Darkyn - Night Lost Part 26

Chapter 17.

"So this is the best you could do?" the Kyn guard demanded of Leary as he looked over Phillipe and the addicts from Dublin.

"The high lord expected a dozen or more. He will be very displeased."

Leary's mouth drooped. "I did my best, as I always do."

"Tell that to him with the mood he's in, and he'll tear you to ribbons." The guard seemed agitated. "Still, not my head. Come on, this way."

Phillipe had taken position at the very back of the group. When the guard led them around a corner, the seneschal stepped back and waited until their footsteps faded down the hall. After he listened and heard no sounds, he walked quickly in the opposite direction toward the door Leary had said would take him down to the dungeons.

A human guard stopped him at that door. Phillipe remembered to keep a vacant-eyed look as the guard asked, "They send you for the leech, lad?"

He nodded slowly.

"Go on with you, then." The guard stepped aside.

He climbed down the stairs and pa.s.sed a number of archaic-looking chambers before coming to a closed door with a gla.s.s window. Through it he saw Alexandra and eliane Selvais working at a table. He tried the door, which was unlocked, and slipped inside.

"Not yet, Korvel," Alexandra said, adding a measure of dark liquid to a beaker of blood.

Phillipe felt such relief at seeing her whole and well that he could only lean back against the door. "I am not Korvel."

The beaker dropped out of Alexandra's hand, and she whirled around. "Phil? Oh, my G.o.d. What are you doing here?

How... ?" She flew across the room and flung herself into his arms. As soon as he embraced her, she stiffened and hissed. "Ow.

Careful. I still have some claw marks back there."

"Claw marks." He tried to look down her collar but saw only the edge of a bandage. "What did you get into a fight with this time?"

Her spiral curls bounced around her face. "I'll tell you all about it on the way home." She hugged him again. "How on earth did you get inside the castle?"

"Carefully." Phillipe held on to her but looked at eliane. She didn't seem surprised to see him. "Are you ready to come home?"

"Is the pope an ex-n.a.z.i? Phil, it's so good to see you. I can't tell you how scared I've been." Alex stepped back. "But I can't go yet."

"Master, I have found her," Philippe said over the transmitter. "She is well." He put his hands on her shoulders. "We must leave, Alexandra. At once."

"You don't understand. I have to finish preparing this serum." She nodded toward a row of vials. "It could be a cure for Richard Tremayne's condition."

Confusion made him grope for the correct words in English. "You mean to cure Tremayne?"

She lifted her shoulders and gave him a rueful smile. "I took an oath that says I can't kill him."

Phillipe heard Cyprien's voice over his earpiece say, "Let me speak to her."

"This is a transmitter. The master can hear anything you say." He removed the earpiece and gently placed it in her ear.

"It took you long enough," she said to the b.u.t.ton, and cupped her hand over her ear. "No, don't start telling me how much you love me; you'll make Phil jealous again. Listen up, seigneur, because we have serious problems in here."

Phillipe kept an eye on eliane as Alexandra related to Michael what had happened since Richard had brought her to Dundellan.

To that she added, "You have to get John out of here first. He's the one in danger; I have Phil running interference for me, and I'm immortal." She listened for a moment to whatever Cyprien was saying to her. "Right. I don't care. Get John out of here."

The Frenchwoman came over, but stopped when Phillipe moved to block the door. "I have no intention of sounding an alarm."

"I have no intention of killing you," he told her. "Let us not litter the road to h.e.l.l with either."

"There's something else," Alexandra was saying. "You know how I tune in on killers... Well, Lady Elizabeth has been broadcasting all day. She's found out that I have a treatment, maybe a cure, and she's planning to force Richard to complete his change before I can give it to him. eliane and I are going to take care of her as soon as I get this serum made. We'll keep the guards busy, too, so Phil can get John out to you. I love you, too, babe. I have missed you so much. I hope you've been taking your vitamins. Yeah." She glanced at Phillipe. "We're embarra.s.sing your seneschal. Quit it. And get going." She removed the earpiece and handed it to Phillipe. "Here's the new plan."

"Father Orson Leary, my lord," the servant announced him.

Leary went into the library, for once eager to see Richard Tremayne. The Darkyn King sat behind his desk, as always, although he had not covered his face, which now appeared as beastly as any h.e.l.l-sp.a.w.ned demon's. For the first time Leary looked, unflinching and unafraid, directly into his satanic eyes. He could even feel pity for him now.

Being freed of all fear was a wondrous thing.

"They forced me to come here, my lord," Leary said. "The Frenchman and his scarred servant."

"Cyprien," Richard muttered.

"Yes, lord." He bowed his head. "They kidnapped me and forced me to do terrible things. They made me disguise the scarred man and bring him into your stronghold. Cyprien is outside, waiting for a signal to attack. I fear you are in great danger."

"You will stay here." Richard slowly rose and limped to the door.

Leary went over to the wall, where Richard kept a collection of bladed weapons. He found the two-handed sword quite tempting, but was not sure if he could even lift such a blade, much less wield it against the vile one. He helped himself instead to a number of daggers, tucking them inside his clothes, where they would not be seen. Then, after listening at the door, he walked out and crossed to the opposite wing.

It was time to find her.

"I know the rooms where Keller is being kept," he heard a woman say. "We can bring him out this way."

Leary knew the time for his true work had come at last. There would be no more pain, no more Legion. She would never torment him another night.

And there she was, walking with another, her radiance muted by the ugly clothes she wore. She had disguised herself again, as she had in the alley.

He drew one of the daggers he had stolen from the high lord's library and kept his footsteps silent as he came up behind them. It wouldn't do to fail now, not when he was so close.

So close.

So very close.

Close enough.

"Thy name is Legion!" Leary shouted as he buried the dagger in her back. "To h.e.l.l with you!"

She turned, showing him the face of innocence, the face that made him scream in terror and stagger back, waving his arms to make it stop, make the vision leave him, now, before the worms came, and Leary wheeled around, knocking aside the small dark woman who caught the b.i.t.c.h G.o.ddess in her arms and shouted for help and called the demon eliane.

That was not her name. Her name was Legion. She had told him so.

Leary ran and ran, but none of the doors would open for him, and he was caught, trapped, driven into the dark place where there was only one door that swung open, and the frozen flames of h.e.l.l glittered all around.

"Father in heaven."

He fell forward, caught by soft, tender hands, shushed by a sweet voice. And when he dared open his eyes, he looked into those of the one he had been sent to kill, the one of whom all the others were but pale copies."Orson," she said, her little pink tongue peeping out from between sharp, white teeth. "I have been waiting for you."

Nick had never walked around inside a really good antique shop. Like jewelry stores and chick boutiques, they were not comfort zones for her. Also, the people who worked in them viewed girls in leather jackets with the same enthusiasm they usually afforded SpongeBob SquarePants.

Shame, because this place was nice. A real showcase location, with wide, asymmetrical aisles swirling around little islands of furniture and display cases of jewelry and old silver. Framed paintings of different sizes hung in neat rows across the golden oak walls, and a truckload of crystal and stained-gla.s.s chandeliers dangled from the high paneled ceilings.

Nick might have to live underground, like a garden mole, but she could still appreciate the finer things most people could never afford.

Gabriel probably had stuff like this at his place before the holy freaks stole it. She bent over to inspect a five-strand pearl choker that had been strung about the same time the t.i.tanic sank. It's what he's used to.

Nick felt odd, and straightened to look around the shop. She'd had the forest dream so often that she'd come to expect it, not something like this. She didn't care about old, pricey junk. She had plenty of it stashed in her place, but it had never done anything for her. She'd tried to sell it a dozen times, but every time, almost at the last minute before she packed it up and took it to her fence, something stopped her. The special things, the treasures she kept in the room next to hers, they weren't hers, but she had to keep them. Watch over them.

Sometimes Nick wondered if she had lost her marbles ten years ago and just never realized it.

She saw an old book sitting on a table. It had a silver symbol on the blue fabric cover, a shape that resembled a fat 69. Yin and yang? In dreams, a person wasn't supposed to be able to read; the letters got all jumbled. She eased the cover open, and flipped, but the gilt-edged pages were all blank.

No story. She closed the book. What kind of book has no story in it? Maybe it was a photo alb.u.m of some kind. Or am I supposed to write the story? She chuckled. She was no writer.

Nick moved on to the next display, a traditional ornate tea service, and checked her reflection in the polished tray. The solid silver informed her that her dye had worn off again and her hair was back to two shades of blond darker than white. She really needed a shampoo and cut. Maybe she'd go black this time. She was tired of mud brown.

I like you this way.

She looked toward the voice and saw the Green Man sitting behind a waist-high cherry-wood keyhole desk where he was using a soft cloth to wipe dust from some fussy statuette.

"What do you know?" she asked. "You have pine needles for hair."

True. He shook out the cloth, draping it over the piece. Do you truly love him, Nicola?

He was talking about Gabriel. "I do. But I can't. I'm not good enough for him."

You were good enough to find him, and save him, and to tell him the truth. He came around the counter and walked toward her. Mottled green burn scars covered his body, and as her gaze s.h.i.+fted up she saw blond-streaked brown hair instead of pine needles, and Gabriel's green eyes fixed on her. It's time. You know what you have to do now.

"I can't."

The shadows around the truth are what keep you apart. Tell him. One of his/Gabriel's hands lifted toward a chandelier that was a hanging waterfall of prismatic crystal. Show him. Trust in my love.

Dimensions changed. The high ceilings began to drop, and the aisles narrowed. Either Nick had begun a very belated growth spurt, or Antique World was starting to shrink.

At least now she knew it was a dream, and she could wake up. And she tried to, but the nightlands wouldn't let her go.

I cannot live in the dark anymore. He spoke so low that she could barely hear him now. Bring me into the light. Be with me in it. Let me see you as you are.

"You're-he's-blind. I can't." Nick swiveled, looking for an exit. There wasn't any. A porcelain pitcher and basin b.u.mped into her hip, fell over, and smashed. If she stayed here, she was going to end up a sardine. "How do I get out of here?"

You know the way.

Nick ducked to keep her skull from ramming into the roof, and then something cracked the shop in half and split it open like an eggsh.e.l.l. The whole place fell away from her as she sat up, alone in bed.

"Gabriel?"

Nick rolled out of bed and crossed the room, stopping in the doorway. Gabriel was sitting on the floor with her lantern, holding one of the old books in his hands.

He glanced up at her, and she saw that the strange green glow had vanished from his eyes. As she s.h.i.+fted her weight, his eyes followed her movements.

Blind eyes didn't move like that.

"You can see." He nodded, and a crus.h.i.+ng, unseen weight she hadn't known she'd been carrying fell away. It was replaced almost at once by one twice as heavy. "When did this happen?"

"My eyes began healing the night we first made love." He closed the book and reverently set it aside before standing and looking down at her. "Your hair is white."

"I told you it was." She touched it before she ducked her head. "I'm sorry."

"Why did you lie to me about keeping all these things?" He gestured around him. "Did you fear that I would steal them from you?"

"No. I just... couldn't. It's hard to explain." She tried to think of reasonable excuses, but her brain wasn't working anymore. "I'm sorry."

"I want to know the truth about you." He started walking toward her.

That was what the Green Man hadn't understood in the dream, what he had been trying to warn her of. But she couldn't tell him, couldn't tell anyone. With a sob she ran around him, dodging his hands and rus.h.i.+ng out through the opening in the wall.

Nick didn't know where she was running to, but her feet did. They took her up through the house and out into her mother's rose garden. There she found herself standing over two patches of ground, carefully tended pools of delicate green gra.s.s. As the tears spilled down her face, hundreds of b.u.t.terflies swirled up out of the surrounding flowers and hedges. Nick stood still, unwilling to hurt them with a careless touch. They began landing on her hands and arms, fairy creatures of every color in the rainbow, covering her with their wings.

The b.u.t.terflies flew off as Gabriel came to stand beside her. "Don't be afraid of me, Nicola. I love you.""I'm not afraid." She stared down at the ground. "I'm a thief and I'm a liar, the things you hate the most, but I'm not a coward."

"I'm not blind anymore," Gabriel murmured, turning her toward him. "I can see your face now. I can look into your eyes. I know what you feel, because I feel the same for you. There's no need to keep hiding behind more lies."

She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. "I don't know how to be any other way."

"Tell me the rest of it."

"There's not much more to tell." She turned around, hugging herself with her arms. "My parents were murdered here ten years ago. I buried the bodies and went away for a while. When I came back, I made everyone think that they had moved to America." She wandered away from the blank s.p.a.ce in the garden.

Gabriel came with her and put his arm around her. "You found the Templar treasures while you were looking for the Madonna."

She nodded. "I'm good at finding things. Everything but her."

He brushed the hair back from her brow. "These objects that you have collected, they all belonged to Templars who rose to become Darkyn."