauled wood and water and had occasionally served meals to Bogdana and the small staff of the house. Her mother had not acknowledged her or spoken to her the entire time, except to give brief orders. So much for being the favored child. But she had not expected anything more. Taking Sister’s place was worth it.
Even when she had been beaten for spilling a tureen of soup, it had been worth it. Somehow, being beaten by the cook, a tall lean man with a short temper and hair like fir needles, was easier than being struck by her human mother. Perhaps it was because there was no pretense of love or attachment. When she was beaten, she noticed that the chain around her neck grew tighter, then it loosened later. It happened at other times as well. She tried to pay attention to when it loosened or tightened and found that it corresponded with her moods. The angrier or more upset she got, the tighter it became. Perhaps it did so to punish any angry thoughts of escape. Or perhaps it was simply another way to torment slaves.
For all her exhaustion from work, Astrid was not idle in her quiet moments. She tried opening Doors whenever she got the chance. At first, she tried to use the mirrors that hung here and there in the house. She could make them waver more often than not. But she knew that if she went through, the chain would choke her to death. Then she tried to make Doors on blank walls and found that Yukiko had been correct. When she was frightened or upset, she could occasionally do it. After that, making Doors with mirrors became even easier.
Occasionally, Bogdana entertained houseguests and Astrid was called to serve them food and drink. Tonight, a giant group of Bogdana’s friends, or more accurately, her political allies, were coming.
Foon and Astrid made the preparations in the gigantic dining hall, cleaning and scrubbing, then moving tables and benches in from other parts of the house. Once she, Foon and some of the other staff had finished moving the furniture, Astrid hauled in wood for the giant fireplace at the end of the dining hall. Then she went to the kitchen to peel potatoes, fetch water and wash and dry an endless series of beer steins.
At sunset, the guests began to arrive. More than half of them were men, giant, bearded and hairy. The women were large and strong. Everyone wore leather and metal, axes and swords. They were like the giants from Celtic myth, but these people came in all colors and races, including a few who did not look human at all but had reddish fur. They were not Unseelie or Seelie, as they ate meat, and Astrid wondered what they were.
They filed into the dining hall, where Astrid filled and refilled their steins with mead, ale and beer as they talked and ate. One man strode into the dining hall with a beautiful buck draped over his shoulders. He hefted its body onto a table and motioned to Astrid.
“Take this to the kitchen for cooking. My brothers are hungry!”
The animal was huge, at least two hundred pounds. There was no way she could move it. Foon appeared, squared the buck upon her shoulders and carried it away. How anyone expected the staff to skin and cook it for that night’s meal was beyond her, but it was not her problem. One of the tables shouted for food, and Astrid grabbed a tray of mutton, venison and broiled rabbit and hurried over. Within an hour, the entire room was drunk, shouting, singing and, in some cases, flirting. Astrid kept her hood down, though she could see easily through it, and hurried from table to table.
Bogdana made the rounds, speaking with various people. Whatever political alliances she was hoping to forge seemed to be going well, as the guests were all in a fine mood.
“Sister!” shouted a man to Bogdana. He looked nothing like her, but then Astrid had noticed that some of the other guests called each other brothers and sisters. “A fine gathering!” he said.
“Thank you,” said Bogdana with a polite smile.
Astrid set a heavy platter of pig with roasted potatoes and carrots on the table.
“And excellent food,” he said. “Is this human a new servant? I do not remember her.”
Astrid had to stop herself from glancing up at her mother, but instead took a few steps back, head lowered.
“She’s not human,” said Bogdana. “She’s Unseelie.”
The man looked at Astrid, appraising, and Astrid took another step back. She did not want to draw her mother’s attention and be punished.
“If you say
so, sister. But she’s made a choice.”
Bogdana shot her a look so venomous that Astrid spun on her heel and rushed to the other side of the room where she busied herself collecting empty dishes. She took them to the kitchen and when she returned to the dining hall, she snuck a glance at Bogdana. She was sitting and talking with some of her guests, looking relaxed and happy.
A choice. He said that she had made a choice. But how could one choose to be human? One was born human, Seelie, Unseelie, Kitsune, or a host of other mysterious beings. But then, the Kitsune could be either a Myobu, like Yukiko, or Nogitsune, a wild fox. She wondered if it was a choice for them or if they were born to it.
The next morning Astrid was summoned to Bogdana’s breakfast table.
“You have been summoned by the governor to meet with him in five days. I told him that you can only open Doors at that mirror house, so we will meet him there. He wishes for you to open a Door for him as a demonstration.”
Astrid dipped her head to acknowledge that she had heard and then backed out of the room.
The governor. At the mirror house.
She climbed the stairs to the unused upstairs room where she had hidden her owl bell. Bogdana had never come to her quarters, and so there had been no risk of it being discovered, but Astrid had not known that when she arrived. She returned to her room and slipped the bell into her purse with her clamshell mirror, the pencil and water-warped drawing pad and then shoved the purse under the head of her palette. Later that evening, Foon sat cleaning and filing her claws, unbothered by the presence of the bell. Astrid considered asking her where she had come from, but decided against it.
The next five days passed slowly, and she had plenty of time to think as she scrubbed floors on her hands and knees, climbed and dusted. There was no vacuum, so heavy rugs had to be dragged outside and beaten. And with no gas for the stove, she chopped and hauled wood. She was beaten twice more for breaking a cup and for allowing a fire in the stove to go out. Her back was a mass of burning welts, but even without the injuries, she would have been sore from work. The welts forced Astrid to lie on her stomach that night. In the dark, she saw Foon’s black eyes gleaming, watching the ceiling.
She turned her head away and thought about Sister. Was Elliot taking good care of her? Had he taken her to meet her mother? She hoped not. As much as Sister may want to meet her real mother, it was a bad idea. She would take one look at the mutilated girl and call the police. No, Elliot would have to keep her safe on his own. She hated to burden him, especially without even asking, but she had had no choice. Perhaps Yukiko could use her magic to help them somehow.
The next morning was her meeting with the governor. She knew this would not simply be a demonstration of her abilities. No. It would be the day she was forced to create a Door that released the Unseelie into the human world.
Chapter 43
The next morning, Bogdana sent a midnight blue dress with a full skirt and silver trim for Astrid to wear. She also included silver bracelets and anklets. The links were the same size and shape as her slave chain. Interesting. Perhaps Bogdana wanted to downplay the fact that Astrid was her slave by making the neck chain look like a decoration. But who would be fooled? No one. No, this was Bogdana’s way of reminding her of her position. Astrid would either willingly wear chains around her wrists and ankles or she would be in defiance of her owner.
Astrid bathed, dressed and put on the ankle and wrist chains.
“Did you know the girl who looked like me?” Astrid asked Foon as she combed her hair.
“You took her place,” said Foon softly after a glance at the door.
“Was she troublesome, like Bogdana said?”
“She was.”
“How old was she when her tongue was cut out?”
“I do not know how old. But she was this high.” She held up her slender black hand a few feet off the ground, at about the height of a six- or seven-year-old child.
Astrid felt her skin flush hot with anger, and her chain pulled tight around her neck. She forced herself to be calm, to think of Elliot, of school, of anything other than the torment Sister had lived through. There was just so much pain, all because of her. Cinderella was dead or an injured stray somewhere, Elliot was stuck being a caretaker to a mute, tortured girl who probably had emotional damage, and her mother had been driven to violence and the brink of mental illness solely because of her presence.
Then she thought of the kittens, Diego and Frieda, and how Sister would like cuddling them, how she would sleep with them curled beside her. She was safe now. No one would hurt her again.
After Foon left to work, Astrid pulled out her purse. She found her clothing from Seelie and dug out her socks, turning them both inside out. She filled one of them with her few belongings, shoving her empty purse back under the palette. Then she hiked up her skirt. She took the Seelie sash from the outfit she had brought from Seelie and tied the sock to it and tied it around her waist, letting it fall low to the top of her hipbones. Then she took the other sock, the empty one, and tied three knots in it. That was one knot in the sock with her things, three knots in the other and one in the sash. Five. She took the end of the sash and tied more knots, for a total of nine. Then she turned her underwear inside out. That made three pieces of inside out clothing, nine knots, a bell made of cold iron. There was no salt here, so she was out of luck on that score.
She let the dress fall and tugged at the sash and sock until they were hidden under the skirt. She looked at herself in the mirror in the hall. Her hair was getting longer and hung into her eyes. She looked weary and older, but she was not meeting the governor as a beauty contestant.
It was almost noon, and the Unseelie sun was white, small and hot in the sky. A horse-drawn carriage stood outside, and Astrid wondered if Bogdana had hired it or if she had kept it somewhere. She wasn’t going to ask. She rode straight-backed and silent to Luna Park across from Bogdana who wore rich purple and gold in a dress similar to Astrid’s. Neither of them had shoes, but Bogdana’s feet were adorned with gold toe rings and rows of anklets. On the drive, she saw her mother touch her stomach and her neck, as if uncomfortable. The bell must be having some effect on her. The knots might dampen its effect somewhat, but she was still suffering. Good.
The carriage dropped them at the front entrance of Luna Park and Astrid passed beneath the arching gateway and walked to the mirror house silently behind her mother. There were only two outcomes for her. Either she would die, or she would succeed. But she would not be opening a Door for the Unseelie to invade her world. For whatever she was, she was not one of them. She was a human being at heart, no matter what world she had come from. And she would live like a human or die like one.
They waited in the hot sun for half an hour before the governor and his entourage arrived. The man wore a fitted coat, tight breeches, white men’s hose and shiny black shoes.
“Bogdana, duchess of Dreen,” said a man beside the governor by way of introduction. Bogdana curtseyed low and the governor nodded acknowledgement.
“Governor Platt,” she said.
“Astrid, Door and slave,” said the man.
Astrid curtseyed. When she rose, she saw the governor swallow hard. Sweat glistened on his upper lip and she wondered if he felt the effects of the bell also.
Instead of wandering through the mirror maze from the front, the governor led the way to the back entrance. Well, it wouldn’t do to have him get lost inside and make a fool of himself. Before she entered, Astrid caught a glimpse of something in the sky to the west. She stepped back, bumping into Bogdana, and took another look. The purple sky was full of black things, birds, a flock so thick and so fast that it was blotting out everything behind it. She went cold.
“The Wild Hunt,” murmured Bogdana.
Astrid now could make out the closest of the slaugh. They were twisted beings
mounted on panthers, vultures, undulating serpentine dragons and skeletal horses. The slaugh themselves varied even more than their mounts, from skeletal humanoid creatures with fingers and toes as long as their arms to thick-bodied creatures with four or even six powerful arms. These were not small creatures like the ones she had seen in the mirror, though there were smaller slaugh scattered in among their larger brethren. These were the things of nightmare and legend. And they were utterly focused on their destination, the place where she now stood.
Then she heard their cry, an undulating sound, a mix of voices both high and low, wailing, screaming and bellowing. A sound of starvation, fury, the sound of beings so hungry to kill that it was their sole desire. Death. Chaos. Torment. Domination. They howled their song, and then horns blew, resonant and bone-shaking.
“They come!” cried Bogdana, and Astrid saw the eager look in her eyes. Other Unseelie pointed at the sky, some with shouts of triumph, some with wild-eyed looks of pure delight.
“They come!” the people cried.
Over and over they said it, like a summoning. Now Astrid understood. She understood everything.
She understood that in times gone by, human beings possessed a greater sense of evil, of something dark in the world. Something hungry. The rituals of salt and knots, of prayer and holy water were like a flame, held up to ward off what the people knew waited just outside the circle of light. These beings were the things that waited.
The humans today were like wandering youths in the fairy forest. “Let’s explore the cave!” one cries. “I have wine!” says the other. And they go, and drink, and make love, and on their blanket, they fall asleep in each other’s arms, oblivious to the eyes that watch. The things that their ancestors knew all too well. Things that mean them harm. The babes sleep. As even now, in the human world, they slept.
The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series) Page 84