Reckless (Free Preview) (14 page)

"You
should wear human dresses more often,"

Eyes of gold.
 
Lips of fire.
 
He
didn't look tired, even though he had barely slept in days.

The Fairy's
dress rustled as she turned.
 
Human women
dressed like flowers, layers of petals around a mortal, rotting core.
 
She had had the dress made in the likeness of
one of the paintings that hung in the dead general's castle.
 
Kami’en had gazed at it often, as if it
showed a world he longed for.
 
The fabric
would have made ten dresses, but she loved the rustling of the silk and its
cool smoothness on her skin.

"No news
from Hentzau?"

As if she
didn't know the answer.
 
Why had her
moths still not found the one she was looking for?
 
She could see him so clearly — as if she only
had to reach out to fell his jade skin at her fingertips.

"Hentzau
will find him, if he exists."
 
Kami’en stood behind her.
 
He
doubted her dreams but never his jasper shadow.

Hentzau.
 
Someone else
she would have loved to kill.
 
But
Kami’en would forgive his death even less than that of his future bride.
 
He had killed his own brothers, as the Goyl
often did, but Hentzau was closer to him than a brother.
 
Maybe even closer than she
was.

Their
reflections in the train window melted into one.
 
Her breath still quickened whenever he stood
near her.
 
Where does love come from?

"Forget
the Jade Goyl.
 
Forget your dreams,"
he whispered, undoing her hair.
 
"I
will give you new dreams.
 
Just tell me
what you want."

She'd never
told Kami’en that she had also found him first in her dreams.
 
He wouldn't have liked it.
 
Neither Goyl nor men lived long enough to
understand that yesterday was born of tomorrow, just as tomorrow was born of yesterday.

23

Trapped

When Jacob
rode into the gorge through which he had once before entered the valley of the
Fairies, he felt as if her were riding into his own past.
 
Nothing seemed to have changed in three
years:
 
the creek running along the
bottom, the spruces clawing into the slopes, the silence between the
rocks...
 
Only his
shoulder reminded him of how much had happened since.
 
It still felt as if the Tailor was stitching
seams through his skin.

Valiant was
sitting in front of him.
 
He kept
turning, clearly delighted at how awful Jacob was feeling.

"Oh, you
really look terrible, Reckless!" he observed for the umpteenth time, with
undisguised glee.
 
"That poor girl
is staring at you again.
 
She's probably
terrified you'll fall off your horse before her boyfriend can get his skin
back.
 
Don't you worry,
though.
 
After you're dead
and your brother has turned into a Goyl, I'll console her.
 
I'm quite partial to human women."

It had been
like that ever since they set out, but Jacob was too dazed by the fever to
reply.
 
Even the words Will had said to
him in the cave no longer penetrated his agony, and by now he longed for the
healing air of the Fairy's realm as much for his own sake as for his brother's.

Not far now, Jacob.
 
You just have to get through the gorge, and
then you're in their valley
.

Clara was
riding right behind him.
 
Every now and
then, Will rode up next to her, as if trying to make her forget what had
happened in the cave.
 
Love and fear were
battling each other on her face.
 
But she
rode on.
 
Like him.
 
Like Will.

And the Dwarf
could still betray them all.

The sun was
already standing quite low, and the shadows between the rocks were
growing.
 
The foaming creek along which
they rode was so dark it looked like it was carrying the night into the gorge,
and they had not gotten very far when Will suddenly reined in his horse.

"What is
it?
"
Valiant asked anxiously.

"There
are Goyl here."
 
There was not a
trace of doubt in Will's voice.

"Goyl?"
 
Valiant cast a malicious glance at Jacob.
 
"Excellent.
 
I get on great with the Goyl."

Jacob put his
hand on the Dwarf's mouth.
 
He slackened
the mare's reins and listened, but the rush of the water drowned out all other
sounds.
 
"Act as if we're watering
the horses," he whispered to Clara and Will.

"I smell
them, too!
"
Fox hissed.
 
"Dead ahead."

"But why
are they hiding?"
 
Will shuddered,
like an animal catching the scent of its pride.

Valiant looked
at him as if he saw him for the first time.
 
Then he spun around so abruptly that he nearly fell off the horse.

"You
cunning dog!" he hissed at Jacob.
 
"What's the color of the stone in your skin?
 
Green, right?"

"So what?"

"So what?
 
Don't
take me for a fool!
 
It's jade.
 
The Goyl are offering two pounds of red
moonstone for him.
 
Your brother,
indeed!
 
Don't make me laugh!"
 
The Dwarf gave him a conspiratorial
wink.
 
"You found him — just like
you found the glass slipper and the wishing table.
 
But why are you taking him to the
Fairies?"

Jade.

Jacob stared
at Will's pale green skin.
 
He had, of
course, heard the stories.
 
The Goyl King and his invincible bodyguard.
 
Chanute had once fantasized about finding him
and selling him to the Empress.
 
But they
couldn't seriously think his brother was the Jade Goyl.

He could see
the mist-shrouded valley at the end of the gorge.
 
So close.

"Let's
take him to one of their fortresses and split the reward!
"
Valiant hissed again.
 
"If
they capture him here, they won't give us anything for him."

But Jacob
ignored him.

He saw
Will
shudder.

"Is there
another way into the valley?
"
Jacob asked the
Dwarf.

"Sure,"
Valiant replied with a smirk, "if you think your so-called brother has
time to go the long way around... not to mention yourself."

Will looked
around like a caged animal.

Clara steered
her horse next to Jacob's.
 
"Get him
away from here!" she whispered.
 
"Please!"

But then what?

A few yards
away, a group of pine trees grew in front of the rocks.
 
It was so dark under their branches that even
as close as this, Jacob couldn't see beneath them.

Jacob leaned
over to Will and reached for his arm.

"Follow
me to those pines," he whispered to him.
 
"Dismount when I do."

It was time to
play some hide-and-seek and fancy-dress.

Will
hesitated, but then he picked up his reins and rode after Jacob.
 
The shade under the pines was as black as
soot — darkness that, with luck, would conceal them even from Goyl eyes.

"Remember
how we fought when we were kids?
"
Jacob whispered
to Will before he dismounted.

"You
always let me win."

"That's
exactly what we'll do now."

Fox ran to
Jacob's side.

"What are
you doing?"

"No
matter what happens," he whispered to her, "I want you to stay with
Will.
 
Promise me
.
  
If you don't, we'll all die."

Will
climbed
out of the saddle.

"I want
you to fight back, Will, and it has to look real," Jacob whispered.
 
"We need to end up under those
trees."

Then, without
warning, he punched his brother in the face.

Immediately
the gold in Will's eyes flared up.

He hit back so
hard that Jacob fell to his knees.
 
Skin of stone, and a rage that he had never seen before on his
brother's face.

Maybe not such a good plan after all, Jacob
.

24

The Hunters

Hentzau had
reached the ravine at daybreak.
 
The
Unicorns grazing in the misty valley beyond had left him with little doubt that
Nesser had led them to the right place.
 
However, as the sun sank ever lower, he began to ask himself whether the
Jade Goyl had been shot by his brother after all.
 
But then Nesser pointed silently toward the
end of the gorge.

They had a
girl and a fox with them, just as Threefingers had said.
 
And they had caught themselves a Dwarf.
 
Not dumb.
 
Not even Nesser knew how to get past the Unicorns, but Hentzau had heard
rumors that some Dwarfs knew the secret.
 
Be that as it may, Hentzau had no ambition to be the first Goyl to see
the Fairies' island.
 
He would rather
have ridden through a dozen Hungry Forests or slept with the blind snakes in
the depths of the earth.
 
No.
 
He would get the Jade Goyl before he could
hide behind the Unicorns.

"Commander!
 
They're fighting each other."
 
Nesser sounded surprised.

What did she
expect?
 
The rage came with the stone
skin, just like the gold in the eyes, and who would feel the brunt of it
first?
 
The brother, of
course.
 
Yes!
 
Kill him
!
Hentzau thought, watching the Jade
Goyl through his spyglass.
 
Maybe there have been times when you wanted
to do just that, but he was always the older, the stronger.
 
You'll see:
 
The rage of the Goyl more than makes up for that.

The older
brother fought quite well, but he didn't stand a chance.

There.
 
He fell to his knees.
 
The girl ran to the Jade Goyl and pulled him
away, but he shook her off, and as his brother struggled back to his feet, he
kicked him in the chest so hard that he staggered back under the trees.
 
The blackness beneath the branches swallowed
them both, and Hentzau was just about to give the order to ride down, when the
Jade Goyl reappeared from under the leaves.

He was already
recoiling from the glare of the sun, pulling his hood down over his face as he
headed toward his horse.
 
The fight had
made his step a little unsteady, but he would soon feel how much quicker his
new flesh healed.

"Mount
up!"
 
Hentzau whispered to
Nesser.
 
"Let's catch ourselves a
fairy tale!"

25

The Bait

Rocks.
 
Shrubs.
 
Where could
they be hiding?
 
How would you know, Jacob?
 
You're not a Goyl.
 
Maybe you
should have asked your brother
.

Jacob pulled
the hood closer around his face and forced the horse into a slow gait.
 
How could the Goyl have known they'd be
coming through this gorge?
 
Not now, Jacob
.

He couldn't
tell which hurt more, the shoulder or his face.
 
Human flesh was so soft compared to jade knuckles.
 
For a few terrible moments, he had really
thought Will would beat him to death.
 
He
still wasn't sure how much of the rage he'd felt in those blows was that of the
Goyl and how much was his brother's.

Water sprayed
on his feverish skin as he urged Will's horse through the creek.
 
The hoofbeats echoed
through
 
the
narrow gorge, and Jacob was
beginning to wonder whether Will hadn't just sensed the Goyl in his own flesh,
when suddenly there was movement on the slope to his left.

Now
.
 
He slackened the reins.
 
Will's bay gelding was not as fast as the
mare but it was very hardy, and Jacob was an excellent rider.

They of course
tried to cut him off, but their horses shied on the loose rubble.
 
Just as he had hoped.
 
The gelding dashed past them, galloping into
the misty valley.
 
Immediately Jacob was
assaulted by memories that seemed to have been lying in wait for him among
these mountains.
 
Happiness
and love.
 
Fear
and death.