Cameo and the Highwayman (Trilogy of Shadows Book 2) (14 page)

* * * * *

It didn’t take the vampire long to find Black Opal. He simply made his way into town, something he generally tried to avoid. One of the most interesting things on everyone’s minds was the man tied in the town square at the site of the old pillory.

As Edel approached, he could see that there had been a crowd at one time—the footprints in the snow proved that—but now there were only a couple stragglers: two women whispering to one another, a man smoking a meerschaum pipe, and an artist who was sketching on an easel.

In the center of the square, the highwayman was tied to a pillory, unconscious, or resting with the back of his head touching the pole. He had lost his gloves and the majority of his buttons in the crush of the frenzied crowd. This had left him somewhat more exposed to the cold than he had expected. Still though, he was alive....

The crowd had long ago gone home to their warm hearths and dinners and loved ones. There were only the occasional people stopping to stare now, maybe on their way home from work in the snow, but they stayed only long enough to read the wanted poster and study Opal’s face, looking for some resemblance to the picture.

“Francois Mond,” observed the man with the pipe. “Who could have guessed he was still alive.”

Edel glanced down at him. The man was actually attempting a conversation with him. The vampire just looked at him blankly.

His eyes were silver in the dark.

The man must have felt Edel was more ferocious than he realized because the man looked down suddenly and hurried away.

Edel took a step toward Opal. The vampire could see that he was shivering in the cold, which was probably for the best. He hadn’t succumbed to the night yet.

“Pardon me, sir,” the artist said, “but do you mind moving?”

Edel turned toward the man with a otherworldly grace. “It’s time for you to go home.” Then he looked out at the other people there, “It’s time for all of you to go home. It’s too cold to be out this late at night.”

The artist tucked his sketches under one arm and folded up his easel.

Then the two of them were alone.

“Francois,” he whispered.

Opal opened his eyes a crack and found himself face to face with Edel. He recognized him instantly. The ethereal beauty, and the silver eyes staring into his. A surge of fear and hope suddenly welled up in him.

“You didn’t tell Cameo?”

Any hope was dashed with that question. Frustrated, Opal closed his eyes and pressed the top of his head against the pole once more. “You aren’t going to set me free, are you?” His voice was weak from trying to talk above the mob and from being left out in the cold.

Edel removed his cloak with an unnatural elegance, and efficiency, then tied it around Opal’s shoulder. “The guard is coming.”

“I didn’t tell her because she wouldn’t understand.”

“Nor do I.”

“But you can read my mind.”

“Yes, but all of that pales in comparison to the atrocities that occurred when you were in charge of Shandow.”

“You say it as if I were alone.”

Edel simply looked at him. This was probably one of the most surprising things he had experienced in years. “All of the others are dead.”

“And you feel I should join them.”

“Francois Mond, you are the heart of the rebellion, and you put yourself here.”

Opal was astonished by Edel’s words. He thought that he would help Edel if he were in the same situation, but here was a vampire, who had undoubtedly taken the lives of more people than he could most likely imagine, condemning him for his part in the revolution.

Edel looked down at the snow-covered ground. “I can hear the soldiers. They’re coming.”

“Edel, wait,” Opal could see the vampire taking steps back. “Don’t… don’t leave please. Do you know what they’re going to do to me?”

The vampire was gone.

Chapter Eight

I
T WAS NEARLY DAWN
. Edel had lingered in the wood behind the palace for most of the night before he determined to come home. He decided to enter through a window, the same one he had brought Cameo in when she had first come to stay with him. He hoped she was maybe asleep, or at least in her room.

When he entered, she was not in the sitting room. He sped to the door, rushing to get to his tomb and wishing to avoid a confrontation.

“Edel!” She ran from the dining room. “Did you find Opal?”

For a moment he considered lying to her. “Yes. I saw him.”

“You didn’t bring him back?”

“No....”

“Was he all right? Did you set him free?”

The vampire brushed her aside as he crossed the room. “I couldn’t free him,” he said darkly.

She felt her heart fall. All of her hopes for Opal’s safety were fading, and she felt an iciness filling the pit of her stomach. “Why not?”

“My conscience wouldn’t let me do so.”

“Why not?”

He turned back to look at her. “He’s Francois Mond.”

“What?” She laughed, “What? They have him confused with Francois Mond! Oh, gods, they’ll kill him! We have to save him now—”

“He
is
Francois Mond.”

Cameo shook her head. “Black Opal is Francois Mond? No, I can’t believe that. Opal?” Her mind was racing with all the silly things that she had seen him do. All the preening, all the ridiculous arguments that he had had with Kyrian, his life as a highwayman. “No, that can’t be right.”

“I read his mind.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t you read his mind when he was here?”

“I didn’t really try to, no, and nothing came to me, nothing… of that nature. I did tell you that he seemed familiar to me though, and now I see why.”

Suddenly the conversation that she’d had with Opal back at the Lakestar made more sense to her. The discussion the two of them had had about Kyrian saving her soul, and the accusation she had made that he had done nothing more than break a few hearts in his time. If he was Francois, the architect of the revolution, then he had incited a people to rise up and overthrow the royals—overthrow their government and take matters into their own hands.

“He and his friends did more than murder the Belfours,” Edel said softly. “Do you have any idea what their army was doing all that time, when they were paranoid about a counter-revolution?”

“Intercepting the mail, throwing people in prisons.”

“It was more than that. They executed anyone suspected of being less than patriotic about the
cause
. The military used to roast women and their infants alive in bread ovens for amusement as they grew increasingly bored; thousands of innocents were killed, and it meant nothing. The monarchy was soon restored.”

“I can’t believe it could’ve been Opal. I know him.”

“You can’t believe it because he’s not the monster or the god everyone wants him to be.”

Her face hardened. “Maybe, but you’re trying to pin everything on one man. Are you saying he’s responsible for all of the horrors that came with the rebellion?”

“They hunted down all of his fellow conspirators. Only Francois Mond got away alive. He’s been on the run for fifteen years, Cameo. I don’t hold him completely responsible, but I do think he is responsible for his part in the play, don’t you?”

She met his eyes. “You are for the monarchy then?”

“No. But I’m not for his bloody rebellion either. If you had seen how things were—”

“I was here.”

“Then you know.” A pained expression came over his face. Edel had been mulling over everything he’d seen through Opal’s eyes for hours, and he still was not certain he had made the right decision leaving the man in Avamore’s hands. “He never should have come back here.”

Cameo took a deep breath. “That’s my fault.”

He felt a change in her emotions and fully expected her to turn and look at him the way that she did, sadly, and then cross the room to be closer to him.

“Please, you must let me go to him. Please, Edel.”

Edel felt himself pinned against the window seat. “I can’t.”

“This is my fault.”

“Oh, did you help him write his speeches? Did you publish them in the paper? Did you order the execution of the king? Or did you sit back from the sidelines and watch as the revolution took out some of your family members?”

Her mouth opened slightly.

“You told yourself they never helped you when your family fell into poverty, so you wished them ill regardless—”

“Yes, that’s right, and I thought I told you to stop reading my mind.”

He rolled his eyes. “And it doesn’t bother you at all that Opal is the man responsible for taking the lives of your relatives?”

She took a couple steps back toward the settee. “They abandoned us when my father was disgraced, when he died in prison. They let us fall into poverty.”

“You are related to the Belfours.”

Cameo turned away from him. “I’m a killer. I slaughtered Leon Belfour myself on Wick’s order, on… Avamore’s order.”

“You avoid my questions with melancholy.”

“Oh, do I? Forgive my selfishness.” She snapped as she looked back at him. “I know that I owe you for saving me from Haffef by taking me prisoner, and for saving me from Francois Mond by not allowing me to save his life.”

“It’s obviously pointless to converse with you right now.”

She took a drink. “It’s distant. I’m a Penmbrander. But I’m quite certain you already know that.”

“Yes, I know.” He was standing in front of the door.

She wondered if he knew just what had transpired there not long ago. That kiss. The breaking down of barriers between her and Opal finally. Did Edel have any idea of what his not saving her paramour was doing to her, or to her relationship with the vampire? Cameo couldn’t quite figure out what Edel was thinking.

He touched the door lightly, “I know all of it.”

She shook her head, “Is this all about the rebellion for you?”

“It is.” He looked at her, “I had just left the
Master
and come here in search of refuge, and then in the middle of my moment of peace some fool throws all of Shandow into chaos. All of the horrors I had been trying to escape followed me here. All around me, everyone was in misery, dying, being imprisoned and tortured. People were starving but didn’t dare complain because that could be interpreted as being anti-revolution.

“I just wanted to mediate. To be left alone. But instead I got a rebellion. Francois is the last one to be rounded up, then so be it; let him die with the rest of the bastards who did this to the people. Who did this to
your
people!”

“Don’t speak for me. That’s not how I feel.”

“Forgive me, but I don’t think I understand how you feel at all. You don’t care that he murdered your family, but you do care that the man who murdered your family is going to be executed. Do I have that straight? And you’re going to blame me for all of it.”

“Francois, Opal, didn’t literally murder my family.”

“His speeches against the nobility did. Your family was a noble one, am I correct?”

“Yes, they were nobles,” she said coldly. “Opal made a speech, but he didn’t tell the people to kill my rather distant family members.”

“Oh no? I saw him sign the paperwork on many death warrants.”

“When you read his mind?”

“Yes.”

She drew a in a breath, deep in thought. “He carried me through the Graveyard of Yetta to get me to safety when I’d been shot. We barely knew each other then, but still he tried to help me. That’s the Opal I know. And isn’t that who Francois is also supposed to be? A defender of the people? A well-spoken individual who speaks for the rights of the poor? Didn’t you see that when you were reading his mind? Or was it only the monster you saw?”

“Opal has helped a lot of ladies in his time.”

She chuckled. “I’m sure; but that wasn’t the question.”

“I know what I experienced. I know what Shandow became after I returned home. The peace was shattered, and it was all for naught.”

“And so you see him a monster? A man without any redeemable qualities? You blame the entire revolution on one man.”

“I don’t want to fight about this anymore!” Edel snarled.

She took a step back.

“I know that you’re in love with him, and I won’t free him. And you’re stuck here. We are at an impasse.” He opened the door to the stairs and slipped out.

* * * * *

Opal awoke in the tower jail. There was one small window that was out of reach. One single beam of light lit part of the cell; the rest was dark.

He needed a shave and a room with a separate toilet.

A key rattled in his door suddenly, and several soldiers entered.

Opal flipped the cloak he had been using as a blanket around so that it fell in a somewhat debonair fashion over one shoulder. It was a very expensive article of clothing and not one he was willing to part with. He was now wearing in essence four coats: a waistcoat, a frock coat, a duster, and Edel’s cloak. Not exactly the height of fashion, but he wasn’t willing to leave one behind in a jail cell either, so he wore them all as he was taken to meet with the king once more.

He was forced to wait outside a large door for a few moments before he was shown inside.

“I mean to say, I simply can’t abide by all these embittered people. All of these rude, overbearing, bitter people,” a middle aged woman of the court was complaining to a friend as Opal entered the room. “If it were all up to me, I’d wave a magic wand and make them all go away, so that everything would be right and good.”

“Yes, where do all of these
people
come from,” a young, dark-haired woman agreed. “Some of the servants, well, I simply cannot deal with their attitudes. I mean, how complicated can one’s life be leading the
simple life
, after all? A husband, a child, a bed to sleep on. What else do they expect?”

“Indeed,” the first woman said, then noticed the man who was walking into court and raised an eyebrow in contempt. “Oh my word.”

The younger royal giggled behind her fan.

Opal had no idea that he would be addressing the entire Belfour court, but there before him was the whole clan of royals and nobles. All awfully assembled around the king, in their powdered wigs and silk, tittering in amusement as he approached Avamore.