Lumière (The Illumination Paradox) Read Online Free Page B

your father’s untimely death, I’d see to it you were tossed from these grounds immediately! And locked away in the asylum where we both know you belong!”
    “Smrt!”
    A voice calls across the courtyard, but Smrt ignores it. I shudder, falling back. “What’s that?” he says. His eyes lock on the notebook pressed to my chest. My hand bolts up to cover the lettering.
    “Where did you find that?” He lurches toward me, trying to snatch the book from my hands. The birds move in, squawking. Archie dives at his head.
    “Professor Smrt!” The voice calls again.
    My heads crank around to see the full-figured silhouette of Professor Rapture trundling down the steps of Brackishbee Hall, her image swiftly cutting through the fog.
    “Come quick!” Her hair is as frazzled and prickly as her voice. “It’s a matter of public emergency!” In her hand she holds a paper. It flaps about her head. Smrt jerks back, putting proper distance between the two of us.
    Quickly, I stuff the notebook down the side of my boot, rolling it just slightly to achieve the task. The ravens overhead flap and jitter providing me cover, their wings snapping like sheets in the wind.
    “Smrt!” Rapture shouts again, racing to join us, her gait checking to a staggered halt when at last I come clearly into view. Peering at me through her pickle-jar lenses, her eyes grow thrice their normal size. “Back away from her, Irving!” she says, clutching her crucifix. “Back away from that girl at once!”
    “What?” Smrt’s head swings. “What’s the matter with you, Penelope? Have you taken leave of your senses?”
    “No, but you might if you don’t do as I say. Now for the love of God, Irving, back away!” She pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and covers her mouth.
    Smrt squirrels up his face. “I demand to know what is going on here?”
    “You’re standing in the presence of a living demon, that’s what,” Rapture says. Her eyes cut to me. “By decree of the Council”—she holds out a message in her hand—“her mother has just been declared a Valkyrie! Guilty of the practice of Wickedry in the presence of mankind, through which she’s just ended the Prince’s life!”
    “She what?!” Smrt jumps away.
    The pulse quickens in my wrists.
    “She used her wicked powers to still the babe’s lungs.” Rapture narrows her eyes. “The sole heir to the Commonwealth trusted to her care, is dead. ”
    “No.” I shake my head. “That’s not true. I just saw him. Before I left for school. He had a fever. That’s all. My mother was up all night with him, she never left his side—”
    “—And now he lies lifeless in her arms.”
    “No!” I step back. “It’s a lie! They’re lying! My mother’s done nothing! She’s not a Valkyrie! She’s not a Cantationer! She’s nothing! Just my mother!”
    The ravens rise, screeching off through the trees.
    Rapture’s eyes grow wide.
    I should have known there was something wrong when the ravens came to get me. I should have known when I didn’t see Pan among them.
    “She’s to be dipped and hung this morning in Piglingham Square,” Rapture continues. My stomach pulls up into my chest. “Along with her suspected Valkyrie daughter—”
    “What?” I shiver. “But I’ve done nothing—”
    “Trip the gates,” Rapture sneers through her handkerchief. “Irving! ” She glares. “I said to trip the gates!”
    Smrt stumbles backward up the stairs and lunges at the controls.
    I turn and hurl myself down the front step, squeezing through the last sliver of gate before it closes, mechanical ravens squawking overhead.
    “Stop her!” Rapture’s words lap at my heels, as I flee. “We’re not to let her get away!”
     
     
     

 
     
     
    T wo
     
    Eyelet
     
    I race up the street toward my home—at the Palace—my feet slamming hard against the cobblestones. My heart roars in my chest like a runaway steamplough thundering off the tracks. Breath steams from my nostrils.
    How can