by Amy Cross
“Where's Anna?” Jennifer asked wearily.
“I don't know, I thought -”
“Didn't you come home last night?”
“No,” Kate replied, “I was up at the mansion with Estella, she wanted me to help plan her wedding.”
“You have to go and find Anna,” Jennifer continued, wiping her tear-stained eyes. “She's probably still in the house, she must be terrified. I didn't have time to arrange for someone to check on her, and I didn't want that creep Quill to get involved. I assumed you'd be there to take care of her.”
“I'll go as soon as I leave here,” Kate told her, “but...” She glanced over her shoulder, to make sure that Quill wasn't listening, before turning back to Jennifer. “He's saying that you killed Evangeline Mediaci!”
“I didn't,” Jennifer replied. “I don't know who did, but it sure as hell wasn't me! You have to believe me!”
“Of course I believe you!”
“He's setting me up,” Jennifer continued. “I don't know why or how, it all happened so fast, but he's convinced that I'm responsible.” She paused. “Do you know what other people are saying? When I was arrested, there was a crowd, and they all... I think they believed it was true! I mean, I knew I wasn't exactly the most popular person on Thaxos, but I never thought people would be so quick to believe that I'm a murderer!”
“I don't have a clue what people are saying,” Kate replied. “As soon as I heard you were here, I came straight down from the house. I don't care about gossip, anyone who knows you will realize that there's no way you killed Evangeline.”
“That's the problem, though. People here don't know me. After my husband died, everyone assumed I'd sell the store, but I was determined to keep it going. Sure, people still came in to buy things, but they were suspicious of me, like they thought it was wrong that I was trying to run a business. Adam hadn't been in the grave for more than a month before a succession of elderly men offered to marry me, to help me. I turned them down, and as a result I started to be seen as a difficult person. I didn't care, not really, but now...”
“They'll see the truth eventually,” Kate told her.
“Quill's convinced.”
“He also...” Kate paused for a moment, worried about broaching the other subject. “He also thinks you killed Inspector Tarud.”
Turning, Jennifer made her way to the far wall and looked up at the small barred window, before turning back to Kate. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“It was self-defense, though, wasn't it?”
“Self-defense won't mean a damn thing to anyone here,” Jennifer continued. “They won't believe that Tarud attacked me. He was the chief of police, he was one of the most respected men in the community. Sure, a few people whispered about him, but that won't help, not in a court of law. Tarud will be painted as a great, noble man, and they'll make me out to be some kind of filthy whore.”
“Then you have to tell the truth!” Kate told her. “The truth is all that matters!”
She shook her head. “The truth is inconvenient.”
“Jennifer -”
“They've got me,” she continued. “Kate, I didn't sleep at all last night, I was just sitting in here and thinking about the whole thing.” She wiped her eyes. “I know how justice works on a place like Thaxos. It's swift and it's tough. Quill can link me to Tarud's death, and that'll be enough for everyone else to believe that I killed Evangeline too, and that means...” She paused for a moment. “Kate, I need you to look after Anna for me.”
“Of course,” Kate replied. “I'll make sure she's okay until you get out of here.”
Jennifer stepped back over to her. “You don't understand. I'm not sure I will be getting out of here.”
“You will,” Kate said firmly. “I don't know how yet, but -”
“They hang people for murder around here,” Jennifer continued, her voice trembling with fear. “They take them out to the town square, and they gather to watch. There's not much mercy in these parts, especially not for someone who's been convicted of killing two innocent people.”
“You haven't been convicted of anything yet,” Kate pointed out.
“It's just a matter of time.”
Kate stared at her for a moment. “How can you be so calm about this?”
“I'm not calm,” Jennifer replied, wiping her eyes again. “I'm terrified, but I'm not going to let anyone see me cry, or hear me scream. If this is how it's going to be, then I'm damn well not going to give people the freak show they want. Besides, I did kill Tarud. I should've known that I couldn't just carry on as if nothing had happened. The guilt was tearing me apart, Kate. I was drinking to try to keep it at bay, but..” She paused again. “Maybe I deserve this. I took a life, after all.”
“You defended yourself!”
“But at least this way...” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she was struggling once again to hold back tears. “Death isn't the end,” she added, opening her eyes again, and letting a single tear run down her cheek. “There's something else, Kate, something on the other side.”
“You don't -”
“I saw him.”
“Saw who?”
“Adam. My husband. Baron Le Compte sent him down to see me a few nights ago.”
“I thought...” Kate paused. “I thought your husband was dead?”
“He is. Don't you get it? I'm going to be with him again. Baron Le Compte said he'd look after me, and at the time I assumed he'd protect me, but now I feel as if maybe he just meant that he'd make sure I got to be with Adam again. It's almost as if he looked ahead and saw that this was going to happen, and he wanted me to know that death wouldn't be the end. There's something on the other side, and I can get there if I repent and accept my sins.”
“You can't be serious,” Kate replied. “You can't let Quill do this!”
“I'm tired,” Jennifer continued, “and the only thing that matters in this world now is Anna. I'm a murderer, Kate, and that makes me unfit to be her mother. It's better for Anna that I'm not around.”
“Bullshit,” Kate replied, taking hold of the lock on the cell door and trying in vain to pull it open. “I'm going to get you out of here.”
“Anna and I don't have any other family,” Jennifer continued, sniffing back more tears, “and I don't want her going to an orphanage. Kate, I know this is a lot to ask, but you're the only person I can turn to.”
“I told you, I'll look after her until you're out of here.”
“I need more than that,” Jennifer replied. “I need you to look after her until she's old enough to get married.”
Kate paused, trying to work out if she understood the request correctly.
“At first,” Jennifer continued, “I was hoping that she could be shielded from the truth about what I did to Tarud. I didn't want her to know that her own mother...” Another pause, as if she was struggling with the enormity of the situation. “None of that matters now, I realize there's no chance of that. Instead, I need you to try to make her understand that I wasn't completely evil. Tell her what I did, and why I had to be punished, and why that's the right thing.”
“Stop talking about yourself in the past tense.”
“I've accepted my fate,” Jennifer told her, “and I've accepted that it's the right thing. For me, for the island, for Anna...”
“You didn't kill Evangeline Mediaci!”
“But I killed Inspector Tarud. There's still blood on my hands. Yes, I had every right to fight him off, but killing him?”
“You said it yourself, that was an accident.”
“No-one's going to believe me. I'd rather die with a little dignity than go screaming to the gallows. I know when my number's up, Kate. If I can show that I repented for my sins, perhaps people will be kinder to Anna. She's all the matters to me in the whole world.”
“I'm not going to let this happen,” Kate replied, pulling on the bars one more time before taking a step back. “I'll get help. I'll get Edga
r to intervene.”
“And set a murderer free? I hardly think the people of Thaxos would be very happy about that.” She paused. “I've accepted my fate. I spent the whole night asking God for guidance, and finally, just before dawn, he whispered into my heart. I have to pay for what I did.”
Kate shook her head.
“We live in a moral world,” Jennifer told her. “I don't want Anna to grow up in a world where murderers get to walk away from their crimes. I killed Tarud, I deserve...” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “If you ask Baron Le Compte anything, ask him to make sure that Anna is okay. Ask him to help you to look after her, but as for me... I don't care what happens, and I think the only thing I can do for my daughter now is to show her that I paid for my crime.”
“No,” Kate replied, “I'm not going to let this happen. You killed Tarud in self-defense and I'm going to make sure that everyone knows that. I'm getting you out of here, and you can't stop me.” Heading to the door, she glanced back at Jennifer. “I'll be back.”
“Bring a couple of extra shirts.”
“Why?”
“They usually carry out hangings at dawn,” Jennifer replied, “and it can be a little cold. I want to wear some extra layers, so I don't shiver. I wouldn't want people thinking I'm scared.”
“It won't come to that,” Kate said firmly. “I won't let them kill you.”
II
Everywhere he looked, he saw pain and fear and death, but he couldn't close his eyes, he couldn't even blink, not even as the vast pillars of eternity came crashing down onto the city.
Hearing screams, he turned to see an army of burning children stumbling through the ruins. Some of them kept pushing on, desperate to fight, while others dropped to the ground. As they burned, they all reached out with blackened, charred hands, as if they were hoping that someone would help them.
Nearby, a woman driven mad by war sat in the dirt, cradling a baby made of ash. Every time the wind blew, more of the ash was lost, despite the woman's desperate efforts to keep her child whole. Soon there was nothing left in her arms but a few black flecks.
Further away, dark creatures moved through the sky, driven on by their crazed masters to attack with renewed vigor. All around, the city of Sepphos was burning.
And he could do nothing to stop it.
Frozen in place, he felt his entire body shaking. Spotting a shadow falling across the ruined street, he looked up just in time to see a huge, dark creature blocking out the sun. After a moment, the creature turned and looked directly down at him, and finally it opened its mouth and let out a shrill, foul roar. As its great wings crashed through the smoke-filled air, the creature reared up into the sky and then began to dive, heading straight for him.
Nearby, a woman cried for her dead child.
The wraith slammed into the ground, shaking the entire street and cracking the ground, but Edgar remained standing. He knew his own strength, and even as the wraith twitched and began to recover from the impact, Edgar was fully aware that the time had come to fight. Turning slowly, he found himself facing the huge, pulsing eye of the creature, and he realized that the time had come. Raising his sword, he stepped toward the eye, finally able to move again, finally able to seek revenge for all the miseries that had befallen his people.
As he cut his way through the eye and tore into the beast's brain, he was filled with one certainty: after killing the wraith, he would march to the Gulf of Narm and locate the nests of the cold-blooded children, and he would make sure that they paid for their parents' crimes. Blood flowed onto him, spilling out from the wraith's brain and filling his mouth, and he allowed himself to be pulled down. Nothing else mattered anymore. Only blood and victory. The war was in his heart now, and he knew it would never leave.
***
“Oh my dear brother!” Madeleine sang as she made her way down to the underground chamber. “Oh my dear brother, where art thou?”
Stopping after a moment, she shone her flashlight around the chamber and, seeing no-one, began to frown.
“Huh,” she muttered. “Where art thou?”
Heading over to the altar, she took another look around, but there was still no sign of Edgar. She waited for a moment, listening to the silence, expecting to hear some hint of a presence, before finally turning and heading back toward the tunnel.
“Well,” she continued, “I guess -”
Hearing a noise nearby, she stopped and looked back across the chamber. She waited, and then finally she saw a hint of movement in the shadows. Shining her flashlight toward the far side, she spotted a figure hunched in the corner, sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up, and she realized with shock that she'd found Edgar. Her first instinct was to fire off some witty quip, or to mock his apparent tiredness, but somewhere deep in her soul she felt as if there was another problem, as if Edgar was in a rare mood of defeat. The thought chilled her bones.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Silence.
“Edgar?” Taking a couple of steps closer, she felt a sense of deep unease settling on her shoulders. “Edgar, I expected to find you hard at work down here like a madman, not sitting curled up like a fool. What the hell's wrong with you?” Shining the flashlight at her brother's head, she saw that there was an expression of pure fear and horror in his eyes. “Okay, Edgar, now you're actually starting to worry me. What's got your panties all in a twist?”
Again she waited for a reply, but again none was forthcoming.
“Fine,” she muttered, heading over to him and crouching down, shining the flashlight directly into his face. “Edgar, is this some sort of game? I'm really bad at guessing, so can't you just tell me what the hell's wrong?”
“I was at Sepphos,” he whispered.
“Huh?”
“I sometimes told people that I missed the great battle,” he continued, staring straight ahead as if his mind was filled with some unseen horror. “I told them I arrived too late to do anything, but the truth is... I reached the city shortly after the siege had been broken. It was the last great massacre that our side suffered during the war, and I was right in the middle of it, and there was nothing I could do.”
“You were there, huh?” she asked, lowering her flashlight as she saw the pain in his eyes. “Well that sucks. What's for lunch?”
“I froze,” he added, still not looking at her. “Just for a moment or two, and then I started fighting again, but I often wonder if, in those few seconds, I might have made a difference.”
“Doubtful,” she replied, grabbing his arm. “Come on, you know I'm bad at meaningful conversations. You know what I think we should have for lunch? Brandy! Well, you should, anyway.” She looked down at her belly. “I guess I have to be good and not drink alcohol while I'm carrying this little thing. Damn it, sometimes I wish I wasn't such a responsible person!”
“The carnage I saw at Sepphos was beyond description,” Edgar told her.
“Then don't try describing it. Try describing lunch instead!”
“There was -”
“I get it,” she continued, interrupting him, “it was horrible, but it's in the past. If you keep reliving it, Edgar, you're gonna end up losing your mind.”
“I saw children burning on the ground,” he continued. “I smelled their flesh being consumed by flames, and there was nothing I could do to help them. Great fire-wraiths were above us, swooping down to attack. Somehow they never scored a direct hit against me, although a few of them came close. I killed one of them. It came to take me and I lost control, I charged at it, fully expecting to die. I don't even know how I killed the cursed thing, but eventually I was left covered in blood, surrounded by pieces of its corpse. And yet, still, I could do nothing to save the city.”
“Well,” she continued, nudging his arm, “that's just another reason why I should've been allowed to fight in the war, isn't it? If I'd been there, we'd have cleaned up.”
“After the battle was over,” he added, “I woke up in the ruins, someh
ow still alive. I walked through the hushed streets, I saw the bodies, and I swore revenge. I was determined to make every cold-blooded vampire pay for what happened to the city of Sepphos that day, and then...” He paused, as a flicker of pain crossed his face. “Later on, I was captured. Again, I thought it was the end. I was chained up and tortured, I was pushed through wall after wall of pain, and I still don't know how I survived, it was as if fate had decreed that I must live. But this time, the pain had a face, and a name. This time, I could hear him laughing at me, and I could see his grin, and -”
Madeleine waited for him to continue, before finally realizing that his mind seemed to have drifted back to the war again.
“You never really talk about what happened,” she said eventually, sitting next to him and looking up at the crude images carved into one of the nearby wooden panels. “When you came back from the war, I desperately wanted to know everything, but I could tell you weren't in the mood to talk, so I tried to draw out information in other ways. I made jokes, I said dumb things and I generally acted like a total irritant, all to get you to spill the beans. Most times you'd never say more than one or two words, so I had to be patient, which isn't usually one of my stronger qualities. You only ever really said anything about the war when you were angry, so that's why I started trying to provoke you all the time. I just wanted to hear your stories.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“He's here,” Edgar said finally.
“Who is?”
“He's on the island.”
She waited for him to explain. “Who?” she asked when she realized he'd fallen silent again. When he still failed to answer, she watched the concern in his eyes, before slowly she began to realize. “You don't mean... Edgar, I know there was some guy, a cold-blooded vampire, you had some particular beef with during the war, but you told me he was dead.”
“I thought he was.”
