Bones and Ashes Read online

Raiden stared into its glassy dead eyes. It didn’t look monstrous. It looked sad.

  “What do you think?” Xan asked.

  “It’s big.”

  “It’s the only one in the world.”

  “And you killed it?”

  “Not myself personally, but there was no other way to prove it existed. We’ve had accounts of people coming across them, but we needed actual evidence.”

  It was the only one of its kind in the world and it had been killed to prove it existed. That didn’t quite make sense to her.

  A minotaur appeared in the doorway. He had to bend almost double to get into the room. On seeing Raiden, the minotaur roared and charged toward her. Raiden was picked up and crushed against his hard chest.

  “Put her down, Grust,” Xan ordered.

  She was abruptly dropped to the floor.

  Grust, Xan’s assistant, stood over eight feet tall. Thick muscled arms, thicker even than Grub’s, were covered with downy black hair. Two huge horns sprouted from his bull like head and he had a gold ring through his nose. His trousers only reached to his mid-calf and his shirt sleeves only came down to his elbows. Xan bought Grust’s clothes from a tailor that specialised in making clothes for ogres, but they were still too small.

  Grust grunted and made strange noises in his throat. Xan nodded, understanding him. “He apologises, my dear. He didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just been so long since he saw you last.” Grust continued to grunt. “It seems there's a small matter I need to deal with. If you will excuse me for a moment.” Xan patted her hand and went off to deal with the situation.

  Raiden wandered back to the main hall, past the displays of strange creatures from around the world. She passed a collection of ancient troll skins from the Amazon and a stuffed yeti from Nepal. The museum had only opened a few years earlier. Before that the collections had been kept at the British Museum. It had taken Xan centuries to get the Inquisition to agree to give the collection its very own museum. They were still filling the galleries up with glass cases. Each time she visited, the collection had grown with some new addition.

  Xan appeared as she reached the central hall. “Did you sort the problem out?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Xan said. “Amenhotep III was trying to escape from his sarcophagus again. He really should be in the British Museum, but anything still moving they send to us.”

  He escorted her round the displays to a bench. He sat down and patted the seat next to him. “Come and sit with me. I’m sorry I rushed you off to see the bunyip. I forget not everyone is as excited as I am about it.”

  Raiden sat down next to him. “Have you heard anything from my father?”

  “I spoke to him a few weeks ago through a mirror. He’s still on the Antonine Wall, keeping the demon hoards at bay. He said he will be back for Christmas.”

  That’s what he had said last year.

  “Is something troubling you, my dear?” Xan asked.

  There was a great deal troubling her. “It’s nothing.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I can think of nothing worse than being the age you are now. I know how difficult it is. I’ve gone through it many times.”

  She looked at him doubtfully. “You have?”

  “I’ve been watching over your family for over two hundred years. I’ve gone through it with your mother and your grandmother and your great grandmothers. The women of your family have always been quite extraordinary, but they have always had moments when they were lost and unsure like you are now.”

  “They all had magic.”

  “It wasn’t magic that made them special. You may not be an evoker yet, but you are still a Feralis.” They sat in silence for a moment. “I wish I could make it easier for you, but you have to find your own way. I have no doubt you will. I know you’re going to become a remarkable and extraordinary young woman.”

  He had such belief in her. The weight of that belief settled heavily on her shoulders. What happened if she wasn’t remarkable, if she never came into her magic? She didn’t want him to know she wasn’t special. She couldn’t bear to have him look at her with disappointment.

  He squeezed her hand gently. “Raiden, if there's something troubling you, I may be able to help. At the very least, I can listen.”

  Should she tell Xan about the lady in the mirror? He would know what to do with the amulet.

  “Is it true there are mirrors that can control other magic mirrors?” she asked.

  Xan was silent while he considered her question. It was difficult to work out what he was thinking; his skull was devoid of expression. “The Inquisition denies they exist, but there are master mirrors. The Inquisition has one at St James’s palace. There used to be another one in the country. The British Museum had it, but it disappeared from their vaults some years ago. It was most likely misplaced when they transferred the collections here.”

  It hadn’t been misplaced; it had been stolen. The lady in the mirror had obtained a master mirror somehow. It was the only way she could have attacked Raiden through a mirror.

  “Why do you want to know about master mirrors?” Xan asked. “If the Inquisition found out you were asking about them, they would be suspicious.”

  “A man died in a fire last week,” she said. “It was like the fire that killed my mother. The Duke of Exeter was there. I think he killed him.”

  Xan sighed heavily. “Raiden, you have no idea what you’re saying. There are things that happened in the past…”

  “Then tell me.”

  “It’s not up to me.” He took her hand and clasped it in both of his. “What happened to your mother cannot be undone. You should be worrying about parties and boys, not something that happened ten years ago.”

  Parties and boys…she couldn’t believe how patronising he was being. He had never spoken to her like this before. In the past he had always listened to whatever was troubling her and taken her doubts and fears seriously.

  She pulled her hand away and stood up. “You’re right; it’s done. I should stop thinking about it.” She tried to smile as though he hadn’t just hurt her. “I should get back to school. Miss Grimble will be wondering where I am.”

  Xan rose with her. “You will come and see me again?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m always here if you need anything. Anything at all.”

  She had needed something, but he hadn’t helped her.

  She was still holding onto his hand as he walked away. “Xan,” she called. She held up his arm which had fallen off. The fingers were still moving.

  He came back to take his arm from her. “I do hate it when that happens.”

  ****

  That evening after supper, she sat in the sitting room with Cassade, drinking chocolate. Cassade lay on the sofa with a blanket tucked around her, while Raiden was curled up in the armchair, cradling a teacup in her hands. She was still hurt with the way that Xan had spoken to her earlier in the day. He had never spoken to her before as if she was a child.

  She reached down to feel the shape of the amulet through the soft leather of the pouch. She was still waiting for the lady in the mirror to realise she had it. She couldn’t know yet. It was the only reason to explain why Raiden was still alive.

  Her mind drifted to Valic. She knew his name now. But he hadn’t introduced himself properly. He had only given her his first name.

  “Who is he?” Cassade asked. Her grey eyes met Raiden’s above her book. “It’s obvious you’re thinking about someone from the way you’re smiling to yourself.”

  Raiden frowned. “I wasn’t smiling.”

  Cassade raised a brow.

  Raiden hesitated. She knew Cassade wouldn’t approve of her speaking to a boy when she was unchaperoned. “Do you remember the boy who was in the courtyard the night of the party?”

  Cassade laid her book on her stomach. “What boy? I don’t remember seeing anyone else out there.”

  “You must have seen him. He walked right by you. He had white hair.
”

  Cassade shook her head slowly. “I never saw anyone else in the courtyard that night. You were the only one out there.”

  Perhaps Cassade hadn’t seen him in the darkness.

  “Which volume are you on now?” Raiden asked, gesturing to the book.

  “Number eleven. There are over twenty volumes, although some are missing. You should read them. It’s fascinating the information in here. Lord Grimwood was obsessed with creating the perfect zombie. He believed he could raise a zombie so lifelike you would never be able to tell the difference between a living person and a zombie. He believed we should all be living dead; it was the only way we would all be equal. He wanted a society made up entirely of the dead. He was quite mad.”

  Raiden looked at her friend.

  “What is it?” Cassade asked. “I know you, Raiden. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  “I overheard Mr Crandell talking to an interrogator about you when the Inquisition was here.”

  “I’m not surprised. My father sits in the House of Lords and he’s vocal about his dislike of the Inquisition. He believes they have too much power.”

  “You need to be more careful about what you say.”

  “My father is right to speak openly against them. They have too much influence. We shouldn’t fear them. They have no more power than what we give them.”

  She agreed with Cassade about the Inquisition, but she didn’t want to see her friend locked away in a mirror.

  Peters appeared through the wall. He gestured for her to follow him.

  “What does he want?” Cassade asked.

  Raiden uncurled herself from the chair. “I don’t know.”

  It would be so much easier if he could speak. She set her cup down on the table and followed him out of the room and down the staircase. She paused when they reached the main stairs. Something was wrong; her grandmother. It had to be her grandmother.

  She was dead.

  She couldn’t breathe. Peters stood waiting for her to follow him. She walked down slowly, not wanting to reach the front door.

  Aren waited outside, his face grave. Raiden felt dizzy. She stepped out and pulled the heavy door shut behind her. She leaned back against it. “She’s dead,” she said in a whisper.

  Aren took her hand. “How did you know? I only just found out myself.”

  She stood there numb. She couldn’t feel anything. She felt as if someone else was controlling her body. “How?” she asked.

  “There was a fire. It started in Matherson’s room, the one he rented. The whole building burnt down.”

  “What was she doing at the boarding house?”

  Aren frowned. “She lived there.”

  She didn’t understand. It didn’t make sense. “Are you talking about my grandmother?”

  “No, Raiden. She’s fine, at least she was when I last heard. It was the landlady at the boarding house; the woman who showed us the ghost’s room. She died in a fire last night. The door was locked from the inside. I wanted to tell you myself, before you saw it in the papers tomorrow.”

  The landlady might have been greedy, but she didn’t deserve to die like that. “Why would someone kill her?” Raiden asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “There’s no explanation for how the fire started. The key was in the lock inside the room, but for some reason she didn’t get out.”

  Raiden remembered the lady in the mirror and her fingers around her throat. Suddenly, everything made sense. “The mirror,” Raiden said.

  “What mirror?”

  “The mirror that was down the back of the wardrobe. It’s how they did it.”

  Aren looked puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

  “The door was locked from the inside, but the killer was never in the room. They didn’t need to get out. They used a mirror to start the fire.”

  “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  “It would be if you had a master mirror.”

  Did the lady in the mirror help the Duke kill Matherson? The Duke then had Matherson’s body stolen by the Resurrection Men and destroyed so he could never be raised from the dead and questioned. Was that what had happened to her mother as well? The only thing she didn’t understand was why. Why would the Duke want to kill her mother? And how was he connected to the lady in the mirror?

  “Raiden, I know you want to find out what happened to your mother and I will do whatever I can to help you. But I don’t think there’s enough evidence to tie the Duke to Matherson’s murder. It’s entirely circumstantial.”

  She could hear the doubt in his voice. Aren didn’t believe her.

  “There’s something else,” Aren said. “The partners have ordered me to get rid of Matherson.”

  “But you don’t have his bones or ashes. You’re not strong enough to get rid of him without a link.” She remembered what Matherson had tried to do the last time they had seen him.

  “I don’t have a choice. He’s a new ghost. He wasn’t dangerous when he was alive. I think he will cross over.”

  “You can’t do it by yourself. You’re not powerful enough.”

  “The partners have ordered me to get rid of him. I have to try if I want to keep my job.”

  “Let me come with you.”

  Aren shook his head. “Not this time. It’s too dangerous.”

  “There’s someone in the mirror. Someone has been watching me. You can’t go back there. It’s not safe.”

  “What am I meant to tell the partners? That my cousin thinks someone is using a mirror to murder people? They would laugh at me. I don’t have a choice, Raiden. I’m going there tomorrow afternoon.”

  There was nothing she could do. She couldn’t help him get rid of the ghost and she was powerless to stop him from going.

  “I should go,” Aren said, “before one of your teachers sees me here.”

  She called after him. “Promise me you will take someone with you when you go to see Matherson. I don’t want you to go alone.”

  He hesitated before reluctantly nodding. “I’ll see if I can find someone.”

  She watched him walk away.

  “Raiden Feralis!” Miss Grimble stood behind her. “Why are you standing out here in the dark? Come inside at once.”

  Raiden sighed as she went in to listen to Grumble lecture her about her behaviour.

  ****

  Raiden sat at her window. The others had gone to bed, but Raiden couldn’t sleep. It was her fault the landlady was dead. She should have taken the mirror away from her.

  “Raiden Feralis.”

  She jumped. The voice sounded like her grandmother.

  “Raiden Feralis!”

  She pulled the cover from the mirror. Her grandmother’s image was in the surface. She sat at her desk, her white hair loose about her shoulders. Raiden had never seen her with her hair down before. It made her face look less harsh, more like how a grandmother should look.

  “Grandmother,” Raiden said. “I mean, Your Grace.”

  Her grandmother didn’t notice her mistake. “I believe I told you not to get involved with this business about the Duke and the fire.”

  Raiden froze. Had Aren told her? She had only just seen him; he would have said something if he had spoken with her grandmother. It must have been Xan. After she had spoken with him at the museum, he had gone to see her grandmother. She had trusted him and he had betrayed her. “Yes, you did.”

  “Then why are you involved?” She brought her fist down on the desk. Raiden flinched. She had never seen her grandmother angry. She had seen her displeased and annoyed, but she always remained tightly in control of her emotions.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You will not leave the school again without my permission. You are to go nowhere, do you understand? You are not to set foot outside of the school without speaking to me first.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “I will take your ghosts away. They answer to me, not to you.”

  “You c
an’t.” Marielle and Peters had been with her since she was a child. They were her family.

  “Do not disobey me again. This is for your own safety. There are things you do not understand.”

  “Then tell me. I’m not a child.”

  “It is not safe to talk like this. You do not know who else might be listening. Keep your mirror covered.”

  The mirror cut off. She closed her eyes. Why did it always have to be so difficult with her grandmother? She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Her reflection stared back at her. In the mirror, her eyes were now black.

  “Leave me alone,” she told her reflection.

  “Why would I want to do that? You’re so much fun, Raiden. Are you going to cry again?” The girl in the mirror rubbed her eyes and made a sobbing sound. “Nobody likes me, nobody cares about me.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Don’t you know?”

  “Did you kill James Matherson?”

  Her reflection leaned forward. “He betrayed me. He lied to me. He was going to give it to them. He thought he would get away with it; that I wouldn’t know.” Her black eyes gleamed, her fists were clenched and she was breathing heavily.

  “What was he going to give them?” Raiden could feel the amulet through the soft leather of the pouch.

  The girl’s expression changed. She laughed. It was a horrible sound, like the sound of harpies. “You think I would tell you.” She leaned closer in the mirror. “Do you know what you are, Raiden? You’re a meddler. You involve yourself in things that don’t concern you. Do you know what happens to people who interfere with my affairs?”

  “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “Your mother was. She screamed and screamed. I wonder what noise you will make.”

  In the mirror, a grey imp appeared on the girl’s shoulder. His horns were longer than Deg’s, not just stubs, and its long pointed ears were pierced with tiny gold hoops. He was missing a chunk out of one ear and he had fully formed wings on his back. That must be what the lumps on Deg’s shoulders had been. The landlady at the boarding house had mentioned she had seen Matherson with a grey imp. Raiden wondered if this was the same one.

  Her reflection stroked the imp’s head, whispering soft words to him. He vanished. Raiden heard a click behind her. The grey imp clung to the door handle. He had turned the key in the lock. He let go of the handle and landed on the floor, the key in his hand. Raiden tried to grab him, but he vanished and reappeared on top of her wardrobe. He smiled cruelly and waved the key, taunting her.