Dance of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death) (3 page)

He smells of soap, despite our flight from the burning city and our days in the swamp. When we were fleeing the city, I kissed him as if our very lives depended on it. The city was on fire below us, and I wrapped my arms around him and lost myself. The memory makes me blush.

But he drugged me, though I told him not to. Can I trust him?

He’s ruthless.

But I like that about him. Perhaps my goal should be to become more like Elliott. A fighter. A revolutionary. Both of our fathers are murderers. Maybe we deserve each other. Maybe he can’t trust me either.

“Araby?” Elliott is holding out a jar of salve, while fumbling to unfasten the last button on his shirt. “Since you’re here . . .” His shirt falls to the floor.

Even in the dimness of the cabin, I can tell that some of his wounds are bad. Elliott’s back is crisscrossed with fresh bruises and burns over the scars that have already healed. There’s a long scrape where some part of the steamship must have hit him when it exploded. He’s lucky to be alive. We all are.

When I dip my fingers into the ointment, they tingle immediately. Elliott gasps as I touch him, and then relaxes. I let my fingertips linger on his skin. The mocking smile has disappeared when he turns toward me. His eyes are wide, and the look in them might seem guileless if I didn’t know better. In the semidarkness his hair is a dark burnished gold.

I go completely still, focused on our nearness.

My heart speeds up.

Flustered, I dip my fingers back into the salve and tear my eyes away from his face, searching for burns that need soothing. My fingers catch on a gash, and we both jump a little bit.

“You have so many scars,” I say softly.

His muscles tense. I know what I’ve done. Once before he made me feel the scars from Prospero’s torture. But I’ve never seen the extent of them. He was just a boy when he endured this. No wonder he hates Prospero so viciously.

“Your fists are clenched,” I say, in something close to a whisper. I take one of his hands and gently pry the fingers apart, forcing him to relax, threading his fingers through my own. “I’m sorry.”

He closes his eyes, and when he opens them he’s back with me. Not just with me, but focused on me. His attention sends chills through me.

The air in the cabin is unnaturally still. In this moment, Elliott and I are the only people in the world.

He shifts forward, all lithe grace and strength, like a big cat. Something dangerous. But I don’t feel like prey. Not exactly.

We stare at each other. I can’t trust him, but for all his ulterior motives, he’s never abandoned me. His free hand is at my waist, snaking around me, pulling me close, then even closer.

The door creaks open.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Will says. He stays in the doorway, and his shadow is elongated by the candles in the room behind him. Will is tall, but never insubstantial, like the shadow that falls across me and Elliott. Across the bed. When Will steps into the cabin, his dark hair falls forward, but it can’t hide that his cheeks are flushed, as if he is embarrassed—or upset.

I pull away from Elliott, my own face heating up. Of all the people to see me here, with Elliott, Will is by far the worst.

“For whatever reason, I’ve been put in charge of medical duty,” Will says.

“No,” I say, looking up into his eyes. His very dark eyes. “No more sleeping medicine.”

Whatever Elliott gave me is finally wearing off, and I’m beginning to feel more like myself, more aware. The burning pain of my wound is growing, too, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay to be alert.

Will’s voice is soft. “Lie on your stomach, sweetheart. I want to get a good look at the stitches.”

The throwaway endearment takes me back to the Debauchery Club. A simpler time when I didn’t know dark secrets and wasn’t trying to help save the world. But it doesn’t wipe away his betrayal. He touches my good shoulder to try to help me, and I brush him off.

Elliott sits up, scooting down to the foot of the bed. He doesn’t even try to hide his smirk from Will.

I lie down gingerly, trying to pretend that nothing hurts. I won’t give either of them a reason to medicate me. My shoulder stings as Will peels the bandage from the gash. He’s gentle, but my eyes still fill with tears.

“It’s better,” he says, sounding more genuinely relieved than a person who gave me to a madman, who left me to die, has any right to be. “The stitches are holding, and it doesn’t look infected.”

“Thank you,” Elliott says in the voice he uses for servants.

Will’s hands still for just a fraction of a second. “You’re welcome, sir,” he says, his tone remote. He won’t let Elliott think it bothers him. But I know it does.

“I have to cook dinner now.” Will rolls up the unused bandages, not looking at either of us. “No one else seems to know how. The rich have so few useful skills.”

He lets the door slam behind him.

“I have some useful skills,” Elliott calls.

My face burns at the suggestive tone of Elliott’s comment. Here we are, sharing this narrow bed, and Elliott still hasn’t put his shirt back on. But April’s unmistakable laugh is the only response.

April is supposed to be watching the swamp for intruders. Why is she outside the door to this cabin?

Bedsprings squeal as I try to sit up, and I can’t hold back a gasp at the sudden pain in my shoulder. Elliott reaches to help me, but my elbow hits the burn above his ribs and he groans. I grit my teeth.

“Try to hold it down, you two,” April calls. “There are children on this ship.”

“There’s nothing to hold down,” I mutter, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and standing. I leave the journal hidden under the blanket and then pick up Elliott’s shirt. He hesitates, as if wanting to say something, but finally takes it.

“Promise not to drug me again,” I say, looking into his very blue eyes.

“I promise,” he begins, but I can tell he doesn’t know how serious I am.

“I don’t need it,” I tell him. “I’m stronger than I was before. We have to get back to the city as soon as we can.” I try to imagine what it will be like returning to a city that flooded and burned at the same time, with the Red Death striking people dead in the streets. I have to prepare myself. To be brave.

“Araby,” Elliott says. “I know you’re worried about your parents. Your mother . . .”

Mother. I’ve been so focused on Father and his secrets, but she is trapped in the prince’s castle. And Elliott wouldn’t have mentioned her without a reason. I narrow my eyes.

“While you were sleeping we decided not to go back.”

CHAPTER THREE

W
HEN WE LEFT THE CITY, IT WAS TO REGROUP
—to pull ourselves together before returning to face Malcontent’s rebel army and the plague. To find my father, the only man who could tell us how to stop the death around us.

“We’ll be going to Prospero’s palace instead,” Elliott says. “For weapons. I know where the storeroom is. Kent and I have discussed this for hours. We can get in quickly, surprise the guards, load the airship, and then rejoin my men to fight Malcontent.”

“Not going back to the city?” This is wrong. We have to go back and find Father. We have to save April. Weapons won’t cure her.

And I’ve been to Prospero’s palace. Even with the airship, how can we slip in and out with even a few weapons? More likely Prospero will capture us all and torture us for fun.

I put a hand to my mask, drawing a deep breath. But Elliott isn’t finished.

“We’ll still be returning to the city eventually, just—” He stands, placing one foot behind him, as if he’s bracing for an attack. “The way we fled, I can’t go back empty-handed.”

Prospero is hiding from the plague, far from the city, in the fortress where he has complete and total control. Going there is a suicide mission. Elliott and I barely made it out last time we visited.

“Elliott—”

“We had to leave the city.” He cuts me off. “But we are no better off now than when we left. What can we expect to accomplish when we walk back in? We have Prospero on one side, Malcontent on the other. But Prospero doesn’t care anymore, not with the Red Death raging. With his weapons—”

“Weapons that he’s likely to just give us?” My voice is rising.

“He won’t be expecting an attack from the air. We can land right above the armory.”

“But he’ll see us coming. The ship is rather conspicuous.”

“Not at night. Not during one of his parties. I’ll sneak into Prospero’s lair to steal what I need, but I don’t want to sneak back into the city. I want to return victorious.”

Of course he does. We all have our fantasies. I could tell him that I want things to go back to the way they were, that I want my father to be a hero, that I want my mother to be safe, that I want my biggest decision to be what to wear to the Debauchery Club. But life isn’t that simple. And I can see that he won’t listen, not now, but this discussion is far from over.

I gather my shredded skirts and sweep out of the room into the main cabin. A heavy wooden table sits in the center of the room. Maps and navigational instruments have been scattered across it. April is standing at the opposite side of the room, and Kent is sitting at the table.

“There you are. I thought maybe you’d died in there,” April says lightly, and then her eyes go wide, as if she’s shocked herself.

It isn’t like her to joke about death. April has always tried to ignore death, making her driver go out of his way to avoid the corpses in the street—but ignoring the contagion is impossible for her now. Maybe it is for me too. I suddenly realize I have an open wound, in the swamp, with two plagues raging. Sometimes I feel like the world is waiting for all of us to fall ill. For all of us to fade and die.

Despite the humidity, April is wearing long sleeves. A finger of contagion climbs the back of her neck. She sees that I am looking and shakes her hair back to cover it.

“April . . . ,” I begin. We should start over.

“I’d hug you,” she says. “But, you know . . .”

I nod. There are many reasons for us not to hug—her illness, my wound—even if we were the sort of friends who usually embrace. Which we aren’t.

At the table in the middle of the cabin, Kent is examining some mechanical bits and pieces that I assume are for repairing the ship. He has somehow managed to be on everyone’s side at once. I first saw him with my father, but he’s also friends with both Elliott and Will. And here in the cabin of the airship that he designed, April is sitting very close to him. So close that Elliott’s eyebrows go up. He may be April’s older brother, but he should know it’s too late to worry much about her virtue. Elliott was the one who sponsored us so that we could be members of the Debauchery Club, though Kent is far from the sort of boy who she pursued there. Those were frivolous boys in velvet jackets and eye shadow. Kent is overly serious, with messy brown hair and thick spectacles.

I reach out to the shiny metal object that lies on the table in front of him.

“As soon as I can repair these parts, we can steer the ship again,” he explains.

“And then we can leave this place,” April says in a low voice. “Can you imagine the people who used to live here? How they must have hoped every day that the swamp would recede? They left their furniture, their clothing . . .”

“Where did they go?” I ask. “To the city?” It seems horrible when we all know how quickly the contagion swept through the more populated areas.

April shrugs. “They’ve been gone a long time. Everything is covered with dust or mold or falling apart. They’re probably all dead.”

“We should be able to leave very soon.” Kent stands and walks to the doorway. “Maybe by evening. I prefer to fly the ship at night. Less attention that way.”

Less attention from the people in the swamp? Or from Prospero’s guards? I look over at Elliott. He’s standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Another storm is brewing,” Kent continues. “I’ll stay with the ship, but everyone else needs to take shelter. Including you,” he says to April, and they share a smile.

Elliott’s eyebrows go even farther up.

“Where are the children?” I ask. They’ve barely ever been outside, and now a storm is approaching—one strong enough to blow them away.

“The children are sitting on the roof watching for intruders. I lent them my binoculars,” Kent says. “They seem to enjoy being out there. Thom stays close, watching them.”

Elise and Henry are so young. Is it safe for them to be watching the swamp? The willows and swamp grass surrounding the house could conceal any number of enemies. We have no shortage of them. The Reverend Malcontent wants to take over the city. He would execute me, the scientist’s daughter, and he’s already tried to kill Elliott once. Prospero is more devious, but I don’t doubt he’d like to see all of us dead. And he’d love to have the airship that we’re on.

Prospero has always been jealous of science and innovation. With something like this ship he’d have a way to take courtiers up above the city. They could hold elaborate parties. They could dance. But it would be a trap, because wherever the prince goes, there is always torture.

I cross the cabin, following Kent, and look outside. The blue-gray slate of the roof slopes gently toward the swamp. It is very quiet. I haven’t once heard the high-pitched voices of the children.

“Will feeds all of us,” April says. She stands at my shoulder and gestures to the thin line of smoke coming from one of the two chimneys. The one that’s intact. Kent smashed into the other one when we landed. “He’s been using one of the fireplaces to cook, since Kent won’t let us have any sort of flame near his precious airship.” She winks at Kent. He is tinkering with something and doesn’t notice. “Thom took guard duty to stay out of Elliott’s sight.” April meets my gaze. Thom is the diseased boy who rescued us from drowning. And then we rescued him from the city and from Malcontent. He’s covered in scabs that weep with pus. That’s the best April has to look forward to, if she doesn’t die. We have to find my father. How can Elliott want to waste time going to Prospero’s palace?

When I glance over at Elliott, he’s restless, tapping his fingers against the table where Kent is working. Agitated.

A loud crash makes all of us jump. But it isn’t an explosion. The sky is darkening. Lightning flashes, and more thunder follows.

Elliott strides past me, out the door. April and I follow him onto the deck.

From here I can smell the corruption. The encroaching swamp is taking over everything. Leaves decompose in the marsh around us, and the house itself rots underneath us. The two chimneys that the ship is tied to are part of the main section of the house. Three wings branch off to form a letter E. Except that one of the wings seems to have fallen away. Some rooms are completely open to the elements, like the dollhouse that I had as a child. Father built it, and Finn used to put lizards and frogs in the rooms. He would laugh as they knocked the carefully placed furniture about.

Elliott is at the rail. His hair gleams, and even the way he stands evokes a sense of purpose.

I walk up beside him and look straight down. The marsh water ripples dark under the green slime that floats across the surface. The long grasses move, not with the wind, but against it. Fallen trees lie in the murk, in various stages of decay. Something is moving in the swamp. Something alive and hungry.

“Crocodile.” Elliott’s lips quirk into an almost-smile at my shudder of revulsion. It makes a loud splash, as if to confirm Elliott’s statement.

Dark clouds are massing over the swamp, and lightning strikes once more. The grasses shake. The crocodiles splash, restless.

“Kent wants us to go down into the house,” April says. I jump at the sound of her voice. She’s gotten quieter since she’s been sick. She’s biting her lip. The old April never looked so solemn. She leads us off the ship. Elliott takes my hand, but he doesn’t pull me along. Only a slight gap lies between the wooden steps of the airship and the roof of the house, but he helps me down.

Henry and Elise are sitting in the shadow of one of the chimneys.

“Will won’t let us play anywhere interesting,” Henry complains as we approach. “There’s nothing to see from here, even with binoculars.”

With the crocodiles slithering through the murk, and who knows what else might be lurking out there, Will was right to make them promise to stay near the ship. I want to grab Henry and hold him close to keep him safe.

“Araby!” Elise spies me behind Elliott and leaps up. She throws her arms around me, but Elliott keeps hold of my hand. Elise’s eyebrows draw together, and I know that she is frowning behind her mask.

The wind picks up, so even if I knew what to say to her, the words would be whipped away.

“Why must we always wait until the storm is actually upon us?” April asks no one in particular. This is the old April. “We need to hurry. My hair simply cannot survive much more.”

I smile, but she’s right. The rain is coming—I can see it out over the swamp, moving toward us. These tiles will be slick and treacherous when it hits. I put my arm around Elise, then drop Elliott’s hand to take Henry’s.

“Show me how to get into the house?” I ask Elise, and she nods, pleased to help.

The breach in the roof isn’t far, but it gives me pause. It’s as if monstrous jaws have bitten a chunk from the top of the house. The uneven hole left is wide enough for a person to climb through.

“There was already a hole in the roof,” April explains. “Kent just used a crowbar to make it bigger, so that we can climb inside.” The rain pounds the roof behind us, gusting through the swamp. All of a sudden, everything is moving.

“Go ahead.” I urge the children toward the wooden ladder that peeks up out of the hole. By the time April has climbed down, the storm is crashing against the house and the line of trees is doubled over.

Elliott’s hair is plastered to his face, and his shirt clings to him.

“I should stay with Kent,” he says. He grimaces, but I can’t tell if it’s from the rain or the idea of me downstairs with Will.

I nod. He can’t leave Kent to face the storm alone.

Ignoring the driving rain, I grab his arm. It doesn’t matter that I don’t trust him, or that I don’t agree with his plans. He can be the hero that the city needs. I’m not willing to embrace him, but I hold his arm tightly for just a few seconds longer than I should. As I’m turning away, he spins me back and kisses me fiercely. And then he’s fighting the wind, back across the roof.

Not until I’m halfway down the ladder do I pause to catch my breath and push the wet hair back from my face. I lean my forehead against one of the rungs while my heart slows.

Below, the house groans, settling perhaps into its final repose. Into the swamp. I continue to climb down. The wood floor looks slick with blood, but it’s just soaked with rainwater from the storm. Still, the boards seem to sag under my feet, so I move quickly to the other side of the room, where the roof above is intact.

A fire crackles in the hearth, and the glow, combined with the oil lamp, contrasts cozily with the rain that pounds through the hole and against the roof and windows.

This place reminds me of the homes of Mother’s rich relations, who we used to visit when I was a child. The attic would’ve been a nursery, and bits of broken toys, a small desk where a child might have sat to learn to read, have been left neglected here.

Elise and Henry are nestled on a couch, and Elise makes room for me to join them. But April coughs, and I turn to her instead. She’s fallen into an armchair. The diseased boy, Thom, stands behind her, holding a glass of water. If anything, his skin looks more horrible than ever, with weeping sores on his arms, as well as the one above his eye.

I can’t believe April is allowing him to be this close to her. She
has
changed.