Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (26 page)

Alvar rose and bowed stiffly.

“And give the command for the execution of the Sorceress,” added the King.

~~~

Nell sat with her back fitted against the curve of the wall. The cell she was in was so small that she could not stretch out her arms or legs completely without bumping up against the other side of it. She called it a cell to herself, but it was unlike any cell she might have imagined. It was perfectly spherical and smooth and dark. No matter how she moved, the entire wall of the sphere had equal gravity. There was no up or down except in relation to where she was, but she could not pull herself away from the wall and so she had to slide along it. This was strange enough to keep her occupied for the first hour or so, but now she was trying to reason out how long she had been here. She did not remember getting out of the morrapus. That part was a blur. She had not woken up, exactly, but rather come to the awareness that she was enclosed and did not know what had happened. Nobody had brought her any food or water. She was terribly thirsty, her mouth dry and sticky and her head pounding, but she was not hallucinating or mad or dead so it could only have been a day or so at the most since she had been left here. In that case, if she was counting correctly, her exam at Austermon was in two weeks. For the hundredth time she touched the tiny folder in her pocket.

She would not have her chance at Austermon. She would not meet Graeme Biggis, she would not become a cetologist, she would not see the underwater world of the whales. Her parents and brothers would never know what had happened to her. Nobody would know that she had died in a little black hole in the Realm of the Faeries, and for what reason? Some mad, jealous mother. She wasn’t sure if this was the execution, being left to die of thirst in a hole, or if she was just waiting for some other form of execution. When she thought of dying, of never seeing her family again, or Eliza, or Charlie, of never seeing
anything
again or taking a breath of air in the real world or eating or laughing or stretching her legs or having another thought or feeling, her heart seemed to unspool inside her and she wept, no matter how she tried to pull herself together. With death looming so close, she thought what a fool she had been to turn down Jalo’s offer. She didn’t love him, didn’t want to live in the Realm of the Faeries, but he was right: a human life was too short, so short as to be insignificant, and being a cetologist seemed remote and bizarre from where she was now. What kind of madness would drive her to refuse the chance to live forever, to break the bounds of human mortality and experience the worlds for the rest of time? She wondered if Jalo had had something to do with their imprisonment, and in case he could hear her she screamed once: “I changed my mind, Jalo! I’ll do whatever you want!” She was instantly humiliated by her own fearful capitulation. She rolled herself into a ball and sobbed and sobbed, though it hurt to cry when she was so hungry and so thirsty and so afraid.

When she had no more strength to cry or even to really be afraid, when she felt like a dry, thoughtless husk fastened to the darkness of the wall, the sphere split open and light poured in, making her eyes water. Somebody luminous was leaning over her, pulling her out. Her heart began to jackrabbit and she made a feeble attempt at struggling.

“Stop it,” said Jalo’s voice. “I’m getting you out of here.”

She tried to look into his bright face but her eyes were still dazzled after so much time in the dark and she could not read his expression, could not tell if it was the truth. She was being led into a morrapus.

“Nell?” It was Charlie’s voice, hoarse but recognizable. She felt his hands on her face and she began to cry again, well beyond the point when she thought she could cry at all. She reached for him, fell into his embrace and held him tight as the morrapus took to the air.

~~~

The Master of the Vaults was later than usual due to the morning meeting. He hurried down into the vaults, eager to hold the Gehemmis in his hands again. Daily he made this check, to be sure that every treasure was safe and in its place. He twisted his rings as he went.

~~~

Eliza sat up, panting for breath. Every bone in her body ached with fatigue, but she had done it. She had drawn the Curse from Amarantha and she held it now in her own power. The pavilion was transparent. The water and the island roiled with shadows. She knew her time as a guest was almost up. Well, she would see if the barrier against Curses Foss had made was all she hoped. Ravens burst out of the pavilion in a great black cloud and in the same instant the pavilion went up in flames.

~~~

The Master of the Vaults reached the vault at the end, twisting his rings. He looked up and froze. Amarantha the witch was hunched in her usual postion, but the box was not in the air. For a moment, the shock of it froze him. He looked down at her. It was in her hands, and a large black raven was perched on her shoulder. She smiled.

~~~

The world went up in flames but the fire was shadow, air, nothing. She took a deep breath and called upon the barrier. She felt it burst from her veins and spill around her as the Curses rained down, Curses of transformation, confusion, enslavement and death. Her barrier buckled against the onslaught and she felt the Urkleis hammering against her ribcage like a second heart. Nia’s voice in her ear:
Watch your back, Smidgen.
She spun around, dagger in hand, to ward off the blow of a sword. The Faery was far quicker than she. It would be deadly to try and engage. And so she ran, through shadows that barely took shape. The air filled with arrows. With the feeling of tearing limb from limb, of breaking apart, she burst into ravens.

I imagine you’ll get used to it,
came Nia’s voice.

Several of the ravens fell with the arrows of the faeries, and Eliza flew among them, one black bird in a frenzied mass.

You see – it’s always good for you when I try to kill you. Motivating. And yet you never say thank you.

Faery nets pulled ravens out of the air and the ravens vanished. Eliza rode the air higher, the pain and panic subsiding, exhilaration filling her.
Thank you
, she thought, laughing inside. She soared.

~~~

In the Old Language of the Faeries, the raven spoke the same words she had found through the spell of Deep Seeing: “I bind your will, from now and forever.” The Curse that had bound Amarantha, heavy and dark and alive, slipped from her with these words, and took the Master of the Vaults. His eyes widened and he fell to his knees. Amarantha rose over him, her eyes full of murder.

“Wait, we need him!” cried the raven. To the Master of the Vaults, she said: “Get us out of here.”

His face contorted with fury. He turned and led Amarantha and the raven through the maze of corridors, twisting his rings.

~~~

Eliza, in raven form, searched the roiling shadows, focusing first on this one, then on another. Gardens and salons, servants chattering listlessly, the Faery Guard running through the air, and there, there: a morrapus with another part of her inside. She flew straight for the myrkestra pulling it, landing on its back, and became once more Eliza. The raven with Amarantha disappeared. Eliza let out a breath. The relief of being whole again, herself again, undivided, was tremendous. She began to believe that this would work, that she would pull it off. She squeezed her eyes shut, heart thundering so fast in her chest that it hurt, while the Master of the Vaults took them out of the Realm of the Faeries and into the volcanic land bordering the Sea of Tian Xia.

ASH

Chapter

~16~

Nell and Charlie sat at the treeline
, overlooking the choppy grey sea of Tian Xia. Having had some food and water, they were much restored. Both of them were full of things to say but they were made too nervous to talk by Miyam, who stood nearby, her spinning eyes never leaving them. Jalo paced along the shore, watching the horizon.

Nell was still getting used to the idea that she was not about to be killed, though Miyam’s presence thwarted her optimism somewhat. The glamour was fading, too. Every time she looked at Charlie he looked more like himself. She had spoken to Jalo only twice, to ask what had become of Mala, and to ask him to return her folder to its usual size. Reassured that Mala was on her way home to Emin, she clung to the folder, felt her heart beating against it. She couldn’t bring herself to open it yet. The test was in two weeks and she might take it after all. Her life had been handed back to her, but still it seemed too incredible to be true.

A bright blob on the horizon, moving quickly, became a morrapus. By the time it reached the shore, the sky was full of swift white-gray shapes in pursuit. Charlie and Nell scrambled to their feet. The myrkestra landed not far from where they stood and Eliza leaped from its back. From the morrapus staggered a Faery in crimson robes and a tall, fair-haired woman in rags. Not one of them looked happy.

“Eliza!” Nell ran to embrace her friend. “What happened? You look…you look…” she stepped back, unsure what to say. Eliza looked ill. She was grey-faced and there were deep hollows under her eyes.

“Rough night,” said Eliza. She hugged Charlie too, and as she did so she found herself remembering the black panther’s open jaws, its bottomless eyes. She drew back quickly.

“The Thanatosi?” asked Charlie hopefully.

Eliza shook her head.

Jalo and Miyam had closed ranks. Amarantha hung onto the Master of the Vaults’ shoulder with a bony hand.

“Sorceress,” said Jalo, his voice deadly calm. “Explain the situation.”

“She was a prisoner,” said Eliza, looking anxiously at Amarantha. “You can have the Master of the Vaults back…”

“No,” hissed Amarantha. Her eyes grew large and black.

“Do you know who that is?” Miyam asked.

“Her name…” began Eliza. What had she read of Amarantha?

“Centuries before Nia was born, it was Amarantha who wreaked havoc wherever she went and was feared by all of Tian Xia,” said Miyam. The witch smiled. “The Oracle of that time called upon the Faeries to stop her. It is written that she was killed. This was clearly not so, but you have freed her from a richly-deserved bondage.”

“I had no choice,” said Eliza, her heart pounding in her ears like an echo of the sea.

“For a thousand years and more he has ruled me,” said Amarantha. “Now he will know for another thousand years what it is to be a slave.”

The myrkestras were crossing the sea at great speed.

“We have to go,” said Eliza. “There’s no time. The Faeries are coming.”

“Why are they pursuing you?” demanded Miyam. She looked at Jalo. “What has she done?”

“No time,” said Eliza again. She looked around desperately at all of them. “The Faeries should stay here. The rest of us need to go. Now.”

“Not without him,” said Amarantha hungrily. The Master of the Vaults trembled.

Miyam and Jalo took a pace forward.

“Can you face two Faeries now, in a weakened state?” asked Jalo.

“I am not weak,” snarled Amarantha. Eliza felt the shadows of illusion beginning to flicker around them.

“No!” she cried. She caught Amarantha by the arm and then recoiled. The touch burned. “Leave him to them. I’m going to transfer possession of the Curse to Jalo.”

“To me,” said Miyam coolly, the shadows dissipating.

Eliza looked at Jalo. He said nothing.

“Fine,” said Eliza, glancing again at the horde of myrkestras coming ever closer. She reached over and took Miyam by the hand. Her hand was cold. Eliza let the weight of the Curse pass from her to the Faery.

Amarantha emitted a low growl. “I will find you, Master of the Vaults,” she said, but the Master of the Vaults did not reply.

Miyam looked at Nell. “Should any of you set foot in the Realm of the Faeries again, I will kill you myself, and quickly. Remember me.”

“Fondest memories,” muttered Charlie.

“Fine,” said Eliza. “We need the morrapus.”