Ruler of the Realm

Fifty-nine

The demons carried Blue into a different room.

There was a strange bed with a bright red counterpane and ridged metallic tubes snaking from its underside to disappear into the floor. Glowglobes in the ceiling were set low to a soft pink light so that shadows crawled out of darkened corners. There was a viewscreen set into one wall. There was nothing else.

The demons withdrew. Henry collapsed in a heap on the floor.

‘Oh God, Blue,’ he wailed, ‘I’m so sorry!’

Blue’s paralysis broke and the slime of Hael control slipped from her mind. She spun round as the door slid shut. Henry was weeping now, but it was the old Henry, the one she knew, not the thing that had been talking through him. She knelt beside him, hesitated, then placed one hand on his shaking shoulder.

‘What happened?’ she asked softly.

For a moment he couldn’t answer, couldn’t even look up. Then he turned his tear-stained face towards her.

‘They made me do it, Blue,’ he said.

Blue cradled his head like a child. ‘I know, Henry. I know.’

They stayed like that, huddled together on the floor, for a long time. Eventually the weeping stopped and Henry pulled away gently.

‘I’m fine now. I’m better.’

Blue said, ‘I need to know what’s happening. I need to know what’s going on.’ She hesitated. ‘Do you know?’ She wasn’t sure how much he’d remember.

Henry started to climb to his feet. He looked wretched, almost ill. For some reason he avoided catching her eye.

‘They told you about their breeding programme,’ he muttered.

Blue shuddered, thinking of Black John. ‘It won’t happen,’ she said firmly. ‘I’d kill myself first.’ She caught his expression. ‘What’s wrong? You can’t believe I’d…? With a demon?’

Henry said, ‘It’s not with a demon, Blue. It’s with me.’