Icefall, page 29
As her protectors surrendered their weapons, Finn flung down her knives. Ignoring the threatening jab of enemy blades, slapping aside spearpoints, she stalked to where the guards had taken hold of the disarmed Seth.
‘Finn,’ he said urgently, ‘Finn. I knew there’d be a price for what I did.’ He raised his head, desperately seeking out Rory. ‘I just never thought the price would be Jed.’
‘Dad,’ yelled Rory, ‘you didn’t kill him. It wasn’t you.’ The Wolf thunked an idle fist into his cheekbone and he staggered.
‘I paid the price and it broke my heart, Finn. I couldn’t let the price keep rising.’
‘I know.’ Slipping her arms around his neck, Finn kissed him, and she went on kissing him even when her arms too were wrenched behind her and manacled. One of her captors seized her by the hair and began to drag her away.
‘Now, now. Let them say goodbye.’ Kate smirked. ‘Don’t worry, either of you. You’re not going to die. Yet.’ She brushed down her coat, making a face of distaste as her fingers touched a splash of blood. ‘Be assured, you’ll still be able to hear one another later. It’s nice that you can exchange a last few intelligible words.’
Seth smiled into Finn’s eyes. ‘I love you. It’s not going to be good, Finn.’
‘I know. It’s okay.’ She smiled back as she was tugged away from him. ‘I’ll be with you.’
‘No, you won’t,’ said Kate.
Finn turned on her. ‘You can’t stop us.’ But she sounded truly afraid through her rage.
‘Watch me. Dear.’
‘No.’
‘I know where you’re linked, Caorann. You showed me that yourself. You showed me your link and you had the utter insolence to drive me out of him. I can cut that link like butter.’ Seizing Finn’s hair, she ripped out a tangled fistful.
‘Don’t do that to them,’ Rory shouted. He’d got maybe three paces from his guards before they grabbed him.
His guards pulled him across to Kate, so she could slap his face. ‘Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do, you infant. Ah, look at you! A sickly stripling the first time I saw you. Small, like your father. You were such a surprise to me, Rory.’ She glared at Seth. ‘I never thought it right that Cù Chaorach’s runt brother could sire the Bloodstone.’
‘Aye, Kate.’ Seth’s eyes glinted. ‘Now if you had any balls yourself—’
His guard didn’t have to strike him. Kate strode swiftly to him, and did it herself.
He licked his lips, shook his head clear of the blow. Smiled.
‘Ah, Kate, all this time. All the time in the world, and you did this with it.’ He smirked. ‘But you’re still looking good, sweetie. Is that surgical?’
Kate breathed deeply, her high colour receding. I could tell she wanted to slap him again. Instead she dusted her hands in contempt.
‘It’s a soul that ages you. But I can understand how you might have forgotten that.’
‘You do talk mince,’ said Seth. ‘You’ve got lucky skin genes, is all.’
‘And you’ve such unlucky genes yourself.’ She gave him a brittle smile. ‘One could never accuse a MacGregor of immortality. Which brings me back to business.’ Kate stroked his cheek. ‘I confess, a soul’s a devil of a thing to get rid of. You may not be incorruptible, but in some ways you’re incorrigible. You loved being that close, didn’t you?’
‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I don’t mean to sound rude, but it made me feel a bit dirty. Sorry.’
Snatching her hand back, she struck him again on the side of the face.
‘You will be, Murlainn,’ she said softly. ‘Things were never going to go well for you, but they just got a lot worse. Take him, Alasdair. And his lover. Have fun.’
Finn
He was gone: from my soul, my mind, my heart. I was torn apart. The pain of the wound was astonishing and I realised I’d never really known how it was for him. How could I not have known? How could I not even have tried to know? We’d never known each other, not truly. We’d never been bound. We were strangers and now we were lost to each other.
The guards were relaxed. They sat against one wall of my cell, gossiping, laughing, giving me occasional contemptuous glances. I sat curled on the floor, hugging my legs against me because I was afraid my whole body was going to collapse into pieces. I’d have liked to look fierce or at least impassive, in front of Cuthag in particular, but I didn’t care enough to try. I wanted to die already, and she’d only started. I was shrivelled, nothing left of me but fear and despair. Where had my strength gone, all that power I’d grown so stupidly proud of?
Wasted. Vanished. No no no.
Yes!
The guards didn’t say a word and that was almost the worst part. The waiting. I say almost, because when it came down to it, it wasn’t the worst part, of course it wasn’t.
It was an age, hour upon hour upon hour. When the door swung open at last, Kilrevin walked in, cocksure and grinning. There was blood on his face and hands and clothes: Seth’s blood. The knife in his right hand was wet with it: a long curved evil blade, jagged along one edge.
I thought I heard it. One more time.
~ You can’t have him.
~ I already do.
~ NOT ANY MORE.
Now I knew whose voice was whose. Pain and terror sawed into me.
I wanted to scream but I didn’t. No. Rowanwood or no, I’d know if he was dead. Forget my mind: I’d know it in my soul.
Kilrevin shut the door firmly behind him and bolted it with a flourish. Tenderly he laid the knife down on the bench, right where I could see it best.
‘This is how we play the game, Caorann.’ He looked into my eyes, and I made myself hold his Cyclops gaze. ‘You have a choice to make. The longer I’m with you? The longer I’m not with him.’ He laughed. ‘And vice versa. You’ve each got to let me know if you ever want me to go back to the other. Let’s see how long you can hang onto your souls.’
‘Please don’t,’ I said. Just once.
He didn’t listen. I didn’t think he would. I didn’t beg again.
‘Right now your lover’s a bit upset, Caorann. He couldn’t take that blade any more, and he passed out. He didn’t actually ask me to go to you instead, but it’s a start, and I took the hint. Anyway, I brought him round to let him know I was coming to see you.’ He stroked his mutilated fingers along my cheekbone. ‘Do you know, Caorann, he cried?’
If my hate could have killed him then, it would have.
That’s what I had to remember later.
Rory
He didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been hours, it could have been days. Rory’s brain swam as the guards marched him down another passageway. His cell had light, constantly, so he had no way of knowing how fast or slowly the hours passed. As for his sense of direction, it was screwed. This was another tunnel he didn’t recognize. They weren’t rushing him, and he knew why. They wanted him to hear the enraged screams of the chained and hobbled roan in the cavern they passed, and the whinnying of his own heartbroken filly. They wanted him to see Branndair, muzzled, collared, whimpering his grief in his tiny lightless kennel. They wanted him to see the raven’s corpse, hung like a tattered black rag on an iron stake, wings stretched.
They particularly wanted him to see Seth’s fighters, sullen but obedient, drilling with wooden swords under Gealach’s contemptuous command. There were some missing, and he couldn’t help but count names in his head: Braon, Diorras, Oscarach, Meachair, Osran … Leoghar of Faragaig. He stopped. Too many. At least Sulaire was there alive, miserable as he looked. And Orach, and Fearna. Rory tried to smile at them as he was marched along a high walkway, but no-one looked up at him, although they must have heard the footfalls on metal. Not one of them would meet his eye.
They looked despairing and defeated, but at least Kate was keeping her word. At least they were being treated reasonably. He wouldn’t let himself think about how they were treating Seth and Finn.
The room they steered him into was no cell. The starkness of the black stone walls was warmed with silk brocade hangings, the chairs and the table were elegantly beautiful, and there were sculptures in alcoves around the walls. Nothing he’d have wanted in his own room. He averted his eyes from the vile carved faces, and concentrated on the far viler flesh-and-blood one smiling pleasantly at the head of the table.
A chair was pulled out, and one of his guards put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him into it. He didn’t take his eyes off Kate’s.
‘I want to see my father.’
‘No.’
‘I want to know if he’s alive. There’s no way I’m helping you till I know that.’
Kate chuckled. ‘First of all, Laochan, you will help me, sooner or later. Secondly, of course your father is alive. You think I’d kill him now? You think I’d let him off so lightly?’
He twisted his fingers tightly together so he wouldn’t launch himself across the table and make a grab for her. His hands ached to be around her throat, and he knew she knew it. She was loving this.
‘Now, Rory.’ Rising to her feet, Kate walked a languid circle round the table, trailing her fingers across his cropped scalp as she passed behind him. ‘I’ve had your father here for forty-eight hours.’
His guts froze. ‘Two days? You’ve left me doing nothing for two days while—’
‘Forty-eight hours, Rory. Put that into perspective: it’s been such a long war! I dare say by now your father wishes he was dead, but I assure you he isn’t. Imagine how much he’d like it to stop, hm? The longer you hold out on me, the longer he’ll suffer, it’s as simple as that. His lover, too. Alasdair is having the time of his misspent life.’ She returned to her chair, sinking gracefully into it and smiling. ‘And Alasdair’s life has been a long one.’
Rory stood up so fast, his own chair fell with a clatter to the floor.
‘You’d love to kill me, wouldn’t you, Rory?’
‘I will kill you,’ he said. Staring into her amber eyes, he saw a brief spark of fear. It was gone quickly. She smiled.
‘No, you won’t. You see, your uncle Conal told me the same thing, once upon a time. He was mistaken; so are you. Now, Laochan. You have only one decision to make, and your father would like you to make it quickly. You will cooperate with me. If you do it now, Murlainn and his lover will hang. If you leave it too long? They’ll burn. Understand?’
The guard behind him had righted the chair. Rory stared at Kate, breathing hard, but of course there was nothing to say. He sat down and put his head in his hands.
‘Now, let’s get down to business. Tear a gap in the Veil here, Rory. A foot or so. Let’s see if there’s anything I can do to … enlarge the wound. Keep it open.’
‘Bitch,’ he whispered.
‘Come, come.’ She waved at the air between them. ‘We’d better work this out quickly. You don’t want it to take days, do you? Alasdair doesn’t need much sleep.’
He lifted his fingers. Trembling again. Angrily, he clenched his fist, and when it was steady he flicked her the finger. The guard gave him a clout that made his head reel.
‘Don’t play silly games, Rory.’ Kate sighed. ‘I have the patience of angels, but please don’t provoke me.’
Shaking his head, he raised his hand again, extended his fingers. Beneath them he felt the Veil. Soft, silky, insubstantial. Oh, gods. He wanted to weep but instead he lowered his hand, and pushed back his chair from the table.
‘I can’t. Not here. It’s an underground dun. The Veil’s too strong here.’
Kate, examining the back of her hands, sounded bored. ‘You’re lying.’
‘No, I—’
‘Your hold on it has been strengthening since you were an infant, Rory. Four years ago you tore the Veil close to a dun, remember? Just last May, you tore it inside one.’
‘No—’
‘Yes. You did. You tore the Veil at Dùn-Cnuic.’
He gaped at her. ‘I haven’t been in a—’
‘Oh, sharpen up, child. Dunnock. Dunnockvale, as Alasdair’s wretched marketing people insisted on calling it. And may I say, you showed a mature ruthlessness in dealing with those bodies. I’m sure your father was very proud of you.’
‘Shit,’ he whispered. He wished his bloodstream would find its way back to his brain.
Kate brightened, her face all innocence. ‘Yes, your father! Do you think he’ll last a week? I’m quite sure he will. Alasdair and his men would love to have more time with him and your stepmother.’
‘Stop it. Stop. I’ll try.’
‘You’ll do more than try, Laochan. I’ll have my personal guard start building the pyres. That’ll focus your mind.’
Clenching his teeth, he stroked the Veil, gripped it hard.
~ I’m sorry, he told it.
Kate gave a little chuckle.
What was the point in pretending she was wrong? She was right, and she knew that he knew it. He was stronger, and the Veil was weaker. That much he could feel. That, and the fabric of it stretching and giving and ripping. It had the strength of tattered linen, perhaps. No more. His face contorted with grief as he tore it wider, a ragged awful wound.
‘It heals itself. Am I right? We don’t want that. What we want is to … oh, push the self-destruct button, metaphorically speaking. Hm?’ Kate tapped her cheek with a long finger, nibbled on her lip and closed one eye. Stretching out an idle hand, she ignited the edge of the tear in smoky black flame.
Rory started, gasped a protest. But before his eyes the flame guttered, and died.
‘Dearie me.’ Kate pouted.
He took a breath. ‘You’re not even trying!’
‘Do make up your mind, child. Of course I’m trying! But I’ve waited a long time for this. And Alasdair has scores to settle.’
He sank his face in his hands, swearing. ‘If this is it, let me say goodbye to them. Please.’
‘Oh, grow up. Of course this isn’t it! You think after all these centuries I’m going to destroy the Veil in an underground cave with three witnesses? This is a rehearsal, Rory!’
‘You want to grandstand?’ he growled.
‘You’re joking, aren’t you? Of course I do. I deserve a little spotlight, and so does your father, for all he’s put me through. We’re all going to have an audience! They’ll be screaming for you, believe me.’
This time, she couldn’t keep the vicious hatred out of her stretched smile.
Dad, he thought dully. Dad, just die.
Oh, Kate was right about too many things, but she was wrong about one. He’d make sure his father was dead. He’d make sure Finn was too, and Hannah, and everyone else he loved.
After that he had an oath to keep. He had a claim to take, for that matter. It was a matter of honour as well as desire, he thought. You couldn’t fight tradition. You couldn’t fight the blood and oaths of centuries.
He wouldn’t die, not before his time. And his time would only come when he’d killed her.
Finn
There are things you can’t kill, Finn, and you mustn’t even try.
* * *
I reached out for it.
Hannah
There was no pleasing me. So the guard said. I didn’t seem to like a torchlit cell any more than I’d liked the dark one. My wrist hurt, with a deep stinging pain, and I rubbed and rubbed at the ugly scar, but I knew it was nothing. Nothing. I had too much time to think about it, that was all. Too much time to think, full stop. About other damage being done, other hurts inflicted, other terrible things happening beyond my cell.
I don’t know how I managed to sleep, but I did. When I woke I didn’t feel any better, but my senses immediately zinged into overdrive. There was someone in the room with me.
I leaped to my feet, taking a harsh breath, panicking too much even to reach out with my mind. I was still trying hard to block, anyway, though I’m sure it wasn’t keeping Kate out. I’m sure even rowanwood couldn’t do that. How did we ever imagine we’d beat her?
‘Hannah.’ The voice was low and calm.
Sionnach. I gasped with relief as I made him out in the flickering shadows, sitting against the wall with his arms resting on his knees. He didn’t look too bad. He’d been roughed up a bit but not much more than that. He looked up at me but he didn’t move.
‘Don’t be scared,’ he said. ‘It’s me.’
I don’t know what came over me then. I burst into tears, I couldn’t help it. Sionnach reached out a hand. ‘Come here,’ he said gently.
I sat down against the wall beside him and he put his arm round me and hugged me in silence. My tears dried quickly. I didn’t see any point in them. When I rubbed my hands across my face and gulped, he said, ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. They haven’t laid a finger on me.’
‘Since they slit your wrist?’ His voice was dry.
‘I’m sorry, I’ve got no right to cry.’
He squeezed my shoulder gently. ‘Yes, you have.’
‘What about you?’
‘Fine. I wanted them to take me instead. It doesn’t bother me. I didn’t want to live this long anyway. I told them to take me instead of him but—’
It was a long speech for Sionnach and it ended very abruptly as if he’d run out of words. But the silence was so heavy I turned my head and saw something I’d never seen before, something I’d never expected to see: Sionnach weeping, silently, as if his heart would break.
I wriggled round and put both my arms around him, pressing my face into his shoulder. He put his cheek against my hair. After a while he stopped crying, and he didn’t start again.
‘Are you scared?’ he whispered.
‘Yes,’ I said. It was long past the point for playing games.
‘That’s okay. Don’t feel any shame, that’s important.’
‘I promise.’ I hoped I could keep it.
‘I don’t have long, Hannah. They’ve only parked me while they look for a free cell, so listen. They won’t let you near Rory but he’ll be with you, okay? Even if she blocks you both, his mind will be as close to yours as he can get it. Don’t forget.’
