A smile rose, gossamer thin. And Pitch continued.
‘I am not alone, and you have me more contented than a creature such as I should ever hope to be. But there is an emptiness…a terrible sense of something misplaced that I cannot ignore. Perhaps I am notnothingwithout the wildness, but I am…’ He paused to consider the words. ‘I am not as I should be…as I am capable of being.’
He shook his head, uncertain exactly what it was he sought to convey.
Silas slipped his hand to the back of Pitch’s neck and the chill there fled. ‘It is I who is selfish. I’m so absorbed in what I want, what I want for you, that I’ve not stopped to think how it must feel for you to have lost the wildness, after living with it so long. Forgive me.’
Pitch shrugged. ‘You could never have guessed I’d go all maudlin about the wretched thing, for not so long ago I was ready to cut myself open, grab it by the throat, and tear it out myself.’
He got to his feet, their fingers still entwined. Silas rose too, grasp unwavering, this breathtaking, giant of a man who cried for him, his tears glinting in the blueberry light of a fae evening.
‘Needless to say I do not expect you to follow me in this.’
Silas wiped at his cheeks. ‘Needless to say you just wasted your breath, and you know it.’
Pitch smiled, and how odd it was to feel so desolate and so happy at the same time.
‘Well, then, what’s say we pay the Crystal Palace a visit?’ He feigned an optimism he did not feel. ‘And see if we cannot stop my dear papa from making more of a fucking mess of everything.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE CHILDRENof Melusine were not especially eye-catching, plain-faced despite their fae heritage, and nondescript. It made for a superb blank canvas, Old Bess had always maintained, for his favoured layers of makeup and pomp. He wore none of those layers now, stripped bare of wig and gown and flashing jewellery, and with a tiny trickle of blood still coming from his nose, but as he berated his errant sister, Tyvain thought she’d never seen him so glorious.
‘Do you realise the harm you have caused? Your greed has made you dangerously foolish.’ Bess was unsteady on his feet but refusing to sit down. Jane sent another breath of air his way to prop him upright. ‘But this is more than mere greed with you, sister.’
‘Greed? Do you think me so shallow? Silly boy.’ Palatyne had made no attempt to flee, nor to inflict any harm. The battle between the siblings seemed at an end. Which Tyvain did not trust one little bit.
Palatyne sauntered like a patron at a gallery to stand in front of the dominating stained-glass window. A few strands had escaped from the meticulous chignon that held up her light brown hair, but otherwise she looked well put together, in contrast to her bedraggled brother. The window held a scene of over imagined tranquillity, with that poor cow the Virgin Mary at its heart. Tyvain had always pitied the poor woman, trapped in eternal chasteness by the men who invented her and the god who gave her no choice in the path of her life.
‘I’ll not deny that when the Erlking first came to me, seeking a union of our talents in the building of a cockaigne, that I was flattered,’ Palatyne ran her fingers along the glass waters of the stream. ‘And I will not pretend I wasn’t completely beguiled by the treasures he offered me.’ She turned to her brother, her eyes dancing. ‘You have your dresses and jewels, Bessie. Now, I have a selkie skin and riches from the Knights Templar’s hoard. I have a castle, Bess, one I did not have to build myself, only a mile from Lokke’s own in the UnSeelie Court. Can you imagine?’ Her sudden enthusiasm waned and Palatyne returned to seriousness. ‘The Erlking did not give a damn that for the right price I would build anything, for anyone, because he is of the exact same ilk. He likes a treasure room just as I do, and the angels have quite the treasures to bestow. But it was not the gold he offered that won me over.’ She paused, and a shift in her features had her looking pained.
‘Out with it, we aint’ got all day.’ Tyvain folded her arms, glancing at the door to ensure there’d be no escape on offer there. Sure enough Silas’s striking nag had her front feet planted upon the threshold, head tilted so one eye kept watch on proceedings. ‘Long story short, you’re a traitor, same as that angel who did unforgivable things to our girl here.’ She sent Sybilla a gentle glance. Jane was right by the fragile angel, within reach should Sybilla topple over, which she looked liable to do at any second. She held onto the peaked curve of the end of the pew like it were the holy grail itself.
‘I’m not going to fight you here, Bess,’ Palatyne said. ‘At least, not until you hear me out.’
‘Hear you out?’ Bess’s eyes widened. ‘You think you can make excuses for what you’ve done? For the Fulbourn? For hiding away maleficium all this time, letting it grow? Sister, you have lost your wits.’
‘I did not know of the sorcerers when I first joined with Lokke. That knowledge came much, much later.’ Palatyne turned and folded her arms tight across her body. ‘Bess, you have lost your way. I wish I could have brought you into my confidence a long time ago, but I knew you too enraptured by the Order. I shall tell you now though, because a great turning point is coming. Before the Order and White Mountain fall, I want you, my brother, to know why we stand on opposite sides. Those you serve take what they want, and makes themselves accountable to no-one. They must be stopped. The angels must be made to pay for what they have done. I did not build my Sanctuaries to hurt you, or any that I care about. Quite the opposite. I defy Arcadia with my builds, and I make no apologies for it. I do it for our sister, Bessie. I do this for Jacquetta.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Old Bess wiped at the blood trickling from his nostril, looking more tired than Tyvain had ever known him.
‘They killed her, Bess.’
‘Jacquetta is not dead.’ Old Bess was dearth of emotion.
Palatyne gave him a pained look. ‘You truly think her silence all these years stems from a desire to avoid family dinners? I know we are wanderers, to be a Child is to be restless, to drift where the whimsy takes us. But Jacquetta is not away enjoying solitude. The Erlking told me, and he was told by Iblis himself. She is dead. And the mad angel Seraphiel is to blame.’
Tyvain snorted. ‘For a lot of damned things. Don’t think anyone will disagree on that point.’
She didn’t know all the details, didn’t bloody want to know if truth be told, but by the saints’ buttholes, she’d like a moment to give that dead bastard a piece of her mind.
‘Hold up, Palatyne.’ Bess was shaking his head. ‘Why the blazes would you think Seraphiel killed Jacquetta?’
‘Because he was done with her, and the angels kill for their secrets. The Morrigan, the Archangel, they all believe the Seraph has a Sanctuary somewhere in the British Isles.’ There was an unnatural vibrancy to Palatyne now, a desperation. ‘For the past year they have pressured me to find evidence of it, to find the Child who might have built it. I could find no trace of the Sanctuary. If it lies in the Isles it is a supreme concealment. I was hardly surprised to discover that it was Jacquetta who had been unseen the longest of any of our siblings. The Seraph would have demanded the finest of Sanctuaries, and Jacquetta is a Melusine prodigy.’
The colour had drained from Old Bess’s face, the fierceness of earlier gone. ‘Good gods, why would you not come to me? If you truly feared for our sister, why would you keep this from me?’
‘We have never been close. And I did not go to you, Bessie, because I knew you deepest in the pockets of the Order.’
