Catherine Fisher - Obsidian Mirror

He looked up. “So I had to have it, Sarah, because I’m even more insane than you. You’re just invisible. I intend to bring my wife back from the dead.”

Wharton dived out of his bedroom and grabbed Piers as he passed, just as the clock downstairs began to chime twelve. “I have to talk to you.”

Piers looked worried, less sparky than usual. His lab coat was scorched. “Tomorrow. Something’s wrong…it looks like the gates are open. Maybe it’s just the snow, but…”

“I know she’s not your niece. I know who she is. What the hell do you think you’re playing at? I have a good mind to phone the police myself right now and…”

“That’s another thing.” Piers shook his head. “The phone’s dead. The lines must be down. Or…”

Wharton felt a cold chill in his heart. “Or what?”

“Someone cut them.” Piers shrugged, his gold earring glinting in the hall lamps. “I don’t suppose you know how to load and fire a shotgun, Mr. ex-army teacher, do you?”

Wharton stared.

In that instant the doorbell clanged, loud and urgent.

“What’s that?” Gideon looked around, startled.

“Someone at the door.” Jake threw him a towel. “You’re soaked.”

He was more than that. He was saturated with water, a trickling creature of moss-green and ivy, dirty as a gargoyle, gazing in greedy wonder at the room around him. He looked at the towel as if he had no idea what to do with it.

“How long since you’ve been in a house?” Jake asked quietly.

“There is no time with the Shee. There’s just now. And now is always hungry and usually cold.” He wiped his face. Livid moss stains smeared the material. Then he saw the plate of nuts on the table and went straight for it, grabbing and crunching a mouthful.

Horatio shrieked a horrified protest from the curtain.

Gideon turned, whipping out a sharp flint blade. He leveled it at the monkey and hissed, a savage, eerie sound. “What monster is that? ”

Jake came and shoved the blade down. “My familiar spirit. You’re eating his food.”

Gideon stared. “In truth? Your familiar? You’re a sorcerer?”

Did he believe it? Jake shrugged. “I am a sorcerer of great power. And maybe I can save you from the Shee. But first you have to do exactly what I say.”

Piers unbolted the front door cautiously and Wharton, behind, leaning on the banister with the shotgun ridiculously aimed at the rectangle of snow, saw a tall red-hooded figure duck inside, wipe its feet, and say, “I thought you’d never answer. I’m sorry it’s so late.”

She tugged her hood off.

He lowered the shotgun quickly and came forward. “Rebecca? What on earth are you doing here? However did you get through?”

She laughed. “It wasn’t easy. It’s coming down in blizzards out there! But I had to warn you.”

“Of what?” Piers said darkly.

She tugged off her coat in a shower of snow. “A man and a wolf,” she said.

Venn walked to the window, looking down. “Call me insane. I am insane. But only the device has kept me alive. We all caught David’s enthusiasm, and we worked like slaves on it. But there were so many setbacks. Losing David was the worst.”

He turned, his eyes palest blue. “And yet it worked— it worked —even though it cost me my only friend to find that out. A cruel exchange. But now…You’ve seen the damage. Now it’s over. And all hope with it.” He looked at the pistol; but she put her hand on it firmly.

“Don’t give up. Don’t stop.”

“I told you, it’s over.”

“You’ll succeed. I promise you.” It was clear to her, quite suddenly, that she had to keep him alive.

Her own mission needed this to work. Then, afterward, she would be free to act.

He stared. “How can you promise?”

“I can. I know. ”

A bang and a clatter downstairs. Venn flicked a glance at the door. Then he came over to her. “Sarah…who are you? Why are you here?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she reached into her pocket and touched the diamond brooch. She said, “There’s something I need to tell you. I’m not from this institute. I’m from another place altogether. You need to know about Janus…”

At that moment the door crashed open. Piers seemed to appear from nowhere. “Trouble. Come now.”

“Wait!”

“Can’t wait. Intruders, in the grounds. We need to secure the house.”

Sarah turned in instant alarm. “Who are they?”

“Not sure. Man and a wolf, Rebecca says.”

“Rebecca?”

Downstairs, shutters were slamming. She raced out and looked over the banister and saw Wharton and the girl she’d seen once before, the tall girl with the car, wedging a great bar behind the front door.

“Where’s Jake?” Venn roared.

In the Monk’s Walk, Gideon stared around at the green web and whistled. “But I’m telling you, if Venn comes, I vanish. He’ll tell Summer and then…”

“Leave Venn to me.” Jake shoved past him. “Listen. You stand there and push this switch when I tell you. Understand?”

Gideon shivered with elegant distaste. “I don’t trust these devices. The Shee can’t touch metal. They say it has demons inside.”

Jake ignored him, fastening the snake bracelet on his own wrist with feverish haste. Its clasp was icy, and light. “Okay, okay, I’m ready. Quick. Do it now!”

The complexity of the machine had daunted him. He had switched everything on and there was a faint hum. So something was working. He ignored the safety web and the charred wires and stood directly before the mirror, hands clenched on each side of the frame.

“Dad,” he whispered. “It’s me. I’m here. I’m coming.”

Gideon stepped back warily. “It may not be a demon, but it’s making a howl like a fox in a trap.”

He could hear it, a terrible cracked, broken whine. He could hear crackles and snaps around him, distant bangs in the house.

His skin tingled. A charge like fear built up in him. Snow swam in his eyes. The bracelet tightened like a vise around his wrist.

It was happening.

The mirror was folding, collapsing in on itself, over and over, like an origami of glass, and into its emptiness was the only way left in the world. He staggered, was dragged a step forward.

He said, “Now!”

Did Gideon press the switch? He had no idea. Because everything in his mind was gone, sucked into the dark void, all his thoughts, all his memories. Everything that was him. Until all that was left was his body.

“Jake!” The yell of anguish came from the door and Gideon instantly leaped back into shadow, snatching his fingers from the magic lights and howling moan of the metal.

Venn tore through the webbing like a madman, shadows flickering behind him. “Jake. Step back! Now!”

His voice was sucked down the vortex.

Jake couldn’t turn. “Can’t. Can’t hold…”

He let go, but Venn was faster. With a yell of anger he ran across the room and grabbed Jake, just as the whole inner core of the Chronoptika became the utter blackness of a vacuum, the nothingness of infinity.

Of silence.