Bones and Ashes

by Gemma Holden

  Annis entered, carrying an armful of fresh linen. Raiden quickly climbed back into bed. Annis went over to the window and peered out, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  Raiden spent the rest of the day resting and waiting for her grandmother to summon her. She avoided going near the window. She knew Valic was out there. Annis brought her a tray of food up for dinner. On the second day, Annis laid out a black day dress on the bed and Raiden knew her grandmother had finally sent for her.

  Annis wasn’t gentle as she helped her to dress. She pinched her and laced her corset too tight. Raiden said nothing. She felt sick at the thought of facing her grandmother. Now she was well enough to travel, she would be sent back to Northumberland.

  Annis led her down the stairs. Evans waited at the bottom of the staircase. She followed him down the hall, Annis behind her. It was like she was being led to her execution. Evans opened the door and gestured for her to go in. For once, she didn’t have to sit outside and wait.

  Her grandmother sat behind her desk. Raiden came to stand before her. “Your Grace,” she said as she curtsied.

  “Sit down,” her grandmother said. Raiden sat down on the chair and placed her hands in her lap. Her grandmother folded her hands on the desk. “There are no words to describe my disappointment in you. I thought you had better judgement. It’s clear to me now that you don’t. Your actions jeopardised not only your life, but your reputation and this family’s reputation as well.”

  Raiden said nothing. She clenched her hands and gazed down at her lap. She was always a disappointment to her grandmother. But, she wouldn’t argue with her. She knew what she had done was right.

  “Why didn’t you send Peters or Marielle to fetch me?” her grandmother asked.

  “I couldn’t. You took them away.” Her grandmother was silent at this. Raiden raised her head and met her gaze. “I stand by what I did. I would do it again if I had to.”

  “You’re just a child. You had no idea what you were doing. You could have been killed.”

  “I knew what the consequences might be. I chose to go anyway.”

  “You know nothing.”

  “I know everything.” For the first time, she saw a flicker of uncertainty in her grandmother’s eyes. “I know about the lady in the mirror. I know who she is. I know she killed my mother.”

  “You can’t know.”

  “I know how she did it. The only thing I don’t know is why. Why did she do it? Why did she kill my mother?”

  Her grandmother rose from her chair. She went to the window to stare out. “Very well,” she said at last, turning back to face her. “If you want to know the truth, you shall have it. There are arrangements I have to make first. Wait for me outside.”

  Raiden rose. Before she left, she looked back to see her grandmother pull the cloth from her mirror.

  Raiden sat on the chair outside to wait. It was nearly an hour before her grandmother came out. “Come,” she said. Raiden followed her down the hall to the front door where Evans waited with their cloaks and gloves.

  “Where are we going?” Raiden asked, as Evans helped her into her cloak.

  “You will see soon enough,” her grandmother replied.

  Raiden accepted her gloves from the ghost and followed her grandmother outside. Henry, her grandmother’s driver, waited with the carriage. He sprang forward to open the door and pull down the steps.

  “How did you get rid of the ghost,” her grandmother asked when they were settled in the carriage. “Have you come into your power?” She could hear the hope in her grandmother’s voice.

  “I didn’t use magic,” Raiden said. “I electrocuted him.”

  Her grandmother didn’t appear surprised. “How did you know electricity would affect him?”

  “I didn’t, not completely. In class, Miss Rudge told us that electricity could affect ghosts.”

  “You must tell no one of this. It cannot become common knowledge there’s a way to get rid of ghosts without using their bones or ashes.”

  “The Inquisition knows.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “In class, my teacher said the Inquisition have been experimenting with the effects of electricity on the dead. Aren said ghosts have been disappearing. I met a ghost. She said the Inquisition have found a way to harm her kind. I think they may be using electricity.”

  Her grandmother nodded grimly. “Something has been happening to them. Their numbers have been declining. If the Inquisition is experimenting on them, we cannot allow them to continue.”

  “They’re the Inquisition. We can’t stop them.”

  “War is coming between the living and the dead. When the war does come, we will stand with the dead against the living.”

  “You can’t mean that,” Raiden said, shocked.

  “The dead serve us and we serve the dead. Not because we are evokers, but because we are Feralis’s. We are bound to them just as much as they are to us.”

  Being a Feralis was different to being an evoker. She was still a Feralis, even if she had no magic. She understood that now.

  “You should know something,” Raiden began. “It’s about Sylvia. She wanted Aren to go to the Inquisition and challenge the succession so women could no longer inherit the title. She wanted the title to pass through the male line again.”

  “I am already aware of that.”

  Raiden blinked. “You are? But then why is Sylvia still living with you? And why haven’t you insisted Aren be allowed to come home?”

  “I would hardly do that when I insisted he be sent away in the first place.”

  “How could you do such a thing?”

  “I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see Sylvia for what she is. I arranged for Aren to be employed at Smallpeace, Dawes and Pumprey. I also made sure he was sent away to school the minute he was old enough. Otherwise, he would have ended up spoilt like Elissa. I was able to help one of them at least escape from Sylvia’s influence.”

  Raiden stared at her grandmother. She had underestimated her. “What are you going to do about Tobin?”

  “I haven’t decided yet. He was ordered not to go to you. I cannot allow him to serve this family if he fails to do as I ask. His loyalty to you over me cannot continue.”

  “What about Peters and Marielle?” It was futile to ask, but she had to try.

  “You were told what would happen to them if you disobeyed me and left the school without my consent.”

  Raiden clenched her gloved hands in her lap. She had known the consequences. It was her own fault she had lost her ghosts.

  The carriage turned off down Pall Mall and stopped before the gatehouse of St James’s Palace. Two guards came out and opened the gates and Henry guided the carriage into the palace complex.

  “What are we doing here?” Raiden asked.

  The red bricked building was the seat of the Inquisition. She had seen the palace from a distance, but she had never been inside. The only time a witch would go in was under duress after they had been arrested.

  “You will see,” her grandmother said.

  Henry opened the door and helped her grandmother down. Raiden followed her. Xan was waiting for them. He came forward and took her hand. “It’s good to see you up and about, my dear,” he said.

  “Did you find Deg?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry. I searched the house, but he wasn’t there.”

  “Are you sure? He might be hiding. He might be hurt.”

  She hadn’t seen Deg since that night at Matherson’s house. She didn’t know what had happened to him, if he had been caught in the fire or if the other imp had killed him.

  “I will put down some traps. We will find him. I promise.”

  An interrogator came out to meet them, his arms tucked into the sleeves of his long black robes. “Your Grace,” he said, bowing to her grandmother. “It’s been a long time since you visited us.”

  “Your incompetence has made it necessary,” her grandmother said. “You promi
sed me she would never harm my family again.”

  “We had no way of knowing she had employed someone to find the pieces of her mirror. The mirror was shattered. She should have been powerless inside it.”

  Her grandmother swept past him and into the palace, before he had finished speaking. Raiden took Xan’s arm and followed in her wake. The interrogators and hunters they passed inclined their heads to Xan or greeted him by name.

  “They all seem to know you,” Raiden said to Xan. She remembered the portrait she had seen at the British Museum of the group of skeletons, all dressed in red inquisitor robes.

  “I’ve been around for a long time,” Xan replied.

  Eventually, her grandmother stopped before a door. With a snap, Xan broke off one of the bones from his finger on his left hand. He slid the bone into the keyhole and unlocked it.

  Mirrors stretched the entire length of a long narrow room, every one a different shape. A bronze plaque under each one listed their number. She could see faces inside peering out. There were men and women, young and old. They rounded a corner to find yet more mirrors.

  “How many mirrors are there here?” Raiden asked.

  “More than a hundred,” Xan replied. “This is not all of them. Sometimes they allow the mirror to be returned to the family if the occupant is deemed not to be a threat.”

  “One of the teachers at my school is in a mirror.”

  “Yes. I arranged for her to work at Grimwood Manor.”

  “You know Miss Radbone?”

  “I did once. Many years ago.”

  Her grandmother stopped before a shattered mirror. It was the same mirror from Matherson’s house. It was missing a single piece.

  “How did it get here?” Raiden asked.

  “I brought it here.”

  Raiden turned at the voice. The Duke stepped forward from the shadows. He had been waiting for them.

  Raiden started to back away, but Xan put his hand on her arm. “You’re safe, my dear. You have my word.”

  The Duke came to stand before the mirror. When she had seen him at the theatre, he had appeared arrogant and conceited, but now his face was grave.

  “Eleanor,” the Duke said, inclining his head toward her grandmother. He addressed her by her first name.

  “Ignatius,” her grandmother replied.

  “I’m glad to see your granddaughter is fully recovered.”

  “You mean you’re relieved. You know what I would have done to you had she died. I would have destroyed you and your family.”

  They all watched as a woman appeared in the mirror. Dark brown hair hung loose over her shoulders, reaching all the way down her back. She wore a ragged black ball gown, although her feet were bare. She appeared to be talking to herself. She didn’t appear to be aware of them.

  “Does she know who she is?” the Duke asked. He addressed the question to her grandmother, but he was referring to Raiden.

  “She’s Blaize’s mother,” Raiden said. She had realised as soon as she had seen the lady’s true appearance as she lay on the table, trying to breathe through the smoke. “And your wife.”

  “She was my wife,” the Duke corrected. “As far as society is concerned my wife died twelve years ago.”

  “Who was she?” Raiden asked.

  “Her name was Bernadette,” the Duke said. “She and your mother were friends once. She was a powerful fire witch. Everyone expected us to marry, but I didn’t love her. I was in love with another woman - your mother. But we could never marry. Helena was heir to a dukedom, as was I. I know how the Feralis magic works. The power is passed through the female line. I needed a wife who could guarantee my child would be a fire witch.

  So I married Bernadette and Helena married your father. We tried to stay away from one another. I went away to my estates in Exeter and Helena went to Northumberland. She had you and I had a child with Bernadette. Then we met again, one day in London. We couldn’t deny how we felt any longer. We decided to go away together. We arranged to meet. I waited for her, but she didn’t come. I thought she had changed her mind. I went to Syon Park to find her, but when I got there it was too late. The fire…” He stopped and closed his eyes, unable to go on.

  “My mother loved my father,” Raiden said. “She wouldn’t do that to him.”

  “Your father was away a great deal,” Xan said. “He wouldn’t resign his commission in the army, even after they married. Your mother was lonely and very young.” He was unable to communicate emotions with his face, but there was sorrow in his voice. “Bernadette found out that your mother and Ignatius were going to run away together. I don’t think she intended to kill your mother. She went to speak to her, to try and stop her. There was a fire. The door was locked. When Ignatius arrived, it was too late. Your mother was already dead.

  “What about me?” Raiden asked. “Was she going to take me with her when she left?”

  Xan paused. “I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  He shook his head. “No. She wasn’t going to take you with her.”

  “I knew Bernadette was responsible for the fire,” the Duke said. “There would have been a scandal if it had come out. I couldn’t let that happen. I made a deal with the Inquisition. They agreed to lock her away in a mirror and then they shattered the mirror so she could never escape.”

  She turned to her grandmother who had remained silent throughout the Duke’s confession. “You agreed to this?”

  Her grandmother looked up. “It’s not just Blaize who would have been ruined. The scandal would have touched you as well. I couldn’t let that happen.” Her grandmother gripped her cane tightly. “We agreed no one would know. I bound the ghosts to silence. I forbid them ever to speak again.”

  “What about James Matherson?” Raiden asked. “How did he become involved in this?”

  “James Matherson was working for her,” the Duke said. “He was using imps to find the pieces of her mirror. She was just missing one last piece and then she would be free. One of the pieces ended up as the setting of an amulet. Matherson realised how valuable the amulet was. He was going to sell it to the vampires or to the fairies. When Bernadette found out she killed him.”

  “The amulet was my doing,” Xan said, interrupting. “It was the most heavily guarded item in the museum. I had one of the pieces of her mirror in my keeping and the amulet needed a new setting. It seemed a good idea at the time. I had forgotten I had even put it there until a few months ago when I noticed that the amulet was missing.”

  “If you knew about Matherson, why didn’t you act sooner?” Raiden asked.

  “She was trapped in a mirror,” her grandmother said. “At least, I believed she was. There should have been no way she could have been responsible for his death.”

  “She has a master mirror.”

  Her grandmother paled. “That’s impossible.”

  “It explains how she was able to influence things outside her mirror,” Xan said. “I will have the Inquisition search the mirror, but I doubt they will find it. If she’s using imps, one of them could bring the mirror out and hide it, and then bring it back to her later when it’s safe.”

  “There was no way we could have known she had a master mirror,” her grandmother said.

  Raiden waited for the Duke to admit he had known, but he said nothing. “The Duke knew she was responsible for Matherson’s death,” Raiden said, speaking up. “He helped her cover it up. He had Matherson’s body dug up by the Resurrection Men and then disposed of so that no one could summon him back from the dead and find out the truth.”

  Her grandmother turned to face the Duke. “You knew Bernadette was responsible for his murder and you did nothing! Instead you helped her.”

  The Duke shrugged. “I had no choice. I couldn’t allow the scandal to come out. Blaize’s future would have been ruined and I couldn’t allow her to find out what her mother was capable of. I didn’t know she had a master mirror. Matherson contacted me. He said he had an amulet he want
ed to sell and that it had something on the back I would be interested in. I went to see him that night, but when I got there she had already killed him. I’m always too late.”

  “Except for once,” Raiden said. He had been the one who had carried her out of the house that night. As a fire witch, he had been able to walk through the flames. He had saved her life.

  “Except for once,” the Duke agreed. He met her gaze.

  “Does she have the amulet?” her grandmother asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Raiden said. As far as she knew the goblins still had it.

  “If she had the last piece we would know by now,” the Duke said.

  “What will you do about Bernadette?” her grandmother asked. “If she has a master mirror, she is still dangerous. She could still hurt Raiden.”

  “Now I have her mirror, I will have her watched day and night to make sure that doesn’t happen. I will never allow her to harm anyone again, you have my word.”

  His word wasn’t worth very much to Raiden.

  Her grandmother nodded. She suddenly looked very frail. Her cane seemed to be the only thing keeping her up. “Xan will take you home,” she said to Raiden. “I cannot bear to look at her any longer.”

  “Wait,” Raiden said, before her grandmother could leave. “What will happen to me now?” She had expected to be packed off to Northumberland the minute she was fit enough to travel.

  Her grandmother turned back to her. “You will return to school as soon as my physician declares you are well enough. We will say you were taken ill.”

  “Miss Grimble will never let me go back.”

  “She will have you back.”

  From the steely look in her grandmother’s eyes, Raiden believed she just might.

  Her grandmother nodded to the Duke and then turned and swept away.

  “I loved your mother,” the Duke said after her grandmother was gone. “I would give anything to have her back. I’m sure you would as well.”

  “Ignatius,” Xan said, a warning in his voice.

  “What do you mean?” Raiden asked.