“Demons are real,” Allegra whispered. “Walter…”
“I told you years ago that they were real. You elected not to believe me.”
“I thought you were talking belief and faith, not actual bat creatures with creepy feet who fly at you in dark corridors shrieking! You’re saying demons are real, and I was attacked by one? Is that really what you are saying? You’re lying. You know I hit my head and you’re lying to be cruel. You’re doing this on purpose. This is some kind of game to you, isn’t it?”
“Then how do I know you came across symbols on the wall? When you brushed your hand along them or got too near, they would have ignited your innate abilities; in your case, fire. That’s how your dress was burnt. By exposing the symbols to your elemental power, you triggered the spell to complete, and the portal was ripped open. The symbols called a specific type of demon, in this case, a bat-type thing, and it attacked you. And you blasted it with fire, which slowed it down. Then I came along, and I got it out of our realm. And then you fainted because you don’t know how to handle your magic still. Almighty be damned, Ally, how many times have I told you to go find yourself a cave and learn some fine control?”
“You don’t get to call me Ally,” Allegra snapped. She took a deep breath and tried to sort through her thoughts. Everything he said was exactly how she remembered it. “Demons are…real?”
“Yes, Allegra. They are real. That’s really not the point I was trying to make right now.”
“I’m sorry, but…they’re real? Like, everything the Cathedral has said is true?”
“Lord Almighty, no. But, yes, they are real. And, yes, elementals are the only ones who can call them through to our world.”
Allegra swallowed hard. “Did I summon a demon?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t your fault.”
“But I summoned one…”
Allegra’s heart sank. She had never even believed the monsters in the abyss existed, let alone that she would summon one. “So…demons really are the manifestation of our sins?”
Walter made a dismissive hand. “I don’t know. I think it’s mostly superstitious rot, but I’m no expert on demons. As far as I can tell, demons are just…they just are. The same way we just are. They exist elsewhere, but they can invade this world if we aren’t careful.”
“And I wasn’t careful?” Allegra asked. “I would never summon a demon. Until today, I didn’t even believe they existed.”
“I think it’s a trap,” Walter said. “I’ve been finding more of these markings around the abbey for the past few weeks, but I can’t find who is making them. I’ve sent for a few people I trust, to come help search – quietly, of course. I was already in the basement when I heard you screaming.”
“But why? I don’t understand why anyone would be putting these symbols up. If they know it can summon these horrors, why do that?”
“Maybe to test how many elementals are in the abbey? Maybe to see how powerful we are? For all I know, it’s designed to trap me.” Walter made a bitter sound. “It’s not like I’ve kept my elemental status a secret, though I don’t think anyone knows what I can do. Beyond you.”
“The cave in,” Allegra whispered.
Walter leaned forward. “You have to believe me. It was an accident. There was an entire wall covered with those markings near the portal. In trying to close the one, I triggered them all and accidently caused the cave in.”
“Three children died,” Allegra whispered.
“I know,” Walter said, very gently. “I had to close those forming gates or we would have been overrun with something well beyond my abilities. As far as I know, I am the only other elemental living inside the abbey, beyond you and whoever is making these portals. It’s not as easy to move about the abbey as it used to be.”
Allegra ran a hand through her hair. “It’s real.”
“Yes, Allegra,” Walter said with a harsh edge to his voice. “The demons are real. Can you please focus on the real danger, which is that someone is trying to purposely have demons summoned during your little jamboree you got going on here?”
“I am trying to avert a war, you son of the bitch,” Allegra snarled.
“Someone else is trying to ensure you start one,” Walter snapped.
“Fine. Tell me everything you know.”
“That’s going to take more than one evening.”
“Then take however long it takes.”
Chapter 20
Stanton stood tall and proud against the wall and brooded. He knew he was brooding, and yet he could not turn it off. So he continued to stand there, guarding and brooding.
The long table next to him held all of the usual dinner offerings. Allegra was off to the side, laughing and talking like nothing had happened to her. His feelings were mixed on that score. Part of him understand and celebrated the need to carry on; Almighty knew he’d done that before. Yet, another part of him was raw and sullen that she’d taken to trusting Cram with her secrets and not him.
He watched her with Cram, as she introduced him to this and that visitor who were arriving steadily now that the Abbey’s roads were safe. He wanted to pretend he was jealous, but he watched her. He knew she had no feelings for Cram. She didn’t look at Cram the way she looked at him. Even now, while she was avoiding him, she still looked at him differently.
Stanton shook off his melancholy. Hadn’t Allegra told him repeatedly that she only ever trusted mages? Had she not said that with both her words and her actions? Why couldn’t she trust him? Why did she have to trust that outlaw?
A goblet half-filled with brandy obstructed his view. “Have a drink, sir.”
Stanton accepted the glass from Lex. “Why are you here?”
“The Contessa asked me to keep an eye on our good friend Cram over there, now that we have visitors. There’s something about that asshole that I don’t like.”
“Him being an asshole is probably the thing you don’t like,” Stanton said. He took a sip of his brandy. It was rich and smooth, and burned pleasantly going down.
Allegra glanced in his direction and she gave him a rictus twitch of her mouth before she turned back to the abolitionists and anti-abolitionists who were gathered around her arguing with Cram.
“It takes a special kind of man to bring both sides of this dispute together in their hatred of him,” Stanton mused.
Lex’s snort was muffled by the large glass he was drinking from. “Exactly how many of these little parties are there going to be?”
“Hundreds,” Stanton said with disgust.
“Save me from the abyss, Lord God Almighty,” Lex mumbled. “I need some food.”
Stanton motioned at the side table spread with assorted meats, cold pies, cakes, preserves, candied fruits, and cheeses. “Help yourself.”
How could she bring an outlaw elementalist here? Cram openly defied the laws of the land and of the Almighty by his public admissions of his supposed powers. No one had ever seen his amazing talent, of course, but everyone had heard the stories. Seeing him now, however, Stanton was a little disappointed. Cram did not measure seven feet tall, nor did he crush his enemies with a mere glare of the eye. He was just a man.
Stanton frowned at that. Was that why he didn’t like Cram? That he was just a man, and not the legend? He didn’t like how that gnawed at the back of his thoughts.
Lex wandered back a bit later with a mountainous plate of food. Stanton stared at the pile before saying, “How can someone so small eat so much?”
“Dodd keeps eating off my plate. So, what’s up with you and the Contessa?”
“Nothing.”
Lex made a hmm sound. “Are you sure? You’ve not been by to see her since the accident.”
“She hasn’t asked to see me,” Stanton said.
Lex gave him a disapproving look. “You’re the captain of her personal guard. I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to visit her whenever you get the urge.”
Un
fortunately, that was when Dodd ambled over and greeted them. “Hey, you two. You’re both looking glum. Oh, nice. Ham.”
As Dodd ate off Lex’s plate, Lex gave Stanton a look that conveyed very clearly, See what I mean.
“The captain here is concerned about our new guest.”
“Our new guest is a raving lunatic,” Dodd said. “But harmless.”
“Harmless?” Stanton said. “He is an elemental.”
“So?” Dodd grabbed the last of Lex’s ham off his plate.
“Hey!”
“What? I’m hungry.”
“Get your own plate.”
“Yours is right here, though. Thing is, sir, I’ve met a few elementals in my life. You don’t give them any trouble, they don’t give you trouble.”
“And if you give them trouble?” Stanton asked bitterly.
Dodd shrugged. “You probably deserved to be turned into the soot stain on the floor.”
“Comforting.” Stanton frowned when a disturbing thought came over him. “Dodd, if you knew someone was an elemental, you’d report it, right?”
Dodd pointed at Cram. “Sir, that man over there is an elemental mage. Told me so himself, he did.”
Stanton sighed. He’d deserved that.
“Sir, listen, we’re going to have a lot more than him by the time this is over.”
“I don’t like it,” Stanton said.
“You don’t have to,” Lex said. “I can’t stand Cram, but we still have to protect him.”
“Heretic!”
Stanton whipped around to see Brother Malcolm, one of the clergymen from Borro Village, take a swing at Cram. The inexperienced gesture gave Father Michael enough time to push the brother out of the way.
Stanton grabbed Malcolm by the waist, but he was a slippery thing. In his thrashing to get free from Stanton’s tight grip, he grabbed a serving knife and amateurishly waved it in the air.
“Heretic! You shall meet the Lord God Almighty’s wrath!”
“Calm down!” Stanton shouted. He didn’t want to hit a man of the faith, but Almighty be with him, he’d have to if he couldn’t get the man settled down.
Lex grabbed a wooden board that was under a hot dish to protect the delicate abbey furniture. He wielded it as a shield against the flailing brother.
“Brother Malcolm, you’re going to hurt someone with that knife,” Lex said in a calm voice you usually use for scared dogs.
“That man is an affront in the eyes of the Almighty!”
Stanton rolled his eyes at Lex and made a do something gesture. Brother Malcolm kicked Stanton in the shin. It hurt. A lot. He shouted in the priest’s ear, “Stop kicking me!”
The shock of Stanton’s voice suddenly in his ear froze Malcolm. Lex seized the opportunity and slapped away the knife with the board.
Dodd and Lex grabbed Malcolm by the arms and hauled him off. Father Michael shook his head and said, “Malcolm’s been into the liquor. Mr. Cram, I apologize for this. I’ll…” Father Michael threw his hands up. “Can I just go one day in this place without something happening?” And then Father Michael stormed out of the room.
“You all right there, Cram?” Stanton asked after a moment, though he was mostly staring at a very silent Allegra.
Cram made a show of patting himself down and said in a jolly voice that somehow felt forced, “I’ve been through worse just getting to the abbey! But thank you, Captain. I am relieved that you and all of the good Consorts are here to protect my demon-loving self.”
Stanton stared at Cram until the air grew uncomfortable. Cram turned away and chatted amiably with one of the anti-abolitionists, as if nothing had just happened and he was chatting with his best friend.
Allegra approached Stanton a few moments later and said, “I’m returning to my room.”
She gave him a weak smile and walked off, Beatrix and Martin hurrying off behind her, both carrying plates of food.
****
Allegra sat at her pianoforte and quietly sang along to the folksong she played. She closed her eyes and focused on the words. Come be with me and be my love. She let her fingers dance across the ivory keys by memory alone, letting her concentration turn to the song. Come marry me and be my love.
As a child, Allegra hated playing. A lady must have many accomplishments to get the best men, her mother would say. She was the eldest of peers. Both of her parents had been titled. She had been educated by the finest tutors. All with the plan that she would unite in marriage the Marsina line with the property and lineage of another great house. Her mother had eyes on the Duke of Larwick from Southumberland. A man forty years Allegra’s senior would mean she’d not have long to put up with the marriage bed and then could enjoy the added elevation in rank. Her mother was nothing if not practical.
A smile tugged across Allegra’s face. Her mother almost got away with her plans, too, but Allegra’s magic had come in. Gone were the language and geography tutors, in favor of magical tutors. That was where Allegra had found true learning, for she’d not simply been taught how to weave a supporting spell of water protection into a pair of socks, but she learned rhetoric, the mathematics of accounts and ledgers, science, the law, medicine, and politics.
The reasoning was two-fold. First, the tutors needed to challenge the mage’s abilities to find where her skills could best be used. Secondly, and more practically, the school’s matron knew all too well that a female mage, no matter how rich, would struggle to find a husband. So, the women were educated on the same level as the men.
Now look at her. Come tell me what you want, my love, my only love. Would her mother have approved of her now? The Arbiter of Justice. One of the richest women in all of Serna. Unmarried with no prospects. Filled with a fear and dread that the world was falling apart all around her. Avoiding her friends for fear that they would know the heavy burden of her secrets.
Come to me and I will give you all you desire, my love, my only love.
Allegra had come to appreciate the music as an adult, freed from the marital expectations of her mother. The music became another way for her to quiet the stirrings within. When she wanted to scream at the world, she could sit down to the instrument and sing along with whatever she wanted to play. No great compositions for her now. Nothing by the masters. Just the quiet folk songs that common women sang in taverns and in the fields.
“I didn’t know you sang.”
Allegra hit the keys hard in surprise. Stanton leaned against the doorframe of her drawing room. He was still in uniform, though was looking more rumpled than when she’d seen him earlier that day. He wasn’t smiling.
They’d not spoken in private since the cave in. She’d spent nearly all of her free time the last few days with Walter, learning everything he knew about the use of elemental magic and demon portals. Actual portals! They were real. This remained an ongoing struggle for her mind to comprehend, and so she’d taken leave of Stanton’s company in the hope that she wouldn’t spill her turmoil to him in a weak moment.
Instead, he’d also become distant. He did his duty, certainly, but there was a confused coldness between them now.
“Did anyone else try to stab Walter?” she asked, forcing a smile upon her face.
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He crossed the floor to join her. He didn’t accept her offer to sit, however. Instead, he stood behind a wooden chair decorated with floral needlework cushions. He gripped the back of the chair as he spoke.
“I considered it.”
This time, her smile was genuine, if tired. “Walter brings that out in most people.”
“Good to know. I was wondering if you would speak to Cram about a certain matter. I would but…he doesn’t seem to like me.”
Allegra stood up from the bench and poured herself a cup of tea from the silver tea service off to one side. She motioned if he wanted a cup, but Stanton shook his head. “Walter is like that with all non-magical people. Don’t take it
personally. What did you need me to say? Did he do something wrong? More than the usual, I mean.”
“Cram has apparently been introducing himself as Walter Cram, outlaw elementalist mage and demon whore.”
Allegra buried her face in one hand and sighed. “I’ll have a word with him. I didn’t have the opportunity to speak with you earlier, but thank you for protecting him.”
“It’s my duty,” Stanton said stiffly.
“I know, but I’ve not made your job easy, and for that I apologize. Things have been very difficult for me the last few weeks and…” Allegra stared down at her mug. She gulped back the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry I’ve been cold to you. I needed some time to lose myself in my work.”
“This is just the beginning.”
Allegra closed her eyes and whispered, “I know.”
“Then why keep him here? Why parade him out whenever important guests arrive? If he wants to help, send him down into the village and have him train the damned elementals you’ve granted amnesty to before they blow us all into specks of dust.”
Allegra slammed her cup and saucer down hard on the end table, porcelain clattering in protest. “Is that what you think? That those people down there who risked their very lives to get here want to hurt us? All they’ve ever wanted was to live their lives the way the rest of us do!”
“You could be next,” Stanton said in a quiet, dangerous voice. “Have you considered your own life might be forfeited in this?”
“Do you think me such a simpleton that I cannot see what might be in front of me? I will not be frightened away from doing what is right. No more, Stanton! This is where I have drawn my line. This is where I take my stand. I will not back down.”
Allegra was overcome with the urge to shake Stanton until he saw reason. She got the impression that he, too, was feeling that same impulse. She was standing there with her dark eyes narrowed and stern, ready to take on the entire world with nothing more than sheer defiance. He was there, dark eyes narrowed, too, ready to stand between her and the world.
The Demons We See Page 24