Shadow Magic (10 page)

And there was no Tyburn, which was even better. The moment they’d dismounted, a soldier had come running up to them and spoken to the executioner. Tyburn had tossed Thorn his reins and run off toward the main keep, leaving him to take care of their hoof-sore mounts.

Fine by him. Thorn much preferred horses to executioners. He patted Thunder’s neck. “How can you stand it here?”

Tyburn’s horse replied by lifting his tail and plopping a large, moist lump of dung on the ground.

“Oh. Thanks. Very much.”

The bats weren’t the only ones who looked out of sorts. The many people milling about did, too, and they all had swords.

“None of my business,” Thorn muttered. This time he was going to stay well out of it.

Steam rose from the pile of dung. There were bits of straw sticking out of it. And it stank. Thorn needed a broom.

A pack of squires barged out of a door. They were half carrying a boy with blond hair and a nasty scowl.

One of the squires said, “Air! He needs fresh air!”

“I’m fine! Let me go!” the boy shouted. “I did not faint. I was…checking under the table!” He pushed them off, straightened his tunic, and dabbed his forehead with the lace cuff of his sleeve.

Wow. I didn’t know clothes could be that white.

The boy’s blue eyes met Thorn’s. “What are you staring at?”

“Nothing.”

The boy pushed two of his cronies out of the way to stand face-to-face with Thorn.

“Do you know who I am?”

There were a lot of them and just one of him. They were bigger and noble-born and Thorn was a mere peasant, but he really,
really
couldn’t stop himself. “Dressed like that? The court jester?”

“You scum!” The boy reached for his longsword.

It was a man’s weapon, and the boy’s arms were too short to unsheathe it quickly. Thorn gave him a second to get properly tangled up.

Then kicked the boy’s feet from under him.

The boy yelled—and dropped face-first into the horse dung.

“Oops,” said Thorn.

The boy spluttered and gagged. He tried to wipe his face but just spread the dung over more of it. “What are you waiting for? Get him!”

Uh-oh.

Thorn backed away, clenching his fists. The squires drew out daggers.

“C’mon, lads. That ain’t fair,” said Thorn.

“Fair?” said the biggest. “What’s fair got to do with it? This is about winning.”

A voice called out from the darkness. “What’s going on?”

Thorn didn’t dare take his eyes off the squires, but someone was approaching. All he could make out was someone in black.

A
she
someone in black.

The girl shoved the biggest squire aside so she stood between them and Thorn. “I asked a question.”

The dung-covered boy got to his feet. “That maggot attacked me! I demand he be whipped!”

“First person who touches me loses their teeth,” threatened Thorn.

“Do shut up,” the girl said to him. She faced the boy. “You’re mistaken, m’lord. You slipped.”

“What?” said the boy.

“What?” said Thorn.

The girl shook her head. “Surely you’re not saying that a defenseless,
unarmed
stable boy defeated you? If word got around that the duke’s son, armed and surrounded by his guards, was beaten by a commoner, then think of the embarrassment. Not just for you, but for your father.”

Whoever this girl was, she was clever. Maybe too clever.

The boy’s eyes narrowed. He seemed to be thinking. Slowly, but hard. “Yes…I slipped. It is too dark here. You should have more torches in the courtyard. See to it.”

The girl curtseyed. “Of course, m’lord. As you wish.”

The boy and his cronies all stormed off.

Thorn unclenched his fists. “I suppose I should thank you.”

“Are you a total idiot, or merely suicidal? You must be, to insult Gabriel like that,” said the girl.

“Important, is he? This Gabriel?”

“Only heir apparent to House Solar. So, yes, fairly important.”

“Oh.” Insulting the powerful was becoming a habit. “But as my grandpa would say, ‘He started it.’”

“That’s the most stupid thing I’ve heard all night.”

“Look, I’ve thanked you already. Now go away.” He gathered Thunder’s reins. Where were the stables?

“Don’t turn your back on me.”

“Did you hear something, Thunder? No? Me neither.”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back around.

They glared at each other.

Look at her. Some stuck-up snob dressed in jewels and pearls and acting like she owns the place.

“Will you just get lost?” said Thorn. “I have work to do.”

“I am Lady Shadow,” she said, “and when I give an order, you follow it.”

Ah. Maybe she
does
own the place.

“You’re Lady Shadow? Nah, you can’t be. She’d be someone more…cackling.”

“Cackling?”

“Mad old woman sort. Y’know, cackling and brewing potions and with only one tooth in her mouth. Real wrinkly.”

“What’s your name?” Lady Shadow asked.

“Thorn”—he bowed like he’d seen Merrick do—“Your Princessness.”

“Are you ill?” she asked.

“Ain’t that how you do it? Bow, I mean?”

“Only if you’re an octopus.” She waved dismissively. “And you call me ‘m’lady.’”

“You ain’t a princess? Where I come from, you can call yourself a king if you’ve got two fields. An emperor if you’ve got four.”

“Well, where
I
come from, no one uses royal titles. Not since the time of the Six Princes. It’s bad luck.”

“What about the Coral king?” asked Thorn. “He uses a royal title.”

“Him? He’s half man, half fish. Who cares what he calls himself?” She pointed at Thorn’s head. “So what happened to your hair?”

Thorn rubbed his palm over the two weeks’ worth of bristles. “Lice. Tyburn had it all shaved off.”

“You came with Tyburn?” She looked surprised.

Thorn wrinkled his nose. That dung was unbelievably smelly. He found a shovel up against the stable door. “Yeah. I’m his new squire.”

Now she looked shocked.

“What?” asked Thorn.

“There must be something very special about you, Thorn. Have you slain a dragon recently?”

“Nooo….”

“Troll? Ogre? An army of giants? Something equally heroic?”

“Caught a couple of rabbits. Does that count?”

“I’m just trying to understand why Tyburn picked you to be his squire. You
do
know who Tyburn is, don’t you?”

“Yeah. That’s been pointed out. A lot.”

“And he lets you look after his horse?”

Thorn brushed the forelock from the horse’s eyes. “Thunder? He’s just a big old softie.”

“The last squire who tried that almost had his hand bitten off.” She went to touch Thunder, but the horse snapped his teeth at her, and she backed away. “Er…nice horsey.”

Thorn shrugged. “I’ve always been good with animals. Like my dad. I once saw him scare off a wolf just by whistling.” He looked her over. How could she be wearing so much jewelry and still be standing? “So how long have you known Tyburn?”

“All my life.”

“What’s he
really
like?” They’d been riding together for two weeks, but Tyburn had kept conversation pretty much limited to “Get up,” “Eat,” and “Sleep.” “Y’know, on his days off, when he’s not being an executioner?”

“Tyburn never has a day off. Tyburn’s always Tyburn.”

“He can’t be. What’s his first name?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. No one’s ever been brave enough to ask him.”

And this was the man he had to serve for the next year? Just great. What sort of world was he in? Bats in swarms as thick as clouds. A windowless castle bigger than any city he’d ever seen, one-name killers, and all ruled by this girl.

They were interrupted by another boy, this time dressed in black. He carried a small bundle in his arms. “M’lady, I’ve got him.”

Lady Shadow took the package and cradled it in her arms. “Thank you, Wade. You may go.”

The boy, Wade, glanced over at Thorn. “Are you sure?”

Lady Shadow nodded, not taking her gaze from the bundle. Wade shot another suspicious look at him, then bowed and left.

“What’s that?” Thorn asked.

Lady Shadow’s face fell, and tears glistened in her gray eyes. “It’s Custard, my dog.”

He could hear the pain in her words. The way they almost choked her. “I’m sorry. You’re going to bury him?”

“Yes. In the Night Garden.” One of her hands gently stroked the bundle. “Gabriel’s been humiliated twice tonight. He’s not going to let either insult go. You’d better come with me.”

“I can handle Gabriel easy.”

“It’s not him that’ll be the problem. It’ll be the ten others he’ll bring with him.”

Thorn ducked as a bat screamed overhead, its wing tip brushing his ear. He shook his head as other bats darted past before rising up into the night.

Lady Shadow laughed. “They’re harmless. Just ignore them.”

“Harmless?
Look
at ’em. They’re huge. How big do they get?”

“You have no idea.”

“W
ho’s that?” Thorn asked Lady Shadow.

Ahead stood a black marble statue, twelve feet tall and wearing a cloak that was made of bats. Hundreds of them.

What was it about House Shadow and bats?

The statue’s face was gaunt, and there was clearly a family resemblance. “One of yours, I suppose?”

“Lazarus Shadow. He planted the Night Garden.” Lady Shadow brushed her fingertips along a row of rosebushes. Their petals were shiny black, as though freshly painted. The scent was…drowsy, as if someone had perfumed them with dreams. “These roses only grow here. They unfurl at night.”

Pebble-strewn paths branched out in all directions, and there were bushes, flowers, and trees. Thorn didn’t recognize many of the plants, even though he’d grown up beside a forest.

Everything’s strange in Gehenna. I left “normal” behind long ago.

Thorn adjusted the shovel he’d found, swapping it from his right shoulder to his left. “Lazarus Shadow? I’ve heard of him. Wasn’t he a vampire?”

“He just fell in with the wrong crowd when he was younger.”

“This crowd being vampires?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I saw this puppet play last year at midsummer’s fair,” Thorn said. “
Lazarus and the Silver Warrior, Michael Solar
. Lazarus kidnaps Solar’s love, and there’s this big fight and he gets his head chopped off.”

“Just because he was a vampire doesn’t make him a bad person,” she said.

“Er…I think it does.”

“That’s because you only hear the Solars’ side of the story. They always made us the villains. Look around you. Everyone forgets what a great gardener Lazarus was.”

“Didn’t he use the corpses of his victims for fertilizer?”

“Waste not, want not.”

There was a splash from up ahead.

Lady Shadow tightened her grip on her puppy as she peered into the darkness. “Who’s there?”

Thorn hefted the shovel. Was it Gabriel? If it was an ambush, he’d fight.

“Who’s there?” Lady Shadow repeated.

A flame flared into life, bringing brightness and color to the night. “It’s me—K’leef.”

A dark-skinned boy in a long red robe stood beside a pond, rolling fire between his many-ringed fingers.

Magic. He knows magic.

The flame transformed in hues, ranging back and forth through the rainbow and casting weird, mesmerizing patterns across the pond’s surface.

Thorn stared at it, spellbound. He’d never seen real magic before. “Can you teach me that?”

K’leef looked him up and down before answering. “I doubt it.”

“What are you doing here, K’leef?” Lady Shadow joined Thorn by the water’s edge.

“Throwing pebbles. Watching the ripples.” K’leef looked up. “And you?”

“I’m burying Custard.” She gestured toward Thorn. “This is…Spike?”

“Thorn.”

“That’s what I meant to say,” replied Lady Shadow. “This is K’leef. He’s from the—”

“The Sultanate of Fire. I know,” Thorn said to K’leef. “That trick of yours was a bit of a giveaway. It’s really amazing.”

K’leef blushed, and the flame vanished. Smoke twisted between his fingers for a moment before drifting off in the faint night breeze. He took Lady Shadow’s hand. “I’m really sorry about what happened tonight, Lily.”

He calls her Lily.

Of course he would. The two of them were alike, what with their jewels and rich clothes. They were nobles and Thorn was a peasant and so it was “Lady Shadow.” That’s how things were.

So why did it suddenly bother him?

Lady Shadow pointed to a spot of bare earth between two tall rosebushes and told Thorn, “Dig there. Make it deep.”

She and K’leef stood silently as Thorn dug the grave. The dirt was damp and soft. It didn’t take him long. Soon he scooped the last of the soil and stabbed his shovel into the ground. “There. It’s done.”

“Thank you,” said Lady Shadow. She knelt beside the grave. “Good-bye, Custard.” She kissed the puppy and laid him in the hole. “Go find Dante. My brother will look after you.”

After Thorn had covered the grave, Lady Shadow put roses over the earth. She stared at the spot and bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears.