Page 29 of Come Tumbling Down

“I don’t think I like this place,” he said, and Cora began to giggle uncontrollably, still clinging to his arm.

“No one does,” said Jack, slowing the horses. “Either you love it here or you hate it here. The Moors have little time for shades of gray.”

“That’s no way to live,” said Kade.

“It’s a very effective way to die,” said Jack, and urged the horses on, an army behind them, the village to all sides. Curtains twitched as people peered out into the street, saw what was happening, and withdrew again, back into the safety of their homes, away from the coming chaos. Jack smirked.

“He’s never used anything but fear to buy their loyalty. They’re afraid of being murdered in their beds, of seeing their children transformed into monsters, and those are good, reasonable fears—”

“We have different ideas of ‘reasonable,’” muttered Christopher.

“—but they aren’t enough to make his people rise up in his defense. If we lose, nothing changes. They still live in fear. If we win, maybe things get better, for a while. Fighting does nothing, so they won’t fight.”

“Charming,” said Kade.

Jack laughed and drove on, the forces of the Drowned Abbey behind her.

They traveled the length of the village, and when they reached the lower walls of the castle, Jack stopped the horses and slid down, patting Pony’s flank before she turned to the others. The army marched on, heading for the long, winding road up to the castle. Gideon looked over at the group as he passed, and he winked, seeming pleased by their abdication of the vanguard.

“There’s a door,” Jack said. “It’s meant to be hidden, but I know the way.”

“Why?” asked Sumi.

“The Master wanted me for his daughter, once. He would have killed Jill if he’d been allowed to have me. So I left, through the hidden door, in the company of Dr. Bleak. It was the first time I saved my sister.” She tugged her gloves more securely into place. “I’ve saved her three times now. I suppose that means I’ve met my quota. Come along.”

She walked the length of the wall, stopping at a stone that looked like all the stones around it. She reached up and pushed it, and it slid inward with a soft click. A door swung open in what should have been solid stone.

On the other side was a woman. She was thin and pale and hunched in on herself, like she feared the consequences of taking up too much space. Her hair was a Medusa’s nest of tangled brown curls that seemed almost to move of its own accord; her eyes were the color of dishwater, and so very tired. She looked at Jack. Jack looked at her, both silent for the measure of a moment.

Finally, Jack said, “You’re younger than I remember you being. I thought…” She stopped.

The woman almost smiled. “You were a child,” she said. “To a child, anyone old enough to be in high school is ancient. I’ll be thirty in the fall, if I survive this day’s work. Old enough to know what I’m dying for. Tell me why you’re here, girl who chose to leave us.”

“This is portentous and all, but can we hurry things up?” Christopher glanced at the sky, where black clouds loomed. “I don’t like the looks of that storm.”

“I do,” said Jack, eyes still on the woman. “The Master and Jill came to our home. They attacked Dr. Bleak. They attacked me. A challenge has been issued for balance of this protectorate, and I’m within my rights to answer.”

“It looks like you’ve answered with a frontal assault.”

“I have. They’ll storm the gates, break into the hall, fight the Master’s servants. Some of them will die. I’ll resurrect as many as I can, once this is over.” Jack sounded unconcerned. It would have been chilling, if she hadn’t also sounded so tired. “Perhaps they’ll even face the Master, although there’s not much chance they’ll kill him, not when the Drowned Gods haven’t come out of the sea. I’m here for my sister.”

The woman nodded. “What will you do if you find her? I know what she did to you.” Her lips twisted. “I brushed her hair and tied her stays for years. There was no way I’d miss the fact that she’s in a body not her own.”

“I’ll take back what belongs to me,” said Jack. “And once I’m secure in my own skin, I’ll kill her. Please, Mary. Let us pass.”

Mary nodded and stepped aside. Jack was almost through when Mary’s hand shot out and grasped her wrist, hauling her to a stop.

“Everyone who comes here becomes a monster: you, me, your sister, everyone,” said Mary, voice low and fast and urgent. “The doors only open for the monsters in waiting. But you made the right choice when you left this castle, because you would have been the worst monster of them all if you had grown up in a vampire’s care.”

“I know,” said Jack, and twisted her wrist free, and walked on.

The others followed her, first Sumi, then Kade and Cora. Christopher brought up the rear, bone flute in his hand and shadows in his eyes. Too many of the children at school had called his door, his world, monstrous, but he’d never really known what that meant: not until this place, with its shadows and its secrets and its terrible, watching moon. Once he was through the door, Mary stepped outside and closed it behind her, and there was relief and sorrow in that motion, like she was doing something that couldn’t be taken back.

Jack kept walking.

The corridor seemed to have been hewn from the very stone of the castle’s foundations. The walls were slick with unspeakable fungus and foul liquids; the corners were packed with cobwebs, and while he couldn’t be sure—didn’t want to be sure—Kade thought he saw a spider the size of a rat scurrying behind the glittering film. Torches dotted the passageway, one roughly every ten feet or so, and the smell of fragrant smoke covered the other, less pleasant odors.

Kade walked a little faster, catching up to Sumi and nudging her, ever so gently, aside. She fell back to walk beside Cora. He matched his steps to Jack’s, and waited.