The Gates of Sleep Read Free

her eyes glinting
dangerously. “You didn’t invite me, brother. I can only wonder why.”
    Hugh paled, but stood his ground. “I had no reason to
think you would want to attend the christening, Arachne. You never invited me
to Reginald’s christening—”
    Arachne advanced into the room, and Hugh perforce gave way
before her. Alanna sat frozen in her chair, sensing the woman’s menace,
still overwhelmed with fear, but unable to understand why she was so afraid.
Hugh had told her next to nothing about this older sister of his—only
that she was the only child of his father’s first marriage, and that she
had quarreled with her father over his marriage to Hugh’s mother, and
made a runaway marriage with her wealthy tradesman.
    “You should have invited me, little brother,”
Arachne continued with a throaty laugh, as she continued to glide forward, and
Hugh backed up a step at a time. “Why not? Didn’t you think I’d
appreciate the sight of the heir’s heiress?” Another pace, A toothy
smile. “I can’t imagine why you would think that. Here I am, the
child’s only aunt. Why shouldn’t I wish to see her?”
    “Because you’ve never shown any interest in our
family before, Arachne.” Hugh was as white as marble, and it seemed to
Alanna that he was being
forced
back as Arachne advanced. “You
didn’t come to father’s funeral—”
    “I sent a wreath. Surely that was enough, considering
that father detested my husband and made no secret of it.”
    “—and you didn’t even send a wreath to
mother’s—”
    “She could have opposed him, and chose not to.”
A shrug, and an insincere smile. “You didn’t trouble to let me know
of your wedding to this charming child, so I could hardly have attended
that.
I only found out about it from the society pages in the
Times.
That
was hardly kind.” A theatrical sigh. “But how could I have expected
anything else? After Father and Mother determined to estrange me from our
family circle, I wasn’t surprised that you would follow suit.”
    Alanna strained, with eyes and Sight, to make sense of the
woman who called herself Hugh’s sister. There was a darkness about her,
like a storm cloud: a sense of lightnings and an ominous power. Was it magic?
If so, was it her own? It was possible for a mage to bestow specific magic upon
someone who wasn’t able to command any of the powers. But it was also
possible for one of the many sorts of Elementals to attach itself to a non-mage
as well.
    As thunder growled and distant lightning licked the clouds
outside, Alanna looked up and met Arachne’s eyes—and found herself
unable to move. The rest of their guests stood like pillars, staring, as if
they, too, were struck with paralysis.
    Hugh clearly tried to interpose himself between Arachne and
the cradle, but he moved sluggishly, as if pushing his way through thick muck,
and his sister darted around him. She bent over the cradle. Alanna tried to
reach out and snatch her baby away, but she could no more have moved than have
flown.
    “Well, well,” Arachne said, a hint of mockery
in her voice. “A pleasant child. But
so
fragile. Nothing like
my
boy…”
    As Alanna watched in horror, Arachne reached out with a
single, extended finger, supple and white and tipped with a long fingernail
painted with bloodred enamel. She reached for Marina’s forehead, as all
of the godparents had. The darkness shivered, gathered itself around her, and
crept down the extended arm. “You really should enjoy this pretty
child—while you have her. You never know about children.” Her eyes
glinted in the gloom, a hint of red flickering in the back of them. The ominous
finger neared Marina’s forehead. “They can survive so
many
hazards, growing up. Then one day—say, on the eighteenth birthday—”
    The finger touched.
    “Death,” Arachne whispered.
    Like an animate oil slick, the shadow gathered itself,
flowed down Arachne’s arm, and enveloped Marina in a