Page 59 of Embrace the Serpent

Okay.

I dumped the copper into the fire, emptying my pockets by the fistfuls.

Most jewelsmiths know this, but most other people don’t. When heated, copper produces a bluish-green flame. I’d once asked Galen why, and he told me that it was the spirit of the metal coming out in flame. Which sounded like a rather pretty, poetic reason, but it had troubled me—why should copper have a bluish-green spirit and why should lead have a whitish one? And why should gold and silver have no spirit? Anyway, Galen told me to shut it. So I still didn’t know exactly why it happened. But it sure looked incredible.

The fire blazed green. It cast the dining hall in eerie blue-green underwater light. The shadows on every face lengthened. A maid screamed, and then one of the guards did.

A boy ran in, shrieking, “A ghost! In the courtyard!”

The nobles shouted—someone threw a plate that crashed against the wall.

I drew in a breath and shouted the signal: “Are you snakes, or are you worms?” And I ducked, my cheeks hot—I hadn’t known my voice could get that loud.

At my words, the huntsmen startled and, just like the Serpent King said they would, flew into action, catching their captors unawares.They fought with bound hands, until their bindings were cut by a blade—a table knife—that passed between them as quick as the wind.

I crawled out as things flew through the air, shoving through the people flooding through the door and out into the courtyard.

More screams. I looked up.

Hovering above the flagstones was a pillar of green fire, and somehow the flames twisted and turned and appeared to be a giant bearded face. Its mouth opened, and out rolled a long tongue of fire. “I am the souls of the forest that once stood here. Long have my children wept for the trees being cut down. They wander the land and have come to take their vengeance on those who have made a profit on their suffering!”

The Serpent King’s gaze was intent on the illusion, but he glanced down, scanning the crowd. For his huntsmen, most likely, but when his gaze landed on me, his brows unclenched and he visibly drew in a relieved breath. I nodded at him.

He mouthed,Go.

Balls of green fire shot out from the pillar over people’s heads. One came close, and the flame had a little cherubic face that was laughing rather wickedly. There was no heat, but it cast a convincing blue-green light.

The great bearded face thundered, “The innocent will be spared. But if you are guilty, run! Run, if you think you can escape me!”

Chaos. Everyone ran, nobles and servants alike, shoving through the gate and jumping over the low wall.

I ran with them, bursting out into the street. The crowd flew downhill, streaming like water around the long line of carriages that were clip-clopping up to the Copper Manor.

A woman’s voice barked, “What is this madness?”

She stuck her head out of her carriage, and her dark hair streamed like silk in the wind. Mirandel.

And there, on her neck, gleamed a large yellow tourmaline set in a collar with five segments.

I ducked my head and ran, not stopping for anything, not until the sky was full dark and I was outside the town, in the sheltered grove where the Serpent King and I had decided to meet.

The back of my neck prickled. I couldn’t see anything in the dark, but the silence wasn’t empty.

A lantern flared to life, illuminating a man with dark wavy hair and a slender, smiling face. Rane. “You did it,” he said.

Grimney leapt out of his hands and into mine, crashing into my collarbone. I laughed.

Applause came from the huntsmen. “Our savior,” one of them said. Another answered, “No worms today,” and I couldn’t tell if it was a joke.

I scanned them for the Serpent King.

“We should go,” Rane said. “It’ll be just you and me from here on out. We’re splitting up. Now that they’re looking for you, the safest way to get to the kingdom is in small groups.” He followed my gaze. “The injured have already left.”

“What about the king?”

He paused. “He’s safe, of course. He left with them. He thought you’d be more comfortable with me.”

I nodded and ignored the odd emptiness in my chest. “I’m ready.”

---