Wraith(56)

The warmth that had been spreading inside me chilled. ‘Great,’ I muttered. I craned my neck. ‘Hang on, Ange!’ I called. ‘I’m coming back up to help the rest of you get down.’ Without looking at the Dark Elf, I sprang upwards again, away from him.

Back up top, Pat was starting to look nervous. Keeping my senses alert for any sounds of goblins, I checked on him. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘You lot are very slow,’ he said. ‘This is taking a long time. Longer than it should.’

I gestured at the front of the school. ‘Is anyone there?’

‘No.’

‘Then stop whining. This isn’t a bunch of soldiers, they are children and women who’ve been tortured for days in the damn Tolbooth. If nobody’s out there, we’re still clear. We can take our time.’

Pat pointed at Sally. Rymark, it appeared, was already halfway down. ‘How is she going to manage it? She’ll get stuck.’

As if. I rolled my eyes at him. Sally took a different approach. Carefully wheeling her chair over, she gave him a sweet smile then she swung it upwards and smacked it into the side of his head. Pat sprang away just in the nick of time. ‘You bitch!’ he howled. ‘I’m on your side!’

She sniffed. ‘You could have fooled me.’

‘How’d you get to be so fat, anyway? Everyone else around here is starving and you…’

Sally reached for the wheelchair again. She only had to raise it slightly in the air for Pat to back off. ‘Screw the lot of you,’ he snarled. ‘I’ve done what Marrock wanted and brought you here. From now on, you’re on your own.’ He whirled away and stomped off, like a toddler denied his favourite sweeties.

As he disappeared, Sally breathed out. ‘I thought he was never going to leave. He can’t be trusted, you know. You can see it in his eyes. It’s important that he believes we’ve all used the tunnel to escape. We don’t want him knowing that you’ve stayed behind.’ She chuckled at my look. ‘You’re not as good at keeping secrets as you think you are, little Saiya.’ She patted my arm. ‘Use the shadows. You can do this. If anyone can find the Stone, you can.’

Without another word, Sally turned to the hole. Raising her eyes to the heavens and making the sign of the cross, she turned round to start her descent.

‘Wait a minute,’ Gabriel said. ‘I’m coming out.’ He braced his hands on either side of the hole and deftly leapt out, dusting himself off and offering me an arch smile.

I frowned. ‘What are you doing? I can help Sally get down. You don’t need to be here – stay with the others and make sure they’re alright.’

‘Saiya.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘You’re beautiful and intelligent and beyond brave. You’re also ridiculously na?ve if you think that I don’t know what you’re planning.’

I put my hands on my hips. ‘I’m planning to get everyone out of here. Then you can take Ange to your Prime Minister mate and she can explain about the Stone and the goblins and what’s really going on.’

‘Rymark will do that.’

‘You need to keep Ange safe!’

‘I trust Rymark completely. He’s more than capable and he acts in my name. He’ll gain entrance to Holyrood and Prime Minister James just as fast as I would. I’m going to stay here so that you and I can search for the Stone of Scone.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘That is what you’re planning to do? I have excellent hearing, you know. I heard every word you said to Ange about the little box. I’m disappointed you didn’t bring it up before but at least we have a decent clue to start with. I doubt this box is so complicated that I won’t be able to open it.’

His confidence was irritating and I was annoyed that he’d heard our conversation. I was getting sloppy – and sloppiness could cost me dearly. ‘You’re a Dark Elf!’ I exclaimed. ‘You’re the government’s Envoy! You need to get out of here and keep yourself safe.’

His expression remained calm. ‘You’re my Fior Ghal. I need to keep you safe. If that means traipsing around a besieged city while fending off hordes of goblins and searching for a slab of sandstone that has been missing for almost a thousand years, then so be it. I go where destiny leads me.’ For a moment amusement flickered in his eyes. ‘And you, Saiya, are my destiny.’

‘You don’t have a bloody clue who I really am! If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t be so complacent.’ I glared at him, about to snap that I was a wraith and as far from his destiny as anyone could be, but Sally let out a high-pitched squeak.

‘Hey! Dark Elf chappie! Help me get down here, will you? I need a hand down the first few rungs and then you and lovely Saiya can skip off and save the world for us.’ She pursed her lips. ‘I’d appreciate it if you did it quickly. I’ve got next year’s potatoes in the garden and the frost will get to them if I’m not around to look after them.’

I narrowed my eyes at her but she didn’t look at me; instead she held out her hand and waited for Gabriel to help her. With little choice, he turned and held onto her hand while the rest of her body moved downwards. She didn’t look in the slightest bit panicked; I had a sneaking suspicion that, despite her bulk, Sally was nimble enough to dance down the rope ladder faster than the rest of us.