Prince of Secrets and Shadows

by C. S. Johnson

  “You were the one who told me before that there is a cost to learning the truth,” I nearly shouted, irritated beyond measure. “Why are you trying to protect me now?”

  She ignored me. “Thank the good Lord that Xiana is here. Now that I know Lumiere is in Prague, we must be even more cautious. I must speak with Harshad, and I will have to find Amir, too. We need to see everything all over again, starting with Dr. Artha’s death.”

  “What about Ben?” I asked, suddenly curious as to what my brother was doing. While Harshad had mentioned he had a new assignment, I still did not know the exact nature of it.

  “Ben is working,” Lady Penelope said. “I’m having him spy on a few people in the city, if you must know.”

  “Why?”

  “He needs the practice.” She waved her hand through the air, brushing the matter aside. “As you will learn, if you haven’t already, there are many tasks one must master in order to protect others. Stealth, fighting, understanding strategy, and finding the right information are all imperative skills in our line of business.”

  “And keeping secrets, too?” I crossed my arms.

  Lady Penelope wrinkled her nose. “Partially. But we are more concerned with discovering others’ secrets than keeping them. Tonight, you will get a full demonstration of just such a skill.”

  I gulped, immediately trying to hide any trace of guilt. “I will?”

  “Yes.” Lady Penelope steepled her fingers together, while a sadistic form of pleasure came over her face. “My patience is at an end, and there is too much riding on this, now that the reasons are becoming clear. I have been waiting for this day, really.”

  “You have?” I tried not to let my voice crack. Lady POW was a forceful presence, but after all the hard work she had put me through, and the anguish she had caused between Ben and me, I hated to think she would try to find another way to break me.

  “Oh, yes. I knew he was just waiting for the right moment to betray me.” She seemed to be talking to herself more than me. “Now that he has found Eleanor’s children, it was only a matter of time.”

  “What?” My skin began to hum with eerie uncertainty.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Tell me, Eleanora,” Lady Penelope said, her voice deadly and dangerous.

  For a second, I worried she was going to ask me about Ferdy, and I would be unable to face her. But her next words sent an even deeper chill through my blood.

  “Tell me what Amir has been keeping from me.”

  “What? I don’t know of anything.” I shook my head, somewhat relieved before I remembered that Amir had agreed not to mention Ferdy to Lady POW.

  “This is not the time to be playing favorites,” Lady Penelope snapped. “Your mother never won against me either, not even when it came to him.”

  “Clearly,” I replied bitterly. “But Amir has nothing to do with Dr. Artha’s murder. You weren’t even here when it happened, were you? Frankly, I fail to see what Amir has to do with the rest of the coup, either.”

  “That is not something you would know. Lumiere is the missing piece in all of this, and his father is behind it. There is not just a coup that is happening in Bohemia, but one happening within the League of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Everything makes sense now.”

  I twisted my hands into my skirts, trying to force myself to remain strong against Lady Penelope’s reasoning. The letter Ferdy had given to me earlier brushed against my hand. My earlier question about the League called to me, and I was beginning to realize the danger of our situation.

  If I am going to protect Ferdy, I need to be careful.

  I took a deep breath. “I still don’t see how Lumi fits into all of this.”

  “But you know he is a part of this. You just said the same thing only moments ago!” Lady Penelope shook her head. “Do not allow your stubbornness or your loyalty to Amir blind you.”

  “Tell me how Amir’s betrayal fits into everything, then.” I covered my hidden pocket, shielding Ferdy’s letter further from detection. “If you think I know some of Amir’s important secrets, then you’ll have to do better to convince me to part with them than just because you order me to.”

  “Insolent child.” Lady Penelope roared. “Need I remind you that I am your leader?”

  “Trust is earned, not forced.” I glared at her. “And you’re in no position to order me around in this regard. You won’t tell me any of your secrets, either.”

  “There is a difference between us. I am not obligated to tell you anything. I am charged with keeping certain secrets of history, for the kingdom of Britain and for others as well. You accepted me as your authority. You owe me your allegiance.”

  “My allegiance is only to the truth!”

  It was hard to remember the last time I rendered Lady Penelope speechless, if it had ever happened. But as she stared at me, her expression aghast, I gloried in a small victory against her.

  I reveled in it even more when she sighed in defeat.

  “It seems I have taught you too well,” she murmured. “Well done, Eleanora. You have managed to learn your lessons, and much more proficiently than I thought.”

  I bristled at her reluctant praise. “It doesn’t do me any good if you won’t tell me the whole truth.”

  “The whole truth is not yet known,” Lady Penelope admitted. “But there is no denying Lumiere’s presence, and I must consider the evidence. And I need your help to do that.”

  “I can only help you if you tell me what you know.”

  Lady POW’s eyes went soft. “We will have to compromise.”

  “Then you can go first. You need more practice with humility.”

  She dropped the sympathetic act. “I should have known you would avenge Eleanor, too.”

  I took a deep breath, inhaling sharply. I did not know if Lady Penelope had been meaning to insult me or not, but I knew Máma had always called me to be brave, and that meant being brave enough to be kind, too.

  We were discussing delicate matters, and it was easy to see kindness as a sort of cowardice in this case.

  I did not want to fight my grandmother, and as much as I doubted Lady Penelope was anything like the average grandmother, that was who she was. We were both disillusioned and damaged by the world, and it was my duty—my freedom, my choice, but my duty nonetheless—to help bind up the broken wounds inside of us.

  “She would not need to be avenged if things had worked out differently,” I pointed out quietly. “But it’s like you said before, about the fallen castle walls. There is nothing to be done about it now. We can only go forward.”

  “Yes.” The terseness of her voice suggested Lady Penelope was, indeed, ready to move on. I almost smiled; she was as uncomfortable with my mercy as she had been with the idea of my mother’s justice.

  My grandmother was a woman who would never be satisfied until she let herself, and even in the short time I had known her, I had a feeling she would never completely allow that.

  “I still have to coordinate information with Harshad,” Lady Penelope said, “but we must start at the beginning.”

  I nodded. “I’m listening.”

  “You know as I have told you before that I was sent here by Queen Victoria,” she began. “This region has experienced plenty of upheavals in the last several years, including the Revolution of 1848 and the polarization of the main political aristocracy. When there were several deaths of representatives, especially by those who favored working with Emperor Franz Joseph, it was a signal to Her Royal Majesty to investigate. She sent me and Harshad, along with our small team, to come here and assess the situation. She is further concerned that Indian leadership shows signs of destabilizing.”

  “I remember that part. You came to talk with Dr. Artha and found that he was murdered.”

  “Dr. Artha was an informant of mine, and one of the few in the region familiar the Order. He also knew of the League.”

  “You said before they were the same.”

  “Th
ey have the same goal,” Lady Penelope said. “When it comes to much of our work, anyway. But there are some more nuanced differences. We have worked well together in the past, but there are some issues. When Dr. Artha sent notice to Tulia, I did not realize they were such close friends. He also sent notice, through Father Novak, to the Light.”

  Understand dawned. “Lumiere.”

  “Yes. ‘Light’ is his codename.” She nodded. “I was so caught up in Tulia’s reappearance that I forgot all about him.”

  That was understandable; Tulia had worked with my mother as a nursemaid and companion, but she was also Jakub’s half-sister. The surface animosity between Tulia and Lady Penelope was clear, even if I was uncertain at its depth.

  “If Dr. Artha sent for Lumiere, I doubt Lumiere would be the one who killed him,” I said.

  “Dr. Artha was the one who knew of the Order, and he knew of the deaths of the politicians, and the others who were getting threatened,” Lady Penelope reminded me. “He would have recognized the Order’s poison where it was used. That is likely the reason he reached out to the League as well as the Order.”

  I did not know what to say. It was hard to remember everything that was going on. There were murders and threats, whispers of coups and now, Amir, whom I had believed to be my ally, was getting accused of betraying Lady POW.

  Lady Penelope glanced out the window of the coach. “Lumiere is the son of Louis Valoris, now the Minister of the League. He and I have never been friendly, exactly.”

  “So he is working against you?”

  “Likely.” She snorted. “He was very good friends with Jakub, your grandfather. We were his closest confidants several decades ago. After our relationship soured and I escaped from him, Louis naturally blamed me.”

  I thought of what Harshad had told me before about Jakub. Harshad was the one who had really rescued Lady Penelope, even if she did not credit him.

  Despite the seriousness of the situation, I smiled. Harshad had been right about Lady POW; they had known each other long enough to know they could never truly be friends.

  My thoughts turned to Ferdy and the letter he had given me. If I let him help the Order, was it possible we would be the same as Lady POW and Harshad? Would we be unable to be friends through our lives, even if we were able to work together?

  But Ferdy already has helped me. I curled my fingers around the letter again, thinking of the League.

  “So Louis is trying to help Lord Maximillian and Karl restore the Bohemian monarchy,” I said, “and he knows he can expect a fight from you.”

  “That is likely why Lumiere has come, yes.” Lady Penelope gazed out the window. “Louis always romanticized power, but he was a realist about it, too. The most powerful position for him, in his estimation, was always to be at the right hand of the devil instead of the devil himself.”

  “I suppose he liked my grandfather quite a bit then, from your earlier remarks.”

  She smirked. “He did. Louis has a point; the one holding the title of power is easily different from the one actually in power, and it makes for a great excuse and disguise, in the event something goes wrong.”

  “Like the French Revolution.”

  “It’s humorous that you should mention France. Louis always dreamed of helping Napoleon.”

  “Well, it’s no wonder he didn’t like you,” I said. “Not after you married the Duke of Wellington.”

  Lady Penelope laughed, a crusty sound that emanated from deep inside of her, almost as if she had forgotten how to do it. “I married Arthur more to ensure my escape from Jakub, but you are right. It would have been something Jakub and Louis would have hated. They were already leery of my British heritage, even though the Order transcends nationalities.”

  “Why didn’t you just marry Harshad?”

  As soon as the question left my mouth, I knew I had overstepped myself. I hurriedly shook my head, but Lady Penelope did not seem to notice.

  “Harshad was a merchant trader before he came to work with the League,” she replied. There was a vague practicality in her voice that made me cringe. She had clearly thought through this possibility more than once.

  Before everything else, I knew for certain that everyone lied about something. As I watched Lady Penelope recount her earlier adventures, I saw that she was lying to herself as much as others. I could not say if she knew the real truth or not, but she was certainly against admitting it aloud.

  “Harshad suffered quite a bit when he went up against Jakub, freeing me and Eleanor from him. I left him thinking it would help him if I stayed away. He was upset with me for trying to protect him further, and once I was certain I was safe and in a position to resume my duties for the Order, I understood why. He loved Eleanor dearly, as his own daughter. Harshad is the only one who called her Dezda, and she called him ‘Uncle’ affectionately.”

  “I think he might have loved you, too.” My voice was a whisper against the darkness of the carriage; my words seemed to echo past the windows filling the night sky with their heaviness while the stars twinkled.

  Lady Penelope shrugged, letting me see only the smallest degree of doubt. It was possible she knew she was lying to herself. “It does not matter now. Relationships only complicate things, especially when you work in the espionage business. Harshad might have wanted me to stay, but I know I made the right decision. Later on, I was able to reach out to him and secure his position as an honorary member of the League. We began working together, and we have been the same ever since.”

  “If you were just trying to protect Harshad,” I said slowly, “I can understand why you would distance yourself from him.”

  I did not want to tell her just how much I understood her decision, and how much I envied her certainty. Ferdy’s face once more came into my mind. I knew it was only my concern for his safety, and possibly my pride, that kept me from seeking him out.

  “Well, that does not matter so much now.” Lady POW straightened in her chair. “Louis has found himself a puppet in Lord Maximillian and an ally in Karl, and Lumiere has been sent to prevent me from stopping him. Louis is likely behind the death of Dr. Artha.”

  “But Louis is not here.”

  “Logic, Eleanora. He has resources, same as I. There are any number of henchmen and mercenaries he could employ, such as the one who died the night the castle walls fell. I would not be surprised to learn he was acting under Lumiere’s orders, even if he was hired by Lord Maximillian or Karl. Both of them have ties to the League.”

  It seemed like years had passed since that night, when Ben and I were on the same team, fighting for our lives and the lives of others in the underground walls of the castle’s wine cellar. I could only see a blurry face when I thought about the man who had died in the blaze.

  Lady POW gazed back at me. “Now, it is your turn, Eleanora. Tell me what Amir has been keeping from me. I know he and Lumiere are old friends. How long has he been talking with him?”

  I blinked. “Amir is friends with Lumiere?”

  “You heard him in there,” Lady Penelope reminded me. “He knew your mother and held her in high esteem. Of course he would have been friends with Amir.”

  “I didn’t know about that.” I felt my mouth go dry. Lumiere was the enemy, and Amir was his friend? It did not make sense in my mind. “I know he mentioned before he had contacts with other League members, but I heard it straight from him, the same as you did, that day in the library.”

  “You’re not cooperating with me. Don’t lie.”

  “I’m not involved,” I said. “He did not tell me about Lumiere. I’ve never met him before today.”

  That’s not true. My mind conjured up the memory of seeing him in the Cabal, and I faltered as I tried not to show my weakness.

  “I can tell you are hiding something. What did Amir tell you then?” Lady Penelope asked. “There must be something.”

  “He told me how he got his scar, the one on his hand,” I admitted. Surely there was nothing wrong in admittin
g that. “He said his family tried to kill him and he would have died if it weren’t for Máma and Xiana.”

  There were other things he told me, too. He told me the journal, the one my mother had kept during her last mission, was missing. He told me Lady Penelope was looking for my weakness, and she was putting pressure on Ben to find out my secrets.

  I mentally ran through the list of things I had learned from him, only to realize Lady POW was still waiting for more of a response from me when I reached the end.

  She looked at me, irritated and expectant. “What else, Eleanora? What else did he tell you about the scar on his hand? Did he tell you what it meant?”

  Slowly, I nodded. “He said it was the mark of the nassara, the Christian converts.”

  “That’s all he told you?”

  “Yes. There was nothing else.”

  “You’re certain? You were paying attention to what he said, correct?”

  “Yes.” I frowned at her, upset at her insinuation, and still sore at her accusation against Amir.

  “What is it?” Lady Penelope asked. “Did you remember something else?”

  There was one other thing I could remember.

  Amir had mentioned about the noon, the symbol of the nassara, when he told me about his scar. It was the mark on his hand, but it was also the mark on my mother’s journal.

  After he told me his story, the use of the same mark had not seemed so unusual, considering Amir and Máma’s history together.

  If Lady POW thought Amir was keeping secrets from her—secrets that would affect our mission—it was likely that it had something to do with my mother. And that meant that it was possible it was tied to even more of the past than I had originally suspected.

  The coach pulled up to a stop in front of the manor a moment later. We were home, and I saw a way to get out from Lady Penelope’s grasp.

  “Eleanora.” Lady Penelope’s voice was impatient, but my resolve was firm and final.

  I shook my head. “I have nothing else to tell you.”