Daughter of Lies and Ruin

by Jo Spurrier

  ‘On it,’ I said. ‘Kara, stay with Aleida!’

  Kara frowned and glanced back. ‘Da? Da!’

  ‘Stay!’ I roared at her. I wished there was time to explain. She’s weak, and she’s drained, she needs someone to stay with her! But there was no time for that. I turned on my heel and sprinted for the bear, hoping just for once that Kara would do as she was asked.

  Up close, I could see why Brute had fallen behind. The thick black cords had caught him just like a snare, and despite his powerful claws and teeth, more of them were reaching up out of the warm sand to wrap around him, two more for every one he tore loose.

  I met his wide, panicked eyes as I pulled out my wand once again. ‘Hold still,’ I said to him, and crouched down beside his feet. ‘This might hurt. I’m sorry.’

  I jammed the tip of the wand into the sand, right into the knot of vines or tentacles or whatever the blasted things were, and once again I thought of fire, and felt the ring on my finger throb with heat.

  I loosed everything I could muster into the sand, sending a scorching spear of heat into whatever hellish creature was lurking down there.

  With a bellow of pain Brute pulled back, wrenching himself away, while from under the sand I heard a piercing shriek, much muffled, and the sudden sickening stench of roasted beastie. Sand heaved beneath us as the thing down there writhed in agony. It bowled me over, sending me tumbling — but Brute was free, and so was I. Picking up my skirts, I ran back towards Aleida and the others, Brute beside me breaking into a lumbering run that would have swiftly outdistanced me if he hadn’t checked his pace to keep from leaving me behind.

  Ahead, Aleida and Kara were in the stone circle, shouting and hollering. Toro was charging back towards us, coming to bear me back to them faster than my own legs could carry me.

  Then, I felt something bump against my thigh and fall. The flask, fallen out of my pocket again. Before I could react, it struck my foot and bounced away across the sand.

  Cursing, I tried to stop and turn back. The shouts of encouragement up ahead turned to yells of protest as I darted after the tarnished silver flask.

  Then, I saw the thing that had come out of the sand after us. I’d never seen an octopus before I’d leafed through Aleida’s bestiary with its beautiful illustrations, but that’s what this thing looked like, if you could imagine an octopus crossed with a gnarled and ancient tree, crawling after us with dozens of contorted, leathery roots.

  Before I could properly take in the awful sight, Brute and Toro were there, one snarling in rage, the other tossing his head with a shrill, demanding neigh. In the background I could hear Aleida hollering. ‘Get back here, Dee! Now, damn you!’

  The flask was still yards away, but Brute cut me off from reaching it, swerving into my path like a furry wall. Toro caught my dress in his yellow teeth and pulled me hard towards his shoulder, while Brute shoved his head between my legs, hoisting me bodily towards Toro’s back. ‘No!’ I protested. ‘The flask, get it! We have to get it!’

  Brute’s roar drowned out my words, and Toro wheeled beneath me, bolting back towards the others, Brute barely half a pace behind.

  At Aleida’s side, the mountain lord had raised its fists, and a glowing sphere had appeared in the air around it, for the moment nothing more than a soap bubble, but growing brighter with every passing second.

  Fingers buried in Toro’s mane, I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head, the taste of failure bitter in my mouth. I felt power wash over us, soft and cool as silk. ‘I’m sorry,’ I sobbed to the man beneath me, bound into this bestial form. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry . . .’

  Coming back to our world was like coming home. The smell of it, the touch of the air, the feeling of the earth beneath my feet. When I slithered down from Toro’s back I would have loved nothing more than to just lie there and embrace it, even if we were back on the horrible, crumbling stone that Minerva had contrived to build her cavern. Although I would have been happier about it if the hell-beast’s severed head hadn’t been sitting there, its jaws and tongue still twitching.

  I turned my face away and tried to put it out of my mind. I had more important things to attend to.

  The mountain lord was departing, sinking away into the brittle stone, the hell-beast’s head and foot descending with it. ‘Wait!’ I shouted after the elemental. ‘I need to ask you something! Wait!’

  ‘Dee, no!’ Aleida called after me, but I ignored her, stumbling towards the disappearing being.

  It halted its descent, and slowly turned towards me with those cold blue inhuman eyes, and I faltered.

  Behind me, I heard Aleida stagger to her feet and come after me, leaning heavily on her staff. ‘Damn it, Dee.’

  The elemental’s gaze flickered her way, before settling back on me. Then its voice echoed inside my head, like the grinding of stone. Speak, child.

  It took me a moment to muster my thoughts. ‘Please,’ I started. ‘Please, we left something behind. Something important.’

  The stone head, so small compared to the bulk of its body, tilted to one side, like a quizzical dog. You are all here, are you not?

  ‘It was a flask, a silver flask,’ I said. ‘We need it! It’s important!’

  ‘Listen, kid—’ Aleida began, but those cold blue eyes flicked her way again, and her voice choked off.

  No. You have spoken enough, witch; now you will be silent. The child will speak.

  ‘It’s important,’ I said again. ‘I think . . . I think it’s the key to undoing what was done to them. The transformation spell.’

  The token, yes. It is lost.

  ‘But we have to get it back! What was done to them — it’s wrong! They’ve done bad things, I don’t deny it, but this isn’t justice! This is, this is horrible!’

  The mountain lord said nothing. It just watched me with those cold eyes. Then it started to sink away into the earth again.

  ‘Wait!’ I shouted. ‘Please! I’m asking for mercy!’

  As the elemental disappeared, its voice echoed through my head once more. What is justice? What is mercy? These are nothing to the mountains and the earth. You must ask the lords of your kind, child. This one cannot help you.

  Beside me, Aleida doubled over with a cough, raising a hand to her throat. ‘Lord and Lady, Dee,’ she rasped. ‘You’ll be the death of me, I swear.’

  I couldn’t look away from the place where the being had vanished. ‘He didn’t, he didn’t even try.’

  ‘I was trying to tell you. He doesn’t care. He didn’t help us for our sake. It, I mean. It’s not a he any more than it’s a she. Look, the hell-beast would have corrupted the earth itself with its presence; that’s the only reason I was allowed to draw that much power and drive it back. You did your best, Dee, and you did a damn good job, but you can’t win every time. You just can’t.’

  With a low nicker, Toro came around behind her. At the sight of him, my eyes filled with tears.

  Toro nudged at Aleida’s shoulder. She waved him away, but he nudged her again, nearly knocking her over. She glared at him, but then she turned back to me and her face softened. ‘Oh, fine,’ she growled. ‘But if you make me fall on my face I’ll see that you regret it.’ She leaned back against his shoulder and wrapped an arm around his neck to steady herself. Her head bowed, her chin sinking to her chest — and an instant later, lifted again. ‘Don’t weep for me, lass,’ he said in Aleida’s voice. ‘You’ve a kind heart, but I don’t deserve your mercy. I truly don’t, not after all I’ve done. Dragging Brent back in when all he wanted was a better life for his lass is the least of it all.’

  His head fell again, and Aleida was back, rubbing her eyes. ‘Hey, kid. You okay?’

  I shook my head, tears spilling over my cheeks. ‘We can’t just leave him like this. I could go back there, maybe. I could find it—’

  ‘Dee, no,’ Aleida said, her voice full of steel. ‘You are not throwing your life away for him!’ Standing by her shoulder, Toro snorted in agre
ement, stamping his hoof in emphasis.

  ‘But—’

  ‘Over my dead godsdamned body, you understand? The fact that you all even made it there in one piece is a miracle, and getting back again . . . Listen, you don’t even know how lucky you are to have pulled that off.’

  I scowled up at her. ‘But Minerva managed to go there and plant them all.’

  ‘Minerva’s got forty years of experience on you. And before you ask, no, I’m not doing it either.’

  I felt myself flush. ‘I wasn’t asking.’

  ‘Not yet, but you’d get there eventually. Dee, the only reason you were able to travel there as easily as you did was because Minerva’s ritual already bridged the gap between the realms. If we wanted to go back there we’d probably have to use that wretched demon tree to open a portal.’

  ‘Oh gods,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, exactly. It’s not going to happen.’

  I felt my shoulders slumping in defeat. ‘But the elemental said something about asking human lords for help . . . what about that? Who are they?’ It wasn’t referring to Lord Belmont and his like, I was sure of that much.

  ‘Oh, you know. The gods, that kind of thing.’

  I stared at her. ‘What do you mean, the gods? Are they, are they real?’

  She chortled at that, and slipped an arm around my shoulders. ‘Yeah. Yeah, kid, they’re real.’

  ‘And they could turn him back?’

  ‘Could, maybe. But they won’t. Not with all the harm he’s done. It takes more than one good turn to atone for years and years of murder and pillage.’

  Something in her voice made me turn to her, but her eyes were down, her head bowed. I started to speak, I even opened my mouth — but then I realised I had no idea what to say. Instead I looked across to Kara and Brute, still huddled together where the mountain lord had brought them back to our own world. Brute had his huge paws wrapped around Kara’s small shoulders while she buried her face in his fur and sobbed.

  Aleida squeezed my shoulder and pulled away. ‘You two okay?’ she said, hobbling towards them. ‘Well, I know you’re cut up like a fresh-ploughed field, big guy, but from what I can see they’re all skin-deep. I can sort you out once I’ve had a chance to catch my breath. Kara, you in one piece?’

  Kara turned to her, tears wet on her cheeks, but her eyes were guarded. ‘I . . . I’m fine. Look, miss, I’m sorry about going behind your back to the other witch, but if you’ve got a bone to pick with me, leave my da out of it. It was me that did it, not him.’

  Aleida barked a laugh. ‘Ha! Don’t worry yourself over it, kid, you’re good. You did everything just right.’

  That set Kara frowning. ‘What?’

  I could just imagine how the girl would react when she figured out what Aleida meant, so before she could head any further down that path I swallowed hard on my tears and dug into my pockets, pulling out all the trinkets we’d collected. ‘Brent, here, one of these is yours, right?’ I spilled them out over the ground, the necklace, belt-buckle, and then the pipe.

  As soon as the pipe appeared, Kara snatched it up. ‘This one! This is his! But why? What does it matter now?’

  Aleida leaned down to pluck it out of her hand. ‘Minerva used them as a focus for the transformation spell. Burying them in another realm was a bit of a master-stroke, if I’m honest, though it’s a lot of trouble to go to.’

  ‘Almost like she knew someone was going to come along and interfere?’ I said, looking up at my teacher.

  She gave me a thoughtful look. ‘Dee, have I mentioned how glad I am that you’re not stuck in some backwater kitchen down on the plains? Your intuition is too bloody good to be wasted in a scullery.’ She frowned at the pipe, and waved a hand over it. Then, she swayed violently and with gritted teeth pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. ‘Oh, for pity’s sake. I can’t do it.’

  Kara swallowed hard. ‘I don’t mind,’ she piped up. ‘I mean, I’m just glad he’s alive. If it can’t be undone . . .’

  ‘Oh, hush, girl. I just mean right now.’ She handed it to me. ‘But you probably can, Dee. Cleanse and banishment to start with, and see how you go from there.’

  ‘Um, all right,’ I said. ‘But maybe we should get back to the wagon first? Only last time . . .’ My voice faltered, but I pushed on. ‘Last time he was, well, buck naked. And it’d be a long walk on bare feet.’

  ‘Bear feet, ha ha,’ Aleida said. ‘Yeah, fair point. Well, the big lunk’s lasted this long. Another hour or so won’t kill him. Let’s go.’

  EPILOGUE

  The next morning, I awoke to Aleida’s voice outside the window of the caravan. ‘Well?’ she was saying. ‘What’s your plan, then? Kara and her father are heading out of here, if I have any say in the matter, and we’ll be on our way, too. Do you want to see if they’ll take you with them? Or I can find you a nice quiet farm somewhere, like I said before. Hells, the Haven would probably take you in, for that matter.’ From the sound of it she was leaning against the wagon, right near my head.

  In answer, there came a rumbling snort. Toro’s snort.

  ‘No? None of these? Then what? You want to stay with us?’

  He gave two snorts for yes.

  ‘Well, you were damned useful last night, I’ll grant you that,’ Aleida said. ‘But listen, I’m not collecting waifs and strays here. This life is no walk in the park, and you’ll have to earn your keep. If you get injured I’ll do my best to fix you up, but there’s limits to what I can do, and you’ll be risking life and limb. But then again, I suppose you’re no stranger to that sort of thing.’

  Once again, he snorted yes.

  ‘Why, though? The girl? Taken rather a shine to Dee, haven’t you? Don’t think I don’t see it. I know you went with her when she went to find those stones for me, and I know why, too.’

  I squirmed out of the covers and sat up — at least, I tried to, only to clamp down hard on an inadvertent moan. Everything hurt, and I could barely move, but with teeth clenched I managed to haul myself up.

  From outside there came another low nicker.

  ‘Mm,’ Aleida said. ‘It’s like that, isn’t it? Somehow she manages to see the good in people. Despite all evidence to the contrary. Actually, it’s not a bad idea; she could use someone to help her keep out of trouble, and despite your best efforts you haven’t managed to pickle your brains entirely. All right, let me think it over.’ The wagon rocked slightly as she pushed away from the wall and walked away with a swish of her skirts.

  A moment later, she was inside, closing the door behind her. ‘Oh, you’re awake. Did you hear all that? What do you think?’

  I blinked at her. My first instinct was to deny I’d been listening in, but I quickly thought better of it. ‘You’re really considering it?’

  She shrugged. ‘Like I said, he was useful. And honestly, kid, you’ve got a talent for getting yourself into trouble. I can’t always be there to watch your back and swoop in when things go awry. So what do you think?’

  I hugged my knees to my chest. ‘I don’t know. What if he gets hurt? Or killed? I’d hate to be the cause of it.’ I knew it was rubbish even as I said it. He’d be safer with us than he would be anywhere else. To other folk he was just an animal.

  ‘Is that the real reason you’re hesitating?’

  I bit my lip, and shook my head. ‘I just . . . I feel awful. I wanted to save him so badly. I had that flask in my blessed hand!’

  ‘And, what? You’re afraid if you see him every day you’ll remember that feeling of failure?’

  I nodded.

  Aleida shrugged. ‘Well, kid, it’s up to you. We don’t owe him anything. If you’re not comfortable keeping him around I’ll leave him with Sister Ellendene. The Haven could use him and they’ll treat him well.’

  ‘Sister Ellendene?’ I said. ‘We’re going back to the Haven?’

  ‘Yeah. I need to make them forget they ever saw us. The folk up at the fort, too. Sooner or later someone’s going to come looking
for their hell-beast, and we need to cover our tracks. Luckily I didn’t use too much of my own power here, just what I drew from the earth, so they won’t be able to track us through that. I’ll see to the nuns, and then pay a visit to Lord Belmont, and that should take care of it.’

  Someone, she said, but I knew the name she left unspoken. Mae o’ the Mists. ‘What about Kara, and her da? Will you make them forget, too?’

  She looked away, frowning. ‘I probably should,’ she muttered. ‘But, no, it’ll cause too many problems. Bad things can come from messing with folks’ memories like that. It won’t matter a jot to the nuns, but making Kara forget all this is a different matter.’ While she spoke, she was pouring something from the little kettle that had been simmering on the oil-burner, and she mixed in a few drops of this and that from the cabinet. Then she set it on the little shelf beside me. I’d slept in her bed last night, since she had been up pottering about, too jittery to sleep after the fight. I wasn’t sure she’d been to bed at all. ‘Here you go,’ she said. ‘Drink up, it’ll help.’

  I wrapped my hand around the teacup. Even that little movement hurt. My knuckles ached fiercely, but then I remembered how hard I’d gripped the wand, and supposed I shouldn’t be surprised. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got any more of that stuff you gave me last night?’

  ‘Nope. Definitely not.’

  Her voice was so firm I looked up at her in surprise.

  ‘It’s not something to be used lightly, Dee. Given how things went, I’m glad I brought it, but we won’t be using it again for a long time. It’s dangerous. Take too often and you’ll start craving it, and before long you can’t function without it. I’m not going to let you go down that path, kid.’

  Her sombre tone gave me pause — usually the only time she was so serious was when I’d gone and done something stupid. ‘Is . . . is that something Gyssha did to you?’

  She gave a brief smile, a wry quirk of her lips. ‘Went and showed my hand, didn’t I? Should have made a joke of it instead. This is mostly willowbark, with a couple of other things to speed healing. Gentle as a spring breeze.’