Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(78)

Forty-Five


The Left Hand met me at the final door separating me from the nobles. The path there had been littered with guards, all wide-eyed and at attention, taking in everything before them. The sharp lines of my white outfit hung heavy over the knives at my waist and fading ink still clinging to my skin. No guards waited here.

A waiting room for only the Left Hand of Our Queen.

“And so we are four again.” Ruby beckoned me forward, a bright slice of light cutting across the shadow of his outstretched hands, and pulled me into a tight, uncomfortable hug.

“No hard feelings?” I asked.

Emerald laughed. “He’s too fickle for feelings.”

“Your probation was the most interesting thing to happen to me in ages. But no more back talk.” He let me go and patted my cheek. “Come. I cannot call you Opal until after the ceremony, and I’m not calling you Twenty-Three one more time. Such a mouthful.”

“How do you feel?” Amethyst asked softly. “Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not.” There were no words to explain the settled feeling of accomplishment and anticipation coursing through my veins.

“Good.” Ruby grinned, his ears shifting with the hidden expression. “You are to be our Opal, and we are to be your new family.”

Family. I’d never even tried to form a new one, but if I was to kill beside these three and trust them, I’d have to think of them as more than accomplices. A bond as deep as the blood we’d spilled.

“Ignore him. Poetry runs in his blood, and I’ve never been able to drain enough of it to spare us.” Emerald pulled a thin, wide box from the folds of her green skirts and opened the lid. A bone-white mask with vertical slits for eyes and a crooked smile stared back at me. “Our previous Opal’s mask will serve you until yours is made. What would you like it to be?”

“Nothing.” A new life, a clean slate. I could be anyone and everyone. “Solid white, no eyes and no mouth.”

Amethyst nodded. “The crafter will meet with you tomorrow.”

I stroked the black ribbons dangling from the mask. Amethyst’s hands moved to my old one and eased it from my head, revealing my face.

Sallot Leon’s face.

“Now we know you.” Amethyst studied my face and tucked my old mask in her pocket.

Each of them reached behind their heads and undid their own masks. The metal fell away, and Amethyst’s smiling face met me first. She was pale, golden tan beneath the purple, face unused to the sun, a few splotches marring her skin where the color had been sapped from it. Easy amber eyes crinkled when she laughed.

“And you know us.” Ruby grinned, and it was like his voice—crooked and sharp. His chestnut hair came to an even peak above deep-set gray eyes darkened by faded runes, and freckles dotted his long crooked nose.

“So.” Emerald lowered her mask last, metal giving way to gems. Three deep scars cut through the right side of her face and down her cheek, wrinkling when she smiled. A delicate green glass orb with an emerald at its center sat in place of her right eye, and runes, small and dark as night, lined her upturned lids. “Don’t make us regret it.”

“I won’t.” I shook my head, fingers painfully tight around Opal’s mask—my mask—and pressed my lips together. My eyes burned.

Ruby winked. “I cried too.”

That threw me over the edge. Amethyst wiped the tears from my cheeks as Emerald straightened my hair and settled my mask into place. Ruby turned to the great doors before us.

“You have the coin?” he asked and waited for me to nod. “When the doors open, walk straight to Our Queen and kneel. She’ll direct you from there.”

Silver stars sparkling in a cloud of onyx storm clouds dripping raindrop sapphires shivered as the doors creaked open.

“It will be fine.” Amethyst squeezed my arm. “You’ll sit next to me at dinner, with Emerald on your other side. Always be in the order of the rings.”

The doors opened. I rolled my shoulders back and lifted my chin, letting out a breath. I was Sallot Leon, Twenty-Three, Opal. I was chosen for my skill, and I’d no need to fear the high court. They’d every reason to fear me.

I strolled through the doors, eyes only for Our Queen. She was a vision of death draped in black velvet. Snowdrops fresh from the gardens were woven into a crown atop her shaved head, and a dusting of silver sparkled on her eyelids and in the hollow of her throat. She’d a corset of black velvet laced with steel, the stamp of the imperial army across her chest. Her long, delicate hands curled over the arms of her throne. A metal gauntlet tipped with bear claws covered her right hand. She held out her left to me. I kneeled.

“My new Opal.” She beckoned me forward, rings flashing. Her fourth finger crooked, the opal ring flashing. “And you’ve brought me a present.”

I pressed a kiss to the opal and placed the bloody credit coin in her hand. “Of course, Our Queen.”

“Of course.” She smiled and covered her laughter with her gauntleted hand. “You are eager to please, and I am eager to accept. You are mine and mine alone, and you will clear away all who stand in the way of Igna.”

“Yes, Our Queen.”

“Good. Stand.”

I did, and she pulled my face to hers, her lips pressed to my forehead. She smelled of lemons and lavender.