The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,72
name us.”
“I’ll choose a name,” said the boy.
“Then no doubt we will get to know each other better.” He looked Magnus up and down. “Your second lesson: the Silent Brothers don’t need to wash themselves or their clothes, but you do. You very much do.”
The boy laughed.
“Let’s keep ourselves sparkling clean from now on, shall we?” Ragnor suggested. “And for God’s sake, get some nice clothes.”
Later, Ragnor would say he wished he’d never come to the City of Bones that day, and he’d never intended for Magnus to go so far overboard with the clothes. And of course he’d never foreseen the invention of cosmetic glitter.
Magnus had hoped to find peace in the Silent City, but now he understood that such peace was impossible. He could only ask his questions. He hoped Ragnor would give him some of the answers, and then Magnus would give himself a name.
* * *
“MAGNUS!”
Alec heard his own voice, echoing out into the desolate space that extended around and above him.
Hell was empty.
Alec lay on his back, out of breath but at least conscious. He’d blacked out as he tumbled through the Portal, he had no idea for how long. He lifted himself up on his elbows, expecting it to hurt, but he seemed uninjured.
There was nothing here. The sky was absent of stars or moons or clouds—no, there was no sky whatsoever. There was no depth or distance, no shades or colors, just a sea of uniform claustrophobic void from horizon to horizon.
Blinking, he sat up and looked around. He was on a vast, blank expanse of gray stone, flat but uneven, with large fissures here and there. The landscape was featureless, rolling away to empty horizons in all directions. The other Shadowhunters were scattered around him, no one farther than maybe fifty feet away. Jace was already standing—of course—and had somehow, miraculously, managed to retain a grip on the spear he’d taken from the smithy. The others were in various stages of rising to their feet. Nobody seemed to be hurt.
Magnus was standing a short distance away from all of them, looking up. Alec followed his gaze and saw a knot of magic in the sky, tangled and chaotic, like a wound sewn up in haste on the battlefield. It crackled blackly, but no demons were emerging from it.
Alec rose and went over to join his boyfriend. He put his hand on Magnus’s shoulder. Magnus said, still looking at the messy suture in the sky, “It’s not pretty. But I think it’ll hold.”
Alec pulled Magnus into a tight embrace and held him for a moment, feeling the warmth of his body and the soothing sound of his breathing against him. Then he stepped back. “Shinyun?” he said. “Ragnor?”
“They were right behind me,” Magnus said. There was fatigue in his voice, and Alec wondered how much his whirlwind had taken out of him. “I would swear on my life they came through the Portal right behind me. But they didn’t appear on this side.”
“Well, Sammael is the Master of Portals and the master of Ragnor and Shinyun,” Alec offered. “So maybe they went somewhere else.”
“Who knows,” said Magnus flatly. Despite their success, he sounded defeated.
Isabelle’s voice, behind them, suddenly called out, “Simon?”
Alec turned. Isabelle, Clary, and Jace were coming over to join them—all of them looking like they’d been through a windstorm—but there was no sign of Simon.
Clary spun around. “Simon? Simon?”
They all looked around them, but it wasn’t like there was a hiding place on the bare rock that surrounded them. Simon was gone.
They all looked at Clary. She was holding her arms around herself, her face very pale. Jace put his hand on her back.
“Look for him,” he said gently. “Inside yourself.”
As Clary closed her eyes, Alec remembered a time, long ago, when Sebastian had taken Jace, and he had searched in vain inside himself for the spark that was his parabatai. Watching Clary now, he remembered the pain.
She inhaled sharply. “Okay… he’s alive, at least.”
“You think he went wherever Ragnor and Shinyun went?” Alec said to Magnus.
He expected Magnus to say who knows again, but the warlock’s expression had sharpened, and he looked a little more present again. “It’s possible,” he said.
“He definitely came through the Portal,” said Jace. “I saw him.”
Isabelle looked stricken. “He didn’t want to come,” she said. “To Shanghai, I mean. He thought something terrible would happen. I told him he was being ridiculous.” She pushed her tangled dark hair away from her face, her lips trembling.