Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan

the Six Princes.
    Lily relaxed and lowered her fork. The feast was truly awful, but it had given her a chance to make an important decision.
    “I cannot marry Gabriel.”
    Pan blanched and almost spilled his wine. “Why—why not?”
    “I hate him. In fact, I really don’t think I’ve ever hated anyone quite so much, quite so quickly.”
    “You’ve only just met. Give it time, and I’m sure—”
    “I’ll only hate him even more.”
    “He’s just tired after a long journey.” Pan offered a sickly, desperate smile. “Be patient. Tonight is merely the engagement feast. The actual wedding isn’t until you’re both sixteen, three years from now. By then I’m sure Gabriel will be a sensible young man.”
    Lily faced her uncle. “Cancel the engagement.”
    “And then what?” Pan’s face darkened.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Grow up, Lily.” He shook his head. “I love you like a daughter, but you need to face reality. We are weak. If we don’t go through with this, by next week the duke will have his armies at our gates. Within a fortnight the turrets of Castle Gloom will be covered in white flags, not black. You will lose Gehenna.”
    “Couldn’t we sign a peace treaty instead?”
    “We have. It’s called a marriage contract.” He looked into his wine cup. “This is what your father wanted. He arranged this marriage with the duke, just before he died.”
    The Black Ford Truce. She should have been there when her father and Duke Solar had met along the banks of River Lacrimae, the natural boundary between Gehenna and Lumina. But if she had been present, along with her mother and brother, then she wouldn’t be here now. “The marriage was meant to be between Dante and one of the duke’s daughters. That was the original plan.”
    Pan nodded. “Lady Angela Solar. A beauty and a tender heart. She and Dante would have been a fine match. But it was not fated to be.”
    “It wasn’t fate that killed Dante, Uncle. It was brigands.”
    “And now their heads decorate Lamentation Hill. Tyburn dealt with them.”
    Lily’s gaze hardened. “Tyburn dealt with
some
of them. There’s still—”
    “The dead are dead, no matter how we might wish it otherwise. It is time we looked to the future, Lily.”
    “So that’s my choice, marriage or war?”
    “The needs of your people come first, Lily,” said Pan. “How can you subject Gehenna to more war, just because of what you do and do not like? I know you’re not that selfish.”
    How far into the past did the hate go? Everyone knew the legend: Prince Shadow and Prince Solar were twins. They should have been the closest of all the Six Princes. Yet one worshipped the dark, and the other the light, and that difference had led to countless wars through the ages.
    The people of Lumina thought the Gehennish were evil for the way they treated their dead, raising them from their endless sleep. Lily knew what it really meant: that the dead were not forgotten—they were still wanted, valued.
    The Gehennish thought the Lumineans were warmongers and land-grabbers who believed that anyone who didn’t follow their way should be destroyed. How many other lands had been crushed by Solar armies, their languages and cultures wiped out?
    There was no point in trying to argue with a Solar. They couldn’t understand why everyone else didn’t want to be just like them.
    “I could defend Gehenna if I’d been allowed to study magic,” she said.
    Pan groaned. This was an old debate. “You know the law as well as anyone. Women cannot study magic. You might as well ask the sun to rise in the west.”
    “There has to be a way,” said Lily, determined not to give up so easily.
    “Don’t you think I’ve tried?” blasted Pan. “If there was another way to become a sorcerer, don’t you think I would have found it?”
    “I’m sorry, Uncle.” She could see the hurt in his eyes. It would be there until the day he died. “Let me marry anyone else. Anyone but