The Language of Ghosts

by Heather Fawcett

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Part I: Astrae

  1. An Island Loses Its Directions

  2. A Sea Monster Is Suspiciously Helpful

  3. Mangoes Lead to Disaster

  4. Julian Almost Destroys the Island

  5. Noa and Mite Move the Prow

  6. Julian Discovers the Lost Words

  7. Mite Goes on a Secret Mission of Her Own

  8. Noa Attends Her First Meeting of the Council

  9. Noa Doesn’t Figure Things Out

  Part II: Evert

  10. Beauty Accepts a Bribe

  11. Julian Scares Everyone

  12. Noa Finds a Door under a Shadow

  13. Noa Recovers from Death

  14. Noa Has Her First Magic Lesson

  15. Tomas’s Biggest Fan Strikes Again

  16. Noa Flatters an Otter

  17. The Castle Is Haunted

  18. Noa Goes Hunting

  19. Noa’s Rescue Mission Ends Badly

  20. Gabriela Gets a New Captive

  Part III: Whelm

  21. The Dark Lord and the King’s Mage Meet Again

  22. Mite Loses an Honored Guest

  23. Noa Finds an Unexpected Ally

  24. Beetles Ruin the Banquet

  25. Noa Finds an Ingrown Island

  26. Marchenas Are Always First

  27. The King’s Spider

  28. Noa Figures Some Things Out

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Prologue

  It was the raspberry sundae that did it. Noa stormed across the banquet hall, dodging guests and servants. “Princess Noa?” more than one voice called after her. She bumped into a man carrying a tray laden with frozen guava. As he fell, the tray rose in the air in a spectacular arc, spraying horrified courtiers with ice shavings like pink snowflakes.

  Noa didn’t care. She ran up the black marble staircase, eyes blurring with tears, mouth aching from holding it in a stiff, calm, princess-like line.

  If she had to listen to one more courtier tell her how sorry they were that her mother had passed on or slipped away, as if Mom were a tricky spy escaping into the night, Noa was going to throw up all over her horrible, funeral-appropriate dress. Her older brother, Julian—soon to be crowned King Julian—didn’t see her leave.

  The staircase wound around and around, offering a view of the courtyard at every turn. The royal palace’s architecture was typically Florean, with large, airy galleries built around a central garden teeming with cacti and vine trees and lavawort. Normally, Noa stopped and said hello to the finches that liked to perch on the staircase railing, but right now there was a storm inside her, and she kept running until she got to her bedroom.

  There was nothing particularly princess-like about Noa’s room—no chests filled with jewels or fantastical chandeliers. It was messy in an organized way, piled with books and logic puzzles and model ships. She wasn’t interested in ships, but she liked taking things apart so she could study them and improve the design. Reckoner, her brother’s ancient dragon, was sprawled across the polished floor like a fat, spotty rug. Reckoner disliked Noa, though he disliked her less than he disliked most people, probably making a strategic allowance for the fact that her room had the best afternoon and evening sunbeams.

  Noa went straight to the wardrobe and locked herself in. Then she collapsed in a heap of sobs and scattered dresses and coats.

  Her mother, the queen of Florean, had been dead for a week. It was weird that this was the first time Noa had cried—that it hadn’t happened when Julian had told her, or the first time she had walked past her mother’s empty bedroom. No, it had been the sight of that towering raspberry sundae, a sundae so magnificent it took three servants to carry it out, piled with cream and chocolate and butternuts, the raspberries fat as chickadees. Her mother had loved raspberry sundaes, and Noa had turned instinctively to catch her look of astounded delight.

  And that was when she had understood.

  Noa stayed in the wardrobe until she thought the funeral guests had left. Then she stayed a little longer, for good measure. One of her mother’s cats came in and meowed at the door in order to point out how difficult he was to fool. After a while, he got tired of bragging and went to nap in the sun with Reckoner. Noa’s mother had loved cats and had accumulated sixteen of them over the years. She probably would have reached twenty if—

  If.

  Eventually, Noa ran out of tears. She occupied herself with cataloging by size and shape the dust motes dancing in the light that spilled through the wardrobe doors. Noa cataloged a lot of things, partly because it was calming and partly because it was useful, particularly in helping her win arguments with Julian. She was just wondering if tiny hairs from Reckoner’s snout counted as dust when her bedroom door opened and two assassins stepped in.

  Noa froze. She knew they were assassins immediately, even though she could see only a sliver of them through the wardrobe doors. They were dressed in all black like the funeral guests, but Noa had mentally cataloged the funeral guests and these two didn’t fit anywhere. Their clothes weren’t rich enough for courtiers, nor plain enough for servants, and they moved too quietly to be up to any good.

  Also, the woman was holding a large dagger.

  Noa’s heart thundered so loud she was sure they would hear it. The assassins approached her rumpled bed. The woman relaxed her grip on the dagger when the man pulled the blankets back, revealing Noa’s stuffed walrus.

  “Odd,” the woman said. She strode idly over to the wardrobe and pulled on the door, and Noa almost did throw up then, but of course it didn’t open, for Noa had locked the wardrobe from the inside. She always did, to keep her sister out.

  “We’ll find the little one first,” the man murmured. “Her bedroom is in the next hall.”

  Noa felt as if she had floated out of her body. As soon as the door shut behind the pair, she tumbled out of the wardrobe with a pair of pants tangled around her head. Reckoner was still asleep, of course, because he was the most useless dragon in Florean and wouldn’t interrupt a good nap if a dozen assassins danced around him, tossing knives in the air.

  The assassins had disappeared around the corner, and Noa ran in the opposite direction, because the assassins were wrong, and her sister’s bedroom was next to hers.

  Mite had already been put to bed, on account of her being only five, and several lavasticks had been left glowing on various tables in her room. She started to scream when Noa dragged her roughly out of bed, but Noa clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “It’s me,” she hissed. “We have to find Julian. There are—there are bad people looking for us.”

  Mite’s eyes were wide. Her dark hair stuck up, and there was something smeared on her cheek that Noa suspected was chocolate, because Mite was an expert at sneaking food into her room. “Bad people? Are they librarians?”

  “Um—yeah,” Noa said. Their mother had been in a long-standing spat with the librarians at the royal library, who had bitterly protested her habit of borrowing books indefinitely, even though every library in Florean technically belonged to her. “Mean, angry librarians. I heard them say you forgot to return something.”

  Mite gaped. Hans, the head librarian, had once scolded her for getting fingerprints on the card catalog, and she now lived in fear of him and all librarian-kind. “But I didn’t!”

  Noa dragged her out the door and down the hall. “Don’t worry—Julian will sort it out.”

  They ran down the staircase, which was strangely deserted. Where were the palace guards? Where were the turquoise-clad servants? How
had the assassins managed to reach Noa’s room in the first place? Dread coiled her stomach into knots. They needed Julian. He was sixteen, and even better, he was one of the most powerful magicians in Florean—or he would be, if he ever bothered to practice his spellwork.

  Noa stopped at the bottom of the stairs, pushing Mite behind her. There was a terrible clamor coming from the banquet hall, shouting and clashing swords. What was going on?

  “Let’s try the throne room.” Noa still felt nauseous, and she prayed she wouldn’t faint. She led Mite down a quiet servants’ corridor. Mite was barefoot and kept tripping on the hem of her nightie, but at least she wasn’t crying. They took the shortcut through the gardens—night was falling, and the sky was a deep purple curve like the inside of a mussel shell.

  A black-cloaked figure came racing into the courtyard, and Noa’s heart faltered, but it was only Julian. His cloak was singed, and he had a cut on his cheek. Noa leaped into his arms with a cry of relief.

  Her brother drew back, and they examined each other. Most people thought Julian was handsome, so handsome that some bards had even written fawning songs about it, full of awful metaphors about his eyes that gave Noa no end of material to mock him with. He had the same olive skin and overlarge ears as her and Mite, but his eyes were blue like their mother’s. He seemed fine, apart from the blood, though his gaze was cold and glazed over, like ice, and he was gripping Noa too tightly. “You’re all right. You’re both all right.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Julian didn’t answer. He dragged them back into the servants’ corridor and they found some oversized cloaks that the servants used while cleaning the chimneys. They smelled of soot and burnt cheese. Julian had to tie the bottom of Mite’s cloak around her waist and the sleeves around the back of her neck. His hands were shaking.

  “What’s going on?” Noa repeated. “Julian!”

  “It wasn’t a fever that killed Mom,” he said in a too-calm voice. “She was poisoned. Xavier was behind it.”

  Noa felt weightless, as if she’d become an echo of herself. Xavier Whitethorn had been on Mom’s council. Noa remembered him as a pale and quiet and thoroughly dull grown-up, even by councillor standards.

  “Xavier,” she murmured. She should have felt angry, but since Mom’s death, she’d been unable to feel things when she was supposed to. “Who told you that?”

  “Xavier’s assassins. Mages. They were waiting for me in the throne room.”

  “We didn’t see any assassins,” Noa said with a meaningful glance Mite’s way. “But a couple of librarians dropped by. We must owe a pretty big fine.”

  Julian gave her a sharp look, but he didn’t ask for an explanation. That was the best thing about Julian—he always understood what she meant, even when nobody else did. “I’ll make sure they get it,” he said. “We have to go. Xavier’s turned most of the council against the Marchenas. He spread all kinds of rumors about Mom. That her power had corrupted her, that it was turning her mad, and that I was heading in the same direction.”

  Noa stared. “But that’s ridiculous. How could anybody believe him?”

  Julian looked ten years older. “Because we’re dark magicians. That’s how.”

  Noa let out her breath. Most magicians could speak only one of the nine languages of magic—they were born knowing how; it wasn’t something you could learn. The common ones were Salt, the language of the sea, and Worm, the language of earth. Magicians who could speak more than one magical language could weave them together into complex spells, which was dark magic. Dark mages were rare, though no one knew exactly how rare, for many lived in secret—most people distrusted their gifts. Their mother had been the first dark mage to rule Florean.

  Noa herself couldn’t do any magic, dark or otherwise. She’d always thought that people hated dark mages out of jealousy, which she could understand, as she was jealous of Julian constantly. But it was true that a few dark mages had eventually gone bad—it was more common among them than regular mages. There was something about having all those kinds of magic inside you that corrupted some people, like fruit trees that rotted from too much water.

  “The royal mages are on Xavier’s side, and half the guards,” Julian said. “I can’t fight them all. It’s a coup. They’re taking over the palace as we speak.”

  “What’s a coo?” Mite asked.

  “It means Xavier wants to be king,” Noa said. She felt a spark of fury, but it had nothing to catch on. “What about the navy?”

  “He bribed the generals,” Julian said. “General Albion’s death last month wasn’t an accident, either—he refused to side with Xavier, so Xavier sabotaged his ship.”

  Noa swayed. If the navy was on Xavier’s side, what hope was there? None of the islands would challenge the takeover, because Xavier could reduce them to ashes.

  “But Julian is the king now.” Mite’s lip trembled. “That’s what Momma said.”

  “Maita.” Julian drew her into his arms. “It’s okay. I’ll figure something out. But right now, we have to go.”

  “Where?” Noa said.

  “We’ll steal a boat. Come on.” He pulled up their hoods.

  Noa hardly recognized the palace—some of the rooms were on fire, and smoke hovered in the air, and everywhere there was fighting, fighting, fighting. It was difficult to tell what was going on—who was winning or losing, or even how many sides there were. Not all the guards had abandoned their posts—some of them were battling other guards in halls and stairwells and doorways. Servants cowered in corners or unlit fireplaces.

  “Wait,” Noa said as they passed the north courtyard. “I forgot something!”

  “Noa,” Julian hissed, but she was already darting through the greenery.

  And there was Willow—on the bench just where she’d left him. Willow was a stuffed blue whale Mom had given Noa last month for her eleventh birthday. Noa and Mom were in agreement that blue whales were the best whale, and likely the best animal overall. Together they watched them migrate past the palace every spring.

  Noa tucked Willow under her arm and ran back to Julian.

  They escaped the palace without being recognized, though Julian had to blind a group of mages with a spell in Hum, the language of light. Outside, it was less of a mystery who was winning: the turquoise Marchena banners had all been taken down and replaced with bright red ones bearing an X that looked like a twinkling star.

  The palace had been built atop a sharp crag of an island called Queen’s Step, which was near the center of the Florean Archipelago. Queen’s Step was so small that it was mostly all palace, with a harbor attached. Julian picked a fishing boat with a generous cabin at the end of the pier, and they clambered aboard. He pulled a lavastick from his pocket and blew on it to ignite the ember.

  “What about my shoes?” Mite said. Her voice was so small that Julian had to ask her to repeat herself.

  “We’ll get you new ones, Mighty Mite,” he said.

  Noa hugged the whale to her chest, reveling in his stuffed-animal smell. “Where are we going?”

  Julian blinked. He didn’t look like he was covered with ice anymore. His eyes were red, and he seemed closer to twelve than sixteen in the oversized, wet cloak. “Astrae,” he said finally. “You remember—we used to go there on holiday before Dad died.”

  Noa didn’t remember, or at least not very well—Dad had died when she was six. Suddenly, staring out at that dark sea, the ship seemed less like safety than it had in the palace. She wanted to go home. “Julian—”

  His gaze sharpened on something behind her. Noa turned.

  Clomping up the dock from the palace were at least two dozen royal mages. They stopped at the first tethered boat, and the lead mage shouted, “Julian Marchena, you and your mother stand accused of the crimes of murder and treason. You will surrender now to face justice.”

  “Why would anyone come out if you yelled that at them?” Noa whispered. She had her answer three seconds later. The fire mages chanted an i
ncantation, and the boat burst into flames.

  Julian, bizarrely, wasn’t looking at the mages. He was staring down at the water, leaning over the railing as if he was about to be sick.

  “Julian.” Noa yanked on his sleeve. “Julian. What do we do? They’re coming this way!”

  “I have an idea,” he said.

  He began to murmur the strangest incantation Noa had ever heard. Julian was the only person in the world—possibly in history—who could speak all nine magical languages. Noa couldn’t tell how many different languages Julian was speaking now, only that he was making a sound like a kettle full of boiling leaves that a porcupine was tap-dancing on.

  Noa bit back a scream. Julian’s reflection was moving—it skimmed over the water, and then it jumped out onto the dock, where it stood gawping at them like a nightmare. The reflection was Julian to a T—if you only looked at it out of the corner of your eye. If you really looked at it, which was a horrible thing to do, you saw that its limbs undulated like waves and its face was a mass of folds like ripples. Again Noa was almost sick.

  Julian babbled another incantation at the reflection, and it took off. It sped soundlessly past the mages, who only took note after it made it past them. Then they started yelling various versions of what they had yelled at the boat, and running after the reflection.

  That was when Reckoner chose to amble onto the dock.

  Reckoner was about the size of a pony and nearly toothless. Julian had found him—or Reckoner had allowed himself to be found—when he had gone looking for dragons to use as familiars. Reckoner had been dying, skinny and shivering in a cave in the Halfmoon Islets. Mostly blind, the old dragon couldn’t hunt anymore, and was hardly an intimidating sight with his cataract-clouded eyes and omnipresent drool, but Julian had taken one look at him and declared him the finest beast he had ever seen. Noa had never known Reckoner to protest his changed circumstances, and he spent most of his time hobbling around the palace sniffing at carpets or curled up at Julian’s feet. He had become part of Julian’s legend—the magician so powerful he had tamed a dragon with a word—but it was likely more accurate to say that Reckoner had taken a practical look at his options and decided that being tame was the best of them, particularly when it involved belly rubs, regular applications of bloodroot salve to ease his arthritis, and a constant supply of cod.