The mansion.
Chapter fifty
Night cloaked Lux themoment she left the Light Market’s many lanterns behind. Random shouts and muffled sobs seeped from alcoves and behind shadowed corners, and every few feet another dark outline materialized only to fade again. Ghadra had fallen into chaos.
She kept tight against the buildings’ frames, not wanting to meet anyone lest they turn to her with clouded eyes and an insatiable hunger. Friends and loved ones were the most trusting targets, but that didn’t mean Lux wasn’t an easy one. Alone and weaponless, she was acutely aware of that fact.
She hurried down an open street, a cut-off shriek jolting her into a run. The revived could be killed like any other living being, marking the mansion as the safest place in the entire town with its large stone walls, unscalable wrought-iron gate, and the Shield. She would go there, demand admittance, and then demand the Shield be threatened into action. This was theirpurpose. So far, they’d done nothing.
The dark brick beneath her fingers gave way to smooth stone now, no longer crumbling but well-made and well-kept. The townhomes’ few windows were high but large and impossible to reach. The doors were heavy with iron bars defending their length. How Shaw had managed any success in his thievery flew further beyond her comprehension.
Then again, he’d accomplished breaking into the mansion just fine.
At last, there it loomed, the darkest she’d ever seen it. The lampposts had been extinguished, leaving moonlight to highlight the pointed peaks that rose to reach it, and it made the hairs stand on her arms and neck. Especially while listening to the wails of those trying unsuccessfully to breach the walls.
Lux crouched, eyeing the people pooling at the gate.
“Open the gate!”
“Help us! Save us!”
A young man scaled partway up a vine-covered pillar before crashing down to the stones with a shattering crack. He moaned once, only to have a ragged girl descend from the shadows. He didn’t move again, and the shouts at the gate quickly transformed to horrified screams as the lifeblood trailed down her chin.
Lux stood, watching the girl braid long strands of dirtied hair back from her face. She was pretty with generous curves, full lips and wide eyes. But those lips were stained silver now, and those eyes were warped and unnatural. She grinned as another figure appeared from the street opposite.
The moon caught the deep blue of Riselda’s skirts, and she smiled back at the girl even as Lux’s dagger twirled in her hand. When the revived decided to take her chances against it, it was with one quick movement of Riselda’s wrist that she fell to the cobblestones clutching a spurting throat.
Riselda wiped the blade clean against the body’s ruined dress. Pulling forth an iron key from her bodice, she stepped over the widening circle of crimson to fit it into the gate. It turned easily, and the iron gave way without a sound beneath her fingers.
Lux moved from her hidden vantage.
“You have your own key? Or did you steal it?”
Riselda chuckled. It barely reached Lux’s ears. “Of course, I have a key.” Glancing over her shoulder, Riselda studied her. “Are you unhurt? It was foolish of you to bolt into the fray. The revived don’t care who you are, and they don’t care who I am either. You could be dead.”
Lux gave the bloodied stones a wide berth, pausing at the gate. “I could be. Thanks to you.”
Riselda’s eyes narrowed. “Who is Aline?”
Lux ignored her. She had a feeling Riselda already planned to ensure Shaw’s death, effectively severing all her ties to Ghadra. She didn’t need to add Aline’s to her list. “You created a plague, you murdered Colden, you kidnapped Morana, you released tortured souls upon the town. What is the next phase of your plan now, Riselda?”
Riselda tutted, spinning on her heel toward the mansion. “I harvested Colden’s lifeblood; I didn’t kill him. Sure, I depositedsome very potent powder where he would inevitably find it, but he had his own will. As for my plan? The mayor has stowed himself away within his fortress, bolting at the first cry of death. If he won’t come out…I will come in.”
“What of the Shield?”
Riselda turned to stare off into the darkened city at their back. “Why do you think I’ve left the gate open?”
“Coward.” Riselda laughed, highand amused. She shoved against the unlocked doors again. And again, they didn’t give. “I can only imagine what he’s found to bar them with.A family fortune’s worth of heirlooms, no doubt. Come along, Lucena.”
Riselda descended the steps.
“Where are you going?”
“You’d have your answer if you would simply follow me.” She paused, glancing about. “A secret entrance.”
They followed a winding gravel path across the dampened grounds. When the so-named secret entrance appeared before them, Lux scoffed. “The servants’ entry?” The archway stood between two manicured hedges, the door hidden even from the moon.
“Mock away, my dear, but there are few things the mayor pays less mind to than the help. He won’t have thought to bar this.” She hauled at the ring bolted to its front. “Leave it open, won’t you?”
