“Take us or don’t,” Corbbmacc said. “But don’t play with us.”
“Such spirit, Master Corbbmacc. It will get you into trouble one of these days.” The wraith seemed to straighten its non-existent shoulders in the moonlight. “Paige and the others have had to move to the old library at the northeast edge of town. Marianne’s got members of the guard from here to hell itself looking for ‘the girl and her companions’. If you can get to them by morning, you can leave the city with them.”
Emily felt Corbbmacc relax beside her. This was the Wraith, the one working with Paige and the Dragon’s Brood.
“What about Celine?” she demanded, stepping toward the Wraith.
“They’ve taken her and the idiot boy with them.”
“But how is she?”
“Such an inquisition from the girl with so many secrets. Didn’t I warn you about keeping secrets?” It laughed, that brittle crunching sound that sounded more like footsteps on gravel than mirth.
Emily said nothing. She only stared into the depths of the black hood and willed her face not to show just how unnerved she was.
The laughter stopped abruptly.
“What is that you have in your pocket, girl?”
Emily’s hand went instinctively to the lump of crystal beside her breast. She could feel its cool, rough edges through the soft leather.
“A crystal from the mine. What do you care? A friend gave it to me.”
“That’s very…interesting. Crystal amplifies magic, you know…at least, magics of a certain kind.”
“I’m not giving it to you,” she said, stepping back and crossing her arms protectively over her chest. Daniel had wanted her to have it, and she would not hand it over to this…thing.
The Wraith laughed again.
“I have no interest in your pretty little trinket, girl. My brand of magic is not the right sort to make use of it.”
The Wraith turned to Corbbmacc.
“Take the trail down as far as the white boulder. Behind it, you will find a hidden path that will get you to the bottom of the mountain without being seen. I will delay the guards when they arrive and send them in the wrong direction.”
Corbbmacc nodded, then looked at Emily.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she told him, and it was true. She was exhausted, and the adrenaline high she’d been riding was on a definite trajectory for a serious crash, but she no longer felt ill.
The Wraith turned away, melting back into the shadows.
She took one last look at the gaping maw of the mine shaft behind them. They’d nearly lost their lives in there, she thought distractedly. And yet, had she ever felt as alive as she did now, despite the exhaustion and the lingering effects of her illness?
Yes, of course she had—on the ice. Only on the ice. Those precious sixty minutes when she could escape the hell that was the rest of her life.
She turned away and, with a soft sigh, followed Corbbmacc down the mountain.
Part Eight: Power Play
“‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don't much care where—’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn't matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘—so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you're sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’”
—Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
—William Shakespeare, Othello
Chapter Thirty-Three
The sound of dripping water infiltrated Emily’s thoughts with its steady tick…tock…tick…tock… It reverberated through the tunnels around them, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Her footsteps, her heartbeat, and even her thoughts seemed to unconsciously fall into time with the ghostly metronome. She thought it was going to drive her crazy.
She was exhausted. It was impossible to tell how long they’d been down here in the sewers beneath Hellsgate since coming down off the mountain, but it felt like hours. A little of the illness she’d been fighting for days had crept back, encroaching on the edges of her consciousness like a wolf tracking its prey.
Snatches of nonsense rhymes kept stealing their way into her tired brain. They rattled on like everything else, in sync with the relentlessly dripping water.
Hickory, dickory, dock…the mouse ran up the clock…
They were like mice—rats scuttling away from light and loud noises and starting at the sight of their own shadows. Twice, the sound of men searching for them, echoing through the tunnels, had forced them to change course and take a less direct route toward the northeast edge of Hellsgate. She’d spent too much time running. In a way, it was as though she’d been running ever since fleeing the house on Danvers Avenue, her stepfather chasing after her with a shotgun. Had that only been a few weeks ago? It felt like years. It felt like part of another lifetime.
She was beginning to wonder if she would have the stamina to reach the library, when Corbbmacc halted at another one of those rusty chain ladders that led up to the surface. He looked upward, peering through the greenish light of the phosphorescent moss. From farther down the tunnel, she heard the patter of tiny paws scurrying away into the darkness.
“Are we here?” she asked, unable to keep the desperation out of her voice.
“I think so.”
“What do you mean, you think so?”
“I haven’t been to this part of the city in a long time, but I’m pretty sure this comes up right by the library.”
“And if you’re wrong and there are more of those zombie things out there waiting to grab you when you stick your head up out of that hole?” She rubbed her face and tried to wish some of the exhaustion away.
“Zombies? You mean the deaders?”
“Christ, Corbbmacc, I don’t care what you call them. The question is, what if this is the wrong place?”
“It isn’t.”
“You just said…”
She broke off as he started to climb the ladder.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Emily,” he told her without looking down, but there was no real rancor in his tone.
She let him climb up a few more rungs, then followed.
He reached the top and carefully lifted the grate. Bright moonlight washed over them like molten silver.
He waited for a moment longer, listening, then hauled himself up and out of the tunnel. She could see him taking in his surroundings, then he nodded to himself and motioned for her to come on up.
She climbed the last few rungs, relishing the coolness of the night breeze as it washed over her face. Corbbmacc helped her onto her feet, and she looked around as he slid the grate back into place as quietly as he could.
The broad avenue stretched for as far as she could see in the moonlight. Dark shapes, the corpses of wagons, cars, and other abandoned vehicles, were scattered haphazardly in every direction—the forgotten toys of a negligent child. Large buildings crouched on either side, looking like monstrous tigers waiting to pounce.
“Which one is the library?” she whispered as Corbbmacc straightened, rubbing his face with the palms of his hands. The question sounded as loud as if she’d shouted in the deathly stillness of the ruins around them.
He pointed at an octagonal building fifty yards or so down the street. Its shape and the way the moonlight glinted off its roof made it stand out as unique amidst the more conventional structures beside it.
As they approached, the crunch of their boots in the ash was the only sound to disturb the silence. They weaved their way between the strange mix of abandoned vehicles, saying nothing to one another. Broken glass littered the cracked and buckled pavement. Moonlight winked at them from patches of chrome that shone through the rust and laye
rs of grime. The shrill squeal of some unseen creature broke the stillness, causing Emily’s heart to leap into her throat. She heard the faint patter of scurrying paws as the thing sought new and quieter quarters.
As her heartbeat slowed, some distant part of Emily’s mind wondered again what had happened to make the world this way, but exhaustion and anxiety for Celine drowned the thought before it could really take hold. Perhaps she could ask Paige for an explanation later. Surely these people must know their own history.
The entrance to the library was flanked by two intricately realized statues of enormous dragons. In the moonlight, they were little more than silhouettes against the facade of the building, but even so, she could tell they had been badly damaged. The head of one lay between its taloned feet, leaving only shards of jagged stone jutting from its neck like fragments of petrified bone. Their wings had been mostly broken away, and the pieces lay scattered around both sad creatures.
A large shadow detached itself from behind the dragon on the left, and she saw the dim outline of a crossbow in its arms.
“Corbbmacc?” Garrett’s voice was little more than a whisper but entirely recognizable. She felt herself relax for the first time since leaving the mineshaft behind them.
“Yeah.” Corbbmacc was unable to keep the weariness from his voice. “It’s us.”
“And I’m assuming that it’s Emily you’re including in ‘us’?”
“It’s me,” she said.
Garrett slung his crossbow over his shoulder and motioned to them. “Come on. The Wraith said you’d be here soon. I’m supposed to take you straight to Paige.”
As they climbed the stairs between the dragons, Emily caught a glimpse of starlight reflected in the faceted eyes of the statue’s severed head. The effect created the distinct illusion that the creature was watching them as they passed, and with a shudder, she looked away.
Garret pulled open one of the heavy double doors and went inside. Corbbmacc followed after him, then paused and turned back, holding the door open for her. The gesture touched her in a way that surprised a small smile out of her as she moved past. He let the door close behind them with a hollow boom.
The library was huge, but Emily doubted it had served its original purpose in decades—perhaps much longer. Crumbling and overturned furniture was piled everywhere, much of it reduced to broken and rotting boards. The remains of makeshift campfires, apparently fueled by books and the shelves on which they’d once been kept, blackened the floor here and there. They looked old, like relics of a prehistoric community preserved for countless ages beneath the surface of the earth. Moonlight filled the space through tall broken windows set high up on the walls, unhampered by glass.
“How’s Celine,” she asked Garett as they picked their way through the debris.
“Better,” he said shortly. “Not well…but better than she was. She’s sleeping. You should get some rest after you see Paige. You can see Celine then.”
He turned sideways, squeezing through a gap between two decaying bookcases.
“And Mona?” Corbbmacc asked, following his brother-in-law.
“She’s fine,” Garett said, his tone softening. He looked over Corbbmacc’s shoulder at Emily. “Your friend saved her life. I owe you a greater debt than I’ll be able to pay.”
“And…and…Miraculum?” Corbbmacc asked, his voice cracking as he spoke the name.
Garrett stopped and turned to examine Corbbmacc, searching his face.
“He’s fine. Great, in fact.”
“Good.”
They stared at one another for a second longer, then Garrett turned and led them deeper into the library.
“We had a hell of a time getting everyone moved here, but…well, I’ll let Paige…”
He broke off, stopping in front of a door set into the back wall. He knocked softly, and they heard Paige’s voice come to them from inside.
“That you, Garrett? Are they here? Come on in.”
Garrett opened the door and stepped aside, letting them file past him.
“I’ll just wait out here,” he muttered, and closed the door behind them.
The room had once been an office. A desk with a worn and pitted surface dominated its center, and a makeshift cot, comprised of old shelving laid out between two battered chairs, was pushed against the far wall.
Paige sat behind the desk, her fedora pushed back on her head. A candle burned beside her, casting a soft yellow light on her wan and tired face.
“Dammit, Garrett,” she called past them, “get in here.”
The door swung open again, and Garrett shuffled reluctantly inside, staring at his feet. He closed the door behind himself and leaned against the wall, looking at no one.
Paige’s gaze fell on Emily.
“I don’t really blame you,” she said without emotion. Her eyes flicked to Corbbmacc.
“You, on the other hand, should have known better. What the hell did you think you were doing, Corbbmacc?”
Corbbmacc stared back, a touch of defiance in his face, despite the color rising to his cheeks.
“I wanted to get some medical supplies to help Celine.”
Paige stared at him without speaking for a long moment.
“And,” she said, her drawl seeming to thicken as her temper rose, “you didn’t get permission to do this…why, exactly?”
This time, Corbbmacc did look away. His gaze fixed on a point above Paige’s left shoulder.
“Because I knew you’d say no.”
Paige leaned back in her chair. She reached up and massaged her temples and closed her eyes.
“You knew I’d say no. And I would have been right to, wouldn’t I? Jesus, Corbb, do you have any idea the mess you’ve made?”
“Evidently not.”
Paige opened her eyes again and looked at him. “When news of your capture reached Seven Skies, Marianne thought that the trespassers caught amidst the supplies in Hellsgate might be her runaway guard girl, her apprentice, and the prisoner she liberated. She sent a sizable force here to supplement the men already assigned to Hellsgate.”
She paused, seeming to watch Corbbmacc closely before going on.
“From what we’ve been able to deduce, thanks to the Wraith’s efforts to gather intelligence, a contingent of guards who would be able to recognize you were sent to the mines to find out if you were the traitors Marianne is looking for. The rest were instructed to tear the city apart to find any others who may have been helping you.”
Emily’s heart sank.
“All of this,” Paige said softly, “because you wanted to play the hero…again.”
Corbbmacc stiffened.
“You have got to stop this, Corbb. You’ve got to learn to respect authority. You need to learn to be a cog in the machine rather than a liability. I’d thought, after you’d managed to keep your head down at Seven Skies for so long, you were starting to understand this.”
“I do understand it, Paige,” Corbbmacc said, his voice sounding carefully controlled.
“Then I ask you again: what the hell did you think you were doing?”
Corbbmacc did not respond. The seconds stretched out.
“I see,” Paige said. “We’re heading back to Coalhaven at dawn. I have neither the time nor the energy to figure out what the devil I’m going to do with you. We’ll have to settle that when we get there. Until we do, you are to do as you’re told, and not endanger the lives of your comrades, or the Brood itself, with your ill-advised exploits. Have I made myself clear?”
Corbbmacc stood silent, staring down at the floor now. His fists hung clenched at his sides, and his face was bright with color.
“Have I made myself clear?” Impatience gave the question a rough edge that was incongruous with the soft twang of her accent.
“You have,” Corbbmacc said, hardly loud enough to be heard.
This seemed to satisfy Paige, and she turned her gaze on Emily.
“The boy and your friend Celine are here and safe.
You will be coming with us to Coalhaven.”
Corbbmacc may have been a member of the Brood, but Emily was not, and she felt a sharp surge of resentment at being told what to do. If she wasn’t part of the team, then she didn’t think she should be made to play by their rules. She’d had enough of being told which way to go, what to eat, and what to do.
“Which direction is Coalhaven from here?” she asked Paige. The woman blinked, surprised by the question.
“Coalhaven is about twenty miles south of here.”
“Then, I’m sorry, but Celine, Michael, and I will not be going with you.”
For the space of a heartbeat, Paige only stared at her, apparently dumbfounded.
“Of course you’re coming with us. Where else would you go?”
“East,” she said, hearing Derek’s words again from the vision as they echoed inside her head. “Into the mountains.”
“There’s nothing east of here but wilderness full of dangerous creatures. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“We’re going east,” Emily repeated.
“On whose authority?”
“Mine.”
They stared at one another for another moment.
“Haven’t you wondered,” Emily asked, “how we got out of those mines?”
“You got lucky,” Paige said, waving her hand dismissively.
“No. I knew where to go. I knew which way to go to get out.”
This wasn’t strictly true, but she didn’t want Paige to know about the visions—not yet, anyway.
“You said the wizard told you I’d know what to do with Michael. Now I do. I’m going east.”
Paige studied her, frowning thoughtfully.
“Going east to where? What will you do with Michael?”
Emily bit her lip. Derek hadn’t given her any details, and she didn’t want to admit that she had no idea what she was supposed to do, beyond finding a big lake. It sounded crazy. It probably was crazy.
“You’re not a member of the Dragon’s Brood,” Paige said at last, as if this thought was new to her, and she was just realizing its implications.
“No, I’m not.”
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