Cursed

by Sue Tingey

  “I’ve betrayed no one.”

  “I wonder if she’ll see it that way. I certainly don’t.”

  “Nor I,” Kerfuffle added.

  I couldn’t make head or tail of what they were talking about, other than that Kayla was somehow involved and none of my guard were happy about it. I continued listening.

  “So, Kayla knew right from the start what Lucky was?” Jinx said.

  “I think so,” Vaybian said, his voice suddenly weary. “If I had realized she was a Soulseer, I’d never have …” He hesitated. “I would’ve tried to talk my lady out of it.”

  “So, it was Kayla’s plan to eventually bring Lucky to the Underlands all along?” Jinx asked.

  “Yes, but under her protection. In the Overlands Kayla found she could shield Lucky from the attention of our kind, and I suppose—now I know what she is—to a certain extent from the spirit world. She hoped to be able to do the same here.”

  “For what reason?” Jamie said. “I can’t understand why she’d want to bring Lucky to our world.”

  “Knowledge,” Jinx said, and I didn’t have to see his face to know his eyes were glittering with dark intent. “Knowledge is power and despite all of Kayla’s postulating, that’s what this is all about.”

  “No,” Vaybian said. “Power wasn’t important, at least not to Kayla. She wanted to return to our world. She wanted to be with me, but she was worried Lucky would come to the attention of those who would use her for her power. Although I’m guessing she also knew that if she left her sister alone in the Overlands she would be swamped by every lost soul around.”

  I sank down to the floor. They do say eavesdroppers never hear kindly of themselves, but this—this was something else.

  “I believe the Sicarii somehow learned of Lucky and what she is. I believe this is why Kayla was taken.”

  “To draw Lucky out into the open?” Jamie asked.

  “I think so, but they didn’t know she was marked by two such powerful demons, if they had, they wouldn’t have been so obvious.”

  “Unless of course they want to control all three of us?” Jinx said. I heard several sharp intakes of breath. “Imagine if the Sicarii had power over the three most powerful of daemonkind.”

  The three most powerful Demons? But I’m not totally demon … I glanced toward the mirror at the end of the room; the mirror that had revealed to me that demon blood runs through my veins. I got to my feet and padded to the mirror. Lucky de Salle stared back at me—her human face, a little angry, a little scared, but human.

  I glared at my reflection—the kid in me stuck out her tongue—then turned my back on it and marched along the rails of clothes to try and find something suitable to wear. I couldn’t confront my men wearing nothing but a towel.

  Usually I’m a jeans and T-shirt kind of gal, but in this world women were into long dresses and very little in the way of underwear, and I guess when I thought about it, Kayla had always worn dresses, although usually of the very short kind.

  Kayla; my Kayla, five foot five with a perfect figure, dark blond curls and a dazzling smile. Not the real Kayla, of course, she was over six feet tall with opalescent skin and venom green and scarlet curls that harbored a dozen or more writhing vipers. She had lied to me about who she was—everything she’d ever said had been a lie—but she was still my best friend and she had protected me from so many things, and I loved her.

  “There must be something in here I can wear,” I muttered to myself as I padded along the corridor of soft velvets and shimmering silks and moved on to a rack of leather jackets and coats. Then a short, soft tan jacket caught my eye. “This is more like it.” I pulled it out from amongst the others, wondering why it felt so heavy—and then I saw the reason. Underneath the jacket was a pair of leather fitted trousers. Kayla would have known I wouldn’t want to wear dresses all the time. Kayla, I thought and let out a shuddery sigh.

  I managed to find some under-things, which were more for entertaining than practical wear I was quite sure, but it was better than nothing. I slipped on the trousers and a linen shirt and finished it off with the jacket and a pair of boots. Fully dressed I ran my fingers through my hair and got ready to face my guards, hoping they hadn’t murdered Vaybian during the five minutes I’d been changing.

  I padded back to the door and listened through the crack I’d left open. It had gone very quiet. I moved a little closer, ear to the door—and it jerked open. I straightened up and inwardly cursed my reddening cheeks as I came eye to eye with Jinx.

  “Ah,” he said. “There was I hoping to catch you in the altogether, and instead I catch you fully dressed and snooping.”

  “I was not snooping,” I hissed. “I just wondered why you were all so quiet.”

  “We need to talk,” he told me.

  “Sounds serious.”

  “Possibly.” He took hold of my hand and raised it to his lips then kissed my knuckles. “You look very nice,” he murmured, “but I preferred the towel.”

  “Jinx,” Jamie called, his irritation obvious.

  My maroon demon winked at me then led me into the room still holding my hand and indicated the seat next to Jamie. Jinx dropped down onto the chair to my other side.

  “You’re all looking very grim,” I said as I made myself comfortable.

  “We need to talk,” Jamie said, echoing Jinx.

  “So I hear.”

  “Vaybian has told us something of which we weren’t aware.”

  “Kayla knew I was a Soulseer,” I said. It was gratifying to see the surprise on all their faces.

  “How—You didn’t know you were a Soulseer, so how did you know she knew?” Jamie asked, flustered, which really wasn’t like him.

  “She’s been with me for almost the whole of my life and knows me better than anyone. And if I can see ghosts in the human world, then why not here?” I bluffed, then turned to Vaybian. “Why tell them this now?”

  “I swore to serve you,” he said, casting an angry look in Jamie’s direction, “and as everything seems to point to you being the one the Sicarii want, I thought it could be important.”

  Kerfuffle made a harrumphing sound, but otherwise kept his thoughts to himself, as did the others. I stared at Vaybian for a very long time, but to his credit he didn’t lower his eyes away from mine.

  “All right,” I said at last, “I’m a Soulseer, I get that.”

  “The Soulseer,” Jamie said. “According to legend there’s only one, just as Jinx is ‘the’ Deathbringer.”

  “And James is ‘the’ Guardian,” Jinx added.

  “I thought there were other Guardians?” I said.

  Jinx grinned at me. “That was the lad being modest. There are lesser Guardians, who help monitor the interaction between the Under-and Overlands, but he is ‘the’ Guardian.”

  Jamie scowled at him, but all it did was make Jinx laugh and I must admit the mood around the table lightened a bit and even I began to feel a tad happier.

  “So, I’m ‘the’ Soulseer, which makes me dangerous in the minds of some, including the Sicarii, and they’re hoping to draw me out into the open with Kayla, Philip and Angela. But it’s not like they’ve made a ransom demand: give yourself up or they die. What are they expecting me to do?”

  “They’re probably hoping you’ll risk yourself for them. You haven’t made a move yet to rescue Kayla—maybe you would for a child you’ve rescued once before and have been keeping a watchful eye upon ever since,” Vaybian said.

  “How would they even know about Angela?”

  “There are a lot of things they know that could only come from someone who is close to you,” Jamie said, “and I know each and every one of us is solid.”

  “Too right,” Kerfuffle said. “Though I’m still not so convinced about him.” He gestured with his head toward Vaybian. “This could all be a plan to help him get back his mistress.”

  “Don’t think that because you’re only knee high to a water sprite it won’t stop me giving you t
he thrashing of your life, little man.”

  “You and whose army?” Kerfuffle said jumping to his feet.

  “Kerfuffle, sit down,” I said. “And you”—I leaned over the table and poked Vaybian in the chest—“if you can’t say something nice or useful don’t say anything at all.”

  “He insulted me,” Vaybian mumbled, the teenage, sullen scowl back on his face.

  “Suck it up.” I don’t think any of them understood me, but Jinx chuckled merrily to himself. He never seemed happier than when there was a bit of confrontation going on.

  “I hate to break up this happy little gathering,” Jinx said still smiling, “but we’ve somewhere to be very shortly and I wouldn’t want to keep the Lord of the Underlands waiting.”

  “I suggest you stay here,” Jamie said to Vaybian. “If he’s had bad news about Kayla he could want to take it out on someone, and I suspect that someone would be you.”

  “I won’t argue with you on that,” Vaybian said. “He doesn’t like me one little bit.”

  “I don’t think he likes anyone overmuch,” I said, “least of all me.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Jinx said. “I think he quite likes that you remind him of your mother, despite all he says.”

  “Hmm, and look what happened to her,” I said. I didn’t actually know much other than that she’d died in mysterious circumstances. Perhaps the others knew.

  “Do you think Baltheza really had her killed? Only, that’s what he’s hinted on a couple of occasions.”

  “She disappeared after returning from a long absence,” Jinx said, “possibly followed by a short stay in the Chambers of Rectification.”

  “He had her tortured?” I asked, aghast at the thought. “He had his own lover tortured?”

  “Possibly,” Jamie said.

  “Probably,” Jinx corrected.

  “Almost definitely if the rumors are true,” Vaybian said.

  The thought made me infinitely sad, but I reminded myself that this was still all hearsay, perhaps later I could find out what actually happened to her.

  “Come on,” Jinx said, bouncing up onto his feet, “we don’t want to be late.”

  I got up, but it was with a feeling of impending doom. I really didn’t want to see Baltheza right now and I suspected if he did have any news for us none of it would be good.

  “Chin up,” Jinx said, his lips close to my ear. “Once we’ve seen him we can leave and go in search of Kayla.”

  “But where do we start?”

  “Hopefully that’s something Baltheza may be able to tell us. There’s not much that goes on in this world he doesn’t know about.”

  The same two guards from the previous day were standing to attention on either side of the door to Baltheza’s chamber. Upon seeing us one knocked three times, opened the door and gestured for us to go inside.

  Baltheza was not alone. As we walked in a figure swathed in black who I knew only too well glided toward us. His face was, as usual, hidden within the shadows of his hooded robe, his only visible features were his eyes, which glowed with infernal fire: Amaliel Cheriour. For a second fear stopped me dead before we moved to one side to let him pass.

  “Brother,” Jinx murmured.

  “Deathbringer,” Amaliel said and then acknowledged Jamie, “Guardian.”

  I could feel the court enforcer’s eyes on me, but he didn’t say a word, instead he gave a small bow before drifting past us and out into the hall.

  Baltheza watched Amaliel leave in silence and it wasn’t until the door had closed behind him that his attention turned to me. “Lucinda, gentlemen.” He beckoned me forward and stood to kiss me on both cheeks. It was something I would never get used to no matter how hard I tried. Each time his lips touched me I had to force back a flinch.

  “Sit,” he said, gesturing toward the other end of the couch as he settled down. “A drink?”

  “No, thank you.”

  He waggled his fingers at the same white-haired girl at his feet, then leaned back in the seat as she got up to get it for him, then handed it over. He crossed his leather-clad legs and fixed his eyes on me. “I hear you had a disturbed night,” he said.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d heard about Angela, but it still took me aback. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “The Sicarii?”

  “We think so.”

  He tapped a pointed fingernail against the rim of his goblet. “I wonder why they’d want the human child?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Most odd,” he said, his eyes on mine. I was finding it hard not to fidget under his intense scrutiny. It was like he was waiting for me to do or say something, but I didn’t know what. “I hear the innkeeper’s son was hurt.” I nodded, my mouth too dry to speak. I wished I had accepted the offer of a drink. “Brave boy to try and fight off two attackers.”

  “Very.”

  He sipped from the goblet, still watching me while the girl at his feet once more rested her head against his knee and smiled up at me—that same knowing smile as before. If the pair of them wanted to make me feel uncomfortable they had succeeded.

  He took another sip of his drink. “And now to business. The Sicarii temple at Dark Mountain remains empty apart from the rotting corpses of two of their number. Strange they should execute two of their own.” He tapped his bottom lip with his forefinger, a gesture very reminiscent of one of Kayla’s. “Though I suppose nobody likes failure.”

  “Have you any news of Kayla?” Jamie asked, probably hoping to move things on a bit.

  Baltheza’s eyes remained fixed on me and he almost had to force himself to look up at Jamie. “I have spoken at length with Daltas and he is unaware of her current whereabouts.”

  “Daltas is here?” Jamie asked.

  Baltheza’s answering smile was chilling. I glanced at Jamie and Jinx, and both had non-expressions plastered on their faces. It was something I was going to have to practice.

  “He is presently residing in quarters next to his favorite servant Henri le Dent.”

  I just about managed to stifle a gasp, not that I cared overmuch about Lord Daltas; he and Henri deserved each other, but it was fast becoming clear that Baltheza was teetering on the brink of madness and had possibly lurched right over it.

  “And he doesn’t know where Kayla is?”

  “He’d have told me if he did.”

  Both Jamie and Jinx could have been carved in stone. I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room and I was glad I was sitting, as I’m sure my legs would have been shaking.

  He reached out and stroked his slave’s snowy white locks like she was a dog—no, a cat: her smile was definitely feline. “No one is above a trip to the chambers below this palace; no one.”

  Jinx’s lips formed a tight line. I was unsure whether Baltheza was threatening just me or all three of us, but even if no one else found it amusing, his slave did, as she had to turn her head against his leg to hide her laughter.

  “So, from all of this we must reach one conclusion.” Baltheza placed his goblet upon the table by his right hand. “Kayla has certainly been abducted by the Sicarii. However, I have been unable to find out where she has been taken, and I’ve no idea why they would wish to incur my wrath.” He ran the nail of his forefinger down the slave’s shoulder leaving a trail of green. She snuggled against his leg even more. “Have you been down to the Chambers where Amaliel plies his trade?” he asked.

  “No,” I just about managed to croak.

  “It’s worth a visit. He has a remarkable gift when it comes to the infliction of pain. He can take a creature apart until all that remains is a beating heart and yet it still lives. He can make a demon scream until his lungs bleed without causing a single bit of permanent damage.” He dipped his finger in the beads of blood oozing from the scratch on his slave’s shoulder and raised it to his lips. His forked tongue flicked out to lick it from his finger.

  I had a flashback to Henri licking my face in the boarding
school. I was beginning to feel quite ill. And what on earth was Baltheza getting at? His thoughts were erratic and jumping all over the place. I couldn’t follow their thread.

  “Well then,” he said, “I suggest the three of you go and start looking for my daughter—and you can take her fancy, the green captain, along with you. I haven’t yet forgotten his part in this whole sorry affair and nor am I likely to.”

  I started to rise and hoped my legs wouldn’t give way beneath me; I was eager to be out of the room and away from Baltheza’s growing insanity.

  “Oh, and Lucky,” he said just as I reached the door, “it is not only Vaybian who will be enjoying a spell in the depths of the palace dungeons if Kayla is not returned to me safe and sound. So, if a choice has to be made forget the human child.”

  I span around to face him. “She’s just a little girl.”

  “A human and of no consequence to me.”

  I was about to say something I probably shouldn’t, and certainly not to a lunatic, but Jamie grabbed hold of my arm, bowed in Baltheza’s direction and dragged me through the door Jinx was holding open. He too gave a bow and pulled the door closed.

  “Come on,” Jamie said, marching me along the corridor and out of earshot of the two guards.

  I tried to shrug my arm out of his grasp, but he was having none of it.

  “Ouch,” I said. He ignored me and I heard Jinx chuckle from behind us.

  As soon as we entered our room and the door was shut Jamie swung me around to face him. “Are you completely mad?”

  “She definitely is,” Jinx said with a smile.

  Jamie turned his displeasure upon Jinx. “This is serious.”

  “Life is serious, and that is why we have to make light of it when we can; to do otherwise is to live a half-life full of gloom and pessimism—and what’s the point in that?”

  Jamie opened his mouth to reply then shut it again. “We were that close to having to fight our way out of there …” He turned to me. “You do realize he’s becoming completely unhinged?” I was about to say that I wasn’t stupid when Kerfuffle interrupted us.