Free The Tower of the Forgotten by Sara M. Harvey Page B

Kitty. He uses her the most. And this, you might recognize this."
    Radinka
stood up on tiptoes, reaching toward the back of the shelf where the wrench had
sat.
    "What
do you mean, he uses her?" Portia asked.
    "Uses.
To do his bidding. On the other side. Although he does have a few living people
in thrall, mostly, these folks are dead. But he can control them with their
things. I can show you where he keeps them."
    Portia
did not understand at all what Radinka could mean.
    "Here." Radinka put something in Portia’s hand. "I think this will mean
the most to you."
    She
knew the hairpin at once, but the context twisted her memories. There was no
way this could be here, but there it rested in her hand, the long twining ivory
shaft with the garnet cabochon on the end, as big as a robin’s egg. She became aware of the tears in her eyes and that
she was staring, open-mouthed, at the trinket.
    "Does
this mean that he uses her, too?"
    Radinka
nodded. "It does."
    "Do
you know what for?"
    "No,
not her. I have never been out with him when he had her with him. Only Kitty."
    "Portia,
what is it?" Curious, Imogen turned
Portia’s wrist to see what had so upset her. She
gasped and blessed herself. "Oh, heaven help poor
Lady Hester, she’s been through so much
already!"
    "Can
these ties, these ‘bindings,’ be broken?" Portia’s hand closed protectively around the hairpin.
    "I’m sure they can. I’ve just not quite worked
out how. I mean, how to sever them and leave the poor spirit intact. It goes
badly if it is done wrong. He showed me once, to scare me, I think."
    "Does
he have you bound, too?" Imogen’s voice creaked just a little with worry.
    Radinka
could not answer, she only looked away. Imogen sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh, Radinka…"
    "And
Kendrick?" Portia said.
    He
chimed in. "Not by Alaric’s doing. He doesn’t need to put spells on
me. So long as Radinka is here, so shall I be, too."
    That’s noble of you and might work to our advantage." Portia looked around the room. There were so many things,
all piled seemingly haphazardly onto each shelf. "So,
if the anchors are in here, then where are the people?"
    "This
way." Radinka pulled aside a curtain to reveal an
ornate door frame that was entirely bricked up.
    A
chill radiated from those bricks, and using her double-vision, Portia could see
that they formed a small measure of protection between the worlds. In her
sight, she could see the endless night that hung over a lonely hillside beyond,
studded with small white boulders.
    The
foundation shivered again, moaning through the bricks. Radinka motioned them
over to the doorway. Her hand passed through it easily, and she reached back
for someone else to follow.
    Portia
motioned Imogen and Kendrick forward. "I’ll bring up the rear."
    They
seemed to evaporate through the wall; Portia lingered a moment, running her
thumb over the hairpin. It radiated familiarity. As she closed her eyes, she
saw a vivid memory of her childhood at Penemue: Lady Hester watching her class
playing outside in the grassy field beside the orchard. Captain Cadmus standing
by her side, bent to say something directly into her ear. Hester turning and
the warm morning light gleaming off of her shining blonde hair, the carved
ivory hairpin set with a garnet the size of a thimble at its head. Portia held
that object in her hand.
    And
Hester waited in the shadowlands beyond.
    Portia
passed through the doorway; it chilled her to the core. It took a moment for
her eyes to adjust to the ever-shifting low light. A shallow valley overgrown
with grass the color of plums stretched out beneath a familiar grey sky. Rocks
seemed to grow from the low hillside on either side of the meager path. Portia
examined one and found it to be a headstone, not a boulder.
    Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…"
    "Over
here." Radinka waved from a nearby ridge. She and
Imogen knelt by one of the markers with Kendrick standing protectively at their
backs,