Faerie Wars 03 - Ruler of the Realm (28 page)

But that sort of thinking wouldn't get Blue back and stop a civil war.

Pyrgus drew his Halek knife. The fine-wrought blue crystal blade reflected back the light from the glasshouse. Would it shatter, if he used it on the glass? One chance in three, the soldier said.

Pyrgus hesitated. What if he used it and it only broke through a single pane? That could easily happen if each one was coated individually. Some panes were large enough for him to squeeze through, but many of them weren't. He'd have to pick his target carefully - he certainly wasn't going to risk using his Halek blade more than once.

He circled the building again, paying close attention to its structure this time. Then he circled it again and stopped in front of the entrance door. It was constructed of one large pane and several smaller. He could squeeze through the large pane provided it shattered entirely. But the thing was, if only part of it broke he might still be able to reach through and open the door from the inside. It was very unlikely that Merchant Ogyris would have ordered interior coatings. The point was to keep people out, not threaten anybody who happened to be working inside.

Pyrgus licked his lips and tapped the blade absently against the palm of his left hand. Did he have the courage to do this? He could feel the tingle of the trapped forces as they writhed beneath the surface. One chance in three that he was seconds away from death.

He thought of Blue and stabbed the glass.

The result was astounding. Magical energies surged from the blade, but the blade itself did not break. (It didn't break!
Yes!
Thank you, Powers of Light!) The pane cracked loudly, then fell in a tinkling heap at his feet. But before he could move, cracks were spidering across every surface of the building. Pane after pane shattered, sending shards tumbling. The snapping sounds grew louder. The cracks spread further and further. Huge plates of glass fell forward to smash into the growing heap of fragments on the ground. Whole panes fell out intact, then broke as they hit. In seconds, Pyrgus was surrounded by a tempest of broken glass. The noise was mind-numbing.

'Whoops,' Pyrgus murmured.

He was standing beside the naked skeleton of a glasshouse. Not one single pane survived intact. There was no way the noise could have gone unnoticed. He had minutes at best to do what was needed. After that, the guards were here for sure.

Pyrgus sheathed his blade and stepped through the empty doorway, his shoes crunching on the broken glass. The growglobes had survived, strung high above from the framework of the building. There was broken glass inside but the crystal flowers seemed miraculously intact.

He glanced around guiltily. It was a total mess. He was in so much trouble now. With Merchant Ogyris. With Gela. Probably with half the Realm. The destruction was
unreal!'

But no time to worry about that. Close up he could see Gela was right - the flowers were living things. Their stems were planted in rich earth with a newfangled thread system providing nourishment and moisture. Some of them even had small shoots sprouting at the base.

He still had no idea what they were and precious little time to find out.

He'd already risked so much now that any other risk seemed small. He reached out, snapped the stem of the nearest flower and dropped it into his pocket. He'd never find the secret of the flowers here. His only hope was to carry some away and investigate them later, hopefully with some help from people who knew more about all this than he did.

He was reaching for another crystal bloom when the guards fell on him like a tree.

Pyrgus fought like a fury. But guards were racing in from all directions until he was surrounded by a milling mass of close on a hundred. Even if he'd used the Halek blade again he'd never have broken out. In moments he was on the ground, wrestled down by the weight of bodies.

'Hold him, boys!' a coarse voice ordered.

Two of the boys grabbed his arms. Two more helped to drag him to his feet. Pyrgus stopped struggling. He was ringed by men now, every one of them a lot more heavily armed than he was.

'Shall I search him, sir?' someone asked. 'He may be carrying a weapon.'

'I'm carrying a pass from Madame Ogyris,' Pyrgus said.

'Pass, is it?' asked the officer. He looked pointedly at the massive wreckage of the glasshouse.

'Let me show you,' Pyrgus offered. There was no chance the pass would make a difference, but if he played for time he might think of something more sensible.

He felt one of the soldiers loosen the grip on his arm and jerked it free. The man didn't bother to grab it back: Pyrgus wasn't going anywhere.

'I have it here,' Pyrgus said. It occurred to him it might change things if he told them who he was. They could decide to kill him on the spot, of course, but he
was
still a Prince of the Realm, so they might think of handing him back to the palace authorities. Or they might decide to bounce on their noses all the way to Haleklind. But whatever. He had to do
something.

He reached into his pocket for the pass and his hand closed over the crystal flower. As he began to draw it out, one of the soldiers shouted, 'Watch out - he's got a weapon!'

Half a dozen men hurled themselves upon him again. Pyrgus's arm jerked and his hand tightened convulsively. The bloom dissolved into glittering dust beneath his fingers.

All movement stopped. The guards stood frozen as if turned to stone.

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.'

'The flowers stop time!' Pyrgus announced dramatically. He could hardly believe it himself, but he was excited and frightened all at once. The only problem was he still didn't know where Henry had taken Blue. But now he knew
how
and maybe they could work it out from that.

Mr Fogarty, still in his nightshirt and bedsocks, glared at him. 'What's that supposed to mean?' he asked.

'They stop time!' Pyrgus repeated. 'I was surrounded by guards and I crushed a flower and it stopped time. The guards froze, but I could still move. That's how I got away.'

'Stasis spell?' Fogarty frowned.

'No,' Pyrgus said excitedly. 'The flowers
stop time.
Time stops for everybody except the person who crushes the flower. I just walked away, got into my flyer and zipped back here.' He looked at Mr Fogarty, grinning like an idiot. 'The trip back took
five minutest
But that's because time was stopped for most of the journey. That's how I knew it wasn't a stasis spell. It's like the flower surrounds you with a bubble and the bubble's outside everybody else's time and you can race about and do things while they're all waiting for the next clock tick. If it hadn't worn off before I got here, I wouldn't be able to talk to you now.' Fogarty said, 'Guards

Madame Cardui said, 'You got into trouble with Merchant Ogyris's guards?' She looked away from him towards the window and smiled. They were in a private room of the palace, overlooking the rose garden.

'Another diplomatic mess,' said Mr Fogarty dryly, although he didn't look displeased either.

Madame Cardui turned to Pyrgus. 'By the bye, deeah, what did you do with Kitterick?'

'Ah,' said Pyrgus, suddenly embarrassed.

'Ah?' asked Madame Cardui, one eyebrow raised.

'I sort of ... left him,' Pyrgus said.

'Was that because he was outside your time?'

Pyrgus wasn't at all sure how he should put this. Eventually he said, 'No, actually, Madame Cardui. I mean, he probably was - outside my time - I didn't check. I just ...' this was definitely the tricky bit, '... sort of forgot about him.' It was hideously embarrassing, but no more than the truth. He'd had a lot of things on his mind when he left the Ogyris Estate. He looked sheepishly at Madame Cardui, waiting for the outburst.

But all she said was, 'Will he be all right?'

He will if Merchant Ogyris doesn't come home unexpectedly,
Pyrgus thought. Aloud, he said, 'He's probably on his way back now. Kitterick can look after himself.'

'Well, yes, that's certainly true.'

'How long does it last?' Fogarty asked suddenly. He was looking at Pyrgus.

Pyrgus looked at him blankly. 'What?'

'The time-stop,' Fogarty said impatiently. 'That's what we're talking about, isn't it? How long? A minute? Five minutes? A couple of hours?'

'I don't know,' Pyrgus said. 'From my point of view it wasn't any time at all.'

'How many of these flowers were there?'

'Oh, dozens,' Pyrgus said. 'Hundreds. Maybe a thousand.'

'I don't suppose you brought any back with you?'

Pyrgus shook his head. 'No, Mr Fogarty.'

'I don't suppose you destroyed the rest?'

Pyrgus thought of the wreckage of the great glasshouse. 'I ... sort of broke the place they were growing in, so I don't think Merchant Ogyris can grow any more until he fixes it. But the flowers didn't wilt or anything. I think the worst it would do is stop them growing. I'm sure they won't really
die,
at least not quickly - they're made from rock crystal.'

Mr Fogarty didn't seem to be really listening. 'I don't suppose you found out where Blue is?'

Pyrgus said eagerly, 'Not exactly, but now we know how Henry took her away. He must have crushed one of those flowers and the bubble must have taken in Blue as well as him. Once you're in the bubble, you can go anywhere, do anything. Nobody can stop you.'

'Why would he have taken Blue?' Madame Cardui mused. 'I'm sure he wouldn't harm her. Don't you think so, deeah?'

Fogarty stood up abruptly. 'OK, you two, come with me.'