Children of Poseidon: Rann (24 page)

The ornate iron gates were closed and padlocked.

Maya spoke into the intercom. “Maya Redcar. Let me in.”

Rann hovered behind her, waiting for the gate to be opened. Kara’s mansion was securely locked up, the gates sealed, the brick walls towering above his head. It wouldn’t stop him if he wanted to get in, but he was prepared to wait if the guard would open the gates for a couple of seconds at least.

“I’m sorry, Miss Redcar.” The guard did sound genuinely sorry, but a note of fear lay at the back of his voice. “Miss Vargas said no one was to be admitted tonight.”

“Oh did she?” Maya sounded grim. “Lila?” She lowered her voice. “Can you persuade him?”

“I’ll try.” Lila stepped up to join her sister.

Rann pulled her back. “We haven’t time for this.”

He stared at the gates and the wall. His power came from the sea, but he wasn’t entirely helpless. He took a deep breath. Lykos touched his arm, and he turned on him in annoyance. Thunder rumbled round the neighbouring mansions.

“Let me help.” His brother’s eyes narrowed as he assessed the barrier. “The rest of you? Step back. Stay out of the way.”

“Concentrate on the hinges.” Rann glanced at Lykos, who nodded.

A slight wind stirred, and the wire on top of the fence began to vibrate. Dust rose from the ground in small swirls and flew towards the gates, which rattled ominously. With a strident howl, one of them came free from its moorings, toppled sideways, and flew across the grounds, coming to rest in a tangle of metal bars.

“There.” Lykos urged the others forward. “We can go through now.”

Rann led the way. The guard was foolish enough to step out in front of them. Rann seized his gun and broke it in half.

The guard stared. “Who are you?”

He followed them for a few steps. “She’ll kill me.” His skin paled. “If I’m lucky.”

Maya turned round. “Why don’t you wait at your post? And give me your phone. Please.” She put a note of command into her voice. The guard had obviously been selected for his ability to resist vocal suggestions, because he frowned at her. He shook his head, hesitated, but handed the phone over.

“Thanks.”

Rann waited for Maya to catch up. She knew the coven headquarters better than anyone else. She’d been mentored here by Kara, and she’d attended meetings before Kara had stopped communicating with her council. He hoped she could lead them to wherever Jewel was being held.

She has to be all right. What does Kara want with her? She’s her mother. Surely she won’t harm her.

“What’s the quickest way in?” Rann knew he could easily break into the house, but it would probably be best to be discreet about it.

“We’ll go in at the back,” Maya told them, “where the servant’s entrance is. It leads directly into the kitchen.”

“Do you know where they’ll be?” The mansion was huge, and Rann didn’t want to have to search it, or alert the occupants to the arrival of the rescue party.

“I should think they’ll hold them in the cells.” Maya strode round the side of the house. “That’s in the basement, where the meeting rooms are. Remember where Micael’s trial was held?”

Rann remembered the trial but had no clue how to get to the place where it had been held. He just had to hope that Maya knew where to go. He glanced round. Damnam was at his elbow, uncharacteristically silent. Lykos, Lila, and Fergal weren’t far behind.

“Through here.” Maya pushed a door open into a small utility or cloakroom. She opened a door from there into a hallway and bumped into a maid.

“Miss Redcar?” The maid sounded flustered, as well as frightened. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t—”

“What’s going on?” Maya grabbed the girl’s shoulder. “Tara? You’ve got to tell us?”

“I don’t know.” The girl’s face was pale and her eyes red rimmed. “They’re going to do some sort of ritual. Miss Kara is acting really strange. I think they’ve got the daughter.” She grabbed Maya’s arm. “And Gwen . . .” Her voice trailed off. “Miss Redcar? I think she’s dead.” She started to cry.

Rann pushed Maya aside and took hold of the girl’s shoulders. He gave her a small shake, and she hiccupped, but stopped sobbing. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and looked up at him.

“Where are they keeping Kara’s daughter.” He felt her tremble under his hands, so he injected a soothing tone into his voice. “No one’s going to hurt you. But you must tell us.”

“I think they’ve got her in the cells. Both of them.”

“Both?”

“The daughter and the spooky one.” The girl shivered. “The mage brought her out, and Gwen just fell down.”

“Seawitch.” Maya glanced at Rann. “Looks like he took the nullsilver off.”

“My seawitch?” Damnam’s eyes flashed blue fire.

The maid jerked loose from Rann and backed away. With a terrified glance at Damnam, she spun round, pulled a door open, and disappeared through it.

“Well done.” Maya rolled her eyes at Damnam.

“Maya?” Rann took her arm. “Come on. Let’s find those cells.”

Maya set off down the corridor. Rann followed closely. A door at the far end led into another corridor, concrete underfoot and lined with doors. She touched one. “I don’t know what’s inside. They’re impregnated with nullsilver. I don’t want to walk in on an unbound seawitch.”

Damnam pushed her aside. “Let me. Nullsilver doesn’t affect me.” He walked past two of the doors, pausing in front of each, but declared that they were both empty.

“This one,” he said at last. “I think.” He touched the handle, and the door popped open.

A catatonic seawitch huddled on the floor, paler, thinner, and sicker than ever. The nullsilver was back on her wrists. Damnam bent and picked her up, placing her carefully on the bench.

“Who did this to her?” His voice thundered round the cell, low and dangerous. The walls vibrated. Small flashes of blue light surrounded his head.

Rann wasn’t impressed. He didn’t need all this drama. “I told you on the phone. We don’t know. We still need to find Jewel.”

He left Damnam with the seawitch and headed to the last cell. The door stood open, and as soon as he walked in, he knew that Jewel had been here. He stopped in the middle of the small cell and inspected it carefully.

“Where will they have taken her?” He grabbed Maya’s arm.

“Ritual?” Her face paled. “Tara said ritual. The big meeting room. It has a spell circle. Come on.”

She jogged towards the door at the far end of the corridor. Pushing it open, she tripped over something on the floor, sprawling full length on the concrete.

“Ow. What the fuck . . .?”

Rann grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, looking down at the obstacle. The body of a woman lay across the corridor. It looked like the one he’d seen last time he was in the mansion, with Jewel. The not-so-pregnant one. Gwen. She appeared to be dead, so he tugged on Maya’s arm. Horror spread over her features as she recognised the dead woman.

“What have they done?”

“Come on. Hurry. We haven’t time for this.” He urged Maya into movement.

“It’s Gwen. She’s dead.” Her voice quavered, and her arm trembled in his grip.

Lila bent down as they moved away. “I’ll stay here.”

“Not by yourself. We can come back later.” Lykos pulled her away. “There’s nothing we can do for her now.”

Maya pushed on a door, and it swung soundlessly open, to reveal a disturbing scene. A few meagre candles flickered from sconces on the walls. The dim light revealed carved wood, dark stone floors, and a low ceiling. Rann took in the room in one comprehensive glance, before focussing on the low stage at the opposite end.

A circle glowed on the floor, a disc of pulsating pale green light. Outside the circle Alberic stood, eyes half-closed, reciting some sort of incantation. In one hand he held a glass filled with a red liquid and, in the other, a long, wickedly sharp-looking knife. He gave off pulses of visible energy, flashing with the same green glow as his circle.

Inside the circle, Kara waited, chanting similar words to Alberic’s. He handed her the glass; she tossed the contents down her throat, grimacing visibly. He drew the knife across the palm of his hand and held it over the cut, before taking Kara’s hand and covering the knife with her blood as well. He handed it to her, and she lifted it over the pale figure sprawled motionless in the circle. The circle flared with light.

Jewel. What have they done to her?

Rann’s heart stopped for an instant.

Chapter 24

Rann didn’t think. He hurtled towards the platform as Kara’s arm flashed downwards. A frisson of awareness swept through him as he crossed the perimeter of the circle; for a moment, a sensation of unbearable pressure squeezed the breath from him, but he was inside. He knocked the knife from Kara’s hand. The circle pulsed, and the green light dimmed. Kara gasped and gulped in a breath of air. She looked much smaller now, and a little bewildered.

“What are you doing?” Outrage mixed with her confusion. “You’ve broken our circle.”

Rann knelt beside Jewel. Thinking she might already be dead, he heaved out a sigh of relief as her eyes blinked. Nothing else showed she was conscious. He touched her arm. Still she didn’t move, and he was vaguely aware of Kara backing away from him. He’d let the others deal with the old witch; he needed to do something about Jewel. Sliding one arm underneath her, he pulled her to a sitting position, cradling her head and shoulders against his chest.

A movement at the edge of his sight distracted him. “No.” He lowered Jewel back to the ground.

Alberic snatched at the knife that Kara had dropped. He stepped into the dull light of the circle and raised the knife above his head. Rann had no idea what he planned to do with it, but it didn’t matter. A wind rose from the floor, gusting through the room and extinguishing the candle flames. The only light came from the fading spell circle. Alberic’s hair whipped across his face, and he shook his head violently. Rann spun round, coming to his feet effortlessly. He knocked the knife out of Alberic’s grasp with a blow from one hand. The second blow knocked the mage’s head back, and a ripple of satisfaction ran through Rann as he heard the crack of breaking vertebrae.

Jewel stirred slightly. Rann looked down at her and then up again as a dark vortex whirled and grew round Alberic’s body. With a deep mournful groan, it began to suck him in, feet first, the darkness crawling up his ankles and covering his body. The wind howled round the room, stirring up the shadows.

Kara wailed like a wild animal.

Rann wanted to cover his ears as the mixture of sounds tore the air.

The black hole swallowed Alberic, but before he disappeared completely, a ball of sickly green fire shot from his body and into Kara. For a second she stood frozen in place, a halo of light playing round her.

Rann’s skin crawled.

The halo faded, but her eyes shone green and luminous. She screamed again and whirled round, running for the door.

Before Rann turned his attention back to Jewel, he saw Fergal sprint after her.

Jewel drew in a breath, and her lips twitched slightly, but whatever spell held her prisoner hadn’t worn off.

The wind still flurried in the corners of the room. Rann took a deep breath, then another. Slowly the room settled. The candles flickered and sprang back into life.

“Maya?” He pulled Jewel up into a sitting position, and Maya knelt down next to them. “What’ve they done to her?”

Jewel’s pale, naked body sagged sideways in his arms, terrifyingly fragile. Her eyes pleaded with him.

“An immobility spell.” Maya touched Jewel’s face gently as she reassured her. “You’ll be fine.”

“Will she—”

“I think it’s wearing off,” she said. “Look.”

Rann looked. Jewel still didn’t move, and he frowned at Maya.

“Her eyelashes flickered. Alberic must have cast the spell. Now he’s dead, it should wear off fairly quickly. A couple of hours.”

“Thank the gods we were in time,” Rann said. Nausea rose from his stomach. “Another few seconds and . . .”

Maya patted him on the shoulder as she pushed herself to her feet. “She can hear you. Don’t think about it.”

Rann glared at her.
Not think about it?

His feelings must have been obvious because she added, “It didn’t happen. We got here in time.”

Rann picked Jewel up and carried her out of the circle. The unclean light had faded, and all that remained of the ritual was a dark stain on the platform.

“We’ll have to get rid of that.” Maya sounded mildly irritated.

“What about Gwen?” Lila spoke for the first time. “We can’t just leave her there.”

“We should go. Now.” Lykos was imperious.

Lila shot him a nervous glance, obviously recognising his I-must-be-obeyed mood.

“Call the coven. Get them to sort it out,” he continued. “We’re going home.” He took Lila’s arm and tugged her towards the door, before coming to a sudden halt.

Damnam loomed in the entrance, Seawitch cradled in his arms. Lykos drew himself up to his full height, and a hint of lightning flashed round his head.

Damnam ignored him and spoke to Lila. “There’s a dead witch in the hallway.”

Lila looked up at Lykos. “Shouldn’t we—”

“No.”

“There’s something happening to her.” Damnam carried Seawitch over to Rann. “Her eyes are aware. Maybe I should take the nullsilver off.”

“No.” The words flew from Rann’s lips. “Not here. She’s still carrying death magic. I think she’s why the witch in the hallway died.”

“Seriously?” Damnam looked down at the slight figure in his arms. “Someone used one of my people as a black magic vessel. As a familiar? Someone’s going to pay.” His eyes flashed blue.

“I thought you were going to make the seawitches into miserable slaves anyway?” Lila had pulled away from Lykos and moved to look at the seawitch.

“I will, once she’s recovered.” He smirked at Lila before glancing at Rann. “But no one abuses my people, without my say so. Who was it?”

Rann shifted Jewel carefully in his arms. She sagged like an empty bag. “We should go back to the flat. Give Jewel a chance to recover.” He nodded at Damnam. “Perhaps you should bring the seawitch along as well.”

Damnam’s sapphire eyes narrowed. “I want to know who did this.”

Lykos growled, but Rann paid no attention.

“We’ll talk about it later.” Rann nodded at the door. “Come on.”

“Rann . . .” Blue lightning flashed round Damnam’s head.

“Alberic.” Damnam’s temper didn’t frighten Rann, but maybe his half-brother was genuinely worried. “So the paralysis should wear off.”

Damnam opened his mouth, but Rann held up one hand.

“I don’t know about the death magic. You’ll have to sort that out.”

“What about Kara?” Maya reminded everyone that the coven leader was still missing.

“Fergal . . .” Rann stopped as the mage pushed Kara ahead of him into the room. She wore nullsilver bracelets and a furious expression. Her eyes were blue again.

“He caught her.” Maya sounded surprised. “She’s the strongest—”

“Our father was always one of the best spellcasters,” Lila interrupted. “And I don’t know how much energy Kara had already used in the ritual.”

“Did you see what happened when Albert disappeared?” Maya sound worried.

“That energy transfer thing?” Lila had obviously noticed it.

“Flash of light?” Lykos, too.

“It’s a bit worrying. Something transferred to her.” Maya regarded Kara. “What are we going to do with her?”

“She can spend tonight in one of the cells,” Fergal said. “I’ll take responsibility for her. The nullsilver should keep her safe.”

“But—” Maya wasn’t convinced.

“We’ll spend the night here.” Fergal had regained his confidence with the return of his memory. “If I remember, there’s plenty of room. We shouldn’t leave her unguarded.” His face contorted with distaste as he looked at Kara.

Rann really didn’t want to spend a night in the coven mansion. The place still made his skin crawl.

“Could one of you go and find the servants?” Fergal looked at Maya, who didn’t look at all thrilled to be told what to do.

“We’ll go.” Lila pulled on Lykos’s hand. “Come on. We can find that maid we passed, at least.” Lykos followed her, with one last backward, narrow-eyed glance at Damnam.