Rebel Angels (31 page)

CHAPTER FORTY

BY LATE THE FOLLOWING DAY, FELICITY’S CURIOSITY has overtaken her anger at me. She and Ann return my call. Our days in London are dwindling. Soon we must return to Spence. Tom greets Ann warmly, and she brightens. She’s grown more confident these past two weeks in London, as if she believes herself worthy of happiness at last, and I worry that it will end badly.

Felicity pulls me into the parlor. “What happened at the ball, it must never be spoken of again.” She won’t look at me. “It isn’t what you think, anyway. My father is a good and loving man and a perfect gentleman. He would never harm anyone.”

“What about Polly?”

“What about Polly?” she says, suddenly staring me down. She can put such ice in those eyes when she has a care to. “She’s lucky to have been taken in by us. She’ll have everything she wants—the best governess, schools, clothes, and a season to end all seasons. Better than the orphanage by far.”

This is the price of her friendship, my silence.

“Do we have an agreement?”

Ann joins us. "Have I missed anything?”

Felicity’s waiting for my answer.

“No,” I say to Ann.

Felicity’s shoulders drop. “Let’s not be bothered by the horrors of holiday visits to home. Gemma knows where to find the Temple.”

“I’ve seen it, I think.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go,” Ann says.

The garden is nearly unrecognizable to me. Weeds have sprung up thick and dry and tall as sentries. The carcass of a small animal, a rabbit or a hedgehog, lies opened in the brittle grass. Flies swarm it. They make an awful, loud buzzing.

“Are you sure we’re in the garden?” Ann asks, looking around.

“Yes,” I say. “Look, there’s the silver arch.” It is tarnished but there all the same.

Felicity finds the rock where Pippa’s hidden her arrows and hoists the quiver onto her back.
"Where’s Pip?”

A beautiful animal steps out from the bushes. It is like a cross between a deer and a pony, with a long, glossy mane and flanks of a dappled mauve.

“Hello,” I say.

The creature ambles toward us and stops, sniffing the air. She goes skittish, as if she’s smelled something that alarms her. Suddenly, she breaks into a run, just as something leaps from the brush with a warrior’s cry.

“Get away!” I shout, pushing the others into the heavy weeds.

The animal’s wrestled to the ground, screaming. There is the sick sound of bone breaking, and then nothing.

“What was that thing?” Ann whispers.

“I don’t know,” I say.

Felicity grabs her bow, and we follow her to the edge of the weeds. Something’s hunched over the animal’s side where it has been ripped open.

Felicity positions herself. "Stop where you are!”

The creature looks up. It’s Pippa, her face streaked with the animal’s blood. For a moment, I swear I see her eyes go blue-white, a look of hunger passing over her usually lovely face.

“Pippa?” Felicity asks, lowering the bow. “What are you doing?”

Pippa rises. Her dress is tattered and her hair a mess. “I had to do it. It was going to hurt you.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I say.

“Yes, it was!” she shouts. "You don’t know these things.” She walks toward us, and I instinctively move back. She pulls a dandelion from the ground, offering it to Felicity. “Shall we ride down the river again? It’s so lovely on the river. Ann, I know a place where the magic is very strong. We could make you so beautiful that you could have your heart’s desire.”

“I should like to be beautiful,” Ann says. “After we find the Temple, of course.”

“Ann,” I warn. I don’t mean to say it. It just slips out.

Pippa looks from Ann to Felicity to me. “Do you know where it is?”

“Gemma saw it in a vis—”

I interrupt Felicity. "No. Not just yet.”

Pippa’s eyes brim with tears. “You do know where it is. And you don’t want me along.”

She’s right. I’m afraid of Pip, of what she’s becoming.

“Of course we want you along, don’t we?” Felicity says to me.

Pip demolishes the flower. She glares at me. "No, she doesn’t. She doesn’t like me. She never did.”

“That isn’t true,” I say.

“It is! You’ve always been jealous of me. You were jealous of my friendship with Felicity. And you were jealous of the way that Indian boy, Kartik, used to look at me, as if he wanted me. You hated me for it. Don’t bother denying it, for I saw your face!”

She’s pierced me through with the truth, and she knows it. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. I can’t catch my breath.

She fixes me with a stare like a wounded animal. "I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” There it is, the thing that’s been left unsaid.

“You—you chose to eat the berries,” I sputter.
"You chose to stay.”

“You left me here to die in the river!”

“I couldn’t fight Circe’s assassin—that dark thing! I came back for you.”

“Tell yourself whatever you wish, Gemma. But in your heart, you know the truth. You left me here with that thing. And if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have known... ”She stops.

“Wouldn’t have known what?” Ann asks.

“You wouldn’t have known they were looking for you! I was the one who warned you, in your dreams.”

“But you said you didn’t know about that,” Felicity says, sounding hurt.
"You lied. You lied to me.”

“Fee, please don’t be cross,” Pip says.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” I ask.

Pippa folds her arms. “Why should I risk telling you everything when you won’t promise me anything?”

Her logic is a web expertly spun, and I am caught in it.

“Very well. If I cannot be trusted,” Pippa says, turning her back, “then you may find the Temple without me. But don’t come looking to me for help later.”

“Pippa! Don’t go!” Felicity calls after her. I’ve never seen Felicity beg anyone for anything. And for the first time, Pippa does not heed her call. She keeps walking till we can’t see her anymore.

“Should we go after her?” Ann asks.

“No. If she wants to behave like a spoiled child, then let her. I shan’t go after her,” Felicity says, gripping her bow tightly. “Let’s move on.”

The amulet points the way, and we duck through the forest, past the thicket where the unfortunate ladies of the factory fire wait. We follow the path of the crescent eye on a long, winding trail until we reach the strange door that leads to the Caves of Sighs.

“How did we end up here again?” Felicity asks.

I’m terribly confused. “I don’t know. I’ve lost my bearings completely, I’m afraid.”

Suddenly, Ann stops, a look of fear on her face.

“Gemma . . .”

I turn and see them, floating on the path.

Felicity goes for her arrows, but I stay her hand. “It’s all right,” I say. “These are the girls in white.”

“The Temple is close,” they whisper in those swarmlike voices.
"Follow us.”

They travel quickly. It is all we can do to keep them in our sights. The green of the jungle-like path opens onto rolling hills that become sandy patches. By the time we’ve descended a third hill, I no longer see them. They’ve vanished.

“Where are they?” Felicity asks. She takes down her quiver to rub her shoulder.

“I don’t see them,” I say, trying to catch my breath.

Ann sits on a rock. “I’m tired. Feels like we’ve been walking for days.”

“Perhaps we’ll see something if we climb up one of these hills,” Felicity advises. “They said it was close. Come on, Ann.”

Grudgingly, Ann rises, and we make our way up the rocky hill to our right.

“Do you hear something?” I ask.

We listen and there it is: a soft crying sound.

“Birds?” Felicity asks.

“Gulls,” Ann says. "We must be near water.”

We’re close to the top of the hill. I offer Ann my hand, pulling her up.

“Criminy,” Ann says, taking in the scene.

Before us, across an expanse of water, is a small isle. From it rises a majestic cathedral with a blue and gold painted dome. The seagulls we heard earlier circle it.

“That’s it. That’s the one from my vision,” I say.

“We’ve found it,” Felicity shouts. "We’ve found the Temple!”

In our mad haste to keep up, I have forgotten to look down at my amulet to check our course. When I do, I see that it has stopped glowing.

“We’re off the path,” I say, panicked.

“What does it matter?” Felicity says. “We have found the Temple at last.”

“But it’s not on the path,” I say. "Nell said to stick to the path.”

Exhaustion has made Felicity irritable. “Gemma, she was speaking gibberish. You’re following the advice of a confirmed lunatic!”

I turn in a circle, moving the amulet up and down in an attempt to get some sort of signal from it. There is nothing.

Ann places her hands over mine. “It is true, Gemma. We’ve no idea if what she’s telling us can be trusted. At best, she’s a lunatic. At worst, she could be working with Circe. We don’t know.”

“How do you even know that amulet is reliable? Honestly, where has it led us? To the Untouchables? To those girls in the thicket? It nearly got us killed by those horrible trackers the night of the opera!” Felicity insists.

Ann nods. “You said yourself that the girls in white came to you in a vision. They showed you the Temple, and here it is!”

Yes, and yet . . .

It’s off the path. Nell said we shouldn’t be led astray. Nell, who strangled a parrot in a mad rage, who tried to strangle me as well.

Don’t trust her,
the girls in white said.

But Kartik said nothing from the realms could be trusted.

I don’t know what to believe anymore.

The cathedral stands like something that has existed for many years. It has to be the Temple. What else could it be? Down on the shore, a small rowboat sits waiting, as if we have been expected.

“Gemma?” Felicity asks.

“Yes,” I say, tucking the amulet away. "It must be the Temple.”

With a yelp, Felicity runs sliding down the hill to the boat. In the distance, the magnificent cathedral beckons with a thousand lights burning. We untie the boat and push off from the shore, paddling toward the isle.

Out on the water, it grows foggy. Night rolls in suddenly. The cries of the gulls are all about us. The moat that separates us from the Temple is surprisingly wide. I look up through the haze and, for a moment, the towering church seems no more than a ruin. The yellowy moon bleeds through one of the cathedral’s tall, hollow windows, glinting off the shards of glass that remain there like a beacon calling in a wayward ship. I close my eyes, and when I open them again, it is still magnificent and whole, an enormous monument of stone and spires and great Gothic windows.

“It seems deserted,” Felicity says. “I can’t imagine anyone living there.”

Or anything,
I want to say.

We pull the boat ashore. The Temple sits high on the hill. To get there, we’ll have to take the steep stairs that have been carved into the rock.

“How many do you think there are?” Ann says, peering all the way to the top.

“There’s only one way to find out,” I say, and start climbing. It is rough going. Halfway up, Ann has to sit to catch her breath.
"I can’t do this,” she huffs.

“Yes, you can,” I say. "It’s just a bit farther. Look.”

“Oh!” Ann says, startled. A great black bird flaps close to her face and takes a perch on the steps beside us. It’s some sort of raven. It caws loudly, making gooseflesh on my arms. Another joins it. The pair seems to dare us to go on.

“Come on, then,” I say. "They’re only birds.”

We push past them to the top of the steps, where we are greeted by an enormous golden door. The most beautiful flowers have been carved into it.

“How lovely,” Ann says. She puts her fingers to the petals and the door opens. The cathedral is vast, with ceilings that soar high above us. Everywhere, candles and torches burn.

“Hello?” Ann says. Her voice echoes,
Hello, ello, lo
.

The marble floor tiles have been laid out in a pattern of red flowers. When I turn my head one way, the floor seems dirty and chipped, the tile broken in chunks. I blink and it is again shining and beautiful.

“Do you see anything?” I ask.
Anything, thing, thing
.

“No,” Ann says. "Hold on, what’s this?”

Ann reaches for something in the wall. That part of the stone crumbles away. Something skitters across the floor and lands at my feet. A skull.

Ann shudders. "What was that doing there?”

“I don’t know.” The hair at the back of my neck prickles in fear. My eyes are playing tricks on me, because the floor is going chipped again. The beauty of the cathedral sputters like the candles, flashing from majestic to macabre. For a second, I see another cathedral, a crumbling, broken shell of a building, the shattered windows above us looking eerily like the empty sockets of the skull.

“I think we should go,” I whisper.

“Gemma! Ann!” Felicity’s voice is high with fright. We run to her. She holds a candle close to the wall. And then we see. Embedded in it are bones. Hundreds of them. Fear screams inside me.

“This is not the Temple,” I say, staring at the bones of a hand stuck fast in the crumbling stone. I’m chilled as I realize the truth. Stick to the path, maidens.
"They led us astray, just like Nell said they would.”

Above us, something scurries. Shadows run across the dome.

Ann grabs my arm. "What was that?”

“I don’t know.”
Know, know, know.

Felicity pats the quiver on her back. The scurrying comes from the other side. It feels close.

“We’re leaving,” I whisper. "Now.”

Suddenly, there is movement all around. The shadows flit across the top of the golden dome like giant bats. We’re almost to the door when we hear it: a high-pitched keening that turns my blood to ice.

“Run!” I shout.

We bolt for the door, our shoes clacking across the broken mosaic floor. But it is not enough to drown out the hideous screeching, growls, and barks.

“Go, go!” I scream.

“Look!” Felicity shouts.

The darkness of the vestibule is moving. Whatever was above us has gotten to the door before us, trapping us here. The keening dies down to a low, guttural chant.
"Poppets, poppets, poppets . . .”