A Thief of Nightshade (24 page)

Strangely, he began to wonder if it wasn’t the dream that clung to him, but he who clung to the fading remnants. That thought stayed with him the remainder of the evening and into the night as he readied for sleep and finally closed his eyes— along with the hope that his slumber would somehow bring him closer to seeing clearly what so tormented him from afar.

Aubrey woke to the sound of gnashing teeth and Aislinn holding her so tightly she thought he might break her arms.

Two stoic goblins stood at arms just inside the doorframe. The one on the right wore a smirk, as if party to a private joke.

The other looked stupidly onward with his clumsy, fat hands twitching at his sides.

“Come near us and I’ll tear your eyes out,” Aislinn roared.

“There’s no call for such hostility. I can’t see that I’ve been anything but exceedingly kind to both of you.” The smooth voice was soon matched to the butter-soft leather of the Goblin King’s dark green pants as he entered the room.

He smiled serenely as he waltzed past the two guards and came to stand bravely in front of them.

Aislinn growled and Aubrey had to fight to keep from crying out. His metal arm held fast about her waist, curtailing her ability to breathe. “You call this kind?”

“Why do you think you’re here and not in the dungeon?” the King asked casually.

“I don’t care,” Aislinn snarled.

“That wasn’t all they had planned for you.” The King gestured to Aislinn’s arm.

“I spared you what was to come. For now, anyway.” He then looked directly at Aubrey, a telling expression on his face.

He was bargaining.

“What will it take for you to let him go?” Aubrey asked timidly.

“Shut up, Aubrey!” Aislinn threw her behind him. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“What would it take? Well, I do love games and things have been rather dull around here,” the King said. “But, what’s in it for me? I can easily take whatever I wish from you. Hardly seems worth my time.”

“Because you can’t take what I can offer. Love can only be given.” Aubrey conjured every sympathy for the Goblin King she could. He reminded her oddly of Grant, alone despite his veritable kingdom of society friends and his fortress of a home.

“No! Aubrey, are you listening to yourself?” Aislinn snarled.

“You would love me if I gave you the chance to win his freedom?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t give me that chance.”

The King looked at Aislinn, who seemed ready to come out of his fur. “If a game is what you wish to play, a game it shall be. But I will warn you—I won’t have any control of it once you start playing. You’re on your own.”

“If I win, you’ll let Aislinn go?”

Aubrey asked.

The King nodded. “You may have my word on that. If you lose, however—”

Aislinn interrupted, “Aubrey, I don’t like this.”

“I know. But I have to do something.

My life is already forfeit. I won’t sacrifice yours as well.”

“Be ready in one hour,” the King said simply. “You’ll find appropriate clothing in the wardrobe.”

Aislinn stared at Aubrey quietly. He’d just watched her emerge from the washroom.

“You’ve provoked him and you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I haven’t provoked anyone,” she said. “What else would you have me do?

He isn’t going to let both of us go. You can go for help.”

Aislinn huffed. “Yes, Aubrey, you have. Just because he isn’t angry yet doesn’t mean he won’t be when he finds out you didn’t really mean what you said.

Then what? You’re messing with pretty powerful emotions when you wager what you’ve wagered.”

“You say that as if I don’t know it.

Like I have no idea what it feels like to think myself unworthy of being loved by others. Could you please just have faith in me this one time?”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t have faith in you,” he snipped.

“No, but you’ve doubted my every move since coming here, which tells me you don’t think me capable of much.” She walked to the floor-length mirror in the corner of the room.

Aislinn came up beside her. “That’s not true—I know you’re capable of quite a lot. But this isn’t your world and there is a whole other set of rules here. Rules you rarely stop to consider.” He paused to glance at the fluff and frill of the gown.

“At least it’s not as bad as what Lipsey had you in.” He meant it as a joke, but her expression told him it had stung.

“Hey, I just meant that ... I didn’t mean that the way you’re ... Aubrey, you look unbelievably beautiful in that dress, every bit the love of my brother’s life.

You don’t know, do you?”

She tightened the ribbon that held her hair away from her face and turned from the mirror. “Know what?”

He knew she’d been abused. He’d felt Jullian’s knowledge of it when Aubrey had touched the Oran, but the void of what Jullian had discovered, how she’d been abused, was probably due to Aubrey’s unwillingness to revisit those memories. Aislinn had missed its effect on her and how she viewed herself, but now that he knew, it was unmistakable. He wanted to say something, anything to comfort her, but felt that it would only make things worse if she knew he’d been able to see everything she had.

“I don’t know what, Aislinn?”

Aubrey asked again. This time he sensed hesitance instead of irritation.

He forced a smile. “How much faith I really have in you and how little I have in myself.” She looked away, seemingly at a loss for words. “Aubrey, we’ll get out of this. We’ll get to him in time.”

“He has no memory of me at all,”

Aubrey said suddenly. “What if he never remembers? What if we save him and...”

she paused. “I’m dying anyway. It’s better this way for him. If he never remembers me then he’ll never know that I died trying to save him.”

Guilt for having once had a similar thought hit Aislinn like a punch to his gut, and he felt sick. “Don’t say that!”

She smiled sadly, “It’s the truth, Aislinn. No matter what happens, I will die in Avalar.”

The door behind Aislinn swung open.

“His Majesty requests your presence,” the guard said.

Aubrey looked at Aislinn and he saw a fleeting glimpse of fear in her eyes and wondered

if

they

weren’t

merely

reflecting what she saw in him. “Then let’s go,” she said.

Aubrey was inexpressibly grateful that Aislinn had been allowed to come with her, because frankly, she was terrified.

She hadn’t had any idea what she was getting herself into and she knew it as she’d said what she had to the Goblin King, but she needed to buy them time to find a way out of Koldavere, or if her hopes proved useful, for Given to arrive with help.

They made their way down the unadorned halls of the keep until finally they came to a long winding set of stairs.

The guard gestured down.

“Are

we

going

back

to

the

dungeons?” Aislinn asked.

“Just keep your mouth shut and keep walking,” the goblin snarled.

Aislinn balked, but Aubrey ignored him and kept on until they had made it to the end of the stairs and were met by the King.

He held out his arm for Aubrey.

“You look so lovely. Come, we aren’t far now.”

Aubrey repressed her disgust and slid her hand in the crook of his arm. They stopped just a few yards farther. The dark jade door before them had an amazing gold filigree handle.

The King glanced sideways at her, the flames from the torches that lit the walls reflecting off his gold mask. “After you, my love,” he said.

Aubrey looked on in silence as the door opened on its own. With faltering breath, she walked in.

As with everything else she’d seen in Koldavere, this wasn’t what she’d expected. The room was small in comparison to the throne room, though it was larger than the bedroom they’d just left. The corners were dark, but she caught quick movements—darting things that scurried like rats and she heard the shuffling, scraping noise of feet all around her.

“Ahead of you, you’ll find the entrance. Don’t mind the dark.” The King’s tone was supposed to be soothing, she knew, but it made her insides turn.

“What

about Aislinn?” Aubrey looked to see Aislinn on all fours, backed against the door as if to pounce.

“He’ll stay here with us.”

“Us?” Aubrey swallowed hard.

The King merely unfolded his hand in the direction he’d pointed her in.

She nodded reluctantly and turned to walk into the darkness.

The room around her suddenly melted into pitch black. The air was cool and humid, the scent that of wet earth. Her timid footsteps echoed as she slowly made her way forward, each one taken with great consideration, and great trepidation.

Gradually, she became aware of a figure in front of her—a gentle face, pale and oddly familiar. She looked so fragile in the darkness, so slight. No source of light could be seen in the room, yet the figure was illuminated, glowing faintly as though it has come from within.

Suddenly,

a

glimmer

of

gold

appeared. It started as a tiny fleck out of the corner of her right eye, growing until it appeared as a twelve-foot spire. Then, it traveled sideways and back down and around until it met back with itself. When she looked again at the figure, she gasped —this was no stranger. Aubrey saw only the frightened expression on her own face.

She stared not into the abyss, but into a gilded mirror.

She pressed her hand against the cold glass and eyed the line of her arm until it met with her shoulder and that’s when it struck her that something was wrong.

Aubrey looked down to find that indeed she still donned the gown given to her by the King, yet her reflection was dressed in rags—torn

and

disheveled.

Fingers

abruptly slid through the mirror and grasped hers in a hold that held tight as she tried to pull away.

“You’ll never defeat the Fae Queen.

You aren’t strong enough. You’ve never been strong enough,” her reflection whispered.

Aubrey went rigid. “You aren’t real.”

The reflection laughed darkly and to Aubrey’s horror, it began to pull her inward.

“No! No! Let go of me!” Aubrey screamed, but it was no use and without anything to brace herself against, Aubrey was pulled into the mirror.