Darke Academy 4: Lost Spirits (20 page)

Suddenly, she clapped her hands together in the swirling spirit-light, and the cavern seemed to implode.

T
he world turned dark around Cassie, and a soundless impact slammed into her head, deafening her absolutely. For long seconds she thought the cave had collapsed, that she was being crushed beneath countless tons of volcanic rock.

Then, after agonising moments, seeping into her brain came the first sparks of consciousness. There was blinding light in the slits of her eyes, but as she forced them open she realised it was nothing but the phosphorescence of the cave. Pain seared through her head, and though she thought she was screaming, she could hear nothing. Cassie raised herself on to all fours, shaking her head furiously, blinking into the nothingness.

The Eldest had gone.

Isabella, staggering with dizziness, was hauling the groggy Jake to his feet, her mouth opening and closing as if she was coaxing him to rise; but Cassie could hear no sound coming from her either. Desperately she looked round for Ranjit. He was stumbling towards her, the Pendant still gripped in his fingers, also silently screaming her name. Cassie’s brow furrowed.

Then she saw what lay a few metres to her left. Richard was a crumpled heap, like a broken puppet. The bloodied Ranjit was skidding to a halt beside him, crouching to lay his fingers against his throat to feel for a pulse.

And suddenly, sound exploded back into Cassie’s ears. She could hear Jake’s moan of pain, Isabella’s desperate quest for reassurance that everyone was OK, Ranjit’s insistent repetition of Richard’s name …

Reflexively Cassie put her hands over her ears, but then shook herself and ran over to help Ranjit. As she fell to her knees at Richard’s side, she felt something sticky beneath her on the floor. Blood, she thought with a creeping sense of dread.
A lot
of it…

‘Richard?’ she croaked.

Ranjit put a hand on her shoulder without a word, and she felt her stomach plummet. Wildly Cassie looked up at him.

‘The Eldest has gone,’ he growled fiercely. ‘Damn it. But all she can do is run for now. We need to go after her.’

‘Ranjit, we can’t, Richard is—’

‘Cassie, she’s got to be stopped before she consumes more spirits, gets even stronger. We’ve got to go
now
.’ He paused and gave Richard a last pitying look, and his voice softened. ‘Or I’ll go for now. Follow me when you can.’ After giving Cassie’s shoulder a quick squeeze, he raced out of the cave.

Isabella came over and stood above her, propping up Jake, who still looked dazed and semi-conscious. ‘Marat’s gone too,’ she said, her voice laced with anger and shock.

Just for the moment, Cassie didn’t care. She could only stare down at Richard, stroking his hair. His face was grey, the veins at his temples purple and prominent, and his eyes were wide and scared.

‘Richard,’ she whispered, stroking his cheekbone.

‘Hope this. Makes up for it,’ he gasped, a smile trembling on his blue lips.

‘Makes up for what – letting me in on all this fun? Wouldn’t have missed it for anything.’ Her throat dried and her eyes burned.

‘Me either. Wouldn’t have missed it. Well … not sure about this part …’

‘Shut up a minute.’ Cassie lifted the hem of his bloody shirt to see where the Eldest had ripped a chunk like a shark bite from his side with her claws. She felt a shock of horror run through her at the sight of the wound. Quickly and delicately she let it down again, and he gasped with pain. Cassie tried to imagine getting Richard out of the cavern. Down Mount Kenya. Along dust roads to the nearest hospital – and where the hell was that, anyway?

Not a hope in hell.

‘Halton-Jones, why did you have to play the hero? You stupid bugger.’ A tear rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it fiercely with the back of her hand.

‘Play at it is right. And I was hardly an … Oscar winner …’ He broke off, coughing hard, and Cassie’s heart quickened at the sight of blood on his lips. She reached down and wiped it away.

‘You saved our lives, you crazy loon. But I told you, shut up. Don’t waste your breath.’

‘Can’t expect me to stop talking. Change habit. Of a lifetime.’

‘Listen, Richard, I’m going to get help for you and Sir Alric. Don’t move.’

‘Ha ha.’

Cassie started to get to her feet, but she felt his fingertips scrape her calf desperately.

‘Don’t leave.’ There were tears as well as blood on his face. ‘Please.’

She hesitated only for a second, then knelt back down and put a hand on his chest. She could feel his rapid desperate heartbeat, the shallow tortuous rise and fall of his ribcage.

‘Richard …’ she sighed, fighting desperately to keep the tears back.

‘Wh-what?’

‘I love you.’

His head rolled round to face her, and his lips curved in a smile, his eyes brimming with tears of his own. ‘I’m going to tell Singh on you.’

‘You do that.’ She couldn’t stop crying now. ‘You tell him as soon as we get back. See where it gets you. He already knows, anyway …’

‘Well, in that case. I hope he knows. I love you too …’

Leaning into him, Cassie placed her hand on his clammy cheek and carefully brought her lips against his. When it didn’t seem as if she was going to hurt him, she kissed him gently.

She felt the moment his breath stopped.

Drawing back, she saw the faint white light of his spirit coil from his parted lips, drift with a thin mourning wail towards the roof, then evaporate into the dank air of the cavern.

Richard’s eyes were still open, but the mischievous spark was gone; they were dull and dead. Very gently Cassie put her fingertips on his eyelids and drew them down, then pushed herself up. Every bone and muscle in her body was screaming with pain, and her heart was wrung with grief. She let out a deep, strangled sob.

Cassie felt a hand touch hers, but she shook off Isabella’s comfort. Tears were streaming down the Argentinean girl’s face, and Jake stood staring at Richard, stunned.

‘Isabella, stay with Jake and Sir Alric.’ Cassie’s voice was hollow. ‘Look after them. I’m going to help Ranjit.’

‘Wait.’ Jake was shaken out of his shock, and seized her arm. ‘Cassie. Take these.’

Turning impatiently, she stared at his outstretched hand. The last tiny vial of Tears; all that was left of the precious liquid.

‘It’s too late,’ she said bleakly, shaking her head. ‘I don’t think they’d have helped anyway. He’s gone—’

‘No, listen. Sir Alric’s note, the one he left in his study? It was about these. He thought they could stop the Eldest. If they touch her.’

Cassie stared at him. ‘What?’

He opened her palm, pressed the vial into it. ‘It said something about the Tears’ ancient origins, them being the thing to stop the Eldest. I don’t know how. Just use them. I wanted to … I wanted to do it myself. I’m sorry.’

She shook her head. ‘But what if—’

‘Listen, just take them. Do it for me. Me and Jess, OK?’

‘You and Jess.’ She curled her fist round the vial. ‘And Richard.’

‘Yes. Now go!’

Grief was kindling into fury inside her, and even the darkness in the cavern was stained red through her vision. Turning deliberately away from Richard’s body, she snatched up the Knife in her other hand.

‘This is it, Eldest,’ she hissed. ‘I’m coming to get you.’

C
assie burst from the cavern entrance into a pale golden Kenya dawn. Between the trees, the horizon was a very distant line, hazy with glowing watercolour tints, but she had no time to admire it. She plunged down the rocks into the valley and ran. If she ran fast enough, she might even outrun the sight of Richard’s broken corpse, branded in her mind’s eye.

She stumbled, tripped and fell, rolling down a small gully with the breath knocked out of her, but she leaped back to her feet and ran again. She must be close to the lowest slopes; she could hear the sound of the river they’d followed. It wasn’t hard to follow the trail: broken branches, scored rock and blood. Gritting her teeth, she hurtled on down, leaping tree roots.

I’ll get there. I’m coming, Ranjit …

Abruptly she skidded to a halt. The river pooled between two waterfalls, a broad placid lake that funnelled into a roaring cascade. But it wasn’t the water that brought her to a halt, sniffing the wind, straining her ears. Her Few senses bristled.

Was she imagining things? Cassie took another hesitant step towards the clear riverside path, frowning.

Shadows stirred, and a squat, malevolent figure stepped out from behind rocks.

‘Marat.’ Cassie shook her head. Of course. Trust him to turn up at the worst possible moment.

The little man grinned at her. ‘That’s far enough, Miss Bell.’

Five words. Was it the most he’d ever spoken to her?

‘Not quite far enough,’ she spat. ‘Get out of my way.’

His pale raisin-eyes were filmed in scarlet. For a moment Cassie was shocked – wasn’t Few status supposed to confer beauty? – but she had no time to wonder. Marat crouched, and sprang.

Roaring, she leaped to meet him. They collided in mid-air, and tumbled, snarling and biting, tearing violently at one another. She kicked him away, but he rolled, recovered, and charged like a bull into her midriff, knocking her on to her back. Cassie yelled with frustrated rage. She hadn’t regained her full strength yet, and his stocky frame was surprisingly powerful.

Marat had a grip on her neck, and he tried to squeeze harder as she writhed, trying to get free of him. ‘You think I’ll let you ruin everything now?’ he growled. ‘I’ll be glad to see the back of you, Bell.’

‘Not … going … to happen,’ she rasped, choking for breath.

He laughed, an oddly high, ringing sound. ‘You’re too weak! Like that arrogant bastard Darke. Too weak, in the end!’

That was what he thought. As his grip loosened momentarily, Cassie struck at him with one arm, knocking him backwards.

‘My mistress has sacrificed herself to the Eldest,’ he shouted angrily, trying to regain his footing. ‘You think I’ll let that be in vain? And my young mistress is now one with the greatest of all of us! You’re not even fit to be struck down by him!’

‘You sound like a bad cartoon!’ Cassie yelled, kicking out savagely at his groin, but he grunted, catching her leg, gripping and twisting. Cassie lashed a fist into the side of his face, loosening his hold enough to let her free herself from his grip, but she slipped, knocking into Marat and sending both of them rolling to the edge of the river and into the shallow, murky water.

Marat went for her again, grabbing her head and trying to force it down under the surface. Cassie struggled, choking, but she managed to twisting a leg round his ankle and unbalance him, sending him splashing into the muddy water. She surged up, sucking in lungfuls of air, coughing hard. As she struggled towards the bank, she felt a grip like a vice close on her ankle, dragging her back. Giving in to the pull, she turned, kicking out, and then, with a roar of frustrated anger, Cassie smashed a fist into Marat’s nose. I have to get away from here, she thought, I have to get to Ranjit! Blood spurted from Marat’s nose and he cried out in pain.

But he still wouldn’t relent. Ugly he might be, but Marat’s spirit was clearly not so weak that he wouldn’t be able to beat her in her present state. Cassie was already exhausted. A foot connected with her gut and she doubled over, then a hand smashed into the back of her neck and she was back in the water.

You might have warned me, Sir bloody Alric …

Cassie blinked, desperately holding her breath. She could see almost nothing in the shallow water at the edge of the river, especially now that they’d churned up the mud with their battle. Strands of weed tangled round her legs and in her hair, and shadows started to pass across her vision. Long, sleek, swift shadows. She was going to drown.

No.

Twisting violently, she finally got away, rolling over and seizing Marat by his thick throat. Snarling, spitting mouthfuls of vile muddy water, Cassie snapped her head forward, felt her skull connect hard with the bridge of his already-broken nose. Marat gave another scream of pain and rage, stumbling back, and Cassie scrambled for the bank. Get out of the water get out of the water …

She spun round as soon as she was on semi-solid ground, sliding and skidding in the mud, but keeping her footing. Marat, shoulders hunched, blood streaming from his face, was staggering towards her again, his red eyes brilliant with killing-fury. Curling her lip, sucking in air, Cassie remembered something at last.

Fumbling at her belt, she reached down and gripped the hilt of the Knife.

She drew it and held it out before her. Marat’s eyes turned to slits of spiteful malice. Ankle-deep at the river’s edge he paused, tilting his head as if to guess at her next move. If he gets this Knife off me, I’m dust, Cassie thought, gripping it tighter.

That thought must have occurred to Marat at exactly the same moment. His lips stretched in a vicious grin, and he wiped blood off his face with the back of a balled fist. He was within an instant of lunging for the Knife when his grin became a grimace, and he let out a sudden short scream. Cassie backed away, startled. For an insane moment she thought he’d stumbled on a log in the water.

But it wasn’t a log.

Marat fell forward on to his face, clutching at handfuls of thick mud, and Cassie saw his leg. Incredulously, she realised it was gripped in a crocodile’s jaws. The creature was pulling him back now, and he could get no hold on the soft riverbank.

The sight was horrendous. Somewhere in her brain, an automatic humanity switched on. Plunging forward, Cassie grabbed at his reaching arm and hauled on it, but it was too late. The jaws snapped once, taking a better grip of Marat’s thigh, and a moment later the crocodile was dragging him relentlessly out into the water. Cassie could see other shapes now, cutting silently through the water to where blood was pooling on the grey-green surface of the water, while Marat thrashed and screamed.

Cassie stumbled back, staring in horror. As the creature moved into the deeper water, Marat twisted, belatedly, hammering uselessly at its eyes and head, striking it with his fists. The crocodile shook its great prehistoric head, thrashing him twice on the surface with a sound like beaten laundry, and then began to submerge.