The Lady Heiress (The Zero Enigma Book 8) Read online

  The Lady Heiress

  (The Zero Enigma VIII)

  Christopher G. Nuttall

  Book One: The Zero Blessing

  Book Two: The Zero Curse

  Book Three: The Zero Equation

  Book Four: The Family Shame

  Book Five: The Alchemist’s Apprentice

  Book Six: The Family Pride

  Book Seven: The King’s Man

  Book Eight: The Lady Heiress

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  Cover by Brad Fraunfelter

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  Cover Blurb

  House Lamplighter was once amongst the greatest of the Great Houses of Shallot, but now it is a tumbling ruin. The once-great mansion is decaying, the vast network of clients have broken ties long ago and the remaining family scrabbles over crumbs as the last remnants of their fortune are spent repaying their debts. The family seems doomed, beyond all hope of salvation.

  Lucy Lamplighter, returning to her home after her father’s death, intends to save her family by any means necessary. Gambling everything she has left, she stakes it all on a desperate bid to rebuild House Lamplighter before the vultures begin to swoop. But she’s playing with fire ...

  ... And those who play with fire often get burnt.

  Author’s Note

  Although I’ve written The Lady Heiress to be largely stand-alone, and the main character has not appeared in any previous book, it draws on characters who were introduced within earlier books, most notably The Family Pride and The King’s Man.

  CGN.

  Historian’s Note

  The Thousand-Year Empire dominated the twin continents of Maxima and Minima through two advantages, an unmatched command of magic and the development of Objects of Power, magical weapons and tools that made them seemingly invincible. But the Empire fell and the secret of making Objects of Power was lost.

  Hundreds of years later, a young girl - Caitlyn Aguirre - was born to a powerful magical family. Caitlyn - Cat - should have been powerful herself, like her two sisters, but she seemed to have no spark of magic at all. She lacked even a sense for magic. In desperation, her parents sent her to Jude’s in the hopes that exposure to magical training would bring forth the magic they were sure lay buried within her. There, she met Isabella and Akin Rubén, children of her family’s greatest enemy. Isabella became her rival, while she formed a tentative friendship with Akin.

  Cat developed no magic, but she discovered something else. Uniquely, as far as anyone could tell, she had no magic at all. She eventually discovered that a complete lack of magic was necessary for forging Objects of Power. Far from being useless, her talent made her extremely valuable and utterly irreplaceable. As far as anyone could tell, Cat was the only true ‘Zero’ known to exist. This led to her - and her friends, Akin and Rose - being kidnapped, then targeted by Crown Prince Henry and Stregheria Aguirre, Cat’s Great Aunt, when they launched a coup against the Great Houses and the King himself. Their subversions - which turned Isabella against her family - nearly led to complete disaster ... and perhaps would have done, if Cat and Akin hadn’t become friends.

  In the aftermath, Cat proposed that she and Akin should be betrothed, creating a marriage bond between their families and making it impossible, at least for the next few years, for the two houses to come to blows. This was - reluctantly - accepted, with the proviso that either Cat or Akin could refute the agreement if they wished, when they came of age. Cat left Jude’s to found her own school, where other Zeroes - when they were found - would be taught.

  Meanwhile, the Great Houses had to deal with the repercussions of the attempted coup and the sudden shift in the balance of power. Isabella Rubén, condemned as a traitor, was exiled to Kirkhaven Hall, where she discovered a secret her family had sought to bury ... and a new secret, one of her own. Others took advantage of the chaos to stake a claim to power themselves, plots that were only foiled through sheer luck and outside intervention. The city remained unstable ...

  Six years passed, slowly. Akin Rubén went back to school for his final year, to discover - thanks to his father - that he had to compete in the Challenge, a contest to find the ‘Wizard Regnant.’ Reluctantly, Akin complied, forming a team consisting of his cousin Francis and a handful of misfits, including merchant’s daughter Louise Herdsman and Saline Califon, a distant relative who was under a spell cast by her wicked uncle. Despite Francis’s betrayal - the result of a shadowy figure from the family’s past - Akin managed to realise the true nature of the Challenge and forge a last minute alliance with Alana Aguirre, Cat’s sister, that allowed them to share the victory.

  This did not please everyone, most notably Adam Mortimer. Disgusted with the Great Houses, and uneasily aware his city was on the brink of exploding into class war, Adam joined the Kingsmen and became instrumental in stopping a plot to use Infernal Devices to trigger the war. However, he was unable to prevent the plotters from damaging the city’s harmony ...

  ... And far too many innocents wound up paying the price.

  Prologue

  I think about my father a lot. Even when I’m trying not to.

  I still remember the last day I saw him, six years ago. I still remember the day he sent me away.

  We’d never really been close. He was Lord Lucas, Patriarch of House Lamplighter, and he always had something to do. He’d always been a distant figure. He’d acknowledged me as his child - it wasn’t as if I was a natural-born daughter - but he was always too busy to spend time with me. It wasn’t uncommon amongst the Great Houses. I was unusual in spending so much time with my mother, rather than being farmed out to a succession of governesses and private tutors. It wasn’t until much later that I understood why.

  He hadn’t sent me to Jude’s. I should have gone when I turned twelve, like all the children of the Great Houses, but he’d insisted on keeping me at Lamplighter Hall. I’d argued and pleaded and even resorted to screaming, to no avail. Mother had care of my education, with my aunts and uncles filling in the blanks. It wasn’t that they were bad at teaching - I suppose it was easier with only one student to teach - but it wasn’t the same. Mother kept saying Father would change his mind, yet ... I think she knew better. I think she knew he’d never change his mind.

  And then she died in the House War.

  I don’t remember who told me. My memories are a blur. The only clear memory I have from that time is my father saying that he was sending me to school, that he was sending me away. I was too dazed to care. My mother was dead and ... it wasn’t until I got to Grayling’s Academy for Young Ladies that I realised he’d sent me away, that he didn’t want to see me again. I was a reject, an outcast like all the other long-term boarders. I was ... unwanted.

  I don’t know why my father did this. He never said. I used to fret endlessly over what I’d done, back before I grew old enough to realise I’d done nothing. I used to wonder if I was - somehow - responsible for mother’s death, for my father’s constant absences ... if, perhaps, my father blamed me for something beyond my control. I wouldn’t be the first girl to be sent away because her family could no longer cope, but ... why me?

  He wasn’t a monster. There were fathers who were abusive to their daughters, who shouted at them and beat them and arranged matches to men of good families ... my father wasn’t like that. And there were fathers who spoilt their daughters rotten or paid no attention to them ... as if they were just little people who hap
pened to share the house. My father wasn’t like that either. I didn’t know why he’d sent me to Grayling’s. And I wished - more and more, as I got older - that I could remember his face. My family were little more than shadows. Only a couple bothered to stay in touch with me and none of them told me anything useful. None of them told me why.

  I grew up at Grayling’s. I wasn’t the only long-term boarder. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get to go home over the summer, who grew from thirteen to nineteen without ever seeing her parents. But I was the only one whose family lived nearby, the only one who could have gone home ...

  ... Until the day I got the letter that told me my father had died.

  And then everything changed.

  Chapter One

  I’d always liked secrets.

  It wasn’t anything bad. Not really. Knowledge was power in Grayling’s Academy for Young Ladies. Knowing something everyone else didn’t know - or knowing something someone else wanted to remain secret - was always advantageous in the endless struggles for social status. I’d grown to adulthood learning to keep my ears open and my mouth closed, learning how to put the puzzle pieces together to work out what was actually going on. I knew more about my fellow students - and the staff - than they could possibly imagine. I knew who had a crush on who, who was sneaking out at night to see her boyfriend, who was plotting against Mistress Grayling ... I knew and I kept it to myself. Secrets were currency. They lost their value the moment they became public.

  Grayling’s had been the making of me, for better or worse. I’d done well in my lessons, both the formal tuition and the other - far more useful - lessons I’d learnt from the other girls. I knew how to evade the locking charms on the dorms, how to hack through the spells on the outer doors and sneak into the gardens ... or get over the walls to meet a boy. I knew which prefects could be trusted to turn a blind eye, as long as the relationship was harmless, and which prefects would blow the whistle for the sheer pleasure of watching some hapless romantic be roasted in front of the entire school the following morning. I’d even managed to convince some of the latter to let me go, just by telling them a tiny little secret. They thought I’d snitch on them. Of course they did. It was what they would have done.

  I smirked as I slipped out of my bedroom and peered down the darkened corridor. It was nearly midnight, but I could see a pair of young miscreants standing at one end of the corridor, hands firmly charmed to their heads. I rolled my eyes at their backs. The sheer illogic of the system had never ceased to amuse me. If a young girl was caught out of bed, but still within the dorms, she was told to stay out of her bed ... it had never made sense. Or maybe it did. I’d been forced to stand in the corridor, looking like an absolute fool, often enough to learn a few basic heating charms. I supposed it did provide a certain encouragement.

  And if you get caught once you pass the doors, I reminded myself, you’ll be in real trouble.

  I inched soundlessly down the corridor and around the corner. Kate - my roommate - had stayed outside after Lights Out, planning to meet her boyfriend in the gardens. She’d been confident she could evade discovery long enough to have her fun and sneak back inside, but I wasn’t so sure. The Head Girl had been on the prowl over the last few days. Marlene had always had it in for me, and Kate by extension. I’d broken her nose when we were both thirteen years old. Mistress Grayling had been more upset about the punching - young ladies did not resort to physical violence, she’d said - than anything else. She would have been less upset if I’d turned Marlene into a frog.

  The charms on the door were complex, but not too complex. I’d often wondered if the entire tradition of sneaking out after Lights Out was designed to encourage us to learn skills that would be useful in later life. The staff could have kept us locked up, if they’d been willing to put some work into it. I carefully unpicked them, then slipped through the door and into the corridor beyond. My heart started to thump. I was committed. If I was caught outside the dorms after Lights Out, I’d be called out during Assembly and humiliated in front of the entire school. Not for being out of the dorms, but for being caught.

  I donned a pair of charmed spectacles as soon as I was around the corner. I’d often suspected the prefects had ways to track active magic within the school, but they’d find it harder to detect and locate an active Device of Power. The building seemed to come to life, flickers of magic darting through the walls as I hurried to the stairs and headed down. There was something truly eerie about the school, after dark. It was easy to believe, suddenly, that the school’s ghosts came out and danced in the darkness. I’d heard all the stories. They seemed very real.

  The air was silent, too silent. I kept to the side, careful not to put any weight on loose floorboards or squeaky stairs. The prefects might be lurking in the shadows, waiting for me. I hadn’t been foolish enough to tell anyone I was sneaking out, let alone where I was going, but it was quite possible someone else had. Stealing food from the kitchens for a midnight feast was an old tradition, too. And if someone in the lower dorms had been planning it, they might just have been overheard by one of the prefects. They knew all the tricks. They’d been students too, once upon a time.

  Although it’s hard to believe, sometimes, I told myself. I wouldn’t have thought Marlene had ever been young if I hadn’t grown up with her.

  I smiled at the thought, then put it to one side as I reached the bottom of the stairs. The lobby was empty, although I tensed as I spotted the line of portraits on the wall. Rumour had it the paintings had eyes, charmed to allow Mistress Grayling to see through them. I wasn’t sure I believed it, but I did my best to stay out of eyesight anyway. Just in case. The paintings were supposed to show headmistresses from the last three hundred years, but I hadn’t been able to help noticing they all looked alike. Rumour also claimed Mistress Grayling was a vampire. It was hard to believe she had ever been young.

  The thrill of being somewhere I shouldn’t was stronger with every passing second. Students weren’t allowed in the lobby, unless they’d been ordered to the headmistress’s office. It was a silly rule, one of many, but so strictly enforced that I was half-convinced Mistress Grayling really was a vampire. Or that she was keeping something from us. Or ... I resisted the urge to snort as I crawled under the final painting, then straightened as I stared at the office door. It was far more likely, really, that Mistress Grayling was merely exercising her authority. I’d grown up in a Great House. I knew it was important to use one’s authority or risk losing it.

  I pressed my fingers against the doorknob, parsing out the charms. They were complex - I’d had a look at them the last time I’d been summoned to the office - but not unbreakable. I braced myself, then started to work. The charms hadn’t been made that tight. Mistress Grayling couldn’t keep us out completely without barring the staff as well. Personally, I would have considered that a fair trade. There were some good teachers, but also some I’d pay money never to have to see again.

  The door clicked. I froze. The noise sounded very loud in the silent school. If I was caught now, I’d be a laughingstock. Marlene - and everyone else, even Kate - would bray like a donkey if I was caught. The door slid open, allowing me to peer inside. The chamber was as dark and cold as the grave. Mistress Grayling had the largest office in the school - there were classrooms that were smaller - but there was no hint of any personality. It was as colourless as the woman herself. No paintings, no trophies ... nothing. I was almost disappointed as I inched into the chamber, pushing the door closed behind me. There was no other way out. If someone came, I’d have to hide in the shadows and hope for the best. I smiled, allowing my tension to drain away as I walked towards the filing cabinets. I’d often wanted to take a look inside, but I’d never dared. Not until now. The exams were over. Like it or not, I’d be leaving the school forever in a few weeks. It wasn’t as if anyone would care if I got expelled.

  The cabinet charms were weaker than I’d expected. I frowned, wondering if I’d been tricked. The
files - the real files - could be elsewhere. Mistress Grayling’s rooms were on the other side of the school. It was quite possible she kept the files there. I felt my heart sink as I unpicked the charms, one by one. Surely, she wouldn’t be quite so careless about her files. The real charms had to be elsewhere.

  Magic crackled around me as I picked apart the last charm and pulled the cabinet open. Rows of files greeted me, each one labelled with a number and nothing else. I muttered a word that would have me going to bed on bread and water if a prefect - or the tutors – had heard. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to figure out whose file was whose. There had to be trick to it ... I scanned the numbers, trying to think. I didn’t have a student number, did I? It wasn’t as if they didn’t call me by name. Or ... I smiled, suddenly, as my birth date jumped out at me. It had to be my file. I’d have known if someone shared my birthday.

  I pulled the file free, unpicked the locking charm and opened the box. My permanent record book sat on top. I put it to one side and inspected the rest of the papers. A letter from my father, pleading for Mistress Grayling to take me as a pupil ... it was dated shortly after the House War, barely a day after my mother died. My heart clenched in pain. My father had started planning to send me away at once? And to Grayling’s? Tears prickled in my eyes. I blinked them away, harshly. Father had had a good reason. I was sure he’d had a good reason. But the letter merely referred to unspecified reasons ...