Midnight in Everwood(77)

Dellara’s eyes leached of shadows, turning her irises and pupils frost-like. ‘There’s no lock on this side.’





Chapter Thirty-Eight


Dellara reached into her bodice and pulled her wand out. She offered Marietta a shrug. ‘It seems I’m no longer accustomed to carrying it anymore.’ She held it in her left hand, her fingers a loose embrace around it.

Marietta glanced down the spiral of ice stairs, imagining eyes freezing into her back. She shivered, unvoiced suspicions storming through her mind. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘The captain hinted that if there was any place we might find a key with which to cut ourselves an exit from this palace, it would be here. Ought we not to try and find one? If we were able to locate such a key, we would not have to spend an age searching through world after world for a way back to our homes. We could simply leave the palace for Everwood.’

Dellara was studying the trapdoor. ‘That’s nothing but guesswork. We’re fortunate we found both my wand and Pirlipata’s armour in such a timeframe. If we were to begin another search now …’ Her eyes swirled into a maw. ‘Besides which, it could be a trap.’

Marietta hesitated, her instincts clamouring at her. ‘I trust him.’ She began to descend.

‘Marietta, no!’ Dellara hissed at her. Marietta heard her issue a sigh before starting down the ice steps.

Deeper and deeper she went, searching in vain. Down to where the periwinkle-soft glow receded and the cold bit harder, fiercer. She cast her gaze around until her fingers grew numb and her heart sickened at the treasures King Gelum was hoarding, a sadistic dragon grown fat from the spoils of that which did not belong to him. Bas-reliefs prised from ancient temples, statues far from home, weary with an age of lost hope and sadness, jewels in shapes and colours unknown to Marietta that ached to glimmer and shine under the love of their owner once more. Deeper still, Marietta discovered a fresh horror, terrible and haunting. Bones. ‘He collected people in here, too,’ she whispered.

‘This is futile; we must leave at once, Marietta,’ Dellara said. She nodded at the skeleton collapsed on the step below them. ‘It does us no good to dwell on such things.’

Marietta looked at her and nodded. Dellara climbed back up the long spiral of stairs, Marietta at her heels, her back beginning to protest under the weight of Pirlipata’s armour. Just below the trapdoor, a door had been mounted into the ice. A circular door the colour of frostberries, engraved with snow globes. She paused to consider it.

‘Come on!’ Dellara called.

Marietta often felt as if the prospect of multiple lands were like gazing at a shelf of snow globes, each one containing an entire world, the snow flurries falling to reveal dreams or nightmares within. She reached out and opened the door. Laughed to herself. Behind it were rows of hooks, and on each one, a key dangled. Golden keys that glittered with a magic of their own. She pocketed one, closed the door and hurried up to Dellara.

At the trapdoor, Dellara was funnelling her dagger-edged focus onto her wand, breathing deeply before snapping her gaze up and whipping the wand towards the trapdoor with fierce intent. Marietta felt the smooth caress of something wild and strange flit past her and their exit opened.

Chaos greeted them. Concealed from view by the throne, they peered out at the scene. Soldiers herded miniature reindeer, some revellers contributing their efforts as if it were just another facet of the immersive ball. Others guarded their frippery, wary of the reindeers’ affinity to chew anything in sight. A wall of faceless guards barricaded the staircase, preventing access to the upper levels. Searching the crowd, Marietta unintentionally caught Claren’s eye. She froze, a silent plea for him not to betray them on her lips. His face illuminated with mischief as he deposited a miniature reindeer into a makeshift pen, oblivious that another had attached itself to his skewed jacket.

Looking around, he gave Marietta a wink and an exaggerated nod that was decidedly unsubtle. Though she had been gladdened to sight Claren and not his pompous brother, who held more serious career aspirations for which he might have traded them. Or even Fin, who was as sweet natured as he was anxious and whose panic would have signposted their transgressions at once.

‘Follow me,’ Marietta said over her shoulder, sliding up under the king’s throne and darting into the nearest snow globe. Kicking the trapdoor shut behind her, Dellara followed.

‘Where in the stars have you been?’ Pirlipata hissed at them from behind, giving Marietta a start. The princess rose from a carved ice-seat, the silken folds of her sunset dress gliding to the snow-dusted glass floor. ‘You ought to have returned long before now, I—’ She fell silent as a passing server scurried past, collecting chocolate globes back onto his tray before they were devoured by reindeer. ‘I have been under a snowstorm of worry,’ she said once he was out of earshot.

The reindeer had lessened in number since they’d entered the secret chamber. They were being escorted back to their stables in droves as time beat its relentless drum. ‘We must make haste,’ Marietta told Dellara with urgency.

Pirlipata threw her hands up. ‘That is precisely my point.’

‘Pass me the mouse.’ Marietta held her palm out. ‘I shall dance close enough to slip it back into his pocket.’

Dellara gave her a sceptical onceover. Marietta returned the look. ‘Fine, fine.’ Dellara passed it over. ‘But ensure you’re not caught in the act,’ she added seriously. ‘I’ve grown rather fond of you.’