Malcolm and Penny entered slowly through the main door where they had hidden outside in case the scheme went wrong. Malcolm noted the sight of Ash behind bars with a sigh of relief. Penny leaned heavily on a crutch yet chuckled cheerfully. Deep bruises still covered her face. She slapped the Scotsman on the arm with satisfaction. Malcolm winced. She winced too.
Ash pressed against the door. “You must be insane. I am Grace North. I’m the wife of the prime minister of England. How long before everyone in this country starts to ask where I am? Did you even think about that? When the people find out what you’ve done, they will tear you apart.” She pointed at Kate. “Even your damned name won’t protect you. They’ll string you up in the streets! All of you! Even your dog!”
Kate pulled Charlotte close. Malcolm raised his bandaged hands with a snarl and stepped forward, looking for a fight. Penny tugged him back.
Simon grew uncannily quiet. “We prepared ample evidence to show that Grace North, tiring of her dull husband, has run off with a minor German count with a reputation as a lady’s man. Unfortunately, the pleasure yacht carrying the two of them toward some lover’s rendezvous on the sunny Mediterranean will be found off Majorca, or at least parts of it will be found. Grace North will be lost at sea. The terrible scandal will, no doubt, be covered up with stories protecting your reputation and that of the prime minister. I regret the honorable Mr. North’s discomfort, but there is no answer for it. You are a tumor and must be cut out. There will be scarring. But when it is done, the nation and the world will be better for it.”
“How dare you!” Ash hissed. “You worthless scribe. You miserable little piece of filth! Who are you to do this to me?”
“I’m Simon Archer. Son of Catherine Archer, whom I believe you know.” He stopped talking, not trusting his voice to stay firm. He felt Kate press closer to him. His fists clenched, straightening from the cane and taking several deep breaths. “And I am the heir to Pendragon because I am the son of Edward Cavendish.”
Ash froze with her mouth open. She regarded Simon closely as if looking for physical signs of his father in him. Then she smiled with cold understanding.
Simon struggled to keep his emotions under the cover of his stern features. He feared he would crush Kate’s hand in his fingers. She didn’t react to the pressure.
“I underestimated you, Archer. Damn me but I did.” Ash slid her fingers gently up and down the bars in the small window. She grinned with a manic fervor that seemed out of place on Grace North’s face. “I never thought you to be this sort of man. I thought you truly were a dilettante at heart. A gadfly who only cared for what magic could do for you. I never believed you had the ambition and the steel to become the eminence grise behind the throne. I’m impressed. However did you enchant the king to play the betrayer?”
Simon hesitated for a second and Ash narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “That wasn’t the king who came with me, was it? Of course it wasn’t. It was someone under an illusion. The true king doesn’t know what you’re doing here, does he? How long do you think you can keep this from him?”
Kate’s eyes flicked with concern toward Simon. He gave her a calm smile, as if no secrets mattered now that Ash was contained. By locking the necromancer away, all could be free. Secrets he had been carrying for years now seemed to hold no danger for him. Even here in this dank prison cellar, there was a cleanliness to the air that was invigorating to him.
“I’ll tell His Majesty once I’ve prepared him,” Simon said. “Eventually, he’ll be ready to believe that the lovely Grace North was indeed the vile Ash. And His Majesty will be grateful that I already have you under lock and key. You’re done, Ash. We’ve won.”
“I see.” Ash chuckled politely as if she were stuck in a brief conversation at a dinner party she’d rather not be attending but knew would end soon enough. All the panic, all the dismay, was gone from her assured gaze. Her voice was quiet and simple. “You have no chance against me, Archer. I’ve bested centuries of challengers. I finished off Pendragon when he rejected me. And now I’ve rid myself of Gaios when he dared come against me. Do you truly believe you stand a chance? I’ll get out of this place eventually; and then I will visit such horrors on you and your companions that you will wish to God I did not exist.”
Simon’s ferocity over Ash was spent. Despite what Ash had done to his mother with necromancy, the fact that his mother had been stronger and was now at peace thanks to Nick put that atrocity into the distant past. Simon felt that the terrible chaos created by the murder of Pendragon and the collapse of the Order of the Oak was soothed now. Of the three great demigods who founded that venerable old magic guild, two were dead and the last was here under Simon’s control. The torch had passed. He faced a future of immense toil to rebuild the useful aspects of the old Order. For now, Simon just felt tired. He turned away with Kate and Charlotte. “Your threats are meaningless, Ash. You have nothing left.”