They reached another T-intersection and from down one of the other two passages Yejun called, “Hey! I think we’re close.”
They paused to wait for him to join them, and then all three dogs trotted ahead, down a long corridor crammed with parallel lines like a circuit board. On their left hand, they passed a rounded room with empty, broken crates, similar to others they’d passed, but the corridor continued on.
“I can’t believe this has taken so long,” said Amber.
“Well, we’ve been making a map, haven’t we?” said Yejun. “Not just trying to solve it.”
“AT was right to try to get the whole pattern before taking us to the heart,” agreed Cat. “Especially if it’s magical.”
The gentle curve of the tunnel straightened and at the end was a wide opening. A sound came from beyond the brightness that filled the opening: scritch scritch.
“You know, I’d wondered where she’d gone,” said Yejun gloomily.
Amber’s spirits lifted, and she sped up, going so far as to outpace Nod in her eagerness. The black dog growled and chased her, which caused the other dogs to chase him, so that Amber arrived in the central chamber in a tumble of canines.
She had a glimpse of Haliel sitting cross-legged on a box in the center of the room, her book open on her lap. Then scarlet lightning flashed around the box, passing harmlessly through Haliel and crawling along the walls. One of the tendrils passed through Amber with an unpleasant tickle, and then the lightning was gone.
Unfazed, Haliel said, “Careful, Blondie. Tripping over a dog isn’t something you should be famous for. Take a minute, get yourself together. Maybe comb your hair.”
Amber held her hair back from her face and said, “What was that light? That was too much light. I didn’t like it.”
Behind her, Yejun said, “Um.” His voice had a worried, embarrassed note that Amber didn’t like either.
“Despite Capricorn’s best efforts to ruin everything, you kids released a bane anyhow.” Haliel’s smile was a work of art, but Amber couldn’t properly appreciate it.
She whirled on Yejun. “You! You are the worst—”
He held his hands up. “I didn’t know! It’s not the labyrinth bane. I didn’t even touch that spell! All I did was tidy up some of the tangle as I passed it!”
“Oh, you all completed the pattern together. Go team!” said Haliel.
Cat said, “That box is another relic.” He stepped past Amber and Yejun and entered the room.
The central chamber was a large and nearly empty room. There were two gray stone slabs in the center; one was empty while the other held the box Haliel sat above. It was a little larger than Amber’s college trunk, but made of carved white stone, with poles at the top on the long sides.
Amber stared at the box, momentarily distracted from yelling at Yejun. But it was Yejun who said, “Is that… is that the Ark of the Covenant?”
Haliel laughed merrily. “An ark of promise, in any case.”
“More meddling, Haliel?” Cat asked.
Haliel floated up to the ceiling. “Pooh. If you don’t know what it is already, I’ll eat this book.”
Cat’s eyes narrowed and Amber guessed he was sorely tempted. But his commitment to sincerity apparently won out, and he said, “I had suspicions.”
Haliel nodded. “That’s exactly how I’ll record it.” She bent her head to her book and narrated, “As usual, the artificial persona embraced his self-imposed restrictions and announced: I have a suspicion.”
Yejun said, “So where did the bane go?” He stared up at the curved ceiling of the chamber where Haliel hovered.
Haliel smiled and kept writing. Cat advanced on the box and circled it. The dogs sniffed around the corners of the room. Amber finger-combed her hair for a moment, and then followed Cat.
The white stone of the box had roses sculpted in mid-relief on the sides, twining around the corners, with tiny thorns extruding here and there. The lid was slightly domed, and unornamented. Amber put her hand on it, and then yanked it away, frowning.
“There’s char here,” said Cat quietly. He nodded at the soot-blackened ground around the stone pedestal under the ark. “But not on the stone.”
Abruptly, Yejun said, “I don’t like knowing what’s up with that bane. I’m going out to check on AT.” Grim whuffed as Yejun turned away and galloped over to him.
Amber’s frown deepened. Annoyed, she called, “Bring her down here, so we can move this thing to the surface.”
Cat and Yejun both looked at her in surprise. Impatiently, she said, “We’re certainly not leaving it here now.”
With an unusual hesitance, Yejun said, “I don’t want to screw anything up worse than I have.”
With what she felt was great strength of mind, Amber let this go by without the snide remark it clearly deserved. There were more important things to say. “I don’t care if moving it screws something else up, because leaving it here will be worse.”
Cat narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
Amber gave Cat a long, steady look. “Would you be asking Jen that?”
There was a crack of laughter from Yejun as Cat blinked. “I’ll bring her down.” He vanished into the tunnels with Grim.
Amber called after him, “Don’t set off any more magic coming back!”
After a moment, Cat said acidly, “Jen knows far more about magic than you do.”
“But she knows exactly the same amount about the Hunt that I do,” countered Amber. “And this box should have had our attention long ago. I guess it was hidden by the labyrinth though. The Horn’s detection abilities definitely have some holes.”
Cat frowned and traced his fingers over the relief of a rose. “Oh.” He frowned. “It’s not a normal haunt.”
Amber idly looked up at Haliel, writing away. “Well, it’s also an ‘ark of promise,’ whatever that is. And it was put down here on purpose, so I’m guessing the haunt is artificially constructed. I can see why you’d miss that, though.”
Haliel gave her a thumbs-up while continuing to write, a small smile curving her mouth, and Amber bit her lip to keep from smiling back.
“An ark of promise is—” Cat began, but Amber waved her hands.
“Save it until we’ve got it back on the surface. You don’t want to explain it over and over again. Why don’t you check out the magic around the room instead, and I’ll keep an eye out for any returning red glows?”
Cat gave her a very strange look before turning his attention to the floor of the room. As he moved slowly around the slabs of stone, Amber leaned against the wall, secretly marveling at the way Cat was doing what she’d said. She wondered how far she could push that.
It was a very strange feeling, telling somebody else what to do in their own field. She’d always assumed bossy people were born, not made. She’d never been one of them, except in those situations where she had the marked advantage, like telling AT how to dress. She’d certainly never wanted to be one of them, because they clearly had special knowledge. Was it really as simple as directing people to do the obvious?
No, it couldn’t be. She was missing something. But she intended to experiment more until she figured it out. If nothing else, the look on Cat’s face was worth it.
25
Ark
After AT and Amber eventually got the heavy stone ark out of the labyrinth and the excavated sub-basement, with much swearing and complaining on both ends, they put it down, not very gently, on the ground level and took a rest.
“Should somebody go get Brynn and Jen?” asked AT, after a moment. “We’ve been over here a long time.”
Cat, who was loitering around with Yejun like the under-worked weaklings they were, shook his head. “Not yet.”
Amber, sensing an opportunity, sat up and jumped in. “They should stay put for now. Cat’s idea about having Jen as a failsafe was a good one. And we should figure some things out before we bring Brynn over.” She pulled her mouth to one side. “I wonder how similar they
are.”
“That’s only got the one node, and it’s empty,” said Yejun. “So not that similar.”
“They both hold souls, though,” countered Amber. “Or some part of souls.”
AT shook her hands. “Carrying it was not fun, guys. It’s a contained haunt, but it’s a powerful one.”
“It’s all tangled up with Gale and Imani’s haunt, too,” said Cat. “Jen was right. This is why Imani’s haunt is so overwhelming. Gale did something…”
“Oh, come on, open it already!” Haliel demanded.
AT said, “Do you already know what’s inside?”
“No,” said Haliel, annoyed. “If I did, I’d already be writing.”
“How did you get there before us, anyhow?” asked Yejun.
Haliel hesitated. “If I tell you, will you open the damn box?”
“Yes,” said Amber firmly.
With a shrug, Haliel used her quill to sketch a vague round pattern in the air. As it glimmered and faded away, she said, “Magic would have found it too, if he’d looked down from up here.”
“Thanks!” said Amber, and she pushed the lid off the ark before anybody could stop her.
Within the stone box was a coarse, dark brown powder, with larger chunks scattered throughout. Amber knew instinctively what she was looking at. “Bones. Or bone dust, anyhow. I guess that makes sense.” Something pale glinted on one side of the box and Amber reached in and pulled out a yellowed binder. “So tell us about an ark of promise, Cat.”
Cat put his hands behind his back, eyeing the binder Amber held. “You can extrapolate what they are from the story of the Ark of the Covenant.”
“Wait,” said AT. “The Covenant in the Ark of the Covenant wasn’t the faerie Covenant, right?”
Haliel laughed but didn’t say anything. Cat said, “No. Ancient history is full of covenants. The faerie Covenant was framed as an agreement that the faeries would stay away from the mortal world and then made magically binding. Many of the others were simple promises. There are traditions where a gift accompanies an exchange of promises.” He tapped his foot on the lid Amber had removed. “When the promise was between a celestial and a group of people, this was a common way to preserve the gift. Amber, are you going to open that binder or just hold it?”
Amber said, “I can just imagine what you would have done if I’d read this while you were lecturing. Yejun, here. You read this, and you do it without setting off any more magical traps, please.” She gave Cat a speculative look and then went for broke. “Cat, you and AT go fetch Gale and bring him here.”
Cat returned Amber’s earlier long, steady stare with interest. While he was giving her the hairy eyeball, AT said wonderingly, “Wow, you are being bossy suddenly. What’s up with that?”
Amber hesitated, and then said, “Ask me later? Cat, you have a question?”
Yejun hissed between his teeth and for a moment, Amber wondered if she’d gone too far imitating her professors at college. But Cat merely said, very calmly, “And what will you be doing, Amber?”
She gave him a reckless smile. “I’m going to keep an eye out for Imani and distract her if she shows up to meddle. After all, Yejun and I already successfully interacted with her once.”
Cat stared at her for a moment more, then shook his head and turned away. “He might have recovered enough from Severin’s little talk to resist, so you’d best come too, AT.”
AT looked between Cat and Amber with wide eyes, then gave Amber a furtive grin before scampering after Cat. Amber watched them until they rounded a corner, and then sagged against one of the phantasmal walls of the post office.
Haliel said, “Interesting game, Blondie. Are you sure it’s worth it?”
Amber looked up worriedly. “You don’t think so?”
Drifting lower, Haliel said, “It’s always seemed more like trouble, less like fun. But you’re clearly enjoying yourself.”
Amber shrugged self-consciously. “Yeah. I mean, why not?”
“It won’t last,” said Haliel darkly. “It’ll turn into Dullsville. I’ve watched it happen.”
Amber frowned. “If it does, I’ll stop.”
Haliel shook her head. “You won’t be able to. That’s the trap. I mean, look at the Skipper. She acts like she’s got a constant headache but does she just walk away? No! And don’t even ask me about how staid Umbriel’s become.”
Yejun glanced up from his binder. “Aren’t your sort usually pretty boring? And that’s why we have Capricorn and so on running around?”
Coldly, Haliel said, “If you’re going to talk about that wretched demon, I’m going after Slick and Curls.”
“No!” said Amber hurriedly. “Forget Capricorn. I mean, I wish I could, that’s for sure.”
“Good girl,” said Haliel approvingly. She sighed. “Magic is right, though. The boys upstairs are far too busy and important to enjoy the simple pleasures.” She studied Amber. “I suppose it might go differently for you, with this lot. They’re far less stuffy, and you’ve at least got some potential, unlike the Skipper.”
Amber glowed. “Thank you!”
“Be careful saying that around Cat, Goldilocks,” said Yejun. “Amber, I think we have another problem.”
As Amber straightened up, Haliel gave her a pointed look that she didn’t quite understand. “What’s that?”
Yejun tapped the binder. “This mostly reads like a bad translation of a bad translation, but it’s pretty clear about the bane associated with the ark. It’s a creature of some sort. The shape seems to vary, but the results of releasing it are pretty consistent. It goes out, it acquires twelve souls, and it returns to the box.”
“And now you clarify ‘acquires,’ right?”
“Well… it generally leaves the dead bodies behind.”
“The souls of the living, then,” Amber said gloomily. She sighed. It was best that she was the one hearing this first. Any of the other girls would be really upset by this, but Amber herself had been a monster of the ‘go out and fetch me tasty souls’ variety before she’d decided enough was enough.
“It doesn’t say, but the last few times they’ve summoned it, twelve bodies were left behind…” Yejun was giving her the same expectant look he gave Jen sometimes.
Amber looked around the ghost town. “And they wouldn’t have any idea of its range because they would have always summoned it right here in the center of town. Wonderful.” She shook her head. “What else does the binder say?”
Yejun blinked. “You’re not worried about a monster going out and hunting down the twelve closest people who aren’t us?”
Flatly, Amber said, “We can’t do anything about it. We didn’t release it on purpose. So, no, I’m not worried. I am getting angry though. What else is in the binder?”
“Uh, there’s the bad, bad translation of the ark’s ancient history, which is almost complete gibberish. Mixed up Christianity and sacred weddings and guardians. But it was with the families who founded Tucker long, long before they settled here. They were the descendants of… chosen ones? Come on, guys, these aren’t even proper sentences.” Yejun scowled at the binder.
“Anyhow, here’s records of when they used it. No records within the past thirty years or so, except a note about sealing up the labyrinth. Before that, they… really had no idea what they were doing, except that they knew they could summon the monster by crossing certain thresholds of the labyrinth in a single night, and they thought some of those who had their souls taken by the bane would be revived in immortal bodies a lot sooner than Judgement Day.”
He hesitated. “I think they used victims from the camps as sacrifices to pave the way for whoever they were trying to consecrate to the ark. But almost the whole document was retyped when they put together the binder and some notes are annotated like a feral Wikipedia article.” He ran his fingers over a page. “I can feel how much the typist hated what they were recording.”
“So they tried to lock it away and forget about it, until Imani got
too close,” said Amber grimly.
“Speak of the devil…” whispered Yejun, looking up.
High above them, Imani hovered, in full Hellqueen regalia, staring at the box with eyes of fire.
“Hey, Haliel,” hissed Yejun. “How do you feel about mice?”
“Don’t try to involve me in your deviant magic,” said Haliel sweetly.
Amber moved to the open ark, reached in and stirred the bone particles with her hand. Imani moved lower, Haliel scooting out of her way.
“What is that?” Imani breathed. “So strange… so familiar. I feel it in here.” She pressed a hand against her chest. “But I’ve never seen it.”
Coming to earth, she knelt and traced the shape of the sculpted roses without actually touching the box. “I know these roses, though. Gale’s roses. He grew them after it was far too late. To please me, he said.” Her face became harsh. “But I already spent far too long letting him please me and see the price I paid for such pleasure.”
“How exactly are you distracting her, Amber?” asked Yejun nervously.
“I’m listening to her, Yejun. In a bit, possibly I’ll sing. Hush.” Then Amber said to Imani, who had raised her head, “Men, yeah?”
Imani’s face darkened further, her eyes blazing. “Men. Wicked men, so quick to promise, so quick to betray. Every promise, broken. Where is Severin, who promised me my daughter?”
Quickly, Amber said, “What did Gale promise?”
“To protect me, of course,” snapped Imani. “These men, so powerful, promising to protect me but when I needed them, where were they?” A horrible smile stretched her face. “But I’m the powerful one now.”
Amber frowned. She knew Imani only from a few moments, but this didn’t seem like it fit her script. Her voice was wrong. Amber remembered the ghosts at the burning church, breaking character to turn and watch them pull Imani’s true self from the ghost. What was going on? Was it something about Gale?
Fury Convergence Page 33
