From Darkness Won - Jill Williamson [74]
Averella drifted to the door and reached between the men for the latch. Her fingers passed through the wooden surface. She moved slowly, unsure, but curious to know who or what was being kept behind this door.
She turned her head so her face was the last thing to pass through the dark wood. She soon found herself in a spacious chamber. On the exterior wall, the sun shone through a narrow balcony. A canopied bed stood in the far corner. Linen draped over the furniture, suggesting the room was not being used. No one was here. Why guard an empty chamber?
On her second survey of the room, she caught sight of a limp hand dangling over the bedside. She drifted closer. A body came into view, sunk into the linen drape that covered the mattress. A woman in a plain brown dress. A peasant. The woman’s face was twisted away, her thin black hair tangled in a pile that covered her face.
Averella did not know why, but a dark fear pressed in on her heart as she studied the woman. She skirted to the foot of the bed, trying to get a better view of the woman’s face.
The chamber door burst open. Averella pressed against the wall and sank to her haunches, falling partway into the next room. Then she remembered that no one could see her, so she steadied herself and looked to the doorway.
Lord Nathak entered with Lord Levy, Lady Fallina Levy, and their son Reggio. Averella froze at the sight of Lord Nathak and his horrible mask, fear curling the ends of her nerves like ribbon. She built an imaginary wall around herself. What such an act did, she did not know, but she felt more secure after having done it.
Lady Fallina gripped her thick brocade skirts in both hands and ran to the bedside. “Really, my lord. Could you at least have chosen a room that had been aired? A fresh bed?”
“She can’t feel anything, right, Father?” Reggio asked.
“I know nothing of this magic,” Lord Levy said, puffing on an ivory pipe.
Lady Fallina brushed the hair off the unconscious woman’s face.
Averella screamed, a soundless, heart-wrenching act for her ears only. For it was her face under all that hair. Her body lying limp on the bed like a discarded shawl. She leaned over the foot of the bed to get a closer look. Was she dead? Why was she dressed as a peasant?
“She is warm,” Lady Fallina said. “She breathes still.”
“Of course she does,” Lord Nathak said. “She has been stormed, not stabbed.”
Stormed. The invisible man in the garden had spoken of a storm. Master Cham! I have found my body, Averella said. Please tell me how to return to it.
But Master Cham did not answer.
“Regardless, Lord Nathak,” Lady Fallina said. “This whole situation is horribly improper. I will not allow this lady to be without a chaperone. Think of her reputation.” Lady Fallina moved Averella’s arms, folding them over her stomach so that she truly looked like a corpse.
Reggio snorted. “Her reputation is soiled of her own instigation. Cavorting all over Er’Rets in the company of men. No one held her hostage, Mother. She chose her lot.”
“Still.” Lady Fallina smoothed Averella’s hair. “I will have no one say that I contributed to her degeneracy.”
Averella’s jaw dropped. Never in her life had she been so brutally slandered. On what grounds did they accuse her of such poor conduct?
“None of this matters, my dear.” Lord Levy set a hand on his wife’s shoulder, bringing with him the strong smell of tobacco and vanilla. His pointed white beard reminded Averella of a goat. “Lord Nathak is moving the lady to Mahanaim in the morning.”
Lady Fallina regarded her husband with wide eyes. “Moving her how?”
“She is being transported with my procession,” Lord Nathak said. “My master can do with her as he likes.”
“I will not have it! Her mother must be notified.” Lady Fallina sat on the edge of the bed and glanced to her husband, who was sucking on his pipe. “Think of Jacqueline, Abidan. She and Lady Averella are the same age. Could you allow our daughter—”
“Jacqueline has not broken the law, my dear.” Lord Levy blew out a stream of smoke. “Lady Averella is a criminal by her own volition.”
“And