A Dance of Ghosts

CHAPTER 2

Alyssa lay on a padded couch braced against a large oval window that opened out into a garden, not that she could see it. The colors of the petals were but memories now since Stephen Connington took her eyes. Sunlight shone upon her, the warmth comforting. Eyes closed, she did her best to absorb it, to remember brighter times. Before the loss of her sight. Before the dooming of her family line.

The door opened, and she heard footsteps of someone entering.

“Lady Gemcroft?” Victor asked after clearing his throat.

Alyssa held back a sigh as she tilted her face so that her glass eyes would be gazing in his approximate direction. A practiced smile twisted her lips. For a moment, she wondered if Victor had ever seen an honest smile from her. If not, would he ever know the difference? She doubted the glass eyes would ever help, either. Her servants insisted they were expertly crafted, pale blue with hints of veins in the corners, but she knew that whenever she wore them, people always sounded the slightest bit unnerved. Or perhaps that was only due to them not knowing how to appropriately behave in the presence of a blind woman who still wielded incredible influence and power. If she were a beggar on the street, she had a feeling every last one of her guests would know exactly how to treat her.

“Victor,” she said. “Have you come to see me again already? I daresay any spare time of mine I find quickly occupied by your arrival.”

She tried to keep the bite out of her words, but could tell she failed. Part of her had wanted to ask why he bothered coming to her so recently after his last visit. All of them, no matter how kind or earnest he behaved, always came down to the same purpose: he desired her wealth and her mercenaries to use in his ill-conceived scheme to clean up the streets of Veldaren.

“I hope you don’t find the time ill spent,” Victor said, and Alyssa chuckled.

“Ill spent? Of course not.”

Her smile said otherwise.

“Is it all right if I sit?” Victor asked, and at her gesture he sat down in a chair opposite her. He made sure to make plenty of noise so that she might follow him, but she didn’t bother. Instead, she turned back to the window, closing her eyes and placing her face back into the streaming sunlight. The warmth of the sun … if it hit her face just right, she could pretend to see its golden glow through her eyelids.

“Your beauty is radiant today,” Victor said after a lengthy pause.

“So my servants tell me,” she said. “Their word is all I have to go on now, and I must say, it makes the process of their powders and perfumes all the more tiresome.”

“Even if you were to forgo it, you would still steal the breath of any man in this city.”

Alyssa smirked, and her fingers idly tapped against the glass of the window.

“I doubt you’ve come just to flatter me,” she said, refusing to look his way. “It’s the Sun Guild again, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Victor said. “Their rapid expansion cannot be ignored any longer.”

“You and the Ash Guild chased them out, I thought?” she said. She knew the answer, of course, but she felt it prudent to remind him of how he had already failed once in his goals. Maybe with enough attempts, some wisdom might break through that thick skull of his.

“It was only temporary,” Victor said. “Muzien the Darkhand came soon after, and he brought a second wave of guildmembers that Veldaren’s soldiers cannot, or will not, stop from overwhelming the remaining thief guilds.”

“Fascinating,” Alyssa said. “But I’ve ceased caring about what these wretched criminals do to one another.”

“But you must care,” Victor said. “If Muzien succeeds in taking total control of Veldaren’s underworld, I fear even the power of the Trifect will crumble. The Spider Guild hurt you, but this elf is different somehow. The guilds fear him in a way they never feared Thren. Thren was one of them, better than them perhaps, but still one of their own. Muzien … he’s a beast, a ghost, a demon in gray. No one will be safe once he brings his attention to those beyond the poor hovels and back alleys.”

Alyssa turned away from the window, and she leveled her glass eyes at him. Though she kept her face an emotionless mask, beneath her temper began to flare.

“No one will be safe?” she asked. “Do you mean me, Victor?”

“I do,” he said, and she was stunned by his audacity. “Muzien will kill you, your family, your son…”

“Shut your mouth,” she said, interrupting him. Rising to her feet, she took a step toward him, then reached out until her hand brushed his chest. That located, she grabbed his shoulder and used her other hand to clutch at the top of his tunic. Leaning down, she put her glass eyes mere inches from his own. Let him stare into those lifeless orbs, she thought. Let him see all she had endured before his ever coming into her life.

“Do you think I am blind to the world around me?” she asked. “My family, my legacy, teeters above a ravine filled with lions. I fear Nathaniel will never live past his tenth birthday, let alone inherit the fortune that is rightfully his. But you … you would dare come in here and throw that fear in my face, and for what? What is it you want, Victor? Is it money? Soldiers? Validation for your failed crusade? Tell me, so I can deny it and banish you from my life forever.”

Victor stood, and he grabbed each of her wrists and freed himself of her grasp. When he refused to let go, she pulled back, just once, but he held her there. Alyssa’s heart began to pound, and she wondered if she had pushed him too far. Still, she was not alone with Victor. If the man made another move, a single wrong word …

“For once, open your ears and listen,” Victor said. “Do you think I am as callous and cruel as others you’ve known? I see the soldiers positioned at every door, and it’s not your crest they wear on their chest. I can help you, Alyssa, and believe it or not, I’ll do it because I feel it is the right thing to do, not just for you, not just for me, but for this whole damn city. Too many are ready to let it burn so long as they get theirs first, but I want to build something. I want to inspire, to salvage a golden coin lodged deep in the center of a pile of shit. It’s not my fault if you can’t see that!”

Alyssa jerked against his grip, his words infuriating her. He let go as suddenly as he’d grabbed her, and with her hands now free, she raked her nails across his face. Victor stumbled backward, most likely into the couch just behind him.

“I may be blind,” Alyssa said, pointing a finger at him, “but I can see what you can’t. Your attempts at fixing Veldaren are the hopeless, pathetic excuses of a little boy pretending at power. Your parents died in the riots years ago, and now you think you can come in like a god among us and wipe away every crime, every black heart. Gods forgive me, I was even foolish enough to believe for a moment you could do it. But no more. I won’t endure your hollow attempts at flattery. I won’t entertain your madness. You are not welcome in my home; now go.”

“No.”

She tensed when he said it. Ahead of her, she heard the floor groan from him taking a step.

“I said leave,” she repeated.

“And I said … no.”

His hands took hers. She tensed, a knife-edge away from screaming for her guards. Not yet, though. If she were in danger, Zusa would have already sprung into action from her hiding place.

“My flattery is not hollow,” Victor said, and there was a change in his tone. This wasn’t prepared. This wasn’t practiced banter and honeyed lies to win her over. “You are a beautiful woman, your wealth legendary, your personality a mixture of fire and diamonds. I do not love you, Alyssa, but I would protect you as fiercely as any man has protected a woman in all the kingdoms. Your family line teeters on death. Nathaniel’s legitimacy will never be accepted; you know that. Not unless another vouches for him and adopts him as his own.”

He pulled her closer, pressed his forehead against hers.

“You are one of the very few people who have stood before the scum of this city and vowed to take no more,” he said, his voice growing soft. “I would be proud to have you at my side, and proud to raise an intelligent boy like Nathaniel. What we could accomplish together would shake the world. But if there is to be a future for us, for any of us, then Veldaren needs to be tamed. We cannot build a castle upon a foundation of rot. You say you once believed I could succeed. Believe in me again.”

With a shaking hand, she pushed him back, and he allowed her to do so. Her chest felt hollow. He wanted to ignite hope in her, she knew, and the pleading honesty in his voice tore at her worse than anything he’d said before. What he asked of her … five years ago she might have leaped at the chance. But now … now she couldn’t. She didn’t feel the strength left in her to challenge the might of the city. Every time she dared hope, every time she tried for happiness, there was always a man or woman waiting with a dagger. Sometimes, it was her enemies. More often, it seemed it was those she should have been able to trust most. Why couldn’t they let her raise her son in peace? Why couldn’t Nathaniel grow up happy and beautiful and loved, instead of with vultures circling above their household and hungry eyes staring from all sides?

“Leave,” she said. “Please, just leave.”

Victor stood and stepped away, footsteps leading toward the room’s exit.

“You’re afraid,” he said. “And you have every right to be. The pointed star marks over half the streets of Veldaren, and soon Muzien will seek to paint it across your doorstep. But don’t let that fear deny you hope. You are capable of great things, Alyssa, both you and your son. And at my side, we can reach them still, reach higher than you have ever dreamed. These setbacks have not shaken my confidence, nor my desires. They have only forced me to raise my ambition even higher.”

“I could never trust you,” Alyssa said. “Too many have betrayed me already, and you would only be the next.”

He laughed from the other side of the room, the sound both amused and terribly sad.

“My dear Alyssa,” he said. “Of all the men in Veldaren, I am the last who would ever betray you. For good or ill, I am a man of my word, and if I say I would die for you, I mean it. If you wish to seek out those who would turn against you, begin looking closer to home.”

With that, the door opened and shut, and with him gone, she turned and swung her fist toward the glass of her window. It struck, she heard a crack, and letting out a gasp of frustration, she dropped down into the couch, holding her bruised hand to her chest. Tears began to grow along the edges of her glass eyes, and she hated herself for it.

“He should not speak to you in such a way,” said her closest friend. Strange as it might seem to someone else, it was no surprise to Alyssa that the voice came from the high corner of the room. No doubt Zusa had hidden there the entire encounter, daggers drawn and eager to carve an extra smile or two into Victor’s face.

“He was just being honest,” Alyssa said.

“Honest or not, he disrespected you. To do so in your house, no matter how highly born the bastard is, should never be allowed.”

Zusa was at her side now, and Alyssa shifted so the woman could join her on the couch. The woman did so, a wrapped hand sliding around her shoulders. Alyssa accepted the comfort, and she wiped away the few tears that had grown.

“Forget him,” she said. “What he said … what did he mean about the crests on the chests of my soldiers?”

Zusa hesitated the slightest moment, fingers on her shoulder clutching tighter.

“John Gandrem’s soldiers outnumber your house guards,” she said. “He seeks to fill you with doubt; that is all.”

Alyssa shook her head.

“Doubt that may be well-founded.”

“John would never turn on you and Nathaniel. He’s too honorable, too dedicated to tradition and law.”

“And what of Melody? How strong is his dedication to her?”

At that, Zusa gave no answer. Alyssa thought of the way John had spoken with her mother, Melody, of how close the two had grown ever since the loss of her eyes. John had assumed many responsibilities, particularly those he felt were too difficult or mature for Nathaniel to handle. But helping him at every turn was Melody Gemcroft, always eager, always offering advice.

Melody … the woman from the grave. The woman Stephen Connington had professed his love for, just before taking out Alyssa’s eyes.

“If my mother plans something…” Alyssa began.

“If she does, she plans only her suicide,” Zusa said, holding her tight. “I am here. I am with you. Trust me to keep you and your family safe, my love. I let myself be distracted, and I failed you, but never again.”

Alyssa put a hand atop Zusa’s. At least, she had someone she could trust to the very end. Someone who would never betray her. She wished she knew how to say it, but the words always seemed awkward when she tried.

“Thank you,” she said, accepting another embrace from Zusa. “I know you’ll always be there, no matter what happens. No matter who may turn on me. But I need you to keep your eyes open and watch where I cannot, and in the shadows listen for what I cannot hear. Someone will make a move against us, and if not from within, then without.”

“You mean Muzien,” Zusa said.

“I do,” Alyssa said.

“Do you fear him?”

“No,” she whispered. “There’s only one person I fear. Watch her closest, Zusa. If Melody turns on me, strike her dead. If she would come back from the grave to betray me, send her right back to the grave. Damn the courts. Damn the consequences.”

“Consider this my word,” Zusa said, rising from the couch. “If you fear Melody, then Melody should quake in fear of me. While I live, you live. While I live, your enemies will perish.”

Alyssa let herself smile, and she prayed it was far more authentic than the one she’d given Victor.

“You can’t save me from the whole world,” she said.

Zusa laughed.

“No,” she said. “But I can damn well try.”