The Glass Girl

by Kim Alexander

  “Oh, Stelle. Of course. She would have come, but I got the message that you all had returned and I left rather suddenly. Stelle was scheduled to give a lecture. She sends her warmest regards.”

  “Stelle? Your Stelle? You don't mean attending a lecture?” asked Lelet.

  “No, giving one.” May smiled. “And she has you to thank, Moth. After we saw you, when we didn't know who you were, she got very interested in ghosts and visitations, and began to read and attend talks. Then we found out what you were really all about, and, well. It lit some sort of fire under her, and she's become something of an expert on debunking ghost sightings. Demons and ghosts and spirits have become all the rage. Stelle thinks most of them are due to visitors from other worlds and not supernatural in origin. She's begun giving lectures. She calls it The Unhaunted World. She is in great demand.”

  “You understand there have been no other visitors from my world,” he said gently. Then he frowned. “At least, I don't think so.”

  “Well, you two will have to figure it out. I stay out of it. I'm just pleased she's happy. At least she is.” May's face clouded and she pulled a newspaper out of her suitcase. “I'm afraid there's been some . . . I don't even know what to call it. Unpleasantness. Back home. I don't think it's wise for you to come back to the city at the moment.” She held up the paper so they could see the front page. There was a blurry photograph of Lelet stumbling out of a cab. She was laughing and looked as if she'd been drinking. Billah was standing on the curb, holding her up by one arm. The headline read:

  STOLEN BY DEMON LOVER

  Lelet went purple. “I'll kill him.” She leapt off the bed and grabbed the flimsy sheet. “Unexplained disappearance…mysterious stranger…lying servants…worried friends…fiancée—WHAT? He's a dead man. We leave at once. Where's my knife?”

  “You look pretty in that picture,” said Rhuun. He took the paper from Lelet before she could fling it onto the fire and looked at it closely. “The artist is quite talented.”

  “No, it's a photograph,” said Scilla.

  “Is that a kind of pencil?” He looked up expectantly.

  Scilla looked at May and shrugged. “Um, sure,” said May. “Yes. Pencil. Please, keep it.” He folded the sheet and put it in his pocket.

  “You were engaged to Billah?” said Scilla. “Ewww.”

  “I was not.” Lelet said. “Of course not. May, how?”

  “Sit down, darling, you look about to faint.” May pushed a fresh cup of tea into Lelet's hands. “This came out a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it's only the Inquisitor. If it was the Record we'd have real problems.” Their father and his friends would rather iron their own shirts than read the Inquisitor. There was an excellent chance he hadn't seen it. “And then, well, it sounded so…glamorous, I mean, a handsome stranger from another world—people started showing up at our house. Some wanted to see you, Lelly; journalists, I suppose. There were those who wanted to meet you, Moth. Mostly…young ladies.”

  “Really?” He sat up, curious, until he saw the look on Lelet's face. “Well, that's terrible.”

  May continued. “Per—did I tell you Per is inside, now? We hired a new man for the grounds. Anyway, Per turned them all away. It's quieted down considerably, but if you showed up it might just encourage them. Best to wait a bit and then come home.”

  “And this is what Stelle is lecturing about? How I got snatched up by demons?” Lelet caught herself flexing her fingers and balled her fists to stop the now-useless activity. In her own body, in her own world, she was without flame.

  “Well,” said May, who took note of her motions, as she took note of everything, “it hasn't hurt her credibility. And it does sell tickets. But she's never mentioned you, of course. Either one of you. That would be unforgiveable. I'm afraid it's Billah who's stirring things up. He's fallen in with a questionable crowd. So-called demon hunters, something called The Inner Order, can you imagine?” She reached back into her bag and pulled out a narrow, foil-wrapped box. “As I said, it'll blow over. He has nothing to go on. It's his new friends egging him on. If he wants to be received by society he'll have to stop this nonsense. Althee is ready to carve him like a trout!” Lelet smiled at the thought of her old friend taking that fool Billah to task. “But I suspect with no demons to hunt in Mistra, something new will come along soon. He'll find a new diversion. And Moth, when you go out for a walk in town, no one will bother you.” She handed the gift to Rhuun. “Go on, open it.”

  Thanks to Lelet, Rhuun knew about gifts and gift wrap, and he carefully peeled the bright silver and blue paper away. “I . . . I'm sorry, May, but I don't know what this is.” May nodded at Lelet, who took the eyeshades from his hand. She pulled him to his feet and walked him to the mirror over the mantle.

  “Close your eyes,” she said, and slipped them on him. “Now, look.”

  “The shop keeper was right,” said May. “Everyone looks better with sunshades on.” He nodded approvingly at his reflection. “People will see you and race to his shop for a pair of their own.”

  “Those look good on you,” Scilla said. “Let me see 'em.” He passed them over, she put them on with a grin.

  “You are more than kind,” he told May. “Thank you.” He paused. “If Lelet thinks it's a good idea, I would like to give you a gift, as well.” He turned to Lelet and held out his hands, palms out, with his thumbs hooked together. She smiled and nodded. “May, you are not afraid of heights, are you? Then perhaps you'd care to join me on the roof?”

  Chapter Eight

  Mistra

  They landed on the Guardhouse roof with May shrieking and laughing, and that in turn made him laugh. She'd been clinging to his back—it was the safest way to carry a passenger. She fit neatly between his wings, and his grey fur cloak, clasped in the front with a heavy silver buckle, covered her and held her secure. She shook snowflakes out of her long, unbound dark hair. He refastened his cloak and let her look at his wings before folding them away

  “Thank you, thank you!” she sang. “I had no idea the world was so wide!” She peered at the long black feathers delightedly. “Do all your people have these? They're lovely!”

  “Not exactly. We all have wings, but Scilla tells me they are more like what you call bat wings.”

  “So you're alike but not alike.” She tentatively reached out and patted a feather. “You recall that afternoon, when you told me you were leaving, and moving on to your next thing?” He nodded. “You seemed so sad…I spent a lot of time worrying about you before I found out who you really were. No, you needn't apologize. I understand—at least, I think I do.” She gently tugged on the feather and smiled. “Scilla was right, I can't be angry with her for bringing you into our family.”

  He looked down at her, his eyes a blaze of red and gold. He flexed his wings; they arched overhead. “Family. Is that what I am? I've put Lelet in harm's path. Would she be better off if I went home?”

  May laughed, blinking at the stripe of shadow cast across her face. “I think you'll find you can't get rid of us that easily.” She examined his expression. “Are you asking my opinion or my permission? Do you want to go home? Would you be better off?”

  He was silent for a moment, and she thought it was possible he didn't know. “What do you think?”

  May took his hand. She couldn't help but see the scars which ran down his wrist like melted wax, and looked away before he noticed. “I think you are still recovering. Scilla mentioned a trout…”

  He gave a short laugh. “She has a talent for turn of phrase. But she wasn't far wrong. What she said was true. Lelet, with the help of my friends, saved me, at great risk. Thank you for sending her to me.”

  Now May laughed. “Like I could stop her. I'm just glad she got to you in time. I'm sorry you were hurt.” She tried to not look again at his wrists where they poked out of his sleeves, and wondered how bad it really was, and who had done this to him, and why. She knew it was small and mean of her to think so, but she felt a fierce gladness that
whomever had done this had not damaged his beautiful face.

  He shrugged uncomfortably. “It’s better…I'm better. Or nearly. It's just, a lot has happened rather quickly.”

  “Not the least of which is your father…has Lelet talked to you much about our parents?”

  He thought about it. “No. In fact, at first, I thought you were her mother, the way she spoke of you. No, she doesn't say anything.”

  May sat in a cleared spot on the wall, and he folded his wings away and joined her. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her long pink and grey herringbone tweed coat and pulled out her mittens. “When I was a small girl, our mother was nearly normal, most of the time. She was clever and funny, and she loved sweets. Caramels were her favorite. She made up stories for us, and when I was little I didn't understand she thought the stories were real. I didn't know that most children didn't have a plate of caramels for dinner from time to time, because sometimes that was the only thing Mother would eat. I was lucky, and so were Pol and even Rane. It didn't go bad for her, all the way bad, until Lelly was old enough to see that something was wrong. She got the worst of it, I'm afraid. Sometimes Mother would be just what Lel wanted, and sometimes she'd be a stranger. I think…I think it was a mistake for her to have another child, but our father is a traditional person, and he felt a Fifth for the Order would be good for the family, since it's been many years since we had that honor. My mother took her life when Scilla was an infant. Pills. Father found her. She left a note: ‘I have to eat them all.’ Not very comforting. Scilla never knew her at all. Maybe that's best.”

  “And your father?”

  “Left for the farms we own in the mountains and doesn't come home. Lelet resembles Mother, she's her image. Father couldn't look at her. He knew Pol and I would take care of things, since we always had. And we did.”

  “Then I was right—you did raise her. And very well,” Rhuun said.

  “Hmm, thank you. The thing is, Mother heard voices. She had a special friend, her Gentleman. She spoke to him her whole life.”

  “Did this Gentleman ever talk back?”

  May chewed her lip. “You are thinking of Scilla.” He nodded. “Then also think of Rane, and think of you and Lelet. Something's going on. Been going on. Stelle thinks . . .” she paused and shook her head. “Another time. But to answer your question, I think we must stay together—perhaps not here in one place, but together. Look how you've changed us; Scilla, our little sorceress. My Stelle, she's found her voice. And Lel, she's become something…” May smiled at the way he glowed with warmth at the mention of her name. The snow and ice around them melted away in a neat half circle. “And you. I met a ghost last year, a sad and vanishing creature. That ghost is gone, a man has taken his place. You've changed. You're going to sit on the throne one day.”

  He blushed. “We don't call it that.”

  “An old man doesn't understand the gift he's been given. And if your mother is difficult, well, so are most of them. They are not all you have.”

  He tilted his head and raked back his long hair. “I have to ask you…why are you so kind to me?”

  She smiled. “Have I been especially kind?”

  “I mean, you don't know, not really. I could be evil. I could be the monster the Guardhouse thinks I am, if that's what they still think. You have no reason to trust me. My intentions towards your family might be hidden. And yet, from the moment we met, I knew we would be friends. Why?”

  “Magic is rare in this world,” she said. “But cruelty is common. Anyone who pays attention can see the difference. Now, if you were truly evil, perhaps a little application of kindness might change that. But since you're not, well, I'll have a business to help run eventually, and it doesn't hurt to be on excellent terms with a royal family.”

  “We do enjoy our silk,” he noted. “May, how much trouble is Lelet in with your father? Because of that picture?”

  She sighed and toed the slush around her feet. “He more than likely didn't see it. But word will reach him that she's running wild. Being an embarrassment. And with Billah on a rampage, he'll hear about things like demons and spirits and worry she's following our mother.” She looked up. “I think a visit might be in order. I haven't visited the farms for ages, and Rane and Pol are both after me to come out.” She leaned in and said, “I frankly don't care much for country life. But I think I can tell him about Lelet's fascinating new beau without making it sound like we've all gone mad. After all, she has got herself a foreign prince. Just quite a bit more foreign than everyone thinks.” She widened her eyes in mock outrage. “Billah? Oh, he and that gang of his. So provincial. He sees someone and assumes because the man doesn't look like everyone he knows, the skin a different shade, the accent is unusual, he's some sort of supernatural creature! Honestly, that boy.”

  “I don't know what she ever saw in him,” Rhuun said mildly.

  May continued. “Yes, Father, he's a real prince. Yes, a small country far to the south. Really, really far. No, even further than that.” She smiled at Rhuun. “I'll mention embassies and expansion and he'll calm right down.”

  “Fathers,” he said.

  “Indeed,” she agreed.

  They swept into May's room with a newly loaded tray of drinks and biscuits from the kitchen to find Lelet and Scilla huddled together on a little fur rug facing the fire. Rhuun set the tray down and wrapped his arms around Lelet.

  “I love you completely, and I'm sorry if I worried you,” he said, leaning over her shoulder. She turned and held him tightly, and he realized she was crying. “Lelet, shani. What's wrong?”

  “Look at this,” she said. “It happened just a few minutes ago.” She reached for Scilla who sat grey-faced with her arms wrapped around her body. “Let them see,” she said. “Please, Scil. It's not your fault.”

  Scilla held out her arm and pulled the sleeve of her gown to the elbow. Her left forearm was a maze of new scratches. It read

  YU HAS THAYREE

  Chapter Nine

  Mistra

  So his trip to the city remained as far in the distance as it ever was.

  Rhuun wondered if he'd ever get the chance, as he did in his dreams, to spend long hours with Lelet in her own room among the piles of silken quilts. In his dreams, the two of them talked and laughed with May and Stelle around the dinner table, and they all smiled at him. Rane, now restored to his wits, clapped him on the shoulder and invited him out drinking. They had chocolate and lamb chops and pears and wine. They had ice and salt. He held out little hope.

  “You have to make sure to get the Counselor,” Scilla told them as she prepared the little bags of sand. “That Yuenne. He won't have forgot about me. Make sure you get him.”

  Rhuun wondered what she thought that meant.

  May was ready to go with them. “Maybe I'd make a fierce and fine demon,” she said. “Plus, I'd get all sorts of tidbits for Stelle.”

  Lelet smiled. “Tell you what. I'll get the tidbits while we're rescuing Thayree. You stay here and keep Father from having the lot of us carted off.” Rhuun thought if anyone could bring their father around, it was May. She could make the moons travel backwards in the sky.

  “This is the last time we can do this,” Scilla told them. “There aren't any more klystrons.” She paused. “Unless you could bring me back some?”

  Rhuun shook his head. “They come from the Mages. And without the Raasth—” He glanced at Lelet, who looked away.

  Scilla shrugged. She set the little bags of sand on the table, bumping the lid of the ancient wooden box onto the floor with her elbow. “I’ll get it,” she grumbled. Straightening up, she continued. “I can't cast another binding spell on myself. All I can do is send you back where you came from—that tent place—and wait for you to contact me when you're done.” She poured the last bit of Eriisai sand into a small bowl. “And don't forget—”

  “I know, “said Lelet. “We'll take care of Yuenne.”

  Unlike the last time Lelet had been transforme
d, this time they were prepared. She wrapped herself in a warm blanket and Rhuun held her as she struggled to choke down mouthful after mouthful of sand. He watched her eyes glaze and finally roll back, felt her tremble and jerk as the tiny grains did their work on her body. One day, he thought, I'll be able to protect her. One day I will stand between her and harm. For now, his role was keep her from falling on the floor. Scilla, as before, clung to one hand and helped to guide her change, although later she would say her sister's body leapt to obey, and needed nearly no guidance at all. When the process took over and Lelet's hand could no longer hold the spoon, there was no sand left. As she shook, he felt her shifting and moving inside the blanket in a way that should have been impossible. And he realized that instead of holding a human woman, he had a demon in his arms.

  “Well?” asked Scilla. She rubbed her eyes and squinted at the balled-up blanket.

  A slender golden hand poked out and pulled the fabric down away from her face. Maaya's face. She looked up at Rhuun with a small smile, coughed, and said, “It didn't get easier, but at least I knew what was coming.”

  May knelt next to them and cupped Lelet's chin in her hand. “Is this what the rest of your people look like?” she asked Rhuun. He nodded. “Beautiful. Perhaps I'll meet some of them in person one day.”

  Rhuun leaned towards Scilla. “Whatever wrong you committed against me or my family, whatever grievances we might have held between us, today they are forgiven.”

  She squirmed in her chair. “Well, I . . .”

  “I believe,” said Olly, “that what you're looking for is 'thank you'. Possibly, 'Thank you, Your Grace.'“

  “Yeah,” she said, eyes trained on the floor. “Um. Thank you.” She spoke rapidly without looking up. “I'm sorry I listened to that Counselor man. I'm sorry you got hurt. But I'm not sorry you're here. So, go and come back.” Blushing furiously, she jumped down from Blue's creaky leather chair and came around the desk to hand Lelet the demon-sized tunic and shoes she'd worn on her last trip through The Door. “Go and come back, and take care of that man.”