The Runaway Queen

Page 3

"Hello," Magnus said to the monkey.
The monkey did not reply.
"I shall call you Ragnor," Magnus added, leaning back against the pillows gently. "Claude!"
The door opened, and Claude came in. He did not appear in the least bit surprised about Ragnor's presence. He just immediately set to work cleaning up the spilled tea.
"I'll need you to get a leash for my monkey, Claude, and also a hat."
"Of course, monsieur."
"Do you think he needs a little coat as well?"
"Perhaps not in this weather, monsieur."
"You're right," Magnus said with a sigh. "Make it a simple dressing gown, just like mine."
"Which one, monsieur?"
"The one in rose and silver."
"An excellent choice, monsieur," Claude said, getting to work on the feathers.
"And take him to the kitchen and get him a proper breakfast, will you? He'll need fruit and water, and perhaps a cool bath."
By this point Ragnor had hopped down from the foot of the bed and was making his way toward an exquisite Sevres porcelain vase, when Claude plucked him up like he'd been monkey-plucking all his life.
"Ah," Claude added, reaching into his coat, "a note came for you this morning."
He made his quiet exit with the monkey. Magnus tore open the note. It read:
There is a problem. It is to be delayed until tomorrow.
-Axel
Well, that was the evening's plans ruined.
Tomorrow was Saint Cloud's party. Both of these obligations needed to be met. But it could be done. He would take his carriage to the edge of the Tuileries palace, attend to the business with the queen, get back into the carriage, and get to the party. He'd had busier nights.
And Axel was worth it.
Magnus spent far more of the next day and evening worrying about Saint Cloud's party than about his business with the royal family. The glamour would be easy. The party would likely be fraught and uncomfortable. All he had to do was put in an appearance, smile, and chat for a bit, and then he could be on his way. But he couldn't escape the feeling that somehow this evening was going to go wrong.
But first, the small matter of the queen.
Magnus took his bath and dressed after dinner, and then quietly left his apartments at nine, instructing his driver to take him to the vicinity of the Tuileries garden and return at midnight. This was a familiar enough trip. Many people went to the garden for a "chance encounter" amongst the topiaries. He walked around for a bit, making his way through the shadowy garden, listening to the snuffling noises of lovers in the shrubbery, occasionally peeking through the leaves to have a little look.
At ten thirty he made his way, by following Axel's map, to the outside of the apartments of the long-departed Duc de Villequier. If all went to plan, the young princess and dauphin would be exiting those unguarded doors soon, with the dauphin disguised as a little girl. If they did not exit, the plan was already foiled.
But only a few minutes later than expected, the children came out with their nurses, all in the disguises. Magnus followed them quietly as they walked through the north-facing courtyard, down the rue de l'echelle, and to the Grand Carrousel. And there, with a plain carriage, was Axel. He was dressed as a rough Parisian coachman. He was even smoking a pipe and making jokes, all in a perfect low Paris accent, all traces of his Swedishness gone. There was Axel in the moonlight, lifting the children into the carriage- Magnus was struck speechless for a moment. Axel's bravery, his talent, his gentleness . . . it tugged on Magnus's heart in a way that was slightly unfamiliar, and it made it very difficult to be cynical.
He watched them drive away, and then returned to his task. He would enter through that same door. Even though the door was unguarded, Magnus needed his glamour to protect him, so that anyone looking over would see only a large cat sneaking into the palace through a door that seemed to blow open.
With thousands of people coming in and out-and no royal staff of hundreds of cleaners-the floors were grimy, with clumps of dried mud and footprints. There was a musty smell about the place, a mix of damp, smoke, mold, and a few unemptied chamber pots, some of which sat in the halls. There was no light, save what was reflected from windows, off mirrors, and weakly amplified with crystal chandeliers that were thick with spiderwebs and dimmed by soot.
Axel had given Magnus a hand-drawn map with very clear instructions on how to get through the seemingly endless series of arches and largely empty grand rooms, their gilded furnishings either absent or having been roughly appropriated by guards. There were a few secret doors hidden in the paneling, which Magnus quietly passed through. As he went deeper into the palace, the rooms grew a bit cleaner, the candles a bit more frequent. There were smells of cooking food and pipe smoke and more people passing by.
And then he arrived at the royal chambers. At the door he'd been instructed to enter, a guard sat by, idly whistling and kicking back on his chair. Magnus sent up a small spark in the corner of the room, and the guard got up to examine it. Magnus slipped the key into the lock and entered. These rooms had a velvety silence about them that felt unnatural and uncomfortable. He smelled smoke from a recently extinguished candle. Magnus was not cowed by royalty, but his heart began to beat a bit more quickly as he reached for the second key Axel had given him. Axel had a key to the queen's private rooms. The fact was both exciting and unsettling.
And there she was-Queen Marie Antoinette. He'd seen her image many times, but now she was in front of him, and altogether human. That was the shock of it. The queen was a human, in her sleeping dress. There was a loveliness about her. One part, no doubt, was simply the training she had had-her regal bearing and small, delicate footsteps. The pictures had never done justice to her eyes, though, which were large and luminous. Her hair had been carefully coiffed in a halo of light curls, over which she wore a light linen cap. Magnus remained in the shadows and watched her pace her room, going from bed to window and back to bed again, clearly terrified about the fate of her family.
"You notice nothing, madame," he said quietly. The queen turned as he said this and looked at the corner of the room in confusion, then returned to her pacing. Magnus drew closer, and as he did so, he could see how the strain of things had taken its toll on the woman. Her hair was thin, and pale, turning brittle and gray at points. Still, her face had a fierce, determined glow that Magnus quite admired. He could see why Axel felt for her-there was a strength there he never would have expected.
He wiggled his fingers, and blue flames crackled between them. Again the queen turned in confusion. Magnus passed his hand by her face, changing her visage from the familiar and royal to the familiar and ordinary. Her eyes diminished in size and grew dark, her cheeks became plumper and heavily flushed with red, her nose increased in size, and her chin receded. Her hair became more limp and darkened to a chestnut brown. He went a little further than was absolutely necessary, even altering her cheekbones and ears a bit until no one could mistake the woman in front of him for the queen. She looked as she was supposed to look-like a Russian noblewoman of a different age, a different life altogether.
He created a noise near the window to draw her attention away, and when her back was turned, he exited. He left the palace through a heavily trafficked exit behind the royal apartments, where the queen kept a gate open for Axel's nightly entrances and exits.
It was altogether simple and elegant, and a good night's work. Magnus smiled to himself, looked up at the moon hanging over Paris, and thought of Axel, driving around in his coach. Then he thought of Axel doing other things. And then he hurried on. There were vampires to see.
It was a fortunate thing that vampire parties always started so late. Magnus's carriage drew up to Saint Cloud's door after midnight. The footmen, all vampires, helped him from his carriage, and Henri greeted him by the door.
"Monsieur Bane," he said, with his creepy little smile. "Master will be so very pleased."
"I'm so glad," Magnus said, barely concealing his sarcasm. Henri's eyebrow flicked just a bit. Then he turned and put his arm out to a girl of similar age and appearance-blond, glassy-eyed, dull of expression, and very beautiful.
"You know my sister, Brigitte?"
"Of course. We've met several times, mademoiselle, in your . . . previous life."
"My previous life," Brigitte said with a little, tinkling laugh. "My previous life."
Brigitte's previous life was an idea that continued to entertain her, as she kept giggling and smiling to herself. Henri put his arm around her in a way that was not entirely brotherly.
"Master has very generously allowed us to keep our names," he said. "And I was most pleased when he permitted me to return to my former home and bring my sister back here to live. Master is most generous in this way, as he is in all ways."
This caused Brigitte to have another fit of giggles. Henri gave her a playful pat on the bottom.
"I'm absolutely parched," Magnus said. "I think I'll find some champagne."
Unlike the dreary and poorly lit Tuileries, Saint Cloud's house was spectacular. It didn't quite qualify as a palace, in terms of size, but it had all of the opulence of the decor. It was a veritable jungle of patterns, with paintings packed frame to frame up to the ceilings. And all of Saint Cloud's chandeliers sparkled and were full of black candles, dripping black wax onto the floor. The wax was then instantly scraped up by a small army of darklings. A few mundane hangers-on were draped over the furniture, most holding wineglasses-or bottles. Most slumped with their necks exposed, just waiting, begging to be bitten. The vampires stayed on their own side of the room, laughing amongst themselves and pointing, as if choosing what to eat from a table laden with delicacies.
In mundane Parisian society the large powdered wig had recently gone out of fashion, in favor of more natural styles. In vampire society the wigs were bigger than ever. One female vampire wore a wig that was at least six feet high, powdered a light pink, and supported by a delicate latticework of what Magnus suspected was the bones of children. She had a bit of blood at the corner of her mouth, and Magnus could not figure out if the slashes of red on her cheeks were blood or extreme streaks of blush. (Like the wigs, the Paris vampires also favored the slightly passe makeup styles, such as the sharp spots of blush on the cheeks, possibly in mockery of the humans.)
He passed an ashen-faced harpist who had-Magnus noted grimly-been shackled to the floor by his ankle. If he played well enough, he might be kept alive for a while to play again. Or he could be a late-night snack. Magnus was tempted to sever the harpist's chain, but just at that moment there was a voice from above.
"Magnus! Magnus Bane, where have you been?"
Marcel Saint Cloud was leaning over the rail and waving down. Around him, a cluster of vampires peered at Magnus over their fans of feather and ivory and bone.
Saint Cloud was, though it pained Magnus to admit it, strikingly beautiful. The old ones all had a very special look about them-a luster that came with age. And Saint Cloud was old, possibly one of Vlad's very first vampire court. He was not as tall as Magnus, but was very finely boned, with jutting cheekbones and long fingers. His eyes were utterly black, but caught the light like mirrored glass. And his clothes . . . well, he used the same tailor as Magnus, so of course they were wonderful.
"Always busy," Magnus said, managing a smile as Saint Cloud and his cluster of followers descended the steps. They clung to his heels, altering their pace to fall in line with his. Sycophants.
"You've just missed de Sade."
"What a shame," Magnus replied. The Marquis de Sade was a decidedly eerie mundane, with the most perverse imagination Magnus had ever come across since the Spanish Inquisition.
"There are some things I want to show you," Saint Cloud said, putting a cold arm around Magnus's shoulders. "Absolutely wonderful things!"
One thing Saint Cloud and Magnus had in common was a rich appreciation for mundane fashion, furniture, and art. Magnus tended to buy his, or receive them as payment. Marcel traded with the revolutionaries-or with the street people who had raided great houses and taken the pretty things from inside. Or his darklings handed over their possessions. Or things just arrived in his house. It was best not to ask too many questions but simply to admire, and admire loudly. Marcel would take offense if Magnus didn't praise every item.
Suddenly, a chorus of voices from an outside courtyard was calling for Saint Cloud.
"Something seems to be going on," Marcel said. "Perhaps we should investigate."
The voices were high, excited, and giddy-all tones Magnus didn't want to hear at a vampire party. Those tones meant very bad things.
"What is it, my friends?" Marcel said, walking toward the front hall.
There was a tangle of vampires standing at the foot of the front steps, with Henri at the head. A few of them were holding a struggling figure. She made high-pitched squeals from a mouth that sounded covered, though it was impossible to see her in the throng.
"Master . . ." Henri's eyes were wide. "Master, we have found . . . You will not believe, Master . . ."
"Show me. Bring it forward. What is it?"
The vampires ordered themselves a bit and threw the human into the cleared space on the ground. It was all Magnus could do not to make a sound of alarm, or give away anything at all.
It was Marie Antoinette.
Of course, the glamour he had applied did not affect the vampires. The queen was exposed, her face white with shock.
"You . . . ," she said, addressing the crowd in a shaky voice, "what you have done . . . You will-"
Marcel raised a silencing hand, and to Magnus's surprise, the queen stopped speaking.
"Who brought her?" he asked. "How did this happen?"
"It was I, monsieur," said a voice. A dapper vampire named Coselle stepped to the front. "I was on my way here, coming down the rue du Bac, and I absolutely could not believe my eyes. She must have gotten out of the Tuileries. She was just on the street, monsieur, looking panicked and lost."
Of course. The queen would not have been accustomed to being out on the streets on her own. And in the dark it was easy to go the wrong way. She had made a wrong turn and crossed the Seine somehow.
"Madame," Marcel said, walking down the stairs. "Or should I say 'Your Majesty'? Do I have the pleasure of addressing our beloved and most . . . illustrious queen?"
A low snicker from around the room, but aside from that no noise at all.
"I am she," the queen said, rising to her feet. "And I demand-"