Page 44 of The Simurgh

‘I’m sorry, Silas.’

‘We don’t know where he is,’ he whispered. ‘All this time…and we know so little…if it is too late…Jane, I could not bear it.’

He’d not intended to give voice to the sheer, aching horror that held him.

‘He is strong, Silas.’ She moved in, bringing the wash of jasmine with her, the scent filling him and tapping gently at the knots within his muscles. ‘And made stronger still by knowing that you will be searching for him.’ She shook her head, glaring into the wide-open courtyard. ‘They are fools to think they could hinder you. I am of the mind that there are few powers in the world that will keep you from each other. So, let us work towards that reunion, shall we? Best you saddle Lalassu, quickly now.’ Her gaze darted to something behind him, and she smiled. ‘Oh, well you are saved from that task already.’

Silas turned and found Benedict alongside Lalassu, the mare tacked up in saddle and bridle, dancing on the tips of her hooves to reach Silas.

‘Benedict.’ Silas hurried to meet him just inside the wide-open gate. ‘How is your head?’

‘Pounding like I’m a piece of iron on an anvil. All this racket out here brought me round.’ His eyes were narrowed, his mouth pinched, and there was a nasty-looking bruise beginning to show around his right eye. ‘Likely bring half of York too. Get on with you now.’

Silas took the reins, slipping them over the mare’s head and preparing to mount, one foot to the stirrup. ‘Will you come with us?’

‘Do come along, it will be quite the adventure.’ Phillipa was suddenly there, in the way of the ethereal. Silas did not flinch, Benedict, on the other hand, let out a yelp.

‘Gods, no,’ he stammered. ‘No, thank you just the same. I’ve had more than my fill these past couple of days. I need a decent ale and a pair of slippers.’

He winced as he raised his head to look up at Silas, who had mounted Lalassu in one fluid move.

‘Thank you,’ Silas said. ‘For all you’ve done, Benedict. I am in your debt.’

‘Bah,’ the djinn scoffed. ‘Go on with you. But are you certain about taking that bloody bastard with you?’ He sent a withering look the way of the stables, and right on queue the Dullahan appeared, already mounted on Chollima, ever the imperious air about him. His streaming hair truly resembled a ghostly flow of water in the shifting dusk light. ‘Says you want him along. That true?’

‘Definitely feckin’ not,’ Tyvain’s voice was muffled from the interior of the carriage. ‘Tell ‘im, Mercer. He ain’t welcome.’

‘He looks like a jolly chap to me,’ Phillipa declared, receiving a growl from Isaac that had her clamping her mouth shut.

‘I would dearly like to see any of you seek to stop me,’ Byleist said, brightly, as though he’d just challenged them to a simple game of whist.

Benedict rubbed at the back of his neck, shaking his head slowly. ‘My head hurts too much to listen to the lot of you. Gonna go rest before I have to deal with Mr Ahari growling about his empty house. Good luck to you, Mr Mercer, here’s hoping you find your boy. And don’t make that mare work too hard just yet. Look after that beauty.’

Lalassu’s ear pricked, and her sides flared against Silas’s thighs as she sighed deeply.

Benedict left them with a wave, walking in an unsteady line back towards the main house. Silas used his heels to urge Lalassu about, to where he faced the oncoming Dullahan.

‘Don’t think to hinder me, Byleist. It will not go well for you.’

‘Settle down, my lord. I can see clearly that you are stubborn beyond measure. So if I’m to serve my Duty Bind in any way, then all that can be done is to tag along on your merry adventure and see to it that you don’t get yourself killed for the sake of a foul-mouthed, poorly-dressed daemon.’

Lalassu snorted. Silas felt her irritation beneath him, and he shared it. But not for sake of the insults, rather for something that had nagged at him for days.

‘Do you swear you do not know where he might be?’

It was what Byleist had insisted from the very beginning, and strange as it was, Silas believed him.

‘My Lord, if I knew where the wretched man was, I would have told you so you could get this dreadful obsession over with and take up more gentile pursuits, like pottery or butterfly catching. Occupations that do not place you in dire danger, then I would declare myself done and settled with my obligation to keep you safe.’

‘Silas?’ Jane called out. ‘We need to go.’

Silas kept his gaze fixed on Byleist and his watercolour features. The fae did not falter under the scrutiny. ‘Safe? I will not be safe, from anguish, from despair, until I am with him again. If you want me safe, from what truly harms me, then you will help me find him. Do you understand?’

There was nothing to read in the Dullahan’s gaze– his eyes were empty, black pits. But he did not sigh theatrically, he did not bring a snide grin to his ghostly lips. Even Chollima was still beneath him, long mane touching the ground, the blue roan like a stormy shadow.

‘I understand, my lord.’ Byleist bowed his head. ‘Let us find your daemon, and I shall consider my duty done.’

He reached over his shoulders and drew up the hood of a cloak, a light grey with ivy embroidered all along the edge. Silas did not question the sudden appearance of a cloak upon the Dullahan. He was far beyond marvelling at such things. But its presence meant Byleist would disturb no passersby with his lack of proper body parts. That was all that mattered.