City of Ashes mi-2

by Cassandra Clare

  From the other side of the bars came a noise. A sort of muffled gasp or whisper; she wasn't sure which, but she recognized the source. Jace. She slashed at the cell door with the tip of her stele, trying to hold the rune for Open in her mind even as it appeared, black and jagged against the hard metal. The electrum sizzled where the stele touched it. Open, she willed the door, open, open, OPEN!

  A noise like ripping cloth tore through the room. Clary heard Isabelle cry out as the door blew off its hinges entirely, crashing into the cell like a drawbridge falling. Clary could hear other noises, metal coming uncoupled from metal, a loud rattle like a handful of tossed pebbles. She ducked into the cell, the fallen door wobbling under her feet.

  Witchlight filled the small room, lighting it as bright as day. She barely noticed the rows of manacles—all of different metals: gold, silver, steel, and iron—as they came undone from the bolts in the walls and clattered to the stone floor. Her eyes were on the slumped figure in the corner; she could see the bright hair, the hand outstretched, the loose manacle lying a little distance away. His wrist was bare and bloody, the skin braceleted with ugly bruises.

  She went down on her knees, setting her stele aside, and gently turned him over. It was Jace. There was another bruise on his cheek, and his face was very white, but she could see the darting movement under his eyelids. A vein pulsed at his throat. He was alive.

  Relief went through her like a hot wave, undoing the tight cords of tension that had held her together this long. The witchlight fell to the floor beside her, where it continued to blaze. She stroked Jace's hair back from his forehead with a tenderness that felt foreign to her—she'd never had any brothers or sisters, not even a cousin. She'd never had occasion to bind up wounds or kiss scraped knees or take care of anyone, really.

  But it was all right to feel tenderness toward Jace like this, she thought, unwilling to draw her hand back even as Jace's eyelids twitched and he groaned. He was her brother; why shouldn't she care what happened to him?

  His eyes opened. The pupils were huge, dilated. Maybe he'd banged his head? His eyes fixed on her with a look of dazed bemusement. "Clary," he said. "What are you doing here?"

  "I came to find you," she said, because it was the truth.

  A spasm went across his face. "You're really here? I'm not—I'm not dead, am I?"

  "No," she said, gliding her hand down the side of his face. "You passed out, is all. Probably hit your head too."

  His hand came up to cover hers where it lay on his cheek. "Worth it," he said in such a low voice that she wasn't sure it was what he'd said, after all.

  "What's going on?" It was Alec, ducking through the low doorway, Isabelle just behind him. Clary jerked her hand back, then cursed herself silently. She hadn't been doing anything wrong.

  Jace struggled into a sitting position. His face was gray, his shirt spotted with blood. Alec's look turned to one of concern. "And are you all right?" he demanded, kneeling down. "What happened? Can you remember?"

  Jace held up his uninjured hand. "One question at a time, Alec. My head already feels like it's going to split open."

  "Who did this to you?" Isabelle sounded both bewildered and furious.

  "No one did anything to me. I did it to myself trying to get the manacles off." Jace looked down at his wrist—it looked as if he'd nearly scraped all the skin off it—and winced.

  "Here," said both Clary and Alec at the same time, reaching out for his hand. Their eyes met, and Clary dropped her hand first. Alec took hold of Jace's wrist and drew out his stele; with a few quick flicks of his wrist, he drew an iratze—a healing rune—just below the bracelet of bleeding skin.

  "Thanks," said Jace, drawing his hand back. The injured part of his wrist was already beginning to knit back together. "Brother Jeremiah—"

  "Is dead," said Clary.

  "I know." Disdaining Alec's offered assistance, Jace pulled himself up to a standing position, using the wall to hold him up. "He was murdered."

  "Did the Silent Brothers kill each other?" Isabelle asked. "I don't understand—I don't understand why they'd do that—"

  "They didn't," said Jace. "Something killed them. I don't know what." A spasm of pain twisted his face. "My head—"

  "Maybe we should go," said Clary nervously. "Before whatever killed them…"

  "Comes back for us?" said Jace. He looked down at his bloody shirt and bruised hand. "I think it's gone. But I suppose he could still bring it back."

  "Who could bring what back?" Alec demanded, but Jace said nothing. His face had gone from gray to paper white. Alec caught him as he began to slide down the wall. "Jace—"

  "I'm all right," Jace protested, but his hand gripped Alec's sleeve tightly. "I can stand."

  "It looks to me like you're using a wall to prop you up. That's not my definition of 'standing.' "

  "It's leaning," Jace told him. "Leaning comes right before standing."

  "Stop bickering," said Isabelle, kicking a doused torch out of her way. "We need to get out of here. If there's something out there nasty enough to kill the Silent Brothers, it'll make short work of us."

  "Izzy's right. We should go." Clary retrieved the witchlight and stood up. "Jace—are you okay to walk?"

  "He can lean on me." Alec drew Jace's arm across his shoulders. Jace leaned heavily against him. "Come on," Alec said gently. "We'll fix you up when we get outside."

  Slowly they moved toward the cell door, where Jace paused, staring down at the figure of Brother Jeremiah lying twisted on the paving stones. Isabelle knelt down and drew the Silent Brother's brown wool hood down to cover his contorted face. When she straightened up, all their faces were grave.

  "I've never seen a Silent Brother afraid," Alec said. "I didn't think it was possible for them to feel fear."

  "Everyone feels fear." Jace was still very pale, and though he was cradling his injured hand against his chest, Clary didn't think it was because of physical pain. He looked distant, as if he had withdrawn into himself, hiding from something.

  They retraced their steps through the dark corridors and up the narrow steps that led to the pavilion of the Speaking Stars. When they reached it, Clary noticed the thick scent of blood and burning as she hadn't when she'd passed through it before. Jace, leaning on Alec, looked around with a sort of mingled horror and confusion on his face. Clary saw that he was staring at the far wall where it was splattered thickly with blood, and she said, "Jace. Don't look." Then she felt stupid; he was a demon hunter, after all, he'd seen worse.

  He shook his head. "Something feels wrong—"

  "Everything feels wrong here." Alec tilted his head toward the forest of arches that led away from the pavilion. "That's the fastest way out of here. Let's go."

  They didn't talk much as they made their way back through the Bone City. Every shadow seemed to surge with movement, as if the darkness concealed creatures waiting to jump out at them. Isabelle was whispering something under her breath. Though Clary couldn't hear the words themselves, it sounded like another language, something old—Latin, maybe.

  When they reached the stairs that led up out of the City, Clary breathed a silent sigh of relief. The Bone City might have been beautiful once, but it was terrifying now. As they reached the last flight of steps, light stabbed into her eyes, making her cry out in surprise. She could faintly see the Angel statue that stood at the head of the stairs, backlit with brilliant golden light, bright as day. She glanced around at the others; they looked as confused as she felt.

  "The sun couldn't have risen yet—could it?" Isabelle murmured. "How long were we down here?"

  Alec checked his watch. "Not that long."

  Jace muttered something, too low for anyone else to hear him. Alec craned his ear down. "What did you say?"

  "Witchlight," Jace said, more loudly this time.

  Isabelle hurried up the stairs, Clary behind her, Alec just behind them, struggling to half-carry Jace up the steps. At the head of the stairs Isabelle stopped suddenly as
if frozen. Clary called out to her, but she didn't move. A moment later Clary was standing beside her and it was her turn to stare around in amazement.

  The garden was full of Shadowhunters—twenty, maybe thirty, of them in dark hunting regalia, inked with Marks, each holding a blazing witchlight stone.

  At the front of the group stood Maryse, in black Shadowhunter armor and a cloak, her hood thrown back. Behind her ranged dozens of strangers, men and women Clary had never seen, but who bore the Marks of the Nephilim on their arms and faces. One of them, a handsome ebony-skinned man, turned to stare at Clary and Isabelle—and beside her, at Jace and Alec, who had come up from the steps and stood blinking in the unexpected light.

  "By the Angel," the man said. "Maryse—there was already someone down there."

  Maryse's mouth opened in a silent gasp when she saw Isabelle. Then she closed it, her lips tightening into a thin white line, like a slash drawn in chalk across her face.

  "I know, Malik," she said. "These are my children."

  7

  The Mortal Sword

  A muttering gasp went through the crowd. The ones who were hooded threw their hoods back, and Clary could see from the looks on the faces of Jace, Alec, and Isabelle that many of the Shadowhunters in the courtyard were familiar to them.

  "By the Angel." Maryse's incredulous gaze swept from Alec to Jace, passed over Clary, and returned to her daughter. Jace had moved away from Alec the moment Maryse spoke, and he stood a little way away from the other three, his hands in his pockets as Isabelle nervously twisted her golden-white whip in her hands. Alec, meanwhile, seemed to be fidgeting with his cell phone, though Clary couldn't imagine who he might be calling. "What are you doing here, Alec? Isabelle? There was a distress call from the Silent City—"

  "We answered it," Alec said. His gaze moved anxiously over the gathered crowd. Clary could hardly blame him for his nerves. This was the largest crowd of adult Shadowhunters—of Shadowhunters in general—that she herself had ever seen. She kept looking from face to face, marking the differences between them—they varied widely in age and race and overall appearance, and yet they all gave the same impression of immense, contained power. She could sense their subtle gazes on her, examining her, evaluating. One of them, a woman with rippling silver hair, was staring at her so fiercely that there was nothing subtle about it. Clary blinked and looked away as Alec continued, "You weren't at the Institute—and we couldn't raise anyone—so we came ourselves."

  "Alec—"

  "It doesn't matter, anyway," Alec said. "They're dead. The Silent Brothers. They're all dead. They've been murdered."

  This time there was no sound from the assembled crowd. Instead they seemed to go still, the way a pride of lions might go still when it spotted a gazelle.

  "Dead?" Maryse repeated. "What do you mean, they're dead?"

  "I think it's quite clear what he means." A woman in a long gray coat had appeared suddenly at Maryse's side. In the flickering light she looked to Clary like a sort of Edward Gorey caricature, all sharp angles and pulled-back hair and eyes like black pits scraped out of her face. She held a glimmering chunk of witchlight on a long silver chain, looped through the skinniest fingers Clary had ever seen. "They are all dead?" she asked, addressing herself to Alec. "You found no one alive in the City?"

  Alec shook his head. "Not that we saw, Inquisitor."

  So that was the Inquisitor, Clary realized. She certainly looked like someone capable of tossing teenage boys into dungeon cells for no reason other than that she didn't like their attitude.

  "That you saw," repeated the Inquisitor, her eyes like hard, glittering beads. She turned to Maryse. "There may yet be survivors. I would send your people into the City for a thorough check."

  Maryse's lips tightened. From what very little Clary had learned about Maryse, she knew that Jace's adoptive mother didn't like being told what to do. "Very well."

  She turned to the rest of the Shadowhunters—there were not as many, Clary was coming to realize, as she had initially thought, closer to twenty than thirty, though the shock of their appearance had made them seem like a teeming crowd.

  Maryse spoke to Malik in a low voice. He nodded. Taking the arm of the silver-haired woman, he led the Shadowhunters toward the entrance to the Bone City. As one after another descended the stairs, taking their witchlight with them, the glow in the courtyard began to fade. The last one in line was the woman with the silver hair. Halfway down the stairs she paused, turned, and looked back—directly at Clary. Her eyes were full of a terrible yearning, as if she longed desperately to tell Clary something. After a moment she drew her hood back up over her face and vanished into the shadows.

  Maryse broke the silence. "Why would anyone murder the Silent Brothers? They're not warriors, they don't carry battle Marks—"

  "Don't be naïve, Maryse," said the Inquisitor. "This was no random attack. The Silent Brothers may not be warriors, but they are primarily guardians, and very good at their jobs. Not to mention hard to kill. Someone wanted something from the Bone City and was willing to kill the Silent Brothers to get it. This was premeditated."

  "What makes you so sure?"

  "That wild goose chase that called us all out to Central Park? The dead fey child?"

  "I wouldn't call that a wild goose chase. The fey child was drained of blood, like the others. These killings could cause serious trouble between the Night Children and other Downworlders—"

  "Distractions," said the Inquisitor dismissively. "He wanted us gone from the Institute so that no one would respond to the Brothers when they called for aid. Ingenious, really. But then he always was ingenious."

  "He?" It was Isabelle who spoke, her face very pale between the black wings of her hair. "You mean—"

  Jace's next words sent a shock through Clary, as if she'd touched a live current. "Valentine," he said. "Valentine took the Mortal Sword. That's why he killed the Silent Brothers."

  A thin, sudden smile curved on the Inquisitor's face, as if Jace had said something that pleased her very much.

  Alec started and turned to stare at Jace. "Valentine? But you didn't say he was here."

  "Nobody asked."

  "He couldn't have killed the Brothers. They were torn apart. No one person could have done all that."

  "He probably had demonic help," said the Inquisitor. "He's used demons to aid him before. And with the protection of the Cup on him, he could summon some very dangerous creatures. More dangerous than Raveners," she added with a curl of her lip, and though she didn't look at Clary when she said it, the words felt somehow like a verbal slap. Clary's faint hope that the Inquisitor hadn't noticed or recognized her vanished. "Or the pathetic Forsaken."

  "I don't know about that." Jace was very pale, with hectic spots like fever on his cheekbones. "But it was Valentine. I saw him. In fact, he had the Sword with him when he came down to the cells and taunted me through the bars. It was like a bad movie, except he didn't actually twirl his mustache."

  Clary looked at him worriedly. He was talking too fast, she thought, and looked unsteady on his feet.

  The Inquisitor didn't seem to notice. "So you're saying that Valentine told you all this? He told you he killed the Silent Brothers because he wanted the Angel's Sword?"

  "What else did he tell you? Did he tell you where he was going? What he plans to do with the two Mortal Instruments?" Maryse asked quickly.

  Jace shook his head.

  The Inquisitor moved toward him, her coat swirling around her like drifting smoke. Her gray eyes and gray mouth were drawn into tight horizontal lines. "I don't believe you."

  Jace just looked at her. "I didn't think you would."

  "I doubt the Clave will believe you either."

  Alec said hotly, "Jace isn't a liar—"

  "Use your brain, Alexander," said the Inquisitor, not taking her eyes off Jace. "Leave aside your loyalty to your friend for a moment. What's the likelihood that Valentine stopped by his son's cell for a paternal chat about t
he Soul-Sword, and didn't mention what he planned to do with it, or even where he was going?"

  "S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse," Jace said in a language Clary didn't know, "a persona che mai tornasse al mondo…"

  "Dante." The Inquisitor looked dryly amused. "The Inferno. You're not in hell yet, Jonathan Morgenstern, though if you insist on lying to the Clave, you'll wish you were." She turned back to the others. "And doesn't it seem odd to anyone that the Soul-Sword should disappear the night before Jonathan Morgenstern is supposed to stand trial by its blade—and that his father is the one who took it?"

  Jace looked shocked at that, his lips parting slightly in surprise, as if this had never occurred to him. "My father didn't take the Sword for me. He took it for him. I doubt he even knew about the trial."

  "How awfully convenient for you, regardless. And for him. He won't have to worry about you spilling his secrets."

  "Yeah," Jace said, "he's terrified I'll tell everyone that he's always really wanted to be a ballerina." The Inquisitor simply stared at him. "I don't know any of my father's secrets," he said, less sharply. "He never told me anything."

  The Inquisitor regarded him with something close to boredom. "If your father didn't take the Sword to protect you, then why did he take it?"

  "It's a Mortal Instrument," said Clary. "It's powerful. Like the Cup. Valentine likes power."

  "The Cup has an immediate use," said the Inquisitor. "He can use it to make an army. The Sword is used in trials. I can't see how that would interest him."

  "He might have done it to destabilize the Clave," suggested Maryse. "To sap our morale. To say that there is nothing we can protect from him if he wants it badly enough." It was a surprisingly good argument, Clary thought, but Maryse didn't sound very convinced. "The fact is—"