The Ring of Five (32 page)

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platoon. She stuck out her foot, sending him tumbling and bringing down several of those following. Danny rushed into the fray. He felt in his pockets for a weapon, but the only thing he could find was the length of piano wire. He crept up behind a Seraphim who was trading sword blows with Exshaw, driving the instructor onto his knees. Quickly Danny looped one end of the piano wire around the tip of one of the Seraphim's wings and the other around a lamppost. The Seraphim drove Exshaw to his knees, arched its wings and rose into the air, intending to plunge the sword into Exshaw's heart. But instead, with a scream of surprise, the Seraphim flew in a tight circle and crashed straight into the side of the Stores.

Danny saw the Seraphim's sword on the ground and grabbed it. A Cherb ran straight for him then halted in confusion when he saw Danny's features and his uniform. Danny punched him.

"Master Devoy?" Devoy turned to see Toxique standing beside him.

"In three seconds' time a Cherb arrow will hit you in the heart if you don't move," Toxique said. Devoy took two quick steps backward. An arrow whistled through the place where he had been standing and buried itself in the ground.

"Fascinating," Devoy said thoughtfully. "You have a Gift of Anticipation."

Several more platoons of Cherbs emerged from the tunnel, their pinched and cunning faces eager for battle. Others were climbing from the hole in the ground. It's

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hopeless, Danny thought, looking around at the outnumbered defenders. But I have to try. He ran toward the Cherbs.

"Come on, you lot," he growled. "The woods are full of Wilsons men, get a move on!"

The Cherbs looked at each other uncertainly, but such was the tone of command in Danny's voice, allied to his Cherb features, that they set up a great cry and charged off in the direction of the woods. This gave him an idea. As Cherbs poured from the hole in the ground, he quickly formed them into platoons. One platoon he set to guarding the mouth of the tunnel.

"Don't let any more Cherbs through," he commanded. "They are to be kept as reinforcements." To the others he shouted, "Follow me!"

As they did, he heard fighting start between the Cherbs still in the tunnel and those he had set to guard it.

He ran around the side of the building, followed by the Cherbs. He could almost feel their breath on the back of his neck. Finally he reached his destination: the Helix of Van Groening. The yew maze seemed very still and sinister after the turmoil of the battle.

"This place is full of armed cadets," he shouted. "Clear it out!"

With a howl the Cherbs charged into the maze. As they entered the Helix their voices became muffled. The howl died to a puzzled muttering, followed by thumps, rustlings and cries of pain. After a few minutes he could hear nothing at all.

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"We won't be seeing them again," Danny thought with satisfaction.

When he rejoined the battle, things had turned decisively against the cadets. The Cherbs in the tunnel had fought their way out. The cadets were scattered in small groups, fighting desperately and bravely, but they were too few. Starling was isolated in the middle of the parade ground, battling two Seraphim. Dixie had run straight into one of the Seraphim, and its iron-hard flesh had dazed her, sending her reeling across the parade ground, appearing and disappearing at random. Duddy had been trussed up by some Cherbs and was being carried triumphantly back toward the tunnel.

"We'll get a good price for her on Rue Morgue," Danny heard one of them call out.

Vandra knelt over an unconscious Toxique. Devoy and the other instructors stood together, a press of Cherbs around them. Danny stopped dead. He could hear Longford in his head.

"It is you, Danny. You are the Fifth. You owe nothing to these people. You owe nothing to the man and woman who say they are your parents. Join us. Join us now."

Warmth flooded his mind, the offer of companionship. This time it was the voice of Rufus Ness, all the more seductive for being rough.

"The Ring, boy. Come to the Ring. We will show you fellowship. We will be joined as one."

Danny heard a sound and spun around. Smyck was standing behind him with a derringer in his hand. His eyes were wild and his voice was shaking.

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"There's Cherbs attacking the building. I need help ... I ran ... I couldn't ..."

Danny could see the shame in the boy's eyes, all of his sneering and bullying ways gone.

"You abandoned Wilsons to the Cherbs?" Danny said. His voice was low and menacing, and he enjoyed the effect it had on Smyck. The boy was trembling so hard he could barely stand.

"Give me the derringer," Danny said. With a shaking hand, Smyck handed it over. Danny placed the barrel of the gun against the trembling Smyck's forehead. He could feel the wave of approval from the other members of the Ring. Telling him there was a higher cause than mere mercy. Danny could feel his finger tighten on the trigger.

"No ...," Smyck whispered. But it was too late. Danny had passed over to the side of the Ring. He pulled the trigger. The hammer on the revolver descended on the chamber. And as it fell, Danny felt unnaturally aware of everything around him: of the trees swaying in the wind, of the scent of fear and blood, of each cry from the fighting defenders and Cherbs, each moan of despair. Aware of the worms in the earth beneath his feet and of the birds that wheeled in the air above the battle, the ravens ... Danny braced himself for the recoil....

It never came. The hammer clicked down on metal. The chamber was empty of bullets. The click dissolved the spell of the Ring, Danny realized with horror what he had tried to do. Smyck had fainted dead away in front of him.

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A raven swooped and dashed the gun from Danny's hand. Danny sank to the ground, scarcely believing what had just happened.

He made to rise, then hesitated. He put his head back on the ground, his face intent. Under the earth there was a peculiar noise, a roaring, rushing sound. Danny sat up. There were no more Cherbs coming out of the tunnel mouth. Instead, there was an ominous rumbling. Everyone stopped fighting. A great gout of muddy water burst from the tunnel.

"They've flooded the tunnel!" Rufus Ness yelled.

The look of triumph on Longford's face was replaced by a snarl.

"Finish them off, Conal!"

The Seraphim and the Cherbs who had got out of the tunnel fell upon the cadets and instructors with renewed ferocity. Exshaw was unconscious. Blood streamed from a cut on Spitfire's head. Danny lay in a daze, not reacting even when a Seraphim placed a foot on his chest, squeezing the breath from his lungs. It put a sword against his throat. He tried to struggle, but it was useless. The Seraphim smiled mirthlessly. Pain surged through Danny's body. His lungs felt as if they were on fire. Then the pain disappeared and he was floating. This must be what it is like to die, he thought as the noise of wings filled the air. The weight vanished from his chest. He looked up and saw the Messenger Gabriel hovering directly above his head! The Seraphim pinning him down fell backward in surprise.

He raised himself up on one elbow. All the Wilsons

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Messengers were in the air! A squadron of the elderly, some in support bandages and dressing gowns, wielding crutches and walking sticks, but flying expertly among the Seraphim, who were taken completely by surprise. Two Messengers seized a flying Seraphim by each wingtip. Unable to slow down or to turn, he flew straight into a tree trunk. Eluda Fanshawe used a crutch to pin a female Seraphim against the ground. A group of wizened Messengers entangled a haughty Seraphim's wings in a roll of bandage, sending him crashing to the ground. The cadets cheered and charged. The Cherbs, seeing the torrent of water pouring from the tunnel, and the sky above them full of decrepit but determined Messengers, turned tail and ran toward the woods. Rufus Ness ran after them, shouting, "Come back, you cowards!"

High above the parade ground, Danny saw a small dot. It got larger and larger as he watched it. It was a Messenger in a steep dive. As it closed in with blinding velocity, Danny saw who it was.

"Gabriel!" he cried out. The Messenger seemed certain to strike the ground at top speed, but at the last moment, in a breathtaking maneuver, he flipped sideways and headed straight for Conal. Gabriel skimmed Conal's right wing, stripping the lead feathers from it with his hand.

Gabriel halted above Conal and hovered. The Seraphim, barely able to stay in the air now, glared at Gabriel with hatred.

"You always did have slow reactions, Conal," Gabriel said with a smile.

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Longford looked around him in disbelief and anger. Rufus Ness ran for Nurse Flanagan's car.

"Get in, Longford, or I'm going without you!" Nurse Flanagan shouted. Longford turned to Danny, his voice calm.

"You are of the Ring now. You are the Fifth, and one day the treachery in your heart will bring you back to us. I saw you, Danny. I saw you pull the trigger."

Longford smiled strangely and vaulted into the passenger seat of the car. The defenders watched in silence as the red car sped off.

"Retreat!" Conal shouted. The Seraphim gathered around him as he rose haltingly into the air. The Messengers cheered and crowed like schoolchildren as the proud Seraphim flew slowly away.

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TREACHERY IS WHAT WE DO

There were many injuries among the cadets, some of them serious. Vandra and Mr. Jamshid worked long into the night. Some had been hit with poisoned weapons, and Toxique was called upon to help, identifying poisons from their effects and administering antidotes, a job that seemed to keep him calm.

It was after midnight before Dixie could persuade Danny to leave Les. The Messenger was sleeping soundly, his damaged wings disinfected and bandaged. Danny was beyond exhaustion, and didn't care about the other cadets and the way some of them looked at him. Smyck was busy spreading the story that Danny really was a Cherb, and that was the reason he had run away. Danny realized that Smyck had not mentioned what had happened on the parade ground--just as Danny had not mentioned the fact

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that Smyck had run away from the parade ground fight. Danny knew that Smyck would see this as a kind of twisted bargain where they protected each other.

There were darker rumors--that Danny had joined the Ring, and had tortured Les in the fortress of Grist. Danny didn't care. He was bone-weary. He dragged himself to bed without speaking to anyone, and fell instantly asleep.

The next morning he was woken by Blackpitt.

"Master Devoy wants your company, Cadet Caulfield." Blackpitt sounded disapproving. Did he suspect Danny as well?

Devoy was waiting for Danny in the library of the third landing. There were muffins and coffee in front of the fire, but Danny wasn't hungry.

"I owe you both an apology and an explanation," Devoy said, "but first I would like you to tell me about the encounter with the Ring."

Danny told him everything that had happened, from the first chance meeting with Nurse Flanagan ("She wasn't there by accident," Devoy said; "Brunholm tipped her off. Or rather, he tipped off Rufus Ness the day you saw him in the Painted Wall") to his joining of the Ring and the escape from Westwald. When he had finished, there was a long silence.

"I have an apology to make. You have worked out, of course, that your parents are fine"--My parents! Danny thought--"and that the newspaper report that you saw was a fake. And you have worked out that we had to drive

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you into the hands of the Ring. They would have seen through you immediately if you had tried to bluff. You had to truly want to join the Ring. It was cruel but necessary, and you have my most sincere apology. The betrayal of Knutt ... Master Brunholm thought of that. I'm afraid he told the Ring that Les was in Westwald. It was a clever ploy--clever to the point of genius, but cruel to the point of insanity. Using Sranzer to deliver the paper to you was my idea. Sranzer isn't quite over it yet."

"But why didn't you tell me who the members of the Ring were?"

"For the same reason. You would not have acted naturally when you did meet them. You knew about Longford, of course, but then, he would have expected you to have that information."

"I don't understand, though. They really thought I was the Fifth."

"And that is the mystery," Brunholm said, stepping out from behind the statue. "You may in fact be the missing Fifth."

"No! I can't. I don't want to be. I'm Danny Caulfield!"

"I'm afraid he may be right, Danny," Devoy said. "By some strange accident of history, you may be the descendent of the original Fifth."

Danny felt his face grow hot.

"If I'm the Fifth," he said in anguish, "does that mean ... that I'm evil?"

"No, of course not. Longford was not evil to start out

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with. Nor was Conal. Even Nurse Flanagan was once known to be kind."

"But how do you know?" Danny demanded.

"I know because Longford and Nurse Flanagan were once my friends and fellow cadets at Wilsons."

"The whole operation was a triumph!" Brunholm broke in. "The Ring defeated. The invasion halted. A superb operation."

"Yes," Danny said slowly, "and we didn't even have to use the soldiers from the watchtowers."

"Yes, well ...," Brunholm said, uncomfortable. But Devoy was looking at Danny shrewdly.

"When did you know?"

"That there were no soldiers? It took a while. You disguised it well. All the talk of fighting at the front and casualties in the apothecary--by the way, when Vandra was in the apothecary we saw a casualty being brought in ...?"

"That was Duddy," Devoy said, "disguised as an injured soldier, of course."

"Then both of you were doing it?"

"Both?"

"You and Longford."

"What?" Brunholm exploded.

"He has a fake army of Cherbs as well. I realized it after he gave me a tour of the fortress of Grist. There were barracks and canteens and offices. But there were no Cherbs."

"There were supposed to be thousands and thousands of them," Brunholm groaned.

"I think those were most of his Cherb soldiers in the