by Nina Smith
Fitz muttered something that sounded distinctly like a bad word. “How did the spider get here?”
“Ah. Yes.” Mr Silver detached himself and sat down. “How did the spider get here, Hippy?” He gave her a stern look.
“He must have followed me,” Hippy said. “Or he could have been following vamps, if they’re looking for me. I don’t think Rustam Badora was very happy when I poked his eye out.”
“Or the pretender brought him,” Clockwork said.
“Is that likely?” Mr Silver asked.
Hippy thought about it. She would have liked to think Pierus would bring Fluffy Ducky back to her, but Fluffy Ducky didn’t like him very much. Before she could answer, there was a rap at the door.
“I would imagine that’s Ana with the answer to that question.” Mr Silver gave her a thin smile.
Hippy’s heart thumped. She glanced at Clockwork, but he was pale and silent.
Fitz opened the door.
Ana hustled a woman wearing khaki pants, a black shirt and a backpack across the room and deposited her in front of the desk. “Found her lurking around the gates. She said she knows you,” she said.
“Poppy!” Hippy launched herself at the woman.
Poppy, who was still rubbing her arms ruefully where Ana had manhandled her, was almost thrown off balance. She grabbed Hippy and hugged her. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you. Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. Fluffy Ducky came back and there’s a camel here and-” Hippy stopped short at a look from Mr Silver. “Sorry.” She took a few steps back.
“Poppy Praeconius,” Mr Silver said.
“Ratchet Silver.” Poppy patted her hair into place. “How nice to see you again.”
“You really do know her?” Ana said. “You know she’s the human who’s been helping Pierus?”
“Helping is really not the best term,” Poppy said.
Mr Silver leaned back in his chair and studied her. “I suspected it was you. You have a talent for falling in with unfortunate company.”
“Unlike you, I suppose. Do you mind if I sit down? Your friend here made me rather dizzy dragging me off the street like that.” Poppy sat down without waiting for an answer. “I’m getting too old for this kind of thing.”
Mr Silver smirked. “I had rather expected Tony to bring you in.”
“Tony?” Poppy’s surprise was palpable. “It was you who put Tony on me? I wondered.”
“As soon as I heard you were looking for Pandora’s Box I had him stick to you like glue. When will you learn to keep your nose out of places it doesn’t belong?”
Poppy grinned. “When will you learn to pick your people better?”
Mr Silver scowled. “What have you done with Tony?”
“She didn’t do anything,” Hippy said. “Rustam Badora made him a vamp. Then Fluffy Ducky got him.”
“That spider’s growing on me,” Poppy said. “I found him asleep in a pile of ash at the Parthenon and kept him with me ever since in case we found Hippy. He’s handy in a fight, and we’ve been in a couple the last two nights.”
“`We’ as in you and the pretender?” Mr Silver said.
“If you mean Pierus, yes. Unpleasant sort of fellow, but I was worried about young Hippy here, so I decided to stick it out.”
“How very noble of you.” Mr Silver clasped his hands and leaned his chin on them. “Hippy is perfectly safe with us. Swear to me you will abandon your search and you may go.”
Poppy chuckled. “Really? Just like that?” She shook her head. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”
“Oh?”
“The vampires have been on our trail every night. I don’t know how, because we’ve been on the move. To be honest I don’t even know how Pierus knew how to find you, but the man’s like a dog with a bone. The thing is, if things go according to pattern, you’re going to find a lot of vampires here tonight whether we’re here or not.” Poppy paused and rubbed her head. “You know, if those words had come out of my mouth a week ago I’d have slapped myself.”
“Vamps we can handle,” Mr Silver said.
Poppy sighed. “I’m not keen on sitting here playing games. Pierus asked me to come in and talk to you. He’s outside the gates. He wants to negotiate.”
“For what?”
“For Hippy.”
Hippy slipped her hand into Clockwork’s. He squeezed it.
Mr Silver glanced at her. “No.”
“Look,” Poppy said. “Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger, but he said if you refused to negotiate he’d find another way in. If you want my honest opinion the guys an ass, but he’s desperate. He wants to see Hippy and he wants to get back and stop this vampire war thing in Shadow before it gets any worse.”
“A word to the wise, Poppy,” Mr Silver said. “Appearances can be deceiving, and your honest opinion means nothing to me. I have never hired you for your honesty.” He appeared to be deep in thought. “Fitz, Ana, bring the Pretender in. Don’t take your eyes off him for one second.”
“Is that really a good idea?” Fitz glanced at Hippy, then back to Mr Silver.
Mr Silver’s look turned cold. “Are you questioning my judgement?”
“Come on.” Ana grabbed Fitz’s shoulder and steered him out of the room.
“Clockwork,” Mr Silver said. “Take Poppy to a room so she can freshen up. I’d like to talk to Hippy for a moment.”
Clockwork let Hippy’s hand go and headed for the door.
Poppy rose and looked pointedly at Hippy. “Will you be okay?”
Hippy nodded and watched Clockwork leave the room. Nerves jumped around like little bugs in her belly.
“Sit down,” Mr Silver said.
Hippy sat in the seat Poppy had vacated.
Mr Silver frowned. “I’m sorry Hippy, I’d hoped to have longer before you had to face him again.”
Hippy laced her fingers together and looked at her nails. They were dirty. She wondered what Pandora’s nails had been like when she died, and if Pierus even cared.
“I have no intention of allowing him to take the Apple,” he continued, when it became evident she wasn’t going to reply. “But I’m also aware things can go very wrong around him. If they do, you will be Shadow’s only hope.”
Hippy raised her eyes to his. “Me?”
“You.” Mr Silver leaned forward. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, if you believe me or not, but I’m going to ask you to make a choice, right now, and cling to it, even when things are at their darkest and it seems there is no hope. Decide where your loyalties lie, Hippy Ishtar. With Pierus, or with yourself?”
“I don’t understand.”
“If your loyalties lie with Pierus, then so be it,” Mr Silver said. “You will do as he tells you to and that will be the end of it. If your loyalties lie with yourself, then you will do what you think is right. Right for your own future and for all of Shadow.”
Hippy nodded slowly. Now he was beginning to make sense. “I don’t want to go with him,” she said in a small voice. “I want to stay here. With Clockwork.”
Mr Silver raised an eyebrow. “With Clockwork?”
Hippy’s cheeks burned. She muttered a bad word. She’d promised not to tell and now she’d blown it. She nodded.
He gave a deep sigh. “I had an idea things were like that with you two. It is regrettable. You would have made a fine Freakin Fairy. But right now Hippy, the stakes are too high. Nobody else is in a position to watch Pierus or to stop him. We need you. Shadow needs you.”
Hippy gripped the edges of her chair. “What are you saying, Mr Silver? You’re going to make me go with him?”
He made a helpless gesture with one hand. “If I could see another way, I’d take it.”
Hippy bowed her head. For once, her thoughts did not tumble around like birds in a blizzard. Her mind was crystal clear and she knew he was right. “What will I tell Clockwork?”
“Nothing. Pierus must not suspect y
ou of being anything other than a ditsy little girl ready to blow wherever the wind takes her.”
Hippy flinched. “Is that what you think of me?”
Footsteps approached the door. Mr Silver glanced toward it. “I think you are far more than he will ever realise. Go and stand over there now.” He motioned her to the corner of the room. “The game begins, Hippy Ishtar. Be sure to play it well.”
There was a sharp rap on the door. Mr Silver’s thoughtful, worried eyes pinned her in her corner. Hippy couldn’t decide if this was a bargain struck between them or if she was just a piece to be moved around a board in a game she didn’t understand.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Pierus strode into the study like he owned it. He did not appear to notice Fitz and Ana had slim metal arrows set taut in silver crossbows trained on his every step. Clockwork and Poppy followed behind.
Hippy couldn’t take her eyes off him. He seemed to take up the whole room. There were so many little things she noticed for the first time, like the fact he looked no more than a man in his thirties, the way his dark hair curled over the lapels of his coat, the way his full lower lip gave him the look of an overgrown boy and the way a muscle quivered in his jaw. She watched his right hand clench and unclench. She wondered what expression he’d worn on his face when Pandora died.
When he looked at her nothing in his face changed. He didn’t even smile. He’d never given her such a hard, cold look. Hippy stared back, wide-eyed and silent.
He went straight to the desk, leaned over and planted two fists on it. “What do you think you’re doing, Silver?”
Mr Silver didn’t rise. He merely tilted his head. “Your diplomatic skills haven’t improved any, Muse. If this is your tactic for negotiation I’m surprised the Bloody Fairies didn’t use your head for target practice weeks ago.”
Pierus’s hand slashed through the air. “You are wasting time. Your foolish actions have given Rustam Badora an extra two nights to amass his army.”
“I imagine they’ll have something far more painful planned for you when you do go back,” Mr Silver said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they used your blood to paint their walls.” He waved a hand. “Sit down, you’re making my office look crowded.”
Pierus seated himself in the chair in front of the desk and glowered. Fitz and Ana backed up a few steps, but did not dip their arrows.
“Well,” Mr Silver said. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way I suppose we should talk business. What do you want?”
“You have something of mine.”
Mr Silver leaned closer to the muse. The gleam in his eyes suggested he was actually enjoying himself. “And what might that be?”
“Don’t play games, Silver.”
“No really, I’m curious. Over which of my possessions are you claiming ownership?”
“Freakin Fairies,” Pierus said in a venomous undertone, “are impossible to deal with.” Then he dropped his head into his hands and took a deep breath. When he looked up and spoke again, his anger had been replaced by nervous tension. His voice was even. “Let me explain things to you,” he said. “There is very little time. The Bloody Fairies are hours away from being overrun by the vampire army on Shadow. They will all be killed.” He glanced at Hippy. “Every last one. Meanwhile, Rustam Badora grows a second army here in Dream nightly. Miss Praeconius and I have been attempting to stem the tide, but there are already too many. If we are to prevent disaster in both worlds I must return to Shadow tonight, with the fairy and the Apple of Chaos. I must also find a way to take Badora with me, to prevent any more vampires being created here. It is imperative we stem the tide now, or all of Shadow and Dream could be overrun. I never thought I would say it, Silver, but I need your help.”
“See, that’s where I have a problem,” Mr Silver said. “I happen to have personal experience of the fact you are a cheat, a manipulator and a liar. I’ve no reason to believe anything you tell me. And I wouldn’t trust you with the Apple as far as I could kick you.”
“Perhaps I have changed.” Pierus kept a steady gaze on the Freakin Fairy.
Mr Silver gave a dry chuckle. “Really.”
“One does not inspire a bomb that takes millions of lives and come out unscathed.” Pierus raked a hand through his hair. “I swear to you I have dedicated myself to Shadow. I rallied the muses to aid the Bloody Fairies against the vampires after we lost the Bitter Tower. I will not rest until every one of them is back in the Darkness where they belong.”
“Very noble of you.” Mr Silver rolled a pen along the desk under his fingers. “But my position remains unchanged. You are the king of lies.”
“You will allow me to prove to you, at least, the desperate situation in Shadow,” Pierus said. “All I need is a mirror.”
Mr Silver glanced toward the door. “Clockwork,” he said.
Clockwork pulled aside a heavy curtain that hung beside the door. Behind it was a full length mirror.
Pierus went straight to the mirror and stood in front of it. He passed his hand over the surface, muttered under his breath and then moved away.
Hippy moved closer. The surface of the mirror shimmered, brightened, hardened. Shapes took form. Blackened stumps poked like rotten teeth into a rosy sunrise. The fortifications, no more than a burned shell, mounted weary guard over a field of bloodless corpses. The living lifted the dead onto carts already piled high. She glimpsed Ishtar, her face grey with exhaustion, dragging the body of their eldest brother by the shoulders.
Hippy pressed a hand to her mouth, but she couldn’t strangle the cry that tore from deep in her gut. The sound echoed through the room. “Stop it,” she said. “Stop it, Pierus!”
Pierus waved his hand over the glass. The images disappeared, but the room felt cold and alien. “Hippy.” He went toward her.
Clockwork got between them. His voice was as fierce as the fist he brandished at Pierus. “Haven’t you done enough?”
Pierus looked down on him as though he were a gnat.
Hippy turned to Mr Silver, already suppressing her unfairylike outburst. “That’s my family,” she said. “My sister. You have to help them.”
“She’s right,” Pierus said. “Silver, there are only a few more hours until dark, and then the vampires will descend on us. We must be ready for them.”
Mr Silver gave a thin smile. “Vamps we can handle. You-” he shrugged. “That remains to be seen. Fitz, Ana, I think you can put away the weapons. We can trust the king of lies to behave himself for a little while. Ana, I suggest you prepare the traps. Take the human and see she is armed. Fitz, you will see this muse is adequately prepared and does not leave your sight. Clockwork, Hippy, you will also arm yourselves. You’re all dismissed.”
“I would like a few moments alone with Hippy,” Pierus said.
Hippy’s heart thumped. She could not take her eyes from the bookshelf and the box and cup it held.
Mr Silver spoke a single, cold word. “No.”
Pierus’s lips compressed to a thin line. “Hippy,” he said. “Come to me.”
Hippy tore her gaze away from the box. She pushed past Clockwork, stormed to Pierus and shoved him with all her strength.
Pierus, who had not been expecting the attack, stumbled into Fitz.
“Did you murder Pandora?” Hippy yelled.
The look he gave her was stricken. His face went pale and something dark crossed his eyes.
She needed no more answer than that. “I thought so.” Hippy stormed from the room, Clockwork on her heels.
Her anger cooled quickly when Pierus was out of sight. Clockwork took her up a flight of stairs and into a room packed with so many different kinds of weapons Hippy could barely speak for excitement. She walked slowly around the perimeter, her eyes shining, trailing her fingers over tall spears leaning against the wall, swords hanging from long wooden racks, wickedly curved axes, crossbows and daggers of every shape and size.
Along the next wall she found guns, shelves of ammunition and
other things she didn’t even know the names of. “Wow,” she said. “Your dad sure knows how to be prepared.”
Clockwork chuckled. “He’s been getting ready for this for years.”
“This? This right here? War with the vamps?” Hippy took a thin, sharp dagger from the wall and secured it in her hair.
“Not exactly. He’s been getting ready for the pretender to come and try to take the Apple of Chaos.” Clockwork stuck matching daggers in his boots. “I guess he didn’t really think of him having an army of vamps on his back.”
Hippy picked up a shiny silver instrument and weighed it in her hands. When she slipped it over her fingers it became a heavy, spiky, very nasty thing to punch people with. She put it into her pocket for easy access. “I don’t want to go back with him,” she said in a low voice. “Just so you know. No matter what happens.”
Clockwork secured the straps of a scabbard across his chest to brace it against his back. He slid a long sword into it. His voice was bright and confident. “Don’t worry. My dad would never allow it.”
Hippy strapped throwing daggers to her ankles and wrists. She ignored Clockwork’s eyes widening when she lifted her skirt to strap another set to her thighs. “What makes you so sure?”
“He likes you,” Clockwork said. “If he didn’t, you wouldn’t have been allowed to stay here. He wouldn’t send anyone he liked to be killed.” He planted several short daggers and a handgun securely in his belt.
“Killed?” Hippy swallowed hard and filled her other pocket with a handful of little sharp blades she presumed were for throwing at vamp’s heads. “Really?”
“Of course.” Clockwork wound a long, metal-tipped bullwhip around his shoulders and torso. “I wouldn’t give two chances to the fairy dumb enough to stick around once the Pretender had the Apple of Chaos.”
Hippy ran her palm along the shaft of a spear that was just the right size for her. It reached only an inch or two above her head, not too long, not too short. She wrapped her fingers around it. A heavy weight settled in her chest where her heart should have been. “How well do you know your father, Clockwork?”