Reckless (Free Preview) (27 page)

Justus
Kronsberg was visibly disappointed not to hear more, but he still opened the
gate to the external courtyard.
 
After
all, it was Jacob's doing that his brother hadn't ended up as a toad at the
bottom of some well, or, as Witches tended to prefer these days, as a doormat
or a tray for their tea service.

The last time
Jacob had been in the palace was three months earlier, when he'd been called to
authenticate a magic nut in the Empress's Chambers of Miracles.
 
The wide courtyards now seemed unremarkable
compared to what he had seen in the Goyl fortress, and the buildings
surrounding them looked drab, despite their gilded gutters and crystal
balconies.
 
The splendor within, however,
was still impressive.

The Emperors
of Austry had spared no expense, especially in the north wing, for it was built
specifically to demonstrate to visitors the wealth and power of the
Empire.
 
Golden fruits and flowers twined
around the granite columns.
 
The floor
was plain white marble (the Goyl were far better at mosaics than any of their
neighbors), and the walls were painted with frescoes of Austry's marvels:
 
the highest mountains, the oldest towns, and
the most spectacular castles.
 
The ruin
that housed the mirror was depicted in all its lost glory, with Schwanstein as
a fairy-tale idyll at its feet.
 
No roads
or railway tracks scarred the painted hills; instead, they were teeming with
all the creatures Her Majesty's family had been hunting with abandon for
generations:
 
Giants, Witches, Watermen,
Lorelei, Unicorns, and Ogres.

The stairs
leading to the upper floors were lined with less peaceful images, commissioned
by the Empress's father.
 
Sea, land,
summer, and winter campaigns; battles against his brother in Lotharaine, his
cousin in
Albion
, against rebellious Dwarfs,
and the Wolf-Lords in the east.
 
Every
visitor was sure to find a painting depicting the army of his own nation in
battle with the Empire, and of course they were always the defeated.
 
The Goyl were the only ones to have climbed
these stairs without having to see their forebears being annihilated in
battle.
 
Ever since they had started
engaging the humans in war, the Goyl had been the victors.

The two guards
coming down the stairs didn't challenge Jacob, even though he was armed, and
the servant who scurried past behind them gave Jacob a deferential nod.
 
Everybody in the north wing knew Jacob
Reckless, for Therese of Austry often called on his services to give important
guests a tour of her Chambers of Miracles and tell them true and untrue stories
about the treasures on display there.

The Goyl had
been put on the second floor, the most sumptuous part of the north wing.
 
Jacob saw their sentries as he peered down
the first corridor.
 
They looked at him,
but Jacob pretended not to see them as he turned left from the staircase into a
chamber where the Empress demonstrated her interest in the wider world by
displaying souvenirs brought back from her family's travels.

The chamber
was deserted, just as Jacob had hoped.
 
The Goyl weren't interested in the Troll-fur hat her Majesty's father
had brought back from Yurtland, or in the Leprechaun boots from Albion, and
whatever was written about their people in the books that lined the walls was
most likely far from flattering.

The north wing
was far from the Empress's chambers, thus giving her guests the illusion of
being unobserved.
 
But the walls hid a
network of secret passages from which every room could be spied on and in some
cases even entered.
 
Jacob had used these
passageways before, to pay nightly visits to an ambassador's daughter.
 
The network was entered through hidden doors,
and one of them was behind a royal souvenir from Lotharaine.
 
The curtain was embroidered with the pearls
found in the stomachs of Thumblings, and the door hidden behind it looked like
part of the paneling.

Jacob nearly
stumbled over a dead rat as he entered the dark passageway.
 
The Empress had them fumigated regularly, but
the rodents loved the dark corridors.
 
Every three yards there were peepholes in the walls, each approximately
the size of a thumbnail, which were hidden on the other side by ornamental
stucco or behind two-way mirrors.
 
In the
first room Jacob checked, he saw a maid dusting the furniture.
 
The second and third rooms had been turned
into temporary offices for the Goyl.
 
Jacob instinctively held his breath when he saw Hentzau sitting behind
one of the desks.
 
But it wasn't for him
that Jacob had come.

The air was
musty in the passageways, and the confined space made his heart beat
faster.
 
He heard another maid softly
humming to herself, the clanking of porcelain — and then a cough, very
close.
 
Jacob quickly switched off his
flashlight.
 
Of course.
 
Therese of Austry had all her guests watched;
why should her greatest enemy be treated any differently, even if she was
giving him her daughter?

A gas lantern
appeared around a corner up ahead, illuminating a pale man who looked as if he
spent his entire life in these dark spaces.
 
Jacob squeezed into an alcove, holding his breath until the spy had
shuffled past him and out through the hidden door.
 
He was probably going to fetch whoever was
relieving him.
 
Jacob wouldn't have much
time.

The spy had
been watching the very room Jacob was looking for.
 
He recognized the Dark Fairy's voice even
before he saw her through the tiny hole.
 
The room was dimly lit by a few candles, and the curtains were all
drawn, though a trickle of sunlight seeped underneath the pale yellow
brocade.
 
The Fairy was standing by one
of the curtains, as though she wanted to shield the King from the light.
 
Her skin shone through the darkness like
moonlight made flesh.
 
Don't look at her, Jacob!

The King of
the Goyl was standing by the door.
 
Fire in the dark.
 
Jacob sensed his impatience even through the wall.

"You're
asking me to put my faith in a fairy tale."

Every word
filled the room.
 
His voice resonated
with power as well as his ability to control it.
 
"I admit it amuses me that those who'd
like to see us crawl back into the earth seem to believe in it, but surely you
don't expect me to be that naïve?
 
No
man's skin can guarantee what more than a hundred thousand soldiers have fought
for.
 
I am not invincible, and no Jade
Goyl will change that.
 
Even this wedding
will only buy me peace for a while."

The Fairy
tried to reply, but he cut her off.

"We have
uprisings in the north; the east is only quiet because they're more interested
in slaughtering each other; in the west, Crookback takes my bribes and arms his
troops behind my back, not to mention his cousin on the island.
 
The
onyx Goyl despise
the color of my skin.
 
My munitions
factories can't keep up with my trigger-happy soldiers.
 
The field hospitals are overflowing, and the
resistance has just blown up two of our most vital railroads.
 
As far as I remember, none of that was
mentioned in the fairy tale my mother told me.
 
Let the people believe in the Jade Goyl and lucky stones, but these days
the world is made of iron."

He put his
hand on the door handle and looked at the gold fittings on the door.
 
"They do make beautiful things," he
murmured.
 
"I just wonder why
they're so obsessed with gold.
 
Silver is
so much more beautiful."

"Promise
me he'll be by your side."
 
The
Fairy raised her hand, and all the gold in the dim room turned to silver.
 
"Even when you
exchange your vows.
 
Please!"

"He is a
Man-Goyl!
 
As far as my officers are
concerned, not even the jade can make up for that.
 
And he's less experienced than any of my
bodyguards."

"And he
still outfought every one of them!
 
Promise me!"

He loved
her.
 
Jacob saw it on his face.
 
He loved her so much it scared him.

"I have
to go."
 
He turned around, but the door
didn't open.
 
"Stop that!" he
barked without looking at the Fairy.

She dropped
her hand, and the door sprang open.

"Promise
me!" she said again.
 
"Please!"

But he left
without an answer, and she was alone.

Now, Jacob!

His fingers
searched for a hidden door, but they found only wooden panels.
 
The Fairy was walking toward the door through
which the King had left.
 
Come on, Jacob!
 
She's alone now!
 
There'll be guards outside that door
.
 
Maybe he could kick in the wall.
 
And then what?
 
The noise would immediately summon dozens of
Goyl, not that she needed them to kill him.
 
Jacob was still in the dark passage, unsure what to do, when one of the
guards entered the room.

Jade.

It was the
first time he saw his brother in the gray Goyl uniform.
 
Will wore it as though he'd never known
anything else.
 
Nothing about him hinted
at the human he had once been.
 
His lips
might have been a little fuller and his hair a little finer than that of the
average Goyl, but his body still spoke their language.
 
He looked at the Fairy as if she were his
world.

"I hear
you disarmed the King's best bodyguard."
 
She stroked his face, the face her spell had turned to jade.

"He isn't
half as good as he thinks he is."

His brother
had never sounded like this.
 
Will had
never been spoiling for fights or been keen to measure his strength against
others'.
 
Not even with his brother...

The Dark Fairy
smiled as Will's fingers closed almost tenderly around the hilt of his
saber.
 
Stone fingers.

I'll have you pay for him
, Jacob thought
as his heart drowned in hatred and helpless pain.
 
Your
sister has already set your punishment!

He'd
completely forgotten about the spy.
 
The
man's eyes widened as the light of his lantern brought Jacob into view.
 
Jacob smashed his flashlight into the spy's
temple and quickly caught the slumping body, but one of the scrawny shoulders
brushed against the wall, and his lantern crashed onto the wooden floor before
Jacob could catch it.

"What was
that?" he heard the Fairy ask.

Jacob
extinguished the lantern and held his breath.

Steps.

He reached for
his pistol, but then realized who was coming toward the wall.

Will
kicked
it in as if it were cardboard.
 
Jacob didn't wait for his brother to push
through the splintered wood.
 
He was
already stumbling back along the dark passageway when the Dark Fairy called the
guards.

Stop, Jacob!
 
But nothing had ever frightened him as much
as the sound of these footsteps pursuing him.
 
Will could probably see through the blackness as well as Fox — and he
was armed.

Get out of the dark, Jacob!
 
He's got the advantage here
.
 
Jacob tore down the curtain as he stumbled
through the hidden door into the open.

The sudden
light blinded Will.
 
He held his arm in
front of his face.
 
Jacob quickly struck
the saber from his hand.

"Leave
the sword where it is, Will!"

Jacob pointed
his pistol at him.
 
But Will bent down
anyway.
 
Jacob tried to kick the saber
away from his hand again, but this time Will was quicker
.
He will kill you, Jacob.
 
Shoot!
 
But he couldn't.
 
It was still the
same face, even if it was now cast in jade.

"Will!
 
It's me!"

Will slammed
his forehead into Jacob's face.
 
Blood
ran from his nose, and he barely managed to deflect the saber before the blade
could slash open his chest.
 
Will's next
stroke cut into his arm.
 
His brother was
fighting like a Goyl, cold and precise, without any fear.
 
"I
hear you disarmed the King's best bodyguard."
 
He isn't half as good as he thinks.
"
Another strike.
 
Fight
back, Jacob!