Nightfall Gardens (3 page)

Their mother put her arms around their father and kissed him on the forehead.

“What if what he says is true?” Thomas said.

“It can’t be. Living in perpetual dusk does funny things to a person,” Moira said. “You remember how mad they are. Why do you think Jonquil helped us escape when your mother tried to take Lily?”

“But I saw shapes in the Gardens, and the house — I swear it was alive,” Thomas said. “How can you forget what happened in the tunnels? What about the attic?”

“Don’t talk about that!” Moira said.

Silas and Lily exchanged another glance. They heard fear in their mother’s voice.

She continued. “We left because of what that place was and what Deiva would do to our daughter. You heard your brother. The gate closes in three days and then it won’t open again for another year. All we have to do is wait.”

Thomas picked up the bag Jonquil had left. He opened the drawstring and poured out the contents. Gold coins, yellow as butter, spilled on to the desk. Their father held up one of the coins.

“My mother thinks to buy our daughter from us,” he said examining it.

“Send it back,” Moira said. “We made a vow to protect Lily from that evil woman and Nightfall Gardens.”

Their father scooped the coins back in to the bag. Thomas sighed. “Let’s check
on the children. We’ll tell them as much as we dare in the morrow.”

Silas and Lily climbed back up the ladder into the prop room.

“What do you think it all means?” Lily asked, right before they separated.

Silas shook his head. “It sounds like something out of one of father’s plays.”

They exchanged goodnights and rushed to their rooms. Silas had barely slipped under the blanket on the straw mattress where he slept, when the door cracked and his parents stared in at him.

“I promise we’ll tell you more about your uncle and grandmother in the morning. We wouldn’t have lied to you without good reason,” Thomas said.

The door closed and Silas was left with his thoughts. He lay there a long while before he took quill and parchment and began writing by the forlorn moon hanging over New Amsterdam. He wrote long into the night, puzzling over why his parents hadn’t told them about his family. A thud came from his sister’s room, followed by a door opening. Silas stopped writing and listened. Heavy footsteps creaked down the hall. What was Lily doing up this late? She slept like a rock even during the most trying times.

Silas lit a candle and got dressed. Something didn’t feel right. He opened his door, the candle’s flame sputtered tall on the walls. He looked both ways but saw nothing. From outside, he thought he heard a horse whinnying.

“Lily,” he said, before opening her door. No one answered. He saw what was wrong as soon as he entered. The trunk holding all of her belongings was gone.

Before his tired mind could piece together what was happening, Silas heard raised voices from outside. He ran to the window and saw Jonquil dragging his sister toward a carriage. Two men wearing wolf cloaks sat on the clapboard, holding the reins of a pair of gigantic black horses.

Silas took off running for the prop room and the hidden tunnels beneath the city. He had to stop them.
They were trying to kidnap his sister.

3

A
Space In-Between

Lily was dreaming of a faceless crowd tossing roses at her feet on a great stage in
Paris when a hand pressed against her mouth and she woke to Jonquil standing over her.

“Quiet, dear niece, unless you’d soon be without a brother and parents,” her uncle whispered. “Don’t make me do something I’d rather not.”

Lily nodded in understanding. Her heart fluttered like a moth trapped in a glass, pounding against her ribs until she thought it would break free. Two hard men wearing the same style of cloak as Jonquil stood mute in the shadows.

Her uncle pulled his hand away and gestured for them to take her trunk. Silently, they lifted the chest and left the room.

‘What should I do?’
Lily thought
. ‘Why doesn’t Silas wake up and hear what’s happening?’

“Get dressed,” Jonquil spoke into her ear. “And no noises if you wish your family to live.”

Her uncle retreated to the window, where he stared out onto the cobblestoned streets of New Amsterdam. If he had any doubt about whether Lily would try to alert her brother or parents, none of it showed on his cruel face.

A simple blue dress had been left at the foot of her bed.
‘He’s thought of everything,’
she thought. What would happen if she screamed loud enough to wake her father and mother? What could they do against three men? What if there were more lurking outside? Lily slipped into the dress and tried calming herself. The best thing would be to go with him. Her parents would know where they were taking her.

Jonquil led her out of the Golden Bough and to the street. Her uncle’s men were sitting on the driver’s seat of a mud-spattered horse-drawn carriage. Black curtains were pulled over the windows.

‘In there,’ he said, pushing her towards the carriage. She gave one brief glance at Silas’s window, but it was empty. The inside of the carriage was lined with red velvet. Jonquil squeezed into the seat across from her. He was so big that his head almost touched the ceiling. He tapped on the roof of the carriage and a moment later it rolled away down the street.

“I would rather not have done it this way, but there’s no time for pleasantries,” her uncle said as the carriage jounced over the rocky street. “While your parents are wringing their hands,
Nightfall Gardens is collapsing.”

“Is that where we’re going?” Lily asked.

“Aye, and quite a journey,” he said. “We have to outrun the wind itself. If we’re not back before the gates close, none of this will matter.”

‘He’s mad,’
she thought. Lily reached to draw a curtain.

“Not yet,” Jonquil said. “Not until we’re at the outskirts of the city.” Her uncle closed his eyes and his massive head sunk on his chest. “Now, I suggest you sleep before first light comes. We have a long trip ahead.” Minutes later, Jonquil was snoring like air squeezing through a pair of bellows.

Lily listened to the horses clopping down the street. She waited until she was certain he was asleep and then peeked out of the curtains. They were in a part of the city she didn’t know. Fish peddlers were setting up for the day. A night watchman made his rounds swinging a lantern in front of him. Newsboys unloaded bundles of papers from a cart. A man in an apron with a handlebar mustache swept in front of the Greasy Eel Tavern. They traveled down streets filthy with refuse and up grand boulevards where captains of industry slept on silk sheets. As her hand inched for the carriage door, one of Jonquil’s eyes popped open and he said, “Don’t try it, dove.”

The sky seeped pink, then violet, then orange. Weariness overtook her and she fell into an uneasy slumber. When she awoke, they were outside the city. Jonquil was watching her and eating wild boar jerky from a pack.

“Sleep well?” he said.

“I would have done better in my own bed,” Lily snipped.

“As would I. Neither got their wish, though,” her uncle said with a laugh.

“Where are we?” Lily pulled the curtain back and bright sunshine invaded the carriage. Farmland surrounded them on all sides. In the distance, she saw the jagged peaks of mountains capped with snow. She let the curtain fall back in place.

“Leave it open. You’ll crave sunshine where we’re going,” Jonquil said.

Lily opened both windows and tied the drapes in place. The carriage rocketed along the road, bouncing so hard she thought her teeth were going to rattle out of her head.

“Is it safe to go this fast?” she asked, grabbing her seat for support.

“Probably not,” Jonquil said. “But better to put distance between us and the city before your parents wake.”

“They’ll come after me,” Lily said defiantly.

“They’d be wiser not to. Even as children, though, Thomas and Moira followed their hearts and not their minds.”

They rode in silence, Lily staring at the passing scenery and Jonquil chewing on jerky. In the sunlight, his skin was so white as to be translucent. The only color was the red around his lips.

“Why didn’t my father tell us about you?” Lily asked.

“He probably hoped Deiva and I and Nightfall Gardens would go away like a bad dream. But there are some dreams from which you don’t wake.”

“Deiva…
is my grandmother?” she said hesitantly.

“Aye. I wouldn’t expect any motherly affection, though. She’s hard enough to break stone, and the only thing she cares about is her dead husband and that cursed house.”

“You said she was ill, that the darkness might escape if she dies. I… what does that mean?” Lily asked.

“Nothing wrong with your ears then,” Jonquil said. “I wondered how much you and your brother heard listening at the grate.”

“How did you… ?”

“You learn many things when shadows slip from dusk and your senses are all upon which you can rely. Enough questions for now; bask in the light, bones rarely warm where we go.”

Jonquil didn’t speak for many hours after that. Lily watched as farmland gave way to forest. The trees were so thick that branches scraped against the sides of the carriage. A family of deer dashed across the road and was enveloped by the woods. By late afternoon, the trees had thinned and the mountains doubled in size ahead of them. Still, the carriage didn’t slow. They passed over a wooden bridge so old and rickety that Lily’s heart raced into her throat with fear it would collapse. When they were halfway across, Lily leaned out and saw a drop of several hundred feet to the river below. The carriage wheels were only inches from going over either side. Once they were across the gorge, the horses took off at a gallop again.

The day cooled and the sky flowered blue, then purple. Two villagers carrying baskets on their shoulders were th
e first people Lily saw that afternoon. Not long after, they traveled through a village of sagging, straw-roofed homes. Horses were drawn up in front of the local inn and the smell of frying duck and other meats wafted into the carriage as they passed. Lily’s stomach grumbled, but they didn’t slow. She looked at her uncle, shadows caging his face, to complain. Jonquil was staring out the window with such abject dejection that she said nothing.

The carriage stopped only when it became unsafe to continue in the darkness. “Mind yourself,” Jonquil said as they stepped down to the muddy road. “These woods are full of creatures with sharp eyes and sharper teeth. I don’t want to go stumbling around after you in the dark.”

The two men driving the carriage collected firewood and soon a blaze was going. There was hardtack and apples to go around. Lily was going to protest, but instead, she ate her fill and felt even hungrier when she was finished. Her uncle edged close to the fire and flames danced in his eyes. He rubbed his hands together as if to begin a story.

“You have many questions,” he started.

Lily felt the soreness of the day’s ride in her back and shoulders. “Oh, you’re talking to me now,” she said, irritated.

Jonquil’s men grunted laughter. Her uncle smiled. “Forgive me, niece, but I’ve spent too much time alone in the mist. A man grows odd when he has nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company.”

“Who are these men?” She gestured to the cloaked figures next to her uncle. “Why do you wear coats made from wolves?”

“These are my most trusted advisors, Arfast and Skuld,” Jonquil said and the men laughed again. “Introduce yourselves to my fair niece.”

“I’m Arfast,” the younger of the two said. He jumped to his feet and plucked a ball of fire from the air. He reached behind his back and pulled out a second ball of fire and started juggling. A third, fourth and fifth ball appeared and soon he was tossing them high in the air and in between his legs. Once he was finished, he caught the fireballs and they disappeared. He winked and bowed to Lily.

“Showoff,” Skuld said. His voice was gravely and he was older than her uncle. “You’ll have to excuse my companion, my lady. Life hasn’t seasoned him yet.” He threw his cloak over his shoulder and displayed the ragged stump that ended at the elbow. “You ask why we wear the cloaks. I wear mine to remind myself what a moment of carelessness can cost.”

“And
I’m
the showoff,” Arfast said. “He shows that bloody stump every chance he gets.”

Lily thought Skuld might be angered by the young man’s comment, but he chuckled. “You have guts, I’ll give you that,” Skuld said. “No sense, but lots of guts.”

“These are defenders of Nightfall Gardens,” Jonquil said. “When something slithers from the dusk, there is no one else you want at your side. Believe me on that.”

“And what is
Nightfall Gardens?”

Her uncle stared at the millions of stars ready to burst through the black sky overhead.

“I’ve wondered that same thing many times myself,” he said, and a reverent tone crept into his voice. “It’s our ancestral home, where Blackwoods have lived and died for centuries beyond memory. It’s also a space that exists in-between. Dark is never far and is always looking for a way in. The women of our family have managed to it hold it back, though it has come in many disguises. If the darkness should ever escape from Nightfall Gardens, it will be set free upon the world. I dread what would happen then. That’s why you must come back.”

‘Mad as three kinds of hatters,’
Lily thought, but said nothing
.
A wolf howled somewhere in the nearby mountains. Skuld grabbed an ax and slipped into the trees.

“Why must it be a Blackwood woman?” she asked.

“That’s best heard from your grandmother,” her uncle said. “Each Blackwood woman passes her knowledge on to the next before she slips into the shadowland.”

“In other words, you don’t know,” Lily said.

Arfast was balancing a knife blade on the tip of his index finger. “She has you there,” he said grinning.

“There are certain things only the female Blackwoods know,” Jonquil said. “It has always been this way. If you’d seen what your father and I have, you wouldn’t have any doubts.”

“And what do the men do, while the women are ‘defending against the darkness’?” she asked.

“We patrol the gardens and protect our people when something slips through,” he said. “We’re the watchers of the three gardens. We make sure nothing goes in or comes out of them.”

“And if I refuse my duty?” Lily thrust her chin forward.

“Then heavens help us, you are the last of the Blackwood daughters.”

‘He really believes it,’
she thought
. ‘They all do. It’s no wonder my parents ran away.’

Skuld came back shortly afterward empty
-handed. The three men slept on the ground with their cloaks as pillows. Lily made a bed of furs that were given to her. The woods pressed cold and empty on either side. The mountains were cutouts on the horizon. The fire died to embers.

She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep that was disturbed by a dream of her brother Silas. He was watching her. His eyes swirled blue and brown in the starlight. He reached for her, but before their hands could touch, something jarred her and she was awake. Jonquil was standing over her. It was still black as pitch, with no sign of the coming day.

“Rise and shine your highness. We have many leagues to go and time mocks us with the grains of sand that pour through its hourglass,” he said.

Arfast and Skuld pushed the horses even harder that day. The carriage bounced so hard along the road Lily thought all the bones in her body would break. At one point, they struck a pothole and Jonquil banged his head, cursing out loud. Lily couldn’t help smiling. Her uncle barred his teeth and growled.

She only tried to engage him in conversation once. “How did my father and mother meet? Why did they leave Nightfall Gardens?”

“Moira was of the people of the mist,” Jonquil said. The rough edges fell from his face as he remembered. “She was the most beautiful girl, too beautiful for that place. One day, Thomas and I were —.” He shook his head and caught himself. “To hell with it,” he said. “I’m tired of answering your questions.”

They came to the mountains in the early afternoon. The ground was rockier and steeper and rutted into a barely passable trail. The carriage climbed for the rest of the day. Skuld shouted at the horses and lashed them forward. Lily watched out the windows as the ground shrank further away until it felt she could see halfway across the world. The temperature dropped inside the carriage as the air thinned. Clouds drifted by, only feet above them. Pines grew thick along the ridge and the sweet smell of their needles filled the carriage. She saw a few stone huts along the way. Dirty children slipped from the homes and watched warily as they passed.