‘If you stand there and tell me that you did it purely for the human’s own safety, I’m going to be very unhappy with you, my dear William, because I know that’s not true,’ Heret-Kau sings, leaving silence to linger in the air before continuing. ‘In actuality, it was a cunning way to get her out of the way without breaking our agreement.’
Well, she’s not wrong. She isn’t entirely right though, either. The truth falls somewhere in the middle. Either way, I continue my rebuttal.
‘This world has been compromised. According to Hex, my information is being leaked to others. Others that want me dead.’
Heret-Kau pauses, thinking about this for a moment. ‘And there are quite a few individuals that want you dead,’ she murmurs. ‘With the amount of strife you’re causing me lately, I can’t say I can’t relate.’
She brings her attention back to the demon child. ‘One thing at a time. You say that Atargatis was waiting for her on the other side of that portal? If that was so, I wouldn’t have had to step in.’
Xander nods, somewhat quizzically. ‘She was. We saw her tail in the pond. But we aren’t sure what happened because Siara took a long time to cross over.’
Heret-Kau curses under her breath.
‘I was not able to follow up with the girl’s whereabouts after I saved her. I was almost immediately taken away for…’ Heret-Kau hesitates, glancing at her wounds. ‘Disciplinary action. Anyway, something was blocking her from moving through the portal. It was jarring the natural flow. What I’m saying is, I have no guarantees that the unnatural resistance didn’t impact the portal’s accuracy. Especially with so many of us there.’
Xander tilts his head in confusion, no doubt for the same reason that I find myself frowning. Who else was there?
‘What I’m saying is, in the same way that if you block a stream, the water doesn’t stop, it just builds up and makes another path…’
Xander tenses, panic setting in. ‘Are you saying that she might be floating around in that world all alone?’
Heret-Kau nods, her eyes darting to me. ‘Or worse, she might be accompanied.’ I recognise the reason for her concern. An unsteady dread creeps its way through me.
Xander looks between the two of us. ‘What do you mean?’
The Goddess doesn’t answer, and I don’t feel like sharing.
‘You’re going to make me go get the human again, aren’t you?’ I say, bitterly.
Heret-Kau smirks, her playful disposition returning. ‘What a good idea, since you are the one that lost her. Unfortunately, I can’t accompany you. I’m being watched quite carefully at the moment.’
‘Master, let’s go,’ Xander says, an urgency filling his voice as he scurries back out the front door. Heret-Kau draws herself a portal on the wall in the hallway in a round singular motion. Her long nails scratch against the wood. The space flashes with a quick glow.
‘You were going to have to face her eventually. You know that, right?’ she says now that the boy has gone. My body tenses with an unfamiliar notion of guilt.
I have no response to refute her so instead, I feign ignorance.
‘The human girl?’
Heret-Kau shakes her head. She readies herself, cleaning the small splatters of blood off her face and neck.
‘Don’t play games. You know that’s not who I’m talking about.’
And with that, she walks through the portal.
Left alone, I ponder the possibility. In an ideal situation, I would go retrieve Siara without having to come into contact with Marina but there’s no guarantee she won’t sense my presence.
By the time I reach the portal again, Xander is waiting. I’m surprised he hadn’t already thrown himself into the pond. Although, that may be a good thing. From what Heret-Kau was implying, Marina will be a threat for the people around me as well. One thing I know for certain about Marina is that anything is fair game so long as it gets to me. And that’s the last thing I need – losing both the human girl and the demon boy within the same day.
‘Xander, you’re not going.’
The boy shoots back with a horrified expression.
‘But Master, I want to go!’ he whines, a small foot stamping the snow childishly. ‘I can’t imagine what she thinks of me now, after what I did. I need to explain why–’
‘You can explain yourself to Siara later. For now, you stay here. Not up for discussion.’
Xander pouts, although he makes a point to disguise it as nervous lip-biting. Eventually, he nods reluctantly, avoiding eye contact. It’s not hard to sense the nervous tension building in him. The one thing I can be grateful for is that out of all the demon children that could have been forced onto my company, at least this one is obedient. Obedient despite feeling what he’s feeling now.
Facing the portal, that same uncertainty lurches in the pit of my stomach. I was hoping I’d never have to go back there again, which is why I sent Xander in there to talk to Atargatis to begin with. Many memories of before my death, and even some after, are long gone. Unfortunately, irony has it that my betrayal to Marina is not one of them. It’s been years, decades even, but time means nothing here. So I can guarantee her anger will be just as fervid as it was before.
Readying an ice spear, and mustering some sense of conviction, I march forward to the portal. I look back to the anxious boy, almost shaking. His eyes convey the feelings he doesn’t say as he watches me. To anyone else who didn’t know better, the thought of leaving a childlike Xander alone in the forest for an extended period of time would be shocking. But I know Xander, and I know better.
‘I won’t be long. Wait for me back at the house if needed.’
I step off the ledge and my shoes submerge into the murky sludge of the pond. I walk onward until it covers me whole and pushes me down to its dark depths. From the bottom of the pool, I wait a few moments and sure enough, I hear it even this far down.
Flashes of green light ripple over the surface above – energy that has exploded out of the demon child.
Xander’s scream.
12
Siara
I watch the soggy pill float about in the space in front of me, lit only by the light that streams from the crack in the door. I’d thought the food pills tasted like dirt before but watching them float waterlogged and disintegrating has evaporated any appeal that may still be left. I stuff the velvet bag back into my pocket. Taking a moment to clear my mind, I start to work towards an escape plan. This is something that I seem to have built up experience in, by no choice of my own.
Grey shapes lend themselves to the darkness in the outskirts of the cold and abandoned room. Although my eyes have adjusted to the dark, very little light penetrates the lifeless cell. I have spent the last few hours clumsily, and stupidly, searching for a light switch, until it dawns on me that old underwater castles in demon worlds mainly fuelled by magic were not a likely place to find electricity. That itself nearly breaks me. Knowledge that if I had just used my head, I wouldn’t have wasted hours of no doubt my very little time left.
