The Prince of Lies (Night's Masque, #3)(35)

“Take the child; we will exorcise the demon from him after I have disposed of this one.”

The second man edged round behind his leader, eyes darting nervously from Erishen to Kiiren and back.

“Touch him and I will destroy you,” Erishen said softly.

The Huntsman lifted the cross hanging from his neck to his lips. “Our Father, who art in Heaven…”

Erishen reached out to Kiiren and felt the power of the dreamlands flood his limbs. A green glow filled the air behind him, mingling with the lamplight to give their attackers’ faces a sickly yellow hue.

“I give you one last warning,” Erishen told them.

The Huntsman charged the bed, sword hacking at Erishen, who ducked so that the blade whistled over his head and slammed into the bedpost. Erishen straightened and kicked him hard in the groin, so that he fell backwards, dropping his sword and groaning. That left only Frogmore. Erishen threw the candlestick at him, but his opponent was not so easily put off. Frogmore advanced on the bed, making short rapid feints with his blade. Erishen edged back until the bedframe pressed into his calves. If the steel touched him or his magic…

“Under the bed, amayi!” Erishen called over his shoulder. “Hide from the bad men!”

Frogmore took advantage of the distraction to lunge. Erishen dodged to one side and forward, embracing Frogmore like a long-lost friend. The Huntsman, taken aback by the move, hesitated just long enough for Erishen to raise a hand to the man’s face and close the connection between them. As the sword fell from Frogmore’s nerveless fingers, Erishen summoned his power and stepped into the dreamlands, taking Frogmore with him.

The young man’s eyes widened in terror as he took in the nacreous sky and dark, desolate landscape. Erishen released him, and he began to back away.

“Where am I?”

“The home of your worst nightmares,” Erishen said softly.

At those words, dark shapes began to stir in the shadows.

“Farewell.”

Erishen stepped back into the waking world to see the remaining man down on elbows and knees, poking his sword blade under the bed.

“Come out, you little–!” His voice choked off as Erishen kicked him hard in the side.

Erishen steadied himself on the bedpost, his head swimming from the effort of transporting Frogmore against his will. The Huntsman rolled over and lashed out with both feet, knocking Erishen to the floor. He raised the sword in both hands – and the world filled with smoke and thunder.

A voice, half-familiar, though Erishen couldn’t make out the words for the ringing in his ears. He sat up, looking round wildly for Kiiren.

“Are you hurt?”

A hand reached down out of the smoke, with a pale face behind it. Coby. She helped him to his feet.

“Where is Kiiren? Where is my amayi?”

Something slammed into his legs, almost knocking him over again.

“I’m here, Uncle Sandy.”

Erishen picked the boy up and hugged him, eyes filling with tears. He wiped his face with his nightgown sleeve. The gunsmoke didn’t seem to be clearing.

“Come on!” Coby tugged at his arm. “They’ve set fire to the house.”



Coby left Sandy tearing sheets up and tying them into a makeshift rope, and ran back into the nursery. Susanna was stuffing Kit’s clothes into a travel chest, her face set in hard lines.

“We have no time for that,” Coby told her.

Susanna ignored her. Coby went to the farther door, opened it a crack and closed it again with a curse as smoke billowed into the room. No chance of getting out that way. She pulled Susanna away from the trunk and dragged her towards the door. Already the heat of the fire was palpable, ancient timbers and panels fuelling its fury.

In the bedchamber she found Sandy opening the window overlooking the courtyard.

“Wait!”

She pushed him to one side of the window, flattened herself against the opposite side and peered out. Figures moved in the courtyard below, but they were hard to make out in the darkness. Friend or foe?

“Let’s try the other side,” she said.

No movement there. She eased open the casement and scanned the outbuildings. Please, Lord, let Frogmore not have brought a horde of confederates to surround the house and pick off anyone who tries to escape. But there was no sign of Huntsmen, only the screaming of horses trapped in the stables. Coby knotted one end of their makeshift rope around the stone mullion that divided the bedchamber window into two arched sections.

“I will go first,” Sandy said, “and you must throw Kiiren down to me.”

“Very well.”

He passed Kit to her and she stood back to let him scramble over the windowsill and down into the stable yard. Kit held out a hand, sobbing.

“Sssh, lambkin, you’ll be with him again soon.”

She leaned out of the window to see Sandy in the flowerbed below, arms raised. It wasn’t easy to get Kit onto the windowsill, and letting go was even harder. For a long moment she stood there, holding him tight and blinking back the stinging tears.

“Come on!” Sandy shouted.

Taking a deep breath she lifted Kit free of the window and let go. He shrieked as he fell, but Sandy caught him and they tumbled to the ground in a joyful heap, laughing with relief.

“Now your turn,” she said to Susanna.