Scarlet in the Snow (35 page)

Luel shook her head. ‘Ah, but a sorcerer has no honour. No loyalty. Not even family. Nothing left in his heart but the will to power. If you’d come to me first, I’d have told
you. But then you didn’t know that, and so I couldn’t stop him casting the
abartyen
spell. I wasn’t even there.’

‘And the only bit of good fortune,’ said Gabriel quietly, ‘was that before the spell had time to work completely, you were able to free me from the room where he had locked me, and spirit me away to a place you thought he could never get me.’

‘Why there?’ I asked.

It was Old Bony who answered, not Luel. ‘Luel knew that in the places under my protection, no sorcerer can set foot. Though to be sure, she did not ask my permission. I knew a fellow
feya
when I saw one, and I sensed no threat from her or the poor creature she was protecting.’

‘I knew that man wouldn’t stop looking for us though,’ said Luel, ‘because my intervention had halted the workings of the spell so that its power was incomplete. Until he could be sure the spell had destroyed Gabriel, he could never feel safe. I knew Durant would be scouting the world for us. I knew I could keep the spell in suspension, albeit temporarily. I know how standard
abartyen
spells work and what might be done to break them, but this one wasn’t standard or even traditional – it was a hybrid thing, and wickedly subtle. As you know, good magic should fit you and bad magic makes you fit it. But that man’s magic was uniquely dangerous because it used small strands of good amongst the bad so as to burrow deeper inside its victim, turning your own impulses against you, destroying everything most precious. A
feya
alone could never break a spell like that. It took me a long time before I had any notion of what might be done. And
even then it was only a small notion, as everything really depends on finding the right person to break the spell.’

‘And wasn’t she ever the right one,’ said Gabriel, looking at me in a way that sent tingles of pleasure up my spine.

I leaned against him. ‘I’m sure I’m pleased you think that because I think the same of you.’

‘That’s just as well then,’ Gabriel said, smiling. Into my head came my mother’s words.
One day, you’ll understand what I mean
. A pang went through me.

‘What’s that sigh for?’ he said gently.

‘I was only wishing that my mother and sisters could be here to meet you. Then my happiness would be complete.’

‘Well, then your wish is granted,’ he said, ‘for they should arrive by this evening. Isn’t that so, Luel?’

‘I do believe that is so,’ said the
feya
, smiling in calm pleasure at my yelp of joy.

Old Bony did not stay for my family’s arrival. ‘No need for them to see me,’ she said. ‘And I have more important things to do.’ There was to be a big gathering in the north, to which all Ruvenyan
feyas
had been called to discuss new laws in connection to dealings with human sorcerers, so that a sorcerer like Durant could never exist again.

Luel did not go, believing firmly that her place was with us. And she still says that now, more than a year later. She and Gabriel took a summer house right next to our place in the country, but they also kept the old Fontenoy house in Champaine, where we join them to escape the Ruvenyan winter, so Gabriel and I are rarely parted. He speaks more than passable Ruvenyan now and I get by quite happily in Champainian, so when we are married, our children will have both languages as their birthright.

Luel has become a member of my family now as much as Gabriel’s. My mother and sisters took to her at
once, and even Sveta sniffily agrees she’s all right, for a foreigner and a
feya
. She won’t hear of Luel using magic to help the household, though. But she has a sneaking fondness for the pretty things Luel creates – the silk flowers and hat ribbons she is making now not only for Madame Ange in Palume, but the best milliners in Byeloka, too. It is Luel’s primary use for magic these days, and she thoroughly enjoys it, though she will occasionally do a couple of other small things.

She also advises Andel on his prototype of the ‘armchair traveller’. Though the story of Dr ter Zhaber’s legacy wasn’t strictly speaking true, the patent most certainly did exist. Upon my suggestion, Gabriel purchased it and bequeathed it to Andel and Olga, who had been so kind to me. It has been an inspired decision for it also means Andel and Olga often come to visit.

I have become fast friends with Olga. Occasionally, she and I speak of Old Bony, because apart from Gabriel, the young werewolf is the only one who really understands how I feel about the forest
feya
. I know my family would not have taken her to their hearts like they have Luel, even knowing of how she helped us. Even when she is helpful, there is something about Old Bony that does not encourage you to be too friendly. She’d hate it, anyway. She likes being respected, even feared. But that does not stop me from remembering her with gratitude and respect. I have not seen her since that time in the Fontenoy house, and I do not wish to go anywhere near the house of bones in the forest again. But I feel that one day our paths may cross once more. And that I’ll be pleased to see her.

But if Luel is held in great affection by my family, Gabriel is loved. First it was for my sake, now it is for his own. Liza said to me the other day, ‘It’s like Anya and I have a brother now, and do you know what? I didn’t know that all along we’d missed having one.’ As for my mother, she says that the old proverb is right and that she hasn’t lost a daughter but gained a son. And they’re not just words; she and Gabriel get on so naturally it’s as if they have always known one another. Of course, they’re both artists, and that makes it even easier.

Things are good in our family. Over winter in Champaine Gabriel introduced Liza and Anya to his circle of friends and one of them, Sebastien d’Roch, has taken quite a shine to Anya, and she to him. He is nice-looking and kind and also he’s heir to a large estate, so he fulfils just about every wish Anya had for a match. Funnily enough, it is sharp-tongued Liza who has turned out to be more flighty. She has a great circle of admirers in Byeloka and in Palume, and she goes to just about every ball and party. It was from just such a ball in Palume that she came back with the news that a newly engaged couple had been there: Celeste Durant and Felix Vivian. Felix is by now fully restored to health. He is working for Messir d’Louvat, managing a new art gallery, but has given up painting altogether. ‘He’s a rather wishy-washy specimen,’ Liza said cheerfully, ‘but harmless, you know, and he thinks Celeste is the queen of the world, which is just how she likes it.’

Celeste has surprised everyone. After news of her father’s death was brought to her – the story was put about that he’d drowned in a deep remote lake, which explained
why no body was ever found – she developed a decisiveness that previously had lain quite dormant. As Edmond Durant’s sole heir, she had sold the Durant residence, bought a luxurious apartment in the centre of the city and invested some of her money in a little jewellery shop, which she keeps stocked with unusual items. They aren’t created with Luel’s magical gifts, for the power of those ended when they were no longer needed, but are sourced from the far-flung places her father had once travelled to: Green River pearls from Pandong, delicate gold ornaments from the Prettanic Islands, crystal from the deep mines of Krainos, and even amber from the frozen north. Yes, Celeste has come a long way. Our paths rarely cross; and though I cannot ever really feel warmth towards her, I also cannot think altogether unkindly of her. And to her credit, she did offer Gabriel a small portion of the estate, though he refused it out of principle.

I only have to look down at the ring Gabriel gave me for our engagement, shining with the glow of the ruby and pearl in its setting, and think that we two are the luckiest, most blessed people alive. We found each other in the most unlikely way and in the most unlikely place, and the love between us has bloomed and flourished as we have grown to know each other in the quiet happiness of ordinary days as much as in the thrilling joy of passion. As our love has grown and deepened and strengthened, so too have the gifts we were each born with.

Though I had had a budding literary talent before, it has now opened up and become deeper, richer. And that has changed everything. Eight months ago, the story
I wrote at the mansion,
The White Rose
, was published in
The Golden Pen
, has received very good notices and has been reprinted twice. Since then I’ve sold nearly a dozen more, new and old, including
The Three Sisters
. Most exciting of all, Gabriel and I are working on a book together. It is a book of tales of love and magic, written by me and illustrated by him. Luel and my family say it will take the world by storm.

Six months ago, Gabriel had a joint exhibition with my mother. It was a beautiful collection of her most striking portraits and his miniature paintings of Ruvenyan landscapes, clustered around
Scarlet in the Snow
– the only painting not for sale. The exhibition was held in Kolorgrod’s modest art gallery and was launched quietly. But it did not stay quiet for long. The word spread about how good it was, and soon people were flocking to it from far and wide, including from Byeloka. Even a member of the royal family turned up one day! Everything was sold, and there were even notices about the ‘wildly successful and unusual’ show in foreign newspapers. Mama has more commissions now than she could ever have dreamed of, including one for a portrait of that same prince who saw the show. As for Gabriel, he has been inundated with offers of shows from just about everywhere. But he’s put them all off, for the time being. ‘There’ll be time for that,’ he says, ‘later.’

I write this at the desk in my room at home, with the windows open on a bright summer’s day. It’s nearly midday, and Gabriel and Luel will be along very soon, and we’ll all have lunch together at the long table under the
big old chestnut tree. Then Gabriel and I will go for a long walk together, till we reach the perfect place to lie in each other’s arms in the tall blond grass, as the heady fragrance of roses wafts on the warm air. And that is where I’ll end.

Moonlight & Ashes

Written as Isabelle Merlin

Three Wishes

Pop Princess

Cupid’s Arrow

Bright Angel

The Chronicles of El Jisal series

Snow, Fire, Sword

The Curse of Zohreh

The Tyrant’s Nephew

The Maharajah’s Ghost

Edited by Sophie Masson

The Road to Camelot

Sophie Masson

The story of Cinderella as you’ve never heard it before . . .

A girl whose fortunes have plummeted from wealthy aristocrat to servant-girl.

A magic hazel twig. A prince.

A desperate escape from danger.

This is not the story of a girl whose fairy godmother arranges her future for her. This is the story of Selena, who will take charge of her own destiny, and learn that her magic is not to be feared but celebrated.