42. Chapter 42
Chapter forty-two
Her memories of the mayor’s mansion as a child were few and faded, but Lux felt confident in that she couldn’t recall it ever being so dark. Or so quiet. The loss of Colden, the loss of Morana, and, above all, the loss of lifeblood had apparently sent the mayor into confinement. Which meant she would only find him in one part of the house: his study.
Staying close to the walls of the foyer, she hurried around its expanse. She wasn’t sure how long she could count on the Shield to investigate the cause of the nauseating scent currently enveloping the Light Market, so she didn’t waste her time sneaking from alcove to alcove. With every step that landed, she imagined Shaw far beneath her, tied and bloodied, begging for a death that wouldn’t come. At least not for some time. The images spurred her to move faster, even as her chest tightened over what must come next.
Lux had been alone with the mayor in his study only once, and now she was about to break the vow she’d made to herself long ago, to never do so again.
The lamplit halls were silent and empty, but only for so long. A glimmer of white caught her eye. The door to the study neared, a posted guard unmoving before it. She didn’t have another of Aline’s inventions to assist her, and because this guard probably wouldn’t be open to bribery, she utilized the coin in her purse for another purpose.
The silvdan pinged against the far wall, and the Shield immediately hurried to investigate the source of the noise.
Lux waited until the shadows swallowed his frame before trying the gold handle. Locked. No party trick goes unpunished, she supposed. But she didn’t think the Shield would stand guard over an unoccupied room, so she drew in a deep breath—and knocked.
“ What? ” shouted the muffled voice. “This is my private time! You are not to—”
The door swung in, and the mayor’s watery eyes bulged from their sockets. “Necromancer!” The door swung wider, allowing lamplight to spill outward and bathe her. The guard must have been happily pocketing his coin; he did not reappear.
The mayor’s surprise gave way to rage in the next breath. “Turning yourself in, are you?”
Lux allowed her body to remain lax as Bartleby Tamish dragged her into the room, his fingers clammy against her forearm. “Of a sort.”
The mayor sputtered, moving around her to close the heavy door with a click. “To think I trusted you.” Stalking around his desk, he piled his squat form into the chair. “Sit down.”
Lux forced her legs to obey, and though the chair didn’t swallow her up quite so much as when she was a child of eight, it diminished her spirit just the same. She straightened her spine against the smooth-as-butter leather and stretched her neck—only for a memory, grey at its edges, to flutter down upon her like a veil.
“Your parents were found murdered, child. You, with a knife in your hands. How do you think that appears?”
The mayor looked exactly the same. Lined face, wide, parted lips, eyes ever calculating. He rested his arms upon the gleaming desk.
Lucena was silent a bit longer, wringing scrubbed-clean hands above a blood-stained yellow dress, her little body swallowed by the chair in which she had been placed. “It appears that I’ve killed them.”
She’d surprised the old man. He sat back. “Precisely. Do you have a particular reason why? You see, I don’t enjoy locking children away. But I will if I must.”
Her small frame began to shake. “I took too long. They told me they loved me, that they needed me. They told me they had missed me so much. Then they stabbed my heart.” Quivering fingers brushed against the torn fabric of her dress. A shallow wound. One meant to extend much deeper. Though not even she knew how deep it really ran.
“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have brought them back after they were murdered the first time.”
“I don’t think I can permit you to live after this. After all, your blood was revealed to me from within the lock, and I can’t allow this knowledge to be made public. Ghadra needs its mayor. It needs me.” He sighed. “I’m the most important man in the world, and it’s a shame, really, that it must be you or me. Your abilities were the height of useful.”
“I thought you might say as much.”
“Brought them back? What do you mean, child?” The mayor’s hands blanched white, no effort to hide the eagerness from his face. “You can revive the dead?”
Lucena folded in on herself. “I never will again. Never.”
“Where is your daughter, Mayor?” Lux smiled, teeth laid bare. A copy of Riselda.
“Taken to her bed, of course. What with Colden’s death.” A sudden shift and suspicion sharpened his eyes. “Why do you ask?”
“I wouldn’t trust the source who led you toward that conclusion, is all. Servants can be easily bought.”
The short man shoved himself to his feet, cheeks flushed crimson. “What do you know? Tell me, girl, before I order the Shield to make you speak for me.”
Lux relaxed into the chair at last. “I know she isn’t crying into her pillow over her departed beloved.” She watched him seethe a moment more. “I may or may not know where she is. And torture me all you like, Mayor, but I think you know as well as me, that I will never make a sound.”
The mayor held her eyes for an age, but when she didn’t flinch away, he lowered himself into the chair once more. “You come to barter with her life? For what? Your own?”
“When the tumors clinging to your insides like great warts decide to claim you again, who will revive you? No amount of lifeblood is going to restore your health indefinitely; they’re simply too quick. You’ve lived too long, and now you need me more than ever.”
Labored breaths stained the quiet. “What is it you want, Lucena?”
“Oh no, no. Your gift needs to be cultivated! I had no idea, and right under my very nose, too.” Lucena didn’t recognize the greed for what it was. “A brilliance such as this is rare. Astounding, really. It’s unfortunate what happened to your parents, but I will personally ensure your comfort and education from now on. You’ll come to find that I’m a very generous man, my dear.”
He was at her side, his hands like ice.
“How old are you, child?”
“Eight.”
The hand left her thin shoulder to travel down her arm. “You’ll be a young woman soon.” His fingers left her to caress his curling mustache in thought. “I’ll have arrangements made for you. You may live here. With me. And my family, of course. Do you see how generous I am? Everything you need will be at your fingertips, and someday, you may even stand at my side. As Ghadra’s Necromancer.”
“There’s a man held within your prison as we speak. I seek his freedom.”
The mayor chuckled darkly. “The man who, by all appearances, accompanied you? Who set fire to my infirmary—” Lux snorted, “—only after desecrating it first with a ghastly message? Never. He knows too much.”
“Too much about lifeblood? About your harvesting of it from prisoners only after their torture and inevitable death? Or perhaps about your unnaturally long life? Twenty vials. That’s a very small amount for the number of people I know have gone into that place never to come out again. What have you done with it all? Has it taken the place of your evening tea?” Lux tried to even her breaths, to tamp her temper, but oh, how she hated him. “You disgust me. You’re a heinous, despicable, poor excuse of a man.”
The mayor straightened, puffing his chest and prepared to fight. “Do you know where you would be without me, you foolish girl? Ghadra has no farmland, no livestock, no fruit trees. It is a blot between a seeping marsh and a wicked wood. Do you believe it would still exist if it weren’t for me? I’ve built this city up. I’ve brought in the apples you eat and silks you wear. My secret path is the most secret and only disclosed to a dedicated few. Do you know how I’ve accomplished it?” A frenzied gleam entered his eyes. “By sacrificing the dregs of this town. Nobodies. The worthless poor that do nothing for me or these walls.” His voiced dropped to a hoarse whisper. “The world outside pays very well for the gift of time.”
What…? “You’re selling your people’s souls?” Like breaking glass, she felt her own shatter. This, she did not expect.
The mayor scoffed. “Not their souls. Don’t be dramatic.” He steepled his fingers. “So, you see, I cannot allow your friend, lover, what-have-you, to be freed. He would incite a riot, and with this obstinate plague still about, he may rouse enough to actually go through with it. And I’d rather enjoy the festival tomorrow, thank you very much.”
“Obstinate plague? Do you not know its origin or how it can be stopped?”
He stared at her as if she were crazed. “Of course not! Quite frankly, I’ve been living in utter terror that it will infect the people of quality at any given turn. Perhaps even myself! Thankfully, it seems to be contained to the squalor for the time being.”
Lux’s heart hardened. She couldn’t think on the implications of that statement yet. She had only one means of leverage left, and she’d use it to save a good man. “And if I agree to an eternity at your side? What would you say, then?”
His gaze meant to bore straight through her. “What are you proposing?”
“I remember a time when you wished for my presence. In your home. At your right hand. It’s no secret you’re attracted to power. And I am very powerful.” Lux pulled back her shoulders. “Let him go. As you said, he is no one. Should he even utter the word, you can murder him where he stands. Though people are unlikely to believe a nobody anyway. In his place, you will have me: my silence, my loyalty. And Morana’s freedom of course.”
His eyes were slits. “I could have you anyway, you know.”
“I will take a knife to my own eyes should you even attempt.” For good measure, she drew the black-handled blade, its curved edge glowing beneath the lamplight.
She could try to kill the mayor. Right now. But that wouldn’t save Shaw. And it certainly wouldn’t save Ghadra from the revenge his family would wreak upon it.
His gaze traveled from the dagger to her eyes and back again. “My darling girl. I do believe we have a bargain.”