Bones and Ashes (23 page)

Chapter Nineteen

She woke to find herself lying in a four poster bed with a dark blue canopy above her. Green and white floral wallpaper covered the walls. It took a moment for her to recognise her surroundings. She was at the family mansion in London. Xan sat in a leather armchair by the fire, reading. He set his book down and rose.

“You’re awake,” he said.

He picked up a glass of water from the bedside table and held it to her parched lips. She sipped it slowly. Her body throbbed. It hurt every time she breathed in. A shape lay on the bed next to her. The thump, thump of a tail told her it was Chester, her clumber spaniel. Xan must have brought him here. With great effort, she managed to lift her arm. He thrust his head under her hand to be stroked.

“What day is it?” she asked.

Xan set the glass down. “You’ve been asleep for two days.”

“Where’s Aren? Is he hurt?”

“Aren is fine. He just has a sore head. He’s staying with me for the time being.”

She sank back against the pillows. “You told my grandmother I was asking about the Duke.”

Xan sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hand over hers. “I thought I was doing the right thing. Whatever I have done, I have always done it with the intention of keeping you safe. I would never see you hurt, not for anything.”

She closed her eyes. It was a struggle to keep them open.

“You should rest now,” Xan said.

“Wait. I have to find Deg.” She tried to sit up, but her arms wouldn’t support her and she sank back down against the pillows.

“You’re not going anywhere for the moment. Who is Deg?”

“He’s an imp. He was at Matherson’s house. He helped me.”

He tucked the bedcovers around her. “I will find him. Rest now.”

Unable to resist any longer, she drifted back to sleep.

When she woke, it was morning. A ghost stepped through the wall. For a moment she thought it was Marielle, but it wasn’t. Annis - a thin, birdlike girl, with black hair and eyes - was her aunt’s maid. She must have been about thirteen when she had died.

“Where’s Marielle?” Raiden asked as Annis opened the curtains. The ghost shrugged. “Can you fetch me some water?”

Annis poured water into a glass and held it to Raiden’s lips as Raiden was too weak to hold it herself. The ghost tipped the glass, making Raiden cough and choke on the water. Annis set the glass down on the dressing table, out of her reach. Raiden had forgotten how spiteful Annis could be. Loyal to her aunt, she shared her aunt’s dislike for her. 

Annis disappeared through the wall. Raiden lay back against the pillows. She had only stayed here at the family home in London a handful of times. There was complete silence in the house. The ghosts made no noise. It was like being back in Northumberland. She remembered James Matherson and the expression on his face as he was electrocuted. She shuddered. She tried to put it from her mind. Aren was safe, that was all that mattered.

She caught sight of herself in the mirror above the dressing table. She thought of the small mirror on the wall in Matherson’s bedroom and the face she had seen. She should have guessed before who the lady in the mirror was; it was so obvious to her now.

She pushed herself up and swung her legs down from the bed. She winced as her feet hit the carpet; her ankle was swollen and tender from where she had twisted it. She hobbled over to the dressing table and threw her cloak, which lay on the armchair, over the mirror. It was just an ordinary mirror, but she didn’t feel safe with it uncovered.

A knock came from the door. Raiden climbed back into bed just as a ghost with an enormous girth entered. Doctor Cartwright was her grandmother’s personal physician. He wore a cream frock coat trimmed with gold braid, silk stockings and a shirt with ruffles of lace at the cuffs. The clothes and his long white wig placed his death in the early 1700’s. He set his bag down on the bed and took out a stethoscope. Raiden sat up so he could examine her. His fleshy hands were cold as he listened to her heart and looked at her throat. Finished with his examination, he shut his bag with a snap and left, no doubt going to report to her grandmother.

She slipped from the bed and limped over to the window. Valic stood across the road. He looked up and met her eyes. Despite the distant between them, she could feel the intensity of his gaze. She couldn’t look away. She folded her arms on the windowsill. He wore a black top hat and dove grey coat. Other people out in the street walked past him, but no one looked at him directly. It was as if they were somehow oblivious to his presence. She looked down at the ground and frowned. Something was wrong. There was something missing. A lady walked by, her shadow stretched behind her. But where Valic stood, there was nothing. He didn’t have a shadow.

She remembered what Deegle had said one day in class, “Archdemons can appear human, but they cannot pass for them. They cast no shadow. They were not born of this world so they do not have to follow the laws of this world”.

A chill ran down her arms. She backed away from the window. Valic couldn’t be an archdemon. It was impossible. But if he was, why was he following her? What did he want? It couldn’t be the amulet; she had seen him before it had come into her possession.

Annis entered, carrying an armful of fresh linen. Raiden quickly climbed back into bed. Annis went over to the window and peered out, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Raiden spent the rest of the day resting and waiting for her grandmother to summon her. She avoided going near the window. She knew Valic was out there. Annis brought her a tray of food up for dinner. On the second day, Annis laid out a black day dress on the bed and Raiden knew her grandmother had finally sent for her.

Annis wasn’t gentle as she helped her to dress. She pinched her and laced her corset too tight. Raiden said nothing. She felt sick at the thought of facing her grandmother. Now she was well enough to travel, she would be sent back to Northumberland.

Annis led her down the stairs. Evans waited at the bottom of the staircase. She followed him down the hall, Annis behind her. It was like she was being led to her execution. Evans opened the door and gestured for her to go in. For once, she didn’t have to sit outside and wait.

Her grandmother sat behind her desk. Raiden came to stand before her. “Your Grace,” she said as she curtsied.

“Sit down,” her grandmother said. Raiden sat down on the chair and placed her hands in her lap. Her grandmother folded her hands on the desk. “There are no words to describe my disappointment in you. I thought you had better judgement. It’s clear to me now that you don’t. Your actions jeopardised not only your life, but your reputation and this family’s reputation as well.”

Raiden said nothing. She clenched her hands and gazed down at her lap. She was always a disappointment to her grandmother. But, she wouldn’t argue with her. She knew what she had done was right. 

“Why didn’t you send Peters or Marielle to fetch me?” her grandmother asked.

“I couldn’t. You took them away.” Her grandmother was silent at this. Raiden raised her head and met her gaze. “I stand by what I did. I would do it again if I had to.”

“You’re just a child. You had no idea what you were doing. You could have been killed.”

“I knew what the consequences might be. I chose to go anyway.”

“You know nothing.”

“I know everything.” For the first time, she saw a flicker of uncertainty in her grandmother’s eyes. “I know about the lady in the mirror. I know who she is. I know she killed my mother.”

“You can’t know.”

“I know how she did it. The only thing I don’t know is why. Why did she do it? Why did she kill my mother?”

Her grandmother rose from her chair. She went to the window to stare out. “Very well,” she said at last, turning back to face her. “If you want to know the truth, you shall have it. There are arrangements I have to make first. Wait for me outside.”

Raiden rose. Before she left, she looked back to see her grandmother pull the cloth from her mirror. 

Raiden sat on the chair outside to wait. It was nearly an hour before her grandmother came out. “Come,” she said. Raiden followed her down the hall to the front door where Evans waited with their cloaks and gloves. 

“Where are we going?” Raiden asked, as Evans helped her into her cloak.

“You will see soon enough,” her grandmother replied.

Raiden accepted her gloves from the ghost and followed her grandmother outside.  Henry, her grandmother’s driver, waited with the carriage. He sprang forward to open the door and pull down the steps. 

“How did you get rid of the ghost,” her grandmother asked when they were settled in the carriage. “Have you come into your power?” She could hear the hope in her grandmother’s voice.

“I didn’t use magic,” Raiden said. “I electrocuted him.”

Her grandmother didn’t appear surprised. “How did you know electricity would affect him?”

“I didn’t, not completely. In class, Miss Rudge told us that electricity could affect ghosts.”

“You must tell no one of this. It cannot become common knowledge there’s a way to get rid of ghosts without using their bones or ashes.”

“The Inquisition knows.”

“What makes you think that?”

“In class, my teacher said the Inquisition have been experimenting with the effects of electricity on the dead. Aren said ghosts have been disappearing. I met a ghost. She said the Inquisition have found a way to harm her kind. I think they may be using electricity.”

Her grandmother nodded grimly. “Something has been happening to them. Their numbers have been declining. If the Inquisition is experimenting on them, we cannot allow them to continue.”

“They’re the Inquisition. We can’t stop them.”

“War is coming between the living and the dead. When the war does come, we will stand with the dead against the living.” 

“You can’t mean that,” Raiden said, shocked.

“The dead serve us and we serve the dead. Not because we are evokers, but because we are Feralis’s. We are bound to them just as much as they are to us.”

Being a Feralis was different to being an evoker. She was still a Feralis, even if she had no magic. She understood that now.

“You should know something,” Raiden began. “It’s about Sylvia. She wanted Aren to go to the Inquisition and challenge the succession so women could no longer inherit the title. She wanted the title to pass through the male line again.” 

“I am already aware of that.”

Raiden blinked. “You are? But then why is Sylvia still living with you? And why haven’t you insisted Aren be allowed to come home?”

“I would hardly do that when I insisted he be sent away in the first place.”

“How could you do such a thing?”

“I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see Sylvia for what she is. I arranged for Aren to be employed at Smallpeace, Dawes and Pumprey. I also made sure he was sent away to school the minute he was old enough. Otherwise, he would have ended up spoilt like Elissa. I was able to help one of them at least escape from Sylvia’s influence.”

Raiden stared at her grandmother. She had underestimated her. “What are you going to do about Tobin?”

“I haven’t decided yet. He was ordered not to go to you. I cannot allow him to serve this family if he fails to do as I ask. His loyalty to you over me cannot continue.”

“What about Peters and Marielle?” It was futile to ask, but she had to try.

“You were told what would happen to them if you disobeyed me and left the school without my consent.”

Raiden clenched her gloved hands in her lap. She had known the consequences. It was her own fault she had lost her ghosts.

The carriage turned off down Pall Mall and stopped before the gatehouse of St James’s Palace. Two guards came out and opened the gates and Henry guided the carriage into the palace complex. 

“What are we doing here?” Raiden asked.

The red bricked building was the seat of the Inquisition. She had seen the palace from a distance, but she had never been inside. The only time a witch would go in was under duress after they had been arrested.

“You will see,” her grandmother said.

Henry opened the door and helped her grandmother down. Raiden followed her. Xan was waiting for them. He came forward and took her hand. “It’s good to see you up and about, my dear,” he said.

“Did you find Deg?” she asked.

“I’m sorry. I searched the house, but he wasn’t there.”

“Are you sure? He might be hiding. He might be hurt.”

She hadn’t seen Deg since that night at Matherson’s house. She didn’t know what had happened to him, if he had been caught in the fire or if the other imp had killed him.

“I will put down some traps. We will find him. I promise.”

An interrogator came out to meet them, his arms tucked into the sleeves of his long black robes. “Your Grace,” he said, bowing to her grandmother. “It’s been a long time since you visited us.”

“Your incompetence has made it necessary,” her grandmother said. “You promised me she would never harm my family again.”