Shadow: Bloody Fairies Part 20

"We should go now." Clockwork grabbed Hippy's hand and bolted. They ran through garden beds and trees and bushes, skirted the snake pit and finally picked up the footpath.

The thing churned up the gra.s.s behind them in an ungainly pursuit, snarling and making horrible noises the whole way. Hippy ran as hard as she could. The spit from its mouth hit the path behind her like rain.

"This way!" Clockwork dived over a bush, rolled on the gra.s.s and ducked under a stone sculpture of a man with a broken head rising from an ocean wave.

Hippy pressed in there with him. "What is it?" she whispered.

"That's Crunchy the Camel," Clockwork whispered back. "The singular most terrifying animal in all Dream. My dad keeps him becausewell, I'm not sure why."

Crunchy snorted and snarled behind the sculpture. His hooves dug at the gra.s.s and he let out several irritated brays, then walked away.

Clockwork let out a long breath. "Don't tell my dad we went off the path."

"Okay." Hippy punched him in the shoulder.

They both burst into m.u.f.fled giggles, which were interrupted by the loud clang of a bell.

Clockwork rolled his eyes. "That means we have to go inside."

They came out from their hiding place, checked for any signs of the camel, then ran back to the house, up the white steps and straight through the double doors.

Clockwork skidded to a halt on the polished floor. Hippy ran straight into him, then jumped back at the sight of Mr Silver.

Mr Silver looked them both up and down. He walked in a circle all around them, inspecting them more closely. "Have you two been fighting?"

Clockwork nodded emphatically.

"Good. I'm glad you're getting along. Go and get cleaned up for dinner, both of you. Hippy, I want to see you in my study in fifteen minutes. I imagine it'll take that long for you to scrub off all that dirt."

Clockwork grabbed her arm and they left the room at a more dignified pace. "You're in trouble now," he hissed as soon as they were out of earshot.

Fifteen minutes later, Hippy was scrubbed and cleaner than she'd been since the war started. She'd just experienced her very first hot shower, something she'd enjoyed despite the fact it was so wet.

Now, however, little winged bugs did a crazy dance in her stomach. She felt sick. She'd thought her own father was scary before she met Mr Silver, but now she knew better. Not that she'd ever admit it to Clockwork.

She stood to attention in front of Mr Silver's desk and tried to keep her eyes down like Ana had warned her when she brought her back here, but it was really difficult. She wanted to look at the fire, because it was the only shiny thing in the room. And Mr Silver had just sat there staring at her for a whole minute now, was she supposed to say something?

"Sit down, Hippy."

Hippy dropped into the nearest chair. Mr Silver looked very, very serious. But then he probably always did.

"Do you know who we are?"

"You're the Invisible Army," she replied. "Fitz told me."

"Do you know why we do what we do?"

She shook her head. "I don't believe any of that stuff about Pierus. He's really very nice when you get to know him." She hesitated, because the words felt untrue, even to her. "...And even if he did do bad things, he's sorry now. He's trying to help us get rid of the vamps."

"And you really believe this?"

She nodded.

"It never occurred to you that you were being manipulated?"

Hippy twisted her fingers together and shrugged. "Why would he do that?"

"Why, indeed?" Mr Silver studied her. "Why did he choose you to help him?"

"Because I look like Pandora." The words were out before she could stop them. She scowled. She should have said something better, like because I had a vamp-killing spider.

"Pandora?" Mr Silver's cheeks dimpled. He got out of his chair, came around the desk and sat facing her. "What do you know about Pandora?"

"She was his wife," Hippy said. "The Apple of Chaos sent her mad and they got banished to Shadow."

"That's not entirely untrue, I suppose. What about after that? How much did he tell you?"

"He said she ran off with someone else and started the fairy tribes."

"Also not a lie. And then?"

Hippy shrugged.

"You know Pandora was our ancestress," Mr Silver said. "In fact the Freakin Fairies are her direct descendants. The other clans, including your own, are offshoots of ours."

Hippy scowled, but didn't think it was a good time to argue.

"Only we know the real story of what happened to Pandora." Mr Silver rested his chin on his hands.

Hippy finally returned his gaze, her interest piqued. "What happened to her?"

"As you say, she ran off with another man. She freed herself from him the moment she set foot in Shadow." He paused. "It is said before they went to Shadow, she and Pierus were almost always at war with each other. He insisted on controlling every aspect of her life. The women of our tribe would tell you she was hoping to have more freedom in her new world than she'd been allowed in Greece, but I wouldn't know about that." He gave an expansive shrug. "So she ran off with a wild man she met in the forest. He didn't care what she did so long as she stuck around. They went deep into Shadow and lived together for about twenty years. She bore him twenty children."

Hippy nodded. Twenty was a lot, but fairies tended to have big families. She was one of ten herself.

"But." Mr Silver lifted a finger. "Pierus, it was said, was furious when she left."

Hippy nodded again. He'd said that.

"He searched for her. In fact he never stopped searching for Pandora. Twenty years later he found her, older and wiser and mother of a tribe. He of course had not aged at all, for he and his companions had become the muses. The story says he couldn't understand at first why she'd aged and lost her beauty, but he nevertheless begged her to return. She refused."

Mr Silver looked at the back of his own hand for so long Hippy began to squirm, wondering if that was the end of the story.

"Then what happened?" she finally asked.

"Her family had welcomed him into their midst, for they were hospitable," Mr Silver said. "He ate and drank with them. On the day he left, he wished them all long lives and the best of health. He himself served Pandora a cup of wine, which she drank. She told him she hoped he would find happiness. Only when she'd drained that cup did he walk away."

Hippy's heart beat an uncomfortable tattoo. She had a very unpleasant feeling about this.

"His seat was barely cold when the cup fell from her hand and she choked and went grey. Then she fell to the ground, utterly dead, in front of her husband and all of her children. The cup she had been holding began to smoke. A hole was burned into the very wood where the liquid remained."

Hippy pressed a hand to her mouth to m.u.f.fle the strangled sob that tried to escape.

Mr Silver continued mercilessly. "They went after him, of course, but he was gone. Muses can make themselves scarce when they wish it. If you've ever wondered why fairies do not trust muses, that is why. That is where it all started. As for you, if you wish to ally yourself with such a man, I cannot stop you. I have little doubt he is on his way here at this very moment. But you should walk into this thing with your eyes wide open, little girl. Pandora was the only woman the muse king ever loved. He has never looked twice at a woman since her. That is until now, if what my people tell me is true. I hope you're prepared for what such an attachment with the muse king will bring you."

Hippy buried her face in her hands and took several deep breaths. She tried to compose herself. "How do I know what you're saying is true?" she asked from behind her hands.

Mr Silver got up from his desk and went to a bookshelf in the far corner. He returned with a small box, which he placed on her lap before returning to his seat on the desk.

Hippy uncovered her eyes. The box resting on her lap was very, very old. Pieces were chipped away and broken, but it looked as though it had once been incredibly beautiful. Faint shapes were all that remained of carvings of women dancing and men with spears. Old, rotted leather straps and rusted bra.s.s buckles held it together. She took a sharp breath in. She knew exactly what this was without being told.

"Open it," Mr Silver said.

Hippy very, very gently eased off the buckles and opened the box. Inside she found an equally ancient wooden goblet. The wood was so old it had turned dark, dark brown. On one side of it there was a hole surrounded by thin, burned edges.

"This is all we have left of Pandora," Mr Silver said. "The box that cursed her and the cup that killed her. They've been treated with fairy dust to halt any further decay."

Hippy gently closed the box and handed it back to him. When he took it, she went and crouched in front of the fire. She held her hands out to the warmth and tried to stop them from shaking.

Mr Silver put the box away before he returned and crouched beside her. He said nothing.

Hippy stared into the flames. Her thoughts chased each other around and around. Pierus lurked in the back of her mind, boring a hole in her thoughts with the intensity of his gaze. All the times she'd been frightened by a mere look or a word and ignored it. Ishtar was right, she was no kind of a fairy, to be so close to someone with fairy blood on his hands and not know it.

"I'm sorry," Mr Silver said, after a long silence. "I can see by your face you're finally convinced."

Hippy said nothing. She wondered if the flames could burn away her disgust with herself.

"You seem a pleasant, happy-go-lucky kind of creature," he continued. "It wasn't my intention to destroy any part of that. But I fear for your fate if you were to continue with the muse king. I fear even now, if you return to him, he will draw you back in. He has already forged a link with you that you will find hard to break." He sighed and touched her shoulder. "Hippy?"

She looked up at him.

"I do not believe you are either as innocent or as young as you appear."

"Oh?" the word was cautious.

"I think you are strong," Mr Silver said. "If I didn't, I wouldn't ask you what I'm about to ask you."

Hippy shifted to a sitting position in front of the fire. "Ask me what?"

Mr Silver sat too, so he was at eye level. "The muse king must not be allowed to possess the Apple of Chaos," he said. "But he is coming here and he will sense its presence."

"It's here?" Hippy was startled.

"If the worst happens and he finds it, you will be all that stands between Shadow and an unstoppable tyrant. If he gets hold of the Apple of Chaos I want you to go with him and use it to drive back the vamps. But do not let him keep it."

Hippy stared. Then she slowly nodded.

Mr Silver looked into the fire, then back at her. "The Apple can be broken, but not destroyed," he said. "With any part of it, he will gain power. With all of it, ultimate power. But if even one piece is missing, and cannot be found-" He held up a finger. "One piece, Hippy." He rose to his feet and held out a hand. "Come. We've kept the others waiting long enough."

CHAPTER TWENTY.

After dinner Ana escorted Hippy upstairs, then down a long hall decorated with scarves onto which hundreds of tiny mirrors were sewn. They were shiny and caught the electric lights, but even that wasn't enough to distract her. Hippy walked slowly, her eyes on her feet. She couldn't stop the thoughts going round and round in circles in her mind.

Ana opened a door at the far end of the hall and flicked on a light. "You can sleep here," she said. "Don't try and leave. There'll be one of us around all night."

Hippy nodded and went into the room.

When Ana closed the door behind her, she looked around. It was really very nice. The walls were covered in patterns of leaves and a full length mirror hung in one corner. The four poster bed was enormous and made up with crisp white and blue sheets. Big double doors led out to a balcony. She went over to the mirror, curious to see what the gla.s.s would tell her.

The gla.s.s reflected back a pair of over-large eyes in a face tanned brown by years in the outdoors. Her hair, still wet from the earlier shower, clung to her skin. Her clothes looked outlandish after days of walking around in Dream. No wonder people stared.

Disturbed by the doubt in her own eyes, Hippy turned on her heel and went to the doors. They opened at a touch onto the balcony. The polished tiles were smooth under her bare feet. She leaned over the cold railing. It was only two storeys up; that jump was nothing. She could be out of here in minutes if she wanted to. She suspected Mr Silver knew it. But then, she'd have to negotiate the garden.

A full moon rose in the east into a clear, starry sky. The stars told different stories here. At home, she could have climbed the fortifications, balanced right at the top and picked out the Big Bearfly, the Lovers, and all the other constellations. But at home, n.o.body would be safe and warm and tucked up in enormous beds. They were all fighting and dying. Ishtar could be hurt, or worse.

The stars here were too peaceful.

Hippy sighed and went back inside. She left the balcony doors open so she could feel the breeze, changed into the long cotton night dress lying on the bed, turned out the light and got under the sheets. She hadn't realised she was so tired. She closed her eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

At first she dreamed of Pandora. At least, she thought it was Pandora, until she realised it was herself drinking out of a wooden cup. Pierus watched from the shadows. The liquid burned her tongue, her throat, spread like acid through her blood and- Hippy woke up with a start. She took a deep breath. The room was empty. Of course it was. She closed her eyes.

She stood outside the gates of Mr Silver's house with Pierus. He was little more than a tall, thin shadow in the dark, staring through the bars with a cold, hungry fury that made the shadows press in around them. "I can feel it," he said. "It calls to me. It has always called to me."

Hippy pressed her back against the bars, wishing she were on the other side. "Is it true?" she said. "Did you murder Pandora?"

His eyes flashed white in the darkness. They bored into her. "I warned you they would try to turn you against me. Don't listen to their lies. You're with me now. Forever." He reached out for her.

Hippy discovered she had Pandora's cup in her hand. She held it out to him.

Pierus took the cup, but it fell from his hand and clattered on the road. Then his face stretched into a soundless scream and he turned to ash.

Hippy sat bolt upright, this time gasping for breath. She scrambled out of bed and slapped herself in the face a couple of times to make sure she was awake. She ran out onto the balcony.

The moon had risen all the way into the sky, bathing the garden in eerie silver light. Far below, she heard Crunchy paw the ground and cough. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves.

She leaned on her balcony, put her face in her hands and breathed deeply to calm herself. It was just a dream. Just a dream, even if it was vivid and creepy and horrible. What if Fitz was right? What if Pierus had done something to her? What if he could be in her head?

No. No, he wouldn't do anything so invasive. He loved her. He'd said so. He needed her. She had to get back to him.

But what about Pandora?

No. That was thousands of years ago. He was different now. He was helping her tribe fight the vamps, didn't that show he'd changed?