Gerald crawled into my arms, shaking violently.
“He saw a horen,” I said. “I would never doubt him.”
“What did you see?” the emperor asked Gledit.
“Nothing, Your Majesty.” Gledit gave me a guilty look. “There were some hooded tourists in the museum, but other than them, it was empty.”
I kissed Gerald’s damp forehead. “The hooded tourist, was that the horen?”
Gerald nodded.
“Was it the one from our mantel or Paris apartment?”
He pulled back and said, “No. It was different.”
The emperor grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. “Are you saying you’ve had contact with multiple horen? Who are you?”
I lurched to my feet, swaying with Gerald’s weight as he wrapped his thin legs around my waist. “You know who I am. It’s on the contract. Sir, it’s time you become the leader your mother thinks you aren’t. Expel the horen from Austria and take control. He’ll never honor the deal he’s offering.”
“You think that the horen is in the French delegation?” he asked.
“I’m certain of it and if you look at the dissent in the streets, I’m sure it started when that creature showed up.”
“If he’s in control of my sister’s life, I have to give him what he wants.”
I looked up into his brown eyes and I saw it come together in his mind.
“You,” he whispered. “He wants you in exchange for their lives.”
Gledit pushed his way in. “Mattie? A horen came all the way from France for the cardinal’s maid?”
“She’s not a maid.” The emperor doubled over in pain and then fell to his knees. The spell didn’t discriminate, but it wasn’t complete either.
“I’m not a maid, not really.” I waited but no pain came. I could reveal myself. “So you need to listen to me. There is a horen in the palace. Get out while you can and whatever you do stay away from me.”
The emperor staggered to his feet. “I can protect you.”
I spread my wings and gave a little laugh. “With all due respect, there are only three fairies who can protect me. Two are in prison in France and the other is mostly dead. Good luck and it’s probably better if you never admit to knowing me. The horen are ruthless when they think they can get something out of you.”
A spasm went through Gerald’s body and I crouched for a strong takeoff. Before I launched, Volotora came through an open door, running on his sparkly road, and curving through the air to come down to desk level. His hooves struck the desk and the road disappeared.
“Mattie, you must return to the cathedral. The cardinal is very ill. Worse than I’ve ever seen him,” said the damumoto. “Put down your brother. You’ll never make it in time.”
Gerald looked up at me with a tear-streaked face. “No. Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t leave you.” And I wouldn’t, but what about the cardinal? I couldn’t fly fast carrying Gerald.
“The cardinal knows?” asked the emperor.
“Not exactly.”
“Knows what?” asked Gledit, his layers of leaf getting all ruffled.
Volotora stamped his hoof. “You must go now. Mattie, he will die.”
“What’s she supposed to do about it?” asked Gledit.
“Did the cardinal see the archduke today?” I asked, trying to peel Gerald off my chest.
“Yes, he was at Michaelerkirche.”
“Gerald, let go. I have to help the cardinal. Volotora will take you, won’t you Volotora?”
“Actually, the damumoto can’t be ridden by anyone but the cardinal,” said the emperor. “Leave the boy with me.”
Gerald screamed so loud even I heard it. That wasn’t going to happen.
“Your aunt,” said Volotora. “She can take him.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Della.”
“She’s at the cathedral.”
“I just saw her flying in the Sisi entrance.”
“That’s impossible. She’s practically a shut-in.”
Volotora shook his mane. “Fine. Don’t believe me. I would suggest Rickard, but I’d sooner throw Gerald out the window into a bed of glass.”
“Rickard’s here, too?”
“He often delivers messages to Casper for the cardinal,” said emperor.
“Whatever.” I looked at Gledit, who looked delicate and none too strong with all his leafy greenness. “Can you fly Gerald to the cathedral for me?”
He nodded. “At least there isn’t a horen there.”
“No,” Gerald wailed.
I forced him off my waist and gave him to the emperor’s valet. “Go with Gledit. We owe the cardinal.”
“No.”
“The horen didn’t know you, right? He has no idea that you’re connected with me. Fly with Gledit. He won’t be interested in you, if you’re not with me.”
He nodded, shaking harder than ever, and the emperor pulled him away from me. I took off without a second glance. I couldn’t afford to hesitate or I’d go back for him. And if I went back, the cardinal would be lost.
I ran through the servants’ hall to the cardinal’s door. Iris was standing in front of it, holding a tray with a teapot and toast.
“The master secretary asked for this, but I can’t get in,” she said.
“Who’s in there?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Just the master secretary and the cardinal, I guess.”
“It’s Mattie. I’m here. Let me in!” I tried to open the door with my key, but there was something else holding it closed. The master secretary wouldn’t keep me out. There was no way.
“How did you get here so quick?” asked Iris.
“Volotora came and told me about the cardinal,” I said. “Master Secretary let me in!”
“Volotora? The master secretary sent Rickard.”
“Yeah, well, he didn’t try that hard to find me. Get out of the way, Iris.” A flame erupted in my hand.
“No, you can’t. Everyone will know.”
“That doesn’t matter now.” I pushed Iris back and pressed my hand against the lock. It melted, dripping in great globs down the door. The smell of burning wood and melting medal filled the hall. I rammed my hip against the door and it gave way. I stumbled into the cardinal’s apartment, expecting to see a protesting master secretary standing in the center. But he wasn’t there. There was only the cardinal laying on the bed. His eyes were closed and the front of his robes were wet. Standing over him was the archduke. I’d startled him and liquid dripped off his fingers onto his fine suit from a small cup.
“Stop!” I yelled and slammed the door before the archduke saw Iris.
The Archduke stopped, his face uncomprehending. Then he began to blush. “Raus hier!”
“Stop that! Get away from him!”
He threw back his broad shoulders, very upright and dignified, not at all like a man murdering a religious leader. Then he pointed a long slender finger at me. “What are you doing here?”
The cardinal opened his eyes and said weakly, “Mattie, go away now.”
“I will not. He’s trying to kill you.”
“Nonsense, my dear girl. His highness is…only helping me have tea,” said the cardinal, but his eyes said he knew what was really going on. He flicked a glance at the other side of the bed where I couldn’t see. “You should go have your own tea.”
The archduke’s eyes narrowed. “No. She’ll stay.”
The cardinal struggled to sit up, liquid and sick flowed over his bottom lip. “Run.”
“I don’t run,” I said.
The Archduke smiled. “The pretty maid imagines herself a fighter.” He shoved the cardinal back by the forehead.
I smiled back. “You have the order wrong.”
He scoffed. “I’m never wrong. This is how it’s going to go. First, the elderly cardinal will succumb to his long illness, and the devoted maid will slash her wrists in grief. Then I, God’s chosen vessel, will take the cardinal’s
place and rise to lead my people out of this trying time. A perfect plot hatched by a perfect man.”
“I thought you said you were never wrong,” I said.
His face darkened. “Are you saying I’m not perfect? You, a nothing maid, with dirty fingers and no lineage to speak of.”
I held up a finger. “You’ll find that dirty fingernails don’t matter when you can do this.” My prettiest flame, golden with a hint of blue, flickered to life on the tip of my grubby nail.
The Archduke gasped and it was very satisfying I have to say. “A kindler.”
“You finally got something right, but you’re still not perfect. Perfection is lying on the bed.”
“Mattie,” whispered the cardinal. “Go.”
“Not a chance.”
The archduke’s hand shook. “You’re young, much younger than eighteen. It’s only one flame.” He pulled a small, jeweled dagger from his embroidered waistcoat and pointed the wicked tip at me.
“It’s only one dagger and it’s held by you, so I’m not so worried,” I said. “Step away.”
“He’s going to drink this.” He stepped toward the cardinal, who began to spasm on the bed. His back arched and he shook.
I swirled my finger. My flame went up into a corkscrew. I snapped my fingers, it disappeared and the cup shattered, spraying vile liquid across the bed. The archduke shrieked and staggered back, holding his dagger out stiffly at me.
“Look at that. Wrong again.”
“I’m never wrong.” He leapt at the bed, dagger raised to strike and I did it. I’d like to say that it was instinct and I suppose it was, being that I’m a kindler, but mostly I decided. I swirled my finger again and the archduke froze, his mouth opened in a scream, his arms flung wide and a glow appeared in his chest. First, it was yellow, then orange, and then the most beautiful blue I ever created. His back arched and the flame devoured his torso, spreading to his head and limbs. He became a pillar of glorious blue flame, my best work consumed him and then it was gone. For a second, the pillar stood as black ash and then collapsed on the floor. There wasn’t much to show for the beautiful archduke just a little pile of dirt which fit him quite well, I thought, and a whiff of foul odor which was also quite right.
“Mattie,” whispered the cardinal.
I looked at him, my finger still in the air. “I murdered him.” The word surprised me, so did the knowledge. I’d killed before, but that was different. Wasn’t it?
The cardinal’s mouth moved, but no words came to his lips. I rushed to his bed, tears burning my eyes. More liquid flowed out of his mouth and I wiped it with my sleeve. I found Ibn’s book in my pocket and opened it to the section on poisons. “What was it, Your Grace? Did he say?”
A bloody hand emerged on the other side of the bed and grasped the coverlet. The archduke had to be dead. I’d never killed anyone as much as I killed him.
The master secretary’s head appeared. His throat had been slit from ear-to-ear, but not very well, since he was still alive. I closed my eyes and pictured the blood flow stopping, all the little vessels knitting back together as they should be. When I opened my eyes again, the master secretary was on his feet with his hands wrapped around his neck. “It was Lily of the Valley.”
I looked through Ibn’s book and found it. A poisonous flower, very effective on those who were already weakened and for fairies there was no known antidote. The death would be slow, but it would come. There was nothing I could do.
Tears ran down my cheeks.
“It is as I feared then,” said the master secretary as he knelt beside the cardinal.
I slammed Ibn’s book closed and hunched over, my tears splashing on the cover. The cardinal’s hand inched toward me and I took it and kissed his heavy ring. “I’m so sorry, Your Grace.”
“My fault. I should’ve seen what he was.”
The master secretary shook his head. “His gift was concealment, Your Grace. No one could’ve sensed his intentions.”
The cardinal shuddered and more liquid rolled out of his mouth. “Take her to Rome,” he whispered.
“What?” I looked into his clouded eyes.
“Run. Save her. Rome.”
I looked to the master secretary and he nodded. “Your sister, Iris, she is His Grace’s choice.”
“For what?”
“For his successor. Iris will be cardinal.”
“But she’s a little girl,” I said, so bewildered I could hardly form the words.
“It makes no difference.” He managed to get to his feet and went to the cardinal’s battered desk. He unlocked it with a key he had on a golden chain around his neck and pulled a scroll from a little drawer. “It’s all here, written in the cardinal’s hand. He has chosen Iris. She will lead us out of darkness.”
“But why?”
“Iris is love. He knew it the moment he saw her. I was slower to see her extraordinary nature and yours, I’m ashamed to say. Love is powerful and we need it most of all.”
“Go,” whispered the cardinal.
“I won’t leave you,” I said. “I can ease your pain.”
“Horen.”
The master secretary clapped his hand over his mouth and slowly dropped it. “The horen are here in Austria?”
“In Vienna. To support his…” the cardinal trailed off.
“The archduke’s ascension. They would assure it with force, Your Grace, but it wouldn’t be legal. The cardinal must be seen.”
“Iris has been seen,” I said. “Many times.”
“I’m sure she has, considering who you are, but she must be seen by the human Pope in Rome for it to be a true choice.”
“Then how could the archduke just steal it?” I asked.
“He thought he would be seen. His vanity knew no bounds. I’m sure he planned to secure the cathedral with the horen and worry about being seen later.”
“Go,” whispered the cardinal, “kindler.”
The master secretary’s cheeks paled. “I forgot. There was rumor that the horen were searching for a kindler. I didn’t credit it. There hasn’t been a kindler in Vienna in two centuries. But they’re searching for you, aren’t they?”
“Yes. I am known. But I won’t leave now.”
“A wise human book says that whoever saves one life, saves the world entire. The cardinal wants you to save our world.”
The cardinal struggled with his heavy ring and whispered something. I shook my head. I couldn’t make it out, his lip movement was so weak.
“He wants you to give his ring to Iris,” said the master secretary. “It will protect her and give her strength.”
I slipped the ring off his finger and pressed it to my chest. “I will protect her and take her to Rome if that is your will. But I will do it after. I won’t have you die in terror when I can prevent it. I can handle the horen, if they come looking for the archduke.”
The cardinal gave the slightest of waves and I leaned forward. His lips were barely moving and I had to concentrate very hard. “Save her and you save me. I will not die in vain. Iris must be the priority.”
“Do as the cardinal commands,” said the master secretary. “You must get Iris to Rome where she can be seen.”
The cardinal’s fists clinched. He was in pain and trying desperately to conceal it. How could I leave them all to their fate? Horen would kill to get information about me. But only if they knew I was there.
“Open the windows. I smell,” I said.
“What?” asked the master secretary.
“The horen know my scent and it lingers.”
“Happiness. You smell like happiness.”
I nodded. “Open the windows. All the windows. Sweep up the archduke and toss him out and let the wind conceal his death and my part in it. You’ll have to take down the doors to the cardinal’s apartment. I melted the lock. They’ll know it was me and they’ll torture you until you say where I went. No one can say anything about me or Iris or Horc or Gerald.”
“No one will
,” he said. “Go to Rome and fulfill His Grace’s dying wish, Mattie, if that is your real name.”
“It isn’t,” I said, but I didn’t tell him the real one. I don’t know what stopped me, maybe the memory of venom dripping from a horen’s claw. The master secretary was loyal, I had no doubt, but who could withstand that?
I kissed the cardinal’s forehead. “I’m sorry I was late, but I won’t let you down. Iris will be seen in Rome. Nothing will stop us.”
I backed away, but I couldn't leave him like that, convulsing on his bed, suffering like no one should. Then I remembered the false bottom in Grandma Vi’s bag. What had Lucien called it? Her musee de la mort. No. Not the poison. Not yet. I told the archduke that I didn’t run and I didn’t. It wasn’t over. I wasn’t done.
“I’ll be right back.” I ran to the door and whipped it open. Iris was holding the knob and was dragged into the room. She recovered her balance, saw the bloody master secretary, and began screaming.
I spun her around. “Enough. Help the master secretary. I have to make tea.”
“Are you crazy? His neck is all hanging open.” Her eyes started to roll back and I gave her a sharp little smack.
Her eyes snapped back to me. “Matilda, you hit me.”
“I know. Help him!”
Iris started to protest, but I ran from the room. I could ease the cardinal’s suffering and it wouldn’t take long.
Chapter Thirty-one
I FLEW INTO the tomb and ran straight into Lonica. She grabbed me when I tried to dodge her.
“Mattie, there’s a body in your room!” she hollered in my face.
“Let go!”
“There’s a body in your room!”
That time her words got through and I stopped, looking into her large dark eyes. “You were in my room?”
“Aoife burned herself on the Gebackenerkarpfen and I thought you had some aloe vera. And somebody put a body in your room.”
“I know,” I said. “Let go.”
She went on like I hadn’t said anything at all. “It’s a ponderosa dryad, really tall, taller than me, and extremely handsome.”
Extremely handsome?
“I know.” I tried to sidestep her, but she kept forcing herself in front of me.
Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four) Page 34
