“Last time we discussed this you said you’d never kill your father.”
“That was before he left me to the Hunters. I nearly died—many times they nearly caught me—but I managed to get away, no thanks to him. I’d waited all my life for him to come for me. I thought he’d take me with him. I thought I’d learn from him, be with him, but no; he’d rather leave me for the Hunters to catch and torture to death.”
“He’s a cruel man. I’m glad you’re realizing that, Nathan.”
I bow my head and cling to the bars, saying, “I’ll do anything for Annalise, Mercury. And I’ll risk my life to help her but I need to see her first. Please . . .”
I daren’t look up. All I can do is hope that Mercury’s hatred blinds her to the fact that I will never kill Marcus, could never kill him. But I have to make her believe that for Annalise I’d try.
I drop to my knees. “Please, Mercury.”
The barred gate swings silently open. I hesitate and look up.
“I will boil you alive if you try any tricks,” Mercury says, and she steps back and into darkness.
I get to my feet and go in. Mercury closes the gate and then shuts the wooden door and slides two large bolts into place. Then she takes a pinch of some grains from a small stone bowl that’s carved into the tunnel wall and sprinkles them over the bolts. The spicy smell fills the air again. I think the grains must fix the bolts in place.
The tunnel continues pretty much the same inside but there are a few oil lamps hanging along the walls, flickering a yellow light. Mercury keeps Gabriel in an iron grip and steers him along the tunnel as it curves to the right and I follow. She sweeps through a curtain of heavy material and I follow her into a large room, a grand hall, with roughly cut stone walls lined all round with tapestries. The curtain we came through is also a tapestry. There are no doors and I suspect that each tapestry conceals a different tunnel.
Mercury stops in the center of the hall and releases Gabriel. She says, “Stay there,” and Gabriel does a wonderful confused look.
I say to Mercury, “Pers doesn’t speak English. Just French.”
Mercury mutters something to Gabriel and he gives a Pers-like scowl. She walks round Gabriel, looking at him from all sides.
“So, Pilot is dead. That is a great loss to us all. And Gabriel? I take it he’s dead too?”
“I arranged to meet him at a place in the forest. He never turned up. Then Hunters arrived.” From that description, it should be clear what must have happened: Gabriel was caught and tortured to reveal the location of the meeting place.
“I’m sorry,” Mercury says.
“Really?” I scowl now. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Gabriel was an honorable Black Witch.” She pauses and runs her fingers through Gabriel’s hair, then lifts a strand and lets it drop. I think Gabriel has even got Pers’s head lice.
I know I need to keep things moving. I say, “Where’s Annalise?”
“You risk much for Annalise, Nathan. Are you sure she’s worth it?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Mercury comes to stare into my eyes. “True love. It’s a powerful force.”
“If I have to choose between Annalise and my father then I will. But I need to see her. Show me that she’s alive and I’ll do what you want.”
Mercury leans closer to me and strokes my cheek again. Her finger is cold and dry as bone. She says, “You always smelled so good, Nathan.”
“I can’t say the same for you,” I snarl. “Show me Annalise.”
“I love it when you fight back, Nathan. It’s quite delicious. Come, before I change my mind.”
She turns and walks past Gabriel, saying something in French as she passes, and Gabriel scowls and sits on the floor. I follow Mercury to the far end of the hall, to a tapestry of a hunting scene, a man on a horse with a dog running beside him and a deer with arrows in it. Behind the tapestry is a tunnel identical to the one leading from the entrance. Mercury is already striding down it.
It’s looking good for our plan. Gabriel should be on his way back to the entrance as I follow Mercury down the tunnel, which is more like a corridor. There are wooden doors on both sides and Mercury is already at the furthest one. She goes through it and I slow. I’ve been so anxious about dealing with Mercury that I’m unprepared for seeing Annalise.
I step through the doorway, expecting a cell but finding I’m in a bedroom. There’s a chair, a table, a tall chest of drawers, and a wardrobe all in a rich dark wood. An oil lantern hangs low from the center of the room, giving light and scent, and below it is a bed and on the bed is Annalise.
I feel my heart racing in panic: Annalise is pale; her eyes are closed. She’s laid out on her back, which somehow makes her look more dead than asleep.
I touch her hand with mine. It’s cold. Her face is thin. I lean over and listen for her breathing but can’t hear anything. I feel for a pulse in her neck and find none.