Phantoms In Philadelphia (41 page)

“I was hoping you would come to see me,” I said,
even though it was a lie. I had not expected to see her at all.

When I had first heard that she was the white
phantom, I had hoped, like Jack, that she was being forced to work
for Richard because he was her guardian. Then, she led us to
George, and all my hope dissipated. Hearing that she had given Levi
to Richard ignited a whole new grievance against her. And, she used
Jack, for what reason I knew not, neither did I care. All that
mattered was making sure she knew she would never have the chance
to do so again.

“Indeed, and why is that?”

I watched her every move, which were not many. The
Guinevere seated before me was unlike the one that I had met in
society. This side of Guinevere was cold and formal, and knew how
to keep her emotions from showing.

“You never meant to kill James Monroe. That is why
you used a sleeping draught instead of poison,” Guinevere sighed
and removed her white lace mask, “but I do not understand why,” I
said, hoping for some emotion.

“You see; Richard instructed me to
kill him, but I try always
not
to do whatever it is Richard wants. It is a game I
play.” Guinevere suddenly laughed. “The iron in the bouquet was a
stroke of genius, but, did you honestly think that I would believe
you to be Loutaire?” When I did not speak, she went on. “I know
every contour of your brother’s face.”

Biting my cheek, I stared at her, keeping my
expression as blank as her own.

“How did you discover that I was
the, what do you call me,
white
phantom?”

I started to wonder what Guinevere did not know. “It
was not I who discovered you.”

Guinevere’s smile faded, and she looked down to
where her fingers were playing with the lace on her mask. “What
gave me away?”

“You were seen murdering three ruffians in an
alley.”

She nodded, understanding exactly to when I
referred. “What a coincidence.” Her eyes met mine. Her voice went
cold, “Jack unmasked me, and I unmasked him.”

Before me sat our greatest threat. Guinevere was not
some pawn. Richard was the pawn, being moved here and there at the
whim of this skillful player. “Why did you mimic Hannah’s
voice?”

Guinevere’s grin was genuine. “I detested her from
the moment I met her, but when I required an alias, she came to
mind.”

I nearly smiled, but I would not give her the
satisfaction. “Did you––” my voice faltered, and I cleared it, “did
you shoot James?”

“Of that I am guilty, but I am not a murderer, and I
am not an assassin,” she told me, and I saw the honesty in her
eyes. “I kill only when there is no other way.”

Anger, fear, and dread crept into my veins. “Where
do I play into your game?”

Guinevere scowled. “You were never part of my plan.
I took pains to protect you. I led you to George with the hope that
you would then remove yourself from this mission. I even turned all
blame on Levi, who had been watching my house.”

Incredulity was mine. How could she
do something so cruel? Levi was
fifteen
! She may have thought she was
sparing me, but it was not so. By harming Levi, she harmed me. We
were Phantoms, and Phantoms protect our own.

“Why would you do that?”
God, let her have an acceptable
answer.

Sadness covered Guinevere’s face and eyes. “Jack
loves you, and I love Jack. I did what I had to do, but it was not
enough. You gave yourself away. First, by screeching in the woods
when you were being chased by the guards, then the carriage meant
for Monroe, and finally the glass that you gave to Levi. Richard
sent some men to bring you in, but Andrew Madison foiled that.”

I stared at Guinevere with a mixture of chagrin and
appreciation. Everything I suspected was true. “Why are you not the
leader of Levitas? You are devious enough to be.”

“I have no desire to rule a group of yokels who
believe they are making a difference in the world, when all they
are achieving is making themselves ridiculous.”

“Then why be a part at all?”

“I am not a part of Levitas. I am here to destroy
them, and when that is accomplished, I will leave. It would have
been done if your Phantoms had not gotten involved.”

“The Holy Order,” I murmured, and Guinevere
winced.

She leaned forward again, her eyes holding a
warning, but also a fleck of fear. “You would be wise to forget
that name. Only death will come if you seek out what you can never
understand.”

Digesting that piece of information took a moment.
Guinevere worked for the Holy Order. That explained some, but not
much of what she was doing in society and why she became betrothed
to Jack.

“I do not care about what or why, you are a traitor
to your country and will be punished as such.” Guinevere’s face
took on a rush of color. “I must know, why Jack? What was it about
him that drew you to him?”

A look of intense longing had flashed in Guinevere’s
eyes before it was replaced with cold determination. “I did not
intend to love your brother, but Jack gave me something that I had
thought lost forever.”

“What is that?” I demanded.

“Hope.” Guinevere stood, picking up her
handkerchief. She placed her hands on the back of the chair, and
her eyes hardened for a moment, then she blinked them blank. “You
are about to be tried before the Levitas court, and you will be
found guilty. Have you anything to say in your defense?”

Guinevere did not wish harm upon me, and she was
truly trying to protect Jack. I found myself thankful to Guinevere
for that, but then the cold truth of what was before me smacked me
in the face. I was about to be tried before a group who had no
compunction in killing a delegate for president.

“No, but I do have two questions.” Guinevere stared
at me, and I took it for assent. “Do the men who wear the snake
rings work for Levitas?”

Guinevere flinched as if I had slapped her. Her jaw
was clenched tight for a moment before she forced her face
impassive. “No.” She smiled. “What is your next question?”

Relief had filled me for a moment knowing that she
did not work with the people who had murdered Ben. I asked the
question that had been burning in my mind since the first Levitas
meeting I had witnessed. “Where is Pierre? Is he alive?”

Guinevere’s head tilted to the side as she stared at
me as if I had two heads or something. “Even facing great pain, you
still think only of others. A trait of the Phantoms or your
own?”

“What happens to me is of no consequence when my
friends are hurting,” I answered honestly.

“He is alive,” Guinevere said before turning and
walking toward the door.

“What do you intend to do about my brother?”

Guinevere leaned her back against the door.
“Nothing. Jack and I lead very different lives, and there is no
hope for us.” Guinevere sighed. “Whatever pain that is inflicted
upon you, you have no one to blame, but those you hold dear.”

She looked over her shoulder, her hand on the
doorknob. “For what it is worth, all those people Richard captured
have been returned to their homes.” She smirked. “I saw to
that.”

The door closed behind her, and I pulled at the
ropes binding my hands, but they would not budge, and all it
produced was pain in my wrists. Trepidation was trying to set in.
My legs were bound to the legs of the chair, but the toes of my
boots were touching the floor, so I scooted my chair back and
paused, waiting to see if anyone came into the room. The door did
not open, so I scooted again.

The door slammed against the wall. I looked up.
Dimitri stood there, smiling at me. “The time has come.”

He unbound my legs first. I could have kicked him,
but with my hands still bound, it would have only ended in me
getting more bruises, so I refrained. Dimitri unbound my hands, and
I rubbed my wrists where the ropes had been digging into them.
Dimitri allowed me to stand before binding my hands behind my back.
He pushed me out of the room and up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, I was directed toward the
throne room. At the door Dimitri, halted me, and then tapped two
times. Someone knocked on the other side of the door five times.
Dimitri knocked two times, paused, then tapped two more times. I
tried to keep my laughter inside, for I was feeling seconds from
losing control. The doors opened from the inside, and I was pushed
into the throne room.

Richard and his associate Alexander
Robb were seated upon the thrones on the platform, but Nicholas’s
chair was empty. All the other chairs, except Guinevere’s and Mrs.
Lewis’s, were filled.

My eyes met those of Charles Knowlton, and his mouth
dropped open. He squirmed in his seat like he wanted to speak up,
but could not do it. I turned away from him, disgust rising within
me for his cowardice. When I reached the center of the floor, I was
shoved down to my knees.

“Brothers,” Richard said, walking to the edge of the
platform, “I give you Raven, one of the Phantoms, who has plagued
us for so long.”

Looking to my right, all the men were staring at me
in disgust, like I was some kind of rodent they wanted to squash
with their polished boots.

Richard announced a list of my
‘sins against the order of Levitas.’ Murder, though I had murdered
none of them,
yet.
Spying,
true
,
stealing the sacred artifacts,
that was
mostly Jack
. Trickery,
are we not all guilty of that?
The
list went on and on. Finally, the critical point came. Richard
asked the members of Levitas what their verdict was.

“Guilty!” The word was shouted from all corners.
Sickness rose in my stomach.

“It is by the judgment and will of this court that
you, Elizabeth Martin, also known as Raven, spy and murderer, be
branded as a traitor. You chose to be a shadow, now you may live
your life in the shadows, shamed by the scars you bear. Forsaken
and forgotten.” Richard clapped twice. The doors behind me opened.
A new guard entered; his pock marked face sneering and his watery
mouth hanging open, but it was what he carried that caused bile to
rise in my throat. Held out before him was a long, brown branding
iron that’s end was the Levitas crest of the pyramid and lightning
bolt.

Fear was not a strong enough word for the emotions
surging through me. I stood and tried to run for the door to the
right of the platform, but as Richard shouted Dimitri grabbed me. I
shouted at the members to stop this, I called upon their humanity,
their honor as I thrashed against Dimitri. He picked me up,
careless of how I threw my body around. When my screamed plea aimed
directly at Mr. Knowlton, he looked away.

Dimitri dropped me on the floor and held me there
with his huge hand against my head. From that angle, I could see
the walkway above where Guinevere stood.

“Are you pleased with yourself?” I screamed at her,
but inside I was begging her to rescue me. As she turned away and
left the throne room, my eyes slid shut in utter defeat. My shirt
was pulled up, and that brought on a fresh hysteria.

There were shouts from the men around the room, but
not to spare me. They did not want to witness what was about to
happen. Richard thundered for them to be still, before he sneered
down at me. I fought against Dimitri’s hand and got free, but he
struck my head, and I fell flat on my stomach. Both of Dimitri’s
hands came down on my shoulders, and my shirt was tossed up
again.

With my cheek flat against the stone floor, hot
tears fell from my eyes, making a small puddle beneath my head. I
inhaled a deep breath then felt the hot iron against my lower
back.

The pain was intense, though bearable, for a full
second. It burst into excruciating agony. I writhed. My back
arched. My screams filled the room. Each breath I took only
increased the pain, until it felt like my whole back was on fire.
Searing pain increased with each passing second. I could smell my
burning flesh, and my stomach roiled and lost the meager fare that
I had been fed. The brand was removed and my will to fight went
with it.

Jack

I
t was
nearly dark when Jericho and I arrived at Stark Manor.

Earlier, when I had arrived at my mother’s country
house to learn that George had given orders not to go after Bess
and Levi. Jericho and Mariah ignored his order and had tried three
times to get into Stark Manor, but the house had at least ten
guards on the outside alone. I sent Mariah to fetch Frederick and
his team. They would meet us at Stark Manor.

My shoulder was screaming at me, but I ignored the
pain as we rode through the woods and halted behind the house. We
scouted out the area, but other than seven carriages that were
parked outside the stables, no one was around. That did not sit
well with me.

“I am going in. Wait here for Frederick.” I started
to move away, but Jericho’s hand shot out and caught my wrist.

“There are many orders I will follow, but allowing
you to go alone into that house is not one of them,” Jericho
informed me. With his wolf mask pushed up on his head, I could see
the determination in his eyes.

“Very well. Frederick will no doubt follow us into
the house when he and his team arrive.” We ran across the lawn and
the side of the house. We paused and looked around the corner, but
no one was in the front yard, so we went to the door.

Jericho had two pistols out and aimed at the door as
I reached for the knob.

Glass shattered to our left as something large
crashed through the window. Jericho and I stood gawking at the
broken chair and a hand that had appeared on the window frame. A
pair of stocking-clad legs and a skirt held up above the knees
stepped over the sill and broken glass. My mother’s head appeared
through the window.