by Webb, Holly
‘You drew a lot of attention last night,’ Henrietta muttered. They were tucked away behind some bits of scenery in the wings, where Lily had dragged them to hide. No one could see Henrietta to realise she was talking.
‘So did you!’ Georgie snapped. ‘We all agreed to this. I was the one who said it was too dangerous, if you remember, and you two persuaded me!’ She patted the painted canvas next to her, running her fingers over a foolish-looking sheep from the set for Lydia’s shepherdess song. ‘I don’t want to run again,’ she whispered. ‘We can’t. We haven’t anywhere else to go! We were so lucky to find the theatre—’
‘Luck had nothing to do with it,’ Henrietta snapped.
Georgie nodded. ‘I know that really. But all the same, I can’t bear to start all over again. We’ll just have to be watchful. It’s like you said, Lily, it might be coincidence that she was so close. If we see her again, then we’ll – we’ll do something.’
Lily nodded. She didn’t want to leave the theatre either. But she was frowning. Something didn’t sound like a very good plan to her. Whatever they had to do, she was almost sure that Georgie would need to use her magic again, and that meant anything might happen.
Lily smiled to herself grimly. At least they could make sure it happened to Marten.
‘Whatever are you lot doing hiding behind here?’ Daniel peered around the scenery, staring at them.
Lily jumped. ‘Don’t creep up on people like that! I nearly died.’
Daniel looked horrified. ‘I didn’t mean to – whatever’s the matter, Lily? You’ve gone white. I can’t have scared you that much, surely?’
‘Sorry,’ Lily muttered. ‘I had a shock. Before…’ She swallowed. ‘I saw Mama’s servant, Marten. In the street, not close – but she was looking for us. Mama wants us back… We knew she would, but we felt so safe here. We lost her,’ she added. ‘She didn’t come anywhere near the theatre.’
Daniel nodded, but he was frowning. ‘Just a coincidence then?’ he asked.
‘I really hope so. She must have been searching all over the city.’ Lily shivered, thinking of Marten’s horrid sniffing.
Daniel stared down at Georgie, as though he hadn’t looked at her properly before. ‘You two can’t stay hidden here all the time, though. It’s not good for you. You haven’t been out since you arrived, have you?’ he demanded, putting his hand under Georgie’s chin, and turning her face this way and that. ‘You’re as pale as milk. Watered milk, even.’
‘She hasn’t been anywhere,’ Lily agreed, and Georgie scowled at her.
‘Right. Then today, I’m taking you all to watch the parade. There’ll be thousands of people lining the streets, no servant of your mother’s will spot you.’ Daniel gave a determined nod. ‘You girls deserve a treat, after the work you’ve been putting in.’
‘What parade?’ Henrietta nosed him curiously.
‘Coronation Day. Every year, Queen Sophia rides in a carriage from the palace to the cathedral, for a service of thanksgiving.’
‘Queen Sophia? We could see her?’ Lily asked, only half believing him.
‘Of course.’
Lily stared blankly at the canvas of the scenery in front of them. The queen. It had been on the queen’s orders that their father had been taken, imprisoned, they didn’t even know where. It was the queen that Georgie had been supposed to kill, with dreadful spells that she’d spent years learning. Queen Sophia was bound into their lives with magic they did not understand – but they had never seen her.
Georgie smiled wearily. ‘I can wear my hat.’
Lily blinked. ‘What?’
‘My hat. Maria gave it to me – and some silk flowers, she showed me how to fasten them on. There’s one for you too, Lily, but I haven’t anything to decorate it with yet.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Lily said impatiently. ‘You’ll come then?’
‘It would be nice to go out. If we’re sure it’s safe…’ Georgie nodded, looking around at the dusty sets.
There was very little light anywhere in the theatre, Lily realised suddenly. No daylight. No wonder Georgie was miserable, she told herself crossly.
‘Marten doesn’t know where we are. It was luck that she was close, that’s all.’
‘Come on then!’ Daniel clapped his hands. ‘Five minutes. I’ll put my best waistcoat on.’
They gathered at the front of the theatre, a strange feeling of excitement making Lily and Georgie giggle, and Henrietta chase her tail, and snap at imaginary flies. They were off on a jaunt, in their nicest clothes.
‘I know a good place, not too busy,’ Daniel explained, hurrying them along the street. ‘But we haven’t got long, they’ll leave the palace at ten.’
As they came towards the broader, grander streets that were on the route of the procession, crowds were gathering all around them. ‘People sleep on the pavement, to get the very best places,’ Daniel explained. ‘Not as many as there used to be, though.’ He noticed Lily’s confused look. ‘She’s popular, Queen Sophia, but her mother isn’t. Old Queen Adelaide. The Dowager.’
‘She’s the one who was married to King Albert? The king who was killed by Marius Grange?’ Lily asked, wanting to make sure.
‘That’s it. And she’s the one who hates magic. She always did, even before the king was assassinated. She’s the one who controls the Queen’s Men, people say. She’s nearly ninety, the old queen, and her wits are going. Ah, listen!’
Dimly, in the distance, they could hear the sound of cheering, and a jingling, and a thudding of hooves.
‘They’re coming.’ Daniel grabbed their hands, and hurried them on. ‘Up here, look.’ He caught Lily round the waist, and boosted her and Henrietta up onto the plinth of a statue, a tall dark stone figure of a disapproving man. Lily was almost sure his frowning brows furrowed even more as she and Georgie helped to haul Daniel up after them, just in time to see a troop of horse guards trot around the bend in the road.
Cheering erupted all around the girls, so that they seemed to be floating on a cloud of sound, and a golden carriage rolled towards them. Lily clutched at the stone boot of the statue, and leaned forward, desperate to see. The carriage shone, its windows glittering like jewels in a golden setting, and she hissed crossly. Then as the carriage drew level with them, a cloud passed across the sun, and for a moment, the glare died away. Lily stared across the crowd below, into the carriage itself.
She wasn’t sure how she’d expected a queen to look. Bigger, perhaps? Haughtier? More like Mama, she realised suddenly, a surprised smile twitching the corner of her mouth. Certainly not this thin-faced, worried-looking lady, waving graciously at her well-wishers. She was dressed in a rich, old-fashioned dark velvet cloak, with a fur collar, and a little tiara sat on her faded hair. None of it suited her.
‘She was pretty, once…’ Daniel murmured to her. ‘Like a fairy princess, so they say. You wouldn’t think so now, would you?’
Lily shook her head. It was confusing. Queen Sophia had broken her family, but Lily couldn’t hate her. There was something familiar about her too, but Lily couldn’t pin down what it was.
As the carriage rolled past, the queen leaned sideways a little, to wave at the crowd on the other side of the road, and the other occupant of the carriage was revealed.
‘That’s the Dowager,’ Daniel muttered. ‘Mad as a coot, she is.’
Lily gasped. Queen Adelaide was very old, very thin, and had a nose like the beak of an eagle. Her eyes had something of the ferocity of a bird of prey, as well. Even though she looked nothing like her, she reminded Lily strongly of her mother. It was the determination, Lily decided, huddling back against the statue’s legs, the cold-blooded certainty that she was right, shining out of those dark, glinting eyes.
All of a sudden, Lily knew why she’d felt she recognised the younger queen. Sophia had such a look of Georgie – worn out from trying for years to please an impossible mother.
As the carriage went on past, and another company of glitteri
ng horsemen trotted after it, the crowd began to disperse, leaving a litter of trampled flags and coloured bunting.
Daniel jumped down, and lifted Lily and Georgie after him. They began to stroll back towards the theatre through the maze of back alleys, Lily questioning Daniel about the queen.
‘She’s never married then? There isn’t a king?’
Daniel shook his head. ‘No, her younger sister is the heir, Princess Lucasta.’
‘Lily…’
A whisper behind her. Lily stopped suddenly, her legs wobbling. There was something awful in Georgie’s voice, even though it was so quiet she’d hardly heard it. ‘What is it?’ She threw her arms round Georgie. Her sister was so pale she’d gone grey, like a stone child.
‘Look.’ Georgie nodded very faintly towards the other side of the road. There was a dark spot among the holiday finery of the crowd, a figure swathed in black, its head turning slowly from side to side.
‘Marten,’ Lily and Georgie breathed together, and then Henrietta snapped at Lily’s ankles.
‘Go. Go! But don’t run.’
‘Who is it?’ Daniel hissed.
‘Move. We’ll tell you later. Slowly, slowly, don’t let her notice us.’ Lily grabbed his hand, and hauled Georgie along with an arm around her waist. ‘We have to get back to the theatre. Quickly!’
‘So what was all that about?’ Daniel asked, as they stumbled in through a backstage door, and hurried to his office. ‘Who was that woman in the black dress?’
Lily exchanged a look with Georgie as she stuffed her sister into the balding old armchair. Should they tell him everything?
‘Yes.’ Henrietta nudged her ankle. ‘Tell him. I promise you, he smells good. You can trust him.’
Georgie nodded, staring at her feet. ‘He should know what he’s hiding in his theatre. What might be coming.’
‘What’s going on?’ Daniel crouched down next to Georgie, lowering his voice to a whisper. ‘Is this to do with your mother stealing your magic? Is that why you’re so frightened of her? I mean, this sounds as though it’s more than just her wanting you back because she misses you.’
Lily laughed, and then put her hand over her mouth. ‘Sorry. We think she’s plotting against the queen. Georgie has been…’
‘Enchanted,’ Georgie muttered.
‘But we don’t know why. She’s been angry with Georgie for so long, because the spells weren’t working properly. We think Mama was going to kill her, and start trying to use me instead.’
‘What for?’ Daniel asked, looking appalled.
‘We think they want to make us into a magical weapon,’ Lily explained. Then she added in a whisper, ‘So they can assassinate the queen.’
Daniel swallowed slowly. ‘Ah. With one of those flame things Georgie threw at me, the day we met?’
Everyone stared at Georgie, who shook her head miserably. ‘I still don’t know what it was that I did!’ Then she sighed. ‘But I didn’t mean to, whatever it was. It took me over. I thought we’d escaped, Lily, but she’s still got me, hasn’t she? Since we’ve been away from Merrythought, I’ve felt free again. But that was stupid. She’s controlling me, somehow.’ She leaned back against the wall, her skin still greyish and her eyes stone-like. ‘I’ll never get away.’
‘We’ll take the spell off.’ Lily’s voice was firm, but she couldn’t meet her sister’s eyes. She couldn’t trust her face to look as though she believed what she was saying. Georgie wasn’t in control of her own magic, and Lily hardly knew any. How could they possibly defeat such an expert magician as their own mother? ‘Perhaps when we find Father, he can do it…’
Georgie shook her head again. ‘No. I have to hide better.’ She stared at her hands, as though she hated them. ‘If only I could get rid of my magic,’ she whispered. ‘Then Mama wouldn’t want me any more.’ She looked up, a spark of hope in her eyes. ‘If we both did, Lily, then we’d be useless. They’d never find us, Mama and Marten. I’m sure it’s the magic Marten’s hunting for.’
‘Are you safe here?’ Daniel asked anxiously. ‘Couldn’t you do one of those glamour spells, like the first time I saw you?’
Georgie’s stony eyes softened with tears. ‘You don’t understand. It’s our magic she’s tracking. Our mother’s servant, Marten. That woman in black. I think she can sniff out magic, especially mine, because it’s all been shaped – twisted – by Mama! She knows what it smells like!’ She scratched at her hands hatefully. ‘I wish I could tear it out of me. Lily, you have to help me. And we should take yours too, then even if they find us Mama won’t want us back!’
Lily glared at her. ‘We can’t get rid of it, Georgie, we don’t know how! And even if we could I wouldn’t want to – I’ve only just got it, and I love it! It’s mine, it’s part of me!’
‘I used to feel like that…’ Tears spilled out of Georgie’s eyes, and Lily threw her arms around her sister.
‘When we break the spell you will again. For now, just don’t use your magic, it’s safer that way.’
‘We’ll hide you somehow,’ Daniel muttered, looking worriedly around the room, as though he expected Marten to materialise from behind the curtains. ‘I won’t let anyone steal you away.’
Lily watched critically as Georgie rose up into the air. The new dress that Daniel had sweet-talked Maria into running up at the last minute fell floatily from a high waistband, and it trailed down on either side of her body, wafting dramatically, the little embroidered silver stars glittering.
Daniel was conjuring her higher and higher, beckoning her on, with sweeps of his long fingers.
‘That’s as far as she goes, Mr Daniel!’ a loud voice yelled from behind the curtains.
Daniel’s mystical gestures stopped abruptly. ‘That’s fine. I wouldn’t be able to reach her if she were much higher anyway. Lily, remind me to talk to Signor Lucius about the music, there’s a bit of squeaking from the mechanism, he’s going to need flutes playing during this part, just in case.’
‘Can I get down yet?’ Georgie asked plaintively. ‘This board is really hard.’ They had been rehearsing the new trick since Sam had finished building the mechanism, the day after the Coronation parade, and their sighting of Marten. Lily and Georgie had thrown themselves into the work, glad to think about something else, but after two solid days of pretending to be in a trance, Georgie was becoming mutinous.
‘How are you going to prove that there isn’t something behind the curtain lifting her?’ Lily demanded. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be hard for people to work it out.’
‘Aha!’ Daniel darted into the wings and came back with a child’s hoop, the kind that Lily had seen little boys bowling through the park when she had gone exploring. ‘Watch! Oh, and tonight, Lily, when I snap my fingers, can you bring this out to me? Now look… Remember the audience don’t know that we’ve let down the extra curtain this far forward, they’ll think this is the back of the stage. See the hoop?’ He held it up in one hand, passing it slowly, surely, all round Georgie, wafting it suspensefully around her, and staring out into the imaginary audience with dark, brooding eyes.
Lily came closer. ‘Do it again,’ she asked, puzzled, and Daniel laughed, and passed the hoop around Georgie’s wafting skirts once more.
‘Hurry up!’ Georgie moaned. ‘I’ve got the most dreadful crick in my neck.’
‘Did you see?’
‘Has it got a hole in it, so the bar can get through?’ Lily asked, staring suspiciously at the hoop.
‘No! But if you think that, perhaps I should pass it into the audience first, so they can test it, that might add a little something.’ He scribbled a note to himself. ‘Watch again.’
‘Oh!’ Lily laughed, genuinely impressed. ‘I saw it that time, Daniel, that’s really clever. I would have sworn blind that you passed it all round her!’
Daniel made her a little bow. ‘Yes, yes, I’m sorry, Georgie. Bring her down, Sam. So. You think it’ll work, as our grand finale?’
Georgie sat up,
wriggling her shoulders. ‘Did I really look as though I was floating?’
Lily nodded. ‘It was very impressive. Even better with music, and that special mist stuff, I should think. But Daniel, if this is to be the grand finale, what happens to Lydia’s fairyland song?’
Daniel bit his lower lip. ‘Mmm. That’s my next job. Breaking it to Mrs Lacey that little Lydia’s contract specifies she’s allowed the final song – and she’ll have it.’ He grinned slyly at Lily. ‘Well, I don’t sing. Do you?’
‘She’ll spifflicate you…’ Lily whispered. It was one of Sam’s young apprentice Ned’s favourite words, and although Lily wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, she liked it.
Daniel shrugged. ‘After the reaction from the audience the last three nights, and the reviews we’ve had, she hasn’t a leg to stand on.’
Lily nodded. He was right, but Lydia and her mother would never admit it. She decided that after the performance tonight, she would ask Georgie how to cast a protection spell. Maria had told them some dreadful stories about jealousy in the theatre, after she’d found Georgie in tears when Lydia had caught her alone, and mercilessly demolished the dancing she did in their act. Lily had no intention of letting Lydia get away with any of those sort of tricks. Jamming a pin down inside one of Georgie’s greasepaint sticks was just the sort of thing she could imagine Lydia trying. And the little toad would be gushingly sympathetic when Georgie tore a scratch across her cheek.
‘Come on. We need to clear the stage. We sent everyone away so we could rehearse this, remember, and they’re all fretting. People want a last run-through before tonight.’ A wide, fake smile spread across Daniel’s face as a large figure barrelled its way down the aisle like a rhinoceros. In a corset. ‘Mrs Lacey! I was just coming to find you…’
Lily ran gracefully – or as gracefully as she could – back onto the stage with the hoop, which had been painted silver now to make it look more mystical, and handed it to Daniel. Daniel twirled it in his hands, and stepped towards the edge of the stage, swirling it through the air to demonstrate to the audience how solid it was. Then he walked back to Georgie, apparently floating in a deep trance above the stage, and started the clever sleight of hand that made the hoop appear to pass around her body. Lily smiled a little. Now she knew how he did it, it was easy to see – but the audience were sighing with amazement. They were convinced Daniel had levitated the Northern Princess, and excited whispers were running around the theatre. This was even better than the other girl disappearing in the cabinet.
