Rise of the Darklings (26 page)

He returned a moment later with a frightened-looking William. As soon as he saw Emily, he ran straight into her arms.

“Emily!” he gasped. “Em, don’t let the faeries take me away again. Please.”

Emily stroked his hair, feeling tears of relief come to her
eyes. This time, she didn’t do anything to stop them. “I won’t, Will. I promise. We’re going to escape. Right now. And then I know a place where you’ll be safe. A place the faeries can’t go.” She smiled, trying to put on a brave face. “Are you ready?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

A sudden thought struck Emily. If she had been here all day, what had happened to Jack? He had been expecting them to return last night.

“Do you know where Jack is?” she asked Corrigan.

The piskie frowned. “I’m not his keeper,” he said.

“Corrigan,” Emily said, warning clear in her voice. “What happened to Jack?”

Corrigan hesitated, then threw up his hands in annoyance. “He was caught trying to break in.”

“And you weren’t going to tell me?” Emily was outraged.

“He’s not important!”

“Yes, he is! Where is he now?”

“In one of the cells.”

Emily could hardly believe her ears. Corrigan was actually going to leave Jack behind.

“Go and release him!” she shouted.

“Do I have to?” whined Corrigan. “I don’t like him—”

“Now!”

“Fine!” snapped the piskie, and stamped back into the corridor.

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mily waited with William while Corrigan went to free Jack. The corridor smelled of damp mold. The only light came from the torch outside their cells. Emily could just see Corrigan’s shadowy form as he opened up a cell door farther down the passage. A moment later, Jack emerged from the cell. He saw Emily and William and ran to join them.

“Jack!” exclaimed William, darting forward to hug him. Jack ruffled his hair.

“Hullo, squire.” Jack turned his attention to Emily. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll be a lot better once we get out of this place,” said Emily.

“Follow me, then,” whispered Corrigan. “And for the sake
of my skin, please keep the volume down. If we’re caught, I’m dead.”

As they walked through the dark passage, Emily ran one hand along the wall and held William’s trembling hand with the other. Both were cold to the touch. Occasionally, pieces of the wall crumbled away beneath her fingers. The sound of the earth pattering to the floor was the only noise above William’s fearful breathing.

After a few minutes, Corrigan spoke. “Stairs ahead,” he whispered. “Watch yourself.”

Emily found a step and hesitantly put her weight on it, pulling William along with her. The Dark Man had brought her to the cell from the opposite direction, so she had no idea where Corrigan was taking them.

She counted the stairs as they climbed. After thirty-two steps, Corrigan opened a door into a corridor. A bright light shone from the far end of the passage.

They hurried along the corridor and through a door that took them into the main body of the house they had used to enter the Queen’s Court. Corrigan paused and listened, then hurried down another passage.

All the corridors they passed through were filled with dead leaves. The walls and roof were festooned with spiderwebs.

Corrigan stopped before another door and put his ear
to the wood. He listened carefully for a few seconds, then stepped back and pulled it open.

He ushered them through, and Emily found herself back in the foyer that led to the front door. Emily saw the look of worry on his face as he reached out to touch the doorknob.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jack.

Corrigan hesitated. “It’s the Sluagh,” he said.

“What of them?” said Emily. “They let us enter the garden.”

“Yes, but that was because they sensed our motives. They get inside your head. They’ll know we’re not meant to be here now.”

“Then we run,” said Emily. “No tricks or anything like that. We just run as fast as we can.”

“Easy for you to say,” said Corrigan.

“I’ll carry you.” She turned to William. His face was pale, his eyes wide with fear. “William? We’re nearly there, all right? I’m going to get you to a safe place, a place where they won’t be able to find you. But I need you to do one last thing for me. I need you to run with Jack as fast as you can. Don’t stop for anything. Don’t stop until you’re in the street outside. Can you do that?”

William nodded. “What about you?” he whispered.

“I’ll be right behind you. Don’t worry.” She turned her attention to Jack. “Get him out of the garden as quick as you
can. Don’t stop for anything. And don’t come back in once you’re outside. Promise?”

“Emily—”

“Jack, we don’t have the time! Just promise.”

“You sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“Then I promise.” Jack took William’s hand. “You ready, squire?”

William nodded. Emily turned to Corrigan and held out her hand. The piskie scampered up her arm and sat on her shoulder.

“You’d better hold on tight,” she said. “If you fall, I’m not coming back for you.”

“There’s gratitude for you,” muttered Corrigan, but Emily could feel his small hands tightening around her coat. “Now listen to me. You have to think that you belong here. You have to believe that this is the only place in the world where you should be. Maybe it will confuse them long enough to get out.”

Emily nodded. She placed her hand on the doorknob. “Ready?”

“No, but get a move on, anyway,” said Corrigan.

“William?”

“Ready, Emily.”

“Jack?”

Jack nodded.

Emily pushed open the door.

It was dark outside, and the air had the damp feeling of rain about it. Emily looked around but couldn’t see anything suspicious. The stone trail beckoned invitingly, a clear path through the overgrown garden.

Emily took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind of fear. It wasn’t easy. She told herself how inviting the garden looked, how nice it would be to walk among the flowers, how she had every right to be here and nothing could change that.

“Run,” she whispered.

William and Jack darted into the garden, Emily following close behind. William ran clumsily onto the path and headed for the gate, looking neither right nor left. Jack stayed right behind him, his hands held out in case Will stumbled.

They were halfway through the garden now, still running hard. Emily allowed herself a brief flash of hope. Maybe the Sluagh weren’t as bad as Corrigan thought. Maybe they wouldn’t even see them.

Then she heard it, a low hissing sound that seemed to enter her mind directly without traveling through her ears. It vibrated in her head, causing her ears to pop. Corrigan groaned in fear. Emily looked up and saw the cloud, just as she had seen it before, an oily, writhing, serpentine mass that looked like ink in water. Except now, Emily could see faces
inside the cloud. They pushed against the smoky substance, stretching it out as if they were trying to escape.

The cloud was heading straight for William and Jack. They were close to the gate, just another few steps …

It was no use. Emily could see they weren’t going to make it. She kept running, wanting to get as close to the gate as she possibly could. But then, just before the cloud reached William, she stopped moving and dropped her guard. She thought about the Queen, how she had escaped her. About how angry she would be.

“What are you doing?” hissed Corrigan from her shoulder. “Keep going!”

The cloud halted. It roiled faster, as if a wind was blowing it from inside. Emily saw William and Jack reach the gate, saw Jack yank it open and push William through. They were free. She felt a wave of relief that quickly turned to horror when she saw the faces appear at the back of the cloud, looking directly at her with black eyes, mouths wide as if they were screaming. But all Emily heard was the hissing. It filled her head, growing louder and louder until it drowned out everything around her. She was distantly aware of Corrigan shouting at her, telling her to run, but all she could do was stare at the faces and let the hissing wrap itself around her mind. There was no escape. She knew that. She would be sucked into the cloud and forced to become one
with it, trapped for centuries with the other dead souls.

Emily was vaguely aware that these were not her thoughts, that the Sluagh were in her mind and feeding her despair. But at the same time there was nothing she could do. She wasn’t strong enough to fight. How many people had been drawn into the cloud? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? How was she supposed to fight something like that?

But then she saw another face push out of the mass, squeezing between two snarling masks of hatred. This face was different. It wasn’t screaming. It wasn’t angry. It just looked … sad. Other faces appeared, snapping at it with wraithlike jaws. Emily thought she could make out the features of an old, terrifying woman, and another wearing an old-fashioned helm. Like some kind of knight. But the face ignored them. It stared at Emily, and Emily stared back.

“Go now,” said a voice in her head, and Emily knew it was the face talking to her. “I have waited many decades to repay my debt to you, Emily Snow. It is done.”

The hissing in her head faded until it was nothing but a background buzz. Emily stumbled forward, almost falling to her knees as she became aware of her surroundings again. Corrigan was shouting at her. William was standing at the gate, tears streaming down his face. Jack was in the garden again, heading along the path toward her. The face
was slowly fading, sinking back within the cloud.

“What are you waiting for?” shouted Corrigan. “Run, you stupid girl, run!”

Emily ran, skirting the black cloud. She could just make out howls of anger at her escape. Faces pushed forward, mouths snapped as they tried to stop her, but the cloud itself didn’t move. Whoever had spoken to her was keeping it back.

Jack waited till she drew even with him, then pushed her ahead. William was holding the gate open. Emily sprinted through, followed closely by Jack. She quickly turned back and slammed it shut. She saw the face again, and this time saw it was the face of a girl. It gave her a ghostly smile. Then it drifted back into the cloud.

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