Octavia and Ra flew over the Derbyshire countryside and landed at the bottom of the peak into which Mistraldol, the ancestral Klaereon home, was built. On her way home the fine people of Hathersage had noticed her glowing figure overhead, but Hathersage had been trained to leave the Klaereon family alone. No matter what happened today, and Octavia imagined today would be talked about for some time, Hathersage would have more reason to fear the people in the big house.
Through Ra's eyes, Octavia's world was painted in different colors. The moors were an ugly scrub when she had left, but now there were subtle gradations of brown, rough vegetation, jagged stone, clumps of dirt, and leftover bits of summer green. The peak was a cross between a mountain and a hill. Many tourists and nature lovers came through the town, but they stayed away from Mistraldol. Since Mrs. Klaereon died, rumor in the town had it the Klaereons used ghostly servants or were served by the dead. Rumor was wrong, but not by much. The dutiful shadows of Mistraldol attended to the domestic needs of Caius Klaereon and his family. It was all one and the same to Hathersage, peculiar goings-on to stay away from.
The manor was covered with magical sigils. Stone obelisks rose from the roof, as did sculptures shaped like ankhs and scarabs. The gardens on the upper levels were filled with sundials, statues, and gargoyles. Great walls preceded the giant entry doors at the bottom of the peak, which opened onto a main hall of polished marble and ornate stained glass windows outlined in lead, colored light streaming through. The entry hall was the sanctum of a church. Elizabeth the first had awarded the manor to the Klaereon family for services rendered, and various ancestors had altered the structure. Today, what interested Octavia and Ra the most was the metaphysical part of the house.
The levels underneath Mistraldol existed in magical realms. The house was filled with living shadows, which Binders used to do their raw magic. Uncle Bartholomew had brewed elixirs in a laboratory. Ceremonial chambers furthered the family's understanding of demonology, and vaults guarded the family's treasures, including the Scroll of Solomon.
Octavia knew the Erasmus story by tedious rote. Erasmus Klaereon, who had served as a magician in the armies of Julius Caesar, left the army to study at the library in Alexandria. Sorcerers knew of a scroll hidden in the desert, which controlled legions of demons. The scroll was too powerful for Rome, for the Ptolemys, for any would-be ruler, and much too powerful in the hands of the magical families scattered all about the globe. One day Erasmus set out to destroy it. How naive of him, Octavia thought, to understand nothing about the mythology surrounding Solomon's Scroll. How egotistical to decide he was the man to save an unworthy world from itself.
Thanks to Erasmus, the Klaereon family became intertwined with Solomon's exiles in the Abyss, both banished demons and Binders doomed to replay Erasmus' battle with Nuit. Caius Klaereon, Octavia's father, together with his demon Neith, protected the Solomon Scroll.
Octavia climbed the stairs circling the peak to the garden on top hewn from the rock which wrapped around the house. Lesser demons attached themselves to Binders like personal shadows, which was appropriate, since the Binders never seemed to see light. The children of Nuit chose a Klaereon at birth and the strongest sorcerer of each generation would emerge to use the scroll's secrets. That Binder had the gift of being able to summon the demons of the Abyss in times of great need, a temporary dark army to destroy the family's enemies. Erasmus was right in his way. Using the scroll could change the world.
The flaw in the agreement was people's morality varied, even among honorable Erasmus' family, especially among his demon-tainted progeny. All the Klaereons had not been or would not be honorable. Octavia considered her more notorious ancestors. Publius Klaereon had loved Aurelia Galt and they used the scroll for their own gain. Their love plunged Europe into what was called the Dark Ages. Mistraldol had been the reward for Leonides and Leto Klaereon reclaiming the scroll.
Caius Klaereon had Bound Neith the archer. Rather than summon Neith to carry out magical tasks like most Binders who had demons, Neith was always at Mistraldol, guarding the scroll with her arrows, ordered to shoot anyone but Caius and Octavia, his chosen heir, should they approach the scroll.
Good Klaereons, bad Klaereons, a wheel that kept spinning and stopping on random chance, until the wheel had stopped with Octavia in this place, this time. She and Ra betrayed Lucy, but Octavia knew where the blame for all this tragedy truly belonged.
Caius waited for her, sitting in the garden in a long coat and a straw hat. A slight paunch concealed by a broad waistcoat was witness to good living. What hair he had left was pulled back from his head into a black ponytail. Caius wore a white wig for formal occasions, making him a true albino, or Hamlet's ghostly father.
"Welcome home," he said. Octavia saw him note her glowing skin, the Egyptian way in which Ra chose to clothe her, in a sheath fashioned from sunlight, shimmering like the scales of a diamond fish. "It seems traveling has improved you."
Octavia's golden glow intensified. Caius shielded his eyes with long hands. Octavia's voice echoed with the overlay of Ra's, which startled her. She hadn't noticed she was speaking with two voices. "I have come home, Father."
"You have made a trade." Caius walked around her. "Where is Khun?"
Khun is no longer a factor.
Ra's voice dismissed him, made him a footnote. Octavia was ashamed her eyes brimmed with tears. "Khun was unimportant to me. You know he was weak."
"He chose you. There is no possibility you could be Ra's." Caius rubbed his chin. "Unless you never Bound Khun and he never Bound you." Caius' forehead wrinkled. "Octavia, what have you done?"
"The past doesn't matter. Ra and I are your heirs."
Caius tapped the walking stick he carried against the shin of his good leg. "Where is your sister?"
"She won't be coming back," said Octavia, her stomach souring as she thought of blood and bits of flesh.
"You killed her."
"Don't pretend you are disappointed."
Caius' face was noncommittal. "Oh no. It was your path. She had to lose her Trial for you to take your place. I had thought you and Khun, not this."
"All my life, you have told me Lucy was weak."
"She was weak. She was deformed."
"You never gave her the knowledge to win. You kept it from her."
"I did. For you. Do you think I would have allowed her to inherit Solomon's Scroll? She was an embarrassment to our family."
Ask him what happened to Bartholomew.
"Ra wants to know what happened to Uncle Bartholomew. I want to know what happened to Mother. You told Lucy she died from fever, but I remember something else."
Caius leaned in and kissed Octavia's cheek. She couldn't feel the brush of his lips. "I want you to be strong. Our family needs to be strong. My daughter, my real daughter, she takes what she deserves. You stole Ra from the twisted little cripple."
"I didn't steal Ra," said Octavia. "Ra and I saw a mutually beneficial opportunity. You sent Mother to the Abyss, didn't you? I saw it. I heard it. I closed my eyes and I heard teeth tearing into her flesh, crunching her bones. I couldn't shut out the noise, just like you and Ra and everyone, always pulling, always talking to me. Now I have Ra's voice, and you are silent. I know what to do. I know how wrong you were, how you hurt Lucy."
Caius spoke as he thought. "You... never bound Khun. The voices still bother you?"
"Ra has cured me. Why didn't you help me, Father? Why didn't you make the voices stop?"
"The angel should have cured you, but you did not complete your Trial."
"You sent Mother to the Abyss. How did you kill Uncle Bartholomew?"
"Was what you did to Lucy more or less humane?"
Ra's laugh was hollow. Tell him, as humane as his own murders.
Octavia wiped a stray tear away with her thumb. "I take after my father."
Caius embraced her. "Here we are. Bound or not, you have made a fortunate alliance. We shall have a funeral for Lucy. I have a place prepared for her in the mausoleum, given how I expected the Trial to turn out."
Make him give us the scroll. Ra's voice nagged at the back of her mind.
Octavia ignored him. "Father," she said, "I've decided we must end our alliance with the Claudians."
Caius smiled, but it was beginning to look like a mask. "Have you done anything that renders your marriage impractical? You haven't killed Drusus?"
Octavia hesitated, collecting her thoughts. "We can't stay married. I don't love him. He doesn't love me."
"Love is not the most important force in a good alliance. Your mother and I managed in spite of hating each other. We had you."
Understanding dawned. "But not Lucy. Lucy is not your daughter."
"We will not talk about Lucy."
Drusus sees our whole family as vile and wants nothing to do with us."
"Have you bedded him?"
"Father!"
"I see." Caius circled her. "So your relationship works."
"I will not continue with him."
"You will," said Caius. "The contract between the Claudians and the Klaereons is sacrosanct. Break it and there will be consequences."
Octavia's seized him about the collar and backed him toward a sundial. He dropped his cane and it clattered on the hard ground. Her voice merged with Ra's. "I am Ra's now. Ra is mine. I do not need Drusus or Khun or you. We are done with your secrets, old man. You are no longer in charge. We will take the scroll. You will stay out of our way."
Cauis tried to push her off, but Ra had given her extra strength. "You no more command Ra than Lucy did. You are Demon Bound, my girl, and what's worse, since this isn't your demon, it will leave your body a burned-out husk. Ra will find a new host."
"I am in control," Octavia said. "I am a Binder."
Caius' laugh mocked her. "I had such hopes for you, but you understand nothing. You have lost the demon who chose you and now you are lost."
"We want the scroll!"
"You will let me go this instant!"
"You will give me the scroll!"
"Even if I still wanted to, I couldn't. Don't you understand? I can help you if you let me."
"Father?" Octavia's face softened. "You know I want to please you. I've always wanted to give you what you wanted. You told me to kill Lucy to gain Ra."
"Your childhood fantasy. I agreed with whatever would lead you to get rid of your sister. Let me guide you in this. We'll find some way for you to keep Ra without him killing you. Neith!" Caius shouted. "You are needed here."
A bright square unfolded itself into a woman of gazelle-like grace, her black hair tied away from her face. On her back over a cotton shift was a quiver of long arrows, wriggling with live shadow tips. She nocked one to a skinny bow and aimed at Octavia.
"I see you there, Ra," said Neith. "I know what you want with Solomon's Scroll."
"I will control the scroll!" Octavia shouted.
"You dare threaten my master?" Neith scowled. "You cannot touch the scroll, human. You are Ra's slave."
"I am no one's slave!" Light burst from Octavia like the sun as her anger boiled.
"I will destroy you."
"No, Neith. Hold her, do not kill her."
Octavia's nails scraped Caius across the face. She faced Neith, leaving Caius leaning on the sundial. Octavia clenched her fist and a lotus bud appeared under Neith's feet. As Octavia opened her hand, the petals drifted apart, and when she snapped her hand shut, the lotus ensnared Neith tight in its petals. Small rays of light and darkness drifted into the fragrant air. The lotus began to shrink until it crushed Neith from existence.
Caius sliced the air with his hands. Shadows pushed Octavia back into the garden wall. She pushed away, strength and power galloping in her blood.
See how invincible we are? We do not need your father. Kill the old man.
Octavia lashed a dark rope at her father. Caius plucked the middle section from the rope, shaping it into a spear. Ra's light flashed it into nothing. Octavia wrapped another tendril around Caius' leg, and a bone snapped. He collapsed to the ground. "Neith!" he shouted.
"Who is the weak one? Who is the strong one?" Octavia stalked toward her father like a cat hunting a bird. "Why don't you use the scroll? Summon all the demons?"
Rip out his tongue. He cannot call her again if you rip out his tongue. He cannot reach the scroll. Do not give him the chance to get it.
"I will not rip out his tongue," said Octavia. "Father, my demon wants me to do things to you to show you how powerful we are, to humble you and teach you arrogance is a crime. I agree with him. I want to make you pay for what you did to me, to Lucy."
"Your pity for your sister is touching, considering you killed her."
Octavia stepped away. He was right. She had.
No, that was Ra. Ra killed her. She had, however, watched, and did not intervene.
"You made all this possible. You killed her. You killed me. You took our mother."
Kill him. Kill him.
"No," said Octavia. "Not yet. He needs to suffer. Then we will have the scroll."
Red lightning scorched the ground and a red-skinned giant she had seen once before appeared in front of her, a being of fire and smoke making all the shadows scatter before it. Thunder followed his appearance, like the rapport of cannon shot. There were two smaller people on the ground below the peak, one leaning on the other, but her eyes were dazzled from the lightning, so shapes were all she could see.
"Ra," pronounced Balthazar, as loud as the thunder announced his coming, "you have violated and murdered your mistress with whom you had entered into a lawful contract. Octavia Klaereon, you are no longer a Binder, no longer protected by the demon who claimed you. I will protect my master's scroll, and I will return Ra to the Abyss."
***
In the pleasant English afternoon, Carlo didn't know whether he should sweat or freeze. He had waited all night for Balthazar to reappear from the temple with Drusus, who could walk, but did not seem to see or hear. Carlo insisted on examining Drusus. He appeared whole, if not responsive. Balthazar wanted to leave them in the desert, but Carlo knew they needed to return home―to somebody's home, anyway.
"If you insist on accompanying me, you will see justice dispensed." A sheet of sand flowed like a backward waterfall, flowing upward between them. "You will watch the patient. I will be otherwise engaged." Balthazar directed Drusus into Carlo's care. The sand intensified, and when it cleared, they had arrived.
All this dimension hopping was disorienting for Carlo. He missed his ordinary life in Venice. Had he been hungry for something to happen? If this was a magician's life, no wonder his grandfather was slanted sideways in his sanity.
Balthazar postured above them, not the tower of supernatural magic Carlo had seen at Erasmus' Temple, but what looked as close as the efrit came to flesh and blood. He didn't envy Octavia. She would learn what Balthazar was capable of.
The Klaereons' strange house had been built into the mountainside, stair-stepping between architecture and nature. On a shelf near the top, the golden Octavia paused in injuring an older man who lay on the grass by a brass sundial. Balthazar's voice carried down the hillside.
Drusus dropped his head. When he lifted it again, he seemed himself. He rotated his arm, which Carlo took to be a sign it was working. "Where are we?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. What happened to you? How did Balthazar heal you?"
"It had something to do with stars." Drusus shook his head. "Not the time, Dr. Carlo. This is Mistraldol, the Klaereon ancestral home in England. Ra would come here because this is where the family keeps the Solomon Scroll."
"Can you fly up there?" asked Carlo. "There's an injured man."
"Yes. Maybe I can stop this." The air stirred and Drusus propelled forward on the wind.
Carlo sighed. "I meant we," he said to Drusus' shrinking figure. "If you could fly us up there? Me being the doctor and all."
Heroic Drusus, determined to get himself injured anew. And why not leave Carlo behind? He didn't have any magic. Never mind he was working so many miracles without it.
Nothing for it. Carlo bit his lip. As he scrambled up the many stairs, panting with exertion and anxiousness, he wondered why no one was coming to the injured man's aid. The skin on Carlo's neck goose-bumped. All he could feel inside the house were demons. Carlo found it comforting to think of God at a time like this. His mother would be proud. He ignored how he might be shredded by Ra or Octavia, or lit on fire by an efrit.
"Your purpose here eludes me," said Balthazar, his deep bass rattling off the boulders strewn about the moor.
"Father has kept Lucy and Ra from me," said Octavia. "He must be punished."
"You killed Lucy," said Caius. "I had nothing to do with it."
"It doesn't change what you have done," said Octavia. "I am here to avenge the children we were, whom you destroyed. I am here to avenge my mother."
Balthazar clapped his hands together. "It is never a pleasant duty to correct those under my charge, but I shall enjoy destroying the abomination you have become, Octavia Klaereon. The One God has destroyed many like you. I am his agent, and I will not suffer this union." Balthazar's lower half dissolved into an ethereal pillar. He pointed at Octavia, his long nails daggers. "I pronounce sentence upon you, Octavia Klaereon. As the elder Binder of your generation, you did not guide your sister to the Temple of Erasmus. She did not discover her path through Lailah, to see her path with clarity, to understand her own curse. You stole her rightful servant, the demon Ra, bound to her by the contract of Solomon's Scroll.
"I Banish you, Ra, faithless familiar, back to the Abyss where you are imprisoned. You have destroyed your mistress. For you, Ra," he said, his eyes narrowing, smoke spiraling from their corners, "you have sealed your future. There will be no other Binders for you to challenge, no second chance."
Reality cracked the way it did when Binders were around, fire and brimstone shooting from a fissure, dividing the air in half. Carlo marveled he was no longer shocked by this. What startled him, what he had not seen before, were the hands reaching from the fissure toward Octavia, scaled hands curved with claws.
Octavia's face twisted, part fear, part defiance. Then the face was no longer Octavia's, but Ra's arrogant visage. The reaction painted on it was disgust.
Ra studied Balthazar, his face a rictus of loathing. Servant of an inferior god! Groveler to the whims of mortals! Not even the equal of this worm, said Ra, looking down on Caius. You cannot best me!
The sky churned an angry red, like an infected boil. Drusus landed behind Octavia.
"False god," Balthazar said. "Your ego will be your downfall. You will not take Solomon's Scroll. Octavia, I will not parlay further with this demon. It is you, magician, to whom I speak. Reconsider the path you walk. Even now, I can feel the demon who possesses you consume your soul. There will be nothing left if you let him remain. There is no bond between you. You will last longer than most, but you are still mortal. If you let me help you now, you might yet live."
Through Octavia's mouth, Ra replied, He is lying to you, Octavia. They have all lied to you. We are a Binder and a god. No one holds sway over us.
There has to be a way to use Ra's arrogance against him, Carlo thought.
"Ra is lying to you," Drusus said. "Octavia."
Octavia wheeled to face Drusus, her face relieved. "I thought I'd killed you."
"No."
Carlo swallowed. He scuttled toward Caius Klaereon, careful to stay close to the ground. Let them have their drama. He had work to do.
"I will not ask you again, Octavia." Balthazar's earrings glowed red as the efrit heated his body.
Ra's sneer overtook Octavia's emotions. She shot tangled shadows toward Balthazar, redirecting the hands, which reached for her from the crevice. The shadows were shredded into black confetti, but some wrapped around Balthazar like black snakes.
Balthazar burned. The tangles fell away, loops on the ground, before they crisped into emptiness. Drusus yelled something Carlo couldn't hear above the raging flame. Balthazar shoved a firewall forward, engulfing the golden Octavia.
Carlo reached the injured man. "Don't worry, sir. I'll help you."
"I don't need your help. I can save her. Neith! I command you to come! Where are you?"
Behind Balthazar, a lotus floated from the ground. Neith the Archer fought with her arms and arrows to emerge from the lotus. "I am here, my lord."
"You have failed me. Neith!"
Neith slashed the petals. The flower drooped and dissipated. "You're injured."
"Kill him," said the man on the ground.
Neith pointed an arrow at Carlo.
"No!" said the man. "Balthazar."
Anger flared in Carlo. This man was another like his grandfather, a man who had machinations, wheels within wheels. "Balthazar is trying to help you."
"I can save her. I can take Ra from her. She's my daughter. I can't kill my daughter."
Carlo shook with rage. "You would have killed Lucy."
The man saw him for the first time. "What do you know of it? That half-witted, ill-formed little dwarf." His face twisted. "I'm glad she's gone."
Carlo pulled his fist back and then stopped it in midair. "I honor Lucy's memory," he said, slowing his breathing. "One thing you are right about is Lucy would have wanted us to save her sister. I'm going to set your leg. It's going to hurt." Carlo smiled. "I won't mind."
Shadows flooded from the house as Octavia called them to her. Carlo dodged the slithering dark and helped Mr. Klaereon toward the garden wall. Octavia smothered herself in the shadows, snuffing out the flames. Then she exploded, blackness filling the air in used up, burned bits. She spread her arms, and they transformed into Ra's feathered wings. She rose into the air and tilted toward Balthazar, her hands crooked talons gouging his chest and shoulders.
Balthazar grabbed a wing. Octavia fought to pull away.
"I will not allow you to exist," he said. "This merging is aberrant in the eyes of the One God."
"I am a god. I do not need yours." It was Octavia's voice, but, Carlo thought, Ra's sentiments.
Balthazar wrapped arms as thick as trees around Octavia. She clawed at him, leaving rivulets of blood on his forearms, but Balthazar held fast. There was no breaking away.
Drusus inched to Carlo. "I can't stop this. Caius, what can you do?"
"Neith! Kill him!" Caius yelled.
The arrow whistled from Neith's bow and a black arrow pierced Balthazar, its head blossoming through the efrit's shoulder. Octavia pulled away from the creature.
"Neith," commanded Caius. "Do not let Balthazar hurt Octavia."
The efrit's thick neck swiveled to Caius. "You dare? Do your worst. Summon all your demons! I am more than a match for the impure!"
Carlo's eyes widened. "He can summon all the demons?"
"He won't," said Balthazar. "He wants to save Octavia, and he knows the demons will attack Ra, given the chance. He has always been an oppressive king."
"What are you doing?" Carlo asked Caius. "You're helping Octavia?"
"Your plan is to kill Balthazar?" Drusus asked.
"No one will kill my daughter. I will save her. I control the scroll. I can control her."
"You have controlled your daughters too long," said Drusus.
Carlo's brain ticked. How could he stop this? Save Octavia from Ra, keep Balthazar alive? An idea pierced his mind like a blade. He shuddered, skipping over the memory of his mother. If he didn't get himself killed, his idea might work.
"You have heard my master," said Neith, nocking an arrow to her bow. "Balthazar, you may not go any further. You must return to Erasmus' Temple or I will kill you." She shot another arrow, which burrowed into Balthazar's leg. Pain etched itself across the efrit's face.
"Drusus," said Carlo. "I have an idea."
"I supposed you would."
"Do you think Octavia will listen to you?"
"We did not part on good terms, but I can try to talk to her."
"You will not interfere," said Caius. "She needs me. Only I can guide her."
Drusus gritted his teeth. "If there is a later, sir, I believe I will ask you to satisfy honor. Now, Carlo, what are you going to do?"
"The usual. Something risky and made up on the spot."
"Try not to get yourself killed."
"Good advice. Follow it. Your death is the last thing anyone wants."
The crack in the universe Balthazar created still remained open. Fire and brimstone tickled Carlo's nose. "Balthazar," said Carlo. "Retreat."
"I will not."
"Then regroup. Take me to the scroll. Everyone wants it. Let's be the first ones there."
Neith loosed a volley of arrows. They sank into Balthazar's muscular arms.
"Trust me," said Carlo. "If we stay here much longer, you won't be in any condition to get us to the desert."
Octavia leveled her gaze at Carlo and Drusus. "The scroll is mine!"
Carlo shook his head. Everything, it seemed, belonged to Octavia. "Drusus," said Carlo. "Good luck."
"Neith will never let you near that scroll," said Caius.
"Balthazar?" Carlo dodged around Neith. "Let's leave."
The giant nodded. "You are no Erasmus," he said, "but I believe today you are close."
"Stay alive, Drusus."
Carlo and Balthazar blinked away and Carlo was sucked down a whirlwind. He hoped he would come out in one piece.