Ruins (37 page)

“Stay away from me!” she yelled.

Nicholas held his hands up, wincing at the shard of pain in his broken forearm. “Woah, okay. I’m sorry. I’m staying right here. Away.”

Anguish was all over her face and she was shaking. “That thing,” she trembled. “I didn’t think... He said... What was it?”

“Something very bad,” Nicholas said. “Which is why we need to get out of here.”

“Not going anywhere with you,” Rae spat. “Just leave me alone.”

“That’s sort of not an option,” Nicholas said, trying to remain calm. “I’ve... been looking for you.”

“Why is everybody obsessed with following me?!”

“If you just shut up for a minute and let me explain–” he began, his patience dwindling.

“You shut up.”

Stay
calm
, he told himself.

She got to her feet and staggered out of the cage. As she stepped through the warped door, though, she wobbled and grabbed one of the bars. Nicholas imagined what it must be like to come across something like the faceless man alone in the dark. He’d been scared, and he’d already encountered his share of demons.

“Take it easy,” he said.

“What was that thing?” she asked again, her voice shaking.

“A monster. Laurent wants it out there killing. He wants a whole world of monsters because he doesn’t know how to get along with people.”

“He didn’t say that,” Rae murmured. “He wants to fix things. Make them better... That thing... Why didn’t it have a face?”

“Never come across a good-looking demon before,” Nicholas shrugged.

She looked at him and the hardness had gone from her jaw.

“It looked different before. Then I felt it in my head and it changed.” She shook herself. “What you mean, you were looking for me?”

“It’s kind of a long story and I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you...”

“That thing had no face.”

Nicholas didn’t know where to begin. He decided to keep it simple. “Laurent thinks you have this power. He’s lied to you from the moment you met him because he wants to use you.”

“He hasn’t.” She didn’t sound certain.

“Where is he now?” Nicholas demanded. “Hiding somewhere; too much of a coward to come down here. He sent you to do his dirty work.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It is. And it’s not safe here. Come with me and I’ll tell you everything.”

“I’m getting out of here.”

She turned to leave and, desperately, Nicholas grabbed her arm.

It was as if somebody had torn the lid off his mind. Images spilled inside.

Rae sleeps under a park bench; a homeless man and woman heckle her; Rae sobs in the rain, clutching something in her hand; a raven pendant; a young boy lies dead in the rubble of a decimated building...

Rae wrenched her arm free.

“What you doing?” she cried.

“I didn’t mean... That’s never happened before,” Nicholas murmured. Not with a person, anyway. He’d seen her life, or snatches of it. He felt a rush of empathy. She’d had it tough. She was his age and she’d endured things he’d never dreamed of. The street was no place for anybody, let alone a kid.

The raven pendant
. Rae had one, too.

Finally, he understand why he kept seeing it in his visions. Liberty had been right. It was the key.

“Look,” he said. He pulled something from his pocket and held it up. The raven necklace his parents had given him. Rae’s expression changed. She reached to her neck and tugged at a slender chain, revealing an identical necklace.

“How much do you know about all of this?” he asked.

She didn’t answer, her attention captured by his silver raven. Perhaps she couldn’t find the words. It was a lot to take in and Laurent must have been very convincing.

“You can still make it right,” Nicholas said. “Come on.”

The fight had left her. He walked ahead, listening for her footsteps behind him. She followed.

It was easier getting out. Whatever enchantments had been woven over the caves only seemed to work one way – they wanted to stop anybody entering, rather than leaving. The priests must have felt confident that nothing would ever escape the oblituss.

After what felt like an age, they finally stepped through the oblituss door, emerging back into the tunnels.

Merlyn grabbed Nicholas’s shoulders.

“Nicholas,” he gasped. “We were about to come after you, but that thing...”

“We have to stop it,” Nicholas said. “Whatever it is. We have to stop it from getting out.”

Merlyn looked crestfallen. Nicholas glanced over at Nale, who was on the floor, his back pressed up against the wall. He was staring down at his large hands, a look of disbelief on his face. The gauntlet must not have worked on the faceless man. An unconscious form lay in the rubble. Harry.

“It’s too late,” Merlyn breathed. “It’s already out.”

CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE

The Faceless Man

T
HE FIGURE WALKED CALMLY, ITS STEPS
unhurried. It carried a cane in one hand, a bowler hat resting on a poised head.

The figure had no face.

In the market square, the clock began to toll. Five chimes. Evening was approaching. The faceless man observed the clock, then turned toward movement. Somebody had emerged from a shop and was busily locking up. A middle-aged man attended to the door so closely that he didn’t notice the figure in the bowler hat coast silently up to him.

The faceless man extended a hand, stretched slender fingers toward the shopkeeper.

He tapped the man lightly on the shoulder, then stood silently, observing.

The shopkeeper stopped what he was doing. Clumsy fingers unlocked the shop again and ungainly feet shambled inside. As if in a dream, he plodded through the murk, passing rows of garden tools and merry-faced gnomes.

He took a bottle from a shelf. The label read:
petroleum
. Like a sleepwalker, the man popped the cap and stumbled back through the shop, slopping stinking liquid out onto the floor.

At the front of the shop, he stood in the window. Staring out at the market square, eyes unseeing, lips unmoving, the shopkeeper upended the bottle.

He doused himself in the petroleum.

He struck a match.

*

“Guys, we need to get out of here,” Merlyn said, helping Harry to his feet. Blood stained the older man’s sleeve and he held onto Merlyn for support. Nicholas went over and put Harry’s other arm around his free shoulder.

Clumsily, they made their way through the tunnels. There wasn’t a single Harvester to obstruct their way. Laurent’s army seemed to have retreated.

Or they’re off doing more important things
, Nicholas thought.

The evening air was warm and anxious and Nicholas cast a worried look up into the sky as something squealed in the heavens.

Harry tensed beside him. The mournful wail swooped around them. It sailed over their heads, and though Nicholas couldn’t see the winged monsters, he knew they were out there.

“Aledites,” he murmured.

“You alright?” Merlyn asked on the other side of Harry.

Nicholas nodded and cast a worried look at Rae. She seemed to have retreated into her own private dream world. She looked wiped out. Ready for bed. Or the grave, whichever came first. Rae probably wouldn’t mind which, going by her expression.

All he knew was that she was the reason he’d come to Bury. Rae was where the trail ended; the one that Esus had ordered him to follow. It was probably why Jessica had permitted him to leave Hallow House. Rae needed to be found. She was powerful – she had to be if she was coveted by the servants of the Dark Prophets.

The thing that really worried him was the fact that Laurent had abandoned her in the tunnels. Was he done with her? Was that it? Had she fulfilled her purpose? Nicholas was sure there was more to it. A sneaking suspicion formed in his mind and he resolved to keep a close eye on Rae.

“You did alright back there,” Merlyn said.

“Cheers.”

“Listen, if we get through this alive, we should go out and have fun or something. Forget about the bogies and drink something we shouldn’t.”

Fun
. Nicholas had forgotten what that was.

“Yeah,” he said. “That’d be good.”

“What kind of music you into?”

Nicholas had a strange sensation of being split down the middle. It had been ages since he’d had a conversation that didn’t revolve around monsters. He’d forgotten how to talk about normal things. Things that weren’t trying to kill or manipulate him at every turn.

“Uh, anything that was recorded before the millennium,” he offered, thinking about the CDs he’d inherited from his grandparents and his store of classic eighties rock albums.

Merlyn grinned. “We’re going to get along just fine.”

They made it to Aileen’s in one piece. The landlady was waiting for them in the hall, already wearing a tabard and a pair of medical gloves. She must have been expecting the worst, and when she saw Harry was injured, she took him from Merlyn.

“Come on, dear,” she said softly. “Let’s patch you up.” She and Nale shouldered the injured man’s weight and took him into the kitchen, Zeus padding silently behind.

Nicholas was about to turn to Rae when somebody flew out of the living room. Liberty crashed into Merlyn, shoving him against the wall. She was soaked through and her eyes were gleaming black buttons.

“Why’d you do it?” she demanded, pinning Merlyn with her arm.

“Liberty–” Nicholas began, but she shoved Merlyn again.

“You knew, didn’t you? You set us up. Who put you up to it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Merlyn choked.

“Tell me the truth!” Liberty yelled. Her eyes locked with Merlyn’s and he cried out in pain. With a lurch, Nicholas realised Liberty was reading the teenager, just as Nicholas had read the people in the Abbey Gardens that day.

After a moment, the dangerous glint in Liberty’s eyes faded and she let Merlyn go. Instead of retaliating angrily, he put a hand on the Sensitive’s shoulder, the fear turning to concern.

“What happened?” he asked.

“They took him.” She looked around suddenly, noticing Rae. Her features were pinched, dark bags under her eyes. The change in her set nervous butterflies skittering in Nicholas’s belly. “Is everybody okay? What happened in the tunnels?”

“We’re fine. Mostly. Are you?” he asked. “Where’s Sam?”

“Something happened in Ipswich. The police took him.”

“The
police
?” Nicholas didn’t understand. “What do they want with him?”

“There was an incident. Solomon’s dead. I managed to avoid being spotted by the police, but Sam wasn’t so lucky. The good news is that he’s at the station here in town. Something about the Ipswich station being refurbished. I don’t know.” She sighed. “Merlyn, I’m sorry–”

“We’re going to get him out, right?” Nicholas interrupted.

“I’m working on it,” Liberty said.

“I think Harry could use one of your brews,” Merlyn said. “He’s in bad shape.”

Liberty nodded.

“See you in a bit.”

Her voice echoed in Nicholas’s head as she and Merlyn disappeared back into the kitchen.

Nicholas felt at a loss. He’d found Rae, and now Sam was gone. He knew he should talk to Rae, try to understand her, find out which lies Laurent had filled her head with, but he didn’t know where to start. He suddenly understood Jessica’s evasiveness. What if Rae fell apart when he told her the truth? Or worse, blew him up?

“You’re back.” Dawn lingered at the foot of the stairs, half in shadow. She must have seen the whole thing.

“In one piece,” Nicholas said.

“You?” Rae shot Dawn a dirty look. “What is this, some kind of stalkers fan club?”

Dawn avoided her gaze.

“You two know each other?” Nicholas asked.

“We met,” Rae muttered.

An uncomfortable silence lay between them.

“Uh, you might want to come and look at this,” Dawn said, turning and heading upstairs.

“Well, stop dithering,” Isabel said impatiently. Rae shot the cat a surprised look.

“She’s more verbal than most cats,” Nicholas explained.

“And he enjoys stating the obvious,” the cat added.

“Let’s see what Dawn’s found,” Nicholas said.

The cat clambered up the stairs and Nicholas hurried after her, hearing Rae behind him. Dawn’s bedroom door was slightly ajar. She looked up from the desk as they entered.

“Purple, wow, what a shock,” Rae muttered, though she couldn’t hide her curiosity as she peered around the room, just as Nicholas had done the first time he saw the wall crammed with photos and diagrams. She strolled over to it. Pictures showed tribesmen practicing strange rituals. A star chart was marked up with lines. The photos of Nicholas and Rae were pinned alongside an illustration of a boy and girl holding hands.