Page 40 of Tomb of Ancients
“Anyway.” He shrugged. “She’s too callous, too selfish tothink Henry might endanger himself or her. Never, ever be fooled by her temperament, Louisa. She worships the ground on which he walks.”
I watched him fiddle with the raindrops for a moment longer. “But he didn’t ask you to destroy the black book.”
“No. I think... I think, strange as it may be, that he’s quite fond of this house and those he employs. Destroying the Elbion would be their downfall, too. Where would they go? He’s protected them for so long, and you’ve seen how dangerous it can be.”
My brows rose at that. “Awfully sentimental,” I said. “For the Devil.”
“Maybe they ease his loneliness. That’s worth something. I imagine it’s depressing, conversing with birds all day, and he long ago chased demons like Faraday out of his life. Too miserable to be around, even for demons.”
It was growing too cold to stay outside, and I longed for sleep. The Adjudicators, or so it seemed, had yet to make their move. The iciness in my gut had eased, and I wondered if they had left, delaying their attack. Maybe the shepherd sensed we had come, or that Dalton had, and had chosen to restrategize.
“And Henry knows how to destroy the books? Where to go?” I asked, lingering in the door.
“Yes.”
“The riddles... He knows the answers to them? The correct answers?”
Dalton sighed. “All but one. Finish the diary, Louisa, you will see. I lost track of Henry for so long, it wouldn’t surprise me if he learned more of the riddles on his own. Or he sent Mrs. Haylam to investigate. She would do anything he asked. Somehow... he has that way about him, convincing others to give up everything for him. Only it’s a hollow promise, and there’s no reward at the end.”
As I watched, he crumbled toward the balcony, holding himself upright tentatively. I wasn’t welcome or needed, and I backed into the house, hugging myself.
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he said, turning his face away from the sky. “Yes, I’ll help you destroy the white book.”
Chapter Nineteen
1247, The Road East
Screams, hollow and damned as the void, trailed after us down the road. Ara’s shadow creatures had been left to fend for themselves, but those high, terrible wails told us of their fate.
“So soon?” she whispered as we ran. “How is it possible?”
Their sacrifice was soon forgotten, as we heard the impending thunder and the quaking of the ground beneath our feet. The stretch of land beside the road was uneven and treacherous, and our lead was swiftly lost.
How the creature had circled behind the road and come back upon us before we’d even run a quarter mile soon became clear. For we traveled on two legs while our pursuer tracked us on eight. I have seen many wondrous and terrible creatures in my day, but never something so grotesque. It surged ahead, rounding, blocking our path, the size across of three men, and as tall as five. Its body—long, curved, and segmented—was that of a scorpion’s, a faded-brown color translucent as parchment, the veins and organs within throbbing and red. It reeked of deep earth, with clay and bits of mud and sand still falling from its head and tail as it clacked its massive pincer arms together. A human stomach, chest, and head rose from the body, sharing the oddly thin skin, heart pulsing and pumping before our eyes.
The pointed barb of its tail swayed back and forth, preparing to strike.
I would have appealed to it but for the shock that rooted me to the ground. Even frozen, I would have begged it with my eyes, but that was no use, for it had none of its own to see me. Its pointed legs carried it backward and forward a beat, and I felt Henry’s hand clasp mine, squeezing.
“Take your golden form,” he breathed. “I fear this is no creature of reason.”
Indeed, it was not, and before I could so much as summon the breath and will to drop my human guise, the creature dashed forward. It barreled toward us with sharp, bulbous pincers aiming for a single target. Faraday. I was still holding on to the man’s wrist, but that ended abruptly, as he was torn from my grasp and carried, legs kicking, to a rocky outcropping, the one we had just used as our high ground.
We spun to face him, but I dared not follow. Not yet. The fear was too deep...
“We have to do something,” I whispered. “We have to help him.”
Without another thought, I started forward, ripping my hand out of Henry’s as the creature pinned Faraday to the stone. It held him there without trouble, and for an instant Faraday fought against the massive claw, pushing and flailing, trying to land a single kick against the human stomach.
Behind me, Henry screamed something, desperate, terrified, but I would not let fear trap me into inaction. The demon had suffered enough; he did not deserve this. But even as I pumped my arms and ran as quickly as I could, the beast lowered its pale, thin lips to Faraday’s face and snapped its teeth once. Then it spoke, and its voice nearly stopped me again. It was not a thing that was made to use human speech, and the words squeezed out like the gurgle of water through mud.
“What were you told in the salt?” It snapped its teeth again. “What were you told?”
“N-Never to speak of what I saw, never to repeat what I heard! Please! Upworlder! Dark One! You must help me!” Faraday shrieked and reached toward me, but even the might of my wings once unfurled couldn’t carry me to him with enough speed.Snip. I will never forget the sound. The creature squeezed its pincer together once, hard, like two scythes, severing Faraday in the soft middle, his legs dropping to the ground before his torso did a moment later, his eyes wide with surprise.
I dropped to my knees, and the creature spun to face me. Whatever sight it used, I know it saw me there, and its head lowered as if it wished to say more. Then it shook out its claw, splattering me and the dirt with blood, and it gave a high, eerie cry like, “Lililililili!” And then it was gone, vanishing into the hills, the only sign of its true departure another hot wind and the rumble of tunneled earth.
