Authors: Jim C. Hines

The Stepsister Scheme (5 page)

BOOK: The Stepsister Scheme

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A delicate choker circled her neck. Fine braids of gold wire held a series of tiny oval mirrors in place.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” the newcomer said, breathing hard. “I was with Squire Timothy, and we—” Circles of red flowered on her cheeks. “Well, it doesn’t matter.” She grabbed Danielle’s shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace. “You must be Danielle. I’m so glad to finally meet you. It’s been dreadfully unpleasant with only Talia to talk to.”

“Shove it, Snow,” snapped Talia.

Snow stuck out her tongue. “Don’t worry about Talia. She’s not happy unless she’s stealing something or beating people to a pulp.”

“Want to cheer me up?” Talia asked.

Danielle ignored her. “You’re Talia’s friend. The one she told me about.” She picked up the pigeon. “She said you could help him.”

Snow stared. “It’s a pigeon.”

“He helped me. Please.”

Talia stepped closer to the queen. “It was the stepsister. The pretty one, Charlotte. She tried to kill the princess. She used magic of some sort to escape.”

“You let her escape?” Snow repeated, apparently oblivious to the annoyance on Talia’s face.

The queen spoke up before Talia could respond. “Princess Danielle, allow me to present Princess Ermillina Curtana of Allesandria.”

“Snow, please,” said the girl, dropping into a curtsy. She carried the pigeon to a table, setting him in front of one of the oil lamps.

“Princess?” Danielle studied Snow’s face, so different from the queen’s long features. “Is she your—”

“No,” said Beatrice. “King Theodore and I have no daughters, and Armand is our only son. Snow came to Lorindar four years ago, shortly before Talia . . . arrived.”

Snow snickered as she wound a bandage around the bird’s wing. “Before the guards found her stowed away in a shipment of cloud silk, you mean.”

The queen sighed. “Like Snow, Princess Talia wished to escape from a rather unpleasant situation.”

“Princess?” Danielle said again. “Talia, too?”

“Princess Talia Malak-el-Dahshat,” said the queen.

In the corner, Talia gave a quick bow, somehow managing to make the motion sarcastic.

“So . . . you collect princesses, then?” Danielle asked, trying to absorb it all. Princesses weren’t supposed to run around foiling attempted assassinations, let alone serving drinks or taking abuse from enraged stepsisters.

“I took in three extraordinary girls,” corrected the queen.

Her words took a moment to sink in. “Three?” Danielle glanced around, half expecting someone else to step out of the shadows.

Queen Beatrice smiled. “Who do you think told Armand’s driver where to find you, after the ball?”

“Queen Bea
knows
things,” said Snow. She had taken what looked like a knitting needle and was using it to splint the pigeon’s wing.

Danielle turned to look at the queen. “Queen . . . Bea?”

The queen sighed, but Snow didn’t notice. “That’s how she found Talia on that ship,” Snow said brightly. “And how she knew you’d be coming to the ball. She left orders with the guards not to stop you.”

“The visions are rare, and often they’re damned vague,” said Beatrice.

Danielle stared, taken aback. Her stepmother would have slapped Danielle’s face, then locked her in the attic for such unladylike language.

“They also tend to leave me with a nasty headache.” the queen added. “I’m sorry, Danielle. I knew something was wrong when I awoke this morning, but I didn’t know what. I sent Talia to watch over you while Snow and I hunted for the source of the threat.”

“I tried searching the mirror, but . . .” Snow shrugged.

A magic mirror.
Danielle’s mouth went dry. “Her face as white as snow,” she whispered. The story had spread through Lorindar several years before, just as Danielle’s own story had done this past month. The beautiful young girl and her evil mother. The dashing hunter who awakened the girl from her curse. The death of the witch. . . . “You’re Snow White?”

Snow nodded so vigorously her hair slipped over her face. She pursed her lips and blew it back. “Snow White sounds so much better than Ermillina Curtana. I hated that name.”

“Snow was the most beautiful girl in her kingdom,” Beatrice said.

Snow gave a modest shrug, which caused her shirt to slip down from one shoulder. “It
was
a rather small kingdom.”

“She was exiled after her mother’s death,” the queen went on. “Banished under pain of death should she return.”

“Why?” Danielle asked.

“For killing my mother,” Snow said. “She was beautiful but terribly jealous. She sent me to the woods and paid a hunter to cut out my heart. Instead, he fell in love with me, and we lived together until she tracked us down. She murdered him, and almost killed me as well.”

Snow picked up the pigeon and handed him back to Danielle. “Here’s your bird,” she said brightly.

“The death of Snow’s mother pushed Allesandria toward civil war,” said the queen. “The king had long been under his wife’s spell, and her death left him in no condition to rule. Snow was too young to rebuild her nation. The more power hungry of her kin saw her as an obstacle to the throne, and wanted her hanged for matricide.”

Snow glanced down. Ebony hair hid her eyes as she fixed her shirt. “Queen Beatrice and King Theodore helped my cousin Laurence take the throne.”

“He was a less bloodthirsty choice than the others,” the queen said. “We did what we could to help his cause. But by the time he took control, Snow’s guilt was too firmly established in the minds of her people. When we attended his coronation, Laurence disguised Snow as a servant and helped me sneak her out of the country when we departed.”

“I always liked Laurence,” Snow said.

“I’m sorry,” Danielle said, not knowing what else to say. Her own stepmother, for all her flaws, had never tried to murder her. “I thought . . . I thought it was only a story.”

“It is,” Snow said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not true. Just ask Sleeping Beauty there.”

Talia sighed. “You know how I hate that name.” “Yes, I do,” Snow said, grinning.

“Sleeping Beauty?” Danielle turned to Talia. At first, all she could think to say was, “Aren’t you married?”

“Hardly,” said Talia.

“But the stories, your prince awakened you with a kiss, breaking the fairy curse and—”

“Sometimes the stories are wrong,” Talia interrupted. “Snow, have you had any luck finding the prince?”

The amusement vanished from Snow’s face. “No.”

Danielle’s stomach tightened. “What’s happened to Armand?”

“He disappeared sometime last night,” Beatrice said softly. She looked away, and in that moment, Danielle saw a tired aging woman, not a queen with the strength and confidence of royalty. Queen Beatrice was afraid. “By the time I knew he was in danger, it was too late.”

“Nobody told me,” Danielle whispered.

Back home, such an unspoken accusation would have landed her in the attic, locked away for the rest of the day. Beatrice looked . . . not angry, but sad.

“We needed to know you weren’t involved,” said Talia, her words striking like knives. “There have been other attempts on the royal family over the years. Beatrice trusted you, but—”

“I do trust you,” the queen interrupted. “But where my son is concerned, it’s hard for me to trust myself. With so much at stake, I took Talia’s fears to the king, who agreed. I’m sorry for that, and you have every right to be angry.”

“I’m not angry,” Danielle said automatically.

“You should be.” Beatrice stepped closer, her fingertips closing gently around Danielle’s shoulders. “One day, I hope you’ll feel safe enough here to express that anger.”

“Just don’t express it as much as Talia,” Snow said. “Or as violently. I’ve already had to replace three shelves down here.”

Talia stood with her arms folded, watching Danielle like a falcon waiting for its prey to make a move. “The odds were against you being involved, but we had to know. When your stepsister arrived today, I thought she had come either to conspire with you or to issue her demands for Armand’s release.”

She couldn’t blame them. Danielle was still an outsider here, an upstart girl who had dared to marry a prince. How could they not suspect her? She clutched the wounded pigeon close, automatically stilling her face to keep the hurt from showing. “Snow was the one who helped you get back inside the room?”

“I can do a lot through my mirrors,” Snow said.

“For which I’m in your debt.” Beatrice gave a slight bow in Snow’s direction, then turned her attention back to Danielle. “I knew as soon as I awoke that Armand was in trouble. Snow confirmed it with her mirror. Theodore has already dispatched scouts to search the port where he disappeared, but they won’t arrive for another day.”

“I tracked Armand’s movements after he left the ship,” Snow said. “He dined with his men, then retired to his room for the night. He never came out.”

“What does that mean?” Danielle asked. She stepped away from the others and stared at her reflection in Snow’s mirror, as if her will alone could force it to show where her husband had gone.

“It means whoever took Armand is powerful enough to block Snow’s spell,” Talia said. “Charlotte knew the prince was missing. She has to be involved.” She handed the broken stool leg and the bloody feather to Snow. “She used her magic on both of these.”

Snow grimaced as she took the feather. “Do I look like some sort of magical hunting hound?” She stepped past Danielle and brushed the feather across the mirror, painting a faint circle of blood. The circle dried and flaked away an instant later, leaving the surface as clean as before. “Someone else cast these spells. At least, it wasn’t Charlotte alone.”

“She had a necklace,” Danielle said. “She touched it right before the stool shattered.”

“So she had an accomplice,” said Talia.

“Stacia?” Danielle frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.” Charlotte would hardly trust her sister with something as important as protecting Charlotte’s life.

Snow seemed to agree. “I doubt either of your stepsisters are strong enough to do all of this by themselves. I watched them both at the ball, then later at your wedding. If they had this kind of power, I would have felt it.”

“If they had that kind of power, Danielle never would have made it to the ball,” Talia added.

“So who was it?” Danielle asked.

“Probably witches,” said Snow.

At the same time, Talia said, “Fairies, I’d bet.”

Snow shook her head. “If Charlotte brought fairy magic past the wards in the wall, I would have known. Besides, no fairy would dare work magic within the palace. Malindar’s Treaty prohibits it.”

“And where are you going to find a witch strong enough to hide the prince from that?” Talia pointed to the mirror. “Ten shillings says it’s fairies.”

“Done.”

“Why didn’t your wards sense Charlotte’s necklace?” Danielle asked.

“Because until she activated it, it was just a rock. Witches do magic. Fairies
are
magic. That makes fairies a lot easier to detect.”

“Snow, can you use these things to find Charlotte?” asked the queen. “If she does know about my son, it becomes even more urgent that we find her.”

“I’ll try,” said Snow. She took the broken stool leg and turned back to the mirror.

Danielle stared at the gold wedding band on her finger. Simple and modest. Armand had wanted to give her a heavy, diamond-encrusted monstrosity as a memento of their love, but Danielle had insisted. This thin ring was a duplicate of the one she remembered seeing on her mother’s finger.

Beatrice touched her shoulder. Danielle turned, and the fear and pain on the queen’s face were a match for her own. “We will find Armand.”

Danielle’s throat tightened.

“South,” said Snow. “Charlotte fled south.”

“We’re on the northern edge of an island nation,” Talia said. “Do you think you could narrow it down a tad?”

“I can’t. She’s hidden from the mirror, the same as Armand.”

Danielle cleared her throat. “My house . . . I mean, my father’s house is south of here.”

Talia shook her head. “Charlotte knows we’ll be hunting her. To hide in such an obvious place would be the height of stupidity.”

Danielle folded her arms. “Charlotte let her mother cut off part of her heel because she believed that would be enough to convince Armand she was me.”

“Good point.” Talia snorted. “Come on, Snow. Let’s go visit the de Glas house.”

“I’m going, too,” said Danielle.

“Charlotte already tried to murder you once today,” said Talia. “If we find her, she—”

“I lived with Charlotte and Stacia for most of my life,” said Danielle. “I know them. I can help.”

BOOK: The Stepsister Scheme

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