by Sue Tingey
I felt sick with worry. If Amaliel had really broken Jinx and bound his spirit, my world was in serious danger – it might no longer be my home, but I still cared about what happened to it and the billions of people who lived there. Then there was Jinx – I couldn’t bear to think of him so badly damaged that he would be forced to do Amaliel’s bidding. If Amaliel had managed to do that to him, would he ever be able to recover? If he killed innocent people, I wasn’t even sure he could.
‘I still don’t understand how Amaliel captured Jinx,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense.’
Shenanigans gave a little cough. ‘Ah, well, we think we may have solved that one,’ he said.
Kubeck stepped towards us, Amaliel’s little book open in his hand. ‘I thought I’d have another try at working out Amaliel’s code,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t having much luck, until I found this.’
Jamie took the book from him and scanned the page. ‘No, no, no! This cannot be—’
‘What?’ I asked in alarm and he handed the book to me. Five words were scrawled across the paper: ‘Malake ha-Mawet Jin Xanthe – what does this mean?’
Jamie’s complexion was ashen. He got up and started to pace.
‘It’s the Deathbringer’s name,’ Kerfuffle said.
I could tell this was important, but I was none the wiser.
Jamie saw my confusion. ‘When a human summons a daemon, they have no control unless they have his or her full daemonic name, and we do not give them out lightly. No one other than Jinx would know it – even I didn’t know …’ Jamie stopped his pacing and stared into the air.
‘Well obviously someone does know his name,’ Vaybian said, equally grim. ‘I wonder who that could be?’
And I wondered what exactly he was getting at.
Jamie’s expression said it all. ‘You know nothing,’ he snapped, but Vaybian just shrugged.
Kerfuffle and Shenanigans looked at each other, then, ever practical, started handing around plates piled with food.
I wanted to ask Jamie for an explanation, but Shenanigans had already started to tell him about Philip’s disappearance. He had no answers either.
‘So we’ve still got to go to the Overlands?’ Kerfuffle’s mouth was full of bread and cheese.
‘Isn’t it a job for the Guardians?’ Vaybian said, and he couldn’t quite hide a sneer as Jamie favoured him with another very dark look.
‘It’s probably for the best if they don’t get involved,’ Shenanigans said. There was something about the tone of his voice, the worried look that he cast my way, that made me nervous.
I opened my mouth, but Jamie turned to face me, his eyes meeting mine, and for a moment they were all I could see. ‘There’s nothing to worry about, Lucky. Everything’s going to be all right.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Of course it—’ No, it wouldn’t! What was I thinking? In a flash I knew exactly what I was thinking: I was thinking whatever Jamie wanted me to.
I jumped to my feet. ‘What did you do? What did you just do?’
‘Do? I didn’t do anything. Sit down and have something to eat. Low blood sugar is making you cranky.’
‘Cranky! I’ll give you bloody cranky! You were mesmerising me!’ Then it began to all fall in place. ‘You’ve done this before – this is how you got me to invite you into my home.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I knew it – I knew you’d done something, but I just couldn’t believe it. I trusted you.’
‘Actually, you didn’t trust him at all,’ Kayla pointed out. ‘He lied to you all the time.’
‘Keep out of this, Kayla; I still haven’t forgotten about all the lies you told me.’
‘That was different—’
I ignored her and turned on Jamie again. ‘What is it you’re hiding from me this time? I know there’s something.’
Jamie glared at Vaybian. ‘I’m never going to forgive you for this.’ His voice was low and dangerous.
‘Do you think I care? Anyway, I have a feeling it’s not you who needs to do the forgiving.’ He looked pointedly at me.
‘I just don’t want you to worry unnecessarily,’ Jamie started. ‘You’ve been through a lot—’
‘You’ve just told me one of the men I love is about to be forced to single-handedly destroy my world and now you say you don’t want me to worry? Bollocks! You’re talking absolute bollocks.’ I pulled away from him and rounded on Vaybian. ‘What did you mean about the Guardians getting involved?’
‘Ask your lover,’ Vaybian said.
‘You are such an arse sometimes,’ Kayla said, and I was sorry he couldn’t hear her.
I turned to Shenanigans. He at least would tell me the truth. ‘What did you mean about it probably being better the Guardians didn’t get involved?’
His lips turned down and he glanced at Jamie then at me.
‘It’s all right,’ Jamie said, ‘I’ll tell her.’
He took me by the hand and led me away from the others. I went with him, but it wasn’t with good grace.
‘Sit, please,’ he said.
‘I’m not a bloody dog.’ I glared at him for a few moments, then sank down on the bed.
He dropped down beside me. ‘Lucky, you know I would never deliberately hurt you—’
‘Every time I think I know you, every time I think I can really trust you, you either lie to me or keep things from me,’ I whispered. ‘Now you’ve started messing with my head.’
‘I thought Daltas was a manipulative shit, but at least he never mind-fucked me,’ Kayla muttered.
I rounded on her. ‘You stay out of this,’ I cried. ‘This is between Jamie and me.’
‘All right, all right, don’t get your knickers in a twist!’ She wafted off to sit next to Vaybian, who was looking entirely too pleased with himself.
‘Has she gone?’ Jamie asked.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Just tell me how it really is. Exactly how much trouble are we really in?’
‘You know who I am? What I am?’
‘You’re the Guardian – you said you were like the border patrol between the Overlands and Underlands.’
‘I maintain the equilibrium. If there’s daemon interference in the Overlands, I find out who, what, where and why, then I sort it out.’
‘I get it.’
‘I don’t do all this alone. I have what you might call assistants.’
‘Jinx told me: you’re the Guardian, but there’re others.’
Jamie tried to take hold of my hand, but I snatched it away and crossed my arms. His expression was so troubled it was seriously scaring me.
‘My role – the role of the Guardians as a collective – is to ensure the Overlands are kept safe from daemon activity. If Amaliel intends using Jinx as a weapon against mankind, the other Guardians and I will have no choice but to do our job.’
‘Jamie—’
‘We’ll have to go to the Overlands, find Jinx and stop him.’
‘That’s exactly what we’re intending to do,’ I told him. ‘We’re going to find him, stop him and make him better again.’
‘We might not have the time, though. Lucky, if Jinx, one of the most powerful of all daemons, unleashes himself upon the Overlands, my kind will have only one objective: to stop him, whatever the cost. We won’t be going to the Overlands to save him – we’ll be going there to destroy him.’
‘No …’ I could barely speak.
‘We can’t risk a whole world of humans for one daemon—’
‘I thought we – the three of us – we were meant to be … I thought we belonged together—’
‘We were and we did, but if what we believe is true, we have to do what’s right.’
‘Even if it means killing Jinx?’
‘What is it you don’t understand?’ Jamie asked, looking at me as if I was the one being unreasonable. ‘Jinx has the potential to wipe out every single man, woman and child in the Overlands in a matter of … I don’t know – months, weeks, maybe even da
ys; this has never happened before. Think of the worst apocalyptic scenario you’ve ever read about, the most terrifying movie you’ve ever seen – that is a pale imitation of what will happen to your world if Jinx goes rogue.’
‘Now you start calling the Overlands my world,’ I said as a wave of despondency swept over me. Jamie was right: we did have to stop Jinx before he did any damage, for once done, it could never be undone. Then there was what it would do to Jinx: if he killed hundreds or thousands of people, would he want to live even if we could save him?
‘We leave now,’ I said getting to my feet. ‘We leave now and we find him before it’s too late.’
‘We have forty-eight hours,’ Jamie said.
‘What?’
‘And that’s only if he doesn’t do anything before then.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I said, staring down at him.
My other guards were all openly watching us now. Jamie stood. ‘We’ve been given forty-eight hours.’
‘Given by whom?’
He gave me one of those patient looks that drive me so mad. ‘By the Veteribus: those who set me and Jinx our tasks.’
‘Is that where you’ve been?’
He hesitated, then said, ‘Yes.’
‘You mean you’ve been telling tales to your boss about Jinx?’
His cheeks flushed pink. ‘It wasn’t like that—’
‘So what was it like, Jamie?’
‘I thought they could help us find him.’
‘And have they?’
His shoulders slumped. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘I should never have approached them.’
‘Great,’ I said, ‘so what happens if we don’t get him back within forty-eight hours?’
‘The Guardians and I take over.’
‘Whoa! You mean we could be on the verge of saving Jinx and all because the clock ticks a few minutes over your deadline, you and your mates will swoop in and kill him?’
‘I’ll be with you – helping you.’
‘Right, so how exactly will that work? When our forty-eight hours are up, whose side will you be on then?’
‘It’s not about sides, Lucky – it’s about doing what’s right.’
‘So it’ll be right to kill Jinx simply because the clock’s ticked a few extra tocks, even though at that point he mightn’t have done anything wrong? I don’t think so,’ I added. ‘Is this why you tried to mesmerise me? Because you knew I would never agree to this?’
‘There’s nothing for you to agree to,’ Jamie said, his expression grim and uncompromising. ‘It’s been decided.’
‘Not by me it hasn’t.’
‘You have no say in it.’
‘Oh fuck,’ I heard one of my guards murmur.
I swung around to face them. ‘Right,’ I said, ‘I’m going to the Overlands to find Jinx. You can come or not; it’s up to you.’
Kerfuffle and Shenanigans exchanged a look, as if they were having some unspoken conversation. Kerfuffle bobbed his head and Shenanigans turned to me. ‘We will accompany you to the Overlands, mistress,’ he said.
‘I must admit the Deathbringer has grown on me over the past few weeks,’ Kerfuffle added.
‘I too will join you on this venture,’ Kubeck said.
‘Why not?’ Vaybian said. ‘If I hang around here for too long Baltheza will probably get it into his head to have me executed for something.’
‘I’ll come,’ Kayla said. ‘It’ll be nice to go back and see some of our old haunts again – if you’ll excuse the expression.’
Pyrites pushed his head up under my hand and purred. ‘Sorry, boy,’ I said reluctantly, ‘but I don’t think I can take even a very small drakon into my world.’
‘Don’t you worry about Pyrites,’ Shenanigans said. ‘He can fit in just the same as we can.’
‘And what about me?’ Jamie asked.
‘What about you?’
‘Do you trust me to come with you to help find Jinx?’
‘It depends what you intend to do to him once we find him.’
Jamie looked deeply into my eyes. ‘I love you—’ he started.
‘You sure have picked your moment to tell me that,’ I muttered.
He continued, ‘I love you, and because I love you, I swear that I’ll not harm Jinx if he can be stopped before he hurts anyone.’
‘Even if our forty-eight hours are up?’
‘Even then, if we can find him before the other Guardians and stop him.’
‘Will the other Guardians be looking for him?’
‘Not yet, but if I haven’t brought him back in two days, they will.’
‘What about Amaliel?’ Shenanigans asked. ‘What if we find him first?’
‘He dies,’ Jamie said, ‘and that is not negotiable.’
‘That’s fine by me,’ I said.
‘If he was on fire I wouldn’t piss on him to put him out,’ Kerfuffle said.
‘At least that’s something we’re all agreed on,’ Vaybian said as Pyrites puffed very warm grey smoke.
‘Can you still feel Jinx?’ Kayla asked me as we started collecting our things together.
‘Not since I nearly drowned.’
‘It’s strange you should be connected to him in such a way.’
‘I can’t explain it either,’ I muttered.
‘There’s not much here that we can take with us,’ I heard Jamie say, distracting me.
‘No weapons?’ Vaybian asked.
‘If you started wandering around the Overlands with that’ – Kerfuffle indicated Vaybian’s sword – ‘strapped to your hips, you’d pretty quickly end up arrested or dead.’
‘Then what do we use to defend ourselves?’
‘We’ll worry about that when we get there,’ Shenanigans said. ‘Humans on the whole won’t be a problem. It’s Amaliel and his Sicarii we need to worry about.’
‘And the Deathbringer,’ Kerfuffle said. ‘If he’s dancing to Amaliel’s tune we may well all be mouldering corpses within moments of our first encounter.’
‘Jinx wouldn’t hurt us,’ I said, but the sympathetic looks I was getting suggested they thought differently.
‘How are we going to do this?’ Vaybian asked.
‘Have you ever been to the Overlands before?’ Kerfuffle asked, and when Vaybian shook his head, ‘it’s probably best you follow us. Do what we do and you’ll be fine.’
‘I didn’t think daemons could travel between the worlds without being called,’ I said.
‘I gained access years ago, and Shenanigans was given access by Lady Kayla. The Guardian can go wherever he likes, it’s part of his job. So when he gets to the Overlands, he will call for Vaybian, Kubeck and Pyrites, and we will cross with them to show them the way.’
‘It will take a bit of time,’ Shenanigans said. ‘Lesser daemons can only travel to the Overlands in pairs, and only so many in any one duration.’
‘It’s a precaution against a daemon attack on the Overlands,’ Kerfuffle explained.
I supposed it made sense, but it was wasting time we didn’t have. ‘I bet Amaliel has managed to spirit a load of his freaky followers over there,’ I grumbled.
‘But he’s probably been planning this for a very long time,’ Kerfuffle pointed out.
‘Right,’ Jamie said, ‘let’s get going.’ He marched over to the huge walk-in wardrobe and pulled open the door. Gone were all the beautiful dresses of silk and velvet, the endless rows of shoes and boots. Instead, the door framed pitch-black nothingness, and it looked as scary as hell.
‘I’ll never get used to this,’ I said as Jamie wrapped an arm around me.
‘Ready?’ he said, and although I had nowhere near forgiven him I couldn’t deny that when he held me, I always felt safe.
‘As I ever will be,’ I replied, and he stepped into the darkness and we were falling with the wind whistling past our ears until we were standing outside in the gloom of an inclement afternoon with rain pattering down on our faces.
‘It�
�s always raining when I arrive in your world,’ Jamie said with a shake of his wings, then they were gone and he was wearing jeans and hoodie. ‘Go inside – I’ll be just a moment.’
I looked around me, surprised by the familiar surroundings: the front garden of my little cottage. If this was unexpected, the yellow and black police tape draped across my front door had me totally flummoxed.
‘What the—?’
‘Probably best to leave that be,’ Jamie said as I reached out to touch the fluttering plastic.
With a sigh I bent down to search for my spare key. The police obviously hadn’t discovered it: my fingertips found the square piece of slate that marked the spot and used it to scrape the earth away and, to my relief, I heard the crackle of the plastic bag and felt its weight. I pulled it from the soil.
I opened the front door and ducked under the tape, then held my breath as I clicked on the light. At least I hadn’t been disconnected.
‘Home sweet home,’ I heard a voice say behind me and I spun round.
‘Kayla? How did you get here so quickly?’
‘I just followed you – I guess now I really am a ghost, the usual rules don’t apply. What’s happened here?’ She squinted at the small table in the hall. There were dirty grey smudges on the varnish.
‘You’ve seen enough telly—’
‘Fingerprint powder?’
‘I would say so.’
More grey dust marked the kitchen worktops and table; a cupboard had been left slightly ajar, a drawer not quite closed.
‘I hope you haven’t got a criminal record,’ I called to Jamie as he appeared in the doorway.
‘Someone obviously missed you.’
‘I’d rather they hadn’t – now I’ve probably got a lot of explaining to do.’
‘Not if no one realises you’re back.’
I opened the fridge door – and slammed it shut it, wrinkling my nose at the stench of rotting food. Luckily Kerfuffle and Kubeck had brought supplies.
‘If we have to buy more provisions and petrol over the next few days, we’ll need money, so I’ll have to use my credit card …’
‘If the police haven’t taken it,’ Kayla said.
She had a point, but like the hidden key, I had an emergency card stashed away, just in case I was ever robbed or mugged. I liked to be prepared for all eventualities.
