Cursed

by Sue Tingey

  Philip grabbed hold of my arm and two blades instantly appeared at his throat and another at his crotch.

  “Just give me an excuse,” Kerfuffle said, pushing the point of his blade against the seam of Philip’s breeches.

  Philip gasped, letting go of me, but Jamie’s and Jinx’s blades stayed put; one resting against his Adam’s apple and the other just below the left side of his jaw.

  “One nick and you’ll bleed out all over the floor, so I suggest you stay very still,” Jinx murmured in his ear.

  “Lucky,” Philip said, his eyes very wide and his lips hardly moving at all. “Please,” he gasped. “Help me.”

  I looked from Philip’s desperate expression to Jamie and Jinx. If they were moved they didn’t show it. I glanced at Kayla; her hand was still resting against her throat. We both knew Amaliel would do it.

  “I have to go with him,” I told them.

  “Lucky—” Jamie started to say, but I held up a hand.

  “I have to. No ifs no buts, I have to.”

  I beckoned to Shenanigans to follow me down the corridor a few feet putting him between me and Philip while I made sure Pyrites was secure and well hidden beneath my hair. This was something I didn’t want Philip to see. Pyrites was my secret weapon.

  “All right Philip. I’ll go with you,” I said when I was done and gestured for Jamie and Jinx to lower their weapons.

  “No mistress,” Shenanigans said.

  “Don’t worry,” I whispered to him, “I’m going in to try and get Angela back.”

  Shenanigans and Kerfuffle both glanced from me to my two men who, with a certain amount of reluctance, moved their daggers away from Philip’s vulnerable throat.

  I gestured for Philip to open the door and enter. I followed after him, pulling the door closed, but not before exchanging one last look with my two men. Both were grim faced, but Jinx’s expression was not as worried as Jamie’s; he had faith in me, probably more than I had in myself.

  Philip hurried across the room and paused outside the other door, waiting for me. “Go on,” I said, and he reached out and turned the doorknob.

  “It’s me,” he said, before pushing the door wide open and turning to me. “After you.” He couldn’t quite keep the expression of smug triumph from curling his lips.

  “Little shit,” Kayla said, “I told you he couldn’t be trusted.”

  I stopped dead and stared him out. “Not a chance in hell.”

  His smug smile turned into more of a grimace, but when he saw I wasn’t about to move anywhere he made a disgruntled sound and went inside.

  I straightened my back, held my head up high and followed him into the room where Amaliel and Henri were waiting. Amaliel had one arm wrapped around Angela’s chest and a knife pressed against the artery just beneath her chin. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face pale, but even as frightened as she must have been, it didn’t stop her giving her father an adolescent-girl glower.

  “How nice of you to join us,” Amaliel said, gesturing with his head to Philip who disappeared behind me. Then I heard bolts being drawn on the door. Kayla was right, Philip was a little shit. “Come,” Amaliel said, but he wasn’t speaking to me. Philip hurried to his side and took hold of Angela’s arm. Amaliel lowered the dagger, handed it to Henri and rested his palm on Philip’s shoulder. “I am very pleased with you.”

  “I’m not,” Angela muttered under her breath and tried to shrug her father’s hand from her arm. If anything, he gripped it even harder. She winced. “You’re hurting.”

  “Then be a good girl and keep still.”

  Amaliel turned his red glowing eyes on me. “You, Lucky de Salle, are becoming more than a minor irritation.”

  “Good,” I said, crossing my arms and trying to appear relaxed and nonchalant even though my heart was pounding.

  “Tell me, what happened to the Sicarii at the temple? Did you orchestrate their disappearance?”

  I laughed. “I really wish I did have the power to blast you and your mates down into hell, but apparently there are those in the afterlife who are more than happy to take the truly evil—whether it’s their time or not. Your friends tried to enter a place where they would never receive a welcome and they forfeited their lives.”

  “Can you open the doorway again?”

  “Not unless there are souls waiting to pass over. Of course, if you’re willing to risk going the same way as the Sicarii, I’ll give it a go,” I said with a bright and bitchy smile.

  “It appears you have underestimated her,” Henri said with a sneer.

  “I recall it was you who said she was little more than a frightened child,” Amaliel said.

  Henri’s disfigured lips twitched. “That was before she had been marked by two so powerful demons, and I knew she was the Soulseer; I recall this snippet of information you saw fit to keep from me.”

  “Let’s cut to the chase,” I said. “What do you want of me?”

  “If you cannot give me safe passage back and forth between here and the afterlife I’m not sure there is anything you can do for me, other than perhaps die.” He gestured to Henri with a careless flick of his hand, “Over to you.”

  “Shit,” Kayla said and disappeared as Henri took a step toward me.

  “Pyrites!” I said, and I felt my little drakon drop down from my neck and in a whir of wings he flew around to hover in front of me and began to grow—fast.

  Henri recoiled, his burned face a mask of horror, and threw up his arms to protect himself.

  I heard Amaliel move, taking my attention off Henri, but before I could do anything he’d grabbed Philip’s shoulder, pulled him and Angela back against the wall, and there was a sound of grinding rock. In a moment, Amaliel, Philip and Angela were gone, and I was left staring at a blank expanse of gray stone. For a moment I was dumbstruck, but needed to move quickly to have any chance of catching them—I took action.

  Henri was huddled down on the floor with Pyrites above him, holding him down with a clawed foot. “How do I open the secret door?” I snarled at Henri and pointed to the wall.

  Fists began to hammer against the door behind me. “Lucky!” I heard Jamie shout.

  “Henri?”

  “I don’t know. I truly don’t know,” he gasped, not taking his eyes off Pyrites.

  “Pyrites,” I said, pointing at Henri. “If he moves, torch him.” Then I hurried to the door and began to draw the bolts. Kayla materialized through the dark wood as I did so.

  “Where’s Amaliel?” she asked.

  “Secret passage,” I said, gesturing to the wall as I stooped to pull the bottom bolt.

  “Bugger,” she said and disappeared through the wall after them.

  The door flew open and Jamie was through it in an instant. “Where is he?”

  Jinx strode past us followed by my other three guards. “Not here by the looks of it.”

  “Secret passage,” I repeated. “Kayla’s gone after him, but it’s this way—we need to find out how to open it.”

  “Kayla said Henri was going to kill you.”

  “Pyrites wasn’t about to let that happen,” I said.

  My drakon had shrunk to a smaller though no less impressive size while Jinx took hold of Henri and dragged him to his feet. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t let the drakon roast you to a crisp and then gnaw on your bones.”

  “I’d let him if I were you,” Kerfuffle said.

  “He left me. He left me behind for the human,” Henri said in disbelief.

  “Why is the human important to him?”

  “He left me.”

  “Henri, if you don’t answer me I’ll see you in hell.”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t know he was until now. I thought he was only using him to manipulate the woman.”

  “Where’s Kayla?” Jamie asked.

  “Following Amaliel,” I said.

  “There must be a hidden mechanism somewhere,” Shenanigans said, running his fingers across the stone work. Kerfuffle
stooped down to examine the crack between the wall and the floor, his back almost bent double.

  Kayla appeared through the slabs of stone. “Come on,” she called, making for the door, “you’ll have to hurry, he’s on a staircase leading up into Baltheza’s private dining chamber beyond the great hall.”

  “We’ll go ahead,” Jinx said, running after Kayla, “Shenanigans, Kubeck—follow Lucinda and bring Henri with you. If he gives you any trouble at all, kill him.”

  “I’ll give you no trouble, I’ll give you no trouble,” I heard Henri say as I ran out of the door behind Jamie.

  Once we got into the main corridor, Pyrites whizzed over our heads to fly at the front. He no doubt would have forged ahead, but he had to wait for doors to be opened. When we reached the stairs up into Amaliel’s chamber he was up through the hole like a shot with Jinx pounding up the steps behind him.

  By the time Jamie and I had run up the stairs, Jinx and Pyrites were gone, the sound of their passage echoing along the hallway. We raced past the two demons in the torture chamber who had moved on from washing away blood to polishing up equipment. They watched our passing with no comment and little interest.

  Then we were charging up more stairs onto the ground level of the palace and along wide passageways leading to the great hall. Several guards had gathered outside, but it was clear from their fearful expressions that they weren’t planning on getting involved.

  “If you’re not going to help us arrest Amaliel at least make sure he doesn’t leave,” Jamie shouted at them. Their response was to push the doors closed behind us.

  By the time we skidded to a halt the confrontation between Jinx and Amaliel had already begun.

  “Let the child go and I will make your passing quick and pain free, that’s the best and most generous offer you’re going to get from me,” Jinx said. His back was to us, and I could see his tail was moving in agitated flicks from side to side like that of an angry cat. Pyrites was by his side, dwarfing Jinx and Amaliel. The clicking of his claws as he paddled the stone and the small puffs of black smoke and flame showed he was as unhappy as the Deathbringer. Kayla hovered by their sides, the hissing and spitting vipers in her hair letting her feelings be known.

  Amaliel once again had Angela pressed against his chest, a blade to her throat. If Philip was worried about his daughter’s wellbeing he didn’t show it. His lips were curled into an arrogant sneer and I wondered at the man’s sanity. Was he willing to give up his daughter for whatever favors Amaliel had offered him? If so, he must be mad: I wouldn’t trust Amaliel to keep a single one of his promises, other than the promise he’d made to see me dead.

  The pounding of more feet upon stone and the door being yanked open announced the imminent arrival of the rest of my guard. They piled into the hall and spread out beside us, forming another barrier between Amaliel and freedom.

  “There’s nowhere to go Amaliel,” Jamie said. “Give yourself up.”

  “I have considered you many things Guardian, but never before an idiot.”

  “Let’s just cut him to ribbons and be done with it,” Kerfuffle said.

  “Willing to risk the child, little man?” Amaliel sneered.

  “Willing to risk your life?” Kerfuffle answered.

  “According to the Deathbringer and Guardian it’s already over, so what have I to fear?”

  Kerfuffle glowered at him, but Shenanigans’ expression was murderous. If we managed to get Angela away from Amaliel there was no doubt in my mind he would instantly be on the receiving end of Shenanigans’ rough justice.

  I laid a hand on his forearm. “Easy,” I said, but was interrupted by gray spirits rising up out of the stone beneath our feet and floating down from the rafters. There were more than ever before, and I guessed the apparitions of those executed in the great hall had been joined by those tortured and murdered in the chambers below.

  “Save the child,” they called.

  “Jinx, say the words that will release the spirits from this world,” I said.

  Jamie moved to Jinx’s side. “On three,” Jinx said. “One. Two …”

  “Three,” they said together and began to chant.

  Amaliel hissed. “Fools, do you think by freeing them you will stop me? I will rule the Underlands and when I do, it will not end there. Next I will take control of the Overlands and when I have gathered the millions of souls that can be had from that over-bloated world of self-serving imbeciles I will take the afterlife as well.”

  “He’s more bonkers than Baltheza ever was,” Kerfuffle said.

  “I heard that,” Kayla said.

  I ignored them as I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and with a ripple of warmth, I felt myself change. This time I felt more confident in my ability. I visualized the spot of light that preceded the opening of the door to the other side, and when I opened my eyes a small glowing tear was appearing between us and Amaliel.

  “Oh my life,” I heard Kerfuffle mutter.

  The tear widened and grew and a golden swathe of light colored the flagstones. “It’s time for you all to move on,” I told the spirits, and from the corner of my eye saw my guards begin to close in on Amaliel.

  The little spirit, Clement, floated down to stand before me. He gave a small bow, and when he looked up he was smiling. “Thank you,” he said and, taking hold of the hands of two other spirits, drifted toward the light. “Don’t be afraid,” he called to the others, “the Soulseer has seen the curse lifted and granted us entry to beyond.” Then he stepped into the light, taking the two other spirits with him, and they were transformed from gray shadows into vibrant, glowing beings that easily could be mistaken for angels, but maybe that was what they now were.

  “Goodbye Soulseer, until we meet again,” he said, looking back before he stepped through the tear and was gone.

  The others began to follow. First one by one, then in pairs as the tear grew bigger and bigger until all but a few stragglers were gone. I noticed Kayla keeping well away from the light, although her expression was wistful. I remembered the warm glow and sound of tinkling laughter that had tempted me, but strangely enough my feet no longer felt the compulsion to take me into the beyond. Been there, done that I suppose.

  My guards tightened the circle around Amaliel, edging him closer to the golden light, which began to change. Instead of pure golden rays promising happy endings, it darkened to orange, then to fiery red, until Amaliel realized what was coming and lost his nerve. With a shriek he thrust Angela toward the blackening hole, grabbed Philip by the arm and ran. Shenanigans and Kubeck threw themselves toward him—but too late. Amaliel was through and slamming the door behind him, and I heard the metallic rasp of bolts being shoved home.

  The entrance to the other world wavered for a moment and then snapped shut and was gone.

  “Shite,” Jinx said, running toward the door, “I thought we were almost rid of him.”

  Shenanigans lumbered over to Angela and picked her up from the floor. “Are you all right?” I heard him ask.

  “Hurry, he’s getting away,” Kayla said.

  “Pyrites, bash down the door,” I heard Jinx say.

  “Take Angela now,” I said to Shenanigans and Kerfuffle and bent down to whisper in the little demon’s ear, “I don’t think she needs to see any of this.”

  Kerfuffle got the picture. “Come on,” he said, tugging on Shenanigans’ sleeve, “let’s go.”

  “Mistress, are you sure?” Shenanigans asked.

  “You go ahead, we’ll meet you there later. Kubeck—keep an eye on Henri.”

  There was an almighty crash and Pyrites gave a roar as the door to the back room collapsed in a pile along with part of the wall.

  I ran after Pyrites and my two men, the smashed leaded window on the other side of the room giving us a clue as to where Amaliel had gone. I got there last and peered outside to see Jamie’s back disappearing through an archway across the gardens. I dragged a chair to beneath the window and hopped up onto it and, trying
to avoid pieces of broken glass, climbed up into the frame and jumped down the other side. As soon as I hit the ground I was off and running along the path to the archway.

  My legs pumped, my arms swung and never before had I felt so powerful, so strong, so alive. I bounded through the archway and slowed to a stop.

  Jamie and Jinx were standing up to their thighs in a square ornamental pond in the center of a walled garden. Their backs were to me, but from the agitated swishing of Jinx’s tail and the way Jamie’s wings were pulled right back told me they were very unhappy. Kayla was sitting with her feet on the wall surrounding the pond and looked as dejected as my men. She had wrapped her arms around her legs with her cheek resting on her knees.

  “Shite, shite, shite, shite, shite,” Jinx swore.

  “What happened?” I asked, running up the path to join them.

  Both men’s shoulders sagged as they turned to greet me. “We lost him,” Jamie said.

  “He could be anywhere,” Jinx said.

  “What?”

  “Remember how Lord Argon used the pond at the golf club to travel between our worlds?” Jamie said.

  “Wait a minute. Are you saying Amaliel has gone into the Overlands?”

  “Only as a means of getting away from us,” Jinx said, “he’ll come straight back but somewhere else.”

  “You know that, do you?”

  “Why wouldn’t he?”

  “In case you weren’t listening, he threatened my world.”

  “In case you hadn’t noticed,” Jinx said, looking me up and down, “the Overlands isn’t your world any longer.”

  I looked down at my rose pink shimmering hands.

  “I’m so glad you’ve regained your sense of humor. Doesn’t it worry you Amaliel could be in the Overlands?” Then something occurred to me. “I didn’t think it was possible for a demon to travel to the Overlands without being called upon. He told me he had no jurisdiction in my world.”

  “He has possibly found his own gateway,” Jamie said, wading to the edge of the pond and climbing up onto the small wall surrounding it, “but you needn’t worry; he has no real power in your world. He can make a bit of mischief, maybe get a few stupid or greedy men like Philip to do a few things for him and make trouble, but he can’t do anything major. That’s what he needed you, or us, for: dominion over life and death would have made him powerful wherever he was.”