cradled it against his chest. He leaned forward and placed his other hand above the still-spreading bloodstain, not quite touching it, but so close an ant would have had trouble fitting through the space between.
I folded my own arms across my chest. I hated not knowing what was going on. The blood made me uneasy. There hadn’t been that much. How could it now cover more than half the fountain’s basin? It crept around water jets and past lilies whose bright green pads made an eye-popping contrast to the crimson stain, as if it were alive. It gave me the horrors.
It’s just blood, for God’s sake. It can’t hurt you . No one said a word as the red stain continued its march across the fountain’s wide basin. When at last the final stretch of clear water had been conquered, Blue cried out in the harsh goblin tongue and plunged his hand into the foul water.
There was a blinding flash. Someone swore, and several of the thralls reached for their guns. I blinked the after-effects from my vision and saw that the blood was gone. Shapes moved in the depths of the pool now.
I leaned forward, straining to see against the glare of sunlight on the water. Blue was still muttering under his breath, and the shapes resolved into a picture. The surface of the water flickered like a badly tuned TV screen. Interrupted by water lilies and bits of plumbing, faces came into focus. People moved in a large room whose background faded into darkness. Lachie was there, and Jason too. I clenched my fists. Pity this wasn’t a portal. I’d reach right through and punch that smug face if I could.
And then I’d grab my boy and hold him tight. He looked like he needed it. Tiny in a large armchair, he sat with his legs curled beneath him. He was hunched over, as if trying to make himself smaller. His little face was pinched with worry as his eyes moved between his father and the others in the room, following a conversation we couldn’t hear.
“Can we get sound?” I whispered to Luce. I’d wring Jason’s neck when I got my hands on him. How dare he put his ambitions before Lachie’s welfare? Lachie should be safe with me, playing with his Lego, his biggest worry whether he could manage to sneak a cookie from Dave without me noticing.
She shook her head, her eyes roving over the scene. Probably memorising every detail. Luce was good at details; that was part of the reason I’d survived this long. Just as well, too—I was too distracted by that look on my baby’s face to pay as much attention as I should have.
“Who’s that?” she asked. The central fountain took a huge chunk out of the picture. We could see the legs of two people sitting on a couch, but the rest of them was cut off. “I wish they’d move.”
A couple of men I didn’t know were also in the room, standing by the wall. They were short but solid, and their faces were completely blank, as if they stood the world’s most boring guard duty. Though they stood in the shadows, no aura lit the area around them, unlike the faint red glow surrounding Jason, so they were human.
The most interesting thing about them was that they were Japanese. I glanced back at the legs of the seated figures. One was a woman. Now more than ever I needed to see her face.
“Blue. Can you zoom in a little?”
“I’m not a bloody camera.” The goblin’s voice sounded strained. He moved the hand that was still in the water, ever so slowly. Tiny ripples quivered through the bottom of the picture, but the viewpoint began to shift. The picture followed the moving hand like a dog on a leash. A window came into view.
The room was high up. We could see the tops of buildings and glimpses of roads far below. Lachie was the most brightly lit thing in the image, as if the spell focused on him as much as I did, and the edges of the image blurred and faded. Jason disappeared as the viewpoint continued to move slowly across the scene. More of the world outside the window came into the frame, with a
I folded my own arms across my chest. I hated not knowing what was going on. The blood made me uneasy. There hadn’t been that much. How could it now cover more than half the fountain’s basin? It crept around water jets and past lilies whose bright green pads made an eye-popping contrast to the crimson stain, as if it were alive. It gave me the horrors.
It’s just blood, for God’s sake. It can’t hurt you . No one said a word as the red stain continued its march across the fountain’s wide basin. When at last the final stretch of clear water had been conquered, Blue cried out in the harsh goblin tongue and plunged his hand into the foul water.
There was a blinding flash. Someone swore, and several of the thralls reached for their guns. I blinked the after-effects from my vision and saw that the blood was gone. Shapes moved in the depths of the pool now.
I leaned forward, straining to see against the glare of sunlight on the water. Blue was still muttering under his breath, and the shapes resolved into a picture. The surface of the water flickered like a badly tuned TV screen. Interrupted by water lilies and bits of plumbing, faces came into focus. People moved in a large room whose background faded into darkness. Lachie was there, and Jason too. I clenched my fists. Pity this wasn’t a portal. I’d reach right through and punch that smug face if I could.
And then I’d grab my boy and hold him tight. He looked like he needed it. Tiny in a large armchair, he sat with his legs curled beneath him. He was hunched over, as if trying to make himself smaller. His little face was pinched with worry as his eyes moved between his father and the others in the room, following a conversation we couldn’t hear.
“Can we get sound?” I whispered to Luce. I’d wring Jason’s neck when I got my hands on him. How dare he put his ambitions before Lachie’s welfare? Lachie should be safe with me, playing with his Lego, his biggest worry whether he could manage to sneak a cookie from Dave without me noticing.
She shook her head, her eyes roving over the scene. Probably memorising every detail. Luce was good at details; that was part of the reason I’d survived this long. Just as well, too—I was too distracted by that look on my baby’s face to pay as much attention as I should have.
“Who’s that?” she asked. The central fountain took a huge chunk out of the picture. We could see the legs of two people sitting on a couch, but the rest of them was cut off. “I wish they’d move.”
A couple of men I didn’t know were also in the room, standing by the wall. They were short but solid, and their faces were completely blank, as if they stood the world’s most boring guard duty. Though they stood in the shadows, no aura lit the area around them, unlike the faint red glow surrounding Jason, so they were human.
The most interesting thing about them was that they were Japanese. I glanced back at the legs of the seated figures. One was a woman. Now more than ever I needed to see her face.
“Blue. Can you zoom in a little?”
“I’m not a bloody camera.” The goblin’s voice sounded strained. He moved the hand that was still in the water, ever so slowly. Tiny ripples quivered through the bottom of the picture, but the viewpoint began to shift. The picture followed the moving hand like a dog on a leash. A window came into view.
The room was high up. We could see the tops of buildings and glimpses of roads far below. Lachie was the most brightly lit thing in the image, as if the spell focused on him as much as I did, and the edges of the image blurred and faded. Jason disappeared as the viewpoint continued to move slowly across the scene. More of the world outside the window came into the frame, with a
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