Page 195 of The Dark Mirror

The Buzzer yanked at Herne again. For once, Jaxon didn’t answer me with some clever quip. He was laser-focused on the Buzzer, trying his level best to reel his poltergeist in. It had taken him a year to capture Herne in Windsor Forest, and he wasn’t about to lose such a prize.

The Rephs spread out across the Cripta dei Monarchi. Mistry scrambled into an alcove, while Nick sent visions at the Buzzers, blinding them, making them clumsy. One of them charged at Terebell, but slammed into a wall. As I hurdled a stone coffin, she threw her sword towards another Buzzer, impaling it before it could bite me. I rounded a corner.

Arcturus had found a cold spot. It shone on the floor between three coffins, casting a strange light on the walls. As he spoke in Gloss, shrank, inch by painful inch.

‘It will be hard to close it while the fallen lie here,’ he told me. ‘But I can stop more coming in.’

I nodded. Arcturus had one entrance covered, while Jaxon had the other.

A Buzzer had chased me from the main vault. Warding it away from Arcturus, I unleashed another torrent of pressure, blood trickling from my nose, my temples aching in protest. The creature let out a nightmarish scream and swung for me with a long arm, almost catching me. I scooted back, hammering it with everything I had. I had never fought them at such close quarters, and it was taking all my concentration, all my training, to stop this one from breaking in.

‘Terebell, get over here!’

She appeared in moments. Just as she took off its head, the Buzzer ripped her coat.

‘Shit.’ I switched off the pressure. ‘Did it get you?’

‘No.’ She inspected her sleeve. ‘We found our fallen. Hold the creatures off while I sequester these last ones.’

Arcturus kept the cold spot shut. I had no idea how he was doing it, but I could feel him sewing the gap in the æther, apparently with nothing but willpower and Gloss.

Terebell opened a coffin, revealing a Reph with the dark hair and rosy sarx of her family. Unlike Arcturus, this one had not been chained in place, but lay in repose like a dead human, simply dressed, her gloved hands folded on her midriff. Errai caught up to Terebell.

‘Hatysa,’ he said, eyes burning. Terebell started to lift the Reph out. ‘Wait. Wake her, dreamwalker.’

I looked up at him. ‘What?’

‘You resurrected Arcturus. Why not Hatysa?’

Death itself will work in different ways.

Terebell seemed to waver, cradling her cousin. Errai might have a point. If I could break other Rephs from latency, the Ranthen could replenish their forces.

Nick and Mistry appeared, followed by Jaxon. They gathered around the choke point of the entrance.

‘Paige,’ Nick said, ‘more of them are coming.’

‘Hold them off,’ I said. ‘Terebell, shut me into the coffin. It will protect me while you fight.’

She lifted me without protest. There was just enough room for me to squeeze in beside Hatysa. The lid rasped back into place. Before I could succumb to trepidation, I dreamwalked.

Now I was doubly entombed. In this mausoleum of a mind, all was dark and silent, and there was no golden cord to guide me. Struck blind, I stumbled forward, feeling my way around with no compass. I generally trusted my instincts, but panic was already taking hold, and Reph dreamscapes were cavernous. It was going to take too long to find her spirit.

My body kept on breathing. Through the dense stone of the coffin, I heard the Buzzers baying for my flesh. Every moment I had in here was a moment the others were buying me time.

Hatysa would be in the middle of her dreamscape. When I possessed a host, I always started at the very edge, facing inward.Fighting to stay calm, I ran in a straight line, on and on and on, until her dream-form tripped me. Her unresponsive spirit, left to lie for ever in her mind.

Arcturus and I had touched in his dreamscape. I didn’t want to do the same to a complete stranger – Hatysa would likely hate to know that a human was in her safe place – but I had to try. Reaching down, I gripped her shoulders and willed her to wake, as I had with Arcturus.

‘Hatysa,’ I said. ‘Come back.’ I shook her. ‘Hatysa Sheratan, can you hear me?’

No reply. This time, there was no flood of light, no spark at my fingertips. I was about to try again when my silver cord pulled me back to my own body. Arcturus had lifted the lid.

‘Paige?’

‘It’s not working.’ I grasped his arm and clambered out. ‘I don’t know why.’

‘Try again.’ Errai hauled me away from Arcturus, towards the next coffin. ‘Pollux Chertan.’

---