‘What’s going to happen to them now?’ asked Jake. ‘The artefacts?’
‘Ah. The Council are aware that the Urn survived; that much I had to tell them, for reasons we will discuss. It will be taken back into the Council’s care.’
‘And the Knife? And the Pendant?’
‘Why, Cassie. You were there. You know they were lost in the deepest of Mount Kenya’s rivers.’ His face remained impassive.
Cassie shook her head, gazing at the three artefacts. ‘Sir Alric … why? Why haven’t you told them?’
‘Why do you think? You know how dangerous these are. I’d rather they were kept well apart, and I’d rather the Knife and the Pendant were considered lost forever. The Urn has little use without them.’
Cassie nodded slowly. ‘That makes sense.’
Sir Alric touched the Urn gently with a forefinger, then resumed pacing behind his desk. ‘It’s odd,’ he mused, ‘but I still miss Marat.’
‘That is bloody odd,’ remarked Cassie, with a lift of her eyebrows.
He gave a low laugh. ‘He was at my side for a long time. Playing a long game, no doubt,’ he said sorrowfully. ‘But I came to rely on him. Foolishly. Of course, it was Marat who broke in here at the beginning of term, trying to get the artefacts. I should have known it, but I didn’t want to think it could be true. I was trusting – an all-too-human trait.’
Ranjit and Cassie, sitting close together, exchanged glances. It was Ranjit who coughed and said at last, ‘If he was with you for so long, what on earth was his motive for doing what he did?’
‘Ah.’ Sir Alric glanced at Jake, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘A similar story to Jake’s, I fear. An out-of-control Few student, Marat’s cousin, and death by feeding. Marat chose to take his revenge in a far slower and less obvious way, however.’ He winked solemnly at Jake. ‘Marat was already Few, but with a very weak spirit. He came to me, requested a job at the Academy. His spirit had never been especially ambitious in previous incarnations, and neither was he. I felt sorry for him. What else could I do?’
‘Offer a member of his family a place at the Academy, like you did after Jess died?’ observed Jake acerbically.
‘Ah. It was Marat who convinced me that offering you a place could do no harm, only good. He did make reference to himself, and to his own situation.’
‘In that case,’ Jake tightened his fingers round Isabella’s, ‘I’ve got at least one thing to thank him for. Sort of.’
Sir Alric nodded. ‘I suppose so, though his motives were never honourable. I’m afraid I had rather a blind spot where he was concerned.’
‘Full blinkers,’ muttered Cassie, not quite under her breath.
Isabella, never one to encourage a scene unless she’d instigated it, clapped her hands and leaned forward, interrupting. ‘But what about the Eldest? Katerina’s obviously finished, but is he? For sure?’
‘Oh, yes. He’d joined with her; they were one. When she died, he died.’
‘And you’re sure he couldn’t survive in another form.’
Sir Alric gave a light shrug. ‘It’s never happened before. Ever. Yusuf, Mikhail, Keiko – their spirits all died with them. A spirit cannot live without a host. Why would the Eldest?’
In the silence Cassie and Sir Alric turned to look at the Urn, placed so innocently between Knife and Pendant.
He heaved a sigh. ‘Cassie … I know Estelle is fully inside you now. Has that changed nothing?’
‘It’s changed everything, and nothing. I know what it’s like now. I know what it means. Even more than I did that time in New York, when I managed to throw her out again.’ Cassie closed her eyes briefly, recalling when once before in desperation she’d allowed Estelle to fully inhabit her. It felt odd, sitting here discussing the spirit’s fate without the old bat’s caustic interjections. Cassie almost missed her nagging voice. Almost.
Sir Alric stared out of his window. ‘So the one thing that hasn’t changed, Cassie, is your mind.’
‘Yup.’
He sat down behind his desk and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m sorry.’
Cassie started to get to her feet, though she didn’t let go of Ranjit’s hand. ‘We had a deal!’
Sir Alric sat back and steepled his hands in that thoughtful pose she knew so well. ‘We had a deal – not that you kept your side of it terribly well.’
‘You can’t do this! You can’t refuse me!’
‘Calm down, Cassie. I didn’t say I’d renege on our deal. I said I was sorry. And I am sorry. Sorry you can’t live with Estelle, and that you won’t let her live with you, become you. I think you’re ideally matched in so many ways.’ He crooked a smile. ‘And the old bat was a surprisingly good friend of mine.’
Slowly Cassie sat back down. ‘So you’ll let me use the artefacts?’
‘If I can’t talk you out of it. But I have to try.’
Cassie took a deep breath. It wasn’t as if she didn’t understand. ‘I don’t want to hurt Estelle. I sort of like her, actually. But I don’t want her to be part of me, and I don’t want to be part of her. I didn’t want any of this, you know that. And another thing. The most important thing, but if you say it again, I’ll feel like shooting you: I can’t be with Ranjit if Estelle is inside me.’