Midnight in Everwood(73)

Dellara watched it bob on the water. ‘Do I care to know?’

Marietta dredged it out a few minutes later. ‘Look, it is perfectly dry inside,’ she said, marching into the private toilet and leaning against the cistern to slide the lid off.

‘Oh.’ Pirlipata’s confusion evaporated at once. ‘How ingenious.’

Dellara’s grin revealed her sharpened teeth.

Marietta popped the watertight bundle in and replaced the lid.

They celebrated the successful procuring of their disguises with dinner. Bowls of rich stew, puffs of bread, light and airy as snowballs, and biscotti studded with flakes of nuts and bursts of berry that they dipped into white drinking chocolate.

Marietta lay on the carpet between Pirlipata and Dellara, as they finalised their escape plan. They ran through it once, twice, smoothing out any worries that snagged at the fabric of their resolve. No ball had transpired that night; they had all dressed for comfort in woollen trousers and soft tops as they conversed through the deepening evening.

Marietta glided her fingers through the indulgent carpet pile as the talk shifted to trading stories of books they’d read, people they admired and hopes they held dearest to their hearts. Until a low chanting seeped into her awareness.

Pirlipata straightened. ‘No. No, no, no – not again.’

Dellara’s eyes clouded into shadows thicker than night.

Pirlipata turned to her. ‘I cannot watch another.’ Her voice broke. ‘Dellara—’

‘Hush.’ Dellara took her in her arms, stroking her hair. ‘You can and you will and I shall be with you the entire time.’ Her glance at Marietta was threaded with anxiety.

Marietta was unsure if she wished to know the nature of the horror creeping towards them. Before she could voice this, the door thudded open. Three faceless guards filled the open doorway, their attention fixed on the women, cool and silent.

Marietta stood as Dellara sauntered over to the guards. ‘King Gelum forces us to bear witness to his executions,’ Pirlipata whispered.

They were escorted down the stairs. The rest of the palace-dwellers were congregating in the throne room. All the hidden cogs that kept everything running smoothly, the chefs and chocolatiers and patissiers, along with cleaners and maids, all forced to assemble. They outnumbered even the soldiers. King Gelum sat on his throne surrounded by the Faceless Guards, with the courtiers huddled around the edges of the room. Leaving the centre empty.

Marietta reached for Pirlipata’s hand and held it tight, their breaths coming faster and shallower. Dellara stood before them both, though her shorter frame did nothing to obscure either of their views.

‘Lev has betrayed me,’ King Gelum announced, commanding the palace’s attention. Heads snapped to him. Whispers perished unspoken in throats. A soldier was dragged before the throne. Still in his garnet livery, he stood there, spine unyielding, face proud, despite being leached of colour. Nausea skulked in the pit of Marietta’s stomach. ‘My own soldier,’ the king continued, ‘caught colluding with the Crackatians, feeding them palace secrets. It seems even my own ranks of soldiers have been stained with the guilt of treason, harbouring a traitor in their midst.’

Marietta’s heart thudded harder and she couldn’t help seeking out Captain Legat, who stood at the king’s side, his taut face betraying the inner tension warring within. So it had begun. He met her eyes across the crowd, concern flashing across his face before he ripped his gaze off her, cutting it back onto the accused soldier, his soldier, begging for his life at their feet.

‘I swear my innocence on the stars,’ Lev said, his voice low. Strong. ‘You’ve been searching for an excuse to cull our ranks and this upcoming investigation into our honour is merely a farce. A reason to replace us with these inhuman monstrosities.’ He jerked his head at the faceless guards securing him in place. ‘Be warned, the king does not deserve our service.’ He turned to address his fellow soldiers, stood in regimented lines of garnet. ‘He’s a liar and a coward and he doesn’t deserve the throne he cheated and murdered his way onto.’

His proclamation was met with stalwart silence. Averted eyes. Pirlipata squeezed Marietta’s hand tighter.

King Gelum’s smile was a thin, sadistic sliver of delight. ‘For your crimes, you are sentenced to an immediate execution.’

The faceless guards to either side of him began marching him up the stairs. ‘Where are they taking him?’ Marietta asked Pirlipata under her breath. Perhaps she wouldn’t be forced to watch the man’s life be ripped away; perhaps they were merely there to witness the sentencing.

‘To the highest point of the staircase,’ Dellara said, bringing back Marietta’s dread tenfold. ‘Where sugar and sky meet.’

Higher and higher Lev was escorted up the spiral, until he was but a tiny figure at the tip of the palace. For a moment she was certain she caught a splash of silver wending round the staircase but it vanished before she could blink.

The chanting returned with a vengeance. With a prickle of fear, Marietta realised it was emitted from behind the faceless guards’ masks. Deep and toneless. She knew what was coming and ordered herself to look away. In a sound that Marietta knew would never cease to haunt her, she heard the final scream as Lev departed this world.

They all required the enchanted blanket to sleep that night.