Page 25 of Her Dark Reflection

‘It’s impressive, isn’t it?’

‘Oh yes,soimpressive,’ I murmured as I scrambled to abandon my thoughts and figure out what the king was talking about. The gardens were alive with the yellow flickers of torches interwoven with a steady, cold glow.

‘The guild has been weaving it for months.’

I craned my neck. Glisoch orbs were hung from a net that stretched high above our heads, pulsing faintly with light. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s keeping out the cold. The committee were set on making use of the gardens for the ball.’

And there again, just as I’d felt when I’d first seen the glisoch in a hallway, was a cold stab of fury that seemed wielded with the memory of cold fireplaces, gnawing hunger, a hollow-eyed girl pressed by a thrusting man against the wall of an alley for a crust of bread.

‘Incredible,’ I murmured, numbing the fury with reason. It was none of my business how much money the king wanted to spend on a ball. If he wanted a net of gold woven with enchantment and strung across the sky, he could very well do as he pleased. The last thing I wanted him to suspect when he looked at me was the street creature I’d been. Poverty is hardly a titillating subject.

‘I’ll show you some of the monsters on display,’ he said as he led me deeper into the gardens, a labyrinth of hedges and maples and stone walls wreathed in moon lilies that hung their heavy perfume on the unnaturally humid air. Every shadow hinted at figures of courtiers, hiding away from prying eyes while they indulged in the debauchery the king had promised them. Their whispers and giggles twined with the rustling of leaves and the thud of footsteps as we moved towards a huge marble fountain surrounded by weeping willow trees.

A crowd was clustered around the fountain, murmuring and pointing at something behind the slim gold bars that encased the whole thing, making it look like a giant bird cage.

‘Quite something, isn’t he? I’ve always admired the Morwar Toth, even though they cause so much damage to the coastal settlements.’

As we drew closer, I saw what he was referring to. A figure sat bowed over in the fountain. He was bare-chested, his rippling torso decorated with whirls of ink that spread to entwine his biceps and down his arms, but what drew my attention even more than the tattoos was the bottle-green fins that flared from his forearms and from either side of his spine. His chest heaved, as though breathing was an effort, and I picked out the flicker of gills on his neck.

‘He was captured during a raid half a moon ago. All that, the gills, the fins, isn’t even visible when they’re not in contact with salt water,’ the king continued, turning his eyes on me. I quickly plastered a smile onto my face.

‘What a marvel. What will happen to him after the ball?’

‘Now, why ask such a question, my sweet? You don’t need to think about such brutal things. How about you go and take a closer look. You’re unlikely to see another, unless one is charging in, ready to skewer you on one of their tridents.’ He laughed and nudged me closer. ‘Nothing to be afraid of. He’s well contained.’

The idea of drawing closer to the heaving creature made me queasy, especially as I watched a young man scoop a pebble from the ground and lob it through the bars, where it bounced off the Morwar Toth’s shoulders and he flinched away.

‘Come on, fish breath. Do something entertaining,’ the young man called as he bent for another stone.

‘Would you care for a drink, Your Majesty?’ I fixed my gaze determinedly on a small table manned by a page boy.

‘Yes. Why not?’ the king replied, and I headed for the table with relief.

‘Mulled wine, ma’am?’ the boy offered.

‘Two please. Big ones,’ I replied, and he scooped his ladle into a great silver urn.

As I waited for him to pour the wine into the cups, I was violently shoved and Vanaria bore down on me, all teeth and fury.

‘What in thefallis wrong with you?’ she hissed, her fingers gripping tight enough to bruise. ‘Whywould you tell Guilcher that I had the pox?’

I wrenched away from her, straightening the creases in my sleeves. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘You’re a snake,’ she spat, her eyes twin pools of pit fire. ‘I know what you’re after. You think you can tear me down so easily? I’ve workedyearsto get to where I am. Do youreallythink that you have what it takes to be the king’s mistress just because you’re beautiful? And do you really think I’dletyou?’

‘I don’t think you have much control over that,’ I said carelessly.

Her answering smile was humourless. ‘Maybe I have more control than you think. Tell me, was the Winking Nymphsad to lose you?’

The smile slid from my face. My heart began to beat faster. She must have seen my reaction because her expression grew gleeful.

‘I find itsointeresting that some rundown suvoir in the Trough wouldn’t make more of a fuss over having someone so beautiful working there. And why would someone so beautiful choose to work there when you’d make much better money elsewhere?’ She tapped her finger against her chin. ‘Something about it all doesn’t make sense. Perhaps you’d like to shed some light for me?’

‘My past is none of your concern.’

‘And then there were the whispers of some terribleaccident.’

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