by Sue Tingey
Shenanigans risked a whisper. ‘Has the Lady Kayla returned?’
‘Not yet,’ I said, suppressing that worry.
‘Without her, we can only guess where the Deathbringer may be,’ Kubeck pointed out.
‘Aren’t you concerned for her?’ Vaybian asked me with an ill-concealed glare.
‘Actually yes; yes, I am, Vaybian, thanks for asking.’ I must have sounded really pissed off, because he looked away first.
‘Lucky, when you’re in Jinx’s head, what is it you see?’ Jamie asked. ‘Do you remember anything that might give us a clue to where they were? We don’t really want to have to search the whole bloody house to find him.’
‘Let’s think about it: he’d have to be locked up somewhere,’ Kerfuffle said, ‘and probably away from the guests, so no sounds disturb them.’
‘Lucky, think very hard. What did you see?’
I closed my eyes and tried to remember every detail. ‘He was on his knees, surrounded by the blue light. She wanted him to look up at her, but he lowered his head.’
‘Did you see this Persephone?’ Kerfuffle asked.
‘Not above the knees.’ I suddenly remembered something: ‘The floor was made of grey stone slabs.’
‘A dungeon?’ Vaybian asked.
‘This house isn’t old enough to have a dungeon,’ Kerfuffle pointed out.
‘But it might have a wine cellar,’ I said, opening my eyes.
‘So we look for a flight of stairs going down,’ Jamie said.
‘It’ll probably be near the kitchen – maybe behind those stairs we passed on the way in?’
‘Sounds logical.’ Jamie put a hand on my arm. ‘Lucky, this is the perfect place for you all to wait. I’ll check it out, see if there is a wine cellar or a basement and whether Jinx is in it, and if I can’t get him out on my own, I’ll come and get back-up.’
‘No, you can’t go in alone – what happens if you end up trapped in Blue Fire? How would we know?’
‘She has a point, Guardian,’ Vaybian said. ‘If you and the Deathbringer both turned rogue, the Lands as we know them would be lost for ever.’
‘I would not turn rogue.’
‘You don’t know that,’ I said. ‘You told me it happened to a Guardian once before.’
‘A very, very long time ago.’
‘But this is happening now; it’s happening to Jinx now. It could just as easily happen to you now!’ I could hear my voice rising and I fought to control it. ‘We stick together.’
‘There’re too many of us.’
‘Then you and I go.’
‘Great, so if you get caught, Amaliel not only has the Deathbringer, he has the Guardian and the Soulseer as well. Why don’t you just go and join them for dinner? Then you’ll at least have a hearty last meal before he kills you and puts you in one of his nasty glass phials,’ Vaybian said.
‘It would be a little foolhardy,’ said Shenanigans, ever the diplomat.
‘A little foolhardy?’ Vaybian sneered, turning on Shenanigans. ‘A little foolhardy? It would be totally moronic.’
I crossed my arms and glared at him. ‘If you can’t say anything useful …’
‘Useful? Why bother? You only listen to what you want to hear. We all have to tread around on drakon eggs rather than upset you. We all know it’s a waste of time even trying to rescue the Deathbringer, but no one dares tell you.’
‘Vaybian,’ Jamie cautioned.
Vaybian gave him a disdainful look, which suddenly softened and his shoulders slumped. ‘Tell her, Guardian. If you truly love her, tell her. It’s better she knows now, then at least if we do find him she will have a chance to say her goodbyes.’
‘Tell me what? What is it you’re keeping from me now?’
Jamie folded his arms and looked down at the floor.
‘Mistress,’ Shenanigans said, ‘if what we think is true, if the Deathbringer has been bound to this world by Blue Fire and his spirit bound through ritual by Amaliel, then when he is released from the Blue Fire there will be nothing left of the daemon you knew.’
‘He will be like a wild, feral beast whose only desire is to please the master who controls him,’ Kubeck added.
‘He will no longer know you.’
I sank down onto one of the chairs. ‘Is this true?’ I asked, looking up at Jamie.
His expression said it all and I had to look away. ‘I had hoped not, but each of your visions has told me differently. You have seen the Blue Fire, you have felt his emptiness.’
‘He’s still fighting them.’
‘Is he?’
I clutched my hands together in my lap and Pyrites put a claw on my knee and whimpered.
‘Good boy.’ My voice cracking, I laid my hand on his head – my human hand. A very human tear splashed down upon it.
Jamie crouched down in front of me. ‘I am so sorry.’
‘He’s fighting them, Jamie. He is still fighting them.’
‘Lucky, don’t—’
‘Jamie,’ I said, looking him in the eyes, ‘he is still fighting them. I saw.’
‘You saw him on his knees cowering away from this human woman – Persephone,’ Vaybian said, his voice surprisingly gentle.
‘He wasn’t cowering.’ My shoulders started to shake. ‘She was trying to seduce him. Amaliel hasn’t broken him with torture so she was trying to seduce him.’
Jamie exchanged a glance with Vaybian and got to his feet. ‘We don’t dare risk it,’ I heard Vaybian mutter beneath his breath.
Jamie gestured and all my guard moved away from me and gathered in a tight group. Only Pyrites stayed by my side, staring up at me with his beautiful multicoloured eyes.
I leaned down and whispered in my drakon’s ear, ‘I have to try to save him, Pyrites. You understand, don’t you?’
Pyrites puffed white smoke and nuzzled my neck.
‘Can you keep them here? Just long enough for me to get downstairs?’
Pyrites bobbed his head and trotted off to stand between me and my guards, then began to grow. Once he was blocking them from view he glanced my way and blinked his eyes. I blew him a kiss, jumped to my feet and before they’d fully realised what was happening I was out through the door and hurrying across the entrance hall to the dining room.
I heard raised voices coming from the room behind me, and a low growl from Pyrites. I closed the dining room door behind me, then I was off and running.
When I reached the back staircase close to the kitchen I found a door beneath it that could only open onto a downward staircase. I couldn’t hang about; I could hear voices coming from the kitchen and it wouldn’t be long before this area became a hive of activity. I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it. The door was locked.
‘Shit,’ I muttered to myself. It was a wine cellar; of course it would be locked, even if it didn’t have a death daemon in residence.
I couldn’t let a locked door stop me now. I gripped the handle and twisted it as hard as I could, daemon strength coursed through me and with a metallic clunk, something gave. I pushed, and the door opened with a crack.
I listened for a second; no one was coming running at the sound of the lock breaking, so I eased it open and stepped inside. I heard a door open somewhere, and the chatter of voices and clinking of glasses spilled out of it, as what sounded like several people hurried towards the dining room. Shit! My guards wouldn’t be able to catch up with me now. I really was on my own.
I pulled out my phone and flicked on the torch again, but the dusty white light barely reached the last steps of the narrow enclosed staircase. I padded down as quietly as I could. I suspected there would be at least two Sicarii guarding the door at the bottom, and I wasn’t at all sure how I would deal with them – but deal with them I would. I had to.
I hesitated on the last step. I put the phone away and pulled the purloined dagger from my belt, holding it gripped in my right hand the way Jamie and Jinx had taught me. I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, then I reached
down, turned the door handle and let the door slowly swing open into more darkness—
—where there were no guards …
Why were there no guards?
At the risk of flattening the battery I switched on my phone torch again: I was in a wine cellar. I could make out a few racks against the walls, but not much in the way of wine. Some wooden boxes were heaped in one corner and a couple of broken chairs in another. At the far end of the cellar I could see the outline of yet another door. I was certain I’d find what I was looking for behind this one.
But why were there no guards?
For the first time, I began to wonder if maybe there was no longer a need for them: perhaps Jinx had succumbed and was now Amaliel’s. Worse still, maybe he was Persephone’s … and God help me, I found myself hoping that if he had succumbed, it was to the daemon. If he was hers, I would just curl up and die.
I stopped and rested my forehead and the palm of my hand against the wood, closed my eyes and listened. Silence. The handle turned without a sound. I pushed the door open and was greeted with a soft glow of light, which jumped and flared like it was aflame, colouring the stone walls and floor with a pale blue iridescence.
A figure was sitting in the centre of the flickering light, arms wrapped around legs and head on knees, but it wasn’t my Deathbringer. As I walked across the stone slabs, Kayla raised her head and upon seeing me, jumped to her feet.
‘Am I relieved to see you!’
‘What are you doing in there?’
‘That bitch Persephone could see me – she pretended she couldn’t – and trapped me here.’
‘She saw you? She couldn’t have—’
‘Well, she did,’ Kayla said with a pout. ‘Nasty, evil harpy.’
‘Was Jinx here?’ I said, walking around her and studying the blue tube of flickering light in which she was encased.
‘How do you think I got myself into this mess? She released Jinx from the Blue Fire and made it wrap around me.’
‘She released Jinx?’
Kayla’s lips pressed together into a look I knew all too well. ‘Lucky, I’m sorry. I know you love him so very much, but I think it’s too late for him.’
‘Never—!’
‘Where are the others?’ she asked, very sensibly changing the subject.
I fought back my fear for them. ‘Upstairs. They got trapped on the wrong side of the dining room – look, I’ll explain later. Do you know where Jinx is?’
‘You’re not going to like this.’
I knew what she was going to say, but I wouldn’t let myself believe it, even when she started, ‘She was petting him like he was her little lapdog. She says he’s going to give her guests a taster, show what he can do, but not before she has a taste of him herself. Though if it’s any consolation, I think she was saying it for my benefit, as he grimaced every time she touched him.’
‘So there’s still a chance?’ I said, grasping onto that tiniest bit of hope.
Kayla plastered a plastic smile on her face. ‘We won’t know until you see him, will we? If he sees you and realises you’re alive, it could make all the difference.’
‘How am I going to get you out of this?’ I said, gesturing at the column of blue light.
‘I have no idea, though I hope you can. I think she and Amaliel have something rather nasty planned for me.’
I thought about the crystal phials. I had a feeling I knew what that might be.
I circled her again. ‘There must be a way,’ I murmured to myself. After all, I was meant to be able to look after and protect the dead, wasn’t I? I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I daren’t open the gateway to the other side in case I’d be freeing Kayla from her prison, only to make her pass through to the other side before she was ready.
Then I felt that strange sensation again in the centre of my head: something like a waking creature, something living inside my brain – which was rather a disgusting thought.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘What?’ I said, opening my eyes.
‘You wrinkled your nose like you’d smelled something really horrid.’
‘I …’ The strange sensation in my head was growing: what had started off as a gentle tickle was becoming an insistent pressure. I began to feel warm, despite my wet clothing, almost as though I was sinking into a nice hot bath, and when I looked down I could see a soft golden glow cocooning my body. I lifted my hands, my mother’s ring shone bright and light flared out from my fingers. As if by instinct I pointed towards Kayla. The golden glow flowed from me and surrounded the column of Blue Fire.
‘What the hell?’ Kayla whispered as with a hiss and a shower of sparkles, the blue iridescence disintegrated into a million shimmering pieces which turned into raindrops as they hit the stone floor, surrounding her in a glassy puddle. For a moment the surface of the floor glimmered like it was covered with quicksilver, then it flowed away, the streams disappearing into the cracks between the paving slabs until it was gone.
‘What did you do?’ she asked.
‘I have no idea,’ I said, ‘but I’m not about to complain. Can you take me to Jinx?’
‘You’ll have to sneak past a whole load of Sicarii, and if you get that far, you’ll have to get him away from her – and I don’t think she’ll be prepared to give him up that easily.’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘neither am I, and he was mine first.’
*
The hallway was no longer the quiet, deserted place it had been only a few minutes before: servants were hurrying back and forth bearing trays of glasses and bottles of champagne and wine. We waited for a lull in the proceedings so I could scurry through the hall and up the back staircase; I was hoping Persephone’s guests would be using the huge main staircase at the front of the house.
‘Do you know which room is Persephone’s?’ I asked Kayla as I hurried up the first few steps.
‘I think so, but … Oh ho!’ Kayla went to grab my arm and of course her fingers slipped right through me. In any case my eyes were already following her wide-eyed stare. A bunch of disciples had appeared at the top of the staircase, and when I swung around, more were waiting for us at the bottom. At their fore was a figure clad in black flowing robes: Amaliel Cheriour. I would recognise those burning red eyes anywhere.
‘Here’s a lesson you should learn, Soulseer: never use power in a place of power – it gives your presence away as clearly as if you had screamed out your name.’
And as claws grabbed hold of my forearms, I whispered to Kayla, ‘Find Jamie—’
Only as they dragged me away did I remember that she might find him, but she couldn’t tell him.
I was on my own.
Twelve
Claws dug into my arms as they marched me back down the stairs, across the hall and into the dining room. Two of the Sicarii hurried forward to open the door to the reception room with a flourish.
Amaliel stood to one side and gestured towards me with his candlewax-white hand. ‘I told you she would come. I told you if no other, she would come.’
I could feel Jinx as soon as I stepped into the room – at least, I thought I could – but I couldn’t see him. Inside, I prayed I was wrong: for if it was Jinx I was feeling, if this was how he was feeling, this cold dark emptiness, then I feared Kayla was right, and he was lost to me.
Even so, my eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the woman dominating the room. Persephone was everything I expected her to be: tall, voluptuous, beautiful. Her long, lush black hair streaked with ripples of aubergine and gold had been piled in the sort of ‘careless’ topknot that had probably taken her maid an hour or more to perfect. Her eyebrows were symmetrical black arches, her cheekbones high, her cheeks slightly concave and her plump lips a glossy red. Her dress was a figure-hugging scarlet lace over black that fell to just below the calf, and her stilettos were a matching patent red, and so high they would have given me a nosebleed, if I hadn’t broken both my ankles first. Playing the vamp suited he
r – or did I mean tramp? I knew which word I preferred.
She was scrutinising me over a glass of champagne, her lips curled into an amused smile – the sort of smile I wanted to slap off her smug, arrogant face. She and Vaybian were made for each other.
‘Well,’ she said, sounding like a member of the British upper classes, ‘how nice to meet you at last.’ She took a step to one side and the breath caught in my throat.
It was Jinx – I knew it was Jinx – but he was far removed from the daemon I’d first met in the moonlit stable yard all those months ago. Gone were the smiling eyes and lips twitching with laughter, gone the sleek, confident daemon. He was still wearing his trademark leather trousers and boots, but that was about where the similarities ended. His upper body, usually bare, was now covered by a calf-length black leather coat. His shoulders were slumped, his head was bowed and his beautiful dark maroon hair, which he usually wore in a long braid hanging down to his hips, was loose and falling like a shroud around his face.
Persephone laid a hand on his shoulder and his body quivered like a frightened young colt.
I looked straight into her eyes. Jamie always said my face was an open book. On this occasion I guessed he was right, as her amused smile slipped a little on seeing my expression – ‘You are so fucking dead’ was about the sum of it – and her hand dropped from Jinx’s shoulder.
Amaliel glided to her side as she said, ‘She doesn’t look like much, does she?’ She took a rather unladylike slurp from her champagne. ‘Are you sure she’s the Soulseer?’
‘I have seen her in action.’
‘She looks human.’
‘As you know only too well, my dear, looks can be deceptive.’
‘Hmm. Well, I suggest you get on with doing whatever it is you want to do to her so we can get down to the important business.’
‘Patience, my dear. You promised these good people here a demonstration of the Deathbringer’s power and I suggest this might be a good time to give them one.’ His glowing eyes met mine. ‘Sadly for you, I no longer have any need to keep you alive – in fact, you and your wretched Guardian have become a positive liability.’
Persephone’s lips curled into a smile. ‘I’ve been so looking forward to this,’ she said, and smiled brightly at her guests.
