Page 20 of The Fulbourn: Pitch & Sickle
Silas glanced at her. ‘I thought you could hear Phillipa?’
She had done so when they were in the carriage on the way back from the greensward.
‘Not always. It seems when they are most riled and anxious, I am privy to some snippets. But I dare say your friend is calmer now than when we last met.’
‘She is.’ Silas nodded. ‘The Morrisons are keeping her distracted enough from her sorrow.’
‘Good. Good.’ Lady Satine settled her honey-coloured shawl about her shoulders. She wore a simple cotton gown but the single lonely gaslight installed in the carriage house distorted its true colour, making it appear somewhere between off-white and subtle yellow. ‘Now I just need to do one more thing before we chat…’
She threw up her hands and sparkling droplets flew from her grasp, as though she’d held fistfuls of rain. With the move came the waft of the open sea, the same that had struck Silas when the melody named the Lady Satine a djinn. A leviathan.
The spray rose upwards and the droplets grew larger, their consistency more akin to quicksilver. As they began their descent they spread outwards, arching to form a dome encompassing Silas, the carriage, the Lady herself, and a good portion of the interior of the carriage house. The droplets, large as sovereigns and evenly spaced, hung as though held precisely by hidden wires.
‘There. Can never be too careful,’ she said, dusting off her hands. ‘But we can speak freely now with the shroud in place. I’ve been hoping to speak further with you about your experience at the greensward. I know you’ve been very distracted by the daemon’s illness.’
Silas studied his paintbrush. ‘Pitch did have me greatly concerned.’ The truth but not the whole truth. He’d been avoiding speaking about that horrid day and was quite sure the Lady knew it.
‘I know you both endured a terrible time there.’ Lady Satine strolled over to where a stack of hay bales made for a makeshift lounge. ‘I know of the pond they tried to drown you in, Lalassu saw the remnants of it well enough, but what of Tobias?’
Silas’s knuckles whitened with his grip on the brush. ‘What of him? You know they kept him in a sigil-infested room and poisoned him with Gu.’
‘I do. But I wanted to be certain I knew all there was to know.’
Silas swallowed, his throat dry. It was not his place to tell the whole story.
Lady Satine plucked a piece of straw and twiddled it between her fingers. ‘I sense a delicacy in the prince that worries me. How badly did they hurt him, Silas?’
Setting down the brush, Silas considered his words. ‘Well enough.’
‘And could they weaken him that way again?’
‘No.’ Silas was razor sharp. ‘They will never do that to him again.’ He could not shake his sense of guilt. Not only had it been he who had insisted on going to Gidleigh House, but Silas had then been the weakness the Alp could exploit in the daemon. ‘The Morrigan sought to break him and they failed. He destroyed every inch of the prison they made for us. He saved me, and I am grateful for it, but the toll on him was enormous, I fear. Every moment of that rescue pained him.’
‘And I dare say more pain is to come.’ The lady exhaled heartily. ‘As it will for all of us who seek to take on Blood Lake.’
He’d hardly expected reassurance all would be fine, but still…some hope would have been nice.
‘A fool’s errand.’ Silas swiped hard at the stains on his fingers. ‘Was that not how Lucifer described any attempt to destroy the halo?’
‘He did and he may be right.’
‘Then why the bloody hell are we chancing it?’
‘Because thereisa chance to take. Even Lucifer, stubborn as he is, knows it to be true. He’d not have brought the watch here otherwise. Gods, after two thousand years there might yet be a way to end Samyaza’s legacy for good.’ Lady Satine straightened, eyes shining with a lighter hue of violet. ‘Imagine it, Silas…a world with no Blight to plague it. A world that no longer harbours a secret capable of tilting the Severance War in Elyssiam’s favour.’
‘The halo is truly that powerful, even without Samyaza to wield it?’
‘It is a part of him. A remnant of the Seraph’s strength.’ The Lady took another piece of straw, adding it to the weave she made. ‘With Azazel’s expertise in cultivation, Samyaza’s power could see the Exarch rebirth the Nephilim…or create new monsters in their place. That damned bloody war he has fought with Enoch for untold years has been on a knife’s edge for centuries. This world may prove the tipping point if Azazel finally learns that Blood Lake is more than a graveyard.’
The frigid air did not reach them through the droplet barrier, but Silas felt the ice burrow into his bones nonetheless.
‘And you truly think Pitch has a hope of destroying the halo?’ he said quietly.
She contemplated her weaving.‘Since the death of Seraphiel there has been a change in the balance of things in this world. For the past two years the lake has been the most restless I’ve ever known. When Lucifer dumped the prince on my doorstep near-on a year ago, Vassago had already spent a year in the abaddon. The king delivered a wretched creature, but told me very little about him. Barely weeks after Vassago’s arrival, the sightings of teratisms began to rise. Slowly at first, but strengthening to the point where it was necessary to summon you, the Pale Horseman, once more. At first I thought the stirrings of the Blight due to the angel’s death, somehow, too. Seraphiel created one of the three seals on Blood Lake, after all. It stood to reason his demise would have resonance. But then Lucifer deigned to tell me more of Vassago’s connection with Seraphiel, about how the angel’s last wish had been to see the prince survive. It seemed plain to me that the strife in this world had a connection to our friend Tobias. That the halo might be sensing a threat to its existence. But the King of Daemonkind was harder to convince. There had been much talk in Arcadia, apparently, of Seraphiel’s state of mind; whispers of growing madness, of the Seraphim Michael seeking to overthrown him due to his erratic behaviour. Lucifer and Seraphiel were close. I think the daemon had seen an angel’s madness close up, and he presumed Prince Vassago a part of it. But even Lucifer himself could not pretend blindness to what was happening here; the shift in the Blight, a rise in purebreds wielding maleficium, the likes of which we’d not seen since the early days, before Sybilla was gifted to me to put an end to those born with divine magick.’ She inhaled with a quick, shuddered breath. ‘Do I think Tobias capable of destroying the halo? Perhaps. Do I want him to try? Definitely.’ She closed her eyes, clutching the straw to her chest. Silas watched her, his pulse quickened by her words. ‘Gods, we could be free at long last, Silas. The legacy I was shackled with when the djinn became guardians of Blood Lake, would be over with. And you could finally rest,finallypass over, as all souls must do.Shoulddo. Surely a part of you must long for rest after all this time?’ She looked at him so earnestly…so hopefully, it seemed churlish not to nod and agree wholeheartedly. But he stayed still. Satine shook her head, setting her tight curls bobbing. ‘You still cannot remember the passing of so many years, can you? I thought memory had returned to you after the greensward.’
Silas folded his arms, pressing sticky fingers against his ribs. ‘Memory of dying, yes. Many times. But there was nothing of my life nor of being called to ride for you.’
‘Well, you never recall your living years. That’s not so strange. But I had hoped you might recognise me a little by now.’