Part 8 (2/2)
Even as Aoife was speaking, Sophie caught a flickering image: Scathach-or was it Aoife?-clinging to the back of a monster that stood on human legs but had two coiling snakes' heads. It wore a robe of living serpents, and these struck out, again and again, at the red-haired warrior. ”Who told you that?” she asked in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
”My grandmother: the Witch of Endor.” The vampire's face was grim. ”And she is rarely wrong. I cannot go with you, I cannot help you. I have to find my sister. I will go back through time if need be.”
Nicholas looked over at her. ”Even now Saint-Germain is going to see if he can travel back into the past to rescue Joan and Scathach.”
Aoife grunted. ”There are less than a handful of Elders in this realm with that power. And none of them are pleasant.”
”The Saracen Knight is taking him to his master, Tammuz, the Green Man,” Nicholas said shortly. ”Like Chronos, he has the power to travel along the strands of time.”
”And you expect him to help Saint-Germain?” Aoife's laughter, dark and ugly, rang out across the water. ”Tammuz will tear him limb from limb.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
”We could just fly to San Francisco,” Virginia Dare said quietly. ”I quite like flying. Especially if it's first-cla.s.s, and particularly if you are paying.”
”I hate flying,” Dee muttered. ”Besides, there are two problems with that: booking a ticket will leave a trail that anyone can follow, and the first flight is not until tomorrow morning. Then it's an eleven-hour flight to the West Coast. We'd lose too much time, and it would allow the Elders to organize a welcoming committee for me when I land.”
”What about a private jet? You're rich enough to do that.”
”Yes, I'm rich enough, but the paperwork would take hours and leave a huge trail also. No, this is a much better idea.”
”When you say better, does that mean dangerous?” Virginia asked softly.
”That has never bothered you before.”
”I am immortal, not invulnerable. I can be killed... and so can you,” she reminded him. ”As I get older, I appreciate my long life. I have no desire to end it.”
The couple, looking like any other pair of tourists, were standing beneath the shade of a tree admiring the brightly lit facade of the Tower of London, the pale cream stone turned the color of b.u.t.ter in the warm lights. A recent shower had swept across the city and created puddles that reflected the lights. Even at this late hour there were still plenty of sightseers enjoying the cool air, admiring the London landmark on the Thames River. Occasionally cameras flashed.
”All my life seems to have been spent in and around the Tower,” Dee said wistfully. ”I visited Walter Raleigh here just before his execution,” he added. ”And when I was a boy my father took me to see the lions here, when it housed the Royal Menagerie.”
”Very touching,” Dare muttered. ”Do you want to tell me now why we're here?”
Dee nodded, a tiny jerk of his head. ”There is an entrance to a Shadowrealm inside.”
”The Traitor's Gate Shadowrealm.” Dare nodded. ”I've heard of it.” She shuddered, her shoulders rolling beneath her coat. ”Rumor has it that it is an evil place.”
Dee ignored her. ”Together, I believe we're powerful enough to activate and enter it. Once we're in the Shadowrealm, we can hop from realm to realm and then drop out in America.” He grinned with genuine good humor.
”Once you activate the gate, you will have betrayed our position,” Virginia said.
”True. But once we're in the Shadowrealm, no one will know where we're going.”
Virginia Dare shook her head, her long hair flowing down her back. ”Can I point out one or two very minor flaws in this plan?”
”Such as?”
”Let us a.s.sume we can overpower the guards in the Tower...”
”Easily done. You can spell them to sleep with your music.”
”And then let us a.s.sume we can leap into the Traitor's Gate Shadowrealm.”
”We can do that,” Dee said confidently.
”Do we know whose Shadowrealm it is?”
The doctor shook his head. ”No one knows. Some minor Elder, perhaps-but you know that many of the Shadowrealms that border the earth are empty.”
”I also know that the Dark Elders have been calling their brethren who live in the outer Shadowrealms to draw closer as Litha approaches. Something might have taken up residence there.”
Dee opened his mouth to comment, but Virginia pressed on.
”But let us a.s.sume that we find it empty. We then have to move through it to cross into one or two or three more Shadowrealms before we end up in a realm that touches the Americas.”
”Yes.”
”And it could be anywhere in the Americas from Alaska to Florida?”
”Yes. At worst we'll be a couple of hours away from San Francisco.”
”So tell me why we are going back to San Francisco? I thought that city was about to be overrun by your Elder's nightmare army?”
”The Book of Abraham the Mage is in San Francisco. I need it.”
”You finally got it!” Virginia sounded genuinely delighted. ”Took you long enough,” she added sarcastically. Then she stopped as a sudden thought struck her. ”The Book is still in your possession-have you not surrendered it to your Elders?”
”No. I've decided to keep it.”
”Keep it!” Virginia's raised voice made some of the late-night tourists turn to look. She lowered her voice to a hoa.r.s.e whisper. ”What for?”
Dee grinned. ”I am going to use it to take control of this earth myself.”
Virginia blinked in surprise, and then she suddenly laughed delightedly. ”Doctor, you are mad... which must make me even madder, for a.s.sociating with you. Do you think your Elders will allow you to take over this, their favorite Shadowrealm?”
”I'm not going to give them any choice,” Dee said simply. ”I gave them a lifetime-several lifetimes-of service. And yet, because of a few petty failures, they are prepared to sentence me to an eternity of suffering. They declared me utlaga. Now my loyalty is to myself-and to you too,” he added hastily, catching a glimpse of the expression on his companion's face. ”I am going to wrest control of this planet from the Elders, kill all the immortal humans, Elders and Next Generation who still live here. I will then seal the entrances to the Shadowrealms and cut this world off from all the others. I will make this planet mine. Ours, if you are with me. We can rule together.”
Virginia Dare took a step away from Dee and slowly and deliberately looked him up and down.
”What are you looking at?” he demanded.
<script>