Jack was still staring at Aeneas, unable to speak, so the Lord of the Faerie asked the obvious question. “Why?”
“She wanted to move on,” said Aeneas. “She saw in the land of Llangarlia, and the site that is now London, far greater power. Brutus, be careful.”
“Gods!” Jack muttered. “But you think that she can be destroyed?”
“Who knows? I cannot see that from here.”
Jack took a deep breath. “I need the kingship bands, the final two. Coel,” he nodded at the Lord of the Faerie, “said that he gave them to you.”
Aeneas smiled at the Lord of the Faerie. “Of course he did. And I kept them safe for thousands of years.”
Jack looked carefully at Aeneas. “Kept them safe?”
“I no longer have them. I gave them to the young woman in the black dress.”
Jack did not think he had been so profoundly shocked, or horrified, in all his lives. “You…did…what?”
Aeneas’ calm demeanour altered in the space of a breath. His face contorted in anger, and he leaned forward and dealt Jack a slap across the chest. “I gave them to the young woman in the black dress. Your daughter. She—”
“She is not my daughter! She is the Troy Game incarnate!”
“She said she wanted them,” finished Aeneas. “She said she would keep them safe for you. I believed her.”
“What have you done?” Jack said, then he turned and half ran, half walked back down the road into the Faerie.
Aeneas looked at the Lord of the Faerie, who appeared almost as shocked as Jack.
“She was his daughter,” Aeneas repeated. “Of course I trusted her.”
The Lord of the Faerie grabbed at Jack’s arm as Jack started to run down The Naked.
“Jack! Jack!”
“How could you have done this to me?” Jack snarled, and the Lord of the Faerie stepped back horrified, letting go of Jack’s arm.
“Jack, I had no idea that Aeneas would give them to Catling!”
Jack stared at the Faerie Lord. “I can’t believe that Catling had the power to do that. I can’t believe that Aeneas handed her the fucking bands!”
He paused and visibly collected himself. “Coel, I am sorry. I should not have shouted at you, and you are not to blame for what has happened. But Aeneas…Aeneas should have known!”
There was a long silence.
“Jack,” the Lord of the Faerie said, “what are you going to do?”
Jack ran a shaking hand over his eyes. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
FIVE
St Paul’s and Faerie Hill Manor
Monday, 23rd September 1940
He went straight to St Paul’s, to the crypt, to Catling. It was mid-afternoon, and the crypt of the cathedral was filled with workers, staff and members of the cathedral Watch, but none of them saw the dark-haired man who stormed down the steps from the nave, nor did they see the young woman dressed in black who waited for him by the Duke of Wellington’s tomb.
Jack was still dressed in the white linen wrap of the Aegean Kingman, and Catling’s eyes gleamed with pleasure at the sight of the four golden bands which glowed on his arms.
“You have done very well,” she said. “I am pleased. When will you retrieve the final two?”
Jack’s temper shattered. “You have them! Why? Why? What is the point? Give them to me, Catling.”
Catling’s eyes widened and she leaned back, a hand to the base of her throat, as if she were afraid. “I? I have not taken them. What is this, Jack? What manner of excuse?”
“You went to the Otherworld and you tricked Aeneas into giving you the—”
“I did not! Have you lost the bands, Jack? Have you lost the remaining two kingship bands?”
They were standing close, and the air between them crackled with anger. Jack raised his hand, stabbing a forefinger at Catling.
“You bitch! What game do you play? What point, first in taking the bands, and now in this pretence of innocence?”
Catling had gone very white, far paler than normal, and the black of her gown rippled, as if it were as furious as the entity it clothed.
“Don’t speak to me like this, Jack.”
“I want those bands!”
“And I want you to have them. Damn it, what kind of a fool are you! Did you think I would believe this tale of ‘Oh, the bands are gone, and you have taken them, Catling’? No, no! I have not taken them. You have lost them!”
Jack forced himself to take a breath before answering her. Dear gods, this pretence of innocence was so transparent!
“You’re holding them to blackmail me,” he said. “Holding them to ensure I do what you want. Holding them to make sure I don’t try to harm you. Holding them to force Noah and myself to come down here to dance your final completion. Where are they, then?” Jack spun about, his eyes searching out every corner of the crypt. “Where have you secreted—”
Catling stepped forward and seized Jack’s wrist.
“I don’t like this, Jack. I don’t like this at all. I am going to be very angry indeed if you can’t find those bands.”
Her grip tightened until Jack, despite himself, cried out in pain.
“I need you to have those bands, Jack. I don’t believe this prattle. You could, surely, have come up with something a little more believable. Now—” her grip tightened yet more so that Jack’s knees sagged, and he managed to prevent himself from sinking to the floor only with a supreme effort of will “—I have been very patient. Too patient. I’ve had enough. All my good temper has evaporated. I need to impress on you my authority, I think. What I do now, Jack, is merely the beginning. You need to find those bands. The longer you leave it the more those closest to you will suffer. The longer London will suffer. Find those bands, Jack!”
She released her grip, and Jack finally sagged to the floor.
The next moment he heard a cry of such agony it tore through to his very soul.
Jack didn’t have the final two bands!
Catling didn’t know what to think. Who had them? How could they have vanished from the Otherworld?
Her instinctive reaction had been to wrap Grace in as much agony as she could, simply because that would keep Jack occupied for a while.
Catling needed to think.
“The imps,” Catling muttered to herself. “They might know where they are.”
But no matter how much Catling hunted through London, she could not find the imps.
Grace had been waiting with her parents, Stella, Ariadne and Silvius at Faerie Hill Manor. When the Lord of the Faerie materialised before them (forgetting in his anxiety to assume his mortal form as Harry), they all rose from their seats, but the Lord of the Faerie spoke before they could ask him the question.
“They’re gone,” he said. “The final two bands have gone. Catling has them.”
Noah gasped, while Grace took a step back, then sank down to the sofa.
Her face was stricken.
“Catling took them?” Noah said. “Why? And how? If she has the power to reach into the Otherworld…”
“Who knows the how or the why,” the Lord of the Faerie said, finally morphing into the gentler form of Harry. “Jack has gone to St Paul’s to confront Catling.”
“That is not such a good idea,” said Grace softly.
Noah sat back down beside her. “Grace—”
“Not such a good idea,” Grace whispered, raising her wrists to her chest.
“Grace—”
Before Noah could say anything more, Grace cried out, then convulsed, falling to the floor with the extremity of her pain.
In an instant Ariadne joined Noah at Grace’s side, the others standing close about.
“Gods,” Noah whispered, “I have never seen it so bad!”
Ariadne had to admit that she hadn’t seen it this bad either. When Catling had attacked Grace in Ariadne’s apartment, only Grace’s wrists and forearms had been involved. Now it appeared as if all of Grace’s body was wrapped in fiery lines of suffering. Her wrists were encased in a vicious red glow, and out from this glow spun lines and tendrils of fire that curled all over and about Grace’s body.
Save for her face: left clear, if only for the reason that everyone could witness her anguish.
Ariadne put a hand to Grace’s shoulder, then seized it back instantly. Grace’s body felt as if it were on fire. Ariadne wanted to tell Grace to use the pain, as she had that day Catling attacked her in Ariadne’s apartment, but Ariadne realised that what Catling did now was so much worse, so extreme, that it had consumed Grace completely.
Grace had no time for thought, no chance to turn the pain to her own use.
Suddenly Jack was there, pushing none-too-gently through the circle of watchers and dropping down beside Ariadne.
He reached out to touch Grace, then jerked his hands back as Grace cried out.