Bloody Fairies (Shadow) (28 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Iron weights dragged from her feet. The night wrapped icy fingers around her ribs and squeezed. It was so very dark she couldn’t even see the ground, but she knew she was going the right way by the unerring dread that gripped her shoulders with each step.

The moon peeped over the turrets. Hippy
shivered. She usually liked the moon, but here even that looked cold and unfriendly, outlining harsh angles on the castle she hadn’t seen during the day. When it rose higher, it flooded the plain with silver light.

That was when she spotted Pierus.

Hippy slowed her pace. Far across the plain he moved up and down in a regular pattern, dragging something over the ground, then returning down the same path, scattering things. She would have sworn he was gardening if his movements weren’t so like a weird dance, the way he would turn, the way the skirt of his long coat flared out.

She picked up her pace. The distance to the castle lessened. She passed under the Arch, where it was now so bitterly cold her teeth chattered until she’d left it behind completely. She looked over her shoulder at Pierus.

He looked up at the same moment. Their eyes met. There was no change in his expression, but he did not break the eye contact. Hippy experienced a horrible sensation of being pinned to the spot for three eternal minutes. She gritted her teeth, broke away and turned her back on him, but the prickling in her spine told her he watched her all the way.

She bolted toward the castle, but skidded to a halt again at the fountain. “Nikifor?”

Nikifor stood on top of the wall that divided the fountain, hair tumbled around his face, naked sword high in the air, transfixed by the moon. His eyes snapped to her when she spoke. He stared right through her. “I fear nothing,” he said. “Nothing. Not your dreams or illusions or lies. Not the blood spilled from the sky every time I open my hand.” He paced across the wall and dropped to the ground in front of her.

Hippy backed up fast. “Would you put that sword away? You’re going to hurt yourself. Or I’m going to hurt you. Either way you really should calm down.”

He stalked her movements. “Do you think I’m fooled?” His voice rose to a shout. “I know mist when I see it! I haven’t spent my life dragging your every vision kicking and screaming from the ether just to come to this! I know I was born to kill, to drive back the darkness, and that makes me just another foul creation of your twisted intellect!” He doubled over and uttered a hoarse, guttural roar.

Hippy fled inside. Gas lamps and candles burned in every room. She raced into the dining room, but it was clean. She checked the kitchen, but there was nothing there either. She didn’t even know what she was looking for until she stumbled into a small room that contained only a round table in the centre and two chairs. She slowed her pace. On the table she found a silver pitcher and two empty glasses
; in the bottom of the glasses there were drops of green liquid. She picked up the pitcher and sniffed it. It smelled of something intoxicating, more intoxicating than coffee or Poppy’s brandy or anything she’d ever encountered. It confirmed her worst suspicion. At least Nikifor wouldn’t die in the next two days.

She backed out of the room and glanced towards the doors of the castle. Pierus was busy. So was Nikifor. Maybe there was no better time to find the Apple of Chaos and go, while they were both whacked off their faces on Freakin Fairy juice. She’d left Fangs scratching in the garden, she’d find her on the way out.

Hippy headed for the stairs, but she stopped only halfway up the first flight when footsteps thumped through the front door. She turned around, one hand on the railing.

Pierus’s hair, normally so neat and tidy, hung knotted over his face, the new white streak tangled into the black. There were shadows under his eyes and beads of sweat on his forehead. He removed his coat, but never took his eyes off her. “And just where have you been all this time, my love?” He walked toward the stairs.

Hippy backed away. “Out.”

“You are not permitted to go out. I thought I made myself clear on that point.” He mounted the steps one by one, like a cat stalking a little bird.

Hippy steeled herself. She was more than a match for the muse king. She wasn’t going to be afraid. She freed Fluffy Ducky from his pouch and let him run into the palm of her hand. “You leave me alone,” she said. “You’re not thinking right. I saw those glasses. You and Nikifor both drank the vibe, didn’t you? I don’t want any part of your madness.”

“You are my madness.” He stalked closer still. “Where did you go, Hippy Ishtar? Do you have a friend? Did you lie to me when you swore you were loyal?” He reached out and grasped the back of her head. His breath held the same intoxicating scent she’d found in the pitcher in the other room, but now slightly rancid.

She wrinkled her nose and pulled away. “Take your hands off me or I’ll smack you in the teeth.”

He brought his face close to hers and breathed in. “You smell like wood smoke,” he said. “Interesting little thing, my love. Bloody Fairies don’t know about the vibe, because they don’t talk to the Freakin Fairies. So how do you know?”

Hippy’s cheeks grew painfully hot. “Leave me alone.” She shoved him in the ribs with her free hand and ran past him down the stairs, only to find Nikifor blocking the doorway.

Pierus went after her,
wrapped a hand in her hair and snapped her head back. “I asked you a question, Fairy.”

Hippy flung Fluffy Ducky at his face. Fluffy Ducky, who had apparently been waiting for this chance, curled his legs around, ready to latch on.

Pierus ducked his head, raised a hand and caught Fluffy Ducky in his fist. Then he smiled.

Hippy didn’t like that smile at all. She screamed so loud the gas lamps flickered. “You let go of my Fluffy Ducky!”

Pierus stalked over to a table and opened a wooden box. He put the struggling spider into it, closed the lid and locked it.

Hippy
shoved Pierus away from the box and tried to tear it open. “Fluffy Ducky! Don’t worry I’m going to get you out!”

“Nikifor,” Pierus said.

Something in his voice made Hippy stop what she was doing. She looked from one muse to the other. “Oh, no you don’t.”

There was nothing of the Nikifor she knew in the muse who stalked her now. Hippy clutched the box to her ribs and backed away from them both. “Stop it, both of you. You’re not thinking straight. And trust me, I will hurt you.”

“But my dear girl, I always think straight. I plan everything.” Pierus closed in from her right, Nikifor from her left.

“Did you plan this?” She put her foot on the first step. Fine, she’d go all the way up and jump off the roof. There was always an escape.

“No. This is a diverting distraction. Put down the box.”

“No.” Hippy backed up three more steps. “I won’t let you hurt Fluffy Ducky.”

“Look.” Pierus put his hand into his pocket, then opened it. A wisp of something sparkly rose into the air.

Hippy’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s shiny.”

Nikifor darted forward and knocked the box out of her hand.

“Fluffy Ducky!” Hippy leaped after the box, but both muses caught her by the arms. She kicked at the air, scratched any skin she could reach, even tried to bite the both of them, but it was like fighting air. The two muses carried her up the stairs and down the second floor hall.

Pierus kicked open the bedroom door. “Go play somewhere else, Nikifor,” he said.

Nikifor let go and
backed away.

Hippy wrenched free of Pierus’s hold. He shoved her in the ribs so hard she stumbled into the bedroom and collided with a wall. For one terrifying moment she thought he was going to follow her in. If he did, she’d kill him, the future of Shadow be damned.

But he stayed in the doorway and just looked her up and down. “This is what happens when you forget you are
my
fairy,” he said. “If you find a way to leave this room I’ll feed you your spider for breakfast.” 

He closed the door. A lock turned on the other side. Then a bolt slammed home.

Hippy threw herself at the door and hammered on it with her fists. “I want my Fluffy Ducky!” she screamed.

It must have been the early hours of the morning when Hippy woke up. Her eyes were still sore. There was nobody there to see her, so she’d cried herself to sleep
in the big bed after exhausting her voice and her fists hammering on the door.

Moonlight bathed the bed hangings in silver and the floor with white. The door was still closed, but
Pierus was curled up on the floor muttering to himself.

She sat up and searched for a weapon. She could put an end to Pierus right now.

His back arched. His hair fell over his face and he whimpered.

Hippy slid off the bed and watched him, uncertain. “Pierus?”

He raised haunted eyes, but she didn’t think he saw her. “Pandora,” he said. “You’re here. I knew you’d be here.” He took a deep, ragged breath and reached out to her, but remained on his knees. “Pandora forgive me. Forgive me my love, free me from these chains of ice.”

“I’m not Pandora.” Hippy circled him, keeping out of reach.

“Don’t you think I know you?” His voice cracked. “Don’t you think I’ve seen you pursuing me across the centuries, wreaking your vengeance at my heels, my every step? But this, this last is the cruellest of all, my love, take this fairy curse off me!”

Hippy paused with her hand on the door. “What fairy curse?”

He stayed where he was, his back to her. His shoulders shook. “It was so neatly done, it could only have been you. To show me my death in the Apple, the one thing you and I shared.”

“What death?”

“Cruel ghost,” he breathed. “Must I relive it every time I close my eyes? Every time I see you? Is this how you punish me for my crimes?”

“Yes, absolutely. Tell me about your death.” Hippy took a cautious step closer.

“She looked like you.” His voice turned to a rasp. “But she had green hair and she was with Nikifor. They’re going to kill me, Pandora. The darkness will finally take me. I will know the horrors, all of them. Forgive me. Save me.” He dived forward, clutched her ankles and pressed his lips against her feet.

“Ew.” Hippy tried to move away, but his hands were like manacles. “Stop it Pierus!”

“Forgive me Pandora,” he said. “I beg you, forgive me.”

Hippy considered kicking him in the head, but then he started to cry. She grimace
d. She’d never seen a muse cry. The creature at her feet was not the powerful, cruel muse king at all, it was a wretched shadow of him. The black core of her rage escaped her grasp, to be replaced with only pity and contempt. She sighed, sank to the floor and patted him awkwardly on the head.

He
released her ankles and laid his head in her lap. Sobs shook his whole body.

Hippy absently stroked his hair and looked out of the window at the moon. A woman with green hair who looked like Pandora. Who looked like her. Her daughter, the child even now growing in her belly, was going to kill Pierus. Her daughter and Nikifor. Did he know? He must suspect it.

“Pierus,” she whispered. “If Nikifor is going to kill you, why do you keep him here?”

“I must keep my enemies closest of all,” he said in a voice so low she could barely hear it. “Keep them close. Keep them weak.”

Her hand stilled on his hair. Poor Nikifor. Poor, stupid Nikifor. She’d have to get him away from here when she was done punching him in the face.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Hippy woke alone. Morning sunshine slanted across the bed, warming her legs. The door was ajar.

She jumped out of bed, ran down the stairs two at a time and made a beeline for where the wooden box lay on the floor. The lid was open. The box was empty. Fluffy Ducky had got away. Her heart pounded in relief and she started a search of the whole bottom floor, calling for him.

Hesitant footsteps approached when she neared the front doors. Nikifor stopped in the doorway of the dining room. He looked fresh and rested, but for the shadows under his eyes. “Good morning.”

Hippy eyed him warily. “Where’s Pierus?”

“He had to go away for the day. He’ll be back by nightfall.”

“Nikifor.” She crooked her index finger to beckon him. “Come here.”

He strode toward her. “What is it my little friend?”

“Closer.” Hippy beckoned him down to her level.

Nikifor bent closer.

Hippy grabbed his ear in her fingertips, punched him in the mouth and then pushed him away.

Nikifor lost his balance and fell to the floor. He wiped blood from his lip and looked up at her with wounded surprise. “What did you do that for?”

“Just to remind you if you ever attempt to manhandle me again, I will beat you black and blue.” Hippy shook a fist at him to punctuate the point.

Nikifor stared. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about last night! Now where’s Fluffy Ducky?”

He got to his feet and backed away from her. “I’m sorry Hippy, I don’t know where Fluffy Ducky is, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. I would never cause you harm.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t?” Hippy advanced on him. “What did you call that last night then? You took Fluffy Ducky from me when he was in that box over there! Then you and Pierus dragged me upstairs and locked me in the bedroom! What’s the matter, did that horrible vibe stuff damage your mind too much to remember?”

Nikifor stopped backing away. His mouth fell open. His eyes went wide and blank while memories tried to crack their way into his brain. His hand went to his head. “No,” he said. “Oh no.”

“You really don’t remember.” Hippy’s anger drained away.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“You both went crazy,” she said. “I was scared, Nikifor.”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “There was no other way.”

“Of course there’s another way. The Freakin Fairies can help you.”

“Nobody can help me. Nobody except my king.”

“He’s not trying to help you!” Hippy stopped herself. She had to be more careful than this. She took a deep breath.

“I made you breakfast,” Nikifor said.

“You did?” She gave him a suspicious look. “Does it have blood in it?”

“No. It has eggs in it.”

“Fine, I’ll eat it, but only because I’m hungry. And then I’m going to find Fluffy Ducky. He must be terrified.”

“Perhaps if I help you, you will forgive me for my behaviour?”

She glared. “Perhaps.”

They searched every room in the castle except for Pierus’s laboratory, where Nikifor refused to go. Then they searched the gardens outside, the fountain, everywhere. Hippy went around the entire perimeter calling for Fluffy Ducky, but he didn’t come to her. She stopped to look out over the plain, bewildered. Where last night there had been only grass, this morning there were seedlings growing in long, neat rows, with two leaves each.

Fluffy Ducky wouldn’t have gone that far.

She turned her back on them and investigated the bushes. Nikifor, who had either given up or was distracted, hacked at a few with his sword, teasing out the overgrown shapes hidden inside them.

“Nikifor wait
.”

He lowered his sword. “What is it?”

Hippy went closer to the bush he was working at. “There’s a web.” She pointed to a thick mat of web just peeking out of the foliage. “See, there.”

“Is it Fluffy Ducky’s?” Nikifor bent closer to see.

Hippy eased aside the branches. “Fluffy Ducky? Fluffy Ducky it’s me, are you hiding in here?”

The foliage trembled. Something inside shifted.

Hippy’s heart hammered in excitement. “Fluffy Ducky! It’s okay, you can come out now, the nasty old muse king isn’t here!” She forced the branches aside.

Three eyes peered at her out of the leaves. A big, hairy leg slowly pressed a branch down.

Hippy frowned. Those eyes were the size of saucers and that leg was almost as big as her forearm. “Fluffy Ducky? What happened to you?”

There was a clicking noise from inside the bush.

Nikifor took a step back. “Are you sure that’s your spider?”

“Of course it is. I’d know Fluffy Ducky anywhere. But he’s–he’s very big.”

Hippy wiggled her fingers at Fluffy Ducky. “How’d you get so big? Did you eat a whole vamp or something?”

A branch cracked. The whole bush shivered. Then Fluffy Ducky scuttled out. Something gleamed behind him. He hissed.

Hippy’s lower lip trembled. “There’s no need to talk to me like that, Fluffy Ducky. It wasn’t my fault he put you in that box. He locked me up too.”

Two wickedly curved fangs
twitched. He hissed again.

Nikifor’s voice was unnaturally high. “Hippy I don’t think he wants to play.”

“Fluffy Ducky?” She blinked rapidly when tears formed in her eyes. “What are you doing?”

Fluffy Ducky leaped.

Nikifor hauled Hippy out of his path.

Fluffy Ducky landed
where she’d been standing. He was almost the size of a small fairy. He scuttled in a circle to face them, hissed and pawed at the ground with thick, hairy feet.

Tears ran down her face unimpeded now. “Fluffy Ducky no,” Hippy said. “It’s me, don’t you recognise me? We’ve been friends forever!”

Nikifor, who still had hold of the back of her dress, dragged her away from the giant spider.

Fluffy Ducky crept forward. He stalked them step for step until they’d reached the fountain. Only then did he
scurry back to his bush.

“Fluffy Ducky!” Hippy wailed.

The branches shivered under his weight and settled.

Hippy ran towards it again, but Nikifor picked her up off the ground and hurried back to the castle while she kicked the air and pummelled him in the ribs.

He set her down in the big entry room. “I’m sorry, Hippy.”

“Let me back out there!” Hippy yelled. “He knows it’s me, he does! He just has to–to remember!”

“Hippy that spider will kill you if you go near it again.” Nikifor crouched to be on eye level with her. “I’m so sorry. That’s not your Fluffy Ducky anymore.”

Hippy collapsed on the floor and sobbed furiously.

Nikifor disappeared into another room and returned with a small, shiny creature in his arms. “Look,” he said. “I found Fangs earlier.”

Hippy took Fangs from him and held her close. After a while, she calmed down enough to stop crying. She wiped her eyes. Fangs crawled onto her shoulder and cuddled into her neck.

“What happened to Fluffy Ducky?” She kept her voice steady with an effort.

Nikifor, still crouching in front of her, was silent. Hippy looked at the expression on his face. Right then, she knew.

“He did something.”

“We must not jump to conclusions.” There was doubt in his voice. “Pierus knows how important your spider is to you, he wouldn’t-”

“What did he do last night after he locked me in?”

Fangs stretched her wings and backed a little way down Hippy’s shoulder.

Nikifor rose to his feet. He closed his eyes and rubbed his head. “I can see images, hear sounds–at times today I have thought it was coming back, but–” he paced to the wall and back.

“Think Nikifor,” Hippy said. “Think hard. You left us at the bedroom. What happened when he returned? Did he open the box?”

“Yes. Yes, he opened the box.”

Hippy took a step toward him. “And then?”

“He–he took the spider up to his laboratory.” The words died on Nikifor’s lips almost before they were fully spoken. He looked aghast. “Hippy, please, I’m sure he wouldn’t have done anything on purpose. Perhaps there was an accident.”

Hippy turned on her heel and headed for the stairs.

Nikifor pursued. “No. You must not go up there, it is forbidden!”

“Back off, Nikifor.”

“I must ask you to stop, or-”

“Or what?” Hippy whirled around and brandished a fist. “What are you going to do?”

“We will find another way! When he returns, I’m sure if we talk to him–”

“Talk? You want to talk? Tell you what, you talk. I’m going to kill something.” Hippy bolted up the stairs. When she reached the third floor several paces ahead of Nikifor, she dragged the heavy double doors closed and locked them.

“Hippy!” Nikifor yelled from the other side. “Hippy please, don’t make him angry with us!”

Hippy went into the laboratory. On the big table in the centre she found the vamp hand bound to a slab of steel with rope over each finger and the wrist. It twitched when she came near. There were tiny cuts all over it. Beside it, in a bloodstained bowl, were several black seeds.

Her stomach revolted. Her skin crawled. Behind her she could hear Nikifor scratching at the lock on the door. She reached into her belt, took a pinch of Ishtar’s fairy dust and sprinkled it over both the hand and the seeds.

The fingers jerked and clawed at the slab. Then the skin turned grey and crumbled to dust, just like the seeds.

Hippy let out a long, shuddering breath, but she didn’t feel much better. She investigated the shelves and the planets. She couldn’t look at the skeleton. When she drew aside a heavy red curtain, she gasped. Behind that, suspended in midair, was the shiniest, brightest cage she’d ever seen. It appeared to be made of pure light, or maybe fire, it was hard to tell. The intricate egg-shaped network of lines enclosed the Apple of Chaos, but it was broken again. The pieces floated, each separate, each trying to join the rest.

She frowned. Two were missing
, she was sure of it. There had been something shiny in Fluffy Ducky’s branches, and Pierus was gone for a whole day. If he was hiding the pieces one by one, then she was already too late to rescue the whole thing.

But Mr Silver had said she only needed one piece. Just one.

She reached out for the cage. The lights were warm. They got hotter. Her fingertips hovered just underneath them. They buzzed. Her skin tingled. The hairs on the back of her fingers curled and smoked.

Hippy snatched her hand away. She backed up and reached for the nearest heavy object she could find, which was a thick, hard-covered book. She hurled it at the cage.

The book bounced off the lights and landed at her feet, a cross-hatch pattern burned into the cover.

She stamped her foot and screamed in rage. Nikifor crashed into the other side of the door.

Fangs, still on her shoulder, made a low whining noise.

“You’re right,” Hippy said. “We should just go.” She ran up the stairs that wound from the centre of the room and came out on the roof. It was flat, damp and mouldy up there. She hurried across it and looked out across the plains.

The grass was dotted as far as she could see with tiny blotches of green. Pierus must have worked hard last night. How he’d planted so many seeds and why, she had no idea. She wondered if they were the same as the ones she’d found soaking in vamp blood.

There was no time to worry about that. She had to get out of here. She climbed onto the edge of the roof, jumped and landed in the garden below. Fangs took off from her shoulder halfway down and flew into the garden.

Hippy ran straight out onto the plain before she had too much time to think about leaving Fluffy Ducky behind. She hoped Fangs would follow.

Her feet barely touched the ground, she ran so fast. She ignored the seedlings, even though they’d all doubled in size since this morning, and now had several leaves apiece. She didn’t slow down until she’d gone under the huge cold Arch. Then she only slowed a little bit. Running felt good. The wind whipped through her hair. She could forget about Fluffy Ducky while she ran.