The Book Of Shade (Shadeborn 1) (11 page)

His face was a picture of shock as she let him go, reeling away with clenched fists.

“Do you know I just decided to give this another chance?” she yelled. “I just decided, tonight, that maybe you shades aren’t as morbid and crazy I thought. And then you do this!”

“Lily,” Novel said in sharp interruption.

She had turned her back to him in her tirade. Lily was about to turn and shout ‘What?’ at the top of her lungs, when she realised the veins in her arms were rising and tingling again. She snapped her head round before her body followed, watching all the water from Novel’s body and his sink gathering in a solid wall between them. It flowed like an endless waterfall in that same frosty blue shade, some six feet high, and Lily could see Novel’s outline through it.

“Oh yeah,” she said breathlessly, throwing a casual hand at the waterwall. “I can do water now. I was going to tell you before you tried to kill yourself.”

The Book Of Shade

Lily sat in the rehearsal space at 7p.m. waiting for Novel. When she’d eventually calmed down, and his face had stopped stinging, the pair had simply decided to meet again before the month was out and discuss things properly. It was a Thursday night, the first evening that Lily hadn’t spent with Michael in almost a month, but she didn’t find herself remorseful for cancelling their cinema date. She had stopped very briefly to take in a lungful of starlight on the way, and now her body was humming with the possibilities of the encounter that lay ahead. She heard the illusionist coming up the stairs for what seemed like an eon before the door gave a creak.

Novel was dressed in one of his usual suits, minus his jacket despite the frozen air filling the room. In one hand he carried the large crimson book with the cracked leather cover that Lily had seen once before in this room. With a wave of his hand, a two-seat sofa scraped its way along the floor to the centre of the room. Novel seated himself at one end of it, resting the book on his knee. He looked up expectantly and Lily approached, taking the other space beside him. He silently handed her the ancient tome.

“What is it?” she asked, the heavy weight now resting on her open palms.

“Everything,” Novel replied. “It is everything you could ever want to know about the shadeborn.”

As she gazed upon it, the book flipped open in Lily’s hands and started flicking its pages, just as it had the first time she’d encountered it. Eventually, it settled on a blank double page somewhere in the middle. Lily waited, watching the blank, brown page with great impatience. She was about to ask another question when curling black words began to emerge within the leaves. Text and diagrams appeared all over the place, eventually joined by a great sprawling title across the top of the section.

“Dynamics of Water Casting?” Lily read. She eyed a step-by-step illustration of someone creating the waterwall she had accidentally manifested. “Is this like an instruction manual?” she said, lifting the pages for Novel to see.

He didn’t even glance at them.

“Don’t bother showing me,” he replied, “I can’t see that particular page.”

Lily gave him a funny look. He sucked in his cheeks a moment before he replied.

“The book only shows you what you’re ready to learn. Everything else is locked until your spirit is capable of it.”

Lily flicked through a few more pages full of water casts until the rest of the book became blank again.

“You can’t do water?” she asked.

“It’s the single most difficult element to master,” he replied. “Not many shades can do what I saw from you on Saturday night.”

There was no hiding the bitter jealousy in his tone. Lily tried not to smile or show her pride.

“I guess everybody’s got to be good at something,” she mused.

“We can practise your other elements together,” Novel offered, “but you’ll need the book for water. There’s nothing I can teach you about it. It’s quite safe to leave the book around mortals too: the pages all stay blank for them.”

Lily marvelled at the incredible shapes and formations on the ancient leaves before her, but she was a little sad that she could share them with no-one else.

“Where does something like this even come from?” she said.

“A booksmith,” Novel answered simply. “When shadechildren are deemed ready by their parents to learn proper casts, they take them to a booksmith. This is a Book of Shade. Each one is crafted to match the personality of its owner. Everything about it – the colour, the texture, even the shape of the words – is suited perfectly to them. It is theirs for their lifetime and no-one else’s.”

Lily frowned. “Then why aren’t I getting one of my own?”

“Because
my book
opened for you,” Novel said, looking deep into the pages he couldn’t read, “You shouldn’t be able to interact with it. I only know of one other pair of people it’s ever happened to. If something like this happens, one tends to take it as a sign not to interfere.”

Lily felt the weight of the book in a whole new way as Novel spoke. This was his, over two centuries old, and it contained everything he had ever managed to learn within these darkened pages. And he was willing to give it to her.

“I guess this means we’re back on training together?” she asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

“It would seem so,” Novel replied.

“Your mother won’t be happy,” Lily added, wishing she hadn’t after she saw the sour look that overcame Novel’s pale features.

“I didn’t dare tell her about the book,” he breathed. “She thought it was bad enough I’d even approached you without knowing your bloodline.”

“And yet, here we are again,” Lily remarked.

“No shade should be left to fend for themselves.” Novel spoke towards the floor, and Lily got the impression he was talking about something more than just her circumstances. “Your father has a lot to answer for.”

“You sound like my mother,” Lily added, realising in the same moment that she hadn’t even texted her mum since New Year’s Day.

Novel stood up suddenly, dusting his waistcoat off and offering Lily a hand to help her to her feet. She took it, leaning on his strong palm and leaving the book on the sofa.

“I should like to ask you to become my apprentice,” Novel said with a stiff lip, “officially this time.”

Lily felt a tingle of pride spreading warmly into her chest as she let go of his hand.

“I accept,” she answered, “on the condition that you’re going to behave yourself this time. No more blowing up light fixtures and stuff.”

“Agreed, so long as you don’t slap me in the face again,” he retorted.

Lily grinned and let out a little laugh at Novel’s propriety. There was something shining in his eyes that could almost have been a smile, longing to escape.

The Element Of Water

Despite telling Jazzy several hundred times that she would not be able to read the pages of the Book of Shade, she still insisted on being there to watch Lily study its contents and attempt to practice her skills alone. Lily consulted the water pages again, reading them much more carefully, the same way she should have been reading the sources for the paper she was supposed to be writing for Professor Havers at that very moment. Jazzy rocked on her bed as she waited to hear what she called ‘the magic words’ come out of Lily’s mouth.

“The element of water,” Lily read in a fake Olde-English voice, “is expressed through the emancipation from one’s inhibitions.” She looked up at Jazzy with a pout. “You’re the English undergrad – translation?”

“It means you’ve got to be all wibbly and free-spirited.”

“Wibbly?” Lily repeated.

“You know,” Jazzy said, swaying her arms about like a jellyfish.

“Please tell me that’s not what I look like when I’m casting,” Lily groaned. She turned her gaze back to the book. “Ooh, this looks cool. A waterwhip.”

Laying the book down on her desk, Lily stood up and conjured her starting point: the waterball. The book told her to imagine a snakelike shape, and it had instructions on how to move her hands to elongate the ball into the whip’s proper form. The cast got stuck as a worm for quite a long time, wriggling in mid-air lamely until Jazzy was crying with laughter. With her rage slowly bubbling, Lily forced the worm towards Jazzy and let it go, soaking the legs of her pyjamas and the bottom of her duvet with a dull splash.

“Not… exactly… a whip-crack!” Jazzy said, still in breathless giggles.

“You’ll be sorry when it is!” Lily promised with a wicked grin.

F
EBRUARY

Tricks Of The Trade

A proper training schedule had been arranged and Michael wasn’t happy about it. He was disappointed not to have Lily to himself any more, but she reasoned with him about the money that she so badly needed, until he cracked and starting making dates with her around her ‘job’ at the Imaginique. It was true enough that she was short on cash, only having her student loan and her hardship grant to help her survive the gauntlet of books, food and bills that stretched before her to the end of term in June. Mum had sent fifty quid at Christmas, but Lily, in her infinite wisdom, had transformed that into Pimm’s after Pimm’s on New Year’s Eve, and now she was struggling a little again.

Thanks to Jazzy and her seemingly infinite supply of groceries, Lily would never actually starve, but she felt guilty from time to time that her friend was footing the food bill all too often. Jazzy didn’t seem to mind, since her credit card statement was paid off in India each month, but Lily was pretty sure Mr and Mrs Dama wouldn’t be impressed if they knew they were feeding two starving students instead of one. That was the reason that Lily could never deny Jazzy a favour, so when she asked if she could come along to one of Lily’s training sessions with Novel, Lily had no way of refusing her.

It was very dark for 5p.m. as the two girls walked arm in arm through the park, shivering together against the biting wind that still hadn’t left Piketon’s streets. When they reached the theatre, Jazzy hung back, anticipating the horrific sight of Belnerg answering the door, only to be disappointed that she wasn’t first in line as Baptiste stuck his head out into the night. His teeth glittered in the early moonlight.

“Aha, bonsoir ladies,” crooned the elegant man. “I was just heading out. You want to get in?”

“Please,” Lily answered.

They passed him and Lily caught a strange metallic smell in her nose as he went by. She and Jazzy stood in the doorway as Baptiste stalked out into the night, his long coat wavering against the icy wind that he didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by.

“God, he’s gorgeous,” Jazzy said with a swoon.

“Hmm,” Lily answered, closing the door.

“You don’t think so?” her friend asked in disbelief.

Lily tipped her head to and fro for a moment. She liked Baptiste. He made her feel relaxed, with his lazy accent and effortless grace, but some deep instinct within her prevented her from seeing him as anything but an acquaintance.

“Not really,” she replied.

“Oh I get it,” Jazzy said with a grin. “You like them, ahem…
pale and interesting
, do you?”

Lily realised what her friend was getting at, and slapped her hard on the arm.

“I have a boyfriend you know!” she cried.

“That’s avoiding the question if ever I heard it,” Jazzy snapped back with a laugh.

“I could hear you two three floors up,” Novel said suddenly as he emerged from the dark corridor.

Lily was instantly horrified, hoping he hadn’t heard Jazzy’s jokes. If he had, then nothing showed on his face as he nodded politely to Jazzy and held out his hand for her to shake.

“I assume you’re Miss Dama?” he asked.

Jazzy took his hand and gave it an awkward wiggle. “Just call me Jazzy, really,” she mumbled in reply.

Something about the way Novel spoke suggested that he probably never would.

“Might I ask what brings you here with Lily?” Novel added, giving his trainee a curious look.

She bit her lip and screwed her face into an apologetic look.

“Jazzy knows everything,” she said quickly.

Novel rolled his pale eyes. “Of course she does. You really are the limit, you know.”

“Hey! Not my fault!” Lily protested immediately. “She saw me chucking flamethrowers in my sleep. I could hardly help that, could I?”

Novel got a worried curl in his lip.

“Indeed not,” he replied. “So this is what… a spectator sport for you, Jazmine?”

Jazzy shook her head fiercely. “Actually, I was wondering if I could see Lady Eva.”

Lily turned her head in surprise. “What? Why?”

“I’d rather not say just yet,” Jazzy admitted awkwardly, turning back to Novel. “Please Monsieur, is she around?”

“In the kitchen,” said Novel with a nod. “We’ll be out on the stage, if you want to find Lily when you’re done.”

Jazzy went without looking back and Lily followed Novel down into the auditorium and up onto the stage, still lost in thought. She watched as Novel dropped down into the Row Below and lifted up one of the old dark benches, foraging for something inside it. She’d thought Jazzy wanted to see her use her powers, but something else was going on. Vague memories of Jazzy’s face during the Gypsy Madame’s ghost parade came to the front of Lily’s mind, but they were shaken away again as Novel leapt back up onto the stage with a thump.

“We can’t have you leaking magic in front of any more humans,” Novel began sharply. “Least of all that big-mouthed boy you have in tow.”

Lily was mildly offended on Michael’s behalf, but it was true that he liked the sound of his own voice a bit. It was a stark contrast to the silent figure, who now held something shiny up in front of her. When it stopped spinning, Lily realised Novel was offering her a pendant on a cord. It was a long hexagonal stone cut into a perfect point at one end, with a silver fastener lashing it to the cord at the other. The gem itself was a dusky, cloudy pink hue. Novel stepped forward, with the ends of the cord in each hand, and draped the pendant over Lily’s chest.

“Is this another of your crystal projects?” she asked, remembering the starlight stones.

She lifted her hair to allow Novel to tie the cord at the back of her neck. He looked straight through her as he concentrated on forming what felt like a complicated knot.

“Rose quartz is a balancing stone,” Novel explained. “It’s not well-known, but it has a tendency to absorb unwanted powers.”

Lily looked down at the stone as Novel’s warm hands shifted away from her collarbones. The pendant hung level with her heart. She could feel Novel still standing close to her, and suddenly Jazzy’s stupid joke about fancying him came into her head. She looked up at him, and found his smooth lips open as though he was about to speak. A few tiny flames escaped her fingertips, but even as she looked back at her hands, the flickers of fire were shooting up into the stone to be stored away. The rose quartz glowed red for a moment, then settled again.

“Is it going to go funny colours all the time?” Lily asked.

Novel took a few steps away and held out a hand. Something else from The Row Below shot quickly into his palm.

“Put it this way, you’ll know when it’s full,” he said, holding the new object out for her to see.

It was another rose quartz stone, this time a smooth circular one the size of a pebble. Inside, there swirled a series of bright lights, occasionally changing colour and shifting from one side of the gem to the other.

“They can store an awful lot more than you think,” Novel mused. “I kept this one in my pocket through November. If I smashed it right now, it would probably destroy this whole stage.”

“A shade grenade!” Lily said with a sudden giggle. Novel did not react. “Come on,” she urged, “that was halfway to funny. Why don’t you ever smile?”

Novel gave another eyeroll. “What is this human obsession with smiling?” he said with a wave of his hands. “I haven’t smiled in quite some time. It would seem the muscles don’t react the same way after a century of underuse.”

He said the words like they were a prepared response, as though people must have asked him that all the time.
If he wasn’t such a misery guts they wouldn’t have to ask.

“Well I don’t plan on giving up smiling,” Lily said with a huge grin to prove it, “so if that’s part of today’s training you can skip it.”

“Duly noted,” Novel said flatly. “I thought we might have a stab at lightning tonight.”

It was some time later that Jazzy wandered into the main theatre and found Novel and Lily on the stage. After much struggling, Lily had managed to produce a tiny fork of lightning, the width of a piece of spaghetti, which abruptly died as she noticed the arrival of her friend. Novel ran a hand through his white hair, growing less well-groomed by the minute as he kept attacking it in frustration.

“Hey,” Jazzy said with a little smile, “how’s it going?”

Lily spared a glance at her irate instructor.

“He gave me a lightning flower. It’s not as cool as it sounds.”

She pulled up her sleeve to reveal a Lichtenberg mark in the crook of her elbow. It was pale, but the veiny, fern-like pattern where a stray shot had hit her was clear enough. Jazzy approached the stairs to inspect it.

“It’s kind of pretty,” she mused.

“May we get back to work?” Novel said loud enough to make them both jump.

“Sorry,” Jazzy said to him, turning to Lily with a quirk in her brow. She mouthed ‘enjoy’ and gave her a cheeky wink, retreating to take a seat in the empty stalls and wait. Lily shot her an evil look, unable to retaliate with Novel tapping his foot so nearby.