Isabella's Heiress (29 page)

“No! They can take me. I won't let her go.”

“WON'T LET HER GO? WON'T LET HER GO! WHO ARE YOU TO PRESUME TO DICTATE TO THE OLDEST, GREATEST POWER EVER TO WALK THE EARTH? YOU MIGHT HAVE GOT LUCKY AGAINST OUR FRIEND EARLIER BUT EVEN YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE ANCIENT LAWS OF THE PLANE!”

The voice tore through the realm, goading and tormenting Emma in just the same way it did on her first time out.

“SOON, EMMA. SOON IT WILL BE YOU. FATHER EAMON YOU MUST RESTRAIN SISTER IGNACIA, YOU KNOW THE RULES.”

“Do not dare to tell me the rules of this plane, dolt. I have more experience of them than you!” Father Eamon raised his eyes to the sky, his fists clenched against his sides before turning to Sister Ignacia. “Come Ignacia, you know the rules as well as well as I. We can do no more here.”

“No! I will not let her go! You know what they will do to her in there.” Sister Ignacia was fighting back tears and her words were mixed with sobs. “I cannot let her go! She does not deserve that fate, no one does!”

“Don't let them take me, please.” Taryn's voice was trembling and her eyes were brimming with tears. She held her arms out towards Sister Ignacia who responded by trying to take them in hers but Father Eamon held her back.

“I'm sorry, Taryn. There's nothing I can do.” Sister Ignacia was close to collapsing and it was only Father Eamon's strength that kept her up.

“Tttarryn
. Wee welcome you. It will bee a pleasure corrupting your beauty.”

Emma struggled hard as she watched the Gentle Men close around Taryn. As they placed their skeletal hands on her limbs and lifted her off the ground, Taryn's whimpers became screams. She looked directly at Emma, her eyes pleading.

“Em, please. Don't let them take me. I don't want to go.”

Emma wanted to scream at them to let her go but all she could do was reach out towards Taryn and gasp as words failed to come.

They half-dragged half-carried Taryn to the mist and allowed it to swallow them up. Taryn let out a last desperate cry as the mist disappeared leaving behind it an empty road. The cry continued as Emma dropped to her knees looking at the place where her friend had been less that ten seconds earlier.

For the second time in less than an hour, dust was settling back down on the road. Sister Ignacia sat a short distance away just looking into space, her face vacant of any expression as Father Eamon knelt next to her talking. Emma could see her faintly nod her head as Father Eamon embraced her before standing up.

Rodolfo stood up and joined him in the middle of the street. They exchanged words and Father Eamon headed over to Emma.

“Come, Emma. We must head back to the sanctuary. Rodolfo will take care of Sister Ignacia.”

“Why didn't you stop them?” Emma's eyes were still set on the spot where the mist had been. “Why didn't you tell them they couldn't have her?”

“Because it was not in my power to. If I could I would but once Taryn had spoken, there was nothing I could do.”

Father Eamon went to help Emma up but she pulled away from him. “Leave me alone. I hate you! I hate you and everything else to do with this fucking place!”

“I know, Emma, I know, but staying here will be of no help to anyone.”

“I'll make my own way back! I don't need any help.”

Emma got up and looked around the street. Those inhabitants that had chosen to leave their homes when the Soul Gorger had been destroyed had now disappeared back inside. Only the four of them were left.

“Emma it would be wise if you waited for us.”

Emma rounded on Father Eamon. “If you couldn't stop them taking Taryn, what good are you to me?”

A hurt look flitted across Father Eamon's face but it was gone in a second, replaced by a look of resignation.

“I will meet you back at the sanctuary.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Emma walked in a daze, as her vision became prisms of red, green and blue until she wiped away tears from her eyes. The choked sobs became full-bodied heaves as the grief of losing Taryn took over.

The sounds of her pain echoed through the streets as they filled the void left by the inhabitants' sudden retreat.

Emma knew that the void left by Taryn's loss would never be filled.

The days after Taryn's loss blurred into a mixture of anguish and grief for Emma as she struggled to accept what had happened. Journeys into the twilight plane brought back first memories then tears and Emma would abandon whatever it was she had been doing at the time and return to her room at the sanctuary.

Father Eamon tried to console her but whilst she made all the right noises in response, nothing he could say helped. The loneliness brought on by Taryn's loss just increased with each passing day.

It was always the same, she would wake in the morning and for a few seconds everything would be okay until she remembered that Taryn was no longer there and then the pain would start all over again. She would force herself to go through the motions of the day but her heart wasn't in it and she knew that, as things stood, she would never complete her own task. Twice now she had walked towards London Bridge Station with the intention of getting a train to her sister's studio. Both times she had turned back when she had reached the bridge, as all the willpower drained from her. Each day brought with it fresh feelings of guilt and recrimination. Emma knew that she would have to deal with them but for all that she
couldn't shake the feelings of responsibility for what had happened. Twice now she had lost Taryn and twice she had been powerless to do anything about it. At times it felt like the guilt would overwhelm her but it was at these moments that a plan started to form.

At first it felt like a knee jerk impulse to Taryn's loss but the more she thought about it, the more she managed to convince herself that it could be done until by the time a fortnight had passed it was all she was thinking about. Plans raced through her head with indecent haste until finally one stuck which had the makings of something that might be able to be pulled off.

Over the next few days, Emma left the sanctuary with a renewed purpose. She hunted down side streets and river inlets as she worked her way through the different ages of the plane. Now that the Soul Gorger had been destroyed, Father Eamon seemed more content to give her some more freedom to move around on her own, although she was sure that there were people looking over her as she continued with her plan. In the back of her mind, she knew that she would have to put the plan to one side to deal with her own problems but she figured that she had time to deal with that and besides, once she had completed her task,
if she completed her task,
she corrected herself, she would be leaving this plane and then what good would she be to Taryn? No, she would set all the pieces in place for this before she did anything else.

By the time another two weeks had passed the enthusiasm she had felt when she had set out was starting to waver. Her plans depended on her being able to move about unnoticed and that wasn't going to happen any time soon with all the attention that she garnered every time she went out. If anything, the rumours surrounding her had
grown even more outlandish after the incident that had led to Taryn's demise.
Taryn's demise
, everything came back to that. It renewed Emma's fervour and sapped her will at the same time but she had to put it to the back of her mind if she was going to achieve anything.

And so it was, a month after losing her best friend that Emma found herself sitting on her bed tying the laces of a set of muddied trainers. For the last couple of days she had struggled through the grime and churned up dirt of the side streets and sewers, running off the main roads around Newgate Street. It had got confusing as the realms had changed but Emma knew that if she was going to succeed, then she would need to know them all like the back of her hand.

By now she was pretty confident that she could find her way back to the sanctuary quickly, no matter what era she should find herself in, when she decided to put her plan into action.

She headed downstairs and was about to walk out into the garden when she heard a voice call her name. She turned to see Father Eamon standing by one of the wooden posts that framed the main hall.

“Are you well this morning, Emma?”

Emma had tried to avoid him since the events of that day and apart from the times he had come to see her when she was at her most inconsolable, he had seemed happy to giver her the space that she craved but now there was something about his voice that told her this was about to change.

“I'm good thank you. I'm just heading out.”

“Would you sit for a while? I would like to talk to you.”

Emma hesitated for a second but then turned and walked back towards the centre of the hall.

“How are you coping?”

The question seemed pretty stupid but Emma knew that it was only a precursor to whatever was coming next.

“I'm coping.”

“That is good to hear.” Father Eamon paused before carrying on. “Emma, You understand that whatever we do, we cannot bring the ones we love back to us after they have passed on. What's done is done in these matters.”

Emma looked at him, trying not to betray any emotions at his words, “I'm not sure I know what you mean.”

“Come now, Emma. The trips around Newgate Street, your journeys into the sewers. You must have known that this would not go unnoticed.”

Emma knew that any response she gave would have been inadequate so she just waited for Father Eamon to continue.

“There is no way into the Gaol and even if there was, you would not be able to get out again. No one has successfully managed to release a soul from there. It would be foolish in the extreme to even attempt it. I applaud you're loyalty to Taryn but she condemned herself to her fate. You must not follow her down that path.”

Father Eamon's voice was low and soft but Emma knew that he was right, there was no way she could reasonably expect to save Taryn's soul but she was long passed using reason as a yardstick for her actions and she wasn't about to give up.

“What do you expect me to say? I can't leave her there without even trying to get her out.”

There was a look of sad resignation in Father Eamon's eyes, a look of a man who had seen this so many times before.

“Emma you must let her go. You have your own situation
to consider. Your sister still has the letter and time is not on our side.”

“I still have time to sort out the letter but I can't leave Taryn. I dumped her last time before she died and now this has happened. I won't leave her again!”

Emma felt a rising resentment towards Father Eamon for not understanding her feelings on this.

“Would you leave someone down there you cared for?”

For a second Emma saw a sadness cloud Father Eamon's eyes, “I have seen many people condemned to that pitiless existence in my time, Emma, and I know exactly how you feel even if, in my actions, I seem not to. If I could, I would release every soul from their hell bound existence but I cannot. We have treaties in place which forbid us from such things. This is the life we have chosen and we must abide by the inequities that sometimes arise because of it.”

“Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has just lost their closest friend.”

“Maybe not but I will not stand by and see you throw your one chance at salvation away in an errand that is doomed to failure. Now, tell me, how have you progressed with regards to your sister?”

Father Eamon's voice was becoming strained and Emma didn't see the point in antagonising him further. It was inevitable that they would work out what she was doing but it wasn't going to stop her.

“I'm heading out today to see if I can persuade her to open it. If I can get her to do that, then hopefully she will pass it on to mum.”

“You do not sound too hopeful.”

“It's not that. It's just that…I…well…oh it's just that I hate having to mess with her head.”

“I know, there is always a residual feeling of guilt when we do it to any living person but it is always worse when it is someone we love. All I can tell you is that it gets better with time.”

“You mean when everybody's dead and there's no one left to manipulate.” Emma almost spat the words out. “Excuse me.”

Emma got up and rushed through the front door of the sanctuary, bowling over two people as they entered. As the rush of cold air hit her face, she took in deep gasps, letting the sudden shock of the damp breeze cleanse her as it hit the back of the throat.

She was followed out by Father Eamon who stood back as, screaming, she sank to her knees in the wet grass. She stayed there for a few minutes until her legs started to get uncomfortably wet and damp started to creep in to her shins.

“Emma, would you like me to come with you today?”

Emma was taken aback. Father Eamon had never asked her if he could accompany her before. In fact as best she could remember, he had never asked her anything much before.

“No, thank you. I'll be fine. I'm only heading to my sister's.”

“As long as you are sure but I must ask that you put aside all thoughts of going after Taryn. She is beyond all help now.”

Emma acquiesced, nodding slightly to show that she understood before turning towards the gate. As she walked out into the dusky light, she only had one thing on her mind and it certainly wasn't visiting her sister. That would have to wait until later.

Father Eamon watched with growing concern as Emma disappeared from view. He knew she wasn't heading to her sisters and would have told her so except he knew she would have flared up again and that would not have helped anybody. He would find out soon enough where she was going, although he already knew where that would be. Ever since they had dealt with the Soul Gorger, it had been a struggle to keep her focused. Everybody was hurting over the loss of Taryn. He still wasn't sure when he would see Sister Ignacia again, as she had gone on retreat shortly after. It wasn't the first initiate she had lost but this one had affected her badly and she had taken it as a personal failure that she had not been able to save her. It would not have been so bad were it not for the fact that they had lost some of their best guides in defeating the Soul Gorger and now they had to bring others in to fill the void left by those who were now no longer with them. He grimaced as he thought of those brave souls. Many had already perished in this war and many more would go the same way before it was over but it was never easy when it happened.

“Father Eamon, are you free to talk?”

Father Eamon turned to see Father Henry walking over to him. His gruff countenance was reinforced by a face that was covered by a large black beard which made it hard to determine what, if anything, he was feeling at any given moment. He was wearing the same long dark coat that he had worn when Emma had seen him but the sword was now missing, replaced instead by a sturdy pole, on which he leant as he stopped in front of Father Eamon, “You have news?”

“Aye, but it is not good. She is held in the gaol and will be moved before long.”

“Do they know what Emma plans?”

“You have not managed to talk her out of it?” Lines invaded Father Henry's forehead as he took in Father Eamon's words.

“I fear not. I can only hope that she fails to find a way in.”

A wry smile caused Father Henry's beard to momentarily give up its firm grip on his chin. “Free will's something isn't it?”

“As you say but it separates us from them. You look troubled, what is it?”

“They know how important this girl is to Emma. They will try to use her to lure her in.”

Father Eamon nodded, “Then we must ensure that whatever it is they are planning it does not succeed.”

“We will have no say in that if she gets inside.”

“I know, this is not the way I would have had things happen but I cannot change it now.”

“Is there nothing that you can say to this girl? Does she not realise the danger she is putting herself in? A fine thing it would be if we went to all that risk only to have her hand herself over to them on a platter.”

“I agree but how can I force her to do that which she would not do.”

Father Henry leant on his staff, “You could try some gentle…persuasion.”

“No! I will not invade her mind like that. Besides she would know it in an instant. I have never seen someone pick up the sensory skills so quickly. In a way it is as if this is something that she may have to do to realise that which she possesses is not at all common.”

“Well I hope for your sake you are right. If the council hear about this.”

“Which they will.”

“Which they certainly will, they will be most displeased.
I mean, think man, what happens if she is found and taken?”

Father Eamon paused, it was not a thought he wanted to entertain but he knew that it was a possibility. Was he putting too much faith in Emma? If she was the one he thought she was but was not yet in full enough command of her fledgling powers, then he was condemning her to failure and worse yet he was condemning them all to a fate he did not want to think about. “Have plans been put in place for if she should succeed?”