Dream Magic

by Joshua Khan

  Unlike Lily.

  She should have gone with Thorn and the other squires. Off on some adventure in Bone-Tree Forest. Troll hunting, wasn’t it?

  Not for the first time, Lily’s thoughts drifted on bat wings to Thorn. She never got to see him anymore. He was always running off on some errand for Old Colm or Tyburn. She could order him to attend her, but that might make him think…

  What? That she liked him? A lot? Maybe too much?

  He’d forgotten her. That was it. She’d seen him, out in the courtyard of Dead Man’s Gate, with his bow and his friends. She’d watched him tend to Hades—magnificent, beautiful, and deadly Hades—taking him off for evening flights and brushing his fur and picking bits of sheep from his fangs. Did he know she paid for extra livestock for the bat?

  You are Lady Shadow. You should not concern yourself with commoners.

  Why had it fallen quiet?

  They were all waiting. Old Man Husk had even gotten both of his eyes to face her.

  “Er…carry on,” said Lily.

  “We can’t look after him at home, m’lady.” Matilda leaned closer. “And have you smelled him? Dad always had a problem with his bowels, but now? The chickens won’t lay eggs. They’re that upset.”

  “Hhhurr murr duurh, muurr murr murr drrur.”

  “What did he say?” asked Lily.

  Matilda scowled. “He said he may be dead, but he’s not deaf.” She turned sharply to face her father. “You’d know how much you stank if your nose hadn’t fallen off!”

  “Enough. I have made my decision.” Lily stood up. “Mrs. Husk, your father-in-law is family, alive or dead…or undead. He deserves a home.”

  “But, m’lady, we’ve no room. Henry and his missus are—”

  Lily raised her hand and Matilda Husk fell silent. “I have not finished. You say the tomb is marble?”

  “As black as night, m’lady. We even sold our prize bull.”

  “Castle Gloom is in need of black marble. I shall send my masons to dismantle your tomb now that you have no use for it. We shall settle on a fair price, Mrs. Husk. Use that money to build a room for your father-in-law.”

  “But when, m’lady?”

  “In the spring. Until then Mr. Husk will be a guest of Castle Gloom. Go see Dr. Byle. He will take your father to Old Keep.” Lily paused and reached into her pocket. “Oh, and when you see the doctor, please give him these. Perhaps he’ll know who they belong to.” She handed over two squishy balls.

  Matilda frowned. “What are these? Dumplings?”

  “Eyes. I found them in the Tower of Torment this morning. They must have fallen out of one of the servants.”

  Mrs. Husk and her father-in-law left, and Lily sank back into her chair. “Is that it for today?”

  Baron Sable smoothed down his immense mustache before he helped himself to a drink. “You still haven’t replied to the Eagle Knight. And he’ll be off soon. He did give you that clockwork tree.”

  “That’s four marriage proposals, isn’t it?” said Lily. “It’s nice to think I’m so popular.”

  “Five. Your engagement to Gabriel Solar was never officially annulled.”

  Gabriel Solar. The pompous, arrogant, bullying, and entirely moronic heir apparent to the kingdom of Lumina. To think she’d come that close to marrying one of the lords of light.

  Lily remembered the Solars’ visit. All dressed in white and strutting about Castle Gloom as though they owned the place. It made her skin crawl, thinking how they’d planned to put windows into the Great Hall. Windows! What would her ancestors have thought of her if she’d ever let sunlight into Castle Gloom?

  Ying was nothing like the loathsome Gabriel. He was dashing, handsome, and by all accounts a brave and well-renowned warrior, despite being only sixteen. He was a prince of the Feathered Council, and she knew he was a good match; their marriage would join Gehenna with the kingdom of Lu Feng, far to the east. But still…

  “I will not marry Ying for a tree. Draft a polite letter. When will these proposals cease?”

  “When you do marry,” said the baron. “And you’ll not want to marry into the wind clans. Children there are born with feathers, so I hear. No, you’ll want someone closer to home. I have four sons, by the way.”

  “Four, Baron?”

  He tapped his head. “Ah, did I say four? I meant three, of course. All handsome lads, thanks to their mother.”

  He wasn’t wrong. His sons were much admired by the ladies in the court. Dark-skinned with almond, sultry eyes, and thick, curly black locks, all inherited from their desert-born mother. “Baroness Suriya is very beautiful,” Lily said.

  “She’s given me fine sons, no mistake.” He held up three fingers. “Asmodeus, the eldest, and a charming idiot. Then there’s Baal. A brave idiot and owner of the second-best mustache in Gehenna.” The baron brightened. “And finally, I’ve got Caliban. Sweet-natured, and as loyal as a pup. Also an idiot. Take whichever one you want.”

  “That’s meant to be an offer? A choice of three idiots?”

  “You don’t want a clever husband, m’lady. You are the ruler of Gehenna, and thrones rarely fit two backsides, if you don’t mind me being so bold. Clever men have ambitions. You want someone who looks good on a horse and spends his days hunting and out of your hair. My boys will do you right, or I’ll be having words with them.”

  “I’ll ponder your kind offer, Baron.” Lily blew a stray ribbon of hair out from her eyes. “Can I go now?”

  “It’s your country, m’lady,” answered the baron wryly. “But there is the business of the trolls.”

  “You sure they’re back?”

  “And bolder than ever. I’ve got the Black Guard spread out across the north, but I need more men. I’ll have to take the older squires, too, with your permission?”

  “Of course, but are you sure that’s really necessary?”

  “It’s not just small raiding parties—those we can handle,” continued the baron. “But we’ve lost two patrols, and villages near Ice Bridge have been ransacked. It’s bad. And there’s word that the trolls have a new king, and that’s the worst news of all.”

  “Why?”

  “The troll clans hate one another. You’ve got the Stonehammers fighting the Rockheads, the Flintfists against the Longtusks. Most of their time is spent battling each other. But a troll king will be bigger and meaner than all the rest, and he’ll force them to join up. I saw a troll army on the march once. I have no wish to see it again.” Baron sighed. “They know we’re weak.”

  “Weak?”

  “There’s no other way to put it. We’ve never had a big army. Our fleet’s just a collection of fishing boats. Gehenna’s strength has always been in its magic. Lord Iblis, your noble father, kept the trolls in check because they were terrified of his sorcery. Without such magic to protect our borders, the next few years will be…challenging.”

  Magic. The solution was always magic.

  But it was the problem, too.

  “How about the zombies?” asked Lily. “We have hundreds of them now. Gehenna used to have a zombie battalion once.”

  “The Immortals?” Sable shook his head. “Have you had a look at what we’ve got? Most of them just shuffle about, moaning. Their brains have rotted all the way through. You just wait and see: Old Man Husk will be the same in a few months. The only thing we could use them for is target practice.”

  Lily tried to speak with as nonchalant an air as she could manage. “Other sorcerers could protect Gehenna just as well as my father. Then no one would dare call me…I mean, us, weak.”

  Baron Sable twisted the tips of his mustache tightly. He was angry but trying hard to control it. “There are no other sorcerers,” he declared, daring her to contradict him. “All we have are rumors. Rumors that are best ignored.”

  Lily sank a little deeper. “Yes, quite. Rumors best ignored.”

  But the rumors were rising faster than the dead.

  Rumors of new, powerful magic.

&
nbsp; Of sorcery greater than that of her father, Lord Iblis Shadow.

  The baron broke the uncomfortable silence with a clap of his hands. “A troupe of players arrived this morning. With your leave, we could have them perform tonight, during the Eagle Knight’s farewell feast.”

  “They’re touring this late in the year?” Travel through Gehenna was hard work during the winter. “Do what you think best. I have other business to attend to.”

  “In the Shadow Library, I suppose?”

  Lily stopped. “What of it?”

  “People talk. You shouldn’t go down there. It’s not right.”

  “You forget your place, Baron. It is not your position to tell me what I should or should not do.”

  “It’s my position to protect Gehenna,” said the baron, eyes cold and hard. “From threats both without and within. You could bring ruin—”

  “Enough, Baron. I understand your concern.”

  “But, m’lady, you need to—”

  “Enough!” Lily shouted.

  The shadows around Lily lurched forward. Their mangled forms twisted across the cold floor, stretching out long, throttling fingers toward the terrified baron—

  “Enough,” Lily repeated, quietly this time. The shadows retreated, reluctantly, to haunt the hall beyond the flickering light.

  She’d lost her temper. She mustn’t allow that to happen. It could be dangerous.

  More than dangerous.

  Lily smiled at the baron, pretending nothing had happened. “Just the wind upsetting the candle flame,” she said. “A sudden breeze. You get them in the hall. Lots of gaps in the old walls.”

  The baron, ashen-faced, wiped his brow. “A breeze, as you say.”

  She shouldn’t have frightened him like that. The Sables were the most loyal family she had. “I know you mean well.”

  “Your welfare, and Gehenna’s, is always my greatest concern.” He wrapped his hand around his sword hilt. That didn’t stop it from shaking.

  There’s that look again.

  Sable knew what she was doing in the library. And others in Castle Gloom were wondering about it.

  The answer was simple. And obvious.

  Lily was learning magic.

  Lily pushed the Skeleton Key into the lock and gave it a firm twist.

  The vast doors before her rumbled as they unpeeled. Demons, frozen into the iron, twisted away into the cracks within the walls. Lily knew that if she tried to open the door without the key, they would leap out from their metal prison and devour her. She put the key safely back into her pocket.

  Lily clapped. Balls of soft moonlight floated out of the darkness and unveiled the Shadow Library.

  Oh, yes.

  The glowing orbs bobbed around her as she walked into the heart of the chamber, stopping in the circle of Princes, like she always did.

  The gigantic statues still terrified her a little. Each stood seventy feet tall, their heads wreathed in the darkness of the unlit ceiling vault. The six legendary princes who’d brought magic into the world and founded the great houses of magic. Her ancestors.

  Djinn, the master of fire.

  Coral, lord of the seas.

  Typhoon, ruler of the endless winds.

  Herne, the antler-headed sorcerer who commanded the earth and the beasts.

  Solar, the great shining one.

  And Solar’s twin, Prince Shadow. The first and greatest of the lords of darkness, and the founder of her family. Phantoms, ghosts, and skeletons lurked in the folds of his black marble robes. Lily touched the prince’s big toe for good luck. The toe shone from centuries of other sorcerers following the same superstitious tradition.

  She had a few hours before tonight’s feast and didn’t want to waste them. She removed the Mantle of Sorrows and hung it over a chair.

  A series of short, high-pitched yaps echoed from down one of the countless rows of shelves. A small figure came bouncing over, wagging its stubby tail.

  “Custard!” Lily knelt down and patted her lap. “So this is where you’ve been hiding.”

  The black-and-white puppy scampered up and dove straight at her. And straight through her. He tumbled, catching his ears with his little legs, then sprang up again, none the worse for wear.

  “Silly dog.” Lily grinned. He still didn’t understand what he was.

  “I’d expected you earlier, Lily.” The voice radiated out of a patch of mist near a table.

  “I’m sorry, Father. There’ve been some…unforeseen events.”

  The haze condensed to create a face, a body, limbs, and flowing robes, and the ghost of Lord Iblis Shadow formed into a defined shape. But there was no color, no life; it was a person made of memories and wishes. Like all ghosts.

  But when the ghost smiled, with the corners of his lips only slightly raised and his head tilted as if he was being ironic, Lily saw her father again: real, whole, alive.

  “Zombies?” he asked.

  “Isn’t it always?”

  “You did tear open the Veil, Lily,” said Iblis. “There were going to be consequences.”

  The Veil. Lily had spent weeks studying it, the barrier between the land of the living and the realm of restless spirits, the Twilight.

  “It’s not like I did it on purpose,” she replied. “I did it to escape…you know.”

  “Pan,” said Iblis. “My brother and my murderer.”

  The chill in his voice made the temperature drop. Lily wrapped her arms around her, a little cold and a little afraid. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  About how her uncle, Pandemonium Shadow, the man who’d practically raised her because her parents had always been busy ruling, turned out to be a traitor and assassin. He’d used stolen magic to kill her parents and her brother in a plot to take over Gehenna. He had almost killed Lily, too, during the Halloween Ball. But she’d defeated him with her own magic and the timely help of Thorn.

  Lily knew that Baron Sable and the other nobles thought she should have executed Pan and stuck his head on a spike up on Lamentation Hill. In a last-minute act of mercy, she had stayed Tyburn’s ax, deciding instead to banish her uncle forever.

  Lily shook herself back to the present. It really was cold in here. “But I read that the Veil heals itself.”

  Iblis nodded. “Eventually. But many hundreds of spirits fled back into the living world that night.” He drifted closer. “Myself included.”

  “Why not Mother and Dante? I want to see them, too, Father.”

  “The Twilight is a place for restless spirits, Lily. Salome and Dante are at peace, in a realm far beyond one even I can reach. Would you deny them that?”

  No, but that didn’t mean she didn’t still ache inside. Lily wiped her eyes. “And now we have all these undead on the loose. Mainly zombies, though.”

  “The spirits of recently dead people cross the Veil more easily, and most of those will still have bodies, hence the overabundance of zombies,” Iblis explained. “But the decaying body and brain offer the spirit a poor home. It may be familiar, but it is damaged. My…physical body was destroyed, so I could only return as a ghost.” He paused thoughtfully. Was he remembering his violent death? Lily hoped that moment was a faint memory. Iblis smiled at her, and it was both glad and sad. “We ghosts maintain our memories and identities better, but we’re more limited in other ways. For instance, we’re trapped in one location.”

  “It’s not just people, Father,” added Lily. “The butcher at Deepgrave wants compensation. His sheep carcasses climbed down from the counter and wandered off. He says half the village has turned vegetarian.”

  “Interesting. Animals rarely have strong enough spirits to linger after death.”

  Custard yapped.

  Iblis scratched the ghost puppy’s ears. “Oh, you have spirit in abundance. It’s no surprise you came back.” He turned to Lily. “Powerful magic was unleashed that night, by you.”

  “Me?”

  “You are a necromancer. The dead are yours to command. You
just need to learn how.”

  Lily looked down at Custard. “Roll over.”

  Custard stuck his tongue out and stayed on all four paws.

  “Roll over,” she repeated more firmly.

  Custard didn’t.

  “Obviously it’ll take practice,” said Iblis. “Your specialty may lie elsewhere. The magic of darkness is not just limited to the undead. You can already manipulate shadows, and there are the realms of sleep and dreaming, as well as control over the moon and the creatures of the night. You have a lifetime of study ahead, Lily.” He gestured to a pile of scrolls. “But since you have a pressing issue, let us start with the undead. Lucifer Shadow commanded hundreds of zombies and skeletons. Those are his spells. We shall read them together.”

  Lily gestured toward her cloak. “The Mantle could help. It makes my magic stronger.”

  Iblis scowled. “And how do you feel after you’ve used it?”

  Lily paused. She’d first used its powers when fighting her uncle. Afterward, she had felt…“Tired. It weighed me down, as if it were made of lead.”

  “The weight of the Mantle did not change. It sapped your strength, as sorrows do.” He approached the strange cloak.

  The Mantle of Sorrows fluttered, and tendrils spilled out to wrap themselves around him. “Be wary of this treasure, Lily. Every ruler of House Shadow has worn it, and the cloth has absorbed some of the wearer’s power, as a shirt takes on the scent of its owner. In times of need, the Mantle will augment the power you already have, but it will steal much more in return. Then you are more vulnerable to any…aftereffects caused by excessive magic use.”

  “You used it in the Battle of Ice Bridge, didn’t you?”

  “We would never have won otherwise. But afterward I developed a terrible thirst, and not for wine.” He ran his tongue across his teeth. “It was hard to rid myself of the craving, and I never wore the Mantle after that.”

  Lily changed the subject. “Let’s get back to the zombies.” She picked up a scroll. It was in Old Gehennish, and the ink had faded. “We have over five hundred here now. They’re living in Old Keep, but we’re running out of room. I have no idea what to do with them.”