Secrets of the Highwayman (24 page)

Nathaniel woke, blinking in the darkness.
His first thought was for Pengorren, but when he sat up he knew he was alone. Pengorren was gone.

He was probably trying to find a door out. That’s what Nathaniel would do. The trouble with the between-worlds was that one tunnel looked much like another, and you could wander in here for days, weeks, and never travel more than a mile in any direction.

Unless you were very clever. Or very lucky.

Pengorren seemed to be both.

With a worried frown, he set off.

At first he saw little sign of Pengorren’s passing, and then he began to notice where, in his haste, he had flattened the scuttling creatures who lived in the tunnels. After a time the direction of the tunnels felt familiar, as if he’d been this way before, and he wondered if this was where he’d followed Teth, thinking he was going home to the Ravenswood he loved.

He quickened his pace. Pengorren mustn’t escape, not again.

It was definitely familiar now. He remembered that dip in the roof, where he’d nearly brained himself, and the crevice in the wall where the orange thing with tentacles lived. And then he saw Pengorren ahead. He was shuffling along, dragging one foot. He looked as if he was nearly spent, but then he heard Nathaniel behind him and turned.

He was white and drawn, but there was a steely determination about him, too. He quickened his steps, heading toward the entrance with its tracery of branches. The way out.

Nathaniel wasn’t going to catch him.

He knew it, even as he picked up his pace and ran. Pengorren would get away, and once out into the world, he wouldn’t be caught. He’d find places to hide, he’d find souls to feed on. Nathaniel’s dream of a new life would be gone forever.

Something pushed past him, and he stumbled and nearly fell. Black and powerful, it moved with supple grace, straight at Pengorren. He turned, saw it, and cried out. But it was too late. Teth brought him down.

By the time Nathaniel reached him, Pengorren was sobbing into his arms.

“Nathaniel?”

Melanie was only a few paces behind him. She staggered forward and bent over at the waist, gasping for air. She looked utterly spent, but her eyes were shining with happiness.

“You came,” he said, sounding foolish.

“I couldn’t let you go alone,” she replied. “We’re a team, remember? Teth came and I followed him through the stone and told him to find you. And he did.”

“I couldn’t let Pengorren get away.”

“I know.”

“Melanie…what are we going to do?”

She shook her head, her lips trembling.

“Do I have to choose? You or my family? Because that’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it, if I destroy Pengorren. Without him, I can have my family and Ravenswood back again. But without him, there will be no you.”

“I don’t want you to…”

“Melanie,” he whispered, “I can’t lose you.”

Teth gave a sharp bark.

The tunnel was illuminating with light, light of an indescribable color. At its center it was so bright that it hurt the eyes. “The queen,” Melanie breathed, moving closer to Nathaniel. She searched in her pocket and pulled out the locket. Her hand was trembling.

But the queen barely acknowledged them as she swept by in her scarlet cloak. She had eyes only for Pengorren.

“You’ve caused me a deal of trouble, creature,” she said, standing over him, her eyes firing sparks.

“Oh?” He looked up at her, his face dirty and tear-streaked and full of reckless viciousness. “
Such
a shame, Your Majesty.”

“Temper your tongue!”

“Why? I have nothing to lose.”

“How do you know? I might be merciful.”

Pengorren snorted. “When has a woman scorned ever been merciful? I still remember how you simpered and blushed when I told you I loved you. They say there’s nothing quite as tenacious as a woman whose heart has been broken, don’t they? And, my dear, you’ve been very tenacious in your pursuit of me.”

The queen’s eyes flashed blue fire. Her small frame seemed to grow and expand, and there was a sound like a thousand birds furiously beating their wings. Pengorren rolled over and dragged himself backward, and for the first time he appeared afraid.

“You will remain here in the between-worlds,” she said, her voice rising and falling like the cry of a hunting eagle. “I have a special place for you, Pengorren. I want to watch you shrivel up and grow feeble, but I won’t allow you to die. I want to keep you alive. Just.”

“You can’t do that to me!”

“Oh, but I can. I think I will eliminate you from history entirely. I’ll wipe your memory clean from time, and no one will ever know you existed.”

“Your Majesty!” Nathaniel came forward, dropping to one knee. “Please, I beg you not to do that.”

The queen turned her face to him, stern and awe-inspiring. Melanie dropped her own eyes, unable to hold them on that shifting column of light.

“My Raven? You would have me forgive this creature? After all he’s done to you and yours?”

Nathaniel shook his head and swallowed, clearly suffering under her attentions.

“It’s not Pengorren. Melanie. If you make Pengorren disappear from history, then Melanie won’t exist.”

The queen smiled. “Ah,” she said, “I see.”

“Please, is there no other way?”

She was silent. “What if I said no, what then?”

Nathaniel sighed, his shoulders slumped. Melanie felt dizzy with the pain of knowing he could not choose her over all those he loved. She was nothing to him, a stranger from another time. He could not love her that much…

“Then I would let Pengorren live,” he said.

“Nathaniel,” she breathed. She came forward and dropped to her knees beside him, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

“I love you,” he said. “If I have to, then I will have to live without you, but I’ll know you’re alive in another time. I could never live if I thought my actions had ended your life.”

“Are you sure it’s not just the glamour?” mocked Pengorren, his face twisted with spite. “You’ll never know, will you?”

Melanie looked up at the queen and held out her hand. The silver locket caught the light. “Your Majesty, you said if I brought the key back to you, then you would give me what I most want. Please, I ask you, will you let me live with Nathaniel at Ravenswood. I want to go home with him and be with him. I don’t want glamour, I never did. I want to be an ordinary woman.”

The queen nodded thoughtfully. Reaching out, she
plucked the locket from Melanie’s hand, the touch of her flesh as cold as death.

“If you go into the past, Melanie Jones, there can be no returning. You know that, don’t you? You will live and die in the nineteenth century.”

Melanie glanced at Nathaniel. “I think I can cope with that,” she said.

“Then you can’t exterminate me from history!” Pengorren shouted gleefully. “I will live on.”

The queen narrowed her eyes. “Not necessarily. I will take some of your essence from you, just enough to give your offspring a little glamour, nothing dangerous, and I’ll channel it into someone else.”

“Channel it into someone else?” he repeated, as if he couldn’t believe she meant it.

“Yes. Your essence will ensure that Melanie and her sister do not change in the future, but the being who takes your place as their ancestor will not be as troublesome as you. He will obey my instructions.”

“Who could take my place?” he roared. “There is no one like me!”

“Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Your stand-in will be a protégé of mine who has been loyal and obedient and deserves the chance to step up to a higher level. Teth!”

Pengorren looked around wildly.

Teth came running up, tongue lolling.

“God, no.” Pengorren was pleading.

“Don’t you think Teth will make a fine sire, Pengorren? He couldn’t do a worse job than you, and he will
be
you for all intents and purposes.”

“She can’t be serious,” Melanie groaned.

The queen was bending over the hound, speaking some words in a low, harsh voice. The black hound began to shimmer. In the blink of an eye a tall, dark-haired man stood in his place. He was wearing the costume of a Regency gentleman, and he looked extremely elegant, with his black hair and lean, saturnine features.

“Did you see that?” Melanie gasped.

“I did.”

Teth bowed low before his queen and spoke in a gravelly voice. “Thank you, Your Majesty, I am very grateful.”

“And so you should be,” the queen retorted. “Be good, Teth, or I’ll turn you back. Now, do you know what you have to do?”

Teth grinned, his coal black eyes gleaming. “I think I have a fair idea, Your Majesty.”

The queen gave an earthy chuckle. “Off you go then!”

Teth bowed again and strolled past her down the tunnel. He glanced at Nathaniel and Melanie as he passed, and winked.

“Your ancestor is still Pengorren,” the queen assured her, “but I have just saved you from the nasty side effects.”

“How boring a place the world will be without me,” Pengorren muttered.

The queen turned to him, her eyes so brilliant that Pengorren covered his own. “Now for you,” she said in a booming voice.

He screamed, but he was already gone. Vanquished to whatever prison had been prepared for him.

Nathaniel slid his arm around Melanie and drew her close. There was still a zing between them, a shimmer of sexual attraction and an ache of love, but not the painful experience it had lately become.

“I still love you with all my heart and soul,” he said. “It wasn’t the glamour.”

“My Raven!” The queen demanded their attention. “I will miss you, despite your disobedience, but you have completed your task. Will you be satisfied, do you think, with a mundane life as squire of Ravenswood?”

“I will.” He smiled. “If anything could be mundane with Melanie by my side.”

“Then go. You know the way.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” It was heartfelt.

The tunnel opening lay before them. Nathaniel pushed through the lacework of branches, helping Melanie to climb out through the shrubs near the summerhouse. She lifted her head, blinking in the sunlight.

“I’ve come home,” Nathaniel said, grinning like a boy as he surveyed the neat garden and the gleaming façade of Ravenswood.

Melanie looked at him and smiled back. “
We
’ve come home.”

“Wait until you meet my parents, and Sophie.” He paused, fixing her with a questioning look. “Do you really expect to be an ordinary wife, Melanie?”

“Of course,” she teased. “If you will be a mundane husband.”

“I will make you a promise then. During the day we will be both ordinary and mundane, but at night…well, that will be an entirely different matter!”

Melanie laughed as he took her hand in his, and they began their journey into their future.