Page 48 of Unbroken
“You offered her a membership so you didn’t have to pay for her art.”
“Well, not me. I had no need of a new portrait. What would it show—a lonely old woman, her husband and only child long dead? I prefer to remember happier times.” She didn’t turn to look at the portrait behind her, but Sebastian’s gaze strayed to it nonetheless. “And of course, the others told her they’d recommend her to their friends. Her illustrations would be featured in our publications, seen by people outside of Widdershins, and perhaps she would eventually gain commissions that way.”
Sebastian’s fingernails dug into his palm. Rulkowski, Norris, all of them lived in mansions, had money to burn, yet were so greedy they schemed to avoid paying a young artist. He wanted to snap at Mrs. Rice, to demand some justification for their behavior, but he couldn’t risk getting thrown out before she told them the whole sorry story.
“Things might have gone on as usual for some time to come, if not for the Midwinter Flower Show.” She plucked one of the petals off the rose and let it fall to the floor. “It had been a decade since we so much as placed, and Daniel in particular was eager to create an orchid display so spectacular it couldn’t be ignored. To give credence to his manuscript, I assume. We bandied about some ideas, and then Ian told us about a tree he found during his journeys. A very special tree.”
Irene frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I only saw it once—that was enough.” Another petal fell from Mrs. Rice’s fingers. “At first glance, it seemed as though it was indeed a tree, though a very odd looking one. Some distant relative of a weeping willow, perhaps. But then one saw the mouths.”
“Mouths,” Tubbs repeated, as though unsure he’d heard correctly.
“The abominable thing was almost as much animal as plant.” She shuddered. “Ian said he’d found it as a sapling in some distant Germanic valley. It wasn’t rooted yet, and walked on four twig-like legs. He doted on the awful creature, brought it back with him and settled it in the center of the hedge maze on his property. It grew over the years, feeding on squirrels and birds and God knows what else. And every plant he put near it flourished, even those not meant for this climate.”
She tore off another petal, then another, the corners of her mouth tight with disgust. “I couldn’t believe he was hiding such a hideous thing on his estate—but then, Ian always loved the exotic, and this was as exotic as a plant could be. Since we could hardly transplant our entire gardens, he suggested taking a bit of its sap and mixing it with water, like some sort of liquid fertilizer. He tried it on his own plants first, and, well.” She yanked another petal off viciously. “As you can see, the results couldn’t be argued with.”
Sebastian’s head spun. Was the tree a Dark Young? But what about Victoria?
“You cheated to win the Midwinter Flower Show,” Mortimer said.
Tubbs bristled. “Penny would never do such a thing. There—there must be another explanation!”
Mrs. Rice continued to decimate the enormous rose. “I told you knowledge isn’t always a comfort, Mr. Tubbs. But we haven’t arrived at the worst of it. Using the sap, we dominated the flower show. Everyone wanted to know how our flowers could grow so big, be so healthy. We made noise about proprietary methods of fertilization and left them wondering. And when we returned from Boston, Ian held a victory party in his garden.”
Her hands trembled as she dropped more petals onto the drift growing at her feet. “Thank God for my age. It was March, the outside weather too chilly for me, the hour too late. I stayed home. But all the others went, including Victoria. From what I understand, they drank heavily that night, toasting our wins. Then someone, I’m not certain who, asked Ian if he had tested the tree’s sap on something other than vegetable matter.”
The fine hairs on the back of Sebastian’s neck stood up. “You didn’t.”
“I did not, as I said.” Her cool blue eyes met his. “But yes. They began to speculate as to what the sap would do. If it might heal disease, lengthen life. Perhaps even grant immortality. Victoria was quite drunk by then, and, well, she was never really one of us, was she?”
Tubbs swallowed thickly. “Penny…she would never…”
“But she did,” Mrs. Rice shot back viciously. “She and Ian and Daniel and Olivia and David, all of them did. They led that stupid girl to the tree and convinced her to drink the sap. It made her into a monster.”
Irene’s eyes were hard as diamonds. “I’d say she was the only one there who wasn’t a monster.”
“Perhaps not then, but she’s become one now. Not that I blame her.” Mrs. Rice shook her head. “I don’t know how she’s killing them—magic, I suppose. But I’m certain you can now see why she’s doing it, and why none of the others told you. They didn’t want to expose their shame, deluded themselves into thinking they could handle her without telling anyone else what they did.” She let the rose, plucked bare of all its petals, tumble from her hands to the floor. “And now they’re dead. It’s finished.”
Ves stared out the window as Irene drove them back through the streets of Widdershins. The others had filled in Noct and him, and neither of them knew what to say.
They did have a sibling here in Widdershins, but it wasn’t Victoria. Ian Fuller and the WHS had used the Dark Young in the garden to assuage first their petty vanity, then their cruelty. And Victoria had paid the price.
No wonder she had turned to the Book of Blood for help. She’d probably been hiding in the abandoned neighborhood when it awoke and called to her pain. As for what it had promised…
The same thing Fagerlie, the Professor of the School of Night, had promised himself and Noct, when they first came to Widdershins. To remove their tainted blood, to make them human.
But if any blood in their veins was tainted, it came from their mother, not the Lord of the Forest.
The thought struck him with a strange sort of clarity. He’d spent so much of his life wanting to get rid of the best part of himself. Believing that removing it would finally make everything all right.
No more. Thank the trees it wasn’t even a real option.
Victoria wouldn’t feel that way, obviously. And in her case, since she’d been born human and then mutated by the magic of the Dark Young’s sap, perhaps she could be restored to her original form.
As if reading his mind, Sebastian said, “Irene, Noct, do you think the magic of the Book really can cure her? Overwhelm and destroy the effects of the sap?”
“I can’t say.” Irene’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s possible. But transformations aren’t always reversible. If we can get her to surrender the Book, maybe she can come to the estate where we can examine her properly.”
