The Little Secret
Chapter 1-
(starts with Chapter 21 of City of Heavenly Fire= ' 'part of the original book)
'"God, my head," Alec said as he and Jace knelt beside a ridge of rock that crowned the top of a gray, scree-covered hill. The rock gave them cover, and past it, using Farsighted runes, they could see the half-ruined fortress, and all around it, Dark Shadowhunters clustered like ants.
It was like a warped mirror of Alicante's Gard Hill. The structure atop it resembled the Gard they knew, but with a massive wall around it, the fortress enclosed within like a garden in a cloister.
"Maybe you shouldn't have drunk so much last night," Jace said, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes. All around the wall the Endarkened stood in concentric rings, a tight group in front of the gates that led inside. There were smaller groups of them at strategic points up and down the hill. Alec could see Jace computing the numbers of the enemy, considering and discarding strategies in his head.
"Maybe you should try looking a little less smug about what you did last night," said Alec.
Jace nearly fell off the ridge. "I do not look smug. Well," he amended, "no more than usual."
"Please," Alec said, pulling out his stele. "I can read your face like a very open, very pornographic book. I wish I couldn't."
"Is this your way of telling me to shut my face?" Jace inquired.
"Remember when you mocked me for sneaking around with Magnus and asked me if I'd fallen on my neck?" Alec asked, placing the tip of the stele against his forearm and starting to draw an iratze. "This is payback."
Jace snorted and grabbed the stele from Alec. "Give me that," he said, and finished off the iratze for him, with his usual messy flourish. Alec felt the numbing kick as his headache started to recede. Jace turned his attention back to the hill.
"You know what's interesting?" he said. "I've seen a few flying demons, but they're staying well away from the Dark Gard—"
Alec raised an eyebrow. "Dark Gard?"
"Got a better name?" Jace shrugged. "Anyway, they're staying away from the Dark Gard and the hill. They serve Sebastian, but they seem to be respecting his space."
"Well, they can't be too far away," said Alec. "They got to the Accords Hall pretty fast when you triggered that alarm."
"They could be inside the fortress," said Jace, voicing what they were both thinking.
"I wish you'd managed to get the skeptron," Alec said, in a subdued voice. "I got the feeling it could take out a lot of demons. If it still worked, after all these years." Jace had an odd expression on his face. Alec hastened to add, "Not that anyone could have gotten it. You tried—"
"I'm not so sure," Jace said, his expression both calculating and faraway.
"Come on, let's get back to the others,"' Alec replied. He had begun to stand up when Jace pulled him down and said "Wait, did you see that?"
"No, what?"
Jace shook his head. "Never mind, I thought I saw some movement over by that rock."
" Then we better get going, it might be a-" Alec started but was cut of by a scream.
Both boys glanced at each other then looked above the rock. A nearby Endarkend warrior was clutching its stomach, red staining their hands. Next to the warrior was a small child dressed in black with a bloody seraph blade in hand. The warrior lifted one hand, pointed it at the girl and hollered "GET HER!"
The small girl sprung into action, slashing and hitting anyone who got in her way. She ran off and disappeared into the darkness, Endarkend warriors hot on her tail.
"Alec, do my eyes deceive me or was that a little shadow hunter?"
Alec shook his head in confusion and replied " I don't know, but it could have been a eidolon, or a demon trying to trick you into helping them. It's most likely a trap."
Jace shuddered, remembering the demon that provoked his near death by heavenly fire, and nodded. "Your probably right, let's just get back to the others."
'There was no time to reply; Jace was already retreating. Alec followed him, crawling backward, out of range of sight of the Dark Gard. Once they had gone enough of a distance, they straightened up and half-slid down the scree slope to where the others were waiting. Simon was standing by Izzy, and Clary had her sketchpad and a pen out and was drawing runes. From the way she was shaking her head, tearing out the pages and crumpling them up in her hand, it wasn't going as well as she might have liked.
"Are you littering?" Jace demanded as he and Alec jogged to a stop beside the other three.
Clary glared at him.
"Jace, this world has been burned to a cinder, and every living creature is dead," Clary said. "I'm fairly sure there's no one left to recycle."'
Jace said "Ok, ok. Clary, can we talk in private?"
She nodded, grabbed his hand, and walked over to the start of the slope.
Alec grunted, rolled his eyes and plopped on the ground.
"Alec, if your going to sulk, go somewhere else. I would much rather you tell us what you saw, but hey it's your choice." Isabelle remarked.
Alec glared at her, got up and starred to retell what had happened.