Lord of Shadows
Page 93

At last a focused beam of light seemed to explode from it, and Kit realized what Shade had meant when he’d joked about a movie. The light worked like the beam of a projector, casting moving images against the dark wall of the tent.
A girl sat bound to a chair inside a circular room filled with benches, a sort of auditorium. Through the windows of the room Kit could see mountains covered in snow. Though it was likely winter, the girl was wearing only a white shift dress; her feet were bare, and her long dark hair hung in tangles.
Her face was remarkably like Livvy’s, so much so that to see it twisted in agony and terror made Kit tense.
“Annabel Blackthorn.” A slight man with bent shoulders entered the scene. He was dressed in black; he wore a pin not unlike Diego’s clasped at his shoulder. His hood was drawn up: Because of that and the angle of the crystal’s viewpoint, it was hard to see his face or body in much detail.
“The Inquisitor,” muttered Shade. “He was a Centurion, back then.”
“You have come before us,” the man went on, “accused of consorting with Downworlders. Your family took in the warlock Malcolm Fade and raised him as a brother to you. He repaid their kindness with abject treachery. He stole the Black Volume of the Dead from the Cornwall Institute, and you helped him.”
“Where is Malcolm?” Annabel’s voice was shaking, but also clear and firm. “Why isn’t he here? I refuse to be questioned without him.”
“How attached you are to your warlock despoiler,” sneered the Inquisitor. Livvy gasped. Annabel looked furious. She had Livvy’s stubborn set to her jaw, Kit thought, but there was a little of Ty and the rest in her too. Julian’s haughtiness, Dru’s look of easy hurt, the thoughtful cast of Ty’s mouth and eyes. “So will it disappoint you, then, to hear that he is gone?”
“Gone?” Annabel repeated blankly.
“Disappeared from his cell in the Silent City overnight. Abandoned you to our tender mercies.”
Annabel clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “That can’t be true,” she said. “Where is he? What have you done with him?”
“We have done nothing with him. I would be happy to testify to such under the grip of the Mortal Sword,” said the Inquisitor. “In fact, what we want from you now—and we will release you afterward—is Fade’s location. Now, why would we want to know that unless he truly had escaped?”
Annabel was shaking her head wildly, her dark hair whipping across her face. “He wouldn’t leave me,” she whispered. “He wouldn’t.”
“The truth is better faced, Annabel,” said the Inquisitor. “He used you to gain access to the Cornwall Institute, to thieve from it. Once he had what he wanted, he vanished with it, leaving you alone to take the brunt of our wrath.”
“He wanted it for our protection.” Her voice trembled. “It was so we could begin a new life together where we would be safe—safe from the Law, safe from you.”
“The Black Volume does not contain spells of safety or protection,” said the Inquisitor. “The only way it could be of help to you would be if you traded it to someone powerful. Who was Fade’s powerful ally, Annabel?”
She shook her head, her chin set stubbornly. Behind her someone else was coming into the room: a stern-faced woman carrying what looked like a bundle of black cloth. She sent a shiver up Kit’s spine. “I will tell you nothing. Not even if you use the Sword.”
“Indeed, we cannot believe what you say under the Sword,” said the Inquisitor. “Malcolm has so tainted you—”
“Tainted?” Annabel echoed in horror. “As if—as if I am filth now?”
“You were filth from the time you first touched him. And now we do not know how he has changed you; you may well have some protection from our instruments of justice. Some charm we know not of. So we must do this as mundanes do it.”
The woman with the stern face had arrived at the Inquisitor’s side. She passed him the black bundle. He unrolled it, revealing a variety of sharp instruments—knives and razors and awls. Some of them had blades already stained with rusty red.
“Tell us who has that book now and the pain stops,” said the Inquisitor, lifting up a razor.
Annabel began to scream.
Mercifully, the image went dark. Livvy was pale. Ty was leaning forward, his arms clasping his body tightly. Kit wanted to reach out, wanted to put his hands on Ty, wanted to tell him it would be all right, communicate it in a way that startled him.
“There is more,” said Shade. “A different scene. Look.”
The image on the wall shifted. They were still inside the same auditorium, but it was night, and the windows were dark. The place was lit with torches that burned white-gold. They could see the Inquisitor’s face now, where before they had only been able to see the edges of his dark clothes and his hands. He wasn’t nearly as old as Kit had thought: a youngish man, with dark hair.
The room was empty except for him and a group of other men of varying ages. There were no women. The other men weren’t wearing robes, but Regency-era clothes: buckskin trousers and short, buttoned jackets. Several had sideburns as well, and a few had neat, trimmed beards. They all looked agitated.
“Felix Blackthorn,” said the Inquisitor, drawling a bit. “Your daughter, Annabel, was chosen to become an Iron Sister. She was sent to you for a final farewell, but I hear now from the ladies of the Adamant Citadel that she never arrived. Have you any idea of her whereabouts?”
A man with brown hair streaked with gray frowned. Kit stared at him in some fascination: Here was a living ancestor of Ty and Livvy, Julian and Mark. His face was broad and bore the marks of a bad temper.
“If you suggest I am hiding my daughter, I am not,” he said. “She fouled herself with the touch of a warlock, and she is no longer a part of our family.”
“My uncle speaks the truth,” said another of the men, this one younger. “Annabel is dead to us all.”
“What a vivid image,” said the Inquisitor. “Don’t mind me if I find it more than an image.”
The younger man flinched. Felix Blackthorn didn’t change expression.
“You would not mind a trial by Mortal Sword, would you, Felix?” said the Inquisitor. “Just to ensure that you truly do not know where your daughter is.”
“You sent her back to us tortured and half-mad,” snapped the younger Blackthorn. “Do not tell us now you care about her fate!”
“She was no more hurt than many Shadowhunters might be in a battle,” said the Inquisitor, “but death is another thing entirely. And the Iron Sisters are asking.”
“Might I speak?” said another of the men; he had dark hair and an aristocratic look.
The Inquisitor nodded.
“Since Annabel Blackthorn went to join the Iron Sisters,” he said, “Malcolm Fade has become a true ally to Nephilim. One of those rare warlocks we can count on our side, and who is indispensable in a battle.”
“Your point, Herondale?”
“If he does not think his lady love left him, shall we say, voluntarily, or if he learns of any harm that came to her, I think it unlikely that he will continue to be such a valuable asset to us.”