Keys and Curses (Shadow Book 2)

by Nina Smith

  The anger smouldered away behind Nikifor’s ribs. He moved along the bank until he found a narrow, sandy descent, carved out long since by horse-ants, a species he was quite glad didn’t appear to still occupy the place. He scrambled down it without waiting to see if Clockwork would follow, lost his grip halfway down and slid the rest of the way on his heels.

  Clockwork waited for him at the bottom, arms folded, one cheek dimpling. “Is this what you call moving? I’ve got a tarantula who could’ve got down there faster.”

  Nikifor struck off into the paddocks without replying. They weren’t that far from where they’d encountered Shazza for the first time; a straight walk across the paddocks and they’d reach Quicksilver Forest within two or three hours. He settled into a ground-eating stride.

  Clockwork kept up with a steady trot. “What’s your hurry, anyway?”

  “Flower’s in trouble. I need to get this over with and go help her.” Nikifor kept his eyes on the distant patch of darker green that was their goal. So far, the skies were clear.

  “How in Shadow do you expect to help someone so stupid she can’t even see past the end of her nose to realise her king’s out to kill her?”

  The anger surged. Before he knew what he was doing Nikifor grabbed Clockwork around the neck. “Take that back!” he roared. “She’s my friend!” He stopped, looked stupidly at his hand and let Clockwork go. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He started walking again, this time slightly faster. The distant patch of dark green grew larger.

  “No worries mate.” Clockwork rubbed his neck and kept up. “Nice to know you’re loyal to your friends. Hate to be your enemy. It’s just, you know, I don’t understand how she couldn’t know about the king. You obviously do.”

  “I have no key,” Nikifor said in a low voice.

  “So?”

  “Up until I dropped my key into the ocean, and even for some time after, I too was convinced of my loyalty to the king. I believe he’s using her key to control her.”

  Clockwork was silent for a long time. The sun shone, the flowers under their feet swayed in a gentle breeze. The occasional bee sailed past. The only other sound was their rapid footfalls. When he finally spoke again, Quicksilver Forest had grown to a spreading tree line far ahead. “What are you going to do?”

  “Free your family. Cut off the silver supply to the king.”

  “And then?”

  “Maybe I should do what Hippy told me it was my destiny to do.” Nikifor scanned the skies and finally found what he’d been expecting: a distant patch of darkness. But it was so distant he couldn’t even be sure it was for them. “Maybe I’ll go kill the king.”

  “No you won’t.”

  “You don’t want the king dead?”

  “Of course I do, and more power to you if you succeed, but you won’t. The pretender king had a vision of his death and both you and my daughter were in it. I hardly think she’s ready to join you just yet, mate. You’re going to have to wait for her.”

  Nikifor was more disquieted by this than he wanted to admit. The patch of darkness in the sky had disappeared, but that was no comfort either. That just meant they’d attacked someone else. He hoped it wasn’t Flower and Mudface. The anger still coiled inside him, but it was no longer directed at Clockwork or Fitz or even the king.

  It was directed at himself, for not being able to help when he was needed.

  They crossed the rest of the green field in silence, focussing solely on speed. Nikifor didn’t like that they hadn’t encountered any opposition yet. Everything was too quiet, which meant either they were walking into something very messy, or the enemy was busy elsewhere.

  Busy with Flower.

  He pushed the thought away and strode, finally, into Quicksilver Forest. The shade of the trees cooled him. He hadn’t realised how hot it was out there.

  Clockwork headed down a path marked by a lightning pictogram carved into a tree trunk.

  “So what’s your hurry?” Nikifor asked, his voice hushed. He remembered coming along here with Flower as though it had been a dream. He’d been in a bad way.

  “I don’t like leaving Hippy and Krysta for too long,” Clockwork replied. “And I was under the impression you’d noticed, but my entire clan is being held prisoner in their own mine. I’m not leaving them in there a second longer than necessary.”

  Nikifor didn’t make any more attempts at conversation. He followed Clockwork along a series of paths he didn’t recognise at all, under tall trees, through dips in the road, once through an ankle deep stream that ran right across the track, and then under a passage of low-hanging ferns.

  Clockwork stopped under a tree where a pictogram had been scratched off. He brushed his thumb over the wood.

  “What’s that?” Nikifor remembered Flower being puzzled by something similar.

  “It’s a warning.” Clockwork went to the next tree, where another lightning strike was etched in silver. “The only reason to scratch one of these off a tree would be if something was threatening the village. See this? This pictogram is fresh, but it’s on the wrong tree. Lightning markers only go on silver oaks, never on a fig. Someone was trying to post a warning. They must have known what was going to happen.” He hurried onward.

  Nikifor didn’t really understand any of the intricacies of where to put a pictogram. That was definitely Flower’s domain. “Wouldn’t they have done something if they knew?”

  “Of course they would. They would’ve fought for their mine. You’ve got to understand, the silver’s the most important thing to us. So they would’ve fought, and–” Clockwork stopped when the forest opened out into the same silent village Nikifor remembered. “–And they would’ve lost.”

  They descended into the village. Clockwork quickened the pace to a steady jog and went straight through without as much as looking at any of the huts. Nikifor didn’t blame him. The place gave him the chills even more now than it had last time he’d been here.

  They left the village and went down the rocky path to the mine. It was a dizzying feeling to be back where he’d started, only this time with a lot more of his faculties intact. The huge rock remained over the cave mouth, and in front of it slept a dozen fetches.

  The pair crept closer under cover of the trees. Clockwork said a stream of very bad words under his breath the whole time, some of them words Nikifor had never even heard before. No wait, he’d heard Krysta use at least one when she was being attacked by vampires in her mother’s kitchen. It sounded very, very, rude.

  Nikifor loosened the axe from its braces on his back. “I’ll get the fetches.” Without waiting for a reply he strode to the sleeping creatures and smashed the axe into the heads of the first three before the others even woke up. The fourth had time to flare its wings and hiss. Thud. Nikifor turned it to gas and knocked the next two into the rock. The seventh had time to fly at him before he kicked it in the face. He gagged when it exploded right in front of him. Eight and nine he smashed into the ground just as ten began to shriek. He cut that sound off with a blow to its neck, and dispatched eleven and twelve just as quickly.

  He took a deep breath when the air cleared enough for him to stop gagging.

  “You’re handy with that thing.” Clockwork joined him in front of the door.

  They both positioned themselves at one side of the huge stone and pushed. Nikifor brought every ounce of his strength to bear on it. His muscles tensed. His face went red. Sweat poured down his back. Just as he thought they weren’t going to be able to move it, the stone shifted, ground and rolled very, very slowly aside.

  Light flooded into the cavern behind the stone. Someone screamed. An explosion lit the entire cavern as bright as day.

  A Moon Trooper, on fire from the sunlight, ran at them. Nikifor and Clockwork stepped aside. The fireball continued up the path, faltered and fell.

  Clockwork snickered.

  Nikifor peered into the darkness. It was thick with tall shapes, all of them clad in black and masked in silver, pressing
away from the light, snarling quietly under their masks.

  “Looks like we have a little vampire problem,” he said. Oddly enough, he felt quite happy about it. This he knew how to deal with.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The garden beyond the roses made Flower gasp. A huge winged horse towered into the sky, made entirely from a dense green bush. Behind it were two prowling leafy lions, and beyond that, a brooding dragon. A fountain bubbled quietly to itself. Mossy paths led in every direction. She’d been here before of course, but so long ago it was all new again, and this time there was something–something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

  The stones of a towering wall crumbled and cracked in spider web patterns. Moss ate away at lintels and once-precise cornices. Every single carving along the castle wall had been smashed to pieces. Ten fetches slumbered on the roof.

  “My king.” She pointed to the fetches. “You appear to be as under siege as the rest of us.”

  “Don’t worry about them.” Pierus gave her a thin smile. “Come inside, all of you. I so rarely get visitors, I’m eager to hear your news.” He led them up three cracked steps and pushed open the double doors into a huge, dusty foyer.

  Flower stepped inside and looked around. Shazza and Pinky came in behind her. The foyer was in as much disrepair as the rest of the castle. A crack in the flagstones stretched from wall to wall. The high windows were either covered in dust or shattered, and there was no furniture to speak of. She was horrified. The king she remembered had loved his luxuries. He’d always been surrounded by the best of everything. “Is this how you live?” She put her hand on the king’s arm in mute sympathy and lowered her voice. “Is somebody forcing you to live like this?”

  He chuckled, closed the doors and bolted them. Both Shazza and Pinky watched the action with silent, suspicious eyes.

  Pierus leaned against the doors and looked them over. “Now, who do we have here? Shazza, isn’t it? Come here.”

  “My king.” Shazza didn’t say it with the same conviction as Flower, or even with the same conviction she’d spoken of him with before. But she went to him.

  Pierus took her chin in one hand, turned it from side to side and studied her closely. “Ah, yes, I remember you. You’re the one I broke.”

  Shazza scowled and tried to move away, but he shook his head at her. “Tut, tut, my sweet. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be guarding my silver?”

  “I quit,” she said. “You promised me I’d be important, and I’m not.”

  “Whinge, whinge, whinge. That’s all you ex-humans ever do. Didn’t I give you a whole new life?”

  Shazza nodded.

  “Didn’t I give you special powers to go anywhere you wanted?”

  “Yes, but you said I’d be important!”

  “That was before I broke you. You’ve just got to understand you’ll never be able to do anything more than guard my silver purely because you retained the ability to say ridiculous things like `I quit,’ and to betray me.”

  “But I never-”

  Pierus held up a hand. Shazza stopped talking.

  “Excuse us ladies, I’ll be right back,” he said. “Shazza, come with me. I have something for you.”

  He walked up a flight of broken steps. Shazza followed, after casting one pale and worried glance back at Pinky.

  Something wasn’t right. Flower put her hand around the key. The way it vibrated comforted her.

  Pinky tugged on her sleeve. “Flower?”

  She put a comforting hand on the fairy’s shoulder. “Yes?”

  “Where’d he take Shazza? What’s he going to do?”

  “He said he had a gift for her. I’m sure everything will be just fine.” Flower gave Pinky a big smile and hoped it would reassure her. Yes, everything would be fine. The king had always been moody. He wouldn’t actually hurt Shazza.

  “What did he mean when he said he broke her?” Pinky hissed. “I thought you said Shazza was made by a different king. A bad one.”

  Flower didn’t have an answer for that.

  Pinky’s whisper went up a notch. “I think it’s the same king, Flower. I think he’s bad. We need to get Shazza and get out of here.”

  “Nonsense.” Flower’s voice sounded firmer than she felt. “Don’t you worry about a thing, we’ll get all this sorted out as soon as he comes down again.”

  The king returned barely a minute later, alone. Pinky hid behind Flower.

  “Now, my dear.” Pierus gave Flower the thin smile she remembered so well. “We have much to talk about.”

  “Where’s Shazza?” Flower asked.

  “Busy. It’s you I’m interested in. And that pink thing behind you. Come out dear, don’t be scared.”

  Pinky took a step out, raised her chin and faced the king.

  His upper lip curled slightly. “What is it?”

  “This is Pinky.” Flower tried to keep her voice even. “My King I do not remember you being so rude to a guest.”

  He ignored her and paced around Pinky instead, studying her. “Yes, but what is it? Talk, pink thing, tell me what you are.”

  “I don’t know.” Pinky’s jaw firmed into stubbornness. “I got a fairy curse and now I’m just pink.”

  “A fairy curse?” He crouched down to be on the same level as her. “Well then, we have something in common. You see this?” He gestured at the room around them. “The devastation in this castle is the result of a fairy curse.” He leaned closer. His face wrinkled into a snarl and his words bled with violence. “I hate fairies.”

  Pinky took a step back from him.

  “Why don’t you go explore.” Pierus waved his hand toward the stairs. “Anywhere you like, except outside, unless you fancy getting bitten by a fetch or a rose. I want a private conversation with Flower.”

  Pinky looked at Flower with a clear warning in her eyes.

  “Go on,” Flower said. “You’ll be fine.”

  Pinky slowly climbed the stairs, pausing halfway up to look back at them.

  “Oh, do get on with it,” Pierus said.

  Pinky disappeared onto the first floor.

  “Now, my number one muse.” Pierus tipped Flower’s chin up and studied her, much as he had Shazza. “You’ve led me a merry chase.”

  “What do you mean? I’ve been seeking you for weeks!” Flower closed her hand around her key, which was almost too hot to touch. She broke away from the king. “I don’t think you’re taking things very seriously. I mean no disrespect my king, but Shadow is falling apart without you! Thousands of muses and fairies have gone missing, the Moon Troopers are running roughshod over the city, these fetches are attacking people everywhere and the false muses-” she glanced up the stairs where Shazza had disappeared. “Surely you’re not responsible for those awful things? Tell me you’re not?”

  “Ah, Flower, my best and brightest, so full of questions.” Pierus loosened her hand from around her key. He studied it. “I want to know what you’ve been up to, to cause such powerful tremors between Shadow and Dream. There’ve only been a few, but I could almost swear you were near every single one.”

  Flower stared at him. She thought of Krysta swinging her hockey stick and almost opening a door. She opened her mouth to tell him, then remembered her promise to Hippy.

  “Give me your key,” Pierus said.

  Flower took the chain from around her neck and handed it to him.

  Pierus cupped the object in one hand and studied it. “At last,” he murmured. “This might just complete it.”

  “What do you mean? Complete what?”

  “Come with me. I have something to show you.” Pierus turned his back on her and hurried up the stairs.

  Flower followed. She convulsively gripped the space at her neck where the key had been. She felt empty without it. They went up two more flights of stairs, where she had to tread carefully to avoid breaking her neck on missing stones and sudden dropaways.

  Pierus waited for her at the top. “In you come, my dear.”
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  Flower walked through a doorway into a large room. Pierus closed and locked the door behind her, but she barely noticed.

  Sunshine filtering from the high windows cast stripes of light and dark across her feet, and over a staircase that wound up to the roof. Tables cluttered with dusty metal instruments brooded in the shadows. Ragged curtains hid whole sections of the place from her view.

  Flower’s uneasy gaze went inexorably to the far wall, where a vast machine cobbled together from hundreds of wheels and springs and cogs and things she didn’t even know the names of dominated the entire room. A huge pipe fitted through the roof poured a continuous stream of quicksilver in from one corner.

  “The machine,” she whispered. “Oh Nikifor, I didn’t believe you.”

  Pierus stood at her side clasping and unclasping his hands like a delighted child. “I built it all myself,” he said. “I had to. You see, this creation is invaluable. With it I can keep track of all my muses and of countless other goings on in Shadow and Dream. I can contact any muse, any time, so long as they have their key.”

  Excitement surged through her blood. “But this is wonderful my king! You can find all the missing muses!”

  He glanced at her. Smiled. “Do you think I would let even one of you escape my sight?”

  It took a moment for his meaning to sink in. “Where are they? Do they need help?”

  “Not at all, they’re quite content. Yes, my dear, I know where you all are now. All but one.” He strolled to the machine, ran a hand along it and glanced back at her. “Where is Nikifor? I know you were with him for some time.”

  “Nikifor went to Quicksilver Forest to free some Freakin Fairies trapped in a silver mine. My king, Shadow needs your help. The Moon Troopers are forcing the Freakin Fairies to mine their silver for-” she faltered and glanced again at the quicksilver pouring out of the pipe.

  “Yes?” Pierus smirked at her.

  Flower’s stomach twisted. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Please don’t mess up my floor.” He weighed her key in his hand.