The House (54 page)

I glanced at
Stripes. She was smiling at Eddie in such a way as I knew she was
influenced by knowing he’d knocked me up. Only she didn’t seem
upset about it. Shifters had a tendency to see children as a
blessing. The more time she had to think about it, the more she
seemed to be happy about it. It was all well and good for her; it
wasn’t her life on the line. It wasn’t her child that was being
risked.

I pulled
myself back from those thoughts. Stripes could be happy if she
wanted. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be the only one. I’d
thought myself that if Marie was still alive I would have taken it
as a blessing as well. But she wasn’t and I couldn’t. At that
moment I could only see it was one more worry, one more potential
death.

“We’d love to
play,” I said. Stripes would never tell my secret if I didn’t want
her to, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t do something to make
it more obvious; by accident or on purpose. I wasn’t sure which way
she’d go yet but I knew that she wouldn’t be able to help herself.
I needed to be the one to tell Eddie. More than that, he needed to
hear it from me. And he needed to know soon, especially since my
mind was solidifying faster and faster around the idea of a child.
A baby to hold and love and cuddle; I’d wanted it since I was a
little girl. I’d been raised to want it. One of the few things I
hadn’t fought against.

We played
monopoly. It was the hardest game I’d had in a while. In fact, I
could barely remember the last time I’d played it. Jalas was
amazing; I guess he’d had the longest to practice. Stripes was
always far too nice but somehow she always managed to keep from
going bankrupt. I was mostly just glad that it was something else
to think about. Keeping track of the game took all my
concentration.

After monopoly
was finally finished, with Jalas as the clear winner, we had lunch.
I brought out the bag Hercules had given me with all the food in
it. It was quite a spread; anyone walking past would have thought
we had twice as many people to feed. It was a good reminder that we
were shifters. Jalas hardly ate anything. He didn’t get most of his
energy from food; he needed some, but not nearly as much as even a
normal human.

I chose a ham
and cheese sandwich with some thick leek and potato soup that
coated my mouth as I ate. I only spilled a little bit down me but I
was wearing my travelling clothes so it didn’t really matter. Dark
joggers and a loosely fitted top that were so comfortable that I
didn’t know how I was going to force myself out of them and into a
suit for my first meeting that evening.

After lunch we
played scrabble. I did marginally better at that than monopoly but
Stripes beat me hands down. Jalas came up with so many words nobody
else had heard of it was crazy. I suppose he was better with words
from his youth than current language.

“Jalas, you
can’t have words nobody knows. Besides, half the letters you need
aren’t in this set for those words. You can’t switch them out for
normal letters and have them still count. You’re using a different
alphabet!” I told him. He smiled coyly and took away the letters
he’d been haphazardly arranging.

I edged ahead
at one point then Eddie surprised us all with a triple word score.
I looked out the window as Eddie cleared the game back into its
box. We’d been playing for hours. There were mountains outside the
window now, indicating we were nearly there. I got up and took a
walk along the carriage. I had to stretch my legs after so long
sitting down. I also needed to clear my head of games and get back
into reality.

The display
said we only had ten minutes left until we got to our stop. We’d
been on the train for eight hours straight and it was starting to
show. Stripes curled up on the seat and started to doze for the
last little bit. I couldn’t sleep. I just had to keep moving and
not think.

I let my mind
wander only to discover that it wasn’t my thoughts that were
skimming through me. For once, I relaxed into it instead of
fighting it. I didn’t have the energy to spare to keep myself in
line all the time. There was just too much. It felt like I
dissolved into all the other people around me. It was good, to just
not have to think about my own problems.

“You have to
be careful,” Jalas whispered through me. He had helped me to heal
my mind; he was kind of a part of it now. That and I was sure I
wasn’t the only telepath he’d met in his long life.

“I’m fine,” I
said out loud but I didn’t pull back. I was revelling in the feel
of people, of home. There were so many people who didn’t have to
worry about magic and losing family. There were so many families I
could slip into, just for a moment, and feel home again. Feel the
arms of a mother around me.

“You shouldn’t
do that here. The Council will notice,” Jalas breathed through
me.

“It’s not
likely to make a difference now. They already think I’m too
dangerous to live,” I sighed into his mind. It was somehow easier
to talk to Jalas mind to mind than out loud. Maybe the sentiments
felt less real that way. Saying things aloud has a tendency to
solidify them in your mind.

“It may speed
things up things if they think you are using your power too much.
It will give us less time to talk our way out of things.”

“I didn’t
think it was possible for us to get out of this,” I replied.

“There may be
ways we can convince them. There are more things at work here now
than you realise.”

I sighed
mentally. “It’s too much Jalas.” With that, I opened my mind wide
to him, sharing all my fears with him. It was easy to do; I’d known
him so long, no matter how much he tried my patience. He had been
my friend. He had also seen and done enough to understand. I hadn’t
thought about what secrets I still kept.

“Pregnant!”
Luckily he still spoke only in my mind. I shut down the connection
straight away. Jalas had a smirk I didn’t like, but I was out of
time to discuss it. The train had started to slow down for our stop
and I had to run and pull my suitcases out of the rack before we
had to disembark. I was almost as paranoid about getting off as
about getting on. I carefully avoided Jalas’ eyes as I waited by
the door.

Again the
others took their time, making my heart speed faster in fear. Of
course, they got off in plenty of time and the train didn’t leave
with anyone still on it. I knew it wouldn’t but it just never
stopped the panic, especially when I had so much else to think
about.

There was
nobody to meet us from the High Council as I’d half expected there
to be. I kept expecting them to come along and throw me in the
dungeon. Academically I knew that they wouldn’t, like I knew that
they would have to at least make the effort of a fair trial. It
just didn’t penetrate all the way through me. The fear was too
ingrained in me. If I’d thought the dungeons at the Covenant were
bad, the stories from the High Council were worse. Much worse.

The High
Council was only a short walk from the station. I found it kind of
odd that they went to so much effort to get the building so far
away from everyone else and then make sure there was a skyrail
station so close. There was certainly nothing else around for the
station to serve. It must have cost a pretty penny in bribes to get
it there too.

The fresh air
was good for clearing away the cobwebs but it sent such a chill
through me that I shivered. I wished I hadn’t put my coat at the
bottom of my suitcase. Eddie put his arm around me to start with
but the road wasn’t exactly even enough to stay that way without
risking falling over.

It wasn’t far
though and the walking soon warmed me up. We would have run but
Jalas wouldn’t have been able to keep up. At least I didn’t think
he would. That and I didn’t trust suitcase handles at high speed,
especially not when I had two to carry. It would be just my luck to
drop all of my smart clothes in the mud and have to go before the
High Council in my stained travel clothes.

There was
someone to greet us at the entrance to the High Council. A small
woman with chestnut-red hair. She only came up to my shoulder but
there was an air of something about her that made the hairs on the
back of my neck stand on end. Jalas actually bowed to her. I
didn’t. I wasn’t going to bow to anyone when I didn’t know what it
would mean.

These people
subscribed to older ideals than most. Ideals that had been
relegated to the annals of history for everyone else; you never
really knew what a gesture meant unless you had lived with their
world. I wasn’t going to risk offending anyone so quickly.

“Jalas,” she
said. “It’s good to see you again, my dear.” She curtsied back to
him, which reassured me slightly. At least they seemed to be on a
level rather than Jalas deferring to her. He had an old-fashioned
sense of honour and I didn’t want it to destroy my chances
here.

“Have we got
rooms, Kira? We need to change before we go before the High
Council,” Jalas asked. Kira gave a slight tilt of her head which
could have meant anything and started across the hallway with
Jalas. The rest of us hurried to keep up with them.

I had to look
up; the ceiling was at least three floors high, with such intricate
decoration I wondered if they had a painter or if they had magicked
it there. The floor was marble so shiny it was a wonder we didn’t
all go flying as soon as we stepped on it. In a different situation
I might have been tempted to skate across it in my socks. As it was
I tried to be very careful not to slip at all.

“You show how
long you’ve been away, Jalas. I go by Madaline nowadays.” She
actually laughed. I had a feeling the two had a history, probably
one I didn’t want to delve too deeply into. They could keep their
secrets. I had enough of my own to be getting on with. I was also
far too much in awe of my surroundings to worry too much about it.
Jalas wouldn’t betray me; the consequences with my grandfather
wouldn’t be worth it. At least I hoped they wouldn’t.

We were led to
a huge sweeping staircase. I was beginning to think it might be
worth facing the High Council just to see this building. It was
certainly something to behold. I squashed the thought before it had
a chance to develop. Nothing would make the past few weeks worth it
– nothing.

Then, before I
could stop it, another thought came. There was one thing that might
make me not want to undo everything that had happened. My hand rose
to my stomach unbidden. A child. I couldn’t get over the thought
that I had a child growing inside me. Then I thought about the
chances of me actually carrying the child to term. I felt my face
fall and I was glad Jalas was ahead of us, facing the other way. He
would be able to see every thought as it passed across my face.

Stripes took
my arm to disguise the movement I’d made. She was right; it wasn’t
the place to tell Eddie what we’d done. I smiled at her in spite of
myself. I realised that a part of me really did want this child. A
part of me wanted a baby, this baby. Something good amongst all of
the pain around me.

We went back
to admiring the architecture as we climbed the stairs after Jalas
and Madaline of the many names. The stairs were the same pale
marble as the foyer floor. I couldn’t bring myself to call it a
hallway; it was far too grand for that.

The walls were
painted or papered with the most amazing mythological scenes.
Dragons and castles. There were pictures of witches casting spells
and shifters halfway between human and animal form, yet still
managing to stay beautiful. It made me wonder if there hadn’t been
a time when some of the other scenes were real as well. I might
have liked to ride a dragon. Of course, if they had existed they
were as likely to be shifters as natural animals.

What it would
be like to fly as a dragon through an untouched Britain I couldn’t
even comprehend. It was a dream, a fantasy, even to the
supernatural community. To everyone, except perhaps the people in
this building. If anyone alive had seen a dragon it would be them.
The ancients.

There was a
carpeted landing at the top of the staircase with several corridors
and yet more stairs curving around the other way to the ones we’d
just come up. I was hoping that we weren’t going to be led through
enough turns to get lost when Madaline spoke again.

“There is a
side room just through here where you can freshen up. I’ll make
sure to have your bags taken up to your accommodations.” She was
serene, almost ethereal standing there. I blinked a few times and
the feeling faded without any real understanding of where it had
come from. For a second, it had seemed as though there was an aura
about her.

“Thank you,” I
said to her as she led us into what appeared to be a small sitting
room, with a door off to the side that I guessed led to a bathroom.
We all dumped our suitcases on the oriental rug before slumping
into the sofa. Jalas turned back to talk to Madaline.

“Will you be
sitting the Council tonight?” he asked her. I found the phrasing
odd but I wasn’t going to complain. If she was as old as Jalas they
both came from a time when language was vastly different. Not to
mention that the High Council favoured ceremony in practically
everything – when one wrong word could lead to a duel, you learnt
to conform pretty quickly.

“I don’t know
yet. It depends how things pan out elsewhere. I will try to be
there but I don’t think it will make a difference tonight. Don’t
worry, they will hear you fairly. That old codger may be hard but
he’d hang himself before he thought to condemn someone without due
cause.” With that, she swept out the door leaving me wondering what
she meant when she spoke of things panning out elsewhere. She’d
also shocked me into silence with the casual way she referred to
the ancients on the High Council. You just didn’t speak about them
like that, not if you valued your life.