Crook of the Dead (The Adventures of Lydia Trinket Book 3)

by Jen Rasmussen

  Amias was talking again, but I had no idea what he was saying. As quickly as I could, praying surprise would be on my side, I jumped at him and reached for the dagger at the same time.

  I landed on his chair as my fingers found the bone hilt.

  I wrenched the dagger free and stabbed.

  Amias was screaming.

  No. Wait.

  He was laughing.

  I wasn’t stabbing him with a bone dagger. I was stabbing him with a chicken bone.

  Told you there would be a catch.

  Amias flicked his wrist, and I went flying back into my chair. My arms and legs felt like they were made of cement. I couldn’t get up.

  “Your weapons ceased to be weapons as soon as you crossed into my realm,” Amias said with a smile. “I admire the effort, though. You’ll pardon me for pinning you to the chair. I was afraid you’d go for my throat next, and what a messy business that would be.”

  How did he know? How did he know what I did to Helen?

  “Now let’s see, if I recall correctly, you are not a big fan of fire, is that right?”

  Well, that one doesn’t make him the Shadow. That’s easy to figure out.

  “I think when Phin gets here I’ll set you on fire. Then he’ll have to smell you dying as well as watch.” Amias giggled. Seriously, giggled. There is no other word for it. “Right before I kill my sweet auntie, of course.” He nodded at the still-sleeping Gwen. “She’ll be the finale. I’m assuming she’s more dear to him than you are, although maybe it’s close.”

  Norbert and Rebecca were both crying now. I was doing my damnedest not to join them.

  “I see that even if you aren’t going to do the reveal-my-evil-plan thing, you’re definitely going with the gloating,” I said.

  He chuckled. “Why make a paradise if it isn’t going to be fun? I— ah, that must be my cousin now.”

  The tower door had slammed below us. I heard voices. One of them might have been Henrietta’s, although how she’d gotten back downstairs when I’d last seen her going up, I couldn’t guess. The other sounded like Phineas. And if that was him, he sounded awfully pissed off.

  Imagine how much more pissed he’ll be when you’re burned alive before his eyes.

  Okay, get a hold of yourself. For as long as you’re not on fire, you need to keep working on not being set on fire.

  Which sounded good and all, but I had no weapons, and I was pinned to a chair. I could honestly see no way I was getting out of this.

  And as far as me and my inner critic were concerned, it was no more than I deserved. What was I thinking, running headlong into this netherworld, thinking I would rescue Norbert from an enemy who had beaten me before, and against whom I still had no recourse? It didn’t seem to be doing Norbert much good, that was for sure.

  Phineas came up a few seconds later, and I saw that the woman escorting him was not Henrietta after all, but Bella. She looked fresh-faced and happy, like the photo of her skiing. She did not look like she’d been eaten alive by shadow eaters.

  Well, there you go. If you survive this, that’ll be one nightmare you can cross off your list.

  Yeah, like I’m really going to survive this.

  But my sense of doom did not appear to be catching. Phineas, I shit you not, smiled at me. And winked.

  That made me feel a little better. Even Phineas wasn’t optimistic enough to be winking—winking, for fuck’s sake!—at a time like this unless he had a plan, and a damn good plan at that.

  I did my best to smile back.

  “Isn’t that sweet, smiling at one another,” said Amias. “Trying to bolster each other’s courage at a time like this. Or maybe anticipating your reunion in Heaven? I’ll have to disabuse you of that, I’m afraid. You’ll be spending your afterlife here, with us. It won’t be a bit pleasant, either.”

  I was surprised he didn’t wink, too. He certainly looked satisfied with himself.

  “Mark found him with Claudia, swimming across the lake toward the island,” Bella said.

  “Swimming toward the island?” Amias made a tsk-tsk noise and shook his head sadly. “That wouldn’t seem to indicate that she was bringing him to me. I assume Claudia is being dealt with, then?”

  “Mark is punishing her. She’s one of his favorites to punish. I think it’s because she’s so pretty.”

  Wow, nice work, Bella. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for me to feel any sicker, but that did it.

  “Good, good.” Amias stood and rubbed his hands together, as if warming them in front of a fire. Which I suppose was just what he was anticipating doing. “Well then, shall we get started?”

  “We shall,” Phineas agreed. “But I’m afraid it’s not going to go quite how you planned.”

  “No?” Amias grinned at his cousin. “Going to try to fight me again? That should be amusing. You haven’t won since we were teenagers. When will you give up?”

  “Today, actually,” said Phineas. “This is our last fight.”

  And then Phineas said seven words. Only seven. Too few for anyone to react properly. Although Amias tried, starting an incantation of his own. Phineas twitched as if he’d been shocked, and fell, but he was almost done speaking by then.

  I wish I could tell you what those seven words were, because I should be recounting an impressive, climactic moment. But since I didn’t speak the language, I spent that moment frowning at the gibberish coming out of Phineas’s mouth, until he shouted the last word with great showmanship. He was on the floor by then, which flattened his dramatic finish a little. But only a little.

  And then Amias was on the floor, too. Eyes staring. Dead.

  He only stayed that way for a second. Then his soul rose up, much like Helen Turner’s had when I’d bitten her throat out. Largely shapeless but for the mouth, it began to scream.

  Gwen’s eyes snapped open, and she started to scream, too. Phineas ran to her. Rebecca started laughing again.

  I rushed to Norbert and clapped my hands over his ears, then huddled over him so neither of us could see Amias. Norbert struggled against my touch, but I held on tight. In fact, I was probably squeezing his head harder than was strictly necessary, trying to focus on him instead of wave after sickening wave of Amias’s hatred, resentment, and sadistic glee flowing over us.

  Even if I could put it into words, I wouldn’t. It was just like when Jeffrey Litauer’s soul was banished forever: my mind nearly snapped at that peek into its blackness.

  And then it was over. There was nothing on the floor where Amias had been. Not even a stain.

  Bella, Phineas, and I stood gaping at the empty spot. Gwen did the same, looking haggard but sane. Norbert and Rebecca were still in their chairs, dazed and silent.

  I thought Bella might attack us. Instead she turned and ran up the stairs, screaming for Hettie.

  “Well,” I said. “That was…”

  “Almost unbelievably easy,” said Phineas.

  “So I guess that last word you said was—”

  “—his true name.”

  “And the spell?”

  “Alice knew it. It was amazing, what Claudia was able to get from her. It was like the sane Alice was still in there, dying to talk.”

  “Phineas!” I grinned at him. “You just did a seriously advanced bit of magic!”

  “So I did.” He ran his foot over the floorboards, as if feeling for any residue left behind. “And I finally got the last word.”

  We both started laughing. It was hard to stop.

  So naturally, I assumed we were done. We’d killed the bad guy. Or Phineas had killed him, as was only fitting. My only contributions were brandishing a chicken bone and fretting about being burned. But I could hardly begrudge Phineas the solo victory, after his quest had been so long and grueling.

  In any case, the bad guy was dead. That meant we were supposed to pack it in, go home, and start drinking, right?

  It did not turn out to be that simple.

  The trouble with having a netherworl
d constructed entirely of one person’s will is, once that will dies, so does everything it built. The tower started collapsing around us. And it only got worse from there.

  There was a series of enormous crashes, as the ceilings collapsed from the top level down. We didn’t need more than one or two—accompanied by the screams of the Traven sisters above—to get us moving. Gwen, thankfully, was able to run on her own. Phineas grabbed Norbert, while I hauled Rebecca up and half carried, half dragged her down the stairs.

  We made it outside, but just barely. A chunk of marble hit my shoulder as I dove out the door. I tried to tell myself I was only imagining the pain, but I was pretty sure my arm was broken for real.

  “What happens if we’re still here when this place winks out of existence?” Phineas asked. “Do we get set free, or do we go with it?”

  “Too big a gamble to find out. We have to get to the others.” I looked behind us at the crumbling tower. There was an arm sticking out of the rubble. Henrietta’s or Bella’s, I supposed. “We have to hurry.”

  We ran, dragging Norbert and Rebecca as best we could until, at some point, both of them started moving more-or-less of their own volition. Eventually we made it to the lake. What we saw there was not encouraging.

  The hill on the island had turned into a volcano, spewing ash everywhere. The water was bloodred and boiling. There were people swimming, screaming, as the water steamed and roiled over them.

  As we watched, a winged shaped shot up into the gray sky, then dropped into the water with a scream of agony. I guessed we’d just seen the last of Mark Underwood. I wondered, fleetingly, whether it would be kindness or cruelty when I told Madeline what had become of her brother. I made my mind up right then and there that Max would never hear it from me.

  But what about the others? How could we possibly save them all?

  Okay. The same thing happened to Cyrus’s plot, after he disappeared. It’s just because it hasn’t got anything to obey. An absence of will.

  So give it a will.

  I let go of Rebecca. Phineas stepped in to grab her as she teetered on her feet, but I barely noticed as I stepped forward to the shore of the bubbling lake.

  I was out of practice. I’d never been all that good at it in the first place. And this was an awfully big fucking job.

  I willed the water to be still.

  It took me a long time, while the swimmers continued to suffer. By the time I succeeded, they were practically at the shore anyway. But eventually the water stopped boiling, and turned a mostly normal dark green color.

  Which meant it could be done. Now that Amias was gone, this world could be manipulated.

  “Good,” I said.

  Claudia came running up to me. Her body had already been so destroyed, it was hard to tell what damage Mark might have done to her.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “They said you were being punished.”

  She grimaced, and her eyes clouded over for a second. “It wasn’t good. But it’s over. You did it?” She looked at Phineas, who was beside me now. “You killed Amias?”

  He nodded, and she threw herself into his arms. They hugged tightly while the others gathered around us. I glanced over Phineas’s shoulder and saw Norbert and Rebecca, standing a little apart from the rest. But at least they were standing. And maybe it was wishful thinking on my part, but both their expressions seemed a little clearer. With Amias gone, maybe his grip over them would loosen, just as it was loosening over this place.

  Gwen stepped forward to hug one of the phantasms who’d died in the clearing. I didn’t know how she’d managed to fare so much better than the other two. Maybe Amias had put her to sleep immediately, preferring to save even the tiniest bit of torture for when Phineas was there.

  “Okay,” I said to everybody and nobody in particular. “This place is falling apart. We can keep it at bay for a bit with our own will, but I doubt that’ll work forever. We’ve got to get everyone out of here as quickly as possible. I know the ritual to get out, and—”

  Shit.

  How was I supposed to get remnants for all these people? The dead ones, at least, hadn’t been sent here by ritual. They’d been psychopomped by shadow eaters.

  I looked helplessly at Claudia, wondering how to explain this to her, but she was already shaking her head. “Taking us back out of here isn’t going to help us,” she said. “We’re dead.”

  “But you need to move on,” I said. “Before the world you’re in is destroyed. Can you try without a ritual?”

  “I’ve been trying since the island started falling apart,” Tristan said. “I don’t think it’s just a matter of wishing ourselves away, even with Amias gone.”

  Shit.

  “I suspect we just need to let nature take its course,” Tristan went on.

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning that when this place—this prison—falls away, we’ll go to the next place.”

  “But what if you don’t?” Phineas asked. “What if you’re destroyed along with it?”

  “That can’t happen.” Claudia sounded confident, but looked afraid. “It can’t. He can take souls, but he doesn’t have the power to destroy them. Nobody but God could have that power.” She squared her shoulders. “I was raised to have faith, so that’s how I’m going out. The Lord will deliver me.”

  I looked around at the doubtful faces of the others. Some of them we might have saved, if we’d figured out what Amias was up to sooner. But it didn’t matter if I was responsible for them or not. They’d suffered enough, and they needed to get out of this hell.

  “How about this,” I said finally. “I’m going to teach you the ritual, and those of you who want to can try it without remnants. If there was no remnant anchoring you here, then maybe there’s no need to pull that anchor up. You’ll move on to… wherever.”

  Tristan volunteered to try it first, although his courage visibly flagged when I explained that part of the ritual involved setting himself on fire.

  “Believe me,” I said, “if I could learn that part, anyone can.”

  But it hadn’t been easy to learn. It would take time. I moved as quickly as I could through the incantation to get out (which was the same as the one for getting in, except backwards), having them repeat it after me several times. Then I explained the rest of the ritual: blood first, in place of water and salt, and then fire.

  While they practiced, I tried not to notice the tremors that were getting stronger and stronger, and hoped the ground wouldn’t open up to swallow us.

  Finally, several of them felt ready to try it. And not a moment too soon.

  I turned to Phineas. “We’re running out of time, and we need remnants for your mother and Rebecca and Norbert to get them back.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  I glanced at Rebecca, who was staring at the others, her face blank. “Do you think her sisters are still dear to her? Even after everything?”

  “I don’t think she could stop loving her sisters even if she tried. Not deep down.”

  “Okay, I need you to do something then, while I help the others with this ritual. You aren’t going to like it.”

  “I haven’t liked a whole lot since we jumped into this coffin. One more thing probably can’t hurt.”

  “There was an… arm… under the mess at the tower. Sticking out. I bet it was one of theirs.”

  “And it had a ring or something?”

  “You can check, but I didn’t see one.”

  “So you want me to take the arm?”

  “Just a finger,” I said. “It’s what I used when I did this ritual on Helen Turner, so I know it works.”

  “I was wrong,” said Phineas. “One more thing probably can hurt.”

  “It’s fine,” Gwen broke in. “We’ll be fine. I’ll go with him.”

  They walked away, stumbling as the ground shook beneath us.

  I turned back to Tristan. “Ready?”

  Tristan went first, by himself in case I had to step i
n to help. He was on the last line of the incantation when he burst into flames like a champ. I thought I caught a flash of a smile—I dearly hoped that wasn’t just my imagination—and then he was gone.

  I hoped he’d gone somewhere good.

  Once they saw it work for him, the rest of them—all but Claudia, who wanted to make sure nobody was left behind before doing it herself—did it all at once, together. I admired them. I don’t know that I’d have been brave enough to do it, without knowing where I would be sent. It felt too much like suicide.

  They’d barely finished when what was left of the island sank into the lake, and the lake itself followed, flowing away like water down a drain and leaving nothing but a vast, empty space where it had been.

  Claudia was ready to go. I hugged her tight and wished her godspeed. There wasn’t much else to do.

  One short incantation later, and she was gone, leaving just me, Norbert, and Rebecca on the beach.

  I pulled off my locket, opened it, then tore it in half at the hinge. I handed Norbert the half that held Warren’s picture and squeezed his hand around it.

  He flinched at the contact, but he didn’t scream. He hadn’t spoken at all since we’d pulled him out of the tower.

  “Hold this tight, Norbert,” I said. “Can you do that?”

  He nodded, still without speaking.

  “Okay. Good.” I would do the ritual, and set him on fire myself. “Did you see the others, how they left?”

  Another nod.

  “Well, I’m going to do the same thing to send you home. Some of that stuff might freak you out, but it’s to get home. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.” It was only a croak, but I’d take what I could get. I wanted to hug him, but I knew he wouldn’t like it.

  “When you come to, you’ll be in a strange sort of stone room, with a coffin in it. Don’t be scared and do not move. Just wait there for us. Can you do that? I know this is hard, Norbert, but it’s to get home. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “I can try.”

  Shit, Lydia, what are you doing? He can’t handle this. You have no idea how it will work. You could just lose him all over again.

  Okay, well, I’m open to suggestions.