A King of Shadow Read online

  “Really, you don’t read fiction? No thrillers, mysteries, horror, romances?”

  “As children, yes,” Tejus repeated tersely. “Do you like reading…that sort of thing?”

  “Well, yes. It’s everything to me…Do other people in Nevertide read fiction? Or is it just royalty who don’t?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

  “Nobody reads fiction here, Hazel. It distracts from work, and true knowledge.”

  “Hm. True knowledge?” I countered acerbically. “Well, none of you seem to know all that much.”

  “Which is why we’re here,” he snapped. “Follow me.”

  Tejus led me down rows of books, till we were at the far end of the room. The light here wasn’t as good—and the books were even more musty and aged than the rest of the collection. They must have been centuries old. I eyed them with reverence.

  Tejus reached for a hefty tome, and leafed through it. “Here, start with this.” He heaved the book into my outstretched arms and then loaded me up with a few more. I staggered forward, and he caught my shoulder and pushed me gently upright.

  “Be careful—those books are thousands of years old,” he chided.

  “Thanks,” I replied sarcastically.

  We took our loads back to the reading table, and Tejus set about lighting the candles. A few moments later the library was cast in a cozy glow, and I smiled at Tejus.

  “How can you not like it in here? It’s so amazing.” I sighed. “There’s something really romantic about being surrounded by thousands of books…all those words, and the smell—that’s what I think I love the most.”

  Tejus looked at me with barely concealed amusement.

  “If I’d known it would make you this happy, I would have taken you here a long time ago,” he mused.

  “Well, now you know,” I replied.

  He nodded, and our eyes met briefly across the table. The moment passed, and I returned to the task at hand, flicking through the pages trying to find anything relating to the castle or the entity.

  Hours passed, and the wicks of the candles burnt steadily lower. I tried to focus all my attention on the words in front of me, but every so often I could feel Tejus staring at me, and the skin on the back of my neck would flush. But whenever I looked up, he would look away, never meeting my glance.

  Soon I could hear raindrops hitting the stained-glass windows in a slow pitter-patter. Before long it was a full-on downpour, and the room seemed to grow even cozier. Looking over at the window, I smiled.

  “Look. The stained glass is making the rain look red.”

  Tejus followed my gaze. He didn’t smile. Instead he looked perturbed, and swiftly rose up and out of his chair. Fiddling in frustration with an old latch, he finally managed to push open part of the window.

  “It’s not the glass. The rain is red.”

  I rose hastily, joining him at the window. We looked upward at the sky. It was cast in dark thunderclouds, the same as it had been for days—but the courtyard below, and the roads surrounding it, were all soaked in blood-red water. I moved to reach my arm out of the window, but Tejus snatched it back.

  “Don’t,” he commanded. “We don’t know what it is.”

  He left me standing at the window, rushing back to the books.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I think I read something…” he muttered, flicking back through the book he’d been reading.

  I waited impatiently for him to find what he was looking for, turning my attention back to the rain. Perhaps it was pollution—I was sure in some parts of the world they got red rain on account of desert dust getting carried into the atmosphere. Though I wasn’t entirely sure in those cases if the rain was actually this red…It looked like the sky had been sliced open, and was bleeding profusely onto the earth. I shuddered, recalling a story my Uncle Benjamin had once told me. When he and River had been on a boat, travelling from Egypt to The Shade, they’d experienced a bout of red rain. In their case, it had been literal blood—a trick of the jinni, Queen Nuriya. I could only wonder what was behind this phenomenon…

  “Here,” Tejus muttered, lifting the book up closer to the light. “‘If it shall come to pass that the seal is undone by its guardians, the land shall be visited by evils such as the spirit chose, the first of which will be the blood rains, the second the fires of ice, the third will be pestilence of silence,’” he read.

  I swallowed. That didn’t sound good.

  “Do they mention what spirit? Is it the entity?” I asked.

  Tejus shook his head. “No…I think this is something different…another spirit that helped lock up the entity in the first place. Here, look.” He placed the book down on the table, and I started to read.

  Most of the volume went into intricate detail on the history of the ministers—who rose to which position and when, who held the greatest sway over the emperor—and, on some of the more tedious pages, how many animals each minister owned on their land. I flicked through quickly, trying to find more information than the paragraph Tejus had found.

  Finally, I found another short section that mentioned the entity.

  “‘And the benevolent power was corrupted, and the great Emperor Thelus had no choice but to bind him from doing further harm, configuring the Hallowed Stones of the Entity to create its own bonds. Thelus and the spirit decree their position as its guardians, so long as this earth shall stand.’”

  “Emperor Thelus was from the Seraq kingdom,” Tejus said. “This would have been written centuries ago.”

  I flipped to the front of the book, but there was no date given. I returned to the page I’d just read, scanning forward to see if there was any information on where these ‘bonds’ actually were, or more detail on the ‘spirit’.

  “There are a few mentions of the ‘Acolytes’,” I murmured.

  “That was the old cult I told you about. What does it say?” Tejus asked quickly.

  “Not much… just that ‘a representative of the Acolytes appeared at the council,’ but it doesn’t say any more. Then they’re mentioned again in council attendant lists. It’s not much to go on.”

  I thought of the eerie temple that Tejus and I had found near the Viking remains. Tejus had told me that it belonged to the old cult, but that they hadn’t been active in years. I wasn’t so sure. That temple looked like someone had been visiting it…

  “What if they’re responsible for the entity being able to manipulate the barriers? It would only be able to do that if someone broke the seal, right? What if one of them did it?” I asked.

  “Like I told you, they’re old history. The cult no longer exists, it hasn’t for years. They were abolished about two centuries ago.”

  “How were they abolished?” I asked.

  “They were forbidden to practice. Anyone who attended their rituals was sentenced to death.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “And there’s no chance they would have carried on in private…or started up again when the threat toward them subsided?”

  It didn’t sound that likely to me that a mere threat of death would cause the cult to disband. Most cults I’d ever read about never stopped because someone told them to—they were fanatical believers, following their leader or cause with a blind faith impervious to reason.

  “I don’t think they’re our biggest problem right now. Even in the unlikely event that they had restarted their practices, they only ever caused small local issues—ritual sacrifice of farmyard animals and, in rare cases, peasant sentries.”

  “That’s reassuring,” I murmured. “Like a dead goat in a barn?”

  “Perhaps,” Tejus agreed. “Even so – a few fanatics wouldn’t have the ability to create a barrier this strong…or this,” he gestured to the windows. “Our focus needs to be on locating the stones, searching every inch of the castle if we must…I was thinking of what you said about the sword stone.” Tejus started pacing up and down. “Perhaps it was part of the seal…I didn’t want to believe that my father would be so
wholly irresponsible, but if he was desperate enough for Jenus to win the trials…” His voice trailed off.

  “He might have thought he had time to put it back, but then he got sick?” I suggested, more to make Tejus feel better than anything else. Anyone who put their sons through the hell of the labyrinth just so he could decide who would be best to represent their house in the trials was not the kind of person I considered responsible. I thought it was highly likely that the king had been that stupid.

  Tejus turned to me. “We should fetch the stone.”

  “Yeah…about that…”

  Crap.

  Hazel

  Tejus glared at me, furious.

  “We need to find Benedict, now.”

  He could barely contain his fury, his jaw flicking with the effort of holding back a tirade that would be directed at me.

  “I know,” I replied with a gulp. “I only did it because Julian and Ruby found out about the stone…and I thought if Ash knew, you’d be disqualified from the trials.”

  Tejus closed his eyes and sucked in air sharply through his nose. “Please, Hazel. Spare me your excuses.”

  I nodded.

  “Where is Benedict now?” he asked.

  This was getting worse and worse.

  “Well—I went to look for him this morning, but he wasn’t there. So I’m not sure,” I replied quietly. I waited for his explosion, but none came.

  “Right. We need to get to the human quarters.” Tejus moved swiftly toward the door, expecting me to follow him. I practically tripped over myself trying to keep up with him. The door to the library swung in my face and Tejus marched down the hallway.

  As we navigated the castle, ministers kept rushing about, whispering to one another. As soon as they caught sight of Tejus, they tried to approach him, but their sentences were left hanging in mid-air as he marched past them.

  I’d never seen the castle this busy except on trial days, and I wondered if it was the red rain that was causing such mayhem.

  As I half-ran along behind Tejus, I berated myself again for leaving the stone with my brother. It was all well and good, me pointing the finger at the emperor for being irresponsible, but what about my actions? Leaving a potentially devastating weapon in the hands of my brother without even realizing the true extent of its power…I should have known better.

  Tejus arrived at the entrance to the human quarters, and I caught up with him as he banged on the door. The guards usually posted there were absent, and my stomach gave a sickening lurch.

  The door was opened by Yelena, who jumped back the moment she saw Tejus’s menacing frame in the doorway.

  “Yelena,” I burst out before Tejus had a chance to scare the rest of the humans gathered in the room, “have you seen Benedict?”

  She looked around shiftily, avoiding my gaze.

  “Um…no.”

  “Ruby or Ash?” I probed.

  “No, I haven’t seen them today,” she replied with more certainty.

  “Yelena, I really need you to tell me if you know where Benedict is, it’s really important. He could be in danger.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, the truth of them hit me and I wanted to scream. I had put my brother in danger. I would never forgive myself.

  She hesitated for a few moments, her blue eyes looking desperate.

  “Yelena…” I warned.

  “He went out to look for Julian,” she whispered.

  What?

  “He’s coming back tonight, he promised he would!” cried Yelena, turning toward the red-soaked window, her face taut and anguished.

  “Why would he think that was a good idea?” I yelled out.

  “I…I don’t know. He didn’t want to be in the castle—he just wanted to find Julian,” Yelena stuttered.

  I groaned.

  What have I done?

  “Do you know where he went?” I asked Yelena, trying to keep my voice as calm as I could. It wasn’t her fault this was happening.

  “I think to the forest?” she replied, cringing.

  I spun round to face Tejus and started to march back out into the hallway.

  “We need to find him.”

  Tejus grabbed my arm, pulling me back toward him.

  “It’s almost dark, Hazel—we’re better off waiting till he returns.”

  “What are you talking about?” I gaped at him, not understanding his hesitation. “Of course we can’t wait. We have to go, now. He’ll be alone out there!”

  “Which was his choice,” Tejus emphasized. “He wouldn’t have gotten very far. With this rain he’s probably just found a barn to hole up in for a while.”

  “If he hasn’t gone far, then we’ll find him faster. Let’s go!” I pulled my arm out of Tejus’s grip, continuing to walk along the hallway.

  “Hazel!” Tejus strode to catch up with me. “This is madness—why can’t you just wait?”

  “Because it’s my brother!” I yelled back. I was about to add, “How would you like it?” but then realized who I was talking to—Tejus and his brothers had the most un-brotherly relationship of anyone I’d ever come across.

  “I forbid it!” Tejus stopped and stood in front of me, blocking my path.

  “You can’t forbid it—I’m going!” I retorted furiously.

  I side-stepped him and broke into a sprint. Tejus caught up with me easily, but it didn’t matter—over my dead body would he stop me leaving the castle.

  “Hazel, will you please think about this rationally?” Tejus implored.

  “Nope.” I ignored him, running toward the entrance.

  “Fine!” Tejus barked out.

  I stopped running and caught my breath.

  “If you’re going to insist on going anyway, I’m coming with you. We’ll head to the stables first—it will be quicker on horseback, it’s too dark to see with a vulture.”

  “Thank you,” I replied stiffly.

  “This way.” He jerked his head toward a smaller hallway off the main entrance, and we hurried down it. We cut through a narrow corridor that was damp and musty, indicating that this was the servants’ entrance to the stables. Soon we came to a small door, and Tejus pulled it open.

  The stables lay about a yard ahead. Tejus held me back, stopping me from crossing the courtyard. He held out his arm, pulling his robe back so that his skin was exposed to the rain. Without much light, the red drops looked like a sickly tar on his skin, thicker than any rain I’d ever seen. He waited a moment, and then withdrew his arm.

  “It’s fine. Let’s go.”

  We crossed the courtyard quickly, trying to avoid the worst of the red rain, but it streamed down the back of my neck all the same. I hated the thought of Benedict being stuck out in this. He must have been so afraid.

  Tejus yanked the doors to the barn open, and his bull-horse whickered at the presence of its master. He strode toward the stable doors while I waited at the entrance, impatient to get going.

  Tejus walked the bull-horse forward. Without speaking to me, he slid his hands around my hips and lifted me with alarming speed up onto the saddle. A second later he jumped on behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. Moving the horse forward, he grabbed a blanket off a hook by the door and wrapped that round me too, covering the back of my neck and hands.

  “Thank you,” I muttered.

  We cantered across the courtyard, and Tejus bellowed at the guards sheltered under the entrance doors of the castle to raise the portcullis. They rushed forward, cranking it open as we approached. Tejus gave the bull-horse a swift thwack to its hindquarters and it galloped forward, crossing the bridge.

  As soon as we reached the raised portcullis, the bull-horse reared up, screaming. I shifted backward, taken by surprise, but Tejus kept his grip tight around me. He urged the horse on, but it would go no further.

  Tejus muttered an expletive under his breath.

  “Wait here,” he instructed, and jumped to the ground. He took a few steps forward, till he was directly under the y
awning iron spikes of the portcullis. Then he stopped. I watched as he raised his arms, looking as if he was pushing against an invisible barrier…

  “What the HELL is going on?” he roared.

  The guards rushed in from behind, waiting to do his bidding, looking at one another in confusion.

  “There’s a barrier up!” he yelled over the rain. “Is this the ministers’ doing?”

  The guards shook their head, but more in confusion than anything else.

  “Get me Commander Varga!” he ordered.

  “He’s still out, looking for Julian the human boy,” one of them replied hastily.

  Tejus released a roar of frustration.

  I got down from the bull-horse, slowly. While Tejus raged at the guards, I approached the gateway. Pushing my hands out, I felt a smooth, supple surface meet my fingers. A barrier. We had been shut in.

  “Tejus?” I cried out hoarsely.

  He was by my side in seconds.

  “Hazel, you need to get indoors. Get out of the rain.”

  “What is this?” I asked, my voice trembling.

  “I don’t know yet,” he replied. “I’m going to find out… We’ll fix this.”

  “Benedict’s still out there.”

  “I know,” he stated curtly, but he wrapped the blanket tighter round my shoulders. He lifted my chin up, so my eyes met his. His face was soaked in red rain; he looked deadly, and desperate.

  “Get indoors, Hazel. There’s nothing you can do right now. I’ll meet you in the room. Go.”

  The doors to the castle were flung open. In the bright lights of the torches, a storm of ministers appeared on the front steps, all running toward the barrier.

  “Go!” Tejus ordered.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned and fled.

  Ruby

  At dawn this morning, Ash had knocked on my door. For a moment I had hoped that he was coming to tell me that he’d changed his mind—that he wouldn’t be giving Queen Trina’s position any more consideration. But he had smiled broadly at me, and held out a traveling cloak. We were going to take a short trip to her kingdom.