Hollin looked at Erris, the air nearly crackling between them, and then said no.
“Oh, very good. I’m glad you’re agreeable, Prince. If you continue to be agreeable, we might come to some sort of arrangement.”
Erris stood perfectly still except for his hands, which slowly curled into fists.
“I’m taking you both back to New Sweeling,” Smollings said, motioning me forward, which I naturally ignored. “Hollin, give me his key.”
“I’ll give you his key if you don’t take Nimira,” Hollin said.
“Nimira? For god’s sake, Hollin, don’t tell me you’re still swooning over a damned trouser girl! Open your eyes. Look what she’s done.”
“It’s my fault,” Hollin said, giving me a brief silencing glance. “I brought her here. She acted out of compassion. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Was he trying to protect me? But . . . it would be no good to save me and not Erris.
Smollings furrowed skeptical brows. “Parry, can I talk to you a moment?” He gave Hollin’s shoulder a rough pat, urging him back to the garden.
“This is horrid,” Erris whispered as they moved just out of sight.
“What can we do?”
Erris took my hands and held them.
“Nim, I think our only chance is to convince Hollin and Annalie to speak out against Smollings. Even if they can’t prove he murdered Garvin, they could spur an investigation. If Smollings takes both of us, there’s no chance. You need to stay with Hollin.”
He was right, and we both knew it, but I didn’t want to let him go. Smollings would keep Erris alive for now, most likely, but I didn’t trust him.
“I know,” Erris said. “I don’t want him to . . . to wind me. I don’t want to give in, but I don’t know what else to do.”
I clutched my hands to my elbows. I wished I was a sorceress myself, someone who could only laugh at Smollings. I wanted to see his jaw drop. I wanted to see him humiliated. I wished Smollings were the clockwork man who had to be wound; then we’d see how he liked it.
I saw the weary decades in Erris’s eyes. “I don’t even know how long I’ll live,” he said. “Is this really life? I’m not really alive, Nim. What if this body breaks down?” His voice had a catch in it. He looked at me and slid his hand up my cheek. “You have to be here, to try and put things right.”
His touch prompted my skin to tingle and my lips to tremble.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he whispered. “I can’t stand it. I’m only being honest.”
“You can’t die.” I pressed my hand atop his, holding it fast to my skin. “Don’t say that. She brought you to life.”
Now I started to cry, real sliding tears, although I was ashamed. Erris had enough to worry about without needing to console me. He tried to put his arms around me, and I turned away. “No. I’m not crying like one of those girls—who only wants to be held.”
“You do want to be held.” His arms went around me from behind. I felt his strength. “And how I’ve wanted to hold you, Nim. I do like Nim. And I don’t just mean the name.”
I stopped pushing. I let out my breath. Some resistance inside me broke, letting in a rush of something I’d never allowed before. I had never been so weak; yet I had never been so strong.
I turned in his arms, laying my head against his shoulder. He smelled sweet as summer grass. Our bodies drew closer. He kissed my cheek, gently, like my skin was sacred. My breath came faster, excitement and panic coursing through my veins until I felt dizzy.
“I love you, Nimira.” He spoke softly in my ear. “Whatever happens now, I have spoken those words with my own voice, and held you with my own arms.”
I hadn’t known a person could hold so much joy and so much grief at once. I was speechless with it. I didn’t want to ever leave that embrace, and it seemed so cruel, so very cruel, that the force of my feelings couldn’t keep me there.
We heard two sets of footsteps returning.
By the time Hollin and Smollings rounded the corner again, Erris and I were standing apart and gravely silent. I had my fingers buried in my pocket, clutched around Erris’s key.
Smollings held the other key, the twin to mine. “Here is what will happen,” he said. “The fairy will come with me. Nimira, you may stay with Parry. He has pleaded your case to me, but you keep your mouth shut or all bets are off.”
I wondered what Hollin had said to convince Smollings to leave me alone. Although I supposed all hope was not lost, it still felt awfully close. I pressed my lips together fast and didn’t look at anybody. In fact, no one moved at all.
“Well, then,” Smollings said after a moment. “Come on.”
Of course I wouldn’t put up a fuss. I knew how futile it would be. Yet, how could I stand by and let Smollings take him? Erris would suffer and it was all my fault.
“Please! Please don’t take him!” I cried, briefly knowing only that I couldn’t bear to see Erris torn from me.
“Nimira, if I were you, I’d hold my tongue,” Smollings said. “In fact, I’d kiss Hollin Parry’s feet for defending you. I’m sure he’d enjoy it.”
I flushed with a shame I should not have felt. I knew I should be grateful that Hollin defended me, but I almost wished he hadn’t.
“Where are you taking me?” Erris asked. “You’ve come alone. Where are the police?”
“This situation requires a sorcerer of high caliber,” Smollings said. “Don’t worry. I’ll ensure that justice is served. I used to be chief of the border patrol, after all.”
“This situation?” Erris echoed. “I’m not a ‘situation.’”
“You’re a fairy and that is enough of a situation,” Smollings said. “Your very existence is dangerous. You may think me cruel, but I must act for the good of the country. If you want to live, Prince, you have to accept that your life is not your own. It belongs to the council, and they shall decide your fate.”
Smollings held up the key like a dagger with which he would shortly stab Erris in the back. “Say good-bye,” he said, looking at us.
“I don’t like good-byes,” Erris said. He took my hand and kissed it. “I’ll see you soon, Nim.”
It seemed a long time since I had been the composed Nimira who never cried. I could only nod now.
“All right,” Smollings said, and he turned to the house. Erris followed, giving me one last brave smile.
27
My attempt to sit alone in my bedroom, weeping quietly into a pillow for a while, was interrupted by Linza’s gentle rap on my door.
“Miss Nimira?”
“I’d rather be alone now, Linza. Thank you.”
“You haven’t eaten all day.”
“I know. I’m not hungry.”
I heard her body shift against the door. “I’m so sorry about what happened.”
I wiped my eyes and finally opened the door. “Oh, Linza . . . that’s all right.” I certainly didn’t want Linza to think she’d done anything wrong, when the rest of us were already brooding on our mistakes.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I came for a reason. Master Parry would like to see you in the tower.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t say. I’m sorry.”
I smiled. “You don’t have to keep telling me you’re sorry.”
In the tower room, Hollin stood by his chair, awaiting me, just as he had on my first day at Vestenveld. I accepted my chair grudgingly. I knew I lacked the energy this conversation would require.
We sat, filling our plates with food I suspected neither of us had any intention of eating.
He buttered a roll. Surely no roll was ever so buttered as that roll was. I wondered if he would ever speak.
“Why did you save me?” I finally asked.
“If Smollings had taken you, he’d probably have put you in prison, and you would likely die there. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Mmm.” I didn’t like this, as if I owed him something now, and yet I was frigh
tened of prison. I’d heard enough tales. As if the poor food and stale air didn’t weaken prisoners enough, typhoid and cholera ran rampant. I could hardly think of a more horrifying way to die than the lonely filth of prison.
“What did you say that convinced him to let me stay?”
“I said I would tell the world about his involvement in covering up Annalie. I told him you had just gotten swept into this, that you were inconsequential, and that Miss Rashten would surely keep a close eye on you from now on.”
“And what if I wanted to leave this house, knowing all your secrets?”
He shook his head. “I imagine she would stop you.”
“So I’m as much a prisoner here as Annalie.” I pushed my plate back, disgusted by even the pretense of dinner. “What do you intend to do with me?”
“Nimira, I must be blunt.”
“Be blunt, then.”
“You will not deny your affections for the fairy now, I’m sure.”
“No. I’m sure you must know precisely all my thoughts and feelings.” My tongue turned out more vinegar than I intended. “But it no longer matters, does it? He is gone.”
Gone. A horrid word, in any language.
He made a faint gasp or sigh, like some small wound had pained him. “Nimira, you must—you must realize how impossible it would have been. You could never have a future with him.”
I knew it, perhaps, but I didn’t believe it.
“I spoke with him,” Hollin continued. “He told me he doesn’t want to assume the throne. But it doesn’t matter what he wants. He is the lost heir that many of his people have been hoping for. And once the fairies know he’s been found, it will have a dramatic impact on their government, not to mention our own relations with the fairy race. Whatever happy ending the two of you may have wished for, you must have known it was impossible.”
“Maybe he can’t escape being the heir, but surely he can escape Smollings, at least? Maybe Erris is the one to bring peace, the one who can prevent the war you keep implying will happen.”
Hollin carefully dusted his food with salt, grimacing all the while. “You’ll have a good life here,” he said, without much conviction.
“Do you really want to sit back while Lorinar and the fairies go to war?” I asked. “Countless people will die!”
“Well, what do you want me to do? I don’t see any way to halt the course we’re on. Smollings has Erris and the council will use him to their best advantage.”
“Which means he’ll take care of Erris the way he took care of Garvin.”
Hollin got very still, but his eyes flashed danger. Had I pushed him too far, this man who had already risked a great deal for my sake? If only I could show him he must go further, however painful. He must tell the truth, to me and to the world.
“Well. You’ve spoken to Annalie, I see.” He cut off my response. “Yes. She told me, too. I know what Smollings did. But it’s still no use trying to fight him. He’s too powerful.”
“I would rather fight them than run.”
“He’d win, Nimira. He’s got the council in his control. He’d ruin us.”
“I think he’s already ruined you.”
“I know he has!” Hollin shouted, his voice ragged. He pounded the table, then buried his head in his hands.
“Hollin, wait,” I said. “There is strength in you. I know it. I haven’t always been strong either. I ran away from home, and ever since then I’ve been more lost than ever. You saved me when you took me away from that stage. I would return the favor, if I could.”
“But . . . you know what I’ve done. How on earth can I stand against Smollings?”
“But you also know what he’s done, don’t you?” I met his eyes square. “You know he doesn’t want the world to know about how he’s using Annalie to access dark spirits. If you confess, you’ll prove his part in this, too. He’ll suffer more than you will. What do you have to lose at this point?”
For a moment, his expression turned inward. I knew he did still have much to lose. His home, his reputation. But he had already lost everything that truly mattered. If only he understood that.
He did understand. I could see the moment his resolve sharpened, the way his eyes took on the sudden light of purpose. His head lifted. “Very well, Nimira,” he said. “We’re paying a visit to my wife.”
Curtains still shrouded many of the third-floor windows, but some light trickled through. Hollin led me right to the locked door across from Annalie’s old room and took out keys. I had last traced these footsteps in the darkness. He opened the door, bringing us into the small, dim room with windows draped in thick curtains that preceded Annalie’s room, and knocked on her door.
I heard Annalie call, with a hint of apprehension, “Yes?”
“Let me in, Anni.”
She opened the door right away, a few orbs fluttering behind her. When she saw me, her lips pursed anxiously. “What is going on?”
Hollin motioned for me to go ahead, and when we’d both crossed the threshold, he shut the door. He gave Annalie a long look, full of emotions more deep and numerous than I could read.
She pushed back her hood, which had covered her hair. “What is it?”
Hollin bowed his head a little at her, like a lady he’d passed on the street. “Are you—well?” he asked.
“Well enough,” Annalie said. “Please, tell me. Hollin—please. Something has happened.” She put her fingers to his shoulder, so delicately that he might have been a soap bubble she feared to break.
“Smollings was here. He took . . . the automaton.”
“Erris?” Annalie looked at me. “I heard the spell worked. You brought him back to life?”
“In a way,” I said. “He’s alive, he moves, but he’s still clockwork inside somehow. And now Smollings has him.”
“Oh, no,” Annalie said, placing her hands over her heart. She looked up at the orbs, as if looking for Garvin among them. Of course, they all looked the same to my eyes. “Yes, yes,” she whispered. She didn’t seem to be speaking to us. “I know . . .”
“Is Garvin here?” Hollin asked, looking alarmed.
“Not now.”
“Could you . . .” Hollin tugged nervously on his necktie. “I’m not sure how it works. Would you be able to summon him on command?”
Annalie clasped her hands, a glimmer in her eyes. “Why?”
“Because . . . I—I have a plan. Or rather, Nimira does. But only if . . . you’re willing. I’ll need you.”
“Most willing,” she said, and the orbs danced around her head, as if they, too, were hopeful.
28
Annalie now motioned for me to stand at her side. She squeezed my hand. “What is your plan?”
“It won’t be easy,” he said. “Smollings has the—Erris. He’ll be showing him to the council, to try and prove Garvin had secret plans with the fairies—plans that would lead us into war if Erris were restored to the throne. Smollings has already stirred up a lot of anti-fairy sentiment.”
“I thought you agreed with Smollings,” Annalie said. One of the orbs hovered near her shoulder, and she brushed it away. “He does,” she whispered to it.
Hollin frowned. He seemed very uncomfortable in the presence of Annalie and her orbs, but particularly when she spoke to them.
“Smollings has gone too far,” Hollin said. “I still think the fairies are dangerous and no friends of ours, but . . . I am growing increasingly unsettled by Smollings. What he’s done to us . . . to you . . . I’m beginning to realize just how dangerous he is—not just for us, but for the country.” His pale cheeks flushed, and he shifted his stance. “I don’t like Karstor, but he’s . . . he’s not a cruel man.”
“There is no question about our plan, then,” Annalie said. “We must go to the council.”
“And you can . . . summon Garvin?”
“I believe so. I’m sure he’ll want to come, when I tell him. But summoning any spirit does take a little time.”
Hollin no
dded, looking nervous. “Very well, then.” His eyes flicked to the door. “The only trouble is Miss Rashten. I know she has powers, but I’m not sure how much. She won’t let us leave without a fight. I’m sure of that. And if we do make it out, she’ll tell Smollings immediately.”
“If you stand with me, then I know we can overcome her,” Annalie said, and with her words, she seemed to grow old and ageless at once, like the Queen of the Longest Night. “Ever since the lost souls began visiting me, they tell me things . . . and other things, they didn’t have to tell me. I simply know, somehow. I’m somewhere between their world and yours now. They’ll work for me.”
“Anni—I don’t care what they’ve told you. Look what they’ve done to you.”
“You don’t understand them as I do. They don’t mean to hurt people, exactly. Only, when the barriers open, they’re like starving men. They can only think of food. They try to possess people because it’s their one way to get the only thing they want. They can’t die properly without closure, but they can’t have closure without life.”
“They whisper terrible things,” Hollin said. “For beings who supposedly don’t mean to hurt us.”
“Well . . .” She relented. “There are good spirits and bad.”
“Are you quite sure you can control them?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. Of course, we should go in together. Two against one.”
He nodded.
I supposed that left me behind. I knew I was no sorceress, but after I had summoned the Queen, and helped Hollin fight the spirits before . . . didn’t that show I had some ability? I didn’t want to miss the look on Miss Rashten’s face when she realized her day had come to an end, after the way she’d treated me.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. “My singing helped before. And my candle.”
“Nimira, this is serious sorcery,” Hollin said. “You’d get hurt.”
“Nimira can help,” Annalie said. “I can’t bear the light of day. I’ll need someone to guide me. It shouldn’t be you, Hollin—you’ll be busy enough fighting her off.”
“Yes, I can do that.” I smiled, for the first time in what seemed like an age. I think the truth of it all rushed in, when I thought of protecting Annalie in a fight. We would fight Miss Rashten. We would save Erris.
Magic Under Glass Page 15
