The Immortal Realm (17 page)

Edric's hand slipped out of Tania's the moment they came into Faerie. It was as if he couldn't bear to touch her. How had that happened?

“Wow!” Connor's awestruck voice was the first to break the silence. He let the flashlight beam rove over the stone walls of the small room. The various entrances and exits stood out sharp and black. “Where are we?”

“You are in the hidden heart of Veraglad Palace,” said Rathina. “This chamber and the passages that lead from it were delved from solid stone by the Mystic Arts of our sister Eden.” She looked at Tania. “We will be able to enter Cordelia's chamber without the need to show ourselves.” She pointed to a narrow slot. “That is the way.” She held out a hand to Connor. “I shall light our path,” she said.

Connor handed over the flashlight. Rathina looked into the beam, her eyes narrowing against the bright white light. “A marvelous, odd thing, indeed,” she said.
“Like a hundred candles without flame. Is this…What did you call it, sister?”

“Electricity,” said Tania.

“You don't have electricity?” said Connor. “Is this whole world stuck in, like, the sixteenth century?”

“I don't think they'd appreciate the word
stuck
,” Tania replied. “And trust me, it's not like any sixteenth century you've ever seen on the History Channel.”

“Well, no,” agreed Connor. “I got that. For a start there's that whole magical side step thing you have going for you. And I guess that's not all. Your sister mentioned Mystic Arts? Does she mean—
magic
?”

“There is no time for this foolishness,” said Rathina. “Come, Master Prattler. Your lessons can wait; you have stern work to do.”

Rathina stepped into the shoulder-width gap in the stonework and began to mount a flight of wedge-shaped spiral stairs. Connor followed after her, then Tania and finally Edric—keeping always a couple of steps behind her.

The stairway led to a cramped corridor and finally to a slender wooden panel set in the stonework.

“We are here,” Rathina said. She pressed her hand against the panel and it slid smoothly to one side. The flashlight beam shone onto what looked to Tania like the inside of an empty wardrobe.

Rathina walked through the wall and into the wardrobe. She pushed the door open. There was a click and the sudden yellow glow of candlelight.

“Oh my god,” she heard Connor murmur. “It's just
like getting into
Narnia
!”

A moment later and they stepped out of the wooden closet and into Cordelia's bedchamber.

Cordelia lay unmoving in her bed, pale as death, surrounded by watchful birds. A lump filled Tania's throat.

Please let Connor's drugs work.

Many tall candelabrums had been set up around the bed and the air was filled with a slightly sour, spicy scent.

“Sweet spirits of peace.” Rathina sighed, handing Connor the flashlight and leaning over her sister's still figure as the birds edged away from her. “Look, Tania, she is no better. Master Hollin's healing stones do nothing!”

“What mischief is this?” asked a voice from the doorway. “How came you here to my wife's chamber?”

They turned. Bryn was at the part-open door, his face gray and drawn, his eyebrows knitting as he took in the strange clothing that Tania, Rathina, and Connor were wearing.

“We mean nought but good,” Rathina said quickly. She gestured toward Connor. “This man is a Healer. He has medicines with him. Tania has great faith in his powers.”

Bryn's eyes narrowed with distrust. He stepped quickly into the room, coming between Connor and the bed. “You are not of Faerie,” he said, looking Connor up and down. “Whence come you?”

“I'm here to help,” Connor said nervously. “Tania—tell him!”

Bryn glanced sharply at Tania as realization dawned in his face. “He is Mortal! You have been to the Mortal World—against the most specific commandment of the King! Lord Aldritch said it was so when you could not be found, but I did not believe him. I thought you had gone to some private place to consider your future. But now I see he was in the right! And you have brought another Mortal into Faerie!”

The look of disquiet on Bryn's face made Tania feel uncomfortable. “I had to bring Connor here secretly,” she explained. “The earls are going to close the ways between the worlds in a few hours. Then it would have been too late. Connor is going to help. Trust me, Bryn.”

Edric's voice was low but authoritative. “Bryn Lightfoot—if you love your wife, allow this man to do his work,” he said. “For I tell you true, none other than he can lift the shadow of death from our people.”

Tania looked at Edric. It was so strange to think that this was the same smiling boy she had fallen in love with in the Mortal World. Back then he had spoken like an ordinary Londoner, but now, unless he was specifically talking to her, he sounded like any other man of Faerie.

“I can help,” Connor added. “If you'll let me.”

Bryn stepped to the door and closed it. “Then work swift, Mortal,” he said. “Master Hollin's acolytes return here betimes to sing their healing dirges over
the princess—not that their ministrations have awoken her nor put the blood back into her cheeks.”

“What's Hollin doing now?” asked Tania.

“He resides in Lord Aldritch's chambers,” Bryn said with a growl. “No doubt playing at pitch and toss with his worthless pebbles.” He glanced at Edric. “Lord Aldritch spoke against it, but the Conclave of Earls had decreed that none other shall be taken from the Gildensleep until some proof of the Healer's powers is revealed.”

“I think they'll have a long wait,” said Tania. “What about their plans for shutting the doorways between the worlds? Is that still going ahead?”

“It is,” said Bryn. “All the enchantments have been prepared. When the sun rises, the ways between the worlds will close forever.”

Tania saw alarm flicker for a moment in Connor's eyes, but he said nothing.

“Not if Connor's medicine works,” said Tania. “If Cordelia gets better, I'll be able to convince them to leave the portals open, I'm sure of it.”

Connor gave her a worried look. “I'd better get a move on,” he said.

Tania turned to him. “Yes. Do it,” she said. “Do it now.”

“What about these pebbles?” Connor asked, gesturing at Hollin's healing stones. “Can I move them?”

Tania nodded. “Yes, get rid of them.”

Connor picked the stones off Cordelia's body and placed them in a pile on the bedcovers. He then took
the plastic box from under his jacket. He laid it on the bed and clicked it open. Cordelia's birds shuffled away to the far side of the bed and one or two fluttered to safer perches, but none left the room and all kept their black eyes on the ailing princess.

Tania leaned close, anxious to see what Connor was doing. Inside the box was an oblong green device that looked to Tania a little like an office stapler. Beside it were a small green vial and a silver-colored plastic tube with a kind of trigger device on one side.

Connor felt in his jacket pocket and took out a small clear, plastic vial filled with a pale liquid. As she watched, he inserted this into the silver tube and snapped the trigger closed.

“Have you ever used one of these things before?” Tania asked quietly.

“No. But I've seen it done.” He looked at her and smiled. “I can do this, Anita—sorry—
Tania
. Don't worry. I really can.”

There was a tense silence in the room as Connor lifted the oblong device out of its box and opened it. He placed the silver tube inside and closed it again.

“That's it,” he said. “All ready.” He moved up the bed, pulling back Cordelia's sleeve to reveal her bare arm.

A crow croaked warningly from Cordelia's pillow.

Connor glanced at it. It bobbed its head and glared at him. He took a breath, paused for a moment with the device cocked in his hand, then pressed the end against her upper arm and brought his thumb
down on a button at the top.

There was a sharp rushing, hissing sound.

“What is that thing?” Bryn demanded. “What has this Mortal done to Cordelia?”

“He's helping,” said Tania.

Connor lifted the device away and looked up at Bryn. There was a small reddish stain on Cordelia's skin.

“Okay,” he said. “Antibiotics administered. Now all we have to do is wait.”

“I must go,” said Edric. “I have been already too long from my lord's side.” He didn't seem to Tania to be speaking particularly to her; he didn't even look at her.

“Say nothing of this!” warned Rathina.

Deep lines appeared between Edric's eyebrows. “If the healing is successful, all shall soon know of it,” he said to her. “If not, send the boy back whence he came and hope the dawn brings a miracle. I shall say nothing, my oath on it.”

He turned and swept from the room.

On an impulse Tania followed him. “Edric?”

He paused at the door that led to the corridor. There was a look of such pain in his face that Tania stepped toward him, her arms reaching out.

“No!” He backed off, and Tania saw tears in his eyes. “You're only making it harder!” he said. “We can't do this.”

“But you followed me…into the Mortal World—”

“To
protect
you, not to…” His voice faded. “I can't stand this anymore. I can't bear being near you and knowing we can't be together. It's tearing me apart.”

“Edric, I
love
you….”

But he was gone and the door had slammed on his back.

Tania stood alone in the room, her breath shuddering. She took a few moments to gather herself, then walked back into the sickroom.

Connor stared at her. “Are you sure you trust him?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tania said quietly.

“Master Chanticleer has given his word,” said Rathina. “He will keep silent.”

Bryn was sitting on the edge of the bed holding Cordelia's hand. “I am loathe to leave her side, but it would be prudent for me to await in the outer chambers,” he said, gazing down at her ashen face. “That way I will be able to prevent Master Hollin's acolytes from entering, should they seek to return.” He leaned over Cordelia's face and kissed her gently on the mouth. “Wake soon, my love,” he whispered. “Eternity awaits you with impatience.”

The door closed behind him with a sharp click.

Tania hugged her arms, unable to tear her eyes from the pitiful sight of Cordelia's white face. Rathina was standing at the head of the bed, her back ramrod straight, her hands clasped behind her. She was pale and her lips formed a tight line.

Connor appeared at Tania's side. “How are you
doing?” he asked softly.

She shook her head but didn't reply.

“When it starts working, do I get to take a look around this place?” he asked.

She almost managed a smile. “If this works, I will personally take you on an all-expenses-paid guided tour of this entire country,” she said. “And that's a promise.”

 

The candles burned low. A few had guttered and died. Rathina had found new ones yellow as butter and had thrust them into the molten wax of the foundered ones, lighting them with a taper.

The moon moved across the sky, as large as a plate and as white as snow. Every now and then Connor would lean over Cordelia, lifting her arm, his fingers at her wrist, or he would lay the back of his hand against her forehead as though testing for a change in temperature.

At some point Tania knew she would have to take Connor back down to the Well Room and lead him to safety in the Mortal World. But not quite yet. For now the two of them were sitting side-by-side, backs against the wall, whispering softly together.

“It's so hard to tell what's happening to her,” Connor said. “Back at King's, we'd have her hooked up to all kinds of equipment. She'd be wired up to an ECG monitor to check her heart rate, and there'd be display screens showing her arterial blood pressure and rate of oxygenation, and there'd be two temperature
graphs. She'd have wires all over. Plus we'd have her on a saline drip and there'd be a crash cart nearby in case something went wrong.”

“They don't have anything like that here,” Tania said.

“Listen,” Connor said, “if things don't improve in the next couple of hours, what say you do that magic trick of yours and we take her back home? She'd be far better off in a hospital.”

“I can't do that. I told you. The way I get between the worlds is going to be shut down at dawn. She'd never be able to get back here again.”

“At least she'd be alive.”

Tania shook her head. “She'd hate it. And what about all the other people who are ill here? No, we have to wait and pray that the stuff you gave her works. Then I can go to the King and convince him not to close off the Mortal World. And
then
we can go back and get enough stuff to cure everyone.”

“The ‘Mortal World'?” Connor said thoughtfully. “You say that as if you're talking about the planet Mars.”

“Do I?” She sighed. “Yes, I suppose I do sometimes. It's hard to explain.”

“I bet it is.”

There was silence between them for a little while. Connor looked at his watch. The hands showed one thirty.

The night was not yet half over.

 

Tania opened her eyes and for a few moments she couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Then she recognized the flicker of yellow candlelight on the walls, and she saw the open window of Cordelia's bedroom with the moon cut in half by the frame. Lace curtains trembled in the breeze.

She was curled on the floor with her head in someone's lap. For a stupid, forgetful, blissful moment she thought it was…

Idiot! It's Connor.