The Road to Bedlam

by Mike Shevdon

  "Maybe if Raffmir appears again, I'll ask him."

  "Watch out for Deefnir. Raffmir's sworn not to harm you, but there's no restriction on Deefnir. If he gets close, use Warder's discretion."

  "If he comes for me, I'll defend myself."

  "Try not to kill him. If you do you've made a worse enemy. Deefnir is Altair's grandchild."

  "His grandson? I thought Fey weren't fertile?"

  "They have problems conceiving, but it's not unknown. Deefnir was born in exile. This is the first time he's been to our world. Try not to make it his last. If it comes to it, though, don't hold back. We can sort out the diplomatic ramifications afterwards. Besides, maybe he's gone sightseeing?" The doubt in that last sentence came clear through the mirror.

  "I'll be careful."

  "I want to know if you see either of them again. Let me know."

  "I will. Thanks, Garvin."

  "Stay tight."

  I released my connection with the mirror and the cloudiness diminished to a spot in the middle, then vanished.

  I reached out again. "Blackbird?" The mirror clouded again, then lightened to a misty grey.

  "Blackbird? Can you hear me?"

  There was a hissing sound that deepened to a low buzz. I rose and placed my hand on the mirror, strengthening the connection with touch. The mirror chilled under my hand, outlining my fingers in condensation. Snatches of her voice stuttered through the mirror, fragments of words, jumbled together.

  "Blackbird? Where are you?"

  I let the connection build gently under my hand, conscious of how the mirror had shattered when I tried to contact Mr Phillips. Where was she?

  Suddenly the connection cleared and I could hear her. "Niall? Is that you?"

  "Yes, can you hear me?"

  "Yes, I'm out on the fire escape. Where are you?"

  "I'm in Yorkshire, a fishing town…"

  "You disappeared. I had no idea where you'd gone."

  "Garvin was supposed to tell you."

  "Garvin told me to sit tight and twiddle my thumbs. Why didn't you tell me the Untainted were here?"

  "I didn't know until I was summoned before the High Court. Then Garvin told Altair I was on assignment and Tate bundled me out of the building before they could start anything. Garvin was supposed to warn you."

  "He wouldn't say where you were or what you were doing. He told me that Altair had turned up and to stay in the apartment and not to come out for any reason."

  "He was trying to protect you."

  "Well, he failed. I checked the mirrors in the apartment. They were cold, much colder than the room. They were listening to everything. It wasn't safe. They were just waiting for an opportunity."

  "So where are you now? Wait! Don't tell me. They could be listening to us now."

  "Let them. I'm with Claire Raddison, the Remembrancer's clerk. No one thought to tell her the Untainted were in town, did they? She's not protected by the Warders or the Courts. We have all the protection we need now. We have all six horseshoes here and if they come for us they're going to get a beating they'll never forget."

  "Iron horseshoes? Isn't that difficult for you?"

  "You forget. I don't have any magic. There's nothing to react with the iron. I can pick them up and hold them."

  The connection suddenly wavered, a strange whining sound coming from the mirror like distorted static. "I'm losing you. Are you there?"

  "Sorry, I've put it down again now. They're heavy enough to slug a troll with. We had to carry them between us to get them back to Claire's flat."

  "Not exactly a handy weapon."

  "It'll do the job, if it comes to it. They won't be able to cross the doorways and if they get inside they'll get a surprise they won't believe. We have more than horseshoes to defend ourselves."

  I told Blackbird about Raffmir's visit and Deefnir being Altair's grandson.

  "I don't care if he's the Prince of Persia, if he comes near my baby I'll nail him to a doorpost."

  I smiled. I should have known she'd find a way to protect herself. "Just be careful. We don't know where they've gone or what they're doing. You'd better warn the Highsmiths at the farm in Shropshire as well, just to be on the safe side."

  "It's already done. I spoke to Meg earlier. She said they would take suitable precautions, and they still have the broken Quick Knife. That alone should discourage visitors."

  "I'm sorry. I should have warned you myself."

  "I will admit, it was a shock. Why are they here?'

  "Negotiating a peace settlement. At least that's what Altair says they're doing. Garvin thinks they're here for some other reason."

  "Does he know what?"

  "No, but Altair asked to have me as his personal Warder. That's why Garvin assigned me here with this mess."

  "How is it going?"

  I explained about my success in finding the missing girls and my encounter in the cave.

  "You went in blind. That was… bold."

  "Garvin was good enough not to point that out."

  "It's your life you're risking, Niall. A visit from the Warders isn't generally a social call. What were you expecting, a welcome mat?"

  "I'll be better prepared next time."

  "You're lucky there is a next time. You need to find out what you're dealing with before you go poking about in someone's cave."

  "Yeah, I think I got that. I guess I was thinking it was all nothing. The girls weren't missing, they were just somewhere else, doing something else."

  "And there were many skulls?"

  "Thirty or so, maybe more. Some of them looked really old. This isn't new. It's been going on for a while."

  "Then why doesn't anyone know about it?"

  "They do. It's in the papers. There are missing posters all over town."

  "No, that's for the five or six missing now. Where are the others? If this has been going on all this time, why aren't there records of missing women going back fifty, a hundred, two hundred years? Those skulls could be anyone's. They could be missing sailors, washed up on the beach, for all you know."

  "No. Maids, mothers and daughters, he said. They were all women."

  "Then they came from somewhere, Niall. Find them."

  Another thought occurred to me, sparked by the memory of my stay at Claire's apartment the previous year.

  "Do you think Claire would do me a favour?"

  "She might. Hang on, I'll get her."

  There was a rustling sound and then receding footfalls. Then voices returned.

  "And I just talk to the mirror, do I?" It was Claire's voice.

  "Just like a phone," Blackbird confirmed.

  "Hello?"

  "Claire, this is Niall."

  "Yes, I remember. How are you?" The polite greeting was typical.

  I smiled. "I'm a little bruised at the moment, but well, thanks, and you?"

  "We're a little jumpy." That was understandable.

  "I wanted to ask you a favour."

  "Yes, Veronica said." She used the name Blackbird had given herself when they first met.

  "You have a friend who works for the government, in the area covered by the Official Secrets Act, by the name of Sam?"

  "Sam? I haven't spoken to Sam since that night in the hospital. I think I made it clear that it was over between us."

  "I know, I remember. It's just that I need someone who knows that world. It's about my daughter. Black… Veronica will explain. I've lost her and I think the government have taken her. There must be records. Maybe he would be able to find out where they've taken her?"

  "I don't even know if he would have access to that information. It's probably not his department."

  "It's certainly not mine. I need all the help I can get and I need someone who can make discreet enquiries without setting off alarm bells."

  "I don't know, Niall. He probably won't even speak to me."

  "Or someone else in that line of work. Is there someone else you know who might be able to find out where th
ey've taken her?"

  "No, I don't know any of Sam's colleagues. He never talked about work. Then again, I didn't tell him anything either – not really. We're both quite secretive people."

  "Could you ask him for me?"

  "It's not that I don't want to, Niall. Without you… well, I don't know where we'd be. But I can't promise anything. He can be really stubborn."

  "I really appreciate that, Claire. Thanks."

  "I'll see what I can do."

  "I'd better go. I have more to do before I can rest."

  "I'll let you say goodbye to Veronica, then." Her footsteps receded.

  "What makes you think that Sam can help you, Niall?" said Blackbird.

  "Maybe he can't, but at least he will know how to find things without drawing attention to me. They don't know there's any connection between us, so even if they find out he's been asking questions, they won't tie it back to me."

  "He has no reason to help us, you know that."

  "I know, but it's worth a try. The only other option is Raffmir."

  "Raffmir?"

  I described our encounter on the beach. "He said he was the only one who could show me how to reach her."

  "Was he telling the truth?"

  "So far as he believes it, yes, though he didn't precisely say he knew where she was, either. It could all be one of his games. He's sworn not to harm me, but there's nothing to prevent him from twisting the knife on my misfortunes to make them as painful as possible. That would count as amusement as far as he's concerned."

  "Even bound by his vow, he's dangerous."

  "I know, but if Raffmir wanted to harm me he could have sent Deefnir instead. I was vulnerable enough, lying on my back in the shingle. No, he's up to something."

  "Like what?"

  "I've no idea, but whatever he's offering me, he is going to want something at least equivalent in return."

  "A favour in return for the life of your daughter would be a big one, I think. Be careful, Niall. It would please Raffmir greatly to make you choose between your duty as a Warder and your daughter."

  "That crossed my mind, too. Then there's the baby. He swore an oath not to cause harm to you or to Alex, but he didn't know about our son. That may be the entire reason they're here."

  "We're ready for them. We have some surprises laid on for them if they come."

  "I'll tell Garvin where you are, next time I check in. Maybe he can release someone to keep an eye out for you."

  "Just make sure they don't walk in on us unexpectedly or they might get a welcome they'll never forget."

  "I'll tell him. Look after yourselves. Try and get some sleep."

  "We're taking turns. It could be a long night."

  "For me too. Take care."

  "Bye."

  The mirror cleared as the connection faded, leaving condensation dribbling down the glass. Wiping it with my hand only spread the water around. I went into the bathroom and returned with a hand towel to polish the water away. Even afterwards my handprint still showed faintly as the glass slowly warmed.

  I wished now I'd said more than "take care". What if something happened to her? What if those were the last words I ever spoke to her? We had been living together since October and I still hadn't figured her out. Sometimes we were so close you couldn't get a sheet of paper between us, while at other times she was distant. I had been trying to puzzle out where I stood for nine months, with little progress.

  She'd told me first off that the Feyre didn't marry and that it was up to the females to choose a partner. I had no fundamental objection to that but it left me wondering what there was between us and why she needed me. She was fiercely protective of her independence, to the point where it seemed as if there wasn't room for me in her life at all, but then she could be so possessive that it left me feeling claustrophobic.

  Of course, the baby had number one place in her heart, and given how long she had waited for a child, that was no surprise. I knew what that felt like, having a daughter of my own, and there was no resentment. It was just that sometimes I wondered whether second place was really where I was. I caught myself in a sigh and turned it into a shrug.

  Maybe I would never understand her.

  I slipped into my charcoal jacket. I could conceal myself with glamour, but the dark grey would stand out less in the dark, providing less contrast than a hard black and leaving me free to concentrate my power on other things. I gathered my wallet and keys and left the loose change on the side table so that it wouldn't chink in my pocket. I picked up the small black torch from my bag and sheathed and belted my sword. I jumped up and down twice, testing for rattles. The soft shuffle as my clothes settled and the gentle thump of the sword against my thigh were the only sounds that might give me away. It would do.

  Nevertheless, I wrapped a strong concealment around me as I left the room. The fire escape would allow me to leave without using the front door. I nudged it open gently and then let it close quietly behind me. If Raffmir was watching my comings and goings then he couldn't watch the front and the back at once. By using the rear stairway, I could make it harder for him to observe me, assuming I wasn't just being paranoid.

  The fire escape led down to a concrete backyard arrayed with wheelie bins and an old stove. This backed on to the yard of another guest house on the next road along. It was easy enough to clamber the wall and exit from there, keeping to the shadows and not showing myself till I was well away from the guest house. I made my way up the hill to St Andrew's church. There were no cars at this time of night, just the faint echoes of the sea on the hush of the breeze. A gull's call broke noisily into the night in a squabble for roosting space and then subsided.

  The east window was dark and the door was locked. Greg had said he kept the church locked to prevent theft and vandalism. He hadn't said whether the church was alarmed or not. I scouted round the building. There were two other doors, one tucked behind the church at the west tower and another vestry door on the far side from the main door, but no sign of an external alarm box. Those windows that could be opened looked as if they hadn't been touched in years and were too far off the ground to access without a ladder. I circled back to the main door. If any of the doors were alarmed then the likelihood was that they all were, and at least I knew that this one gave me access to the photos and personal items of the girls who were missing. With those, I could use my power to discover whether the girls were really missing or had simply chosen not to stay in Ravensby.

  Merging with the shadows in the porch, I surveyed the black oak door. I had seen Blackbird open locked doors like this a number of times but I had never done it myself. While I knew it could be done, I had never had call for such skills over the past months. I had been immersed in the regime of Garvin's training. I had once asked Garvin when he would start training me to use my power.

  "Do you feel confident and competent with a sword?" he had asked.

  I had shaken my head while he smiled his quiet smile.

  "Knowing your limits is part of your training. I'll teach you the subtlety and flexibility of power when you can handle something simple, like a sword."

  I had accepted his answer with good grace, seeing the sense in his words, but I wished now that I had made better progress so I would have some idea what I was doing. I guess I would just have to improvise.

  I felt inside and connected to the core of power within me. A dark tendril wormed its way out of the cold bright core at the centre of my being. Not for the first time, I wondered what it was that I connected with. Was it a creature? When Blackbird called me back to life on the London Underground last year, had she conjured some creature to live within me like a parasite? Was I simply its host? If I summoned gallowfyre it was like releasing a tentacled creature of dark shadows. Was that what lived inside me? It would suck the life energy of anything within reach unless I constrained it, and feed me with the life energy of others. Did that make it some sort of symbiotic life-form? Blackbird said not. She said that gallowfyre
was an expression of my link with the void, the element associated with the wraithkin. She laughed when I asked whether it was alive.

  "Only as much as your arm or your leg is alive." She laughed. "It's you, Niall."

  I wasn't sure that explanation made me any more comfortable.