A Long Day in Lychford (Lychford #3)(15)

“Not my fault if she walked off that quick.”

“You do get that she’s trying to prove herself?”

“Dun’t matter. I can’t train someone that goes and does this.”

“When you were her age, you messed up so badly you ended up being cursed!”

Judith glowered at her. “I don’t have to keep you on, either.”

Lizzie was suddenly very calm. Which was what tended to happen when she got to the end of her tether. “Right now, especially, you need someone telling you the truth. You hate that you just let your apprentice walk into danger. I know you do. You’re on your last legs. There’s clearly stuff you’re not telling me. You need our help. And you and she really need to sit down and talk about all of this—!”

“Don’t you lecture me!” Lizzie was taken aback. She’d never heard Judith bellow like that before. The old woman took a few steps back, her fingers flexing, as if making a great effort to control herself. “I have never, ever, in my life, been spoken to like—”

And then she vanished, like she’d suddenly fallen backward through an invisible wall.

Oh no. Oh no. Lizzie swore out loud several times. “Judith?!” She stepped quickly forward, muttering a prayer, eyes closed and fingers in her ears . . . and stopped when she hit a tree. She was still in the same space. She’d walked right over the spot where Judith had vanished.

She tried a few more times, but it wasn’t working. Maybe it was just that the sound of the rave was too great to ever be entirely blocked out of her ears.

She had no choice but to give up. She turned and headed toward the rave. She had no idea what she could do to get these people out of here, but at least if something nasty was in here with them, then . . . okay, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Damn it.

*

Judith spun round, and yelled in anger. Then she turned again, reflexively. Gone! The reverend was gone too! No . . . actually, it was Judith herself who’d gone.

Stupid old woman. Where had she—?

Wherever it was, it was extraordinary.

There was nothing about this place that was like a place. It was like . . . a bunch of echoes, of sound and of light, rebounding endlessly, arcing all round her. She could breathe, but she felt it when she breathed in, it was something that was only trying to be air at the moment it hit her nose and mouth. There was nothing deceptive about that, it was a desperate attempt to welcome her, to keep her alive. But it didn’t feel like there was thought behind it, either. It felt like . . . a fairground ride, summat automatic, summat that was creaking, that was being pushed too far.

She took a step, and the light and sound changed around her again. The thick air slid past her hands, maybe only skin deep. Fire, the place said, fire was near, only the world was shielding her from it, keeping her alive when she shouldn’t be here.

She closed her eyes, trying hard not to panic.

She was so tired. It felt like she was going to faint, and if she did, she didn’t quite know how she was going to wake up again. She’d been using it up today, burning it up so fast . . . No. She made herself shake her head and found that place inside her where she would always be tough with herself. Come on, girl. Hold on. Those two need you to get out of here and find them. Not that they deserve . . . no, enough of that. Enough. Now. Where have you got to? It didn’t seem like she was in the worst of the many possible situations she could have ended up in. There were worlds which had informed . . . and she’d had conversations with a couple of Lizzie’s predecessors about this . . . the human idea of hell. It wasn’t that they were all pitchforks and fire. It was that they were about the person who’d stumbled into them. Those worlds responded to people’s fears, or even to their desires. If this was one of them, well . . . that would make her life into a fine shaggy dog story, eh?

But no. She was pretty sure this world was genuinely trying, with all its strength, to help her. The problem was that it didn’t have much strength left.

She opened her eyes again, and made her mind seek . . . land, a horizon, summat to get a fix on. And then, slowly, there were shapes, she was making herself adjust, and the land was helping her, showing her ways to see. The light rolled around her and showed her how far everything was in every direction.

Oh. It was a bubble. A literal bubble. A piece of space from another world, then, where time continued as normal, but which had been sealed off from its surroundings. This would actually be the easiest sort of knot to explore, to find anyone in. Of course, if there were a nasty in here, it would also be easy for it to find her.

How had she come here while absolutely not blocking out all the noises and sights of a world that had had a rave in it?

Oh. It had been anger, damn it. For the first time in decades, she’d let the pure force of magic run through her, uncontrolled, as she’d been thinking about how to traverse the knots. She’d only gone and bloody well done exactly what Autumn had done. This individual knot, still taut, had burst open to let her in. At least no more harm could be done.

She took a few steps forward, and then, sure she was now calm and aware enough to not fall into any knots within knots, she began to walk more confidently. She wished she had brought her stick. The physical energy she had mortgaged against her future well-being was slowly leaving her.

A flat surface, black like obsidian, but not reflecting, had appeared ahead of her and under her feet. She’d made it come to her. This place knew it needed help. In the “sky” above, the light was still whirling and rebounding. So little space for it to play in.