The Ring of Five (33 page)

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tunnel. If he had thousands he would just have invaded across the sea."

"Spitfire's map. The Cherb positions ..." Brunholm sat down suddenly.

"All fake. Longford was feeding you information and you were swallowing it, exactly as you were doing to him with your watchtowers and casualties. I wondered why the siren was so important. How many soldiers do you have?"

"Er, none," Brunholm said, looking at the ground.

"Which made our deception even more brilliant!" Devoy said. "Listen to me, Danny." Devoy put his hands on Danny's shoulders. "You are a member of the Ring. Nothing can change that."

"And who would want to?" Brunholm put in.

"But it does not make you evil like Longford. The seed of treachery has been woken in your heart, but it is up to you how to use it--either to become a great spy, who serves good ..."

"Or become like Longford," Danny finished the sentence, "or even like Rufus Ness--if I am the Fifth then I am half Cherb!"

"Perhaps. But even the Cherbs have their role to play." Danny stayed silent, remembering what Longford had said--in the balance of good and evil, the Cherbs represented evil. But which of his parents was a Cherb? Neither of them looked like one.

"In the meantime, you will stay at Wilsons for the remainder of the term," Devoy said. "After that you can decide whether to return or not. You may leave us now,

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Danny, and thank you. Your actions have saved Wilsons and your own world. Your mind has developed immensely. One day your name may be spoken of with awe as one of the great spies!"

"Yes, yes," Brunholm said, rubbing his hands together, "but how do we press home our advantage?"

He bustled over to Devoy, ignoring Danny.

Danny understood. He had served his purpose. The war against the Ring went on.

Les was sitting up in bed talking to Dixie. He was pale and thin, but his face lit up when he saw Danny.

"Hey, I hear you done brilliant. Apart from rescuing me and all. You took on the whole Ring and beat them, is what Dixie's been telling me."

"Not exactly the whole Ring. Even somebody as brilliant as me couldn't do that," Danny said sarcastically. Dixie gave him a look.

"Sorry," Danny said. "I was just with Brunholm and Devoy."

"That'd be enough to do anybody's head in," Les said. "So tell me about the whole thing."

Danny told him the whole story, leaving out the betrayal, aware of Dixie's eyes on him.

"I can't believe they done that to you, telling you your parents were dead," Les said indignantly.

"They had to," Danny said.

"Still, I think you were brilliant," Les said admiringly.

"But Longford says you're the Fifth," Dixie said.

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"That's kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time." Seeming to abandon the thought, she went on brightly. "Are you going to stay at Wilsons?"

"I don't know," Danny said. "There's still somebody trying to kill me, remember?"

Danny slipped away after a while. He couldn't take the praise, or Dixie's accusing eyes.

He was walking moodily across the lawn when he saw two people coming toward him. They were deep in conversation, and didn't see him until the last moment. One was the detective McGuinness. He was surprised to see that the other person was Starling.

"I have some good news for you, Danny." It was the first time Danny had seen McGuinness smile. "I have found your assassin."

"You have! Who is it?"

"There were two mysteries to solve. One was the statue, which fell from a place where no one could push it. The other was the strange scratches on the door of the Unknown Spy. It took me a while to work it out."

"Who is it?"

"Not who. What. What could have made the scratches? What could have got to the statue? You would have to be able to fly."

"Not one of the Messengers?"

"No. Not them. Other flying creatures inhabit Wilsons." The penny began to drop for Danny.

"Not the ravens!"

"Exactly. Apparently they thought that you were in fact a Cherb, and decided to get rid of you. The scratches

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on the lock were beak marks. And a group of them was strong enough to push the statue down on top of you. Toxique finally synthesized the poison in the biscuit Smyck ate. It was made of foul scrapings from the bottom of ravens' nests."

Danny shuddered.

"So what do I do now? You can't tell a raven that you're not a Cherb."

"I believe Mr. Blackpitt has some influence with them. But I've never seen them take such a dislike before."

Danny looked up. A raven was watching him from the branches of an oak tree.

They don't hate me because they think I'm a Cherb, he thought. They hate me because they
know
that I'm the Fifth.

"There's something we have to talk about as well," Starling said.

"I know," Danny said.

"Have you told anyone?"

"No."

"You can speak in front of Mr. McGuinness."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course." Starling's voice seemed more musical than usual, and the laugh he gave was light and warm. He clutched the detective's arm. "Mr. McGuinness is my husband. So tell me, Danny, how did you work out that I'm a woman? No one else has."

"It was the eyes. I remembered them from your photograph in Ravensdale. You're Cheryl Orr, aren't you? You're supposed to be dead."

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"I've been in deep cover for years. I'll have to change now, of course. The Ring have seen me. It was clever of you to remember the photograph."

She had dropped the character of Starling completely--her face and way of moving changed so that it was impossible to think of her as a man. Danny watched McGuinness and Cheryl Orr walk off together, hand in hand.

Vandra looked serious when he told her about the ravens, and he caught her several times peering up into the rafters warily. Les was allowed back to the Roosts after a week. Smyck continued to spread rumors about Danny and the Ring. Vandra told them how Gabriel had knelt to examine Les, had held his broken wings, then told the other Messengers that he was going to fly, and fight, on his own, if necessary. Without a word the Messengers had followed him into battle against the Seraphim.

Danny found himself more and more on his own. He couldn't bear being with Les and seeing his broken wings. Every time he saw Dixie she looked at him reproachfully. Vandra stayed with Jamshid, looking after the wounded. A week went past, and then another. Classes resumed and the weather got colder. The end of term approached, and he knew he had to make a decision about coming back.

One evening, just before dusk, he made his way to the summerhouse. It was cold, but he found some old blankets there. Probably Vicky's, he thought, and

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wrapped himself in them while he stared moodily at the bare trees.

There was a sound at the door. He looked up to see Les.

"Mind if I come in?" Danny shook his head.

"Here," Les said, opening a tinfoil package. It was full of delicately cut chicken sandwiches. "The Messengers had them for a dance tonight. They won't miss a few. Funny, them old Messengers--any time anybody mentions them attacking the Seraphim, they ignore it or pretend it didn't happen. 'Nonsense, flying is for barbarians,' is what you get. Go on. Take a sandwich."

Danny reached out and took a sandwich. They munched in silence.

Then Les spoke. "I heard you," he said.

"What?"

"When you were with the Ring. I heard what you said."

"You heard me betray you?" Danny stared at Les.

"I was only pretending to be unconscious."

"And you ... you didn't mind?"

"The way I figure it, you'd just been told your mum and dad were dead. Nobody acts that smart when you hear something like that. I know. You want to blame everybody."

"You're not mad?"

"I wouldn't be much of a mate if I was. Besides, I felt bad about the graveyard."

"The graveyard?"

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"It was me and Vandra and Dixie faked it. We were working on making you feel guilty so that you'd stay."

"So the Knife of Implacable Intention ..."

"It was me threw it at you. The knife was me dad's. You see, you're not the only one at the old treachery around here. We're spies, Danny. Treachery is what we do."

Danny reached into his pocket and took out the knife. "Here," he said, and held it out to Les.

"I want you to keep it," Les told him.

"Are you sure?"

"I've a feeling you're going to need it, mate. Tuck in."

They sat until dark, eating and discussing their time in Westwald. When they got back, Vandra and Dixie were sitting on the balcony in front of the Roosts. Dixie was delighted that they had spoken about the betrayal, and spent fifteen minutes disappearing and reappearing in unexpected places before she calmed down.

Danny lay awake until he was sure that everyone else was asleep; then he got up and put on his clothes quietly. He crossed the lawn under the cold moonlight. The silent bulk of Wilsons loomed in front of him. He slipped in through the side door and crept down the corridor past the ballroom. He was a spy now, he knew that. He could feel it in every bone and sinew as he moved, knowing that a watcher would see only a shadow flitting down the corridor.

He opened the curtain and stepped into Ravensdale. Frost glinted in the street. He looked up. The ravens were

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lined along the rooftops on either side, as if they had been awaiting him. They watched him, so still that they might have been taken for statues were it not for the glittering eyes that followed him. He walked further in, aware of the cruel beaks that would tear at his flesh if they chose to attack.

He stopped, drew his breath and asked the question that had been posed by the Gallery of Whispers.

"Who am I?"

His voice was loud, reverberating up and down the dark and still street. The echoes faded away. The ravens had not moved.

This is stupid, he thought. Ravens can't talk!

But as he watched, a small group of birds detached themselves from the rest and flew down. There was a whitewashed wall in front of him. They fluttered up against it, finding purchase, it seemed, in tiny cracks and fissures in the wall. First one, then all of the ravens gripped the wall and hung there unmoving. Their bodies and spread wings made a strange shape, a hieroglyph that Danny did not at first recognize, so strange did it appear. It was only when he took two steps backward that he realized what shape the ravens had made.

The number five.

Danny fled. Behind him the rustling of many wings sounded like soft laughter in his ears.

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A LEAVE-TAKING

The remaining weeks flew past. Danny worked on improving his poker in maths class, and helped correct some parts of Spitfire's living map with his knowledge of Westwald. The Cherbs had stopped raiding. "Only a lull," Devoy called it. "The Ring will be plotting again." He gave Danny a knowing look when he said this.

One afternoon Danny was waiting outside maths class for Dixie and Les. He leaned on the windowsill overlooking the little square where he had seen Gabriel's secret flight. Once again he saw the Messenger walk out into the square, look around him quickly, then rise into the air. Danny heard voices. He looked up and saw Eluda Fanshawe and some other Messengers approaching. He thought about the look on their faces if they saw Gabriel, and how wounded Gabriel would be if his little secret

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became known. The warm urge to betray crept through him. He called out.

"Ladies, ladies! Come over here." The women approached him, looking suspicious. Why was he exposing Gabriel's secret? The Messenger had done nothing to him. But still, the urge to betray was there, the power of the Ring of Five reaching out to him even here.

"What is it, boy?" Eluda said, peering at him.

"It's ... it's ... nothing," Danny said, moving to block the window. There was sweat on his forehead. He felt sick with himself. Would he always have to struggle?

"Why don't you go back to where you came from?" Eluda said. "Your sort don't belong here."

Christmas was approaching. In the mornings there was frost on the windows. Danny was called to see Devoy one more time.

"Have you decided yet? Will you stay?"

Eluda's words rang in his ears.
"You don't belong here."

"I don't belong here," he said.

"Of course you belong, you're a spy," Devoy argued.

"I don't belong anywhere, but Wilsons gives me the best chance of finding out the truth. I don't belong here, but I must come back."

Devoy looked at Danny with new respect. Someday, he thought, Danny will outgrow us all. But whether that be for good or evil remains to be seen.

"But I want to see my parents. If they are my parents."