Flight Into Darkness Part 40

"When am I going to wake from this nightmare?" murmured the revenant distractedly. murmured the revenant distractedly.

Her hand crept out from beneath the sheet, not stopping until her fingers pinched Jagu's arm, feeling the rea.s.suring warmth of living flesh and blood.

"M-Maistre de Joyeuse?" Jagu sounded as dazed as she, reverting to using Henri's full t.i.tle as he had done in his student days.

" Why can no one hear me?" Why can no one hear me?" There was such a burden of desolation in his words that Celestine could not bear to listen. There was such a burden of desolation in his words that Celestine could not bear to listen.

"I can hear you." The voice of the Faie issued from the book that lay on the bedside table. The voice of the Faie issued from the book that lay on the bedside table.

"Faie?" Celestine said softly.

"Go back," said the Faie in a tone both compa.s.sionate and commanding. said the Faie in a tone both compa.s.sionate and commanding.

"Don't send me back. Not there." The revenant's pale features twisted, warping into a look of such terror that Celestine could not bear to look and buried her face in her hands. And then she heard a voice, so pure and unearthly that it could have been the sound of a star singing. Daring to peer out between her fingers, she saw that the Faie had transformed into a creature of dazzling brightness. Her face was transfigured, her eyes closed, her arms extended as the song poured from her open mouth. A sliver of light appeared beyond the tips of her fingers, growing brighter until it opened like a doorway and radiance spilled out. The revenant's pale features twisted, warping into a look of such terror that Celestine could not bear to look and buried her face in her hands. And then she heard a voice, so pure and unearthly that it could have been the sound of a star singing. Daring to peer out between her fingers, she saw that the Faie had transformed into a creature of dazzling brightness. Her face was transfigured, her eyes closed, her arms extended as the song poured from her open mouth. A sliver of light appeared beyond the tips of her fingers, growing brighter until it opened like a doorway and radiance spilled out.

The revenant's tortured features slowly relaxed, to be replaced by a look of calm detachment. It turned and its shadowy form seemed to melt into the brightness.

The Faie's voice faded away and with it, the light that had filled the attic room.

"Is he gone?" Celestine whispered. The Faie let out the faintest of sighs. Her form was fading too as she melted back into the book. "Faie! What's wrong?"

" I just... need to rest a little... I just... need to rest a little..."

Jagu was rubbing his eyes. "Tell me that was a dream," he said shakily.

"It wasn't a dream."

"But that singing... and that dazzling light..."

How to begin to explain it all to Jagu?

"The dead don't return," he said as he lay back, almost as if he were trying to rea.s.sure himself. "Not unless their souls have been stolen..."

But long after his breathing had lapsed back into the steady, regular rhythm of sleep, Celestine lay awake, trying to make sense of what she had seen.

Gauzia closed her dressing-room door. The room was filled with fresh flowers and their sultry scent was overpowering. A bouquet of rose-pink camellias lay on the dressing table; curious, she picked up the attached card to read who had sent it. Behind her, she heard the sound of someone slowly applauding.

She spun around to see a man sitting behind the door. He was smiling at her. "What a superb performance you gave tonight, Diva!"

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing in my dressing room? Get out, before I call the manager!"

"There's no need for alarm, my dear demoiselle, I mean you no harm." The lazy smile only infuriated her more.

"Get out!" She seized the nearest object to hand-a hairbrush- and began to advance on him, brandis.h.i.+ng it.

"I'm here on official business," he said, not making the slightest move to leave. "From Maistre Donatien of the Commanderie. I'm looking for two old friends of yours. I wondered if you might have seen them."

She lowered the hairbrush. "Old friends?" she said suspiciously. Her admirers sometimes invented extraordinary excuses to try to get close to her.

"Celestine de Joyeuse-and her accompanist, Jagu de Rustephan."

"Celestine-a friend?" friend?" she echoed. Even the sound of her onetime fellow student's name rankled. "What's your name, Guerrier?" she echoed. Even the sound of her onetime fellow student's name rankled. "What's your name, Guerrier?"

"Guyomard's the name. Lieutenant Kilian Guyomard." Again that lazy, knowing smile.

"Can I trust you, I wonder, Lieutenant? The very fact that you've traveled all this way to Mirom must mean that you have a strong suspicion she's to be found here." Maela Ca.s.sard. Maela Ca.s.sard. "Of course I can't be entirely sure," she said, sniffing at a fragrant bouquet of hothouse lilies left on her dressing table, "but I've had my suspicions about her since the start. It's a very clever disguise. Her hair, her complexion, even the color of her eyes. But the voice. It's impossible to disguise that unique timbre. What would make her go to such lengths to reinvent herself, Lieutenant? Is she in any kind of... trouble?" "Of course I can't be entirely sure," she said, sniffing at a fragrant bouquet of hothouse lilies left on her dressing table, "but I've had my suspicions about her since the start. It's a very clever disguise. Her hair, her complexion, even the color of her eyes. But the voice. It's impossible to disguise that unique timbre. What would make her go to such lengths to reinvent herself, Lieutenant? Is she in any kind of... trouble?"

"So she's here in disguise?"

He had only answered her question with another question.

"I never said I was sure." If he could be evasive, so could she.

"Maistre Donatien is very close to Prince Ilsevir. I'm sure he could put in a good word about you if you were to a.s.sist me-and the Commanderie-with our inquiries."

"Oh, really?" So he was trying to bribe her with promises of royal patronage. "That sounds rather attractive to me." She broke off one of the lilies and went up to him, tucking it into his top b.u.t.tonhole. As she did so, she whispered a name in his ear.

"Maela Ca.s.sard."

CHAPTER 20.

Celestine had been drowsing, her head pillowed against Jagu's bare chest, feeling so warm and comfortable that she had no desire to move. And then she heard the sound of brisk footsteps hurrying up the stairs toward her room.

"Someone's coming!"

"Your landlady?"

Celestine shook her head. "Not at that speed!"

A fist rapped loudly on the door.

"Demoiselle! Open up!" called out a man's voice in Francian.

They both spilled out of bed, fumbling for their clothes. Jagu was fastening his breeches; grabbing his s.h.i.+rt, he signed to her to keep quiet. The door handle rattled; the man outside was evidently determined to get in and it was only a matter of seconds before he would break the lock. Celestine tugged her s.h.i.+ft over her head and cast around in a panic for the saffron dress she had been wearing the day before. Please don't let it be the Inquisition. Please don't let it be the Inquisition.

"I'll protect you," whispered the Faie. whispered the Faie.

"I know you're in there, Demoiselle. Haven't you got a few words of welcome for your old friend, Kilian?"

Celestine, trying to pull on her stockings, stared at Jagu. "Kilian? "Kilian? Did you tell him, Jagu?" Did you tell him, Jagu?"

Jagu looked at her blankly. "I didn't even know he was in Mirom."

"Well, well..." Kilian stood in the doorway. "Celestine and Jagu, here in Mirom together. How long has this cozy little arrangement been going on?"

"It's not what you think, Kilian!" said Jagu defensively.

"Oh, come now, it's exactly what I think." Kilian's gaze rested on the bed and the tumbled sheets. A malicious smile had appeared on his lips, but the look in his eyes was cold and unforgiving.

"Who sent you? Why are you here?" demanded Jagu, knowing to his shame that his cheeks were flaming. There was no point in denying what had happened.

"Maistre Donatien sent me. You've been gone rather too long, Jagu. He was becoming... suspicious."

"Has the Maistre forgotten how far north Mirom lies? My s.h.i.+p was icebound for weeks."

Kilian shrugged.

"So he sent you to arrest us."

"Arrest? To escort escort you back to Francia." you back to Francia."

"Escort? Does he take me for a fool, Kilian?"

"Maistre Donatien is prepared to ask Prince Ilsevir to grant you a royal pardon on the occasion of his coronation. A gesture of clemency, if you like."

"On what conditions?" Celestine had taken no part in the conversation till that moment.

"I won't intrude on you two lovebirds any longer. The s.h.i.+p leaves for Francia in two days' time. I've booked pa.s.sage for the two of you. If you decide to accept the Maistre's offer, meet me at the Northern Docks at dawn; the s.h.i.+p's called the Heloise." Heloise."

"Will Kilian report us?" Celestine set down a bowl of tea in front of Jagu.

"I don't think he expected to find us together."

She noticed a faint blush color Jagu's cheeks as he said it. She wanted to hug him.

"But he didn't even try to arrest me." She pa.s.sed him the pot of damson jam. "And he was armed. Why didn't he?"

Jagu put a spoonful of jam in his tea, stirring with an abstracted look in his eyes. "I don't know. This talk of a royal pardon. It sounds ... feasible."

"But can we trust him?" She sipped her tea, watching him through the rising steam from her bowl. That characteristic little frown she knew so well had appeared, furrowing his dark brows; never before had she found it so irresistible. She wanted to lean across and kiss his forehead.

He was staring into his tea. "We can't take the risk." He looked up. "I fear he's become Donatien's man. He'll be back, Celestine, with reinforcements."

"But he can't officially arrest me, can he? Not while we're in Muscobar. He'd need a warrant."

"No, but he could have you abducted."

Celestine had no answer. Jagu was right. Wasn't that exactly what they had done to Kaspar Linnaius in Tielen?

"We have to split up," he said. "I'll lay a false trail to lure Kilian away from you."

"And put yourself in danger?" Her hand reached out across the table and clasped his. "No, Jagu. In the eyes of the Commanderie, you're as much of a renegade as I am-and all because you've protected me."

"You know as well as I do that there's still a chance Donatien might hand you straight over to the Inquisition." Jagu's fingers tightened around hers. "There's too much evidence against you. You have to lie low. If only for a little while."

She gazed up into his eyes. "But I don't want to leave you, Jagu. Not now, now that I've realized what a fool I've..." Her throat tightened but she tried to keep speaking, determined that he hear what she had to tell him. "You've been protecting me all these years. Why has it taken me so long to see how much I love you?"

He rose and went to her, wrapping his arms around her, holding her close.

"We were both fools," he said. "And it's taken me all this time to see how I've been deluding myself. Why did we leave it so late? At least we were granted this second chance. But now we're being dragged apart again."

When I lost Henri, I thought my life was over. Celestine raised one hand to caress his face, trying to imprint its lean contours into her palm and fingertips. Celestine raised one hand to caress his face, trying to imprint its lean contours into her palm and fingertips. I'm not going to lose you, Jagu. I'm not going to lose you, Jagu.

He pressed his mouth to hers, kissing her again until, dizzy with desire, she broke away, all too aware where that would lead.

"I can't just abandon my work at the opera house. I'll have to invent some excuse." Celestine felt torn; she had worked so hard to rise to gain acceptance by Grebin that she was loath to throw her new career away.

"A sudden chill, brought on by the change in the weather. An inflammation of the throat. Your physician has advised you not to sing for at least a month..."

"Oh and which physician is that? Doctor Rustephan?" She tried to make light of it, although the prospect of having to be apart was weighing heavily on her heart.

"You may even have to travel to a warmer climate to recuperate fully. The voice is such a precious, sensitive instrument."

"In which time, some ambitious little ingenue will come along and usurp my place."

Jagu gave her an odd look. "For a moment there, I thought I heard Gauzia de Saint-Desirat talking."

Celestine laughed, in spite of the sadness in her heart. "Heaven forbid that I'm turning into a diva! Perhaps it's all for the best that I take a break from the stage."

"Where will you go?"

Celestine had not thought this far ahead. She was weary of being on the run. She wanted nothing more than to be with Jagu. "It was so simple back then, you and I, performing together." She turned to him. "Those were the happiest moments of my life. You don't always realize it at the time, do you? It's only when everything begins to crash down about you that you see clearly." She reached out and stroked his cheek. "I want to give recitals with you again, Jagu. Just like we used to."

"I'll have to start practicing again," he said, a little contritely.

"Then let's make a plan." If they agreed on a day and a time to meet again perhaps she would feel less anxious.

"I'll lay a false trail to confuse Kilian. I'll tell him that you've been invited to sing before the Grand d.u.c.h.ess at Erinaskoe."

"But wouldn't it be better if we just sent a message to the Heloise Heloise and both disappeared?" and both disappeared?"

"It's only Kilian," said Jagu. "Don't worry; I know the way his mind works. We were at school together, remember?"

Only Kilian. How could Jagu sound so confident? "He's never liked me, Jagu. I don't know why, but-"

"All the more reason for me to divert his attention."

"And have him blame you for helping me escape?" She shook her head.

"I can make this plan work, Celestine." He took hold of her hands, pressing them between his own. "Whatever Kilian's orders may be, I'm certain I can convince him. He's always backed me up in the past. He's my oldest friend, after all."

Why was Jagu being so stubborn over this? She s.n.a.t.c.hed her hands away.