“My commission came directly from Muster Brach.”
Lady gently tapped my shoulder. “They’re coming, Jack. We have to go.”
Cassius struggled to his feet, gathered his weapon, and stared at me. I stared back. “Henry was the best man I ever knew.”
Cassius nodded and started for the door.
“I even asked you,” I called after him. “I asked you straight up if you killed Henry . . . and you lied to my face.”
He paused at the door and looked back. “I know, Jack. I am ashamed. And I am sorry. I have always managed to betray everything I love, even when it was not my intention.”
I felt like the kid at the window again, watching broken promises. The Essiene sutures in my wound throbbed and my head was pounding.
Across the hall, the Shiguan smashed in the door of a cell. The wind screamed through the last cracks in the walls and ceiling as stones began to seal them shut.
“I do not belong with you or your third option,” said Cassius. “Perhaps I never did.”
My mind cycled images: binding Cassius, and his vow to serve me; facing my would-be kidnappers outside my flat; the way he talked about his family at the Underworld; fighting the hellhound; even fighting the mature wraith here tonight. He’d put himself in danger for me again and again. I couldn’t deny that. The hell of it was, I considered him a friend.
But he’d killed Henry, lied to my face about it, and then kept that secret after everything we’d been through.
The Shiguan were at the door, and the last bit of cell wall had nearly fused shut. I could go to Cassius, forgive him, pull him back; or escape into the dark and leave him behind. Either way, I needed to get up. I just couldn’t find the will to do so.
Chuey hauled me to my feet. “Pull your head out, man. We need you.”
The cell door crashed open. Shiguan flooded into the room, shouting commands and waving spears. The wind shrieked through the last remaining hole in the opposite corner, pulling at our clothes.
I shook off Cassius’s betrayal—for now—and pointed toward the dark aperture. “Go.”
My friends dashed across the room and jumped through the hole into blackness. I stood there a moment longer, staring at Cassius—surrounded now by Shiguan—tears on his cheeks. Then I turned and dove after my friends into the dark.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
The current world is, as Rome was, just another collection of expansionist zealots. But now, they come into the Strata to defile our stories and occupy our souls.Were it mine to set right, I would do as I did before and lead our Britons against the defilers. By gibbet, fire, or crossthey would perish, and all of London would burn.
—Chancellor Boudica, Roman Stratum,a Strata Chancery disclosure
I hitthe ground with my shoulder and rolled, my lantern throwing wheels of light against the darkness. I finally skidded to a stop on the stony ground, my knees and elbows throbbing with pain. Around me, a fine ash clouded the air. Trying to catch my breath, I sucked down a lungful and wound up in a coughing fit. When I got past it, I took a quick count—Lakshmi, Chuey, Lady, and Church were still with me.
They were looking up at something in the pitch-black sky.
I followed their gaze. A crack in the darkness was throwing golden light down on the rocky plain from Henry’s cell. Shadowy figures were moving hurriedly toward the gap—no sign of Cassius. Then the gap suddenly closed, leaving us in almost complete darkness. Lakshmi, like all raptorials, could see in the dark. For the rest of us my lamp shone a dull luminance.
In my shadow, there was a new tributary scar to the dark lake. It was raw and glowed bright. I knew it belonged to Cassius. I stood, stepped away from the ash cloud, and took a breath, trying to leave it behind—for now, at least. A few moments later, I was finally able to look around.
“Endless Dark,” I whispered. “There was no other choice.” “How’d you know, Jack?” asked Church.
“I’ll explain later. Right now we need to get back to the Iron Horse fast.” Chuey raised his hands. “Which way, man?”
Lakshmi jogged twenty feet ahead of us and dropped to one knee. “Semblance trail. Most of the footsteps go that way.” She pointed.
Remembering the compass sigil in vestige bindings, I bowed my lantern to be sure. The compasses in Church’s and Lady’s threads lit up, pointing in the same direction as Lakshmi.
“Yeah, that’s the way,” I said, and started to move. “And until we’re clear of the Dark, keep your minds busy, away from all this business with Brach and the wraith.” Other than Chuey, who shrugged, the others nodded, as if they’d been in the Dark before.
A few minutes later the blackness turned charcoal grey, then silver, then we were jogging through into the Victorian Stratum. Even with Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” spinning in my head, it was hard not to think about Cassius’s lie.
Beyond the Dark, we gathered our breath, then shuffled fast toward London, only to find a large mob of Shiguan at the Iron Horse. They were blocking Manette Street all the way across andfifty feet to either side of the Horse doors, which they’d clogged full. There was no telling how many were already inside.
