Ruler of the Realm

Sixty-two

Blue stared at him. ‘With you?’

Henry looked hideously embarrassed. ‘It’s a bit complicated,’ he said.

‘Then you’d better explain,’ Blue told him.

Henry went across to sit on the bed, then jumped up again as if he’d been stung. ‘Sorry,’ he said, without making clear what for. He glanced at Blue and licked his lips. ‘They put a thing in my face.’

Blue waited. She wanted to put her arms round Henry and comfort him again, but she had to know what was happening and know it fast.

‘Go on,’ she said.

‘They pushed it through the side of my eye.’ He caught her expression and added quickly, ‘It’s like the way they can take you through walls with that blue light. It doesn’t damage your eye or anything, but it’s still jolly sore. And scary.’

‘Go on,’ Blue said again.

‘It’s a thing that links you with the Hellmind.’

She’d never heard the term before. ‘What’s the Haelmind?’

‘It’s the demon’s Internet.’ He caught her blank expression and said quickly, ‘It’s a sort of mental broadcast thing that lets their leader tell them what to do.’

Blue frowned. ‘You mean Beleth?’

Henry nodded. ‘Yes, Beleth. The Hellmind is his communications network.’

‘I don’t understand this,’ Blue said. She wasn’t sure if she should be feeling impatient. Henry could sometimes be very roundabout when he tried to tell you anything.

‘I’m not sure I do either,’ Henry said. ‘Not exactly, anyway. I think it’s some sort of mental network. I don’t know if it’s natural or something they invented. But it lets Beleth pass on orders very quickly.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘And makes sure you obey them.’

There was a long silence. Blue was wondering why nobody had told her about the Haelmind before. But perhaps nobody knew. Faeries of the Light avoided contact with demons and even the Nighters didn’t understand them entirely. Everybody knew demons were basically evil, but far more than that, they were different. Maybe faeries had never realised how different. Or maybe it was some new technology they’d invented, as Henry said.

Eventually she asked, ‘They put something in your brain that links you to this thing?’

‘They can activate it at a distance. It’s off now.’ He hesitated. ‘When it’s on, I’m a demon too.’

‘You mean you’re possessed?’ She remembered the horrid sensation of Black John crawling inside her skull.

‘It’s worse than that,’ Henry whispered. ‘I get changed completely.’

It was beginning to sink in, and making Blue afraid. ‘You become a demon?’

Henry nodded. ‘Yes.’