by Sue Tingey
My heart sank even further when the fortress surrounding the royal palace came into sight. Although I loved the vibrant little town within the fortress walls, I hated the palace and its occupants; the members of the court were every bit as debauched and cruel as their ruler, and that hatred compounded my gloom so that even the bustle of the town below us couldn’t lift my spirits.
It was market day; the streets were packed with carts and brightly coloured stalls and had we been on foot, it would have taken us an age to fight our way through to the palace entrance. We were coming in low enough that I could hear some of the vendors shouting out to potential customers, inviting them to try their wares, and I caught the occasional whiff of musky perfume or the tart aroma of pickled vegetables. A few shoppers looked up as we passed over, but on the whole the daemons crowding the cobblestoned streets paid us no heed, being more interested in procuring bargains.
We carried on over the mêlée and all too soon the grey stone walls and turrets of the gothic castle that was home to Lord Baltheza were right before us.
As much as I hated the palace, it was an impressive sight. Had I been a child I would have thought it a fairytale castle with its ramparts, moat and portcullis; as an adult I knew it was a much darker place, more akin to something out of a horror movie. Only once had I been deep down in the bowels of the castle, to the place where Amaliel Cheriour had plied his trade, and that was one time too many. It was worse than any set someone in Hollywood could have thought up.
We came in to land at the front entrance and Jamie wasted no time in calling over a bored-looking guard – a skinny daemon with a walrus moustache and tusks to match – and sending him to announce our arrival to Baltheza.
Kayla and I climbed down from Pyrites as he began to shrink, and when he was the size of a parrot he alighted on my shoulder so he could enter the palace. Bob was another matter; there was no way we could take him inside the building. Although Baltheza’s court was a perverse and strange place, a depressed, winged horse trudging through its passageways would probably be one strangeness too far.
‘Will he be all right if we leave him here?’ I asked. Usually as soon as Jinx had finished with him he would slap Bob on the rump and the beast would fly off, returning when Jinx called him.
Jamie patted Bob’s neck. ‘He’ll come if we call him,’ Jamie said. ‘He wants to find Jinx as much as we do.’ And with that Bob trotted away, unfurled his wings and launched himself up into the sky.
Baltheza didn’t keep us waiting for long. Two guards the size of grizzly bears, if not nearly so attractive, arrived within ten minutes to take us to their leader. They escorted us through the long, gloomy corridors of the palace, the echo of our footsteps sounding too loud in the confined space, and out into a walled garden; coincidently, the place where Jamie and Jinx had last seen Amaliel.
Baltheza was sitting on the low stone wall surrounding the pond. Unusually, there was no naked slave girl lounging at his feet; apart from two guards standing by the entrance to the garden he was alone.
His back was to us, his beautiful black curls veiling his face as he leaned forward to drop small pieces of bread onto the water’s surface, which were immediately swallowed by brightly coloured fishlike creatures. He turned to look up as he heard us approaching.
His nostrils flared and his thin jade lips pressed together. ‘Why do I feel I’m about to get more bad news?’ he said, looking from me to Jamie. ‘It would be nice if, just for once, you came to visit me for the pleasure of my company.’
‘Same old Daddy,’ Kayla muttered as she dropped down to sit next to him.
Jamie gave a bow and I did the same. ‘Lord Baltheza,’ Jamie said.
‘You’re looking well,’ he said to me, ignoring Jamie.
I couldn’t say the same of him; he was as ugly and frightening as ever. Two thick, disfiguring ridges of puckered skin ran from the bridge of his aristocratically long, narrow nose, across where his eyebrows should be and up into his hairline where they met twisted ram horns. His opalescent white skin shimmered with green and blue, but spots of rose flushed his cheeks: he really wasn’t at all happy. Then he fixed me with his truly terrifying eyes, dark orbs of orange dissected by vertical slits of black.
‘The Deathbringer has gone missing,’ Jamie said without any preamble.
Baltheza froze for a moment. ‘Missing?’
‘He flew off with Bob yesterday afternoon and never came back, though Bob did – alone.’
Baltheza frowned at us both as he took this in. ‘Maybe he was called away on business.’
‘I’d know if he had been,’ Jamie said. ‘When he walks the Overlands I’m made aware of his mission.’
‘Hmm,’ Baltheza tapped a pointed talon against his lips, still looking at me.
‘There’s something else,’ Jamie said.
Baltheza almost had to drag his eyes away from me to pay attention to Jamie. ‘More?’
‘We think …’ Jamie glanced my way. ‘We’re pretty sure whoever has him is torturing him.’
Baltheza’s reptilian eyebrows shot up almost into his hairline. ‘Torturing the Deathbringer? Impossible.’ Then his eyes narrowed. ‘How could you know this? And more importantly, why did you come here – to me?’
Kayla gave sniff. ‘Typical of Daddy, it’s always me, me, me.’
‘We came to you because you’re the Lord of the Underlands and we thought this was something you should know,’ Jamie said, clearly as exasperated as Kayla.
Baltheza crossed his arms and glared at Jamie. ‘You can search the palace; he’s not here.’
‘We didn’t expect him to be.’
Baltheza snorted and started to say something, but I didn’t hear him as pain blossomed in my chest and I staggered and fell to one knee. Before I could recover, something punched into my stomach leaving me gasping for breath.
Then I was being picked up and hugged against a hard chest, and it was only when he spoke that I realised it was Baltheza who was holding me.
‘What’s happening to her?’
‘I don’t know how, but Lucky’s feeling what Jinx is feeling; at least that’s what she says.’
Long slender fingers stroked my hair. ‘Attacking Lucinda is as good as attacking me.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ I heard Kayla mutter in irritation.
‘I don’t think whoever is doing this knows they’re attacking Lucky,’ Jamie said – then another spike of pain hit me in between the eyes, Jinx’s roar of pain, anger and hate bounced around inside my skull, and although I was still conscious and I could hear him and feel his pain, everything else was a blur of shadows.
This time the torment didn’t stop: I’d barely got over one assault when the next hit me. Had I been totally human I’m sure my heart would have given out, but worse than the pain were Jinx’s screams, though he didn’t plead or beg for it to stop; I could feel him fighting whoever was doing this to him.
‘Can’t we give her something?’ I heard a voice say. ‘Something to knock her out?’ Then there was muttering, and the sound of a door opening and closing – then another blast of pain had me whimpering.
‘Here, try this.’
Someone lifted my head and a goblet was pressed to my lips. ‘Try to drink some, darling,’ Kayla said. ‘It’ll make you feel so much better.’
I forced myself to take a sip. The liquid tasted sweet but with a kick, like a liqueur, leaving a trail of warmth that ran across my tongue, down my throat and into my chest. Then my head began to spin, first in slow, lazy circles, then faster and faster until I thought I might just throw up – and then another spike of pain, this one freezing cold, like I’d been stabbed with a shard of ice, shot through my upper body just above my heart.
But before I could open my mouth to scream the drug did its job and I sank into blessed oblivion.
Two
I awoke to arguing male voices. ‘We can’t break the connection if we don’t know what it is and how it works,’ Jamie said.
‘Is she connected to you in the same way? I mean, is it the mark that’s doing it?’
Vaybian? I struggled to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt like they were weighed down with pennies. I felt a moment of panic – had I died?
‘I’ve never heard of someone who’s been marked having this sort of connection,’ Jamie said, ‘and Lucky’s never felt it when either of us were wounded before.’
‘Then why now?’ Yes, it was definitely Vaybian, Kayla’s green-skinned captain and petulant lover.
‘Does it really matter?’ I heard Kerfuffle say. ‘The Deathbringer is in trouble and Mistress Lucky is in pain. We find him and save him, and then we can worry about the whys and wherefores.’
‘I agree,’ Shenanigans said. ‘We have to stop Mistress Lucky’s pain.’ Present tense! Relief washed over me – I was alive.
‘Easier said than done, when we don’t know where Jinx is or who’s taken him,’ Jamie said.
‘I wouldn’t have believed it possible,’ Shenanigans said. ‘How could anyone capture the Deathbringer?’
‘Irrelevant,’ Kerfuffle said in his no-nonsense way. ‘We’ll worry about that once we’ve got him back.’
‘Since when have you started caring about the Deathbringer’s wellbeing?’ Vaybian asked.
‘Since my mistress’ welfare depended upon his,’ Kerfuffle said, and I didn’t need to have my eyes open to know my smallest guard would be standing with his hands on his hips, his oversized marshmallow head tilted back so he could glare up at Kayla’s lover.
I forced my eyelids apart, squinting against the light, and tried to drag myself into a sitting position. I had a dull ache behind my eyes again, but thankfully all the other pains had faded away, leaving only a memory.
‘Mistress,’ Shenanigans said, hurrying over to my bedside. He was the biggest of my guards at over seven feet tall, and looked like a two-legged, emerald-green rhinoceros. One ivory tusk sprouted from the centre of his forehead and another from the top of his snout above cavernous flared nostrils, and large ivory fangs protruded between thick, rubber-band lips. For all his size, his eyes – currently full of concern – were his smallest feature; tiny buttons mostly hidden within his wrinkly hide. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Not so bad now,’ I said, giving him a shaky smile.
He didn’t look so sure. ‘Maybe you should have another draught to make you sleep.’
‘That won’t help find Jinx.’
Kayla sank down onto the bed next to me. ‘Daddy’s sent his spies out everywhere, but they’ve found no trace of him.’
‘They didn’t find Amaliel either?’
‘No, they didn’t,’ she said, tapping her forefinger against her lips. ‘I’m sure we’re missing something.’
‘Who’s she talking to?’ Vaybian asked, and I winced. In my befuddled state I’d forgotten I’d been hiding the fact that Kayla was still around. He was jealous enough of our relationship without knowing that, even when dead, she was with me and not him.
‘I was talking to Jamie,’ I said.
Jamie raised an eyebrow, but very sensibly kept quiet as he sat down next to me. Vaybian wasn’t so easily deflected. ‘You were talking to someone else – who is it you see?’
‘I think you have to tell him,’ Kayla said.
‘And make him more morose than he already is?’ I murmured to her.
‘Is it Kayla?’ he asked, glancing around the room. ‘Is she here? Is my princess here?’
Jamie took hold of my hand, squeezed my fingers and gave me an encouraging smile. ‘It’s time he knew.’
‘Knew?’ Vaybian asked, his expectant expression enough to tell me what I had to do, even though I really didn’t want to be dealing with this right now.
‘When Kayla died, the last thing she said was that she’d never leave me,’ I told him.
‘She’s here now?’
I gave a small nod then wished I hadn’t as I saw sparkles and felt slightly sick.
Jamie moved closer, hugging me to him. ‘You should rest,’ he said.
‘How can I rest when I know Jinx is out there somewhere all alone?’
‘If he were out there all alone, there wouldn’t be a problem,’ Kerfuffle pointed out.
‘You know what she means,’ Shenanigans told his small friend, giving me an apologetic smile.
‘How is she?’ Vaybian asked, totally focused on what mattered to him and ignoring everything else, as usual. Though I supposed I couldn’t blame him – finding out the love of his life was still around after he thought she was gone for ever would have focused his attention.
Baltheza had asked exactly the same thing when he had realised I could still see my friend even in death and Vaybian repeating the question did nothing to improve Kayla’s temper. She glared at him, even though he couldn’t see it. ‘Why is it people keep asking how I am when it’s pretty bloody obvious? I’m dead, Vaybian.’
‘Oh, you know,’ I said. I wasn’t sure I wanted to say she was pissed off with him for asking something so amazingly stupid. ‘Kayla is Kayla; she hasn’t changed any now she’s dead.’ I looked at her and smiled. ‘Though she has re-grown her hair and snakes,’ I added as an afterthought. Before Amaliel had ruthlessly slit her throat, he’d tortured her by shearing off the vipers and her beautiful scarlet and emerald locks, which was not a good way for Vaybian to remember her.
To my surprise, Vaybian’s expression softened into a gentle smile. ‘Where is she?’
I nodded to where she was sitting and winced. I really had to stop doing that.
‘Tell her I miss her,’ he said.
‘You just did.’
‘I wish I could see her again.’
‘Maybe one day,’ I told him, but didn’t add that it would most likely be the day that he died; he didn’t need to hear that.
Kerfuffle abruptly crossed to the door and was reaching for it even as we heard the first rap of knuckles against wood. He opened the door and to my complete and utter surprise Baltheza swept in. Never before had he come to me; I was always summoned to appear before him.
Jamie got up from the bed and all my guard bowed, but they could have been as invisible as Kayla. He strode past them to me and sat on the edge of the bed, in the spot Jamie had just vacated.
‘I didn’t expect to find you awake. How are you feeling?’
‘A little weak.’
When he peered at my face and gently brushed the hair back from my brow to take a better look at me I had to fight to hide my shudder of revulsion.
‘You look a little better.’ He glanced up at Jamie. ‘Any more attacks?’
‘Lucky’s only just awakened.’
He returned his attention to me. ‘I’ve had my spies combing the Underlands, but wherever Amaliel is, he’s hidden from me.’
‘Any news on Jinx?’ I asked.
He gave a sniff, not hiding his dislike; the mannerism reminded me of Kayla. ‘The Deathbringer was last seen in the small village north of the lake where you were staying, where he bought bread, cheese and three bottles of red wine. The bag containing the items was found less than twenty yards from the shop. It looked as if he’d been picking flowers when he was taken – most strange.’
‘If he was that close to the village, didn’t anyone hear or see anything?’ Jamie asked.
Baltheza glanced up at him. ‘Not that they’re saying – although I can’t see any reason why they’d lie about it. The young woman who served him was apparently well-smitten by the Deathbringer; she said they’d shared a word or two before he left. My agents said she was visibly upset at the thought that something might have happened to him.’
‘How does he do it?’ I heard Kerfuffle mutter. ‘The most feared daemon in the Underlands and yet he’s probably had more women than I’ve had hot dinners.’
‘And of those you’ve had quite a few,’ Shenanigans finished for him – then seeing me looking their way, both started paying their footwear a lot of attention.
If
Baltheza heard, he ignored the two daemons. ‘As disconcerting as I find all this, I’m more concerned about your wellbeing than his,’ he said.
‘You are?’
‘I’ve lost Kayla and her mother, for ever; I don’t want to lose you as well.’
‘Not so long ago you wanted Lucky executed for treason,’ Jamie pointed out, which was most unlike him – he usually treated Baltheza with all the caution due a highly volatile, venomous snake.
Baltheza waved his comment aside with an aristocratic flick of the wrist. ‘I was fed lies about her by someone we now know to be untrustworthy and dangerous. It won’t happen again. Now’ – he got to his feet – ‘I’ll leave you to rest, but if there’s anything you think I can do to help, tell me.’ He bent down and kissed my cheek before striding across the room and pausing as he reached the door. ‘Guardian, a word alone, if I may.’
Jamie glanced at me, then followed Baltheza out into the hallway.
As the door closed, my guards exchanged puzzled glances. ‘What in the name of Beelzebub,’ Vaybian muttered, ‘was that all about?’
Kayla shifted on the bed so she was right beside me. ‘Daddy is acting a little strangely. It’s almost as though he actually cares for you. Most odd.’
‘He cared for you,’ I said. ‘When we told him you were dead he was very upset.’ I looked around the room. ‘Where’s Kubeck?’ I asked, suddenly noticing my newest guard’s absence.
‘Down in the Chambers of Rectification,’ Kerfuffle said.
‘What?’ I said, pulling the covers back and swinging my legs out of the bed. Bad move – the room gave a very unpleasant lurch.
‘No, no, mistress,’ Shenanigans said, throwing Kerfuffle an exasperated look, ‘he’s searching through Amaliel’s stuff, in case we missed anything last time.’
