I headed out of the palace, still gussied up as Apollo, and headed straight for the prison. It battered my brain to think that Davin had somehow managed to pull something of this magnitude over on Erebus. I mean, I’d known he’d double-cross his former master, but this weird seal or dampener or whatever—this was grade-A magic I wanted a slice of. A way to stick a leash on Erebus if things got dire. Particularly if it stopped him from killing me.
“Apollo, what a pleasant surprise!” The prison guard on duty welcomed me with a chirpiness that suggested he was a fan of early mornings.
I put on an exaggerated, nervous smile. “Just so you are aware, I am not here to return to my former lodgings.”
The prison guard laughed. “Of course not. Although, if I may ask, what does bring you back?”
“I am here for an audience with the prisoner, Davin Doncaster, at His Majesty’s request.” If this fed back to Ovid while I was still masquerading as Apollo, I’d be able to BS an excuse. I could say I thought Davin might have some information regarding Erebus’s intentions, or something similarly on-mission. Or I’d be in my own body again, so hopefully no one would be any the wiser about it, and Apollo would be the one left trying to come up with an explanation.
“Certainly, Apollo.”
The prison guard led me through the shadowed halls of the prison foyer and dropped me off at a glass elevator. Very Willy Wonka.
The guard left me, the glass doors whirring shut as the elevator descended to the high-security underbelly of the prison. I had to grip the metal rail inside to shove down the Purgatory flashbacks. With so much glass and metal, it was hard not to make comparisons. I could’ve done without the traumatic memories coming back to bite me in the ass, since I needed to come up with some kind of speech that’d get Davin chattering away like a monkey up a tree. That was the hard part—getting him to squeal.
“Could you direct me toward Davin Doncaster? Crown business.” I stepped out of the elevator, feeling like a run-of-the-mill hobbit trying to get in to see old Bilbo. No admittance, except on crown business. Two heavyweights leered down at me, spears in hand. Getting face-to-face with all these guards wasn’t good for my nerves. Every time I encountered one, there was a split second where I forgot I was Apollo.
“Well, I did not expect to see you here again.” The heavyweight on the right chortled. There was no other word for it.
I smiled politely. “The king requested it.”
“Should we put you in a Cuff, to make you feel more at home?” Number Two chimed in. Seriously, this joke was starting to wear thin.
“I am still trying to ease the chafe from the last time,” I retorted as casually as possible.
Number One patted me on the back. “Very end of this row here, you will find his cell.” He gestured toward a straight, long walkway. “You cannot miss him, though at least he has calmed somewhat. He put on quite the show for us guards.”
“Now, that I might have enjoyed seeing, after all the trouble he caused for me.” Ah, the dramatic irony of that sentence.
Giving the two beefcakes a nod, I set off down the walkway toward Beelzebub himself.
I approached the last cell on the walkway. Nothing but black ocean lay beyond. It boggled the mind how anything could survive outside this interdimensional bubble, but I guessed nature and all that cosmic stuff had gotten creative when they’d made the creatures who swam those waters. I’d have liked to blast Davin out into that unyielding darkness to swim with them.
I banged on the glass, the way parents scolded children about for scaring the fish. Davin was sitting on the ground by the farthest wall. He turned slowly, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion as he saw me—or rather, Apollo—standing there.
“Might I have a word, Mr. Doncaster?” Man, I sounded like an accountant.
“Have you come to gloat?” he replied coolly.
He doesn’t know it’s me! I could’ve cackled at the beauty of it.
I shook my head. “Goodness, no. It is not the Atlantean way.”
“Then why are you here, disturbing what little peace I’ve found?” His lips curled in a sour grimace. “Are you here to give me my trial date? Or am I to skip straight to the execution?”
Oh, boo-friggin’-hoo. He’d earned this jail time, more than any criminal magical I’d ever met. And I’d met a fair few during my own stint in the clink.
“Actually, I have come to offer something of an… exchange. If you cooperate, then I may be able to persuade His Majesty to soften your sentence. At the very least, I can ensure there will be no execution,” I replied. What would be the point of executing Davin, anyway? He’d only spring back again. But Apollo didn’t know how perennial his resurrection trick was, so I couldn’t let on, either.
Davin snorted. “His Majesty must be desperate if he has sent you to talk to me.”
“Not desperate, Mr. Doncaster, merely curious. His Majesty seeks a way to remove the Child of Chaos.” I was improvising here, big-time. “It would appear that he has undergone an alteration in his Chaos signature, which I discovered when I challenged him to a magical duel earlier today, after he made an uncouth comment about the princess and her future husband. I believe the words ‘bloated whale’ were used alongside the phrase, ‘brain capacity of a single-celled organism.’”
“You fought Erebus?” I had Davin’s attention.
I raised a finger. “Ah, you see, that is the troublesome part. He refused to duel me, and His Majesty later informed me that he had felt something amiss with the usual energy signature that pulsates from that wretch’s being.” I paused, letting more improv gather in my skull. “It appears that something is causing a dampening effect upon the Child of Chaos’s powers, limiting them. This is very dangerous, as you may imagine, considering His Majesty’s experimentations are geared toward the original Chaos signature that the Child of Chaos embodied upon his first entry into Atlantis. That signature must be restored in order for our scientists to continue their efforts to expel him from the city.”
Someone better give me an Oscar for this bull-crap… I hated to toot my own horn, but it sounded pretty convincing.
“A dampener, you say? How would I know anything about that?” A hint of a grin lurked on Davin’s lips. That’d always been his downfall—he could never hide his smugness when he thought he knew something someone else didn’t.
I smiled back. “Mr. Merlin suspected you might have attempted to betray your former master once again. He used the phrase ‘colossal backstabber.’ As such, he urged me to speak with you about it, and His Majesty agreed that I could make certain dispensations regarding your future sentencing, if you provided the necessary information.”
Davin stood and dusted off his pant legs. He smiled wider, menace in his eyes. “You almost had me, Finch. But you just couldn’t resist slipping in ‘colossal backstabber,’ could you? If you really were Apollo, you would have softened the insult, even quoting it. That is the Atlantean way.”
“Finch? You mean, Mr. Merlin?” I kept up the ruse. “Why would you think me to be him? I am Apollo, as you see.”
“You might think your Mimicry infallible, but it’s your turn of phrase that needs work. A few hints of your usual low humor here and there, disguised by a finessed voice and a stolen form.” Davin walked to the glass. “I almost caught on when you said ‘bloated whale,’ but I wasn’t sure.”
I couldn’t reveal my true self here, with prison guards standing on every walkway. But there wasn’t much point keeping up the smoke and mirrors, either. Even if I really had been Apollo, he’d convinced himself I wasn’t. And that stubborn mule wouldn’t budge an inch unless I gave him the satisfaction of proving him right.
“Can’t say I didn’t try.” My voice still sounded like Apollo’s, but I was done with the flowery language. “Hey, I’m pretty pleased I almost had you fooled. That doesn’t happen every day, so kudos to me.”
Davin tutted, pressing his palms to the glass. “My, my, what would His Majesty say
if he knew you’d used false promises to trick me? Which begs the question—who really sent you? Kaya? Did Ovid truly send you? Or, and my money is on this one, was it Erebus?”
“Fine, so I can’t do anything about your punishment, but you’ve sided with just about everyone else. Why not me? You tell me what you did to Erebus, then I buy my freedom by passing on the message. Come on, you have to see where I’m coming from, former servant to current servant.”
Davin leaned into the glass. “You are missing one crucial detail—why would I care about your freedom?”
“You’ll need protection from Erebus if he wins Kaya back. You tried to kill her. He’s not going to forgive or forget that. And sure, you might have a no-dying clause in your djinn-made contract, but that doesn’t mean he can’t torture you forever. You’re one of the only people still alive who he can actually hurt.” I was really delving back into my old traits here. “I can offer you protection by speaking to Kaya, but I need you to tell me what you did to Erebus first. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before he comes for you.”
“Again, you seem to be forgetting something. You are engaged to Kaya, not him. He will not be able to reach me without implying he is in league with me. He would not even get past the first guard in his current state. So, sorry, but that just doesn’t tickle my fancy.” He shrugged and checked his nails. No doubt he was long overdue a fancy London manicure.
“Then what do you want? Name it.” This was one of my mother’s old tactics. She’d make that offer, with no intention of making good on it, to get the intel she wanted. All it required was a sincere tone, which I was giving by the bucketload.
Davin grinned from ear to ear like a dime-store Joker. “I am happy to sit here, knowing that Erebus is suffering. That is what I want.” He laughed coldly. “I know I still have Ovid’s esteem. He wants what I can give, even if I did try to kill his daughter. I am a Necromancer, despite my deeds. And that is extremely valuable.”
Dammit! I couldn’t deny it.
“What about your freedom? I could break you out of here if you asked nicely.” I switched it up a bit, though I still had no intention of following through. Maybe he knew that. He’d been around my mother enough to recognize her tactics.
“No, thank you.” He strummed his fingertips against the pane. “I am quite comfortable here. I will live on, surviving all of you—you and your little friends. I will even survive our world, on the surface. I always back a winning horse, Finch. And when it suddenly stumbles, I back another. That is the key to survival.”
My heart lurched. “What are you talking about—‘surviving our world’?”
“You’re so eager to believe in people’s goodness, aren’t you?” Davin hit me with an icy gaze. “So let me give you a word of advice. The good in people doesn’t mean a damned thing when what they love most is in peril. They will do anything and everything to save it, believing in their own nobility all the while.”
“What are you talking about?” Panic shivered through my veins. He had that smug grin on his face that suggested he knew more than he was letting on. Man, I hated that particular grin.
He shrugged. “I know what the Atlanteans are planning. Or, more specifically, what Kaya and Ovid are planning. But I will not tell you. Why break the habit of a lifetime?”
“Davin, if this is bigger than you, and bigger than me, then put your friggin’ selfishness to one side, just once!” I glared at him, struggling to keep up the sheen of Mimicry. “You acted for the benefit of others once before, when you let my sister and the rest of us escape from Katherine. For the love of Chaos, do it again, if something bad is about to happen!”
“One good deed in a lifetime is more than enough for me.” He was enjoying this. “I prefer to see you miserable and confused. Especially knowing that I will survive, and you may not.”
An idea sparked in my head. “Does this have something to do with that luminous legend, or whatever it is?”
“Ah… not so dimwitted, perhaps, though you have the name wrong.” Davin turned his back on me. “Why don’t you figure it out for yourself, if you’re so clever?”
“You don’t always have to be the villain. Do something good. You’ll feel better for it,” I urged. I knew it was a hopeless tactic, but I had to at least try to get through that thick skull of his.
He didn’t turn around. “You were the one who put me in this cell. Had you not, perhaps I might’ve felt more generous.”
Yeah, right! I hope your winning horse breaks a leg. I bit my tongue and whirled around, stalking away from Davin’s cell with the irritating echo of his laughter accompanying me. If he wouldn’t help me, I’d damn well help myself. And once I had, I’d slap a Cuff on his neck, tie weights to his legs, and push the button that would send him whooshing out into that black abyss of an ocean with my own bare hands. It wouldn’t kill him, per se, but being stuck at the bottom of the ocean in a perpetual state of drowning might even be worse.
Twenty-Three
Finch
Not wanting to leave Nash hanging in case Kaya came along and dragged him out on wedding business, I did the rounds of the palace libraries as quickly as possible. I needed to find out what this legend of the Luminary thing entailed, now that Davin had set my nerves on edge. But it looked like someone had beaten me to every conceivable book or scroll that would’ve given me something to go on. Where they should’ve been, were empty spaces. Someone had cleared the place of any mention of this legend. Weirdly, it resembled the state of Melody’s mind palace—when it came to Atlantis, her proverbial shelves were empty, too.
Kaya and Ovid. They want to keep it a secret… Was Davin right? Were they planning something terrible? Kaya had only said that I was important to the future of Atlantis, but she hadn’t given any hints of grand, disruptive plans. But Davin’s words echoed in my head. Kaya loved Atlantis more than anything, and with the Bestiary failing, her city was in danger of drowning. What would she do to save it? Something told me I wouldn’t like the answer.
Maybe the simplest way to get the information I needed was to go to the source. And I wouldn’t be shoved away with vague replies. I was better armed this time. I knew there was a legend, and that it involved me. I’d plant my feet and demand Kaya tell me the details, even if it pissed her off.
But it’ll have to wait… I hated that I couldn’t just walk free in my own body. And Nash could only take my place so many times. Already, Melody, myself, and the plaid wonder had refilled the canisters to give me more time in the outside world, but Melody had warned me they wouldn’t take another refill. The parts were mashed together from palace scraps, and even with Nash’s powerful blood standing in for some of the necessary ingredients, we couldn’t risk them failing at an inopportune moment.
With fire in my belly, I returned to that suffocating bedroom to give Nash his own freedom back. After all, I’d have been a bit of a hypocrite if I’d taken liberties.
* * *
Another foray into the outside world came sooner than I’d expected. I’d waited for Kaya to come and join me for our usual breakfast on the terrace, but she hadn’t shown. So I’d swallowed a spoonful of frustration to go with the breakfast offerings. I’d been so sure that eating alone with her would be my prime opportunity for some question time.
Instead, a servant came in and instructed me to get dressed. I’d obeyed, since it wasn’t too much to ask, and the servant had led me from the bedroom and into the city. There, Kaya met me in one of the gleaming squares, surrounded by her squadron of spear-wielding bodyguards.
“Does this mean I’m not a caged animal anymore?” I asked, greeting her with an Arctic cool. “You know, now that Davin is locked up, this whole protection thing isn’t necessary. I doubt I’m on anyone else’s radar.”
“You will remain in protective custody until the wedding.” Her tone left no wiggle room for negotiations. “There may still be certain individuals who wish to harm you, and I cannot risk your welfare. However, I thought you might
like some fresh air after being cooped up for so long.”
Ha. Little do you know…
“Why weren’t you at breakfast?”
She put her hands into the pockets of her dress. “I had other business to attend to. It is no easy feat to plan a wedding, and time ran away from me. But I did not want to go a day without seeing you, so I thought this might be a refreshing change.”
“What, exactly, might be a refreshing change?”
She smiled shyly. “Allow me to show you.”
Questions danced on the tip of my tongue, but she walked away before I could speak. With the hedgehog of spear-wielders closing ranks behind me, I had no choice but to fall into step with her.
To my surprise, we circled back toward the palace, pausing on the main boulevard that led up to it. The white marble road shone in the Atlantean sunlight, and I gave a slight gasp at the decorations being raised. The servant had sneaked me out the back way, no doubt to keep this whole thing a surprise. Twinkling crystals cascaded from the trees lining the boulevard, each embedded with a glowing light. I could only imagine how it would look at night—like thousands of fireflies flitting along the main road.
Fresh-cut flowers, mostly white with a few pops of bright blue, each taller than me, were being potted in enormous vases that sat along the marble sidewalk. And on those vases… You’ve got to be kidding me. Silhouetted friezes showed a couple standing together, hand in hand. Kaya and me. At least they’d been flattering with the depiction. The images didn’t show any flaws or extra weight from eating so much Atlantean butter.
Servants erected barriers behind the row of vases, and Mrs. Anker had made me watch enough coronations and royal weddings to make their purpose obvious. These would hold back the crowds during my royal wedding. Ugh. Even those railings were being prettied up with crystals and flowers and opalescent shells bigger than my palm.
Harley Merlin 15: Finch Merlin and the Everlasting Vow Page 20