Page 32 of The Rebel and the Rose (The City of Fantome #2)
As they rode north towards Marvale, Sera and Theo filled Val in on everything that had happened since the night they parted outside House Armand. She listened in horrified silence, barely biting back her anger when they explained what had happened to poor Bibi.
Once they had finished, she leaned back in her seat. ‘It sounds pretty simple to me, then. We kill a couple of marks. We get our friend back. We go home.’
‘Prince Andreas is a saint,’ Theo reminded her.
‘So what?’
‘So it might not be in our best interests to kill him. He could prove helpful to Sera.’
‘But he’s a mark. He’s the key to Bibi’s freedom.’
‘Maybe he can help her too,’ said Sera.
Val’s lips twisted. ‘That’s a big maybe.’
The weight of that maybe sat heavily on Sera’s shoulders, but one thing she was sure of was there was more than one way to storm a dungeon, and she didn’t trust the King of Valterre any further than she could toss him.
Taking out Fontaine’s tarot cards, Sera studied them in the waning light. Idly, she traced her finger along their edges, like they might tell her a secret if she waited long enough. Val yawned, laying her head on her shoulder.
‘Do you two smell smoke?’ Across the bench, Theo pulled the window curtain back. The sky was a haze of pink and orange, but the clouds in the distance were darker than usual. ‘I think something’s burning.’
Sera stuck her head out of the window. Though she could detect a faint whiff of smoke on the wind and see the greying sky well enough, she was distracted by the trill of jaunty music and the high-pitched squall of children’s laughter.
She drew the rest of the curtain back, revealing a big wooden wheel.
‘There’s a carnival up ahead,’ said Val, pointing to where food stalls were dotted around the fairground. There were games of skill and chance, a carousel filled with white horses, and what appeared to be a small petting zoo, full of harried-looking animals and overexcited children.
Sera’s stomach grumbled. ‘I smell doughnuts.’
‘I smell pony shit,’ said Val.
‘What about the smoke?’ said Theo, still frowning. ‘It looks like it’s spreading.’
‘It’s coming from beyond the carnival,’ said Sera, returning her gaze to the sky. ‘Let’s pull over. I have an idea.’
A short while later, they disembarked their carriage. The others arrived in various states of confusion, the coachmen seizing the opportunity to slip away for another cigarillo.
Ransom sauntered over. ‘Looking to ride the ponies or just delaying the inevitable? We’re kind of on the clock here.’
‘Calm down,’ said Sera, breezily. ‘We won’t be long.’
‘Why don’t you go shove a little icing sugar in your face?’ Val suggested. ‘It might help you lighten up.’
‘Thanks for the advice. I think I’ll stick to my actual job.’
Val tapped her chin, looking around. ‘I doubt you’ll find any princes to kill here, but best of luck.’
They took off as a trio, making their way into the heart of the carnival where boisterous music filled the air, and giddy children with sticky hands chased each other round the pens.
Sera didn’t have to turn around to know that the Daggers were following.
The soldiers too. For all their grimacing, they must be hungry.
And the smell of spiced sausage and fried potatoes was hard to ignore.
‘I’m getting a doughnut,’ said Val. ‘And I might see about petting those donkeys over there too. Come and find me after.’
She waved them off towards the turning wheel.
Sera had only been on one once before, when she was six years old and a travelling carnival had set up in a field not far from her far house in the plains.
She had spent the entire day at the fair with Mama, stuffing her face with doughnuts and whipped ice cream, riding the carousel round and round until she was too dizzy to stand.
After, they found a stall offering teddy bears as prizes.
She spent a fruitless hour fishing for rubber ducks, until Mama had emptied her coin purse and bought a bear straight off the rack, pressing it into her arms like treasure.
Her heart gave a pang as they approached the wooden wheel.
This one was so much larger than the ride in her memories.
At least as tall as Our Sacred Saints’ Cathedral, it would allow them to see far and wide across the northern plains of the kingdom and find out where all that smoke was coming from.
They paid a copper and hopped into a gondola, the wooden seat creaking as it slowly lifted into the air. Sera clutched the sides, reminding herself to breathe.
Theo glanced sidelong at her. ‘Didn’t I just watch you scale the Aurore? I thought you weren’t afraid of heights.’
‘There’s heights, and then there’s floating in the air on a flimsy creaking bench ,’ she said, between laboured huffs. ‘Turns out, there’s a difference.’
‘Just don’t look down.’
Too late. Like a magnet, her gaze was drawn to Ransom.
Leaning against a gaming stall with his arms folded, he was looking up at her with an utterly bewildered expression on his face.
To him, it must have looked like an impromptu lovers’ outing, Theo and Sera stealing a moment together to overlook the tapestry of their kingdom.
She waggled her fingers at him.
He pointed at Theo, then dragged his forefinger across his neck.
Clucking his tongue, Theo muttered, ‘So childish.’
The wind picked up, the bench groaning as it swayed.
Beneath them, the land unfurled in a patchwork of bucolic farmland, neat thatched villages and bustling grey-walled towns.
The slow-sinking sun bled across the faraway treetops, painting the lakes and rivers gold.
But it was marred – all of it – by the smoke.
The higher they climbed, the thicker it became. Soon, Sera’s eyes began to prickle.
‘All hell,’ said Theo, under his breath. ‘That’s a lot of fires.’
The smoke was coming from all over the north-west, the fires – too many to count – scattered across towns and villages. Some blazed through the surroundings forest too, while others were as high and bright as beacons, lapping greedily at the sky.
Smoke made a choking canopy of clouds that floated southwards on the wind. Towards them.
Sera’s heart sank. ‘Is this what I think it is?’
‘Rebellion is catching in the north,’ said Theo uneasily.
More effigies, more burning messages to the king. The north-west was turning its back on the House of Rayere. And there, beyond those menacing pockets of flames, jutting up along the horizon were the famed red mills of Marvale. The birthplace of Saint Oriel.
And if Provost Ambrose spoke truly, the place they would find the People’s Saint.
Andreas.
It was surely no coincidence.
‘Looks like the prince’s message is spreading,’ said Theo, in a low voice. ‘The king is losing his footing outside Fantome too. Andreas has a stronghold in the north.’
The turning wheel dipped, slowly returning them to the fairground. And yet, those fires burned behind Sera’s eyes, the smoke clinging to her nostrils. She shifted in her seat, growing restless. The kingdom was already changing, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was late to the party.
Curiosity was tugging her towards those red mills and the saint who was waiting for her there.
But the impulse vanished at the sudden sound of screaming.
Terror gripped the carnival, sending Theo and Sera leaping from their gondola and into the scattering crowd.
The root of the commotion was over by the gaming stalls.
As they fought their way through the fleeing carnival-goers, Val crashed into them.
Grabbing Sera by the shoulders, she yelled, ‘He’s a madman! He hanged the guy with his own shadow!’
Alarm guttered through Sera. ‘What guy? Who did?’ But the crowd was parting now.
The worker manning the bullseye game was lying face up on the grass.
Dead. The whites of his eyes were as black as coal.
Kasper, the youngest of the three remaining soldiers, was curled up in a ball beside him clutching his head in his hands. Alive but whimpering.
Ransom was standing ten feet away, with his arms folded. His jaw was so tight it looked like he was chewing glass.
Sera stalked right up to him. ‘What the hell happened?’
He turned to look at her. ‘I see you’re back from your date,’ he said, coolly. ‘Did your little carnival excursion amount to everything you hoped it would?’
She shoved him in the chest. ‘Did you do this to get my attention?’ When he didn’t answer, she shoved him again. ‘What is wrong with you?’
He caught her hands, trapping them under his own. ‘Check your ego, spitfire. Do you really think me so unhinged?’
Belatedly, she realized his eyes were their usual shade of hazel. He hadn’t taken any Shade. Which meant he hadn’t killed the man. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed a stressed-looking Nadia and a silver-eyed Caruso ranting at Bram and Maelle.
‘Oh.’
‘Yes. Oh ,’ said Ransom, releasing her. He stepped back, folding his arms again. ‘Now that you’ve hopped off your pedestal, would you like to know what happened?’
‘Not in that shit-eating superior tone of yours,’ she snapped. ‘Your Dagger just killed an innocent man. And by the looks of things, decked a soldier while he was at it! At least have the basic decency to look put out about it.’
‘Actually, Nadia decked the soldier.’
‘Like it matters.’
Val and Theo were at her side now, providing silent backup. Not that she needed it. Her magic was a firestorm in her chest, ready to erupt. Tamping it down, she said through her teeth, ‘What exactly happened?’
‘You and Versini decided to derail our journey for a jaunt on the turn-wheel,’ he said, with a flat smile. ‘Caruso decided he wanted to win a goldfish. He played six rounds before he realized the game was rigged… And I’m sure you can divine the rest.’
‘And where were you?’ accused Theo.