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  I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t care if our clothes were stained and stinking, I couldn’t do this. I didn’t care if women all over the world, all throughout time, spent their days doing such things. I should be looking for Erris, I should be studying magic, I should be dancing like the old Nimira used to do. I never thought I’d have even a moment of missing my days in shoddy dancing troupes.

  When Annalie came back, I am ashamed to say I was sitting on the floor, crying in an urgent, angry way.

  “Nimira,” Annalie said gently but firmly. “I know it seems overwhelming, but if we just take it one step at a time…”

  “No,” I said. “We’re on step one of… of I don’t even know how many. We can’t do it. I don’t care. Why do I give a damn if my clothes are clean or dirty anyway?” I was shouting, my throat rough.

  She put a hand on my shoulder. “Other women do this. I know we can, and it will feel so nice to have clean clothes.”

  I turned away from her touch. “I’m tired of everything. I just want to go after that jinn!”

  “It would be dangerous to go alone, though,” Annalie said. “Maybe when the doctor comes, if he would stay with Celestina… Or if she could go to a hospital in New Sweeling… we could go together.”

  “I don’t want to wait for the doctor!” I was sobbing, feeling as childish as Violet. “What’s wrong with you? How can you still be so dispassionate? Is it something about the spirits; did they drain the caring right out of you? Nothing moves you. You don’t even care about your own husband.”

  I said it and winced. Some part of me demanded to know how I dared to talk to Annalie like that. She’d stood up to the crowd of men from Cernan; she’d taken care of Celestina. She didn’t have to help me, but she did, and now I was shouting at her about Hollin, as if I had the right.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and I had fled as far as the threshold between kitchen and scarcely used dining room when she spoke.

  “Nim. Wait. Please.” When I looked back, she shook her head a little. Loose strands of hair floated around her head from the bun she’d twisted it in to work.

  “Forgive me,” I said, feeling chagrined now that the heat of the moment had gone. “It’s not my place to lecture you about Hollin.”

  “I suppose I did sound a bit heartless, talking about a separation and marrying Karstor for convenience. I just… Well, when I was young I did what I was told was best, but it was never best for me.”

  “You don’t think you’ll give him even a chance when he returns? He really does seem to be changing.”

  “What does it even matter to you? Do you think I need Hollin Parry?”

  “No. No, not that. I think maybe… he needs you.”

  “I don’t think I want him to need me.”

  “Well, no, it’s not that either, it’s…” I sighed. I couldn’t seem to explain it to Annalie any better than I could explain it to Erris. “Maybe I just want someone to have a happy ending. Or maybe I just feel guilty about my part in it.”

  “But it’s not your fault, Nim. Not at all! It’s entirely his. And I do forgive him for it… I truly do. We were already so very distant with one another when you came along. But that’s the thing. Our marriage barely began, and then it was over. I’d rather just start again.”

  “I understand,” I said. “He told me… he was a little frightened of you.”

  I expected her to scoff at that, but instead she looked solemn. “I know.”

  I looked at her a moment, with her disheveled hair, and thought how different she seemed from the first time, when she’d been cursed to spend her hours in a handful of dark rooms, hidden from the world, with the orbs of spirits floating about her like fireflies. “I was a little afraid of you too. Seeing you like this, though…”

  “Yes, I’m hardly frightening now, not compared to the laundry.”

  “It’s just that you’ve changed. And he’s changed too, I think. But his heart is still with you.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  “Not so directly, but I can tell, the way he speaks of you.”

  Annalie smiled faintly, just to herself, as if she didn’t mean the expression to be shared. “A part of my heart is still with him too. I just don’t want to do anything stupid. I like who I’ve become.”

  “I think you’re one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever met,” I said, quite truthfully. I had never met a woman whose power you could sense without her lifting a finger! I’d known women in the theater who bucked convention, but it was different with Annalie. There was nothing theatrical or attention-seeking about her, no motive except to be herself. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

  “No, no. It’s all right. Whatever becomes of Hollin and me, you and I needed to talk, didn’t we? I suppose we can simply thank this awful laundry for bringing it out.”

  “Are you sure the spirits can’t do laundry?” I asked, and she smiled at me ruefully.

  Chapter 22

  Hours later, the sun had gone down, and we were running clothes along the washboard. Our hands were red, our skin softened by the water and torn and cracked from the soap and the friction, and every muscle in my body seemed to ache, when we heard the door creak open and boots tromp in. Annalie stiffened. Was it just Lean Joe? Or something worse?

  As I cast about for something I could use as a weapon, there was a thump and something heavy dragging along the floor.

  Then, “Celestina, are you here?”

  I laughed breathlessly. Finally, Ordorio! I was about to run to the entrance hall when Annalie whispered, “What is it?” She glanced around at nothing. “I hear them, but I don’t think they hear me. What is it?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “The spirits are a little restless. But I just-I can’t talk to them like I used to. I hear whispers, but no words. I sense things without knowing what. If I want to talk to them now, I have to do a proper ritual.” She shook her head with frustration and pushed her chair back from the table. “Never mind. Maybe it’s nothing. Let’s say hello. I suppose we must break the news about Violet.”

  Her words made me a little apprehensive, but of course we must greet Ordorio Valdana.

  When we entered the entrance hall, my apprehension increased. The man turning away from the coat closet looked a bit haggard, but far younger than fifty. His black hair had a slight curl, and fell to his jawline in an unruly fashion. His face was thin, and too pale, just like his daughter’s, with deep-set dark eyes. He dressed, like Karstor, in a necromancer’s color scheme-all black with a blue cravat. A black trunk sat in the middle of the floor. It looked a little small for world traveling, but then, perhaps men didn’t need as many clothes as women did, especially if he wasn’t going to parties.

  “You must be Nimira,” he said. “And I’m not sure I know you, but you must be related to Hansal Swibert.”

  “I’m his daughter.”

  “Annalie, is it? My goodness, you look just like him.”

  He seemed friendly enough, and I’d certainly been waiting months for his arrival, but between his dark looks and strange lack of wrinkles, and Annalie’s comment about restless spirits, I felt unnerved. It would be ironic if the townspeople had been right about him all along. Of course, you couldn’t really sell your soul to the devil. Could you? Goodness.

  He looked at our reddened hands. “What have you two been doing? Where is Celestina?”

  “Laundry,” I said. “Mr. Valdana, sir, I’m afraid a great deal has happened. I’m not sure if you received any of Dr. Greinfern’s letters.”

  “I do have a letter, as a matter of fact.” He was walking briskly toward the stairs as he spoke. “But I’d very much like to hear your side of the story.”

  “Well, Violet is… there was a jinn who is serving the fairy king. Celestina was badly injured trying to save her… she’s upstairs. We all tried to fight him off, but… he took Violet, and he-he hurt Erris, the fairy prince. I’m not sure if you know about him.” />
  “Erris,” he said, his tone heavy. “The ninth son. Yes. Of course I know about him.”

  “What do you mean?” I had to stop myself from exploding with questions.

  Ordorio disregarded my question.

  “Violet’s gone? The Lady’s magic should trump a jinn!” He started pounding up the stairs, muttering about seeing Celestina. I started to follow, but Annalie caught my arm and whispered in my ear, “That man is not alive.”

  “What?” Fear slithered down my spine. “How do you know?”

  “There’s something about him. I just… know.”

  “Do you think he’s dangerous?” As deep as I’d waded into magic waters these days, I was still unnerved by the idea of waking the dead or even talking to the dead. Back home, we had legends of “walking corpses” that ate your soul at night. There seemed to always be a price to pay, at least in stories, for defying the laws of nature.

  “Oh, no.”

  “What does it mean if he’s dead?” I was whispering, even though Ordorio had vanished up the stairs.

  “I don’t know. I suppose we can find out.” She shook her head and started to follow him.

  Celestina looked as animated as I’d seen her since the accident, which comforted me a bit. She’d known Ordorio for years. He must not seem different than usual to her. She was in the middle of a detailed description of the kidnapping of Violet. “I’m so sorry, sir. We tried to stop him. I don’t know how he remembered her, but I will say, Violet seemed to have a bit of an infatuation with him. She’s been feeling a lot better this year, thanks to Erris, but she’s also been a lot of trouble.”

  “How long ago did this happen?”

  “Two weeks, sir. We’ve had a lot of bad weather, though. I’m not sure if he could have gotten far with her.”

  Ordorio ran his fingers through his rumpled hair. “Lady’s mercy. I’ll have to think on this. I can’t stay in Lorinar long. And you, Celestina, are you all right?”

  “There’s supposed to be a doctor coming…” I could see her struggling to look brave.

  “I brought some books back for Violet, but maybe you’d like to look at them. Shall I bring them to you?”

  “Oh-yes, please.”

  Ordorio headed down the stairs again.

  “Please, sir, I must talk with you about Erris,” I said. “I’m not sure if you know, but he was trapped in clockwork and I’m the one who saved him-in a fashion. He could walk, but he was still clockwork inside, and the jinn ruined his clockwork body, but we found your clockwork woman and animals upstairs-”

  “You were in my study?”

  “We-we didn’t know we couldn’t. Celestina had the key.”

  “No… I never said it was forbidden, I just… Well, Celestina isn’t much for snooping, as far as I knew, but I wasn’t ready to talk to Violet about all of this.”

  Any other time, I might have told Ordorio that Violet deserved to know a little more about her situation, but I still kept thinking about him being dead.

  He paused. “Do you need to finish the laundry?”

  “Eventually,” I said. “Please, Mr. Valdana, about Erris…”

  Ordorio looked at the ground a moment, and then the window. “Something must be done. I can’t just abandon my daughter to the mercies of Luka Graweldin. He’s a tyrant. But I have never told anyone what happened thirty years ago. It’s a shameful, painful memory.” He looked at me. “I suppose the time has come. Maybe, with the knowledge, you can save Erris… and Violet too.”

  Chapter 23

  “It all began in school, I suppose. I was studying necromancy, so I dreamed of finding a better way to raise the dead. I’d always been interested in clocks and then automata from childhood.”

  “The clockwork mice and the cat,” I said. “Erris read your notebook.”

  He nodded. “I tried to keep these experiments to myself. I didn’t want anyone to steal my ideas. But, of course, I told my necromancy professor, especially when I succeeded at placing animals into a death sleep and coaxing them into toy bodies. It wasn’t raising the dead, but it was something no one had done before.”

  Briefly, a devastated expression passed across his face. “I had done terribly well in school, and everyone knew my name. I had barely graduated and I had a position in the government, accompanying much more seasoned sorcerers on diplomatic missions to Telmirra. That was when I saw Melia for the first time. I was wandering alone in the gardens outside the palace. She followed me and asked me a few questions. I didn’t notice that she was blushing. She told me later how she loved me the minute she saw me, and I always told her she had awful taste, considering I was entirely ready to go to war with her people at the time.”

  I thought of Violet’s infatuation with the dangerous jinn, and how Erris said she was so much like Mel. Indeed.

  Ordorio was looking more anguished. “This is where the memories grow painful. Some months into the war, the sorcerers of the council made a bargain with a powerful fairy family-the Graweldins. If they helped us wipe out the Tanharrows and win the war, they would be the new royal family of the fairy kingdom. A secret treaty was signed acknowledging that the humans would control the Great Serpent River, while the Graweldins received generous gifts and concessions.

  “However, there is a reason why fairies don’t have as much revolution and assassination and all the things you may have read about in our histories.”

  I nodded. My country had a revolution for independence in my grandfather’s time. The king had been assassinated. I had grown up hearing exciting stories about it, but it no longer seemed especially exciting anymore.

  “The fairy throne is guarded by ancient trees. Supposedly, they only lend the wisdom of the ages to the true ruler, and if an impostor dares to take the throne, the trees will die. The Graweldins knew the fairy people wouldn’t accept them as rulers if the trees died. So they needed a way to get around the ancient magic… such as putting the true king in a death sleep. That was, the trees wouldn’t know if the true king was only sleeping. Death sleep isn’t permanent… unless, perhaps, the soul is detached from the body. Or trapped in a false one. The magic I had developed proved to be the answer. It was daring, but…”

  “Are you saying Erris really is in a death sleep somewhere. He is alive?”

  “I think he must be.”

  My hands were shaking. I had suspected for so long that Erris was really alive. To have it confirmed by the man partially responsible for trapping him in the first place… “Where is he, then?”

  “I wasn’t privy to that information. In the fairy palace, I assume. If his soul has gone back to his body, he might wake up… one of these days.”

  “How did you end up with the fairy princess, with Melia, if you were involved in this conspiracy against the Tanharrows?” Annalie asked.

  “Well.” Ordorio was staring at the ground again. “The Council needed to kidnap a fairy royal, and they wanted the most useless, ineffective heir. Melia seemed the natural choice. She was widely known as a foolish girl, obsessed with boys and clothes and therefore easy to trick. But as I sat there among the men discussing how they would capture this young girl and how they would do this to her, I had my first doubt. I didn’t know fairies, except as formal and somewhat hostile diplomats, but I had seen Melia in the garden, and she was just as ordinary as any girl from home. My concerns grew and grew, and I learned that a few of the other sorcerers were troubled by the idea of kidnapping a woman. But if Melia wasn’t trapped, she’d most certainly be killed. I arranged to have her smuggled to the far northern tip of Lorinar… almost two hundred miles north of Cernan. I had a good friend there, a fur trapper who came to Cernan occasionally to visit family. The poor girl spent a few years living in near-total isolation with him while humans waged war on the fairies, and the rest of her family was slaughtered. Many times, later, I wondered if I hadn’t made a mistake, saving her.

  “Meanwhile, the sorcerer’s attention fell to Erris, and he walked into our hands s
ooner than expected. He actually snuck out of the palace and into the woods to meet a girl or something, a human spy spotted him, and apparently he didn’t put up any fight when they tried to capture him. It was obvious he’d lived a pampered life and didn’t suspect anything bad could ever befall him. He answered our questions at the mere mention of torture. He kept telling us he was the ninth son, why would we want him? And he barely slept. He cried at night. The other sorcerers disdained him for being so soft, but I wondered if I was any different. I’d never known anything but privilege either.”

  I was visibly trembling, thinking about my jovial Erris in such a brutal situation.

  “Of course, he never suffered physical pain. He was already sleeping when we placed him in a death sleep and his soul into an automaton. The disturbing thing was, the automaton looked different with his soul in it. It looked more like him. The men wound it once, and it played some horrible thing-not a song at all, just desperate pounding on the keys, as if he was trying to break free-”

  “Stop!” I cried. “Please. I can’t-I don’t want to hear about it anymore.” Erris had never mentioned this to me. I had never realized quite so deeply what it must have been like for him to wake to that, and then go to sleep again for thirty years, without understanding what had happened.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I wish I had… done something. Stopped it somehow. But I’d be branded a traitor. So I ran away. Disappeared to the mountains.”

  “And you left Melia living with some old fur trapper?” I asked.

  “Well, I didn’t want to see her, considering I’d played a part in doing something so awful to her brother. I didn’t seek her out until she was the last Tanharrow alive. There were plenty of rumors that she’d died, but I was still worried they might look for her. I went with the intention of protecting her, and… she was different, but she still lit up at the sight of me, and I felt so unworthy. I wanted to devote my life to bringing her joy. I never told her what I’d done.”