Fear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella (The Darkworld Series) (10 page)

“Jude’ll have headed that way,” said Cyrus, frowning.

“Wait, what?” I said. “Here?”

“Over that way.” Cyrus pointed.

Just past the cathedral, I saw headstones rising behind a low stone wall.

“The graveyard.” I shivered. “Right. That’s their headquarters?”

“Yeah. I can’t see any fortune-tellers, though.”

“You sure about this?” I said, looking from the laughing shoppers to the dark cathedral and back again. A giant bird swooped overhead, bigger than any bird had the right to be. A chill swept through me—the chill of the Darkworld.

“Shit, the harpies are on the prowl,” said Cyrus, eyes following the bird as it landed atop the angel statue in the square.

“The
what?”
I said, staring at the bird. It flickered before my eyes, and for an instant, its features became twisted, like a cross between a vulture and a shrivelled, ancient creature, a fairy-tale witch or something. “Okay. That thing’s giving me the creeps.”

“Harpy,” said Cyrus. “They’re the Venantium’s spies.”

“And it’s staring at us,” said Howard, whose fists were clenched.

“Um. Should we move?” said Berenice.

Cyrus shuffled his feet back a bit. “Uh…maybe, yeah.”

The harpy let out an awful, high-pitched screech, like someone butchering a violin. It beat its wings and kicked off from the statue…

…heading right for us.

“Yes,” said Cyrus. “Let’s run.”

But something else swooped in front of us before we could so much as move. A long, dark something, like a shadowy net, placed itself between us and the harpy. I froze up, glancing at the others. They looked as stunned as I did.

A woman had appeared from nowhere, pulling a shield along with her, a shield wide enough to wrap around us all. She was tall, dressed in a long coat that covered every inch of her but for her sweeping fair hair. She turned her head, and I saw a young, chiselled face and startling silver-gray eyes.

“Stay back,” she said. “There may be more of them.”

Howard’s jaw had gone slack, and Berenice looked similarly speechless. Cyrus was first to recover.

“Um…are you Madame Persephone?”

The woman inclined her head. “I am.”

“Can you help us?”

She turned back to the harpy, which circled around us but didn’t dive. I wondered if it could even see us, or if the shield had hidden us from view. I’d guess the latter.

“That would depend.” A stream of fire launched from her hands and struck the harpy, which disappeared in a cloud of black feathers.

“Holy shit!” Howard gawked at her.

I felt pretty much the same. The shoppers picnicking and chatting in the square carried on, oblivious to the feathers raining down around them.

This woman packed some serious Influence.

“That’s better.” The shield dropped. “Now, what have you children done to attract the attention of the Venantium?” She turned to scrutinize us. “I’d guess you’re new, unregistered magic-users, and you were looking to come to me for help.”

“My guardian told me you could,” Cyrus broke in hastily. “William Melmoth. He said you knew each other.”

She blinked, a peculiar expression crossing her face for a brief moment, something like sadness, regret, and understanding rolled into one. Yet, her eyes hardened so abruptly I thought I must have imagined it.

“I see. You’re one of the Blake children.”

“Cyrus,” he said. “We need your help. Claudia, here, got into trouble with Jude, one of the
venators.
He tricked her into using magic publically.”

“And we think he manipulated our other friend, too,” I said, as her eyes fixed on me with an appraising look. “We were attacked by shadow-beasts in Redthorne —well, twice.”

“I can speak for myself, you know,” said Berenice.

“Then do,” said the woman.

Between us, we summarized what had happened. I could hardly believe I’d only been here all of ten days and managed to get this neck-deep in shit. Now, we were counting on a total stranger to pull us out of it.

She paused for a while after we finished.

“I see,” the woman said, again. “Well, I warn you; I cannot defend you from the Inner Circle if you’ve broken the law.”

“We haven’t!” I said, hating the way she looked at me. I hadn’t broken any laws, not deliberately. “Besides, I only attacked him on campus because…because I was angry. But it wasn’t me!” The words were coming out of their own accord. Damn, I hated being judged. “The Darkworld. It was like something manipulated me.” My mouth snapped shut, and I wished I could take it all back—anything to escape those merciless silver eyes.

But the fortune-teller nodded, as though I’d just told her an interesting story or something. “Is that so? It seems someone has angered the Darkworld.”

“Well, don’t look at us,” said Berenice, glancing at the cathedral. “And isn’t Jude, like, right over there at headquarters? With his bosses? I don’t want to be arrested.”

“None of you will be arrested,” said the fortune-teller. “I have dealt with his kind before.”

“His kind?” said Cyrus, frowning.

“
Venators
who let their ambitions get the better of them. I will deal with him. And then…if you wish,” she added to Berenice, “we will find the cause of the shadow-beasts that have been hunting you.”

“There’s no cause,” Berenice said, sharply. “Nothing. They just hate me. They won’t leave me alone, never!”

“On the contrary,” said the fortune-teller, “there is always a cause. When did a shadow-beast first attack you?”

Berenice shivered. “Soon as I got off the train in Redthorne. None of them had ever—ever—done that before. I mean, I saw them for years, but they never…”

“If that is the case,” said the fortune-teller, “then I would hazard a guess that running from the first shadow-beast may have marked you as a target. Shadow-creatures prey on the weak.”

“I’m
not
weak, and I’m no one’s prey!” Berenice stepped right up to the fortune-teller, eyes bright with anger.

“Then I will give you the opportunity to prove it. Once this business is cleared up, we will take a trip into Redthorne, and I will help you track down the dark space from which the monsters hunting you came.”

Berenice blinked at her. I could see the fear creeping into her eyes, but she held her head upright and curled her hands into fists as though to stop them trembling.

“Okay,” she said.

The fortune-teller turned back to face the cathedral and the graveyard beyond. “Perhaps…perhaps, it would be best if I were not to enter there myself,” she murmured. “They do not trust my word, and they will know you not to be a liar.”

“Wait…” My mind scrambled to make sense of her words. “You want me to go in alone?”

“No, I believe that he will come to you. But you should speak to his supervisor alone.”

My knees felt weak. “Crap,” I said. “I’m really
not
good with authority figures. Besides, he knows I broke the law, well, in his eyes. I can’t deny that.”

“And he used an illegal restraining spell on you,” said the fortune-teller.

“Wait, illegal?”

“Of course, it’s illegal,” said Cyrus. “Only in cases of extreme resistance. Seriously, you’ve got this. We have your back.”

Still, I didn’t feel overly confident as we waited. I tapped my feet. Where the hell was he? Now, I just wanted it over with, so I could go home.

Three figures appeared from the side of the cathedral, and my heart stuttered to a halt.
Shit, I take it back.
I glanced back, wondering if I could make a break for it.

The fortune-teller shook her head, slightly.

I stayed put, heart jack-hammering away, gaze fixed on the three blue-clad figures approaching us.

Jude walked in the center, looking unimpressive between the two tall figures on either side of him. One was a blonde woman of around forty, her suit crisp and her manner cold. The other was an older man with steel-gray hair and a stooped walk.

My mind raced. Were these the Inner Circle members? Surely, they wouldn’t come to arrest me here. Though we outnumbered them five to three, I felt the presence of a hundred-odd others, centuries of tradition coming down on us.

They stopped a meter or so away from our group. The man spoke first.

“Which of you is Claudia Delaney?”

Crap. Here goes.
“Me,” I said, meeting his pale eyes.

“You are an unregistered magic-user, daughter of Lloyd and Francesca Delaney, are you not?”

I nodded.

“A disturbing allegation has been made against you, Miss Delaney,” he said, jerking his head in Jude’s direction. “Do you know what this is?”

I had to clear my throat a couple of times before I could get the words out. It felt like my heart was jammed somewhere in my windpipe.

“Yes. I used magic, in self-defence.”

“Explain. I have heard Jude’s version of events, but I would like to hear it from your own perspective.”

I swallowed.
So long, freedom,
a cynical voice whispered in my ear.

“Right. Well, long story short, my friend and I got attacked in Redthorne last night. I used magic to fight off the shadow-beasts, and Jude tried to get me arrested. His partner”–Crap, I never did get Biker Guy’s name —“told him to back down. But he was acting shady. My friend saw him in the club the same night. I asked him about it this morning, and he hinted he’d done something to manipulate her into walking into the shadow-beasts. I got angry at him, and he used an illegal restraining spell on me. He left me there, on campus, and came back here.” My confidence grew the longer I spoke, and I glared at him. “Whatever lies he’s told you, it’s not true. And my parents had nothing to do with it.”

Silence. The woman on Jude’s right didn’t look too convinced. Her lips were pursed as though she’d swallowed something sour. But the older guy looked at me, thoughtfully.

“I see,” he said. “If that is the case, then we will not pursue this matter further.”

“
What?”
Jude turned on him, pure anger making his eyebrows even more intense. “Does my word count for nothing? Why believe
her?”

“She has our support, too,” the fortune-teller cut in. “These other students can also confirm she speaks true. They saw the effects of Jude’s spell. And this one,” she added, indicating Berenice, “can give a fuller account of what illegal work Jude may have done last night. If he wants to press the case further, I’m sure he’ll not object to subjecting himself to a reading, as, I’m sure, these young people will also be happy to do.”

The colour had drained from Jude’s face.

“That is what I thought,” said the older man. “To make a complaint of this level to the Inner Circle, one man’s word is not enough. You would all need to be tested to ensure you speak true.”

Jude’s expression twisted, his eyes all but bugging out. “I understand, sir,” he choked out.

“Then you will let the matter drop?”

Jude nodded, stiffly. “Yes.”

“That is all?” said the woman, who still regarded me with cold eyes.

But that didn’t stop the relief flooding through me.

“Yes,” said the fortune-teller.

I nodded.

“Then I wish you well.”

As one, the three of them swept away. It was almost comical how they walked almost exactly in line, like a group of robots or something. Still, I waited until they were out of earshot before I laughed.

“What a total moron,” said Howard, snickering. “Even I knew about their creepy mind-reading rule.”

“Wait, what?” I said. “You
knew?
”

“Um, I think my guardian told me about it, too,” said Cyrus. “They—well, I’m glad we didn’t have to go through with it. Having one of them break into your mind isn’t pleasant.”

“
Mind reading?”
My voice came out in a squeak. “They’d have read my mind?”

The fortune-teller turned to me. “That would never have happened, Jude knows his lies would have been exposed.”

“Sounds like he doesn’t know his own rules very well,” I said. “Jesus. Well, that’s one way to get hard evidence.”

“I think Jude was hoping they’d forget,” said Cyrus.

“Or he’s an idiot,” said Howard.

Berenice hadn’t spoken throughout all of this, but now she turned to the fortune-teller.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “So, he gets away with what he did to me?”

“That’s a point,” I said. “We never did find out if he led us into a trap.”

“Sounds like he did,” said Cyrus, frowning at the fortune-teller.

She inclined her head. “You’ve seen how they work,” she said. “Jude will not bother you again. I wish things were different, but a complaint against one of their members rarely yields results.”

“Oh yeah?”

It took a minute for me to realize it was Cyrus who’d challenged her, not Howard. I blinked, surprised to see his fists clenched at his sides.

“Yes, Master Blake,” said the fortune-teller. “I am sorry for what happened to your guardian, but generally speaking—”

“Yeah, I get it,” said Cyrus, sharply. “I know what hypocrites they are. And I’m not gonna tell my brother about this, because he’ll probably come and challenge Jude himself.”

I was beginning to feel I was missing something. “What?”

“Nothing,” said Cyrus, shaking his head.

“I’m lost,” said Howard. “Are we gonna fight shadow-beasts or what?”

“We?”
said Berenice.

“Yeah, we,” said Cyrus, his hands relaxing slightly. “We’re Team Awesome.”

“That’s a shit name,” said Howard.

I laughed. “Got a better idea?”

“I’ll think about it,” said Cyrus. He turned to the fortune-teller, who’d watched our exchange with a kind of distant amusement. Who was she, anyway? Now, the fear of imminent imprisonment had left a million questions, exploding in my mind.

“You said you’d come to Redthorne with us?” said Cyrus.

Berenice cut in. “
I
said I’m going alone.”

“If that’s what you wish,” said the fortune-teller. “I do have other business to be carrying on with.”

“What, telling the future?” said Howard.

The fortune-teller frowned at him. “In a manner of speaking. I am here to aid any magic-user who needs my help.”