Darke Academy 4: Lost Spirits (21 page)

Cassie could no longer see the creature, but she saw Marat’s face, turned once more towards her, beseeching. As his mouth and nose went under the water his screams stopped, and his terrified eyes were the last thing she saw of him.

And then there was nothing but a spreading pool of blood, staining the thick water a dark and hideous muddy red.

P
anting for breath, Cassie ran backwards so fast she stumbled and fell on a rock, but then she was up and running towards the thinning trees. The Knife was still in her hand and she kept it there, clutched tightly.

No, she thought, no. Not back to the trees. Downhill, downhill. Go back to the river path, you’ll get to Ranjit faster.

Her lungs ached and stung, but she stumbled on down the uneven slope, meeting the thin beaten path at an angle. The roaring in her ears could have been her own blood or the river rapids, she didn’t know. Where was Ranjit? Where was the Eldest? The fight with Marat had held her up far too long. She was further behind than ever. Tripping on another tree root, she fell hard on to her face, scraping blood from her palms.

Goddammit, Estelle. You said we could do anything together! Now do it!

No more disembodied voice in her head; no more snide remarks. Just a sudden gathering of strength, as if her spirit was concentrating all her reserves. It wasn’t Estelle and Cassie any more; there was no separation. She was Cassie Bell – one of the Few.

Just run.

Cassie grabbed a branch and hauled herself to her feet. I won’t let Ranjit down. Power surged back into her limbs, and though the pain was still there, it meant nothing. With a low snarl, she sprinted down the hill.

The ground flew beneath her feet; there was no more tripping, no more stumbling. Her body felt like a featherweight as she raced, and her power was electricity in her limbs. Following the trail of wreckage, following the path, she sprinted over a ridge of ground, sprang down into a hollow beside a cliff.

And as she did so, Ranjit collided with the ground at her feet.

Cassie staggered, almost stumbling over him, crying out in surprise. Seeing who it was, she reached down and clasped his hand to haul him up. He gave her the briefest of looks, then they turned together to face the Eldest.

The monstrous creature roared, raising herself to strike again. As the pounding of her own blood calmed in her ears, Cassie recognised the roaring rush of water. Just metres from where they faced the Eldest, the brooding river vanished over an edge into nothingness, hazed with spray. They were on the edge of a huge waterfall.

‘Take her from two sides,’ gasped Ranjit.

He attacked again. Running to the other side, Cassie launched herself at the Eldest’s back, catching and gripping on tight, tearing at the silver-blonde hair of Katerina’s shell as she wrenched the monster’s head back, desperate to snap the vertebrae. Not a chance. The Eldest’s spine rippled nightmarishly like a snake, and Cassie was flung backwards and slammed against a tree trunk. She sprang back instantly, in time to see Ranjit attack the Eldest yet again, lunging his fists into her powerful torso. The Eldest simply grabbed him, swinging him sideways, and he flew through the air and collided with Cassie.

As they scrambled back to their feet, his eyes met hers. ‘She’s too strong …’ he gasped.

‘We’ve got to try—’ Cassie said desperately, but as she spoke, the Eldest’s clawed hand caught her face with a glancing blow. Reeling back, Cassie put a hand to her cheekbone and brought it away dripping blood. She was playing with them, Cassie realised.

‘Scarred!’ The Eldest screeched at the delicious irony. ‘Like my dear Katerina was.’

‘Yeah, but I’m not just a pretty face.’ Cassie jumped and kicked, catching the Eldest in the ribs, but she might as well have been made of rubber. The Eldest laughed, caught her ankle, and tossed her aside. Spray from the torrent beyond made an incongruous rainbow halo around them as she flexed Katerina’s newly-supernatural muscles, smiling.

‘You’re wasting your
time
,’ the Eldest boomed. ‘And mine.’ Languidly, she flashed a fist into Ranjit’s jaw, and he tumbled towards the edge of the cliff. He tried to raise the Pendant again, but the Eldest stalked to him, seized his wrist and wrenched the jade from it with ridiculous ease.

‘You … fool!’ Contemptuously the Eldest brandished the Pendant. The creatures carved into the jade writhed with terrifying energy. Ranjit held up an arm to shield his eyes as a stronger and stronger light glowed in the heart of the jewel.

‘I won’t soil my hands on you any further,’ the Eldest hissed, and a sickly light began to swirl and gather within the jade. ‘I’ll have that spirit now …’

With a shriek Cassie flung herself on to the Eldest’s back, but was again knocked with a violent blow to the ground. The Eldest turned to give her a smirk, and held out a hand, the claw-fingers beckoning. ‘I’m waiting, Cassandra. Give me the Knife.’

A vision flashed across Cassie’s mind: Richard, torn apart by the Eldest and lying dead in the cavern on the mountain. Her friend. And then her friend Jake, handing her—

On her knees, Cassie bent forward, gasping for breath. Her fingers trembled as she reached into her shirt, and the Eldest gave a low scornful chuckle.

Cassie raised her eyes to the poison-green glow of her adversary’s.

‘You asked for this,’ Cassie growled.

The Eldest’s green eyes brightened, momentarily, with greedy anticipation.

Then Cassie whipped out the last vial of Tears and threw them hard at the hideous monster.

The shatter of glass echoed even above the noise of the waterfall. A rain of crystal exploded against the Eldest’s chest and she reeled backwards, clutching at her ribs in disbelief. As the pieces of broken vial tinkled to the rocky ground, the last of the Tears of the Few trickled down Katerina’s former body, hissing and steaming as if they were boiling volcanic spray.

The Eldest screamed, raking her chest with her claws. She recovered her balance at the lip of the cliff, drawing herself up with a howl of unearthly fury. Cassie staggered towards the Eldest, unable to tear her eyes away. She was in agony, and raged with maybe her first experience of real terror from Cassie and Ranjit’s onslaught. Her body was curling, twisting, writhing.

But
not
dying.

Cassie shut her eyes, desperate. If the Tears hadn’t killed her, there was nothing else for it. She didn’t dare glance, one final time, at Ranjit. Gritting her teeth, Cassie simply flew towards the Eldest. She snapped her monstrous head up just a fraction of an instant too late. Cassie cannoned into her, and taken by surprise, the Eldest gave a terrible scream.

Then together they plummeted over the edge of the cliff.

It seemed to happen in very slow motion. Cassie heard Ranjit’s shout of despair, but it was too late to worry, too late to think or regret.

The two of them were falling, clasped in a deadly embrace, her and the Eldest, twisting in the air. The Knife was in Cassie’s hand; she didn’t even have to remember it now. Because the Knife was her hand. The cats and snakes and mythical beings coiled and swarmed over her fingers, her palm, her wrist. It was part of her.

Cassie drew back her hand and the blade, and with one great jolt, she punched it hard into the ribs of Eldest.

A hideous, unearthly screech filled her ears, drowning the roar of the torrent. It seared her brain, filling it, but only for a lightning-instant.

Then they hit the roaring river below.

Cassie did, at least; the moment the Eldest touched the water, she imploded into dust, vaporised on the air.

Cassie fell through the remnants, through water, and into darkness.

The silence was blissful. Cassie felt the water’s current catch her as she drifted down, but there seemed no point in fighting it. She didn’t have the energy; stunned by the fall and the impact, by the final struggle, and by her wounds that were draining blood into the water around her, she was out of even spirit-energy.

This is it.

Her hair drifted across her face, and she opened her eyes and saw deepening green shadows. There was time to think, and to hope she’d drown soon … that it wouldn’t take too long …

But I did it, she remembered. I did it. The Eldest is dead. And Isabella and Ranjit and Jake are alive …

Oh but I wish…

Her own thoughts. No Estelle whispering inside her head, not any more. They were one, sinking into darkness together, down and down. At least she’d made the spirit happy at last …

Ranjit…I loved you…

I can’t fight any more.

I’m sorry.

There was still light, right above her. Gazing up to look at the last of it as she sank, Cassie saw a dark shape, and the pale wash of the sun rippled out in rings.

The light broadened, the rings widened. At its centre, the sunlight was stronger. Real light, not the otherworldly Few light she’d seen all too of much in that last ordeal. Good that it would be the last thing she saw. Cassie closed her eyes, smiling, and opened them again as the last bubbles of air trickled from her nose.

Parting her lips, Cassie started to take her last breath, taking in the cool, dark water—

And arms went round her. A powerful grip dragging her up and away from her death.

Ranjit!

But I’m dying. I’m dead.

Anyway, he loves me. He’s holding me while I die. He loves me…

Together, they exploded from the water.

Cassie gave a great gasp as Ranjit let her drop to the muddy bank. Air flooded her lungs in a great rush, and she rolled on to her side, coughing violently, choking and spitting. The Knife was still clutched in her palm as if soldered to her hand, but as she clawed at the mud, it unravelled itself from her flesh and she dropped it. Ranjit was holding her shoulders, hammering the flat of his hand into her back, and she vomited river water. She groaned, and he pulled her up and into his arms, gripping her head and cradling it against him, then kissing her face.

God, she thought. I’m covered in stinking mud and we’re both soaking and I just threw up what felt like the bloody Limpopo. He shouldn’t be kissing me …

She kissed him back, wrapping her arms round him, weeping helplessly. What the hell: she was wet already. And so was he.

‘Cassie, for God’s sake. That was insane. Oh God, Cassie, you’re alive. I love you …’

Warmth spread through her chilled body and darkness crept across her brain.

And then she blacked out.

A
light breeze rippled through the kikuyu grass, smelling of dust and hot sunshine. Invisible in the bright-red flamboyant trees, birds fluted and sang, and a troop of vervet monkeys racketed through the branches, then paused, curious, to watch the mourners below.

Cassie closed her eyes and breathed the scents, glad the memorial service was over. She was glad to have Ranjit on one side, Isabella on the other; it felt as though they were propping her up.

The three of them and Jake drew away from the dispersing crowd as Cassie glanced back at Sir Alric, in quiet conversation with Richard’s parents.

‘That was beautiful,’ she murmured, ‘but … bloody awful.’

‘Darke’s eulogy was pretty good.’ Jake sounded as if he was clutching at straws.

‘I barely recognised Richard in it.’ Cassie’s low laughter was shaky. ‘I don’t think he would’ve, either.’

Ranjit squeezed her hand gently. ‘We should go and speak to his parents.’

‘I know,’ said Cassie bleakly.

Isabella put an arm round her waist. ‘No hurry, Cassie. They’re surrounded at the moment.’

‘Poor Perry,’ said Cassie, nodding at the American boy. He was openly in floods of tears, consoled by the ever-dependable Ayeesha and a slightly embarrassed Cormac. Some of the other Few had already hurried away – Sara and her gang among them – but others were chatting desultorily, reluctant to go back to the Academy building, waiting their turn to speak to the Halton-Joneses. Cassie was surprised and somewhat consoled by the grief shown by so many of the students, Few and non-Few. Maybe Richard, for all his easy charm, had never really known how well liked he was. She wiped her hand across her cheeks, feeling them wet with tears all over again, and Ranjit kissed the side of her head.

‘I’m still amazed he had it in him,’ said Jake quietly. ‘Who’d have thought?’

‘Me,’ said Cassie. ‘I knew it.’

‘So did I,’ said Isabella.

‘I—’ Ranjit swallowed. ‘I didn’t. I wish I had. He was there for Cassie when I wasn’t.’

Coming to a halt, Cassie turned to him and pulled his face down for a kiss. ‘Don’t be daft,’ she said softly.

‘But it’s true.’ He returned her kiss. ‘And I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Ever.’

She knew it. She didn’t think she’d ever been more certain of anything. He hadn’t left her side since she’d regained consciousness in her own room at the Academy, and she had it on Isabella’s authority that he hadn’t left her side before then, either. Cassie was still hazy on the details of how they’d got her down from the mountain, rescued Isabella and Sir Alric and recovered Richard’s body. But the details could wait. Of Katerina and Brigitte, of course, there had been no trace but dust. There had been remnants of Marat, but only that: remains. A piece here, a piece there. Cassie shivered at the thought, remembering his face as he was dragged under …

And if it hadn’t been for Richard, it could have been
them
who were dust, and the Eldest would be free to ravage a whole world.

‘I can’t put it off any longer,’ she murmured. ‘I’m going to speak to Richard’s parents.’

‘I’m right with you.’ Ranjit hugged her.

She smiled. ‘I know.’

Sir Alric was still walking with a limp. Cassie noticed that, and the remaining bruises on his handsome face, as she shook Richard’s father’s hand and withdrew, letting Isabella take over with her own achingly difficult words of sympathy. The headmaster was clearly planning to intercept the four of them when they had spoken to the Halton-Joneses, and Cassie didn’t have the will or the energy to avoid him. Anyway, she’d barely had a chance to talk to him since the events on Mount Kenya. And there was a hell of a lot to discuss.