“She must suspect I’m here,” she said. “Curse her. I must have... Do you think Lucient would be willing to act as a diversion?”
“Maybe. Listen Klea, we may have another... Wait! What’s that?”
Someone was pounding on Eff’s door and now I could hear raised and urgent voices.
Fearful for Shadow, I popped my head out of the doorway. Thomas was whispering to Eff in the doorway of her room.
“I swear to you it’s something wrong,” he was saying. “Something’s going on in the Eyrie,” he explained to me as I approached.
“It’s just another family spat,” said Eff.
“No it’s more than that,” said Thomas. “Lady Splendance is the one screaming.”
“Splen? That’s new. We’d better... I’ll get some clothes on. Shine dear, would you...?”
I agreed with a sigh, thinking Auntie Splen was probably fussing over a mouse in her smokeweed jar or some similar thing. But as Thomas and I entered the Eyrie, there was something about the sounds of the screams echoing down the tower that made us both break into a run. We arrived panting on the fifth floor to find the sound of hysterical weeping coming out of Blazeann’s room. A hubbub of people blocked our route to the door. One of them was Hagen.
“What’s happening?” I asked, tugging his arm.
The look on his face chilled me.
“Lady Blazeann is dead,” he said.
THOMAS AND I were still clutching each other in disbelief when Impi appeared in the doorway of the room.
“Get out of the way, you useless pack of rodents!” He flapped his arms and people shrank back. “Come on, you!” he barked back into the room behind him.
Something long, wrapped in a sheet, came floating out of the door. A body. A man’s body from the shape of it through the thin sheet. A pale-faced retainer walked slowly behind the floating body, his hand under its head, clearly using his magic to carry it. A couple of damp-eyed women retainers followed behind, arms round each other’s shoulders.
I huddled back against the wall to let them pass.
“One of the retainers. Rapheal Angelus. Her bed mate,” whispered Hagen. “They were both found dead this morning. Too much dreamsmoke, apparently. Mixed with alcohol, most likely.”
“But she doesn’t smoke.”
“That could have been the problem. They say that you have to build up a tolerance for it. Maybe they started too strong.” His voice was surprisingly detached, but then he muttered with more feeling. “This is a disaster.”
“Poor Auntie Splen.” I could hear my aunt wailing inside. I wasn’t sure who the other voice belonged to. It sounded like a man.
“Poor us,” muttered Hagen. Only then did it occur to me who the next Matriarch-in-waiting would be now Blazeann was dead.
Impi was shouting at the hovering servants and mages. At least something was normal.
“You! Why aren’t you seeing to the carriages? And you! Get the bags packed! We’re going back to Elayison as soon as we can. And you! No one wants to see your ugly face round here! You people have got work to do. Go and do it!”
The protective barrier of people between me and Impi broke apart and scurried away
“You! Get Marm Eff,” shouted Impi at Thomas, and his mouth twisted sourly as he looked right at me. I made to leave.
“No, you don’t. You get in here, Ghostie!” he shouted. “See if you can sort out Lucient. He’s making a spectacle of himself as usual.”
Under his glare I crept into the room
Blazeann’s room stank. She lay on her back on one side of the bed, eyes closed, horribly pale and still. Yellow lumps of vomit stuck on her cheek and lips. Her pale hand dangled off the edge of the bed.
I’d seen dead people before, but the sight still chilled me. Such a strange absence of person.
As I watched, Auntie Splen’s maid tried to wipe the vomit away from Blazeann’s cheek with a cloth. Auntie Splen smacked her hand away.
“Don’t touch her,” she screamed. Her face was wet and red and puffy from weeping. She was kneeling beside the bed keening. She started shaking Blazeann and calling her name.
Glisten, Lumina and Chatoyant were huddled by the door, but my eye was drawn to Lucient, who was leaning against the bed post, white-faced and shivering, his fist in his mouth, choking back sobs.
Seeing him so distressed, I felt genuinely sad for the first time since I’d heard the news. I went and put my arms around him, but he didn’t respond so I leaned against his back, murmuring soothing noises at him.
“You! Get out of here!” shouted Impi behind me. I turned my head thinking he was talking to me or Lucient, but he was confronting Lumina.
“You can’t talk to me like that anymore, consort,” snarled Lumina. “I’m Matriarch-in-waiting now.” The look on her face spoke of triumph and the horribleness of that emotion at this time sent a shiver running down my spine. Mean old Lumina as Mater. Lady of Light! Let Splendance live for ever.
Glisten was glaring at Lumina. Chatoyant snatched Lumina’s arm.
“Lady Lumina. A word, if you would be so kind?” she said.
“Huh!” said Lumina. “Do you think you’re going to run me like you ran Blazeann. Not a chance.”
But she must have seen Glisten’s glare, because she let Chatoyant coax her out of the room.
“My dear,” crooned Impi, leaning over Auntie Splen and taking her by the shoulders. “My poor dear! Let the maid clean her up. You don’t want people to be seeing her in this mess.”
Auntie Splen protested, but she let Impi pull her away from the bed and manoeuvre her gently over to a couch by the wall, where he sat down beside her and cradled her head on his shoulder.
He really liked her, I thought with surprise, having always previously accepted the family consensus that he was only after the position Splen could give him.
“Splendance, pull yourself together. Think of the family’s honour. You are behaving like a peasant,” snapped Auntie Glisten, clearly deeply uncomfortable with all this emotion.
Impi gave Auntie Glisten the kind of glare that would have done my heart good had it not meant that she turned her attention to me.
Scowling, she jerked her head towards the door.
I took a firm hold on my cousin.
“Come on, Lu... my lord,” I said. “Let’s get you back to your room. A nice smoke will—”
“No!” screamed Lucient. “I will never smoke again.” And he burst into loud sobs. I was astonished at how upset he was. Yesterday he’d hated Blazeann.
“No, my dear, never, never again!” wailed Splen.
“Hush, my dear. Hush,” said Impi, this time glaring at me.
“My lord. This is no place for you. Please allow me to help you,” said a voice beside us. Hagen took a firm grip on Lucient’s shoulder. Between the two of us, we managed to manoeuvre the weeping Lucient out of the room and down the stairs to his own room where his servants were hovering anxiously
“My poor lord,” cried Sharlee, putting her arms around Lucient.
“Oh, Sharlee, Sharlee,” cried Lucient. “What have I done?”
“Get my lord a cup of tea,” Hagen ordered Lucient’s valet. As Busy goggled in outrage at being ordered about by another mere servant, I said, “Oh, please get it, Busy. He needs something,” and he went. Hagen slammed the door after him.