Gregory Grey and the Fugitive in Helika

by Stanzin

CHAPTER 6.2

  Lesley's Diary - The Dream - July 15, 1909

  They were waiting for us.

  The Cradle was pretty as a painting, which is weird. You wouldn’t think that demons cared about where they slept, but this one had a nice stone shrine decorated with flowers, bonsai, murals, and everything. A magic slice of spring atop a snowy mountain.

  And that massive emerald. Who knew emeralds got that big – perhaps as large as my hand. It was carved. I thought it was a rune, but Margaery said it was a glyph, a really ancient sort of rune that no one knows how to write anymore.

  The glyph spelt out the demon’s name, which I couldn’t read, but I told it mine – mother told me to sketch my name onto it in runic form.

  And that should have been the last thing I remember, because my very next memory is of Winnie feeding me chicken soup.

  But I remember seeing the emerald break and the creature inside put out roots that dug into me. I remember feeling so happy that it terrified me, and feeling hot and cold and tall and small at the same time.

  It was like falling into an ocean that was in me and around me – I was the ocean! It was like being blooded again, only much, much more.

  And I remember the small army that appeared out of nowhere. They broke Margaery’s shields, and fought her, Kwame and Lulu. I remember being confused, and trying to move towards them, but being too weak to move.

  We thought we had been so careful, what with all our wards, and hover-walks, snow-white outfits. We must have tripped some sort of alarm, even though we didn’t detect any, and we checked – frequently.

  Margaery fell first, then Lulu, then Kwame. They brought down twelve before falling themselves – I counted. I couldn’t hear any of it for some reason.

  I didn’t even realise they had died until I dreamt it, and I woke up.

  Where did the men come from? I think they were already there, around the mountain, waiting. They might even have been looking for the cradle, though I’m not sure.

  They were after me, not the Cradle. Why else would they wait for me to open the cradle? Why else not just attack once Margaery revealed the cradle? They must have wanted a Trueblood – me.

  Which in turn means that they don’t have their own Trueblood.

  I went to Margaery, and tried to wake her. One of them cast some sort of spell from me. I remember being in pain, but I can’t remember what the pain felt like, only thinking that I didn’t know anything could hurt so much. I could hear two screams, one of which was my own, and the other inside my head.

  I think they were trying to pull the demon out of me, and it wouldn’t leave.

  I remember becoming angry, and the ocean vanishing from around me, though it was still inside me. One of them put on something golden.

  Their spells failed. The earth shook, the mountain opened up, and they fell into it.

  I fell into it too.

  And then there was chicken soup.