Icefall (12 page)

‘Yes. Lauren, listen. Is there anyone else here?'

She stared at me for a moment, then gave an awful hysterical laugh.

‘I don't know. Are they gone? Please.'

~
Something terrible happened here. And it's to do with us.
Sionnach's eyes fastened on mine, bright and pitiless. ~
I should kill her, Hannah. I'll be quick.

~
No!
I lunged forward, grabbing Lauren's arms to try to pull her away. She shrieked with fear.

~
She'll tell. She'll bring down the full-mortals. Too many mistakes, Currac, I've made too many mistakes in my life already. I lost Finn to Kate and I lost control of Eili and—

‘I said
no
!' I shouted aloud, panic making my heart crunch in my chest.

‘No?' Lauren's teeth were chattering hard. ‘They're not gone? Please, please, they're gone, tell me. It's just dead people now. Dead people! Oh, my God! Mum!'

‘Shush. Lauren, shush. Listen, we have to get out of here! You have to calm down.
Please.'

‘But Mum! Dad! Shania! The police, call the police. The police!' Wriggling out of Sionnach's arms, she stumbled to her bedside table and grabbed her phone. It was charging, and it took a second for her to tug it free of the socket, and that was long enough for Sionnach. I didn't have the presence of mind to stop him, but he only grabbed her, thank God. His fingers closed round her temples. She swayed in his grip, then slumped, and he hooked his arm under her armpits to support her.

~
Get Rory. Call Rory NOW.

*   *   *

‘How many bloody corpses are we planning to hide?' I yelled.

Rory looked shamefaced. I don't think he'd wanted to do it at all; it was just that Sionnach was still angry with me at that point and he wouldn't take
but there's been a hideous crime and we need to tell the police
for an answer. Rory had ripped the Veil, and between the two of them they'd calmly and efficiently disposed of the bodies of almost all that was left of my former family.

‘Sionnach did the right thing,' snapped Grian. ‘He was in their house with a bloody sword and apparently he'd already beaten up the neighbour's Doberman.'

‘Look at his face,' Sorcha pointed out, and Sionnach nodded. ‘There walks a man who looks like he's been in many a knife fight. They'd arrest him on the spot.'

‘I have been in many a knife fight,' said Sionnach reasonably. ~
And by the way, don't anybody complain that we brought Lauren back here.

‘Of course not,' said Grian gruffly. ‘You had no choice.'

Sionnach glanced at me, and his words were for me alone. ~
I did have a choice, but I didn't get to make it.

‘How is the girl?' asked Seth, rubbing his head.

‘Asleep again,' said Finn. ‘That's about all you can say.'

Finn stood in the doorway hugging herself, not meeting my eyes. She didn't look at anyone but Seth. Braon and Grian were there, and Savage Sorcha because she'd taken a lustful liking to Grian; but Orach had dragged Sulaire out to the pub, to keep him out of the way. Iolaire and Jed had reappeared, after a brief trip to the off-license. Sionnach had never left, of course. He hadn't gone far from me at all. Nice of him. Thoughtful.

‘What's the situation at the house?' asked Grian. ‘How long have we got before somebody asks questions?'

Practical man. Pig.

~
We cleaned up the blood as best we could.
Sionnach nodded at me. ~
Moved some rugs. Shifted the furniture. Turned off the sockets. They're on holiday.
And both Marty's car and Shania's were now parked behind our own house, next to my father's ancient Audi, under the laurels. Just as well Sionnach and Rory could think fast and straight.

‘Keep the girl asleep,' said Grian. ‘I fixed the cut on her head as well as I could. Caorann, you need to work on the inside of it.'

‘It's not like Finn can make her forget
that,
' snapped Seth.

‘Convince her it's a secret. She's in hiding from the killers. I don't bloody know, do I? If she goes to the police, Sionnach's had it. We all have.' Grian gave Jed a meaningful look, but Jed's expression stayed cool.

Finn didn't say anything. She probably looked more shocked than I did, because I couldn't feel a thing. I was watching it all from space. Rory and I sat curled together on the sofa, feet hitched up, my back against his chest and his arms around me, but I didn't feel like I needed the comfort. I almost couldn't see what the fuss was about. Not from out here in space.

Finn lingered in the doorway as if she didn't know what to do or where to go next. ‘I nearly killed Shania once,' she mumbled.

‘Well, you didn't.' Seth leaned forward on the edge of a chair, watching her. ‘Somebody else did.'

‘I can't believe it.' Finn raked her fingers into her hair. ‘Hannah, I saw your aunt yesterday morning. In the High Street. Just
yesterday
.'

Nobody said a word. We all tried not to meet her eyes. Then Seth got to his feet and put an arm round her shoulders.

‘Oh,' she whispered. ‘Oh, God.' She put her hands over her face. Seth put his other arm round her, but she pushed him back, clutching her skull.

‘You weren't to know,' he said. ‘How were you meant to know?'

‘Sheena looked right through me. Right through me, didn't say a word. I thought she was just being snotty. Oh,
hell
.'

‘What were you supposed to do? You couldn't know it was just a fetch.'

‘I could have warned Sheena,' she moaned. ‘I could have gone to her house and warned her.'

Sionnach, propped against the wall with his arms folded, shook his head.

Seth said, ‘You know it doesn't work like that. It wouldn't have made any difference.'

‘There was nothing you could do,' said Rory. His voice was low and comforting in my ear, as if he was talking as much to me as to his stepmother. ‘Nothing, Finn. It's a lousy talent. I'm glad I haven't got it.'

‘Why didn't they kill her too?' said Jed. ‘The girl?'

He sounded like Sionnach; as if he thought it would be better that way. I shivered a little and Rory's arms tightened round me.

‘They thought they had,' said Finn. ‘Far as we can tell, she played dead.'

‘Smart kid,' said Seth.

‘Almost incredibly smart,' said Iolaire. ‘How could they possibly make that mistake?'

‘Yeah,' said Seth. ‘I'm getting a bad feeling about this.'

‘Seth,' sighed Finn, with a sarcasm that sounded almost normal, ‘four people have had their throats cut. I'd hope you'd have a bad feeling about it.'

‘That's not what I meant.' He gave her a wry grin. ‘I mean, why didn't they notice her mind was still active?'

‘She was blocking,' I said suddenly.

Everybody's attention turned to me. I reddened.

‘I felt something,' I mumbled. ‘Like a block.'

‘No way,' said Iolaire in astonishment. ‘No
way.
'

Finn looked doubtful. ‘Conal said there might be Sithe blood in that family. He reckoned that's why Shania took notice of me.'

‘Come on,' protested Seth. ‘A little blood? She can't be Sithe enough to raise a spontaneous block. Without even
knowing
she was doing it.'

‘Trauma,' remarked Grian knowledgeably. ‘Perfectly possible.'

‘Then why wouldn't they sense the block? It doesn't make sense, Gri.'

‘Aren't you all missing the point?' I said it quietly, but I was suddenly furious with the lot of them, I don't know why. ‘I don't care why they didn't kill Lauren! The point is, why
did
they kill the rest of them?'

They were paying attention now, shamed, but it didn't make me any less angry. By now I was blazing with rage.

‘They killed them to get at me!' I shouted. ‘They killed them because I went to see them! Because I was related to them!'

Finn crouched beside me and tentatively touched my hand. I snatched it away.

‘Hannah,' she whispered, ‘it isn't your fault.'

Which is when I started, embarrassingly, to cry.

 

Kate

‘Caorann's onto me,' hissed Kate.

‘Or she thinks she is,' said Langfank. ‘Which isn't quite the same thing, now, is it?'

Kate had nothing against Lammyr, generally speaking, but nobody could ever say they were sweet when they smiled. She gave it a tight-lipped smirk in return. ‘No. And it's not as if there's anything she can do about it.' She drew the falcon charm from the pouch at her hip and turned it in her fingers, thoughtful. She loved the feel of it, the smoothness of the glassy stone, the tingle of the sorcery against her skin. ‘And even if she does…'

‘She doesn't have the strength,' agreed the Lammyr. ‘Your Grace.'

Kate's smile became more genuine. ‘I like you, Langfank.'

It inclined its head with a little grin, and shot a smug glance at Cluaran, who kept his mouth sensibly shut.

The day was perfect. Thin mist ribboned the valley below, but it glowed bright and pearly, and up here on the higher slopes, the sun dazzled from a sky streaked by a single downy feather of cirrus. The lines of an old fort remained, clear on the lumpy grassland. Some of its singed walls still stood, but at this hour they cast barely a shadow.

‘Who are they?' Alainn MacAleister nudged her horse forward to Kate's side, and jerked a thumb at the cadavers piled in the corner of a ruined hall.

And why was that captain still on her horse when Kate herself had dismounted? Pursing her lips at Alainn, Kate turned to give Cluaran a tiny nod. It amused her that his weather-tanned face could drain so quickly of colour.

‘No-one important,' Kate told Alainn at last. ‘Not in themselves, at least.' With one booted foot she nudged the sprawled arm of the gore-drenched man. ‘Gracious, Cuthag hasn't any room for sentiment, has he?'

‘No,' grunted Cluaran, ‘but he's got enthusiasm.'

Kate shuddered delicately. She'd had a sentimental side once herself, but that was long gone, so she could hardly condemn the faithful Cuthag.

‘Well. It's rather a mess, but the crows will take them soon enough.' Kate stooped to stroke the younger woman's hair. Hanks of it still shone caramel-gold through the clotted blood. A pity, really. She'd been a pretty thing, even more so than her mother, and she'd probably had better taste in fashion, though now she was wrapped only in a soaking, pink-blotched towel. Kate glanced with distaste at the older woman's sequinned jeans.

She stood up straight. ‘The boy's ready,' she told them. She smiled at all four captains, but saved the warmth of her expression for the Lammyr. ‘I'd say he's at the peak of his powers. It's time.'

Cluaran muttered his agreement; Alainn and the other two captains nodded; but the Lammyr was the only one who went on holding her gaze, its face thoughtful. As she walked to the edge of the hill to look back at the ruined fortress, it ambled after her.

‘It was a long way to ride for a few corpses,' it said. It scraped with a bare foot at the red earth.

‘I wanted you all to see that we are ready,' said Kate. ‘East, west: they're all one to me.'

‘Your ambition becomes you, Your Loveliness.'

All right, the Lammyr was going a bit far now. If she'd had a suspicious mind, she'd have thought the thing was mocking her.

All the same, their impertinent disrespect was part of why she loved the brutes. Any irreverence her own people showed her was a lot more dull. And it wouldn't go on for much longer. And at least you could always rely on a Lammyr for cold-hearted constancy. If nothing else, they took themselves a lot more seriously than they pretended.

‘How will your clann react,' it said, ‘when you explain what you're really going to become?'

‘Will it matter?' She shrugged elegant shoulders. ‘We're close now, Langfank. You'll like my world, and the Darkfall can no more break an oath than you Lammyr can.'

‘I know. We're quite excited. We've never had a god of our own. What about the young witch you want?'

‘That's in hand.' Kate smiled. ‘If you want to separate a sheep from the flock, all you need is a well-controlled dog.'

Hooded crows were circling now, and one of them landed close to her. It cocked its head and rasped a petulant cry.
It wants us to get a move on,
she thought.
And so do I.
The birds must have been here before Kate and her fighters; the younger man was eyeless. She kicked casually at his corpse. ‘That was a strong one. I'd have liked that soul. The older one was stringy.'

‘At least you got it. Tsk. Try to kill his own daughter: how could he?'

She gave it a gimlet glance, suspecting mockery again. ‘We know very well how he could.'

‘Indeed, and he certainly gave it up to you with enthusiasm. Lustily, indeed. Well, well; you'll have your pick of souls soon.' Langfank blinked its yellow eyes. ‘I take it you're ready to proceed, Your Regalness?'

‘Now that Murlainn's son is. Yes.' Kate breathed in the scent of whin and broom and April chill. Her nerves and muscles thrilled to it all as she walked back to her captains. She could even stand the blue, blue sky.

Cluaran cupped his hands once again to help her mount. She heard his soft voice as she settled on the mare's back.

~
These people were true innocents, Kate, but never forget it doesn't matter in the long run. Innocents always die in war, and you'll kill fewer than most.

Fool, she thought.
Fool.

His words had riled her more than she'd thought possible. Glancing back at the bodies as she spurred her mare, she thought she felt the faintest resounding, an echo of a residual twinge in her heart. Was Cluaran right? Could that possibly be
regret
? Not that she'd have heeded it, but would the Darkfall be disappointed in her all the same?