The Mortal Knife

by D. J. McCune

  Clotho nodded. ‘I am but I cannot linger long. We must speak, Adam Mortson. Not here and not now.’ She pulled her other hand from her cloak, fast enough to make Adam flinch back instinctively – but when he looked again she was offering him a small green glass bead. ‘You must come to my realm. We can talk in safety there.’

  Adam hesitated before he took the glass. She must be mad, coming here in the middle of a coming of age ball with so many Lumen gathered together. What would she have done if he hadn’t come above ground? Would she have gone down into the ballroom? It would have caused a stampede. ‘How did you know you would find me here? Outside, I mean.’

  Clotho looked uneasy. ‘I am tarrying too long, Adam Mortson. Come to my realm. I will answer your questions there.’

  Adam shook his head. ‘No. I’m not going anywhere. How did you find me?’ A thought occurred to him. ‘Did you do something to me? Did you make me come up into the garden?’

  Clotho sighed. ‘I did not force you to speak with me. I merely … influenced you.’

  Adam stared at her. For some reason her words were making him feel a little bit sick. ‘I thought I was doing it myself,’ he said slowly. ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’

  For a second Clotho looked stricken. ‘Forgive me. My time is short. You are in danger. There was no other way.’

  Adam felt his heart leap. ‘What do you mean I’m in danger?’ He backed away a little, his mind racing. She knew! She knew about the bomber and the bus girl and the homeless man and the car driver! She knew that he had saved them and now she had come to kill him! ‘I’m not going anywhere with you!’

  Clotho was breathing quickly. She hunched over a little, clutching at her chest. ‘I wish to help you, Adam Mortson. I will do what I can to protect you.’ She put her other hand on her stomach and groaned softly.

  Adam frowned. She didn’t look like a threat; she looked sick. If anyone was in danger right now it seemed to be her. ‘Are you all right?’

  Clotho straightened up although it seemed to take a lot of effort. ‘I dare not linger. Let me help you. Come to me, in my realm. I will do all I can to save you. Save your family.’ Her voice was getting weaker and the light around her was fading.

  Adam blinked at her, confused and alarmed. ‘But when? When will I come?’

  ‘Soon.’ The word was a whisper as the last of her light disappeared. ‘Come soon.’

  Adam squinted into the darkness but his night vision was gone. And by the time he could see anything Clotho was gone too.

  Adam’s head was swimming. How was he going to go back to the party? He’d only had a glass of champagne to toast Aron, otherwise he might have wondered whether this was all some kind of drunken dream.

  As he crossed the lawn he struggled to get his thoughts in order. Clotho had taken a big chance coming here tonight and she seemed to want to help him. But who was out to get him? And why? It must be because he’d been interfering with the Fates – but if that was the case, why hadn’t Clotho just killed him there and then?

  His dark thoughts were interrupted by a shadow moving on the lawn. Adam’s heart sank. Who else was lying in wait for him? But as he inched closer he recognised the figure draped in shimmering cloth.

  Chloe jumped – then relaxed. ‘Oh, it’s you. Don’t tell on me!’

  ‘I won’t.’ Adam eyed her curiously. ‘What are you doing up here?’

  ‘Same thing as you, I expect,’ Chloe said. ‘Taking a break.’ She was holding something dangling from her fingers. After a moment’s squinting Adam recognised the dull glimmer of her gold sandals.

  ‘I thought you’d be downstairs dancing with Ciaron.’

  Chloe scowled. ‘I can only dance so long. You try waltzing all night in high heels.’

  Adam winced at the thought. He was enough of a liability on the dance floor in flat shoes. ‘It’s good, isn’t it? The party.’

  Chloe shrugged. ‘I guess. So good we’re both hiding up here.’

  Adam stared at her. Chloe was holding the hem of her dress off the ground. In the faint light from the stairwell below Adam could just see her bare toes wiggling in the grass. Her feet must have been freezing.

  ‘I thought you liked all this stuff. Dresses and dancing and meeting Lumen.’

  ‘It’s not like I have much choice, is it? So it doesn’t matter if I like it or not, I still have to do it.’ Chloe looked at Adam and something in his expression made her laugh a little bitterly. ‘You don’t get it, do you Adam? You spend all your time running away, pretending you’re not a Luman – but that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.’

  Adam frowned. ‘You only think that. You’ve never been on a job. You don’t know what it’s like.’

  ‘And I never will, will I?’ Chloe snapped. ‘What’s so hard about it? It’s just swooping. And telling people where they have to go on the Unknown Roads. It’s not rocket science.’

  She made it sound so easy – and for most Lumen it was. Their father and brothers just got the job done. They didn’t mess things up or complicate things by worrying about saving people. That’s why they were good Lumen and he wasn’t. That’s why Chloe would be a good Luman too, Adam realised. She had something he didn’t: a kind of detachment. In the end she just accepted the rules the way everyone else did. ‘It’s not as easy as you think,’ he said at last. ‘You make it sound simple but it’s not.’

  Chloe sighed. ‘Of course it’s simple, Adam. Just not for you.’ She shook her head, frustrated. ‘Funny, isn’t it? You’re the one who doesn’t want to be a Luman – but I’m the one standing here dressed up like a doll. You should be the one worrying about dancing and getting betrothed.’

  Adam stared at her. He never really talked to Chloe properly. She was just his little sister. Somehow in the last few months she had started growing up and he hadn’t even noticed. It was weird how you could live in the same house as someone and still feel like you didn’t really know them at all. He tried to make a joke of things. ‘Well, I’m not very good at dancing either.’

  ‘I guess not,’ Chloe said. ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m up here. I just need a break. I’ll be down in a minute.’ Before he could say anything she was walking away into the darkness, swinging her sandals just a little too hard.

  The party was deemed a great success by everyone who mattered. After the last guests left, a buoyant Elise led the way back to the house, her face triumphant. Nathanial had a calm glow of satisfaction – tempered by the fact that his death sense flared within just a few minutes. Clearly Morta had been itching to get back to work. Aron volunteered to do the job on his own as a newly qualified Luman but was told to enjoy one last night in bed to get over the shock of the Marking. Luc and Auntie Jo had enjoyed the ladies and the food respectively and even the dogs went to their pens happy, having recovered from their scare.

  Only Adam and Chloe seemed to have had any reservations about the whole evening. For Adam this was no shock; he was used to feeling like the odd one out in his family. Still, it had never occurred to him that Chloe might feel the same way. Of course she made the occasional pointed remark about becoming a Luman – although not in front of Elise – but Adam had always assumed she was happy to set off along the well-trodden path of betrothal, marriage and running a Luman home. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  He spent Sunday helping with the great clear-up while Aron did his first solo jobs and Nathanial slept off the exhaustion of the prior weeks. Some of the Lumen wives and daughters had returned to help – including Aron’s dance partner from the previous night. Thankfully there was no sign of Marianne. Adam didn’t have time to think about dodging her – he was too busy worrying about when and how he was going to go and see Clotho. Last time he had been in the Realm of the Fates he had never really felt in danger but he couldn’t forget his father’s tension or the creeping sense of menace in the Hinterland – the feeling that they weren’t alone. It wasn’t souls freaking him out but something else. He needed information and he knew who would help him.r />
  He picked his moment carefully, when Auntie Jo had sidled off to the kitchen for a break. Adam muttered something about getting them all more silver polish and scarpered. When he opened the back door into the kitchen he found Auntie Jo at the table, with her hip flask angled over a steaming cup of coffee. ‘You caught me,’ she said with a guilty grin and took a swig from the flask. ‘I needed a break from all the competitive polishing.’

  Adam grinned and sat down opposite her. ‘Yeah, Chloe’s stuck there with them. Mother doesn’t seem to care too much what Luc and I do. We’ve put away all the chairs.’

  ‘Oh well, a Luman girl needs to know how to get a high shine on silver cutlery. It’s an essential life skill.’ Auntie Jo rolled her eyes.

  Adam studied her and tried once again to imagine Auntie Jo as a teenager. It was impossible – seeing her younger and slimmer with tidy clothes and tidy hair and plans to get betrothed – but he’d seen the locket. The man inside was still a mystery. The whole thing was a mystery and awkward and thus avoided by everyone. Even now Adam found himself pretending Auntie Jo’s drunken tears had never happened. Presumably no one would mention it or even think about it again until the following year. Hopefully Nathanial would be at home next time.

  Auntie Jo raised an eyebrow and Adam realised he was still staring at her. He cleared his throat and said quickly, ‘Chloe didn’t seem to enjoy it much last night.’

  Auntie Jo sighed. ‘Of course she didn’t enjoy it Adam. It’s a glorified cattle market. Why would she enjoy it? Your sister isn’t stupid you know.’

  ‘I know.’ Adam hesitated, seeing his opportunity – then took the plunge. ‘I know she can’t be a Luman but maybe she could do something else. You know, like become … a Fate.’

  Auntie Jo choked on her coffee. After she recovered she gave him a long look. ‘I wouldn’t wish that on her either,’ she said quietly. ‘The Fates make their own sacrifices. No family, no friends, seeing all the people you love walking the Unknown Roads long before you can ever follow … ’ She shivered, tailing off.

  ‘Are there other people there too? In the Realm of the Fates?’

  ‘Not living there. They don’t need helpers. They have their work to do and they get on with it.’

  ‘But who made all the food and stuff?’ Adam remembered the buffet table. Somehow he couldn’t imagine Morta wearing an apron and washing grapes.

  ‘Things work differently there,’ was all Auntie Jo said.

  Adam realised he was going to have to be direct. ‘It’s just that when we going there … you and Father seemed a bit nervous. So I thought there might be someone else living there. In the Hinterland.’

  Auntie Jo gave him a beady look. ‘Sometimes you actually notice more than we give you credit for.’ She shrugged. ‘I suppose it doesn’t matter now. You’ll probably never go to the Realm of the Fates again or not until you’re much older.’ She lowered her voice even though they were alone. ‘The way Lumen normally see the Hinterland protects them and protects the Hinterland itself. You see it as an overlay on the physical world. But when you see the Hinterland as it really is then a kind of clock starts. The Hinterland is guarded, to stop people just roaming about.’

  ‘By what?’ Adam felt a mixture of triumph and terror. So there had been something there, watching them. No wonder the normally cool Nathanial had seemed rattled.

  Auntie Jo hesitated. ‘Nothing you need to worry about.’ As Adam opened his mouth to protest she raised a quelling hand. ‘I don’t know Adam. Lumen don’t hang about long enough to meet the Hunter who guards the Hinterland. Trust me, you don’t want to see it. That’s why very young children are kept out of the Hinterland. Ironically they find it easier to see the Hinterland as it truly is. Their minds haven’t started to close to other possibilities. They don’t cling to the physical world the way older Lumen do. And as soon as one person in a group sees the true Hinterland, the Hunter becomes aware of their presence. It’s like a timer starts. There was an awful tragedy a long time ago, where a little one must have seen the true Hinterland and not told anyone. A whole Luman family were taken.’

  Adam stared at her in horror. ‘When you say taken – what does that even mean? Where did they go? And what is the Hunter?’

  ‘Nobody knows, Adam. And it doesn’t matter.’ Auntie Jo cleared her throat and reached for a restorative swig of whisky. ‘You’ll probably never need to worry about it again. You did well getting there. Put it from your mind.’

  Adam wanted to ask more. Auntie Jo’s tantalising hints had left him more confused, not less so. Unfortunately there was no way of pushing for more information without arousing Auntie Jo’s suspicions – which would lead to the kind of grilling that made secret police look like nosey neighbours.

  One thing was for sure. Adam had been right to be nervous on his last visit to the Realm of the Fates – and this time he’d be on his own.

  Chapter 14

  The following morning Adam’s thoughts were a whirl as he made his way to school. The bus ride passed in a blur of hazy scenarios where he fought his way through the Hinterland, dodging a monstrous enemy. He had spent most of Sunday evening lurking near his father’s study, hoping to get in and get his hands on The Book of the Unknown Roads but an exhausted Nathanial had spent the evening working while Aron did his first evening of solo call-outs. With no further information on the unseen menace in the Hinterland, Adam had considered a range of possible weapons, from rowan branches to ceremonial swords liberated from the vaults beneath the house. The problem was rowan branches were hard to fit in a schoolbag and Adam had never used a ceremonial sword for much more than dance practice. Without becoming an actual ninja in the next eight hours he would be more of a danger to himself than his unknown enemies.

  He managed a brief chat with Melissa at the end of registration and promised to meet her in the art room at lunchtime for another posing session. If he was honest this was for the purely selfish reason that he hoped he’d be rewarded with a snog at the end. After all, knowing what lay ahead of him after school … it could well be the last kiss for the condemned man.

  At break he had only just walked into the library when an excited Dan squawked his name and waved him over to their table. Archie and Spike were staring at the laptop screen intently. For a long, panic-stricken moment Adam wondered if his face had been successfully identified and whether he should leg it.

  ‘We did it! We finally got the Beast to take the bait!’ Dan hissed, spraying the table and his friends with semi-chewed pumpkin seeds. His eyes were gleaming crazily with a mixture of excitement and terror. ‘He thinks the Wonderfish is for real!’

  Adam moved behind Archie and Spike and studied the screen for confirmation. ‘So he finally logged in to his email?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Spike murmured. ‘He got a text telling him that he’d won a prize and the claim link was in his email. Unfortunately it had expired but the Wonderfish was waiting by way of consolation.’

  ‘She’s like the best thing I’ve ever drawn,’ Archie said, his face reverent. ‘Seriously. She’s the perfect woman, or as close as she can be without being a ninja. I thought even the Beast wouldn’t believe that bit. I had to rub out the nunchucks.’

  ‘Probably wise,’ Adam muttered studying the ‘photo’. Archie had managed to convert his modified drawing to what looked like a slightly blurred photograph. The picture still freaked him out, mainly because it looked a lot like Chloe. The thought of Archie dreaming about a girl who looked just like his little sister was a bit close to home for Adam’s taste. ‘So did the Beast like the look of her?’ (That idea was even worse.)

  For the first time Spike grinned. ‘Oh yes. In fact, he decided to return the favour. Sent a few pictures of his own. I’m downloading them now.’

  There was a ping from the laptop and a slide show of photos popped up. The first was innocuous enough: a close-up of the Beast showing his ‘hard’ face. Dan whimpered and took a step back from the computer on instinct. The second showed
the Beast shirtless in a pose reminiscent of an angry bodybuilder, muscles popping and teeth clenched. And the next one …

  ‘Bloody hell!’ Spike said, stunned out of his usual maddening composure. ‘I did not want to see that!’

  Adam contemplated sticking his head in a bucket of boiling water, in the hope of erasing the image of the Beast’s naked buttocks from his cringing brain. ‘He doesn’t hold back, does he?’

  Dan held up one scrawny arm and wistfully clenched his right bicep. ‘If I was that massive I’d be taking photos of myself too.’

  Archie held up his hand. ‘OK, let’s just stop there. Thinking about your arms is bad enough but your arse is a step too far. The Beast is hooked on the Wonderfish. What happens next?’

  There was a long pause as three pairs of eyes swivelled towards Adam. He hesitated, not sure what to say. The thing was, he’d been hanging out with Melissa in the art room and thus hadn’t seen the Beast around. The art block, like the library, had teachers mad enough to challenge the Beast, so he tended to stay away from them. While he was leaving them alone it seemed unwise to rock the boat. ‘Well, maybe we can just keep emailing him. You can do some more pictures. Of Chl— of the Wonderfish.’

  Archie leered horribly. ‘It would be my pleasure to keep drawing the Wonderfish. Maybe her next pictures can be the bikini shots.’

  Dan shuddered. ‘Yeah but what if the Beast sends his version of the bikini shot? He might go full frontal next time.’

  This was an unwelcome image and led to a roar of disgust and an angry ‘Ssssshhhhhh!’ from Mrs Nostel, the school librarian. She brandished a box of herbal tea in their direction.

  ‘Sorry,’ Adam hissed. He turned back to Spike. ‘Maybe let’s just string him along for a while. At least then if I want to go for a walk with Melissa at lunchtime I won’t need to worry about the Beast jumping me.’

  ‘You can always go out with her after school, you know,’ Spike said. ‘I mean it’s a bit naff always hanging out in school.’