by Sharon Shinn
“Treating her as your betrothed,” I said quietly.
He nodded. “I’m afraid so.” He gave me a long look. “I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “This day was always coming. The days I didn’t expect were the ones we’ve just had. I’ll be sad, but I won’t be sorry. That’s so much more than I could have hoped for.”
He reached his hand across the table and I took it. All our echoes joined hands as well, though two of his had to be content with the hands of one of mine. “More than it ever even occurred to me to hope for,” he said. He shook his head. “Hope,” he repeated, as if he might offer some profound observation about the meaning of my name. But he just shook his head again, squeezed my fingers, and said nothing.
There was much to do back at the palace, so Jordan didn’t linger after the meal. I missed the chance to spend another night in his arms, but I told myself there would be other nights—one or two, at least, before all the details of the treaty were finalized, and Bentam arrived in Camarria, and Jordan and Elyssa were wed. And then … and then … well, my life would go on without him. In some fashion. And it would be a good life, no matter how hard it was. It would just be lonely.
For now, it was inexpressibly sweet to be reunited with the echoes. I hummed as I undressed them for the night and tucked them into the second bed. They didn’t speak or laugh or show much change of expression, so they weren’t companions in the sense that Bevvie had been, and yet simply having them in the room with me gave me a sense of comfort I couldn’t describe. I curled up in my own bed and felt relaxed and tranquil as I hadn’t for days. I fell asleep almost at once.
And woke at dawn, ready to play my part in another dangerous game.
A crackle pattern of frost across my window warned me how cold it was outside, so I ate heartily and dressed warmly. I debated leaving the echoes behind, but I wasn’t sure how agitated they would become if they were left alone in a strange place. So I dressed them warmly as well, pulling the cloaks of their hoods down closely around their faces. As soon as I reached for the door, I felt their movements effortlessly synchronize with mine. I had not intentionally drawn them to me, but even so, they were copying my every move.
I spared a moment to wish I could keep them with me once I was out on my own. Elyssa didn’t want them, after all. But it would be hard enough to make my way in the world, fumbling along as I figured it out, without having two more bodies to feed and care for. And surely Jordan would make sure that they were never again starved or abused. It would be better for all of us if they stayed with Elyssa.
I told myself that about five times in the three minutes it took us to descend the stairs and step outside into the bitter chill.
Bevvie had taught me how to spot a vehicle-for-hire, so the minute I saw one clopping down the street, I waved to the driver and asked how much he would charge to carry us to Garnet Reach. I couldn’t tell if the price was high, and I didn’t care; I just handed over the coins and helped the echoes into the open conveyance. It didn’t take long to navigate the half-deserted streets to the quaint square with its great rearing bridge. The construction appeared to be almost complete, with the soaring arch of stone decorated with a fanciful filigree of wrought iron ornamentation. It might be ten feet across at the highest point, which was about the height of a three-story building; directly below it was a crosshatched metal grate where people could toss money to the triple goddess. A few coins glittered on top of the grill, having fallen in such a way that they hadn’t rolled through. Nearby, a pretty fountain sat dry and still, its silent stone lovers clearly dreaming about warmer weather.
At this hour, there weren’t many people about—a couple of nursemaids pushing buggies, a few young men deep in earnest conversation, a lone woman sitting in contemplation on a bench. I wondered which ones were the guards that Jordan had promised would be waiting in disguise, since none of these visitors looked particularly warlike to me. Maybe a few were lurking in the shadows of nearby buildings.
One solitary figure stood at the very top of the bridge, covered from head to heel in a long, hooded cloak. His back was to me, but I had to assume it was Marco, come to keep his assignation with Elyssa. Had he been there yesterday morning as well? If I hadn’t shown up this morning, would he have come back tomorrow? For a moment, my heart misgave me. He must truly love Elyssa to wait so patiently so many days just in the hope of seeing her face. Then I remembered his plots against the crown, and I hardened my heart again.
I took a deep breath and strode with assumed confidence to the foot of the bridge, the echoes a pace behind me. The arch was steep, but that wasn’t why my breath was short and my pulse was pounding as we made it to the top. Surely the man standing so quietly at the center of the span had heard our approach, but he hadn’t pivoted in our direction. Maybe he didn’t want to show himself until he was certain who had arrived.
When we were only about five feet away, I spoke in a low voice. “Marco. I’m here.”
The hooded figure turned to greet us, and I found myself looking into my own face.
“I thought it must be you,” said Elyssa.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I was stone. I was ice. I was anything cold and immobile and bloodless. How was she here? What did she know? What did she guess? What had gone wrong?
Her careless gray gaze flicked over me, noting my clothing, resting on the echoes at my back, returning to my face. She seemed more curious than angry, but I could feel it there nonetheless, the fury building at the back of her skull.
“So you walk and talk on your own now? Just like an ordinary girl?” she said in a mocking voice. “So many times I thought there must be someone inside that fragile shell, but you would never show me more than a flicker or a grimace. I could never coax you out.”
I thought about the hot brands, the keen knives, and wondered at her notion of coaxing. But I said nothing. I could not think of anything remotely useful to say. She stepped so close I could catch the faint scent of soap clinging to her skin.
“How long?” she said. “How long have you been hiding in there, watching me, pretending to be nothing but a reflection?”
Again, I kept quiet, and her hand shot out and closed cruelly over my arm. This was so familiar—Elyssa inflicting pain—that I bit back a cry and refused to speak. But this time, for the first time in all our dealings, I didn’t drop my eyes.
“Answer me,” she hissed. “You know I can make you suffer. How did you come to be?”
I found my voice steadier than I expected. “You woke me,” I said. “Every time you cut me. Every time you scarred me. The pain brought me closer to the surface, until finally I never dropped back down into darkness. I am what you have made me.”
She released me with such force that I staggered back, knocking into the echoes. “And I can unmake you,” she said. “And I will. But first you will explain everything to me.”
I tried to calm my breathing; I tried to keep my eyes from darting desperately to the onlookers below. Where were Jordan’s men? Where were the royal guards? Why hadn’t they come rushing up the bridge as soon as they saw me speak to the cloaked figure?
“What sort of game do you think you’re playing?” she went on. “How dare you contact Marco and pretend you’re me!”
When my gaze snapped to her face, she sneered and nodded. “Oh, yes, I found out. He sent me a note promising he would be here today as we had agreed. Of course, I let him know I had made no such plans, but I couldn’t imagine who had written to him on my behalf. And it was you. You. How did you even learn to write a word?”
In spite of my overwhelming terror, I couldn’t keep a note of triumph from my voice. “Oh, I didn’t write him. I met him in the gardens and pretended I was you.” Now I smiled. “He believed me, too.”
I didn’t expect the blow, so it cracked across my face so brutally I felt my cheekbone bruise. “You lie,” she cried.
I put a hand to my face and stared at her. “You wish I lied.”
>
Her eyes narrowed and she stepped closer again. I backed up, feeling the echoes move uneasily behind me. “To what purpose?” she demanded, her voice low and intense. “Why meet with him? Why try to lure him out?”
I didn’t want to answer; let her figure it out for herself. It wouldn’t be that hard. But then I felt it, that familiar, awful compulsion settling in my bones, working its way along my resisting muscles. I felt a rogue despair roil through my blood like spilled acid. She could force me to mimic her every action or she could coerce me into speaking aloud. I felt an invisible touch at the base of my throat, and the words came tumbling out.
“He is a traitor to the crown. He tried to murder the prince.”
“Why do you care? Neither the king nor Cormac is anything to you.”
I was silent.
I felt it again, that pressure on my throat, as if a finger was digging into the skin at the hollow. I coughed and I choked and then I managed a single word. “Jordan.”
“Jordan? What about him? I’ve never schemed against him.”
I put my hand to my neck, but I couldn’t brush away her probing finger. “When you marry him. You’ll kill him in his sleep.”
She actually laughed. “Oh, that’s right, there was some discussion of murder in the marriage bed. But again, why do you care? Jordan is nothing to you and you’re nothing to him.”
I took my tongue between my teeth and told myself I would bite it in two before I would say a single word about my feelings for Jordan. But maybe I didn’t have to speak. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed together in a sour frown.
“So you have some affection for the prince,” she said slowly. “How did that come about, I wonder? Maybe in Wemberton, when poor Renner trapped you in a room together for an hour or two. Did you pour out your heart to him then? Bond over your mutual hatred of me? What a very interesting evening that must have been!”
Even before then, I thought, but I would not say it, not even if she wrung my neck here on the Garnet Reach. I had started to realize that Jordan’s soldiers were not coming. Some greater crisis must have kept them at the palace, maybe something terrible, but I could not spare a second to worry about that. I just kept my gaze fastened on Elyssa and continued taking short, shallow breaths. For as long as she allowed that. I knew she was almost done with me. I knew that I would not survive this encounter.
She lifted a gloved hand to touch my cheek. I tried to jerk away, but I couldn’t move. “So the poor little echo has tumbled head over heels in love with the dull younger prince,” she said. “Is that it? And you fear that evil Elyssa will marry him and destroy him—or simply marry him and make him miserable—and you will have to bear silent witness? How very amusing! It would almost be worth keeping you around just to know how wretched you would be, watching me subject Jordan to every kind of grief.”
I managed to speak now, but not the words she was expecting. “I hate you.”
Or maybe she was expecting them, because she laughed. “I know,” she said. “And it’s just delightful.”
For a moment we watched each other in silence. I thought of what Jordan had said—how much he despised Elyssa’s countenance, how much he loved mine. Could she read it, the difference in our faces? I certainly could.
“What do I do with you now? That’s the real question,” she went on in a meditative voice. “Keep you or throw you away? I admit that the idea of making you suffer has endless appeal. And I have always appreciated the status conferred by having three echoes. I very much want to kill you now, for your insolence and your very existence, but I think perhaps I should put off that pleasure until sometime after my wedding.”
I don’t know what she saw in my face because I hardly knew what I felt—relief, revulsion, horror, all of it—but suddenly her hand dropped from my cheek to form a vise around my throat. “But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t hurt you now, just a little,” she murmured.
Her grip tightened; I could feel my mouth fall open as I struggled for air. But I could not resist or pull away. I could only stand there, meek and powerless, trying not to pant or plead. Behind me, I could hear the soft sounds of the echoes choking.
Then suddenly, below us on the brick of the square, I heard running footfalls from a handful of newcomers. “Hope!” a voice called out. Jordan’s voice, which I recognized even through the buzzing in my ears. “Elyssa, no! Hope!”
She hadn’t reacted when he called my name, but at the sound of her own, she turned in surprise to gaze at the scene below. She loosened her hand just enough so I was able to break free and take in great heaving breaths of the frigid air.
“Who is calling—is that Jordan?” she demanded, peering over the ornate railing. He wasn’t far now; he and his echoes were racing for the northern leg of the bridge. “How did he know where— And did he call you by name?”
As if in answer, Jordan shouted again. “Hope! Hope! Be careful!” I heard his boots clatter on the ascent.
Elyssa was laughing as if at the best joke she had ever heard. “You have given yourself a name! And he knows it! Oh, but this is even better! Does he think he cares for you as much as you care for him? What a sad little tragedy! Or a divine farce.”
Jordan and his echoes were now on the top curve of the bridge just a few feet away from us. “Hope,” he repeated, more quietly. “Are you—”
Elyssa moved to put herself more firmly between Jordan and me, flinging out her arm in an imperious warning. Warily, he came to a halt, but his eyes went past her to search my face. I nodded, and then I shook my head. Meaning both I’m all right and It couldn’t be worse. I don’t know how he interpreted the gesture, but his gaze quickly locked onto Elyssa’s face. His echoes crowded behind him, likewise staring.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “How did you get out of the palace?”
She laughed. “I don’t think I shall tell you how I got out, but I will certainly tell you why I’m here,” she said. “I learned that one of my echoes has been playing at being real, and I decided to stop that nonsense utterly. And you see I have.”
She made a quick, fluid gesture, twisting both of her hands palm up, and the echoes and I copied her movements precisely. I would have sobbed aloud if I had had any control of my voice. But that quickly she had reasserted her will over all of us; that suddenly, I was completely her slave.
“You will have to give her up,” Jordan said. “She moves and thinks and speaks independently—she will be recognized as an individual in the eyes of the law. She is yours no longer.”
Elyssa splayed her fingers and turned her hands palms-down, then dropped her arms to her sides again. Helplessly, the echoes and I mimicked every motion. “I think she is mine for as long as I want her,” she replied. “And I am not ready to let her go.”
Jordan shook his head slowly. “I will fight you on this, Elyssa,” he said. “If it takes separating you from your echoes by force. If it takes negating the contract my father has just signed with all the lords of the Seven Kingdoms. If it takes splitting the world in two. I will not let you keep her.”
She laughed again, a silver trill of delight. “Oh, I was right! You do love her! But how absurd and how delicious! I told her just a minute ago that I wanted to simply kill her, but now I think I shall keep her alive for years and years. I can torture you and her, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
He took a step forward; now he was close enough to grab her by the throat and strangle her where she stood. I almost wished he would do it. But I knew he wouldn’t. Not Jordan.
“I don’t believe you’ve thought this through,” he said softly. “Your echo can imitate you so well your own lover doesn’t know the difference. You don’t think she could fool all the lords and ladies of the Seven Kingdoms? What’s to stop me from locking you in some remote tower, hundreds of miles from here, and keeping Hope at my side to play the noble Lady Elyssa? I think everyone would believe that particular charade.”
I was stunned to hear him pr
opose such a deception, though I felt a savage exultation at the notion of giving it a try. Even Elyssa believed him, for I felt the fear and fury tumble through her veins. But she snapped, “You can’t do that.”
“I can and I will,” he replied. “If you don’t release her.”
She stared at a him a long moment, caught in a bitter internal debate. “And if I do?” she said at last. “What will you promise me in return?”
His voice very dry, he replied, “Being married to the king’s youngest son is not a reward enough for you?”
“You hate me,” she said. “If I’m going to be trapped in a loveless marriage, I need some assurance that I can find—affection—elsewhere.”
“I had assumed all along that you would,” he said. “Though I regret to inform you it won’t be with Marco Ross.”
She couldn’t control her flinch, and the three of us winced behind her. Now fear lined her veins with ice. “What’s happened to him? What did you do to him?”
“Soldiers went to arrest him this morning. Unfortunately, he was not willing to go with them peacefully.”
The fear and the ice both intensified. “Then he— What happened?”
“I’m afraid he’s dead.”
The shock of that left her, for a moment, so hollow that I could not draw a breath or detect my own heartbeat. “No,” she finally said.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s true.”
“No, no, no, no!”
This time Jordan didn’t answer, merely watched her, with something resembling compassion on his face. A would-be assassin and a highborn traitor—how could anyone feel sorry for either of them? Yet Elyssa’s pain was so sharp and so bottomless that even I felt a resonant twinge of sympathy.
“And that’s the way this goes?” she demanded, her voice riven with grief and edged with hysteria. “You are to get everything you want, while I have nothing?” She whirled around and grabbed my arm so swiftly I could not copy the movement and spin around myself. It was a shock to realize she was addressing me, not Jordan. “You are to have love—and status—and the admiration of every noble in the kingdom—and I am to be left heartbroken? Forgotten? Discarded?”