The Kingdom of Back(72)

“Fr?ulein,” came his whisper. “Come with me.” Then he disappeared, his form melting back into the silhouette of the curtains.

I trembled at his presence, at how no one else seemed capable of seeing what I’d seen. Down below, the goddess Venus handed Psyche a lamp, encouraging her to uncover the identity of her lover.

I rose from my seat without a sound. My parents did not stir. As I stepped out of our box and let the curtains fall behind me, I caught a glimpse of Woferl, turned halfway toward me in his seat. If he noticed my absence, he did not say anything.

Beyond the curtain, my slippers sank into the thickness of the rugs carpeting the marble hall. When I looked down, I realized that it was not carpet but moss, deep blue in the dim light, grown so thick that my feet nearly disappeared in it. The hall had become a path, and as I went, I began to recognize the gnarled trees in place of pillars, the deep pools of water their leaves formed.

The trees grew denser as I went, and the sounds of the opera faded behind me, until they sounded less like music and more like the call of crows that glided against the night. Up in the sky, the twin moons had started to overlap each other. Ahead of me, where the trees finally parted, the river that encircled the castle on the hill appeared, its dark waters churning steadily along.

The enormous fins of the river guardian no longer cut through the water. Instead, the wall of thorns that grew beyond the river had now twisted low, arching a gnarled bridge of sharp spikes across the water.

I hesitated at the sight of it, like standing before the gaping jaws of a great beast.

Fr?ulein.

Hyacinth’s whisper beckoned to me on the other side of the thorns. I looked up, seeing where the castle’s highest tower still loomed above the brambled wall. Then I moved one foot in front of the other, until my slippers scraped against the thorny floor of the bridge. Through the gaps in the bridge’s floor, I could see the dark waters foaming, eager to take me back. Angry with me for stealing their guardian. I walked faster.

I crossed to the other side and in through the thorns, until I finally had stepped out of it and into the clearing before the castle.

Great tables had been laid out along the sides of the castle’s courtyard, great golden apples and red pomegranates on porcelain plates. Vines curled around the table legs. There were no candles, reminding me again of Hyacinth’s fear of fire. Instead, thousands of lights flickered across the courtyard, the wayward paths of the faeries that always followed Hyacinth, giving the entire space an eerie blue glow. They giggled at my presence. Several flocked near me, cooing and tugging on my hair, their voices tiny and jealous, their nips vicious. I swatted them away, but they would only return, incensed and determined.

“Leave her.”

At Hyacinth’s voice, the lights immediately scattered, twinkling their protest as they swarmed across the rest of the courtyard. I looked up to see him approaching me.

He smiled at me. Tonight, he glittered with a sheen of silver, wearing thousands of skeleton leaves carefully sewn together into a splendid coat. His hair was pulled away from his face, flattering his high cheekbones. His eyes glowed in the night. He would be beautiful, except I remembered the way he had looked the last time I’d seen him, pupils slitted with hunger, right before he lunged at the princess.

Courage, I told myself, and reminded myself instead of what my father had done with my music.

“How lovely you are tonight,” he said, lifting a hand to touch my chin. He took my hand in his and gestured to the courtyard. “Dance with me. I have something to ask you.”

I could feel the scrape of his claws against my palm. A vision flashed before my eyes of them covered with the princess’s blood. But instead of cringing away, I followed him to the center of the courtyard and rested my hand gently against his shoulder. A sharp tug against my locks made me wince, and I recoiled from the faeries that now darted around my face, all of them eager to bite me.

“Away with you,” Hyacinth snapped at them. They scattered again, protesting, flitting about his face and planting affectionate kisses on his cheeks. Then they lingered around us, forming a sullen blue ring as Hyacinth pulled me into a dance.

I followed his lead. The memory of his sugar-sweet kiss came back to me now. I could feel the cold press of his hand against the small of my back. If Johann were here, would he dance with me too? Would his hand be warm against my skin?

“You’re quiet tonight,” Hyacinth said to me in a low voice.

“Why did you bring me here?” I said to him.

He smiled, amused. “Is the Fr?ulein angry with me, I wonder?”

“You don’t belong here, in this castle.”

“I should. The queen had banned me from her court, distasteful woman that she was.”

“You killed the princess in the tower.”

“In some ways, she was already dead, wasn’t she? Are you truly alive if you spend your entire life locked in a tower, hidden away for so long that you wouldn’t even know to flee if the door opened for you?”

His words rang deep in my chest, as true and clear as the music of him that had first called to me all those years ago. His irises were gold, hypnotizing me. Are you alive, Nannerl? they seemed to say to me. Don’t you want to be?

My lips tightened. Here we were, playing his games again. But today I was tired of them. “Tell me what you want with me,” I said.

Hyacinth smiled and spun me again. The world turned in a dizzy circle, his face at its center. “Don’t you remember what we’d agreed to in the very beginning?”