The Queen's Viper Page 11

  The soft hoot of the owl carried across the gardens. Nervousness burned in Viper’s chest. She shouldn’t get emotionally attached to the source of her food. Yet, Viper never had a friend before, and the thought of having a companion appealed to her. The sensation in her chest accumulated until it overpowered that of the fire, and blazed through the timeworn shell around her heart.

  “Then, my friend, where shall I take you tonight?” Viper said, blowing Elizabeth a gracious kiss. In the vividly coloured world created by their joint imagination, the psychic embodiment of the ginger-haired mortal and the violet-skinned immortal clasped hands, running in a field of laughing sunflowers. The words of departure which Viper had rehearsed floated on the wings of an owl hunting its prey.

  11: Leaving Home

  Longwood House, Berkshire

  June 4, 2012: late morning.

  Dartford warblers flittered from the trees of Long Wood Forest to the back door of Clare’s psychiatric residence. Their sweeping, dark brown tails brushed against the ground as they searched for a breakfast of toast crumbs. Finding none, the birds settled onto the grass alongside the driveway at the front of the house. They didn’t hop around or chirp with complaint. Rather, they tilted their blue-grey heads and red-rimmed eyes, watching Mouse and Rupinder in discussion at the front door.

  Only Viper made note of the birds’ unusual activity. She stood on the trunk of the Jaguar, hands on her hips. The noises of the humans drowned out her own thoughts. Graeme paced back and forth at the rear of the cars, keeping watch up the driveway. He flipped the safety catch of his gun on and off, hidden beneath his jacket. Ivy tapped manicured nails on the Jag’s steering wheel, each impact a sledgehammer to Viper’s supernatural hearing. In the other car, Dhillon’s heart beat faster than the rest. He watched Clare out of the corner of his hazel eyes with the kind of longing that Viper had seen cast by courtiers upon Elizabeth. Dhillon fiddled with his glasses, rehearsing his greeting to Clare. The girl sat in the back of the Jaguar within Viper’s shadow, goosebumps on her arms.

  Clare clutched a large portfolio to her chest. After Viper had healed the girl, Ivy wound bandages around Clare’s arm and hand as if she’d received Dr. Thorton’s first aid skills. Viper removed her Regency coat and left it on the seat. She allowed the girl to see through the glamour, like the others of Mouse’s team.

  The girl placed her portfolio beside herself and wrapped herself up. “Does it hurt?” Clare asked of the fading welts on Viper’s left hand and forearm.

  Viper didn’t know what disturbed her the most, the familiarity of Clare’s eyes, or the worship within them. Viper’s silence answered Clare with detached coolness. The immortal vaulted from the car and landed among the birds on the grass behind Rupinder. The warblers flew across the front of the house. The distraction ensured that Rupinder wouldn’t see the indentation of Viper’s footprints in the gravel as she approached the nurse from behind. Helping Clare had nearly depleted Viper’s energy. Her body ached with hunger and Rupinder was an easy target.

  “I can’t explain Claire’s self-harming,” Rupinder was saying to Mouse. “She hasn’t done it for ages. She’ll be nineteen tomorrow, of course, old enough for discharge. We’re going to miss our resident peace-keeper. She always sees the best in people. Do you think her parents will take her home today, doctor?”

  Mouse replied as the Yorkshire Dr. Thorton. “Her parents may be apprehensive for discharge after t’incident this morning.” His eye contact and cool tone didn’t waver. Viper smirked. Mouse had long ago mastered a liar’s quirks.

  Rupinder glanced over her shoulder, towards the building. “I’m sorry that things were in such a tizzy this morning.”

  Mouse cleared his throat when Viper positioned herself behind Rupinder, eyes devouring her. “As I said, I’m happy to take t’girl to t’doctor’s surgery for you. You have enough to deal wi’ here.”

  “I suggest you head to Virginia Water. Our local medical clinic is closed for decontamination. This area of Berkshire has had outbreaks of smallpox, of all things. I thought that disease was eradicated. Give us a bell, and I’ll pick Clare up after she gets her stitches.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Owain replied firmly, his eyes flickering a subtle warning to his Mistress whose greedy elldyr encroached upon Rupinder. Viper hissed in frustration at him, unheard by her potential victim. She bumped her Foundling out of the way as she stormed to the Jag. Rupinder reached out to help when Mouse tipped to the side.

  Ivy opened her car door to assist him. Viper slammed it shut.

  “Let him alone,” Viper grumbled. The immortal’s nails dug into the polished leather. “Your Owain is not so frail as he doth appear.” Ivy settled back into the car, glowering as Mouse excused his lack of balance on his cane to the nurse.

  Viper retreated onto a large branch overhanging the Jaguar. The hunger within her beckoned. If Mouse dallied further, she feared she wouldn’t be able to restrain herself. She distracted herself with observing Dhillon’s attempt to woo Clare.

  “I hope Owain’s Mistress doesn’t scare you,” Dhillon said, approaching the girl. He leaned on her door, miscalculated the edge, and nose-dived.

  Clare hopped out to help him, giggling. He stood up at the same time and his head glanced off her door. Clare gasped. She bent to check his injury, then collided with Dhillon as he raised himself from the ground. They fell to the ground, laughing.

  Viper rolled her eyes in her head, exasperated at the debacle of Dhillon’s flirtation. He was attractive enough for Clare to take a liking to him, Viper supposed. His high forehead and wiry limbs suggested a life of academia and little physical work. Dhillon regained himself and helped Clare to her feet.

  He adjusted the haversack on his shoulder. “Well, I’m a dork,” he said to Clare, red-faced.

  “No you aren’t,” Clare replied, smiling.

  Viper observed the youths with disappointment. Dhillon’s self-deprecation would worm his way into Clare’s favour. The passage of time had seen little change in the pity of women’s hearts.

  Clare had Dhillon’s cap in her hand. He reached up to take it from her at the same time as she placed it on his tousled hair, their hands bumping into each other. “Let me,” she said with a giddy laugh. She straightened the hat saying, “I’ve been called names loads of times, so I don’t like to insult other people. And no, I’m not scared. There. Now, you’re dapper chap.”

  “What’s on your head?” Dhillon asked of the round objects behind Clare’s ears. Viper listened intently, the talk of technology more fascinating than the flirtation. Human advancement held alluring promise and exceptional threat.

  “I had meningitis when I was a baby, and it made me deaf.”

  “But, you can hear me.”

  “Only when I’m wearing my receivers and transmitters.” Clare pointed to the devices on her head. “These parts,” she said of the curved objects hanging on the back of her ear, “have microphones that pick up ambient noise and turns it into an electrical signal. The signal goes through this cable to here, the transmitter.” She tapped a round object on her skull, behind her ear. “Magnets imbedded in my skull hold the transmitters in place. Then, they send an electrical impulse to the implant in my cochlea, the part of the ear that makes sound. The implant stimulates the nerves in a way that my brain recognizes as sound. I don’t hear everything exactly like you, but it’s really helped with my speech.”

  “That’s awesome,” said Dhillon. “I could barely tell. Is everyone who lives here deaf?”

  “Uh-uh. Just me. This is a place for girls with mental health disorders. My parents dumped me here when I wouldn’t stop cutting myself. They can’t deal with anything that isn’t perfect, including a deaf daughter who self-harms.”

  Viper ran her finger over her left arm, where the injuries of the girl’s older scars and her newer wounds from the corkscrew had vanished.

  Clare shrugged deeper into Viper’s coat, as if she felt a chill. “I’m adopted and m
y parents pretty much gave up on me by the time I turned twelve. I feel accepted here; protected somehow. I can be myself without worrying about disappointing my parents, or inciting my brother’s juvenile taunting.” She returned to the car and held her book out to Dhillon. He leaned on the side of the Jaguar as she showed him the portraits of Viper. “Here, they let me draw whatever I want, which is usually her face.”

  The immortal watched from her perch. Each image captured the fluctuations in her skin tones and elldyr creft in exacting detail, from shocking violet to pale lavender.

  “Yeah, um, about your pictures,” Dhillon began, retrieving a page from his bag, “when I was in your other room, I saw this one. Why is it different?”

  A spiral of glacial blue and white eyes dominated the paper. Red capillaries ran through the sclera until they coalesced into thick scars around the eyes. Outside the mask-like scarring, the paper was Robin’s egg blue. Viper’s head immediately spun with vertigo. She dropped down and braced herself on the tree trunk until the sensation passed.

  “You didn’t draw any other features,” Dhillon said, in ignorance of Viper’s descent.

  Viper remembered each nuance Clare omitted, from the oval face and rounded cheeks to the kindly, full lips that contorted into a jeering smile.

  “You’re such a talented artist that you could’ve revealed the whole face,” Dhillon continued.

  “Thanks,” Clare said, blushing. “I made that after watching the news about the smallpox outbreak on the Beebs.”

  “I saw that report on the BBC. Sunninghill and Berkshire is this area, right? That’s so close to London. I hope it doesn’t get worse.”

  Clouds passed over the clearing. A darker shadow grew on Clare’s face.

  “When I drew those eyes, the voices got so loud and disruptive that I couldn’t concentrate. I had to stop.”

  Viper’s nervousness spurred her into action. “Voices?” she demanded from across the vehicle. Her elldyr creft rose up and almost touched Clare as Viper bolted to the car. Dhillon put a protective hand on Clare’s shoulder. She glanced at him in panicked embarrassment at revealing her secret. Clare pressed her lips together, as though figuring out what to say to satisfy Viper, and avoid misunderstanding from Dhillon. Viper wouldn’t let the girl rest in silence. “Tell me what thou hast heard.”

  Clare leaned back against Dhillon. “Sometimes I hear two voices at the same time, saying the same thing. Nothing they say makes sense.” As Clare spoke, Viper suppressed her elldyr. Her body remained tense. “At first, my parents thought it was an error with my implant. They made me undergo a bunch of procedures. Nothing changed. They thought I was crazy. So, they put me through treatment for early onset schizophrenia and I wound up here. Last week, after the smallpox news, I drew those white and blue eyes, and I heard someone new, melodious and sickly sweet. Then, the dual voices from before sounded, I don’t know, worried.”

  “As they should be,” Viper stated with authority. She knew to whom the paired voices belonged, and why this new one relapsed Clare to self-harm. “Mouse! We must leave. Now!” Viper commanded. She faced Dhillon and abandoned any thought of his intent towards Clare. “Take the girl with the Scotsman in the other motorized carriage.” She turned to Ivy and said, “Go with them. I would speak with my Foundling alone.”

  “I’ll die before I leave Mr. Henry,” Ivy levelled back at the Daoine Tor. Stunned by the mortal’s insolence, Viper pelted Ivy with tiny sparks of fire. The sparks singed her skirt as Ivy blotted them out with her hands.

  Mouse came back to the car in time to prevent retaliation by Ivy. “Mistress, what gives you cause for alarm?” Rupinder had turned back, heading for the doorway.

  “I will not offer explanation in front of this, your servant.”

  “You may speak freely in front of Ivy, Mistress. Rest assured she will hold your confidence.”

  “Should she lose hold of her tongue, I will kill her,” Viper threatened. She wouldn’t admit that she wanted to keep her latest revelation between herself and Mouse in order to gain the upper hand on Ivy. The woman’s relationship with Mouse made the immortal feel that her link to her Foundling had diminished.

  “Sitting in the back with you will look odd to the nurse, and possibly raise questions, Mistress,” he said, getting into the front and avoiding his Mistress’ glaring black and green eyes. “Ivy, back out slowly so we don’t raise suspicion.”

  Rupinder stopped at the door as the cars started.

  What are you doing in that car? her hands signed to Clare.

  Getting a ride with the cute guy! Clare signed back with a bright smile as Graeme drove away. Viper didn’t know what messages the women’s hands conveyed. She hoped Clare’s reaction and cheery wave goodbye meant she kept the group’s invisible secret.

  When they cleared Long Wood Forest, Viper asked Mouse, “What know you of the girl’s voices?” The immortal sat behind Ivy, leaning towards Mouse in the front, with her arm on the headrest and legs extended over the rest of the backseat.

  Mouse replied, “Clare was ten when her parents sought treatment for what they thought were schizophrenic auditory hallucinations. As Dr. Thorton, I intervened. I did not tell them, but I thought the voices some kind of clairvoyance.” Mouse glanced at the car behind them, as if checking to see if Clare could understand what he was saying. “She has been taking a placebo, provided by me.”

  “And the third?”

  Mouse fiddled with his glasses. “Clare never reported a third voice to me.”

  “Methinks this girl hath a connection to Annys, for she hath drawn her visage, then did hear Annys beckon. Woe be unto the girl if she communes with my enemy.” Viper didn’t see Ivy press the ON switch for the radio’s microphone. “For, if she is a servant of Annys, then you hath sheltered a humaine from whom I shall glean information of my enemy by any means.”

  Mouse blanched. “Oh no, no. Is that absolutely necessary, Mistress? I cannot believe that I safeguarded her this long for you to hurt her.”

  Viper scowled at him, eyes wide with malice. “Be not so yellow-livered, my snivelling Mouse. I will do as I must to find and vanquish Annys.” The immortal didn’t notice the widening gap between Mouse’s cars on the two-lane road.

  Mouse clutched Viper’s buttoned sleeve. “Please, Mistress, let me ask the girl about her revelation. Surely, if you talk to Clare without applying your elldyr creft to her, she will remain unharmed and you will have the answers you seek,” he stammered.

  “Never question me, Foundling. I hath made you, and so can I unmake you!” Viper’s elldyr flared around her, a ball of violet fire in her raised hand. His eyes widened in fear.

  Viper realized that Mouse stared at something over her shoulder, cross-wise in the intersection. A white SUV struck Ivy’s side of the car as Viper turned her head. The impact threw the immortal onto the road. The Jag spun wildly.

  The SUV squealed to a stop, its tires inches from Viper’s body. She pushed herself to her hands and knees with a grunt of exertion. The distant bang of a discharged weapon caught her attention. A man leaned out the front passenger window of a second oncoming SUV, his smoking gun pointed towards the Jaguar. Viper jerked upright and thrust out her powers for the moving vehicle. Elldyr magic greater than any she had ever summoned slammed into the truck and knocked it sideways. The vehicle crashed into a mileage sign, and rolled into the ditch. Hanging from their seatbelts, the men in the SUV yelled into sleek headsets.

  Successive cracks of gunfire tore through the air. A man and a woman had jumped out of the first SUV beside Viper. They fired shots at Mouse, who hid behind the Jaguar’s passenger side. Slumped over, Ivy didn’t react to him hollering for her to get out of the car.

  The first pair of assailants had their backs to Viper. She roundhouse kicked the woman, who sprawled flat. Her gun flew into the verge.

  “Bloody Hell?” the man shouted in surprise. Viper grabbed the sides of his head before he turned around. A malignant force, one Viper thought sh
e had left behind in Annys’ prison, made her snap. She tore his head off in one swift motion and flung it over her shoulder. His severed head shattered through the SUV windscreen. The decapitated torso shuddered on the ground.

  The woman who fired at them crawled away from her partner’s corpse. The immortal grasped the woman’s legs with blood-soaked hands and flipped her onto her back. Viper straddled the woman and knelt on her shoulders, pinning her.

  “Today the garen will not conquer me, nor no humaine best me,” Viper swore. Raging bands of parasitic elldyr erupted from her arms. The Daoine Tor absorbed the woman’s aeir. Viper arched her back with intense pleasure.

  Bullets rocketed past Viper as she fed. She frantically searched for the source of the projectiles.

  “Mistress!” Mouse cried out. “They can see you!” From the ditch on the other side of the road, the men from the second SUV targeted the immortal’s visible and glowing body.

  Graeme had stopped his car in the ditch across the road, and had sent Dhillon and Clare into the woods of Great Windsor Park. He shoulder-charged the shorter man in the second pair of assailants. Together, they sent the other man tumbling. Viper forced herself from rapture and dashed to Graeme’s aid. As he grappled with the short man, Viper encircled the other’s neck with her elldyr and yanked his six-foot tall body several feet off the ground. Her magic engulfed the copper-brown fragments of aeir on his arms. One by one, each segment of his life-energy dissolved into the deeper hue of violet elldyr choking them. Viper discarded the dead man like a rag. Her eyes scoured for the last survivor, whom Graeme restrained.

  “Wait!” Mouse shouted from the Jaguar, hovering over Ivy. “We must find out who sent them. They may be in league with Annys.” He tilted Ivy’s head backwards and hobbled towards them.

  The Daoine Tor cocked her head with a salacious grin at the man with pockmarked skin and a turned-up nose, crooked from a previous break. Viper grabbed him by the collar, then nudged Graeme away with her index finger. Viper’s captive groaned through swollen, split lips. She dug her nail into the folds between his thick eyebrows. Her elldyr creft penetrated his eyes and his moans escalated into tortured wails.