Wolfsbane: 3 (Rebel Angels) (31 page)

‘It’s too late,’ she said emptily. ‘That’s what it is.’

A rise of low hills enclosed the shallow valley, concealing the further horizon. The way to the dun followed a narrow defile and a rocky riverbed, dried to a peaty trickle in the heat. Cutting
off our way through it was a line of riders. Not the four riders of my father’s patrol, since they lay dead with their horses among the scattered stones. A force of twenty watched our
approach in complete and contented silence.

Eili came to a halt facing the hostile fighters, her swords off her back, her reins knotted on the grey’s neck. Hannah’s chestnut, made uneasy by the grey’s growling snorts,
began to back away from it, partly from its own nerves and partly from the pressure of Hannah’s legs and her hands on the bit. Finn rode up the black beside her.

Turning, Hannah met my eyes, mouthing something I couldn’t make out.

‘Hannah wants you both to get out of here,’ said Finn. ‘She’s right.’

My breath was stuck in my windpipe. ‘They’ll know before we even turn. They’ll cut us off.’

‘Block,’ said Finn, ‘both of you block now. Rory. Can you get through the Veil here?’

‘I dunno.’ I crushed down the stirrings of panic. ‘We’re so close… I don’t know.’

‘Rory,
try.’

I snatched and tugged at the air. ‘Can’t.’

‘Got to,’ hissed Finn.

I clenched my teeth. ‘She
knows.
’

‘Knows what?’

‘My limits. Never mind. I’ll do it. Bitch,’ I added under my breath.

‘Do it. Then run. They’ll follow but we’ll try to delay them.’ Finn leaned forward and pressed her cheek against the sleek hard neck of the horse. ‘He’ll go
with you.’

I stared at her as she swung a leg over the black’s neck and jumped down. ‘You too?’

‘Don’t be silly. Eili’s on her own and I’m not going to leave her.’

‘Why not?’ Hate shivered through me.

‘Look,’ said Finn, closing her eyes so I could no longer see the fear in them. ‘The longer they’re kept away from the hole, the harder it’ll be for them to find it.
Just run as fast and as far as you can. Your father will come for you; you just have to wait for him and not get caught.’ She made it sound so straightforward. ‘Hannah! Go!’

‘Come after us, Finn.’ My whisper was desperate. ‘The tear will stay open.’

Finn said nothing, just turned away, but I could see her trembling. As Hannah scrambled across from the chestnut onto the black’s back, it turned its head to look at her intently, a
piercing green light in its eye, nostrils flaring.

I found and gripped the membrane. The skin of my fingers distorted, whitened, but I forced my hand down through the air. The thing was as unyielding as oilcloth. I gritted my teeth so hard I
thought they’d shatter, but the Veil began to rip, jerkily, awkwardly.

The sense of triumph was bitter. I turned briefly to see Finn draw a knife and walk away towards Eili.

Then the membrane shimmered and the scene blurred. In less than a second the moor was empty, but for the long scar of a deer fence and a pair of ramblers on the path beyond it, staring at us
loose-jawed and bug-eyed.

Had to stay, had to. Couldn’t leave; she couldn’t leave Eili.

For a savage moment Finn wondered why not. Then she remembered. Because Eili was the love of Conal’s life. Because once she and Finn had been friends, or very nearly. Most of all, because
she’d saved Seth’s life. Whatever her twisted motives, she’d let Seth live when she could have let him die.

Taking a breath to steady her hand, Finn lifted her knife. Two figures walked forward from the line of riders, and stepped delicately across the corpses of Seth’s fighters.

The face of one of the dead was turned towards her: Eorna. Last night he’d played his fiddle in the great hall; he’d heckled Seth and Jed. He’d told her a bad-taste joke that
had made her hoot, and given her a dram of his whisky. And
I taught your lover to fight,
he’d told her,
when he was barely more than a suckling brat
.
And what a useless,
pointless, fusionless shortarse he was!
The pride and fondness in his voice were irrepressible.

Eorna’s lover Caolas would have been on patrol with him, but she was pregnant. Finn shut her eyes.

She opened them again, to get the brief satisfaction of seeing Kate’s eyes widen in anger as Rory and Hannah disappeared beyond the Veil. They were gone, then, and with them Conal’s
horse. She felt a pang of regret about the loss of him, fierce and strong and a killer in a fight, but he’d be more use to Rory, and he’d stay with the boy. Finn knew the kelpie’s
strange mind and he did not have the demonic fickleness of Seth’s roan.

Besides, there were so many of them, she thought as she cast her nervous gaze along the line, and she didn’t want Conal’s horse to die. She hoped Seth could retrieve his bridle later
somehow, and return it to the sea. Not her problem anyway. Not any more.

Eili had dismounted to face her enemies, and she walked a pace forward. Finn strode to her side and stood with her, their backs half-turned to each other.

‘Is this anything to do with you?’ Finn hoped Eili was covering her. She hoped the woman wasn’t about to slide a knife between her ribs.

‘How can you ask me that?’

‘Oh, come on,’ said Finn witheringly.

A long and painful pause. ‘All right, then. No, it’s nothing to do with me.’

Kate stopped twenty feet away, the anger smoothed off her features. ‘It’s everything to do with you, Eili. You’ve been so distracted, you and your little friend Hannah! She
arrived at such an opportune time! Not that
that
was much of a coincidence. Herding her and the Bloodstone together took all of twelve hours. They were – what is it the full-mortals
say? – they were gagging for each other!’

‘Eili,’ whispered Finn, ‘don’t listen. Don’t listen.’

‘Do, Eili,’ called Kate. ‘I want you to know what you’ve done for me. After all, I was afraid you were close to retrieving your sanity till Hannah turned up. But I
needn’t have worried. Thanks to the girl, you lost all your perspective along with your reason. You stopped even guarding yourself !’

Eili breathed hard through her nose.

Kate smiled a little cat-smile. ‘How funny that Rory turned into such a rebel, and how apt! How
inevitable
. A bad little rebel like his father!’ She looked intently at Finn,
twisting her copper hair idly between elegant fingers. ‘You know, Fionnuala, if I’d had him from a baby I’d have let him live. The boy could have lived a long happy life with me.
But his father chose to defy me, chose to bring Rory up himself. Now Rory’s loyalties are fixed, so when I’m finished with the boy he’ll have to die. And Seth does love that boy,
doesn’t he, Fionnuala? More than life itself, I think! No wonder Rory started running off like that! Is Seth’s love so very oppressive, Finn? So suffocating?’

‘You wouldn’t know.’ Finn licked her dry lips. ‘You wouldn’t know love if it poked you in the eye.’

Kate sighed. ‘Now Seth will pay for his filthy heresy. He’ll pay for what he did all those years ago when he dared put a knife to my throat. He’ll pay with your life, and
Rory’s, and the life of every man, woman and child in his dun. And after quite a long time, he’ll pay with his own. By that time he’ll be begging me to put him out of his misery,
and I’ll be delighted to take my time obliging him.’

Shudders ran down Finn’s spine. She tried to suppress them but she couldn’t. ‘Jed will kill your Laszlo.’

‘Fionnuala, he already has!’ Kate closed her eyes dreamily. ‘Poor tiresome Laszlo: couldn’t take a hint. I’ve a better champion now, a more ruthless one, and to cap
it all he’s one of us.’ She wore a distant smile. ‘Jed has done me a favour. And now I’ll have plenty of time to deal with Jed! Seth’s blood brother! Oh,
bliss.
Goodness, they’re wasting time they haven’t got, admiring Laszlo’s corpse.’ Her eyes snapped open. ‘By the way, Udhar, I’m curious. Why
didn’t you try to kill Laszlo yourself ? A fine killer like you! Leaving all your vengeance to Jed!’

‘Not all of it.’ Eili spoke through her teeth.

‘Of course; how silly of me. The torment of Murlainn. Oh! Such remorseless hate! I love an obsessive! And I’m grateful to you, I truly am. I couldn’t have done it without you.
I’d make you my Captain of captains, if I wasn’t going to kill you.’

‘Goodness.’ Eili’s voice was smooth but there was an undercurrent of something awful that made Finn’s chest clench for her. ‘I feel a little…’

Kate tilted her head sweetly at Eili.

‘Used,’ finished Eili on a breath.

‘Quite. Well, it’s nice to chat but a little pointless,’ said Kate. ‘I’m impressed with Rory’s talent, by the way. He’s better than I thought and
I’ve made a minor misjudgement, but nothing we can’t fix. You know, Fionnuala, I always have a contingency plan.’ She beckoned the dark bearded man who stood a sword’s
length behind her. ‘Off you go, Alasdair. He’s torn the Veil, the little vandal. Behind them, thirty feet or so that way. He can’t have gone far. Bring him back,
please.’

‘And the girlfriend?’ The bearded man smiled, but his voice was as cold as stone.

‘Oh, kill her.’ Kate shrugged. ‘Or not. Whatever. Do as you like with her.’

‘You’ll leave that girl alone.’ With a snarl Eili stepped in front of him. He sighed, drew a sword and swung lightly at her. Her twin swords caught his and she forced it up and
away, and he laughed and lunged harder. She swerved, parried, and he met her head on.

The grey kelpie reared behind her, but it didn’t get time to join the fight. A single yellow-fletched arrow buried itself in its throat, and then four, five, six more. It bellowed, neck
bristling with yellow feathers and welling with blood, and as the first archer stepped back into line, lowering her longbow, the creature sank to its knees, teeth bared and eyes rolling. The archer
lifted a hand, staying her detachment’s fire. With a bubbling of pink froth the kelpie blew out its last breath and pitched sideways.

Finn ripped a dagger from her belt, breathing hard. As soon as the hilt nestled in her palm, as soon as her thumb found the edge of the blade, she knew she could do this thing without thinking.
Confused, she glanced down at the weapon, but her hand was already going through the motions: the adjustment of angle, the flexing of muscle and tendon.

Forget that Kate lived and moved and breathed. That was all.

Y
our ruthless streak is showing, Finn.

Oh God. Her damp palm was one with the hilt.

D
on’t let him down. Not now.

The smooth motion of her arm, the iron control of each muscle, the delicate flick of fingers: it was all instinctive.
Taghan. Thank you.
Her dagger flew straight and true towards
Kate’s throat.

Kate’s head snapped round, and she flung up her hand as if to deflect the blade. Instead, the blade never reached her. It juddered to a halt in mid-air, quivering as it hung for a moment
before clattering to the ground.

N
o.
An accidental bad spin, a freak gust of breeze.

Finn drew another knife, sent it flying at Kate’s throat. Almost before it left her fingers, she followed it with a third.

One braked in mid-air, clattered to the rocky earth. The third Kate allowed within a finger’s breadth of her jugular, where it hovered for a tantalising instant. Then it too smashed to the
ground.

Kate lowered her hand and walked closer, smiling up through her long lashes at Finn.

‘Now, you see?’ The queen shook her head sadly. ‘That’s the kind of aggressive behaviour that’s got your lover in so much trouble. Think yourself lucky I want you
to die today, Fionnuala, because you really deserve a more prolonged punishment.’

What was that, telekinesis? What Conal called witchcraft? Whatever it was, it was nothing she could fight. Not a soldier in Kate’s line moved. Finn looked at Eili’s grey kelpie. Its
black eye was dead, the green light gone, and Finn was glad she had sent the black away.

As if the volume had suddenly been turned up in her head, she heard the explosive noise of a fight not ten feet away. Eili and the bearded man Alasdair were fighting it out on the flat smooth
rocks of the riverbed, water trickling languid between their feet as they hacked lethally at each other, striking, parrying, turning.

So, Finn thought, she could throw a knife – a little late in the day – but she still couldn’t wield the sword sheathed uselessly on her back. Eili wouldn’t thank her for
a distraction, and Finn would probably only manage to hurt Eili. She was an amateur, for God’s sake. Maybe she should just have gone with Rory: she might have been more use, might even have
lived into the bargain.
The tear will stay open,
Rory had said.

Yes, but even if Finn lunged for it and found it right away, even if by some miracle she turned and ran and made it to the tear in the Veil without an arrow between her shoulder blades, that
would only help Kate pinpoint it. She couldn’t, wouldn’t try. She’d made her choice, and like all her other choices, she had to live with it. Die with it.

More bitterly than ever she mourned the loss of the years, as she raised her eyes to Kate’s and gripped her sword hilt.

‘Seth will be right behind you,’ she said.

Kate smiled wolfishly. ‘As he so often was.’

‘You’re a guinea a minute. What’s the plan, Kate, when the Veil’s gone?’ Finn gave Kate a reckless grin. ‘I’m not sure you’ll cope with
full-mortal politics.’

Kate’s smile froze. Ignoring the frenzied clash of swords and Eili’s gasping breaths, she took a step towards Finn.

Finn slid her sword carefully from its scabbard, desperate for it not to catch and stick. She raised it, hoping she looked even vaguely professional. ‘You can’t harm me.’

‘No, but
he
will, when he’s finished with that whore of Conal’s. He’ll take his time, too.’ Kate sighed in sorrow. ‘Oh, Fionnuala. You’re such
a disappointment to me.’

‘I promise you.’ Finn swung the blade lightly in front of her. She could feel her jaw trembling and she wanted Kate to look at anything but that. ‘Seth won’t be in time
for us but he’ll be in time for Rory.’