Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
The Great Hall mirrors its name with the chandeliers lit, the rich oak floor polished to a slippery shine, and the guests milling about in their finest suits and gowns, their hands laden with crystal glasses, probably wondering why Valdemar has commissioned another party so close after his release day.
As agreed, I hang back in the library as the party gets underway. If their reaction to me last week was anything to go by, my attendance would only spark a hot debate, and the floral tattoo adorned with several ravens now decorating the back of my left hand and arm would certainly set tongues wagging before Valdemar has had the chance to explain. The visit to the tattoo parlour had been painful, and not just for me. Valdemar was positively bristling at the male tattooist putting his hands on me. When it was done and we walked out of the parlour, Valdemar declared that if I wanted any more, then he would do them himself.
“You’re not trained,” I’d laughed while adjusting the cling film that was wrapped around my arm.
“I’ll learn,” Valdemar had replied.
Jupiter joins me in the library, holding two glasses of whisky. He’s the only other person, along with Jacinta, who’s bound by Dr Tem-Pest’s magic in not being able to reveal the truth about the night my brother was shot. In their silent world, they know what happened yet have been unable to tell anyone for the past ten years.
And they’re both the only Raven Hands to know about our Blood Oath. We’d sat Jupiter down in this very room, the fire roaring, the walls listening. I’d wanted Jacinta to be present as well, but Valdemar had suggested that we tell Jupiter first, seeing as he’s next in the chain of command, and he thought Jupiter would want to tell Jacinta himself, so I agreed to speak to Jupiter alone.
He was shocked, colour draining from his cheeks, and my anxiety peaked; if we didn’t have Jupiter’s blessing, we could have mutiny on our hands. But then he nodded, his face settling.
“A woman in the flock.” He scratched his chin.
“Not just the flock, Jupiter,” Valdemar pointed out. “At the helm.”
“Jacinta will be pleased.” He glanced at Valdemar. “I assume I can tell her?”
“Of course,” Valdemar replied.
Jupiter leaned back in his chair, which creaked as if it was absorbing the news. “She’s wanted to be a Raven Hand for as long as I’ve known her. She’s even designed her own tattoo.” Jupiter laughed at this, and then his face grew more serious. “Her gift is one we’ve been using for many years, and I’m sure she isn’t the only woman who will be excited by this turn of events.”
Valdemar had told me that Jacinta has a photographic memory, something that often comes in handy.
“How do you think the rest of the Raven Hands will take the news?” I asked, unable to bite my tongue any longer.
“It doesn’t matter how they take it,” Valdemar snapped.
“If Jupiter’s reaction to me is anything to go by, then they’ll be sceptical.”
“Hey, that was when you were visiting him at the prison,” Jupiter cut in. “I knew you were a journalist, and I had no idea what you were going to print about him, about us, about what we can do. I thought you were going to expose us all.”
“And I told you to trust me,” Valdemar reminded him.
“Yeah, well, this gig hasn’t exactly been easy.” Jupiter ran his hand down his throat. “They don’t listen to me like they do to you. There’s been unrest. Talk of breaking off from the flock. It’s been a nightmare.”
“I know it’s been difficult, Jupiter, and you should never have been put in this position, but I’m here now, and I’m not alone,” Valdemar says.
Jupiter stared at Valdemar and then at me, as if sizing me up to see if I fit the role.
“I can get on board with this,” he said at last.
My shoulders relaxed.
“Good.” Valdemar squeezed my hand as if he’d never questioned Jupiter’s loyalty.
Jupiter clears his throat, pulling me back into the present, and I can’t help but hope everyone else has his unwavering allegiance.
“How does the crowd look?” I ask Jupiter as he downs his drink and winces before placing the empty glass on the table.
“Puzzled,” he answers. “There’s a buzz. Has been ever since the night he got out of prison and left his party with you.”
“Great.” I slump down on the arm of the chair, then stand back up and resume pacing.
“It could be worse.” He shrugs. “They don’t have pitchforks.”
“Not funny.” I throw him daggers but can’t help the smile that erupts.
“I think everyone is here. It’s time to move,” he says.
I abandon my glass, and we exit through the rear door, turning left and following the corridor back to the front of the house and into the foyer.
The double doors to the Great Hall are now closed, all the Raven Hands contained inside the hall.
Nausea whips at my insides.
Valdemar’s voice travels down the bond. “ There’s no need to be nervous.”
“ Easy for you to say.”
“Nothing is ever easy, angel.”
Jupiter stalks to the huge double doors to open one of them a crack, and I hear the chatter die and applause erupt.
“I take it he’s on the stage?” I edge over to Jupiter so I can hear what’s going on.
“Thank you, thank you,” Valdemar says.
The rapturous welcome simmers down, and I picture Valdemar standing on the stage in his pressed suit, addressing his followers, smiling to put them at ease.
“I don’t deserve such a welcome, and certainly not after absconding from my party last week. For that, I must apologise. But as I’m sure you can understand, it was a strange day. It’s been a long time since I was here, in my home. And I know there’ve been some doubts and questions about what’s going to happen now I’ve returned, so tonight, I’m here to answer those questions.”
Through the crack in the door, I see a snapshot of the faces trained up to the stage, mostly male, but there’s a scattering of women, the loyal followers like Jacinta who’ve been bestowed a gift but have never been accepted into the fold due to the archaic rules. They’ve remained due to fear of being an outcast in the regular world, where people don’t understand the power they wield—a world I know only too well.
“Ten years is a long time to be caged. And it gave me a lot of time to think. A lot of time to wonder about the future and what it looks like. And I’d like to start by thanking Jupiter for keeping me so well-informed and Jacinta for keeping Jupiter sane while I’ve been away.”
I duck behind the door as Jupiter opens it, then makes his way through the crowd and onto the stage.
I close the door but leave a small enough gap so I can hear Valdemar say, “Come on up, Jacinta.”
From my vantage point, I can’t see Jacinta go onto the stage, but I hear the applause ripple through the crowd.
“You guys have done such a great job, and I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done,” Valdemar tells them.
“But he’s back now, so move aside!” someone shouts from the crowd, and silence descends, everyone assessing Valdemar’s reaction.
“You’re right. I’m back. And it’s time to make a few changes.”
Silence continues to brood as my stomach somersaults.
“Thirteen years ago, Ed Bransby and I swore the Blood Oath, and, as you all know, the Blood Oath holds even in death. But I’m here tonight to tell you that I’ve been released from that Blood Oath,” Valdemar tells the crowd.
Murmurs flitter through the hall, gasps of disbelief and confusion erupting as some of the Raven Hands look to one another for reassurance that they’re hearing this right.
“And I have the greatest honour of informing you that I’ve sworn a new Blood Oath to our very newest member of the Raven Hands.”
Heads swivel as people search the room, looking for telltale signs of who the lucky Raven Hand could be.
I hear Jupiter’s name bandied about, see glances cast his way. He would be the obvious choice.
I feel sick. What if they throw things at me? What if they boo?
“It’s without further ado that I would like to introduce you to not only my new Blood Oath Raven Hand but the person who will co-lead the Raven Hands from here on in.”
“ It’s time,” Valdemar says down the bond.
If his previous announcement hadn’t piqued their interest, then this one now has the room held in rapturous anticipation.
I step back from the doors as they’re opened by two footmen on the other side.
It’s exactly like last week, stunned faces pinning me with icy glares as Valdemar jumps down from the stage and heads towards me.
Willing my feet to move, I step forwards.
Our eyes lock, and I’m so grateful that all I can see is him as we walk towards each other, the Raven Hands parting before us.
He takes my head in his hands and kisses me gently.
“It’s time,” he repeats aloud. Taking my hand, he leads me to the stage, his fingers squeezing mine.
“ I know you’re nervous, but don’t be. Just remember what I did to you the last time you were on this stage, my angel.”
My skin heats at his words as I recall reenacting the dream we’d had. We’ve reenacted all the dreams, my favourite being the fountain in the middle of the maze.
Once I’m standing on the stage, blank faces stare at me, eyebrows furrowed and mouths slightly open. I don’t need to hear them to know what they’re thinking. What is she doing up there? Is that a raven tattoo on her arm? What the hell is Valdemar playing at? Is this some kind of joke?
“I would like to introduce you all to Evangeline Bransby, who is not only the first woman to become a Raven Hand but also the first to swear the Blood Oath.”
“You were found guilty of killing her brother,” a man with thick ginger hair shouts. “How can you trust her?”
Valdemar glares into the crowd, and I feel his anger running down his arm and fingertips and flowing into my hand. “I trust her with my life, and so should you.”
But it isn’t enough. These people need to know what happened, but to reveal the full truth of that night could get them killed, so a snapshot will have to suffice.
“Valdemar didn’t kill my brother,” I begin, Valdemar flinching beside me. “He took the fall to keep everyone else safe. He can’t tell you who did kill Ed, as it would put your lives at risk. But if there’s anyone in this room who believes he would kill one of his own, then you aren’t in the right place.”
Silence, thick and dangerous, swamps the hall, and I’m worried it will swallow me until I hear the slow clap from the front.
Jacinta. Jacinta is clapping.
She knows the truth. She knows Valdemar didn’t shoot my brother.
“It’s about time someone spoke up about what happened,” another woman calls from the back, and as she joins in, so do the other women, followed by some men. Not all of them, but enough that the room is filled with noise.
And it’s then that I see them. My mother and father are at the back of the hall, my father with his hands on my mother’s shoulders, and Ed is there with Annabel wrapped in his arms. They nod to me, my brother and my mother. My family—all of them here to watch except William, my dad, who’s since visited me and Valdemar. It was an awkward visit, Valdemar’s presence a difficult one to swallow, until we told William an edited version of what really happened to Ed that didn’t disclose the Raven Hands’ gifts. Luckily, he was more focussed on me and relieved that I’d accepted the news about my birth father without too much scorn.
“Thank you,” I say to the four ghostly figures.
The crowd stills.
I address them next. “Thank you for your enthusiastic welcome. I can’t begin to tell you how nervous I’ve been. And I know this change might fill some of you with doubts and fears, but isn’t that what great change is all about? What discovery hasn’t been met with danger and uncertainty?
“The Raven Hands have been dwelling in the darkness of tradition for too long. There are loyal women amongst us who’ve been bestowed with gifts, yet they have gone unrecognised and haven’t been allowed to be called a Raven Hand just because of their gender. Today marks a new age, and I’m honoured to be the one to bring the Raven Hands out of the darkness and into the light.”
A riot of applause follows, and I find myself smiling and clapping along with them.
“But what does this mean for the future of the Raven Hands?”
The clapping dies down as all eyes fall on a tall man in the centre, his hair thick and unruly, a raven tattoo peeking above the collar of his shirt. And I wonder if this is the man who had a gun to my head the first time I walked into the Great Hall. I never have learned who that was or if he remains a Raven Hand after threatening my life.
Valdemar turns to me.
I clear my throat. “It means more recruits. More bodies. More people with more diverse gifts to fight the cause,” I tell them.
“And what is the cause?” the man shouts.
“The same as what it’s always been,” Valdemar answers. “To rid the streets of Amontillado of the filth and rubbish. To make this city a safer place to live, and for people like us to not have to hide or be made to feel like lepers.”
“Does that include Adolphe Fortunato?” the tall man asks, and I feel Valdemar’s hackles rise. “We’ve followed your orders for the past ten years and not taken retribution against him or his corrupt organisation. We all know that what went on that night is not what it seems. You would never have killed your Blood Brother,” he continues, the people nearest him taking a step back as if to distance themselves from his words. “But ten years is a long time, and in your absence, Fortunato has held this city in a firmer grip. So, what do you intend to do about Adolphe Fortunato?”
Valdemar doesn’t answer. He can’t. I know his thoughts. He lost Ed because of Adolphe Fortunato and, along with Jupiter and Jacinta, is now under the spell of Dr Tem-Pest. He doesn’t want to risk losing any more Ravens at either of their hands. This is a fight he isn’t willing to have.
But I am.
“Let me assure you, Adolphe Fortunato will be dealt with,” I say.
Valdemar stiffens. I can hear him screaming his protest in my head, but I ignore him.
“He will pay for what he’s done. Mark my words. He will pay,” I tell them.
A fraught silence hangs before the applause erupts. This is what they’ve been waiting for. This is what the unrest has been about. They want revenge. They want blood. And the first thing I’ve done as their leader is to promise them it.
I smile as I feel Valdemar’s anger flap under my skin.
“ What the fuck have you done?” he hisses down the bond.
I turn to him.
“ I’m giving them what they want. What I want. And it’s long overdue.”
“But—”
“ Trust me. I’ve got this.”