“Where?”
Edel finished brushing the lint from Chester’s suit and replaced the brush in the drawer. “Have you had dinner already, Cameo?”
She toyed with the cap of her flask, ignoring his question.
“It isn’t in the apartment anymore,” Edel informed her calmly.
“I can only assume that you stole it from my room while I was asleep, and isn’t it quite possible that I paid for that weapon? Is this the sort of behavior I’m to expect while here? I thought you were a gentleman.”
Edel smiled a bit thoughtfully. “Well, I know you didn’t pay for the pistol, and I can’t very well reimburse the dead man that the weapon did rightfully belong to. As far as the ungentlemanly behavior, you’re quite right, I did take the weapon while you were asleep. I promise that won’t happen again. And lastly, no, you have me wrong. I’m not a gentleman; I’m a soldier—at least I was when I was alive.”
“A soldier for the Belfours?”
“No,” he laughed. “Forgive me, no. There were no Belfours here when I was alive. Chester, my room needs a good straightening out.”
The zombie shuffled off toward the sitting room, then presumably made his way toward the room Edel rested in.
“Belfour, now that’s a new family name.”
“It’s not that new. I used to work for them, and that was another lifetime ago,” she said bitterly.
“In the scheme of things, it’s new.” He sat down beside her in the chair Chester had just been ousted from. “They used to be rich winemakers, hundreds of years ago, and they were above everyone in Sieunes, one of the wealthiest families. And what was left after that, hmm? Just to claim royal status, so they did. And here they’ve been for the last few hundred years, and no one ever questions it.”
She met his eyes, “Francois Mond did.”
He sighed, “Yes. He certainly did have a lot of people hanged, didn’t he?”
“Rebellions are like that,” she said darkly.
“It was senseless. He murdered all of those people with his rhetoric, and the Belfours are still sitting on the throne. I’ve heard that he’s still alive. Why doesn’t he take them off the throne now?”
“I don’t know. Would you be in trouble then? You claim not to be a part of them, and yet you’re living in their palace.”
He sat back in his chair comfortably, “The other way around.”
She looked at him quizzically, “What? They’re living in your palace?”
“No. They built on my house.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, there was a little village here when I was alive. It became a bit run down over the years and was even rumored to be haunted, which kept people away from this area for a long time. But still, this site has the most beautiful view in all of Shandow, and the best vantage point. The Belfours saw the advantage of building in this very same place and so built directly on top of the old village.”
“Where did the royalty live when you were alive, then?”
He tilted his head to one side and examined her face almost sadly, “There was no royalty when I was alive.”
“Really?” She began to try to calculate how old he might be, and then the realization that if he was created by Haffef, how very old Haffef must be. “I’ve been to the castle ruins, though—”
“That wasn’t a castle,” he said cryptically.
“How old are you?”
Edel squirmed a little, “You know, we should go out to the ruins sometime. I could point out some things to you that you might not have noticed....” he trailed off. After a moment he added, “Why were you sitting in here in the dark?”
“I was bored.”
“I have many books.”
“Yes, and they’re very pretty decorations.”
“Oh, forgive me. I believed you could read.”
“They are all in some foreign language.”
“Well, new books can be obtained—”
“Why don’t you just free me instead?”
“Because....”
“You want my company?”
He looked away from her, “That’s part of it.”
“Yes, I know it’s because you think that it will irritate the Master don’t you?” she said in exasperation. “It will irritate him, Edel, and so will the theft of Ivy’s bones, and why in Faetta do you want that person so upset with you? Are you insane?”
He regarded her somewhat warily. “I’m not insane.”
She could feel the general candor of the conversation change with that one cold statement. The sound of it seemed to hang in the air.
“Aren’t you worried about Haffef at all?”
“Are you so concerned about me?” He smiled at her as if he were humoring a child.
Cameo half expected him to tousle her hair. Of course, he was also so staggeringly handsome that it was difficult to keep up a train of thought around him at times. “You’re good at avoiding questions by turning the questions back around on me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that at all.”
Edel let his amusement slip a little and looked down at the polished surface for a moment. “If he ever found me… it would be very bad.”
She sighed. Her worst fears had been realized. Haffef would kill Edel if he found him, and so she never could be released from this palace apartment and the company of one old zombie.
“So—”
“Yes. Yes, Cameo.” He met her eyes, “You can never leave.”
“I don’t want to stay here. No offense, you’re very… debonair, but I like to be free.”
“Most do.”
“You can’t just expect me to hang around here all day, reading and eating cake.”
“You can do anything you want. Just name it, and I’ll get it for you.”
Her mind went instantly to Black Opal, then she wished she hadn’t thought of him quite so completely, and then she just looked over at Edel, knowing he would never miss a piece of information like that.
“I see.” He smirked a little, “Very colorful ensemble.”
“He’s amusing,” she said with a note of exasperation in her voice.
“Well, did you want me to get him for you?”
“No.” Opal would be in imminent danger if he set foot in that apartment.
“He looks so… familiar. Are you sure you wouldn’t just like one hand of cards with the old boy?”
“No.”
He studied her face for a moment. It was austere. “You think yourself too old?”
“Not for a hand of cards,” she said bitterly.
“You aren’t old.”
She readjusted herself in her chair, “For a human I am.”
“You aren’t human.”
“Yes, but that’s such a lovely place to live, isn’t it? It’s much nicer than staggering around with the halting gait of a zombie, so I think I prefer the act.” She took a sip from her flask, “I never wanted to be whom I’ve become.”
“An alcoholic?”
“Hardly,” she hissed. “It has little effect on me.”
“Then why drink it?”
“I guess I just keep hoping.”
He rested his chin in one hand, marveling at her tone and enamored with the whole concept that he actually had another person in his apartment that he was talking to. He wanted to give her anything she wanted… as long as she would keep conversing.
“You’re in a good place, you know. You just don’t realize it.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Really. You’re able to eat, drink, be out in the sunlight, with people, but you’re stronger, more agile; you can heal fast and live longer. You’re better than human. And besides all of that, you’re an undead, so you really have no one to fear. You’re one of us dark beings with perks.”
“I’m a slave who can never do what I want.”
“Well… would you rather have perished along with your sister?”
She met his eyes, somewhat offended by the question. “Do you know somethin
g about that?”
He realized he was leaning across the table, fascinated by the sheer act of listening to her voice as she spoke. He hoped she would say his name at the beginning of a fragment of speech just so that he would know for certain she was speaking to him.
“Edel?”
The vampire sat up suddenly, wondering if he had just put that notion in her head.
She raised an eyebrow, examining him critically. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” he managed, “yes.” His face seemed to almost explode with happiness, he grinned at her, “I can’t remember what you asked.”
“I asked if you knew something about my sister’s murder.” She said this sternly, wondering why exactly he was smiling.
“I’m simply pleased that you’re here.” He glanced down, feeling a little foolish for getting so lost in a revelry of his own making. The smile slipped from his mouth. “I… I remember it.”
“You do?”
“Yes, it was just before my break with Haffef, so it’s fresh in my mind.”
Cameo’s mouth opened as a realization hit her. “You were with Haffef then? Were you there, in the meadow?”
“I was nearby.”
“How close?”
He looked into her eyes, “In the trees.”
“Did you see who did it, who took our lives?” she said, fully omitting the rest of the gruesome scene involving the molestation that she and her young sister had endured.
“I knew them through your eyes.” But he had seen it.
She flinched.
“I killed them.”
“You did?”
“Yes, “ he said softly.
“All this time I thought it was Haffef.” Her tone was somewhat cold, but he could feel a lingering sadness.
He looked down at the spikes on the back of her gloves, then back up into her eyes, “It was Haffef’s idea.”
She smiled, but it was a sad smile, defeated and thoughtful in nature. For a moment she had dared hope that someone might’ve been with her through those horrifying first days. That someone had cared. Some shadow guardian that was secretly protecting her, but no… that was a silly notion. “I suppose he was upset about Ivy’s death.”
He had heard every thought that she had just had. “Yes. He was very angry about that.”
“I don’t understand that. Did he love her?”
Edel smiled. “I don’t know.”
She could feel him holding back, but let it drop.
Chester shuffled back into the room, carrying a broom in one hand and a large feather duster in the other.
Cameo’s eyes focused on him. She couldn’t seem to process the horrific nature of Chester’s being, the dead eyes, the super-fine skin that was nearly translucent, wrapped over his skull. The way he moved, almost like a human… exaggerated, like an old human, but not quite a human. It occurred to her that that might be exactly the same way people looked at her. Somewhat otherworldly in appearance. Somewhat frightening, because it seemed so different.
She thought back on all of those terrible stares. The ones she tried to ignore, or scare away with one look. All of those confused humans trying to understand just what she was… something otherworldly and beautiful or something terribly strange and ugly in its horror.
Cameo glanced over at Edel and found him watching her, or more likely, listening to her thoughts.
“They look at me the same way.”
She rolled her eyes. He was sitting there, a perfectly sculpted face resting on his fist. “I doubt that.”
He heard that as well, and touched his face absently as if to hide it.
“I asked you not to do that.”
“Read your thoughts? I can pretend not to if you wish, but I cannot stop the information from coming to me. It comes, like a soft whisper, and after all this time, I’ve just accepted and grown accustomed to it.”
“So that’s something that happened when you became a vampire?”
He sat back, considering for a moment. “Well, no, but becoming a vampire enhanced my abilities. Haffef gave me some of his gift I suspect when his blood entered my veins. He always chooses a new undead in that manner. He only chooses a human with some… sensitivity.”
“Oh, that’s why he wanted my sister—”
“That’s why he wanted you.”
Her eyes narrowed, “What do you mean?”
“What do you think, the Master just chose you to torment? I know it seems like that sometimes, doesn’t it? But no, there was more to it than that.”
“What?”
He shrugged, “Of that, I’m uncertain.”
She sighed. “I can’t read minds, I only see these ...” Cameo motioned to the shadows she saw lingering in the dining room. They were standing at the doorways and behind Edel’s chair.
“Ghosts?”
“Is that what they are?”
He folded his hands together and smiled at her thoughtfully. “Do you want to read minds?”
“I suppose it would come in handy,” she quipped, not really thinking about what he was asking.
Edel studied her, sitting there toying with her flask. “Because I could give that to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You could read your friend Opal’s mind any time it pleased you.”
She didn’t think that she would like that very much.
“Or perhaps you would like to know more about these… what do you call them? Shadows? See them as they truly are, have more command over them.”
“What are you getting at, Edel?”
He smiled at her, trying to pull together a speech that he hadn’t yet considered writing: How best to convince her the whole thing was such a good idea? “If you let me drink your blood… only a little, then you would have those abilities too.”
She raised an eyebrow, speechless.
“It wouldn’t make you a vampire… nothing like that ....” He could hear his own voice seeming to weaken, as if he were no longer believing what he was saying either. If he had been human, he would’ve been blushing; as it was, he was looking for something on the table to hide behind, and he decided on the candelabra.
“No,” she said, almost angry that he had suggested such a thing. “I don’t want to be a vampire. I don’t even want to be this half-thing that I’m forced to be. I want to be a human. I play at being a human. Why in the world would I want that?”
“You wouldn’t be a vampire.”
“But I certainly would be headed in that direction, wouldn’t I?” She folded her arms defensively.
Edel met her eyes; they glittered in the dimly lit room. He felt he had said too much. “I must go out for a walk.”
He excused himself and departed.
She watched him walking away. He had a certain stride about him, graceful and elegant, but there was something otherworldly about it… something too beautiful to be human.
Cameo unclenched her fingers, shaking a little. In a sudden burst of energy she was standing at the window that had been behind her a moment earlier. The snow-covered ground was sparkling in the waning moonlight. Then she saw the lone figure cross from the right and walk out into the emptiness behind the palace walls.
He slowed down just as he was directly in front of her, then stopped, turned around, and met her eyes.
She held his gaze for a moment, then took a step back and moved into the sitting room, leaving him outside, staring up at the empty space where she had once been.
* * * * *
Opal stared out at the water from his room at the Lakestar. The sun rose in the morning sky as the waves were breaking over the ice-covered rocks. He could hear it faintly through the walls, it was that loud. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he had last been in Shandow, staring out at the sea, from the very same hotel. There were no lovely settees in the hotel then, no harpsichords and no beautiful antique pieces because it had been prior to the rebellion, and no one had stolen them from the homes of the wealthy yet. No one ha
d the opportunity to enjoy that sort of luxury. Only the rich, and the servants of the rich. He himself had followed his father into the palace on numerous occasions when his father gave music lessons. Opal was the little boy who helped carry the instruments or music. Whatever his father needed of him.
Oh, how he envied the royal children in their crisp jackets, the lace crimped in perfection at each wrist, wearing the shiny fabrics that he would never be allowed to wear. They would take their lessons one by one as Opal stood in a nearby corner. He watched as the royal family took them for granted, never thinking to ask if he needed a chair or a drink of water. He watched them treating their maids with outward distain, as if each one were worthless and disposable. They had no empathy for other children, no clue about the outside world, and that was because they were so wealthy, they had no cause to look outside of themselves.
He hated being back in Shandow. The snow, the utter cold, the remnants of the original royal family that had since claimed the throne some fifteen years ago. He hated that things hadn’t changed. He had hoped for change. But after most of the royal family had been hunted down, their homes ravaged, torn apart by the mob, it just turned on itself. The royals who had gone abroad to escape execution came back with militaries supplied by other countries. They just came right back in and rounded up and murdered every last member of the mob that they could find.
Opal could remember public executions. He had lost track of the number of hangings he had actually witnessed. He could remember leaving Shandow forever.
At least he had thought that it was going to be forever.
“Cameo’s been gone for three days now.” Kyrian’s voice startled him a little.
“I know,” he sighed. “I think something has gone wrong.”
“I told you she wasn’t coming back,” the lad said anxiously from the darkness. He had been sleeping on one of the fainting couches the Lakestar had acquired since Opal had been there last.
He could see the ghostly image of his own face in the windowpane staring bleakly back at him. “Do you have any idea where she is?”
“Yes, I know. At least I think so. I saw her in a dream.”
Opal turned in the direction that the voice was coming from, though he couldn’t make out any features.
“If you go to find her, it has to be in the daylight hours. She’s the hostage of another undead, and this part doesn’t make sense, but it’s what I saw: She’s at the palace.”
Cameo and the Highwayman (Trilogy of Shadows Book 2) Page 5