The Stolen Child (49 page)

Arsha lifted her head just a little, looking at Rachael with a helpless expression.
 

“
You must have some kind of plan, right?” she said.  “That's what you do.  Even when you were with us, on the ship, I know you were thinking of ways out, the whole time.  I don't know how to do this.  I'm not a strong as you.  You've survived so much.”
 

Rachael felt a sound curl up from somewhere deep inside of her, somewhere a heavy sigh and a kind of sick laughter.  She shook her head, as he fingertips brushed the smooth surface of the glass window.
 

“
Yeah, I have a plan.
  Give in.  Let
them
win.  Whatever happens now I can't do anything about it, so I'm going to close my eyes and hope the worst part is over quick.”

“How can you say that?”

Arsha's voice was a stunned gasp.  Again, Rachael felt that sick, bitter sound of laughter welling up from inside.
 

“Because that's what surviving is.  
It's getting by, holding on, keeping some tiny little part of yourself moving.  That's all.  
Your dad tried to win, Justin tried to win, and none of it mattered a damn.  People like Manindra
and Reuben
always win, and the people who fight
them
just get stepped on.  So screw your dad and whatever fight he's got with the old man, and screw Maya, and all the rest too.”

“He's your dad too,” Arsha said.  “
Remember?”
 

“Whatever.  I just want it all done with,” Rachael turned away and pressed her forehead to the glass, feeling the
warm sunlight
against her skin as she closed her eyes.

The sun was setting when they heard the sound of the door opening.  No knock, just Sir Reuben standing in the doorway, speaking softly to one of the guards.  Then the door closed
and for a moment
he
stood in silence, looking about the room.

His eyes turned to the table, where food and a jug of iced water had been left for them by the guards.  Fresh bread, sliced ham and beef, salad, and small bowl of fruit.  None of it had been touched.  
He looked to each of them in turn, waiting for a reaction.  
Eventually
he shrugged, pulled up a chair and sat down at one end of the small table.

“
How are you both feeling?” he said, his voice soft, almost gentle.  “The apothecaries tell me you're mostly recovered.”
 

Silence greeted him.  Neither of the girls even bothered to look at the man, as he reached out selected an apple from the bowl in front of him.
 

“
I don't suppose either of you are hungry.  No?  You should eat, really.  It's going to be a while before we see fresh fruit like this again.”
 

He bit into the apple, chewing slowly, the sound of it filling the room.
 

“
I am very sorry about what happened.  The seer has been taken into custody, of course.  I'm told that the fatecraft she used is very, very old, and very powerful.  The Chamber, of course, denies any knowledge of how she could have come to learn such a thing.  Your shifter has, of course, also been taken into custody.”
 

At the mention of Justin, Rachael looked up at the man, her eyes cold.
 

“
What did you do to him?”
 

For a moment, Reuben said nothing, studying his half finished apple as if it fascinated him.
 

“
He's alive and well.  Better than he was a few days ago, in point of fact.  Our fateworkers have put a binding on him, of course.  To prevent any further use of his... abilities.  But he's in no danger.”
 

“
That supposed to be some kind of threat?” she growled.
 

“
Of course not,” Reuben said, quite sharply.  “I'm not here to
bully you, Rachael.  What I want is to put an end to this.  I want to find some way that we can assure your safety, and the safety of all the people within the Hearth.”
 

There was a pause.  Her throat felt dry.
 

“
Because of the Seed,” she said.
 

“
Yes.  Because of the Seed.  Because in all of their ridiculous feuding, your adopted father and Lord Bhandari have allowed this rot to continue to to fester, whilst more and more innocent people suffer.”
 

“
Feuding?  You were the idiot that thought they were working together.” Rachael snapped.
 

“
Young lady, I am well aware of just how much those two despise each other.  I'm an Inquisitor, it's my job to know when I'm being lied to.”
 

“
Then why'd you go after her dad so hard back there, if you knew he was only trying to help?”
 

“
Whatever Chandra is trying to do here, it certainly isn't helping.  I had only one goal in that courtroom, and that was to see to it that neither of those men had any more part in this.  They've both done more than enough damage already.”
 

“
What do you mean?” Arsha exclaimed.  She had been so quiet that the sudden outburst seemed to catch both of them by surprise.  “My dad's been doing nothing but try to stop what's happening in London.  If you and Manindra hadn't been chasing after him all this time, he'd be there right now trying to stop the Seed and everything else that's happened.  This is your fault, because you wouldn't trust him, and because you didn't stop Manindra from
getting away with all the awful things he was doing.”
 

Watching the girl's eyes, Rachael could see that she was holding back tears.  Arsha's mouth was set in a hard line, her anger barely masking everything else she was feeling.
 

Reuben sighed.
 

“
I wish I could believe that, young lady.  I really do.  I know you think the world of your father, and I'm sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this, but he doesn't deserve the faith you have in him.”
 

“
How can you say that?  You don't know anything about him,” Arsha snapped.
 

“
Yes, I do,” he said, heavily.  There was another pause.  He seemed to be gathering his thoughts.  “A mentor once told me that a guardsman looks for where the crime is.  An Inquisitor looks for where a crime isn't.  A broken window, a tavern brawl, these things are easily solved.  But the absence of a crime… How do you investigate that?”
 

He let the question hang in the air for a moment, though it was clear he wasn't expecting an answer.
 

“I have been
taking an interest in your father's activities for a very long time now,”
Reuben continued.
  “Ever since I was a junior officer in fact.  He's covered his tracks well, mostly with Lord Bhandari's help.  Bhandari, you have to understand, has always kept himself at a remove.  He prefers to work through others.  Your father was one of his finest agents.  
Nothing we've ever been able to prove, of course.  Barely any evidence at all.  Mostly it was the signs of where evidence was missing.  
Inconsistencies and alterations.  
References to forbidden archives, redacted statements, trails of paperwork that lead back on themselves in endless circles.  
But I continued to pick at the threads.  A little here, a little there, but i
t all adds up,
given time.
 
I
spent the
time.  Years.  And in those years
I have begun to get a very clear picture of
what kind of man your father is
.  What he and Manindra have done.”
 

“
What do you mean?”
Arsha said.  Rachael caught the note of growing uncertainty in her voice.
 

“I mean Fallen Peak.  I mean the trail of bodies they left getting there, and getting back again.”

“
You're lying,” Arsha snapped at him.  “He told me what happened at Fallen Peak.  I was born there.  He nearly died getting me out alive.”
 

“
Yes.  I've heard his story.  How the expedition was marooned.  How he fell in love with one of the researchers working for him.  How she died in a storm that wracked the outpost.  How they finally managed to get one of the ships flying again, with only half a dozen of them left alive.  How the hardship of the journey caused most of his remaining crew to lose their minds.  I've heard it all.  And it's a lie, every bit of it.”
 

“
How do you know that?” Arsha said.
 

“
Because I've been there.  Because I wanted to see for myself what could have been so important that so much effort was spent to conceal it.  Do you know what I found?  Nothing.  Or, very nearly nothing.  Manindra and your father were out there for seven years.  Stranded, supposedly, with a crew of sixty all told.  That many
people, living in one place for that long... There should have been a mountain of evidence.  But what I found was the signs of a simple temporary encampment.  No struggle.  No disaster.  They were there for perhaps six months at the most.  The only sign of any struggle was the outpost itself... Or, what was left of it.  The whole thing had been reduced to a smouldering crater.  So for six and a half years I can offer no account whatsoever of where Manindra and your father went to.  Six and a half years, during which sixty people died or were lost, and an ancient Ur citadel was reduced to ash and rubble, with no clear answer as to why or how.”
 

“
That's not true,” Arsha said, her voice on the edge of breaking.
 

“
I'm sorry,” he said.  “You don't deserve this.  Neither of you deserve any of what's happened to you.  I wish there was time to... To explain.  To help you understand what's happening here.  What has been happening for many years now.  But then, even if we had all the time in the world, I don't suppose any of this would be any easier to accept.”
 

He drew a heavy breath, and downed the rest of his water.
 

“
Unfortunately, e
very moment th
e
Seed continues to grow,
and
the walls of reality around it weaken.  
S
oon it
be strong enough to tear the Veil apart, and unleash an unimaginable chaos on all of the Hearth
.  
The apothecaries tell me you're both well enough to travel, which means we have to make our move now.  
I came here because I felt you both deserved an explanation for what is happening, and because I would really prefer to do this with your cooperation.  We think there is a chance, a slim chance, that the Seed can be made dormant again.  That's why we need you, Rachael.  Because you awakened it.  And Arsha... if you are now Fatebound to her, then we may well need your assistance as well.  My ship is being prepared as we speak.  We'll set sail for the Hearth within the hour.  My men will come for you then.”

“
And what if we don't help?  What are you gonna do then?” Rachael said.
 

He shrugged helplessly.
 

“
Whatever we have to.  I'm sorry, Rachael, but there are billions of lives in the balance here.  Against that cost, to sacrifice a few... Even a few million...”
 

“
What do you mean?”
 

“
If nothing else can be done... If the Seed cannot be safely contained... Then we will bring fire.  We will burn every part of it away, and the whole city with it.  And then we'll pray that's enough.”
 

She said nothing.  
There was a scraping sound as he pushed his chair back.  At the doorway he paused, and turned to look at them both.
 

“
I'm sorry for what I had to do to your father.  For what it's worth, I truly believe there is a great deal of good in him.  None of us are born monsters.  But even the most noble of us carry something inside ourselves.  There's a beast lurking in our hearts, and once we set it free, we might never be able to tame it again.”
 

Arsha's eyes were red with tears as she looked up at the man
with a hateful expression.
 

“
Just go away,” the girl whispered, her voice hoarse.  Slipping an arm around her sister's shoulders, Rachael said nothing, but the look she gave the man made it clear that she felt the same.  With a dejected nod, he turned
and walked out the door.  
It
closed behind him with barely a sound.

True to Reuben's word the guards came for them
within the hour
, watching with impassive stares as they were herded out of the room.  They were lead through the hallways of the tower, up and up, to a room that was lined with windows from floor to ceiling.  
T
hey could see the city spread out below them, so neat and orderly that it looked less like a city and more like a piece of clockwork.  Like a watch, made all of glass.

Jutting out from the side of the tower was a long pier, to which a ship had been moored.  
They immediately recognised the slender shape, black with green and silver trim.
 

A pair of large doors lead out onto the pier, and they were marched out towards where
Reuben
stood waiting on the deck.  He gave the guards a satisfied nod and gestured for them to head inside.  Dock hands untied ropes and adjusted parts of the rigging as the ship made ready to sail.

Inside
, the vessel was every bit as polished and precise as without.  The
soft grey
walls and
white
oak floors were a stark contrast to the
weatherbeaten
look of the Triskelion, yet it did not feel the slightest bit welcoming.  They were guided to a spacious guest room, which they were clearly meant to share.  The guards who escorted them remained outside of their door, and Rachael heard the clear sound of the lock turning as the door was closed.