The Tower of the Forgotten Page 7

  "And Kendrick?" Portia said.

  He chimed in. "Not by Alaric’s doing. He doesn’t need to put spells on me. So long as Radinka is here, so shall I be, too."

  That’s noble of you and might work to our advantage." Portia looked around the room. There were so many things, all piled seemingly haphazardly onto each shelf. "So, if the anchors are in here, then where are the people?"

  "This way." Radinka pulled aside a curtain to reveal an ornate door frame that was entirely bricked up.

  A chill radiated from those bricks, and using her double-vision, Portia could see that they formed a small measure of protection between the worlds. In her sight, she could see the endless night that hung over a lonely hillside beyond, studded with small white boulders.

  The foundation shivered again, moaning through the bricks. Radinka motioned them over to the doorway. Her hand passed through it easily, and she reached back for someone else to follow.

  Portia motioned Imogen and Kendrick forward. "I’ll bring up the rear."

  They seemed to evaporate through the wall; Portia lingered a moment, running her thumb over the hairpin. It radiated familiarity. As she closed her eyes, she saw a vivid memory of her childhood at Penemue: Lady Hester watching her class playing outside in the grassy field beside the orchard. Captain Cadmus standing by her side, bent to say something directly into her ear. Hester turning and the warm morning light gleaming off of her shining blonde hair, the carved ivory hairpin set with a garnet the size of a thimble at its head. Portia held that object in her hand.

  And Hester waited in the shadowlands beyond.

  Portia passed through the doorway; it chilled her to the core. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the ever-shifting low light. A shallow valley overgrown with grass the color of plums stretched out beneath a familiar grey sky. Rocks seemed to grow from the low hillside on either side of the meager path. Portia examined one and found it to be a headstone, not a boulder.

  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…"

  "Over here." Radinka waved from a nearby ridge. She and Imogen knelt by one of the markers with Kendrick standing protectively at their backs, his eyes scanning the horizon for threats.

  In the distance, danger waited, casting a bluish beacon far into the sky. But nothing appeared to be coming for them yet.

  Radinka closed her eyes and bowed her head over the wrench.

  "I think," she murmured, so softly that Portia almost did not hear, "that had things been different, I might like to have been a Vedma, a healer. I think that might have been nice." Her voice dropped in pitch. "But Lady Analise had other plans for me."

  "You may still get your wish," Portia told her.

  Radinka shook her head. It took a moment before she could speak. "No. Analise took that part out of me and replaced it with another. I can only speak to souls of the dead now, no longer the living."

  When she looked up, Portia was met with the memory of the child’s light eyes in the shadow-side foyer of the Penemue chapter house. She had seen her.

  Portia made a good-natured dismissive sound. "You were able to speak to my soul and I wasn’t dead. I think you can learn again to touch the living with healing."

  Radinka remained unconvinced and gripped the wrench tightly. She sighed and said, "Mistress Portia, you don’t walk among the living anymore. Not like the rest of us. You, I could heal, I think. Imogen, too. But no one else. Trust me, I’ve tried."

  Kendrick came up to Portia’s shoulder. "A couple of cats," he said, "and a handful of birds. Young ones, too weak to be weaned and lost from their mothers. I told her they would have died anyway…" He shivered. "She used to be so lively, you know? She used to be able to make flowers bloom with a touch and a prayer. She keeps trying." He gazed down at her with eyes brimming with tears. "Her magic is of the dead now, and this is not a mantle she’s carried lightly, or well."

  Radinka turned back toward the headstone and began again to focus on the wrench. Two beads of light rose up before her, one from the tool and the other from the stone, and merged into one glowing sphere. Then, like a flower unfurling its petals to the sun, the sphere opened into the shape of a sprightly young woman in coveralls and boots with welding goggles perched atop a mass of unruly curls. She was a study in sepia, looking more like a photograph than a ghost.

  She grinned at Radinka and clapped her grubby hands together. "You found me!"

  "You made it easy."

  "Oh, my! Who’re your friends?"

  Radinka turned to look at Portia while the other girl stood still and transfixed. "This is Mistress Portia Gyony and Mistress Imogen Gyony. You’ve met Kendrick."

  Nodding but not coming any closer, the girl offered her name. "I’m Kitty Insinori. And I’ve heard tell of both of you." Noting Portia’s surprise, she explained, "I have been dead for a bit here and I’ll tell you what, there’s nothing much better to do than gossip!" She pointed at the array of headstones dotting the landscape. "He puts more people in here every day it seems. Some of them just heard the stories, but some of them know you, Mistress Portia, or knew you might be a truer statement."

  "How many?" Portia asked.

  Kitty shrugged. "Few dozen, I guess. We’re never all awake at the same time, and when we’re split apart things aren’t so clear. We can sort of hear one another, but it’s more like listening to people talk in their sleep. While you’re still asleep, too."

  "Split apart?"

  Radinka held up the wrench. "Yes. The soul is partially captured here in the person’s treasured object, and the other half is allowed to cross into the realm of the dead, but can move no further than this shadow realm while still tethered to the living world."

  "I see. And you know this how?"

  "Because being an Aldias was forced upon me. Nigel and Lady Analise were thorough. Even my dreams were polluted with this knowledge."

  Kitty’s face clouded. "That’s hardly fair! At least here they let us sleep in peace, mostly. Although things travel this road, more and more often as of late. It makes us all fretful. Lady Hester, especially."

  The confirmation rang through Portia’s soul. "Lady Hester?"

  "Yep. Right over there." Kitty pointed to a pale stone, simple and shaped almost like a column, across the narrow track.

  Portia took a step and stopped herself. Her palm began to sweat around the ivory hairpin.

  "What are you, anyway?" Kitty took a courageous step toward Portia, tilting her head to one side, looking intently at her wings.

  Portia saw, in the layers of images that made up the girl’s being, that part of her face had once been burned completely to the bone. She smelled hot, acrid steam, not fire. A chemical burn of some sort. And oddly, she heard Hester’s voice calling the girl’s name.

  "So you knew Lady Hester?"

  "Briefly."

  "Did you meet her in Penemue?"

  "Where? No. There was a battle, at a country house. Can’t remember what it was called, Crieve Hall or something, anyway…she was there. She was good. She helped me out when I was hurt. I didn’t think she knew what she was doing, but she fixed me right up. Beginner’s luck, I guess."

  Portia frowned. "Helped you how?"

  "She healed me. Made me right as rain, till I went and got myself killed anyhow." She laughed at that. "Oh, well. She says I saved the day anyway. Which I guess is all I ever really wanted to do with myself."

  "I didn’t think healing was an art the Edulica knew. Beyond the basic stuff, anyway." Portia racked her memories for any instances where she might have been hurt enough to warrant Hester’s healing prowess, but all that came to mind was the occasional bruise and splinter and a fever now and again.

  "Edulica?" Kitty’s golden brows knitted together. "You must be thinking of someone else. Lady Hester was Regalii."

  Portia nodded. "So we’ve recently learned. But it seems she got better."

  Kitty laughed.

  "For what purpose did Lord Alaric bring you here?
"

  Her merry smile vanished and she pointed, far across the bruised sky. "To work on that engine under the tower. It was old. I got to take it apart and make it shiny! I basically had to rebuild the blasted thing from the ground up. No one does any maintenance over there."

  "You made the rift engine?" Portia was flummoxed.

  Kitty preened. "Yep!"

  "Why?"

  "Why not? I was asked, and nicely, too. Plus, it isn’t like I have anything better to do here. The other side was dull. And scary."

  Even Radinka was stunned. "I didn’t think you’d… I mean, I was hoping you could help us with it…"

  "Help you do what?"

  "Destroy it," Portia said.

  "Oh. I mean I could, I guess. I know how it all goes together."

  "Is there a reason you wouldn’t?"

  She looked up into Portia’s face. "Ma’am, I don’t know what you are or where you come from, but you gotta know, Insinori don’t destroy something they’ve created. It’s like murdering your own children!"

  "We need you to do this, Kitty." Radinka offered her the wrench. "And we mean to make it worth your while."

  The young mechanic licked her lips. "Are you offering what I think you are?"

  Radinka nodded. "It all hinges on all of us getting back home to Penemue safe and sound, but I can give you back your anchor."

  "And no one could use it to control me ever again?"

  "Never ever."

  "But… I’d still be a ghost, wouldn’t I? I can’t go on."

  Radinka shook her head. "But you’d be your own mistress."

  Portia spoke up, "I think I might have a solution for you. We could install you as a guardian of the house. You could be the heart and soul of the Insinori."

  Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

  "Can you help us?"

  "Sure I can…"

  "Will you, then?"

  Kitty’s gaze never left the wrench. She nodded. "Okay. I’ll do it. But we’ve got to go now."

  Portia nodded. "Yes, first let me—"

  "No! Now! Can’t you hear it?"

  Imogen glanced between Portia and Kitty. "Of course we can. What does it mean?"

  "It means the doorway is opening."

  —7—

  TWO ROADS LED FROM THE CEMETERY, one a silver-grey packed gravel road not unlike a street in the living world, and the other a narrow track that began beneath a latticed arch covered over with sinister vines.

  Kitty motioned to the archway, a hazy fog oozing toward them. "It’s a shortcut."

  Unconvinced, Portia and Imogen exchanged a worried glance, but Radinka reassured them. "I’ve been this way before. It isn’t pretty, but it’ll take us right to the tower."

  Kitty nodded. "Lord Alaric had it created to get there easily. His sister, wasn’t it?"

  "Yes, Lady Analise, from the convent."

  "She’s here, too?" Portia’s heart fluttered.

  "Well, not right now. She’s gone with him to the tower. What’s left of her has, anyway."

  "Lovely."

  Kitty shrugged. "I was honestly surprised he didn’t wake me, but he was in a terrible rush. So much so I could hear him in my sleep."

  "I wonder what’s happened," Imogen said.

  "He wasn’t ready for the gates to open. That’s all I know."

  "We’d better get out there." Portia looked at the hairpin in her hand and sighed, tucking it into her own bun. "Let’s go."

  Kitty led the way with Portia at her side. Radinka and Kendrick flanked Imogen as they followed the narrow path beneath the arch. The fog enclosed them almost immediately, snuffing out all sound where there had been little to begin with. They saw nothing around them except the swirling fog, but had the sensation of crossing a very high, very narrow bridge.

  Then the mist cleared, and they found themselves on the edge of the cast circle not far from Portia’s pavilion. On the spirit side, the circus grounds glowed with an intensity that kept even Portia from looking directly at it. She squinted around the brilliance and looked toward the tower; the shadow of something hung in its corona.

  The engine growled beneath the ground and the waves.

  "Let’s go around." Portia led them past the edges of the circus, keeping to where the midway had once been. She passed Aseneth’s little shanty but did not stop to investigate. They descended the steep and crumbly cliffs that melted into dunes before sweeping into a wide beach that reached the sea. Before them, the bridge glimmered. In the living world it was a garish thing of iron, rope, and wood, strung with sodden ribbons and tattered prayer banners. Here, it rose effortlessly above the surf, held aloft with what looked like spider web. The shrine that had been created around the spring remained, but the spring itself—a shining fountain of sweet water bubbling up from the opalescent stones on one side—oozed a strange mix of sickly soul-light and ichor.

  Imogen gagged. "So many people have drunk from that cursed spring!"

  "That’s the least of our concern, presently." Portia pointed toward the shifting darkness of the sky. A large zeppelin hung behind the tower, bathed in its bluish light. Mooring ropes draped down from it to a post near the roofline. The hum of its engines could barely be heard beneath the din from the great machine below.

  Kitty cocked her head to one side and frowned. "Something’s not right down there. They’ve got it out of tune. Someone’s been messing with it."

  Another rumble sounded and a paper-thin fissure of light raced up the tower’s side. Portia swore and Radinka gasped. Kendrick interposed himself between Radinka and the tower, standing at the ready beside Portia.

  "Do you think it’ll blow?" he asked her.

  "I think that’s the point. Well, to break open at any rate. That tower now straddles three planes: the living realm of Capitola-by-the-Sea, this shadow-side version of it, and the scraps of Salus deep in the underworld. The plan was to open a doorway from one place to the other, and it only made it halfway."

  "But who’s controlling it now, Alaric or Nigel?" Imogen asked.

  Radinka answered, "I don’t know. Neither, I suppose. Both of them think the other is changing the game."

  They all turned to look at her.

  "What do you mean?" Portia’s hand tightened on the axe handle.

  The girl shrugged. "I mean it was easy to play their ambitions off of one another, especially since Alaric took away Nigel’s ghostly companions. It makes Nigel weaker but it robs Alaric of his spies."

  "You did this?"

  "No. I just made sure they each thought they were being betrayed, which does have the added bonus of being true. They’ve not taken care of all the pertinent details—this isn’t complete, it’s only half working." She shook her head. "Who did this?"

  Portia and Imogen exchanged a glance.

  "You don’t remember?" Portia asked.

  Radinka paled. "No…"

  Imogen stepped closer to the girl, her arms open to embrace her, but Radinka pulled away.

  "I am not a child, no matter that I look all of fourteen." Radinka shook with emotion. "And those who underestimate the likes of me are sloppy with their opinions and even less careful about their secrets."

  "We’ll make it right," Imogen promised.

  "We’ll make him pay," Portia said, growling.

  She felt for the girl, in that insensible and passionate way that occluded any thoughts of suspicion or ulterior motives. Portia wanted nothing more than to keep the girl safe, even if she was somehow complicit in this heinous doing.

  "If we want to stop them, we should hurry," Kitty said. "One of two things will happen if we tarry too long: either one of them is going to get that engine functioning like it should and finish opening the gate, or the whole thing is just gonna blow up and who knows what-all will end up where." Without waiting for them, she rushed around the base. Her small fingers were digging under a rectangle of metal when the others caught up.

  With some levering of her wrench, Kitty propped open the hatch. "I’m n
ot asking for anyone to follow me, but you’ve got to understand that I might not come back."

  "Kitty…!" Radinka took a step forward, but the engineer held out her hand.

  "You’ve been a good friend, Rads, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me." She hefted the wrench proudly. "And I’m not afraid. I’ve died a couple of times now. It ain’t that bad. And I think I’d like to clear my name. This all ended up to be such bad business. I had no idea… A girl can’t help herself, y’know? Something that’s broken has got to be fixed; it sings to you, making you utterly mad until you heal it. And it sure is singing now." She jimmied the wrench free and the hatch fell closed behind her.

  Portia caught it. "Wait. Can the upper levels of the tower be accessed from here?"

  "They sure can. I guess you’re coming with me after all."

  The passageway was narrow and dim. More than once they stumbled on the stairs, which wound down into the belly of the tower. In this warped space, she knew they were beneath the scraps of Salus and that the tubes and wires and corridors could lead them as far away as the ruins of Belial’s palace. The city of the dead was both whole and destroyed, one reality layered atop another.

  "This is where we part ways, my friends." Kitty had stopped at a junction that looked like a dozen others they had already passed.

  Portia felt the bitter taste of doubt crawl up the back of her throat.

  Radinka nodded, confidently. She touched Kendrick’s shoulder. "Go with her, please."

  He hesitated, then bowed, gently kissing her as he did so. "I’ll do my best to protect her and then come back to you."

  Kendrick turned crisply and began to follow Kitty. Portia grabbed his wrist.

  "If you can get passage to the outside, where the way would lead you into Salus, the Herders were gathering a cache of weapons for me. You might still find something of use there. But be careful, the black metal is very, very dangerous."

  "I know where some of that stuff is. And I suppose some weapons might be good, huh?" said Kitty.

  Kendrick nodded. "I hope we won’t need them, but I’d rather not go without."

  Try and keep up, we don’t have much time for a field trip." Kitty ducked through the archway and Kendrick raced after her, sparing one last glance at Radinka before he, too, disappeared around the corner.