Music and Malice in Hurricane Town, page 7
No idea, the cajou queen replied. But I first met him fifty years ago, so he’s seventy-five at least. Probably more like a hundred. Take the letter. Perhaps it says something about me in it.
Jude rolled her eyes. I don’t think he’s likely to have written out a confession for you to—
But that was as far as she got before Ivory seized control of her wrist, snatched the letter and thrust it into Jude’s pocket.
Would you stop doing that! Jude exclaimed.
She was about to replace the letter on the table when a door opened down a nearby hallway and there was the sound of footsteps striding along the tiles towards them. Hastily, Jude hurried back out on to the porch, drawing the door closed behind her and not resisting as Ivory took over her tongue to whisper the magic word to lock the door behind them.
Jude’s eyes remained fixed on the dark wood, convinced for a moment that the Phantom himself was going to appear and that he would be able to somehow tell, just by looking at her, that she’d been inside the house and taken something.
Her breath caught in her throat and her heart hammered in her chest as the lock clicked and the door swung open.
But it was not André Majstro who stood there. It was Paris Wing.
Jude had been quite mesmerized the first time she’d laid eyes on Paris, enchanted even. The girl was a Pearl and Jude had never seen one up close before. In a city flooded with beauty cajou charms, pretty women were common enough in Baton Noir, but there were some girls who were so exceptionally gorgeous that they didn’t need to wear any beauty charms at all.
Since such women were highly sought after, it became common for girls to try to hide beauty charms in the lining of their clothes to pretend that their beauty was natural. To counteract this, a special cajou ceremony was devised that involved summoning Amelia, the legba of beauty herself, to judge whether a girl met the beauty standard to be awarded a cajou pearl. If Amelia deemed her lovely enough, then the girl would be given a charm in the form of a pearl. Like the cajou crowns, it glowed with a light of its own, this one sparkly and white, perfect and pure. If you saw someone wearing a pearl, you knew their looks were given by the gods, and that awarded them a special status in Baton Noir.
But, like everything else in the city, Pearls had been turned into something darker. The Pearl House on Moonshine Boulevard advertised itself as an upper-class establishment for the entertainment of its gentlemen members, but everyone knew the club was in fact a whorehouse. The Pearls who worked there were just another thing to be owned.
Some men visited the Pearls at the Pearl House while others, if they were particularly wealthy, preferred the Pearls to come to them. Some even had them live in, as if they were wives. Jude wasn’t quite sure what the nature of the Phantom’s arrangement with Paris was. Sometimes she was there and sometimes she wasn’t, as far as Jude could tell. Still, the very fact that she was there at all made whatever respect Jude may have had for the Phantom vanish. By paying her to be here, he was part of the problem, after all. Part of the reason why pretty girls could be treated so horrifically in Baton Noir.
Unfortunately, though, Paris clearly had no warm feelings towards Jude. She’d made it quite clear that she disliked her the first time they had met at the front gates. Jude had tried to establish a friendliness between them by complimenting Paris on her dress. The other girl had turned such a withering look of contempt on her that Jude had actually flinched.
“Nice dungarees,” Paris had said with a sneer. “My five-year-old brother has a pair just like them.”
Today Paris wore her cajou pearl on a delicate silver chain, the sparkling sphere resting in the hollow of her throat. Her honey-blond hair was pulled back in a complicated plait that ran down to her shoulder blades. Her skin was the colour of cream, her complexion flawless and her eyes were a deep, dark green, the shade of goblins and sorcery. She was a rare butterfly of a girl and it seemed almost impossible that anyone could be that stunning without magical assistance, yet there the cajou pearl was.
She wore a pair of black jeans with a white sleeveless shirt, and the simplicity of her clothes only seemed to make her even more beautiful. A stack of pearl bracelets adorned one wrist and more pearls were threaded through her plait. Her eyes, as she looked at Jude, were full of resentment.
“Well,” she said in an icy voice. “I hope you’re pleased with yourself. He’s furious.”
“That’s on you,” Jude replied. “Not me. It’s my money. You had no right to take it. And I need it more than you do.”
Paris’s eyes flicked to Jude’s split lip and a sneer came over her pretty face. “Don’t be so sure!” Her eyes moved to the front gates at the end of the driveway. “You’re out there. And I’m in here. With him.”
She shuddered, as if the mere thought of the Phantom was disgusting to her. Of course, Paris would be one of the few people who had actually seen him properly. Jude’s curiosity got the better of her and she couldn’t prevent herself from asking, “Is it … as bad as they say?”
“Worse!” Paris snapped. “Now, take your money and get out!”
She took a bundle of bills from her pocket and threw them at Jude, scattering them over the front porch.
“He insisted on giving you double. It might interest you to know that the extra money comes out of my wages. Count it if you like. It’s all there.”
And then she turned on her heel and walked back into the house, slamming the front door behind her.
Jude sighed, then got down on her hands and knees and gathered up the money.
Well, well. Ivory laughed softly inside Jude’s head. Paris really hates you, doesn’t she?
Goodness knows why, Jude replied, stuffing the bills into her pocket. I’ve never done anything to her.
She wasn’t too keen on me either, if it makes you feel any better, Ivory said.
I don’t care if people like me or not, Jude said.
She grabbed the last bill and straightened up. She could feel the crumpled letter in her pocket and thought about shoving it back through the letter box.
Don’t even think about it, Ivory warned. Not unless you want to be coughing up toads for the next hour.
You can’t do that! Jude exclaimed.
Don’t test me.
Jude sighed. She turned away from the house and walked down the driveway. As she went, she couldn’t shake the conviction that there were eyes on her, and when she glanced back at the house she could have sworn a curtain twitched aside in one of the upstairs windows, as if someone had suddenly stepped back. She shook her head and stepped out on to the street, glad to leave Moonfleet Manor brooding behind her.
The whole way back home she felt the letter burning inside her pocket. She couldn’t shake the thought that the Phantom would know she’d taken it.
Don’t be such a fool, Ivory said, reading her mind. How could he know? He’s not a magician, despite what everyone says.
Descendants have powers that manifest in strange ways, Jude replied. Everyone knows that. I just hope this letter is something worth stealing. I’m going to be pretty mad if it turns out to be a birthday card, or something.
I don’t think vampires send birthday cards, Ivory said.
In fact, it was an invitation. Jude tore the envelope open as soon as she was back in the privacy of her bedroom and a thick card slid out.
Jude felt Ivory shift inside her mind.
This is perfect, she breathed. There’s no name on the invitation and the event is this evening.
“You’re not seriously expecting me to go there, are you?” Jude replied.
Why not? You have an invitation. I’d stake my life on the fact that that ‘rare item’ is the devil’s coin. The brazenness of it!
“Look, I can’t go tonight because I’ve got band practice. Cajou Night is coming up and we’ve got to—”
I don’t care about your band practice! Ivory snarled inside her head. You can do that any time, but this is your one and only chance to go to the Fang and we can’t waste it. I need a lock of Etienne’s hair in order to conduct a truth spell.
“There is no way I can possibly get a lock of hair from—”
I’m not expecting you to pluck it from his head, Ivory snapped. He has a private dressing room at the Fang. You can take it from his hairbrush. It’ll be simple.
Jude sighed. “Fine. I’ll send a telegram to Sharkey to tell him I don’t feel well and can’t make practice. And I’ll just have to hope my bandmaster is cool with it.”
Good, Ivory replied. We need to get you ready, but first I’d better explain what exactly you’ll be walking into.
You might find it hard to imagine now but I was very beautiful when I was a young woman. I had some natural beauty of my own but I’d worked on that with cajou, used my own body to hone my craft until I was one of the most stunning women in all of Baton Noir. I wanted to be the greatest cajou queen who ever lived, more powerful than even my mother before me. And so I worked on my Power, nurturing it and feeding it, right from the beginning. My mother died young and I was crowned cajou queen at the age of nineteen.
I met Etienne Malloy at a jazz evening in one of the Fountain District’s most musical mansions. He sought me out and we became lovers and soulmates for a time. I loved him more than I had thought it possible to love anything. It was a love that burned and blazed like a star. I thought that soulmates were forever – that they had to be.
But the years passed, as they must. Etienne is immortal, of course, and so he remained unchanged, as handsome and perfect as ever. But try as I might, I could not keep up. Cajou magic is strong and powerful but there’s only so much it can do. I danced through my twenties, turned thirty and then forty. Cracks began to appear in the façade and I couldn’t keep them at bay forever. Wrinkles would no longer be banished. Hairs turned grey and my body, which had once been so flawless, began to wither and sag.
Etienne said that he didn’t care. That I was his great love and we would remain together. And idiot that I was, I believed him. Until I returned to our home on Song Square one day and found him in bed with that slut, Delilah. She wasn’t even Royalty. Just a society girl who had wormed her way into Etienne’s affections. But she was young and beautiful, both things that I no longer was. And I saw how foolish I’d been to expect Etienne to remain content with our arrangement when he still looked the way he did while I grew old.
I moved my things out that same day and Etienne didn’t try to stop me. I put a sickening hex on Delilah so that all her hair fell out. Oh, I wasn’t trying to hurt her, really. I only wanted to make Etienne suffer. But she was nothing to him and I had to wait another ten years before he met Jackie Jevais.
Jackie was a beautiful dark-haired vampire and the first time I saw them together, I could tell. I could see she was different, that Etienne cared for her, might even grow to love her. And being a vampire she would stay young and beautiful forever. I longed to strike there and then but I was disciplined. I bided my time and allowed their love to grow and grow. To flourish. Finally, when it was at its fullest bloom, I bribed one of their servants to steal a lock of her hair for me.
Back then I had two cajou pythons. Beau had a sister, you see. A black snake named Betty. She was my favourite. My darling. But magic like that requires sacrifice and so it was my favourite snake I had to kill. I knew that having only one cajou snake rather than two would reduce my Power, but I would have done anything. So I poisoned my snake and once she was dead I ate her brain, sobbing with every bite, then peeled off her skin and used it to perform my darkest spell yet.
It took several attempts and a great deal of energy and commitment, but eventually I was able to conjure up a living snake inside Jackie, born of black magic. She would have felt it inside her, wriggling around beneath her skin, coiled within her belly, growing fat on the food she ate, while Jackie herself became shrivelled and starved and skeletal.
But that wasn’t the extent of it. The snake grew stronger and stronger and then it reached right into her soul and ripped away her name. People don’t realize the importance of names but we all have one, even unnamed babies carry their true name with them inside their soul. It’s what grounds us to the world and without it we don’t know who we are or what our place is supposed to be. Within a week of the spell, Jackie went insane. She even turned on Etienne. Attempted to murder him with a stake. In the end, he had no choice but to send her away to an asylum. I believe she raves there still, tormented and wretched.
Etienne shut up his mansion and withdrew into its mirrored rooms for a while. No one saw him for several months. I began to worry. Began to fear that I had injured him too greatly. I regretted my actions but it was too late to take it back, although I did try, oh, how I tried. Once someone’s sanity has been broken apart, it can’t be put back together again. The cracks will always be there.
Eventually Etienne opened his doors and returned to society, but without his humanity charm. He’d removed it during his confinement and has never put it on since.
He knew I was to blame, although he couldn’t prove it, but he must have known who was responsible. I could see the accusation in his eyes whenever we found ourselves in the same room at some social engagement. I expected him to strike back. Day by day, and month by month, and year by year, I waited for a blow that never came. Twenty years passed and I came to believe that he held off in order to torture and torment me.
I turned seventy this year. I suppose he decided now was the time to strike, before old age and natural causes could do the job for him. So, there you have it. I loved him and I destroyed his life and took away whatever humanity he had left. Now he’s had his revenge at last.
The cajou queen stopped speaking. They were in the bedroom and Jude was sitting cross-legged on her bed, with Beau coiled up in her lap. There was a long moment of silence.
Then finally Jude said, “Ivory Monette, you are a stupid, stupid woman.”
The cajou queen bristled inside Jude’s mind.
Stupid?
“Naïve too.”
I may be wicked and evil, but I am not stupid or naïve, you grubby Scrap!
Jude shook her head. “You destroyed three lives, including your own, from the sound of it. All because some guy jilted you.”
She couldn’t help thinking that it made her own spate of self-pity after Leeroy seem nowhere near as bad. But Ivory didn’t agree. The cajou queen’s anger simmered through Jude’s body, fizzed through her veins and fluttered in her stomach.
You speak of things you do not understand. You do not know what it is to have a soulmate. Everyone has that one person who they would burn down the world for.
“Just because you love someone doesn’t give you the right to take over their life,” Jude replied. “Love isn’t supposed to be selfish.”
My dear, ignorant, naïve girl, love is the most selfish thing there is. Perhaps you will find that out for yourself one day.
Jude shook her head. She was perfectly content with her music and her father and the dark city. She didn’t need anyone or anything else. More importantly, she didn’t want anything else. Certainly not after the anguish of her failed relationship with Leeroy.
“Seems like an awful lot of hassle and unnecessary bother if you ask me,” she said.
I didn’t ask you, Ivory snapped. Now look, you need an outfit. You can’t go to the Fang in swamp boots. Don’t you have anything else to wear?
“Afraid not.”
Then you’ll have to purchase something, Ivory said. There’ll be no getting into the Fang dressed like that. I know a place.
For a moment, Jude felt tempted to refuse outright. The story Ivory had told her about Etienne and Jackie had filled her with revulsion and reminded her that the cajou queen was without scruples. She didn’t want anything to do with the woman and her black magic. She didn’t want to sneak into a dangerous vampire’s club and attempt to steal his hair.
But then she thought of her father, rotting away with pain and regret and heartbreak in the next room, and how Ivory had offered her a way of helping him when nothing else had worked, and she knew then that she would walk into the Ruby Quarter, right into the vampire club and steal Etienne’s hair. She’d even wear a goddamn dress if that was what it took.
“Fine.” She sighed. “Just tell me where I need to go.”
Ivory sent Jude to a witch on Goblin Street, where all the fanciest boutiques and stores were located.
Take Beau, she said. It’ll help her believe that I’m really here. If you’d stolen him, he would have swallowed you whole long ago.
“How comforting,” Jude replied.
She draped the huge snake over her shoulders and set off, drawing more than a few startled glances from passers-by.
“I hope this witch owes you a big favour,” she muttered under her breath. “Because my budget won’t stretch to buying so much as a button from any store on Goblin Street.”
Don’t worry about that, Ivory replied.
When they reached the store, its window was full of glass baubles. Inside each one there was trapped a small sad swamp fairy, with wilting wings and a dying firefly glow. Jude figured they were supposed to be pretty and entice people in but she just found them depressing. Like Scraps, fairies weren’t worth much to cajou Royalty, and no one was going to stop anyone from imprisoning them on a whim if they felt like it, even if it was for a reason as stupid as making their overpriced boutique look attractive.
Jude pushed open the front door and stepped inside, her swamp boots seeming big and clunky on the marble floor. She’d barely had time to close the door behind her before the witch behind the counter let out a shriek of alarm.
“I’d know that snake anywhere – that’s Beau! What the hell are you doing with the cajou queen’s snake?”
Jude was about to reply, but the cajou queen took over her tongue and this time it was Ivory’s voice that came out of her head, the old lady’s rasping croak like sandpaper against Jude’s throat.
