The Key to Starveldt (32 page)

As Evan glanced at her, Solace felt her pulse leap. So much had happened between them in the space of a single day – companionship, kisses, the argument with Laine, and now his offer of blood – that it was impossible to keep her thoughts straight. But their bond, despite representing yet another complication, also made things simpler. Through it, she knew that he, too, was overwhelmed, willing to set their private concerns aside until there was space to deal with them. And there
was
something there worth talking about: of that they were both certain. Their eyes met briefly, and then the world seemed to resume its normal pace.

Though her own wound was starting to heal over, Solace let Liluye bandage it. Cleansed of excess blood, the bite looked nothing like the twin punctures common to Dracula movies. It was as though she’d bitten slowly into a ripe plum without actually removing any flesh. Each tooth had left its own mark, bottom and top, with an almond of bruised but unbroken skin between them, almost like an eye. It occurred to her that Evan was the second of her friends to receive such a scar on her account, Harper having been the first. Then, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to look too closely at his injury, trying to ignore even the bandage. Now, she watched as Evan rolled his sleeve down, concealing Liluye’s handiwork from casual scrutiny. They looked at each other again and, without speaking, she knew that neither would rush to tell the others about what he’d done for her. That, too, could wait.

‘Better,’ said Liluye. Though perched awkwardly on the edge of the chair arm, she made no move to stand. ‘I don’t suppose,’ she said, ‘that either of you has given any thought to the consequences of your connection?’

Both of them tensed. A long, slow moment came and went before Evan asked, ‘What consequences?’ at the exact same time as Solace said, ‘How did you know?’

‘One at a time,’ said Liluye. She pushed her feathered dreadlocks away from her face, so that they rustled softly. ‘The Castalian magic is old, and now it has been twice woven through the pair of you: once by thought, and now by blood. I do not know what will result from this, Evan James Black – only that something will. You would be wise to contemplate the magical significance of threes, and the possibility, as they say, of quitting while you’re ahead. As for my knowledge –’ and here she held up a hand to forestall Solace’s indignation, which had spiked on
quitting
, ‘– there are some things that are extremely difficult to hide from anyone older than two centuries. Do not take my words as an indictment, Solace Eleuthera. As regards your bond, I make no judgement one way or the other. I merely wish to advise that you think about what it means, especially as it is destined to result in
consequences unknown
.’ She gave these last two words extra emphasis, but her expression softened a little.

‘Now,’ she said, when it became apparent that neither Solace nor Evan was game enough to reply, ‘your friends have been waiting quite long enough, I think. We should join them.’

Jess shifted uncomfortably on the lounge, nervousness rising through her like lemonade bubbles. No more than three minutes after she and Electra had parted ways with Manx and Sylvia, a quetzal – one of the strange, featherless almost-birds they’d seen on their way to the satyrs’ grove – had literally materialised in their path. Both girls had yelped in astonishment, but Jess had actually screamed a little when the creature opened its mouth and spoke to them with Liluye’s voice.

‘Return to the temple complex,’ it had said. ‘You will be collected.’

And then, before either of them could think of a reply, it winked out of existence with a slight
pop
.

Too alarmed to disobey, they had all but run to the rendezvous point, finding Laine already there, looking tense and worried. With her was Knox, the guard who’d helped them with Harper. Sylvia and Manx strode up less than a minute later, both looking harried, just in time to hear Laine’s explanation for where Evan and Solace had gone, and in whose company. Jess had hoped that, being a guard, Sylvia might know more about their summons, but found herself disappointed. Not until Paige and Harper had struggled up the stairs, their hair and grassstained clothes in disarray, did Knox lead them away, the twin swords strapped to his shoulders glittering like onyx.

The room to which he led them was one that Jess hadn’t noticed before. They reached it after a few minutes of walking, where it was sandwiched between two large mosaics. Inside, the space was small – or perhaps it only seemed that way because of their number – and oddly shaped, like a trapezoid that some architect had tampered with.

A thick, square rug decorated with black and white geometric designs covered hardwood flooring; the walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, all of them full. Arranged in a rough semi-circle was a suite of black lounges, on which, lacking any other directive, they had soon arranged themselves. Knox stood to one side, a menacing sentinel, while Sylvia took up a spot on the floor, her silver rifle laid out across her long legs. It did not escape Jess that the red-haired guard was brushing up against Manx’s knees, but with so much uncertainty as to what was happening, she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

After five minutes, the door had opened: everyone sat up straight as Anise, with Duchess perched on her shoulder, joined their group. But despite their bombardment of questions, the blue-skinned woman only shook her antennae and told them to wait.

‘It’s not my place,’ she said, and that was an end to it.

Since then, it felt like an eternity had passed, and there was still no word as to why they’d been brought together. Never patient at the best of times, Paige fidgeted, drumming her fingers on the leather in a discordant pattern that made Jess’s skin itch. She was on the brink of asking her to keep her hands still, when the door clicked open for the second time, revealing – Jess leapt up with relief – Evan, accompanied by Solace and Liluye. She hugged him around the shoulders and then darted back, acutely conscious of the silence into which she spoke.

‘Ev, what happened? Laine said you and Solace were with Anise, but when she came back without you, I thought –’

‘It’s fine,’ he said, a little too quickly. ‘We just … there was something Solace had to do.’

All eyes slid to the vampire, who lifted her chin and met them in return. But for all her gaze didn’t waver, Jess could see the tension in her neck and jaw. Taking note of the bandage on her wrist and her changed shirt, pity welled up in Jess, though for what, she didn’t yet know.

‘Tell us,’ she said, softly. ‘Whatever it is, tell us.’

Solace blinked, then looked away, as though she were trying to disassociate herself from what she said next. ‘At the group home, I lived with a girl. A little girl. Luci. Grief wants us out in the open, to open Starveldt for him. So he found Luci. And he drained her, and started to turn her, but he stopped, so she was almost dead. And then he sent her here, to me. As a messenger. But the only way to save her was to try and finish what he’d started, to turn her all the way – I tried, but it didn’t work, and she died in the lobby.’ She paused. ‘Sharpsoft is burying her now.’

Jess felt her hands trembling. Why had she asked? All she could do was sit back down, hard, so that the lounge let out a leathery groan.

‘We have to leave here,’ said Solace, when nobody else spoke. ‘Now. We need to get inside Starveldt. We’ll be safe there.’

‘We’re safe here, too!’ Harper said. ‘What, you want him to think he can just bully us around?’

‘But he
can
just bully us,’ Manx pointed out, his sardonic tone not quite concealing the worry underneath. ‘We all have people back in the world we care about. He could hurt any of them next, if we don’t do what he says. Well, don’t we?’ he asked, when the others looked uncomfortable. A noise formed low in his throat. ‘Don’t lie, guys! This isn’t the time for it. Look, we’ve all got problems, things we’ve run away from – people we’ve run away from – but that doesn’t mean we want them dead or turned into vampires. No offence,’ he added, glancing at Solace, ‘but, really, we don’t.’

‘I don’t have anyone else,’ said Paige boldly, but it was little more than a brave lie, and they all knew it.

Jess watched as, one by one, the faces of her friends changed. Family wasn’t something they talked about often, and with good reason: either it was too painful, or it was better left in the past. But for all the bad blood between Jess and her father, she didn’t want him to be in danger, and certainly not her mother. She looked up at Evan, and could tell that he was thinking along much the same lines. With a start, she realised that of the eight of them, only Solace, Laine and Harper were only children. Paige had been in foster care, but split up from her siblings; Manx, she was fairly sure, was one of five, while Lex had left a younger brother behind. Until now, it wasn’t something she’d fully appreciated.

Evan was with her daily, and even had he been normal, lacking a Trick, he still would have followed her out of home, away from their parents and into their current adventure. A rush of sisterly pride ran through her, followed swiftly by fear that something might happen to Evan because of it, or to anyone else’s family.

‘Grief wants to get into Starveldt,’ Electra said suddenly. ‘Right? He wants us out of here because we can open it for him. Well, Solace can. But we’re not going to do that. I mean, we’re going to open Starveldt, but not for Grief. Which means he could still hurt our families or whoever to get us to come out.’

‘No,’ said Solace, slowly. ‘I don’t think he would. For one thing, he’d have to track them down, which takes time and effort – he already knew where Luci was.’ It hit her then that Mrs Plummer could be dead, too, or at the very least, distressed over Luci’s disappearance. She shoved the thought aside for later and continued speaking, fighting the lump in her throat. ‘For another, he can’t get into Starveldt without us. This was impatience. He wants us to hurry up. Me, I mean. He can’t get inside the Rookery, so he sent a message.’ Suddenly, she swung her head towards Liluye, black eyes blazing. ‘We could’ve been gone by now! If you’d just done what my mother said in the first place and actually
helped
us, Luci would still be alive, and we’d already be in Starveldt. So why, huh? All that bullshit about getting to know ourselves – why bother with any of it, when this is all that happened!’

Liluye stood with her shoulders back, the hawk feathers in her dreadlocks fluttering softly on some unfelt breath of air. Her mouth was rigid, but then she sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing at the edge of her left temple with three strong, brown fingers.

‘Because,’ she said, in a voice that was half regret, half justification, ‘your mother asked it of me.’

‘My mo –’ Solace started, but broke off as the door opened a third time, admitting Sharpsoft.

Jess blanched to see the blood on his otherwise bone-white coat.

‘It is done,’ he said, moving to stand quietly beside Anise.

After a pause, Liluye walked to one of the bookshelves. The volume she pulled down was old, its gold lettering illegible against the blue leather. There was a soft cracking sound as she flipped it open to the middle, pulling out what looked like a bookmark, but proved, as she re-shelved the book, to be a folded, yellowing piece of paper. This she handed to Solace.

‘Read it,’ Liluye said.

With fingers that shook slightly, Solace unfolded the paper. Although her lips trembled on the edge of sound, none was forthcoming. After a moment, Solace blinked and thrust the paper blindly at Evan, who cleared his throat, glanced awkwardly at Liluye, and then began to speak:

‘My dearest Lilu,’ he read:

‘I apologise for leaving this last burden with you, when you have already risked so much to give Aaron and I safe harbour. But we will not know our daughter, and so we impose this trust upon you: to know her in our stead. Steps have been taken to ensure that when she is of age, she and the companions of her prophecy will come to the Rookery. Telling her how to access Starveldt will be easy enough, and if she has inherited Aaron’s haste, then you may be hard-pressed to detain her past the provision of that knowledge. And yet, I ask that you do so, for us. You are immortal: more than anyone you can appreciate the brevity of youth. I do not know what manner of upbringing she will have had, but given the necessary strength of Vivari’s wards, I fear it will be a stunted one, full of doors left unopened. So many hopes hang on her, but I cannot bear the guilt of giving life to a child, only for the weight of duty to prevent her from ever living. Lilu, there are no closed doors in your realm, and no walls. She will be safe with you. Just for a little while, let her live in knowledge of herself, without the need to hide.

May the pale moon gleam on you always
.

Love, Morga.’

There was a crinkling sound as Evan lowered the paper. ‘There isn’t any more,’ he added, needlessly.

All throughout, Solace had stood with her head bowed, braced so rigidly that with each outward motion of her ribs and lungs, she seemed to grow taller, then shrink again. As she straightened, there were tears on her cheeks, but her expression held no shame at their presence.