by M. J. Hearle
‘Go,’ Elena said with quiet force. Her gaze was still on the floor. Winter felt Sam tug gently on her sleeve.
‘C’mon,’ he whispered and they continued on, breaking into a run again once they’d left Elena behind. As the echoes of their footsteps chased them down the corridor, Winter realised she should have said something as they passed. Not ‘goodbye’, but ‘thank you’.
‘We’re nearly there,’ Sam said triumphantly, guiding her through an opening onto another spiral staircase. They descended quickly – taking two, sometimes three steps at a time. Without Sam holding onto her, Winter would have surely lost her footing.
‘Once we get outside, run for the stables. Wait for me there while I go get Jasmine.’
They’d nearly come to the bottom and she could see the chamber beyond. It was the keep’s vestibule, which they’d passed through last night on their way to the dining hall.
‘Whatever you do, don’t —’ The words died on Sam’s lips as they burst headlong out of the stairwell into the vestibule. On their left, the keep’s tall front doors stood open to the fading daylight. Positioned between the doors was Yuri, surrounded by a dozen Bonnaires wielding crossbows. He smiled coldly at them.
‘How convenient. Just the two people I’ve been looking for.’
Chapter 53
Winter thought about trying to retreat back up the stairs. She quickly decided that while they might be able to outrun Yuri and his men, it was doubtful they could dodge the crossbow bolts. Yuri wouldn’t dare shoot Winter but she couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t fire at Sam.
‘Well, I have to say I’m a little disappointed in you, cousin,’ Yuri said, shaking his head. He walked into the centre of the room. Above him, the grim portraits of Victor and his heirs stared from the wall. Winter wondered how long it would be until Yuri’s picture joined them. At this moment, with that dangerous, mad light in his eyes, he seemed much more Caleb’s son than Sam ever had.
‘I was hoping you might have used the time last night to think. Maybe remembered your loyalties to the family.’
‘Funny you should say that, because I did spend the night thinking,’ Sam replied angrily. ‘And I realised something. You’re completely insane. All of you are if you think the Malfaerie will uphold the bargain.’
Yuri’s gaze narrowed in disapproval. ‘I see you’ve told her everything.’
‘He has,’ Winter said, trying to sound as brave as Sam. ‘Sam’s right. You’d have to be crazy if you think I’m going to play a part in this.’
Yuri again smiled that cruel smile of his. ‘Oh, I think you will. Now, where is that delightful friend of yours? I thought you two were joined at the hip?’
As her thoughts raced trying to come up with a way to protect Jasmine, Winter noticed some movement at the top of the staircase beneath the portraits.
Jasmine was peeking down over the mezzanine’s banister, her eyes wide with fright. Wary of accidentally alerting Yuri, Winter quickly looked away.
Please, Jas – don’t do anything stupid!
‘She’s gone,’ Winter said, mustering all her skills of subterfuge. ‘I called her as soon as Sam told me what was going on. I imagine she’s on her way to the police station now.’
Yuri’s left eyebrow arched and he chuckled to himself. ‘You and your lies, Winter. So entertaining. I very much doubt she would have been able to leave the castle without my knowledge. She’s here somewhere and we’ll find her soon enough. In the meantime, I think we should start towards the great hall. It’s nearly time to begin the preparations. Gentlemen, will you escort our wayward guests.’
The Bonnaires, not a glimmer of compassion to be seen in their stern faces, enveloped Winter and Sam, pushing them towards the front doors.
Outside, the light of day had nearly been leached out of the grey sky. The cold wind had picked up again and was snatching mischievously at their clothes and hair. Winter could taste electricity in the air.
‘I’m sorry, Win,’ Sam said, gritting his teeth in pain as the guard behind him roughly jabbed his wounded arm.
‘It’s not over yet,’ Winter whispered back, shivering in the cold. A thought had occurred to her – a crazy, potentially suicidal thought, but one that might just carry the seeds of their salvation. Stealthily, Winter slipped her hand into the pocket of her jeans, finding the phone squashed down the bottom. Yuri hadn’t thought to search her for it. Using her fingers to map the face of the phone in her mind, Winter rolled her thumb over what she hoped was the ‘call’ button.
If she’d pressed the correct button then the phone was dialling the person who had last called her. Jasmine.
Nervously waiting a few seconds, long enough to allow Jasmine to pick up the phone at the other end, Winter turned to Sam and said as clearly and loudly as she dared, ‘So if the Fatelus – the weird glowing machine in the chapel – was destroyed, all hell would break loose?’
Sam shot her a confused look. ‘Yeah, I guess so. The device fails, the Demori get in. No more Bane.’ He shrugged, brow still knitted in bafflement. Her eyes darted down to her pocket, but she wasn’t sure if the subtle gesture was enough for Sam to figure out what she was doing.
‘That would be a good thing to happen then,’ Winter said, risking raising her voice even louder. She tilted her chin down, talking at her pocket now. ‘The device in the chapel being destroyed.’
‘Yeah, but you have to be very careful,’ Sam said, lowering his voice as he guessed the conversation wasn’t for his benefit. ‘This is Malfaerie technology – you just can’t take a crowbar to it. I don’t even know if it can be destroyed.’
The thin thread of hope she was clinging to weakened and then she remembered something she’d read in Blake’s diary.
‘It can! Water. Water will break the Fatelus!’
‘How do you know?’
‘Listen very closely,’ Winter said, ignoring Sam’s question and talking directly to her jeans pocket. ‘Find a vase or a jug or something and pour water over the machine in the chapel. I don’t know what will happen but it should break it. Anyway, it’s our only shot. If it doesn’t work then just get the hell out of here and —’
‘Be quiet,’ snarled one of the Bonnaires, a tall man with a blond ponytail. Winter obeyed, hoping that Jasmine understood what she needed to do.
Chapter 54
The great hall didn’t look like a hall at all, but instead resembled a crumbling Gothic cathedral stripped of its spires. Above the high-arched doors, flying buttresses framed a wide, circular stained-glass window. The window depicted a golden lion surrounded by crimson and blue washes of colour. This might have been Castle Vled’s crest. Lurking higher than the window, weathered gargoyles snarled from the eaves. More creatures had been sculpted into the stone walls surrounding the entrance. Frozen monsters with horrible wolfish faces and long forked tongues. Marching up the stairs, Winter reached out and grabbed Sam’s hand. He shared with her a quick sympathetic glance, but there was no reassurance in his expression. Just fear.
Once inside, the visual associations between the hall and a cathedral strengthened. At the end of the crimson-carpeted aisle there was a raised platform – a chancel – beneath three more stained-glass windows. These were smaller than the one over the entrance, and presented separately a lamb, a goat and a bear. The only thing missing from the tableau was a crucifix, but Winter saw there wouldn’t have been any room for one. A huge circular object covered in a heavy white sheet and bound with ropes dominated the platform.
The Black Mirror.
Tearing her gaze away from this ominous shape, Winter looked around her. Rows and rows of men and women dressed in black, some armed with crossbows, some not, lined the aisle. Three hundred, she estimated, all staring at her, staring at the girl their mistress was going to sacrifice. As she passed them, a low excited murmur began to roll through the hall. Some of the faces, Winter noticed, appeared conflicted as though they weren’t entirely comfortable with what was about to take place. Unfortu
nately, there weren’t enough of these expressions for her to hope that someone would put a stop to this madness.
On the platform, a figure stepped into view. It was Magdalene, her funereal garments covered with a blood-red cloak; her face veiled, just as the mirror was. She looked like some nightmare preacher ready to deliver a sermon to the faithful. Staring fearfully at her, Winter hesitated at the platform stairs.
‘Having second thoughts?’ Yuri asked sarcastically. ‘Now, now, don’t forget why you came here.’ He hooked a hand beneath her arm and forced her up onto the platform. ‘This is your chance to prove your everlasting love for Blake, remember?’
‘Don’t touch her!’ Sam cried, and was quickly jabbed again with a crossbow.
Smirking, Yuri left Winter and Sam with two Bonnaires guarding them and approached Magdalene.
‘I found them trying to escape,’ he reported, bowing reverentially. ‘Winter knows everything.’
Magdalene glanced at Winter and said, her voice whispering like dead leaves in the wind, ‘It is of no consequence.’
Yuri nodded, moving aside as she strode past him to address the crowd. Winter saw Elena standing in one of the rows closest to the platform. She was chewing her bottom lip worriedly.
‘Friends,’ Magdalene began, her voice rising above its hushed pitch for the first time. ‘We stand on the precipice of a new age. For a century we have fought this war alone. A single light in the darkness. I know some of you are afraid. You have heard the rumours of the Fatelus failing. Perhaps you fear that this castle, our home, will fall. That our light will go out. Well, fear no longer. I have taken steps to ensure our continued safety. Tonight we make a valuable new ally. A creature not human, but not Demori. It hates them as we do and has pledged to help us defeat our enemy.’
As thunder rumbled above them, adding punctuation to Magdalene’s speech, she nodded at the two figures who stood on either side of the Black Mirror. These men were also dressed in ceremonial red robes, their faces lost in the shadows of their hoods. Staring at them, Winter was struck with a sense of déjà vu.
The hooded figures took hold of the ropes connected to the covering and began to pull hand over hand. Slowly, the sheet was raised, revealing the object beneath. There were gasps from the crowd, and other sounds of muttered amazement.
The Black Mirror was not what Winter had expected.
It was larger and cruder than the image she’d formed in her mind. Not really a mirror at all, the central disc was made of a highly polished black stone. Obsidian. Around this disc were two concentric stone rings, carved with strange, curling runes. Looking at these runes made Winter’s head hurt. They seemed to twitch and snake before her eyes as if they were alive.
The sounds from the crowd suddenly changed tone, growing alarmed. Winter was confused by the reaction until she saw the ghostly figures reflected in the stone disc. Not reflections of Magdalene or her robed helpers – these images were separate. Other.
The Malfaerie!
Three lords of the Dead Lands were framed in the mirror, their features hazy and indistinct yet terrifying.
‘Do not fear them. These are our friends. Our allies. The Malfaerie,’ Magdalene intoned, addressing her congregation once more. Winter noticed some of the Bonnaires in the rows closest to the platform had taken several steps backwards. She didn’t blame them. There was something deeply frightening about the apparitions caught in the dull gleam of the mirror – the fact that she couldn’t see them clearly somehow made it worse.
Magdalene’s reassurances worked and the gradual migration towards the exit ceased, though they still looked at the mirror suspiciously.
Turning her back on the crowd, Magdalene now approached the mirror. As she passed Winter, the old woman lifted her veil, revealing her features. Magdalene looked almost as scared as Winter felt. A flash of gold drew Winter’s attention away from Magdalene’s pale face. There was a glittering lodestone around her neck. One that looked disturbingly familiar. Before she could dwell on this, Sam distracted her, whispering, ‘When I make the move, run!’
‘What are you talking about?’ Winter mumbled back.
‘I’m going to hit Yuri and —’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll only get yourself killed.’
‘We have to.’
‘It’s over, Sam. There’re too many of them.’
His mouth worked silently as he tried to come up with an answer.
She felt sorry for him and sorry for herself. A kind of troubling acceptance was settling over her. Time was running out. It was looking more and more likely that Jasmine wasn’t going to save the day. She probably never even received Winter’s call. The only hope Winter could hold onto now was that Jasmine had escaped. That she would return to Hagan’s Bluff and tell Lucy everything. Explain why Winter had lied to her. Explain to Lucy about Blake. The thought of her sister grieving was almost too awful to contemplate, but the alternative – Lucy never knowing what happened to her – was much more painful.
‘I’m not going to let this happen,’ Sam said, finally finding his words.
Winter smiled sadly at his defiant expression. ‘I finished your notebook,’ she said, not wanting to have their last exchange defined by fear. Any moment now Magdalene would force her to open the doorway and sacrifice her to the terrible things that lay beyond.
‘I noticed there was one more entry that you didn’t transcribe. I don’t suppose —’
‘I know what you’re talking about,’ he said quietly. ‘I didn’t have time to translate it, but I remember the passage. A single sentence, right?’
Winter nodded, relieved she would have some closure on the matter. It was a small comfort.
Sam’s brown eyes found hers.
‘What I do tonight, I do for her,’ he whispered. ‘That’s what he wrote. What I do tonight, I do for her . . . for you.’
Winter’s bottom lip trembled. She felt as though a missing puzzle piece had been found. A piece she didn’t even know was missing. Her heart swelled with the sentiment of the words, with the love she felt for Blake. The emotion was almost too much for her to sustain. It spilled outwards, filling her with light and warmth.
‘There’s something else, Winter. Something I wanted to tell you.’ Sam paused, his eyebrows arched in fragile hope.
‘It is time.’ Magdalene’s voice shattered the tender moment between them. Winter felt rough hands pulling her away from Sam, towards the mirror.
‘No!’ he cried out, struggling against the guard holding him.
The red-robed Bonnaire spun her around to face Magdalene.
‘Open the door, Winter.’
Winter shook her head. ‘No. I won’t. Please – don’t do this!’
Magdalene scowled, jerking her head towards Yuri. ‘Make her!’
Yuri marched quickly across the platform to Sam. He grabbed the crossbow off the guard standing to his left and raised it to Sam’s forehead. The razor-sharp bolt pressed into the skin just over the bridge of his nose, drawing a glistening bead of blood. Sam winced in pain.
‘Do what she says,’ Yuri said, glaring forbiddingly at Winter.
Winter hesitated, her eyes finding Sam’s.
‘Don’t listen, Wint—!’ His words were strangled by a scream as Yuri shot him.
Chapter 55
Sam dropped to his knees, clutching at the bolt jutting from his shoulder. Tears streamed down his face, running as freely as the blood from the wound. His sling turned crimson, ruby droplets spattering the floor.
‘Stand him up,’ Yuri ordered, and the guards yanked Sam to his feet. He cried out in pain, the whites of his eyes visible as they rolled back.
‘Leave him alone!’
Yuri smiled with psychotic cheer at Winter. ‘Next time it will be his head. Do you understand?’
Winter shifted her watery gaze from Yuri to Sam. He was barely conscious. She nodded reluctantly and turned back to Magdalene.
‘Are you ready?’ the old woman asked her.
‘Yes,’ Winter said through gritted teeth. Magdalene flinched beneath her angry glare. Winter continued to stare at the old woman a moment longer, enjoying the discomfort she caused, and then turned to face the mirror.
The three Malfaerie were studying her with curiosity. Feeling herself pale beneath their cold gaze, her anger dwindled to an ember. Winter closed her eyes. The image of Blake smiling in the dappled light of the clearing outside Pilgrim’s Lament rose above her frightened thoughts.
I’ll find you one day, my love, she promised him.
The three Malfaerie watched her from the darkness of the obsidian as she came closer. With every step she felt the expectation in the air thicken behind her, until it felt like a solid form – a hand pushing her forward.
She paused at the foot of the mirror, feeling incredibly small against its vastness. One of the Malfaerie, the tallest figure in the reflection, seemed to glide closer to the barrier separating them. As Winter placed her trembling hands on the surface of the stone, the Malfaerie on the other side mirrored her. She recoiled instinctively, taking a step back.
‘Continue!’ Magdalene ordered. Winter glanced back one last time at Sam, his head lolling at an angle. Blood now drenched his entire midsection. She had to go through with this.
Trying not to look at the creature, she tentatively placed her palms against the stone again. Almost instantly the surface grew hot, activated by her touch. This was it. She was about to open a doorway into another world and become a conduit for the evil things that lay beyond. Winter thought of Lucy back in Hagan’s Bluff. Of her friends, of all the people she’d ever met in her life and those she hadn’t. Could she be responsible for inflicting the Malfaerie upon them? Sam groaned behind her and she realised she didn’t have a choice.
