Page 51 of The Simurgh

‘Yeah. I didn’t go out all that way ’cause I was lookin’ for somethin’ fun to do. Was there on his direction, few years after the Valkyrie put the witches down, just to check on things. She weren’t too keen on going back, not up to stepping in her own mess.’

‘Hey,’ Tyvain said sharply. ‘Don’t be a feckin’ arsehole.’

‘Just sayin’ it how it is. No secret the angel’s lost her nerve since them witches hung. Not sayin’ I blame you. That was a lot of innocent blood on your hands, ten dead and only four of them actually worth a damn, so far as maleficium was concerned.’

Silas’s gaze didn’t leave Sybilla who in turn had not yet raised her eyes from the floor of the carriage. ‘Far more blood than that,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ve been hunting for centuries.’

‘You were following orders. And in doing so have kept this world safe,’ Jane said firmly.

‘Not so safe now though, is it? Seeing as you missed some.’

Now Silas focused on Isaac. ‘That’s enough. Your point has been made.’ He felt everyone around him shirk, his voice resonating with the underbite of authority that was coming more frequently now.

The lanterns light dimmed, and the fire elemental shrank back into the fathomless folds of his multiple cloaks and coats. ‘Right then, sir.’

Tyvain scratched at her nose with the edge of a tarot card. ‘You certain about this, Isaac, ’cause I ain’t. You’re tellin’ me you remember a mark on a tower from a hundred years ago? You barely remember what bloody day it is ’alf the time.’

‘Because it does not matter what day it is,’ he growled, returned to scathing and irritated. ‘I take people where they need to be, when they ask. That is my purpose, save for listening in through the fireplaces when it is needed. I remember what is important. The smoothest roads to take, the quickest routes to follow. The towns best to stop in on a longer journey. I observe, and can cite every town with decent stables and alehouses. I remember very wellThe Sparrowhawkin Fence, just a mile from Newchurch. It was one of the best I’d seen, the stableboys didn’t shirk from giving the horses a decent rubdown. A lad called Robert Singleton, in particular.’

‘Bet ‘e was real decent at it,’ Tyvain muttered. ‘And then he tended to your ’orses.’

Phillipa giggled softly from where she perched. And further away the Dullahan’s shoulders shifted with quiet laughter, his grin broad.

‘Don’t see what’s so bloody funny.’ Isaac snapped. He pointed at Byleist. ‘And you probably knew all about Pendle from the very beginning. It’s far from a secret now that the UnSeelie are involved with raisin’ those sorcerers.’

‘Dearest Coachman,’ Byleist spoke for the first time in a long while. He was relaxed upon Chollima’s back, his feet dangling free of the stirrups. ‘You may recall every inch of the British Isles, but I don’t recall what I had for breakfast three days ago, on account of being a mindless slave.’

‘More likely it’s on account of ’avin’ no feckin’ ’ead, or mouth ta eat with.’ Tyvain grinned, pleased with herself, if only for a moment. ‘Jesus, talkin’ of ‘eads…why you got one now?’

Before anyone could answer the soothsayer doubled over. Tyvain clutched at her belly. ‘Oh devil’s cunt, that ‘urts.’

‘Tyvain?’ Silas rushed to her side. ‘Are you all right?’

Jane held up her hand, warding him back. ‘Just give her a minute.’ She rubbed at the soothsayer’s back. ‘Has something been revealed to you, Ty?’

Tyvain looked up, her pain etched deep. Her watery eyes fell to Silas, but she glanced away the moment their gazes locked.

Silas’s heart was maddened in its beats. ‘What did you see, Tyvain?’ The grim flicked their tail across his chest in a gentle caress, purring all the while. But he had no time for consolation. ‘Tyvain, what did you bloody well see?’

She swallowed, her hands tight against her belly. ‘Nothin’…nothin’’

‘Why are you lying?’

Tyvain raised her head, her jaw tight, her pains still obvious. ‘I ain’t lyin’ to ya, I didn’t see nothin’. I felt it.’

Jane licked at her lip, darting a worried look between Silas and the soothsayer. ‘And? What was it? Will it lead us to him?’

‘No. Christ I wish I could tell ya different…but there’s somethin’ real wrong…somethin’ that can’t ‘appen…’ She groaned, shifting one hand to dig at her hair. ‘Never ‘ad it like this before. Jesus, its so feckin’ messed up in me ‘ead it’s hard to make sense of it.’

‘Then try harder.’ Silas was numb, neither cold or filled with any warmth. ‘Keep your wits, Hag. Tell me what you feel.’

The harshness in his words earned him a biting look from Jane, but then Tyvain raised her head and the elemental was all but forgotten. The horror in Tyvain’s eyes nearly unravelled him.

‘Forebodin’…that’s what I’m feelin’…forebodin’. Strong, like it’s tryin’ to tear me apart.’ The world stilled, right down to Silas’s heartbeat, but she was not done. ‘We don’t ‘ave time…not anymore…we ‘ad it before…but time’s slippin’ away from us now…’ She shook her head violently. ‘From him…it’s slippin’ away from him.’

The blood roared in Silas’s ears, and white splotches appeared at the edges of his vision. The church grim bumped its head against Silas’s cheek and the spell cast by his own terror was broken. He took a breath.

The world jolted back into motion.