by Sue Tingey
“He’s been moping,” Kerfuffle said, “and he’s not the only one.” He jerked his head toward the back of the cave.
I gave Kerfuffle’s shoulder a squeeze as I passed him to go to where Jinx was lying down, stretched out on a bed of pelts and skins.
“You found her then,” Jinx said to Jamie, and his face creased into a huge smile.
I dropped down onto my knees beside him. “Are you all right? I thought you were dead. You looked dead. I was so—” I stopped and drew breath before I made a complete fool of myself.
“He’ll be fine in a day or two,” Jamie said from behind me.
“I’m fine now,” Jinx said, “especially since you’ve come back to us.”
He pushed himself up into a sitting position and in doing so the covers slipped, showing his muscular chest wrapped in a white bandage, stark against his shiny, maroon skin.
“I think the patient deserves a kiss,” he said, puckering his lips and pointing to them. I shuffled on my knees to get closer and leaned in to kiss him. I had been planning on a gentle touching of lips—I should have known better. Before I knew it, I was wrapped in his arms and he was giving me a full-on kiss which involved tongues and set my heart pounding and the rest of my body quivering.
“Jinx,” I heard Jamie say and I didn’t need to see his face to tell he was getting pissed off.
Jinx’s lips stayed locked on mine for a few moments longer and I’d started to see stars and feel very lightheaded before he let me go. “Keep that thought,” he whispered in my ear before kissing me on the cheek.
“You’re obviously feeling better,” Kerfuffle said with a huff.
“Our lucky lady has returned to us, of course I’m feeling better.” Then his brow creased into a frown. “Did something happen to your hand?”
“What?”
“I … I felt … I felt,” he frowned at me and looked downward at my fists. “Something did happen to your hand.”
I put it behind my back. “Nothing,” I said. “It’s nothing really.”
Jamie dropped down to his knees beside me and gently took hold of my hand, lifting it up so he and Jinx could see. The linen was no longer white. Large blotches of red stained the fabric along with smudges of grime. “It looks worse than it is,” I said.
“Let me be the judge of that,” Jamie said as he began to unwrap the material.
“Don’t,” I said, “you’ll only make it bleed.”
He glanced up, his blue eyes staring into mine. “Kerfuffle,” he said. “Bring me a fresh bandage and some of that gloop you made up for Jinx’s chest.”
The little demon peered over his shoulder and down at my hand and made a tutting noise as he hurried away.
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
“It will be if it gets infected.”
“There’s an awful lot of blood for ‘nothing to be worried about,’” Kerfuffle said, putting a jar of something down on the floor beside Jamie.
When Jamie unwrapped the final fold of material exposing my little finger, he sucked in breath and Jinx leaned forward to see. “Who did this?” Jinx asked, his eyes glittering.
“Amaliel,” I said. “He did it so I would know how much Kayla had suffered,” then I told them what he had done to my friend while Jamie bathed my hand and applied the surprisingly cool and soothing cream. He then bandaged my hand so my little finger and palm was covered, but nothing else. While this had all been going on, Shenanigans and Kubeck had joined us, their expressions growing as grim as my other guards’.
“I always had an inkling the day would come when I would purge our world of Amaliel’s existence,” Jinx said. “But never before did I think it would bring me so much pleasure.”
“I have to go back for Kayla and Vaybian,” I said. “I don’t like to think what he might do to them if I don’t. And I have to find Angela. Heaven knows where he’s keeping her.”
“You are the last person who should go into that place again,” Jamie said. “It’s you he wants.”
Jinx rested his chin on his fist, a small frown creasing his forehead. “He didn’t kill you while he had the chance, which means he needs you badly, but for what?”
“He was very interested in what I could do as a Soulseer,” I told them, then briefed them on the conversations I’d had with Amaliel, and told them how I’d escaped. When I got to the bit where I’d kneed the Sicarii in the groin, disarmed him and then smacked my knee into his face, Jinx and Kerfuffle had burst out laughing and Jamie put his arm around me and hugged me to him.
“I told you Mistress Lucky was a force to be reckoned with,” I heard Shenanigans whisper to Kubeck.
The other huge demon nodded. “Who would have thought it? She’s such a little thing.”
“What does size have to do with anything?” Kerfuffle said, sticking out his chest and staring up at the two demons.
“Nothing,” Shenanigans said with a sheepish smile, “nothing at all.” Kerfuffle gave a harrumph and turned his back on the pair of them.
“So,” Jinx said, “Amaliel is keeping secrets from the Sicarii?”
“It would appear that way,” I said. “And we know what the Sicarii think they’re getting from their rituals—power and the ability to move between life and death—but what I don’t yet understand is what Amaliel wants to use me for.”
My demon guard all went quiet as they thought on it.
“Hell’s bells and buckets of shite,” Jinx murmured almost to himself.
“What?” Jamie asked.
“What is it?” I asked, almost at the same time.
Jinx breathed in deeply, his expression troubled. “If the Sicarii can really drain power from the spirits of the dead, imagine how much stronger they would become if they could draw on the souls of, not only their victims, but all those who have passed on to the other side for time immemorial?”
Jamie sucked in air through his teeth. “They would gain the power of everyone who has ever died, but also those who have yet to die. No creature would ever be able to rest in peace again.”
Jinx nodded and we all fell silent.
Pyrites took Shenanigans’ place on guard duty while Kerfuffle and Shenanigans joined us to give some thought to this latest development.
I was all for launching an immediate attack on the temple, even if we were terribly outnumbered. I was worried about my friend and her lover. Jamie wanted to carefully plan and Jinx wanted to be fully fit.
“But surely the living cannot enter the afterlife?” Shenanigans said after much pondering. “Not without dying first?”
“He has a point,” Jamie added. “Just because Amaliel and the Sicarii think it’s possible doesn’t necessarily mean it is.”
Shenanigans passed me a goblet of wine. “It could be that if they try to pass over they will have to die first.”
“As in—you think it will kill them?” I asked for clarity.
Shenanigans shrugged. “Just thinking out loud.”
“If that’s the theory—do we dare let them try to cross?” Jamie asked.
Jinx accepted a tankard of ale from Kerfuffle but put it to one side untouched. “I think you and me, brother, need to pay the Sicarii temple a visit.”
“Not without me you don’t,” I said.
“Lucky, it’s too dangerous for you to return there.”
“It is for you too,” I said folding my arms.
“We’re immortal.”
“Apparently I am too.”
“We don’t actually know that,” Jamie said.
“I’m at least half demon,” I said.
“Though not the royal we thought you were,” Jinx said and that made us all pause for a moment.
“Does it matter?” I asked eventually.
“Not to me,” Jinx said, and Jamie shook his head.
“I never liked the royal family that much anyway,” Kerfuffle mumbled.
“Me neither,” Shenanigans agreed.
“I suspect Baltheza may be a little—sha
ll we say—upset,” Jinx said.
“What about Kayla?” I asked.
Jamie smiled at me. “I suspect Kayla already knew.”
“But why would she let me and, more importantly, her father believe it?” I asked.
“Because she wanted you with her,” Jamie said. “For all her faults I really do believe she cares for you.”
“You’ve changed your tune,” Kerfuffle said with a snort. Jamie glared at him. “Just saying.”
“Well don’t.”
“This isn’t helping,” I said. “Kayla and Vaybian are in serious trouble and need our help.”
“We need some time to think of a plan,” Jinx said and gestured for me to sit down beside him. I moved over and he lifted up the cover so I could slide in next to him.
“I’ll take the next watch,” Jamie said and got to his feet.
“No need,” Shenanigans said, “we’ve got it covered between the four of us.”
“Are you sure?”
Shenanigans and Kerfuffle both nodded. “Get a few hours’ sleep and when you’re refreshed we’ll talk strategy,” Kerfuffle said.
“Now Mistress Lucky is back you’ll both think more clearly,” Shenanigans added.
“I was thinking clearly,” Jamie protested. Shenanigans and Kerfuffle shared a look. They obviously didn’t think so.
When they had gone outside to organize shifts with Kubeck and Pyrites, Jamie got under the covers beside me. “I was thinking clearly,” he repeated.
“Then you’re a better demon than me brother,” Jinx said, lifting his arm to put it around my shoulders with a care that told me he was hurting no matter how hard he tried to deny it. “I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t think; I was going as mad as Baltheza. Well, maybe not quite that mad.”
“You were injured. Of course you couldn’t think straight,” Jamie said.
Jinx gave him a surprised look. “Since when have you had anything nice to say about me?”
“I wasn’t being nice, I was telling it how it how it is.” Jamie went quiet for a moment. “Anyway, I guess I felt the same, I just didn’t dare let you and the others see.” Then he smiled at me. “I should have known you’d escape. I should’ve had more faith in you. Like Jinx has.”
Jinx looked around me to Jamie who was staring straight ahead, a frown lining his forehead. “I fear for her, just like you, but we have to give her a chance to use her wings and fly.”
“But I haven’t got wings,” I said with a mock sigh. “I wish I had, they could come in really useful.”
Jinx flapped a hand at me. “You don’t want wings. Just think of all that preening you’d have to do.”
“I don’t preen,” Jamie said.
“Feathers don’t stay that white and luxurious without a bit of titillating,” Jinx said.
“I do not titillate,” Jamie said, his lips turning down into a very unangelic pout.
“Do so.”
“Do not.”
“I think you do,” Jinx said with a grin.
“Nope,” Jamie said, but his lips began to twitch.
“Not even for our lucky Lucinda?”
“Especially not for Lucky.”
I thumped him on the arm. “That’s plain mean.”
“No,” Jinx said and his smile turned sad. “No, it just means he cares too much to admit it.”
“And you don’t?” Jamie asked.
“I think I’ve already laid my cards on the table,” he said.
We all went quiet. The tension between us was unsettling, as it had nothing to do with danger, at least not the physical kind, though a broken heart was probably what was utmost in our minds.
When I couldn’t stand the brooding silence any longer, or worrying about the relationship between the three of us, I said, “I wish I knew where Angela was.” Jamie lifted the coverings and we all slid beneath the skins to lie down together. “The spirits didn’t seem to know anything about her.”
“Maybe Amaliel decided not to keep all his eggs in one basket,” Jamie said.
Thinking about it, that made sense—if we stormed in there and rescued Kayla, Vaybian and Angela, he wouldn’t have any hostages to use as bargaining power. If she was somewhere else and his position looked precarious—
“I’m going to kill him,” Jinx muttered.
“I hate to ask but, did you find Philip?” Jamie said.
“No, I didn’t manage to do anything other than get Kayla and Vaybian tortured and my fingertip cut off. It was a total disaster really.”
“You escaped.”
“But not with Kayla and Vaybian.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Jinx said rolling onto his side to face me. “You did all you could, and when we wake in a few hours’ time, the seven of us will do more.”
“We’re going in tonight?”
“If it’s going to stop you being cranky,” Jamie said, also turning onto his side to face me.
“Now, will you get some sleep?” Jinx said.
“I’m not tired,” I said, crossing my arms.
Jinx reached up and laid his palm on my forehead. “I think you are,” he said, and it was as though someone had pulled a plug on my energy reserves: my strength drained out of my body and limbs, my eyes drooped shut, my brain filled with smoke and I was gone.
“Shh, you’ll wake her,” a hushed voice said.
“Are you willing to risk doing this without her? I’m not sure I am,” Jinx whispered.
At least Jinx was willing to argue for me. I struggled into a sitting position. “What are you two up to?” I asked the two shadows at the foot of our makeshift bed.
“Now you’ve done it,” Jamie said, and there was a flare of light and Jinx lifted up a lamp.
“Just getting ready for our little escapade,” he said.
“You weren’t planning to go anywhere without me?” I asked.
“Nooo,” Jamie said.
“Not on your nelly,” Jinx said, both of them with guileless expressions plastered onto their faces. Even if I hadn’t overheard their conversation the looks they were giving me would have left me immediately suspicious.
“Hmm, why am I not convinced?” I said, getting up to join them.
“So, she’s coming then,” Kerfuffle said as he walked into the cave.
“Of course she is,” Jamie said. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
“I wish you two would make up your minds,” Kerfuffle said as he picked up a short dagger and stomped back outside again.
“’Fess up,” I said. “You were going to sneak off without me.”
“No, not at all,” Jamie said. “We were just letting you have a few minutes more sleep.”
“Does this mean me and Pyrites are coming with you?” Shenanigans asked from the cave’s mouth.
“So, you weren’t going anywhere without me?” I said, giving them both killer looks. Shenanigans pulled a face and backed out of the cave.
“We just thought that having been through so much we should let you rest,” Jinx said, his tail creeping around his thigh to waggle at me.
I stood up, took a step toward him and prodded him in the middle of the chest. “What about you? You had an arrow right through you, mister.”
Jamie took my hand. “We worry about you.”
“And I don’t about you?” I asked, pulling my hand from his. “I spend most of my time worrying whether you’ve been killed or not.”
“That’s different,” Jinx said.
“Why?”
“Well, you’re—”
“I’m what?” I said glaring at him.
“Um.”
“I hope you weren’t about to say it’s because I’m a woman.”
“Well, no, not exactly,” he glanced at Jamie for support, but found none there; Jamie was too busy smiling down at his boots. “Some help here, brother,” Jinx muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
“Jamie, I know both you and Jinx want to look out for me, but I want to be with you. That’s why I came
back to the Underlands, and if it means sometimes being in danger, then so be it.” I took both of their hands. “In this instance I have no choice, I have to go back. I promised to find a way to release the spirits from the curse and if I don’t then I’m not doing my duty as the Soulseer.” Both Jamie and Jinx bowed their heads. “Do you understand?”
Jamie looked up and nodded.
“You’re right,” Jinx said. “All three of us have obligations and we should be grateful that they bind us together.” He lifted my bandaged hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
“Let’s do this thing,” Jamie said.
“What’s the plan?”
“Buggered if I know,” Jinx said. “Rescue the fair damsel and her knight and anyone else who needs to escape I suppose.”
“You lead us to the entrance,” Jamie said, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword, “and we’ll do the rest.”
“Can I have a weapon?” I asked.
“What would you like?”
“I suppose a 44 Magnum would be out of the question?”
“’Fraid so,” Jamie said, so I had to make do with a dagger.
Fourteen
I led them to the second entrance, used when the Sicarii were transporting victims or provisions by cart to their temple. The spirits had shown it to me when sharing their memories. By entering here, it meant we didn’t have to go through the main cavern, which was fraught with danger, but it was a convoluted route to where the prisoners were held.
At first I worried I wouldn’t find it in the dark, but after trudging back and forth for about five minutes between two familiar landmarks, we stumbled across a slope in the ground and the gully where the entrance was located.
“We’ll go in first,” Jamie said, indicating him and Jinx, “then Kubeck, Lucky and Pyrites next, and Kerfuffle and Shenanigans last.” He addressed the last two: “If it all goes terribly wrong, you make sure Pyrites gets Lucky out of there,” he turned to my drakon, “and if that means roasting a few Sicarii you do it—understand?” Pyrites bowed his head.
“I smell death,” Jinx said as soon as we stepped inside, and it was true: an odor of decay mixed with the aroma of hay and animal manure scented the air.
