Flicker (40 page)

The dryad was slight, he thought, not the least bit formidable-looking. In any other situation, he wouldn’t consider her a threat.
Dryads
were not
normally
aggressive; they were gentle spirits, caretakers. But this was not a normal dryad. Something was different inside of her, something hard and angry and
ruthless. One look in her amber
eyes told him that. There was a glint in them that should not have been there, and a darkness behind them that Filo recognized. He had seen it many times before, in the eyes of
Neman
and
Morgan
.

“Your name’s Byrony,” Filo said. “Isn’t it?”

She smiled, as if at the words of a silly child. Then her gaze flicked toward a row of small potted plants growing on the windowsill. The plants twitched and began to grow rapidly, twisting around each other. Within moments, they had transformed into a heavy pile of vines that spilled over the sill and onto the floor.

Filo ducked as a vine shot out at him like a fist. As he straightened, another vine slid around his neck. He
grabbed
it, but his hand fell away in shock as sharp thorns
sprouted
from the vine. He stumbled backward. More vines wrapped his wrists. Another hooked around his knees, and then he was on his back, jerking against the vines that now held his arms against his sides and bound his legs together.

Byrony stooped over him. Her eyes were a
cold yellow
, and he found himself staring into the black space behind them.

“Bitch,” he snarled.

She scowled, and was suddenly ugly. He wondered if she knew the meaning of the word, or if she was frowning only at his tone.

“You’re lucky,” he continued, raising his voice, “there’s
no one else here
.”

Byrony just shrugged. “No need to hold you,” she said, and the vines slackened. They sli
thered over the floor and away.

As he pushed himself upright, Byrony raised a hand to her mouth, looking as if she were about to blow him a kiss. “Not after this.”
 

* * *

Lee burst into the front room, the door swinging shut behind her. She was only vaguely aware of Nasser and Jason on either side of her
.

Beneath the window, a mass of thick vines squirmed. Filo was leaning against the desk, gripping the edge of it with one white-knuckled hand, coughing so hard that Lee’s own throat ached. With his other hand, Filo thumped his chest, over and over, harder each time, as if trying to dislodge something.

Byrony stood not far from him, watching with polite disinterest as his coughing turned to gasping and he fell to his knees. He looked up, and his eyes were bright with something Lee had never seen in them before: fear, simple and genuine.

“Nasser Rew,” Byrony said pleasantly. “And y
ou, girl.” Her expression was
thoughtful
, though her eyes were hard as ice. “I never did learn your name.”

A thud, and Filo dropped onto the floor. He tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out beneath him and he collapsed, face-down. Small, pained noises accompanied each cough.

Unthinking, Lee, Nasser and Jason all moved toward him at the same time—then froze. Byrony raised a hand, and three heavy vines rose up like snakes from a snake charmer’s basket, one for each of them.

“What did you do to him?” Jason demanded.

Byrony
turned
over one hand, revealing a palm that was dusted with traces of shimmering scarlet powder. “I poisoned him,” she said simply.

Filo coughed again. Flecks of blood spattered the floor.

“You’re killing him!” Lee cried shrilly.

Byrony shrugged. “What else would I do with him? Don’t worry,” she added, with a sneer. “It should be slow. You’ll have plenty of time to say goodbye, before I take you.”

Nasser, who now stood on the other side of the room, caught Lee’s attention with a small movement of his hand. He glanced between Lee, Byrony, and the vines. After a moment, she understood what he wanted, and gave him a little nod. He and Jason began to inch toward Filo. The vines didn’t move—they seemed to be focused on the boys only as long as Byrony was.

Lee felt suddenly sick. “Take me where? What do you want?”

For what felt like a long time, Byrony was silent. “I don’t regret trading you away,” she said finally. “At the time, it was exactly what I wanted. I wanted you gone, and I got my wish.” Her mouth turned down at the corners and her hand—still raised—clenched into a fist. The vines twitched. “But even with you gone, I could have no peace.”

“You said you had to talk to Nasser,” Lee said, stepping backward. A vine lurched toward her, but did not strike. Out of the corner of her eye, Lee saw Nasser and Jason, still moving cautiously toward Filo. “Why? Does it have to do with Umbriel?”

Lee stepped to the right; the vine followed her, as did Byrony’s gaze. The boys kept moving. She felt as if she were moving through the steps of some slow, complicated dance, and any misstep could ruin the whole thing. At that thought, something tugged at the back of her mind, a speck of memory, and she focused on it.

“I remember him,” Lee ad
ded. Nasser crouched beside Filo now
. Beside him, Jason was a tense shadow. “I don’t remember everything, but I do remember him.”

Byrony’s face twisted into a grimace. “You ought not
even
speak his name.”

“He taught me how to dance,” Lee continued, the memory rushing back to her. “I was painting, and someone pulled me into one of the circle dances, but I kept tripping, and they laughed at me.” She was close to the wall now, and moved backward again. Lee’s heart bounced against her ribs as Byrony followed her. “But
he
didn’t. He just took my hands and showed me the steps.” She
froze
. “He was good to me,” she said slowly, realizing it for the first time.

“Too good by far,” Byrony snapped. “You were a
pet
. We had a dozen painters more talented than you. And yet he looked after you better than the rest. You were a pretty thing, and so distracted, but no one touched you. No one was allowed.”

It seemed impossible. Lee had been building up an idea of Umbriel, cobbled together from what memories of him she had, and this new revelation did not fit with it. In Lee’s mind, Umbriel was a distant star: beautiful, powerful, untouchable. She couldn’t imagine that someone so strong and beautiful could also be kind.

“So he’s good.” Lee spoke slowly, uncertainly, testing the notion on her tongue. “Is that why you love him? Because he’s so different from you?”

Byrony’s wrist flicked out; Lee’s forearm was suddenly wrapped by a vine, which jerked her forward so that she fell onto her knees. Immediately another vine reared up behind her and knocked her forward. As she threw her hands up to catch herself, she glimpsed Nasser. He had turned Filo onto his back, and was kneeling beside him, his hands on Filo’s chest. She couldn’t see his face, but his hands were covered in silvery magic. Jason knelt on Filo’s other side. His expression was grim.

“Why are you
doing
this?” Lee asked, pushing herself upright.

“It isn’t my choice,” Byrony said.

“That’s no
answer.” As Lee tried to stand, vines wrapped her wrists and jerked her backward, pinning her arms to the floor. Another vine bound her ankles together. She tugged against them, but they didn’t give.

“Quiet.” Byrony’s gaze moved from Lee; it settled on Nasser and Jason. Filo’s gasping breaths were coming at odd intervals now. Occasionally, Lee saw his legs jerk.

“It’s been too long,” Byrony
called
. “You
cannot save him.”

Nasser didn’t seem to hear her. He just kept gathering magic around his hands, and pressing it against Filo, as if trying to force it into him. The magic dissolved as soon as it touched Filo, though, fraying like a spider web.

Something brushed past Lee:
yellow.
When she looked up, Jason was beside her. Lee’s wrists tingled, and she saw that bright yellow flames were eating hungrily away at the vines holding her down. Once she was free, Lee stood shakily. “Thanks.”

Suddenly,
Jason dropped to the floor, ducking out of the path of a swinging vine. Lee
was slower
; it hit her in the ribs and bowled her over.

Then
Jason was pulling her up
by the back of her shirt as she tried to suck air into her lungs. “Yo
u’ve gotta be quicker than that,
”
he
crowed
, an oddly joyful note to his voice.

Lee jumped over a heavy vine as it slid toward her feet, while Jason began gathering handfuls of energy as bright as tiny suns and throwing them at Byrony. Slender vines swatted Jason’s magic away, but each time one made contact, it shriveled and fell away. One piece of energy passed through the swaying vines and struck Byrony’s shoulder, exploding on impact. It left a bright burn behind, and Byrony’s face tightened with pain.

At that moment
, Lee’s eyes fell upon the twisting heap of vines beneath the window.

She dodged several vines, pushing them aside as she worked her way toward it. Byrony didn’t notice—she was too busy with Jason.

Lee
had to drop to the floor and crawl the last f
ew feet
. The mound finally lay before her, near enough that she could reach out and touch it. The vines slid over each other like snakes, and
she
shuddered.

A harsh cry captured her attention. She whipped around and saw Jason fall backward, knocked down by a heavy vine. His head struck the floor; the energy in his cupped hands fizzled and died. He didn’t move again.

Her heartbeat thundering in her ears, Lee stole a glance at Nasser. He was still focused on Filo, still trying to force healing magic into him. Filo coughed up a mouthful of blood. He groped
blindly
with one hand, seizing Nasser’s shirt.

So focused was he on Filo that Nasser didn’t notice when Byrony
glided
toward him, raising her hand to her mouth.

Lee
screamed
his name
, but it was too late: Nasser looked up just as the dryad blew a handful of
dark
powder into his face. For a moment, he just looked surprised. Then his hands—smeared with Filo’s blood—came up to cover his eyes and he was screaming, too.

Curling her hands into fists,
Lee
focused. In her mind’s eye, she envisioned her spell; days of practice allowed her to put it together within a few moments. Her palms grew hotter and hotter as she turned to the mound of vines. Gritting her teeth, Lee shoved her hands into the writhing mound, elbow-deep. The vines sprouted thorns that dug into her flesh as
bright
green fire bloomed from her hands and flowered over the mound, chewing hungrily through it.

The fire caught on the vines that extended out from the mound, moving along them like a signal on a telegraph wire, burning and blackening them. Somehow, the fire didn’t burn her, or anything else. Only the vines.

Lee pulled her hands from the still-flaming mound and scrambled to Nasser. He was doubled over, with one hand over his eyes.

“Nasser?” Her voice was almost covered by the sound of crackling flames.

“I can’t see,” he breathed,
stricken
. “
I’m blind. Where’s Jason?”

Lee looked over her shoulder at him, and remembered how his head had cracked against the floor. Then Jason shifted a bit. She exhaled sl
owly. “Out for now.
But I think he’s okay.”

A weak cough drew Lee’s gaze to Filo. His eyes were dim blue slits. His breathing was shallow, so ragged that Lee shivered. “What did she do to him?”

“She used some kind of pollen
, a poison
—it’s
in his lungs,
suffocating him. He can’t breathe.”

“Can you fix it?”

Nasser’s voice was raw.
“I don’t know how.
I can’t—
”

Narrowing her eyes, Lee stood.
“Then I’ll fix it.”

“Lee?”
He
reached for her, but she was several paces away. “Wh
at are you doing? Lee!
”

She ignored him.

Byrony stood in the pile of ash where the vines had been, facing away from Lee.
“You’re a resourc
eful little mortal,” she mused
, without turning. “Have you finished?”

“I’m not leaving with you.”

Byrony looked between Nasser and Jason. “I could have killed them,” she said crisply. “And I will, if you do not stop this foolishness.”

“
You won’t
hurt anyone,” Lee insisted, stepping toward
her
. “You’re going to fix Filo, and you’re going to fix Nasser’s eyes, and you’re going to do it
now.
”