The Hidden Princess (13 page)

Why wasn’t I already dead? Why hadn’t the plague been released?

Before I had the chance to ask any questions, they all just swept past me. The closest one’s heavy woollen cloak brushed my arm, and I almost choked on the stale reek of campfire smoke and unwashed hair.

I stood still for a second, alone on the path once they’d passed, watching them slip away through the trees. Hidden roaming all over the mortal world like sewer-rats, but no plague, or at least I wasn’t dead yet. I couldn’t make sense of it. Connie’s boot prints led off the path and away into the trees, and I ran, passing more Hidden all the time. Some of them paused to give me a disinterested glance, like I was a worm or a fly. Most didn’t, and as the trees thinned out it was like the Hidden multiplied even as I was watching – they were all gathered together, crowded around like they were watching something. Or someone. There were so many of them, hundreds and hundreds – I’d lost track of Connie’s footprints completely, and I had to push my way between the gathered Hidden, just calling her name.

If the Hidden were here then did that mean Lissy was, too?

Without even thinking about it, I stopped yelling for Connie. “Lissy!” I shouted. “Lissy!”

I stopped. Hidden blocked my path every way I turned. I was surrounded.
Prey
. I’d not seen the Swan King, though. Not yet. They all just stood there, silently watching me, hundreds of pairs of identical gunmetal-grey eyes, each bearing an expression I couldn’t read.

“Lissy!” My voice bounced back at me from between the trees.

“
Joe
.”

She spoke from somewhere behind me and I couldn’t move. She sounded different – colder, almost – but I knew it was her; I knew it was Lissy. I’d listened to her whispering my name every night in my dreams since the cold grey dawn she’d walked into the lake at Hopesay Reach, arm in arm with the Swan King. I’d waited six years for this moment and now it had come I was frozen. Slowly, I turned to face her. And then there Lissy was, draped in this huge, feathered cloak, gold and brown and every shade in between, iridescent, shining feathers. She stood with her arm around Connie’s shoulders, the feathers of her cloak shivering in the breeze, tangling among her dark red hair. Connie looked white and frightened, just clinging on to her sister, but I couldn’t have cared less about Connie at that moment. It was all about Lissy, just like everything had always been about Lissy since the day I saw her standing in that dark lane the night we first came to the Reach.

Lissy was
different
, though, taller and bone-white.
Inhuman
. I stepped closer. “You’re all right,” I said, like a bloody idiot. “You’re OK.”

It took everything I had not to actually cry like a little kid. She’d spent every night of the last six years inhabiting my dreams, taking over my mind, and now there we were in front of each other and it was all I could think to say.

Lissy smiled and wild hope flooded through my body. Did she feel like I did? Had she dreamed about me like I’d dreamed about her, sorry to wake up every morning because all that meant was that I had to drag myself through the day without seeing her face? Our fingers twined together and she was so cold, so bloody cold. So Hidden.

“Thank you, Joe,” Lissy said, quietly, and she stepped away from Connie, leaving her standing alone, surrounded by Hidden, but at that moment I couldn’t think about Connie at all; all I could think of was Lissy. And then it was only me and her, and everyone else all around us just faded to nothing – they didn’t even matter. We stood face to face, Lissy’s cold white hand in mine. Her eyes glistened with tears. “You tried to follow me into the lake that morning, didn’t you? You tried to follow me through the Gateway, but Dad and Rafe stopped you. Thank you for being the only one who tried … for trying to save me.”

I reached out for her other hand and she let me take it, just gripping on to each other, hands held in fists right up to our chests, so close that I could have kissed her.

“What else was I meant to do?” And it took all I had not to let go of Lissy’s hands and hold her in my arms. “Where is he?” I asked, after what seemed like a thousand years had passed. “Where’s your father? Why hasn’t this plague thing spread everywhere? Me and your sister ought to be dead by now. Everyone should be. What’s going on?”

“He’s dead,” Lissy said, simply. “I killed him, just like you killed Rose. It was so easy.”

I stared at her, waves of elation rolling over me like warm water. The Swan King was dead.
She was free
.

“I killed him,” Lissy said again, like she was trying to make herself believe it. “He’s dead, Joe.”

“So you’re really free?” My voice shook like I was about to cry. “Lissy, this is going to sound crazy but I’ve missed you – just so much.” I couldn’t go on. I looked up into her face, realizing for the first time that she was now a little taller than me. I remembered the look in her eyes the first evening we met, the way she just didn’t seem to care about all the normal boring crap we’d to put up with – exams, idiots at school, all that stuff just didn’t seem to carry any weight with her. She didn’t care, and I loved that about her so much.

“God, Joe,” she whispered, twisting my fingers in hers. They were so cold, it was like she’d drowned in freezing water. “You’re so warm, and I’m so cold.” And Lissy smiled, so bloody beautiful that I wanted to cry, but she was already stepping away. Great waves of hot shame rolled over me. I’d always known it’d be like this, that she wouldn’t feel the same, but I’d not expected it to actually hurt, to really feel like my internal organs were all being stirred with some kind of giant knife.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you.” I’d no pride any more, so there was no saving that. I just came right out and said it, even though there was no point any more.

She didn’t even try to pretend not to know what I was on about. “Joe,” Lissy whispered. “I can’t. I can’t love you back.”

“It’s all right, you daft cow. I know. You’re immortal.” And God, it cost me a lot to say that. I laughed, which to be honest wasn’t that hard because really I was laughing at myself. Losing my life over her for six whole years. Failing every exam I’d ever taken just because all I could see was her face. Giving up on everything, all because of her. And it was all for nothing. She didn’t need me like I needed her. I felt cold. Completely cold, like I was already dead.

And then, suddenly, Connie spoke, butting in. “What the hell is that?” she said, looking up at the sky. “What are they all staring at?” She was right, though: the Hidden surrounding us were no longer paying any attention to Lissy and me. They were all watching the sky, and through the numb misery I noticed for the first time what a state Connie was in, how she was having to hold her school shirt across her chest because all the buttons had been ripped off, and how her face was streaked with tears, and how she had that bloody awful hunted look in her eyes. Lissy must’ve got to her just in time – the Hidden were always hungry for mortals, wanting to touch us, to hold us, to feel the warmth. Deep, hot rage welled up inside me. She was just a kid, and one of them had blatantly attacked her.

“You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be involved in this at all.” It came out angry, not like I actually cared.

“Shut up,” Connie hissed. “Look, Joe.”

Lissy was no longer paying either one of us any attention. All the Hidden were watching the sky with complete concentration, and we were both forgotten like new toys bought for a spoilt kid.

Connie’s eyes must’ve been sharper than mine, because it was a good few seconds before I could see anything up there at all. For a few moments, I had no idea what they were all staring at, and then a black speck appeared like a fleck of dust against the blue, bigger with every second until I could just make out the form of a bird hurtling towards the ground, claws jutting out ready to snatch some small creature from the ground. It swooped down into the clearing, hurtling towards Lissy so fast that Connie screamed and without even thinking what the hell I was doing I reached out and grabbed her, hauling her close to me. She clung on, her fingers digging into my arm.

“Get back!” I yelled, expecting the falcon to claw Lissy’s face, so close that I could see the golden fury in its eyes. “Lissy, move!” I roared, furious at her for just standing there, watching, but at the second I was sure the falcon was about to attack her, suddenly it was just gone. There was only a boy standing in the clearing, face to face with her, hair as red as fire torn back from his head by a sudden wind, dark Hidden eyes black with rage. And his face was the mirror image of Lissy’s, and I’d not seen him for more than six years. And she’d killed his father –
their
father. Larkspur.

“Oh, my God,” Connie whispered, and she was shaking and so was I. “Oh, my God, Joe. What the hell is going on?
Who is he?
”

I didn’t even know where to start so I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t exactly the moment to intervene – the long-lost sister and banished brother reunited just after she’d murdered their father. The assembled Hidden watched in complete silence, and I could sense a great tension mounting, like the air had thickened, and it was harder and harder to breathe.

“Larkspur,” Lissy said, quietly. “You came home.”

“There is no home.” His voice shook with fury, and I saw that his face was wet with tears, which kind of surprised me after all the Swan King had done to him. “Not any more, Lissy. You killed him. Didn’t you? You killed our father. I saw his death reflected in the sea; I watched him bleed into the waves.”

“I had no choice.” I hardly recognized Lissy’s voice: she sounded so cold, so inhuman. “Everyone lied to my sister and she had no idea what she was dealing with. Who she was dealing with. Connie opened the Gateway. It wasn’t her fault.”

“What are you talking about?” Connie demanded, her voice shaking just like Larkspur’s. “I don’t know what you mean – all I did was move a stupid iron cross from by the kitchen window. I kept having these dreams and I thought I was going mad, OK? Seeing this boy, all the time. All I wanted to do was prove to myself I wasn’t going crazy, imagining things—”

“That boy was my father, mine and Lissy’s,” Larkspur spat. “And now he’s dead. You should never have opened the Gateway. He was safe before: they all were, even if they were prisoners. Now you’ve let them out what do you think is going to happen?”

“I didn’t let anyone out of anything!” Connie turned to look up at Lissy, and said, “
What?
Who is he, anyway?” When I saw the look on Connie’s face I began to realize just how badly we’d screwed up by not telling her the truth about any of this. Her mouth just crumpled, like she’d been completely betrayed. All the time, the rest of the Hidden watched in silence, hundreds of them. Waiting to see what would happen next, and all the time Connie was still clinging to my arm like I was stopping her drowning, staring at Larkspur with utter hatred in her eyes.

Out of the silence a voice spoke: “Larkspur! Larkspur! Larkspur! The true heir has returned. The true heir has returned.”

“Take the throne, then,” Lissy hissed at him. “I don’t want it. I never wanted it. They tricked me – Iris and the others. They just used me as a way to escape.”

“It was a fool’s gambit,” Larkspur snapped. “How long do you think it will be before the Fontevrault realize the Hidden are free? Now they’re no longer prisoners, after all that’s happened, the Fontevrault will have no excuse not to slaughter every last one of the Hidden.”

“We’ll send an envoy,” Lissy replied. “We’ll hold another covenant. Now that our father is dead, we can persuade the Fontevrault the Hidden mean no harm.”

“For all that’s worth! The last time we held a covenant with the Fontevrault they killed my mother.” Larkspur’s voice rang around the clearing as he swept all the assembled Hidden with one furious gaze. “Why did you make her do this? Do you not remember what happened the last time we tried to strike a bargain with the mortals? The Fontevrault cut my mother’s throat in the woods outside Fontevrault Abbey and she died in agony.”

Not one of the Hidden answered. And I for one knew that even if Larkspur dragged all the Hidden I could see back down into the Halls where they belonged, there were others who had already staked their claim to freedom. I’d passed at least six of them just getting here. A weird, jumpy sense of panic spread through me: the Hidden were out of control. They were just everywhere.

“He’s her brother,” Connie said, in this funny, quiet voice that shook just enough to betray how close she was to losing it completely. “That boy. That
thing
. He’s Lissy’s brother. Isn’t he?”

No one replied.

“Larkspur,” Lissy said. “I didn’t want this any more than you do. Are you going to help me or not?”

“You’re my queen as well as my sister, and I’m bound by loyalty – even though I don’t choose it,” Larkspur snapped. “No matter what you’ve done, how can I not help you?”

Connie tore away from my side and pelted off into the trees, leaving a peculiar silence behind her, because no one had really been taking much notice of her up till that point, not even Lissy, even though Connie was the one who’d started all this.

“Joe?” Lissy said, pleading, and I couldn’t believe that after not seeing her little sister for years, Lissy wasn’t even planning on going after her. It was going to be my job: the bloody dirty work, as usual.

“All right. You’ve got more important stuff to deal with.” I didn’t even bother keeping the bitterness out of my voice. I just ran, taking off through the trees and leaving Lissy and Larkspur to fight it out with the Hidden. At that moment, I wasn’t even sure if I cared if the Fontevrault came thundering down to the Reach to destroy every last one of them. Lissy couldn’t die, anyway, so what did it matter? Nothing bloody mattered.

Connie wasn’t hard to follow, crashing and sobbing through the trees. She was fast, though, I’d grant her that, and by the time I caught up with her I was sweating and knackered. She’d curled herself up in a ball at the foot of a chestnut tree, arms wrapped tight around her knees, head down.