Freya looked down at the stone knife as Modwyn gingerly inspected the gaping hole in her chest.
Vivienne stepped forward. “Are you all right? Is there anything we can get you?”
Modwyn shook her head.
“There is so much you can tell us,” Vivienne said, “so much that is urgent. How were you able to stay here at all?”
“I killed them. All who would cross the threshold, whose souls were already dark and weak. When I. . removed my soul from my body, I was able to affect the spiritual aspect of. . others.”
“Are you saying that you took souls out of people’s bodies?” Freya fought to keep her voice level.
“No. But I could move them on. A soul is like a large rock. If it teeters on the brink, then just a gentle shove can send it into the pit.”
“Well, this just gets better and better. Thanks for not ‘shoving us into the pit,’ Modwyn.”
“There was no chance of that. I could feel how you were both different-conflicted. I let you and the other one, the simple one, alone.”
“The other one? You mean you didn’t know who we all were? You still don’t know?”
“No, but I am glad you are not with the other-he is simple and twisted inward. A yfelgop, is that right? You came back with one of them? Was the yfelgop escorting you, or you him? Please tell me, it is important to know.”
“Neither,” Freya said, her frown deepening. “That was Daniel you sensed.”
“Truly?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“That is a pity.”
“Do you still sense him? Is he still here somewhere?”
“No. He. . left. I let him go. Once he crossed the boundary of this building, he passed from my perception.”
“Modwyn. . nider-cwen,” Vivienne said, her tongue catching slightly on the unfamiliar word. “Where is the Great Carnyx?”
“I am not certain I should tell you-if I knew. I heard you speak of Gad while you were in these walls. Are you not an enemy of Ni?ergeard?” Modwyn stopped and turned to Freya. “Do you not wish destruction to this place and the people in it?”
“How did you hear me?”
“It is not for you to know and difficult to explain even if I wished to.”
Freya shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’m beginning to think that this situation is more complex than just a simple either/ or, good/bad situation. Just because I agree with Gad doesn’t mean I agree with what he’s done. I think there might be a way through this all without so much bloodshed, if any. Hopefully not more than has already been spilled.”
Modwyn smirked. “You have changed from the scared, wide-eyed girl who first arrived here. Perhaps Ealdstan was right to act as he did.”
The Rage rolled through Freya like a blast of heat. She leapt forward and slapped Modwyn hard across the face.
“How dare you,” Freya spit out, clenching the knife and feeling a terrible urge to plunge it back into the queen’s chest. “How dare you put Daniel and me through what you did and not even feel badly about it. We were children!”
Even in the dim light of the lantern, the pink imprint of Freya’s hand was starting to show against Modwyn’s fine and pale skin. Modwyn lifted one hand, palm down. “I wish you. . to understand why we lied. . the circumstances behind what we did.” She seemed rattled, uncharacteristically discomposed.
Maybe I’m getting through to her, Freya thought.
“You’re right. It is a complex problem, and there are more sides than are first visible. And you two were a small part of that. Very small cogs in the big machine. Small, but vital.”
“There were others,” Freya said. “I saw some of them in a dream. How many were there in total? How many children did you send to their deaths on that dreadful quest?”
“I do not remember exactly.”
“That’s monstrous.”
“You do not share our perspective, the perspective of centuries. All die in time-some sooner, some later. Try to imagine-century upon century, unending years-all the same. And facing more, ever more. Stuck down here, trapped. Locked in a dark box.”
“You’re right,” Freya said with a fair amount of sarcasm. “How could I be so heartless? Pardon me if I feel no guilt. Are you going to tell us where the Carnyx is or not?”
“You are agents of Gad. I sensed your allegiances.”
Freya said, facing her squarely, “You’re not exactly helping to win me to your side. But anyway, Vivienne isn’t.”
“Blood does not lie.”
“Blood? What do you mean?” Freya said. “She’s Alex Simpson’s aunt. Alex is one of your people aboveground. I thought-”
Modwyn’s face was set. Her whole manner, Freya observed now, was in fact one of someone who might be undergoing some sort of interrogation. And Vivienne’s manner-was it deferential or quietly dominating? “What do you mean ‘blood doesn’t lie’?”
“Freya,” Vivienne said, her mouth twisting slightly, “Gad’s my brother.”
III
“You are not dead,” the unknown, imperious figure beside Agrid Fiall assured Daniel.
“Are you sure about that? I just journeyed through all of creation and spent an evening floating in a disembodied cloud around a field.”
“You’d be dead if I had any power at all in the matter,” Agrid informed him. “I’ll do everything within my power to make you wish you were.”
“If you were dead, this conversation would occur somewhere else,” said the unknown elf.
“Somewhere much more uncomfortable for all of us,” Stowe said grimly.
“But we’re in Elfland?” Daniel said. “Why am I here?”
“Because when you were last here, you took something that didn’t belong to you, which you were specifically warned not to do.”
“No. .” Daniel said. “No, I don’t think I did. I was very careful to-”
“You took our lives, you empty-headed fool,” Fiall interrupted him. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Certainly our lives aren’t something you could put in your pocket, but did you honestly, seriously think that you could blithely go around killing whomever you pleased and not feel the effects of it?”
“But the merchant-Reizger Lokkich-he said it would be all right, that I wouldn’t have any trouble going back after I did.”
Stowe chuckled. “And you believed him?”
“What about you? I killed you in my world.”
“Oh, I’m just here for the show.”
“You will have a reckoning in your world as soon as you have had one in ours,” Agrid said.
“It isn’t quite as Agrid states it,” the third elf said. “Your actions came at a cost to your soul-and now your soul must pay the price.”
“Who are you?” Daniel asked, looking him up and down. “I remember Agrid Fiall-Agrid Fiall who wanted to buy me and keep me as a pet-but I don’t remember you.”
“I was there.” The elf tilted his noble face upward. “I was following behind Fiall to relieve myself. I heard the explosions from the device that slew him-slew him almost instantly-and then you turned your machine at me. One piece of metal hit my chest.” He pulled at his cloak and revealed a white, smooth chest that suddenly warped and contorted before Daniel’s eyes, turning into a livid, diseased, purple-green infected hole. The skin separated in the centre of the ugly whorl and oozed puss and blood.
“Another,” the figure continued, “struck me here.” He passed a hand across his face and it was transformed to show a gash running from the edge of his chin up to his cheek and over his ear. The sickening discolouration filled the whole side of his face; his eye was blood red, with a completely black pupil.
Daniel breathed out and looked away.
“I did not die quickly. I lingered inside my body as they fought to keep it alive-surgeons, herbalists, healers, enchanters-but none of them had any powers over the poisonous metal that had entered my body. It took days, and I myself struggled no less desperately than they, but in the end I gave way to the inevitable and died.”