Chapter 25

Chapter

Twenty-Five

T here was a tiny part of me that had known from the moment I’d broken into the Assigney mansion and seen Rose’s portrait. I hadn’t allowed myself to form the thought into words, but I had known deep, deep down. No wonder I’d managed to force my way through the blood ward.

I was of Rose’s blood; I was her daughter.

‘Lady Daisy,’ Hester said several times, smacking her lips with satisfaction. She punched her brother’s arm. ‘This is more like it. Minor elvish royalty is exactly who we ought to be working for.’

He rolled his eyes, but from the gleam in his expression he was enjoying the news as much as she was.

We were all seated around a massive mahogany dining table – me, Hugo, both his parents, and Lady Rose. Hester and Otis were perched in the centre, slowly spinning around on a Lazy Susan. Otis looked faintly green around the gills but Hester appeared to be enjoying herself.

Baby Me was asleep in Rose’s arms. So far I had declined to hold myself – that was far too weird – but I couldn’t stop looking at Rose’s face. She was my birth mother. My birth mother . Finally I knew where I came from. I had never expected answers about who I was, and to receive even one was extraordinary. To know the whole truth was mindboggling.

I was a high elf – me, Daisy Carter. If I was honest, I wasn’t convinced I liked that part because I had been proud of my low-elf status. It was also distinctly odd to be seated across from my birth mother when she was a decade younger than I was because in some ways I felt more like her parent than the other way around. But despite those misgivings, I couldn’t feel anything but happiness.

I smiled at Rose. I couldn’t call her Mum, I wasn’t there yet, but she still smiled back at me.

‘Well,’ said Hugo’s dad, who was now insisting I call him Charles. ‘A lot of things are making more sense.’ He raised his eyebrows at Rose. ‘The way you’ve been hiding yourself away, firing all your staff … you could have come to us for help, you know.’

‘Gone to the neighbours who the Assigneys have been in dispute with for generations and told them that I’d been seduced by a fiend pretending to be a human and that I was pregnant with his child?’ Rose asked with a considerable edge of sarcasm. ‘Sure. That would have been a great idea.’

Hugo drummed his fingers on the table. ‘It’s more credible than time travel,’ he said. True.

Tash, Hugo’s mum, gave him a tearful smile. ‘You’ve grown up to be such a wonderful man,’ she said. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

He smiled at her before turning to me with a glint in his eye. ‘I’m a wonderful man, Daisy,’ he repeated pointedly.

‘He’s not as wonderful as Daisy,’ Rose sniped. ‘Without her, we’d all be dead now.’ It was my turn to smirk.

‘That’s fair,’ Tash said.

‘Mother!’ Hugo protested.

She shrugged. ‘It’s true.’ My smirk grew .

‘I’m also particularly pleased that now Daisy is awake you finally left her side to take a shower, Hugo,’ Tash added. ‘Your smell was becoming quite unsavoury.’

The smile left my face and I stared at Hugo. He met my gaze head on. ‘I wanted to be there for you when you woke up,’ he said simply. My breath caught. ‘And I have to say,’ he continued, with a touch of smugness, ‘that I always knew you weren’t a low elf. Deep down, you knew it too.’

I opened my mouth to argue then closed it again. He was right.

‘Revelations upon revelations,’ Charles murmured. He looked at his son proudly. ‘You’re obviously a good judge of character.’

I couldn’t help myself: I snorted aloud.

Hugo cleared his throat with at least a smidgen of self-awareness. ‘Yes, well,’ he said awkwardly, ‘now that we all know who we are, we have to decide what we will do. Even if it takes weeks for Baltar to recover properly, Athair will be hunting for us. We can’t rest on our laurels for long. We have to come up with a plan.’

My lingering amusement died a sudden death. Usually I could come up with a plan, even if it was a bad one, but this time I had nothing. Everyone else was silent too, until Rose licked her lips and spoke up.

‘Athair is only hunting for me and Daisy.’ She nodded at the sleeping baby. ‘This Daisy, not the other Daisy. It’s safest if the rest of you leave.’

Hugo shook his head. ‘He saw all of us in front of your house, so we’re all in danger.’

‘And we’re not abandoning you,’ Charles said firmly. ‘We’re in this together.’

Rose straightened her shoulders. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet but firm. ‘Daisy, I talked to the brownies quite a lot when you were sleeping. You don’t believe the past can be altered, do you? You don’t believe that the future you know in 2024 can be changed in any way.’

Oh God. I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly as dry as sandpaper. I couldn’t avoid the question, but I had to choose my words very, very carefully. ‘I haven’t seen any evidence yet that we can change what’s to come. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.’

She gave me a shaky smile. ‘You will be adopted by a beautiful couple who will love you very much. They will help you grow into the wonderful woman you are now, someone I admire. Someone who is brave and thoughtful and kind.’ She paused. ‘And I will disappear forever.’

‘We don’t know that for certain,’ I said.

Charles and Tash nodded in unison. ‘It’s pure conjecture,’ Tash told her. ‘None of us can tell how this time-travel business works. There are still lots of avenues left open to us.’

‘Definitely,’ Hugo added. ‘Let’s not forget that although Daisy isn’t a fiend, she has enough fiendish blood in her to destroy one who crosses her path. She’s done it before and she can do it again.’

I gulped. Yes, I killed Baltar in the future, but that had been blind luck. My more recent encounter with Vargas had ended in success – but Vargas wasn’t Athair. I wasn’t convinced I’d ever be strong enough to kill my birth father. He was the most powerful fiend in existence, and he’d already proved himself to be a lot smarter than Vargas.

Otis possessed none of my doubts, quite the opposite in fact. He agreed vigorously with Hugo, ‘There are all sorts of ways this can go. Nothing is a foregone conclusion.’

Hester dropped her feet and brought the spinning Lazy Susan to a halt. She angled her head up at Rose. ‘You’re nice,’ she said. ‘I like you. But, yes, you will disappear. Athair will kill you in the next few days.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Sorry.’

Everyone stared at her in horror except for Rose, who smiled faintly. ‘The hard, unvarnished truth,’ she said. ‘This is what I need.’

There were several burbles of protest but Rose drew in a deep breath. ‘I know that Daisy will be fine – more than fine. That’s enough for me.’

No. I shook my head. ‘Well, it’s not enough for me. We’re not at a disadvantage here. We’re from the future and we know what happens, so we’re in a position to change it. Athair won’t win. I don’t care who or what he is.’

I spoke every word with conviction – but I also felt certain that I was lying.

We spent several hours discussing possible actions and outcomes but unfortunately we couldn’t come to any conclusion. Then Baby Daisy woke up and started to squawk loudly in a manner that grated because I couldn’t believe I was capable of such a horrendous noise.

I excused myself to go in search of food. The Pembervilles’ friends who owned the flat had been absent for some time and the cupboards were bare; if I wanted to eat, I’d have to do some shopping. It was almost a relief; a bit of space and some fresh air would do me the world of good.

Borrowing a long coat that smelled faintly musty but looked clean enough, I slipped out before anyone noticed and padded down the communal stairs towards the front door of the building. A clean-shaven man, who appeared to be human, was standing by the row of mailboxes and perusing the letters. I walked past him and glanced at his face. A second later I glanced again.

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. ‘Sir Nigel?’

The man turned and blinked at me. He didn’t have a perfectly waxed handlebar moustache, and he wasn’t wearing a crisp suit and he was incredibly young, but it was definitely him. ‘Hello. Do I know you?’ he asked.

‘Uh, sorry. I mistook you for someone else.’ I was useless at time-travelling.

‘My name is actually Nigel, although I can’t remember ever being called sir.’ He smiled with the genuine warmth and ease that I knew from his older self. ‘Apart from when my mother decides I’m being too uppity and calls me out for it.’

Flustered, I tried to explain myself. I hadn’t ever questioned when Sir Nigel had been knighted; clearly it wasn’t a hereditary title. ‘That’s an incredible coincidence. I should have realised. The Nigel I know is much older than you.’ I forced a smile. ‘Have a good day.’

‘You, too.’

I turned and headed for the door but I’d barely touched the handle when Sir Nigel – or Nigel as he was at that moment – called out again. ‘You should take care out there,’ he said. ‘The sun is going down and there are a couple of vampires hanging about in the shadows over the road. They ignored me, so they’re probably not hungry.’ He grimaced. ‘But you can’t be too careful when bloodsuckers are around.’

I turned around slowly. ‘Vampires?’ I asked, trying to sound casual.

He was still smiling but his eyes were serious. ‘Yes. I spotted them on my way home. I’ll call it into the police and hopefully they’ll send a team out to take care of them.’ He sounded doubtful; he was obviously as aware as I now was of how the police dealt with the hordes of Edinburgh-based bloodsuckers.

I kept my voice even. ‘Do you often get vampires in this part of town?’

‘Very rarely,’ he admitted. ‘If ever. They tend to lurk in the less salubrious parts of the city where they’re more likely to come across hapless victims who can’t defend themselves.’

That figured; it was a sad fact of life that in both prosaic and supernatural matters, affluent neighbourhoods were safer. I rubbed the back of my neck, aware of the chill descending through my bones, then I thanked Nigel and returned at high speed to the flat. There would be no casual shopping now.

I burst through the door and it thudded loudly against the wall. Before I could say anything, Hugo marched out of the dining room and glared at me. ‘You left without me.’ He folded his arms.

‘I was gone for less than a minute. And it’s just as well that I was.’ He caught something in my voice and frowned. I raised my head and met his eyes. ‘We have to get out of here, Hugo. Athair is on his way.’

He didn’t ask if I was sure, demand an explanation or request more details; he believed me instantly. ‘Okay.’ His voice was low. ‘Let’s go.’