'Pity he doesn't have one then,' said Dingy. The endolg began to detach itself from the glass. It looked as if the interview was over.
'Just a minute,' said Brimstone hurriedly. 'When I said a great deal of money, I meant a million gold pieces.' He'd have to mortgage the business to raise that sort of cash, but if he didn't find Pyrgus he was dead and if he did, he'd have all the money in the realm.
Dingy stared down at him impassively. The endolg was tugging at his trouser-leg as if anxious to be going.
'For Lord Hairstreak,' Brimstone said. 'And a quarter of a million more for you.'
'You must need a multi-portal very, very bad,' Dingy said. 'Mind telling me why?'
Brimstone weighed up the pros and cons. He'd expected the question, but assumed he'd be talking to Black Hairstreak himself, not one of his stooges. All the same, this clown was probably more shrewd than he looked – Hairstreak would hardly employ him otherwise – so he might spot a lie. Besides, he had the endolg with him. They were supposed to be able to sniff out anything fishy from a hundred yards. Which was, of course, the reason Hairstreak used them. Not much trust left in the realm these days.
As against that, it was well enough known Lord Hairstreak had little love for the Purple Emperor, so he might actually welcome the death of his son. Brimstone decided to tell the truth. It was such an odd feeling he thought he'd make that part of the truth. Enough to squeeze past the endolg. 'I need to find Crown Prince Pyrgus,' he said.
'Why?' asked Dingy innocently. 'Is he lost?'
'He's in the Analogue World. I need a multi-portal to reach him.'
'Why would you want to reach him?'
'I have business with him,' Brimstone said with dignity.
'What sort of business would that be then?'
Oh, bog it, Brimstone thought. 'I want to kill him.'
The endolg trilled excitedly. 'What about that, boss?' it said. 'He wants to slaughter the Crown Prince.'
Harold Dingy leaned forward soberly and suddenly he seemed very menacing indeed. 'I'm going to do you a favour, Mr Brimstone. I'm going to tell you something that will save you a great deal of money. Are you listening, Mr Brimstone?'
Brimstone took a step backwards. 'Yes.'
'I'm going to tell you there's no need for you to kill Prince Pyrgus. Want to know why, Mr Brimstone?'
'Yes,' Brimstone repeated in a small voice.
To his astonishment, Dingy smiled abruptly. 'Because Prince Pyrgus is already dead!'
'As a coffin nail,' confirmed the endolg. 'Or at least as good as.'
Brimstone felt as if the sky had fallen in. He thought he might have gone pale, but fought to keep his voice steady. He swallowed. 'Are you sure?'
Dingy was positively beaming. 'You just heard it from the endolg.'
Even with a floater spell, the gold was heavy. Brimstone tried to lift the case and felt his back creak. It was no good. He'd have to get somebody to help him. Kill him afterwards, of course – a little something in his soup or, better yet, a knife across the throat. Only way to make sure he kept quiet. Only way to make sure no one knew where Silas Brimstone went.
The trick was to go quickly. Now, in fact. Beleth was back in his own dimension now and wouldn't start to look for him before the contract expired. By then he'd be long gone. That was definitely the way to do it. Cut his losses and go. But what losses. The factory, the other businesses, his home, most of his books. It wasn't weight with the books, it was bulk. He could take a few – the more important ones. Enough so he could start again. And he'd have his gold, which was something.
Unless Beleth somehow caught up with him. Unless Beleth somehow tracked him down!
How had it all gone so horribly wrong? One minute he was getting ready to cut the brat's throat, the next he was running for his life. For his life and soul. Beleth wouldn't play around. Demon princes never did. The minute he caught up with Brimstone, Brimstone was dead meat. And his soul, what was left of it, would be used to drive a golem, or guard some stupid tomb, or have slivers sliced from it perpetually to nourish demon children. It was dreadful. Ghastly. Beyond thinking about.
He opened the door of his office and roared, 'Porter!'
He couldn't carry all his gold, of course, not even with a porter helping. He'd have to leave so much behind. Tens of thousands of pieces. Hundreds of thousands of pieces. The pain he felt was almost physical. He'd have to start again. Somewhere where no one knew him. Have to start without contacts or friends. Well, actually, he'd never had many friends, but it was the principle of the thing. And starting without contacts was a nightmare. He'd have to live in some dingy little back street in some dingy little set of lodgings in some god-forsaken dungheap of a farming village where nobody would ever think of looking for him. And even when he started up another business, he'd have to make sure it never became too successful. Once he disappeared, he must never, never, ever draw attention to himself.
There was a man standing in the doorway.
'What the hell do you want?' Brimstone asked.
'Porter, sir. You called for one.'
'So I did,' said Brimstone. 'Can you lift that?' He pointed to the chest of gold coins on the floor beside his desk.
The porter walked across and hefted it on to his shoulder as if it were a feather. 'You've got a floater spell on this,' he said in some surprise.
'Take it downstairs and load it into my hansom – it's the black one parked outside,' Brimstone ordered. 'When you've done that, come back here – ' he cracked a smile ' – for your tip.'
When the man had left, Brimstone opened his desk drawer and examined the selection of knives inside.
They were all long-bladed and razor sharp. He picked one with a curved edge and an ion blade that was capable of decapitating the porter, let alone slitting his throat. Then he hid behind the door and waited.
He usually disliked cutting throats. The amount of blood that pumped from the jugular was appalling, took ages to clean up. But since he was unlikely ever to come back to his office, that would be somebody else's problem. Pity, though – he'd always liked this office. Such a shame never to be seeing it again.
He heard the porter's footfalls outside and steeled himself to strike the moment the man entered. One quick stroke, step over the corpse, then out of the building before anybody noticed he was gone. The horses were fresh, the hansom unmarked. He could be- The porter turned the handle of the door. Brimstone raised the knife and had a sudden thought. He didn't need to run away at all! He didn't need to hide! How had he missed it? All he had to do was burn The Book of Beleth! He froze in place. So simple. It was the book that had called him into Brimstone's world in the first place. Destroy the book and Beleth had no way to reach him. It solved the problem absolutely. With Beleth out of the picture, Brimstone could ignore the contract. He could forget about sacrificing the boy -who'd turned out to be trouble anyway – and forget about Beleth grabbing his soul. He could keep his gold, keep his businesses, keep his books. He could carry on exactly as before and, when things settled down a little, he could work on other plans to get richer and more powerful. Suddenly life was wonderful again!
Brimstone dropped the knife as the porter stepped into his office. The man started a little at finding Brimstone lurking behind the door, but recovered enough to say, The chest is in your carriage, sir. You mentioned something about a tip, Mr Brimstone…?'
Brimstone grinned at him. 'You can whistle for it!' he said gaily. 'I'm not going! I'm not going!' He danced past the man and ran downstairs to the passage that led from the factory to his lodgings and the attic room. The place was still in a mess after the last disastrous evocation, but he ignored the debris and headed straight for the cupboard, chanting the code that removed his protection spell. The cupboard door sprang open as he reached it.
The Book of Beleth was no longer there.
Nor, when he went back to the factory a little later, was his chest of gold. Brimstone only just stopped himself from screaming. That damn po
rter had taken his own tip!
Thirteen
It had clouded over and begun to rain by the time Henry reached his road. He plodded miserably towards his house. Mr Fogarty's voice sounded like a refrain in his head. Your mother. She wants you to get home. At once. Home at once. Home at once. At once, At once. He'd a pretty good idea why his mother wanted him home at once.
Despite the cool touch of the rain, Henry's face was burning. He simply couldn't believe what he'd done. Stood in the street in front of Anais and cried like a baby. Huge, racking, incoherent sobs with blubbering attempts to apologise without knowing what he was apologising for.
She came over to him. That was the worst bit. She came over and put her arm around his shoulders and cuddled him as if she was his mum or something. 'Oh, Henry, what is it? What's wrong?' He'd let her hold him. She smelled nice and she was soft and warm. But now he felt guilty, as if he'd betrayed his dad. 'Do you want to talk about it?'
He didn't want to talk about it. How could he talk about it behind his father's back? Besides, he couldn't speak for sobbing. He just stood there, his head pressed to her breast, and cried. Then, to finish him completely, a stream of snot poured from his nose all down her crisp, white blouse. It went on and on and he couldn't stop it. The awful thing was she didn't make a fuss. She didn't even move, just kept holding him and stroking his hair and asking what was wrong, as if she didn't know already.
His house came into view and he noticed at once his dad's car was in the driveway.
His mother must have seen him through the window because she met him at the front door. She managed to look anxious, furious and guilty all at once. 'Where on earth have you been, Henry? Didn't Mr Fogarty tell you to come straight home?'
Been blubbing at your girlfriend, Mum. But instead of answering, Henry pushed past her, head down, dripping water on the Welcome mat. He wouldn't bet on getting much of a welcome today. His dad emerged from the kitchen and grinned at him weakly. 'Your mother's a bit upset,' he said.
Henry shrugged out of his coat and hung it to drip from the hallstand. 'You're soaked,' his mother said. 'Go up and change your clothes before you catch your death.'
'I think I'll take a bath,' he said, just to be bolshie. He knew they wanted a family conference.
He stood there dumbly, watching the conflicting emotions cross his mother's face, and felt a tiny twinge of guilt, a tiny twinge of satisfaction. Eventually she said, 'Yes, all right, but don't be long.'
The bath was a bad idea. He lay in the warm, soapy water, looking up at the light fitting and feeling afraid. Whatever happened next wouldn't be good and he wished now he hadn't put it off. They might get divorced. They might ask him and Aisling to go into a home. He couldn't see how to work out anything that wasn't a disaster. AOS. All Options Stink. He closed his eyes and wished there was somewhere he could go to hide.
He put on clean jeans, but the only shirt he could find was that stupid lumberjack thing Aunt Millie had bought him for his birthday. He stared at it blankly, then pulled it on. What the hell, he wasn't making a fashion statement.
They must have been listening out for him because they both shot out of the kitchen while he was on the stairs. 'We're in here, Henry,' his dad said. 'Can you come in a minute?' He hesitated, then added briskly, 'Things to discuss.'
Henry tramped into the kitchen without a word.
His dad tried to take charge. 'This would be better if your sister was here, but we thought it best to have a talk as soon as possible. We can fill in Aisling when she gets back at the weekend.'
Welcome home, Aisling. Your mother's run off with my secretary and I've booked my passage to Australia. They really should change the wording on the mat.
'Do you want to sit down, Henry? Will I get you tea or something?'
His mother cut in tiredly, 'Don't waffle, Tim.' To Henry she said, 'I understand you've been talking to your father?'
Henry nodded and walked over to the fridge. There was half an apple inside, neatly sliced on a small plate. He bit into it and it tasted like sawdust. He went to the table and sat down, staring at them both with large eyes. At least he didn't think he'd blubber now. He was all cried out.
'I suppose the first thing I want to say is this has got nothing to do with you or Aisling, Henry,' his mother said. 'I mean, it obviously concerns you, but I want you to know you're not…' She gave a stiff little shake of her head. '… you know, to blame or anything like that.' She actually tried to smile.
She'd been reading her psychology books. Parents divorce, children get it in their head they're somehow to blame. Years later they're spilling it all out to some shrink. Henry said, 'I don't think anybody's to blame.' And surprised himself. It sounded far more grown-up than he felt.
His mother blinked. 'Well, no. No, of course not. I just wanted to make sure you…' She let it trail.
Poor old Dad stuck his oar in again. He wasn't really a match for Mum, but he was a fairly big deal executive after all, so he wasn't exactly a wimp. He said, 'The thing is, Henry, something like this changes things. That's inevitable, whatever people want – '
Henry's mother said quietly, 'You agreed to let me handle this.'
With just a flash of anger, Henry's dad said, 'I was only trying to reassure him – ' But he let it go.
Henry's mother said, 'Your father told me about his conversation with you this morning and we've been discussing the situation. Trying to decide what to do, really. He's been – ' She looked embarrassed and a little green. 'He's been very understanding.' She dropped her eyes. 'Probably more than I deserve.' After a moment she looked up at Henry and said in an explosive breath, 'We've been talking most of the day and we realise we're not the only ones involved in this. There's Aisling. And there's you. I mentioned Aisling first because she's younger and less likely to understand. You're older, so… Anyway, the point is that neither your father nor I can just think of ourselves and what we want. We, ah, have to consider what's best for Aisling and you. And ourselves too, of course.'
Henry's mind wouldn't function. He could usually second-guess his parents by a mile. Now he'd no idea whether his mother was trying to prepare him for the divorce court or the firing squad.
'What I want to tell you,' his mother said. 'What I want to tell you is that we've talked this through from every viewpoint and I suppose the first thing to say is that we're not going to get a divorce. We don't think that would be fair on either of you.' She licked her lips. 'But we are going to separate.' She stared at Henry, obviously trying to gauge his reaction. After a moment she said, 'You needn't worry – nothing's going to happen right away. It'll take several weeks, maybe a month or so, to get everything organised. And we won't be separating completely. We'll get together from time to time, like family, so it'll seem more like, you know, long holidays, trips abroad, that sort of thing.' She wound to a halt, still staring at him.
'Who gets the house?' Henry asked dully.
Henry's mother glanced across at his father, who said nothing. His mother said, 'We thought it would be easier if your father moved out.' She waited for Henry to react and when he didn't she said almost eagerly, 'It's logical really. He can find somewhere nearer his work.' She forced a smile. 'You know how often he has to sleep at the office – it'll really be much easier for him.'
Henry stared at her. She actually believed it.
His mother said, 'This house is nearer the school.' She meant her school, where she taught.
'Who gets the kids?' Henry asked.
'Don't put it like that!' his mother pleaded. 'It's not like we're splitting up the family.'
'How else should I put it?' He felt numb inside, as if he didn't really care any more. He just wanted to know what was going to happen.
His mother sighed. 'We thought it would be less of a disruption if you and Aisling stayed here. With me. You wouldn't have to relocate, or make new friends or change schools or anything. Everything would just… you know, go on as before. Your father would visit -visit often.' She
forced the smile again. 'You might even see him more often than you do now, with everything that's been going on at the office.'
Bad choice of phrase, Mum, Henry thought. Aloud he said, 'Will Anais be coming here?'
His mother hesitated and looked at his father again. She licked her lips nervously. 'Eventually… and obviously only if it's all right with you and Aisling… I would, ah, hope Anais might… visit, maybe even stay over sometimes. Just to see how we all get along.' Since she couldn't look him in the eye, she looked out through the window and added, 'Long term, who knows.'
'So long term Anais might move in?' Henry said.
'It's possible,' his mother admitted. 'But only if you and Aisling were happy about it.' She was watching him again, still hoping for a reaction. After a moment she said, 'Might be fun, Henry. Sort of like having two mothers.' She blinked. 'You like Anais.'
Sure he liked Anais. What wasn't there to like? But two mums? No thank you. He was having enough problems with one. To his father he said, 'All this OK with you, Dad?'
'I don't like it,' his father said, 'but it seems the fairest way.'
Fairest? His mum has the affair so she takes the house and the kids and kicks Dad out to find another place. Then she moves her lover in. If she'd convinced Dad that was fair, she should be selling used cars.
'How do you feel about it, darling?' his mother asked.
Henry shrugged. She didn't care what he was feeling. Why should he get into it? 'It's what you and Dad have agreed.' He stood up.
'Where are you going?' his mother asked at once.
Henry stared at her numbly. 'To see Charlie,' he said. 'Mrs Severs is expecting me for tea.'
His parents looked at one another as he headed for the door. 'You won't discuss any of this with Charlie, will you?' his mother called after him.
'She's what? asked Charlie when he discussed it with her.
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