Darkwitch Rising (75 page)

Charles’ fingers tapped back and forth, back and forth, the crown of his head blurring between glossy black hair and the twisted crown of twigs and berries with each breath that he took. The Lord of the Faerie was not far away.

“Where
is
he?” Marguerite suddenly said, her nerves getting the better of her. “Dear gods, Ringwalker should have returned with Noah by now.”

Charles glanced at her. Ringwalker should indeed have returned with Noah by now, aye, but frankly, Charles was not greatly surprised that he hadn’t.

He was also worried about Jane. Noah had completed her training. Had Weyland let Jane go? Charles wished he could just rise and go down to Idol Lane, but there was too much else happening. This
was a night of power, and for the moment Charles was not sure where he would most be needed.

“There is nothing to keep her with Weyland,” said Catharine. She had been seated in a chair close to Charles; now she rose and paced the chamber, her heavy silken skirts rustling with the sound of a dark wind through the forest. “She is
Eaving
and she is
Mistress of the Labyrinth
. With all the power at her command, and with her lover calling her, there is no reason
at all
why Ringwalker should not have returned with Noah—and with the bands of Troy—by this late hour.”

“The imps…” offered Kate. “Might they…?”

Silence. Elizabeth and Frances looked at each other, remembering all the vilenesses they had seen those imps commit.

“Noah is too strong for the imps,” said Charles, his entire form blurring gently between his mortal appearance and that of the Lord of the Faerie.

“I fear for her,” Long Tom said softly.

“You do well to fear,” said Ringwalker, suddenly appearing from the shadows behind Charles’ chair, “although whether that fear should be for Noah, or of her, I am not certain.”

“Ringwalker!” Charles leapt from his chair.

Ringwalker looked about at those gathered. “She would not come with me,” he said.

“Why not?” cried three or four voices as one.

Ringwalker paused a long moment before answering. “Weyland has asked her for shelter.”

Charles drew in a sharp breath, but it was Marguerite who spoke. “How did he know? How—”

“How do
I
know this?” Ringwalker said. “All
I
know is that I asked her to come with me. I begged her, and she would not. She returned to Weyland.”

“She can
never
move against him now,” said Marguerite. “She
must
shelter him! Oh, gods.”

“There is more,” Ringwalker said. “I sense a darkness within Noah that cannot be explained merely by her promise to Weyland.”

Charles frowned. “‘Darkness’, Ringwalker?”

“Believe it, if only because I tell you of it, Charles. There is a—”

“Dear gods,” said Charles, suddenly starting as if he’d been jabbed. “It is not Noah we should be fearing for this night, but
Jane!
”

She struck out at the imps with everything she had—limbs, hands, feet, teeth, and all the power she could muster.

But that power was nothing. Catling was too potent. For every ounce of power that Jane poured forth, Catling damped it with twice as much.

What have I done
? thought Jane as the imps began to bite.
What did Brutus and I do
?

How did we go so terribly wrong
?

And then the pain began, and Jane suffered as she had never suffered before.

They’d been so very wrong, she and Brutus. It was not Asterion who was the malignant evil which needed to be contained.

It was the Troy Game.

Charles cried out,
screamed
out. “Jane!”

“Charles?” Ringwalker said, grabbing him by the arm.

“I can’t go to her!” Charles cried. “I can’t, something is keeping me back! Something—”

“I am keeping you back.”

Charles turned around so quickly Ringwalker almost lost his grip on the man.

Catling stood just inside the door. “Jane’s dead,” she said. “Poor Jane. Those imps
do
have a terrible appetite.”

No one spoke. Everyone stared at Catling.

“Do not mourn her,” Catling said. “Listen instead to Ringwalker. There is truly a terrible darkness within Noah, and Jane was concealing it from all of you. For that, she had to pay.”

“What in the gods’ names do you mean?” Charles all but shouted.

“Noah is a Darkwitch,” Catling said. “Have you not felt her rise these past months?
That
is the darkness you felt, Ringwalker.”

There was a stunned silence. Everyone stared at Catling.

“What do you mean,” said Marguerite eventually, enunciating every word very carefully, “a ‘Darkwitch’?”

“Why, Ecub, my dear,” said Catling, moving forward slowly, deliberately, “did you not know that Noah is as much Ariadne’s daughter-heir as Jane was? Jane knew this, and conspired against all of you to keep Noah’s foul little secret!”

“That is not true,” said Ringwalker. His voice was flat.

Catling gave a small smile. “Oh, I was as shocked as you when first I learned it. But hear this. Ariadne had two daughters. An elder one whom she sent as bridal goods to Mesopotama, where she became Cornelia’s foremother; the younger one by Theseus became the foremother of Genvissa, or Jane as she is—
was
—in this life. Thus the Minoan clothes Cornelia wore, Ringwalker. Did you never once wonder why she wore Minoan fashion in a Greek court?”

Ringwalker did not answer.

“That does not make Noah a Darkwitch,” said Catharine, “even if what you say is true.”

“Oh, what I say is true enough,” said Catling. “But, oh, did I not mention who fathered that girl on Ariadne?”

No one spoke.

“Asterion,” said Catling. “Asterion fathered her.”

“No!” Ringwalker cried.

“Aye!” hissed Catling. “Aye!”

“Could this be true, Ringwalker?” Charles asked. Ringwalker did not answer, keeping his gaze on Catling.

“
Could this be true
?”

Ringwalker spun about, wanting to deny everything he had just heard. “Gods curse you, Charles! The moon could have been her father, but that does not make it so!”

“Noah
is
a Darkwitch!” Catling said. “
You
felt it, Ringwalker.
You
said she had a darkness within her!” She paused, then continued more moderately. “Noah is the most powerful Darkwitch that has ever been, because it has been bred into her by the greatest wielder of darkcraft, Asterion himself. It was not something learned, or given. Noah’s darkcraft is inherent. Think of this: Noah is goddess, Mistress of the Labyrinth
and
Darkwitch. More powerful even than Ariadne. Do you still, truly, want to adore her as you have?

“And you,” Catling stared at Charles, “do you truly want to champion
Jane
? She knew this for months, and yet she said nothing. She conspired to protect Noah, conspired to keep all of you witless and unknowing. Conspired against the Game. Against me.”

“I will not believe this,” said Marguerite, low and angry. She walked forward until she stood with Ringwalker, staring fiercely at Catling. “If Noah was all of this then Jane would never have taught her the ways of the labyrinth. Damn it! I
knew
Jane through her two previous lives and I cannot believe she has changed so much in this one. Jane would not have wanted to create a being far more
powerful than herself. That goes against her very nature.”

A chilling smile played over Catling’s face. “Jane did not teach Noah. You only assumed that she did.”

To one side Charles’ face had gone expressionless.

“Ariadne taught her,” Catling said.

Again, that perfect, still, horrified silence.

“Did you not know?” Catling continued. “Ariadne has been living these past years within the Tower of London.
She
has been the one teaching Noah.”

“No!” Marguerite cried, her hands over her ears. “No! Curse you, Catling! Why should any of us believe you? Why should we believe you when—”

“Because Noah has given Weyland the four kingship bands she has retrieved. Worse, she has given Weyland a daughter. She has given Weyland everything: child, kingship bands, and her love and allegiance. She is your enemy now. Believe it.”

The silence this time was catastrophic. The faces that stared at Catling reflected, variously, anger, fright, fragile disbelief, and confusion.

Ringwalker was the first to find his voice. “She told me the bands were in a place called the Idyll.”

“The Idyll is Weyland’s own creation,” said Catling. “If the bands are in the Idyll, then Weyland has them. Be assured of that.”

Long Tom stepped forward. “I will believe none of this,” he said, very softly, “until I hear it from Noah’s own lips.”

“When she can find the time to raise her mouth from that of Weyland,” Catling said, “I am sure she will be more than happy to confirm all I have said.”

Then she looked at Ringwalker. “If you ever want to salvage your part in the Game,” she said, “and in what
I
have to offer you, then you need to take Noah from Weyland sooner rather than later. On the other
hand,” she looked at Long Tom, and at Eaving’s gathered Sisters, “if you want the land to wither under Weyland’s overlordship, then let Noah continue with him, by all means.”

And with that she vanished.

“Jane!” Charles said, and then he, too, vanished.

T
he path to the Otherworld was very beautiful, paved with warmth, walled with comfort, lit with hope. For the first time in any of her lives Jane felt totally at peace.

She found this sense of enveloping peace bewildering, for she had not managed her freedom after all. She would never stand behind the throne of the Lord of the Faerie and carol in the dawn and the dusk.

Death had found her first, as she’d always feared.

It was just that the Troy Game had wielded the death, not Weyland.

How odd. The world gone topsy-turvy.

Death
gone topsy-turvy.

The path to the Otherworld was strangely unpopulated, because she knew that tens of thousands were dying of plague, and there would surely be the usual elderly morbidities, and those women dead in childbirth, and the children run over by carts…

But perhaps everyone had their own path. Jane didn’t truly care. All she wanted was to walk forward, walk closer to the soft light ahead that radiated succour.

Escape from it all. Finally. Jane drew in a deep breath, and—

“Jane!”

She paused, frowning. The voice came from far behind her, and it aggravated her, for she wanted to maintain this sense of wellbeing, and the voice sounded like it—

“Jane!” The voice was far closer.

Curse it
! jane put her hands to her ears.

“Jane.”

Now the voice was but a few paces behind her, and infinitely gentle.

Jane…

She turned around, weeping.

The Lord of the Faerie stood there, one of his hands outstretched.

“Come back, Jane.”

“No!” Jane pressed her hands more firmly against her ears.

“Jane, come home.”

“Home is waiting for me ahead.”

“No, Jane. Home is with me.”

“How is it that you can tread this path then, Coel? Are you dead as well?” She finally lowered her hands from her ears.

“I learned these paths in my last life. That is how I returned, and—”

“Murdered me.”

He laughed. “And murdered you, yes. But now I offer you life, Jane. Will you take it?”

Her mouth turned down. “My body is all ripped and broken.”

“Your body is whole and beautiful, Jane. Look.”

Jane looked down upon herself.

Her tears became sobs. Her body was indeed whole, and far more beautiful than she had ever known it in her life as Jane.

“Comb out your hair, Jane, and see that also,” the Lord of the Faerie said.

She put her hands to her hair, and discovered it
long and thick. She drew her hands out, slowly, looking at the strands as they ran silken through her fingers.

They were golden, silvered and rosy, all in one.

She wore the hair of…of…

“You wear the hair of a Caroller, Jane—the colour of the dawn and dusk light. Dear gods, Jane, I need you to carol in the dawn and the dusk. How can you stand before me, and weep, and say you want only to walk away? How can you abandon the Faerie for the oblivion of the Otherworld?”

“I lied to you,” she said. “You know that now. I can feel it. You know how I deceived you, and—”

“I love you,” the Lord of the Faerie said very gently. “I know you lied to protect Noah.”

“You love me because I protected Noah?”

“I love you because I discovered a beautiful woman. I
knew
it for certain that day you stood before the Faerie on the summit of The Naked, and offered your throat for their revenge.”

“But you love Noah.”

“I will always love Noah. But that is a soft and gentle thing now, not the raging want that once it was. I am her overlord, and her companion on the road. I am not her lover. Not any more. Nevermore.”

She relaxed, as if for the first time in thousands of years. He did not want Noah as he had once wanted her.

He still loved her, but it was a quiet and quiescent thing now. Jane could understand that.

“I have a message for you from Noah,” she said.

“Yes?”

“She said to tell you that above all she is Noah and that she is for the land.”

He smiled, and Jane saw he was vastly relieved. “I am more than glad to hear that. Catling has been telling some nasty tales.”

“Catling murdered me,” said Jane. “She set her imps to me.”

The Lord of the Faerie went very still. “I know. But why?”

“In revenge, because I was the one who opened Noah’s eyes to Catling’s true nature.”

The Lord of the Faerie hissed, and Jane lowered her eyes, not wanting to see the anger there.