Kingdom of Ash and Soot: The Order of the Crystal Daggers, #1

Dedication

FIRST AND FOREMOST, this is for my darling children. The world needs more brotherly love and sisterly affection such as yours, and you are my inspirations.

Second, as always, this is for Sam. I have never forgotten your questions or our conversations, and I hope in some small way, you’ll read this and allow them to live on.

And finally, this is for all my favorite people I fangirl over.

To my favorite podcasters: Ben, Michael, and Drew. I love you all. And my video playlists are filled with Ravi, Dinesh, David, Dennis, and Nabeel. Thank God for you! I would not be anywhere close to who I am without all of you, and I am tremendously grateful for your wit, wisdom, and insight over the years.

As a special note, I would like to add Michelle and Ayah to my list. I am sorry for the late tribute to Nabeel, but I am grateful you are able to carry on his life’s work.

For the translation help, I must thank Riad El-Choueiry. Small as it is, your words have helped me so much.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jennifer C. Sell

Jennifer Clark Sell is a professional book editor and proofreader. She works from her home in Southern California. With her years of profes- sional and personal experience, she offers sever- al quality packages for authors. Find her at https://www.facebook.com/JenniferSellEdit- ingService.

Photo Credit: Savannah Sell

Amalia Chitulescu

Amalia Iuliana Chitulescu is a digital artist from Campina, Romania. Raised in a small town, this self-taught artist has a technique which is delin- eated by the contrast between obscurity and en- lightenment, using dark elements in a dreamy world. Her areas of expertise include the use of theatrical concepts to create a macabre and sur- realistic world that still maintains a highly recog- nizable attachment to reality. Bridging a di- aphanous environment with light elements, an eerie view, she creates a dream world of dark

BEAUTY, DONE WITH A blend of photography and digital painting. Find her at https://www.facebook.com/Amalia.Chitulescu.Digital.Art

Photo Credit: Amalia Chitulescu

Prologue

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MY FATHER’S HANDS, stained with darkened sunlight and roughened sores, were cold as I touched them for the last time.

As he lay still in his coffin, I rubbed my small hands over his, much as he had done to mine before I went to sleep each night when he was home.

"Night-night, Táta." I said my final goodbye softly, my lips barely moving to form the words. Not even my hair stirred, the ebony curls stilled out of solemnity.

My gaze turned to his face, as the church’s robed pallbearers, silently but surely, came up beside me. I felt them surround my father’s body more than I saw them, as I continued to watch his face, searching for any sign his eyes might open and wink up at me once more.

A sleeve tickled my neck. It’s time to let go, miss, one of the pallbearers whispered into my ear.

Not yet! I objected.

Eleanora. The sharp voice of my stepmother, Cecilia—officially Baroness Cecilia Haberecht Chotek Svobodová of Bohemia—snapped loudly and harshly against the quiet sea of silence inside the church. Let the men do their job.

Only after I turned to face her did her hard expression melt into one of concern.

Please, she added more sympathetically, but I knew from the hard line of her jaw she was more concerned I would make a scene in front of the whole kingdom.

How impudent it would be of me to embarrass her with my grief.

But Ben didn’t get a final chance to say goodbye, I said, my nostrils flaring.

At the sound of his name, my brother, at twelve years of age, shifted uncomfortably on the hard pew bench. In the last few days, Ben had transformed from the smart and silly, fun-loving boy I grew up with into a cynical, unrecognizable man.

I did only what I could—I waited for his response. There was a long moment where the crowded church returned to its stifled silence, before finally, finally, Ben coughed discreetly, and spoke.

"It’s fine, Nora. I’ve already said my farewells to Otec."

I grimaced at his tone; it was brusque and formal, and nothing about it suggested Ben was as heartbroken as I was.

Come sit down, Eleanora, Cecilia insisted once more. Father Mueller is waiting to perform the last rites.

I’ll not come down until Ben comes and says a proper goodbye to our father.

You are embarrassing yourself in front of our family and neighbors. Even His Grace has come from Moravia to be here at your father’s mass. Her voice was low and deadly.

Briefly, I glanced over at the stern-faced man who was standing next to Cecilia. The Duke of Moravia, Lord Franz Maximillian Chotek, was a cousin to both the Emperor and my stepmother. His thin, dark mustache twitched in irritation as Cecilia and I battled over the right to grieve.

It is the honorable thing to do, I argued.

My brother sighed. In his lap, I could see his fingers clench into a fist.

Benedict, go. If it will let us move on before Adolf’s body starts to smell, then by all means, appease your sister.

I held my breath, wondering what I would do if he did leave me to send Táta off all by myself.

I relaxed a moment later when he reached over, almost as if he was mentally reconsidering his reluctance, and grabbed his crutch; glaring angrily at me, he hobbled less than gracefully up to the altar. I was relieved when no one muttered anything about my brother’s crippled right leg.

I can’t believe you’re making me do this, he whispered to me. "You of all people know how I feel about Otec."

I frowned. "Táta was a good man. Even the king said he was a good man who protected him during the Revolution."

Kings are quick to reward those who would die for them.

Not all of them.

Nora, what do you know of war or any soldier’s duty? Ben hung his head at my childishness. It doesn’t matter anyway, does it? The Germans are still in control of the Diet, and the Emperor is in his palace in Vienna, while King Ferdinand is playing with his posies all day long.

My brother was clever. In ducking his head, it looked from behind as though he was sad or even crying. The church’s audience murmured a quiet approval as Ben grasped onto his crutch with one hand and put his other hand over mine, while I continued to rest it on Táta’s.

As we stood there, I saw there was a bluish tint to my father’s stiffened hands, and I wondered if death had chilled him even in the afterlife, so much that his veins had swelled. I looked back up at his face, surprised to see there were similar lines around his lips, although his beard and mustache helped to hide the unsightly marks. 

There. Ben squeezed my hand. Are you satisfied?

Yes. I nearly choked out a response. He was all we had, Ben, no matter what you say.

I slowly released my father’s hands and whispered one last prayer toward the heavens for his soul as I headed back to my seat in the pew.

But when I turned around, I suddenly stopped, as a flurry of sound and movement in the back of the church caught my attention. Ben, with his uneven steps, bumped into me from behind, and I heard his mumbled curse.

Fortunately for Ben, everyone else, including Father Mueller, was too busy staring at the back of the church to chastise him.

My own mouth dropped open as I saw a kingly procession entering the chapel. Men wearing fine livery made from shining threads, woven with the proud red and white colors of Bohemia, dotted the small crowd.

It was only when they parted that I saw the king.

King Ferdinand V, the former leader of the Austria-Hungarian Empire and King of Bohemia, and a string of several other titles, had arrived.

His Majesty! Cecilia gasped. I might have laughed at her expression at any other time, but she was right to be surprised.

The king did not come out in public very often, and at once I could see why. My eyes took in his large forehead, his wide-set eyes, and his aged, enlarged face. His robes were grand, and his jewelry ornate, but there was nothing ostentatious enough to hide his shaking discomfort. He walked slowly, with a cane in hand and two young attendants immediately behind him for support. I, along with everyone else stared as the elderly figure proceeded toward the front, where my father’s casket was waiting.

I had heard the rumors of the king’s precarious mental state—of his simplemindedness, his mental fits. I wondered as he passed, only giving me a light glance, if he was here against his doctor’s wishes.

King Ferdinand V used to be our king. In 1848, the same year Ben was born, Ferdinand had been forced to abdicate his throne to his nephew, the current Emperor, Franz Joseph I.

But, as the king bowed down before the altar and made the Holy Cross over my father’s corpse, I remembered King Ferdinand’s informal title, Ferdinand Dobrotivý, or Ferdinand the Good.

It seemed to suit him.

I blinked back tears, remembering Táta telling me that even kings had to bow to something greater than themselves in the end. Many of them submitted to God, in life and in death, while King Ferdinand had submitted to the power of the people. My father had remained at the king’s side, protecting him from physical harm during the Revolution of 1848, when King Ferdinand’s power was revoked.

Maybe that’s why the king decided to come down out of his castle in the city to see him.

Father Mueller continued with the Funeral Mass, reciting the familiar lines of liturgy, along with the occasion’s additions for the deceased. I barely listened to the service for my father. While grief was not preferred, it was familiar; Ben, Táta, and I had all been through it four years prior, when my mother was lost at sea.

As we responded to Father Mueller’s reading of the twenty-third Psalm, I glanced back over at the king. My grief was great, but my curiosity was proving itself the more demanding of the two.

I can’t believe the king came, I whispered to Ben.

"He didn’t come for Máma’s funeral, he whispered, and she was the better one between the two."

"Táta is with Máma now. They are together again at last." 

"If Otec even made it to heaven," Ben retorted.

Ben! That’s terrible to say.

He was a terrible man.

To you, maybe.

Exactly.

At the bitterness in his tone, I decided to discontinue the conversation.

But I stopped for other reasons as well—two of them, to be more precise. Priscilla, my stepsister, was earnestly tugging on her mother’s skirts as she glanced over in our direction, and my stepbrother, Alexander, glared menacingly at Ben.

How can they be the same age as us, but act like such little children?

It was not hard for me to make that deduction; they had never known pain as Ben and I had. It seemed that for every burden my family had borne, our stepsiblings had only brushed theirs aside.

In addition to our mother’s death, there was Ben’s injury. Táta never forgave Ben for getting crippled two summers past, falling off the stable roof after trying to fetch one of my cats for me. 

Priscilla and Alex’s father, Cecilia’s second husband and the one before my father, had died serving in the armed forces abroad. Even at our first meeting, Alex had been eager to boast of how his father’s shield had saved the baby prince, Leopold, and his mother, Queen Victoria, and subsequently, the entire kingdom of Britain, from death and destruction. When I asked if his father was acting as a nursemaid, he nearly cried.

I think that was the moment when he began to hate me.

Quickly, so Cecilia would not see, I stuck my tongue out at Alex and glared a warning to Priscilla, before turning away from them completely.

Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably again. I looked up to see he was giving silent warnings to our stepsiblings himself. Their derision toward us since the day we had met had never been more inappropriate. Some part of me blamed Ben for that; he had been angry, angrier than ever, the winter after his accident, and gaining a new family was the last thing that could have cheered him up.

Stop fretting, Ben, I told him, placing my hands over his as I had done to Táta’s just moments before.

I can’t. I have to watch out for you now.

I wrinkled my nose. "Cecilia’s children don’t scare me."

Lucky you, he said. "There is no one to stop them from taking our inheritance now. Indeed, Cecilia has already begun raiding Otec’s estate. How else do you think she was able to get such a fancy dress made up from the seamstress before his funeral? And how else do you think she was able to get clothes and shoes for Alex and Priscilla? I also overheard her ordering a new carriage in the English style. She fancies herself to be Queen Victoria or Empress Elisabeth, cast out to far and foreign lands."

I glanced over to see Ben was right; Cecilia’s dress was indeed much finer than my own. The gown was cut in a fashionable style, though from what I remembered of Máma’s wardrobe, I would have said it was French rather than British. The stitching was fine, and even from where we were sitting, I could easily make out the sheen of expensive silk.

We didn’t get any new clothes, I said.

Clothes are one thing, Nora. But how will you be able to get married? You have no dowry to your name now.

I’m not even ten years old yet.

I knew after my accident I would never marry, Ben said. His words were stilted, as though he had to chisel them off his chest. "But you, Nora. You could have had any suitor in the kingdom, just as Otec said Máma did."

"I did inherit Máma’s looks," I said, straightening my posture, momentarily forgetting my pain as pride took over.

You dream of a family.

No. I shook my head firmly. "You are my family. It is enough for me. I need no husband to be content."

I would not let you be alone with me if you could do better.

For all your trouble, there is no one better than you, I said. You have always watched out for me, even before Cecilia and the demon twins came to live with us.

A small chuckle was smothered in his throat, but I heard its echo nonetheless.

"You’ve got Máma’s humor too, it seems. Hopefully you’ll have her strength as well, Ben said. Because these next few years may be hard."

"Máma taught me to be brave, Ben. As long as you’ll face them with me, we will survive." My hands tightened in his.

We may survive, but we will not be free.

One day we will, I vowed. You’ll see.

He could only grip my hand back in reply before Father Mueller, finished with the eulogy, harkened us once more to prayer.

... And so, let us pray for Adolf Svoboda, a regal nobleman in the court of His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary Emperor Franz Joseph I, of the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine, his kind and generous legacy in service to His Majesty King Ferdinand V of Bohemia ...

Upon hearing his name, I glanced over at the king once more. He had his one hand resting on his walking stick, and the other nudged between his legs underneath a thick blanket.

I tilted my head, watching him. Was he cold? I wondered. It was getting close to the end of summer.

When he began to twitch and moan a moment later, I felt my own body go still. Ben, look!

The congregation began to whisper voraciously as the king fell over in his pew, convulsing fitfully. Father Mueller faltered mid-prayer, and I saw another man, one I recognized as my father’s friend and medical doctor, Dr. Sigmund Artha, hurry forward to help.

Your Highness, Dr. Artha said. He patted down his bushy wave of gray-streaked hair, and I wondered if he had only just remembered he was in the presence of the former king of Bohemia. The faded, familiar rosary beads from the Church of St. Nicholas, the Kostel svatého Mikuláše, jangled against his small medical bag as I watched him hastily make a quick bow. Let me assist you.

I had seen Dr. Artha in our manor enough to know that he was deathly afraid of the silliest things, from spiders and dusty books to messy rooms and babies. On several of his visits with my father, he would excuse himself to go to wash his hands, and he would rub down his hair in both a nervous and necessary habit. I found it amusing and endearing that Dr. Artha had no fear of approaching King Ferdinand.

We’re here, too, sir. One of the young attendants, the shorter one, behind the king, stepped forward.

The first attendant, the one with black hair, began to issue orders to the king’s men. Meanwhile, the other one who had spoken with Dr. Artha, a slightly shorter boy with copper hair, stepped up beside the king and began to tend to him, whispering into his ear. I saw he had a small decanter in his hand. 

Stay calm, Nora, Ben whispered beside me, as the king let out a loud moan.

Father. The second assistant suddenly yelped as the king fell to the side.

I frowned. King Ferdinand had no children.

Father Mueller, the black-haired boy called, his voice more confident and urgent, and I quickly realized my misunderstanding. He was calling for the priest. Please, continue on. His Imperial Highness would benefit from your godly prayers.

The other boy nodded, and the reverend complied. I saw Father Mueller’s face was white with slight panic as he stepped back up to the pulpit.

As the normal prayer resumed, this time louder and clearly more strained, I kept glancing over at the king.

Oh, merciful infant Jesus! I know of your miraculous deeds for the sick. How many diseases you cured during your blessed life on earth ...

I made the sign of the cross over me, still watching as the king slowly reverted to his previous state; there was less jolting and gasping, and his eyes, even though they were still blinking fast, seemed more alert. He watched the copper-haired attendant with a tepid smile on his face.

That was when the attendant boy caught my eye. He was dabbing the king’s head with a handkerchief, carefully and calmly, almost lovingly, before the king whispered something. Then the boy turned to see me staring at him.

Remembering my father’s affection for the disposed king, I gave the boy a kind smile.

He went still, staring at me.

I stared back.

Just as I noticed he seemed to be close to Ben’s age, the other attendant stepped in front of him.

Guard, I heard him call. Prepare His Highness’ coach for departure. We will be leaving shortly. The king needs his rest.

A guard saluted him and headed down the back of the small church.

The dark-haired boy suddenly narrowed his gray eyes in my direction. From his expression, I could tell he expected me to turn away or bow my head in feigned prayer.

Rather than submit to his wishes, I stared back at him, arching my brow at him, letting him know, in my own small way, he had no moral authority to shame me. As a citizen, I had just as much concern for our king’s health, even if he was no longer our ruler.

Our imagined conversation did not seem to be going as smoothly as he might have hoped. The boy at least seemed unnerved by my response, blushing quickly and then turning back to say something to Dr. Artha, who seemed to be asking him a question.

Nora, Ben whispered. Stop causing trouble.

I didn’t do anything, I said.

"Just be quiet and focus on the ceremony, would you, ségra? Maybe it was nice of the king to come, but it seriously doesn’t matter."

I was tempted to pinch him for his flippancy, but hearing his pet name for me softened my resolve. It had been awhile since he had called me ségra, and I was glad to hear it again. I took his hand in mine, holding it as I returned my focus to Father Mueller.

... Extend your most holy hands, and by your power take away all pain and infirmity, so that our recovery may be due, not to natural remedies, but to you alone ...

I sighed. Father Mueller’s prayers were appropriate, I supposed, but they were as dead to my ears as the words were to my heart. I knew they were for my father’s heavenly ascent, but I felt Ben and I needed prayers more than our father did.

I tightened my grip on Ben’s hand and prayed. Please, Holy Father, help Ben and me. Help us to find a way to be happy once more. Please keep us together and keep us safe.

As my father’s casket was finally removed from the church, as Cecilia wept loudly, kneeling before the benign king of Bohemia, as I sat helplessly next to my brother, I beseeched God again with a barrage of earnest prayers.

It would be many years before I believed God had heard me—and even more before I realized that he had bigger plans than I could have ever imagined, and he had already set them in motion. 

*1*

◊

NORA.

The call to wake up was never a pleasant one. Ben’s voice, though it had grown deeper over the years and changed according to his moods each day, was constant throughout the last decade of our lives; it was the precursor to the endless rounds of chores and errands.

It was a comfortable kind of discomfort.

My slumbering barrier against the real world was breached again, this time more urgently.

Come on, Nora, wake up.

I could hear the mix of impatience and compassion in his tone as Ben sighed. 

Cecilia’s coming.

At that, I shot up, sitting upright on my small pallet. I groaned as I pushed back the loose tresses of my hair, allowing my eyes to find sunlight. It was a wasted effort; the sun had not yet risen. Already? I asked, rubbing my eyes. Why is she even up this early? You’d think that after so many evenings of dancing till dawn she would never again rise from sleep before noon.

Why else? Ben asked. She and Priscilla have rounded up more treasures that used to belong to our father, and she wants us to trade or sell them at the market before the neighbors can see how shabby they look.

"Oh, no. Not more of Táta’s things! I turned my face away from my brother and flopped back onto the small, soft bag I had stuffed with cotton and feathers to use as a pillow. I thought she’d finished searching for his stuff years ago."

"Otec collected a lot of junk from his travels for the king, Ben said. His formal use of Otec snapped in the air between us, also reminding me of his animosity toward our father. Máma’s stuff is nearly gone, too. Including all her lovely books from Paris."

From the look on his face, Ben mourned the loss of those books more than I did, and it was likely only a little less than either of us missed our mother. 

"I know, but still. It’s been over ten years since Táta died, I moaned. Cecilia wasn’t married to him that long."

Ben gave me a small smile. "I know it hasn’t helped Cecilia that we’ve hidden some of Otec’s things. And there is her party tonight, don’t forget."

How in the world could I forget about the party? I held up my hands. My palms have been raw all week from the extra scrubbings she’s had me and the other maids do.

"That’s probably how she managed to find some more of Otec’s collectibles." 

She didn’t find anything under the floor in the pantry, did she? I asked, my eyes suddenly wide with fear. "I put Máma’s locket there, along with Táta’s pocket watch."

I’m sure we’ll find out, Ben said. I just saw her hanging out the east tower window, yelling at the gardeners, and when I went to go pilfer some bread earlier, Betsy told me ‘Her Ladyship’ has to check on the barn’s repairs on her way over here to us. She’ll come for us last.

Of course.

"Of course. Ben mocked my tone. So you’ll have time to shake the soot out of your skirts."

Huh? I looked down and sighed. I had stayed up late reading by the fireplace, and my skirts were covered in a light coating of soot.

Why was it so hard to find the time to read, and then to have the joy of reading itself tampered with the cost of Cecilia’s anger? 

Ben, help me. I began jumping up and batting the ashen dust off my apron. She’ll kill me if she sees my dress like this. She hates doing laundry any more than she has to.

"You mean she hates it when we have to do laundry any more than she wants us to. It’s laughable to think she does any real work herself."

She does all the accounting work. I’ve seen her doing it, even very late into the night in the library. I suddenly laughed. Oh! I forgot to tell you. The other night, I actually saw her wearing her spectacles.

Ben smiled as he pushed my pallet and homemade pillow inside a small chest and grabbed a broom while using his crutch to push aside the rug. I’ll bet that was a sight, he said. What did they look like?

They were wire frames, I said, and they were perched on her nose like a chained bird, trying desperately to fly free. They made her nose look so big! I’d never noticed how long it is.

We’ll have to keep that in mind if we ever need emotional blackmail, Ben said.

Yes, most definitely—

Ouch!

I flinched as Ben’s weak leg tripped over the book I had managed to hide under my pallet; once I recovered, I hurried over and picked it up, quickly thrusting it behind my back.

I see you were in the library looking for books again, Ben said.

I can’t help it, I insisted. Life is so dull without books.

Life also gets much worse when Cecilia realizes you’re reading these by the fire, getting them dirty, and demands we work more to earn back the cost.

I lowered my eyes. We only have each other, Ben. Can’t we have books, too?

Not while they’re technically hers, and we have to pay for them.

The door snapped open with a melodramatic creak. Pay for what?

Instantly, we snapped to attention before our stepmother. While ten years had passed since our father died, and it had been eleven years since her marriage to him, Cecilia’s face was nearly as fresh and fair as it had been on their wedding day.

Unless, of course, she was frowning, as she usually was when she looked at us.

After the long years of working as her servants, Ben and I were well acquainted with the flash of her temper and the guilt of her sermons.

Good morning, my lady, I murmured delicately, curtsying in the fine manner Máma had taught me.

Save your curtsies, Cecilia snapped. I have no time for your disruptions today. Tell me, what are you going to pay for?

A new dress, I said. I did not think God would mind the small misdirection. I heard that Madame Balthazar down at the market has a bolt of new silk in from the East, and I’d like to try to earn some money to pay for it.

Between dresses and books, I was more than happy to let Cecilia think I wanted the dresses more. She was appalled at the thought of servants knowing how to read, let alone actually reading.

Her nose reflexively sniffed. I doubt you’d be able to afford it, Eleanora. It would be a poor investment besides, considering you ruin the dresses you have now by sleeping close to the fire. She prowled around the room as she shook her head. She let out a disapproving tsk, tsk as she looked up and down at my servant’s outfit.

I turned along with her, keeping the book behind me and out of sight.

Ben coughed, effectively distracting her.

She turned her gaze on him. Benedict, are you ill?

No, ma’am, he said, bowing his head down to her ever so slightly.

I have some items I need you to take to the market. Her eyes narrowed. I’d like for you and Eleanora to take them today, and quickly. I also have a list of things you will need to pick up before His Grace arrives for the party tonight.

Yes, ma’am, he said.

"See to it that you