Page 6 of Grave Flowers
“You’re wearing green.” She eyed my dress.
“You aren’t here anymore to tell me not to.”
“True.” Her eyes flicked up to my face and then back down. Her lips stretched thin across her face. Whenever she was irked, she looked pinched, as though she had a pain in her side. Then the expression vanished, replaced by a bright toothy smile. “I’ll make sure you have a lovely dress for my wedding, one made by the finest Acusan sewists. They are remarkable. It’s a lifetime appointment for them, so they are quite old and are revered almost as much as monastictes. They’ll create a stunning gown for you.”
“Oh, it’s quite all right,” I said, still watching her carefully. There had to be something she wanted from me. A test was in order. She was as vain as the beauties, so it wasn’t hard to come up with one. “I shouldn’t, not on your wedding day. You can be the prettier twin for once.”
The insult was bitter on my tongue. I never enjoyed being unkind, but Inessa laughed, the sound as eerie as a moonmirror wail carried on the night wind. There’d been a time, long ago, when I could tease her or even give her a playful verbal jab, but not after Father set us against each other. Anytime I did, she would scowl and ruminate, digging through any jest for the whiff of a threat. It didn’t matter that I was her twin; beyond that,I was me—the weak Sinet. To Inessa, I was the soft spot in our family’s mortar, and I might bring everything down by wavering at the wrong moment.
But the worry painted too grand a picture of me.
“I won’t hear of it,” Inessa said, her lightheartedness only furthering my suspicion. “I’ll have you dressed in the finest creation you’ve ever seen.
None of these sober blacks and dark greens. You’ll be resplendent in red and gold, the colors of Acus. Anyways, I wish to tell you something.”
She pushed herself up, her hand coming near mine. Our scars were as identical as our faces, the two threads of tissue running from our little fingers down to the bottom of our right wrists. It was strange to think we’d been once attached, that we’d grasped hands in utero and simply never let go until skin grew over our bones like moss over rocks. How quickly we’d gone from that to fearing a stab in the back from the hand we’d once held.
Mother had been the one to tell us we’d been attached at the hand. She’d whispered it in our ears when we were eight, telling us she wanted us to know something true, something real, and to never mention it to Father.
“We were born into this life of shadows and secrets.” Inessa spoke slowly, as though examining each word before saying it to make sure it would do what she wanted. “We inherited it; we did not choose it. As I’ve been away and on the cusp of a new life, I can’t help but think I’d like things to be different between us. Father is above us, and everyone else is below us, nipping at our heels, trying to drag us down so they can climb over us. But we are equals. Side by side, in life as in birth.”
“How would you want things to be different?” Despite myself, I was drawn to the warmth in her voice.
“Well, for one thing, I would like for us to be friends.”
“Friends.” I stared hard at her, wishing I could look behind the reflective mirrors of her eyes to know what she really thought. “There’s no such thing for you.”
“I understand if you don’t trust me. Please, will you at least give me a chance? I’m leaving, Mads. For good. If we don’t change things now, we’ll fall beneath the waves of our lives and be estranged. I wish only to be close and to have you come and stay once or twice a year with me at court. You can even study the Acusan flora. It’s much different than ours,bred and coiffed and spoiled and as devoid of life as rocks. I imagine it would make it much easier to garden, and you might enjoy it.”
My knees found their way to my chest. I wrapped my arms around them, gathering my limbs about me on the hard edge of the bench.Sisterhood. Flowers—and not ones that can hurt you.I dug my nails into my elbows. The ten points of pain cut into my skin, comforting for their realness, for their reminder. Nothing was ever as it seemed except pain. I needed to think. What could she want? What could she gain from this sudden offer of friendship?
Slowly, my gaze traveled over her, trying to find a clue. My eyes fell back to her hand. Normally, our scars were simply white ridges, an island of tissue floating on our hands. But hers was …lifted.Raised, as though something beneath it were trying to push it out.
“Your scar. What happened to it?” At the question, Inessa yanked her hand back. She wasn’t fast enough. I grabbed her wrist. Twisting, she tried to free herself, her hand flopping in my unrelenting grip like a wild creature of its own. “Tell me.”
She was stronger than me. She always had been. Her free hand pushed hard against my shoulder, and she wrenched herself away. As she did, our scars touched, mimicking how we’d once been. I slipped off the bench. Sharp-edged gravel received my backside, and my teeth clicked together. Immediately, my own scar came alive. I’d never felt this before. It’d always been a separate thing from me—a patch of dead skin, something on me but not of me. Suddenly, a thousand tiny nerves awakened in the scar, the tissue singing.
Pain,I realized. The scar hurt with the brightness and ferocity of a wound just made. It poured into my hand like liquid fire tipping onto dry kindling. What had Inessa done to me? With a cry, I stumbled to my feet to face her.
I was not prepared for the scene before me.
Inessa twisted on the bench; her bones bent at their joints within the pallid coating of her skin. A viscous blackness oozed from her mouth,too slow and congealed to be blood. It creeped down her gown, where it mingled with the embroidered roses. Around us, the grave flowers shook, buds opening and closing, leaves trembling. Jets of water from the irrigation system suddenly pitched much higher than ever before and in the same direction, toward Inessa, turning as black and thick as mud.
Help her.
The thought sent me toward my sister, despite my terror. Before I could move, she lunged at me. Cold, bony sticks latched around my arm. It took me a moment to realize they were her fingers. She pulled me in. Suddenly, we were so close together, I could see only her eyes. They stared at me with the crystalline brightness of glass.
“I remember now, Sister,” Inessa said. Her voice was as watery and choked up as the congested fountain. “I was poisoned in Acus this morning. Mads, you are the only one who can help me—I’m trapped in Bide. Please, avenge me and set me free from this agony.”
Chapter
TWO
Ablurry form slipped onto one of the mirrors directly behind Inessa. I spun around, certain another ghost approached.
“I beg your pardon, Your Highness, I announced myself, but you didn’t seem to hear.” Helena, one of my ladies-in-waiting, stood near the garden’s entry. “We need to get you ready for the party. You’re already late.”
I blinked. Helena belonged to the world as I’d known it, the one without ghosts and dead sisters and—
