Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

We rolled down the short gravel drive to the circle that ran in front of the stately manor house. The abode of Lady Gottspake featured three floors with large, tall windows that looked out on a wide porch. Pillars held up the roof over the porch and provided some cover from the sun. We stepped out of the carriage and walked up the short flight of ten-foot-wide steps.

The door opened and a man in a well-tailors servant’s suit stood before us. He stepped aside and bowed low at the waist. “Welcome, Lord Thorn. Lady Thorn.” I lifted an eyebrow as we slipped past the servant.

The interior of the home was not the opulence I expected from the outside. The walls were wood boards stained a heavy black with a thick shine on them. The floors were gray marble and black curtains hung over the wings to our left and right. Niches in the walls held plaster heads and all the faces featured people with closed eyes. A wide staircase curved up to the second floor and disappeared into the ceiling. The rear of the home was accessed via a long hall straight down the middle that was enshrined with shadow.

“News travels fast,” Will commented to our guide.

The servant closed the door behind us and stepped up to our side. “It does, My Lord. If you will wait a moment, Her Ladyship is finishing her breakfast.”

“At this hour?” I blurted out.

The man cracked a smile. “Her Ladyship is accustomed to late nights and late mornings. If you will excuse me.” He disappeared up the stairs.

I was struck by a cool chill that brushed against my arms and raised the hairs. Will wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me close against his side. I looked up at him and found him smiling down at me. “There’s nothing to worry about. The decor is from the family of her late husband.”

“The Lord Gottspake?” I guessed.

He shook his head. “Her ladyship was inherited from her family. She married a man with no title but with a great deal of wealth and they lived very happily until his death some ten years ago.”

“Her husband’s family had some interesting decor choices,” I mused.

Will chuckled. “They were in the mortuary business. The curtains and wood advertised their goods.”

The color drained from my face as I nodded at the plaster heads. “Then those are-?”

“The faces of some of their more illustrious clients.”

“That’s. . .different.”

“One would have to be different to marry someone of the Gottspake family.”

“I heard that.”

The voice came from the stairs and we looked up in time to watch a woman of seventy stroll down the stairs. The woman had short black hair, the ends of which curled under her chin. Her skin was as pale as snow and she had a pair of bright blue eyes. She wore a long black dress that trailed behind her and a long pair of gloves stretched from the tips of her fingers up past her elbows. Her attire showed off some ample cleavage.

Will offered her a smile as he released me and crossed one arm over his chest. He bowed lower to our hostess as she stopped in front of us. “It is always a pleasure to see you, Lady Gottspake. You are as radiant as the day we first met.”

She folded her arms over her ample chest and scoffed. “Hardly, considering I was but a girl the first time we met.”

“And you were as radiant as the full moon under which we met,” he countered.

I lifted an eyebrow and my movement didn’t go unnoticed by our hostess. Lady Gottspake turned her attention to me and looked me over. “And this must be Lady Thorn.” She offered me a smile and her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” I returned as I shook her hand.

She put her hands on her hips and looked me over. “I haven’t heard anything but that you existed but I can see why Thorn chose you.” I blushed at the compliment and the woman wagged a finger at me. “Hide your blush, my dear. Many people will compliment you with hollow words so you should learn to control yourself or they’ll control you with sweet compliments.”

“You are as trusting as ever, My Lady,” Will teased.

She scowled at him. “One can’t be too careful, Lord Thorn. I have seen enough in the cards to know that humanity is as dark as my late husband’s curtains.”

“Your cards are the reason why we have come to you,” Will admitted.

She lifted an eyebrow. “You wish to know your future?”

“We wish to have a lesson on how the magic works.”

Lady Gottspake studied us for a moment longer before she jerked her head over her shoulder and toward the central hall. “Follow me.”

She turned and guided us into the deep shadows of the passage. I couldn’t help but give the death masks some attention as we passed them and was grateful their eyes weren’t open. The chill I had felt earlier grew stronger and Will slipped his hand into mine as our footsteps echoed down the passage.

Lady Gottspake stopped at a pair of thick wooden doors on our right and opened both of them. We found ourselves staring into a darkened room. The huge windows were covered by thick black curtains like those in the entrance hall. A single huge carpet covered the floorboards and a thick wooden table sat in the center of the room on top of that rug. Four chairs were placed around the table and I noticed four more situated against the wall to our left. A single tall unlit candle sat in the middle of the table. Other than those bits of furniture, the room was bare.

Lady Gottspake swept over to the table and Will guided me to a seat on the right. He took the seat opposite where our hostesses sat. His back faced the door while hers faced the windows.

She looked up after being seated and glared at the open doors. “Too much light.” She lifted one hand and snapped her fingers. The doors slammed shut, making me jump. “Now then, why do you wish to know about the magic? It must be something important for you to venture into the city with your new bride.”

“We were also curious to know if you had lost some cards,” Will revealed.

“Truth be told, I had a theft some six months ago,” she admitted as she eyed him with a sharp look. “Someone stole a stack of my best cards and I still haven’t been able to recover them.”

“Would this be one of them?” Will wondered as he reached into his coat and drew out the card.

Gottspake’s eyes widened and she plucked the card from his fingers. She examined the slip of paper and nodded. “Yes! This is just the one! But wherever did you find it?”

“It was being used in the Church of the Enshrined Stone,” Will told her.

She dropped her hands into her lap and wrinkled her nose. “That horrible museum of decrepit customs? Why on these holy plains was it in there?”

“The brothers were using it to pass goods for the Agency,” Will explained.

A dark cloud settled on her brow and she grasped the card so tightly in her hand that the sides curled in. “That monstrous organization would profane my cards.”

“Would you be willing to help us discover where the portals lead from and to?” Will asked our hostess.

“Nothing would please me better,” Gottspake assured him as she tossed the card on the table.

The card slid to the center with the bent man facing up. Gottspake scooted back and opened a drawer in the table from which she drew a deck of cards which she shuffled with the ease of a professional gambler. As she shuffled, the one in the middle began to glow. I followed the familiar line of black magic as it shot out of the face and opened the small portal.

Gottspake tossed twelve ore cards out one by one and I beheld a myriad of faces. The pictures showed anthropomorphic animals farming in yellow fields and women dancing around piles of garbage. The main draw, the one which she set down in front of her, featured a skeleton in a black robe.

The familiar personification of death transcended worlds.

“Now we shall see how those wretches have soiled my magic,” Gottspake growled as the card began to glow. “And destroy them.”