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Chapter Thirty-Six: The Enchanted House
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Ilyria was still a street away from the House of Madame Skia when she was forced to stop running by a crowd milling about in the street. She was out of breath and sweating and used her frustration to propel herself forward, bumping and pushing past people with her head lowered and muttering half-hearted excuse-mes as she went.
As she neared the House, the crowd thinned and she understood why when she took a breath and coughed out a lungful of chariko. A thick fog of the spice surrounded the House. Those who were close to the House looked dazed and happy but tended to wander away, having lost interest in what had drawn them there in the first place. Light pulsed from the House, emanating from the courtyard at its centre. She guessed this was what had attracted the crowd. The chariko and the light were alarming enough. The complete silence that enveloped the House felt worse somehow. It was an absence of sound like black is the absence of color.
She h
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The monster reached out a nightmarish tendril, twisted and hard and riddled with fungus. The tendril scratched Ilyria under the chin as an overly familiar uncle might and she gagged on the smell of rotten animal flesh. “You don’t look like him at all,” said The Shackled One, “Lucky for you. We hated him for what he did to us.” “Us? There is more than one of you?” “Us,” said The Shackled One, and dark spikes shot out from its body, impaling the Princess and Zlo. A spike missed the Mogul only because Loulou had pushed him out of the way. They stood open-mouthed with dread and fear as the Princess and Zlo twisted and writhed on the spikes, howling in agony, their blood dripping to the ground beneath them. Thassa ran to the frozen pair and pulled them away. Think, Ilyria, what does it want? came Madame Skia’s question. Ilyria tried not to hear the howls of the Princess and her son. She looked around for Madame Skia the darkness was so com
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A woman at the back of the procession gave a long guttural howl. Every hair on Ilyria’s body stood on end. “Use the glamour,” said Miasma, “Help me, use the glamour.” “And do what?" said Ilyria, "Where do we even go?” Aerie? No then they would be too far away. They had to be in the Palace. Palace? What part of the Palace? The Princess’s chambers? The Princess’s garden? She felt for the token in her pocket already knowing it wasn’t there and that she wouldn’t use it even if she had it. The Princess, she decided, could not be trusted. Vatra? Yakip?No. They had to be here. “Make a run for it,” said Thassa, readying himself as if to do just that. The procession moved with purpose now, bearing down on them. Their fac
