by Jenna Grey
“We can just walk through it.”
“Okay, that’s freaky,” she said. She looked back at Kieran’s door. Lily suddenly realised something. She looked down at her feet which seemed to her to be firmly planted on the landing carpet. “Why aren’t we falling through the floor then?” Lily looked down and panicked as she saw her feet slowly begin to slip through the floor.
“That’s why. You didn’t even stop to think about whether or not you were walking on the floor, it was your solid belief, your total lack of doubt that kept you on it and not under it. Now you know you shouldn’t be able to do it, you’re finding it harder, aren’t you? It all comes back to what I’ve been telling you all along. You need to have more faith in yourself.”
Lily was loathe to admit that Connor was right, but now that she was aware that she shouldn’t be able to walk on the floor she was finding it really hard to stay ‘afloat’. She focused her mind and after a few moments, found it was better. She looked back at the door, reluctant, and said:
“Are you sure about this? You go first.”
Connor simply walked through the solid wood of the door, as if it wasn’t there. He popped his head back through almost instantly.
“He’s not here,” he said, stepping back out.
“He might be in Liam and Sarah’s room,” Lily said, her voice desperate now. She walked the few steps to the next door along and stood for a moment, bracing herself.
Please let him be inside, please let him be inside.
She stood in front of the door, closed her eyes and took a couple of steps forwards, holding her breath.
She gave a sob as she opened her eyes and saw that the room was empty. The children’s toys were scattered around the room, a dreadful reminder of the reality of the situation. Lily walked forward and reached down to pick up Sarah’s rag doll, the one Lily had made her for her last birthday, and her hand went straight through it. She broke down then and sank to her knees, sobbing. Connor knelt and put his arms around her, holding her close.
“It still doesn’t mean that he’s dead,” Connor said. “You have to believe that.”
“Get me out of here,” she said, “Just get me out of here.” Connor gently pulled her back out of the room again and slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. She tasted salty tears in her mouth, and swiped them away with her hand.
“Kieran’s a survivor, you told me that yourself. Don’t write him off just yet.”
Lily wobbled a nod, and wiped her nose on her non-existent sleeve.
“Maybe he’s just gone into hiding… I mean why would Kieran stay here when he knew that the Black King was almost certainly going to be trying to do him and Claire harm. Of course he’d go and find somewhere safer to hide. It was dumb of me to come here really.”
Connor gave her a reassuring smile.
“I’m certain that’s what’s happened, but you had to check, just in case. From what I know of Kieran, he’s nobody’s fool. He’ll have taken every step to keep him and Claire safe. Try not to worry.”
Lily gave a hiccup of a laugh.
“Yeah, because what have we got to worry about?”
Connor put his arms around her and held her close, and she let him, her tears staining his already soggy vest.
The noise made them both start. Lily felt a tiny trickle of pee slip out as she heard movement from behind. They turned slowly, as one, to see a figure that Lily knew all too well.
Claire.
Lily made a noise from deep in her throat, a sound of pure terror. The creature that confronted them might have once been her foster mother, but was now nothing like human. A terrible stench drifted across from her, a pungent smell that Lily recognised instantly as the smell of death. The flesh had already begun to rot from her bones, her eyes sunken so deeply into her skull that they nestled in deep caverns, the lips pulled back over her teeth in a terrible grimace. Her hair was tearing away from the skull, a large flap of her scalp dangling down over one ear. Lily tottered and almost slipped into darkness, shock taking a hold, but she forced her legs to stay under her.
“This isn’t real,” she whispered, “can’t be real.”
But she knew it was. This dreadful figure in front of her was more real than she was right now.
Claire’s clothes hung in tatters from her, the once pink blouse, now stained with mould, and open down the front, the buttons ripped away, and beneath it her ribs were nothing but parchment skin over her ribs ‒ a xylophone, that made Lily’s flesh crawl. She had just one shoe on, a battered old trainer, the other foot was almost denuded of flesh, her toe bones pushing their way through the skin. Lily had known that The Black King could animate dead bodies, but this, this was too much.
“Welcome home, Lily,” Claire said, with a voice forced from rotting vocal chords. The words seem to slither out of her mouth, riding on the back of foetid air, expelled from decaying lungs. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Oh you fucker, you sick, disgusting fucker,” Lily said. “Let her go, for God’s sake let her rest in peace.”
There was a rancid laugh.
“No peace for this one, I’m afraid. I stole her soul before I killed her, drew it from her body and fed on it. There will never be peace for her. She was so very afraid, and I made sure she felt every moment of her terror. She took a long while to die.”
Lily was too numb to take any of this in, to really understand what was going on. The horror that confronted her was too much to bear. She had never loved her foster mother, never even really liked her, let alone love her, but this, this was beyond comprehension.
“I am going to make you pay for this, you sick bastard,” Lily said, not able to really find words dark enough to express what was in her heart.
Connor cut in.
“Even if you do have her soul for now, you know as well as I that the instant we kill you, she’ll go free,” Connor said.
The Black King lifted one of Claire’s emaciated hands and stretched it out in front of him, then reached across with her other hand and snapped off one of her fingers, giving a vicious laugh as he did it.
“Here, catch,” he said, throwing it at Lily. Lily leapt aside to avoid it, but it hit her arm and went straight through it. She screamed her rage at him, and made to charge, not even conscious of how ludicrous her actions were. Connor had already seized her and pulled her back.
The Black King just laughed, Claire’s face twisting into something terrible to behold.
“You are never going to see your children again,” he said, in that same terrible, death wrapped voice. “Little Sarah told me she loved me today, and when I asked if she would do anything for me, she flung her arms around my neck and told me, ‘yes, anything’. So soft and warm she is, so very sweet. She loves me stroking her hair, loves for me to cuddle her, sit her on my lap… and press kisses to her face...”
“Shut up! Shut your fucking mouth! I’m going to tear you apart, you fucking monster. If you harm one hair of her head, or Liam’s I will make you suffer tortures even you couldn’t imagine!”
“Enough,” Connor said, pulling her to him. “Enough.”
Lily pressed her face against Connor, shutting out the terrible image, but she couldn’t shut out the dreadful laughter. She would hear that laughter ringing in her head for the rest of eternity.
When Lily opened her eyes they were back, huddled in the holly bush.
She lay trembling in Connor’s arms unable to think or feel, numb to everything.
“Lily, you mustn’t believe a word of what he said. He knew exactly what to say to hurt you the most, and if you believe any of it, he will have won.”
“He has won!” Lily yelled, pushing him away. “He has the children and you know what he said was the truth. You saw them with him. How much more of a stretch is it to believe that Sarah did exactly what he said she did? And do you think that corpse we just saw was an illusion? My foster mother is dead, murdered by that monster. Was that an illusion? Don’t try t
o tell me that I shouldn’t believe him… we’ve lost and nothing we can do will put this right!”
She slumped back down to the ground and fell into another bout of uncontrolled sobs, just letting it all pour out and trying to purge herself of all of her grief and misery. She cried so hard and for so long that she finally fell into an exhausted heap in Connor’s arms, where she hiccuped herself into total lethargy.
“I’m so cold,” Lily finally said.
Connor rubbed her arms to try and warm her, but the cold had seeped right through to her bones.
“I don’t think we can stay here. If we try and spend the night here we’re going to die from exposure,” he said. “You’re in shock, and you need to get warm.”
He was right, of course, fey or human, no-one could survive out here all night without more clothing than they had on. Connor rummaged in the bag, and pulled out the soft green shawl that Lily had been wrapped in when she was brought through from Elphame to the world of men.
“This will keep your shoulders warm, at least,” he said.
Lily laid her hand on his arm to stop him.
“I’m not sure. There’s powerful magic in that shawl, I’m not sure we should use it lightly.”
“But it’s good magic. It can’t do any harm,” Connor protested.
Lily was dubious, but she was so very cold. She pulled it to her and felt its soft warmth against her icy skin, and was so very tempted.
“We only have Virginia’s word for it that it’s good magic. I don’t think it’s worth the risk,” Lily said, but only half-heartedly this time.
But it was too late, Connor had already slipped it around her shoulders.
In an instant, the world disappeared.
Chapter Six.
Lily almost toppled as one world supplanted itself for another. One moment she was standing beside Connor, and the next she found herself here, in what looked like a vast, majestic hall, surrounded by people. Her brain rebelled for a moment, unable to cope with the assault on her senses, especially so soon after the last trauma. The sudden cacophony of sights and sounds almost overwhelmed her. She felt as if she’d been dropped into the middle of King’s Cross station in the middle of the rush hour. Her first and most immediate thought was to run and hide, but she realised almost instantly that these people couldn’t see her, weren’t aware of her presence.
She was dream walking, just as she had before, but this time she was invisible.
Still the sensation of being surrounded by people she didn’t know, in a strange place, was overwhelming. She reached up to slip the shawl from her shoulders, knowing it would take her back to her own world, but then she stopped. Surely, now she was here it wouldn’t hurt to find out what was going on, who these people were and why the shawl had brought her here? The last time it had sent her on an expedition she had gained valuable information, why should this time be any different?
She looked around at her new surroundings, clutching the shawl more tightly around her and wondering what was happening to her body at the other end of the universe. Connor would have realised what was happening, surely? What if he took the shawl off of her? Would she suddenly be lost in limbo, or trapped here forever? She clamped her hand around its folds in a tight grip and hope that he got the message.
The hall she found herself in was obviously a place of great importance. Its vaulted ceiling was decorated with elaborate carvings which she recognised as Otherworld. There were elegant columns supporting it and from them fluttered black flags decorated with white wolf emblems. That, and the sombre feel to everyone’s conversation made it clear to Lily that whatever was happening here wasn’t a celebration. She had been thrown into what looked like an assembly of some kind, the good and the great were all collected there, most dressed in fine robes, silk, velvet and satin, men and women, but all of them dark colours, subdued.
Where was this place?
The room was bright with cold sunlight, and through the large glass-paned windows she could see winter sky. A second look at the clothing everyone wore told her that this hall was somewhere cold in clime. Most had fur collars or cloaks trimmed with fur, mostly white, taken from some local creature, who made its home in the winter wilderness. Was this the Winter Court of the Seelie She?
Many of the higher ranks, those decked out with crowns, denoting various ranks in the court, were seated at the far end of the hall, others were ranged in benches down either side and around the periphery were the lower ranks, servants and pages, maids and squires, but it looked to Lily as if every member of the court, high and low was there. Whatever this meeting was about, it was important.
The room fell into expectant silence, and Lily stood at the back of the room, just watching, taking everything in.
At the centre of the row of highest ranking nobles were a man and woman, obviously the king and queen of this realm. They both looked very austere, their faces set in grim resolve. The man was well built, handsome in a sour kind of way. His great black beard was plaited and decorated with over-elaborate bead work, impossibly heavy looking, like the sort worn by the ancient Assyrians, almost covering his broad chest. Lily got the feeling that this ridiculous display of decoration was intended to over-awe anyone who found themselves in his glorious presence. His hair hung lose over his shoulders, great elaborate curls, hanging like a cloak around him. Lily decided in one glance that he was someone who thought far more of himself than others thought of him. The solid looking gold crown he wore seemed to have melded to his head, as if it never left it.
The queen beside him was terribly beautiful, terrible in as much as she looked as intimidating as her husband. Her pure white hair hung loose over her slim shoulders, almost down to the floor. That was startling enough, but it was her eyes that really captured Lily’s attention; they were ice blue and so piercing that it was hard to look away from them. Lily was quite certain that this creature was something above and beyond the normal fey. There was a presence about her that forced you to register her presence above all of the others in the room. Both her and her husband’s faces were set in grim determination. Lily wondered if this was their natural countenance or if some terrible tragedy have befallen their realm. Her question was soon answered.
The king stood and addressed the silent assembly.
“Lords and Ladies, nobles, members of the Seelie Court, today is a day of great sadness for our people. You will have already heard the rumours. The Shadow King and his horde of darkness has taken the fortress of Guim Athar, and laid waste to it. The reports indicate that there are few survivors. Some have found their way back to us, telling of a great tragedy; every soldier garrisoned there was put to a terrible death, their loved ones butchered before their fading eyes. Both elves and She, were butchered there, and this outrage cannot be left unpunished. I have called for a council of war with our brothers and sisters of the other Seelie Courts and Kings of the four elf realms, asking them to meet me at Wildfell Down. Together we will drive this vile creature and his minions from this land, once and for all.”
There were general cries of outrage from the assembly, and some cheers at the news that something was going to be done about it. Lily admired his intentions, but knew that whatever he had planned was doomed to failure until she and Connor found a way to kill the monster. She had been told that only she and Connor could defeat the Black King. They were Tuatha Dé Danann, the old race, two of the few surviving members of their race and only they could bring an end to that monster’s tyranny. Then they would take their rightful place as rulers of all of the Seelie Courts, King and Queen over all. Okay, Lily was taking a rain check on that, in fact she was taking a rain check on the whole prophecy. She and Connor had had their arses, royally kicked too many times for her to believe that they could actually defeat him one day, and after what had just happened back home, she was even more convinced that they were totally out of their depth.
The assembly, it seemed, had more than a few concerns they wanted addressing before they allo
wed the King to take off for his secret meeting.
“But, Majesty,” someone called from the back. “How is it possible for the Djinn to attack? They can only cause harm to others in the half world ‒ do they have some secret weapon to use against us?”
The King fell silent for a moment, as if he were reluctant to answer the question, or couldn’t answer it, and then said:
“No secret weapon that I know of, just simple brute force. The Shadow King has raised a goblin army… goblins, red caps, boggarts… any that will join him for a share of the spoils. There are far too many who would sell their souls for the sake of gold and glory. I will not deceive you. The situation is grave. His army far outnumbers ours, which is why I have sought an alliance. Together we will be more than a match for him.”
There was another rumble of mutterings. A hugely fat man, with several chins, and a belly the size of a hippo’s rear end, hoisted himself up from his seat amongst some of what were obviously the higher echelons of the court, a duke or minor prince perhaps.
“We bow to your great wisdom, Your Majesty, and look forward to hearing favourable news of your success at the forthcoming meeting.” Lily almost gagged at his sycophancy. Smarmy git. Of course she knew that whatever was coming next would be the sting in the tail. She was right. “But in the meantime, how do we know that we are safe, here in the citadel? If the Shadow King could take the fortress of Guim Athar so easily, what reassurances do we have that he won’t try to take us next?”
The King cast a sideways glance at the sweaty lump of lard who was now wringing his hands together in a truly consummate grovel. It wasn’t difficult to work out what was going through the Winter King’s mind.
“You have my assurance that my troops will defend this city to the death, against any foe that comes against them, just as they always have. We have defence enough, trust me on this, but it would hardly serve us well for me to broadcast the nature of our defences to the world. And perhaps you have forgotten the Glass Mountain; no-one has ever scaled its heights. It will protect us from all enemies, no matter how powerful. Our mountain will keep us safe as it always has. If that isn’t good enough for you, perhaps you would like to raise your own army and see if you can do a better job.”
