A Breath of Frost Read online

  She ducked into the tent, feeling comfortable for the first time since her run-in with the gargoyles. She’d slept under the table facing the goblin markets for three years before she took to the roofs. She still slept there occasionally when the winter cold was too bitter to brave.

  “There’s my best girl.” He coughed through the smoke, sounding as if his lungs had grown thorns and were scouring him from the inside out. The silver thread on his eye patch was embroidered in the shape of an eye. “What have you brought me, lovely?”

  She handed him a slightly wrinkled lemon. It went straight into the pocket of his greatcoat. He loved lemons the way children loved sweets. She still wasn’t sure if he actually ate them. You never could tell with witches. He sniffed. “What else have you been doing? You stink of the dead.”

  “That’s a fine thank-you,” she said wryly.

  “Out with it, Moira.”

  She pulled the silk-wrapped eyeball from her waistcoat. She presented it to him with a bow and a flourish best suited to the dandies of the Mad King decades earlier. One-Eyed Joe unwrapped it carefully.

  Mrs. Lawton’s glass eye stared up at him, covered in the salt grains Moira had rolled it in after the gargoyles left. Salt was the most basic protection magic there was and she’d pickled herself like cured beef. It was still falling out of her pockets and the collar of her coat.

  “Ah, lassie.” The smoke from One-Eyed Joe’s pipe turned into floating eyes, all blinking at her. She poked her finger through one and it fell apart. “You didn’t.”

  “You need it.” She shrugged. “Don’t pretend you don’t. And there’s not enough blunt in London to buy it, even on the other side of the bridge.”

  “Stealing from dead witches is dangerous business.”

  She grinned. “I was taught by the best.”

  “Toad-eater.” He grinned back, his teeth very white in his dark face. “Are you dealing in flattery now? And what will they call me, lassie? Two-Eyed Joe doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

  “You’ll still be the dream-bringer, old man.”

  “Who you calling old?”

  She heard the bells as soon as she stepped behind the table and closed the curtain to London behind her. “It’s the Order.” She frowned at him when he just sat there, rolling the glass eyeball between his scarred fingers. “Aren’t you going to hide?”

  He just grumbled and refused to move from his stool. Moira reached for the fastenings of the brocade curtain that would close off the stall to the goblin markets. She’d stolen the material for him from the back of a cart with a broken wheel just last year. “Leave it,” he barked.

  She stared at him. “Are you mad? Do you want them tramping through here like the gits they are?”

  “I’m not scared of no Greybeard.”

  “You taught me to be, just like you taught me the rest.” She kicked the leg of his chair. “Come on.”

  “I’m comfortable. Let them come,” he snorted. “They’re not here for me and they won’t risk the nightmares. Not again and not so soon.”

  “It’s bad out there, Joe,” Moira argued. “I was in Mayfair and all the gargoyles have fled.”

  He patted the small gargoyle statue on the table beside him. “Not this one.”

  “That’s because you feed him a lot of milk and whiskey.”

  “And the fancy can afford to do the same.” He shrugged. “What do I care if they’re too stupid to do it?”

  “No,” Moira said quietly. “You don’t understand. All the gargoyles fled.”

  “Bad luck.”

  “Bad luck? That’s all you have to say?” Marmalade stretched and then leaped back onto Moira’s chest as she flapped her hands in agitation. She could feel the Greybeards out there on the bridge. Doors and shutters were slammed shut. Witches scattered, even the ones with nothing to hide. “I can’t stay, Joe. I won’t be press-ganged into the Order.”

  “I bloody well think not,” he harrumphed. “As if my girl couldn’t outrun a bunch of fat Greybeards.”

  “So what are you saying?” She rubbed her forehead. When One-Eyed Joe got into one of his moods, it was difficult to keep up. “I should run?”

  “Of course you should run, are you bacon-brained all of a sudden?”

  If she’d been a cat like Marmalade, she might have hissed.

  “Get yourself to the park. I hear the Serpentine is lovely this time of year.”

  “I’ve had my fill of the fancy,” she muttered. He just scowled at her stubbornly until she sighed. “Why am I off to Hyde Park exactly?”

  “You’ll know when you get there.”

  Chapter 19

  For some reason, Cormac kept turning her into an idiot.

  And at some point, preferably before it killed her, she would have to remember that he was only kind to her for his own secret, and clearly nefarious, purposes. Her only comfort was that Gretchen and Penelope were safely away.

  There she went again, trusting in his kindness. The door he was so eager to send them through could have dropped them anywhere. She swallowed, rage and fear making her feel as if she’d eaten lightning.

  Keepers blocked the bruise-tinted light at the mouth of the alley. One carried a sword and they all had iron-spoke pendants dangling from their hands. “Is this her?” one of them barked.

  Emma took a hasty step backward, then another. Her heart hammered in her chest, echoing in the sky. As they continued to advance, she backed up farther and farther until there was nowhere left to go. She half expected to topple over the side of the bridge. Instead, she collided with Cormac’s chest.

  Falling into the cold, garbage-choked Thames would have been preferable.

  His hands closed around her upper arms before she could dart away, as if he was steadying her. But she knew it was actually to restrain her. He bent his head, his lips brushing her ear. She jerked away, her hands clenching into fists. “Don’t fight,” he whispered, his breath warm on her neck.

  She suppressed a shiver. The snarl was impossible to repress. “Where are my cousins?”

  “Safe,” he replied softly. “As you will be, if you don’t fight.”

  “That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard.” She stood as stiff as a fireplace poker in his arms, too aware of the strength in him and of the warmth of his body blocking the cold wet wind. She was a thousand times a fool.

  “Trust me.”

  She laughed, although there was nothing humorous about her situation. “I was wrong. That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard.”

  His fingers tightened. “Then hear this, at the very least, Emma. Don’t lie. The Order will know and it will go badly for you.”

  “Lie about what?” She struggled but he stood firm and unyielding behind her. She twisted, trying to see if she could break his foot or some other more vulnerable portion of his anatomy.

  “Don’t even try it,” he advised quietly.

  “I haven’t done anything wrong!” she insisted, raising her voice so the others would hear her. “I don’t even know what the bloody hell the bloody Order is bloody about!”

  “The mouth on her.” One of the Keepers blinked. “Are you sure she’s a bleedin’ lady?”

  “Yes,” Cormac answered coldly. “And you’ll treat her as such.”

  “Why? Because you’re the only one who can insult and manhandle me?” she retorted hotly. “My father’s an earl! My mother is granddaughter to a duke!”

  “Oh, we know who your mother is, lovey,” came the reply. “So don’t make us bind you to the wheel.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “The pendant,” Cormac explained dispassionately. She couldn’t see his eyes, couldn’t tell if he was truly as cold as he sounded. There was nothing cold about the way he kissed. “The wheel with the black stone will bind your powers like the cage, and it’s far less comfortable.”

  “Comfortable” and “cage” weren’t words she would have used together in the same sentence.

  Her
mouth went dry. “You’re not putting me in that thing.”

  “Come on.” A Keeper yanked her out of Cormac’s arms. She dug in her heels but it made no difference. “We haven’t got all day to coddle a murderer.”

  “Murderer!” she squawked, shoving back at him. “I didn’t kill anyone!” But hadn’t she told Cormac that Margaret’s death was her fault? Wasn’t she the one who’d broken her mother’s spell bottle? Even unwittingly, had she opened the way for a murder? Did that make her culpable?

  The cage loomed, lightning flashing off the hinges. Three shackled witches huddled near the door, hissing at her.

  Not culpable enough to let herself be dragged away in chains, she decided.

  She looked over her shoulder at Cormac, who stalked behind Emma and the Keeper. The rain fell in shining gray sheets, like windowpanes falling from the sky and shattering on the stones. “Cormac, please.”

  “Don’t make me ask you again.” The man gripped the back of her head, fingers knotting in her rain-tangled hair. She cursed and elbowed him in the nose. He let go, howling as his blood dripped onto the ground. She’d never admit she’d hit him accidentally. And when he grabbed for her, she decided that while she didn’t have Gretchen’s skills with a sword, she might just be a biter. Her teeth scraped deeply enough to draw blood. One of the witches slapped her iron manacle to the bars like iron applause.

  Cormac stepped in front of her, knocking the other Keeper aside. “Mind yourself, Orson.”

  “She broke my ruddy nose! And then she bit me! Bind her!”

  “No hope for it now,” Cormac told her quietly. He was gentle but unyielding. He might not let her be hurt or insulted.

  But he also wouldn’t save her.

  He forced her up the steps and into the cart, the gate clanging shut. She felt it in her teeth. The rain stopped. “Told you she was making it rain,” one of the women muttered.

  A man reclined in the back corner as if he was at his club. Water ran off the brim of his beaver hat. “It’s useless to fight the Greybeards on the bridge, lass,” he said.

  Emma shivered, curling into herself. “I thought they were Keepers?”

  “Greybeard’s a nickname,” he explained. “After the gray witch bottles they use to trap us.”

  Emma swallowed. That didn’t sound encouraging. “Where are they taking us?” she asked as the cart rumbled into motion, clattering down the lane. Cormac kept pace on a huge brown horse. Behind them the bridge filled with people again, emerging warily from shops and alleys. Goblins ran behind, tossing rotten fruit at the cart. Sweet moldy pulp burst under the wheels.

  “To the ship, where else?” one of the women snapped. She was barefoot and there were little silver bells on a chain around her ankle. They sang out when she moved and when she noticed Emma looking, she snarled. “Mind yourself, morsel.”

  Emma drew back. She could have sworn she felt lightning crown her head like the antlers of the stag in the park. The cage pressed on her, as if she was wearing manacles and a collar like some of the other prisoners. Faces watched them pass through shop windows. She thought she saw a gargoyle crouched over a gutter move.

  When they reached the end of the bridge, the air shimmered. As the horses pulled them between the carved gateposts, Emma felt a strange pressure in her head. Behind her, London Bridge looked the same as it always did, crowded with fine carriages, farmers’ carts coming into the city with baskets of early onions, radishes, and strawberries, and boatmen shouting insults at one another on the river below. The smell of strange flowers and fruits and wild creatures became ordinary water, fish, and horse droppings. It was like any other late morning, rain clouds breaking apart and crowds coming together.

  Just as Emma was hoping a passerby on the street would come to the aid of people locked in a cage, the Keeper sitting next to the driver draped them in thick gray wool. The last thing she saw was Cormac’s dark, inscrutable gaze. He seemed to be trying to tell her something, but she was encased in stuffy shadows before she could figure it out. They rattled back and forth on the hard wooden benches as the horses moved onto rougher roads. She tried to wriggle her hand through the bars to catch the end of the heavy material. She only managed to force two fingers out and they cramped as she contorted them. The edge of the drape fluttered just out of reach.

  “It’s no use,” the man said again, his Scottish brogue thick and unconcerned. “We’ve been charmed. Even if you managed to uncover us, all they’d see is a cart full of goats.”

  “Goats?” she echoed. She couldn’t help but feel insulted.

  “And the road under our wheels is jinxed. Any witch who knows what we are would find himself having all manner of accidents if he tried to reach us. Didn’t your mam teach you anything, lass?”

  The cart came to a stop, the wheels groaning like old men on a cold winter’s night. The witch in the collar began to weep and claw at her throat, wailing. Emma clutched the edge of the bench, anxiety burning in her belly. She could smell dead fish and muck, and from the sheer volume of voices and screeching gulls, she assumed they were at the docks. The stifling curtain fell off the bars and the sunlight pierced between the captives. She felt it.

  But she couldn’t see it.

  The quality of the light changed, making the inside of her eyelids pink as a seashell. No matter how hard she tried, they wouldn’t open. The rose-petal darkness was inescapable.

  “I can’t see,” she squeaked. Her lids were sewn shut. She could feel the tiny stitches between her lashes with her fingertips. They didn’t hurt but panic shivered through her. Shallow breaths were torn from her like autumn leaves in a storm.

  “It’s a blinding spell,” someone told her, as if she were a child fretting over imaginary monsters under the bed. “It’ll fade when they want it to.”

  She bit down hard on her lower lip when it threatened to wobble. She wouldn’t show them an ounce of weakness. They wouldn’t feed on her fear and confusion like beasts. She wouldn’t be a feast. They’d choke on her first. She’d see to it.

  Just as soon as she could actually see again.

  Lifting her chin and wrapping herself in hundreds of years of aristocratic upbringing, she shuffled forward toward the cart steps. A hand closed around her elbow, guiding her to the ground.

  Without warning, the blinding spell fell away.

  Sunlight stabbed at her. Emma blinked back tears, waiting for her sight to readjust. The stark whiteness faded until only the edges of the river caught the light and magnified it. The Thames was sluggish in its banks, pushing listless brown water between fine ships and tiny rowboats. Mud larks gathered on the banks, scavenging for lost shipments, coins, or the teeth of abandoned bodies.

  She stood on the edge of a gangplank pressed into service as a bridge to a huge ship waiting in the middle of the river. She didn’t need to be told the ship and the gangplank were both spelled, since no one noticed them at all, except for one scrawny dog barking at them from a rowboat. The ship drifted quietly, undisturbed. It was painted dark blue and white, with floral ornamentation wrapped around scowling gargoyles. Knotted ropes of every color dangled from the rails. The sails were stitched and marked with symbols. The mermaid figure-head was carved out of mahogany and painted in painstaking detail.

  “Is that a p-prison hulk?” she stammered, her throat seizing. She’d read about them in the newspaper. They were decommissioned ships used as prison facilities for criminals. Murderers. She thought of Margaret again.

  “On with ye,” Orson barked, nudging her in the small of her back with the tip of a dagger. One of the witches was already crossing to the ship.

  Emma stepped carefully, the wooden boards bending under her weight. It wasn’t much wider than a bench and felt considerably less sturdy. Far below, the river teemed with activity. She considered jumping into the dirty water and swimming to safety. The moment her foot touched the gangplank, her eyes snapped shut of their own accord.

  It was so violent and unexpected, she jerked back a
nd nearly toppled off. Adrenaline raced through her, making her dizzy. The sudden darkness was disorienting and she froze, swearing until she ran out of words. Orson laughed harshly before his dagger poked her again.

  “Thought about jumping, didn’t you?” He chortled. “Now you’ll walk blind.”

  The walk was longer and more excruciating than she could have imagined. Her steps were tiny, dragging inch by careful inch across the wooden planks. A gull’s piercing cry startled her and she slipped. The sound of water lapping at the ship’s decorated hull seemed very close. The dog was still barking. She forced herself forward, muscles tensing so hard her legs felt as if they were made of bricks. She could very well imagine the hundred ways she could die horribly by falling off the gangplank.

  And the thousands of ways she could die horribly if she made it to the ship.

  Ursa Major, the Plough, Orion the Hunter, Hydra. She recited star constellations to herself until her heart didn’t feel quite so much like a ripe strawberry about to burst on the vine. She was afraid she’d run out of stars.

  Sweat curled her hair by the time she reached the ship and blinked her sight back. The first thing she saw were clear glass wine bottles set close together like fence posts. Each held a floating eyeball that bobbed in seawater, always watching.

  Keepers waited on the deck, stern-faced and armed with swords, pistols, and strange silver nets. Green glass balls filled with bits of colored string and herbs hung overhead. The wind snapped the sails like dragons’ wings. The other captives were led away into the shadows of the deck.

  She never thought she’d miss their company until she was marched down a set of steps into the dark heart of the ship, alone.