Reflexively Cassie put her hands over her ears, but then shook herself and ran over to help Ranjit. As she fell to her knees at Richard’s side, she felt something sticky beneath her on the floor. Blood, she thought with a creeping sense of dread. A lot of it…
‘Richard?’ she croaked.
Ranjit put a hand on her shoulder without a word, and she felt her stomach plummet. Wildly Cassie looked up at him.
‘The Eldest has gone,’ he growled fiercely. ‘Damn it. But all she can do is run for now. We need to go after her.’
‘Ranjit, we can’t, Richard is—’
‘Cassie, she’s got to be stopped before she consumes more spirits, gets even stronger. We’ve got to go now.’ He paused and gave Richard a last pitying look, and his voice softened. ‘Or I’ll go for now. Follow me when you can.’ After giving Cassie’s shoulder a quick squeeze, he raced out of the cave.
Isabella came over and stood above her, propping up Jake, who still looked dazed and semi-conscious. ‘Marat’s gone too,’ she said, her voice laced with anger and shock.
Just for the moment, Cassie didn’t care. She could only stare down at Richard, stroking his hair. His face was grey, the veins at his temples purple and prominent, and his eyes were wide and scared.
‘Richard,’ she whispered, stroking his cheekbone.
‘Hope this. Makes up for it,’ he gasped, a smile trembling on his blue lips.
‘Makes up for what – letting me in on all this fun? Wouldn’t have missed it for anything.’ Her throat dried and her eyes burned.
‘Me either. Wouldn’t have missed it. Well … not sure about this part …’
‘Shut up a minute.’ Cassie lifted the hem of his bloody shirt to see where the Eldest had ripped a chunk like a shark bite from his side with her claws. She felt a shock of horror run through her at the sight of the wound. Quickly and delicately she let it down again, and he gasped with pain. Cassie tried to imagine getting Richard out of the cavern. Down Mount Kenya. Along dust roads to the nearest hospital – and where the hell was that, anyway?
Not a hope in hell.
‘Halton-Jones, why did you have to play the hero? You stupid bugger.’ A tear rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it fiercely with the back of her hand.
‘Play at it is right. And I was hardly an … Oscar winner …’ He broke off, coughing hard, and Cassie’s heart quickened at the sight of blood on his lips. She reached down and wiped it away.
‘You saved our lives, you crazy loon. But I told you, shut up. Don’t waste your breath.’
‘Can’t expect me to stop talking. Change habit. Of a lifetime.’
‘Listen, Richard, I’m going to get help for you and Sir Alric. Don’t move.’
‘Ha ha.’
Cassie started to get to her feet, but she felt his fingertips scrape her calf desperately.
‘Don’t leave.’ There were tears as well as blood on his face. ‘Please.’
She hesitated only for a second, then knelt back down and put a hand on his chest. She could feel his rapid desperate heartbeat, the shallow tortuous rise and fall of his ribcage.
‘Richard …’ she sighed, fighting desperately to keep the tears back.
‘Wh-what?’
‘I love you.’
His head rolled round to face her, and his lips curved in a smile, his eyes brimming with tears of his own. ‘I’m going to tell Singh on you.’
‘You do that.’ She couldn’t stop crying now. ‘You tell him as soon as we get back. See where it gets you. He already knows, anyway …’
‘Well, in that case. I hope he knows. I love you too …’
Leaning into him, Cassie placed her hand on his clammy cheek and carefully brought her lips against his. When it didn’t seem as if she was going to hurt him, she kissed him gently.
She felt the moment his breath stopped.
Drawing back, she saw the faint white light of his spirit coil from his parted lips, drift with a thin mourning wail towards the roof, then evaporate into the dank air of the cavern.
Richard’s eyes were still open, but the mischievous spark was gone; they were dull and dead. Very gently Cassie put her fingertips on his eyelids and drew them down, then pushed herself up. Every bone and muscle in her body was screaming with pain, and her heart was wrung with grief. She let out a deep, strangled sob.
Cassie felt a hand touch hers, but she shook off Isabella’s comfort. Tears were streaming down the Argentinean girl’s face, and Jake stood staring at Richard, stunned.
‘Isabella, stay with Jake and Sir Alric.’ Cassie’s voice was hollow. ‘Look after them. I’m going to help Ranjit.’
‘Wait.’ Jake was shaken out of his shock, and seized her arm. ‘Cassie. Take these.’
Turning impatiently, she stared at his outstretched hand. The last tiny vial of Tears; all that was left of the precious liquid.
‘It’s too late,’ she said bleakly, shaking her head. ‘I don’t think they’d have helped anyway. He’s gone—’
‘No, listen. Sir Alric’s note, the one he left in his study? It was about these. He thought they could stop the Eldest. If they touch her.’
Cassie stared at him. ‘What?’
He opened her palm, pressed the vial into it. ‘It said something about the Tears’ ancient origins, them being the thing to stop the Eldest. I don’t know how. Just use them. I wanted to … I wanted to do it myself. I’m sorry.’