by Libba Bray
“The truth of it is that I can’t enter the realms,” I say, looking off toward the woods. "I tried.”
Felicity steps away from me. "Without us?”
“Just once,” I say, avoiding her eyes. “But I couldn’t make the door of light appear.”
“What a pity,” Felicity says. Her tone whispers, I don’t believe you.
“Yes, so you see, we shall have to find the other members of the Order before we can return to the realms. I’m afraid there doesn’t seem to be any other way.”
It’s a lie. For all I know I could enter the realms again at any time. But not yet. Not until I’ve had time to understand this strange power I’ve been given, this gift-curse. Not until I’ve had time to learn to master the magic, as my mother warned me I must. The consequences are too grave. It’s enough that I will live with Pippa’s death on my conscience for the rest of my days. I won’t make the same mistake twice. For now, it’s best that my friends believe I have no power left. For now, it’s best that I lie to them. At least, that is what I tell myself.
In the distance, the church bell tolls, announcing that it is time for vespers.
“We’ll be late,” Felicity says, walking toward the chapel. Her tone has turned cold as the wind. Ann follows dutifully, which leaves me to roll the heavy stone back in place over the altar.
“Thank you for your help,” I mumble, straining against the rock. I catch sight of the parchment again. Strange. I don’t remember any of us putting it there, now that I think of it. It wasn’t there last week. And no one else knows of this place. I take the torn paper from under the rock and unfold it.
I need to see you immediately.
There is a signature, but I don’t need to read it. I recognize the handwriting.
It belongs to Kartik.
CHAPTER THREE
KARTIK IS HERE, SOMEWHERE, WATCHING ME AGAIN.
This is the thought that consumes me during vespers. He is here and needs to speak to me. Immediately, his note said. Why? What is so urgent? My stomach is a tight fist of fear and excitement. Kartik is back.
“Gemma,” Ann whispers. "Your prayer book.”
I’ve been so absorbed that I’ve forgotten to open my prayer book and pretend to follow along. From her position in the front pew, Mrs. Nightwing turns to glare at me as only she can. I read a bit more loudly than is necessary so as to seem enthusiastic. Our headmistress, satisfied at my piety, faces forward again, and soon I am lost in new, troubled thoughts. What if the Rakshana have finally sent for me? What if Kartik is here to take me to them?
A shudder travels the length of my spine. I shan’t let him do that. He shall have to come for me, and I won’t go down without a solid fight. Kartik. Who does he think he is? Kartik. Perhaps he’ll try to take me unawares? Sneak up behind me and wrap his strong arms about my waist? A struggle would ensue, of course. I would fight him, though he is quite strong, as I recall. Kartik. Perhaps we would fall to the ground, and he would pin me with the weight of his body, his arms holding mine down, his legs atop mine. I’d be his prisoner then, unable to move, his face so very near my own that I could smell the sweetness of his breath and feel its heat on my lips. . . .
“Gemma!” Felicity whispers sharply from my right side.
Flushed and flustered, I snap to attention and read aloud the first line of the Bible that I see. Too late I realize that mine is the only voice in the silence. My outburst startles everyone, as if I have had a sudden religious conversion. The girls giggle in astonishment. My cheeks grow hot. Reverend Waite narrows his eyes at me. I daren’t look at Mrs. Nightwing for fear that her withering glare will reduce me to ash. Instead, I do as the others and bow my head for prayer. In seconds, Reverend Waite’s reedy voice drifts over our heads, nearly putting me to sleep.
“What ever were you thinking about?” Felicity whispers. “Your expression was very strange.”
“I was lost in prayer,” I answer guiltily.
She attempts to say something to this, but I lean forward, my gaze intent on Reverend Waite, and she cannot reach me without invoking the ire of Mrs. Nightwing.
Kartik. I have missed him, I find. Yet I know that if he is here, the news cannot be good.
The prayer has ended. Reverend Waite gives a benediction to us, his flock, and turns us out into the world. Dusk has rolled in, quiet as a ghost ship, and with it has come the familiar fog. In the distance, the lights of Spence beckon. An owl hoots. Strange. There haven’t been many owls about lately. But there it is again. It’s coming from the trees to my right. Through the fog, I can see something glowing. A lantern rests at the base of a tree.
It’s him. I know it.
“What’s the matter?” Ann asks, seeing that I’ve stopped.
“I’ve a pebble in my boot,” I say. “You carry on. I won’t be a moment.”
For a second, I stand perfectly still, wanting to see him, wanting to be sure he is no haunt of my mind. The owl sound comes again, making me jump. Behind me, Reverend Waite closes the chapel’s oak doors with a boom, cutting off the light. One by one, the girls disappear into the fog ahead, their voices growing faint. Ann turns around, half swallowed by gray.
“Gemma, come along!” Her voice drifts over the mist in echoes before it is gobbled completely.
. . . ma . . . come . . . long . . . ong . . . ong . . .
The owl’s call comes from the trees, more insistent this time. The dark has come down hard in the last few minutes. There is only the glow from Spence and this one lonely light in the woods. I am alone on the path. In a flash, I pull up my skirt hem and rush headlong after Ann with a most unladylike shout.
“Wait for me! I’m coming!”
CHAPTER FOUR
THIS IS WHAT I KNOW OF THE STORY OF THE ORDER.
They were once the most powerful women imaginable, for they were the keepers of the magical power that ruled the realms. There, where most mortals came only during dreams or after death, it was the Order who helped spirits cross over the river into the world beyond all worlds. It was the Order who helped them complete their souls’ tasks, if need be, so that they could move on. And it was the Order who could wield that formidable power in this world to cast illusions, to shape lives, and to influence the course of history. But that was before two initiates who were attending Spence, Mary Dowd and Sarah Rees-Toome, brought destruction to the Order.
Sarah, who called herself Circe after the powerful Greek sorceress, was Mary’s dearest friend. While Mary’s power continued to grow, Sarah’s began to fade. The realms had not chosen her to continue on the path.
Desperate to hold on to the power she craved, Sarah made a pact with one of the dark spirits of the realms in a forbidden place called the Winterlands. In exchange for the power to enter the realms at will, she promised it a sacrifice—a little Gypsy girl—and she convinced Mary to go along with her plan. With that one act, they bound themselves to the dark spirit and destroyed the power of the Order. To keep the spirits from entering this world, Eugenia Spence, the founder of Spence and a high priestess of the Order, stayed behind, sacrificing herself to the creature, and the Order lost their leader. Her last act was to toss her amulet—the crescent eye—to Mary and bid her to close the realms for good so that nothing could escape. Mary did, but she struggled with Sarah over the amulet, knocking over a candle. A terrible fire raged through the East Wing of Spence, and indeed, the damaged wing is still locked and unused today. It was assumed that both girls died in the fire, along with Eugenia. No one knew that as the fire raged, Mary escaped into the caves behind the school, leaving behind the diary we would eventually discover. Sarah was never found. Mary went into hiding in India, where she married John Doyle and was reborn as Virginia Doyle, my mother. Unable to enter the realms, the members of the Order scattered, looking and waiting for a time when they could claim their magical world and their power once more.
For twenty years, nothing happened. The story of the Order faded from legend to myth—until June 21, 1895, my
sixteenth birthday. That is the day that the magic of the Order began to come alive again—in me. That is the day that Sarah Rees-Toome, Circe, finally came for us. She had not died in that horrible fire after all, and she had been using her corrupt bond with that dark spirit of the Winterlands to plot her revenge. One by one, she hunted down the members of the Order, looking for the daughter who was being whispered about, the girl who could enter the realms and bring back the glory and the power. That is the day that I had my first vision, when I saw my mother die, hunted by Circe’s assassin—that supernatural creature who also brutally murdered Amar of the Rakshana, a cult of men who both protect and fear the power of the Order. It was the day I first met Kartik, Amar’s younger brother, who would become my guardian and tormentor, bound to me by duty and sorrow.
It was the day that would come to shape the rest of my life. For afterward, I was sent here to Spence. My visions led me to enter the realms with my friends, where I was reunited with my mother and learned of my birthright to the Order; where my friends and I used the magic of the runes to change our lives; where I fought Circe’s assassin and smashed the Runes of the Oracle—those stones that hold magic; where my mother died at last, and our friend Pippa, also. I watched her choose to stay, watched her walk hand in hand with a handsome knight into a place of no return. Pippa, my friend.
In the realms, I learned of my fate: I am the one who must form the Order once again and continue their work. That is my obligation. But I have another, secret mission: I shall face my mother’s old friend—my foe. I shall face Sarah Rees-Toome, Circe, at last, and I shall not waver.
A steady rain lashes at the windows, making sleep impossible, though Ann is certainly snoring loudly enough. But it is not the rain that has me up, my skin prickly, my ears attuned to every small sound. It is that every time I close my eyes, I see those words on parchment: I must see you immediately.
Is Kartik out there, now, in the rain?
A gust blows against the windows, rattling them like bones. Ann’s snoring rises and falls. It is pointless to lie here fretting. I light my bedside lamp and adjust the flame to a low flicker, just enough to find what I need. Rummaging through my wardrobe, I find it: my mother’s social diary. I run my fingers over the leather and remember her laugh, the softness of her face.
I turn my attention back to the diary I know so well and spend half an hour scouring my mother’s words for some guidance, but I find none. I haven’t the vaguest idea of how to go about reforming the Order or how to use the magic. There is no useful information on the Rakshana and what they may have planned for me. There is nothing more to tell me about Circe and how I might find her before she finds me. It feels as if the whole world is waiting for me to act, and I am lost. I wish my mother had left me more clues.
The pull of my mother’s voice, even on a page, is strong. Missing her, I stare at her words until my eyes feel heavy, pulled down by the late hour. Sleep. That is what I need. Sleep without the terror of dreams. Sleep.
My head snaps up suddenly. Was that a knock at the front door? Have they come for me? Every nerve is alive, every muscle taut. There is nothing but the rain. No bustling in the hallways to suggest someone rushing to answer a call. It is far too late for visitors, and surely Kartik would not use the front door. I am beginning to think that perhaps I dreamed it when I hear the knock again—louder this time.
Now there is movement below. Quickly I put out my lantern. Brigid, our garrulous housekeeper, mutters as she thunders past on her way to answer the door. Who could be calling at so late an hour? My heart is keeping fast time with the rain as I creep down the hall and perch near the staircase. Brigid’s candle streaks the wall with shadows as she takes the stairs nearly two at a time, her long braid flying wildly behind her.
“By awl the saints,” Brigid mutters. She huffs and puffs and reaches the door just as another knock descends. The door swings wide, letting the driving rain in with it. Someone has arrived in the dead of night. Someone dressed entirely in black. I feel as if I shall be sick with fright. I am frozen in place, not sure whether to make a dash down the stairs and out the door or run back to my room and bolt the door. In the dark of the hall, I cannot make out a face. Brigid’s candle moves closer, casting a glow on the figure. If this is a member of the Rakshana come for me, then I am most confused. For this is a woman. She gives her name, but as the door is still open I cannot hear it over the howling of the rain and wind. Brigid nods and bids the coachman come in and leave the woman’s trunk in the hallway. The woman pays him and Brigid closes the door against the press of night.
“I’ll just wake the parlormaid to get you set’led,” Brigid grouses. "No sense wakin’ Missus Nightwing. She’ll see you in proper come mornin’.”
“That will be satisfactory,” the woman says. Her voice is deep with a hint of a burr, an accent I cannot place.
Brigid turns up the lights to a low glow. She can’t resist giving one final harrumph on her way to the maid’s quarters. Left alone, the woman peels off her hat, revealing thick, dark hair and a severe face framed by heavy brows. She looks about the place, taking in the snake chandelier, the ornate carvings of nymphs and centaurs here and there. No doubt she has already noted the gargoyle collection dotting the roof and is likely wondering what sort of place this may be.
She glances up the expanse of the staircase, and stops, cocking her head. She squints as if she sees me. Quickly I duck into the shadows, pushing myself flat against the wall. In a moment, I hear Brigid’s sharp voice barking out orders to the sleepy parlormaid.
“This is Miss McCleethy, our new teacher. See to her things. I’ll show her to her room.”
Mimi, the parlormaid, yawns and reaches for the lightest of the luggage, but Miss McCleethy takes it from her.
“If you don’t mind, I should like to take this. My personal effects.” She smiles without showing any teeth.
“Yes, miss.” Mimi curtsies in deference and, sighing, directs her attention to the large trunk in the foyer.
Brigid’s candle turns the staircase into a dance of shadow and light. I fly on tiptoe down the hall and take refuge behind a potted fern resting on a wooden stand, watching them from the cover of those mammoth leaves. Brigid leads the way, but Miss McCleethy stops at the landing. She gazes at everything as if she has seen it before. What happens next is most curious indeed. At the imposing double doors that lead to the fire-damaged East Wing, the woman stops, flattening her palm against the warped wood there.
In straining to see, my shoulder bumps the potted fern. The stand wobbles precariously. Quickly, I put out a hand to steady it, but already, Miss McCleethy peers into the darkness.
“Who’s there?” she calls out.
Heart pounding, I tighten myself into a ball, hoping the fern will disguise me. It won’t do to be caught sneaking about the halls of Spence in the dead of night. I can hear the creaking of the floorboards signaling Miss McCleethy’s approach. I’m done for. I shall lose all my good conduct marks and be forced to spend an eternity writing out Bible passages in penance.
“This way, Miss McCleethy, if you please,” Brigid calls down.
“Yes, coming,” Miss McCleethy answers. She leaves her perch by the doors and follows Brigid up and around the staircase till the hall is dark and silent once again save for the rain.
My sleep, when it comes, is fitful, poisoned by dreams. I see the realms, the beautiful green of the garden, the clear blue of the river. But that is not all I see. Flowers that weep black tears. Three girls in white against the gray of the sea. A figure in a deep green cloak. Something’s rising from the sea. I cannot see it; I can see only the faces of the girls, the cold, hard fear reflected in their eyes just before they scream.
I wake for a moment, the room fighting to take shape, but the undertow of sleep is too powerful and I find myself in one last dream.
Pippa comes to me wearing a garland of flowers on her head like a crown. Her hair is black and shining as always. Strands of it fly ab
out her bare shoulders, so dark against the paleness of her skin. Behind her, the sky bleeds red into thick streaks of dark clouds, and a gnarled tree twists in on itself, as if it’s been burned alive and this is all that remains of its once proud beauty.
“Gemma,” she says, and my name echoes in my head till I can hear nothing else. Her eyes. There’s something wrong with her eyes. They’re a bluish white, the color of fresh milk, circled by a ring of black with one small dot of black in the center. I want to look away, but I can’t.
“It’s time to come back to the realms . . . ,” she says, over and over, like the gentlest lullaby. “But careful Gemma, my darling . . . they’re coming for you. They’re all coming for you.”
She opens her mouth with a terrible roar, exposing the sharp points of her hideous teeth.
CHAPTER FIVE
WHEN MORNING FINALLY COMES, I AM SO TIRED that my eyes feel as if they are coated in sand. I’ve a foul taste in my mouth, so I gargle a bit of rosewater, spitting it as delicately as possible into the washstand. What I cannot rid myself of is the horrible image in my head, the one of Pippa as a monster.
It was only a dream, Gemma, only a dream. It is your remorse come to haunt you. Pippa chose to stay. It was her choice, not yours. Let it go.
I give my mouth one more rinse, as if that could possibly cure me of my ills.
In the dining room, the long rows of tables have been set for breakfast. Winter floral arrangements of poinsettias and feathery ferns in silver vases dot every fourth place setting. It is lovely, and I find myself forgetting the dream and remembering that it is Christmas.
I join Felicity and Ann as we stand wordlessly at attention behind our chairs, waiting for Mrs. Nightwing to lead us in grace. There are bowls of preserves and great slabs of butter beside our plates. The air is perfumed with the wood-sweet smell of bacon. The waiting is torture. At last, Mrs. Nightwing stands and asks us to bow our heads. There is a mercifully short prayer and we are allowed to take our places at the table.