“This is how you unpick your memories and remember last night, Anders. You draw it. Draw everything you remember, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Just one image could be the key to unlocking all of your memories, and freeing the Princesses from this terrible curse.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek, sceptical. Would drawing his memories really help? He’d never tried it before. He’d never had a memory he truly wanted to remember though. Usually, he was glad to forget them. The way his father had looked as he’d left their house to join the army; his mother’s tear-stained face. The sound of his comrades screaming as their flesh burned and their limbs were shattered, while he hid beneath his shadows, cowering in a hole until it had all been over.
He pushed the thought away violently. Now was not the time to obsess over what he should have done during his time in the army. How he should have helped his friends and fellow soldiers, instead of running away and using his magic to escape.
“Alright. I’ll give it a try.” He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.
Chapter 16
Isadora
Issy lay in the damp grass beneath her mother’s statue. The sun hadn’t yet reached its peak and there was still a delicious coolness to the ground, despite the warm air. She’d come out here to think after breakfast and had fallen asleep for a while, surrounded by birds chirping and bees buzzing, and the scent of freshly mown grass and sea air.
She’d almost allowed herself to believe the Silver prisoner would uncover the curse and free Livia and herself from their nightly torment. But thanks to his bumbling ineptitude, he’d fallen foul of all the devil’s tricks and was no closer to discovering the truth than any of his predecessors. All of whom had disappeared, never to be seen again, on the third night. And she found she wasn’t the slightest bit surprised, her mother had always said if you wanted something done properly, you had to do it yourself.
“You were right, Mama.”
A memory teased at the edge of Issy’s mind, but every time she tried to grasp it with both hands it slipped through the gaps between her fingers. Snatches of music, a faceless man dressed all in black, a shock of blonde hair. Had the Silver—Anders—been dancing with her at the ball?
No. That wasn’t possible. Was it? He couldn’t have been inside the enchantment with them. That had never happened before…
Or perhaps it had. Perhaps that was exactly where all of the missing suitors were; trapped inside the enchantment until someone found a way to break it.
Whatever had happened, Anders had had his memories stolen too, and the chances of him breaking the curse that evening and them all escaping their fates were slim.
If Issy wanted the curse broken, she was going to have to do it herself. And for that, she’d need help. And books. Lots and lots of books.
Brushing the dirt from her skirts, she marched back to the palace and down the hall to the library, where Amma was waiting.
“Ah, welcome Princess Isadora, what can I assist you with today?”
Issy flicked her braid behind her shoulder and straightened her spine. “I’m looking for a book on magic.”
Amma smiled enigmatically. “I have been waiting for this day.” She disappeared amongst the stacks.
Issy followed, confusion swirling in her mind. “What do you mean? Waiting for what?”
Amma paused, turning back to look at Issy over her shoulder. “For you to step into your destiny, Isadora.”
“My destiny? As the future queen, you mean?” Tomorrow would be her eighteenth birthday, after all, she supposed she was an adult now; with all the freedoms and responsibilities that entailed. Her formal training for the day she’d take the throne would begin soon.
“Indeed,” Amma mused, one eyebrow raised. “Your destiny as the future monarch of the Golden Isle. And one of the mostpowerful women on the continent. Blessed by the sun goddess herself.”
Issy chewed her bottom lip. She felt like there was something Amma wasn’t saying, but she didn’t have time to worry about why. She needed answers, she had to find out as much as she could about magic and the curse, and maybe, if she and Anders worked together, they could break the spell before anyone else was consumed by it.
How long would it be before she and Livia vanished, like the men who had tried to uncover the truth so far? Whether they were trapped inside the spell or not, Issy didn’t want to befall the same fate.
Amma helped her to find every book on magic, curses and enchantments in the library, and they sat around the low table flipping through the pages, trying to find a single clue. But none contained anything like the curse that had been inflicted on Issy and her fellow dancers.
Something Anders had said nagged at Issy’s mind. “Amma?”
“Mmm?” The historian looked up from the thick, leatherbound tome she was studying, index finger trailing beneath each word as she read.
“Did you know my mother well?”
Amma’s brow creased, and she closed the book in her lap. “I did, Princess. She was a kind and clever woman; a wonderful queen. Why do you ask?”
Issy toyed with the end of her braid, unsure how to word the question floating through her mind. “Was she—do you think—was her death…natural?”
