The Secret of the Emerald Sea (17 page)

Chapter Forty-Two

The Cupid and Jane walked into the Crown of Thorns at the usual time. The pub was noisier than usual, and there was a strange tension in the air, which the Cupid said he could feel as soon as he entered. Jane also felt the strangeness of the night, but she was so preoccupied with her own problems, and with Blake, that she paid little attention.

The barmaid drew the two into a corner. She looked half mad with fear. She told them everything that had happened. Jane’s eyes filled with tears as she heard the story. She remembered the terrible moment when the Death card had rested on the top of the deck, where she and Blake looked at it together, and then looked away.

It’s come true
, Jane thought in horror
. All of it has, and now Lord Stirling is turned to stone in his own fine carriage, and Blake...my poor, dear Blake...how he must mourn his father...

The Cupid cuddled against Jane, who stroked his hair out of habit. The barmaid went away to tend to her customers and Jane sat with her tiny companion in shocked silence. Jane was unable to stop her tears from flowing, and the little boy could not comfort her...not here...

The Cupid whispered to her that he felt a sense of menace in the room, some doom brewing all around him. He said he sensed some darkness that seemed to float through the air and poison it, changing everyone it touched. The villagers looked frightened, wary, and angry. He told her that he thought it was a bad idea to stay here for a moment longer, or to attend the town meeting. Jane knew there would be no fortune telling tonight. A couple of the girls who had been there last night as she chatted with Blake now looked askance at her. They were still jealous of her and the way the young man had looked at her.

“Some fortune teller...”one of them hissed, loudly enough for many to hear. There was a ripple of cynical laughter at their table as the girls stared at Jane. Their eyes were sly and cold.

Jane felt pain in her heart because she knew she had failed Blake. She could have seen, but she chose not to. The girls did not really bother her. She had seen them treat others in this way before, and now it was her turn. She smiled at them, as warmly as she could, refusing to engage with them. They just looked away and whispered among themselves.

The Cupid grabbed her hand and pulled on it. “We must go. It’s dangerous here,” he whispered feverishly.

“I want to go to the meeting. I want to see him,” Jane pleaded, trying to keep her voice low so that no one should hear.

“He won’t want to see you, not tonight,” the Cupid declared. “Best to wait a while.”

“Please...please, I don’t want to go!” she begged, but he was insistent. He looked into her eyes, and his own were more serious than she had ever seen them.

“Get up and walk toward the door, Jane,” he whispered. “Pick me up and carry me out of here. Do it
right now
!”

She stood up, unable, as always, to resist him when he was adamant. But she was upset and didn’t want to go. She waved goodbye to the barmaid and scurried away.

Jane and the Cupid walked home, talking to one another as soon as it was safe to do so. “We may have to leave here soon,” the Cupid said suddenly as they discussed the Lord’s death. Both were certain he was dead and gone, and not merely kidnapped.

“Yes,” Jane said, dying inside. “I know, I...felt it, too. Those girls in there, they thought I should have known. They will all be against us soon, I think.”

I did know
, she said to herself
. Not every detail, but something...and I
shut it out of my mind, and I dismissed it.

“There is something else, too, Jane...something I kept from you.” He looked down at the dirt path they walked, unwilling to meet her eyes.

“Yes?” she said, waiting.

“The Death card, in your deck last night...was not supposed to be there at all. I...had a bad feeling about the night, and so I took the card out and I hid it in our room under my clothes,” he said in a hushed voice. “There
was
no Death card in the pack you used that night. Someone put it there, I think by magic...”

She believed him. Something was here, something dark and terrible, and it had started last night.

It had been the loveliest night of her life, but it had all been a dream, it seemed now. A mere vision, unable to sustain itself under the glare of sunlight.
All my love and my kisses are filthy now
, she thought, forlorn
. They are stained with Death and black magic
.

She had rarely felt sadder in her life. It reminded her of drifting on the Emerald Sea with no hope and no destination. She only wished to lie in bed, and sleep and sleep and never wake up again.

“Cupid?” she asked as they drew near the farmhouse.

“Yes, Jane?” he said vaguely, lost in his own thoughts.

“Have you...changed...since that night on the raft?” She watched his eyes. He had kept the Death card from her and he had kept secrets. She felt she no longer knew him as she once had, and this plunged her deeper into misery for he was her only, only friend.

“Yes,” he said flatly. “Yes, I did, and someone saw me, too. Someone saw me flying through the village, much too low, in the dead of night.”

“Dear God,” Jane said. “Who do you think it was? They must be magical, too, then?”

She didn’t scold him, for she remembered the euphoria on his face when he was aloft, and it reminded her of her first journey into the center of the sea. Sometimes, when faced with such joy, it was impossible to remember the other world, the real world, or even to care about it.

“A woman, maybe,” he said. “But it was pitch dark, and I am guessing. It’s just a feeling, I suppose, but I think this person was female.”

“Hmmm...” Jane said. “Yes, I think we must go now, but not right away. It would be too suspicious. In a couple of days, we shall go in the night, and hopefully, by then the petty constable will have found the person who killed or hexed Lord Stirling.” Although, she was doubtful.

And I need to say goodbye
, she thought in despair.
I need to assure him that I love him. I want to see his face once more, or I will die of heartache.

* * * *

The Cupid made sure Jane locked the farmhouse tight, and he had her pull his bed over near the door. He hugged his arrow close as she slept fitfully. He was wrong to keep her here so long, and now...someone was
playing
with them. someone was using black magic, and he was certain that it had something to do with Jane, who slept on the other side of the room, her pillow soaked with tears.

Perhaps I was wrong
, he thought, bewildered.
Perhaps I am here to protect her. Maybe that is my destiny.
Everything was becoming clearer. She’d appeared in desperate need on the island, and he had been there. He had been able to take her to safety.

She was not there for me
. As he had so arrogantly believed
. I was there for her
. Even the night he’d hit Blake with the arrow took on a different character in his mind now.
Perhaps he is meant to protect her, too. Maybe everything I do, all I have done, is for her protection. But
why?

Chapter Forty-Three

The two changed their mind the next morning and decided to leave right away. Both of them felt the strange fear again, even stronger than it had been the day before. They packed what Jane could carry and, with great sadness, they left behind all the special little things they had managed to collect over time.

They headed through the wet fields away from Lynnshire, until their boots were soaked and freezing, and the Cupid wished he could control his power and his
changing
so that they could fly away. Though the Cupid never felt the cold like Jane did, his heart ached at her misery.

They didn’t know where they should go, and it was raining again, making Jane long for the warmth and comfort she had once found below the Emerald Sea. Whenever it rained, he could see her desire burn under her skin, irritating her.

There was no point in crying. They
had
to leave.
Both
of them felt it, and
both
of them agreed. Jane had woken up in terror, sweating and screaming, and the Cupid had come to her and held onto her until she calmed down again

To Jane, the Cupid seemed different now. The coldness in his eyes seemed to have disappeared. In his honesty the night before, he seemed to lose some of his aloofness.

She looked into his eyes now and saw someone real, not only a creature, though she supposed they both were strange beings indeed. But she had never seen his blue-gray eyes so warm.

We are in this together
, she thought as they walked and walked.

Jane could not shake the sense of terror and darkness that hung in the air. She felt as though the Devil was crawling on her...as though she was being watched and examined as she moved through the woods with her companion.

The Cupid had the same feeling, and so they often glanced around nervously as they trudged onward, going faster all the time.

“We must get away from here,” Cupid said. And so they did, scurrying further from harm, and hurrying away from this place that had been a sort of makeshift home for them. Where they would end up, neither knew.

Chapter Forty-Four

Liesel sat up in her bed. Suddenly, she was wide awake. She thought she had heard a door slam. She listened intently, but no other noises came. Still, she could not get the sound out of her head. It was the sound of a great door slamming with all of its force. She reached up and touched her face, as she did every morning upon awakening.

Another day
, she sighed, relieved, feeling the supple skin of youth against her fingertips...and she lay back in her warm bed, luxuriating in her young body as she also did each and every morning.

Today she would find the boy. All the rest could wait. She rose and spread out all her fine silks and lace, wondering what colors to wear and rubbing rouge into her pale cheeks in front of the small looking glass she had bought for just such a purpose. She dabbed her lips with the deep, rosy stain and smiled at her own reflection. She pulled her chin out to make it look more defined, but she could not keep it like that. She scowled into the mirror for just a moment. This wasn’t the sort of face she had asked for!

She still felt enraged because she was not beautiful, and her old rage at Minerva burned through her body again. She felt the urge to throw the mirror against the wall and listen to the satisfying crashing sound it would make as it was destroyed.

She threw herself on the bed, face down, and sobbed for a moment. How could she win him like this? Then, she picked herself up and dressed quietly in the half-light, chanting powerful love spells into the silence. She would use magic on the boy. There was no other way. She’d seen the pretty girls in the pub last night, and she knew she did not look as good as they did.

It will be magic
, she thought
. Now, as always...magic, my only
companion, and my only friend.

* * * *

Minerva had postponed her journey to Lynnshire for a day or two. First, she wished to go to the ancient Temple at Delphi and to consult with the greatest oracle in all the worlds...the Pythia.

The Pythia was a priestess of Apollo, and her advice was often cryptic and cloaked in riddles that would leave visitors frustrated and confused. Minerva was sure she could make sense of whatever she was told. She felt that she was more than a match for the Pythia, and she knew at least that this oracle was trustworthy and fair. She had never been to Delphi for this purpose, but she had gone there before in pilgrimage and she loved the place for it was steeped in magic and history.

Though many believed the Roman gods and goddesses were but a creation of mankind, of course, she knew differently, and so the Delphi was sacred to her.

When the Church had come, and decreed the sacred truth of Delphi, the gods had been angry. They had left the humans to their new beliefs, operating behind the scenes to ensure that the world was not dragged into chaos. But bitterness remained, for how could humankind fail to recognize the assistance and love that the gods and goddesses had contributed to men, women and children during their journeys through life and into the Afterworld?

Gods like Neptune had descended into disdain for human beings, but Minerva was not so angry. She understood that most humans had no direct contact with their deities, and that they tended to believe what seemed most logical to them. If they didn’t meet the gods, or feel their spirits, then how could they believe?

She always tried to assist the worthy in their pursuit of wisdom, rewarding the most truth-seeking writers and poets with flashes of truth and brilliance that were transcendent. If one was human and tried to look beyond the veil of the two worlds to see the truth, Minerva would be likely to find that person and give them their reward. She would also make sure that Jupiter and other gods became aware of the truth-seeker and revered him or her.

In this way, she attempted to restore balance and mend the troubled relations between god and human being. In a sense, Minerva saw this as her true purpose and, if she was honest, she had to admit that humankind
fascinated
her. She studied them scientifically, recording her findings and reporting them at council. She was a friend to the people, though only a handful had ever had a direct encounter with her, and none at all, except the old witch, ever knew who she really was.

She realized the witch must have had some ability to see through the veils, and this worried her. She must get a straight answer from the Pythia so that she could deal with this old woman before it was too late. She postponed her arrival in the village for this reason, and now, she was at Delphi, waiting...waiting for the Pythia.