I searched around. “Where are you? Marlie, where’d you go?”
After a moment, she reappeared behind me, grinning with triumph. “I’m right here. See? It works.”
“But how?” I searched the space behind her and around her, hoping for a reasonable explanation, yet suspecting it was just as she’d said. Magic.
“It’s the Faytling. It works best when there are distractions around and in short spurts, but I think it can get us there.”
Think? That wasn’t reassuring.
Still, the minutes were ticking by. I did as she said, gripped the Faytling inside my glove, and mentally repeated the word “invisible.” It might have been the effects of the talisman or just my nerves, but the view in front of me turned murky and unsteady, like the onset of a vision.
Was it supposed to feel like this? It didn’t matter. As long as it worked, we had to keep going.
I followed her past the line of footmen, and to my astonishment, they didn’t look at either of us. It was as if we weren’t there at all.
We passed through the open doors and made our way through a break in the line of carriages before crossing the wide lawn of the Quadrangle.
If Marlie was having the same sideways feelings I was, she didn’t show it. I, on the other hand, was struggling to keep up. Was this part of the Faytling getting used to me? Every step proved more difficult than the last, as if my boots had been weighted with stones. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched. I searched the windows, looking for faces staring at us, seeing through our trickery.
I saw no one, however. It was only my imagination. My nerves. And I forced myself to keep moving. To keep pace with Marlie despite my reluctant limbs. I swung my arm forward for momentum and though it felt like my arm, what I saw moving beside me was a hazy, silvery outline of what might have been my arm. Only it couldn’t be because my arm was still locked at my side. Panicked, I returned the silvery shadow back to my side. I clenched and stretched my fingers in amazement, but the spell was broken by a voice—that voice—whispering in my ear, “There you are.”
A blackness rimmed my vision that constricted, making the tunnel of my sight smaller. Ever smaller. No. I wouldn’t give in. Not this time. One foot in front of the other. I pressed on. Again and again and again. I stared at the ground without blinking. Afraid to blink. I watched my feet, but every nerve sensed him. He was near. I could feel it. That voice.
Finally, Marlie stopped when we’d crossed the Quadrangle lawn. “Where to now?” When she glanced back, her face crumpled with concern. “Oh goodness, what’s happened?”
In an instant she was at my side, supporting me by the arm, and I didn’t try to push her away. I didn’t have the strength.
“You’re burning up,” she said, and it was true. I felt none of the usual evening chill. Instead it was as hot as the hottest summer’s day. He was here. He was everywhere. But who was he? What was he?
I tried to speak but my mouth was dry. It was difficult to even breathe.
“Hurry, let’s get you inside. Just a few more steps. There we are. C’mon.”
She opened a door beside the King George IV Gate and pushed me over the threshold. I stumbled into a wall and stood there, feeling cool plaster against my cheek.
“Here now. Give me that.” I could feel her finger fishing inside my glove until she hooked the Faytling and pulled it out. The instant the talisman left my grasp, a weight lifted from me. His presence left me. I could breathe. The heat subsided. I looked around to see it wasn’t a dark room after all. It was a lighted corridor, a long one with plain white doors on either side. A servants’ area by the look of it.
“There now, your color’s coming back.” I could hear the relief in her voice.
“What happened?” I muttered, wiping perspiration from my forehead.
She lifted Mrs. Crossey’s Faytling. “The spell, I’m sure. It doesn’t typically have such an effect. It should pass quickly, though. There’s a linen room near the end of the hall where we can rest.”
“There’s no time. And I’m fine.” I wasn’t, not exactly, but whatever had happened, whatever I saw or thought I saw, was over now and once I had what I needed, I’d feel better. “What’s the quickest way to Lady Merrington’s room?”
Marlie’s forehead crinkled over her nose. “Lady Merrington? Didn’t she return home?”
“She went to see a sister, but it isn’t her I need. It’s what’s in her room.”
“You need something from her room?” Her words shook with alarm.
Her glance darted away, but before it did, I could see the question there. It would be foolish to think she hadn’t heard the gossip about me. The accusations, especially from Abigail. In all our months as roommates, she had never asked if they were true or mentioned them at all. I had hoped it meant she didn’t believe them.
Now I wasn’t sure.
“You must trust me,” I said.
Slowly her glance returned to me. “Fine. Where is her room?”
I bit my lip. I wasn’t sure exactly, and I was still so weak. But my energy was returning, slowly. “Near the Queen’s room.”
“Next to it?”
“No. Two doors away. Maybe three. I’ll know it when I see it.” I gnawed my lip. I didn’t like lying to her, but it was the only way.
Marlie grumbled under her breath, gave me back the Faytling, and led the way up a bare staircase that opened to the western end of the Long Gallery. “After you,” she said.
I poked my head out and saw no one along the crimson-carpeted corridor. A blessing.
I tugged off my gloves and approached the first door, placing my bare right hand upon the
