“Caleb, these are the ramblings of a sick mind. You are not well–”
“Shut up and listen, Uncle.” Rustus’s mouth opened and closed like a fish, but the force in Caleb’s voice kept him quiet. “Gideon himself visited with me today.” Caleb heard Rustus gasp at the idea of Gideon’s involvement. It gave him confidence. “He told me there will be no redemption for me in this life, or the next, if I allow Sophia to be killed. So, Uncle, as you scheme to use me in your plans to govern Shenaya, know this – I’ll never support you in harming Sophia. Or Daniel. Understand this, now and forever.”
Rustus thumped his hand against his leg. “This is ridiculous, Caleb. Sophia carries the seeds of our destruction.”
“Send a bouquet of flowers to Reuel, because this is all his doing.” Caleb steadied himself against another blast of pain. His legs began to tremble; and although he tried to stand, he collapsed against the nearest wall. It took a few minutes before he found the strength to speak. “Thanks to your beloved Reuel, Sophia and I are now bound together by a bond stronger even than marriage. The need to protect her has been forever branded into my soul.” He shook his fist into the air, addressing Reuel. “And no matter what you do to me, I’ll never kill her.” The next blast of pain was so severe that Caleb collapsed onto the cushions.
Rustus waited a moment for him to revive, and then resumed his attack “But, Caleb–”
“There are no buts, Rustus.” Even though Caleb’s voice sounded weak, Rustus leaned back, astonished at his determination. Forcing some strength into his voice, Caleb continued, “Understand this: no one in Shenaya will ever harm Sophia. For, on the day anyone does, I will have you executed.” Rustus gasped again and reached for his handkerchief, but Caleb snatched the concealing rag away. “And, Rustus, for that act of justice, let my soul be judged. I have no doubt that the blood of thousands – whom you have sent to untimely graves – will plead for mercy on my behalf.”
You ungrateful bastard, Erin and Seth heard Rustus think, you dare to threaten me! But you haven’t refused my offer to govern Shenaya with you, have you? Yet what about the Norin whore? And Gideon’s Prophecy? He pulled his comforting hanky from Caleb’s hand and clutched it to his nose. Calm down . . . calm down. I can’t win if I panic. The game’s not over until it’s over. I’ll find a solution to Sophia. But, oh! What about Reuel? He’ll be furious. But am I willing to sacrifice my life for Reuel? And what about my right to govern Shenaya?
Backwards and forwards Rustus’s desperate thoughts tumbled, until finally he made his decision. He had a plan. Recovering, he cleared his throat and declared in his most persuasive voice, “Caleb, if you allow me to guide you in the years to come, I’ll ensure Sophia the ultimate protection. When I’m done with her, no one will ever harm her. And we will not run the risk of any unwanted pregnancies.”
Caleb swayed on his cushion as he surveyed his scheming uncle. But for Seth, it was his regretful thoughts, rather than his expression, that were most telling. If only Jared hadn’t betrayed our brotherhood, then I wouldn’t be here now, facing a lifetime working with this man, who I’ll never be able to trust. Caleb wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve. “And so, Rustus, I begin to parcel off my soul.” He stood, and like an old man bowed down from a lifetime of worries, shuffled from the room.
With an alacrity that belied his gammy foot, Rustus also hurried off to warn his Pledged to turn a blind eye if anyone tried to help Sophia sneak out of the Fortress.
As the door slammed shut behind him, Seth stretched out his long legs. “So that’s it. The reason why Sophia walked out unchallenged. No wonder Reuel called in the troops. He must be really p’d-off now.”
“And Caleb was amazing. You must be proud to call him a friend.” Erin frowned, scrunching up her nose. “You know, I can’t believe I said that. Caleb’s just agreed to the murder of his father. How does that work?”
“As he said, Erin, where does self-defense end and murder begin?”
They fell silent. Erin leaned back against the wall, twirling a lock of her hair. She wanted to point out how different Caleb was to Kyle. Caleb was doing everything in his power to protect his younger brother from Reuel. Kyle, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem with cursing his. But she knew she’d never say it. It would hurt Seth, and she’d hurt him enough already with her foul temper.
Seth watched Erin twirling her hair. His fingers itched to take the strand from her hand and to twirl it himself.
“Kiss her. Do something,” his spirit pleaded. “I know you want to. And she’s expecting it. Look at her looking at us.”
Before Seth knew what he was doing, he edged into Erin, but as she moved towards him, anticipating his kiss, he jerked away.
Erin fell back, disappointed. I must have imagined he was going to kiss me. I just pray he didn’t notice me drooling over him. With humiliation bleeding from every pore, she stood. “I’m tired. Let’s give Phineas a shout, and go and find some food and a bed.
Chapter 21
THE ALL-SEEING EYES
Erin had been asleep for at least an hour in the second-floor room where Phineas had led them. At first she’d been restless, muttering as if she were being chased by Reuel himself. But now Seth, lying awake next to her on the hide-draped mattress, was confident that she’d entered that phase of sleep when it would have taken Reuel’s entire army to wake her. Still, taking no chances, he eased across the bed, silently lowered himself onto the floor, and pulled on his boots. After nearly kissing her earlier that evening, he knew it was time to leave. If he delayed any longer, he’d never summon the will to go back to Kyle.
Negotiating his escape plan with Rustus was bound to be risky. Very. That was why he didn’t want Erin with him, but he guessed she’d come looking for him if she woke up and found him gone. He didn’t want to risk that either. All this meant he had to move fast.
He checked on his sword, picked up the backpack with the diamond in it and placed it on the mattress. If something went wrong and he didn’t – or couldn’t – make it back before she woke, he didn’t want her thinking he had stolen the diamond.
Avoiding the creaking floorboard he had discovered earlier, he tiptoed to the door, and stepped out into the passage. He stopped to listen; when no sound came from the room, he turned to look down the corridor.
As he hoped, it was crowded with people returning from the Lord’s Hall after the wedding feast. He joined the throng, walking among them, trying to break into their thoughts to get a lead on where Rustus could be. Because his mind-reading skills had again failed him, it was only once he reached the stairs leading to the ground floor that he picked up information that was of any use. A woman, passing him on the stairs, was complaining to her friend that Rustus had refused to come to the wedding feast. From the way she was speaking, Seth guessed she was his wife. He looked at her more closely. Erin was right. Jared definitely got his looks from his mother. When her companion asked where Rustus had been, she replied, “He said he had important things to do in his office.”
His office. That wasn’t where he met with Caleb, Seth thought. It must be another room. Maybe near Marlthas’s. Seth gave Jared’s mom an invisible smile of gratitude and leapt down the remaining stairs, hoping to catch Rustus in his lair.
Once in the passage, he elbowed his way past more Defenders, racing from one end of the corridor to the other, but Rustus was nowhere to be found. With a grunt of frustration, he stopped to listen to the people walking past him, but all he heard were slurred grumblings about bloated stomachs and heartburn. Unsure of what to do, he wandered down the passageway, past a dimly lit perspective of dozens of doors, every one closed.
I’ll have to check every room. But that could take forever.
He slouched against the wall, hoping for inspiration. It was then that he noticed the darker shadow of an opening at the end of the passage. A sixth sense – or maybe just an appreciation of Rustus’s character – had him running towards it. It was the same narrow tun
nel down which Jared had escorted Sophia and Kezeah on their first night in the Fortress. A snake-hole, Sophia had called it.
And that about sums it up, he thought, trying to recall the geography of the tunnel. He remembered there had only been one flight of stairs at the end, leading to the rooms where Sophia and her party were staying. It seemed unlikely Rustus’s office would be all the way up there. Beginning to question his judgment, he hesitated, but again, something nudged him on, telling him he was on the right track. Although he now knew enough about the workings of the dead to be wary of promptings, he stepped through the arched opening into the claustrophobic burrow, scraping his head on the ceiling. Cursing, he crouched lower and shuffled along with bent knees, searching for another opening. He hadn’t gone far when his hand, running along the length of the wall, touched empty space. A quick inspection revealed a flight of unlit stairs carved out of the bedrock, sinking down into an abyss beneath the Fortress. His chest closed in on him at the thought of descending into the airless pit. “Reuel’s shrine. It’s got to be.” He ran his hands over his face, feeling the prickle of sweat on his brow. “Do I follow him? Or should I wait and catch him when he comes out?”
“Leave now,” his spirit pleaded.
“But I might not get another chance, and Erin’s going to wake soon. All we need is some light.” He looked back down the passage towards the main corridor, where a wall-mounted torch beckoned.
“Sorry Guardians, but my need for light is greater than your silly rules about not touching things here.” Before he could filch the torch, a group of celebrating Pledged and their brides paused beneath its flickering light to say their goodnights. He waited for them to leave, but their chatter told him it would be a long farewell. He didn’t have the time to wait.
“Okay Guardians, you win that round. I’ll just have to do this in the dark.”
The stairs seemed to go on forever, sinking ever deeper into the blackness. The air turned icy and the stone walls were dank with condensation. At last his boots touched on what seemed like a landing. He paused, listening. In the absolute silence, he heard a familiar scrape and shuffle. Rustus’s clubbed foot, rasping on the stone floor. Seth felt his way along the wall, turned a corner, and saw his quarry, pausing in a pool of ghostly candlelight at a closed door. Rustus gave a push and the door creaked open. Seth followed him into Reuel’s shrine.
The first thing Seth noticed was the Lightning Bird’s eyes. They were pulsing rhythmically, as though following the beat of an unseen drum. The reek of burning herbs hung in the air. Even Rustus sniffed as his sinusitis-clogged nose detected the sickly-sweet smell.
“It would seem that we are being called from the future, my lord,” Rustus said, addressing the bird. “I see the pounding of the callers’ drums reflected in the Lightning Bird’s eyes. Just as you described. And I smell their burnt offering. Just as you warned I would. Truly amazing.” Rustus put the candle on the altar, and, after shedding his gloves, reached for his dagger to stab himself.
Determined to stop him invoking Reuel, Seth jumped forward, tore the weapon from his hand, and threw it at the opposite wall. It clattered to the floor, spun around and stopped, its needle-sharp point facing Rustus. Seth held his breath, waiting.
Rustus stared at his empty hand, looked around the room, and then at the dagger. “Hmm . . . it would seem we have company here today, my lord. Perhaps the visitor from the future you warned me about. The one you showed me in that vision. How exciting.”
Seth blinked in surprise, wondering what vision of him Reuel could have shown Rustus. It made him nervous. But that didn’t stop him picking up the black gloves and swinging them in front of Rustus’s face before flinging them across the room.
“Enough! I know you’re here, Seth Hunt.” Rustus swiveled around – this way, then that – grasping for a sight of him. “I know you! Oh yes, I know you,” he said to the empty room. “We’re old friends. The last time we met was on the pan, when I flew at your face. I had your left eye clenched in my talons. Do you remember, Seth? Do you remember that day?”
Rustus! Seth thought in panic. So it was you on the pan.
“The other Defenders and I almost killed you, did we not, Seth Hunt? What makes you think you will survive this encounter?”
Seth tried to answer, but his tongue suddenly felt too big for his mouth.
“No reply, I see. Well then, I’ve a challenge for you, Seth Hunt. Place your hand upon the altar, if you dare. Let’s see each other – man to man, as it were.”
After wiping his sweaty face on his shirt to conceal the evidence of his fear, Seth jerked his hand onto the altar. As his fingers touched the blood-encrusted stone, he felt as if his insides were being wrenched out of his skin. Shuddering against the sensation – which was more strange than painful – he waited for some reaction from Rustus.
“Ah, there you are at last, Seth Hunt.” After inspecting him from head to foot, Rustus added, “You look in better shape than when I saw you last.”
Seth wanted to snatch his hand from the altar, but guessed that would break whatever tenuous connection linked them through time.
“You were dying on the pan, Seth Hunt. A few moments more and it would all have been over for you. Yet another custodian dead, and the Seer-Stone rendered useless. Again.”
Grateful that Reuel and his Gefallen had no power to read the thoughts of the living, Seth kept his body language unreadable. “Erin still had the Seer-Stone, so the story would have lived on. She’s the true Custodian of the diamond, not me. I – like you – am just one of Reuel’s Sons.” He waited for Rustus’s reaction.
“The right to claim lineage to Lord Reuel comes not only through birth, Seth Hunt, but through devotion and commitment. I suspect you have neither.”
Seth decided that it would be unwise to remind Rustus of his own recent lapse in devotion to Reuel. “I’m here talking to you, aren’t I? Reuel knows I could have gone to Gideon, but I chose to come to you. No doubt he’s told you that.”
Rustus regarded him with hate-filled eyes. “You must have had a purpose in seeking me out. What do you want?”
“To speak to the Shadow Lord of Shenaya.”
“Caleb? As far as I know, he’s now in his bed, nursing his branded wrist.”
So Reuel told Rustus what really happened to Caleb. Seth sucked in a nervous breath. “I don’t want to speak to the ancient Shadow Lord. It’s the current one I’m interested in. The one who would have been in line for the throne if Shenaya still existed in my world.”
Seth tried to read the puzzled expression that darted across Rustus’s face. Then, almost as if he’d made a critical decision, Rustus snorted. “And what do you offer in return, Seth Hunt, for the privilege of addressing the current Shadow Lord of Shenaya?”
Seth ignored the question. “That’s not all that I want.”
“Demanding, my lord, isn’t he?” Rustus said, inclining his head towards the Lightning Bird. The light from the effigy’s eyes flickered and died, plunging the room into momentary darkness before pulsing red again. When Rustus spoke again his voice had hardened. “What else, Seth Hunt?”
Unsure of what message the flashing light had conveyed to Rustus, Seth nevertheless replied, “Our meeting on the pan never happened. No crows, no baobab tree. Nothing. I know Reuel must be able to do that because he showed you visions of what will happen in the future.”
“So?” Rustus cocked his gaunt head to one side. “Is that all? Just make it all go away?”
“No. I haven’t finished. This is the deal. You drop me at Kyle’s camp without a scratch. And Erin comes with me. With the diamond.”
“And in exchange for all this?” Rustus sneered. “You offer . . . what?”
“In exchange, I give the living Shadow Lord the opportunity to explain his involvement with the Stone. Depending on his explanation, I’ll either hand the diamond to him – and he will destroy it for personal gain. Or, if I don’t like what I hear, he and I’ll end up in a war.
And I’ll fight him – and you – to my last breath to protect the Stone and lift the curse.”
Rustus consulted his bony hands, seeming to mull the proposal over in his mind. “These are not good odds, Seth Hunt.”
“Why? Scared the Shadow Lord isn’t going to support you? Scared that he’s going to start a Seer-Stone preservation society? A bit unlikely, given everything.”
“That is precisely what I fear,” Rustus replied. “But no matter. We have other living allies in this war of which you speak, should the Shadow Lord disappoint.” His voice became businesslike. “Now, I’ll require a level of commitment from you.”
Seth gave a mirthless laugh. “Don’t for a minute think I’m stupid enough to fall for some stunt that brands Reuel into my soul forever.”
“Too late, Seth Hunt. I understand from Lord Reuel that you are already Pledged.” He laughed at Seth’s haunted expression. “Now, to improve my odds in what is a very one-sided deal, I must insist that you leave here unarmed. Your sword for your freedom.”
“That’s a deal-breaker, right there.”
Rustus waved a bony hand at the door. “Close it behind you, Seth Hunt.” He turned his back on Seth.
Seth swore softly under his breath. “Anything other than my sword.”
“The girl.”
“Erin! Are you insane?”
Rustus turned to face him. “Then the diamond. Put it on the altar and we have a deal.”
“Nice try.”
“Then what can you offer, Seth Hunt? You’re old enough to know that you get nothing for nothing in this deep, dark world of sin.”
Rustus was toying with him. It was frustrating, but there was nothing Seth could do about it. Or was there? He mentally rifled through the contents of the backpack for a tradable asset, but he came up short. All it contained were sweaters and toothbrushes. Although Rustus could definitely benefit from a real toothbrush and some minty toothpaste, Seth guessed that it wouldn’t be enough to swing a deal.
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