Titan Magic

by Jodi Lamm

  As Eli unfolded his lunch, she said, “Will you tell me my name?” He hadn’t noticed her speaking. She tapped him on the arm. “Will you tell me my name?”

  The duke’s smile made her squirm. “I’ll tell you your name,” he said, “after you have helped me restore my son.” He tore off a bit of meat and handed it to her.

  She took it, but did not eat.

  “I’m a selfish man, little one. I want my son back more than anything else in the world, and only you can help me. It won’t take long, and when you’ve finished, you can do whatever you want. Run off with your brother. It won’t bother me. I want you to be happy, but I want to be happy, too. This way, we both get what we want.”

  Maddy gulped and closed her eyes. She felt like she was offering herself to a lion in place of its prey. “What do you want me to do?”

  Eli chewed slowly, as though it were a kind of meditation. He swallowed and stared at the sky a long time. Maddy thought about the way his eyes would perfectly reflect the clouds above. Finally, he spoke. “It will not be easy getting that boy back into his body. It will require absolute trust from you.”

  Maddy waited while he took another bite of his lunch and stared at the sky a second time. She could see that working with this man would require an unnatural level of patience. All his movements were calculated. Those seemingly lifeless eyes watched and remembered everything. She knew it by the way he studied her, her family, James, everyone. He was a man who gave very little and took everything into himself.

  “I want you to come hunting with me,” Eli said, at last. “I know you have a bow. I want to see you use it.”

  Maddy cocked her head and stared at the man through the narrowed slits of her eyes. He puzzled her. Hunting? Why on earth? A stray thought weaved in and out of her mind as she watched the duke polish off his lunch. When that thought stepped into the light, all the blood drained from her cheeks. “Jas,” she whispered. “You want me to shoot Jas.”

  Eli’s face was stone. “Yes,” he said in a low voice. “I need you to shoot him. Not only that, you understand. I need you to kill him.”

  The sky spun overhead, and Maddy clung to the fallen tree in order to steady herself. She had expected some sacrifice, but she meant to risk her own life, not Jas’. “No,” she said when she found her tongue.

  “You must.”

  She shook her head.

  “Madeleine, you must. James is a Titan: an ignorant creator-god. Unlike an omniscient deity, all his power comes from belief. He has to believe in the magic in order to apply it, and he has to doubt the violence in order to escape it. Do you understand? Only he can return his soul to his body, but he has to be motivated to do it. If anyone else strikes him, he will believe in the blow and let himself die, but if you do it, he’ll save himself to know why.”

  Maddy felt sick. “I don’t think I can shoot him.”

  “You won’t have to. I’m not inept at magic, you know. They used to call me the Queen’s Puppeteer before I was the Duke of Silence. I’ll use your body to shoot him myself. You can even close your eyes if you want. All I need is your invitation.”

  Maddy wrung her hands and looked away from him.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You’re wondering whether this is a plan I have to murder him—to trick you into murdering him. I can’t put you at ease because your mistrust of me stems from James himself, and you know that if he dies, you will return to clay. But I have no reason to trick a clay golem into murdering someone I could more easily kill myself. I am an excellent marksman, and he’s a Titan, a legal target. I could have done it long ago, but I don’t want to kill him. I want him back in his own body. He’s hidden too long in the animal. Please, help me… I want to hold my son again.” As he spoke those last words, his eyes welled and glistened.

  Maddy saw no further signs of the duke’s weakness after that, but she didn’t need to. She had seen enough. It seemed he had something to lose, after all.

  17: The Queen’s Puppeteer

  That night, Maddy sat up in her bed, agonizing over what she had agreed to do the following day. Jas had not returned and tomorrow she was to kill him. She remembered the arrows the priest had given her. In those, at least, she would have one out. To do as Eli said, she only had to choose the hunter’s arrow. If she doubted him, she would choose one of the others, which would not miss the duke’s heart if fired in his presence. Either way, someone would be shot dead tomorrow, and her hand would deal the blow.

  Maddy was so deep in thought when her door opened, she didn’t even notice. A shadow approached her and sat at the edge of her bed. Only when it spoke her name did she lift her eyes. She recognized her brother’s voice and leapt back against the headboard.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Marcus said. “I won’t touch you. The beast is sleeping now. I can resist it when it sleeps.” He waited for her to relax. “I just wanted to… What I said this morning, at breakfast…”

  Maddy’s throat constricted. She gripped his wrist before he could say more. “Don’t take it back.”

  “I…” He stopped. “What?”

  “Just don’t take it back.”

  “Maddy…”

  “Please.”

  “Why are you shaking?” He twisted his wrist out of her hand.

  She threw her arms around his shoulders. “If I disappear…” she began, but couldn’t finish.

  “Disappear? Maddy, what are you talking about?”

  Maddy dropped her arms. She didn’t want to tell him what she planned to do for him—she knew he would never allow it—but she wanted to believe he cared for her one more time before she stepped into the lion’s mouth. Secretly, his announcement that morning made her happier than she’d ever been. Someone wanted her, and not for revenge or power or protection. Someone wanted to love her. Even though he was cursed to love her, even though a beast made him feel it, she wanted it to be real. She bowed her head. “Please, don’t take it back.”

  Marcus was silent for a long time. Maddy listened to his breath, slow and deep. She knew his head was full of thoughts, but she didn’t want to know what they were. At last, he took her hand and spoke. “I’ll always protect you, no matter what. And I will marry you. I swear it, whether I love you or not. I can promise you that much because if I don’t love you now, I will never love anyone. Not really.”

  She bent down and kissed the palm of his hand. Once, she would have laughed in the face of any suitor who uttered those words to her, but now, they were more than she could have hoped for.

  That night, Marcus stayed beside Maddy just as he had before the beast possessed him. And as she drifted off to sleep, he told her a story about a man who survived the ocean in the belly of a whale.

  ***

  The sound of footsteps outside her room roused Maddy the next morning. Marcus had gone, and she wondered whether the beast had forced him to leave.

  Before she could even yawn, Eli pushed open her bedchamber door. “You’re not up?” He threw her covers off her.

  She pulled them back over her head and huddled down in the safety of her bed. The duke’s impropriety shocked and worried her. One would not behave so in the presence of a lady one expected to encounter again.

  “Come on, little one,” he said. “We’ve got to go before your spies suspect us.”

  By the light in her window, Maddy could tell it was still early. She rubbed her eyes and tried to dress discretely, all the while seething that the man would not at least leave her while she did so. No matter, she told herself. She would only keep company with him until she had what she wanted. Once her memory was restored, she would not need to play his games any longer. He was not her master. But Jas… She gulped as the duke gathered her bow in his arms and motioned for her to bring the golden footman along.

  “We’ll need his body close by,” Eli said. “I want to monitor his condition after he re-enters it.”

  Maddy slipped into her greatcoat and wrapped the Titan’s body in a blanket befo
re hoisting it over her shoulder.

  “Come.” Eli took her hand and pulled her into the hall. “Out the back.”

  As they tiptoed through Lotte’s house, Maddy could almost hear the breathing of her family, still sound asleep in their beds. It felt as though she were being led to her execution shortly after sunrise, too early for anyone to attend. She thought of Marcus who had visited her in the night. At least she had been allowed one last goodbye.

  Eli led Maddy to the stables and saddled two horses more quickly than she had ever seen it done. “I know where he’s resting,” he said. “But first, we need to prepare.”

  Maddy frowned when he took the Titan’s body from her and laid it on the straw.

  “Don’t be nervous. It doesn’t hurt. Just give me permission. Let me in.” He circled around behind her, laid his palms against the backs of her hands, and interlocked his fingers with hers. “I need to feel your movements,” he explained. And the Queen’s Puppeteer began to slowly lift her arms. He wrapped them around her, and then pulled them back. He lowered them to her side, and then drew them up again. Gradually, as he moved her, she began to feel her own muscles working with him. Soon, he was not lifting her arms at all, but they lifted themselves along with his. He released her, and she felt herself pantomime a bow, stretching it taught and releasing the arrow. “Beautiful,” he said.

  Maddy shivered. This intrusion made her feel as though she’d betrayed her creator already. Her body was supposed to belong to Jas, but now another had entered it and moved it according to his will.

  Eli stepped around to face her.

  “Wait.” Maddy interrupted. “Will it hurt? I mean when I shoot him.”

  “Possibly. You feel any damage he suffers: physical and emotional. That is why the wounds that come from him don’t heal right away, and why you never laugh with him but only shed his tears. We’re about to inflict lethal damage to his current body.” He paused and touched a finger to her forehead. “Though, you might be lucky. It will be a deathblow. His shock might prevent sensation, and as soon as he enters his true body, he will no longer have a wound. You won’t feel it at all after that.”

  Maddy took one step back.

  “I know you’re nervous, little one. Don’t be. I won’t fail. Now dance with me.” He took both her hands in his and touched his toes to hers, pushing one foot after the other to make her walk backward. As with her arms, she soon lost the ability to move her legs on her own. Eli moved her body just as she had once moved the clay by the river with her own will.

  “You said you were only going to help me aim,” she mumbled, drunk on his movement in her limbs.

  “Archery is a skill of the whole body, Madeleine.” He spoke into her ear. Her stomach turned at the sound of his voice.

  “I…” She struggled to speak, to keep her eyes focused. “I don’t feel…”

  “Shh…” He pressed the palm of his hand to her back and swayed with her. “One last trick, and then we’re finished. Are you ready?”

  She didn’t answer, but he would not have waited for it. His hands were already on either side of her head, holding it straight as he touched his lips to hers. It wasn’t a kiss. It was the same thing he had done to the rest of her body. He mirrored her. She tried to pull away from him, but she couldn’t move. Then he slipped his tongue into her mouth and touched it to the tip of hers. She writhed inside as she lost control of everything. He pulled away and smiled. “Now you’re ready.”

  When Maddy tried to respond, she understood what he had done. Her lips would not open. Her tongue was still. He intended to keep her silent in the presence of her master. She would not be able to cry out and warn him. What had she done? Her eyes shed tears, but she could not lift an arm to wipe them away.

  Eli helped her onto her horse, but he did not need to touch her to do it. He spoke no word of comfort as they rode side by side to the edge of the forest. Maddy’s head rested on her shoulder. Her tears moistened her father’s greatcoat. So she would give her life, after all. Unless… She saw her quiver hanging from Eli’s shoulder and hoped again. The odds were still hers. He would choose one of the enchanted arrows.

  At the edge of the forest, the two dismounted and began to hike. Eli had hoisted Jas’ body over his shoulder and walked several feet behind Maddy, who now carried her bow and quiver herself. Her arms and legs moved as though pulled by invisible strings. She was a true puppet. Then, like a recurring nightmare, she thought she heard Father Androcles call her by that horrible nickname, and remembered that she had never been anything else.

  Jas was asleep when they found him. Eli hid himself behind a holly tree and laid the body of the Titan at his own feet. With a growing feeling of sickness, Maddy watched her hands begin to pick through the arrows. “This one will do,” she heard Eli say. He had chosen the only arrow that would not find his heart. “These others are the handiwork of my brother,” he explained in a whisper. “I’d know it anywhere. He wouldn’t miss a chance to kill me.” Then he ruffled her hair and sent her off to kill the stag.

  Maddy listened for her own footsteps, nearly silent against the wet forest floor. Listening was all she could do. Her own hands nocked the arrow she had once taken to save her master’s life and drew the bow taught. Then, to her horror, her mouth opened and her tongue loosened.

  “James.” She heard herself call him. “James, watch me.”

  The stag lifted his head, opened his eyes, and saw her standing before him. Just as he began to scramble to his feet, she released her arrow. It hit. He fell to his knees. Maddy felt nothing. But Jas’ great, black eyes focused on her face and her heart broke. He wheezed the word, “Why?” And then Maddy’s body was released back to her.

  She threw the bow away as though it scorched her hands. “Jas! Jas!” she screamed. “It wasn’t me!” But the stag’s eyes were already glassy, and Maddy sank to the ground alongside him.

  Moments later, her eyes snapped open. She gasped for air. Every inch of her body burned. She screamed again and rolled on the ground, the pain far worse than any that had come from her arrow.

  Eli held the golden footman in his arms.

  The writhing, breathing Titan.

  Maddy stared at the two figures and realized, through her pain and shock, that Eli’s plan had worked. He had not lied to her. She heard him speak to Jas. “It’ll be over soon, James. Don’t fret. You’re aging three years. Just stay with me now. Stay conscious.”

  Maddy’s face and hands began to tingle. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but despite her best efforts she fainted along with Jas.

  ***

  The darkness held Maddy for hours, though her mind kept spinning. She couldn’t wake, but she couldn’t sleep either. Her thoughts drifted from Jas to Marcus and back again, until she grew too exhausted to think of either of them. Only then did her mind allow her to sleep. When she slept, she did not dream. But when she woke to see the golden footman beside her, blinking his blue eyes open for the first time, she could not believe she wasn’t dreaming.

  He had aged and his hair grown, but someone had shaved him and tied his curls back. His cheeks glowed with a color Maddy thought she would never see there. As she stared, wide-eyed, he rolled onto his back, took his head in his hands, and moaned.

  Maddy felt the sharpness of Jas’ pain as he pushed himself up and sat at the edge of the bed, still holding his head in one hand. They had been placed side by side in her mother’s bedchamber, probably to make it easier to look after them both. Maddy should have been appalled, but she felt more like she’d been allowed to bask in the sun for the first time in her life. She wondered how many hours they’d slept like that. It was still light outside her mother’s enormous windows, so she thought it mustn’t have been long.

  Jas stood, tottered, and caught himself on the bedpost. “I can’t even walk right,” he said. “I suppose, after spending three years on four legs, two might feel awkward.”

  “Jas,” said Maddy, almost expecting him not to respond. He wa
sn’t Jas to her.

  “Hmm?”

  She bit her lip when she saw his face move, and found she had forgotten everything she wanted to say to him.

  “What is it?” Jas thought a moment. Then he smiled. “I know. You think I hate you now. But I know it wasn’t you who shot me.”

  She stared at him, questioning.

  “You never call me ‘James.’ Ever. And I know all about the Puppeteer’s tricks. The only question I have is how he got control of your tongue.”

  Maddy just stared at the floor.

  “I see.” Jas frowned, took Maddy by the hand, and helped her to her feet. “This is not good. I stayed in that animal’s body for a reason. But it’s my own fault. I should have been honest with you from the start.”

  Maddy barely heard his voice. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The Titan moved. He swayed, breathed, and wrinkled his forehead. Her god had come to life, and she was undivided in her instinctive devotion. Without thinking, she reached out to touch his face. Jas snatched her wrist out of the air and held it still. Her heart thundered in her chest when he touched her, but something in her knew that it was not her heart at all.

  “Now listen,” Jas said, as the heat in Maddy’s body crawled from her belly to her fingertips. “This is important…” But Jas couldn’t finish because Marcus Lavoie burst into the room.

  “Maddy!” Marcus forced himself between his sister and the Titan and pulled her into his arms. “You’re awake! Oh, thank god!” He squeezed her more tightly as she felt her master seethe. Marcus glanced at Jas and grinned like a tiger. “Mother will want to see you, Maddy. You have no idea how she worried for you. She nearly cleared out the wine cellar all on her own.” As he spoke, he pulled her after him. Jas followed them, all the while glaring at Marcus, who pretended not to notice. “Not even your tailor could comfort her, you know, although he hardly tried.”