Voice Of The Demon (Book 2) (13 page)

This was our beginning. We have shown you our birth. Be content, my chosen.

The Key.

Wilf opened his eyes to find he was still standing in the great cavern. The boys were still playing, his friends once more chatting. He opened his mouth to tell them what he’d seen, but the moment he moved, a great wave of dizziness knocked him down and he collapsed on the floor. There were cries of horror and faces peering over him. Wilf just smiled, closed his eyes again and let his body sink into sleep.

*

By the gods – what an incredible bore! Finnlay escaped the library barely awake, but at least Acelin had grudgingly accepted the proof of his sincerity. Now Finnlay could go back when he wanted and begin his research without Acelin asking unnecessary questions.

He ambled down one corridor after another until he reached a modest door in the older part of the caves. He knocked briefly. ‘Jenn?’

‘Come in, Finnlay.’

He opened the door – and came to a halt. Jenn was sitting on the bed, her back up against the wall. She had a blanket around her shoulders, her hair tossed over one shoulder, in a mess. She’d been asleep – but he hadn’t woken her. Instead, her eyes were blank pits, staring at the floor as though looking into a great distance.

‘What’s wrong?’

She turned her head slightly. ‘I don’t know. I . . . just had the strangest dream. At least, I think it was a dream.’

He pulled up a chair and sat. ‘Tell me.’

‘I’m not sure I can. Some of it’s so vague, while other
parts are terribly clear. I don’t know. . .’ Her voice trailed off. She sighed and began again. ‘I was in a place I couldn’t recognize. It was light and there were windows around the walls. Long windows much taller than me. The walls were red stone and very sharp – and yet the room was circular. I couldn’t see a door from where I was. I think . . . I was on the floor. There were people standing around, in a circle.’

‘How many?’

‘Ten, perhaps fifteen. Some had their eyes closed, others were looking at me. It’s really strange . . . I felt completely numb.’ Jenn turned and looked at him quizzically, like he would be able to answer her questions. She blinked a few times and there was less of the blankness to her stare.

‘This is so hard to describe. I was numb at first but as the dream went on, I began to feel things. Heat and dryness and the cold floor. After a while I could feel – no, sense – other things and that’s when I started to hear the voices. A chant of some kind. I couldn’t understand it.’

Finnlay reached over to a shelf by the fireplace and poured Jenn a cup of wine. She took it, drank and returned to her story. Now there was clarity in her gaze as though she was seeing the dream before her, as clear as the cave wall.

‘I know it sounds stupid, but I could swear these people around me were pressuring me, just like the council did on my first night here. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. I just had to be there – not exactly sitting or lying or anything. I was just there. But the longer I was there, the more I could sense, the more I understood. I know after a while I could understand what the chant meant. I mean, it made sense in the dream to my dream self. Then …’

‘What?’

Jenn glanced at him, then dropped her gaze. ‘I remember one of the people started to gasp. He went red in the face, but the others did nothing. I don’t think they could. The man fell to his knees in front of me, reached out to touch me – then died. And Finnlay . . .’ She frowned, her pale face haunted by the memory. ‘I think I killed this man.’

She was so caught up in her story, so wounded by the threatened reality, that there were tears in her eyes and her
hands shook, spilling the wine. Finnlay moved forward, took the cup from her hands and knelt beside her, keeping a hold of her hand. ‘It was just a dream, Jenn. You didn’t really kill him.’

‘But it feels like I did. And after that, everything changed. The people stopped chanting. Somebody came and picked me up and then I realized how small I was. But’ – again Jenn’s eyes changed, coming to life, – ‘I felt so powerful and I knew these people. Each one. They’d told me things, during the chanting, and now I knew everything they knew. Not just one mind but fifteen – and then, hundreds before them. Even the man who’d died.’ Jenn stopped suddenly, holding her breath.

Finnlay waited. Eventually, Jenn glanced down to where their hands were joined, then up at him.

When she spoke again, her voice was firmer and her face had regained some of its colour. ‘There’s something else I just remembered. Finn, I don’t think this was just a dream.’

‘Why?’

‘At the end, as I was being carried outside I heard this voice – but the voice wasn’t inside the dream. It was like somebody outside the door.’

‘What did it say?’

‘This was our beginning. We have shown you our birth. Soon you will show us our death.’
Jenn’s eyes grew wide and for the first time since he’d met her, she looked terribly, terribly vulnerable. ‘Finn, it was the Key speaking to me.’

*

The crackling fire put dancing shadows on the walls and burned away the ghosts of Jenn’s story. Still, Finnlay felt haunted by something he couldn’t name. Arlie and Patric had come and were even now asking Jenn questions. Fiona should have been here too, but after that scene in the library Finn couldn’t bring himself to approach her again. After a while Arlie and Patric sat back and looked to Finnlay for answers.

His response was uncompromising. ‘It seems there’s already a link between you and the Key. I’m just glad Robert isn’t here.’

‘Oh, Finnlay!’ Arlie groaned, ‘surely you must see the importance of what’s happened here? Jenn has never Stood the Circle and yet the Key can access her dreams as though she were Jaibir. More than that, we have before us the first eyewitness account of how the Key was formed. Until now we had only stories handed down through the generations and thrown together in sketchy records. For instance, I’d never heard that anyone died in the procedure, and from what Jenn says, the Key may have been responsible for his death.’

‘Well, I have to say it answers a few awkward questions,’ Patric said. ‘Such as why the Key has an affinity with the Calyx. I know you’ll all call me a fool, but I’ll bet the man who was killed told the Key where the Calyx was hidden.’

‘And so he had to die?’ Jenn murmured.

‘To keep the secret safe. Think about it. From what Jenn says, the Key was made by the combined powers of all those men, all their thoughts and memories. Apart from the power, the process would also have put into the Key a host of minute details never before collected together. One of those details could have been the whereabouts of the Calyx. What I want to know is what else the Key was told.’

‘You mean the prophecy?’ Arlie whispered.

‘Exactly. The prophecy told us that Robert and Jenn were Bonded – without saying exactly what that meant. It revealed the fact that they could mindspeak – which they’d kept secret from the rest of us.’ Patric glanced at Jenn in half apology before continuing, ‘The prophecy called Jenn the Ally, Robert the Enemy and someone else the Angel of Darkness. They each have some sort of part to play in a destiny the Key claims Robert has been avoiding all his life. After Jenn’s dream today, I think these creators may have given the prophecy to the Key.’

‘But was it told in bits – or in one piece?’ Arlie asked. ‘It makes a difference. We’ve had lots of different prophecies over the centuries, but never one like this before. I was there. I heard the Key. The way it spoke, the patterns and everything – didn’t sound much like prophecy to me. And this one was never written down, it seems. Perhaps this is why.’

Jenn reached out and put her hand on Arlie’s arm. ‘You mean it’s possible that the Key has made this prophecy up, all of its own accord?’

Arlie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. It’s just one theory.’

‘And another theory,’ Finnlay added, his voice low, ‘is that the Key was given the prophecy as a whole – by the man who was killed. Perhaps it was kept secret all this time because . . . because . . .’

‘What?’ Patric asked dryly.

‘Hell, how should I know? There are lots of prophecies – and most of them speak about some creature of evil.’

Jenn nodded. ‘Remember that one we heard last year? From the hermit in Shan Moss? He said that a dark angel would come and tear the Church in two.’

Finnlay stared at her. She seemed completely ignorant of what she’d just said. She just turned to the fire and held out her hands, rubbing them together.

‘A dark angel did come to Lusara and tear the Church in two.’

‘Oh, who?’

‘My brother.’

Jenn froze at that, then turned slowly. Finnlay continued, knowing they were all looking at him. ‘It fits. We know the Key told Robert something dangerous. What if it told him he was the Angel of Darkness. And after all, the moment Selar heard about Robert’s return, he threw McCauly in prison, effectively splitting the Church in two. And if you think about it – that could be the real reason why Robert would never Stand the Circle. If he’d been told something like that, he’d never put himself in the position where he would have that much power. It even explains why he refuses to stand against Selar.’

‘Except that you’re forgetting one thing,’ Jenn said. ‘The Key named three people. The Angel of Darkness, me as the Ally and Robert as the Enemy. Now I’m willing to concede Robert could indeed be the enemy of the Enclave – but we’ve no guarantee of that. Either way, Robert cannot be the Enemy and the Angel at the same time. Not in the same prophecy.’

Finnlay was about to argue, but at that moment, Patric sprang up and stood between them. ‘No. Not Robert. The Angel is somebody else – but he does exist.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The Angel of Darkness. Don’t you see? If the Ally and the Enemy exist now – then the Angel must also. Here and now. I think . . . I think that was the presence Jenn felt at court. Remember you said it was wholly evil?’

Jenn sucked in a horrified breath. ‘And Ayn’s gone there looking for him!’

*

It was barely dark this time, but it didn’t matter. Jenn sat beside the bed and held his hand, monitoring his trance. The others kept back, watching, waiting. Finnlay could almost feel their dread. He couldn’t tell what they feared more – his success or his failure. He’d broken all the old boundaries of Seeking when he’d seen Jenn riding up the mountain, but there was no guarantee he would find anything useful at all if he tried to stretch as far as Marsay. If he could just get a glimpse of Ayn’s aura . . .

He closed his eyes and let his body relax. Deeper and deeper he went, just allowing the process to form on its own. It was easier this time. Was it because Jenn was here, or because he’d already done this once?

Now he went out into the darkening sky. Out into the land he could visit only in this manner. He floated, soared, lingered. He kept no track of how far he went. There were no maps for this journey, no guides, no rules. Here, in this world, he was entirely free.

There, what was that? A presence? Yes. Down and down he went, spiralling towards an invisible quarry. Ayn!

In Marsay. She was standing in a room . . . clutching something . . . a cloak? But her face? Terror. Nothing less. By the gods, what was happening—

Ayn opened her mouth, screaming silently – then a mist formed as she sank to the floor—

—and Finnlay slammed back into his body so fast he almost blacked out.

‘Finn!’ Jenn urged, leaning over him. ‘What happened?’

‘I saw. . .’ Finnlay struggled for air, then there was a cup brought to his lips, cold water going down his throat. He swallowed and dropped his head back to the pillow.

And then he told them. The whole vision. ‘I think somebody destroyed her
ayarn.
’

Jenn glanced at the others. ‘Do you know exactly where she was?’

‘In a room somewhere. It looked like a tavern, though I could be wrong. There was a window behind her, but it was dark outside. Jenn,’ Finnlay paused, grabbing her hand, ‘we have to help her. This man, this sorcerer she was sent to find. He’s got her. I know he has. And he’s strong. Who else can destroy an
ayarn?
’

‘Me?’ Jenn shook her head. ‘I’ll have to go to Marsay.’

‘Impossible!’ Arlie strode forward. ‘You can’t risk it. Your training is incomplete, you’ve only just learned how to do a Mask. On top of that, you know nothing of combat skills and, forgive me, but your Seeking ability is low at best. If this man is as strong as he appears, he’ll surely be an expert. Besides, your father is expecting you back home. It could take weeks before you find Ayn.’

‘By which time she’ll be dead!’ Jenn snapped, coming to her feet.

‘There is another option,’ Patric ventured. ‘Robert.’

‘Yes!’ Finnlay sprang off the bed, his mind whirling. ‘Can you mindspeak him, Jenn? Tell him Ayn’s in trouble? He could get to Marsay quicker than we could.’

She stared at him a moment, then nodded slowly. ‘I’ll try.’ She sat again and they waited in silence. Soon however, Jenn shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t get through to him. I know he’s there, but he can’t or won’t listen. Perhaps losing his
ayarn
has something to do with it. I don’t know.’

She dropped her head, but Finnlay didn’t need to ask. Robert had shut her out. How was he to know that this was important? If only he wasn’t so damned stubborn.

‘There’s nothing else for it,’ Patric murmured, a strange smile on his face. I’ll have to go to Dunlorn and tell him. In person.’

As one, they all turned and looked at him. He gave them
a sheepish grin. ‘Well, I always promised him I’d go and visit one day. I guess this is a perfect opportunity.’

‘But you’ve never been off the mountain before,’ Finnlay objected.

‘Well, you can’t go, can you? Nor can Jenn. Arlie would be in trouble the moment somebody saw his missing hand – and we can hardly expect Martha to spend three or four days in the saddle in her condition. I certainly don’t want to mention any of this to Fiona yet, since we really have no evidence that Ayn’s in trouble. I don’t see that we have a choice – unless you want to try telling somebody else within the Enclave about all this.’