Book 2 - Chapter 26. The Theft (1/2)

Soft pink light swallows me, engulfs the world of guts, blocks everything out. A few seconds of coolness and pinkness, all alone, confusion, uncertainty. Then the light fades and I'm back in Lord Loss' throne room, on my hands and knees in front of the spider-shaped throne, gasping and s.h.i.+vering.

”Kernel!” a woman shouts - Sharmila. She hurries towards me, but Beranabus reaches out and holds her back. The magician's smiling, but a faint frown wrinkles the dirty flesh of his forehead. Shark and Dervish are on their knees close by, sniffing the air and their hands. The stink is gone. That puzzles me, until I remember that only our souls entered the Board. The bodies we inhabited there were fakes. Our real bodies remained in the castle.

Lord Loss is on his throne, the h.e.l.l-child on his lap, Vein sitting to attention at the base of the throne. No other demons are in the room.

”Say it again, Cornelius,” Lord Loss murmurs. ”So there can be no doubt.”

”I'm the thief,” I mutter, still not sure how that can be true. ”I stole... I don't know how, but... It was when I was lonely, a year ago. I came here... when I stepped through the window of lights in my bedroom...”

Lord Loss chuckles and bounces the h.e.l.l-child up and down. ”This is Artery,” he says, ”brother of Vein. They are two of my current favourites. Loyal servants, and most amusing when I set them loose on a human. Some time ago, an intruder opened a window into my kingdom. When I peered through it, I found you, Cornelius. I was inclined to take you, to punish you for your impudence. But there was something about the way you faced me and a crackle of unusual magic in the air. I thought it better to wait and observe.

”You came through the window after me. It was outside the castle. Artery was playing nearby, torturing a lesser demon. You grabbed and subdued him, magically transformed him, supplied him with human features, took him to your universe, created a new ident.i.ty for him and shortened his name to...”

”Art!” I croak, more of the memories clicking into place, understanding coming slowly but certainly.

The air around the h.e.l.l-child s.h.i.+mmers. When it clears, my brother is sitting on the demon master's lap. He gurgles at me, but with Artery's screechy voice. Dim flashes of orange light in his eyes. His messy hair. Head that's slightly too large for his body. His sharp teeth.

”It was when he bit me,” I whisper. ”That's when I knew. Art loved to bite. And the marbles, when he held them over his eyes - they looked like the demon's.”

Lord Loss nods slowly. ”You stole him, Cornelius. You were lonely, desperate for a friend, somebody who would be true to you and with you always. You found a way into my kingdom. s.n.a.t.c.hed Artery. Gave him human shape. Convinced yourself that he was your natural brother.”

”But Mum and Dad must have known the truth!” I cry.

”They knew he was not theirs,” Lord Loss agrees. ”But they did not know he was a demon, where he came from or why you believed he was your brother. He reminded your mother of the baby daughter she lost. She saw him as a second chance, a gift from the G.o.ds. Your father wanted to give the baby to the police, to be returned to its rightful parents. He tried to sway Melena, without success. She used you to swing him round to her way of thinking. You thought the baby was your brother. If they took him away, she said you'd suffer dreadfully. Out of love for you, he agreed to lie.

”They watched the news closely - furtively - over the coming days. If a baby had been reported missing, perhaps decency would have won out and your father would have handed Art over. Or perhaps not. Your sister's death had hurt him terribly too. Maybe he would have let your mother talk him into holding on to the child, no matter what.

”In any event, when there was no mention of a missing baby, they decided to keep him and rear him as their own, as the brother you believed he was. But they couldn't stay in the city, where people knew they only had one child. So they abandoned their jobs and fled. Took you and the baby away. Started a new life in Paskinston, where n.o.body had cause to be suspicious, where things were simpler, where they could rear their new son in peace.”

He strokes Art's head, never taking his eyes off me. I'm trembling uncontrollably, my world falling to pieces, the last year of my life exposed as a lie, me revealed as a villain, Mum and Dad as devious accomplices.

”How did he transform the demon?” Beranabus asks. ”Transfiguration's a complicated spell. He couldn't have managed it alone.”

”Yet he did,” Lord Loss says. ”I a.s.sumed he was the p.a.w.n of a powerful magician, maybe even a fellow demon. That is why I did not retrieve Artery immediately. I hoped the manipulator of the boy would reveal himself. Eventually, I decided to steal Artery back, hoping to tempt Cornelius' master out of hiding. It was only when Cornelius came into this universe and tested his powers that I realised he'd acted alone. I still do not know how he did it - only that he did.”

Everyone's staring at me. I feel like an exhibit at a freak show. Roll up! Roll up! Come and marvel at Kernel Fleck, thief of demons, master of disguise! He can hide a demon from everybody -  even himself!

”So I never had a brother,” I whisper. ”It was all a lie.”

”A dream,” Lord Loss corrects me. ”And now you have awoken, thanks to my generous help.”

”Some help!” Dervish snorts. ”You could have just told him.”

”That would have been cheating,” Lord Loss says. ”He had to discover the truth himself - or search for it in vain for the rest of his life. I would have been happy either way. The misery of his ignorance would have been sweet. But the misery of his understanding is just as welcome.”

”What misery?” Shark asks. ”He beat you. He found out the truth.”

”And lost a brother in the process,” Sharmila says softly, as I weep quietly.

”But he never had a brother,” Shark says. ”It was a sham, a cuckoo's child.”