‘Why’d you do it?’ he whispered, fearing that Stalwick was already dead.
‘I’m g-g-g-g-good with f-f-f-f-fires,’ Stalwick said. ‘I t-t-t-t-tell you what, M-m-m-m-markus, I am g-g-g-good with f-f-f-fires.’
The Malakasian ship, packed to the gunwales with mysteries harvested in Rona’s Forbidden Forest, burned for two avens. When the water finally snuffed out the last flames, the massive skeleton upended and sank noiselessly into the North Sea.
MASSACHUSETTS
‘Mom?’
Jennifer Sorenson shrieked, dropping a bowl of breakfast cereal that shattered on the floor. ‘Hannah?’ she cried, ‘my God, Hannah? Is it you, baby?’ Ignoring the splattered milk and cornflakes, she threw her arms around her daughter, clinging to Hannah as if she would never let go again.
‘Are you all right? Oh my God, I thought you’d never come back. I wanted to believe Steven, but it’s been so long. I’ve been waiting and waiting and I just can’t believe you’re back.’ She was crying, laughing, sobbing, all at once. ‘Are you hurt, baby? You’re too thin; I can tell that just from holding you. But are you hurt? Is anything broken?’
Hannah found herself a little embarrassed at how nice it was to have her mother clutch her so tightly. She knew she ought to feel guilty; she’d put her through a four-month nightmare, but for a few seconds, it was nice to bask in feelings she hadn’t thought about since school. ‘Mom-’ She gently shrugged out of Jennifer’s arms, ‘we have to close the portal.’
‘I’ll get it,’ Jennifer said, wiping her face with her bathrobe sleeve. ‘I’m an old hand at it now.’ She used the cereal spoon she was still clutching to fold the edge of the Larion tapestry back over itself. ‘There,’ she said, then, unable to contain herself, drew Hannah back into her arms and hugged her close.
‘Mom?’ Hannah said, ‘we have some stuff to do, and we have to hurry.’ She paused for a second, inhaling her mother’s essence: lavender soap and body lotion, nothing expensive or fancy, but the scent of home, of love, of comfort. ‘I only have twelve hours.’
She felt Jennifer tense and they broke apart; the poignant moment had passed.
‘No.’ Jennifer looked exhausted, worn to the nub. Her hair was more grey than blonde now, and she too had lost weight. ‘No, you can’t, Hannah, you can’t go back. I won’t let you. We can open the portal for Steven if you like, and Mark, and anyone who wants to join you, but you’re staying with me and we’re going home together, today.’
Hannah knew Jennifer would resist; she tried to sidestep the argument. ‘We’ll talk about it as we go, Mom, but I really do have some stuff to do.’
‘Go where?’
She hadn’t considered that her mother would be anywhere but Grant Street in Denver. ‘Where are we?’
‘The Berkshires, outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts.’
‘Holy shit, what are you doing all the way out here?’
‘Aunt Kay has a cottage on Cape Cod. It’s closed up for the winter, but she said I could stay there until she opened the place for spring break. I wasn’t planning on needing it too long; I kept expecting you.’ Jennifer was crying again. ‘Every time I opened this goddamned thing, I expected you to come through it-’ She kicked at the tapestry.
‘Who’s Aunt Kay?’ Hannah asked, curious.
‘Oh, she’s not your real aunt,’ Jennifer explained. And I don’t think you’ve seen her in – what? Twenty-two years, maybe. She went to college with me about a hundred and forty years ago; we were roommates.’ She went to the tiny kitchenette in what Hannah now saw was a cheap motel suite. She couldn’t believe her mother had been living like this for months. Jennifer returned with a handful of paper towels and started cleaning up the spilled cereal and shards of pottery. Anyway, I called her and told her I needed a place to stay, that I was wrestling with an alcohol problem and wanted to get clear of Denver for a while. She didn’t mind.’
Hannah was stunned. Lacking something to do, she knelt beside her mother and helped to mop up soggy cornflakes. ‘Why, Mom? Why are you doing this?’
‘You don’t know?’
‘No.’
‘Then Steven didn’t find you?’
‘We found each other yesterday, finally,’ Hannah said. ‘It’s been difficult-’ she laughed, a little cynically, ‘difficult… no, it’s been a godforsaken mess, but I’m fine.’
‘Then why do you-?’
‘Steven is sick,’ she said, ‘and I’m going back, Mom, tonight at seven. They’re waiting for me.’
‘What about Nerak?’ Jennifer dropped the towels and the jagged bits of cereal bowl into the bin and washed her hands under the faucet. She needed something to do with her hands. ‘That’s why I’m here, you know, because Steven told me I had to keep moving and that I couldn’t go anyplace anyone would think of, or be able to guess. Do you realise how challenging that is? And all the while I’ve been thinking that Nerak might be following me… well, hoping, actually.’
‘Hoping?’
‘Of course. If he was here following me, he couldn’t be there chasing after you.’
‘Steven killed him.’
Jennifer nodded grimly. After a moment, she said, ‘That’s good, I suppose.’
Hannah went to the kitchenette and wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist. ‘God, I missed you, Mom.’
Jennifer broke down again. ‘I missed you, too, baby. This is the worst thing I’ve ever had to do, and until you have your own children, you’ll never be able to understand. And that’s why I can’t-’
‘I have to, Mom, and you have to help me,’ Hannah said softly. She felt her stomach knot; it was so unfair of her to ask for this, but she had no choice. ‘I need you to help me heal him, and maybe save all of us.’
‘Okay, I’ll go in your place.’ Jennifer didn’t hesitate.
Hannah laughed and hugged her mother even more tightly. ‘No, Mom, that’s not what I meant; I need you to keep going like you’re going. I need you to keep opening the portal, every day at seven o’clock, a.m. and p.m. And you can’t miss a time.’
‘I haven’t yet.’
‘I’ll be back, with Steven, very soon.’
Jennifer stared out of the front window across the pot-holed parking lot. It had snowed overnight, but it was already melting into puddles. It was going to be wet and slushy, not the kind of day she had imagined Hannah coming home to. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
A drugstore first.’ Hannah dug for a handful of cornflakes. And an Internet cafe. Let’s start with the cafe.’
Hoyt sat wrapped in a blanket with his chair wedged into the corner of the cabin so it couldn’t fall over. He was shivering with fever and hadn’t eaten anything but broth in two days, but still he watched Hannah intently. ‘That was a quick trip,’ he said, trying to hide how pleased he was to see her back.
‘I just needed a few things. The hardest part was convincing my mother to let me come back – I thought for a while she was going to chain me up there and cross over here herself.’ Hannah had been gone a full day and night. Hoyt didn’t mention how worried he had been – how worried they had all been – when she didn’t return the first time they opened the portal.
Hannah took a seat beside Steven. ‘Any change in him?’
Hoyt frowned and shook his head. ‘Sorry.’
‘It’s a gamble, but I’m hoping this will help.’ She withdrew a small glass ampoule with a built-in needle and for what felt like the two-hundredth time in two hours, she checked the label.
‘What is it?’
‘Anti-venom,’ she said in English.
‘Anti-?’
‘This comes from the most deadly poisonous creatures in our world.’ She shook the ampoule and held it up to the light. ‘It isn’t the best option, but I only had a day at home and I needed something fast.’
‘And you’re going to give it to Steven?’
‘Yup.’
‘Through that needle?’ Hoyt had read about venous injections in an ancient book on Larion magic and medicine. He had never seen an actual needle up close, however.