Shadow Queen - By Deborah Kalin Page 0,45

hand on Renatas’s shoulder. ‘I told you I’d find him, Matte.’

Taking in my state of undress, he paused, his gaze flicking to the bed, where Amalia’s bare leg protruded from beneath the coverlet. All amusement faded from his eyes then, replaced by a hard, flat stare. Stalking to the bedside, he yanked back the covers, revealing his sister’s naked sprawling figure.

Amalia awoke with a yelp. The sight of Dieter looming above her brought a second cry, before she recovered her customary attitude. ‘Do you mind! It’s cold, and it’s still dark!’ she protested, clawing for the blankets.

‘Interesting tactic,’ said Dieter, refusing to release the blanket to her.

Amalia shrugged and, admitting defeat, looked around for clothing. ‘We had a bet, right? I told you I’d find him first.’ Then her eyes lit on Renatas and she scowled, cross at losing.

‘This isn’t a game, Mali,’ he snapped, yanking her upright by an elbow. ‘They hang adulterers in these parts. How could you be so stupid?’ he continued, throwing a gown at her.

‘Well, I’m not married, so I guess I’m safe from the noose,’ she said glibly. ‘And in any case who said anything about adultery?’

Dieter glowered at her, stealing some of the starch from her spine.

‘Please. I’m the Duethin’s sister and she’s your wife,’ she said, though her bravado was shakier now, and her hands were clumsy and slow as she pulled on the gown. ‘Who’d risk angering you?’

‘Right now, Mali, I wouldn’t count on me for protection.’

‘It’s a good thing nobody else knows about it, then.’

Dieter didn’t answer, but his grim stare said it all.

Panicked, I snuck a look at Renatas. The ferret kit had crawled halfway up his chest and was nosing at his ear but he was oblivious to it, watching the scene unfold with avid curiosity.

Amalia flung a sullen glance my way, cowed at last. ‘I don’t see why you’re not shouting at her as well.’

The focus of attention again, I grabbed the first gown I could find and thrashed into it like a woman drowning. It was Amalia’s.

Decently covered, I still couldn’t look either of them in the eye, so I lifted my chin and stared behind them. An all-too-familiar prickle touched my nape and brought a sting of sweat to my palms.

Quickly I measured my options. Dieter and Amalia were between me and any exit, unless I retreated to the bed. But that wouldn’t hide me, or stop the questions. I had to keep standing, and hope I had time before the vision claimed me. To conceal the tremble in my hands, I busied them with lacing the sleeves about my wrists.

It was then that it took me.

Renatas faded to white, as thin and stark as bones beneath a winter sky. Dieter’s hand still rested on his shoulder, but it was a hand grown wasted and hard, and his clothes had turned to leather and armour, draped about in wisps of shroud-like cloth. Small snakes wreathed the both of them, fangs bared and biting at their tender flesh, opening wounds which dripped slow red blood. Neither flinched.

As always, the vision vanished suddenly. I came to on my knees, one hand flung out before me as if to ward off what I’d seen. Gradually Dieter, Amalia and Renatas, normal and fully fleshed, swam back into focus.

‘Well, now,’ said Dieter, calculations running swift behind his pale eyes. ‘This is interesting.’

Swallowing against my queasiness, I pressed my hands to my stomach and closed my eyes. The vision had left me pale and shaking, as they always did.

‘I feel sick,’ I said.

‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Dieter. ‘I remember hearing about your … shadow sickness.’

‘If you were ill, I wouldn’t mock you,’ I said.

‘No,’ he said, ‘you’d gloat.’

I bit my cheek against the urge to respond.

‘You’re not going to throw up on the carpets, are you?’ said Amalia.

‘You are a woman of strange sensibilities, Mali,’ said Dieter. ‘You’ll knife her for gaining me allies, and you’ll …’ – he cut himself short with a glance at Renatas, although coyness now seemed ridiculous – ‘… persuade her by a means which could see you both hanged. Yet a little vomit turns you squeamish.’

‘Mock away,’ said Amalia. ‘You won’t have to sleep in the smell of it.’

‘See to the boy, then, unless you’d rather tend to Matilde?’ he said, which had her snatching at Renatas’s elbow and hurrying him from the room.

‘What will you do with him?’ I asked, my heart in my throat.

‘Are you planning on standing?’ Dieter replied. ‘I hope