with their athame into the darkness There, and they’d been forced to follow. He’d dragged them to that ruined place in Scotland to look for Quin and their master’s special athame. But of course she wasn’t there and neither was the athame, just as they hadn’t been in Hong Kong.
Wilkin pushed Briac into the water, and the man flailed about before eventually finding his feet. It was obvious he’d lost his mind again. He’d gotten it back for a moment when he wore the helm in the Hong Kong woods, just as he’d gotten it back for a while when they put the helm on him in that madhouse where they’d found him—long enough to help them find Quin in the London hospital. But his mind was gone now.
Where was the helm? Was Wilkin wearing it? Nott looked back to Wilkin. The moon was bright enough to show him the older boy’s hair, which meant he did not have the helm on his head. It must be safely inside Wilkin’s rucksack. Nott was relieved.
Wilkin had already said he wouldn’t let Briac use the helm ever again. Hopefully this meant they wouldn’t be following Briac anymore. They weren’t supposed to be looking for the girl, and Wilkin knew that. But he’s an idiot, Nott thought as he waded through the freezing water to the shore. An example: Nott loved to slap Wilkin at night. The older boy slept like a dead man and often wondered why he woke with bruises on his face. “It’s because you thrash about and hit your head on rocks,” Nott told him, and Wilkin believed it.
“Leave me be!” Briac roared, struggling out of the lake. “I’ll set the dogs on you both. I’ll trample you, I’ll knife you, I’ll impale you…”
Nott stepped, dripping, onto the shore. Dun Tarm was crumbling into Loch Tarm. Half of the fortress had been built out over the lake to begin with, and that half was mostly under the lake now. Long ago, water had snuck into what remained and filled all the low-lying places with cold, wet, mossy fingers.
Cradled in a steep valley, the crumbling fort was reflected clearly in the lake, and beyond the water, in the bright light of the moon and stars, Nott could see forested slopes reaching up to crags of bare rock that surged above the tree line, like giants from the ancient times.
“Get inside!” Wilkin ordered, shoving Briac toward the gaping doorway.
Nott passed through the jagged shadows of the remaining fortress walls. He was closer to the animal corpses here, and flies buzzed everywhere, even in the cold of the night. A deer lay on top of the pile, its body intact except for a series of slashes along its stomach. Its glassy eyes stared up at the dark sky. They hadn’t killed that deer to eat it; they’d killed it because it was important to kill things. You had to stay sharp. And you had to keep things in their place. Those were the rules their master had taught them.
The helm helped you stay sharp, and it helped you keep things in their place too. It helped with most things. Nott’s eyes drifted toward the pack on Wilkin’s back. His fingers twitched at the thought of pulling out the helm and putting it on. But Wilkin wouldn’t let him use it tonight. He hadn’t let Nott use the helm in days.
“Wilkin’s a tyrant that way,” Nott whispered to the deer as he passed. He imagined the animal winking sympathetically in response.
The smell of decay wasn’t as strong inside the fort, where they made their camp and where they’d left most of their gear. Dun Tarm’s great room had split. Half had sunken unevenly into the lake, but much of the other half was intact, if you could ignore the streams of water among the stones of the floor. Three of the walls had crumbled, leaving only a small alcove under a roof, but this was large enough that they could sleep in shelter. There were several scrubby trees growing up from the ruined floor, providing protection from the wind that blew down from the distant peaks.
Wilkin pointed to a spot on the ground where Briac should sit. The man was whimpering and trying to hold the wound in his back, which was bleeding all over everything. He’d been hit by a knife as they escaped from the burned estate, a fact Briac only now seemed to notice.