Page 59 of The Simurgh

Silas winced at imagining such enslavement. ‘The Lady had a search done here just a day ago, nothing was found. How is it that the Order could not know of this place?’

Bess gave him a look. ‘The same way they were prevented from noticing the children of maleficium growing from mewling babes to awful adults, I suppose. Same way no one noticed the souls beneath the Fulbourn.’ He paused, swallowing with what was obvious discomfort. ‘The sorcerers and the fae are not without strength, and the Order is not infallible.’

‘But apparently blind.’

Bess gave him a weary smile. ‘Perhaps. Clearly there should have been more attention paid to the UnSeelie Court. Lokke rose from jester to king with grand ambition, but I don’t think anyone imagined the fool reaching such lofty heights as this.’

‘He has not done it alone. There’s an angel involved, several of the bastards in fact.’

‘And a Child of Melusine, I’m afraid.’

‘What?’

Bess kept his eyes averted. ‘Palatyne, I’m shamed to say. She’s had a hand in building this place, too.’

Palatyne. The Child of Melusine responsible for the Sanctuary of horrors beneath the Fulbourn.

Silas shook his head. He wished to waste no more time on the intricacies of this mess.

‘Bess, did you aid Lucifer in entering the cockaigne?’

‘I did.’

‘Then you must send me too.’

Bess sagged, a shadow crossing his face. ‘No…no…I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do.’

Silas stared, incredulous. ‘It’s Pitch, Bess. He is in terrible danger. I am not asking this of you, I’m demanding it.’ Which was a vile thing considering how drained Old Bess appeared, but Silas had no time for niceties. Time was slipping away.

Bess’s grip on the door frame whitened his knuckles. ‘No, Silas…It’s not right. He said I cannot.’

‘Damn it, Bess, who?’

‘Reginald.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘He said I am to allow no one through. No one at all.’

Silas stared at the man he considered a friend. An ally. Old Bess could not look him in the eye, and rightfully so.

‘Did you not hear me? Pitch is in peril, and if Lucifer finds him, he will be no less safe. I think the daemon means to take Pitch back to Arcadia. Let me in.’

Old Bess’s frown was a slippery thing, twitching at the corner of his mouth. ‘No, no I don’t think…I can’t let you in.’ He sighed, and it was far more sensual a sound than it ought to be. ‘No, best we do as he says. He said nothing of Tobias being in the cockaigne, only the Morrigan. You are simply letting your heart rule where your head should take charge.’

‘Christ Almighty, Bess. What the bloody hell is wrong with you?’ Was the Child still blaming Pitch for Ronin’s death? There’d been a moment where he’d certainly done so. But to be so vindictive now? It was not like Old Bess at all.

Silas blinked. Old Bess wasnothimself.

‘Bess, listen to me carefully, please focus upon my voice. Lucifer has you enchanted. He is–’

‘I know my own mind, thank you very much, ankou.’ Bess’s indignation gave him the strength needed to finally release the wall. He made an unsteady path towards the nearest pew, refusing Silas’s offer of help. ‘Pitch is not in there, I assure you. Lucifer said the cockaigne is to be utterly razed. Not a speck of it left once he is done. No more a nest for maleficium. He’s hardly going to do such a thing when your boy is in there. Is he now?’

The floor seemed to open up beneath Silas, and every drop of blood in his body ran to his feet, leaving him utterly hollow.

The risks are deemed too great now by his majesty.That is what Mr Ahari had said as he left Silas trapped in Cumberland House.

‘Oh god. I’ve been a fool.’

‘Silas? You’ve gone a strange shade of pale. What is it?’

‘He’s going to kill him. Lucifer is ending this.’ Silas heard his own words from a distance, every muscle cramped tight. He wasn’t sure he was even still standing. ‘Bess, listen to me. Fight the enchantment, see your way clear. Pitch will die for certain if you cannot. I must get inside. Open the gateway.’