Hugo picked him up by the collar of his robe, and shook a stray hair out of his own face. “I bet you’re gonna tell me.”
“A ruby.”
Hugo cocked his head to the side in curiosity. Then his narrowed eyes widened in understanding as he looked at the robe in his hands and saw those strange, glinting gemstones. With a hiss, he threw the old man back to the ground and began to claw at the sphere. It withstood every blow and scratch. The bodyguards tried to help from the other side with an identical lack of results.
“Go find a wizard, you idiots!” Hugo continued to pummel the prison, and the two bodyguards bolted into the street, each one charging off in a different direction. Belamy, meanwhile, had pulled himself up to a reclining position.
Kite had finally caught his breath and was staring in horror at what was happening. He struggled to his feet and leaned back, still needing the support of the tree trunk. Everyone ignored him.
“My apology earlier was not a lie, Hugo,” Belamy said. “I’m responsible for the thing you are. You did not deserve to die for your desertion; and compounded on that, you turned into this to avoid that injustice. My gift to you is the reversal of this last crime, at least.” The vampire did not react to the words, but continued bashing against the unyielding barrier. Belamy turned toward Skate and Twitch. “Run.”
Hugo heaved a scream of terror, and his body contorted and folded into itself until he was the size of a fist. He sprouted leather wings and began bumping against the barrier, a bat unable to find a hole in unbreakable glass. Belamy smiled up at him, the unharmed side of his face almost matching the garish grin of his exposed skull on the other.
“Be at peace.”
The gems all along his robe flashed again, almost all in perfect unison, and retained their glow for three ticks of a clock.
Flames exploded from Belamy, and there was nothing visible within the sphere but red and orange. A shockwave rippled beneath Skate and Twitch’s feet as they fled, Rattle close behind.
Chapter 28
In which magic is discovered, an adventure undertaken, and a heading chosen.
They had gone three blocks before either of them dared to stop. She didn’t know whether she or Twitch had halted first, but they were both panting and leaning against the wall for support. There was moisture in her eyes, and not all of it was from the sting of cold air as she’d run. He’s gone. He’s really gone.
No, not really, she reminded herself. The thing in her pocket was supposed to make sure of that. Still, the horrific way he’d been destroyed combined with his absence made it feel like he was gone for good, all planning to the contrary.
Twitch was the first to speak. “The Big B-Boss was a vampire?”
“Yeah.” Skate leaned her head back against the wall and sucked several deep breaths through her nose to get her lungs back under control. “Seems that way. I think his bodyguards were, too.”
“We’ve been working f-f-for a vampire.”
“Yeah.”
“Huh. Weird.” Twitch collapsed against the wall, letting his fatigue get the better of him. His nose had stopped bleeding, at least; the blood sat dried and dark on his upper lip, and he wiped at it with his ragged sleeve. “How w-was he standing out in the day, then? I thought that those th-things couldn’t stay in sunlight. That’s w-what all the stories say. Ow.” He had twitched at the end of his sentence and knocked his head against the stone.
“Dunno. Him and his bodyguards both weren’t bothered, though. He said he’d figured out a way around it. Some magic or other, I guess.”
Twitch nodded and blinked hard, trying to regain all of his sense. “What’ll happen t-to Kite?”
“Who cares.” Skate started laughing, then. She wasn’t feeling happy. It was just exhaustion. Twitch joined in, and the two leaned against an unknown building, shouting with laughter that had come from nowhere. Rattle floated nearby, looking at each of them in turn, not understanding what was going on.
The laughter departed as abruptly as it had come. They took a few minutes to regain their breath, the familiar empty chuckles that usually followed such outbursts strangely absent. When she had calmed back down, Skate muttered to herself, “Rattle will show the way.”
“What’s that?” Twitch turned to look at her and frowned.
“Belamy told me that before his robes exploded. He said, ‘Rattle will show the way.’ I thought at the time that he was saying it aloud for everyone to hear, but if you didn’t hear it, I guess he used magic to get only me to hear it.” Skate closed her eyes and frowned. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Skate. Petre was calling to her from her pocket. She pulled him out.
“What is th-that?” Twitch’s mouth was slightly agape as he watched the smoky blue glass. “Is it more magic?”
Skate shushed him. “Yes, it’s magic. What is it, Petre?”
His eyes came into view through the smoke in the glass. “I thought you might want to know that the gemstone in that statue in your pocket is glowing, off and on. It was very bright in there and was hurting my eyes.”
Skate set Petre on a chunk of icy snow, where Twitch immediately dropped down to see within. She pulled the figurine out of her pocket. Sure enough, the blue gemstone at the end of Alphetta’s short staff was pulsing intermittently with noticeable light, almost the same way that the rubies had on Belamy’s robe. The blue glow illuminated Alphetta’s features in a sad way, though it was impossible to say why that should be so; she looked confident and graceful in this frozen artwork, not melancholy in any way.
“What are you?”
Skate turned to see Twitch holding Petre and spinning his prison around to try to look at him from a different angle.
“Stop that,” Petre said, glaring at the boy. “If you drop me, the glass will break, and I’ll die.”
Petre turned to look at Skate. “Why’s it doing that?”
“How’m I supposed to know? It’s not like it’s mine.” Skate turned the statue, trying to see if there was anything else that was odd or had changed about it, but other than the light it shone every few seconds, it seemed as it always had.
She felt someone looking at her, and stopped her inspection. Rattle was standing completely still on its rigid legs, staring with rapt attention at the gem on the statue. It did not move at all; even its wings remained totally still. She moved the statue off to the side, and Rattle moved its body to follow it, with that unceasing, unwavering focus. “Rattle?”
It flapped a wing in response, but made no other acknowledgement that it had heard anything.
“Petre, what is this?”
“I’m afraid I have no idea. Rattle has never done anything like this in my many years around it. It looks like it wants the gemstone, though.”
“Is that right? Do you want this thing, Rattle? Is it because Belamy is in here?”
Rattle did not respond, even with a flap, but continued to stare.
Skate moved the figurine closer to the thing, and Rattle moved forward a little in response.
Skate hesitated. Rattle was a creature of magic, and this statue clearly had magic within it; doing something unknown with it was dangerous and probably stupid. Nevertheless, she tapped Rattle with the blue stone. There was a flash, and Rattle stood rigid, straight up to its full height. The blue glow remained, but not in the gemstone. Instead, it seemed to issue from deep within Rattle’s pupil, the black pit glowing azure every few seconds, exactly as it had when it had been coming from within the gemstone.