The Lost Child Read online

  But they wouldn’t hold forever.

  As Jolie and I entered now, at high speed, we saw Mercedes, peering earnestly at the shimmering wall of the portal.

  “Are they breaking through?” asked Jolie, slightly confused.

  “They were,” Mercedes replied, sounding just as perplexed. “And there really wasn’t much more I could have done to stop them.

  Clearly both sides coordinated their attacks so they would break through front and back at the same time.”

  “And now?” I asked.

  Mercedes shook her head. “They stopped. I’ve been trying to see through, but all I get are shapes. I can’t tell what they are or what they might mean. But…” She trailed off.

  “What?” asked Jolie urgently. “Mercedes, we’ve got an army coming through the main gates, what’s going on?”

  Mercedes looked at her Queen with an odd expression. “Someone’s out there, and whoever it is… they knocked.”

  “Knocked?” asked Jolie, frowning.

  “Can you knock on a portal?” I asked.

  “Well, as good as,” replied Mercedes, and as she spoke, we saw three distinct ripples erupt from the surface of the energy field as if someone had tapped it.

  “Is it a trick?” asked Jolie.

  “Invading forces don’t usually knock,” I added.

  “I don’t know what to make of it,” said Mercedes with a shrug.

  “But I will say; Luce didn’t need a trick. He was coming through.”

  I looked at my sister. “Who’s out there?”

  “And do we let them through?” she asked.

  For the third time in the last half hour, the sound of running footsteps announced the hurried arrival of Damek. He was looking pretty red in the face and exhausted now, being messenger had seemed like a position of responsibility when he’d been awarded it, but I imagined he was now regretting saying yes.

  “My Queen…” he gasped.

  “What now?” sighed Jolie.

  “Have they broken through the gate?” I asked, urgently.

  Damek shook his head and waved a hand as he strove to get his breath back. “They’ve stopped.”

  “What?” I was confused.

  “Who’s stopped?” asked Jolie.

  “Luce’s attack has stopped,” said Damek.

  “Why?” Neither of us were complaining, but the attacks at both sides of Kinloch Broch had stopped within minutes of each other and there had to be a reason. And I had a feeling the knocking on the portal had something to do with it.

  “Odran said,” Damek made a decent stab at the accent, “‘Tell the Queen, Ah have nae idea, boot she oughta nae look a gift horse in the mouth’.”

  “I’m going to tell him you did that,” I said with a laugh.

  “Both attacks stopped,” Jolie was lost in thought. Gradually her eyes found their way back to the portal. The knocking rippled again. “Let them through, Mercedes.”

  Mercedes nodded.

  “Stand ready!” Jolie instructed the armed guards.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the portal. Golden waves of power fluttered across its surface as Mercedes removed the trio of protection spells. Beyond the shimmering wall, shadows emerged and I dug my fingernails into my palms as the tension inside me mounted.

  A moment later, two figures strode through the shimmering wall of portal energy.

  Dureau and Sinjin.

  But they wer en’t alone.

  SEVENTEEN

  SINJIN

  A Few Days Earlier

  When I awoke , it was dark.

  Darkness is of no great concern to a vampire —darkness is where we live, it is that to which we are accustomed.

  “Sinjin?”

  I raised my head to see where the voice had come from and the darkened room spun about me. Up to this point, the rest of my body seemed to have remained asleep, but this simple movement woke me up and allowed me to feel the full symphonic range of the pain I was currently in.

  “Ah…” I gasped and dropped back to the cold stone floor beneath me.

  “Yeah, you might be better off lying still for a bit,” said the voice from the shadows. “Looks like they worked you over pretty bad.”

  My eyes were blurred with pain, but I could make out the shape of the other figure in the room and that, combined with the familiar voice, helped me put a name to it. “Chevalier?”

  “Did the others get away?” I could hear the desperate urgency in his voice.

  “Yes.”

  Chevalier relaxed back against the wall behind him. “Well then.

  That’s something.”

  “Indeed.”

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on not concentrating on anything. Even thinking hurt at this point. Yes, I consider myself one of the most dangerous men in the world, but taking on the members of the Unseelie Court all at once was beyond even me.

  They had not been gentle. Being a vampire I would heal quickly, but for now, I was just in pain.

  “They did no t hurt you?” I asked.

  “Whack to the back of the head,” said Chevalier with a shrug.

  “Redcaps. I’m not sure how many of them. I fought them off for as long as I could but I guess one got behind me. Didn’t even know what had happened until I woke up down here.”

  “Lucky you.”

  “Can you see much, Sinjin?”

  “At the present , I am choosing to keep my eyes closed.”

  “Probably for the best. I don’t imagine there’s much to see in here.”

  They had not killed us, and it was plain they could have. Whether or not such was a good thing was yet to be seen. The good news, though, was there was nothing we could tell them that they did not already know. It would be no great surprise or mystery as to where Bryn would go with our baby. Thus, Chevalier and I had no information to extract by diabolical means.

  But then; why keep us alive? Most likely for their own entertainment. And I was vaguely aware that the Unseelie Court had their own twisted notions of what constituted

  ‘entertainment’.

  “Do you want water?” asked Chevalier

  “No.”

  There was a long pause.

  “Do you want blood?”

  That was quite an offer. Feeding would help me heal, of course, but I had no wish to be in debt to Chevalier.

  “No. Thank you.”

  “Look, it’s better for both of us if you’re fighting fit. I can’t even see down here. I know we don’t like each other, Sinjin, but I think we respect each other, and whether either of us likes it or not, we need each other now.”

  I grunted.

  “What was that?” asked Chevalier.

  “I was just wishing I ha d been the one to say as much.”

  Chevalier gave a bitter half-laugh. “Well, I understand it must be hard for you to accept that I’m the better man, but it had to happen sooner or later.”

  “That is more like it,” I mumbled back, but could not keep the smile from my face, much as it hurt to do. “Keep saying things like that to remind me what an arse you are. When we get out of this, I should hate it if we had become friends.”

  “Agreed,” said Chevalier. “Let’s work together as a well-oiled team, whilst maintaining a courteous disdain for one other.”

  “That sounds like the beginning of a beautiful working relationship.”

  I felt Chevalier’s hands on me, lifting me from my prone position so my head was up. Every part of my beaten body complained at this treatment and I had to stifle a cry of pain.

  Next , I felt Chevalier’s wrist placed next to my mouth. “Go ahead. Take what you need.”

  “It will hurt,” I warned.

  “I am aware.”

  “I know,” I mumbled, “I just wanted to reinforce it.”

  My fangs found the prominent vein in his wrist and I bit down hard. Chevalier’s body stiffened and I heard him forcibly repressing a yelp of pain. I drew deeply and felt the hot rush of Fae blood pour
ing into my mouth and down my throat. Blood is blood to a vampire; necessary nourishment, but nothing special.

  But right at that moment, Chevalier’s blood was akin to the elixir of life. Only Bryn’s blood had ever tasted better to me.

  My body seemed to fill and swell in response, the life-giving liquid healing me and restoring my strength. I had to stop before I took too much—it would have been easy to drain the fop dry and my every instinct urged me to do just that.

  But, I would not.

  With an effort , I tore myself from his wrist and roughly pushed him away from me. I did not trust myself with the taste of his blood on my lips and the scent of it still strong in the air.

  Chevalier fell back away from me, clutching his bleeding wrist and gasping in pain.

  “Bryn lets you do that to her?”

  “I take the pain away before I bite her,” I explained, wiping my mouth and licking the smeared blood from my hand, keen not to waste a single drop.

  “You couldn’t have done the same for me?”

  I shook my head. “I was too weak to manage the glamour.”

  It was true, but Chevalier still looked at me suspiciously, as if I had deliberately caused him pain. Of course, I cannot say I was disappointed by the fact that I had. Finally he relented. “Well, you do at least look better.”

  “I feel better. Thank you.” The throbbing had gone from my head.

  My broken ribs had begun to knit, though they were still fragile.

  Most importantly, my mind was clear, no longer overwhelmed with the pain of the beating I had received. “I most appreciate the offer. Perhaps I will refrain from referring to you as ‘the fop’,

  ‘the dandy’, or ‘the frog’ for the rest of our adventure.”

  “Wow, do you think you can manage?”

  “I shall try.”

  Chevalier tore a strip from the sleeve of his shirt and tied it about his bloody wrist as a bandage. “What can you see?”

  I looked about the room. There was not much to see. It was a prison cell, carved from the black rock on which Tor Clyd was built. In one wall was a heavy, metal door, in one corner was a scattering of straw which passed for a bed, on the floor were two bowls, one of water, the other containing something that might have been food. High above us was a narrow slit window that admitted a grey strand of light, which was all we had to see by.

  “Not much,” I replied.

  “Can you reach the window?”

  “Yes, but it is far too small for me to get through.”

  Chevalier shrugged. “You could get a look at where we are.”

  “To what end?”

  He sighed. “I really don’t know. Just trying to think of things we can do to pass the time and try to figure out where the hell we are.”

  “I think, at this point, the most positive thing we can do is wait and try not to kill each other.”

  “Might be a tall order.”

  “Indeed.”

  I stood up and walked to the door. It was all I feared; solid metal, built into the rock wall. Absolutely immoveable, even for my strength. Dematerializing into the unknown was dangerous at the best of times and I had already encountered the problems with any dematerialization in Faery, but we did not have many options.

  I took a step back and…

  Nothing happened.

  “Something wrong?” Asked Chevalier.

  “I cannot dematerialize.”

  “Too weak still?”

  I shook my head. “Some sort of spell appears to be… prohibiting me.”

  It was a like a jamming signal, some sort of dampening field that prevented me from using my vampiric gift.

  “What do you think they’ve got in mind for us?” asked Chevalier.

  “Some game or other,” I replied. “I fear the Fir Darrig is rather angry at me and may want to exact some vengeance.”

  Chevalier nodded. “It could be worse.”

  “How, precisely?”

  “It could be me he’s angry at.”

  “Indeed.” I raised an eyebrow. “Bear in mind, one of the most popular methods of torment is to inflict pain on the friends of the tormented party.”

  “Thank goodness we’re not friends.” He paused a minute. “Do you think they’ll go after the others? Go after your child?”

  It was a subject I had been doing my best to avoid. “I do not know.”

  “She seems pretty important to them.”

  “Yes. Although I am unsure why.”

  On the one hand, the Fir Darrig did not strike me as one who would allow his ‘property’ (which I fear is how he saw my baby) to be stolen from him. On the other, he was a fickle creature who lost interest in things easily. More importantly; so were the rest of his Court. The Darrig might want to give chase and get the child back, but the rest of the Court had only assembled—if Odran was correct—because the Darrig had the child. Now the child was lost to them, then perhaps, just perhaps, the Unseelie Court would disintegrate and go their separate ways once more? They were not held together by loyalty or any shared purpose. They came together out of a mutual love for being thoroughly unpleasant to those around them, and they were quite capable of doing so by themselves.

  Could the Darrig convince his Court to take part in anything as organized as a pursuit? There was a good chance he could not. I

  took heart in this. It meant Bryn and my daughter should be safe, at least for the time being. I was not sure what it meant for myself and my cellmate, but one thing at a time.

  The light from the slit window faded to black and I struggled to see. Chevalier bedded down on the straw to sleep, while I sat up awake, staring at the door, wondering when they would come for us.

  That question was answered in the morning. Chevalier started awake at the sound of the heavy bolts being drawn back, screeching in the rock.

  “Here we go,” he murmured.

  A pair of Redcaps entered and one pointed at me. “You’re to come with us.”

  I stood.

  “And no tricks.” The voice had not come from either of the Redcaps but from a figure that loomed in the hallway behind them.

  The Darrig was no fool, it knew I could take out the Redcaps with comparative ease, and so a member of the Court, itself, had come along to ensure my obedience.

  The Redcaps chained my hands behind my back and put my ankles in manacles before we left the cell.

  “Somewhat over the top?” I suggested.

  The voice from the hallway boomed again. “Just so we’re clear. If you try anything, then your friend down here will be killed.”

  “We’re not friends,” said Chevalier, speaking up boldly.

  “Is that right?” the reply rumbled. “Well then, you’d better hope the vampire’s not a total bastard, because your life depends on it.”

  With the manacles on, I was not escaping anywhere in a hurry, besides, despite my general distaste for the frog, I would not abandon him to his fate. Even vampires have their code.

  In the hallway, I came face to belly with the giant I had battled yesterday and whom I had tricked into destroying the bridge. He had been pretty angry about that and had taken out that anger on me with considerable vigor.

  “You vampires heal quick, don’t you?” he poked at my still healing ribs and I clenched my teeth.

  “A good night’s sleep is all we need to put us right.”

  The giant leered. “That right? I saw the blood on your ‘friend’.

  How about I beat you again now? How much blood has he got left to give?”

  I stared up at the monster. “He i s not the only one around here with blood. I shall take it where I can get it.”

  He wanted to hurt me, I could see it in his eyes. But he clearly had his orders. “Take him up.”

  As I was marched through the corridors and staircases of the Tor, I carefully made a mental map of the path. Whether it was possible to escape I did not know, but if the opportunity came, then I would be prepared. Right now, it seemed
as if it would take a great deal of luck, but there was at least one thing on our side; the Unseelie Court. Everything action they took revealed a group that was pulling in different directions, barely held together. Any group needs a common cause to give them cohesion, and causing others harm was not a good enough cause.

  They were all out for themselves, and the moment might come when I could insert a crowbar into the cracks that were forming.

  As if to back up that plan, I now heard voices raised in argument from the chamber up ahead.

  “I’ve been here for days and I’ve yet to see any evidence.”

  “That’s why I’m bringing the vampire up.”

  “I’ve seen vampires before.”

  “This one fathered a child. Have you seen that before?”

  “Seems like the child would be the interesting one.”

  “Which was my original point! Aren’t you listening at all?”

  “Who cares? The child is gone now.”

  “But not far. It’s still in Faery, we can still track it down.”

  “If we move, then the Seelie Court will hear of it and this time it’ll be more than banishment we will face.”

  “If we have the child, then they will not be able to stand against us.”

  “I’ve yet to see proof of that. And I’ve been here for days.”

  “Which is why I’m bringing the vampire up! Am I talking to myself here?!”

  The voice of increasing frustration, I recognized as belonging to the Fir Darrig, and the overall tone of the conversation brought the first smile to my face since I had woken up. They were

  already disagreeing. Things were looking up. Although Bryn and baby had been gone for hours, the Unseelie still had made no move to give chase and were debating whether it was even worthwhile.

  Good news all round. I wondered how long that might last.

  “Ah, Sinjin.” The Fir Darrig greeted me as I was pushed into a circular council chamber, carved from ice so old, it was as hard as the rock on which it sat. “Welcome to Tor Clyd.”

  “Thank you,” I gave a mocking bow. “Perhaps later I could get the tour.”

  “You see.” The Fir Darrig turned to its Court with triumph as it pointed at me. “You see the power there. This is no ordinary vampire, it is a Master Vampire . One of the last in the world.