"All that we could," Genivia said. "It's mostly — mostly ... human." She sat down on the stool by the empty hearth and stirred the dead ashes at the edge with the tip of her boot. "In the old days, the best way to make certain that an evil was cleansed from the land was to take the ashes of the villain to sea, and there cast them away."

  "Is that something from your three goddesses?" Silviana asked.

  Genivia swallowed. "Most likely."

  "And what would Good Furis have us do, I wonder... It would be more fitting, after all. They were his people."

  "I — I shall find out, my lady."

  Silviana pressed her fingers deeper into the pile, glad for the moment that her hands were out of Genivia's sight. It was a letter, the paper crisp and tempting. Slowly, she caught the letter between her fingers and eased it out, slipping it up her sleeve without looking at it. "These shirts need to be distributed," she said at last.

  "And the ashes? I can ask the brothers of Furis what to do with them — send them to the coastal abbey, if necessary—"

  "No," Silviana said. "Leave them in my rooms."

  She needed, after all, to say goodbye to this false mother of hers. This false brother. Silviana watched the truth fall like ash around her.

  "It has been a trying day for you, my lady." Genivia stood. "I will arrange food and drinks for you in your rooms, and leave the ashes there as instructed." She curtsied before leaving.

  Silviana leaned her elbow on the table and looked at the white shirts. The Duchy of Jurie had changed, like a coin that had landed on its edge. Her father's soldier's, her cousin's armies, even the distant knights of Petrell were still waiting for a king to lead them on.

  There was no king.

  And with the armies of the west and the east massing at the borders of Vestiarik, the eight duchies were too split and small to do much more than be slowly crushed between them, like little almonds between the pincers of a vice.

  There needed to be a marriage, and there needed to be a force to lead them. Her father's armies waited, as did the plans he'd laid in place. He'd meant to make of himself a king to stand high in Verrin Fort, with its massive walls and its five towers, but Silviana supposed a queen would do in his place. She sighed, and felt for the letter in her sleeve. She would have to move fast while the duchies were still reeling, still biding their time. All of the Eastern duchies still belonged to the Three, even if the dukes pretended to follow Furis.

  She did not need the dukes.

  She needed their people. It was time to make some changes, but first she would see her stepmother raised to the throne, and her cousin wed. A queen would come from Jurie, but it would not be Silviana.

  She turned to look one last time at the scorch marks far below. It could so easily have been Marjeta who had died there. Lilika had spun her webs well. But she had not thought that Silviana would ever go against her. A brown widow who had loved a fly grub and kept it bound in silk and fed on carrion, only to find she'd raised a wasp instead.

  "Good bye, Lilika," Silviana whispered to the open window. "I will thank you for one thing only, and that was the truth."

  From the blackened remnants of the pyre, a shadow slipped free. Then a second and third. The trio of ghost hares raised their ears once in salute, then leapt through the cinders and bone dust, and disappeared.

  Acknowledgments

  Cast Long Shadows began as a simple retelling of Snow White. I was tired of the trope of Evil Stepmother, and decided to rewrite the most famous of those with the idea that she was nothing more than a human caught in circumstances she couldn’t quite control.

  Over the years it warped and grew, until it was finally the story that it needed to be.

  My deep thanks go to Francesca T. Barbini who snapped my novel out of the Luna Press slush, and between her and Shona Kinsella, beat the story into shape. It was such a pleasure to work with a team who have such faith in their writers.

  I have a small army of first readers, fellow writers, and supportive pals who have helped me with my novels, including this one. Thank you to all the Musers, and to Nerine Dorman and

  Elizabeth Retief for their eyes and thoughts.

  A special thanks to my daughters Tanith and Noa for being cool humans, and to my family for supporting me in my writing.

  Cat Hellisen, 2022

 

 

  Cat Hellisen, Cast Long Shadows

 

 

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