Defiance: The Umbra Chronicles Book 2 Read online

  Chapter Four

  It was still only the middle of the day. Maldwyn had to pretend that everything was normal, and that included going back to work after lunch. He threatened me a few times and informed me that he would lock me in, the moment the door was shut.

  I agreed. I was terribly polite and saw him to the door. I closed the door behind him, with the sense that I was closing the door of my own cage and shutting myself inside. True to his word, I heard the key turn in the lock. I was still standing there, on the wrong side of the locked door with my palm still on the handle when I heard another door open in the apartment behind me.

  I jumped, even though Maldwyn was gone and there was no other way into the apartment except through the door I’d just closed. When I turned to see who it was, I was struck still.

  A little boy stood in the gap of the open bedroom door. He was only five years old, his hair and face an exact copy of Maldwyn’s except that he had Sparrow’s grey eyes.

  ‘Has he gone?’ my son asked and I pulled myself together enough to nod.

  ‘I didn’t know you were here,’ I said eventually ‘David. How are you?’

  What insipid words, but my whole life hinged on them. When he shrugged one shoulder and I noticed how thin he was beneath a shirt too big for him, I felt like I had, indeed, become a little unhinged.

  ‘Do you remember me, David?’ I asked gently.

  He nodded. ‘You’re the bad girl,’ he whispered.

  If I’d felt like I was dead, now the rage that ripped through me was like a fire that a phoenix is born in. I couldn’t shout or I’d frighten David, but if Maldwyn was there, I would have ripped his head clean off. I took a tiny step forward.

  ‘Do you think I’m a bad girl?’ I asked. I tried to look as innocent as possible and to wait patiently for his answer, but neither came naturally. His eyes searched my face.

  I’d seen him before, even spoken a few words to him when Maldwyn brought him to Cairnagorn for the changeover ceremony. There were usually several children around, even the ward of the Old Master had been there when he was too small to be left alone. I hadn’t interacted with the other children much, since I was supposed to be a secret, but Maldwyn had made sure I knew he still held David in his clutches. He liked me to remember that I would never be free. It was the main reason I’d come here to Caillen. I’d thought Maldwyn was dead. I’d thought I’d had a chance to be with my son.

  While I was in the past, I’d learned why Maldwyn hated me. He’d been about thirteen, a nasty boy apprenticed to a nasty knight. When the knight tried to steal Aine’s soul ‒ and mine ‒ on the day of their wedding, Maldwyn had walked away and let him do what he wanted.

  As soon as I was able, I’d reported him to the Empress and she’d sentenced him to death. Unfortunately, that was the day the dragon Darragh attacked the city and Maldwyn must have escaped in the confusion. For that, because I’d sent him to the justice he so richly deserved, Maldwyn hated me. He blamed me for every miserable moment in the miserable mess he’d made of his life. And from the moment he’d won the lot when Sparrow and I were thirteen, he’d punished me for it.

  Eventually, David shook his head. ‘The bad man says you’re a bad girl,’ he said slowly, one hand creeping up towards his mouth so he could suck his thumb. When he continued speaking it was a mumble around his thumb. ‘He says I’m a bad boy. I’m not a bad boy. Are you a bad girl?’

  I couldn’t help myself. I hurried across the room and knelt next to him so I could put my hands on his shoulders. ‘Oh, David, I know you’re a good boy! I think you’re the best boy in the world!’

  He stared at me for a moment then, thumb still in his mouth, he leaned forward until his head was resting on my shoulder. ‘I think you’re a good girl,’ he mumbled and I couldn’t help the tears. For the first time since he was born, I put my arms around him and leaned my cheek against his soft hair.

  ‘Oh, darling David,’ I whispered. ‘What if we went away together? I could look after you. We could run far away and never see the bad man again.’

  His head still leaning against my shoulder, he looked up at me with big grey eyes. ‘You could be like my mother,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, yes, David,’ I replied and somehow managed to keep from crying. ‘I’d love to be your mother.’

  And even though it hurt, I moved away, so his head had to lift from my shoulder. I stood up and his little arms slipped away from around me. I held out my hand to take hold of his.

  ‘We have to go quickly,’ I said, ‘before the bad man comes back. Is there anything you particularly want to take with you?’

  I was ignorant of normal families, but I knew that it was normal for a child his age to have some small thing that was special to him: a toy, perhaps, or a blanket, or some other odd item that captivated his little heart. But he shook his head.

  ‘I’ll get you special things when we find a home,’ I promised. ‘I’ll give you everything. Let’s go.’

  I was sure that Maldwyn would burst through the door at any moment, so I moved quickly. He’d left his wand in a safe place: I knew where it was and I wasn’t going to leave it behind. I broke into the little cupboard beside his bed and took the ebony and silver wand. He was never going to point it at me again. The door to the apartment was locked, but I knew how to deal with a locked door. We made it out of the apartment. Maldwyn was not in the corridor. We made it through ever-widening tunnels of the hive until we came out on the Prom.

  This was the most dangerous moment. Somewhere here was Maldwyn, on his way back to whatever work he did. I avoided the marketplace and kept close to the edge of the cavern where crates and sacks were stored. We managed to remain more or less unseen, moving behind the bundles and avoiding people as much as possible. Sparrow and I used to hide here when we were allowed to leave the apartment of whichever creepyguardian was our parent for the year.

  We were almost to the gate when I was forcibly reminded that I’d completely forgotten Lynnevet. She must have been hiding in the storage area, too. I hadn’t seen her though. I was focused on getting David out the gate when I heard her high, piercing voice shout my name.

  ‘Emer! Don’t leave me behind! Take me with you, too! Emer! Emer!’

  I could have strangled her. Every head on the Prom turned to look at us. In the sea of faces turned towards us I made eye contact with Maldwyn. I saw his gaze drop from me to David. In slow motion I saw his arm raise.

  ‘Stop her!’ he shouted. ‘She’s abducting my son!’

  I gripped David’s hand tightly. ‘Run,’ I whispered.

  We slipped behind the crates and boxes, but there were strangers everywhere to hunt us. There was nowhere to go on the Prom. We were completely surrounded.

  I slung David behind me and up onto my shoulders, his thin little arms around my neck, legs clinging to my waist. I climbed on top of a crate, then up onto one that was higher. Before I made it to the top, I felt a hand grab my ankle. I slipped down a little bit and found Lynnevet there, still holding my ankle and looking up into my face with wide, terrified eyes.

  ‘Hold tight, then,’ I said curtly and turned her into a beetle, still clinging tightly to my leg. I changed David, too, then turned myself into a hawk. I’d spent too much magic today and I’d had so little to spend anyway. My shape shifted against my will and I stumbled back onto the tallest crate, back in my own form again.

  ‘Umbra, I beg you!’ I whispered. I felt how weak she was. She barely had anything left to give me. I changed again, but only for a moment and slipped back into my own shape.

  Maldwyn’s voice was the first to shout, ‘She’s using magic!’

  I felt another hand graze my ankle and I remembered that one of my passengers was my own son. I was sure he had magic like me, in his blood and bones. I didn’t ask. I reached for it and took it.

  It was enough. But I frightened him. He was too young to know how to control his magic and the shock of having it stolen was too much for him. He changed his own shap
e back into a little boy. He gasped and fell away from me for a moment.

  Only a moment, only a moment, but a dozen hands reached out for him. A stranger reefed him from my arms.

  I reached out for him into a sea of hands that clutched at me and I knew I would never reach him. He was already halfway to Maldwyn, and every person in between us wanted me and my kind dead.

  I changed into a hawk again and flung myself into the air. I dodged the rocks that the people threw at me and headed for the very heights of the Prom.

  At the top of the Prom, the walls grew closer together until it was a narrow slit of rock through which the river poured. I flew into it, following the course of the water until the voices receded behind us.

  Once we were on the bridge, I hesitated. I hadn’t thought any further than this. What was I supposed to do now? I’d lost David. What use was I, if I couldn’t even save my own son? I changed Lynnevet and myself both back into our own shapes to conserve my magic.

  I stared at the water rushing beneath me.

  There would be people coming after me. I knew that for sure, but I had a little time to think. It took a large task force to bring down a mage and by the time they managed to get one together, I’d be long gone, out of the reach of everyone, even Maldwyn. I stood on the bridge, Lynnevet next to me, and leaned on the cold metal railing. What was I supposed to do with a little girl?

  I held out Maldwyn’s wand. ‘Here,’ I said. ‘You take it. Use it to protect yourself.’

  ‘Won’t you need it?’

  ‘Not where I’m going. Take the wand. Go.’

  Lynnevet, thirteen years old, looked at me sharply, then down to the water. It was a long way below us, thundering down the cleft in the rock in a sheer waterfall. She took the wand and weighed it in her hand. ‘You’re not allowed to jump into the water,’ she said firmly.

  ‘I’m a mage. Rules don’t apply to me.’ I put both hands on the railing and heaved myself up to sit on it and swung my legs over. I had to pull at my skirt where it snagged on an ornamental iron flourish.

  Lynnevet looked down at the wand I’d put into her hand.

  ‘Rules do too apply to you,’ she said with a stubborn pout. She pointed the wand at me and the next thing I knew, I had both legs back over the railing and on the solid rock again.

  ‘You little cow!’ I cried. ‘Give me that back!’

  She snatched the wand out of the way a moment before I grabbed it. The little monster had the reflexes of a cat. ‘Only when I’m sure you’re not going to do anything naughty.’

  Naughty? ‘Naughty!’ I grabbed for the wand again and missed again. The next thing I knew I was six feet away and my hair was flying in the wind again. I stared hard at the girl. My hair blew in my face and ruined the effect. Facing the wind, I reached behind me and gathered my hair up, tying it in a knot and securing it with the stick that had once been my wand. ‘Naughty is taking things that don’t belong to you,’ I admonished, trying to sound like an adult.

  ‘You gave it to me. Cheater!’

  ‘Give me back the bloody wand you repugnant little urchin.’

  ‘I don’t know what that is, but it sounds rude,’ she snapped back. ‘You’re not allowed to leave me. I’m not old enough to live on my own yet. People will notice and they’ll send me back to the Guardians. You said that you were Emer. Hawk wouldn’t leave me like this.’

  I stared at her. I hated it and I hated her, but she was right. I’d lost so many Sparrows lately; I’d forgotten the one that was right in front of me. I had to look after her. She was all I had left.

  She stuck out her tongue and said, ‘Neuh,’ which wasn’t helpful.

  I shook my head. ‘Fine. If I have to live through this,’ I pinned her with a sharp glare, ‘suppurating excuse for a life, then we’re going to have to run.’ Already, in the distance, I could hear the sound of an angry mob. I’d heard enough angry mobs in my time to know that this one was baying for blood. They’d mobilised faster than I’d expected. If I hadn’t planned to kill myself, I would have been a little less circumspect and killed Maldwyn right there in front of everyone, because as it turned out, I had nothing to lose.

  ‘Give me the wand back,’ I ordered.

  She looked at me sullenly for long moments, then came to a decision and handed me the wand. ‘But you have to promise,’ she said snatching the wand out of reach, just before I took hold of it properly.

  ‘Come on, what?!’ I demanded in exasperation, raising my hands to tunnel my fingers through my hair. The action made the knot at the base of my neck unravel and my hair fell down.

  ‘Promise you won’t hurt yourself. I need you to look after me.’

  I sighed. It was Sparrow all over. ‘I promise,’ I said. ‘Come on, let’s run for our lives.’

  I’d always had the idea that a rabid mob would move slowly. I never guessed at the way they tore through the streets at our heels. Lynnevet and I had wasted time on the bridge. Maybe it would have been better for her if I’d just thrown myself over the edge, without quite so much grandstanding.

  Lynnevet ran alongside me with stubborn determination, but I think she knew as well as I did that they were gaining on us. I wasn’t as familiar with Caillen as I liked to think I was. I ran down tunnels that were ever smaller, ever less populated, but still people came hurrying out of their caves in our wake or when they heard the shouting of the crowd chasing us. I was getting frightened of more than execution. This crowd was so angry that if they caught us, they weren’t going to bother with a trial – they were just going to tear us limb from limb.

  Whether or not that was worse than being burned alive, I didn’t know. I did know that death later sounded far preferable to death now. This is a unique perspective for a woman who attempted suicide, not more than half an hour ago.

  I’d made a terrible error in judgement. These small tunnels opened up suddenly into the widest pedestrian area in the whole of the hive. I’d run straight towards the Prom.

  It was full of angry people milling about, full of guards.

  We were dead.

  My feet skidded as we came around the corner of the narrow alley onto the Prom. There was a guard right in front of me and I cannoned into him. He caught me by the shoulders and gripped me tight. I tried to struggle, but his voice was a rough, familiar whisper in my ear as he cried, ‘For God’s sake, trust me!’

  I stopped struggling and stared up at him. The strong jaw, blue eyes and wild red hair cropped unfamiliarly short was the second dearest face in the world to me.

  ‘Caradoc!’ I gasped.

  ‘Quiet!’ he said roughly. He put one arm around my neck and shoulders, turning me so my back was pressed firmly against him. With his other hand, he grabbed Lynnevet’s hand and he dragged the pair of us along with him to the gibbet at one end of the Prom. I let him drag me because I would trust Caradoc no matter what. Lynnevet let him drag her because I did, but she cast me imploring looks for reassurance.

  He dragged us before the crowd and they cheered, waving their torches in delight. It reminded me forcibly of the night Caradoc had presented me to the Camiri and demanded that they help me fight the dragon. He shouted behind me, his mouth barely inches from my ear, ‘The due process of the law will be followed! The trial will commence tomorrow, as the law demands!’

  He was moving again, before the first stone was thrown at the stage. He dragged us into the Palace of Justice that sprawled along one side of the Prom. There were already guards stationed behind the massive double doors and they slammed the doors shut behind us.

  I turned when he released his arm, overwhelmed, overcome, and ready to surrender myself without a protest. He was alive and I’d never known such joy. I put my hand up to touch his face tenderly.

  Instead of resting his face against my hand, he reared his head back. After that initial touch, he was out of reach. ‘Caradoc?’ I asked softly.

  He frowned. I didn’t think Caradoc had ever frowned at me the whole short time I’d known
him. The expression made me look twice at him. He looked the same age as Caradoc and that couldn’t be right. Caradoc would be twenty years older now, over forty. This man could only be in his mid to late twenties. His hair was cut sensibly short – Caradoc wore his hair long and wild, as a sign of his Camiri identity. He would never cut his hair so short. For that matter, he would never become one of Aoife’s guards.

  ‘My name is Ronan,’ he said. He looked at me closer and in that moment, I recognised him fully.

  He was familiar, but he wasn’t Caradoc.

  He recognised me too. Five years ago, in this very hive, he had tried to save me from Maldwyn.

  The pain of losing Caradoc rushed back, twice as sharp and twice as deep. It froze me, but at least I didn’t cry in front of a room full of guards.

  Lynnevet cried. The guards felt sorry for her and treated her gently, and by extension, treated me gently. I could see from Lynnevet’s expression that she took hope from their kindness, but I remembered the child I’d seen on the day of the last creepyguardian transfer ceremony. The guards had been very kind to that little girl, up until the moment they tied her to the stake.

  It was all very official and bureaucratic. They asked us a score of questions to establish our identities, most of which were a waste of time anyway, but didn’t ask one question as to whether we were guilty or innocent of the crime. They took Maldwyn’s wand from me with very serious looks among themselves. At least I had comfort in the thought that he wouldn’t get it back. It’s not like he’d be able to go to the guards and ask for the wand.

  The cell they put us into was even relatively comfortable. I’d slept in a lot worse. I’d thought they’d put us in a cage, but instead we were in a mid-sized room full of stretchers, laid out in orderly rows, each with a pillow at its top and a blanket folded neatly at its foot. I tried not to think about what all those empty beds meant.