The Ascension (19 page)

Somehow, Gem doubted it. That brought fresh worry to her, until she was
fraught
with it, though whether it was for Devon as a man, or simply because her father had said that they needed him, she couldn’t say. Maybe she didn’t
want
to say.

Of course, it probably counted as
hypocrisy
of the worst kind to go around being scared for someone’s wel -being just after you had sent out your army to battle theirs. Stil , Gem couldn’t help her fear.

Nor could she help it getting worse as she saw a golden-robed figure fighting his way towards Devon with cool, measured strokes of his blade that cut down any fairy warrior
hapless
enough to get close.

That Goolrick might seek Devon out had not occurred to Gem. He seemed to be advancing with real purpose. Was it only that Devon was the enemy commander, or had Goolrick somehow learned of Devon’s interest in her? Gem didn’t know how he could have, but there did seem to be a real spark of hatred between them as they stood in a rare clear moment in the melee, just staring at one another.

Gem could see that it would only be a matter of time before they charged, and when they did, at least one of the men who cared for her would die.

Gem knew she couldn’t al ow it.

“Dive,” she ordered the Dragon. “It is
imperative
that we stop them.” The Dragon plummeted like a missile, forcing Gem to hold on for dear life. Even as she and her dragon fel though, Gem could see that whatever blink or slight movement was needed to
instigate
the battle between Goolrick and Devon had already happened. She was too late.

The two young men charged at each other, shouting words of magic even as they raised their swords for the first blows.

“Between them!” Gem ordered the Dragon, knowing that its hide would be
impervious
to anything either of the men could throw at it. “Get between them!”

The Dragon tried, Gem had to give it that. It came to earth with a bump that nearly shook Gem from its back, and that sent several surrounding men on both sides stumbling from their feet. It should have resulted in Devon bouncing off one side of the Dragon, while Goolrick bounced off the other. The trouble was, the two men were no longer there.

There were two faint shimmers in the air, but beyond that, Gem couldn’t see any sign of them. As far as she could tel , wizardly magic had met fairy magic, and the result had been total disappearance.

For a moment, Gem didn’t know what to do.

With Devon gone, what chance was there of stopping this battle peaceful y. She had hoped that seeing her alive and free would have had a
pacific
effect on the fairy knight, leading him to cal off his army’s assault. Of course, Gem reasoned, that didn’t mean that some sort of
accord
wasn’t stil the way forward. It just meant that she needed more leverage.

Impetuously
, she dove from the Dragon’s back, ducking between the waiting knights before they could ful y recover from the sight of the creature landing among them. Gem dodged a half-hearted swing from one fairy soldier, stepping around another in the search for Devon’s second in command. Would she even recognize someone she had only seen from the air?

It was a ful minute before Gem spotted him, and in that minute, Gem found herself experiencing a
harrowing
mixture of violence and near misses.

Men died around her, while others attacked, only to fal back as Gem used a mixture of ruler words, physical attacks, and simple evasion to keep herself alive. Maybe abandoning the Dragon hadn’t been such a good idea.

Final y though, Gem spotted him, a slender fairy young man with long flowing white hair, who was attempting to shout orders from a clear space on a smal rise. Gem ran towards him, but skirted round the rise at the last moment so that she could come up behind him. Scanning the battlefield for a suitable
implement
, she snatched up a dagger from a fal en soldier before stepping forward to place it to the second in command’s throat.

“Do you know who I am?” Gem demanded.

“Why yes, Your Majesty. Both our war leader and our queen have spoken of you.”

“Your war leader is gone. Devon disappeared only minutes ago.”

“I am aware of that.”

“Devon was
integral
to your chances of success,” Gem argued. “Without him as a
linchpin
, you can’t win. It’s better for al of us if you and I can come to a peaceful solution. Just tel your men to pul back, and we can find a way.”

If Gem expected the fairy soldier to say yes, she was sorely disappointed. He twisted, grabbing Gem’s wrist in the process, and at the end of the movement the knife was in his hand, not hers.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that. Devon might lead us in war, but he is not our ruler. The Winter Queen has given her commands, and we must fol ow them to the death. Unfortunately, her commands concerning you are clear.”

He raised the dagger, but in his rush to hurt her, he forgot the simple precaution of stopping Gem from speaking.

“Deleterious.”

The fairy man fel back, dead. If he had been alone, that would have been an end to it, but now Gem found herself stranded in the middle of the Winter Court’s forces, and an increasing number of eyes were turning her way. A rough circle of fairy knights started to form around her, and Gem could see the threat in their eyes. It seemed that they were as determined as their superior to carry out their queen’s
mandate
.

Fire blasted the earth where they stood, and the men scattered. The Dragon stomped through, pausing only briefly to swat aside a fairy who came too close. Gem ran for it, knowing that it was probably her best chance of getting out of there alive. The trouble was, being as accustomed to the strange as to the
mundane
, a few of the Winter Court knights were already recovering from their shock at being attacked by a Dragon, and were starting to run for Gem. There was no way she would be faster than them.

The middle of the Dragon’s three heads swept down, snatching up Gem by her armor and depositing her gently on the creature’s back. The other two swept gouts of flame in front of the pursuing knights. Gem clung on as the Dragon reared, making the men fal back again, looks of awe directed, not just at the great beast, but also apparently at her. It was nice to know that there was something she could do to get their respect, even if that something turned out to be riding a creature that could flame gril them with ease.

A sweeping beat of the Dragon’s wings had them airborne again, and apparently headed for the castle. Gem tried tel ing the creature to set her down near the battle lines, but for once it ignored her, landing lightly on the roof of one of the castle’s towers.

“Do you real y think having to take a walk through my own castle is going to stop me getting back to the battle?” Gem demanded, but the Dragon just hopped lightly down into the castle courtyard by way of an answer, abandoning her there. Annoyed now, but deciding that
railing
at the creature wouldn’t achieve anything, Gem hunted around until she found a trapdoor leading down into the castle.

She sped along the corridors at first, knowing that she had to get back to the gate to take charge.

Gradual y though, Gem slowed, looking around.

There was something wrong, something subtly different about the castle, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first.

It only became clear when Gem started to see signs of technology. Someone had left their phone on a side table by accident, while there were occasional glimpses of cables, and a couple of the doors had electronic locks. That could mean only one thing as far as Gem was concerned. She wasn’t in her own castle at al . She had a pretty good idea of where she was though.

Searching until she found a familiar landmark, Gem made her way to the central hal way. Dr. Percy Brown was there waiting for her.

“Where is my father?” Gem demanded, and presumably she pitched the tone of voice correctly, because the physician didn’t waste her time.

“He… he’s in his study.”

“Of course he is. Where else would he be?” Gem set off at something close to a run, racing her way along the familiar route to Henry Word’s study. She paused before opening the door, revealing her father at his desk, on a chair he had obviously stolen from somewhere else, while watching something on a monitor. He looked busy.

Gem didn’t care.

“That’s the second war you’ve pul ed me away from today.
What
do you think you’re doing, Father?”

Henry Word considered his daughter. She was so beautiful, and so brave, and so
vivacious
in some ways that it was almost painful, because it reminded him so much of her mother. Particularly when she looked angry enough to
vituperate
him at any moment.

“So why did you do it?” she demanded. “Why did you pul me out of there when I could have won the battle?”

“Won?” Henry shook his head. “Gem, the battles are only just beginning. Even if you win one, you won’t win the war.” He gestured to the monitor in front of him. “Come and look.”

Briefly, it looked like his daughter might
repudiate
even that request, but she nodded, stepping around the table to watch.

The monitor played scenes from the battle taking place on Myriad. There was Sparks, being swept back from his fight with Jack by a surge in the troops around him, clutching his leg as he did so.

There was Kat, dodging a swing from Rio and stabbing back at him to open a cut along his side.

The angle was good enough to see the slight change in her eyes as she did it, the confusion that fil ed her features.

Henry adjusted the sound. It shouldn’t have been possible to hear one conversation in the middle of a battle, but they had ways around that.

“Rio?

I

don’t

understand.

What

is

happening?”

The girl didn’t get an answer, because at that point, half a dozen werewolves rushed forward to rescue Rio, forcing Kat to retreat into the Winter ranks.

More scenes fol owed. There were stands by individual groups of fairy knights, clashes between polar bears and satyrs that looked like great col isions of fur and flesh, even brawls between timber wolves and shape changed werewolves, so that no one looking from the outside could possibly know who was winning.

The two queens clashed more than once, but each time found the duel going past its
pinnacle
with no victor. They were simply too evenly matched.

Around them, their armies flung themselves at one another with the fury of waves crashing over rocks by day, while hardly resting at night as smal groups of skirmishers went out.

Even some of the scenes from the camps they made at night were heartbreaking to Henry. In the camp of the Summer forces, Sparks stalked angrily through the place, ignoring offers of
debauched
distractions from the Summer Queen’s maids, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the spot where the silent figure of Rio sat among the werewolves, never looking over at him.

In the camp of the Winter forces, Kat wandered fitful y at night, never seeming to settle in one place. When she got too near the edge of the camp, she would be turned back by a living, black and white wal of stoic penguins, but otherwise she just spiraled aimlessly around the tents. Her brother would occasional y fetch her back, but there seemed to be something harder now about Jack, more focus.

He ignored the
privations
of camp living, and even volunteered for night time raids, coming back several times with blood upon his swords.

With neither side having a
preponderance
of force, there seemed to be no end to it. The battle went on and on, played out in violence that Henry found sickening, but that he forced himself to watch anyway. He could never
revel
in it, the way the Winter Queen seemed to, the way they al seemed to when the madness of the violence swept them up, but he would not look away. He was glad to see that Gem didn’t either.

“But this… this can’t be right,” she insisted. “I have only been gone a few hours. This is too much to have happened.”

“Time is different in Myriad,” Henry reminded her. “Just as it was for me. For them, it has been days. Long, deadly days. There has been only one piece of good news…” the scene on the monitor changed again, showing both sides limping back from the battlefield.

“Who won?”

“No one. Even this wil be a temporary peace.

Either the Summer Court wil demand
restitution
, or the Winter Court wil strike again. The battle in Anachronia continues too. In fact, it has yet to reach its
zenith
.”

“And you’ve snatched me away,” Gem pointed out. “I need to be there.”

Henry shook his head.

“You need to be
here
. There are things that you need to know, things that might eventual y provide a way to help.”

“Such as?”

Henry paused, biting his lip. This wasn’t an easy thing to say, but he said it anyway.

“Gem, I’m dying.”

“What? You can’t be. Since when?”

Henry shook his head sadly.