The Stepsister Scheme (34 page)

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Authors: Jim C. Hines

BOOK: The Stepsister Scheme
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Danielle shook her head. “Is Armand all right?”
Charlotte twisted her hands in the bedcovers, and for a moment Danielle thought she was going to scream. “We dined with the Duchess, and your prince could barely keep his hands off of her. Stacia and Brahkop were even worse. None of them even looked at me.”
“I don’t understand,” said Danielle. “He loved
Stacia
. The spell she cast—”
“Stacia doesn’t need him anymore,” Charlotte snapped. “The filthy troll was more than happy to have his wife back again. He and Stacia mixed a new potion, turning the prince’s affections toward the Duchess. He’s to be a gift for her.”
Leaving Charlotte alone and useless. The Duchess would take a human prince as her consort, payment for her hospitality. She wondered how long Stacia and Rose had planned this.
Charlotte bent down, retrieving a small clay pot from beneath the bed. She removed the lid and handed the pot to Danielle. “Drink.”
Danielle brought the pot to her lips. The smell was foul, like a tea made from compost. She gagged.
Charlotte snatched the pot. “Don’t spill it! Do you have any idea how hard I worked to brew this?”
“What is it?” Danielle asked.
“A brew of tansy and pennyroyal. I spent most of yesterday in the Duchess’ library, reading one dusty old book after another. I had to send Lefty to steal the ingredients.”
Danielle was still tired, and she didn’t immediately recognize that “Lefty” had to be the one-armed darkling. Then her mind seized on the rest of Charlotte’s words.
Her weariness vanished. She had once overheard a pair of women in the streets discussing herbs that could drive an unwanted child from the body. Tansy and pennyroyal were two of the most potent.
Her muscles tightened, and her hand shook as she reached out to take the pot from Charlotte’s hand.
“Isn’t this better than letting Rose have him?” Charlotte asked.
“Charlotte, why? There has to be another way,” Danielle said, seizing the chance to speak. Every moment she could talk was another moment she kept the poison from her mouth.
“Did you know that once a love spell has been broken, it can’t be redone?” Charlotte asked. “They severed Armand’s ties to Stacia. They can’t use magic to make him love her again. And they can’t risk letting him love you, or else your curse might be broken. If you lose the baby, they’ll have to give him to me. They’ll have to! Don’t you understand?”
“You don’t need to take my son,” Danielle said. “Can’t you just let me go?”
“I’m sorry.” Charlotte sniffed and turned away. “I truly am. But you’ve seen what Stacia’s become. Do you know what Rose would do to me if I helped you escape?”
“We could both escape,” Danielle said. “I’ll protect you. Once we’re back home—”
“There are worse things than darklings in the Duchess’ cavern,” Charlotte said. Her shoulders shook.
“Drink.”
“I’ll tell Stacia,” Danielle said through clenched teeth. She tried and failed to stop her arms from lifting the pot to her mouth.
“Then I’ll cut out your tongue.”
The pot touched her lower lip. The glazed clay was smooth as glass, and the smell seared her nostrils.
The smell.
As her hands tilted the pot, she inhaled, deliberately filling her lungs with the putrid smell. She felt ill, but it wasn’t the stomach-knotting pains of nausea. She exhaled and breathed in again, willing herself to throw up. She began to weep. Even the smell of soap had been enough to trigger her vomiting. But that was before Stacia’s darklings had aged her baby, rushing Danielle along in her pregnancy. Her body still ached as it tried to adjust, but the nausea had passed. In her impatience, Stacia might have doomed the baby.
Mother, please help me. Don’t let this filth pass my lips.
“It’s the only way,” Charlotte said. “They’ll have to give Armand back to me.”
Danielle’s hand twitched. A few drops spilled onto her tongue. The taste of mint and camphor filled her mouth.
“You’re still fighting it,” Charlotte said. She sounded impressed. She wiped tears from Danielle’s face. “Maybe Stacia’s curse isn’t as strong as she thought.” She reached for the cup, presumably to dump the contents down Danielle’s throat. She was so close Danielle could see every scar on her face, every stain on her shirt where she must have splashed some of this very potion.
Those stains. Stacia had ordered Danielle to clean, to perform the same duties she had done for her stepmother. The longer those stains remained, the harder it would be to remove them. That shirt needed to be rinsed under cool water and washed as soon as possible. To ignore them would be to disobey Stacia’s command.
Danielle’s fingers moved. The pot slipped from her grip as she reached for Charlotte’s shirt. Charlotte made a desperate grab, but missed. The pot shattered on the floor.
Charlotte slapped her, knocking her back. “What are you doing?”
“Your shirt was dirty,” Danielle said.
“You stubborn, spiteful girl.” Charlotte grabbed Danielle by the shirt. “Why do you have to ruin every single thing?”
Danielle could do nothing as Charlotte flung her against the wall. Her head hit hard enough to make her vision blur.
Rage turned Charlotte’s expression monstrous. She had been pushed too far, and now she meant to finish what she had started back at the palace. She was going to murder Danielle. Stacia would kill her, but that no longer mattered. Charlotte was too far gone to reason with, even if Danielle had been free to speak.
As Danielle lay in the pool of spilled tea, she spotted movement by the door. The old, tailless rat stood on his hind legs and sniffed the air. Had he heard Danielle’s silent pleas for help?
The oil lamp
, Danielle begged.
Quickly.
The rat raced up the wardrobe, then sprang through the air. Tiny paws clung to the chain hanging from the oil lamp. The links rattled, but Charlotte was too furious to notice.
Charlotte stepped away, reaching for the sword above her bed. “If you won’t drink, I’ll cut the damned child out of you myself. Don’t move. This will be over quickly.”
Please hurry
. The rat was running along the edge of the pipe now. He stopped at one of the wicks. This one needed to be replaced. Only a faint spot of flame still burned. Heedless of his own safety, the rat patted out the flame with his paws, then tugged the wick as high as he could. When it would move no more, he began to gnaw at the base.
“I saw what this cursed sword did to my sister,” Charlotte muttered. She grabbed one of the bedsheets and wrapped several layers over the handle. The rest of the sheet dragged behind her as she walked back to Danielle. “Let’s see it stab me through
that
.”
The rat yanked the wick free. He ran to the next flame and touched the end of the wick to the fire. The oil-soaked wick caught immediately, and the rat squealed in pain.
Charlotte spun just as the rat jumped. He landed on the top of Charlotte’s head, shoved the wick into her hair, and tumbled to the floor.
The fire spread quickly. Charlotte swore and flung the sword away. The blade barely missed Danielle’s face.
So close. All Danielle had to do was move her arm. She could take her sword and finish this. But the curse still held her prisoner. Charlotte had ordered her not to move. Until Charlotte or Stacia said otherwise—
“Help me!” Charlotte cried. Her brown locks shriveled and curled from the flames, and the putrid smell of burning hair filled the air.
Danielle smiled grimly as she climbed to her feet. She clamped one hand around Charlotte’s arm and dragged her to the pool in the corner. Switching her grip to Charlotte’s neck, she thrust her stepsister’s flaming head into the water.
White fish cowered in the corner. Bubbles burst as Charlotte struggled, but Danielle held fast, pushing down until Charlotte’s face pressed the algae-covered stone at the bottom. After all, the flames in her hair still smoldered, and Danielle had been commanded to help.
Charlotte squirmed, twisting her face and clawing Danielle’s arm with her nails. Danielle braced herself. So long as Charlotte’s mouth remained underwater, she couldn’t issue any more commands.
Charlotte switched tactics. She grabbed the edge of the pool and pushed, trying to force Danielle back.
Danielle put her full weight onto her arms. Charlotte had never been strong. Danielle was the one who had spent her life at hard labor, beginning before her stepsisters awoke and continuing long after they retired for the night. Add Danielle’s fury over what Charlotte had tried to do, and Danielle was easily strong enough to murder her stepsister.
Charlotte’s struggles weakened. Her head twisted to one side. Her eyes were squeezed shut, like a child trying to block out a bad dream. A tiny column of bubbles rose from the corner of her mouth.
The rage began to drain from Danielle. Killing Charlotte wouldn’t free her. It wouldn’t save her baby. It wouldn’t save anyone. Eventually, Stacia would find her here, standing over Charlotte’s body. She would take Danielle’s child, and then she would kill Danielle, the same as Danielle had done to Charlotte.
She twisted her fingers in Charlotte’s hair and hauled her from the pool. Charlotte slumped to the ground, water darkening the floor around her head and torso. She coughed weakly, spitting water and blood. She must have bitten her tongue or cheek as she struggled.
Charlotte began to throw up. Once she finished, Danielle grabbed a blanket from the bed and tossed it over her shivering body.
“Good choice. If she’s dead, she can’t tell us what we need to know.”
Danielle spun. Talia stood by the head of the bed, arms folded across her chest. A thousand questions raced through Danielle’s mind. She would have sworn Talia hadn’t been there a moment before, when she grabbed the blanket for Charlotte. Nor had Danielle heard the door open.
She tried to speak, but she couldn’t. For some reason, a part of her found this terribly funny. She could murder her stepsister, but she still couldn’t talk until someone asked her a question.
Charlotte groaned and reached for the sword. The glass blade slid along the floor. Charlotte lifted the blade, pointing it at Danielle. “I’ll kill her.” The words sent her into another coughing fit.
“Go ahead and try.” Talia stepped toward Charlotte. She moved with none of the clumsiness Danielle remembered from the cave. Somehow Talia had found a way to throw off Stacia’s curse. “You still don’t understand what that sword is, do you? No matter how hard you swing, that blade will never hurt a hair on Danielle’s head.”
Talia glanced at Danielle. “Do you remember the fight outside the cave? I wasn’t thinking when I threw the sword back to you. By rights, you should have lost the fingers on that hand when you caught the blade.”
Talia watched as Charlotte pushed herself to her knees. “My guess is that blade will shatter before it will hurt Danielle,” Talia said. “If I’m right, the sword will be none too happy about it either. Don’t be surprised if one of the shards finds its way to your heart.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed, waiting. She looked . . . tired. Her eyes were bloodshot. She smelled of sweat and mold, and her black clothes were worn and ripped. Her sword was gone, though she still carried a knife strapped to her waist. Two small sticks pinned back her hair, save for a few sweaty wisps that hung over her eyes.
“Your stepsister was kind enough to spare your life.” Talia shook her head, making it clear that
kind
wasn’t the word she really wanted to use. She smiled. “I’m not like your stepsister.”
Charlotte shook her head and pointed the sword at Talia. “Maybe I can’t kill
her
.”
Talia shrugged and reached back to pull one of the metal-topped sticks from her hair. She held it by the tip, then flicked it forward. The stick spun through the air, and the blunt end struck Charlotte squarely in the eye.
Charlotte yelped and dropped the sword. Talia pushed off from the bed, catching the hilt in midair. The blade whooshed as Talia spun it around, bringing the edge to Charlotte’s throat.
No question about it. Talia’s fairy gifts were back.
“Now, then,” said Talia. “Why don’t we talk about the curse your sister placed on my princess?”
 
To her great annoyance, Danielle found herself compelled to step away from Talia and Charlotte so she could mop up the water that had splashed onto the floor. She used the blanket Charlotte had dropped to soak up the worst of it, twisting the blanket to squeeze the water back into the pool. Worst of all, she was humming again.
The humming caught Talia’s attention. “Stop that.”
If only it was that easy. Danielle used a dry corner of the blanket to scrub the grout at the juncture between the floor and the pool.
“Do you mind?” Talia said, jabbing the sword at Charlotte.
“Enough, Cinderwench.” Charlotte’s eye was bloodshot, but she still appeared able to see. Tears poured down her cheek, and she was constantly blinking and rubbing the eye.

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