When the news report finished, we started back to our living room – but we had walked just a few steps when we heard raised voices, Pasqual’s the loudest.
‘What is it with him?’ I asked our escort.
‘He has ideas above his station,’ Peter replied.
‘He wants the Guardian’s position,’ Charles added, ‘and if he gets it, may the spirits help us all.’
‘He’s not very popular, then?’
‘He has his following,’ Peter said.
‘Most of us see the link between James, the Deathbringer and the Soulseer as a good thing; a positive force for the future. Some don’t.’
‘Oh,’ I said, still none the wiser.
Peter fell in step beside me and moved closer. ‘It is rumoured that some of the Veteribus see the Trinity as a threat.’
‘That’s only speculation,’ Charles added.
‘Who exactly are the Veteribus?’ I asked.
‘It is they whom we serve,’ he said, leaning forward to open the door for me. ‘It is they who protect the three realms.’
‘Thanks,’ I said – and stopped dead. ‘Three realms?’
‘The Underlands, the Overlands, and the Hereafter.’
He gestured for me to enter, and I went to stand by the fire while the rest of my guards trooped in. Once the door closed behind them, they clustered around me.
‘Peter just told me the Veteribus govern the three realms,’ I started. ‘Does anyone know who or what they actually are?’
‘They are—’ Kerfuffle began, but Shenanigans shushed him again.
‘For goodness’ sake,’ Vaybian sneered, ‘they can’t hear you.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure,’ Shenanigans said, ‘not when the Guardians are just next door.’
‘They are all-seeing and all-knowing,’ Kubeck said.
Vaybian rolled his eyes. ‘If that truly were the case, they would have seen the Deathbringer abducted and would have known who had done it, and we’d all be sitting safely sipping ale in the Drakon’s Rest.’
‘He has a point,’ Kubeck said after a pause.
‘But who are they?’ I asked. ‘And where do they live?’
Kerfuffle tried to explain. ‘They don’t exactly live anywhere. The Veteribus are ethereal beings. Their voice – the Keeper – resides in the Crystal Mountains—’
‘—where Pyrites comes from?’
‘More or less. Pyrites lives in the Icedfire Mountains, which surround the Crystal Mountains. The High Gardens, or Askala, is high up in the Crystal Mountains – it’s what humans would call a temple.’
‘It’s meant to be the most beautiful place in the whole of the three realms,’ Shenanigans said dreamily.
‘Quite so,’ Kerfuffle said, clearly not as impressed as his huge friend. ‘High Gardens is home to the Keeper and her twelve attendants, and it is she who communicates with the Veteribus.’
‘In other words, she’s the one giving the Guardian and Deathbringer their orders.’ I looked around at my friends. ‘Jamie said they don’t communicate directly – so what was she doing here?’
Kerfuffle shrugged. ‘That’s a question you would have to ask the Guardian.’
‘But the long and the short of it is that the Guardian and Deathbringer answer to the Veteribus, and it is they who keep the order of things,’ Vaybian said. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, ‘Although they might have known the Deathbringer’s real name . . .’
‘He’s right,’ Kubeck said in a low voice, moving in closer, ‘who else but the Veteribus would know the Deathbringer’s daemon name? And yet Amaliel knew it . . .’
Oh God, I thought, do we have another enemy? A traitor in the ranks of the Veteribus?
‘I hope for all our sakes I’m wrong but there is a strong whiff of treachery about this,’ Vaybian said. ‘Whether it’s the Guardians or their masters, I’m not at all sure. For the moment I suggest we trust no one but each other.’
None of them looked happy about it, but all my guards nodded in agreement.
‘For all of that, we have more immediate things to worry about,’ Kerfuffle said, ‘like getting out of here and finding the Deathbringer.’
‘And we have to act now,’ Shenanigans said. ‘The river is just the start; things will probably escalate from here on in.’
‘What do you think will be next?’ I asked.
‘Let’s hope it’s something else that isn’t life-threatening.’
‘If it truly is blood flowing through the city it will become so within days,’ Kubeck said. ‘It will putrefy . . .’
‘So it will be a plague next, caused by the blood, rather than Jinx?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Kubeck said, his brow creased in concentration, ‘the people of your world would expect disease from a river full of rotting blood. Amaliel wants humanity crawling at his feet. He wants to be seen as all-powerful, so he will do something more creative: something unnatural, apocalyptic.’
It was fast becoming apparent that Kubeck really wasn’t a lowly serf: he had an education way over and above how to make trinkets for the nobility.
‘I flew into this place, so I guess I can fly right out,’ I told them, and Pyrites paddled his front claws against my thigh like a cat, making a purring sound from deep inside his chest.
‘You can’t do this on your own, Mistress,’ Shenanigans said.
‘I won’t be on my own: I’ll have Pyrites.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ Vaybian said, and it didn’t sound like a suggestion.
Kerfuffle put his hands on his hips and glared up at the green daemon. ‘Why you? Mr Shenanigans and I have been Mistress Lucky’s guards right from the start – and she knows exactly where our loyalties lie. With you, I’m not so sure.’
‘Amaliel has my lady trapped inside some crystal bauble hanging about his neck. I will slice his head from his shoulders and set her free.’
‘He has a point,’ Shenanigans told his friend.
Kerfuffle’s scowl softened a tad. ‘’tis true, but the Lady Kayla is dead and my mistress is not. If you go with her, you make sure it stays that way.’
‘I will guard my lady’s sister with my life: I swear it.’
‘After today’s events, I suspect the Guardians will be leaving for the capital before long,’ Kubeck interrupted.
‘Then I’ll just hope that while they’re squabbling I get a bit of a head-start.’
‘You’ll have to get past those two first,’ Kerfuffle said, looking at the door, behind which Charlie-boy and Pretty Peter waited.
‘Maybe,’ I said. I strode across to the window and pulled the curtain to one side to get a better look. No double-glazing here, just old-fashioned wooden sash windows – and most importantly, they’d been renovated, not painted shut.
I reached up and twisted the catch. ‘Here, let me help,’ Kubeck said, twisting the stiff catch until it opened, then sliding up the bottom window as quietly as he could. He stuck his head outside and peered all around before announcing, ‘The way is clear.’
‘Some guards they are,’ Kerfuffle grumbled.
‘Well, let’s be thankful for it.’ Shenanigans helped Vaybian climb outside.
‘The Guardian might have had us put in a room from which we could escape unseen by unfriendly eyes.’ Kubeck suggested.
‘True,’ Kerfuffle conceded, and I really hoped this wouldn’t occur to the other Guardians.
Shenanigans took my hand and helped me climb out onto the ledge. As Vaybian lifted me down, Kerfuffle looked worried. ‘You should take another of us with you.’
‘No, I want you all here to keep an eye on Jamie and make sure he doesn’t get himself into any kind of trouble.’
‘Do you still have your communication device?’
I shook my head. ‘Jinx decided we’d be better off without it.’
Kerfuffle rummaged in his pocket, pulled out his mobile and reached through the window. ‘Here, take this – then you can at least keep in touch and tell us where you are.’
I gave him a smile as I pocketed the phone. ‘Take care, all of you.’
‘You too, Mistress,’ they chorused as Pyrites flew up onto the window frame, hopped to the ground and began to grow. When he was big enough for the two of us, he sank to his stomach so we could climb up onto his back.
‘Try not to be seen,’ Kerfuffle said. ‘The river turning to blood is one thing, but seeing two daemons flying over the countryside on a drakon will definitely cause a hullaballoo.’
‘Or maybe even a kerfuffle,’ I said.
My little daemon friend’s cheeks flushed red. ‘And possibly that,’ he admitted.
*
Pyrites was up in the air almost as soon as we’d clambered aboard, and he appeared to know exactly where he was going.
‘He can smell the blood,’ Vaybian shouted in my ear, as if reading my mind.
It was all very well us setting off for London, but I had no idea where to begin searching for Jinx. From what I’d been told about him, I supposed he would actually be walking the streets with death and destruction following behind him – if we had watched the news for long enough, would we would have seen him perched on a rooftop somewhere, looking down upon his work? He might even have been standing on one of the bridges as he had conjured up Amaliel’s first ‘Devastation’.
Pyrites was a nippy little bugger, Jinx always says, so it wasn’t long before we caught sight of the city skyline. I resisted the urge to keep looking back over my shoulder; Vaybian would quickly let me know if any Guardians were in hot pursuit. As we got closer, Pyrites took us up higher; it was an overcast day, so he tried to keep us within the low cloud, though it was pretty damp and uncomfortable.
The Thames, when we reached it, was worse than I could ever have imagined. The river was flowing still, but large numbers of dead fish were floating on the crimson surface, and it stank – not rotten, not yet, but the metallic, coppery smell of fresh blood.
Vaybian leaned close into me so I could hear and asked, ‘What now?’
‘I think we’ll have to risk being seen. From up here we can at least spot Jinx.’
‘They might have gone into hiding pending his next performance.’
‘Do you think Amaliel will leave it that long?’
‘I don’t— What in the name of—?’ He pointed, and I didn’t need to squint into the distance to see a tide of black hurtling through the sky towards us.
‘What the f—?’
Amaliel knew I’d be coming. He’d got Jinx to send the second ‘Devastation’ to meet me.
Within moments we were in the midst of a sky full of chattering black locusts, and it was terrifying. I flattened myself on Pyrites’ back and Vaybian covered me with his body as the creatures swarmed about us, the whirring sound of their beating wings building into a crescendo. We were colliding at speed, but it wouldn’t have mattered, if only there hadn’t been so damn many of them; it was beginning to hurt – but Pyrites didn’t mind one bit. He was snapping at the creatures, having a fine old feast, and using the cover of the insects to fly lower – no one was going to see us through the black cloud, even if there’d been anyone left on the streets – I suspected most people would have run for cover the moment the locusts came into sight.
It was impossible to see in front of us – but as I pulled my head back down after trying, I caught a glitter of light: my ring was glowing again – and this time I knew it wasn’t my imagination, or just a reflection of candle or firelight, for the stone was glowing a bright emerald with a spark of burning red deep in its centre.
The beast inside my head who had been quiet for a long time now gave a little twitch, as if still half asleep and batting away an annoying bug. Then it gave a wriggle; if she was waking, trouble was coming, and I doubted it was of the flying kind. This made me much more vigilant and I tried to sit up a bit. The sky was still full of the creatures, but they were no longer a dense black mass; they were gradually thinning out. And then ahead of me I saw him. Straight ahead of us striding across London Bridge was the Deathbringer.
Of course I would find him here, heading for a place he knew well. Just across the river was the Monument, commemorating the Great Fire of London, which had started only yards away – ignited by Jinx’s passing, or so I’d been told.
I patted Pyrites on the neck. ‘Take us down.’
Pyrites swooped and came around so he’d land halfway across the bridge and facing Jinx. The creature inside my head flexed her muscles – I was glad she was confident, as I was more than a little afraid. The road was littered with dead bugs and cars, their windscreens smeared with insect blood: there’d been a pile-up on the northbound carriageway. This was where things might get tricky: the cars were still occupied and as the swarm of locusts began to dissipate, drivers and passengers who had been huddled down in their seats were starting to sit up. What they would see now was a dragon and two very strange-looking people coming at them from one direction, and a tall, maroon, horned man with long, flowing, almost-black hair, looking every inch like the devil or one of his minions, coming from the other.
White faces pressed against the windows, eyes and mouths opened wide. It would be only a few moments before shock was overcome by curiosity and mobile phones and cameras would appear. Vaybian changed instantly, and I followed suit. I didn’t need to say anything to Pyrites; a Jack Russell was already trotting along beside me, snapping at the occasional low-flying locust. That left just one more problem . . .
Jinx was stalking towards us, his coat flapping out behind him, making him look like one of his ravens. I heard a caw from above us, then another from behind, and when Jinx held out a hand, one glossy black bird alighted on his fingers and others swooped from the sky; some hopped along on the pavement behind him; others landed on the railings beside us. Within moments he was being followed by a sea of black, his coat flowing out behind him like a Goth’s living bridal train.
‘I’m beginning to think that what we look like isn’t going to make a lot of difference.’
Vaybian sucked in breath through his teeth. ‘Nor I.’
I remembered what it had felt like when the crows had attacked Jinx and me; his coat had offered us some protection, but it hadn’t taken them long to peck through. If these birds attacked, Vaybian and I would very quickly be pecked to bits.
Pyrites gave a growl, and a head pushed up beneath my hand. He had transformed himself into a mastiff. ‘Good boy,’ I whispered, caressing his ears.
When Jinx was four or five yards away, he stopped and we did too. His forehead creased into a frown as he looked at me. Was there any recognition? I wasn’t sure. He did look a little puzzled. Then his lips twisted into a snarl. ‘Out of my way, woman.’
What was it with everyone calling me ‘woman’?
I crossed my arms. ‘I can’t do that.’
He lifted his right hand to stroke the feathers of the bird perched on his left. ‘I have an army of followers. You have but one daemon – and not a very prepossessing one at that.’
‘If you want to see your little friends vaporised by a sheet of flame, bring it on,’ I said, caressing Pyrites’ head.
Jinx’s eyes narrowed. ‘Get out of my way.’
‘No.’
He scowled at me.
‘Haven’t you done enough?’
‘To achieve what?’
Confusion passed across his face. ‘I . . .’ Then it was gone and the snarly expression returned.
I knew Jinx was just a tool – Amaliel and Persephone didn’t control death; that was the prerogative of the Deathbringer . . . could there possibly be enough of my Jinx left to keep fighting them?
I told Vaybian to stay where he was, held out my hand and started to walk towards Jinx – and he began to stride towards me, until we were close enough to touch. I stopped; he took that one step more and a memory skittered through my head of an attic room full of autumn gloom; of another dangerous daemon moving closer and closer to me . . . I could almost smell the scent of lavender.
I shook the thought away, it wasn’t helpful.
The puzzled expression had returned to Jinx’s face. The raven perched on his wrist gave a squawk and fluttered away as Jinx grimaced and pressed his hand against his temple.
I took a step closer and as I reached out to him – he was in pain and I wanted to stop it – the stone in the ring on my finger flared and the creature inside my head snarled. I wished I knew what it meant.
‘Jinx,’ I said, ‘fight her.’
He groaned again, and staggered slightly. I went to steady him and then his arms were wrapped around me tight and he hissed against my ear, ‘Gotcha.’
I began to struggle, but he was too strong for me. I heard Vaybian cry out, and the birds surrounding Jinx erupted into the air in a raucous cloud of black flapping wings.
‘Jinx!’ I screamed at him. ‘Fight her, fight her—’
He began to laugh, but it wasn’t him, not really.