Cinders, Stars, and Glass Slippers: A Retelling of Cinderella (The Classical Kingdoms Collection Book 6)

by Brittany Fichter

  It was impossible to tell how long they crouched like that. Nicholas’s whole body protested, trembling with the effort. His mind protested as well, begging him to separate from the darkness. It was all he could do to support Henri as he prayed like he’d never prayed before. His prayer was simple.

  Deliver us.

  A lifetime later, Henri let out a cry and dropped the man’s head on the floor with a loud thud. A burst of blue flame shot out from his hands, its momentary glow like that of a casum ball. Nicholas strained to keep his friend from falling as Henri slumped sideways into his arms.

  Don’t let him die, he begged the Maker. Don’t put his blood on my hands. I beg you.

  After several long moments of shallow breathing, however, both Henri and the man on the ground began to gain back some color.

  “Why didn’t you listen to me, you idiot?” Henri wheezed.

  “Last I recall, you’re not my mother. Are you alright?”

  Henri swallowed and nodded, but it was a long time before he was able to stand on his own.

  “Have you ever done that before?” Nicholas asked, bending to inspect the man on the floor.

  “No. My father is usually the one to deal with Sorthileige. My mother hates it.” He tried to give Nicholas a smile. “But it seems I survived.”

  38

  Such a Price

  “Sire!” Oliver was at Nicholas’s side as soon as he and Henri had dragged the man from the cellar out of the building. “Right before our eyes, all of the doors to the storehouse disappeared! There were no windows, not even a hole big enough for rats to get in! They only reappeared just now with you!”

  Nicholas glanced at Henri. “Another gift from our captor.”

  “Captor?”

  “A long story, Captain. For now, suffice it to say that the Shadow himself graced us with his presence. We’re alive, though, and that is what’s important. Now, I need you to send two of the men to look for Willard Appleby—”

  “No need, sire,” one of his men called from the shadows. He dragged a struggling, protesting Willard behind him. “We caught him trying to climb a wall. Couldn’t see how he escaped, but we could see him fall off the wall plain as day.”

  “Good work. You and Angus take him back to the ship. Oliver, you and Hardy will accompany me and Prince Henri to the nearest inn.”

  “Inn, sire?”

  Nicholas nodded at the limp body between him and his friend. “This fellow needs rest and a good swig of ale, but I think he might be able to help us.”

  As soon as they were on their way to the nearest inn, Nicholas gestured for Oliver to fall back a few feet so he could have a few private words with Henri.

  “Do you think he’ll recover?”

  The man they shouldered between them was all but unconscious.

  Henri grimaced and tried to pull him up higher, though the effort obviously still strained him. “Hopefully, but I have no way of knowing. I think I was able to draw out most of the poison, but I’m not as skilled as my father.”

  “What about Willard? What do you think made him act so strange?”

  Henri arched an eyebrow.

  “You know what I mean. More so than usual. He’s usually flippant and conceited, but not nervous like that.”

  “I can only guess that he’s taken in too much Sorthileige. If the Shadow uses evil to remove the gift, I suppose he must use it to put the gift into someone as well.” He shook his head. “He did say some nonsense about needing to be emptied before taking in the darkness.”

  Only then did Nicholas remember Jackson’s speedy descent into madness and ultimate death after dragging him back to the palace two years before.

  “Sorthileige,” Henri continued, “is the vilest form of tangible evil in the world. I’ve never seen any as pure as that. I wonder where he gets it.”

  “If it’s hard to get, it would make sense that he needs so much money,” Nicholas said. “He must be buying it to use on his victims, and he’s been taking victims for decades. Turn here. I think it’s down this street.” They paused and readjusted the man’s weight before walking toward a distant lantern that Nicholas remembered spotting earlier that day. “But what I don’t understand is his motive. Surely it would be more lucrative to use such . . . skills the way he’s been doing for years. Why start a war?”

  “He’s been forced to keep quiet for a long time. Do you think he would have a reason to need so much Sorthileige all of a sudden, one that would require massive amounts of money produced by . . . I don’t know . . . taxes, perhaps?”

  Something niggled in the back of Nicholas’s mind, and though he couldn’t put his finger on an exact answer to Henri’s question, his thoughts turned to Elaina. The Shadow wanted the girl who spoke to the stars. Could the extra Sorthileige be meant for her? Would she need more than other victims for some reason? What was her role in the Shadow’s schemes?

  As soon as they were admitted to the inn, they were shown upstairs to a room at the end of a dark hall. Laying the man in the filthy bed, Nicholas did his best to wipe the grime off the man’s face as Henri called the innkeeper for some ale and tea.

  “I’m sorry to rush you,” Nicholas told the man as his eyes fluttered open for the first time, “but we’re in a great hurry and must be gone soon. I need to know, though, everything you can remember about the man that caught you.”

  After a few long swallows of ale, the man stiffly sat up on his elbows. “He got my twin brother first. I saw it all.” He shuddered. “I tried to stop them, but they tied me up. Would’ve got me that first day, too, except that I escaped. But not before I saw them cut his head open just like they did me tonight.” He reached up and touched his own temple. “Put the black drops in him and everything.”

  “What was his gift?” Nicholas asked. “And what is yours?”

  “He could summon sand.”

  Nicholas looked at Henri. Nicholas had never liked Willard much, but it was hard to imagine a childhood peer committing such atrocities. “And yours?”

  “I can summon water, sir. Out of the air.”

  “What did they do after that?” Henri asked. He had moved to the window and had his arms crossed. His face was taut.

  “After all the . . . black stuff had gone into that man’s dagger, he just rolled my brother over and left him there. Then he started to cut open that young man’s head, the one that took my brother’s gift.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nicholas said as the man wrapped his arms around himself and began to sob softly.

  “The black liquid from the knife dripped into the young man’s cut,” he said through his tears. “And before I knew it, he had my brother’s gift. That’s when they turned on me . . .”

  Nicholas frowned. “I don’t understand. How can it be so simple? Drops of blood in and out with this . . . Sorthileige?”

  “It’s not,” Henri said from the window.

  “How?”

  Henri closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a bargain. You get the gift, but you also get the darkness. You trade a piece of your soul, your humanity for it.”

  “But people who are gifted don’t have to pay such a price—”

  “Because the Maker has given it freely. Evil must have its share in order to make such a deal.” Henri sighed. “That’s why people die if the gift is removed. If they die while they still have the gift, like you heard him say, the gift is forever gone. If it’s taken from them, I suspect it runs out with use and time. He needs live victims to prey upon because the gift is a part of who they are. It’s embedded in their souls. In fact,” he added in a quieter voice, “it’s a mercy of the Maker to take them after the attacks, really. They can live in bliss with Him rather than walk around on earth without being whole.”

  Nicholas frowned. “Didn’t someone try to steal your mother’s gift once?”

  “Yes, but it was different. He tricked her into sharing it. He didn’t steal it from her, putting poison in and then bleeding her out the w
ay it’s being done here. And she was able to recover her power since she was the one who gave it up in the first place.” His jaw tightened. “This is worse.”

  Nicholas drew in a shaky breath as he sat back on his haunches and tried to comprehend what Henri was telling him. Because if it was true, if the Shadow worked that way, he was still on the hunt for Elaina. He was on the hunt for her soul.

  Henri let out a heavy breath and returned to staring out the window at the streets below, and Nicholas got the feeling that they needed to leave before his friend got any ideas about hunting down justice. So he swallowed his nausea at the gruesome description, and they paid the innkeeper in advance for several days’ stay for the man. Then they joined Oliver and Hardy down at the inn’s door.

  Nicholas was deep in thought as they started their trek back to the wharf, so it surprised him when Henri interrupted his thoughts.

  “Have you decided what to do about our boat problem?”

  “Boat problem?” Oliver piped up from behind them.

  “Not yet—” But before Nicholas could finish, a nearby clock began to chime half past midnight.

  Nicholas, Henri, Oliver, and Hardy began to run toward the wharf.

  39

  What Have I Done?

  “What is that sound?” Cynthia asked, covering her ears.

  Elaina grinned up from the floor where she was laying out the bucket, soap, and towel. “I believe that is your granddaughter Alison.”

  “And what is it this time?”

  “She is under the impression that Dinah took one of her beaus.”

  Cynthia gave Elaina a sly look. “Did she?”

  “Could either of them convince any sane man to marry them? My guess is the fellow found his senses and ran as fast as he could in the other direction. But your daughter is gone to a party, so they might just have to handle this situation themselves.”

  All of Elaina’s mirth disappeared, however, when she removed the old woman’s stockings. “Cynthia, when did this happen?” The smell of infection assaulted her as she peered more closely at the contusion on Cynthia’s heel.

  “Oh, that was a foolish old woman doing what she shouldn’t and trying to get out of bed on my own.” Cynthia shook her head and made a face. “I tried to put my feet right into my slippers, but they hit a floorboard and scraped a nail instead.”

  “Cynthia, this had to have happened at least three days ago! Why didn’t you tell me? What did Matilda say?”

  “I haven’t told her.”

  “And why not?”

  “Cinders, I haven’t seen my daughter in two weeks.”

  Elaina stopped examining the foot and stared at Cynthia. “You can’t be serious. All that time when I’m working elsewhere, and she hasn’t come to see you once?”

  “Cinders!” Aspen called through the door. “Are you in there?”

  Elaina hopped up from the floor and opened the door, only to have Aspen dart in and slam it shut behind her. Her face glowed until she saw Cynthia. Then she turned ashen.

  “Don’t mind me,” Cynthia said dryly, waving a lazy hand. “If it were up to me, you would all be back where you belong, and you would have taken me with you.”

  Aspen looked back at Elaina, her eyes wide, so Elaina nodded and smiled.

  “She’s telling the truth. Now what is it?”

  Aspen glanced back at Cynthia and swallowed. “We’re leaving.”

  Elaina stared at her stupidly. “Leaving?”

  “Yes. All of us!” Aspen’s smile was brighter than Elaina had ever seen. “In half an hour, we’re all going to sneak out. Drake says he’s stolen a few tools from the stable to deal with Felix and Ivor. He’s going to take them by surprise when I bring out their dessert.”

  Elaina glanced at the window. “At midnight?” It wasn’t unusual for her to stay up with Cynthia, as she had to finish her other chores before attending to the old woman, but the other servants were usually long asleep by then.

  Aspen shook her head impatiently. “All I have to do is get their attention so he can sneak up on them. When they’re unconscious, we’ll run to the wharf, where a royal boat is going to take us back to Ashland!”

  Elaina blanched. “A royal boat?” She grabbed Aspen by the arms. “Who told you all of this?”

  Aspen smiled and quirked an eyebrow. “I’m not supposed to tell. But I can tell you that he’s going to take us away. Isn’t that wonderful? Now, I must go and make sure Gram is ready!”

  As she dashed off, Elaina turned slowly and shut the door again. Was it possible? Was someone going to take them away? But why them? There were other slaves in the land. And why now? Most importantly, who had promised to do such a thing? Did she dare hope that it might be him?

  Her waking dream ended, however, when she looked at Cynthia’s foot once more.

  “Cinders,” Cynthia said, her voice quite cross, “don’t you dare think of turning this down just for me.”

  Elaina shook her head. “I can’t leave you alone.”

  “You have kept me more company in the last two years than I’ve had my entire life, even when I was the life of the party.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing. I will not allow you to waste your youth on an old selfish hag like me. I made the choices that led me here, and it’s only fair that I now walk this path. You, on the other hand, at no fault of your own have been abused in the worst way since arriving.” She stretched out her hands, and Elaina took them. When Cynthia spoke again, her voice was softer. “You must go.” She smiled a little, though Elaina thought she saw sadness, too. “Find that prince. Insist that he explain himself, and I can almost guarantee you Ashland will have a new princess within a month.”

  Elaina knelt slowly at Cynthia’s feet again. “At least . . . at least let me finish tending your foot first.”

  A few minutes later, the old woman’s last embrace ate at Elaina as she hurried with the others out the back door of the manor. Though she was poised and ready to run, her blood thick with fear and energy, she still felt Cynthia’s feeble arms encircling her as the old woman said her soft, slightly warbling goodbye.

  Only when Drake used one of his tools to knock Felix unconscious and Ivan quickly after, did it dawn on Elaina that they were actually leaving. She was going to be free.

  “Should have done that two years ago,” Drake muttered as they filed quietly into the streets.

  “We didn’t have a boat waiting for us in the harbor two years ago,” Lilly reminded him.

  They didn’t talk again until they reached the wharf. Their progress was slow, due to Gram’s limited speed, but once they were there, Elaina quickly spotted the little rowboat in the distance. She had passed by this part of the wharf enough while going to the market to know all the boats that did and didn’t belong.

  “You there! Halt!”

  They broke into a run as a man with a torch shouted out at them. Drake swept Gram up into his arms, and Lilly and Jacob held hands. Elaina grabbed Aspen’s hand and pulled her along until they were twenty yards from the boat.

  As they drew nearer, however, Elaina realized that there was not one man in the boat, but seven. One was standing and frantically beckoning to them, but Elaina felt her heart sink. A boat that small would only seat a dozen people at most. And with her party, there would be thirteen.

  She let go of Aspen’s hand and looked up at the sky. “What do I do?” she whispered.

  Someone needs you.

  Cynthia’s face flashed in Elaina’s mind, and more shouts sounded behind them. No, one person didn’t need her. Thirteen people needed her.

  “Keep going!” she shouted at Aspen and Lilly, who had turned to see where she was. Whirling around, Elaina ran at top speed back toward one of the larger ships. Scrambling on board, past the sleeping watchman, Elaina leaned over the edge of the bow and strained to see in the light of the full moon.

  Sure enough, there were men up the harbor who were pouring oil onto the water. More men were chasin
g her little group. If the boat didn’t get help, they weren’t going to make it out of the harbor in time.

  Elaina turned and threw open the nearest chest on the deck. It was empty. The second contained rigging, but the third held what she was looking for. Grabbing as many casum balls as she could, Elaina hugged the clods of dirt to her chest and ran back to the bow.

  The little group had paused to get settled in the boat, and the men in pursuit were almost upon them. Elaina waved frantically for them to go. When they finally pushed off, she felt her heart simultaneously rise and sink. Never had she thought freedom would be so close, and now it was just out of reach. But then again, no one would be free if they didn’t get out of the harbor in time.

  The boat was agonizingly slow to begin its journey out to sea, as everyone continued shuffling and squeezing in for a place to sit, often in the rowers’ way. She didn’t think they would make it at one point, but at just the last moment, the boat left the harbor and reached the open part of the bay, which Elaina guessed held a larger, sturdier ship anchored farther out.

  The moment they crossed the threshold, Elaina hurled a casum ball down into the water.

  A wall of flame lit the water as the casum ball hit the trail of oil that floated on the surface, cutting the little boat off from all possible pursuit. Elaina pulled her hood off to see better as the flames licked the sky, and she squinted at the boat, praying to at least see who their saviors were inside.

  A man seated at the back of the boat turned and stood as they moved slowly into the darkness of the night. Just before the rising flames cut them off completely, however, Elaina felt her heart stop.