“I wish you could stay, Rishin.”“You know I cannot, Rafah. My father has risked his life to rescue me. Indeed, he has been to Shinos and back. I must go.”
“May it be so then.”
“Okay, everyone, let’s take a break,” said Avalon as the two young actors embraced to finish the penultimate scene of the play.
The actors filed off stage for the mid-afternoon break. Avalon watched them go. Rehearsal had gone well today, even with Brock and Felicity – her Rishin and Rafah – who were still in acting school. But her mind hadn’t been fully on her work today, and she knew why.
Just like every other night, the horror of Mr. Hong’s death had hit her in her dreams, those vivid dreams by which she became aware of the atrocities Nightshade had committed. Other people were lucky. They could just read about Nightshade’s escapades in the paper. She had to relive them in her sleep.
The worst part was that she had actually met Mr. Hong. She’d gone to get one of his famous New Year’s baskets for Jin, the security guard, last year. Mr. Hong had a wife, a young son, and an old mother-in-law who lived with him. Nightshade had nearly killed them last night too.
The curse seems to like to target people I like, Avalon thought. In fact, that’s how she’d discovered the curse in the first place.
****
SIX YEARS AGO
“Hurry, Avalon! Weehoo’s waiting!”
Avalon turned around. It was her mother calling.
“I’m coming, as soon as I get this crazy veil thing on.”
“Do you want help?” her mother called.“No, I remember how to do it,” Avalon called back.
She faced the mirror above her dresser. Today was her eighteenth birthday, her coming-out as it were. She’d agreed reluctantly to her mother’s insistence on a traditional R Andromedean party. This includes an elaborate hairstyle – one her Earthling hair was completely unsuited for – topped with a diadem with a veil attached to it.
She fiddled with the diadem, trying to keep it straight on top of her impossibly high hair. It had clearly been meant for someone with thicker R Andromedean hair – someone like her younger sister Shea, who had been gone for about three years. Rumor said she was now living on Charmia, the perilous planet just beyond the Sirena Quasar from R Andromedae.
Finally, she got the veil to hang right. Lifting her heavy skirt so she wouldn’t trip, she walked slowly into the hallway, where Weehoo, her mother’s butler, was waiting.
“Ah, by Intara,” Weehoo said when he saw her. “You look beautiful, Avaloni-kelia.”
“Oh, stop it,” said Avalon. He’d used the formal form of her name – rather than “Avalie,” as he usually called her – and even called her “kelia,” an old Andromedean word meaning “young mistress.”
Weehoo held out his elbow, in the Earthling style he’d learned when he was Avalon’s father’s valet. Avalon took his arm and they started downstairs.
“I have no doubt,” said Weehoo, “that there will be a young master in this house soon, Miss Avalon, with how beautiful you are tonight.”
Avalon laughed. “Cut it out, Weehoo. This flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere. You’ve known me since I was a baby.”
Weehoo tensed, then softened. “You are right, Avalie. But you know how the Mistress, your mother, frets about not having heard a man pledge for you.”
Avalon grimaced. Weehoo was right. Normal R Andromedean girls, even most half-R Andromedeans like her, married young. Even in a world trying to catch up with the rest of its galaxy technologically, that was the custom. According to custom, her betrothed should’ve led her down these stairs in lieu of her father. Her friends found it strange too. “Nanara dehmirosso,” they called her. Strange half-red, the “half-red” referring to her half-R Andromedean parentage.
But she wasn’t a normal R Andromedean girl. She’d never fit into her mother’s world, not the way Shea had. She couldn’t do all the rituals associated with the star’s pantheon of deities – from Intara, the goddess of the moon and romance, and Yushalie, the goddess of knowledge from whom her middle name came to Llednar, the god of war, and Ruline, the saturnine goddess of sorrow. She hadn’t been admitted into the service of Nilina, the pious woman turned goddess of maidens, who all R Andromedean girls served for two years from their betrothal to their wedding as a sign that they were leaving maidenhood behind. She had even refused to go to an R Andromedean school after 1 year, feeling uncomfortable with the required religious stuff – not to mention being the subject of bad jokes from kids who didn’t know any better. She hadn’t told her mother that part though.
They had reached the landing of the stairs. Strains of music floated in from another room.
Weehoo stopped. “Her Highness has requested that you walk the last bit with her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. The Mistress, your mother, didn’t say.”
Weehoo shuffled past her – probably to the servants’ kitchen. Avalon was alone.
This had to be her mother’s doing. She wasn’t going to let Avalon have just any party; she was going to let everyone know that this was the coming-out party of the second cousin of the current head of the line of Karenne, the revered ancestor of the ruling line. To her guests, Avalon wouldn’t just be Avalon Yushalie Jacobs, daughter of Ofelia Ruline Jacobs. She’d be the one who would’ve been in line to be a princess if some ancestor of theirs three generations back hadn’t fallen in love with a slave girl and sacrificed his throne to keep her.
Must she always be like this? Avalon thought. She’s already rich – what else does she want?
Suddenly, a door opened just below her.
“Announcing Her Royal Highness Princess Ru-Intara, holder of the royal scepter of Karenne!”
In walked the Princess, flanked as always by her two most trusted guards, Khartal and Seimon. Princess Ru-Intara, or The Ruin, as she and Shea had sometimes called her in private, was nine years older than her cousin Ofelia, Avalon’s mother.
She had not aged gracefully – which is why Avalon and Shea called her The Ruin – but she still had the dignified air of royalty and the pride that came with besting her two older sisters in the scepter trials.
The Princess stopped at the foot of the stairs, as custom dictated. Avalon made her way slowly down the stairs to meet her. She almost tripped over her skirt at the bottom, but fortunately Seimon caught her arm before she fell face first before the Princess.
“Good evening, my dear,” said the Princess.
Avalon bowed. “Good evening, Your Highness.”
“Khartal, Seimon,” said the Princess. “Walk before us, and be prepared to open the door when we arrive.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” they said in unison. They left their places at the Princess’s side to stand before her.
“Come, my dear,” said the Princess, holding her weathered hand out. Avalon took it by the wrist, as was custom – no one touched the Princess’s scepter hand without permission.
The Princess smiled. “You may take my hand, my dear.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” said Avalon. She slid her hand into the Princess’s. They began walking down the hallway toward the grand salon, where the party was.
****
No, thought Avalon, as she watched the set crew set up for the next scene. That was the happy part of the night. The end was worse…much worse.****
“Will you dance with me, birthday girl?” a young gentleman asked.
“I think I’ve had enough dancing for a bit,” said Avalon. “If you’ll excuse me,” she continued, turning to her mother. “I’m going to get some air.”
“Of course, dear. You must be exhausted.”
Avalon rushed to the nearby balcony.
It had been quite a night. From the moment she’d arrived – slightly late, of course, so she could “make a noticeable entrance,” as her mother would say – she had been on the dance floor. Every man there had wanted to dance with the birthday girl – and win her heart too probably, Avalon added. However, though her mother had insisted she learn to dance from one of the best dancemasters available, the same was not true of some of her partners. Apparently, gentlemen here were not expected to know how to dance. This proved particularly true when she tried to introduce two Earth dances to them – the waltz, her father’s favorite, and the cha-cha-cha, which was her mother’s favorite because it was through that dance that Avalon’s parents had met.
The twilit air was refreshing. The moon looks so pretty tonight, she thought.
All of a sudden, her head began to throb.
“Wha-what is this?” she cried.
The pain surged through her body. It was all she could do not to scream and disrupt the party.
Her body seemed to freeze and her insides change. Her hair became long and black, her eyes wide and ruthless, her figure lithe and slightly metallic. A dark power swelled inside her, nearly choking her. Then, she lost consciousness.
****
Yes, thought Avalon. That was the first time.
****
“By all the gods! Seimon, dear Seimon!”
“Your Highness!” called a voice. Khartal’s.
“What is it, Rui?” Her mother this time. No one else in the house would be so informal.
“Seimon – is – dead!” the Princess sobbed.
“What?!” cried Khartal. “That can’t be, Your Highness!”
“It’s true! It’s true! By all the gods it’s true!” wailed the Princess.
Avalon could take no more. Having become fully aware of what had occurred, she couldn’t stay. She had killed Seimon. No, that wasn’t right. That other presence, the her that was not her, had done it.
Either way, she wasn’t safe here any longer. Sooner or later, her identity would come out. With the power the Princess had, vengeance – whatever form it took – would be swift.
Even if she wasn’t discovered, the guilt would haunt her if she stayed here. For those few brief moments, she had seen herself transform. She knew that she and Seimon’s killer were the same. A flash of memory – an “after-vision,” the priests of Yushalie would call it – of the crime had come to her as soon as she had regained consciousness. She could not stay here.
She had a good excuse to leave. That very morning, a school friend had shown her a newspaper with a story about her father. He was alive. Her mother had lied to her. She could use this information to persuade her mother to let her leave. Then she’d be safe, over two million light-years away on Earth. Far away from the guilt, the pain, the crime. After all, if this continued, who might she kill next?
I’ll get rid of that presence now, she thought. It can’t follow me all the way to Earth.
****
Avalon sighed. She had been wrong, all those years ago. The curse had followed her here. She still carried the guilt of Seimon’s death. She hadn’t escaped after all.
“Miss Jacobs!” called a set assistant. “Can you come inspect this?”
Avalon broke out of her reverie. “I’m coming.”
She mounted the stage. For now, she had more pressing concerns than a tragic dance party.
Soon, though, she thought. Soon, I’ll get to the bottom of this. I have to.
