coming the other way. “Dad! I’ve been looking for you everywhere. She’s going to kill him!”
“Who is? Kill who?” I asked.
“Fionh!” said Alex, as if I were stupid. “She’s going to kill Sparky.” She turned and headed through the door and down the corridor. Running after Alex, slowed down by the healing wound in my side, I followed Alex as she raced ahead. Sure now that I would follow, she guided me up through the house until we reached the room where Fellstamp lay.
Alex stepped into the room warily. “You’d better let him go now. Dad’s here.”
I moved into the doorway, unsure of what to expect. Fellstamp was as I’d left him, draped up to his shoulders with a white sheet. Towards the back of the room, the big French doors had been thrown open. Fionh stood, her back to the sky, outlined against the light. Beside her, Sparky was held by the hair, throat exposed while Fionh held a wickedly sharp blade under his chin. They were both standing on the balustrade over the three storey drop to the paving below.
“What’s going on, Fionh? What’s he done?” I asked her.
“Done?” she asked, as if it were a joke. “He doesn’t have to do anything.” There was a frayed edge to her voice that I didn’t like. Fionh was normally an island of still calm in a sea of trouble – this was not the Fionh I knew.
“Something’s happened,” I said. It was a statement, not a question.
“You’re not wrong,” she said. “Look at him.”
“I am looking at him. What’s he done?” I repeated.
“Not him, you idiot! Look at Fellstamp!”
I looked at the body on the table. His face was pinched. He didn’t look like he was in pain but he was even paler than before. It couldn’t last much longer. In its comatose state, his body was slowly consuming itself.
“What’s this about, Fionh?” I asked, stepping forward into the room.
“Stay there!” she warned. “You’re only bringing the inevitable closer.”
“What’s inevitable about it?” I asked. Alex moved to the other side.
“Stay back!” said Fionh. The edge of the blade held at Sparky’s throat left a red line at her warning. I could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he tried to resist the urge to swallow. Behind them both, the sky darkened as the clouds gathered above the courts.
“I only want to help,” I said.
“Help yourself, you mean,” said Fionh. “You’re no better than the rest of them, stealing scraps from the plates of your betters. Pretending you’re part of something.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.
“You don’t even know not to lie,” said Fionh. “You’re like all the rest of them.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “The rest of what?”
“The rest of the mongrels,” said Garvin, standing in the doorway behind me. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it Fionh?” I glanced at him, taking my eyes momentarily off Fionh. He was entirely focused on her.
“You betrayed us,” said Fionh to Garvin.
Garvin shook his head. “I haven’t betrayed anyone,” he said.
“You led us down this path and now there’s no way back,” she accused.
“I’m not the one doing the betraying, though, am I?” he said. “I couldn’t figure it out. Our loyalty has never been in question – until now.”
“And it would have stayed that way,” she said.
“It would, except things started leaking out. Small things at first – a word here, a nod there. The obvious suspect was Niall. He’s the newcomer. It only started happening after he joined the Warders.”
“He’s not a Warder,” her scornful glance barely registered my presence. “Where was he when we needed him? Changing nappies? Chasing his daughter? He’s been more trouble than he’s worth since the beginning.”
“I couldn’t figure out where they were getting their information from,” said Garvin, continuing his train of thought. “That was the problem. Where were his sources? Who was feeding him? Did he have some hold over one of the Lords and Ladies? One of the other Warders? I was looking in the wrong place, wasn’t I, Fionh?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She glanced at the form lying draped in the sheet. “Nothing matters now.”
“And then it got worse,” said Garvin, “Just when Blackbird was chosen as head of the Eighth Court, the leak went from a trickle to a stream. All of a sudden Altair knew where we were going to be, when we were going to be there, what we intended to do.” He laughed. “In some ways I’m as guilty – I’d already made the connection. I