The Guardian~Magnus Bane Love Story

44. Highway to Hell

We poured into the room, arranging ourselves in an arc behind Jace: Alec with his bow already strung, Isabelle with her whip out and glittering, Clary with her sword, me with my daggers, and Simon-Simon had no better weapon than his own self, but he stood out and smiled at Meliorn, and his teeth glittered. I, of course didn't need weapons either. But I liked them.

The Queen drew herself upright with a hiss.

"How dare you enter the Court unbidden?" she demanded. "This is the highest of crimes, a breaking of Covenant Law!"

"How dare you speak of breaking of Covenant Law!" Jace shouted. "You, who have murdered, and lied, and taken Downworlders of the Council prisoner. You have allied yourself with evil forces, and you will pay for it."

"The Queen of the Seelie Court does not pay," said the Queen.

"Queenie I am about to shove my foot so far up your-"

"Everyone pays," Jace cut me off. Suddenly he was standing in the divan, over the Queen, and the tip of his blade was against her throat. She flinched back, but she was pinned in place, Jace standing over her, his feet braced on the couch.

"How did you do it?" he demanded. "Meliorn swore that you were on the side of the Nephilim. Faeries can't lie. That's why the Council trusted you-"

"Meliorn is half-faerie. He can lie," said the Queen, shooting an amused glance at Isabelle, who looked shocked. "Sometimes the simplest answer is the is the correct one, Shadowhunter."

"That's why you wanted him on the Council," said Clary. "Because he can lie."

"A betrayal long-planned." Jace was breathing hard.

"I should cut your throat right now."

"You would not dare," said the Queen, unmoving; the point of the sword against her throat. "If you touch the Queen of the Seelie Court, the Fair Folk will be ranged against you for all time."

"Then allow me," I said walking forward.

"Not yet, Alice. Then what are you now?" he demanded. "We heard you. You spoke of Sebastian as an ally. The Adamant Citadel lies on ley lines. Ley lines are the province of the fey. You led him there, you opened the way, you let him ambush us. How are you not already ranged against us?"

An ugly look crossed Meliorn's face...well...uglier than usual.

"You may have heard us speaking, little Nephilim," he said. "But if we kill you before you return to the Clave to tell your tales, none others need ever know-"

The knight started forward. Alec let an arrow fly, and it plunged into Meliorn's leg. The knight toppled backward with a cry.

Alec strode forward, already notching another arrow in his bow. Meliorn was on the ground, moaning, the snow around him turning red. Alec stood over him, bow at the ready. "Tell us how to get the prisoners back," he said. "Do it, or I'll turn you into a pincushion."

Meliorn spat. His white armor seemed to blend into the snow around him. "I will tell you nothing," he said. "Torture me, kill me, I shall not betray my Queen."

"It doesn't matter what he says, anyway," said Isabelle. "He can lie, remember?"

"True," Alec said. "Die, then, liar." And he let the next arrow go. It sank into Meliorn's chest, and the faerie knight fell back. The Queen cried out. I then heard the sound of faeries shouting, running feet in the corridors outside.

"Alice!" Clary yelled. "Come here!" She jammed Heosphoros back into her belt, seized her stele, and darted toward the main door, now denuded of its ragged curtain of thorns. I followed right behind her.

"Lift me," she panted, and without asking, I put my hands around her knees and thrust her upward. She grabbed on tight to the top of the archway with her free hand, and looked down. My grip was steady.

"Hold on," she said and began to draw.

"As long as I don't have to sneeze we're good," I called.

Black lines spread from the tip of her stele as she drew. She finished, and drew the stele back. The ground underneath us jerked. We fell together, Clary landed on my face, which was not comfortable and the we rolled to the side as a wall of earth began to slide across the open archway, like a theater curtain being drawn.

There were shadows rushing toward the door, shadows that began to take the shape of running faerie folk, and I jerked Clary upright just as the doorway that opened onto the corridor disappeared with a final rumble, shutting away the faeries on the other side.

"By the Angel," Isabelle said in an awed voice. Jace was on his feet, the Seelie Queen in front of him, a seraph blade pointed at her heart. Alec stood over Meliorn's corpse; he was expressionless as he looked at Clary, and then at his parabatai. Behind him opened the passageway through which Meliorn had come and Gwyn had gone.

"Are you going to close the back tunnel?" Simon asked Clary.

She shook her head. "Meliorn had pitch on his shoes," she said. ""And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch," remember? I think he came from the demon realms. I think they're that way."

"Jace," Alec said. "Tell the Queen what we want, and that if she does it, we will let her live."

The Queen laughed, a shrill sound. "Little archer boy," she said. "I underestimated you. Sharp are the arrows of a broken heart."

Alec's face tightened. "You underestimated all of us; you always have. You and your arrogance. The Fair Folk are an old people, a good people. You aren't fit to lead them. Under your rule they will all wind up like this," he said, jerking his head toward Meliorn's corpse.

"Yeah, that is one dead faerie," I mumbled.

"You are the one who killed him," said the Queen, "not I."

"Everyone pays," Alec said, and his eyes on her were steady and blue and hard.

"We desire the safe return of the hostages Sebastian Morgenstern has taken," said Jace.

The Queen spread her hands. "They are not in this world, nor here in Faerie, nor in any land over which I have jurisdiction. There is nothing I can do to help you rescue them, nothing at all."

"Very well," said Jace. "There is one other thing you can do, one thing you can show us, that will make me so are you."

The Queen went still. "What is that, Shadowhunter?"

"The road to the demon realm of Edom," said Jace. "We want safe passage to it. We will walk it, and walk our way out of your kingdom."

The Queen seemed to relax. "Very well, I will lead you to the road to the demon realm." The Queen lifted her diaphanous dress in her hands so that she could make her way down the steps that surrounded her divan. Her feet were bare, and as white as the snow. She began to make her way across the room to the dark passage that stretched away behind her throne.

Alec fell into step behind Jace, and Isabelle behind him; Clary, Simon and myself made up the rear.

"I really, really hate to say this," Simon said in a low voice as we went out of the throne room and into the shadowed darkness of the underground passage, "but that kind of seemed too easy."

"That wasn't easy," Clary whispered back.

"I know, but the Queen-she's clever. She could have found a way out of doing this if she'd wanted to. She doesn't have to let us go to the demon realms."

"But she does want to," Clary said. "She thinks we'll die there."

Simon shot her a sideways look. "Will we?"

"I don't know," Clary said, and sped up her pace to catch up with the others.

"We most likely will," I said and patted Simon on the shoulder, smiling.

"That-that's not comforting," he said.