Ascension (27 page)

The malleus stilled them with one hand.

Sweat beaded on her skin.

Still gripping her feet, he took three small throwing knives from her boots.

She let her breath out.

He cut her bindings.

“Stay.” The demon choked out the human word and his mouth twisted with the attempt to get his lips around it.

He turned his hulking body around, went through the door and locked it behind him.

She gasped for breath, trying to regain some energy after her attempt at escape and terror that followed. A small lantern burned from a holder too high for her to reach. It left the small cell in shadows, but it was enough to make out the dusty, rock floor. With all the small pebbles and dust, the space had obviously been dug out under the house recently. She ran her fingers over fresh pick marks. Had the prison had been designed and built just for her?

It was only about ten feet square and equally deep. She had not gotten a good look at the steps but she’d bet they were uneven, hand carved, out of the stone that lay beneath the manor.

Why go to so much trouble? Any bedroom with a lock and barred window might have held her.
What is it that these demons think I can do?

The only air came through the small barred window in the thick oak door. She took a deep breath. It was enough air, but easy for them to close over and let her be buried alive if that was their plan. Hoped died in places like her prison. She was sure that Gabriel would come after her. What if he couldn’t follow the demon’s trail on the rocky terrain? What if he lay dead on the battlefield? There were too many variables and her last thought broke her heart.

With no bed or furniture of any kind, Belinda sat on the ground and leaned against the craggy wall. All she could do was wait. She had no idea what she was waiting for, but something was bound to happen. Her stomach growled noisily and she wondered if her captors would starve her to death. The idea of dying in that painful way was more disturbing than being run through with a sword. A death in battle was what she expected. She couldn’t always win. One day she expected to meet an opponent who would be stronger or faster. But starving to death, she did not relish that outcome.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees. Exhaustion won out over her alarming thoughts.

The sound of heavy feet on the steps woke her.

Her heart raced but she stayed where she was. She lifted her head as the lock turned and the door opened. A plate was pushed in quickly and the door and lock secured once again.

They fear me.

The smell of meat floated over to her and her stomach clenched violently. Belinda walked over and gave the food a good sniff, before taking a taste. Lamb. No seasoning, but edible. She finished the plate and hoped it wouldn’t be her last meal. Depressing thoughts continued to invade her mind. She’d need her strength for whatever was to come but also needed her mind alert. She couldn’t let fear cripple her.

Hours passed before the sound of footsteps signaled someone on the steps again. A trebox entered.

“You are to be presented.” The sound was more grating than voice.

“To whom?”

Large lips protruded from his scaly face and his mouth turned down. Black eyes stared at her. “Come. We must not keep him waiting.”

The spark of fear flicked higher in Belinda’s chest. Whomever she was about to meet was important. Nothing had gone as planned. In fact, they hadn’t even made a plan when she was taken. Still, the idea had been for her to get inside the demon’s lair and she had done that. It was time to gather information.

“What are all of these marks?” she asked. She pointed to the red painted symbols on the walls once they arrived at the top step.

Three treboxes and two malleus escorted her through the house. The one who had come into her cell answered. “Powerful prayers to bring the master with less pain.”

“Pain?”

“Of course, being born is painful.”

“And the master is about to be born?”

“In a manner.”

“What does that mean?”

“No more questions.” He grabbed hold of her arm.

Her instinct was to remove his filthy hand from her skin. She held back in spite of how vile his touch was. Her back stiffened.

The trebox stared at her and his eyes widened when he realized she could kill him if she chose, and he released her.

“In there.” He pointed to the double doors. He was afraid to enter the room.

She saw fear on every demon face when the doors opened of their own accord. Whatever was inside had all the demons wide eyed and backing away.

Belinda’s heart might pound its way out of her chest. She took a breath and stepped through. The doors closed behind her with a definitive bang. She wondered if she would ever see the other side of those doors again.

It was a ballroom. At least, that’s what it had once been. The middle of the floor had a giant hole in it and a swirling pillar of black smoke filled it and stretched to the thirty-foot ceilings and beyond. The smoke gave no smell nor did she see where anything was burning. It was more of a distortion of her sight.

The walls were all covered in black and looked as if they’d been charred. Even the windows blackened. No light would breach this space. The red marks continued here. Many of the symbols were from the zodiac. There was a five-pointed star and the head of a goat. The sign of the master marred the large space above the fireplace, but most of the signs she didn’t recognize.

The only light came from large oil lamps placed on the floor around the room.

The pillar swirled faster. “What think you of my birthplace, hunter?”

She was not sure if the voice was in her head or actually in the room. The sound pounded painfully in her skull. “How do you know me?”

“You are one of the hunters. I know all that there is and ever will be.”

She had to hold her head against the pain his words caused.

“Why have you brought me here?”

“A hunter is required. I thought there would be a man, but you are the most dangerous hunter my minions have seen so far. And you are the daughter of my enemy. Your sire has been an affliction to me for many of your years.”

Belinda fell to her knees holding her head. She tried to process what he was saying, but the pain inside her skull crippled her. “What do you need me for?”

“I need a hunter to ease my way into your world. I could come through without, but it would damage me. The recovery would mean delay. With you here that will not be necessary.” His voice softened enough so that the pain eased.

She returned to her feet again. “What does my father have to do with any of this?”

It might have been a laugh. She was sure the sound that rumbled from the storm was some expression of mirth. “All debts must be paid. No one may defy my laws and go unpunished. For years I have waited to seek retribution. All will pay in time, but the hunter’s sire must pay first. He has made his life about my defeat.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

There was a long pause. “There is no sense in keeping it from you. You cannot escape and you have a greater calling. You should be proud. I wanted to see the warrior who had bested so many of my soldiers. To know your heart before it is crushed in my coming.”

Belinda raised her arms outward. “And what do you think of the enemy?”

“Puny, but I have seen you defeat the durgot priest. I knew when I saw you in my temple that you were the one. It is a shame to kill something as deadly as you, but I must arrive and you shall be the perfect conveyance.” Whatever spoke, sounded genuinely sorry that she would have to die. It was an odd change of attitude compared to his obvious hatred of her father.

Belinda didn’t care for the sound of the word, conveyance. She didn’t like that one bit.

“Why do the demons fear me?”

“You have been chosen.”

“That is not an answer.”

“Your kind is meant for killing. They do not know how to relate to the orders I have given to keep you alive.”

“My people will come for me.”

“They are irrelevant.”

“What are you?”

“I am master. I lay claim to this world.”

“This world belongs to another.”

Another laugh rumbled from the swirling pillar. “That may be, but it has been left to your kind to defend, and I find you wanting. I have seen enough for today.”

The black pillar dimmed to gray, though the swirling continued at a slower pace.

Belinda’s heart firmly lodged in her throat. What had she just seen and heard? The pillar was some kind of gateway. Why didn’t the master just come through? She needed more information.

She had no idea how long she waited in the ballroom. She sat down on the floor and watched the gaping hole and the swirl of light gray clouds. Nothing came out and nothing went in. It swirled in apparent emptiness. The master was no longer within the storm. He couldn’t come through to her world until the new moon and he needed her sacrifice to come through unharmed.

Finally the doors opened and she was escorted back to her cell.

She sat back down on the hard ground. Her instincts had said to jump in after the master. Where would that lead her? It could be instant death to go to the place of the demons. Still, she knew that she might have to if she was to stop his coming. How many more demons would he bring with him if he managed to get through?

Drake Cullum had used the phrase
all Hell breaking loose
. Now she had some kind of idea what that meant.

She rose to pace the room waiting. Though what exactly she waited for, was unclear.

* * * *

Gabriel’s body ached almost has painfully as his heart. He had lost her. His wife of only one day, and he couldn’t hold onto her. Rage and fear attempted to blur his vision. He was a soldier. He should be able to block out emotion and do the job. None of his time in France or even in the prison could have prepared him for the anguish of losing Bella.

He and Tubbs lost the trail after the sun went down. The footman was a good companion and a fine tracker, but they had lost the demon’s trail in the rocky ground. Exhaustion had gotten the better of them and they had slept for a few hours.

The sun crested above the horizon, and they set off in the general direction the demons took. Craggy rocks and heather left little imprint for following.

“My lord, I have the trail.” Tubbs pointed to the ground.

In a five-foot-wide patch of dirt filling the space between jagged rocks, they could clearly see wide flat prints with only four toes. The prints were neither human nor animal. No sheep had feet such as these. The trampled heather cut a path through the hills.

“Well done, Tubbs.”

They walked on, in a southeast direction.

“Sir, I think we are quite close to Stirling.”

Every tree and rock looked the same to Gabriel in this part of the country. “What makes you think so?”

They moved quickly. There were fewer rocks so the ground allowed for more prints to follow.

“I grew up not too far from here. I know the area fairly well. We’ll bypass the city if we continue in this direction.”

“Can you think of a place where that many demons might be residing and no one would notice?”

The footman stayed quiet as they approached a stand of trees. His shoulders stiffened and he rubbed his neck. “There’s an old manor house near the Firth of Forth. It has been empty since before I was born. No town near it and no one goes there these days. It would be a perfect place to hide. Could be they’ve gone there.”

“Just across the water from Edinburgh, do you think they would be that bold?”

Tubbs shrugged. “They don’t seem too concerned with the closeness of our kind, my lord. Walking the streets of London as if they belonged there and attacking our carriage, on the high road, while there was still light in the sky. Bold beasts, they are.”

Gabriel could give no argument. Everything Tubbs said was true. The demons had little concern over the masses of English society finding them out. The English, in turn, were disposed to explain away events that made no sense. He had been guilty of that same crime when he assumed Belinda was less than pure and then again, when he’d thought she’d killed a man in the alley. “What’s the name of this place you think they may have gone?”

“It’s called Fatum Manor, my lord. When I was a boy, we all thought the place haunted. My friends would dare each other to get close, though none of us ever succeeded in getting inside. It’s a terrifying place. I can’t imagine what it would be with real monsters and not just the imagined ones of my youth.”

“Let’s go to this manor of
doom
then, Tubbs. If we find it strange when we get there, you can get a horse in Stirling and go for help.”

“What of you?”

“I will try to find a way in. Perhaps I can decipher what else they’re doing in there. We only have a few days until the new moon. I shall wait for the other hunters until then. If help does not arrive, I will go and retrieve my wife.”

It took the pair another day to traverse the rough terrain.

Strange did not begin to describe the state that they found Fatum Manor in. The entire place was surrounded by a stone mound. Fires burned all around and screams occasionally pierced the silence from within. Gray clouds swirled above the highest point of the structure.

“I think it is safe to say, we’ve found them. Go get help. I will be here,” Gabriel said.

Tubbs looked pale as a ghost. “My lord, I am quite fond of Lady Belinda. She has been good to me, took me in off the streets when no one else would give me a job. Still, I’m advising, and I know I have no right to do it, don’t go inside that place on your own. You’ll only get killed and then saving the lady will have been for nothing.”

Gabriel watched the myriad of emotions cross the face of the young man. “I will be right here unless the new moon arrives and no one comes to assist.”

Nodding, the footman started off at a run.

* * * *

The demons brought Belinda food several times. Only lamb and mutton, no vegetables or fruit, but at least it would keep her alive.