Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
K it woke when it was light with a sense of determination. He dressed, covered Valentin with his cloak and left him sleeping, then returned to the camp. His clothes were dirty, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d washed so when a woman with a mountain of washing and a copper pot offered him a fresh shirt of sky blue with yellow braid, he accepted it gratefully and changed. He found the bracelet from the market in his trouser pocket. He’d missed the chance to give it to Valentine, though maybe straight after sex wouldn’t have been the best time in case she thought it was a sort of payment.
But then he had it. The solution he’d almost grasped before but lost.
Silas was sitting outside his tent. He was softly plucking a melody on an eight-stringed harp. Adelaide was presumably still inside. Kit’s stomach churned. At some point, he needed to speak with her and thrash out everything. For now, though, it was Silas he needed.
‘Walk with me,’ Kit said, tilting his chin up and speaking firmly.
Silas looked surprised at the tone but laid down the instrument and stood.
‘You aren’t the same man today. What’s changed?’
‘Nothing that concerns you. Did you hear my confession to the unicorn last night?’ Kit asked as they walked side by side to the ridge.
‘I did. I know I shouldn’t have followed but I know hearts speak the truth when they’re present.’
‘You shouldn’t have brought Adelaide,’ Kit growled. His stomach clenched at the thought of what she’d overheard. ‘That’s not how she should have learned what happened.’
‘She chose to come. Do you think I can forbid her from doing what she wants?’
In that instant Silas stopped being a fae lord and became just a man in love with a determined woman. Kit softened a little more towards him.
‘No. I never could, either,’ he admitted, unbending slightly. ‘She has that knack. I’d say it was magic if I didn’t know better.’
‘Would you?’ Silas said, stroking his chin.
‘In any case you know the truth. I’m not a fighter.’
‘On the contrary,’ Silas said softly. ‘The conflict in your heart that holds you back also gives you life. I would not want a man who relishes the thought of slaughter.’
He leaned forward and touched Kit lightly beside the left eye. His fingers left a trace of coldness. Kit wondered whether Silas suspected what had happened after he had left the grove.
They sat on the ridge and looked at the castle and the camp where the humans were being kept.
‘I won’t lead my people into danger,’ he said. ‘The sleepers Caul Gilling enticed from my world have no stake in your fight.’
Silas let out a deep breath. ‘I don’t care how the aim is achieved. I care for the people of this world and would rather not see them die either.’
Kit drummed his fingers on his lap. ‘I have an idea. It might not work but if it does it will save bloodshed. One person attempts to cut the head from the monster.’
‘You’re talking assassination?’ Silas asked after a moment.
‘Yes.’
Silas nodded thoughtfully. ‘Without my uncle to lead them, I believe most of my subjects will be keen to live in peace with me as their leader. Assassination started your recent war. It seems fitting it will end ours.’
‘I think it was a lot more nuanced than that,’ Kit said.
‘Of course. There are always layers to be uncovered. Nevertheless, I hope it will be enough to tilt the scales in my favour,’ Silas said, enthusiasm radiating off him. ‘It would be dangerous and almost impossible to get close enough to cut his head off. I wonder how… Perhaps a disguise of some sort?’
He started to rise. Kit pulled him back down.
‘That’s not actually what I mean. Would iron kill Caul Gilling if it tipped an arrow or spear? That could be from a distance. It came to me last night when I—’ He shifted a little, aware he was skirting close to a subject that was intensely personal. ‘When I thought of Valentine’s bracelet. Iron damaged it. Iron hurt her, and I’ll feel guilty for that for years to come.’
Silas’s eyes gleamed with excitement. ‘Iron would indeed kill him. You are a genius! I knew it was worth bringing you, too, the moment I saw you with the bow. You will be the one to do it, of course. You hit the centre of a target with three arrows in succession.’
‘That’s true,’ Kit said. ‘The colours stood out.’
‘The fae I need you to kill clouds himself in dramas and dazzlement, hiding himself from my kind when he chooses, but you will be able to see him clearly. Tell me your plan.’
‘Is it possible to bring iron here to your world?’
Silas looked to the sky. ‘Very difficult, but it has been done in times gone by. You are a student of alchemy are you not?’
‘We call it chemistry these days, but yes, I suppose I am.’ Kit frowned as the unpleasant memory of a battle he’d lost came back to him. ‘That is, it’s always been a fascination of mine, even though my father refused to support me financially in reading it at university.’
Silas seemed both uninterested in and unperturbed by Kit’s admission. ‘Excellent. Then all you need to do is transform iron so that it may be brought across the thresholds and then transformed back.’
‘How would I do that?’
‘I don’t know. That’s for you to decide. Blend it with something then separate it again. I’m sure you will know.’
Kit sucked his teeth. He looked into Silas’s eyes. It might have been an effect of the dawn light or the oddness in his vision, but the fae’s irises glowed.
‘I’ll do my best. Then we need to get me close enough that I can have a chance of shooting him. I don’t know how, though.’
‘I think I can manage that,’ Silas said.
‘And if I do what you ask, you’ll let Adelaide go free? She’ll be able to return home. We all will?’ he asked.
‘If that is what she desires.’ An emotion flashed across Silas’s face that Kit had never seen there before, but he recognised it. He’d long been familiar with its company. It was sadness verging on the edge of heartbreak. Silas did not want Adelaide to leave. Kit hardened his heart. That was no concern of his.
They walked back to the camp, discussing, rejecting and fine-tuning a plan until they had something that Kit could believe would work. A figure was sitting by the fire, which was now blazing fiercely. Valentine was female again and was sharpening what looked like arrows with a short-bladed knife. She looked engaged in her task but as the men approached, she smiled at Kit, gazing at him from beneath her lashes in a manner that made him want to drag her off into the nearest tent––
At that moment, Adelaide emerged from inside the tent. She looked at Kit and her eyes tightened before she walked to the fire and sat opposite Valentine. Valentine looked at Adelaide with a slightly cool expression.
‘I wondered where you were this morning,’ Valentine said, smiling at Kit.
It occurred to him that he’d abandoned her sleeping after they’d made love. Leaving her to wake alone in the forest was definitely not the mannerly thing to have done.
‘I was walking with Silas,’ he said, determined to keep his mind on business.
‘Then you are friends?’ she asked, giving him a smile that was a bedazzlement all of its own.
‘It’s a little more complicated than that,’ Kit said.
‘But you have resolved your differences?’ It was Adelaide now who spoke. She put a hand on Silas’s arm and looked at Kit coldly. He vowed to speak with her alone later. They needed to discuss what she’d heard the night before, what she’d done with Silas, and where it left the pair of them and their engagement.
Silas looped one arm through Kit’s and put the other around Adelaide’s shoulder.
‘Come, let’s be friends together and eat.’
Silas led them to a large firepit over which an entire animal was slowly rotating on a spit, and Kit realised how hungry he was. They were presented with bowls of the meat and a vegetable-filled rice dish, and retired to a large rug beneath a canopy at one edge of the fire. The meat was beef – a variety called ouroch , according to Silas – and like everything he’d eaten since arriving, it was delicious, with a fearsome flavour of chillies. As his belly filled, Kit’s temper evened out.
When they had finished eating, Kit put his bowl on the floor beside him. Soft music was being played somewhere, and the camp resonated with laughter and chatter. It seemed a shame to bring an end to the atmosphere, but he’d spent long enough being sociable.
‘I’ve made my mind up. I’ll do what Silas wants,’ he said.
‘You’ll lead the army?’ Adelaide asked. She lifted her chin. ‘But after what you said last night are you brave enough?’
‘Not that,’ Kit said, trying but failing to brush off the way her judgement wounded him. ‘I’ll need to return back home and bring something made of iron with me, if I can.’
‘Iron?’ Valentine leapt to her feet. ‘That is what has caused the harm to our world. Why would you want to bring more?’ she demanded.
‘Because sometimes a big solution is needed,’ Silas said calmly. ‘Iron is notoriously hard to bring through the barriers, but it will be enough to kill Caul Gilling.’
‘A gun?’ Adelaide asked.
‘No. That would be too much. Too big.’ Silas looked at Kit. ‘Often knowing that you are carrying the iron is enough to make things alert. It’s all wrapped up with perception.’
‘Things?’
‘Magic. The forces that guard the borderlands. I’m honestly not sure what to call it.’
‘Well, I’m sure there’s lots of iron back home,’ Adelaide said. ‘There must be hundreds of horseshoes or tools.’
‘So, if I have iron that didn’t look like it was iron, would that work?’ Kit asked thoughtfully.
‘It’s a trick that has been used before, many years ago, I believe,’ Silas said. ‘If you had a piece of iron about which your feelings were so jumbled that any emotion was sufficiently clouded, that might be enough to disguise it. Can you think of such a thing, Kit?’
Valentine gave a tight smile. ‘Speak clearly for once, Silas. You mean Kit’s medal, don’t you.’
‘Of course. You hate it, Kit, don’t you.’ Adelaide looked at him pointedly. ‘That’s what Silas is thinking of. Aren’t you, darling.’
Kit couldn’t quite hear Adelaide referring to Silas with the endearment without flinching.
Silas smiled. ‘Exactly.’
A sense of weariness threatened to overpower Kit, coupled with the desire to see events brought to a conclusion.
‘If I’m going to go back and then return I want to do it now,’ he said, standing and nodding at Silas. ‘Tell me how to return home and I’ll bring you your iron.’
‘You need something to take you home and something to bring you back. I can give you a sprig of lilac to send you there.’
Kit looked at Valentine. Her eyes flickered up to meet his and the world grew distant and still for a moment.
‘Can you take me?’
‘She can, but I’m more reliable,’ Silas said, before she had the chance to answer. ‘I’ve been travelling between the worlds for longer.’
‘Not with me,’ Kit argued, ‘and Valentine has never trapped me in slow time.’
Silas snorted and looked put out. Valentine’s eyes crinkled.
‘I can give you the means to return,’ she said.
‘Who will you choose?’ Adelaide asked.
‘Valentine,’ Kit answered.
‘Very well. Valentine, Beefriar’s Arch, I think.’
‘Of course. Give me a little time.’
She stood and began to transform, her arms becoming wings and her form changing. Kit heard Adelaide gasp in surprise as Valentine flew away.
Silas stared at Kit; his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
‘You weren’t surprised by Valentine’s transformation. You’ve seen it before. Yet you still appear to care for her. Humans are curious.’
‘I’ve seen a great many things I thought I’d never see over the past few years, in my world as well as yours. Yes, I know about this,’ Kit answered. ‘And her other aspect.’
‘Come, it isn’t far to the gateway,’ Silas said. He held his arm out for Adelaide, who refused it, grumbling slightly about how she would have preferred riding to walking, then deciding she would stay in the camp. Kit smiled to himself. She hadn’t changed too much, it seemed.
‘I’ll check on you while I’m there,’ he told her.
She hesitated then nodded. ‘Tell Sarah I love her.’
He smiled at her, knowing that he needed to broach the subject of the night before and his revelation about Andrew, but she looked away. The loss hit him again, along with the injustice that, had he lost a female lover, the world would have been sympathetic.
He reached for her hand and she gave it reluctantly.
‘It won’t be long now until all this is done and then we can go home for good,’ Kit said.
‘Let’s not make plans until everything is ended.’ Adelaide pulled her hand free, gathered her skirts up and walked off to the tents. Kit watched her with growing apprehension. She’d said Sarah, not ‘Mother’. She was pulling loose from the human world and it was troubling.
* * *
He followed Silas, and within an hour they arrived at what looked like the ruins of a medieval monastery covered in climbing plants. Valentine flew down from an archway as they arrived, gripping something in her claws. She uttered a cry then dropped it into Kit’s hands. He looked down at what she’d given him and was unsurprised to see walnuts. Three of them.
‘One should do the trick,’ she said, returning to her human shape. ‘Crack it to break the shell, crush the kernel and blow the fragments into the air.’
Kit pocketed them.
‘Don’t lose them,’ she said urgently.
‘I won’t, but if anything goes wrong you can come and get me, can’t you.’
‘Of course.’ She smiled bravely and Kit got the distinct impression she was holding something back.
‘It can be cold. Can I offer you a cloak?’ Silas held out his own, but the bright green and red garment looked so outlandish that Kit declined. Silas held out a hand. Kit took it reluctantly. Silas’s grip was hearty, his hand warm.
‘If you cannot bring the iron, no blame will be attached to you.’
Valentine approached, her hand outstretched, too. Kit moved in to hug her, resulting in her hand jabbing him in the ribs. They laughed, then he held her close. Warmth bloomed inside him.
‘I’ll see you soon.’
He walked towards the archway. Silas began to intone something that sounded almost like the Greek Kit remembered from school, except the vowels were stretched and twisted. A soft glow pooled in the archway and the scenery that was visible through it blurred. Kit walked towards it, paused only to check the walnuts were safely in his pocket, and walked through.
He wasn’t in the maze. That was the first thing that became apparent. A gust of bitterly cold air ripped across his face, leaving the scent of salt and fish. Indecorous shrieks and squawks filled his ears and he tensed, wondering what unearthly creatures he was about to encounter, and he wished he had a weapon. He edged slowly forwards, feeling his way with his feet. The glaring light that surrounded him receded and the sky cleared. He blinked to clear the blotches from his eyes, and when he opened them it was early morning.
He looked behind him and gave an astonished cry. Until that point, he still hadn’t been completely certain that he hadn’t left his body behind, but he was nowhere near his bedroom.
He was standing on the West Cliff in Whitby and had emerged between the giant pair of whale jawbones erected some sixty years previously. The monstrous shrieks had been simply the cries of the gulls.
Through the weathered bones, the sky behind the old abbey on the East Cliff glowed in the rosy, dawn light and the harbour walls pincered the sea, shielding the harbour from the fierce crests that buffeted the stones.
‘Impossible!’ he exclaimed.
He looked down at himself. His feet were clad in the laced leather boots he had acquired at the Safe House. Combined with the blue and yellow shirt, he was an odd sight. Thank heavens he hadn’t taken up Silas’s offer of the cloak, otherwise he would have looked ridiculous. As it was, one or two people were staring at him. Townspeople, presumably on their way to work. He straightened his cuffs then walked off, skirting around the whalebones rather than passing through them again, just in case the gateway was still open.
‘What are you doing?’ asked a stern voice. ‘There’s no place for drunkards here. Staggering about hiding behind the whalebones.’
Kit turned and found himself face to face with a police constable.
‘Sweet Jesus,’ the constable exclaimed, pointing to Kit’s face.
Humiliation seared him. He’d grown used to not being stared at, and now the experience shamed him. He put a hand to his cheek and felt the roughness of a few days’ worth of stubble.
‘The war happened, and no I’m not drunk. I need to get to Dalbymoorside. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.’
‘Is that right, sir?’ the constable asked, following him.
‘Yes. I’ve been away travelling and now I need to go home. Can you direct me to the railway station?’ He patted his pockets and sighed. ‘I seem to have come out without my wallet.’
‘Indeed, sir. Best come with me then.’
The constable seized him by the scruff of the neck.
‘Am I being arrested? What’s the charge?’ he demanded, wriggling free.
‘Vagrancy and drunkenness,’ replied the constable, reaching for the handcuffs that swung from his belt.
‘I’m not a vagrant, nor am I drunk. I’ll come to the station with you and then you can call my father. He will clear everything up at once.’
‘Well, that’s very civil of you, sir,’ said the constable as he tugged Kit’s hands behind his back. ‘Much obliged. Come on, then.’
‘Iron, I see,’ Kit said. ‘Well, I suppose there’s poetic justice in there somewhere. I never thought of those, but of course, the medal will be better.’
The constable rolled his eyes and gave Kit a stern look. Clearly, he had decided he was some sort of imbecile.
‘That’s right, nice and safe. Don’t you worry, sir. We’ll have you in touch with your family in no time at all.’
He took Kit firmly by the shoulder and led him down the hill.
Ten minutes later, Kit found himself in Whitby police station. He reluctantly surrendered his stopped watch and emptied his pockets into a tray, conscious of the desk sergeant’s eyes on him. The three precious walnuts, a couple of stray leaves that had worked their way in there at some point, and the velvet bag with the bracelet that he had bought for Valentine at the market. He still hadn’t found the right time to give it to her and he broke out in a cold sweat at the thought that it might have melted away like Silas’s coins and been lost to him.
The presence of a piece of jewellery caused a raised eye, as well it might, considering his state of dress. He muttered something about his lady friend, which resulted in knowing smirks between the constable and sergeant and Kit could almost see them adding ‘Frequenter of prostitutes’ to his charge sheet. He furnished the inspector with his father’s telephone number and allowed himself to be locked in a cell (more iron, of course). He lay back on his bed and waited, trying not to let his frustration get the better of him. He was reasonably sure his father would come to collect him, and he was equally sure that he’d get the bracelet back, but whether the sergeant would think it worth keeping the nuts was anyone’s guess, and without those he had no way of returning to the Faedemesne.
* * *
Silas clapped his hands. The archway shimmered briefly then the colours faded and the trees and derelict buildings behind it came into alignment with the surroundings.
‘Well, I think that went rather well.’ Silas beamed at Valentine.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Do you really?’
‘Yes. Kit has stopped trying to threaten me and he will bring us the means to end my uncle’s reign. Well done, Valentine.’
‘Well done?’
‘Yes, well done. He has grown since I last saw him. His courage is more open and he walks with pride. I think that must be your doing.’
‘Some of it is,’ she admitted.
She stooped and picked up a few blades of grass beside her, concealing her face. Kit had gone from her world and she felt his loss keenly inside her.
‘We’ve gone through quite a lot together,’ she told him.
What an understatement! Never mind the adventures they’d had on the way to meet Silas, what they had done last night had been a revelation. He had been a little clumsy and she hadn’t been surprised when he admitted it was his first time. It was far from being hers, but it was the first time she had been with someone who genuinely seemed to like her so that made it special for both of them.
‘Yes, I can see he has had quite an effect on you.’ Silas gave her a speculative look. ‘Give me your hand.’
‘You won’t find a heartbeat,’ she said hastily. ‘There’s no point looking for one.’
‘No?’
‘No. I am fond of him, but only fond.’
Her tongue thickened. She wasn’t incapable of lying, though it didn’t come easy to her. She didn’t think she was in love.
Yet.
They sat on the grass waiting for Kit to return. Silas conjured a bottle of wine and two glasses.
‘It doesn’t matter how enraptured we are. We are only borrowing them,’ she pointed out. ‘We have to give them back.’
‘I don’t have to return Adelaide,’ Silas said. ‘She belongs here as much as she belongs there.’
He sounded so confident, and Valentine had to ask herself what made him so. She turned away and looked back at the arch as an excuse for hiding her face.
‘Would you give up your longevity and your throne if Adelaide asked?’
‘My longevity, in a trice. My throne? No. I will not abdicate the responsibility I have too long lacked. I hope she’ll stay with me. Together, my bride and I will be able to claim the land in a way Caul Gilling never can. Once my child is grown he can take his place as lord. Then I can reconsider and Adelaide and I can be together.’
Kit would no doubt have things to say about that, but there were too many paths to walk down before that became a problem.
‘Does Adelaide know what will happen to her child if she returns to her world?’ she asked.
Silas hung his head. ‘No. How could I explain it to her,’ he whispered. Even if I could, that information would influence her. Any decision has to be hers without conditions.’
He drained his wine and pursed his lips as if it tasted bitter.
‘If only I had brought her through entirely rather than just her spirit. The baby will vanish to a memory when – if – she returns to her body. The kindest thing I can do for her will be to charm her memory so she doesn’t remember anything of this. I alone will bear the death of our child and I alone will mourn the loss of my wife.’
Valentine leaned her head against his shoulder. Her eyes pricked with sorrow, and she had never felt more stymied by the laws that bound their kind.
‘You won’t be alone. I’ll be with you. We can mourn together for what we have lost.’
‘Thank you,’ Silas said. ‘Of course, first we have to win our battle. Then Kit and I can have a reckoning regarding his intention to take Adelaide back with him.’
Valentine shuddered, anticipating the battle of wills that would ensue.
‘I hope it won’t come to a fight,’ she said.
‘So do I. I would hate to have to harm him. I wonder… An exchange could be brokered. If you are freed and we succeed, you could go with Kit and stay in his world. Would you do that?’
Valentine looked at the ground.
‘I don’t know. There’s so much iron and I’d be mortal, wouldn’t I? I’d only have another sixty years or so in a body that was growing older and weaker. I’d have to stay in one form forever.’
Her voice faltered at the thought of never taking to the skies again. She poured a glass of wine and drank it quickly.
‘He could stay with you here,’ Silas suggested.
‘Only if he chooses to. And of course I can’t ask.’
Valentine stared at the sky, drumming her heels on the grass in frustration. The sun was faint, hidden behind the miasma of grey that hung overhead. Kit should be returning soon. She’d enchanted the walnuts to return him to her side.
‘What if he doesn’t come back?’ she muttered.
‘He will.’ Silas was sitting cross-legged, staring at the arch. ‘If not to bring us what I need, then to take back Adelaide.’
Of course. She pressed her lips together tightly. Two reasons that were perfectly adequate. There was no need for a third. There was no need for it to be her.
Silas grew restless before Valentine did. Of course he did. He was never able to be still for long. He murmured a charm beneath his breath and cast it at the ground in front of the archway.
‘I’m going back. I’ll feel when the gateway opens and come back then. Are you coming with me?’
She shook her head and stretched her legs out. The weather looked to be good and her cloak was warm. She was used to sleeping outside, and if it got too cold, she could change form to keep warmer.
‘I’ll stay. He might not be long and I’d rather he didn’t find himself alone when he returns.’
Silas nodded. ‘As you wish. Keep checking for that heartbeat, Valentine. I don’t want you to find yourself grieving too much when he leaves.’