Her mother drifted over to the broken chest. She stretched out a hand like a tendril of fog and lifted the book.
“Thank you, Noa,” she said in a strange voice. “It’s done.”
“What’s done?” Dread settled in Noa’s stomach. “Mom?”
The ghost laughed, and the laughter wasn’t her mother’s. “King Xavier will be so pleased.”
26
Marchenas Are Always First
“Xavier?” Noa sat frozen, one shaking hand still on the chest. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry, Princess,” the ghost said, though she didn’t sound sorry. She sounded exultant. “But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get back at that wretched boy.”
Noa clung to one last ember of hope. “Mom?”
The ghost was coming into focus now. She was nothing like Mom. She was younger, for one thing, and her hair was auburn rather than black. Mom’s eyes had been warm and creased at the corners from laughter, but this woman’s eyes had a sly twinkle. The last time Noa had seen those eyes, they had been frozen in a look of pure horror.
“Esmalda,” Noa whispered.
“It was a cruel trick to play on a little girl,” the mage said. “But you’re not exactly innocent, are you, child? You’re a Marchena, and you’re all rotten to the core. ‘Marchenas are always first,’ are they? First to betray an ally? First to murder a friend? You’ll be just like them in a few years.”
Noa couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. “Them?”
“Your mother,” Esmalda spat. “And your brother. I was always loyal to her. And how did she thank me? By throwing me into prison. And Julian!” She gave a frightening bark of laughter. “Dear, handsome Julian. He charmed me into thinking he was different from her. But as it turned out, he’s even worse. I’ve killed plenty of people in my day—oh, yes. For gold. For revenge. But I do it honorably.” Her voice was silky. “What Julian did to me had no honor.”
Noa knew she should have been furious at being tricked. But all she felt in that moment was grief colder than the bottom of the sea.
Her mother hadn’t come back to her.
“Do you know what it feels like to be turned into a statue?” Esmalda’s voice was horribly pleasant. “To feel the blood freeze in your veins? To choke on the metal rising in your throat?”
Noa backed up a step, feeling sick. “I don’t understand—”
“You don’t understand how I tricked you.” She laughed again. “I knew your mother well—I served her for years, after all. Impersonating her wasn’t difficult. And it’s not hard for a ghost to spy on Xavier’s mages, learning everything they knew about this book and its undersea hidey-hole. Come now, I thought you were the smart one! Julian’s clever little sister, always saving him from himself. . . . Well, let’s see if you can save him now. I’m going to give this book to Xavier’s mages. They’ll surely be surprised to find it on their ship, but I doubt they’ll spend much time puzzling over the mystery. Do you?”
Noa’s head spun. “Why . . . why didn’t you just get the book yourself?”
“I’m a ghost,” Esmalda spat. “We can manipulate objects in the living world, but only to a point. I couldn’t have opened that chest. Nor, for that matter, could any of Xavier’s mages—do you know how many times they tried to swim to that cave? Well, I tracked down one of the dead mages who hid the book, and she told me the truth: Xavier never had a chance of finding it. No, the book could only be rescued by someone of royal blood.”
“Royal blood?” Noa whispered.
“Yes.” Esmalda’s lip curled. “The ancient mages were terrible snobs. They didn’t want this book found by the common riffraff, but if a future king or queen of Florean needed it, well, that was all right with them. Groveling fools.”
Noa felt as if she were still under the sea, its weight pressing down on her, harder and harder, until she would surely break apart. “What language is it?”
“Oh, that’s the best part.” Esmalda stroked the spine of the book as she drifted just out of Noa’s reach. “It’s fear.”
Noa froze. “Fear?”
Esmalda’s voice took on a singsong quality. “Oh, Princess, you’re not going to like what’s coming to you. But it’s nothing less than what you and your brother deserve.”
Noa’s heart thundered in her throat. Steeling herself, she leaped at the ghost. But Esmalda drifted away, laughing.
“Wait,” Noa cried. “Wait—stop.”
The last word came out in Shiver, a sharp sound like the crunch of bone breaking. Esmalda froze, her face contorted in fury, drifting several feet off the ground. Noa was astonished—had she done that? She launched herself into the air and managed to grab hold of the book. But before she could get a better grip, Esmalda shook herself, and Noa fell to the ground with only one ripped page in her hand.
“Stop!” Noa cried again, but her voice was broken by a sob.
“I don’t think so,” Esmalda said. She began to fade, and the book faded with her, until all that remained were her fever-bright eyes and the hint of a grinning mouth. “Good night, Princess. Tell King Julian I said hello.”
Noa sat frozen, unable to think. Eventually, an otter appeared and offered to lead her home. Something about its nosy, whiskered face unstuck something inside her, and she was able to stand.
“Bad news, that one was,” the otter said. “We keep away from the bad ones. You should do the same. Oh, did you hear that? I just gave you advice, and I didn’t ask for anything in return. Only the noblest of creatures would do that.”
Noa didn’t say a word. When they came to the place where Noa had entered Death, she grabbed the first shadow she touched, and simply fell through. Not surprisingly, this didn’t turn out well. She ended up in the ocean. There was Astrae a few hundred yards away, yet she couldn’t bring herself to swim toward it. She could barely bring herself to tread
