The Falconer (Elizabeth May) (31 page)

‘We’re facing an apocalypse,’ he replies. ‘There is not enough tea in the world to calm me.’

I draw the last symbol and the electricity tingling at my fingertips vanishes. My body stops shaking and I exhale a long breath, dropping the charcoal to wipe my tired hand with a kerchief.

‘Finished.’

Kiaran leans in to inspect my work. His warm shoulder is so close to mine that if I scoot over only a wee bit more, we’d be touching. As I inhale his scent, I can’t help but shift closer, closing the gap between us and pressing my side to his. The taste of his power only grows more intoxicating. He turns to look at me, and our faces are a mere breath away. Everything around me fades and blurs and my gaze drops to his lips.

‘Does it look all right?’ I whisper.

Gavin’s voice sounds so very far away. ‘Get back, faery. Now.’

Bloody hell
. I recoil from Kiaran, suddenly aware of what I almost did. My cheeks flush and my heart speeds up in embarrassment. I swear, I was tempted to kiss Kiaran – and in front of Derrick and Gavin, no less. What is
wrong
with me?

‘For once, I agree with the Seer,’ Derrick says. ‘Keep your distance, or I
will
bite you.’

Kiaran picks up my drawing. ‘Try it and I’ll pluck your wings off and feed them to you.’

Derrick hisses. Gavin just looks interested, as if wondering whether such a thing might be possible.

‘Well,’ I say brightly, ‘we’re getting on splendidly, aren’t we? Glad to see you’re all becoming friends over your mutually violent desires.’

‘Not me,’ Gavin says. ‘I’m just here for the tea.’

‘Not the company?’ I put a hand to my heart. ‘I’m wounded. I thought you liked me.’

‘More often than not.’

Kiaran sets the paper flat on the table between us. ‘Shall we discuss this, or would you prefer to socialise?’

I blink up at him. ‘Please continue.’

‘A clock and a compass were added to the
iuchair
design.’ He indicates the symbols at each point. ‘These are meant to correspond to a lunar event – an eclipse, in this case. The cardinal points keep the power intact wherever the device is placed. As long as the clock works, so will the device.’

‘Why an eclipse?’ I ask, leaning forward.

‘
Sìthichean
are at our most powerful during lunar events, especially eclipses,’ Kiaran explains. ‘The symbols on the device channelled that power to imprison them. But no system is infallible. With each eclipse, those inside tried to break free, and the seal wore thin over time.’ He glances at me. ‘This wasn’t supposed to be permanent. It was only put in place until they found a better solution.’

‘So we’re just going to implement this “temporary” solution again with only one Falconer remaining to activate it,’ Gavin says flatly. ‘Bloody brilliant, you are.’

Kiaran glares at him. ‘It’ll be different this time.’

‘How?’ I ask. I put up a hand before Gavin can say anything. ‘We don’t exactly have a wealth of options to choose from.’

Kiaran is closed off again, which means he’s hiding something. ‘You said it – we don’t have any other choice.’

Derrick lands on the paper, his tiny feet delicately walking amongst the symbols. The slightly-too-long hems of his trousers drag behind him, smudging the charcoal here and there. He bends down to trace a line. ‘For something impermanent, this is brilliant. A single
sìthiche
wouldn’t be able to escape this kind of prison at all. Whoever helped the Falconers knew what they were doing.’

‘Aye, she did,’ Kiaran murmurs.

I frown in surprise. ‘She? You knew her?’

Kiaran won’t look at me. ‘You could say that. She’s my sister.’

Derrick cackles. ‘Your sister! Not at all crabby, like you. She mixed my milk and honey once and told me I had the best sword swipe she had ever seen. Shared a trophy with me, she did.’

I glance between them. ‘Have I missed something? No one told me Kiaran had a damn sister.’

‘You never asked,’ Kiaran says, with a dismissive shrug.

Oh, confound it. He knows perfectly well he never gave me any reason to ask. It’s just another blasted secret of his. I’m considering keeping a tally of all the questions Kiaran evades, so that when each answer is finally revealed at some incredibly inopportune moment, I can look at the count and remember how much he hides from me.

Derrick bursts up into the air from the drawing, his wings buzzing as his body begins to glow silver. ‘I still can’t believe your sister designed this. She was far more wondrous than I gave her credit for. But the two of you really—’

‘That’s enough,’ Kiaran snaps through clenched teeth.

‘Really what?’ I ask, thoroughly annoyed now.

Derrick flaps his wings once and casts a glance at Kiaran. Kiaran shakes his head once in reply.

‘Nothing,’ Derrick says brightly. ‘Nothing of import.’

I’m going to add Derrick’s evasive responses to Kiaran’s tally, which will surely grow to fill whole volumes.

‘Well,’ Gavin mutters, ‘that wasn’t
remotely
awkward.’ He reaches for my tea. Without asking my permission, he gulps it down.

If Kiaran wants to keep his secrets, then to the devil with him. ‘Fine,’ I say. ‘Just tell me how to work the blasted device.’

Kiaran draws close. ‘These symbols on the rings –’ he taps them on the paper ‘– have to be aligned correctly.’

I examine the drawing for any discernible pattern to their current arrangement. ‘Are they aligned now? Can’t I just memorise this?’

‘They’re only partially aligned.’ He studies the design intently. ‘I remember some of how this works, but I can’t be sure my sister didn’t change the mechanism when she altered the
iuchair
. From what I know, these are the first lines of defence.’ He gestures to the three outer rings. ‘When they shifted, the
cù sìth
, the redcaps and the
sluagh
were able to slip the mounds. It looks like she saved the strongest symbols with the most power to contain the
daoine sìth
. They’re the ones intact for now. But beyond that, she’s the only one alive who would know how the rest are aligned.’

I consider every combination of the symbols but can see no repeating pattern on the inner rings. ‘Well, where is she?’ I ask. ‘Can’t you contact—’

Kiaran visibly stiffens. ‘No.’

‘Well, this has all been . . . enlightening,’ Gavin says. He rises and waves a hand at the drawing. ‘Look, I can’t help you with this. I can’t fight them like the rest of you can. I’ll just be in the way.’ His eyes flicker to Kiaran. ‘You were right, you know. Ours is a talent wasted on the useless.’ He strides out of the room.

‘Gavin!’

I stand to follow him, but Kiaran grasps my wrist. ‘Don’t. You can’t fix this, Kam. There isn’t anything you can do for the Seer right now. Let him go.’

Reluctantly, I sit down. I hate every part of this situation. Sighing, I pick up the drawing.

‘Focus,’ Kiaran says. ‘Once the
daoine sìth
are released, there won’t be much time to reactivate the device.’

‘I
know
.’ I’m well aware of the consequences if we fail.

The city will fall because of me, because I’m too weak to save it. There are certainly times when I overestimate my abilities, reassuring Kiaran that I’m powerful enough, and if he tells me otherwise, I’ll shoot him with my lightning pistol.

But saying I’m strong doesn’t make it so. This isn’t the time for a display of false mettle. I will either live to save us all, or I will die in battle and condemn countless innocents to death. Nothing else matters.

Seeing my expression, Derrick flies to my shoulder and presses himself against my cheek and strokes my hair, trying to comfort me.

‘Let’s discuss a plan, then,’ I say. ‘When, precisely, will the device fail?’

Kiaran leans forward. ‘When the moon becomes totally eclipsed, a portal will open in the meadow under Arthur’s Seat.’

‘Right,’ I murmur, picturing the Queen’s Park in my mind. Arthur’s Seat is the highest point in the park, overlooking the place where I landed the flying machine when we found the seal. ‘How effective will the light barrier surrounding the device be?’

‘It won’t last long,’ he says. ‘A single
daoine sìth
could eventually break it down with a sustained surge of power. It’ll fail much quicker if enough of them attack it together. Killing some of them will give you more time.’

‘So we’ll fight first. The meadow in the Queen’s Park is flat enough ground for a battle,’ I say, sipping the last drops of tea Gavin left in my cup. ‘If we herd them into the meadow and slim their numbers, I can make a break for the device and work on the alignments while the light is still intact. Can you keep them busy on your own while I’m doing that?’

Kiaran looks doubtful. ‘It depends on how well we do in the initial attack. How much time do you need?’

I study the drawing, running through the complex web of symbols I need to piece together to make it work. ‘Five minutes?’ Good God, more like five years.

Kiaran shakes his head. ‘I can give you two.’

Two minutes. I doubt I can solve this complex a puzzle in such a short amount of time, in spite of my natural aptitude for such things. Mother used to sit for hours with me while I tried to solve increasingly difficult challenges. It’s how my love for engineering began: each machine became a different puzzle.

But this time I’ll be working alone, in the dark, in the middle of a battle. The enormity of what’s at stake is already making me feel queasy.

Perhaps I should lie again, tell them I’m confident enough to slay an army and live. But I can’t. The words stick in my throat. Kiaran would see right through it anyway, as he usually does, and Derrick would only worry—

Someone knocks on the drawing room door. ‘Lady Aileana?’ MacNab says. ‘Miss Stewart is here for fourhours.’

I feel my false smile settle into place. Perfect smile, perfect lie, perfect bloody life.

Chapter 32

K
iaran is at the door when Catherine enters. She doesn’t see him standing next to her.

‘I’ll return later tonight,’ he says before slipping out behind her. Catherine clearly can’t hear him, either, thank goodness.

‘Aileana?’ Catherine’s eyes are large with concern. ‘Are you all right?’

I realise I haven’t welcomed her. ‘I’m quite well. Do forgive me – I’m just a bit . . . flustered.’

Catherine smiles sympathetically and sits on the settee across from me, arranging the skirts of her light yellow dress. Her blonde hair, the same shade as Gavin’s, is pulled into a soft chignon. As usual, she looks fresh and lovely.

‘Of course you are. I know this situation with Gavin can’t have been easy on you.’

‘Aye,’ I choke out.

‘Wonderful response,’ Derrick says from my hair. ‘Try to sound a little less forced the next time you lie.’

Catherine either doesn’t notice my discomfort or has fallen back on Miss Ainsley’s rules for handling awkward situations. ‘I don’t blame you,’ she says wryly. ‘I
am
glad that if you have to marry anyone, it’s my brother, but the circumstances—’ She pauses and takes a deep breath before asking, ‘Might I be candid?’

I try not to shift uneasily under her gaze. ‘Please do,’ I say, though I dread what she might have to say.

‘Were . . . were you and he
really
caught like . . .
that
?’ From her expression, I can only imagine
that
has been warped by gossip into something utterly base and compromising.

‘No!’ My face burns. ‘Not at all. I promise.’

She looks a little more relieved. ‘What happened, then?’

‘Well, it’s rather awkward . . .’

Catherine waves her hands. ‘Oh, never mind. I don’t want to think about my brother kissing anyone.’

‘There was no kissing!’

At that precise moment, MacNab enters with another tea service. Catherine blushes, and I feel like crawling under the blasted table.

‘Thank you, MacNab,’ I say, ignoring Derrick’s snickering.

MacNab wisely betrays no indication that he heard what I said and leaves as quietly as he arrived. I press the button for tea and pour Catherine a cup. ‘No kissing,’ I say again.

Catherine takes the cup from me and sips. ‘I passed Gavin on the way here. He looked upset.’

I clear my throat. ‘This wedding business has been hard on both of us.’

Catherine nods in understanding. ‘Of course. Are you feeling better?’ Her brow furrows with concern. ‘Mother was quite . . . distressed about yesterday.’

‘I’m sure,’ I say, a bit weakly. ‘Aye, I’m better. I’ll have to send an apology to Lady Cassilis.’

Catherine reaches forward and pats my wrist. ‘I’m sure she would appreciate that very much and I’m pleased to hear your health has improved.’

God, sometimes I hate that Catherine trusts me so implicitly. I’m a liar, a deceiver, and my friend doesn’t realise it.

When I attempt to speak about something inane, like the wedding, nothing comes out. I’m asphyxiating on my lies, breaking under the pressure of this burden I’ve been forced to bear. If I fail to reactivate the seal, Catherine will die. This might be my last chance to save her.

Impulsively, I seize her hands, ignoring her alarm. ‘I’m ready for you to ask me.’

Catherine tries unsuccessfully to extricate herself from my grasp. ‘Ask you what?’ She must see the desperation in my face, because fear and concern are reflected in hers. ‘If there’s something the matter—’

‘You always wonder where I disappear to during assemblies,’ I say. ‘Do you really want to know?’

Catherine goes still. She looks at me as though she’s waiting for me to reveal that I’m jesting. When I don’t, she leans forward and takes a deep breath, pressing her hands into mine the way we did when we were children telling secrets. ‘Yes.’

Derrick tugs on my ear. ‘Aileana, I don’t think this is a—’

‘Show yourself,’ I say to him.

Catherine frowns. ‘What?’

‘Are you quite sure about this?’ Derrick asks me.

‘I am.’

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the halo around him fade. He’s fully visible, wee clothes and mischievous smile and all. Today’s trousers appear to have been made from one of my soft green day dresses. His delicate wings fan softly behind him, tickling my ear.