Betrayal (18 page)

S
ebastian?”

He raised his haggard white face to mine. I didn’t know what to think or feel or do, and for a moment I stood paralyzed. Then Sebastian raised his hand and pointed to Harriet, gasping. “No…no…no…”

“Harriet, what’s happening?” I cried. “What are you doing?” Harriet turned to me with a peculiar smile on her face. She was clutching Sebastian’s silver dagger in her hand, and she passed it lightly over her wrist.

“No—wait!” Sarah shouted. But Harriet let the blade cut her skin. A single drop of blood fell from her wrist onto Agnes’s grave. Harriet’s face began to convulse, her eyes rolling in her head. A strangled noise came from deep inside her. “I…am…not…Harriet….” Her breath
curled and thickened in the wind like smoke. “I…am…Celia…Hartle.”

The smoke grew into a billowing shape full of flickering fire. Harriet screamed and fell back unconscious, and Mrs. Hartle emerged from the thick fumes, dreadfully thin and scarred, but terrifyingly real. She clicked her fingers and the silver dagger flew from Harriet’s hand to her own.

“So. Here we are again,” she said silkily. “The High Mistress and her devoted students.”

We stumbled backward, stunned and horrified. I feverishly called out in my mind to Agnes, trying to summon her fire to attack our enemy, but the High Mistress laughed as though she could read my thoughts. She flashed the dagger, making swift patterns in the air, and ropes flew from its point and bound our hands behind our backs. We fell to our knees before her, and a fog seemed to choke my mind and will. Both fire and water were beyond my reach, and I was helpless before Mrs. Hartle’s hypnotic gaze.

“Dear Evie,” she crooned. “So kind, so considerate, trying to save poor little Harriet—while all the time she was my creature, not your friend. Oh, you weakened me last term, I admit that. It was well done, most impressive.”
She spoke lightly, but I sensed the anger inside her, like a snake, as she stroked the scar on her face. “But even though you had weakened me, I was able to linger in Wyldcliffe’s secret places until you returned, bringing this pathetic girl with you. It was easy to enter her feeble mind and body and bend her will to do my bidding. She fed me, sacrificing animals that I used in ancient rituals, drinking their blood until I was fully restored. And dear Harriet was a most useful spy. She found out where you had hidden this.”

Mrs. Hartle cut the air with her knife, and the next moment the Talisman hung from the blade, glinting in the fitful moonlight.

“Harriet would have killed you if I had told her to, while I inhabited her mind. But I wanted to keep your death for this moment.” The High Mistress laughed exultantly. “Let me tell you how I have outwitted you at every turn, Miss Johnson. Last night I followed you to Fairfax Hall and you led me to Sebastian. I had searched long for him, but his only defense—his nauseating love for you—had repelled me. But once he turned his back on you, those defenses were destroyed and it was easy to take him. He is no longer my master. I rule over him now, not the other way around. Next, I worked through Harriet to
destroy the papers Agnes left you—yes, I know all about them. I knew that this would anger you beyond any other thing and turn you against your poor, weak friend. Then I drove her to write that suicide note, knowing equally well that good, kind, noble Evie would not be able to resist its cry for help. Quite the little martyred heroine, aren’t you? Always trying to save others. And now you need saving yourself.”

She seemed to tower over me, and I shrank back, dreading her touch. But with a quick, deft movement she turned to Sebastian and slipped the Talisman over his head, laughing as he writhed with the pain of it. “Sebastian won’t lift a finger to help you now, Evie. He will never return to your clinging embrace. He will destroy you, awaken the Talisman, and deliver me and my Sisters from death forever.”

“No…no…no…” Sebastian groaned. Mrs. Hartle ignored him and walked up to Helen.

“Ah, my daughter, so we meet again, here at the Traitor’s grave,” she taunted. “Why do you not greet your mother?”

Helen jerked her head away. “You’re not my mother! You’ve never been a mother to me. My mother is the air and the wind and the stars. I despise you.”

Mrs. Hartle’s face grew thunderous. “By the end of this night you will acknowledge me as both your mother and your mistress, to be obeyed and feared. I have everything I need. The only thing missing is my circle of Dark Sisters—I wish them to see and share this moment. You will all come with me to where my Sisters are waiting.” She looked around crazily and called out to the wind, “I come, my Sisters, I come!”

At that moment Sebastian raised his head and murmured, “My brothers…my brothers…”

He looked straight at me, and I saw that his eyes were clear and blue and brimming with an ocean of regret. And then he smiled, and his smile was no longer bitter or mocking, but clear and calm like a summer’s day.

“Sebastian!” I tried to reach him, but the High Mistress screamed and flashed her knife in the air, and we were dragged away from the churchyard into a terrifying vortex of noise and speed and black, whirling stars.

W
e were thrown out of the whirlwind onto a barren hilltop. A hostile, storm-racked landscape stretched around us. Through the pain and shock I recognized the place. It had once been a fort, built hundreds of years ago by the people of the valley as a stronghold against their enemies. And before that it had been a pagan temple, as near to the heavens as the ancient worshipers could get. Here I had once sat with Sebastian under the deep midnight sky, and here, it seemed, the High Mistress would play out her moment of triumph.

The wind tore across the hills and parted the clouds and the high, pure arc of the new moon shone down. A crowd of cloaked and hooded figures stood around us, chanting in a circle like a gathering swarm. They didn’t
seem to be able to see us. We were hidden by Mrs. Hartle’s paralyzing will, still unable to speak or move or think clearly. As she stood shrouded in mist, watching her Sisters, everything swam in front of my eyes like a haunted dream.

“This is the hour,” one of the women intoned. It was Miss Raglan. She stepped forward from the ranks of the coven and raised her arms to the moon. “Our moment of destiny is upon us.”

“Only the High Mistress can lead the coven to its destiny,” replied a cool, dry voice, and I recognized Miss Scratton under the veil of her cloak.

“No doubt you want that honor for yourself!” snapped Miss Raglan angrily. “But our Sisters have seen through your plots. You will never lead this coven. Here and now, by the light of the moon, surrounded by the wild elements, I shall become the new High Mistress and achieve our long quest!”

The crowd behind her began to roar their approval, and a frenzied chanting began, but Miss Scratton shouted, “Fool! Do you not know that this coven still has a High Mistress? And that she is here among you?”

The chanting faltered, and there was another tremendous crack of lightning. It seemed to tear away the veil
that had hidden us from the women’s sight. They cried out as they saw Mrs. Hartle standing cold and proud and terrible in the night.

“It is I,” said the High Mistress. “I have returned at last.” There was a moment of confusion as exclamations ran through the crowd. “The High Mistress! She has returned!”

“Why do you not bow before me? Is there no loyalty among you? Did it take such a short time for you to forget your true mistress?”

“Welcome, welcome, we have longed for this moment,” gushed one of the women, and I recognized the sycophantic voice of Miss Dalrymple, quick to abandon her former ally and throw herself at Mrs. Hartle’s feet.

“I…We…” gabbled Miss Raglan, as the Dark Sisters made deep bows to her rival. “We thought you were dead!”

The High Mistress laughed wildly as lightning cracked across the sky and rain lashed the earth. “Celia Hartle will never taste death! After our defeat in the crypt, I confess that I was wounded. The elemental powers that were turned against me stripped me of my strength. So I hid, choosing not to show myself in my weakened state. But I have not studied the secret rites all these years for
nothing. And now here I am, back to claim my triumph.” Mrs. Hartle moved closer to Miss Raglan, and her voice became a honeyed river of menace. “It will not be you who brings our labors to fulfillment. Oh, I watched you. I saw your lack of faith in me. For loyalty I bring rewards; for betrayal—curses.” She clicked her fingers and Miss Raglan staggered back and whimpered, as though reeling from a savage blow.

Mrs. Hartle turned to Miss Scratton. “You have done better. I am pleasantly surprised. Your reward will be of another sort.” Miss Scratton didn’t move, except to bow her head and lower her eyes.

“But all judgments can wait,” Mrs. Hartle went on. “The night draws deep. At midnight all will be fulfilled. The foolish girls who dared to rise against me are prisoners at my feet. And I bring you another prize—our former master. He is ready to do our bidding.” She kicked Sebastian viciously, then forced him to his knees. The Talisman swung heavily around his neck, like a great burden. “Prepare the girl.”

The cloaked women dragged Helen and Sarah away. Miss Scratton stepped swiftly over to me and made me kneel opposite Sebastian. Now we faced each other, as though we were going to be betrothed in some mystical
ceremony. Evie and Sebastian, together again at last, but now only one of us could survive. The rain wept over us. The last minutes of the day were dying. Soon the bell would toll for midnight. Sebastian’s head hung down and he swayed slightly. I couldn’t see his face. It was better like that, I thought, better not to see the end.

My mind was slow and blurred, as though I had been stripped of my own self by the High Mistress’s overpowering will. I was helpless against her. Celia Hartle had won, and I had lost, and there was nothing I could do about it. She pushed the silver dagger into Sebastian’s grasp. Holding his weakened hands in her own, she raised the dagger over me. “When this strikes your heart, the Talisman will be his, and immortality will be ours!” Then she turned to Miss Scratton with her final order. “Sister, make her ready for the end.”

Miss Scratton bent down and tore my shirt open, laying my neck bare for the bite of the knife. As she leaned over me, I thought I heard her whisper, “Your necklace, Evie, give her your necklace….”

I looked up at her, suddenly jerked awake from my lethargy and despair. My necklace…the little locket…it still hung, small and insignificant, around my neck. I stared into Miss Scratton’s eyes.
I can’t believe it
, Sarah had
said.
Any of the others, but not Miss Scratton…
And as I looked into those cool, pitying eyes, I recognized her at last. A wise woman, a holy sister, a healer…

“Come! Out of the way!” said Mrs. Hartle impatiently. “Let the blow be struck!”

“Your necklace, Evie, your necklace…” Miss Scratton whispered again.

Without stopping to think, I grabbed the little chain and twisted it until it snapped, then flung the locket at Mrs. Hartle.

It soared across the space between us in a wide arc and burst into flames with a dazzling light. Mrs. Hartle screamed, and her will and concentration wavered for a moment. The ropes around our wrists melted away, and Sebastian struggled to his feet.

“My brothers,” he cried. “Ride, my brothers! Ride!”

All at once, the air was alive with the sound of hooves beating the ground. I looked behind me and saw Cal galloping wildly up the slope, leading a band of ghostly riders. Their horses flew over the turf like enchanted shadows, like a dream I’d once had…a long-ago dream…. The wild Gypsy riders were back from the dead to haunt the living, keeping their old vows to be true to their brother Fairfax James. The Dark Sisters began to howl in anger as
Sarah and Helen cheered the riders on.

“How dare you!” Mrs. Hartle screeched insanely. “Get back! Get back!”

Sebastian stood tall and unafraid. “Ride, my brothers! Ride to our aid!” His beauty shone through the mask of his pain, and his blue eyes flashed like stars.

This is the moment; you can do it, Evie; you can do anything….
Agnes was calling me, and my mother, and Frankie, telling me to believe in myself, telling me to fight for what I loved.

I flung open my arms and welcomed the rain. It drove down at my command like a flight of stinging arrows and blinded Mrs. Hartle for one precious moment. I lunged forward and knocked the dagger out of her hands, then pulled Sebastian toward me. Snatching the blade from the ground, I slashed the turf at our feet until we were standing in a protected circle, just the two of us. The noise and confusion of the hilltop fell away as though a curtain of water hung between us and the rest of the world.

Time seemed to stop. We were alone.

Sebastian fell to his knees in front of me, exhausted by his efforts. “Forgive me, Evie,” he pleaded. “I can’t explain the madness that overtook me last night. I only know that it has passed now, forever, whatever happens next. When
you turned the power of fire against me last night it burned the fear from my soul. I was myself again. I called my brothers—to help you.” He dragged the Talisman from around his neck and pressed it into my hand. “This…this is yours. Protect yourself with it. Forgive me.”

I knelt down next to him.

“There’s nothing to forgive, Sebastian. Nothing.”

He held my hand to his lips for a moment. “All I can do…is say good-bye—before my master comes.” His voice faded to a sigh. “I’m glad—so glad—that you are with me, my girl from the sea.”

Sebastian sank to the ground and closed his eyes. I gently lifted his head and laid it in my lap. As his life in this world ebbed to its final flicker, I felt more alive than I ever had before. This was the moment that I would save Sebastian, and nothing would stop me now.

I
held the Talisman up and called out, “Lord of all creation, hear me! I summon your sacred elements! Let their powers be my powers; let their justice be my justice; let their light shine on me!”

A crack of electricity leaped from the sparkling jewel.

“I serve the living waters and the eternal fire,” I cried. “I claim my right to approach the sacred flame!” Everything began to spin and I seemed to fall a long way, falling endlessly. Then I was alone in the deep cavern of crystal that I had seen before. The pillar of fire twisted and turned in front of me, and a voice spoke from its depths.

“You are welcome, sister. You may approach.”

I plunged the Talisman into the heart of the flame and cried, “I release you!”

And then…and then…I was light and air and fire. I was all my past and all my future. I was myself and yet I was Agnes too. She was standing by my side, and I had her memories, her thoughts, her knowledge. Scenes from her life flashed through my mind at top speed. As Agnes, I seemed to feel again the joy of Sebastian’s return from his journey abroad; I saw him press the Book into my hands; I felt the touch of his kiss; I felt the pain that Agnes felt as he descended into the dark. I saw everything through her eyes. I understood everything. I forgave everything, as Agnes had done before me.

The fire burned inside me. Now I knew every one of its secrets; I understood its powers that would heal and cleanse, bringing life and strength. But I knew more than that.
The fire of our desires…the power of love…stronger than life…stronger than death…
Now I knew what Agnes had preserved in the Talisman. She had no anger for Sebastian’s weaknesses and mistakes, only love and forgiveness. I turned to the girl at my side and said wonderingly, “Your real power…it’s love, isn’t it? All along, all this time, that was it….”

“Yes,” said Agnes. “Love is the greatest power of all, and it can never be corrupted. You cannot snatch Sebastian from the Unconquered by giving him immortal life,
which would make him as evil as they are. I could not do this. You cannot do this. That is not the way. The Talisman bestows other gifts.”

“But what can I do to save him?” I begged.

“Love him,” she said simply. “It is enough. Let your love show you the way.”

Love. A light in the darkness that can never be destroyed. The only reality.

My reality.

The next moment I was kneeling next to Sebastian on the cold ground, and I knew what I had to do.

“Sebastian, listen to me. I’m going to help you. I’m going to give you something.”

His eyes fluttered opened, and he tried to focus on my face.

“I have a gift for you,” I said. “Please take it.” I saw that Sebastian understood what I meant, and was afraid. The Dark Sisters had done this willingly, hoping for a greater gift in return. Laura had been forced to do it, and had paid with her life. But I wanted to do this. No one was forcing me, and I didn’t expect to get anything back. I was doing it freely, from my heart, for Sebastian. Now it was my turn to feed him with my life’s blood, my very soul. “Let me do this for you, Sebastian. It’s the only way.”

“No,” he groaned. “I won’t accept this gift. I won’t let you sacrifice your life for me.”

“I’m not talking about my life. Just one day, that’s all. It will be enough.”

“Enough for what?”

I looked into the blue of his eyes and smiled. “Enough for me to give you my real gift. Please, Sebastian. If you love me, let me do this.”

I grasped the Talisman tightly in my trembling fingers, and its light filled my mind. Unknown words sang in my head. I saw the two of us walking together by a river of endless light. The fire blazed inside me. I leaned forward and kissed Sebastian. At that moment, we knew every secret of each other’s minds; we knew our pasts and our futures; we saw eternity stretching out around us. We knew the truth:
The greatest of all the powers is love….
I felt a part of my life’s breath leave me and flow into him. With that long, sweet kiss, I had given Sebastian a day of my life.

When I opened my eyes, the fatigue and pain had gone from Sebastian’s face. He was young and strong again, just for one more day. We were ready to face whatever would come. Together we stepped out of the circle, back to the noise and confusion of the storm-lashed hilltop.

A battle was raging. Helen and Sarah, together with Cal and his riders, were fighting for their lives against the coven. Sarah had torn the earth open and uncovered ancient cairns of weathered stones, and Helen was sending them hurtling down the wind like a shower of hail onto our enemies. But the Dark Sisters were still fighting back, led by their High Mistress. Her hair had fallen around her face, and she was savage with fury and madness. As soon as she saw Sebastian she screamed, “Seize him!”

But even as the crazed words fell from her lips, the thin chimes of the church bell began to float across the valley from the little gray church.

Midnight had come at last.

A deathly chill spread over the hilltop, and a mist rose from the ground. The fighting stopped, and everyone fell silent as a black shape emerged from the gloom. It was the mighty figure of a king that glimmered in the night, as though we were seeing a dark angel reflected in a deep, black pool. His long robes swirled around him like smoke, and he was crowned with tongues of red fire. His face, once gloriously beautiful, was now wholly corrupt, twisted by scorn and hatred. It was the king of the Unconquered, ready to claim his prize.

“This is the hour. Sebastian has failed in his quest. I
have come to bind him to the Shadow world as our slave.”

The High Mistress was the first to speak. “No—no, you cannot take him yet,” she protested wildly. “He is mine…leave him to me…. I will make him reach out to grasp immortality, and then eternity shall also be mine…please, just a few more moments, I beg you…”

The Unconquered moved his head slightly toward her. “Silence! You will not deprive me of my prey.”

“But I already have,” I said quietly.

“You?” He turned his terrible glare on me. “What can you have done that would concern me?”

“Sebastian is no longer fading,” I said, trying to speak without fear. “You cannot take him. I have given him one day of my life. He is healed.”

“One day! One day! What will that achieve? In twenty-four short hours I will return and take him then.”

“No, you will never touch him now. Being your equal or being your slave—they are as bad as each other. You are evil and Sebastian is not. He doesn’t belong with you.” I held the Talisman high, and its glittering light made the dark king stagger backward. “My gift for him is greater than you know, and I am stronger than you are. I always will be, because I haven’t forgotten how to love.”

Then the Unconquered blazed with anger and disgust.
Sparks fell from his shadowy garments, and his fury made the earth tremble. “Love! Love! You dare speak to me of love?”

“What will be the use of your feeble love when death comes to take you in the end?” said Mrs. Hartle bitterly. “Oh, you are young; you think life will go on forever, but it won’t. Love dies. Hope dies. Everything dies in the end.” She seemed to collapse in front of us, turning into nothing more than a sad, frustrated woman clinging to an impossible dream. “I have given all my life for this moment,” she moaned. “I wanted to live forever, and you promised me, Sebastian Fairfax, that it would happen…you promised us…”

“Death is the gateway to immortal life, not these twisted spells,” said Sebastian. “I was wrong—and you are wrong to cling to this mania that is poisoning the only life you have.”

“What good is life if death will destroy everything I have ever worked for?”

“You have a daughter,” said Sebastian. “After your death, her life will honor yours, and her children—”

“Oh, spare me your sentimental drivel,” she sneered. “‘You can die and rot, but your children will take your place, like little flowers springing up in the sunlight….’
I do not wish anyone to take my place!” Mrs. Hartle suddenly bowed to the Unconquered lord. “If I cannot live forever in this world, take me into your world, I beg you. Take me into your kingdom as your servant. I will be faithful to your sublime powers. I will have immortal life through your greatness.”

“No! Mother—no!” Helen darted forward and tried to drag Mrs. Hartle away.

But the High Mistress twisted from Helen’s touch with a cold laugh. “I don’t need your love, my daughter. You have chosen your path. I have chosen mine. I am the High Mistress—now and forever.” She stepped into the shadows that were swirling around the dark king and threw herself down at his feet. The next moment she gave a terrible cry as his steel-clad hand gripped her throat.

“I will take you in place of the other.” He laughed. “So be it! You will serve me well!”

She fell back, lifeless. A pale figure, like ash, rose from her body and hovered next to the Unconquered and was then sucked into his darkness. The next moment they had gone. Only Mrs. Hartle’s body was left behind, as still as the heart of silence, and her blank eyes stared up into eternity.