The House of the Stone (4 page)

“Will you excuse me for a moment?” she says, gliding over to her son and grabbing his arm. I hear him mumble “Ow” as she marches him out of the room.

“And that, ladies, is why I feel this city should be left in the hands of a woman!” the Electress exclaims.

The unpopular Duchess and the Countess explode with laughter. The Countess laughing is similar to what I imagine a seal being clubbed over the head would sound like. It's not a happy sound. It's big and loud and painful to listen to.

Violet's eyes meet mine. I give her a look that tries to say, “What is wrong with these people?” Her lips press together like she's fighting a smile. She gives me a tiny nod.

That nod fills me up more than any pear salad or roast duck ever could.

The Countess can tell me not to talk or eat but she can't take away this friendship. That is
not
in her power.

“But that decision is not up to you,” the old woman in red says to the Electress. “It is the Exetor's choice, since the line passed through him.”

Ugh, are we still talking about babies? There must be other things they could discuss. Hasn't anyone, I don't know, gotten killed in duel recently? That sounds like something that would happen here.

“Of course,” the woman continues, taking a small bite of frizzy lettuce. “You are only a recent addition to the Royal Palace. Perhaps the subtleties of royal succession have not fully been explained.”

So, after babies, the second most popular topic is reminding the Electress that she wasn't born in the Jewel. This seems exhausting. I thought dinner parties were supposed to be fun.

The Electress stiffens. “Clearly it has been too long since there has been any pleasure in
your
bedchambers, Ametrine, but there is no more powerful weapon of persuasion than a woman's body. I am quite capable of changing my husband's mind.”

Violet blushes, because that's what Violet does when sex is mentioned, but I have to give credit to the Electress. She certainly made the conversation more interesting.

Footmen come in to clear the plates, and I see Violet shovel a few forkfuls of duck into her mouth. I wonder if she was given the same instructions I was, but her mistress is out of the room, so she's cheating. Good for her.

“I meant no offense, Your Grace,” the old woman says. “But remember that surrogacy is a very strange thing. You never know precisely what you are going to get. The Augury scores only tell you so much. Perhaps you will end up
preferring
for your son to succeed the throne.”

“Doubtful,” the Electress replies. She motions to one of the footmen. “Fetch Lucien. Now.”

I've pretty much ignored the other surrogates, focusing only on Violet, but now I turn my attention to the young girl seated at the Electress's side. Her vibrant red hair is piled up in curls on top of her head, and a soft golden gown is draped around her wiry frame. It's like the Electress was trying to make her appear older, but instead created the opposite effect. She looks like a child who got into her mother's closet.

I don't even know her name. I wish I'd thought to ask when I saw her in the Waiting Room. I
should
have thought to ask.

Then I'm distracted because there's more food—salmon this time—being put in front of me.

Violet's mistress returns and curtsies to the Electress.

“My apologies, Your Grace.”

“Oh, no need to apologize. It was rather exciting,” the Electress says. “In comparison, dinners at the Royal Palace are positively dull.”

I load up my fork with salmon, raise it almost to my mouth, then put it back down. I repeat the action again.
And again. Technically, this is not against the rules. I haven't taken a bite yet. But the Countess shifts a bit in her chair. Good. She's noticed.

Violet is eyeing her mistress with a look of strained impatience. I wonder again what instructions she's been given as I finally eat the bite of salmon.

Then her face lights up at something behind me. I turn and see another lady-in-waiting enter the room. He's younger than Frederic but older than Emile. And judging by the look on Violet's face, I'm willing to bet
this
was her prep artist.

“Thank you, Lucien,” the Electress says. “Wait here.”

“Of course, my lady.” He places a silver bowl and a walnut on the table, then moves back to stand against the wall. I hold my breath, looking from the walnut to the girl and back again.

I hope the Electress doesn't make her do what I think she's going to make her do.

“She was showing me the most magnificent trick earlier,” the Electress says. She turns to her surrogate. “Go on.”

The poor girl's lip trembles as she picks up the walnut.

Don't do it
, I think.
Don't give her what she wants.

Nothing happens and for a second I think maybe this girl has somehow heard my thoughts. Then the Electress's eyes narrow and I understand. She's not being defiant. She's simply terrified.

“Go on,” the Electress says in a sharper tone, and I picture this tiny thing locked in a cage with a barb sticking in her foot. I cross my fingers under the table and hope that whatever Augury she performs, she performs exceptionally.

The girl's fingers close around the walnut, and when she opens them, it's turned slightly transparent, like brown glass.

The second Augury, then. Shape.

Her face wrinkles in concentration. The walnut ripples, shifting and stretching as she focuses on the shape she wants it to take. When she holds up a miniature figurine of the Electress, perfect in every detail, my mouth literally falls open. It's an incredibly difficult feat. She must be in a lot of pain.

Sure enough, she cries out, drops the statue, and grabs the silver bowl, vomiting.

As if that weren't horrific enough to watch, the royal women begin to clap.

“Isn't it marvelous?” the Electress says gaily. Her lady-in-waiting glides forward to collect the bowl and the walnut figurine. As he bends down, I see him slip her a handkerchief to clean up the blood from her nose and mouth.

Kind
, Violet called him. Kind, indeed.

“That will be all, Lucien,” the Electress says.

“Yes, my lady.” As he turns to leave, his eyes rest on Violet and I think the shadow of a smile pulls at his lips. I find myself wishing he worked for the House of the Stone.

“An impressive exhibition,” Violet's mistress says, cutting into her salmon. “Though you may want to keep your best linens away from her.”

“Oh, that doesn't happen every time,” the Electress says dismissively.

Violet's mistress dabs at her mouth with a napkin. “You may want to warm her up a bit before forcing her to sprint.”

It's getting harder and harder not to scream at these people. It's as if they had no idea what it means to be a human being.

I may not have their wealth or power or fame. I may be forced to play by their rules. But no matter how they treat me, they can't make me less than I am.

I am a person. I am Raven Stirling.

They are monsters.

“I will keep that in mind,” the Electress says. She pats the top of her surrogate's head like she's patting a dog.

“Does she have any special skills?” Violet's mistress asks. “They don't always, you know. But I do prefer a surrogate with a bit of talent.” She sips her wine. “Mine plays the cello.”

I glare at this woman, waiting for her to produce a cello and force Violet to play in front of everyone. Violet's music is beautiful and personal and hers. It does not belong to these women.

“That is something I would very much like to hear,” the Electress says. Violet glances at the door with a petrified expression. I imagine her thoughts are in line with mine.

But no cello appears and her mistress merely smiles. “I am certain, Your Grace, that someday you will.”

As relieved as I am that Violet isn't being forced to perform like a trained monkey, a small part of me is disappointed. Because hearing her play would feel like home right now.

The tears that well up in my eyes catch me off guard and I blink them back. This is no time for crying.

The conversation continues about our abilities. It turns
out Blondie is a dancer. Cranky Face doesn't seem to have any skills, but the Countess brags about my talent at mathematics as if she actually knew something about me besides the fact that I don't like pain and I have a temper. They talk about us like we can't hear them, like we're not there.

By the end of the dinner, I don't have the energy to be angry anymore. I'm just exhausted.

The women all kiss one another's cheeks as the ladies-in-waiting bring in their cloaks. My heart sinks at seeing Frederic again. I keep my gaze focused on Violet and hope that the “no accessories” rule holds so she doesn't have to see me shackled and blindfolded.

I will see her again. We're both in Founding Houses. I will see her again.

I think she smiles at me with her eyes.

Once I'm back in the foyer, the chains come out.

The other surrogates are put on leashes, too, but no one else wears manacles and a blindfold.

I do get a glimpse of what I've been riding around in. It's a sleek black motorcar, the kind I've only ever seen in magazines, and I have to admit, it's gorgeous.

We drive around in circles again, and then I'm led back into the palace of the Stone, a palace I haven't even seen yet.

Halls. Stairs. I can smell the dungeon before we reach it, the air growing stale and musty. The blindfold comes off, along with the leash and handcuffs, and I'm forced back into the golden birdcage.

I want to scream something at Frederic, but he's out the door before I can even draw breath.

I'm so thirsty, but there's still only the lone bowl of
water inside my cage. I sigh and move to pick it up.

It's stuck.

I pull and pull, but it must be soldered to the floor.

I grit my teeth, hold back the tears, and bend over the bowl, lapping up the water with my tongue.

I
WAKE TO THE SOUND OF GROANING HINGES
AND A DULL
ache in my neck.

I must have slept on it wrong, though I'm not sure there's a right way to sleep on a stone floor.

“Good morning,” Emile says. I sit up and rub my eyes, slippery with last night's makeup. I look down; I'm still in the same dress, too. Now it's wrinkled and dirty.

Good
, I think. I rub my eyes a little more, smearing eye shadow and mascara over my cheeks.

“Never mind about the dress,” Emile says. “You won't wear anything more than once.”

“I wasn't worried,” I say, only half paying attention.

My eyes are focused on his hands. He's carrying a silver
dish with a matching cover and it looks like food. My stomach roars. Emile hears it.

“Yes, I imagine you didn't get to eat much at the Duchess of the Lake's dinner party last night.”

Somewhere in my brain, I note that Violet's mistress is the Duchess of the Lake. But most of my mind is occupied with what might be underneath that silver cover. Emile opens the top half of the door to my cage and hands me the tray. I grab it, too hungry to be embarrassed, and throw the cover off. It hits the gold bars with a dull clang.

I stare at the tray, confused. There are exactly three peas, one slice of red apple, a bowl of clear broth, and half an onion roll.

My brain wants to be angry, but my stomach just wants everything in my mouth. I start with the roll—it is hot and fresh and oniony. Then the broth, which tastes salty and thin. Then the apple, crisp and sweet.

I don't eat the peas. They feel like a reminder of the rules last night. Screw the Countess and her rules.

Emile watches me with an impassive expression, until I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and say, “Done.”

“You haven't finished.”

“Yes. I have.”

He purses his lips. “You aren't making things easy for yourself.”

I bark out a laugh at that. “In case you failed to notice, Emile, I'm in a cage. I was taken from my family when I was twelve and forced to endure pain and bleeding and vomiting just so I can bear some strange rich woman's child. Now I'm here, and a psycho stabbed me with a barbed stick, and
another psycho threatened to cut out my tongue last night. My life hasn't been easy for a while.”

But that's a lie. Southgate was bliss compared to this.

Emile's face tightens. “We have all suffered, 192. You are not unique in that regard.”

He walks over and opens the door to the dungeon. Four Regimentals file in, forming a circle around my cage. I press myself against the bars until they cut into my back and shoulders. Emile removes one of the silver rods from the wall, the one with the circle on the end of it. He opens the door to my cage. My eyes dart from him to the Regimentals to the still-open door and back again.

“I was hoping you wouldn't need this,” Emile says. “But I can see you do.”

Something in his bright blue eyes tells me he's sorry. I hate him for it.

The rod shoots into the cage, the circle opening for the briefest second before clasping itself firmly around my neck. I grab the rod and try to yank it away, but Emile is stronger than he looks. He tugs and tugs and the metal bites at my neck as I'm drawn, slowly but surely, out of the cage. Once my head and shoulders are clear, two Regimentals grab me under my arms and haul me to my feet. They march me to the wall with the window, where two iron chains hang at hip height. I try to kick at them, at the wall, at Emile, at anything, but there are too many of them and my head is being forced into an odd angle. Once I'm chained up, they release me, and the metal circle unclasps from around my neck. Emile hangs it back on the wall, next to the barb still crusted with my blood and skin.

“Let me go!” There is about three feet of chain that tethers me to the wall by my wrists. I can only get so far in any direction. I struggle against the chains, pulling on them until the shackles leave cuts on my skin.

The worst part is, everyone just lets me go nuts. I scream and curse and fight, and all the while the four Regimentals and Emile watch from a distance with impassive expressions. Finally, I give up. I didn't realize I was crying until I taste the saltiness of my tears. I just stand there, limp and empty, waiting, because something is coming next. I make sure to look each man staring at me in the eye. I won't let them think they beat me.

Emile waits a few seconds, probably to make sure I won't start fighting again.

“Keep still,” he says. “Or I will have to call Frederic in.” He moves close enough to me that I can smell his skin, fragrant and floral, like a woman. “You don't want him here,” he murmurs. “I promise.”

The thought of Frederic's bloody gums and beady eyes is enough to keep me still.

Emile leans forward. “I wish—” he begins, but whatever he wishes I don't hear because the door opens again and the Countess of the Stone walks in.

This time, she wears a tight satin dress in a cherry blossom print. It looks entirely out of place on her, better suited to someone like Lily or that little girl surrogate the Electress bought.

She glances at my cage, where the peas are still sitting on the silver dish.

“I told you to feed it,” she says to Emile.

“I did, my lady.”

The Countess sighs. “Mother always said,” she mutters, “if you want something done right, you must do it yourself.”

With the barest of nods at one Regimental, my head is yanked back by my hair, so that I can't see anything but the ceiling and my mouth is forced open. There's a clang and a shuffling sound, and the peas fall onto my tongue. I want to spit them out, but the Countess's hand, her thick fingers damp with sweat, covers my mouth and nose until I swallow.

“You eat what I tell you to eat, is that clear?” she says, as the Regimental releases his hold on my hair.

I glare at her. Her eyes flicker to the Regimental on my left. I see a flash of silver in his hand.

It's a pair of scissors.

The Regimental kneels and cuts a thick ribbon of fabric from my dress, from the floor to the top of my thigh. It flutters to the ground and lies there, curled and twisted like a snake's skin.

“You will eat what I tell you to eat, is that clear?” the Countess says again.

I can't speak. My throat is frozen.

Snip, snip, snip.

A bigger piece of my dress is cut away. Practically my whole leg is exposed.

“Yes,” I gasp. Goose bumps blossom on my skin.

“Yes what?” the Countess asks with a sly smile.

“I'll eat what you tell me to eat.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Emile bite his lip.

“Good.” She turns to Emile and the Regimentals. “Get
out.”

I may have some issues with Emile, but I do
not
want to be left alone with this woman.

I almost cry out for him as he leaves. But something tells me that if I want to see him again, the Countess cannot know that I like him. So I grit my teeth, swallow, and force myself to meet her eyes.

The Countess walks to the wall and fingers each instrument, every link in every chain, the length of rope, the different-size rods. When she gets to the helmet, she literally claps her hands to her chest, like she's just received the best Longest Night gift ever.

“Oh, Frederic,” she murmurs. “You really have outdone yourself.”

She walks toward me, her nose wrinkling, maybe at the way I smell—having slept on a stone floor—or my smudged makeup or my wrinkled, ruined dress. She gets so close that I can see every fold and dimple of flesh. Her fingers are like sausages. Her arms are pale and flabby. She practically has a wattle on her neck.

“You are going to bear my child,” she says.

I flare my nostrils and glare at her. It's all I can do.

She smiles. There's a dimple in one cheek, which gives her a mocking impression of sweetness. “You never can tell at the Auction what a surrogate will be like. Some years I have been terribly disappointed. But I saw you and I just knew. Especially after that little show at dinner last night. I hope I have just showed you how serious I am about playing by the rules.”

“I only took three bites,” I insist.

She smirks. “Yes, you did. As you might have noticed, you still have your tongue. But I did not appreciate your attitude. Didn't you like that nice hot shower yesterday? Wouldn't you like more showers like that? Wouldn't you like a soft bed to sleep on?”

I don't answer, because I don't want to admit that I would.

There is a gleam in the Countess's eyes that makes my stomach crawl. They travel up and down my body slowly, resting for an uncomfortably long moment on my stomach. “You are so thin,” she says. “But I think we can make you thinner. My mother always said, an accomplishment without struggle is no accomplishment at all.”

The Countess grabs my face in one giant hand, her fingers digging into my cheeks so hard my skin starts to cut against my teeth. She forces my head back again, holding my forehead with her other hand so that my jaw is wrenched open. I don't know what she's looking at in my mouth, but with every ounce of strength I have I yank my head to the side and sink my teeth into her thumb.

She yowls and I delight in the sound for half a breath before my head slams into the wall behind me. Sparks explode in front of my eyes, the taste of blood filling my mouth.

“Frederic!” she screeches.

The door flies open as Frederic hurries into the room. “My lady, what has happened?”

“It bit me, Frederic,” the Countess says, pouting like a little girl, but with a gleam in her eyes. I have an uneasy sense that she's enjoying this. Frederic makes a tutting sound
as he examines her hand.

“Don't you worry, my lady,” he says. He takes out a bottle of the same ointment Emile used on my foot and applies a small amount. The cut vanishes. Frederic kisses her hand. “All better.”

“Thank you, my sweet,” the Countess says.

“Shall we punish it?” Frederic asks.

I wrap my arms across my chest, as if that would somehow protect me. The manacles clang against the chains binding me.

The Countess pretends to think for a moment, but I am spared her answer by Emile rushing back into the room.

“My lady,” he says. “An urgent message has just arrived. The Electress requests your presence at the Royal Palace at once.”

A hint of annoyance flashes across the Countess's face, and she glances at the torture wall. Then she sighs.

“Childish imbecile,” she mutters. “Frederic, have the car brought around and send William and Bernard to my chambers. Something in my colors.” She gazes at me longingly. “And tell the doctor to be ready when I return.”

My insides shrivel at the word
doctor
.

Frederic is already gone, but the Countess stops at the door.

“It stays where it is, Emile,” she says, a warning in her voice.

He bows. “Yes, my lady.”

It's only after she has gone that I realize I'm shaking. Shaking so hard my teeth chatter and my vision goes blurry. I sink back against the wall and slide to the hard, cold floor.
My head throbs. I can still taste the Countess's blood in my mouth.

I don't even see Emile until I smell his flowery scent. He wipes the blood from my mouth gently.

“I cannot give you a blanket or fresh clothes or food,” he says softly. “But I can give you a pillow for a while.”

I nod furiously, and keep nodding as his hands press lightly against my shoulders. He moves me closer to the floor until my head hits something warm. His thigh.

He smooths my hair back from my face and I suddenly remember Violet's first night in Southgate, after she'd spent all day trying to turn that stupid block yellow. I heard her crying and snuck into her room and rocked her back and forth, and she told me about Hazel and Ochre and her father, and how now she'd left her mother with one less family member and she just wanted to go home.

I never thought I'd look back at Southgate and think of it as home. But I want to go home.

I lie on the cold ground and try and conjure up every good memory I have about Violet. Hearing her play the cello for the first time. The look on her face when she bit into a lemon, even though I told her not to. Begging me to play Halma with her and Lily because sometimes, though she'd never admit it, she just loves winning. Brushing out her hair at night. Laughing together.

I so desperately wish she were here now. She always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better. I want to tell her about this awful palace. And maybe she will hug me and tell me everything will be okay. Even if it won't.

“What is going to happen to me?” I whisper to Emile.

I'm not expecting a response. And I don't get one.