“It is me that my brother is defending.” Chatoyant gestured at me as she stepped into the room. “This little beast is in the pay of this disgraceful creature here. I have a letter which shows the terrible shame that this creature has brought upon this family, and this mundane has been trying to steal it from me. My dear brother was merely trying to warn off the mundane and to find out where Klea is.”
She was wearing her righteous avenging Goddess pose. A hateful pose. I tried to push Eff’s hand away and set the record straight.
“Later,” hissed Eff.
“Oh, wonderful,” sneered Impi. “My lady has lost her first-born, her beloved Matriarch-in-waiting, and all you lot can do is make uproar in the house over some trifling falling-out. I am fed up with your little plottings.”
“Oh, no, Lord Impavidus, this is no small matter. This is a scandal that eats at the very fabric of our society.”
“Really,” huffed Impi. “No doubt you can substantiate this claim, Lady Chatoyant? Perhaps you will tell—”
“In front of all these witnesses? This is family business. I think this requires the Matriarch’s attention.”
“You know the Matriarch is indisposed.”
“But Lady Glisten is not. And what better than to take this creature before her?” Toy strode to the bed and hoicked Klea up.
“Klea!” I called.
She shook her drooping head.
“Very well,” said Impi “My dear, are you well enough to travel?” he asked Klea with most un-Impi-like kindness. This was, after all, the man who had cut off her allowance just for living outside the Family House. “Let us go up to the Eyrie and have this out. And you!” He took my arm out of Eff’s grasp and held me firmly but quite gently by the uninjured shoulder. “I think you had best come with us and give your witness.”
He nodded at a couple of the retainers who were hovering by the door. “You two see that Lord Illuminus comes with us and gives us his side of the story.”
Eff pulled a face at me, and for the first time I thought of the ghost.
“Get away as quick as you can. We need to take him up to the old mine,” she breathed in my ear.
Then Impi and I were gliding down the hallway surrounded by the crystal lights and rustling silks of the noble folk. Ahead, Klea was being helped by one the retainers, who was clearly apologising for her rough treatment at Illuminus’ hands. Chatoyant was a minty green shadow at Klea’s other side. Her hand kept straying to Klea’s shoulder and Klea kept flinching away.
“Lady Chatoyant, will you please stop that?” snapped Impi as the double doors opened to let us into the Eyrie. “I think Lady Sparklea has suffered enough at your family’s hands, don’t you?”
“You won’t be this way when you know...”
But Impi brushed past her and we were streaming up the Eyrie as fast as ash up a chimney. Impi was almost as strong a mage as a woman. Instead of holding me by my limbs and dragging me round as Illuminus had, his magic held my whole body up. Which was a relief. My poor arm felt as if it was ready to drop out of its socket.
Only the woman helping Klea kept pace with him, and even so, Impi was first over the balcony. A shriek came from Auntie Splen’s room and Splendance came rushing out, the crystal shining in her forehead. Her hair draggled down at one side like a curtain only half tied back, but she had already changed into dark mourning robes.
“Klea’s here?” cried Splendance. She saw her daughter coming over the balcony and launched herself at her, arms out, meeting Klea in mid-air and wrapping herself about her in clinging black cloud of draperies.
“My poor wounded darling,” cried Splendance. “My last precious child.”
Klea’s face took on a clenched look, and Impi cursed in my ear; Two, who was hovering in the door way of Splen’s room, seemed to shrink under Impi’s stern gaze. Last precious child seemed a bit rough coming from a woman who still had three other living children and Cousin Two as well.
“Splendance,” roared Glisten, from the door of her room. “Let the child come to me. Stop smothering her. Chatoyant has a claim against—”
“Chatoyant!” cried Splendance. “You!” She dropped her hold on Klea and still hanging in mid-air rounded on Chatoyant. “Haven’t Flara’s get wounded me enough? Is there no limit to your ambition?”
Impi put me gently on the ground and took Auntie Splen firmly by the arm. In the back of my mind I knew I should take the opportunity to run off, but I could not bring myself to leave Klea before I found out what was going to happen to her. So instead I followed everyone into Auntie Glisten’s room.
“All of you who are not family withdraw,” said Glisten, with a wave of her hand as she sat down upon her chair with a stately spreading of robes. With pointed patience, she waited as people muddled around, retainers leaving and Cousin Two and Auntie Four coming in. There was no sign of Lucient or Scintillant, though in both cases that was hardly surprising. As for Great Uncle Nate, who should have been here, I could hear his snores echoing up the Eyrie. Nobody asked for the pointless old fellow to be woken.
Klea stood beside Glisten, head bowed, with Splendance hanging off her like a cobweb. She looked like different person, smaller, thinner, like a wounded captive, all her usual jauntiness quenched. Cousin Two and Auntie Four hovered anxiously near the door and Impi hovered at Splendance’s back.
Chatoyant strode up and down in front of Glisten in a wild swirl of minty green silk draperies and when the last retainer had gone out of the door, she made it slam after him.
“Now!” she said.
But Glisten wasn’t having Chatoyant running the show. She turned to Illuminus, who had draped himself with elegant nonchalance over one of the chairs. “So, my boy! I have been hearing very serious rumours about you, and now I find you mistreating a mundane, against all the rules of Shola’s pact. What have you got to say for yourself?”
“I told you, Auntie, Illuminus was protecting me,” cried Chatoyant.
Glisten cut her short. “I think not. Shine, tell us why Lord Illuminus was mistreating you. I believe you have some evidence of illegal moneymaking actives on his part.”
I felt myself shrinking as everyone in the room turned to me. The direct attention of all these powerful people couldn’t be a good thing.
“No, I... I don’t. He thinks I do, but I don’t,” I stammered, completely unprepared for this question. “I, um...”
“Don’t be frightened, child,” said Glisten. “Illuminus is not going to hurt you anymore. He is coming back to Elayison under house arrest with me until his activities can be investigated more thoroughly. Tell us what he thinks you have.”
Don’t be frightened, she said, after how she had treated me last time! I couldn’t tell the whole truth, and what if she caught me in a lie? I fought down the rising panic and took a deep breath. I had to avoid mentioning the ghost. With that one proviso in mind and no idea how deep the well I was standing in front of was, I decided I might as well leap in and see if I could stay afloat.
“Bright said that he’d discovered Illuminus was involved in crystal smuggling. He said he had evidence. I didn’t really think it was possible, but Illuminus kept trying to search my room. I think he thought Bright had given me some evidence, but I don’t have—”