Shadow Magic (9 page)

“It was worth it,” said K’leef, slowly resuming the dance. “How about you? Are you sure you won’t get in more trouble for dancing with me?”

“I am ruler of Gehenna, you know. I should be able to dance with whomever I like.”

“Looks like your dog is causing trouble, too.”

Custard was jumping across the high table, snapping at plates and knocking over cups. Duke Solar had red wine splashed all over his oh-so-pristine white tunic. Lily smiled. That stain was never coming out.

Lily laughed, loud and pure, and for this moment, she was happy. K’leef smiled at her and she giggled as Custard sprang away from Mary, knocking over Lily’s new crystal goblet. He sniffed at the liquid and began lapping it up.

Other dancers began to drift onto the floor. The
Danse macabre
continued, rising in tempo so feet moved swiftly, and the women’s gowns, black and white, silk, satin, linen, and radiant with jewels, created a world of whirling beauty. Lily was dizzy. She clung to K’leef as he twirled her faster and faster.

“Stop it, K’leef!” she cried. “I’m going to be sick!”

Mary screamed.

Everyone froze in midstep. Lily craned her neck over the crowd to see what the problem was.

Custard was stumbling on the table, his tongue hanging out of his loose jaws. Green froth bubbled in his mouth.

Lily ran to him, pushing dancers aside. “Get out of my way!”

She reached the high table. Mary looked at her helplessly and handed him over. Lily cradled Custard in her arms.

The puppy’s eyes rolled wildly. His mouth and nose were covered in green gunk. He gazed up at Lily and gave a feeble yap. The short stubby tail wagged.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Lily. “What’s wrong, Custie?”

She gazed into his big brown eyes. Custard stared back, confused and wanting her to make him better, like she always did. The trust was total. He was hers, and she looked after him. He wagged his tail and snuffled against her.

He coughed once, and his tail stopped wagging.

“Come on, Custie.”

The puppy lay unmoving.

She hugged Custard tightly, praying for a heartbeat or a breath. “Come on, Custie.”

But there was nothing.

Duke Solar touched the puppy’s mouth. He rubbed the emerald froth between his fingers and sniffed. Then he scowled and wiped his hand clean. “It’s poison.”

“L
ife-bane,” said Duke Solar. “A rare poison. Expensive, and very effective. That mongrel saved your life, Lady Shadow.”

“He was not a mongrel,” said Lily, her voice as empty as the Great Hall was now.

Custard is dead.

Lily sat, hands on her lap, feeling like a part of her was missing. If she tried really hard, she could still hear his yapping. When she closed her eyes, she could see him prancing on her bed, slobbering over her sheets and wagging his tail. He would never do that again, and that was what she found hardest. That things could change so suddenly and so completely. Again.

He was mine, and someone took him from me.

The feast had ended in an uproar, everyone frightened that their food might be poisoned. The Solar entourage had practically run out of the Hall, the paladins glaring all around them, hands ready on their sword hilts. Lily’s own soldiers had been equally ready for some Solar plot. It was a miracle that no one had been killed.

The lights had been put out across the Great Hall, leaving only the few lit candelabras along the high table. The shadows now owned the vast, empty space. Lily stared into the candlelight, lost.

“An assassin,” said Tyburn, “here in Castle Gloom.”

Tyburn. As usual, he had shown up when things were at their worst. His boots had left muddy prints across the floor, and he stank of his weeks on the road.

“There weren’t any assassins here before the Solars arrived,” said Lily, staring at the duke with all the hatred she’d hidden until now. “You want Gehenna and will get it any way you can. Well, you can’t. It’s my home, and you’ll never, ever have any of it. Not a brick, not a blade of grass.”

Pan stepped between them. “Lily, dear, you’re upset. You should leave this to the grown-ups.”

But she wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot. Someone at the high table had been sly and cruel enough, vindictive enough, to poison her drink. “What about Gabriel?”

“What did you say?” said Duke Solar, his voice dangerously quiet.

Pan butted in. “What Lady Shadow means is, she hopes the young lord is unharmed. He did faint, did he not?”

Right after Duke Solar had declared the cup poisoned, Gabriel had screamed and collapsed into the arms of one of the maids. His squires had ended up carrying him out.

Not really the action of an assassin, was it? Fainting at the mere mention of poison. Or was it all just a clever disguise? Perhaps Gabriel
wasn’t
that puny, arrogant, and cowardly.

“Hmmm.” Duke Solar poured out a glass of wine. He stared at the drink but left it untouched. “I promise you, it was none of my people.” He turned to Lily. “You are wrong, Lady Shadow. I don’t want Gehenna.
I already have it
. I had it the moment you agreed to marry my son.”

“No,” Lily replied, barely able to believe what she was hearing. “It’s my home, not yours.”

“I need you alive,” continued the duke. “If you die, there will be no wedding. Your family line will end, and the citizens of Gehenna will go to war with Lumina again. Why would I want that? For that reason, I think it best we move you to somewhere safer than Castle Gloom.”

“And where would that be, m’lord?” asked Tyburn.

“The Prism Palace,” said the duke. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“I will not leave my home,” Lily insisted. He might as well cut out her heart.

Duke Solar met her gaze, and Lily saw her frightened expression reflected in his mirror eyes. “There is an assassin here in Castle Gloom, m’lady. He tried to kill you tonight and almost succeeded. Do not give him another opportunity. You will leave with us, at dawn.”

“Uncle? Tell him!”

Pan glugged down a goblet of wine. If it was poisoned, he was willing to risk it. “Lily…I think the duke might be right. He’ll look after you.”

“As I would my own daughter.” The duke smiled at her. There was no affection or kindness in it.

“I am not your daughter! You are not my father!” Lily screamed.

Tears leaked from her eyes.

I will not cry. I won’t give Solar the satisfaction. I’d rather die than leave Castle Gloom.

Her mind raced. She didn’t have armies or skill with a sword or magic, but somehow, somehow, she needed to beat them. She needed time.

“Wait, what about Halloween?” she said, clutching at a straw. “I can’t leave. Not before Halloween.”

Solar scowled. “Why is that so important?”

“It’s Gehenna’s big annual holiday, and we throw a huge masquerade ball. It’s been held here since the first stone of the castle was laid.
If
I’m to leave, I need to say good-bye to everyone, and that will be the best time to do so.”

“A masquerade? Why a masquerade?”

Pan spoke. “In the olden days, when magic was common, Halloween was the night when the barriers between the lands of the living and dead were at their lowest. The dead would rise from their graves and join the living. Masks were worn so that no one would know who was alive and who wasn’t.”

“A dance is held in every village, and people wear masks and dress up as ghosts and ghouls,” added Lily. “Families have midnight picnics at the graveyards and leave food and drink so their dead know they’re not forgotten. We have a big weeklong fair leading up to it, just outside the castle walls.”

“Today is the nineteenth. Halloween is almost two weeks away,” said the duke. “I cannot stay that long. I have duties that cannot wait.”

“You can leave anytime you want. I promise as soon as Halloween is over, I’ll come
straight
to the Prism Prison…I mean, Prism Palace.” Lily gave him her widest smile, showing him all her even white teeth. She just hoped he couldn’t see that she was lying straight through them.

The duke almost laughed. “I must depart tomorrow morning to visit my domains on the border. However, I will return for this Halloween Ball. It sounds fascinating. In the meanwhile, I shall leave my paladins here. All the better to protect you, m’lady.”

“What about Gabriel?” asked Lily. “Surely he’ll be wanting to come with you?”

“Ah, no. I think he’ll stay. It will give you a chance to get better acquainted. Won’t that be nice, m’dear?”

“So very nice,” said Lily, biting off each word.

Pan clapped. “Marvelous! Why don’t you invite the lesser houses to attend, your grace? The Glimmers, the Shards, the Lightbringers. We shall have a grand ball. All the great families of Gehenna and Lumina gathered under one roof!”

Twelve days until Halloween.

Twelve days to come up with a plan to stay in Castle Gloom.

She knew that Gabriel was behind tonight’s poisoning. Everything she’d seen of him tonight, especially the way he’d treated K’leef, warned her that he was spiteful, selfish, and utterly lacking in honor. Exactly the sort to pour life-bane in her cup just because she’d danced with the Solar hostage instead of him. After all, the duke had said it was expensive, and who else but someone like Gabriel could afford it? If she could prove it, then there’d be no reason to leave Gehenna, would there?

He’d killed Custard. She wanted him punished for that, wanted it more than anything. But you couldn’t punish the heir apparent of Lumina for killing a mere puppy.

But he’d tried to kill Lily, and she was ruler of Gehenna. That was treason, and there was only one punishment for that and it was as bad as bad could be.

Death.

A chill, dreadful thought crept through her mind.

Could I do that, even to someone like Gabriel?

I…I don’t want to have to make that type of decision. Someone else should decide. Anyone but me.

But there was no one else.

Tyburn stood there, watching in his quiet way. Strange, the air always felt colder when he was in the room.

If Gabriel was guilty, then she would have work for her executioner.

A
tumultuous cloud of bats swirled above Thorn. High-pitched shrieks tore through the torchlit courtyard, and leathery wings whipped the air furiously.

He didn’t know much about bats, but something wasn’t right.

Other bats clung to Castle Gloom’s walls like a bristling cloak, crawling along the stones, twitching, and using the hooks on their wings to hold themselves in place. Their red eyes shone in the torchlight. Their needlelike teeth glistened.

The gargoyles along the high walls of the castle looked almost alive; Thorn thought he’d seen one turn its head as he and Tyburn had entered the courtyard just an hour ago.

Creepy. But calling Castle Gloom creepy was like calling the sea damp.

The castle was ancient and derelict. The towers rose crookedly into the sky, and empty halls with caved-in roofs squatted around muddy squares. The outer walls were covered in black ivy so shiny it looked as if it had been washed in oil.

Still, he hadn’t spotted any zombies along the battlements, nor had he seen any vampires. Which was good.