by Jodi Lamm
Marcus still knelt at Maddy’s feet. She did not like him in that position. He was supposed to be a tower of ice, not a puddle on the floor.
“Listen,” Father Androcles said. “I still have to close up the chapel. Work your troubles out between you. When I return, we’ll discuss what’s to be done over tea.” He stepped on the shards of his broken jug as he left, mumbling, “Such wonderful new friends.”
The flame of the priest’s oil lamp wavered in the draft, and Maddy saw two shadows—one subjugated to the other—flickering on the walls. She held her forehead in her hands and shuffled what she knew about herself, the Titan, the duke, and her brother into every pattern she could imagine. She wondered where Marcus fit in their web of masters and slaves. Jas was a Titan, but Eli commanded him like one of his own soldiers. Jas commanded Maddy, though, who could overcome a man like Eli and his entire army, easily. Marcus might destroy the circle of power entirely. He, the unknown element, loved Maddy, or he claimed to love her. And now he waited on his knees before her, swearing to protect her, swearing to marry her.
“You.” Maddy glanced up from her hands. “Why would you marry me?”
Marcus looked puzzled. “Because I love you,” he repeated in a way that questioned why it even needed repeating.
“I don’t believe you,” Maddy said. Marcus opened his mouth to answer, but she wouldn’t let him. “How can you love clay? His Grace is right. I’m just a golem.”
Marcus blinked. “And I am only a slave.”
“That can’t be true.”
“How can you doubt me?” Marcus rose and leaned in too close. Then he drew in a deep breath and held it as though he were holding the essence of her in his lungs. “I love you so much,” he said at last. His breath chilled her lips.
“The beast makes you think you love me,” she said. “But it isn’t real.”
Defeated, Marcus let his head fall onto her shoulder. Wisps of his feather-soft hair brushed against her cheek. She had to fight herself not to hold him in her arms.
“To be released from my curse,” he said, “the one that makes me think I love you, you have to give yourself to me. You have to make me your master.” He paused, but did not lift his head from her shoulder. “With a voice, you can choose your master. But to find your voice, you have to defy your creator, and it’s dangerous to defy a Titan. He’ll kill you for it, I’m afraid.” He clung to Maddy, as though she might turn her back on him and walk away the moment he let her go. “But you don’t have to risk anything.” He lifted his head. “Stay alive, Maddy. Forget my curse. Try to love me as a beast.”
“But that’s like a fairy tale.”
“Yes, a fairy tale.” He dropped his arms and smiled a little. “I can live with this.”
She slipped around him and knelt down to pick up the priest’s broken jug, one piece at a time. “What if I can’t?”
Marcus wrung his hands. “You’ll probably die. Oh, maybe… maybe not. I don’t know. It’s terrible. Let’s not think of it, Maddy. Let’s run away.”
“No.” Maddy clutched the clay shards to her chest. “I want my memory. I want a soul. You said you could give me a soul. Was that a lie?”
But Marcus wasn’t listening any more. He backed away from her, his eyes wide, one trembling finger pointed at her feet.
“What now?”
“The Titan…”
At first, Maddy felt a scratching at her skin, as though something sharp were caught between her clothing and her right leg. Though she held perfectly still, it moved. It scraped along her thigh in strange, sporadic circles. Then she saw the blood trickling down her feet, between her toes. She dropped the pieces of clay she had gathered and pulled her petticoat away from her leg. “Marcus,” she whispered. A word carved itself into her skin as she watched.
Marcus knelt down with her. “Alone,” he read. “What does it mean? There’s more. What does it say?” He pushed her petticoat further back. “I can’t see it.”
“Come alone,” Maddy read aloud. “There’s more above that.” When she saw the blush on Marcus’ face, she covered herself again.
Marcus shook his head. “The duke is using the Titan to send you a private message. It will tell you where to go.” His eyes were wild. “Don’t go, Maddy.”
“I have to.”
“No.” He was shaking. “I’ve been stupid. Do you hear? Just run away. Run away from me and everyone.”
“But…”
“Maddy.” Marcus crawled closer, ignoring the broken shards of clay that surrounded them both. He knelt on Maddy’s skirts and wrapped his arms around her. He crushed her to himself as though he could keep her from going by sheer force. “Don’t do this for someone like me. I’m not worth it. Believe me.” His body shuddered with every breath he took, and Maddy knew he fought an impossible battle even as he held her. He would never be himself again, not without her help.
“Someone like you should not be under the influence of a beast,” she said.
He touched his lips to the crook between her collarbone and throat as if to kiss her, but spoke instead. The hum of his voice against her skin made her shiver. “You have no idea how precious you are to me, Maddy. I’ll die if you’re destroyed.” Then he pulled back, touched his forehead to hers, and looked into her eyes. “At least, before you go, repeat this spell after me.”
“Spell?” She barely spoke. All the air seemed to have slipped from her lungs without her noticing it. “No more spells.”
“This one’s easy,” he said, trying to smile, “and it will allow me to find you more quickly. Please. I won’t let you go without it.”
She squeezed his hand and nodded.
“Good.” Marcus closed his eyes. “Repeat after me.”
She did. These are the words they said: “Marcus, when next I say your name, hear my voice and be instantly by my side. No matter where I am or who I am with, do not fail to save me from harm.”
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief as Maddy spoke the last words of his spell. “Don’t say my name until you need me. When you do, I’ll be with you. And don’t let the Titan touch you. Resist him, no matter what it takes.” Then he held her in his arms and whispered, “Survive and come back to me.”
The beast must have released him just then, Maddy thought. His touch was soft. His arms were gentle. She wanted to tell him she loved him, but she feared waking the fire in him. So she quietly waited in his arms on the cold, stone floor, while the spilled rum and blood seeped into her petticoat. Marcus was human, no matter what kind of demon possessed him. She wished she could know at least that much about herself.
Without another word, Marcus stood and pulled Maddy to her feet. His solemn expression made her want to cry. He buttoned her greatcoat for her, the way he had the night he first sent her away from home, and guided her out the door. There, in the chill night air, he embraced her one last time. He was shaking, but not from the cold. “Go on, Maddy,” he said, and she heard his voice falter. “You’re my last hope.”
19: The Ivory Statue
The warmth of Marcus’ embrace had not yet faded when Maddy stopped walking, lifted her petticoat, and read the etchings in her skin. We wait at the mausoleum, they said. Come alone.
She never stumbled, sprinting down that dark road. Her bare feet flattened the earth as she cut a path across the land. It didn’t matter that she’d never been to the mausoleum before. Jas was there. She could feel him more powerfully the closer she came to him. Blood trickled down her leg and into the soil under her feet. The more she bled the faster she moved, until the world around her blurred into one long streak of green and black and red.
The mausoleum lay some distance outside town. It was a great stone pyramid that rose in the horizon like a mythic creature. Its jaws were wide enough to swallow a thousand men, and it had. The creature seemed to welcome Maddy as she approached, with its arms flung open, its locks and bars undone.
Inside, every breath she took echoed in an unnatural stillness. She wound he
r way between the indoor sepulchers, stone coffins, and marble statues until she saw the faint hint of firelight. A torch. She followed the light to the farthest corner of the place and gasped at what she saw. There on the floor, back to back, bound and gagged, were Jas and Will.
Maddy snapped the ropes that bound Jas like they were sewing threads. But when she reached for his gag, a voice behind her said, “Not the gag, if you please.”
Maddy recognized the duke’s gentle lilt and shivered.
“I don’t want him to spoil things for you both.” Eli Mahler emerged from the darkness with an unusually cruel smile on his face. “I’m glad you came, little one.”
Jas bit his gag and curled his fingers into his palms. Maddy saw blood on his leg. His clothes had been sliced through, and the words meant for her were carved into his skin. Maddy helped him stand.
“First, we’ll set the stakes.” Eli circled around them twirling a carving knife in his fingers. “I’m going to tell our Madeleine a story, since she likes them so well. She’s heard this one before, but forgotten it. At the end of the story, she’ll know the name I gave to her years ago. And when she knows her name, her mind will open itself to the past. She will remember… everything.”
Maddy felt Jas’ surge of fear. His eyes widened. His face went pale.
“You can stop the story at any time, James. You only have to do something you’ve done once before. It should be simple.” Eli took a torch from the wall and illuminated one coffin. All three observers stared aghast at what lay upon that stone altar. It could have been one of the memorial statues, were it not that it had been carved from wood instead of marble. It was the figure of a child: tiny hands and feet, a tiny chest, and a perfect, little face.
What horrified those who saw the wooden child was an idea Eli confirmed with his next words. “Give it life, James.”
Maddy shook her head.
“You and I already made a bargain, little one. Remember? Help restore my son to me, and I will give you what you want.”
She pointed to Jas to illustrate that she had already fulfilled her end.
“No no no.” Eli frowned. “He is not my son. This is my son.” He swept the torch over the wooden boy, illuminating its body from head to toe and back again. “His name is Kaspar.”
The words he is not my son echoed through the mausoleum. Maddy’s stomach sank, and when she turned to see Jas, the look on his face told her why. The only father he had ever known did not want him, and despite the distrust, the betrayal, the cruelty between them, it broke his heart.
Eli handed Jas the carving knife without so much as an apologetic glance. “Well, get to work. If my child isn’t breathing by the time I finish the story, I’ll twist the knife you planted years ago. You’ll have to kill her, James. And remember, I can say her name more quickly than you can command her.”
Jas looked at Maddy, his eyes weary, his face desperate.
“Go on, Titan,” Eli said, but Jas was staring at something on the child’s chest.
Maddy followed his gaze. A royal insignia was sewn into the child’s waistcoat. She pointed to it and looked to the duke for his answer.
Eli smiled a joyless smile. “Does his mother’s identity matter so much? He is my son.” Then his face became stern. “I’m going to start the story now. James, avoid the forehead when you carve. I want him to look as human as possible; his mother mustn’t know he’s not.”
Jas approached the wooden prince, lay both hands on its chest, and bowed his head.
Eli began. “Long ago, there lived a man who loved no woman. He was a sculptor, an artist like me. He craved perfection in a woman, but no woman is perfect, so he made his own in ivory.” Eli paused and glanced at Jas, who lifted the statue’s silk shirt and began to carve a mark into its stomach. “She was beautiful, perfect, and the artist fell instantly in love with her. He named her…”
Jas tore off his gag and shouted, “Give me more time!”
“Don’t worry, James, the story isn’t over yet. But you were not supposed to remove your gag.”
“I need to…” Jas panted. “I need to breathe into him.”
“Of course. I trust you won’t make any stupid mistakes.” Eli continued. “The artist’s love for his creation was so tragic, everyone took pity on him, even a god. This god presided over love and beauty. She, of all gods, knew true love when she saw it, and she saw it in the sculptor. So the god gave life to the artist’s beloved creation… Is this story at all familiar to you? Maybe you’ve guessed that I named you for that ivory statue. I named you so because I made you perfect, and lonely James couldn’t help but love you. Once he loved you, I knew he would do anything for you. He even bound his soul into the body of a stag to save you from himself. Wasn’t that a surprise? I hadn’t expected it.”
Jas breathed into the child’s mouth more frantically as Eli spoke. And with each breath, the child’s wooden exterior seemed to soften, the pinker his cheeks became, the more his chest seemed to move on its own. Jas emptied himself of air until Maddy swooned from it and gripped Eli’s arm to steady herself.
Eli supported her like an old friend. “Do you want to know your name, little one?”
Before Maddy could respond, Jas fell to the ground, gasping. He wrapped his arms around himself and rolled onto his back. “It’s… done…”
Eli clung to Maddy’s arm and trembled.
When the child stirred, the Duke of Silence wept. His strange eyes overflowed with great, rolling tears. He opened his mouth and whimpered, “Oh, thank god.” He fell to his knees. He covered his face. He rocked back and forth, laughing and crying in turns. “My son, my son, my son.”
But the child was not his son. Maddy knew it as she watched the wooden statue push itself from the stone slab. It had dusty hair and dull grey eyes like the duke. Eli must have crafted it to look exactly as the prince had appeared in life, but this creature was not human. It had no soul, no memory, no voice. The child raised its empty eyes to Maddy, who tried not to see it. It reminded her of what she was.
Jas pushed himself from the ground and stared up at his own creation. “This is wrong.” He shook his head. “This is so wrong.”
Maddy felt the intention in him, and suddenly, the wooden prince was more than the mirror image of her own fears. He was like her, another version of her. She rushed forward and swept the child into her arms before either Eli or Jas could touch him.
“Madeleine,” Jas began, but Maddy wouldn’t let him finish.
“He’s only a child!” she cried.
“This is no time to be stubborn. I have to stop this before it goes any further.”
“I won’t let you kill him.”
“Let me do what’s right for once.” Jas set his teeth and took a deep breath. “Madeleine, give him to me.”
She shook her head and backed away from him.
“I command you, Madeleine. Give him to me!”
Her cheeks were wet with tears as she clutched the child to her chest. “He’s your golem,” she said. “You can command him to lie down and be killed and he won’t be able to resist you. But I’m stronger than he is, and I’ll resist you on his behalf.”
Jas dropped his shoulders and opened his mouth, but not a sound came from him.
Maddy went on before she lost her courage completely. “What has he done to hurt anyone? You’re scared—I can feel it—but I won’t let you kill him, not now that he knows what it is to live.”
The room was eerily silent when Maddy finished speaking. Jas and Eli both gazed at her, awed and reverent, as though they’d never seen her before. Even Will looked up from his bonds, his eyes wide and staring.
“Her voice.” Eli reached out a hand as though he could touch something invisible, hovering in the air just before him. “I can hear it.”
Jas’ face turned a sickly shade. “It’s too soon.”
“It happened without her memory,” Eli said, stunned. “It happened without any help at all.”
Jas shoo
k his head and wrung his hands. “I can’t do this. I’m not ready.”
Eli regained his composure and walked toward Maddy, his arms outstretched. “Give my son to me and I promise to preserve his life. He will be protected by the queen’s own guard.”
Maddy held the child more tightly. “First tell me my name.”
“No!” Jas snapped.
“Why not?” she said. “You’ll kill me no matter what happens. Nothing can change that now. What difference does it make if I remember?”
Eli laid a hand on her shoulder, and his touch made her stomach turn. “It makes a great difference to James,” he said. “He doesn’t want you to remember because he’s ashamed of himself. But we made a bargain, you and I, and if you give my son to me, I will restore your memories.”
Through all this, the golem in Maddy’s arms never once struggled. He was like an infant, except he never cried. He just stared out into the darkness as though all he saw were the colors the world left behind. Disgusted, Maddy let him slide away from her.
Eli gathered him up with his characteristic gentleness.
“He won’t ever be your son,” Maddy said, as Eli kissed the top of the child’s head again and again. “You know that, don’t you?”
“He is enough,” Eli said.
Maddy looked away, ashamed for Jas, who had never been enough and never would be, not for Eli Mahler. She suddenly understood the birth of that pathetic, whimpering thing Jas kept locked inside himself.
Eli began, “I owe you a great debt for this, Miss Lavoie—one I cannot hope to repay in the short time we have together. You asked me what name I gave you all those years ago…”
Jas made one last, desperate attempt. “Madeleine, don’t hear him!”
But Maddy had already found her voice, and she chose to hear the duke, who called back to her as he walked away. “Your name is Galatea.”
20: A New Thing