The groom had just reached the steps in front of the altar when the Empress arrived. Her ivory dress would have done credit even to the bride. The four Dwarfs carrying her train pointedly ignored the groom, but the Empress gave him a benevolent smile before proceeding up the steps and disappearing behind the screen of carved roses that surrounded the royal enclosure to the left of the altar. Therese of Austry had always been a magnificent actress.
The bride would be next.
Once upon a time, there was an Empress who had lost a war. But the Empress had a daughter...
Not even the organ could drown out the roar outside announcing Amalie's arrival. Whatever the crowds on the street thought about the groom, a royal wedding was still a good occasion to cheer and dream of better times.
The princess wore her Fairy-lily beauty like a mask, but nonetheless Jacob thought he could detect something akin to happiness on those all-too-perfect features. Her eyes fixed upon her stony groom as if it had been she, not her mother, who had selected him.
Kami’en awaited her with a smile. "The Jade Goyl must remain by his side until the wedding is over."
Walk faster, Jacob wanted to shout at the princess. Get it over with. Her mother's highest-ranking general, who was leading the bride to the altar, was obviously in no rush.
Jacob looked at the Empress. Four of her guards stood in front of the enclosure and the Dwarfs. And there was also her adjutant. Donnersmarck. He was whispering something into the Empress's ear. They both looked up at the balcony, but Jacob still didn't realize what was going on. Blind and dumb, Jacob.
The first shot rang out after the princess had barely walked a dozen steps down the aisle. It came from a sniper hidden next to the organ on the balcony, and it was obviously aimed at the King, but Will pushed him aside in time. The second shot missed Will by less than an inch. The third shot hit Hentzau. And the Dark Fairy was caged in a skin of willow bark in the imperial gardens. Well done, Jacob. They used you like a trained dog.
The Empress had obviously kept her assassination plans not only from her daughter. Her ministers were desperately ducking behind the thin wood paneling of their pews. The princess had stopped, and she was looking straight up at her mother. The general leading her tried to pull her away, but both of them were swept along by the screaming guests as they crowded out of the pews. But where could they go? The great doors had been locked. The Empress was obviously hoping to rid herself of a few unwanted subjects as well as the King of the Goyl.
Fox and Clara were nowhere to be seen, and neither was Valiant. Will remained standing in front of his King. The bodyguards had formed a wall of gray uniforms around Kami’en. The other Goyl were trying to fight their way through the crowds to join them, but the imperials shot them down like farmers shooting rabbits in a harvested field.
And you took care of the Dark Fairy for them, Jacob. He pushed his way through to the altar, but one of the imperial Dwarfs immediately jumped him. Jacob elbowed him in the face.
Screams and shots. Silk soaking up blood on the marble flagstones. The imperials were everywhere, but the Goyl stood their ground. Will and the King were still unharmed, though it hardly seemed possible. The Goyl supposedly prepared their skin for battle by exposing it to heat and by eating a plant they bred especially for that purpose. It seemed they had done just that for the wedding. Even Hentzau was back on his feet. But there were at least ten guardsmen for every Goyl.
Jacob gripped the golden ball, but it was impossible to get a clear throw. Will was surrounded by imperials, and Jacob could barely lift his arm without one of the soldiers stumbling into him. They were lost. All of them. Will. Clara. Fox.
Another Goyl fell, then Hentzau went down, and Will was the last man shielding the King. Two imperials attacked the Goyl. Will killed them both, though one of them rammed his saber deep into Will's shoulder. "Kami’en needs him!" The Fairy had known. The Jade Goyl, her lover's shield. His brother.
Will's uniform was soaked with the blood of Goyl and humans. The King and he were fighting back-to-back, but they were already surrounded by white uniforms. Soon not even their Goyl skins would save them.
Do something, Jacob. Anything!
Jacob saw a flash of red fur between the benches, and Valiant standing protectively in front of a crouched figure. Clara. He couldn't tell whether she was still alive. Right next to them, a Goyl was fighting four imperials. And the Empress was sitting behind her carved roses, waiting for the death of her enemy.
Jacob fought his way up the steps to the enclosure. Donnersmarck was standing right next to the Empress. Their eyes met. I warned you, his said.
Will was fighting three imperials at once. Blood was running down his face. Pale Goyl blood.
Do something, Jacob.
An imperial soldier knocked his arm as he reached for his handkerchief. The willow leaves scattered onto one of the many fallen bodies. Goyl and humans. Whose side are you on, Jacob? But he could no longer think of sides, just of his brother, and of Clara and Fox. He managed to snatch up a few of the leaves, and he screamed the name of the Dark Fairy into the roar of the battle.
The bark was still peeling from her arms as she suddenly appeared in front of the altar steps, her long hair covered in willow leaves. She lifted her hands, and glass tendrils grew up around the King and Will, deflecting sword blades and bullets as if they were children's toys. Jacob saw his brother collapse, saw the King catch him in his arms. The Dark Fairy, however, began to grow like a flame fanned by the wind, and the moths swarmed from her hair, thousands of black insects, latching on to the flesh of humans and Dwarfs wherever they could find it.
The Empress tried to flee, but her Dwarfs and her guards were already collapsing under the onslaught of the moths, and then they also found her skin.
Human skin. Fox was wearing her fur, but where was Clara?
Jacob leaped over the dead and the wounded, whose screams and groaning filled the cathedral. He reached the bottom of the altar steps. Fox was standing over Clara's slumped body, desperately snapping at the moths. Valiant was lying next to them.
The Fairy was still blazing. Jacob tightened his fist even harder around the leaves and stumbled past her. She turned toward him as if she could feel the pressure of his fingers on her skin.
"Call them back!" he screamed, dropping to his knees next to Clara and Valiant.
The Dwarf was still moving, but Clara was as pale as death. White, red, black. Jacob brushed the moths off Clara's skin and dropped the willow leaves to unbutton his white guardsman's tunic. There was enough blood on it, but where could he get something black? The moths were converging on him as he put his jacket over Clara. With a final effort he pulled a black cravat from a dead man's neck and wrapped it around her arm. Fluttering wings. Stings cutting into his flesh like splinters. They sowed a numbness that tasted of death. Jacob collapsed next to the Dwarf. He felt paws pushing into his chest.
"Fox!" He barely managed to utter her name. She swiped moths from his face, but they were too many.