The emperor’s eyebrows shot up. I guess he didn’t expect me to know that. In the last few months, I’d been able to sense more and more about the fairies around me. I could sense their health as well as their intentions, good or bad. It wasn’t useful, since I couldn’t do anything to help them.
“Sign,” said Casper.
I looked at the contract again and had an idea, a very good idea. If I could still work for the cardinal this whole royal thing could be the answer to at least some of my problems.
“How much?” I asked.
“How much what?”
“How much are you going to pay me?”
The emperor dropped his hands and drew back. “Pay you?”
“You would charge your emperor for your gifts?” asked Casper, like I’d said a string of dirty words.
“I sure would. I serve the cardinal and he pays me. Why shouldn’t you? Apparently, I’m something you need badly.”
The emperor narrowed his eyes at me. “How old are you?”
“Nearly fifteen,” I said.
“You speak quite boldly for one so young.”
“Look, I have a family to support. That has made me bold.”
“Where are your parents?” he asked.
“We got separated in Paris, so I don’t know and it doesn’t matter right now. How much?”
The emperor and Casper conferred while Nanny stroked my hand. She looked like she didn’t know what to make of me and I didn’t either. The awe I felt when first seeing the emperor was completely gone. Now he was just another fairy, abet one with money.
“We will pay you fifty euros each time you are summoned before the emperor,” said Casper.
“One hundred,” I replied, like that wasn’t more than I made in a month.
“Seventy-five,”
“Eighty.”
“Done,” I said, smiling for the first time. “This visit needs to count.”
“You haven’t done anything,” said the emperor.
“I need to replenish my stockpile of herbs, oils, etc… I’m completely out.”
“Why is that?”
“Dragon sucked them out my window this morning.”
The emperor couldn’t tell if I was serious or not and that made me smile even more.
“Eighty euros for supplies. Yes, that is acceptable,” he said.
“Now are you going to tell me who and what I’m treating?” I asked.
“Sign the contract.”
I wanted to hear him admit I was for the empress, but in the end it didn’t matter who I treated. I plucked the quill out of the air and gave it to him. “First, amend it to say that you three will never reveal my identity or gifts to anyone. I don’t care if you tell people I’m here to polish your toes. I’m not a healer or anything else remotely interesting.”
“Why do you have to be such a secret?” asked Casper.
“That isn’t your concern. You don’t want me telling anyone anything and I want the same of you.”
The emperor tossed the quill into the air and it changed the contract. Everything was in there. They would be bound to secrecy and so would I. The emperor, Nanny, and Casper all signed. Then I stood up and took the quill, writing Matilda Whipplethorn in big beautiful letters.
It was done and I hoped I wouldn’t regret it.
Chapter Twelve
I COULDN’T STOP smiling. I really couldn’t. The silk purse filled with heavy coins was in my pocket next to Ibn’s book and a letter from Casper to the cardinal. I’d be able to fix our furniture, buy plenty of herbs and tinctures, everything we needed. Nanny had taken me back to the kitchen to get Horc, who’d fallen asleep in the royal cradle. He would’ve seemed royal with the supreme look of satisfaction on his face, but the tremendous gas he was putting off sort of ruined the illusion.
He continued to sleep after I picked him up and walked back through the kitchen. The cooks and bakers didn’t take any notice of me this time. The troll and the rest of them were working frantically. Dozens of dishes covered the tables. I’d never seen such a feast. My mouth was watering. I sucked in my lips and hurried through with Nanny chasing after me. I flew out into the servants’ hall and I hovered to say goodbye.
Nanny gave me a flakey roll with apricot jam oozing out of the center. “I should’ve given you something earlier. I apologize for my ill manners.”
“Feeding me isn’t your problem,” I said before biting into the sticky goodness.
“It should be someone’s responsibility.”
“It is. Mine.”
Nanny ran a loving finger over Horc’s brow. “You’ll be here tomorrow at noon.”
“I will. Don’t worry,” I said.
“Remember the contract is binding. It’ll be incredibly painful should you choose to ignore it.”
“I won’t and the same to you.”
“You can tell me who you really are now, you know,” she said softly.
“Nothing to tell.”
She smiled. “Of course. None of us have anything to tell.”
I finished my roll while listening to her instructions on how to get out of the palace and then left, weaving through the halls and then out into Sisi’s museum. I would’ve liked to have stayed and really looked. A human empress as a champion for the fae. I wanted to know her better, but we had to go.
When I passed by the school, the fairy that had been playing the piano for the children emerged from under one of the ruffles in Sisi’s dress and watched me fly past. I waved and Horc slipped down my hip. I readjusted him and looked again, but the fairy was gone.
I zipped along out of the museum and down the grand stairs to the exit. Before I could get out, the three green dragons came tumbling through the archway, hissing and spouting fire. Ovid came screeching past in a fury. I didn’t have time to dodge out of sight and he spotted me with his nasty yellow eye and came circling around, his head waggling side-to-side. I guess I looked like a victim, little did he know.
Ovid zinged his spiky tail out at me and I zigged to the left. The other two came in blocking the exit. I dropped down to the floor and jostled Horc awake. He yawned, showing all his sharp brown teeth. “I am ready for lunch.”
“Not now,” I said, looking up at the circling trio overhead.
I ran between the feet of the humans coming into the palace and Horc tugged on my hood.
“What?”
“There are dragons hunting us,” he said.
“Thanks for the update.”
“You could fry them.”
“Sssh,” I hissed at him and dodging a particularly big boot. If I could just make it through the archway, I could outfly them, at least I hoped I could or maybe they’d lose interest. Dragons didn’t have big attention spans.
I cleared the crush of humans and raced for the exit. If Ovid peed on me, I probably would fry him. I wouldn’t be able to control myself. Dragon pee never comes out as I’d learned after slipping in a big puddle of Percy’s. What a stink.
Horc pointed at an opening beside a woman’s riding boot and I ran for it. Rushing wind from the dragon’s wings blew my hood over my eyes. I brushed it back and a hand grabbed me, yanking me to the right. The dragons flew by out through the archway. I leaned against the stone, breathing hard, and looked back totally expecting Leanna to have saved me from a dragon weeing, but instead it was the fairy pianist smiling at me. He smoothed his hair back and gave me a short bow. “My lady.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That was close.”
“Those dragons are a menace.” He held out his hand and the lovely scent of evergreen wafted over me. “Lysander Mott.”
Shaking it, I said, “Mattie Van Winkle.”
Lysander was even more unusual up close. I could see him noticing me noticing and it made me blush. He had pale skin in contrast to his blood red wings and it had a pattern embossed into it of tiny diamonds that almost looked like scales. And he did have horns, two little ones, sharp and pointy.
“I have horns,” h
e said.
Once again before thinking, I said, “I have a spriggan.”
He clamped his lips together, but it didn’t work and he burst out laughing. Soon we were both laughing. Horc wasn’t. He snarled and wanted to know why having a spriggan would be as bad as having horns, which was obviously worse. Spriggans were awesome as anyone knows.
I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I have to go. Thank you again.”
“Do you have to? My class is ended. We could get some cider,” said Lysander.
Did he just? What did he? Could he mean a date?
“I…I…”
“You don’t like cider.”
Horc straightened up and with much dignity said, “My sister will take nothing from you. She is busy.”
Lysander suppressed a smile and I realized how confident he looked. It was a different kind of confidence than I was used to. Lysander wasn’t a warrior. That was clear from his slight plumpness and soft hands. His confidence came from somewhere else entirely and I didn’t know where.
“Are you busy?” he asked.
“I am. I work for the cardinal and I’m late,” I said, regretting every word. A date. A real date. This wasn’t at all like Rickard’s weird insinuations.
“Perhaps some other time.”
That probably meant never, but I nodded a little too vigorously and then stopped. “Do you smell that?”
Lysander sniffed. “No.”
“It’s cabbage.” I made a face.
He sniffed again. “Yes. Now I smell it. I love cabbage.”
“That’s not possible. Cabbage is evil,” I said with a smile to hide my worry.
Horc tapped his lips and said, “I will eat cabbage if it comes with plenty of meat. Where is it?”
“Quiet,” I said. “It’s getting stronger.”
I pushed Lysander back against the stone wall, looked at the archway, and sure enough a sluagh walked through, not a foot away from us. It looked just like the ones I’d seen in the antique mall, the most hideous of trolls with small leathery wings. This one, and the ones that marched out behind it, had worse underbites. Their lower jaws protruded so far out, I didn’t know how they could eat with their jagged teeth pointing in every direction.
Lysander tapped my shoulder. “Have you seen that species before?”
“They’re sluagh and they’re always on the wrong side.”
He frowned. “There are sides?”
“Always. I wonder what they’re doing here. If you don’t recognize them, they must not be part of the palace.”
“They’re not. The empress isn’t a fan of cabbage either,” Lysander said with a winning grin that suddenly dropped off his face. “The anubis are coming.”
Not just a couple of anubis either, but a full company marched in from the imperial apartments. They lined up opposite the sluagh and the two sides faced each other. I couldn’t see the expressions of the sluagh, if indeed they had them, but the anubis looked like they’d just eaten something particularly nasty that they couldn’t spit out.
“What’s going on?” I asked Lysander.
He shrugged. “I’ve been commanded to perform tomorrow night for distinguished visitors, but they didn’t tell me who. Must be a royal visit.”
“It is,” said Horc. “From France.”
I gasped. “The Bourbons are here. They’re back in control.” The Bourbons were the French ruling family and Miss Penrose was one of them, even though they didn’t know it. It was a Bourbon disease that nearly killed my teacher and was the reason we were in Europe in the first place. If their fortunes had changed, ours had, too. We could come out of hiding and go back to Paris to search for our family.
Horc patted my cheek with his greasy, meat-coated hand. “I know what you are thinking. Stop.”
“Why? How do you know?” I asked.
“I overheard the kitchen staff talking when they thought I was asleep. It’s a delegation from France, but the staff was told they weren’t to use the Habsburg china, which means it isn’t a royal visit.”
“Who is it?”
“Nobody knows.”
I looked at Lysander, who shrugged again. “I’m just the music. Why do you care?”
“No reason.” I must’ve been totally unconvincing because Lysander wasn’t buying it at all.
Horc tugged on my cape and I looked back at the archway. Through it came the most elaborate carriage I’d ever seen flying over the heads of the humans walking into the palace. The carriage was completely encrusted with gold. There were statues of sea serpents on the front with their short arms splayed in triumph behind six black dragons in harness pulling it. Who in the world would want a sea serpent carriage? Sea serpents were seriously nasty. I couldn’t get an answer to my question because the black shades of the carriage were drawn. I couldn’t see in, but I could feel and it wasn’t good. I hadn’t felt that bad since watching Ibn being dragged off in abject terror. My chest was tight and I was shaking with panic.
The carriage turned right toward the imperial apartments, followed by the anubis and sluagh. Even when it was out of sight the feeling of panic didn’t leave me.
Lysander stepped in front of me. “Mattie? What’s wrong? The palace gets important visitors all the time. It’s nothing to worry about.”
I nodded.
Nothing to worry about. Right.
“What about that cider?” he asked as an anubis came up behind him and roughly tapped him on the shoulder.
“Kapellmeister, you are to report to His Majesty in the grand ballroom now.” The anubis said it with only a touch less distaste than he had for the sluagh.
“I’ll be right there,” said Lysander, friendly in spite of the anubis’s chill.
The guard marched away and I watched him go, my heartbeat slowing.
“He wasn’t very friendly,” I said.
“The anubis never are. They’re a pure species,” said Lysander.
“What does that mean?”
Horc put his lumpy nose in the air. “It means they cannot and would not breed with other species.”
“So?”
“So,” said Lysander with an odd tremor in his voice, “that sort of thing is important to them. Cider, tomorrow maybe?”
Horc tugged on my hood. “No cider. Home.”
I rolled my eyes and backed away. “I have to go.”
“Will you be back at the palace?”
“Um…maybe,” I said.
“You live in the cathedral?” Lysander asked.
“Yes.” I glanced back at where the carriage had disappeared and felt a fresh wave of dread. “Goodbye. Nice to meet you.”
Lysander waved. “Maybe I’ll bring the cider to you.”
I smiled. I really shouldn’t have encouraged him. Knowing me usually got people in trouble. The last thing I wanted was to cause trouble for Lysander Mott, asker of the first date.
My new traveling bags were heavy, but I barely felt the weight. Even Horc’s boulder-like body didn’t hurt my hip. Amazing what a little funds can do.
After leaving the palace, I decided not to think about the carriage. There was nothing I could do about it and I really didn’t know anything concrete. Of course, in my heart, I did know. Whoever or whatever was in that carriage was to be avoided at all costs and I would be at the palace the next day. Keeping my head down might not be an option. It was best not to think about it, especially not in front of Iris and Gerald. Gerald, in particular, wouldn’t handle this new unknown well, so I pushed the fear away to revisit when it wouldn’t cost anything.
I flew down a wide boulevard to the Stephansplatz with the bags flopping against my hip. Horc and I had stopped at the apothecary shop, bought a healer bag with dozens of little compartments for herbs, oils, tinctures, and anything else I might need. The bag wasn’t as nice as Grandma Vi’s bag with its telescoping shelves and hidden compartment in the bottom with its secret stash of poisons, but it was better than anything I expected to have. The best part was that I’d fil
led it with all the basics and had money left over for a feast. We went to the metzgerei to get an extra bloody hunk of pork for Horc and then to the bäckerei for pastry. I got everyone’s favorites, Mom’s, Dad’s, Bentha’s, and Lrag’s. I even got a bit of blood sausage in honor of Horc’s grandmother, Lucrece. Horc had scowled and reminded me of her. Lucrece wasn’t my favorite being a foul American-style spriggan, but Horc appeared to love her and I bought the sausage for him really, not her. I didn’t know Daiki’s favorites and I decided I’d borrow one of his favorite books, Stages of Meditation, from the cardinal’s library to remember him.
We hovered outside St. Stephen's giant arched front doors, but since no tourists were opening it for us, I flitted around to the side entrance on the right. Humans never used that entrance, but there was a handy crack in the wooden door that we fairies used regularly.
I zipped through the crack and into the slightly warmer air of the cathedral. I was going to fly straight to the tomb to drop off Horc and the supplies before finding out what happened with Iris and the cardinal, but I doubled back to my favorite holy water font, the winged skull. Landing was precarious with all my extra weight and I almost tipped into the placid water.
“What are we doing here?” asked Horc while reaching for the bag with his meat in it.
“We’re going to say thanks.” I set him down on the rim with the bags and kneeled, dipping my hand in the cool water. I cupped my hands and gave Horc a drink, which wasn’t the way of the humans. They only made the sign of the cross with the water. We used it as drinking water and the cardinal used it in ceremonies where it was also drunk. It seemed more practical to me.
Horc drank every bit. “Who am I thanking?”
“Whoever you want. There should be plenty to go around. We were fortunate today,” I said, then taking my own drink.
“Because of the money?”
“Because I have a new place with the emperor.”
Horc squinted at me. “As a maid of all work?”
“As a personal maid. The emperor had need of some extra help.”
“That he couldn’t find in the entire palace?”
Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four) Page 11
