“…so even after all of my careful reasoning, those dragons still wouldn’t heed our warning. Can you believe it?” Noah was saying with an indulgent grin.
“Hardly,” Hector mumbled, not bothering to guise the sarcastic touch in his voice. He looked toward the doorway, his eyes connecting with Penny’s. She smiled, sheepish and apologetic. His gaze narrowed. “You’re welcome,” he mouthed, then turned back to Noah to attend the rest of his tale.
“Well, you know dragons—still can’t accept that they lost the war, even a century later. They started to get violent and all my men skittered away, so it was up to Damari and me to fend them off. I won’t pretend that it wasn’t daunting, but it is my sworn duty to protect my people, you see….”
Penny mouthed an apology to Hector before sneaking away from the door. She could just catch Hector drawling “fascinating,” and phrases like “how noble of you.” Climbing the stairs and hurrying into the hallway, she almost bumped straight into a tall, slender man who had come swooping down the hallway in a huff. He cried out and caught Penny by the shoulders before the two of them collided. The aggravated look on his face melted into one of affection as he recognized Penny, his painted lips curving up.
“Penny, there you are! I’ve been wondering where you had run off to.” His voice was resonant and gentle to the ear. A light, spiced fragrance hung all around him. The scent always made Penny’s head spin.
“Hey, Gavin. I’ve been out at the festival. Um, what’s going on in there?” Penny braved, casting a glance toward the room at the end of the hall. Heated voices echoed out of the room.
Gavin’s face puckered back into a sneer, and he put a bejeweled hand up to his forehead.
“Oh, you know. The usual. Heaven help me, but those two are insufferable,” Gavin grumbled, pushing past Penny and making a beeline for his own room, his skirt lashing around his knees as he went. As he grabbed the doorknob, he stopped and hummed, as if he’d just remembered something. Penny watched him fish around in the pocket of his frock-coat, and was caught off guard when he produced a small box from his pocket and tossed it to her. She fumbled with it in midair, at last trapped it between her palms, and gasped when she saw it was wrapped with shiny green paper.
“It’s just a little something for the festival,” Gavin said, winking at her before disappearing into his room. Penny smiled and pocketed the tiny box before tiptoeing down the hallway in hopes of finding the source of the enraged yells.
Penny crept to the open door to Annette’s room. Inside a young, silver-haired man faced an enormous four-poster bed draped in lacey, sheer curtains. A woman with long blonde hair sat crying on it, her face hidden in her hands.
“Don’t you try to pin this one on me, Annette. You couldn’t expect a heggol to want to live in a dump like that,” the man grumbled at the distressed girl, his arms crossed over his chest.
Annette removed her hands from her face and balled them up into fists, her face mysteriously devoid of tears. She appeared to have been swallowed by the dress she wore, adorned in pink and white ruffles and bows. A matching headdress adorned the top of her sleek, corn-silk hair. Penny thought she looked quite like a lovely china doll.
“I don’t care, it does not give you the right to act like such a barbarian. I was positively mortified! You’d do well to remember that I’m doing you a kindness, you ungrateful brute,” Annette huffed, her strawberry-colored lips pouting.
“Oh come on, I was just poking fun at them, Little Miss. How many times do I have to―Penny. When did you get here?” The man turned to face Penny, a ghost of agitation still floating in his golden irises. As usual, the dark discolorations under his eyes suggested he had probably not slept in days.
“Still couldn’t find a suitable shop?” Penny asked as she sauntered into the room and sat on the bed next to Annette, who rested her head on Penny’s shoulder and shut her eyes.
“Annette was under the impression that it might be a good idea to start a business next to the landfill,” he growled.
Annette lifted her head from Penny’s shoulder and threw herself back onto a mountain of fluffy blankets. “That’s only because you’ve rejected every single available shop in the city! What am I supposed to do?” she moaned into the chiffon pillows. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“Not as ridiculous as that cake you’re wearing,” Argent retorted, pointing to her frilly dress as his smile broadened. With one fierce motion, Annette wrenched up the largest stuffed animal on her bed and lobbed it straight at Argent’s face. He dodged it with ease, his smile not flickering.
“Get OUT! I never want to see you again!” Annette commanded as Argent chuckled.
“Gladly. Right after I give Penny her Blossom Day gift.” Argent sauntered forward, rummaging around in his pockets.
Penny felt her face get hot. Annette’s jaw dropped ever so slightly as Argent withdrew something and tossed it into the air for Penny to catch.
She intercepted it midair. It was a squishy, stuffed toy in the shape of a black anteloo, its eyes two tiny buttons.
“It’s Humphrey!” Penny cheered. “Did you make this?”
“Yep. It’s got some magic-infused herbs in the stuffing that’ll help you sleep, too.” Argent swiveled around and made for the door, hands in his pockets.
“Thank you, Argent,” Penny said, hugging her new treasure to her chest.
Annette straightened up before Argent could disappear into the hall, meagerly venturing, “How come Penny gets a present and I don’t?”
Argent turned and regarded her for a moment. “Because it’ll be awfully hard to give you something if we’re never to see each other again, don’t you think?” He flashed his lopsided grin and turned around again. “Farewell, Princess.”
Annette watched him go, her china-blue eyes reduced to slits. She huffed and glared over at Penny, who shrunk away.
“Erm, sorry,” she said, trying to push the stuffed anteloo out of sight.
Annette’s expression changed from muddled to careless in a matter of seconds. “It’s not your fault. He’s just infuriating. Let’s forget about him, please. Tell me about your day! Did you go to the festival celebrations?”
The two of them lay on Annette’s bed for an hour, chatting about news and trading anecdotes until Millie came up to alert them that Noah had departed and dinner was ready. Realizing that Penny had been avoiding Noah the entire day, Annette started lecturing her as they descended the staircase and headed toward the dining room.
“What kind of message do you think that’s sending to him? If you want him to like you, maybe you should try spending some time with him, for once, instead of running away,” Annette told her.
“That’s kind of the problem, Annette. I’m not sure that I―”
“I wonder what sort of present he got you for the festival! I’ll bet it’s something grand.” Annette gave a dreamy sigh as she swung round the banister. “Maybe it’s something imported from the Nation of Elves―those little cookies with Bevendaire crème! They’re all the rage, nowadays. Oh, what’re they called? Gavin will know.” The actress fluttered into the dining room and took her usual seat on the left side as her aunt Wendy and Millie set out dishes.
Penny bit her lip. “I really hope he didn’t go too far out of his way. I think I―are you even listening?”
PENNY FLOPPED DOWN onto her bed, the tastes of Wendy’s magnificent food still lingering on her tongue. With a contented sigh she rolled over. Something angular poked at her back.
“What the?” Penny sat up and removed the offending object. It was a box of sweets wrapped neatly with a bow. Penny blinked at it, racking her brain. Noah? But he would’ve wanted to present it in person. Simon, then? No, we were together all day. Wait, it couldn’t have been―
CLICK.
Penny’s thoughts were disrupted by the pronounced sound snapping through her room. She looked up as something red and white in the window caught her eye. Her chest seemed to deflate when she recognized
the very same masked face from the festival dance staring back at her, still and poised on the other side of the windowpane. A suspended moment of shock passed.
Finding her breath again, Penny screamed and tumbled off the bed. A moment later the door swung open and an alarmed Hector bounded into the room.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded, kneeling at Penny’s side as he buttoned up his nightshirt with shivering hands.
“Outside. S-someone was staring in the window!” she stuttered. Hector rose to his feet in one swift motion and strode over to the sill with a steeled look on his face. Penny felt the familiar sensation of lightheadedness as the magic was swept away from her body and Hector’s hands began to glow with an ethereal, golden light.
He opened the window with a violent motion and stuck his head out. Penny joined him as he scanned the yard below. The wind whispered through the leaves of the garden, and a cold chill blustered in. With a shake of his head, Hector shut the window.
“I’m sure I saw someone,” she told him, still rattled.
“I believe you,” Hector said, his face showing his concern and a degree of anxiety. Penny was suddenly aware she was in a very thin nightgown. He cleared his throat. “Um, I’ll go check outside.”
“No, that’s fine,” Penny said, his nerves rubbing off on her. “The window is locked. Whoever it was probably got scared off. And you seem kind of under the weather. Don’t want to catch cold out there.”
“Ah, no, I’m fine. I’m just a shade enervated from having to entertain one Noah Ontellos Vennioch Xander the Fourth all day long.” Hector smiled wryly and gave Penny a meaningful look.
She grinned back, embarrassed. “Sorry about that, too. I didn’t realize he’d be so persistent.”
“That’s quite all right. Wendy provided confections, and that’s enough for me,” Hector said with genial affection that roused a laugh from Penny. His eyes flickered to her bed where the package of candy lay and he cleared his throat again. “Well, I’ll keep an eye out. Best get back to bed. Let me know if you need anything.”
Penny started to bid him a good night, but found her curiosity was too strong to ignore. “Oh, um, Hector.”
As he turned to face her, she felt her voice grow thin. “Well see, someone left this—I was just wondering, did you by any chance…?”
“Did I by any chance what?” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Realizing only then she didn’t have the mettle to ask him after all, Penny shook her head.
“Sorry. I forgot what I was going to say. Goodnight.”
With a strange little smile, Hector bid her goodnight, shutting the door behind him. Penny pulled her curtains shut, skittered across the room, dimmed the gas lamps, and got back into bed. Though it took a long while to cast the image of the placidly smiling mask out of her mind, Penny hugged the stuffed anteloo until she was at last able to drift off.
MORNING CAME IN milky waves of light peeking through the curtains, pestering Penny until she was forced to sit up, her hair a tousled mess. As she blinked into the white haze, she coughed with a dry, scratchy throat and reached out blunderingly, searching for the flask of water kept on her nightstand. Her fingers groped over her spectacles, a book, a scrap of paper, the loose lid of a small chest...
It took Penny a moment to realize what she was touching, and as soon her mind sprang into working-order, she flung herself out of bed with a thundering heart. The chest that Della had given her shortly before her death was open. The tiny click from last night must have been the clasp releasing.
It’s open! It finally opened! her mind screamed as she snatched up the chest with trembling hands. There it stood in the palm of her hand, the golden latch swinging. Penny wrenched back the tiny lid.
Confusion struck as she withdrew a stone slate with jagged edges. Several long lines were etched into the stone and it was speckled with tiny dots.
“What?” Penny moaned, frustration and disappointment welling up inside of her as she examined the useless bit of stone. Looking back at the empty chest, Penny saw that a short message had been scratched into the bottom in English.
Herein lies the missing piece. When you reach the hallowed ground, steal away bark from the Tree of Mana.
With an enraged snort, Penny dropped the stone back into the chest and stomped downstairs to the dining room. Penny’s lips grew thin as she fumed, bitter thoughts of Della jangling in her head. This is what she promised would help us?
Penny burst into the dining room. The dishes and silverware had already been set out, and the sounds and smells of cooking wafted in from the kitchen. Penny spied Argent sitting at the far end of the table, leaning back in his chair as he poured over a collection of papers. She hurried over and slammed the chest and its exposed contents out before him. Argent glanced at it, went back to his papers for a moment, then looked back to the stone with wide eyes before scooping up the chest.
Penny took a seat across from him as he studied it. While Argent inspected the slab of stone, Penny noticed something propped up on the plate at the head of the table where Annette always sat. Several colorful tulip blooms surrounded the glossy yellow curls of a beautiful porcelain doll, whose arms and legs were fitted with strings. Before Penny could inquire as to what it was, Argent groaned.
“Where’s the rest of it? This can’t have been the only thing in there―and what’s the message say?” he asked, a stricken look on his pale face.
“It’s chicken-scratch, essentially. That’s it. This is our anticipated ace-in-the-hole. A rock and a riddle,” Penny said.
Argent shook his head in disbelief. “That can’t possibly be right. No, there’s something we’re missing.”
A loud, shuddering yawn sounded from the other end of the dining room, announcing that Simon was out of bed. He shuffled inside, still dressed in his nightclothes and with an unshaven shadow across his face.
“What’s all the fuss about?” he slurred as he collapsed beside Penny and yawned again. Penny didn’t bother to answer him as she tried to take back the chest from Argent. He refused to yield it.
“Morning, all. I trust from your―good lord, is that what I presume it to be?” Hector cried. He swooped over and landed in the seat beside Argent, lifting away the chest before the silver-haired man could stop him.
Simon stared vacantly as the soft pattering on the stairs and blithe humming cued Annette’s entrance into the dining room.
“Morning!” she sang as she bounded in and took her usual place, her freshly curled pigtails bouncing. “Did you all sleep well? I―oh my goodness, what is this?”
“It finally opened, Annette, and―” Penny stopped midsentence, realizing Annette wasn’t talking about the chest at all. She watched her friend pick up the delicate puppet from its bed of tulips and cradle in her palms, examining the fine craftsmanship.
“Oh, she’s just the loveliest thing. And tulips! They’re my zodiac flower,” Annette breathed as she looked over the puppet with a dewy expression.
Oblivious, Hector and Argent began shooting off wild theories about the cryptic message that had been etched into the box and what the piece of stone belonged to. Simon watched them in a daze. Penny couldn’t understand why no one seemed as frustrated about this as she did. Wendy and Millie bustled in and began to set breakfast out for all of them while they quibbled.
“We’ve just got to trust that Della knew what she was doing. She was clairvoyant, wasn’t she? Her advice saved all of our lives before, so we should just wait and see,” Annette piped up, seeming to at last catch on. Penny saw she now cradled the doll in her arms.
“No, I don’t believe it’s that simple. I’m certain if we look close enough, valuable information can be discerned from it. There’s something here we’re not seeing,” Hector combated.
“We could take it to my workbench later on. I’ve got some tools there that should be able to help us,” Argent murmured.
“Oh, please. You’re going to turn it into a pile of sand,” Simon g
rumbled, just loud enough for Penny to hear.
“I don’t see why she couldn’t have just plainly said what this will be used for. Oh wait, that would’ve made this easy. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Penny scoffed.
“Goodness, you’re all so animated today,” Gavin said, floating into the room as if riding a gentle breeze. “Here’s the mail, Nettie. Thank you, mother.”
Just as Penny began to tuck in to her poached eggs, a piercing shriek emanated from the end of the table. All eyes moved to Annette as she took several deep breaths and rose to her feet, a hand covering her gaping mouth.
Simon swept off his chair and threw a protective arm around her. “What’s the matter, Miss Annette? Is there a spider?”
“It―It can’t be. There must be some mistake,” Annette whispered, her lips quivering.
Gavin looked as concerned as Penny felt. “Nettie, dear, what is it?”
Tears welled up in Annette’s eyes as she began to shiver. She pointed to a sheaf of paper lying beside her plate, as if accusing it of some atrocity. Penny grabbed it and read aloud: “Dear Miss Annette Deveaux. We of the Theatrical Society of Iverton regret to inform you that you were not selected for any of the roles in the upcoming production of Aldridge Alenter’s ‘I Love Lust’s Lies.’ We trust that you will―”
“Oh stop, stop! It’s too awful!” Annette cried, doubling over as the tears began spilling.
“Oh, now Nettie darling. It’s only one play. You’ve starred in dozens of them, this is just a―” Wendy’s comforts were interrupted by Annette’s moaning.
“N-no, you don’t understand,” Annette gave a great sniff. “I knew this was coming. The last two productions crashed and burned―and would you like to know why? It was because I was in them. Ever since that sordid business last autumn, people have stopped coming to see me. I just know it’s those priestesses and their slandering! I heard Aldridge muttering about it to his stagehands. Oh no, what I am going to do?” she blubbered, collapsing into Simon’s embrace. She sobbed onto his chest, wiping her eyes on his shirt. Simon was unable to mask his look of elation.
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 2
