The Might of Evil Dreams (A Novel of the Elemental Chronicles)

Four - The Demons in Dreams

Emmeline

The words were locked up inside of me. Tom was kind to me, and he didn't try to force me to speak. But every time he tried to coax them from me, I couldn't do it. The threat rang through my ears, over and over.

You tell anyone about me, I'll find them and kill them. And then I'll kill you too.

I kept promising I wouldn't. He would strike me and make me promise with each blow. He would say that if I promised, just once more, he would stop. He never did, though. That was why, when Tom promised these things to me — that he wouldn't leave me, that he would tell me if he did — I was reluctant to believe him. And in spite of it all, I did.

He was gone for five full days and half of a sixth. I huddled in the bay window for hours, watching the front drive. Peggy, his housemaid, stayed with me whenever she could. I hated being alone. It made my mind wander, and when it wandered, it went back to that cell of terror, with no food and the only water from a drip in the corner. It was a wonder I was able to escape that night, when he'd drunk himself into a stupor and left the door open. I took his coat and the last of my dignity, stumbling through endless woods and sleeping on the ground for days. I must have lost myself well enough that he hadn't managed to find me. That was blessing enough.

"Lucian!" Tom's voice echoed through the house, accompanied by the boom of the doors opening.

His butler's feet came running, and then his voice. "I am here, milord. What has happened?"

"A disaster, that's what happened," he grumbled. "Mrs Shute! Where is the good rum?"

She joined him. "Gone through most of it already, milord."

"Find some. I am in need of a stiff drink."

Then his feet, coming towards the drawing room where I was huddled. He entered, his dark hair wild and his two-toned eyes burning. I made myself smaller, but he saw me regardless. His temper seemed to settle a little.

"What are you doing hiding over there?" he asked, his tone gentler.

"Waiting," I said.

"For me?" He rubbed his hand over his face and then began to yank at the cloth around his neck, pulling it off and throwing it over the back of a chair.

I nodded.

He sat down heavily in an armchair, head bowed. Without raising it, he said, "There's something I have to explain to you. Must explain to you."

I waited for him to continue, but when I didn't speak, he did.

"I did a very bad thing, Emmeline."

"You did?" I unfolded myself from my position and crept over to his chair. "How bad?"

Without prompting he began to explain. One of his good friends wanted to set up a protective organisation for Elementals — although I never knew that term existed until now — and together they went before a committee from Elemental Advancement. He wrote a statement to give them, using my arrival to build his case. But all they could think about was the fact that we were living under the same roof and we were unrelated by blood, marriage, or pay. For them, it was reputation that mattered, not Elemental welfare.

"I took advantage of your situation," he said as he finished. "I'm sorry. I believed it would convince them, but it seems that has failed us too."

I sat down on the floor in front of him, staring at his hands. His knuckles had scars on them, crossing over each other. "You had to," I said.

He raised his head, brow lowered. "Do you know what this means, Emmeline? I accomplished nothing except feeding the rumour mill of society. Charles Ashbury is going to use this weapon against me until I change it. Or unless I change it."