House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of Salt #1)

I was halfway across the watch room, ready to race down the spiral staircase and out into the storm, before I realized I was alone. “Cassius?”

I heard his footsteps on the stairs, heavy and regular. When he finally appeared, his face was stricken gray. “I can’t get us back there now.” As if to prove his point, a white flash of lightning skittered across the sky. “It’s too dangerous. Something could happen—”

“Something is happening! You heard what she said: she’s going after Verity. I can’t just stay here and let that happen!” A sob pushed up from my throat, begging to be released. I balled my hands into fists. I couldn’t give in to tears now. I had to do something, had to act. “There’s a boat! I’ll go myself.”

“In this storm? You’ll never make it. Annaleigh—” He grabbed my shoulder.

“No!” I cried, whirling around. “I’ve lost too many people tonight. Silas, Fisher…I can’t stay here, doing nothing, and have Verity added to that list. It will kill me.”

“And she’s counting on that,” Cassius shouted over the storm. “Kosamaras knows she riled you. She wants you to do something stupid.”

The sob rose up again, this time bursting free. “Why? Why would she do any of this? We’ve never done anything to her!”

“She’s not targeting you personally. Viscardi often uses her to collect his end of bargains. He’s drawn toward the theatrical, and Kosamaras never disappoints.” He sighed. “She’s the Harbinger of Madness, creating so many false visions and skewed realities that the poor soul takes his life just to end the torment.”

Laughter, bitter and hollow, barked out of my throat before I could block it. “She’s going to try that with my sisters. I have to stop her.”

“We’ll figure out a way.” Cassius pushed his hair back. “I know it’s hard, but we need to forget about Kosamaras for a moment. She’s just the puppet here. Viscardi is the one holding the strings. We need to figure out who agreed to his bargain.”

“Then what? Politely ask them to end it?”

His eyes shifted away. “Not exactly…This could get very dangerous, Annaleigh.”

I recalled Fisher’s broken body, Lenore’s silent stares, Verity pirouetting around her room with Kosamaras’s black eyes. “It already has….” I rubbed my temples, trying to think clearly. “I suppose we can’t kill a Trickster?”

“No, they’re immortal. But…” His eyebrows furrowed. “If the dealmaker died before the bargain was met…it would have to be over. Viscardi can’t fulfill his end of a trade with a dead partner.”

“And another person dies,” I muttered, looking up to the ceiling. Above us, Old Maude’s beacon flashed, again and again. Exactingly precise.

I’d loved that light ever since my first trip to Hesperus. Camille and Eulalie had been bored within minutes, wondering, rather loudly, why the lighthouse didn’t do something more exciting. They’d wanted flares or fireworks, something big and bold. They couldn’t see the simple beauty of something working with quiet efficiency, doing just what was needed.

But I saw it.

I breathed in deeply. “What if I make a bargain with Viscardi myself? I could stop this from happening, and no one else would have to die.”

He looked horrified. “Absolutely not.”

“Cassius, it might be the only way to stop this before someone else gets hurt. I can’t lose another one of my sisters.”

“And I can’t lose you,” he said, his eyes flashing over mine like burning stars.

Hot tears fell down my cheeks. “There must be something I could offer him, something that wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

He shook his head. “That’s what everyone who summons him thinks. They all think they’ll be the one to outsmart him. They’ll be the one who can create a truly perfect deal. It’s never happened. Viscardi always has an edge.”

He sat down on the top step, leaving room for me to join him.

“I heard a lot about his bargains while growing up. Pontus likes inviting Viscardi into the Brine. No one amuses him like the Tricksters. They were all terrible. Viscardi always manages to sneak in some twist, create some mischief. He told Pontus about a pair of sisters who each had her heart set on the same man. When the man fell for the younger sister, the older one, heartbroken, summoned Viscardi.”

I sank down beside him. “I can’t imagine wanting something badly enough to summon a Trickster.”

“When certain kinds of people get desperate enough, they’re willing to do anything.”

Thunder, booming and wild, echoed around his words. The storm was growing even stronger, and I too wanted to howl. I tried not to think about what was going on at Highmoor in our absence. I would only drive myself mad. Turning to Cassius, I fixed my eyes on him. “What happened with the sisters?”

“Viscardi appeared and listened to the older sister’s request. He said he’d give her her heart’s desire, happily, but he required one small thing. Just a memento, really. He wanted something of the younger sister’s. Something she deemed precious.”

It sounded so simple, such an inconsequential bargain. If I’d been in the younger sister’s place, what would Viscardi take from me? One of Mama’s necklaces? My favorite hair ribbon? What did I truly deem precious?

Verity flashed into my mind, safe and warm in sleep. Camille beside me at the piano, our fingers bumping into each other as we stumbled through a new song, laughing with every wrong note. The triplets, the Graces…

A cold snake of horror slithered deep inside me, coiling in the pit of my stomach. “She didn’t agree, did she?”

Cassius nodded slowly, knowing I’d already guessed the outcome. “The older sister was betrothed to the man and did marry him, as the bargain promised. It was a beautiful wedding, and the villagers said she made a lovely bride. But at the altar, as the man finished saying his vows to unite them, Viscardi arrived, demanding payment. ‘Payment?’ the bride exclaimed, mortified at the interruption. ‘My sister is over there.’ She pointed. ‘She’s even wearing her prized hair combs. Take them from her and leave me be.’ ”

I grabbed his arm to stop the story. It was too terrible to imagine, and I sensed that the actual ending would somehow be even worse. Snow pelted the windows, tapping at the glass. I glanced up, suddenly worried I’d see the dragon man out on the gallery, peering in, begging to come inside.

I rubbed my arms, trying to stop the shudders that raced through me. “I can’t believe someone I know would deal with him.”

“Perhaps it’s an act of revenge. A bargain for justice. Is there anyone you know who’s had a disagreement with your father? Someone at court? Or maybe one of the staff?”

“Papa never mentioned any problems. Everyone has always been treated well, with kindness.” The answer came easily enough.

Only it wasn’t entirely true. I remembered the look of terror in the cobbler Gerver’s eyes as he was cursed and berated in his own shop, Papa’s rages over the slightest mishap in the shipyards, the fury with which he’d hurled the brandy bottle at a butler during Churning.

Churning…

“Are you all right?” he asked. “You’ve gone pale.”

“Uncle Sterland.” My mouth twisted around the treacherous words.

He drew a sharp breath, recognition dawning. “He was supposed to marry your aunt Evangeline…. You said she died…how?”

I nodded miserably. “She and Papa were twins. Evangeline was the firstborn—she would have become the Duchess, inheriting everything.”

“What happened?” Cassius prodded gently.

“Sterland’s father had been a respected admiral in the King’s Navy and was one of my grandfather’s closest allies. When the admiral died at sea, Sterland and his mother were invited to stay at Highmoor.”

Outside, the wind howled, low and guttural, like a woman sobbing.

“As children, the three of them were inseparable. As they got older, Evangeline and Sterland became sweethearts. When the boys left to train at the naval academy, my aunt cried for months. She begged her father to bring them back. She refused to eat and grew pale and sick. The only way Grandpapa could appease her was to promise she could marry Sterland once he graduated and that he’d never leave Highmoor again.”

Cassius sucked in his breath. “I don’t suppose that went over well with your father?”

I paused. “There are…stories. Rumors, really. I’ve never believed them, but if Sterland does…” I pressed one hand to my clenched stomach, feeling sick. “But surely he couldn’t.”

“Tell me what happened, Annaleigh.”

I looked out the windows at the dark sea surrounding us. A jagged bolt of lightning struck from above, splitting open a tree growing from the side of the cliffs.

“Grandpapa wasted no time preparing Sterland as Evangeline’s future consort. He sent long letters and books detailing the family history, catching him up on politics and the Vasa shipping business. From what I understand, Sterland teased Papa unmercifully about all this, joking that all the Thaumas wealth and honor would soon be his.”

A gust of wind blew by, kicking up a fine mist of snow. For a moment, I could see the past unfolding before me in the fog, as if I were watching an opera at the theatre.

“They boys returned home for Churning, and Evangeline was delighted to have the trio reunited once more. She wanted the ten days to be just like old times: picnics in the maze, trips to Astrea, playing hide-and-seek in the forest…. But a bad storm rose up without warning. Papa said he raced back to Highmoor. Sterland returned, hoping Evangeline was with Papa…. They didn’t find her body for days.”

“So Ortun became the heir and Sterland lost everything,” Cassius filled in.

I nodded. “I know this doesn’t paint him in a good light, but Papa would never have harmed Evangeline.”

Cassius rubbed my arms. “It doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t, if Sterland believes it….”

I felt sick with guilt, yearning to protest. This man was like an uncle to me. Even if he truly wanted to hurt Papa, how could he offer up my sisters and me? And to what end? What could he possibly hope to get from it?

But then I recalled the way his eyes had darkened in quiet rage at First Night. The bitterness that seeped off him like a bag of tea clouding clear water. I remembered the look of hatred boiling just below the surface as he’d joked about solving the mystery of the shoes and finally claiming what was due him.

“We have to tell Papa,” I whispered. I grabbed his hands, beseeching him as tears fell from my face. “Cassius, I know it’s dangerous, but please…take us back to Highmoor.”

Lightning singed by Old Maude, taunting me, and we jumped as the following thunder smashed into our chests.

“We’d never make it in all this.”

Rivers of tears ran down my face. I pushed them back, desperate to find a way out of this nightmare. I’d never felt so helpless. Cassius folded his arms around me, tenderly cradling me, letting me scream and cry. When I smashed my fist into the metal stairs, wanting to hurt something as badly as Kosamaras had hurt us, he let me. He held me until my frenzy passed and exhaustion settled over me.

Still, he smoothed my hair, running tender fingers through the tangled mess. I relaxed against him as my eyelids fluttered shut.

“Annaleigh?” Cassius’s voice was warm and low against my ear.

I came to with a start. Had I dozed off?

“I think the worst of the storm has passed. We should try to get back to Highmoor before it reaches Salten.”

With a weary nod, I followed him up the stairs. Shielding my eyes from the dark mess in the corner, I opened the glass door. We slipped through it before the cold breezes could blow out the beacon.

Cassius studied the sky for a long moment before holding out his hand. I wanted to join him but hesitated. “What are we going to do?”

“Your sisters need to know about the balls, first and foremost. Even if we can’t stop them from sleeping, they need to know they can’t trust anything they see. We have to tell your father everything as well.”

“And Sterland?” I asked, hating the sharp bolt of fear spiking my voice.

His jaw clenched. “We’ll let him speak, of course, but if it comes down to it…if the only way to end the bargain is to…” He reached toward his dagger, squeezing the pommel. “I’ll be the one to do it.”

“Cassius, I can’t ask you to—”

“And you haven’t.” Though he smiled, his eyes remained dark and unspeakably sad.

I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around him and holding him close. I wanted to thank him, wanted to say how much it meant that he was here, ready to fight with me when it wasn’t his battle. I wanted to tell Cassius I’d fallen in love with him, deeply, truly, but before I could, we disappeared, leaving Old Maude in a swirl of snow and salt.