Between Family: The City Between: Book Nine

by Gingell, W. R.

  “Ready,” I said. I’d already pulled a couple of weapons out of Between, and Zero was prepared too, with his big double-handed sword strapped across his back. He had a sheath for his word, but I didn’t bother with mine—I had the feeling we’d need them nearly as soon as we stepped out of the house, especially if Zero’s dad had gotten closer to finding out where we were by now.

  “Ready,” said Sarah. She didn’t have a weapon, but I’d seen her manipulate Between, so I knew she was already prepared for that.

  “You remember the way back to the house?” I asked her.

  “It’ll look different, anyway,” Sarah said, with a hopeless little shrug. “We’ll have to find our way back again.”

  “It won’t be as difficult this time,” Zero said, and I could have sworn he was being comforting despite his gruffness.

  “Why will it be different and why won’t it be as hard?” I asked, looking from one to the other.

  “There are roughly two hundred houses out here,” said Zero. He left us in the hall to look briefly through the laundry room louvres, then shouldered his way back into the hall and opened the back door. “There were yesterday, at any rate. As heirlings die, their points of entry seem to die off as well: there’ll be far less this morning, and far less paths to take in the labyrinth. It’s all about cutting off options until only two remain, facing each other. When there’s only one option, one point of entry, the arena will open.”

  “So the king can swoop,” I muttered. I let Sarah go ahead of me and followed along in the rear, stepping out into the scent of lemon myrtle and soft darkness once again. “And speaking of swooping, your dad was pretty close to the house already yesterday; if there are less paths to take and less options to choose from, he’s gunna find us pretty flamin’ quickly.”

  “I very much doubt my father will be able to get through the house’s defences,” Zero said dryly.

  “Yeah, but are we gunna be able to get through him and back to the house?” I asked. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  “We’ll face that when we get to it,” said Zero. He didn’t seem too worried, which would have been nice if he ever showed much emotion in general.

  Sarah and Zero were both right about the labyrinth: as soon as we stepped from our backyard and into the hedges, I could feel and see the difference. Instead of the T-section that had formed from the opening of the labyrinth into the backyard, there was a single road leading to the right, running along the back of the yard and much further.

  “Reckon Morgana’s place vanished, too?” I asked. “We went that way to get there the other day.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, with a taciturnity that reminded me that if Morgana’s house had disappeared, it was also likely that Sarah’s house could disappear at any time, parents or no parents.

  “I mean, ours didn’t when we went off to get Morgana,” I mumbled, and Sarah looked a bit more comfortable when next I glanced at her.

  The hedges seemed darker today, or maybe I had just got used to being on the inside of the hedges while chasing after the bunyip. Ridiculously, inside the hedges had been a little lighter than the outside was. Whatever the reason, it left me feeling oppressed and vaguely on edge, and I was actually starting to hate the smell of lemon myrtle, which lingered and followed us no matter where we went. Even a good hour’s trek into the hedges I could still smell it, a visceral reminder that there was now nowhere safe in the labyrinth.

  We had a brief skirmish with some very determined goblins who seemed to be fighting on behalf of an heirling who promptly ran away when he saw his goblins weren’t a match for Zero alone, let alone Zero and a human fighter. I would have stopped fighting the goblins if I could, sick to the stomach, but they kept fighting for their leader regardless and I didn’t have time to try and figure out how to capture them alive instead of killing them before they were all dead.

  “You can’t capture goblins,” Zero said shortly, when that regret tumbled out into words.

  “We could have tried,” I said, wiping off my blades and trying not to look at all the bodies. “They’re smaller than us.”

  “Goblins can’t be captured,” said Sarah, sheathing a little knife I’d had no idea she was carrying. “I mean, you can capture them, but they don’t stay captured. I’ve seen them bite through their own wrists to kill themselves rather than remain in captivity. They’re feral.”

  Zero gave her an approving nod and led the way forward once more, leaving me to bring up the rear again. I did so with slightly more cheer; it wasn’t that the knowledge made me feel better about killing the goblins, it was more that knowing there had been no good choices made the fact that I’d had to choose something seem more generally, instead of specifically, horrible.

  “Watch out for twin fae,” I said to Zero softly as we turned into a new section of the labyrinth. Here it was slightly lighter in terms of visibility, but the hedge itself was darker; more, it was familiar. “They were setting up in one of these lanes for someone.”

  “They found someone,” he said, turning back to look at me and then attending to the front again. His voice sounded pretty grim.

  “Waiting for you, were they?” I asked, unsurprised. “Reckon they weren’t too happy to find you, though.”

  “They were happy for a short while,” he said. “They’re distant cousins of mine; they’ve been training all their lives for this in some remote part of Between that borders the human world. From what they’d heard of my reputation, I gather they expected me to be more of an easy target.”

  I couldn’t help grinning, and I saw the edge of Sarah’s cheek crease with a brief smile, too.

  “They thought you’re a sissy because you wouldn’t follow your father’s footsteps,” I guessed. “And they heard about you going around with the human and figured that clinched it.”

  “I suppose so,” he said, turning into the next section of the L-bend we had been walking down.

  I lost sight of Zero for a brief moment and trotted a bit to catch up with my eyes still on Sarah, unease kicking into gear in my stomach. I nearly walked into his broad back a bare step around the corner and stopped short just in time, relief singing through my veins.

  For a second—just one second—I’d thought that I was about to lose him, too, and I didn’t think I would be able to bear that. Stupid to think that I’d lose him in a second, between one hedge and another in the labyrinth, but that was what this place did: hid dangers and death around every turn, slaughter under every shadow.

  “Walk a bit slower, can’t you?” I said plaintively. I’d just gained an uncle last night; I didn’t want to lose him today.

  Then I caught sight of the reason we’d stopped.

  It was a house. No, not a house—more of a mansion: white marble, art nouveau, and very, very big. It looked as though someone had picked it up and put it down very precisely in the middle of that wide lane to stop whoever might come along in their tracks. It extended fully across the path, a doorway arched invitingly right in the middle of the lane, and merged almost seamlessly with the hedge on either side, blurring slightly where the branches should have scratched against the marble walls. I had a feeling that it would be no use trying to push through between wall and hedge there. Goodness knew how big it really was. It was big enough to rise higher than the hedges, though, and that was pretty flamin’ high.

  “Heck,” I said. “Who put that there?”

  “It was always there,” said Zero. “I told you: the pathways move as the arena grows smaller.”

  “Reckon we should go back and try to get around?”

  “I don’t think there is another way back,” Sarah said, worrying me. Just like I’d been able to sense the way back home each time I’d been out in the arena, it was likely that she could sense the way to her own home.

  I didn’t like the idea of walking through someone else’s home to get through the pathway, and said so.

  “Neither do I,” said Zero. “But it’s our only
way forward. Did you see a single turning on the way here?”

  “Not since a bit after we left our house,” I said, my heart sinking. “Call this a labyrinth, do they? Not much of a labyrinth if it only goes one way.”

  Zero didn’t wait for me to finish complaining; he just walked up to the door and shoved at it. It opened straight away with barely a few shudders of damp or rust as it did so.

  “That’s heckin’ suspicious,” I called. “You sure you don’t want me to try and do something to the hedges to get around this thing?”

  Zero ignored that, too. Flamin’ rude.

  I huffed a sigh and trotted to catch up once again. Sarah waited for me at the archway but disappeared inside as soon as she knew I was coming. I supposed I couldn’t blame her: I would have been doing whatever I needed to do if it were my parents, too.

  “Reckon the house is still growing,” I said as I caught up with them. “It’s sorta eating up the hedges where it’s growing. What do you reckon this bloke is doing to make it do that?”

  “Killing or allying with a lot of heirlings,” Zero said shortly. “Keep quiet and pay attention, Pet. Any heirlings who are still alive today will know how to use Between as well as their martial skills; they’ll be more dangerous.”

  “Yes, boss,” I said, looking around the room for any sign of trouble. There was no way I was going to trust a house that had its front door unlocked—not somewhere Behind, anyway. I gazed across the roundness of the hall and the massive staircase that flowed up and around both sides of the room in a glorious art nouveau sweep.

  Then I looked up, and my heart jumped so physically that I very nearly gasped. JinYeong stood there at the head of the stairs, his dark eyes on me. I know he saw me; our eyes met and both of us stood perfectly still for that brief second.

  Time seemed to start again, and I heard JinYeong say in Korean, as if despairing, “Ah, not again!” Then he turned and vanished back the way he’d come, the white marble hall above swallowing him as if he’d never existed.

  “JinYeong!” I yelped, and dashed up the stairs after him. “Zero, it’s JinYeong!”

  “Pet, wait!” shouted Zero, but I was already in the hall above.

  I heard them sprinting up the stairs behind me and lengthened my stride, glad to have safety at my back. That sense of safety lasted just long enough for me to dash after JinYeong’s blue-suited figure into a darkened room that echoed its massiveness around me and for Zero and Sarah to catch up with me.

  Then the doors shut behind us with finality as the room began to light up, revealing a thin double-line of mixed behindkind across the other side of the huge chamber, some with weapons and others without. They didn’t look too impressive—if anything, they all looked scared—but I didn’t like the fact that they were there, waiting.

  “Welcome to my manor,” said a carrying, tenor voice from behind that line of behindkind. A soft glow lit the space behind them for a few feet, leaving a gulf of darkness between them and the figure that now appeared in robes of white and gold, his arms outstretched in beneficent welcome. “I’m so glad you’ve come to play today!”

  “Flamin’ heck, it’s another heirling,” I said, disgruntled. “Was that really JinYeong I chased up here?”

  “Who’s to say?” said the man—or at least, he looked like a man. “Not everything about my house is real, but some things are. You can—” he added, snapping his fingers “—only guess, after all!”

  For an instant, I saw JinYeong again, looking around wildly as if to work out his surroundings, then the man snapped his fingers again, and the brief vision was gone.

  “You’re a mimic,” Zero said flatly.

  The mimic clapped his hands. “Oh, well done you! You were much quicker than the last one I had here!”

  “Let me guess,” I said. “A mimic can make a version of something it wants you to see?”

  Zero nodded. “A construct. It’s not real, but it looks and sounds real.” To the mimic, he said roughly, “Stop playing games before I come up there and make you stop.”

  “If you’re not going to play the game, you’re not allowed on the platform,” the mimic said chidingly. “Only players get to enter the field of play. You’ll see I have some protection, after all.”

  He gestured at the double line of mingled behindkind and lifted one shoulder far too smugly.

  “What’s this?” asked Zero. “Your army? They don’t look up to much. It’ll take me a moment to get through them to you, so you’d best stop throwing illusions around.”

  “No,” the mimic said coolly. “These ones are cannon fodder.”

  I felt an icy touch of anger. “What?”

  “They’re heirlings we came across on our way. Instead of killing them, I had them swear fealty, and of course they all jumped at the offer. Everyone wants to live just a little longer, regardless of the circumstances. They all think that if they can get just a little bit more time, they’ll be able to escape later.”

  “And you send ’em in to fight and die instead of you.”

  “Only with people like you,” he said. “You can kill them, if you want. You’ll have to kill them if you want to get to me, in fact. But I think you’re the sort who don’t like killing innocents.”

  “I’ll kill anyone who tries to kill me or my friends,” said Zero. “It would be stupid of you to assume otherwise.”

  The behindkind looked surprised, then shrugged. “I’d heard otherwise about you, Lord Sero. I was told you’d gone soft. You can—”

  “Better than being soft in the head,” I told him, rolling my eyes. “Look, are you going to keep talking forever, or can someone else get a word in edgewise?”

  “I beg your pardon?” he said stiffly.

  “You sounded just like his dad,” I said, jerking a thumb at Zero. “That’s not a compliment, by the way. Okay, so you made a bargain with this lot that you’d spare their lives if they swore fealty to you, right?”

  “I have already explained to you the terms of the agreement!” said the mimic, aggrieved. “If they swear fealty to me, they live! If they don’t, they die!”

  “Okay, so what happens if you die?”

  “Then they’re free, I suppose,” he said. “I don’t bother myself with unlikely possibilities. You came here in pursuit of your friend—would you like to speak with him?”

  The showy little git clapped his hands and the expanse of darkness just beyond the double line of heirlings between us and him lit up like a stage. On that stage, blinking in the sudden influx of light, was JinYeong—but it wasn’t just JinYeong. To be exact, it was four JinYeongs. Each of them looked at me unwaveringly once they had grown used to the brightness of the light; each of them was the very image of JinYeong.

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you?” the mimic said sweetly. “I can only work from real life. I can’t create a construct unless I’ve seen the original. Your vampire friend used a door he shouldn’t have been able to access and sneaked into the arena last night. He’s been wandering the manor since then, trying to find his way out. It gave me a lot of time to study him; I’ve been practising ever since I heard I might get a chance to meet you both.”

  I had to fight hard not to exhale all the fear and worry I’d had since JinYeong hadn’t appeared outside the windows this morning.

  “I was told a little story about him and you,” added the mimic. Grand and expansive, he said, “I’ll give you the chance to save your friend. If you win and choose the right vampire, you and your friends may walk out of here with my good wishes. If you do not, you must swear fealty to me.”

  “Your guardians aren’t very strong,” Zero said, looking over the children between him and us. “They’re children—I would kill them in a few moments.”

  “Yes,” he said. “But it’ll take you those few moments to get through them—and by then I’ll be long gone. Good luck finding me before I find you—just when you think you’re safe, the closest of your allies will stab you in the back, and you’ll discover tha
t it was me all along.”

  “Fine,” said Sarah. “We’ll just leave, then. You can’t stop us getting out.”

  “You’ll never find your way out of my demesne—I am the key by which the doors of this establishment are opened,” he said triumphantly. “At each turning there is another turning, and at each—”

  “Yeah, yeah, there’s another turning, we get it.”

  “And then,” he added, swelling with outrage, “just when you think you’re safe—”

  “Here we go again,” I muttered.

  “—my allies will return and you will be taken prisoner regardless!”

  “Hyeong,” said one of the JinYeongs, his voice uncertain. “You wouldn’t leave me here?”

  Zero spared him only the briefest look before he asked the mimic, “Who is your ally, then?”

  “You should know,” the mimic said mockingly. “He carries the same name as you.”

  “We can’t wait for my father,” Zero said, his hand rising to the grip of his sword. “Nor can we leave JinYeong here.”

  I stared at him. “You want to just kill these kids?”

  “They won’t let us pass them, and if we let him go—”

  Sarah said, “It’s true,” her voice hard and sharp. “And they’ll try to kill us next time if we leave them alive, too.”

  “I’m not killing kids,” I said.

  “You’ll have to if you want to get to your friend,” the mimic said happily. “It won’t do you any good, either: you’ll never find me again once I’m out of sight, anyway. I could be anyone you know.”

  “No, you couldn’t,” I said, without bothering to hide the contempt in my voice. “You don’t have the depth to be anything but a deflated balloon puffed up with someone else’s air.”

  I let my eyes flick contemptuously across the four JinYeongs who stood just out of reach and added, “Your constructs aren’t even that good. I already know which ones aren’t JinYeong.”