Page 43 of Her Dark Reflection

‘Good. I’ll return with the new moon. Make sure we aren’t having this same conversation when I do.’

I watched him climb back down into the dark, and he stood looking up at me as I bent to lift the trap door, heavy with an inch of earth and lawn that had settled onto it over the years. When I dropped the door back over the hole, he was already gone.

‘Andthat’smygameagain,’ I crowed, slapping my cards down on the table. ‘You’re losing your touch, Sen.’

She sat back in her chair, folding her arms. ‘I’m sure you cheat.’

‘I do no such thing. You are just a poor loser. Shall we have another game?’

It was one of those rare afternoons of sunshine that occasionally graced the tail end of winter, and while we were both rugged up against the chill air, I hadn’t been able to resist dragging Senafae down to the gardens for an hour. Unfortunately, there seemed to be plenty of others in the palace who’d had the same idea, and they cast us speculative glances as they promenaded past.

‘No. No more cards. I’ve had enough. In any case, you’re due to meet His Majesty soon. Shouldn’t you be getting ready?’ Senafae gathered the cards and arranged them in a neat stack between us. This was one of her better days, when she wasn’t so ill that she couldn’t keep down food, but still that bright humour I’d once valued in her rarely showed itself.

I waved a hand through the air. ‘I’ll just go straight to him after we’re done here. I hardly need to worry about putting in any special effort. He is besottedwith me. I’m sure I could make him perform naked handstands if I told him it would please me.’ I had hoped it would make her laugh, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

‘That seems a dangerous power to have over a king,’ she muttered, and I would have pressed her to elaborate on that statement, except the sound of a throat being cleared interrupted me. Turning, I found a man standing behind me, dressed in the long, green habit trimmed with gold that marked him as a priest. But it wasn’t just any priest. I recognised that hooked nose from the very first night of the treaty celebrations.

‘Miss Beaufort, I believe?’ he began.

‘Paptich Milton, you honour me.’ I bowed my head while wondering what on earth the Grand Paptich wanted with me.

‘I wonder if you would take a stroll with me? It’s a fine afternoon and there’s a garden of grevilleas a short distance away that are just beginning to flower.’

I shot a look at Senafae, and she was already packing up the cards, so I offered him a saccharine smile and rose to my feet. ‘I doloveflowers.’

I followed him through the flower beds as he pointed out various plants and described when they would bloom or what their origins were and waited for him to get to his point. Finally, after I had just about decided he had no point, he said, ‘I have not seen you at worship.’

Ah. ‘I attend worship regularly in the city. Besides, I did not think the palace sanctum would welcome the presence of someone like me.’ It was a lie; I had attended worship when I was a little girl, but it had been a long time since I had set foot in a sanctum. I had seen what good a lifetime of worship had done my mother. It seemed a colossal waste of time.

‘All are welcome at worship. It would be pertinent to attend, especially now that you are keeping such illustrious company.’

We were getting to the crux of his intention now as we rounded an avenue of beech trees and came within sight of a towering hedge maze. ‘If His Majesty wishes me to accompany him, then of course I will.’

‘Sometimes great men can require help to see their way to the glory of the celestial kingdom. When Taveum cast Aether from the sky, it was the assistance of some of the humblest of animals that helped set the world to rights and restore him. The seemingly insignificant mantis, for instance, lied to Taveum and sent him on a wild goose chase to allow Aether time to heal.’

In my experience, priests tended to be long-winded, but this felt deliberate. Like he was trying to confound me with a barrage of words to obscure his meaning. ‘I know the story, paptich,’ I said, trying to keep the frustration from my voice.

‘Without the help of the seven, Aether would never have found his way back into the sky. His Majesty may need similar help.’ He stopped beneath one of the beech trees and stared up into its rusty winter foliage with his hands clasped behind his back. ‘A devout woman would be of great service to our celestial lord if she could help the king stay the path.’

‘And what path is that exactly?’

He dropped his gaze back to me and his genial condescension thinned. ‘If you had been attending worship, you would have heard me speak of the rise in the threat of profane magic.’

I swallowed against the sudden feeling of tightness in my throat. ‘Hasn’t that always been a threat?’

‘There has been an increase over the past several months.’ He was frowning at me, apparently displeased that I had the nerve to ask questions. ‘You understand that the regulation of magic protects the populace from falling prey to all manner of wicked enchantment. It is the natural place of the sanctum to lead the battle against its influence.’

All his talk was making my head ache, but I was beginning to understand what he was getting at. ‘But the guild is responsible for hunting down profane magic users.’ The sanctum headed Brimordia’s courts, but when it came to magic use, the guild decided who the courts would try.

‘A historical mistake I have long campaigned to correct.’ As he spoke, one of the burnished leaves lost its grip on the tree’s branch and swayed to the earth between us. ‘But His Majesty needs a little persuasion. You seem the sort of woman who can be very persuasive.’

I fluttered my eyelashes at him and tried to look flattered. ‘Persuasive and devout. The prefect woman, would you say?’

His brow folded into an expression of displeasure. He could tell when he was being mocked, I’d give him that. ‘Think on your worship attendance, Miss Beaufort. Women in your line of work often need powerful friends.’ On that note, he inclined his head and strode away from me with fast, purposeful steps that saw him halfway back to the palace in what seemed like moments.

I was surprised that the Grand Paptich had wanted to strike up some sort of alliance with me, but his talk of the rise of profane magic use did make me uneasy enough to want to go and refresh my glamour before I met the king for dinner. So far, I had always managed to stand before the mirror with plenty of time to spare before the prickling, warming sensation on my skin let me know the magic was wearing thin, but there was no need to push my luck.

When I returned to my apartment, Leela was not there to greet me, though she had said she was planning on spending the afternoon sorting through my spring wardrobe. I moved through the rooms with some innate sense prickling at me, slowing my movements and quietening my breaths as I looked around, finding nothing amiss, nothing to explain the sense that something wasn’t right. I opened the door of my bedchamber to a sight I did not expect. Mrs Corkill was on her hands and knees by the bed, peering under it. A sharp spike of alarm shot through me.

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