“It will.” The confidence in Kate’s voice surprised even her, but she saw it all so clearly.
There was a thump outside the door to the laboratory. Both Kate and Penny turned.
“Maybe it’s Simon,” the engineer remarked. “We can tell him the good news.”
Then something scratched at the door. “Sounds more like Aethelred,” Kate said with a grin, caught up in her elation. “He likes to lie by the grate while I work.” She opened the door to let the wolfhound inside.
A tall shadow filled the doorway. A blackened cadaver lunged into the room. There was a flash of a knife. Kate grabbed the arm before it struck. Her hands wrapped around dry, leathery flesh that cracked and broke away under her pressure. She stared at the gruesome face, whose teeth were split in a rictus grin. Then she recognized it.
“Barnaby!”
Penny didn’t care who it was, but rushed forward to pull the dead man off Kate. Where the living man had been weak, his dead counterpart was immensely strong.
Kate’s back bent over the table behind her. She forced herself to look up at Barnaby’s charred blank face as the knife hovered over her heart. His eyes were drenched in horror as if he knew what he was doing but couldn’t help himself. “Barnaby! Stop!”
Penny pulled something from her pocket and swept it open with a twist of her wrist. It was a fan.
“Really?” Kate grunted as she struggled to shove an elbow in the servant’s face.
Penny made a quick adjustment on the delicate accouterment and sharpened steel blades poked out. She raised the fan over her head and swept it down along the arm holding the knife. The limb separated from Barnaby’s torso, and Kate let it drop to the floor.
Kate smashed her free fist into Barnaby’s jaw. Flakes of desiccated flesh came off and his head wrenched to the side. He still would not relinquish his hold. He lurched forward with his deadweight, pressing Kate down so she lay under him. His teeth bared to tear at her neck.
Kate fumbled across the top of the bench until she snatched up something hard and slammed it into Barnaby’s face. Glass shattered and cut into her hand, but the blow did little to her opponent. The contents of the flask filled the inside of his mouth with black treacle. It dripped onto Kate as well, serving to lock her together with Barnaby in the sticky mess. At least it covered his jaw, preventing him from closing his teeth around her throat.
Penny swung with her fan and sliced deep through his neck. The cadaver’s head lolled to the side. Penny struck again, ripping through the remaining tendons. The severed head parted from the body but remained attached to Kate’s hand by the treacle.
“The white jar on that shelf.” Kate kicked Barnaby’s decapitated torso away. It continued to thrash without direction, slamming into tables and bookcases. It dropped to the hard floor and shook uncontrollably. “Pour it over my hand.”
Penny did so and soon Barnaby’s head fell to the floor. Kate poured more treacle over the corpse’s limbs, pinning it to the stone floor. It squirmed, but it was rendered harmless.
“What the hell was that about?” Penny pointed at the charred body.
“Ash,” Kate snarled, leaning down to stare at Barnaby’s face. “Are you still in there, Ash? What did you think? Kill me and present Simon with a fait accompli and a vat of my blood. You disgusting creature.” It took all her control not to slap Barnaby’s face, but she knew Ash wouldn’t feel it, and it wasn’t right for Barnaby.
“Simon would never!” Penny said in outrage. “Doesn’t Ash know that?”
“She thought to force his hand. I’d be dead, and in order for my death to have any meaning, Simon would be compelled to use my blood to regain his powers and defeat Gaios.” Kate regarded the dead eye staring at her boldly. “No doubt you thought he’d come to you to work the spell.”
“That scheming little bitch!” The engineer growled.
“You failed, Ash. Are you so afraid of Gaios? You think you can manipulate Simon as easily as you manipulated Pendragon? You’re wrong. You don’t know Simon at all.”
Barnaby’s lips stretched back into a gaping black grin. Then the muscles abruptly slackened and the expression stilled again in death.
“Is she gone?” Penny asked.
“I think so.” Kate pulled a heavy cloth off a table and laid it over the head of the butler. “Poor Barnaby. He didn’t deserve this indignity.”
“I hate necromancers.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Kate smiled to reassure her young friend. “Unusual fan. Is it a family heirloom?”
“No, I made it.”
“May I?” Kate reached toward it.