Darke Academy 4: Lost Spirits (22 page)

Halting in front of them, Sir Alric studied them soberly. ‘Cassie. Ranjit.’ He turned to the others. ‘Isabella and Jake. I’d like you to come to my study, please.’

‘Now?’ said Isabella, surprised.

He gave a shrug of his elegant shoulders. ‘I can’t think of a better time. Our conversation is overdue, don’t you think?’

With a glance at Cassie for confirmation, Ranjit nodded. ‘No sense leaving it any longer.’

Cassie gazed around the study shelves. It was as if nothing had changed since the day she’d arrived this term. It had barely changed since Paris, she thought, as the low table caught her eye. She was even sitting in the very same chair: the one she’d sat in as Estelle Azzedine assessed her, not as a student, as Cassie had thought at the time, but as a host.

Even Sir Alric’s world must have been rocked to its foundations by the recent events, but his study remained an unchanging point of stable certainty. It made her smile, ruefully. The books were lined neatly on the shelves; the lamp shone unbroken on the desk. The only object that had been moved was the Urn, which now stood on the desk, the Knife and Pendant laid beside it. The carvings on all three were opaque, glowing only in the normal dappled sunlight streaming through the window, and the creatures were still and unmoving. Cassie’s hand twitched as she recalled how they had twined round it, binding themselves to her, aiming her strike at the heart of the Eldest in Katerina’s body.

‘What’s going to happen to them now?’ asked Jake. ‘The artefacts?’

‘Ah. The Council are aware that the Urn survived; that much I had to tell them, for reasons we will discuss. It will be taken back into the Council’s care.’

‘And the Knife? And the Pendant?’

‘Why, Cassie. You were there. You know they were lost in the deepest of Mount Kenya’s rivers.’ His face remained impassive.

Cassie shook her head, gazing at the three artefacts. ‘Sir Alric … why? Why haven’t you told them?’

‘Why do you think? You know how dangerous these are. I’d rather they were kept well apart, and I’d rather the Knife and the Pendant were considered lost forever. The Urn has little use without them.’

Cassie nodded slowly. ‘That makes sense.’

Sir Alric touched the Urn gently with a forefinger, then resumed pacing behind his desk. ‘It’s odd,’ he mused, ‘but I still miss Marat.’

‘That
is
bloody odd,’ remarked Cassie, with a lift of her eyebrows.

He gave a low laugh. ‘He was at my side for a long time. Playing a long game, no doubt,’ he said sorrowfully. ‘But I came to rely on him. Foolishly. Of course, it was Marat who broke in here at the beginning of term, trying to get the artefacts. I should have known it, but I didn’t want to think it could be true. I was trusting – an all-too-human trait.’

Ranjit and Cassie, sitting close together, exchanged glances. It was Ranjit who coughed and said at last, ‘If he was with you for so long, what on earth was his motive for doing what he did?’

‘Ah.’ Sir Alric glanced at Jake, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘A similar story to Jake’s, I fear. An out-of-control Few student, Marat’s cousin, and death by feeding. Marat chose to take his revenge in a far slower and less obvious way, however.’ He winked solemnly at Jake. ‘Marat was already Few, but with a very weak spirit. He came to me, requested a job at the Academy. His spirit had never been especially ambitious in previous incarnations, and neither was he. I felt sorry for him. What else could I do?’

‘Offer a member of his family a place at the Academy, like you did after Jess died?’ observed Jake acerbically.

‘Ah. It was Marat who convinced me that offering you a place could do no harm, only good. He did make reference to himself, and to his own situation.’

‘In that case,’ Jake tightened his fingers round Isabella’s, ‘I’ve got at least one thing to thank him for. Sort of.’

Sir Alric nodded. ‘I suppose so, though his motives were never honourable. I’m afraid I had rather a blind spot where he was concerned.’

‘Full blinkers,’ muttered Cassie, not quite under her breath.

Isabella, never one to encourage a scene unless she’d instigated it, clapped her hands and leaned forward, interrupting. ‘But what about the Eldest? Katerina’s obviously finished, but is he? For sure?’

‘Oh, yes. He’d joined with her; they were one. When she died, he died.’

‘And you’re sure he couldn’t survive in another form.’

Sir Alric gave a light shrug. ‘It’s never happened before. Ever. Yusuf, Mikhail, Keiko – their spirits all died with them. A spirit cannot live without a host. Why would the Eldest?’

In the silence Cassie and Sir Alric turned to look at the Urn, placed so innocently between Knife and Pendant.

He heaved a sigh. ‘Cassie … I know Estelle is fully inside you now. Has that changed nothing?’

‘It’s changed everything, and nothing. I know what it’s like now. I know what it means. Even more than I did that time in New York, when I managed to throw her out again.’ Cassie closed her eyes briefly, recalling when once before in desperation she’d allowed Estelle to fully inhabit her. It felt odd, sitting here discussing the spirit’s fate without the old bat’s caustic interjections. Cassie almost missed her nagging voice. Almost.

Sir Alric stared out of his window. ‘So the one thing that hasn’t changed, Cassie, is your mind.’

‘Yup.’

He sat down behind his desk and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m sorry.’

Cassie started to get to her feet, though she didn’t let go of Ranjit’s hand. ‘We had a deal!’

Sir Alric sat back and steepled his hands in that thoughtful pose she knew so well. ‘We had a deal – not that you kept your side of it terribly well.’

‘You can’t do this! You can’t refuse me!’

‘Calm down, Cassie. I didn’t say I’d renege on our deal. I said I was sorry. And I am sorry. Sorry you can’t live with Estelle, and that you won’t let her live with you, become you. I think you’re ideally matched in so many ways.’ He crooked a smile. ‘And the old bat was a surprisingly good friend of mine.’

Slowly Cassie sat back down. ‘So you’ll let me use the artefacts?’

‘If I can’t talk you out of it. But I have to try.’

Cassie took a deep breath. It wasn’t as if she didn’t understand. ‘I don’t want to hurt Estelle. I sort of like her, actually. But I don’t want her to be part of me, and I don’t want to be part of her. I didn’t want any of this, you know that. And another thing. The most important thing, but if you say it again, I’ll feel like shooting you: I can’t be with Ranjit if Estelle is inside me.’

Ranjit was very still as Sir Alric studied them both, flicking his pen from finger to finger. Cassie held her breath.

‘And it doesn’t bother you that your … status … will be different to his? That Ranjit will be Few, and you won’t? Think hard, Cassie. Think of what you’ll be giving up for an uncertain future.’

‘It isn’t uncertain,’ broke in Ranjit quietly.

Cassie shook her head. ‘I appreciate what you’re doing, Sir Alric, and I understand. Honestly I do. But I felt it. I felt that power in the cavern, when I needed her help to break away from the Eldest’s power. I felt it on the mountain, fighting Marat. I know I needed her then, but I don’t want that kind of power forever. That malevolence, Sir Alric, it’s not human. It’s got nothing to do with humanity.’ She bit her lip. ‘Sorry if that’s an insult, by the way.’

Sir Alric laughed drily. ‘If it is, it’s one I don’t mind. And nor, I’m sure, does Ranjit.’

Ranjit stirred and coughed. ‘Sir Alric …’

‘Yes?’ Frowning, Sir Alric turned to him.

‘There’s something I have to say. I …’ Ranjit’s voice dried, and he glanced at Cassie, squeezing her hand.

‘Out with it,’ Sir Alric encouraged.

‘There’s … Look, I need to do something. Something … important.’

Impatiently Sir Alric raked a hand through his hair. ‘Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like this?’

‘Because you won’t.’ Ranjit bit his lip, then looked at Cassie. ‘Sir Alric? I want you to use the Pendant and the Knife on me too.’

‘What?’

‘Draw out my spirit.’ Ranjit swallowed hard. ‘Free it from me and put it in the Urn with Cassie’s. I want to stop being Few.’

Never, thought Cassie, had she seen Sir Alric look so utterly stupefied. The headmaster stiffened, then shoved his chair back and stood up.

‘Ranjit Singh? Give up your Few status? Young man, you are the most powerful spirit in the Academy, and you’re destined to be one of the most powerful in the Few. Are you out of your mind?’

‘Yes.’ Ranjit gave Cassie a fleeting wink, then turned back to Sir Alric. ‘I’ve been out of my mind since my initiation. I want to get back into it.’

‘Ranjit.’ There was infinite sadness in the headmaster’s voice. ‘You know that’s not true. You’re like us all: more yourself than ever.’

‘I don’t want to be more myself. I want to be the self I used to be. And I want to be that person with Cassie.’

Cassie put her hands to her eyes. They were hot and wet, and she realised with shock that she was crying. Glancing at Isabella, she saw that her roommate was, too. Jake was simply looking at Ranjit with an expression of conflicted awe and incredulity and relief.

‘You’re right, Sir Alric,’ Ranjit went on, standing up and drawing Cassie to her feet after him. ‘There would be problems if I was Few and Cassie wasn’t. I don’t know what kind, but I accept there would be. So why bother? I’ll be what she is. Human.’

Cassie wrapped her arms round his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. It wasn’t just blind, irresistible love, she thought; it was the fact that if she didn’t hang on to him, she was going to faint with joy.

Sir Alric didn’t speak for a long time. Stretching out a hand, he toyed with the chain of the Pendant, then lifted it up and let it swing, gleaming in the golden light.

‘I don’t want this,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t want to do this to you or to your spirits.’

‘But we want it,’ said Cassie. She brought Ranjit’s hand impulsively to her lips and kissed it, barely able to believe her happiness. ‘We both do.’

Sir Alric rubbed his face with both hands. ‘If it’s to be done, it must be done now. The Council representatives are flying out this evening to take the Urn.’

‘You’ll have to explain why there are spirits in it, I take it?’ Ranjit sounded curious, but not anxious.

‘That I can blame on the Eldest somehow. He took the spirits for feeding.’

‘Packed lunch,’ muttered Cassie.

Sir Alric very nearly cracked a smile, but didn’t succeed. ‘And the Council won’t be interested in why the human hosts survived, or even if they did.’ Very thoughtfully he replaced the Pendant on the desk, then stroked the hilt of the Knife.

‘I believe you’ll miss this, Cassie.’ He tilted an eyebrow.

‘Yes,’ she agreed, gazing at it. ‘But honestly? Not that much.’

Sir Alric clenched his fists and shut his eyes briefly, agitation barely suppressed. ‘If your minds are made up – and I can tell that they are – there’s no point delaying. Release him, Cassie.’ He added drily, ‘If you can, that is.’

Very, very reluctantly, Cassie drew away from Ranjit. He gave her hand a last squeeze as they parted; then they both turned to Sir Alric.

‘What,’ said Cassie, ‘no hoods? No chains? No stone altars?’

‘All that rigmarole?’ Sir Alric shook his head. ‘All the rituals are perfectly simple, really. It’s just that the Few have always liked our little piece of theatre.’ He smiled fractionally, then, his face serious once more, he raised the Pendant in one hand, Knife in the other.

Jake pulled Isabella back a little, in a protective reflex, but as the Pendant started to glow, its energy was all focused on Cassie and Ranjit. Cassie felt nothing at first; then there was a tremendous jolt in her chest, the tug of something pulling away from her. For a horrible moment, it felt like her heart.

Her back arched with the drag of the Pendant’s power and she gasped, but no sound came from her open mouth. Dimly she was aware that Ranjit, too, was bending like a bow under the irresistible power of the Pendant. From the corner of her reddening vision she saw his head jerk back, his mouth wide, and then she couldn’t see him any longer because her own head was bent back so far, and she was howling silently at the ceiling.

A short scream from Isabella seemed to come from a long way away, but there was no way of reassuring her. Spirit-power was flowing from Cassie’s mouth and from her chest, mingling in a stream that flowed towards the Urn.

It was agony. He hadn’t told her this part.

Something flashed through the air between her and Sir Alric; something she knew as well as she knew her own hand, something she was never going to see again. Blurred creatures writhed at the edge of her vision. It was the Knife, severing the connections …

And then, abruptly, the pain was gone, and so was her connection to the liquid white light. Her head snapped forward again at the same moment as Ranjit’s, and they both cried out involuntarily.

Sir Alric held the Knife loose at his side, his hand trembling. The link between them and their spirits was finally broken. Cassie saw blurrily that the jade carvings on the Urn were alive, coiling and rising and falling, writhing in something very like ecstasy as the light poured in from the Pendant that Sir Alric still held above it.

The headmaster wasn’t looking at the Urn, and nor was he watching either Ranjit or Cassie. His gaze was fixed on the streaming spirits. They weren’t wispy, like the remains of Estelle’s had been after Cassie’s aborted ceremony. There was a thick twisting rope of glowing light, almost too intense to look at, flowing into the Urn – their two spirits coiled and united. Ranjit was staring too at the brilliant cord of spirit-light, and his eyes were no longer red.

The line writhed, thickened, brightened with a core of lightning. Then it was sucked into the Urn, making it burst into brief blazing light.

And then, it was gone.

They stood, all of them, staring at the Urn. There was still a point of light visible through the translucent jade: a clear brilliant heart like a single star. It was very, very slow to fade. Isabella stepped forward, unable to tear her eyes from the spectacle, and Jake, of course, followed.