Her Ladyship's Curse

“Not so I’ve noticed,” I told him. I made out the peculiar shape of his eye, but it wasn’t the droop I was accustomed to seeing. “Where are you from, teller?”

He bowed again. “Here. My father bought my mother from Hokkaido before the Imperial Family instituted the blockade.”

Now the odd-looking runes in his hall made sense. “You’re half Nihon.”

“And half Torian,” Rina put in.

I’d deal with her later. “Every Nihon, pureblood or not, was deported after the blockade. The Crown has denied them residency ever since. So how did you manage to stay in Rumsen, Mr. Harvison?”

“My mother was property, not wife,” he said simply. “My father claimed me as the same, until he discovered he could sire no children with his wife.”

Keeping slaves had been banned before my birth. “Did he have you declared his heir?” When he nodded, I relaxed a little. “So you’re a freedman.”

“I have never been anything else.” He gestured to the cushion on the floor opposite his own. “Now I will see for you, madam’s friend.”

I thought of the teller who had tried to chase me out of her shop, and climbed down awkwardly to sit on the cushion. “What do you want? Hair? Fingernails? Spit? Blood?”

“Your hands, please.” He stretched out his own, palms up.

I’d never touched a slave, declared or not, and Nihon universally despised Torians. I might not get my hands back.

I will free you, my gel, very soon, Dredmore said behind my eyes, and then you will be mine.

I clapped my hands over Harvison’s. The moment I touched him, he went stiff and still. I watched his face, but I didn’t see him twitch or take a breath.

Slowly he withdrew his hands. “I am blinded.”

“I didn’t touch his good eye,” I assured Rina. “I swear.”

“What I mean to say is that I cannot see for you, young miss,” Harvison said faintly. “You are like the ward, and the warded.” He stared at my neck. “You wear a talisman.”

“A necklace, with a pendant,” I corrected. “Most women wear them.”

“May I see it?”

My first impulse was to say no, but then I thought of what Harry had said about my pendant. “All right.” I reached back for the clasp.

Harvison remained silent for a long time as he studied my pendant. Only when Rina cleared her throat did he seem to remember we were in the room. “Forgive me, dear ladies. This is something of a puzzle.” He regarded me. “This was given to you, was it not? When you were very young.”

I nodded. “It was a gift from my mother.”

“The stone is powerful. Or perhaps I should say, it contains power.” He placed the pendant gently on the table, and I noticed his hand shook as he drew it back. “You must wear it at all times, or you will be in grave danger.”

“Danger she’s got aplenty. Lucien Dredmore’s after her,” Rina said tightly. “Can’t you see how that right bastard will try to take her?”

“He cannot.” Harvison gave me a sad smile. “If the onmyouji is to possess her, she must give herself freely.”

“Right, then, that’ll never happen.” I stood. “Thank you for not pretending to see something. Rina, we should go.”

My friend ignored me. “She’s been cursed. Is that what you’re saying?”

Harvison made a helpless gesture. “She is beyond me, dear one. I believe she is beyond all who see.”

“Then see for me.” Rina dropped down and put her hands in his. “See if I lose her to that conniving devil.”

Harvison nodded toward me. “She must leave the room.”

“Oh, she will be glad to.” I stalked out, brushed past his houseman and through the front entry. I was more angry with myself than Rina for allowing her to involve me in this rubbish. She did it out of love; I knew better.

Wrecker eyed me from the carri. “Had enough of One Eye, then, Miss Kit?”

“That I have. Be a sport and turn your head.” As soon as he did, I waved down a horse-drawn cab. “I’m going home. Rina will be furious, but tell her I said to tough it.”

“Just be careful, miss,” Wrecker suggested. “Her won’t like knowing something bad’s happened to you.”

I nodded and let the driver help me into the cab. Once I was shut in, I wrapped my hand around my pendant, holding it so tight it cut into my palm. What Harvison had said about it containing power was nonsense, of course . . . but I kept remembering how his hand shook. Before I could think better of it, I reached back and thumbed the clasp, releasing it so I could pull the chain from my neck. I thrust the pendant into my reticule and dropped it on the bench beside me.

Harry White appeared on the rear-facing seat. “Took you long enough. What were you waiting for, lass? Her Majesty’s Diamond Jube?”

I curled my hands into fists. “My mother wore only two pieces of jewelry when she was alive,” I told him. “One was her wedding ring. What was the other?”

“A gold chain round her left ankle,” he replied at once. “On the chain hung a silver ring set with seven stones in the shape of a star. Three rubies, three sapphires, and a black diamond.”

No one knew about my mother’s anklet but my father and me. “You gave it to her.”

“Technically, no. When she came to the morgue to identify me, she took the ring from my body.” He showed me his left hand, and the pale circle left around the base of his fourth finger. “Your father had the ankle chain made.”

“So she could hide it under her skirts,” I guessed.

He nodded. “Anyone who saw it would have treated her very badly.”

“Because you were a spy.”

“No, my dear,” he said. “Because the star was my mark. Because I was Houdini.”

I stared at the specter. “You’re Houdini.”

“I was.”

“Harry Houdini the escape artist,” I said. “The man no manacle, lock, or prison could hold. The greatest mage who ever lived. The supreme master of all the arts, shadow and light.”

He inclined his head.

I thumped the carri’s side panel three times with my fist and called out, “Stopping here.”

The cab came to a halt, and the driver jumped down and opened the door. “Can’t stop here, miss. ’Tis yet near a mile.”

I reached for my reticule. “I’m tired of riding with a lying jackass.”

“What did you call me?” the driver demanded.

“Not you,” I said, gesturing at Harry. “Him.”

“Perhaps I should have mentioned before,” my grandfather put in, “that no one but you can see or hear me.”

“What?” I turned on him. “So now you’re only haunting me?”

“Something like that,” he agreed.

I regarded the driver. “You see the man sitting in the seat across from me, don’t you?”

He ducked his head in. “I don’t see no man, miss.”

“He’s right there. Right in front of your nose.”

The driver pushed his cap back to scratch his pate. “I don’t drive them what been bespelled, miss. Naught but trouble they are.”

“Apologize and tell him to drive on before he shouts for a beater,” Harry suggested.

“I’m so very sorry,” I said to the driver. “I had a bit of a bump earlier, and now I’m seeing things that aren’t there.” I rested my head against the cushions. “If you would be so kind as to drive on, I’d be eternally