Bones and Ashes (24 page)

“We had no way of knowing she had employed someone to find the pieces of her mirror. The mirror was shattered. She should have been powerless inside it.”

Her grandmother swept past him and into the palace, before he had finished speaking. Raiden took Xan’s arm and followed in her wake. The interrogators and hunters they passed inclined their heads to Xan or greeted him by name.

“They all seem to know you,” Raiden said to Xan. She remembered the portrait she had seen at the British Museum of the group of skeletons, all dressed in red inquisitor robes.

“I’ve been around for a long time,” Xan replied.

Eventually, her grandmother stopped before a door. With a snap, Xan broke off one of the bones from his finger on his left hand. He slid the bone into the keyhole and unlocked it.

Mirrors stretched the entire length of a long narrow room, every one a different shape. A bronze plaque under each one listed their number. She could see faces inside peering out. There were men and women, young and old. They rounded a corner to find yet more mirrors.

“How many mirrors are there here?” Raiden asked.

“More than a hundred,” Xan replied. “This is not all of them. Sometimes they allow the mirror to be returned to the family if the occupant is deemed not to be a threat.”

“One of the teachers at my school is in a mirror.”

“Yes. I arranged for her to work at Grimwood Manor.”

“You know Miss Radbone?”

“I did once. Many years ago.”

Her grandmother stopped before a shattered mirror. It was the same mirror from Matherson’s house. It was missing a single piece.

“How did it get here?” Raiden asked.

“I brought it here.”

Raiden turned at the voice. The Duke stepped forward from the shadows. He had been waiting for them.

Raiden started to back away, but Xan put his hand on her arm. “You’re safe, my dear. You have my word.”

The Duke came to stand before the mirror. When she had seen him at the theatre, he had appeared arrogant and conceited, but now his face was grave.

“Eleanor,” the Duke said, inclining his head toward her grandmother. He addressed her by her first name.

“Ignatius,” her grandmother replied.

“I’m glad to see your granddaughter is fully recovered.”

“You mean you’re relieved. You know what I would have done to you had she died. I would have destroyed you and your family.”

They all watched as a woman appeared in the mirror. Dark brown hair hung loose over her shoulders, reaching all the way down her back. She wore a ragged black ball gown, although her feet were bare. She appeared to be talking to herself. She didn’t appear to be aware of them.

“Does she know who she is?” the Duke asked. He addressed the question to her grandmother, but he was referring to Raiden.

“She’s Blaize’s mother,” Raiden said. She had realised as soon as she had seen the lady’s true appearance as she lay on the table, trying to breathe through the smoke. “And your wife.”

“She
was
my wife,” the Duke corrected. “As far as society is concerned my wife died twelve years ago.”

“Who was she?” Raiden asked.

“Her name was Bernadette,” the Duke said. “She and your mother were friends once. She was a powerful fire witch. Everyone expected us to marry, but I didn’t love her. I was in love with another woman - your mother. But we could never marry. Helena was heir to a dukedom, as was I. I know how the Feralis magic works. The power is passed through the female line. I needed a wife who could guarantee my child would be a fire witch.

So I married Bernadette and Helena married your father. We tried to stay away from one another. I went away to my estates in Exeter and Helena went to Northumberland. She had you and I had a child with Bernadette. Then we met again, one day in London. We couldn’t deny how we felt any longer. We decided to go away together. We arranged to meet. I waited for her, but she didn’t come. I thought she had changed her mind. I went to Syon Park to find her, but when I got there it was too late. The fire…” He stopped and closed his eyes, unable to go on.

“My mother loved my father,” Raiden said. “She wouldn’t do that to him.”

“Your father was away a great deal,” Xan said. “He wouldn’t resign his commission in the army, even after they married. Your mother was lonely and very young.” He was unable to communicate emotions with his face, but there was sorrow in his voice. “Bernadette found out that your mother and Ignatius were going to run away together. I don’t think she intended to kill your mother. She went to speak to her, to try and stop her. There was a fire. The door was locked. When Ignatius arrived, it was too late. Your mother was already dead.

“What about me?” Raiden asked. “Was she going to take me with her when she left?”

Xan paused. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

He shook his head. “No. She wasn’t going to take you with her.”

“I knew Bernadette was responsible for the fire,” the Duke said. “There would have been a scandal if it had come out. I couldn’t let that happen. I made a deal with the Inquisition. They agreed to lock her away in a mirror and then they shattered the mirror so she could never escape.”

She turned to her grandmother who had remained silent throughout the Duke’s confession. “You agreed to this?”

Her grandmother looked up. “It’s not just Blaize who would have been ruined. The scandal would have touched you as well. I couldn’t let that happen.” Her grandmother gripped her cane tightly. “We agreed no one would know. I bound the ghosts to silence. I forbid them ever to speak again.”

“What about James Matherson?” Raiden asked. “How did he become involved in this?”

“James Matherson was working for her,” the Duke said. “He was using imps to find the pieces of her mirror. She was just missing one last piece and then she would be free. One of the pieces ended up as the setting of an amulet. Matherson realised how valuable the amulet was. He was going to sell it to the vampires or to the fairies. When Bernadette found out she killed him.”

“The amulet was my doing,” Xan said, interrupting. “It was the most heavily guarded item in the museum. I had one of the pieces of her mirror in my keeping and the amulet needed a new setting. It seemed a good idea at the time. I had forgotten I had even put it there until a few months ago when I noticed that the amulet was missing.”

“If you knew about Matherson, why didn’t you act sooner?” Raiden asked.

“She was trapped in a mirror,” her grandmother said. “At least, I believed she was. There should have been no way she could have been responsible for his death.”

“She has a master mirror.”

Her grandmother paled. “That’s impossible.”

“It explains how she was able to influence things outside her mirror,” Xan said. “I will have the Inquisition search the mirror, but I doubt they will find it. If she’s using imps, one of them could bring the mirror out and hide it, and then bring it back to her later when it’s safe.”

“There was no way we could have known she had a master mirror,” her grandmother said.

Raiden waited for the Duke to admit he had known, but he said nothing. “The Duke knew she was responsible for Matherson’s death,” Raiden said, speaking up. “He helped her cover it up. He had Matherson’s body dug up by the Resurrection Men and then disposed of so that no one could summon him back from the dead and find out the truth.”

Her grandmother turned to face the Duke. “You knew Bernadette was responsible for his murder and you did nothing! Instead you helped her.”

The Duke shrugged. “I had no choice. I couldn’t allow the scandal to come out. Blaize’s future would have been ruined and I couldn’t allow her to find out what her mother was capable of. I didn’t know she had a master mirror. Matherson contacted me. He said he had an amulet he wanted to sell and that it had something on the back I would be interested in. I went to see him that night, but when I got there she had already killed him. I’m always too late.”

“Except for once,” Raiden said. He had been the one who had carried her out of the house that night. As a fire witch, he had been able to walk through the flames. He had saved her life.

“Except for once,” the Duke agreed. He met her gaze.

“Does she have the amulet?” her grandmother asked.

“I don’t think so,” Raiden said. As far as she knew the goblins still had it.

“If she had the last piece we would know by now,” the Duke said.

“What will you do about Bernadette?” her grandmother asked. “If she has a master mirror, she is still dangerous. She could still hurt Raiden.”

“Now I have her mirror, I will have her watched day and night to make sure that doesn’t happen. I will never allow her to harm anyone again, you have my word.”

His word wasn’t worth very much to Raiden.

Her grandmother nodded. She suddenly looked very frail. Her cane seemed to be the only thing keeping her up. “Xan will take you home,” she said to Raiden. “I cannot bear to look at her any longer.”

“Wait,” Raiden said, before her grandmother could leave. “What will happen to me now?” She had expected to be packed off to Northumberland the minute she was fit enough to travel.

Her grandmother turned back to her. “You will return to school as soon as my physician declares you are well enough. We will say you were taken ill.”

“Miss Grimble will never let me go back.”

“She will have you back.”

From the steely look in her grandmother’s eyes, Raiden believed she just might. 

Her grandmother nodded to the Duke and then turned and swept away.

“I loved your mother,” the Duke said after her grandmother was gone. “I would give anything to have her back. I’m sure you would as well.”

“Ignatius,” Xan said, a warning in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Raiden asked.

“After she died, I tried to find her body, not so I could destroy it like Matherson’s, but so I could bring her back.”

“Bring her back?” Surely he couldn’t mean it.

“Your grandmother knew what I was planning. She had Helena’s body moved to an unmarked grave. I could still do it, Raiden, if you could find out where your mother is buried. Help me find her grave and I will bring your mother back. It’s what you want, isn’t it?”

Once, she would have given anything to have her mother back, but now she didn’t know.

“You cannot ask that of her,” Xan said.

The Duke ignored Xan. He gazed at Raiden.

“I don’t know where her body is,” Raiden said. She was glad she didn’t know.

He put his hat on and picked up his cane from where it rested against the wall. “If you find out where your mother is buried you can contact me here.” He drew out a card from his breast pocket and handed it to her. “Xanivar.” He nodded to Xan and then left.

They stood in silence until the sound of his footsteps had disappeared. “Your grandmother always thought he should have paid for what happened, that he didn’t suffer enough,” Xan said. “But no amount of him suffering would bring Helena back.”

“You should have known she killed Matherson. You should have done something.”

Xan bowed his head. “Yes, I should have.”

“What will happen if she escapes from the mirror?”

“I will never allow that to happen. She will never be able to hurt you again.”

He meant to reassure her. He believed he could protect her; he couldn’t. She didn’t need him to. 

“Does Blaize know about her mother?” Raiden asked.

“She knows nothing. She was told her mother died.”

“I think she knows.”

“That’s impossible.”

Raiden had seen Bernadette in Blaize’s room the day she had taken the imp back, when she had tried to strangle her. Blaize must be talking to her mother through a magic mirror.

Xan took out a pocket watch from his breast pocket. “There’s somewhere we have to be.” He offered her his arm and she took it. She looked back at the mirror before they rounded the corner to see Bernadette watching them, a smile on her lips. 

Outside the palace, Grust waited with Xan’s carriage. The minotaur sat atop the driver’s box. The carriage, made of iron, had been reinforced to take his weight. Four creatures pulled it. They looked like oxen that had been cross bred with some sort of demon.

Xan opened the door for her. Raiden said nothing as the carriage left the palace and joined the traffic. She had crumpled the Duke’s card in her hand. She smoothed out the creases and stared at the tiny print. All she had to do was find out where her mother was buried and she could have her back.

“It’s never the same,” Xan said. “You’re not the same person you were when you were alive. She would look like your mother, and sound like her, but it wouldn’t be her. She’s been gone for too long now. Let her rest in peace.”

Raiden slipped the card into the pocket of her dress. “Will you stop me if I try to find her?”

“No. I will not betray your confidence again. I will advise you and guide you as best as I can, but I won’t stop you.”

The carriage had stopped across the road from a cemetery. Grust opened the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges with his immense strength. Raiden felt like a doll compared to him as he helped her down.