Shadowfever
Page 143

I stopped fighting it and half-swam, half-walked on the ocean floor of some planetnot ours, because we didnt have fish that looked like small underwater steamboats with whirling wheels of teeth.
My glassy lake offered a bubble of sorts, sealed it around me, and everything that came at me bounced off.
I was beginning to feel downright indestructible. Cocky. I put a little swagger in my rolling steps.
By the time I passed through half a dozen more zones, I was beyond cocky. Every threat that came at me, my dark lake had an answer for. I was getting drunk on my own power.
From a landscape that would have been called Midnight on a Far Star if it had been a painting, I burst into a dimly lit room and blinked.
It was Spartan, Old World, and smelled good. Deep, drugging spices. Barrons. My knees felt soft. I smell him, I think of sex. Im a hopeless case.
I knew instantly where I was.
Beneath the garage behind Barrons Books and Baubles.
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I wanted to explore. I would have explored, except for the child crying.
Of all the things I expected Barrons to have secreted away from the world and protected so well, a child wasnt on my list.
Clues to his identity? Surely.
A luxurious home? Definitely.
A kid? Never.
Bemused, I followed the sound. It was faint, coming from below. The child was sobbing as if its world was ending. I couldnt tell if it was a girl or a boy, but the pain and sorrow it felt was soul-shredding. I wanted to make it stop. I had to make it stop. It was breaking my heart.
I moved through room after room, barely noticing my surroundings, opening and closing doors, looking for a way down. I was distantly aware that the true jewels of Barrons collection were here, in his underground lair. I passed things that Id seen in museums and now knew had been copies. Barrons didnt mess with copies. He loved his antiquities. The place hummed with OOPs somewhere. I would find them eventually.
But, first, the child.
The sound of it crying was killing me.
Did Jericho Barrons have children? Maybe hed had one with Fiona?
I hissed, then realized how Fae Id sounded and pretended I hadnt just done that. I stopped and cocked my head. As if hed heard my tight-lipped exhalation, the crying got louder. Saying, Im here, Im near, please find me, Im so scared and alone.
There had to be stairs.
I stalked through the place, yanking open door after door. The crying was getting on my last maternal-instinct nerve. I finally found the right door and stepped inside.
Hed taken serious precautions.
I was in a fun-house room of mirrors. I could see stairs in a dozen different places, but I had no way of distinguishing between reflection and reality.
And knowing Barrons as well as I did, if Iwent for the reflection, something very nasty would happen to me. He obviously cared a great deal about the protection of the child.
My dark lake offered, but I didnt need it.
Show me what is true, I murmured, and the mirrors fell dark, one after the next, until a chrome staircase gleamed in the low light.
I moved silently down it, drawn by the siren lure of the childs sobs.
Once again, my expectations were shot.
The crying was coming from behind tall doors that were chained, padlocked, and engraved with runes. I shouldnt have been able to hear it at all. I was astonished Id ever been able to hear Barrons roaring this far underground.
It took me twenty minutes to break the chains, wards, and runes. He obviously wanted this child protected to the hilt. Why? What was so important? What was going on?
When I pushed open the doors, the crying stopped abruptly.
I stepped into the room and looked around. Whatever Id expected, it wasnt this. There was no opulence here, no treasure or collectibles. This was little better than Mallucs grotto beneath the Burren.
The room was hewn from stone, a cave cleared out in the bedrock of the earth. A small stream ran through, appearing in the east wall, disappearing beyond the west. There were cameras mounted everywhere. He would know Id been here, even if I walked back out right now.
In the center of the room was a cage that was twenty by twenty, made of massive iron bars, closely spaced. Like the doors, it was heavily runed. It was also empty.
I moved toward it.
And stopped, stunned.
It wasnt empty as Id thought. A child lay in the cage, curled on its side, naked. He looked about ten or eleven.
I hurried to him. Honey, are you all right? Whats wrong? Why are you in there?
The child looked up. I staggered and went to my knees on the stone floor, stupefied.
I was looking at the child from the vision Id shared with Barrons.
Every detail of it was crystal clear in my head, as if Id lived it yesterdaya rare glimpse into Barrons heart. I could close my eyes and be back there again with him, that easily. We were in a desert.
Its dusk. We hold a child in our arms.
I stare into the night.
I wont look down.
Cant face whats in his eyes.
Cant not look.
My gaze goes unwillingly, hungrily down.
The child stares up at me with utter trust.
But you died! I protested, staring at him.
The boy moved toward me, came to stand at the edge of the cage and wrapped his small hands around the bars. Beautiful boy. Dark hair, gold skin, dark eyes. His fathers son. His eyes are soft, warm.