Chapter 23

 

After she left the lab, Jael glanced to her left and saw Dan whispering with Verum in hushed tones. She ran towards the stairwell to help Sully, and nearly collided into him between the first and second floors.

“It was a seraph,” Sully blurted before she could say anything. “Seven feet tall at least. He knew about the camera too – looked right at it. Seemed to find it amusing.”

Jael stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded. “He was visible on camera?”

Sully nodded grimly. “The penumbra crossed over to our world on the night of the accident too, according to Kane,” he pointed out. “If Kane hadn’t been armed and the nimbi hadn’t crossed over too and shown up to help, all four of the kids would have been killed.”

Jael shook her head slowly. “The penumbra want Peter that badly? Enough to risk their immortality?”

“Kane and the nimbi that came to their rescue killed a load of them that night, and even that apparently hasn’t deterred the others. They’re still coming,” Sully confirmed. “This is big, Jael.”

Just then, Dan burst onto the landing with Verum fluttering behind him. “What did you find out?”

Sully repeated the story, and Dan went pale. “You didn’t see Bruce on the security cameras, though?”

“I did,” said Sully. “I saw him leaving the lab and getting into the elevator, but there are no cameras in there. I never saw him get out.”

“Well, at least we know the seraph didn’t kill him,” said Dan.

“How do we know that?” said Verum.

“Because there would be a body, wouldn’t there?”

“Of course he didn’t kill him yet,” snapped Jael. “Bruce isn’t the point. The Shadow Lord wants to use him to lure Peter.”

They all stood motionless for a moment. Nobody was sure what to say to that very obvious truth.

“What did you come for?” said Jael to Verum, still a bit resentful that he had made her jump in front of Ralph.

A shadow crossed Verum’s luminous brow, and he said very reluctantly, “Turns out Bruce isn’t the only one missing.”

“What?” cried Jael and Sully together.

“Brock is missing now too,” said Dan. “Probably since last night, but Isdemus only found out this morning. His mother had sense enough to call Fides Dignus instead of the police, and he took her back to Carlion.”

“So now the question is, where are they being held captive?” said Jael.

“Where else?” said Sully quietly. “There is only one place the penumbra would have taken them.”

“Where they’d have the biggest advantage,” Dan said with a growing sense of dread.

Jael regarded them with a mixture of fear and skepticism, hoping the latter predominated on her face. “That place is a myth. You don’t seriously believe –”

“Of course it isn’t a myth!” said Dan. “It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it, that the Philosopher’s Stone could unhinge a real place from the earth and create a sort of bridge between dimensions? If you ask me, that’s where the Gordian Knot used to be tied, too – in Avalon.”

“Actually, no, the Gordian Knot was in –” Verum began, but Jael cut him off.

“There’s never been any proof. Considering the Watchers have been searching for it for millennia, since all the legends suggest that Excalibur was cast into the lake of Avalon, you’d think that if it existed we’d have some evidence by now.”

“Haven’t you read The Life and Times of Morgan le Fay?” said Verum.

“Of course I have, but all it shows is that the castle of Avalon was destroyed!” she snapped. “There’s no reason to suppose that the rest of it became the Fata Morgana.”

“There’s one very good reason,” Dan pointed out, “and you said it already. Obviously, the penumbra didn’t kill Bruce or Brock, because the point is to lure Peter to them. So they’re either being held captive somewhere on earth, which would be far too risky, considering all it would take is one of the nimbi crossing their paths, at which point he’d inform Isdemus, and we’d go and save them and that would be the end of it, or –”

“They’re somewhere the penumbra know we can’t find them,” finished Verum.

“Somewhere nobody can find them unless the place itself desires to be found,” Sully added.

“Oh no,” said Jael suddenly. “You don’t think… Kane…”

All three of them looked at her quizzically.

“What about him?” said Dan.

“Well, you don’t think he already knew this? Or saw it coming somehow?”

Sully nodded gravely. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before. That’s exactly what I think.”

“What?” said Verum, confused.

Jael looked sick. “Okay, go with me for a minute. Let’s just say the Fata Morgana exists, like you say.”

“It does,” Dan interrupted, but Jael silenced him with her hand.

“Let’s say that because it’s unhinged and it’s halfway part of your world,” she nodded to Verum, “humans can’t find it unless they already know where it is, or unless it wants them to find it. Then the penumbra seize Bruce, and Brock, and take them both to the Fata Morgana, knowing that the person who would most want to find it in order to rescue them would be –”

“Peter,” Dan finished, catching her drift.

“Of course, Peter is the whole point. So, the Fata Morgana wants him to find it. Him, and no one else.”

“Not us, you mean,” Sully finished.

“Peter must not find that out!” said Verum, horrified.

“Of course, he won’t find out any of this,” said Jael impatiently. “But… what is the one thing Kane has always been most obsessed with, besides Peter himself?”

“Excalibur,” said Dan immediately. “Oh.”

She turned a hopeless expression in Dan’s direction. “So suddenly Kane became Peter’s best mate as soon as he suspected Bruce had been abducted.”

“He wants Peter to go looking for the Fata Morgana on his own!” exclaimed Verum.

“And he wants Peter to take him along,” Sully finished grimly. “We have to tell Isdemus.”

“I’ll tell him!” said Verum.

Sully said, “We’ll all go. There’s nothing more to be gained from staying here anyway.” He looked at Jael and Dan, who dutifully took hold of his coat, before he said, “Dlúth leis an caisleán!”

All four of them disappeared with a crack.

 

***

 

“We have to find Isdemus!” said Lily. Her eyes were bloodshot and she felt bleary, like she needed to yawn but there was too much adrenaline in her veins to allow it.

“What time do you think it is?” said Cole. There were certainly no windows in the depths of the castle, so it was impossible to tell, and inside the books, time seemed to pass differently. They felt as if they had been there for days rather than hours.

“How can you think of sleep right now?” Lily scolded him.

“I’m not!” said Cole defensively, “I just meant, if it’s morning, Isdemus will probably be in the Great Hall, but if it’s still the middle of the night, he’ll be in his chamber…”

Peter slammed The Life and Times of Morgan le Fay shut and shoved it back on the nearest shelf. He couldn’t remember where Kane had pulled it from and he didn’t particularly care. “One way to find out,” he said. “Let’s go!”

“Do you remember how to get back?” said Lily anxiously as they crept out of the library.

“Not clearly,” Peter admitted, “but I think it was a straight shot. We’ll have to go by feel, anyway, since it’s –” he stopped as the door to the library behind them shut, leaving them in pitch blackness, “– completely dark.”

Peter was in front, so he stretched out both arms, feeling the sides of the narrow hallway to keep from running into the wall. Lily reached out and put a hand on Peter’s back so that she could follow directly behind him, and she groped with her other arm until she found Cole’s hand to pull him along behind.

“Anybody else feel like there’s no air in here?” Cole whispered, trying not to panic.

“We’re fine, Cole,” said Lily, sounding braver than she felt. A few seconds later, she suggested, “We could call one of the nimbi. You know, for a torch. Since they light up and all.”

“No good,” said Peter.

“Why not?”

“I don’t think we’re supposed to be down here,” said Peter. “I’d rather the Watchers not find out we know about this place…”

“Don’t you think Isdemus will figure it out when we tell him we know where your dad is? Where else would we have learned it from?” said Lily.

Peter shrugged. She couldn’t see the gesture, but could feel his shoulder blades rise and fall beneath her fingers. “Maybe. I don’t know why… I just don’t want them knowing just yet.”

The path dipped and curved. On several occasions, Peter could no longer feel the wall on one side or the other and he knew those were the hallways that led to other parts of the castle, but the sharp angles at which they diverged told him that those had not been the paths he had taken with Kane earlier that night.

When they came to the end of the path, fortunately the tip of Peter’s shoe struck the stone wall before his nose did. “This is it,” he said.

“Do you suppose we have to tap it to get out, like Kane did?” Lily whispered fretfully. Since she couldn’t see where he was, she spoke so close to his ear that he felt her breath on his neck.

“He said you didn’t have to from the inside,” Peter muttered, and then added, “which is good since I can’t see anyway…” He groped in front of him for the wall and then, not knowing what else to do, planted one shoulder against it and dug his feet in the ground, leveraging all his weight to no effect.

“What are you doing?” came Cole’s whisper.

“Pushing,” Peter grunted.

Suddenly he felt Lily’s hands assessing his position, and she said, “Put your weight more to the side. You’re dead center. It rotates, doesn’t it?”

“Right,” Peter muttered, slightly embarrassed, “Levers. I knew that.” He scooted over to the right, keeping one arm extended so he didn’t face-plant into the wall, and leaned in.

A second later, they were dazzled by the light streaming in from the east bay window in the kitchen.

“We were up all night!” said Lily.

“Great Hall,” said Peter shortly. “Maybe he’s still eating breakfast –”

Without waiting for a response, Peter tore off in the direction of the Great Hall, with the others right behind him, but as he approached, he was momentarily confused by the sound of a woman’s sobs. The others slowed too, to listen.

Suddenly, Cole exclaimed, “That’s my mum!”

He took the lead and pushed past Peter, bursting into the Great Hall, where Polly Jefferson looked up in surprise at the intrusion. She was still dressed in her bathrobe and slippers.

“Cole!” she cried, and ran to him with open arms and a tear-stained face.

“Mum, what –”

“Your brother!” she cut him off. “He’s gone, he’s missing!”

Cole blinked at her, not comprehending, and he turned around to look at Lily and Peter, who had just come in behind him. “Of course he’s gone, he went back with Dad –”

“No!” she said impatiently, “he’s gone! They took him! That man in the –” she gestured at her own clothes, unable to find the words, “from the castle –” the others understood she was trying to describe the livery, and was referring to one of the servants, “he made me wait here and he went to find Isdemus to tell him what happened, but Isdemus isn’t here, and… and… they took him! They took Brock!” She seemed incapable of explaining herself more clearly, and brushed away the hot tears that gushed from her eyes.

Peter and Lily exchanged a look of dread, while Cole went white.

“You don’t mean… the penumbra?” said Lily, hoping she had misunderstood.

“Yes, the penumbra, who else?” Mrs. Jefferson bordered on hysteria now. “With… your dad…” she gestured at Peter, and then collapsed into a chair, as if her legs would no longer support her. Cole stood rooted to the spot, staring at his mother. Then he turned to Peter, very slowly.

“They have Brock,” he said. “They have your dad and they have Brock too.”

Mrs. Jefferson let out a sob.

Peter felt Lily’s fingernails dig into the flesh of his arm even through his jumper. “Isdemus,” she hissed. “We have to find him.”

Without a word, Peter turned on his heel to follow her out. Cole was behind him, a new look of determination on his face.

“Stay here with your mum,” said Peter.

Cole’s eyes flashed with an expression Peter had never seen before. “While you two stage a rescue without me? Not likely!”

“Nobody’s staging anything right now,” said Lily bracingly. “We just have to find –”

“I think I know where he might be,” Peter interrupted abruptly, and then clarified, “Isdemus. Come on!”