CHAPTER 41 #2
“You took on the Court for me,” Emma whispered, hugging them all back fiercely. “I can’t believe it.”
“After going to the trouble of making you a half-decent fox maiden, you think I’m going to let you stroll around a Library full of Boars and get yourself killed? What a bloody waste of my time that would have been,” Saskia said.
Emma felt her heart swell.
“You’re one of us, love,” said Nancy.
“I am one of you,” said Emma. “And when we get out, we get out together.”
She raised her voice to the Judge. “They accept.”
“Then let them come forward.”
The Sister and the Librarian stepped closer, hand in hand. There was so much hope in the Sister’s face, it hurt to see.
“I have my own suggestion for your reward,” the Judge said.
“The Night City has not seen another artist to compare to your brother. I know it was demanded, as price for your return to our world, the sight of your eye and the grace of your brother’s hands.
Perhaps that last bargain might now be… softened. If you will permit me?”
The Sister had begun to shake. She clutched the Librarian as though he were the only thing keeping her upright. He had to nod for both of them.
A ripple of power passed over them. For a moment, all was silent. Then the Sister gave a choked cry and drew off her eye patch. The empty socket below was gone. Two dark, dancing eyes gleamed in her face.
Beside her, the Librarian was staring at his hands. No more were they twisted knots of meat. Each one was fine boned and strong, graceful as a bird’s wing. He turned them this way and that, as though the tapering fingers held an invisible brush. Tears traced his cheeks.
The Judge said, slightly stiffly, “I am glad you accepted. I will find great pleasure in your brother’s return to painting. I was, in times gone by, a collector of his work.”
The siblings stepped back. Emma was sure they had not moved with such ease before.
“I don’t pretend to speak for all of the fox maidens here.
” Saskia’s voice rang out. “But this is what I want. For my debt to the Night City to be forgiven, so my service in the House of Foxes is paid off. Not to be made to do drainings, or have my salary taken as dues by some Lower House before I’ve even seen it.
I want to be a free citizen. To choose my profession. ”
The Judge steepled his fingers. “That would be acceptable,” he said at last.
“Then that’s what I want too,” another fox maiden burst out. A clamor rose, all of the fox maidens calling their agreement in shrieks and barks. Jasper had covered his ears again.
“Then the House of Foxes will fall, and be no more.”
“Oh, but no,” came Nancy’s soft voice. “No, your lordship, that won’t do at all.”
“Indeed?”
Nancy shook her head. “It’s been my home.
Why destroy it? We could make it better.
This isn’t me asking as my reward. I still want my debt forgiven, and that’s that.
But you need the House of Foxes. If the Boars’ve gone bad—well, worse—then there’s a right old gap, isn’t there? No soldiers. No guards.
“Let me lead the House of Foxes and change what it’s for.
No more hunting mortal folk to collect what the City’s owed.
The fox maidens could be guardians of the Night City, in the outer world.
We know the streets up here better than them in the Court.
We can pass among mortals without them noticing—or running away screaming if they did, which is better’n you could say for the Boars. ”
Emma saw the slight quirk to the Judge’s lips that, she was almost sure now, passed for a smile.
“Your friend is idealistic,” the Judge said, looking at Emma. “What do you think?”
“Me?” Emma shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the room. “I—Well, Nancy would be the best choice for a head of house. She’s practical, too, it’s not just ideals. I think you—the Night City—could work with her. You should.”
The Judge sank into thought. “Fox maiden, I can grant only the stated rewards at this time. But I will take your proposal to the Night City. If it is found acceptable, you will receive terms for a bargain.” He looked closer at Nancy.
“You are the one with the unusual path, are you not? You seem to be using your opportunity well.”
“What does he mean?” One of the twins tugged Nancy’s sleeve.
“Oh, well. That. The rest of you were human mortals, before you were turned to fox maidens. I—” Nancy paused, with a mischievous smile. “Well, I was a fox.”
“You were what?” Saskia, for once, looked anything but self-possessed.
Nancy’s sharp little nose wrinkled in amusement. “We’ll get you there, love. Later. His lordship hasn’t finished up yet.”
“Indeed. Now the last. So, Emma Curran, with what remains of your reward, do you want to live as your sisters shall? Or will you return to your mortal life instead? The Night City is generous. You have but to ask.”
Emma heard Saskia’s gasp. She felt, rather than saw, Nat’s smile warm her face. But she couldn’t raise her eyes from her feet.
“To choose one or the other would be a path you could not alter,” the Judge intoned.
It should have been simple. It was all she had wanted. To return to her mortal life. To hug her mother. To study science, and see what she was meant to become. A life where she got to make the choices. How could she give that up?
But how, now that she had seen another world, could she give that up either?
The Night City was bound into her bones.
She had changed her skin for the fur of a fox.
She had walked in shadows and felt the heat of magic in her veins.
Could a gray mortal existence ever compare with a world of blood sisters and adventure?
“You could,” the Judge interposed delicately, “be granted the right to walk in both worlds.”
Emma lifted her head, hope beating a pulse in her ears. “How?”
“You are the first in the records of the Night City to break a mark laid by the Turnbulls. Considering your unique position, if you were willing to pursue the matter further…”
“Pursue it further?” Emma repeated stupidly.
“The Night City wishes to be free of the Turnbulls. To no longer serve their ends, even in return for their sacrifices. It wishes to find a way to break the Turnbulls’ bargain.
Promise now to assist with this goal, and you will be given the power to walk in both the mortal world and the Night City. Do you accept the bargain?”
“Er—any more terms?” Emma said. It seemed suspiciously simple.
“A trifling matter,” he replied. “You must spend exactly half of your time in one world, and half in the other. From year’s dawn to year’s end. Should you favor one more than the other, even by a day, you will be made permanently a member of it.”
There it was. Emma looked at Nat, and at Saskia. It was a small enough price to pay to have both.
“I accept,” she said. And it echoed through her, sure in every last bone and breath and muscle. The right choice. The only choice, for her. She did not belong in one world or the other. She was made for both.
“Very good,” the Judge replied crisply. “Be ready to receive word of your presentation to the High Court.”
“My presentation?”
The Judge popped out of existence.
“He likes to do that,” said Robin, at her elbow. “Stay well, lady fox.”
With a last wink, he was gone.
Then Emma felt a rush of air on her neck. Heard a clatter. There, on the floor, was her silver collar. It had fallen away. And with it, her servitude to the Night City. More collars struck the ground. She saw her sisters touch newly bare necks, eyes soft with wonder.
A siren pierced the air. Somewhere outside the Greater Reading Room, gravel crunched. The vaulted room filled with flashing blue lights.
The fox maidens gathered her in a bone-crushing, icy hug. They feel so cold, Emma thought, have they always been this cold? I must be going into shock.
Nancy held her tightest of all. “Oh, love, thank you. There’s no time—the mortals are coming—but we’ll find you, don’t you worry.”
She released Emma. One by one, the fox maidens melted away. Dark shadows with pointed ears and brush tails scattered across the reading room floor. Only Saskia remained.
She gripped Emma’s shoulders, eyes burning with cold fire.
Then a pair of chilly lips brushed Emma’s, like a touch of honey and ice.
Absolute shock held Emma still. But within, her heart was thundering: a dark symphony that fogged her mind and blurred panic with joy.
Too late, she reached out. Her hands closed on darkness. Saskia was gone.
“You’ve done well, girl,” the Sister whispered gruffly, pulling Emma into a hug of her own. “And I’ll see you soon. You won’t be alone, that I promise. Henry? Oh, have your moment, but be quick about it. They can’t find us here, those mortal police.”
There was a new stillness about the Librarian. The wheezing was gone, Emma realized. “You look different,” she said. He did, now she was this close. Younger, and taller, as though the weight had rolled off his spine.
“So do you, child. You look… mortal.” He traced Emma’s face with a gentle finger, then shuffled into the shadowed labyrinth of the stacks. The darkness closed behind him.
The reading room doors burst open, and a squad of blue vests charged in. Emma was left staring at Nat, Venetia, and Jasper.
“What are we doing here?” Jasper blinked. “Why are there police? Oh, hullo, Emma. Have you been away? Feels like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
Venetia flicked her blood-streaked hair over one shoulder. “I am, as ever,” she said, “surrounded by idiots.”