Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (22 page)

He swept away through the archway and Nell was left feeling sorry and miserable and a little afraid. After all, Jalo was all that stood between them and Tariro; it probably wasn’t a good idea to make him angry. She stepped out of the archway but he was already gone. The waiting servant led her back to the ballroom and she slipped into her place next to Charlie.

“Jalo’s going to meet Eliza,” she murmured to him.

“Thank the Ancients,” he said.

“He proposed marriage,” said Nell. It sounded so silly she half wanted to laugh again, though in fact she was feeling rather shaky still.

Charlie glanced at her from the corners of his eyes, his expression unchanging. “And?”

“Lah, obviously I said no. We hardly know each other and I dinnay like it here a bit. I’ve got this exam to take and everything. But he lost his temper, aye. It was a whole other side to Jalo. He couldnay believe I’d turned him down.”

“Do you think we can still count on him?”

“I think so. He wouldnay betray us, let us be killed, would he? Just because of hurt pride?”

“I dinnay know. Faeries are notorious for not particularly valuing the lives of non-Faeries.”

“We’re really nay safe here, are we? But if he’s meeting with Eliza, praps it will be all right.”

“Praps she’s gotten rid of the Thanatosi and we’ll be able to go home.”

“I hope so. I cannay wait to get out of here!”

His smile, though not his usual smile, was a hint of the real Charlie under the Faery mask. “Still, I’m a little surprised you turned down immortality.”

Nell pondered this. The very idea of immortality was so abstract and unimaginable, as was death. She had spoken honestly, for she didn’t want to marry Jalo or live in this place. The grander implications of mortality versus immortality had been simply impossible for her to seriously contemplate in such a brief moment.

“I would have had to leave behind my family and my friends and all my plans. I wouldnay be able to go to Austermon. I couldnay give everything up, just like that.”

“Not even for a dashing Faery and eternal life?”

“He
is
handsome, aye. I must be crazy. He said as much, actually.”

“Arrogant,” said Charlie with pleasure. “Although, I spose I’m a little more to your taste like this, nay?”

She gave him a sidelong glance. “It’s too strange to see you as a Faery. What about me? Which version do you prefer?”

“The Nell version. No contest.”

Nell felt a warm glow when he said this.

“Me too,” she said immediately. “I mean, lah, I prefer the Charlie version.”

Mala’s head swiveled round and she shot them an icy glare. They stopped talking, both of them trying to hide their smiles.

~~~

“She was speaking to Jalo?”

Tariro stood in the shadows, the circling orbs overhead never casting their light on her. She was looking at the two servants whispering together.

“Yes,” said Miyam. “He has gone now.”

“What did they speak of?” Tariro demanded.

“I do not know what passed between them. But look at her and the one she is with. It is a glamour. They are not Faeries.”

“Of course.” Tariro laughed. “Well, they have made it easy for us. The apricots were a diversion – we wasted our time trying to find spells in them and failed to see the humans in my own Castella!”

“Shall I kill them now, my Lady?”

“No,” said Tariro. “If we murder them here…we are well within our rights, but Jalo would be furious. No, arrest them and have them deported to the Faery City for judgment and execution.”

“Judgment and execution?” asked Miyam. “Like a witch?”

“They have made illegal use of a glamour,” said Tariro. “Jalo need never know that we knew their identities. He will have nothing to hold against me. It is perfect, like a gift.”

“As you wish, my Lady.” Miyam’s face was a blank, her eyes like stones.

Chapter

~13~

The Crossing was hard on Ferghal.
At first he slept, for it had been a long day of rowing after dismantling the engine and failing to put it back together again. But when the mist cleared and the cliffs of Tian Xia appeared in the distance, he sat bolt upright, bellowing. He screamed and flailed and begged the Ancients for mercy, then cursed their names in language more colourful than Eliza had ever heard, and finally collapsed unconscious. After bearing the insensible Scarpathian to the healing Cave that had saved both Nell’s life and Charlie’s in the past, Eliza and Foss went to the temples of the Faithful, and from there Eliza summoned Jalo with the ring.

She was at Foss’s bedside now, in one of the smaller temples. Foss’s face was dull, his eyes dim, and there was a disconcerting rattling sound deep in his chest when he breathed. Every time she looked at him, Eliza felt her heart twist into a knot of terror.

“We shouldnay have done that spell,” she said. “You’re too weak.”

Foss gave a rasping little chuckle. “So you would venture into the Realm of the Faeries without any kind of protection?” he asked.

Eliza felt the spell humming just beneath her skin. Her blood jumped with it. It was a powerful barrier designed to repel a Faery Curse, and it had taken more strength than Foss had to spare right now.

“It would have been a risk,” she admitted. “But it’s risky anyway.”

“Do not fear for me. This is a good place for me to rest.”

“Not for long. Rhianu told me the Mancers looked here before we arrived, but I spec they’ll be back. I just hope Jalo gets here before they do.”

The priestess Rhianu, Eliza’s particular friend among the Faithful, appeared in the doorway.

“Sorceress,” she said. “There is someone who wishes to see you.”

“Jalo,” said Eliza, rising.

Rhianu shook her head. “Come.”

Eliza followed her out of the small temple. The Faithful were busy in the fields, cultivating crops and hanging out rows of laundered black robes to dry. Rhianu led her beneath the central Temple of the Nameless Birth and along the narrow flagstone corridor that led to the Chamber of the Oracle. Eliza’s heart began to beat faster. Nia had killed the last Oracle. She had never thought to ask if there was another.

Rhianu knelt, whispering, until one flagstone fell away. Eliza climbed down the ladder into the dark room. The flagstone sealed her in and then the room blazed with light.

“And now, here we are!” said Selva. She still wore her black robes, but her fair skin and her white hair glowed with an unearthly light.

“You’re safe!” cried Eliza. “How did you get out of the Citadel?”

“The Mancers would not offend the Ancients at a time like this,” smiled Selva. “I am tired, my dear, I need rest, so we will speak briefly. You are going to the Realm of the Faeries soon.”

“Yes,” said Eliza. “The Mancers cannay follow me there. I’m hoping I can persuade Nell’s friend Jalo to hide the Gehemmis for me, though I dinnay spec it would be safe to tell him what it is. When it’s stowed away I can bargain with Kyreth. Can he call off the Thanatosi if he chooses to?”

“No,” said Selva. “That is impossible. The Thanatosi will not rest until their prey is vanquished. There is no way to call them off.”

Her half-formed plans and desperate hopes collapsing, Eliza pressed her knuckles against her forehead and took a deep breath, trying not to panic.

“The last Oracle told me that victory would only come at a cost for me,” she said. “That I would cut out my own heart. That mine is the Lonely Road. What does it mean? What do I have to do?”

Her grandmother’s hand cupped her cheek. It was a cool, calming touch.

“There is loss and gain with every act,” said Selva. “Each moment, you will choose what you feel you must do, and every choice will cost you, and every choice will take you further down the road that is yours. Your heart,” she touched her fingers gently to Eliza’s chest. “Your heart was made for this task.”

Eliza choked on a laugh. Selva was not so different from the last Oracle, in that when it came to the really important stuff she was utterly obscure.

“Maybe Kyreth could do something to protect Charlie in exchange for the Gehemmis?” she said, then shook her head. “No good. I cannay count on him for that. But he might take Foss back if I return it. Praps that’s all it’s good for. And Charlie will have to stay with the Faeries unless I can find some way to defeat the Thanatosi.” Her heart felt like a wave washing against a relentless cliff. What good was any of it? What could she do for those she loved so dearly?

“You must not return the Gehemmis to the Mancers,” said Selva severely. “Go to the Realm of the Faeries. Go to the Dragon Isles in the Far Sea. Go to the Hanging Gardens of the Sparkling Deluder. Assemble the four Gehemmis. They have more power than you can imagine, my dear.”

“The power to stop the Thanatosi?” asked Eliza.

“Oh, far more than that,” said Selva with a smile.

“What kind of power?”

“You must learn how to use them,” said Selva. “It is a great and noble quest for you to undertake, as befits a Sorceress!”

Eliza sighed, but hope glimmered again among the looming shadows within her. “Stealing from the Immortal Powers sounds more like an impossible quest, aye, nothing great and noble about it,” she said. “But all right. How am I going to get the Gehemmis from…lah, from the Faeries, for starters?”

Selva smiled again, as if fond memories were returning to her.

“You must be wicked,” she said.

“As far as instructions go, that’s nay very specific,” said Eliza dryly.

“Then let me tell you,” said Selva, “the secrets of the Faery Vault.”

~~~

Jalo arrived at night. Eliza was dozing in a chair by Foss’s bed. One of the Faithful brought the Faery to their room.

“Thank you for coming,” she said, barely awake, stumbling to her feet.

“Never mind that,” he replied crisply. “Your friends are in danger. I’ve hidden them for now but you’re going to have to get them out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Assassins. Humans are not terribly popular in the Realm of the Faeries these days.”

This was a setback Eliza had not imagined. Something about the way Jalo said it told her she was not hearing the whole story. But it didn’t matter – she would lie to him too, in a moment. She stood up straighter. She knew how she looked: dirty and tired and terribly young. But she was the Shang Sorceress and Jalo needed to remember that.

“I’ll take them with me when I go,” she said. “But I have another request. I need to speak with your King.”

Jalo looked like he could barely refrain from rolling his eyes.

“That will not be possible,” he said.

“Your King will be glad to see what I have to show him,” she said. “Have you heard of the Gehemmis?”

Jalo shrugged. “A legend of some kind,” he said. “Gifts of the Ancients.”

“No legend,” said Eliza. She hesitated and then took the strip of bone out of her backpack to show him. She could sense Foss tensing on the bed, no longer asleep.

Jalo took it in his hands and looked over it wonderingly. But when Eliza held her hand out he gave it back to her.

“I can request an audience,” he said grudgingly. “I cannot promise it will be granted.”

“Good enough,” agreed Eliza. “But I cannay go into the Realm of the Faeries without some kind of protection or they will simply take the Gehemmis from me.”

Jalo sighed. “What, then?”

“I need to make a brief stop,” said Eliza.

Jalo nodded, then jerked his chin at Foss on the bed. “He may not come.”

“Give me a moment to say goodbye.”

When Jalo had left, she sat on the edge of Foss’s bed and took his large golden hand in her small brown ones.

“The Faithful are watching the Cave, aye,” she told him. “When Ferghal is better, where will you go?”

“South,” said Foss.

“Are you sure the Cave willnay help
you?
It might be worth a try.”

“The Cave cannot return me to the Mancer fold,” Foss said serenely.

Eliza swallowed her tears and nodded.

“We will go to the Isle of the Blind Enchanter in the inland sea,” said Foss.

“I’ve read about him,” said Eliza. “The inland sea is where the Mancer dragons come from.”

Foss nodded. “The Blind Enchanter has long held cordial relations with the Mancers, but he is known to welcome all travellers. He may be able to help me keep up my strength for a time. I hope he will be able to help you, too, for he is the only living being to have met the Sparkling Deluder.”