by Steve Feasey
A multitude of angry thoughts and vicious retorts sprang up into Philippa Tipsbury’s mind, but she was unable to articulate any of her resentment. She had the odd sensation of being on the outside, looking in on this scene as it unfolded. Try as she might she could do nothing to express her anger at the news her father had just delivered.
She opened her mouth, intending to tell him that she wasn’t going on his stupid trip. ‘Oh, well, that’s all right then. As long as you’re sure that I won’t get in any trouble with Mr Hayter. Sounds great!’
What was she saying? What was happening to her? A wave of panic began to rise up within her, but almost as soon as it had begun to form it seemed to dissipate, replaced by calm and warm thoughts about the great time that she would be able to have with her father. The trip would enable them to get closer again. She looked over at her father and smiled at him. ‘The Seychelles? Wow, I’ve always wanted to go there. I’ll go and get some things packed, shall I?’
She went out into the hall, and Martin could hear the sounds of her footsteps as she lightly padded up the stairs in the direction of her bedroom. He looked over at the silent figure of the man standing next to him and smiled nervously in his direction. He had never been so amazed in all of his life.
Philippa closed the door of the bedroom behind her and leaned against the cold surface of the wall, staring up at the ceiling. The Necrotroph took complete control of the host now, squashing and smothering the swelling thoughts and emotions that had been allowed to build up inside the host while it had been forced to hide deep inside, far away from the Maug’s watchful stare. It felt happier again now that it could relax a little and thought ahead to what it knew it must do.
The demon had no choice but to leave the country with the feeble little human that was Philippa’s father. It regretted that it would not be able to take him over before they were in the Seychelles, but any death at the airport, or on the plane, would cause too much of a commotion and possibly destroy any chance that it might have of finding out what it was this man knew that made it so important to get him out of the country under guard.
No, it would just have to be a little more patient. There would be ample opportunity to take what it needed from the human once they were away from the Maug and in the Seychelles. Then it could report what it knew to its master and still be in a body that presented it with the perfect opportunity to return to the inner workings of the empire of the traitor, Lucien Charron.
Philippa Tipsbury smiled to herself and hummed a tune that she had never heard before. She leaned forward and made her bed, smoothing out the covers and fluffing up the pillow. She hated an unkempt bed.
‘White or black?’ Charles asked as Trey walked into the kitchen, dumping his bag on the floor beside the table.
‘Not a huge fan of coffee, to be honest. I’ll probably just have a fruit juice or something.’
‘Oh, come on, humour me. I’ve just made this from scratch, and I’ve been told that I make the meanest cappuccino in these parts.’
Trey looked over to the giant Gaggia coffee machine that was hissing and steaming in the kitchen. He had to admit the smells coming from it were good, and he nodded his head in assent. ‘Cappuccino it is then. Plenty of chocolate on the top for me, but no sugar.’
He sat down and watched Charles busying himself in the kitchen. He moved around it as though he knew where Mrs Magilton kept everything, opening up the precise cupboards that contained the various items that he needed to prepare the hot drinks. Trey idly wondered how it was that he could know his way about so well.
‘Sure you want chocolate and not cinnamon?’ Charles said, holding a teaspoon of the brown powder over the frothy foam that jiggled at the top of the bowl-like cup. Trey nodded, and Charles finished the two drinks. He brought them to the table, placing one in front of Trey and sitting in the chair opposite.
‘This is all very nice,’ Trey said, a quizzical look on his face.
‘Like I said, I’m here to smoke the peace-pipe with you before we get under way tomorrow. Just figured it best to clear the air before the two of us go into the fray, as it were.’
The room went silent while the two of them sipped at their drinks and considered what to say next.
‘So how—’
‘What did you—’
They both spoke at once, and then smiled at each other.
‘Go on,’ said Trey. ‘You first.’
‘I was just going to ask how often you sparred like that. From what I could see of the Shadow Demon, and from the look of that cut on your back, it must have been quite a session. I don’t imagine that you want to be doing that too often?’
‘So you can see them?’ Trey asked. ‘The demons. You can see them in their true form? I thought that you were completely human.’
‘It’s a spell. I can switch it on and off as I need, but to be honest I rarely, if ever, nullify it these days. It helps me to see who is who around this place and that way I know what I’m dealing with. It can be very embarrassing at times otherwise.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Trey said with a shake of his head.
‘It must be a bit of a bind for you – only being able to see the nethercreatures once you become the werewolf. I’ll try to teach you the spell some time, when we get back … if we get back.’ He looked at Trey, his eyes hard. He took a sip of his coffee and then smiled, adding in a lighter tone, ‘It’s extremely difficult, but if Tom can learn it – even if it did take him over a year – I’m sure that a quick learner like you will pick it up in no time.’
‘Thanks,’ Trey said.
‘You’re very impressive, by the way,’ Charles said. ‘The sight of you standing there when I came in through that door quite took my breath away, and I think that anyone that can give a Shadow Demon a run for its money is always going to be handy to have around.’
Trey shrugged. ‘We get together a couple of times a week. It started out all very “safe”, but we seem to have got a little more intense over the last month or so. We wouldn’t hurt each other really.’
Charles looked at him for a moment over the top of his coffee cup. ‘Be careful around Shadow Demons, Trey. You never quite know what they’re up to.’
‘Flaug’s a friend.’
‘All the same, be wary of how much you allow yourself to trust a creature like that. They have a habit of turning very nasty very quickly.’
Trey matched the look from the man opposite him. His initial willingness to listen to Charles was quickly turning to irritation, and he was about to say something about not feeling that he could trust him, when Charles interrupted his thoughts.
‘You like Alexa, don’t you?’
Trey set his cup back down on the saucer and stared across at the young man. ‘Look, Charles, I don’t see what—’
‘It’s OK. I haven’t, and wouldn’t, say anything to her. I just wanted to know if my suspicions were correct.’
‘Well, even if I did, it really is none of your business.’
‘That’s true – it isn’t any of my business any more.’
Trey waited.
‘But I think that it is best to get everything out in the open now and therefore it’s only fair to tell you that Alexa and I had been going out with each other.’
Trey’s stomach did a funny rolling thing and he felt his throat constrict, making him swallow a large lump that had formed there. He had known there was something between Alexa and Charles by the way that she had been with him at the dinner the other evening, touching his arm when she laughed at his stories and fiddling with her earrings whenever he had been speaking (which had been all too often). Trey tried to push these images away, but they kept playing over in his head – a tortuous loop of petty jealousies.
‘There’s nothing going on now, Trey,’ Charles said, as if reading his thoughts. ‘We split up a short while before you came on the scene, and she has told me on more than one occasion that there isn’t any chance of us getting back together. I just thought
that it would be best to lay my cards on the table now, before you found out some other way.’
Trey shrugged again, ‘It’s none of my business … but thanks.’ He nodded before returning his attention to the gradually disappearing ring of white foam around the inner circumference of his cup.
They sat like that for a few moments, neither really knowing what to say to change the subject on to more neutral ground.
‘What do you know about Gwendolin?’ Trey asked eventually.
‘It’s probably better if you tell me what you know and I’ll fill in the blanks.’
Trey shrugged his shoulders. ‘Not much at all, apart from the fact that she used to be Lucien’s partner and that she’s Alexa’s mother. I can’t seem to find anyone willing to talk about her. Why is that?’
Charles puffed out his cheeks and looked through the window towards the hazy light bouncing in from the river below. ‘It’s the shame of it all, I suppose.’
Trey waited for him to continue.
‘My father was working here then. He told me that the two of them – Lucien and Gwendolin – met when she was eighteen years old. Lucien was instantly besotted with her. She was stunningly attractive – with long red hair that hung down her back in rolling waves and a face that was not just beautiful, but intelligent and determined at the same time.’
Trey’s thoughts turned to Alexa and he considered how her face must be an amalgam of her mother’s and father’s. From this he thought he could picture how Gwendolin might have looked.
‘They were inseparable. And together they did great work in thwarting Caliban’s plans at a time when his power was at its peak. But as the years went on their relationship started to fracture. It wasn’t much of a problem to begin with, but their thoughts and vision for how they saw the way forward began to cause the rifts between them to widen.’
‘How so?’
‘Gwendolin began to explore dark magic more and more. She would seek out the ancient scripts and writings that were believed to have been lost forever – employing a team of people to locate them – and she immersed herself in their teachings. Lucien tried to stop her, but her argument was that they would never truly be able to thwart the evil that Caliban would wreak in this world if they did not understand how it came about.’ He glanced over at Trey and a quick, nervous smile briefly touched the corners of his mouth before he continued.
‘By now she was an incredibly powerful sorceress. She had always been a star pupil – her mother began to teach her from a very early age, and she had a natural gift for magecraft. But now her power was perhaps greater than any sorcerer that had come before her and she jealously guarded her secrets and skills. Dark magic has a way of doing that to people. It’s a pernicious force that seeks to consume those that dare to study it. As pupils of magic we all learn aspects of it, but are made painfully aware of the dangers that beset anyone who dares to delve too deeply into its secrets. Maybe it was Gwendolin’s foolhardy belief that she was capable of resisting its consuming power, or maybe, having had a taste, she decided that it was this power that she truly wanted, regardless of the cost. Things were looking very bad indeed. And then she became pregnant.’
‘Alexa?’ Trey asked.
‘Yes. And with the discovery of her pregnancy, she changed. Or appeared to. She completely turned her back on her arcane studies and immersed herself in the joys of motherhood. It was eight years since the two of them had met, and in the last three years of that time Gwendolin had changed out of all recognition. But the baby … the baby transformed all that in a stroke, and almost overnight Lucien and Gwendolin returned to that state of unbridled happiness that they had both known at the start of their union. The baby was like a brilliant light that banished the darkness that had begun to devour her.’
‘What happened?’ Trey asked when the silence that followed had strung itself out for what seemed like an age. ‘Nothing at first. Alexa was born, and Lucien and Gwendolin entered that state of ecstasy that all parents do. They doted on their newborn child, and the universe seemed to slot into perfect place for a while. But after a year or so Gwendolin began to renew her interest in magic again – if she ever truly gave it up – although she promised Lucien that she was no longer interested in the dark arts and that she merely wanted to keep up her skills and knowledge. He agreed to allow her to continue her studies as long as she kept to her promise.
‘But, as I said, dark magic has a way of getting under your skin, waiting deep in the marrow of your bones for you to let your guard down before it rises up again and demands its due attention. Gwendolin couldn’t resist its allure. She secretly set up her team of researchers again and began to delve once more into murky secrets that were better left hidden and forgotten. She began to lose her grip on reality. She was obsessed by her need to acquire more and more power and, in doing so, more and more of her was lost to those that loved her.
‘One day Lucien decided that she was no longer a safe presence to have around. There are places that people can go – in realms other than this one – where poor souls that have lost their way can be sent for help, a sort of rehab for junkies of evil. He walked into her study to find her in the middle of an extremely perilous summoning. She was trying to bring back a demon lord known as Horg, who had been banished from the Netherworld centuries before. The summoning required a sacrifice to be made in order for it to be successful. She had prepared the sacrificial offering and would have gone through with the ceremony, if Lucien had not walked in when he did.’
Charles stopped and looked over at Trey, a strange look in his eye.
‘Was the sacrifice a human or an animal?’ Trey asked, his voice sounding papery thin. The silence in the room was palpable.
Charles nodded very slowly, knowing that Trey had already come to the conclusion on his own. ‘It was Alexa,’ he said. ‘Gwendolin was going to sacrifice her own daughter.’
‘Alexa.’ Trey’s mouth felt dry and his mind swam as he fought to take this revelation in. ‘Does she have any idea—’
‘No. She doesn’t know. That’s why Lucien told Alexa that her mother was dead. What else was he going to tell her?’
‘She’ll find out.’
‘Let’s hope not, for her sake.’
Trey looked at Charles and shook his head. ‘Why tell me? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did, but why tell me?’
‘Because you need to know what we are up against, Trey. Gwendolin is pure evil. She and Caliban will stop at nothing to wreck everything that is decent and good and honest in this world. Neither will they stop at anything to destroy the likes of us. And tomorrow we leave to try to steal an ancient and powerful object from right under their noses. This is not going to be like play-fighting with a Shadow Demon – you need to be very, very careful out there, Trey.’
‘Then I hope that you are as good as Alexa says you are, Charles,’ Trey said, blowing out a long breath and standing up to clear away the things from the table. ‘Because it sounds like we really are going to need all the help we can get.’
Charles nodded in agreement. ‘She mustn’t go in. Alexa can’t be allowed to face Gwendolin when we get to Leroth.’
Trey turned to face him. ‘I don’t see how you are going to stop her, Charles.’
‘I agree that it’s going to be difficult, but I’ve been talking to Tom and we’ve come up with a plan.’
Their flight to Reykjavik the next morning was delayed. They had begun to taxi towards the runway in Lucien’s private jet when they’d slowed and stopped, turning back to their starting point. The pilot had come back into the cabin and explained that there had been an STCA in the skies overhead. ‘It stands for short-term conflict alert,’ he said. ‘Basically it means that two planes up there were too close to each other and they’ve had to take remedial action. It shouldn’t delay us too long. As soon as we get up I’ll do my best to make up any lost time, Tom.’
‘Thank you, Nigel,’ Tom said, glancing down at his watch and frowning.
Eventually they were airborne, the pilot apologizing for the delay despite there being nothing that he could have done about it.
Trey sat in a comfortable brown leather chair opposite Tom. He looked over at his friend and an uneasy feeling of déjà vu flickered through him. The last time he had been in this plane he had been hurtling towards Amsterdam to rescue Alexa from Caliban, and he briefly considered whether he would ever get the chance to take a normal flight, perhaps on a holiday somewhere where there wasn’t anybody waiting to kill him at the end of the journey.
Tom looked unusually nervous, his eyes fluttering around the cabin, scanning for dangers that weren’t there. He had fished his mobile out of his pocket on at least four occasions, looking down at the screen before returning it with a frown. The full magnitude of what they were attempting to do had only really dawned on Trey as he lay on his bed the night before, staring up at the ceiling and replaying the conversation that he had had with Charles over and over again. He looked over at Alexa and smiled when he saw that she was also looking in his direction. He nodded his head at her before reaching for the newspaper on the table in front of him. None of the four of them seemed capable of speech, so wrapped up were they in their own thoughts and planning. Instead they relied on furtive glances and nods of encouragement like paratroopers moments before their maiden jump into a warzone.
Trey was about to put the paper down again and go to get a drink from the galley when a voice sounded inside his head.
‘Are you OK, Trey?’Alexa asked.
He concentrated on the words of the spell that he and Charles had been over countless times on that afternoon in the meeting room, forming them in his mind and going through the mental steps that his tutor had walked him through so carefully. A gentle nudge inside his mind told him that the spell had worked and he opened his eyes again.