A Temptation of Angels (30 page)

He stopped in his tracks, his hand on the doorknob. Griffin stepped up next to her as if to protect her from an impending explosion. But in the end, Raum said nothing at all. He simply opened the door, disappearing into the hallway.

Gone as if he had never been there at all.

W
hat is all of this?” Helen exclaimed, holding up a coiled metal contraption before adding it to the pile on the worktable. “I can’t make sense of any of it.”

They were in Galizur’s laboratory, sifting through stacks of paper and crates full of mechanical remnants. After some discussion, they had agreed to see if it held anything that might aid them in a battle. They would proceed to the Alsorta estate this evening. Getting onto the grounds would be at least as difficult as gaining access to Alastor a second time, but they had little choice.

The Summit was tomorrow. They wouldn’t get another chance.

Raum’s refusal to help still stung. Helen had been so sure. So certain that he would come to their aid if she asked. But in the end, he hadn’t cared for her at all. He would see her
die at Alastor’s hands before risking his own life to save her.

“Father was always at work on new gadgetry,” Anna said from across the room. “I’m afraid it will take me a long time to figure it all out.”

Although Darius had implored her to rest, Anna insisted that grieving would come later. At the present, she needed to keep moving. To contribute to the cause that had cost her father his life.

“We should take the new glaives.” Darius held one of the small rods up to the light. A moment later, it extended into the spear Helen remembered from her second visit to Galizur’s. Darius continued. “I know they haven’t been tested beyond the melons here in the laboratory, but they seem to work well enough to me.”

“I’m all for it,” Griffin said. “Glaives, sickles… what else?”

“How about some new darts?” Anna rose from her chair at the table, holding something out to Helen.

“But…” Helen looked down, surprised to see a row of darts nestled inside a leather pouch. To her eye, at least, they looked identical to the ones fashioned by Galizur. “I thought there were only five.”

“There were five
finished
darts,” Anna explained. “But there were a few more that simply needed adjusting. They
should be fine now, though. I’ve given you extras just in case.”

Helen counted ten of them.

“Why don’t you let me hold on to those…” Darius began, reaching for the darts.

Anna pulled her arm away, tying the pouch closed before handing it to Helen. “Helen did a fine job with them before.”

Helen could only look at the leather in Anna’s hands. She had not done a fine job. Not at all. But Anna’s offer was a benediction. Forgiveness for her oversight.

“Thank you.” Helen took the darts. She looked into Anna’s eyes and knew the other girl understood.

“All right, then.” Darius looked around. “What about fire? Wasn’t your father working on a weapon that spewed fire?”

Anna shook her head. “It won’t work. Not on Alastor. He’s a demon—a creature of fire. And while you can fend him off with the sickle and glaive, even those things will not destroy him.”

Griffin looked at her uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean? The glaive is the only way to destroy otherworldly creatures.”

“Wraiths, yes,” Anna said. “Even minor demons. But not those like Alastor. You can only hope to send a demon of his
strength back where he came from with the sickle or glaive. Though he has been banished from this world from time to time through the ages, he has never been destroyed. If he had been, he wouldn’t be able to make a stand now.”

“Are you saying he’s indestructible?” Helen asked, wondering why they were bothering to arm themselves if Alastor couldn’t be destroyed.

Anna sighed. “Not exactly. There is one way…”

“What is it?” Darius asked.

“This.”

Helen was stunned into silence when the answer came, not from Anna as she had expected, but from the tunnel leading into the laboratory.

The voice of a man.

Raum.

He strode carefully into the workroom, holding something long and slender in his outstretched hand.

Darius lunged for him and was stopped by Griffin, whose own arms bulged with the effort of holding his brother back.

“Think, brother,” he said. “Think before you act.”

Raum did not seem to take the threat seriously.

“Not exactly the welcome I envisioned,” he said, stepping farther into the room. “I was, after all, invited.”

Helen crossed her arms over her bosom. “You declined the invitation, if I remember correctly.”

“Yes.” He met her eyes. “But I’ve had a change of heart. Assuming you still desire my assistance.”

The room descended into silence, save the sound of Darius’s strained breathing as he struggled to gain control over himself. A moment later, Griffin let his brother go and tipped his head to the object in Raum’s hands.

“What is it?”

Raum was still watchful, as if he expected Darius to lunge at him again and was bracing himself for the attack. Finally, he grabbed the end of the object and pulled.

Helen could not stop the intake of breath as the sword emerged, shimmering and slightly curved, from the sheath in Raum’s hands. It was an object of such beauty, such perfection, that everything seemed to dim around it.

“Is that…” Anna stepped closer to Raum, her eyes riveted to the blade, until Darius put a protective hand on her arm.

Raum nodded. “It is.”

Anna shook her head in wonder. “But how did you get it?
Where
did you get it?”

“I’ve had it in my possession since I realized Victor Alsorta was Alastor,” he said. “You might call it an insurance policy of sorts.”

“But there are only three.” Anna looked up at him, obviously reluctant to take her eyes off the sword. “Only three in the whole world.”

“Ahem,” Griffin interrupted. “This might be a good time to tell the rest of us what it is, exactly. I realize it’s a sword, but what makes this one so special? How will it destroy Alastor when nothing else will?”

“It’s the Sword of the Ages,” Anna said, as if they should all know to what she was referring. “One of them.”

“And what is the… Sword of the Ages?” Helen felt almost ridiculous saying it aloud.

It was Raum who answered. “In the beginning, there was one point of entry to this world for all of your—
our
—kind. A place where the angels who were joining this world entered and those who were leaving it exited. When the Alliance was formed, a great fire was built there. Many, many angels had walked its ground even at that time. It was thought to be hallowed. Those who were chosen to found the Alliance gathered to forge and anoint three swords containing all of their power, concentrated for eternity in their blades. It’s only with one of these swords—forged in honor of the original three Keepers—that one of the Blackguard can be destroyed.”

“And only if it is used in precisely the correct way,” Anna added.

“Is there a correct way to use a sword?” Griffin asked. “I’ve always thought it was a simple device.”

“Not this one,” Raum said.

“A greater demon can only be destroyed by one of the swords, and only if it is used to pierce the demon’s heart at sunrise.” Anna made it sound simple. As if such an extraordinary set of circumstances were commonplace.

“You cannot be serious.” Darius’s voice was disbelieving.

“She’s telling the truth,” Raum said. “The old ways are filled with rituals. Many of the terms of the Treaty are based on them. This is one of them. A way to guarantee that even the Legion have some peace in this world if they adhere to the Treaty’s terms. The swords have been locked away by the Alliance to insure some semblance of order between us and them.”

“Then how did you get it?” Helen asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Raum avoided the question, his eyes shifting away from hers. “It will aid us in destroying Alastor.”

“If we can get onto the grounds and into the house,” Helen reminded him. “To say nothing of timing it all correctly and getting close enough to Alastor to actually use the sword.”

“True.” Raum sheathed the sword, hitching it to his belt. “How did you get in last time?”

Griffin walked to one of the worktables and unrolled the schematic of Alastor’s estate. It was odd, clustering around it and seeing halls they had traversed, ground she had covered as she tried to make her escape with Griffin and Darius, as a series of straight lines and scattered markings.

“We came up from the tunnels here.” Griffin tapped the area in the woods between the house and the front gate.

“And you exited the same way?” Raum was still looking at the drawing.

“Yes,” Griffin confirmed.

Raum looked up at him. “That’s a lot of ground to cover, especially with the dogs on your trail. I’m surprised you made it.”

Looking at the drawing, at the distance they had covered from the house to the tunnel opening, Helen couldn’t have agreed more, though she didn’t say so aloud.

“We weren’t exactly overflowing with options,” Darius sneered.

Raum ignored him. “There are two other access routes, but neither of them is without risk.”

“What are they?” Helen asked.

He lowered his eyes to the drawing. “There’s a place in the fence here.” He indicated an area to the rear of the house, as he continued. “The security is spotty. The fence is set back from the house. In the woods, actually. The guards tend to skip it every other round or so.”

Darius interrupted. “I doubt they’ll be skipping it now. They’re probably on high alert.”

“Perhaps.” Raum shrugged. “But I think it’s still a potential way in if we observe the schedule of the guards for a couple of hours beforehand. The problem is, it’s a terrible way out. The fence is iron and topped with points. It would take some time to scale.”

“Then how will we get over it to get in?” Helen asked.

Raum’s answer was simple. “With effort. We’ll have to aid one another and the last person over will have no help at all. But it is not impossible given enough time, and we’ll probably have more of that on the way in.”

Now Helen understood. “But on the way out, we may well be on the run.”

“Exactly,” Raum said. “Which brings me to the second option.” He touched a familiar place on the map.

“The kitchen?” Griffin asked.

“There’s a tunnel entrance there. In the pantry closet.”

“Our plans for the tunnels don’t show that entrance.” There was suspicion in Darius’s voice, as if Raum was intentionally trying to lead them astray.

“That’s because this schematic is based on plans laid out by the city when the tunnels were originally built,” Raum explained.

Griffin looked up from the drawing. “Are there a different set of plans that we don’t know about?”

“Not plans, no.” Raum said. “But Alsorta had a private entrance to the tunnels built directly from the house.”

“Why would he want access to the sewer tunnels?” Helen asked.

“If you were a member of the Blackguard disguised as a mortal businessman, would you want your associates to use the front door?”

Griffin nodded knowingly. “So he uses the secret tunnel as an entry and exit point for members of the Legion.”

“Exactly.”

“How very convenient,” Darius said drily. “So why wouldn’t we use the tunnel entrance within the house instead of the fence to gain access to the house on the way in?”

“In the kitchen?” Raum raised his eyebrows. “Clearly, you haven’t spent much time in one.”

“What Raum means,” Helen broke in, trying to head off an argument, or worse, an outright brawl, “is that kitchens are busy at all times of the day and night. The servants may be setting bread to rise for the morning or cleaning up after a late dinner party.”

“In or out, we’ll probably be seen if we use the kitchen entrance,” Raum said. “It’s just less of a danger on the way out, especially if we’ve managed to destroy Alsorta.”

“Which means we climb the fence at the back on the way in, and use the tunnels to escape when we’re done,” Helen finished.

Raum nodded. “And there’s one more thing.”

They were all looking at him now, the drawing forgotten.

“What is it?” Griffin asked.

“Alsorta—Alastor—has a newfangled system of lighting. The lamps are lit by a system that pipes gas throughout the house. They’re lit with a switch and put out the same way. We’ll need to extinguish them by cutting off the supply from the cellar as soon as we’re in the house.”

“Why?” Helen shook her head. “Why take the time? We can extinguish them as we go if necessary.”

“And give Alastor the chance to summon the wraiths?”

Understanding was finding its way into Helen’s mind, wading
through the bits and pieces of knowledge she had gleaned over the past few days.

“They’ll come through the light,” she finally said. “They’ll jump and come to Alastor’s aid if we give them the chance.”

“Yes,” Raum confirmed. “And while we might stand a chance of fending off Alastor and his mortal henchmen, I would not like to lay odds if we were up against the demon himself and an army of underlings, however mindless they may be.”

Griffin straightened, his voice as hard as iron. “Then we won’t give him the chance to summon them.”

H
ow much longer?” Helen tried to keep her teeth from clattering together as they hid outside Alastor’s fence at the rear of the house.

They had made their way to the estate using the sewer tunnels, this time emerging two miles from the house. Walking quickly, they arrived at the edge of the property in less than half an hour. It had not been difficult to stay hidden. They used the woods to skirt the grounds until they came to the poorly lit section of fence that Raum had shown them on the map. It had been at least three hours since their arrival, and Helen was beginning to fear that she would be too cold to scale the fence when the time finally came.

“If he sticks to the schedule he’s been keeping,” Griffin said
from the tree next to her, “he should be by again in about ten minutes.”