Reign of Beasts (27 page)

V
elody dozed for a little while, long enough to be thrown into the middle of a disorienting dream. Garnet lay draped over a gold throne, his eyes shining brightly. He looked as young as he had that nox when he stole a kiss and her animor in a single breath.

‘Tick tock, tick tock,' he teased. ‘Time to wake up, little mouse.'

She jolted awake and looked around. The Clockwork Court had no shelter. They were all huddled near the river, wrapped in blankets. They looked miserable and defeated. Celeste and Lysandor, down by the bank, were planning the strategy for the coming nox.

‘If only they had sentinels, they would have nests,' Kelpie hissed to Velody.

‘If only they had a Seer, they might know for certain that they are doomed,' Velody said back. ‘It's no use wondering about if only. All they have are the saints, and the dust.' And nests wouldn't protect them if the whole city was swallowed. ‘Where's Ashiol?'

Kelpie shrugged. ‘Gone.'

Velody swore. Trust him to slope off on his own without saying a word. ‘If ever a cat deserved to be leashed …'

Celeste was coming towards them, her face grave. ‘Where is Ashiol?' she demanded.

‘Gathering his strength,' said Velody, gazing right back at her, daring the other woman to challenge her word.

‘As long as he is here for the battle.'

‘Of course he will be,' said Velody, though she knew nothing of the sort.

It was a reasonable promise: if Ashiol hadn't got himself killed, chained up or drunk, he wouldn't miss a battle. Sadly, none of those possibilities were unrealistic. She glanced at Kelpie, who looked worried. Oh, yes. One way or another, Ashiol had to be in trouble.

Velody stood up. ‘Your pardon, Power and Majesty. We need to do something. We will return by nex fall.'

Celeste's smile was bitter. ‘We never expected you to stay for our fight. You have a city of your own to think about.'

‘Your expectations are meaningless to me,' Velody said flatly.

She took Kelpie's hand and they headed away through the city. ‘Where do you think he could have gone? He looked too damaged to walk.'

‘It's Ashiol — he could be up to anything.' Kelpie looked at her. ‘Are you really going to fight at their side? What if you die here? Aufleur needs you.'

‘Tierce could probably have done with me, too,' Velody pointed out. ‘We do what we can, where we can. This is our battle now. Only we have to get Ashiol back first.'

‘Right, then,' said Kelpie, stretching her battered body. ‘Train station or Palazzo?'

Velody gave her a hard look. ‘You think he might be running away?'

Kelpie grinned fiercely. ‘Of course not. He's not that smart.'

 

Ashiol was cold, shivering all over, his whole body dripping with sweat. He didn't know what the fuck the
Duc-Elected had dosed him with, but it was nothing familiar. He was going to die here, like this, helpless.

Every time he fell out of consciousness, he heard Garnet laughing at him.

He couldn't change shape. He rolled, tried to get out of the bed, but the blankets weighed him down and he fell with a crack to the floor, humiliated at his failure.

Some time later, cool hands lifted him back onto the bed. Cold, rigid hands.

Ashiol opened his eyes and stared into the face of a clockwork saint.

 

‘Saints,' Kelpie whispered. ‘All around the perimeter of the Palazzo.'

They were hiding at the edge of the oak grove, surveying the scene.

‘Are they there to keep us out or something in?' Velody muttered. She could not forget the sight of the mechanical men blasting the Emporium to pieces.

‘Does it matter? We can't get in, and we don't even know if he's in there.'

‘Of course he's in there,' said a voice.

Both women spun in alarm to see a young man standing before them. Falcon, Velody realised, her animor sparking in response to his. He wore a bright blue and ivory suit, but the dust and skysilver burn from the Emporium collapse still clung to his skin.

‘I know you,' said Kelpie. ‘You're one of those secretaries.'

‘He's Clockwork Court, too,' Velody warned.

Kelpie looked at her as if she had tried to teach her grandmam to darn socks. ‘Obviously. Question is, whose side is he on?'

‘Yours,' the young man said with a pout. At their sceptical looks, he added. ‘Ashiol's. He tried to convince the Duc-Elected to evacuate the city.'

Velody sighed. ‘Of course he did. He keeps forgetting that he's not ten feet tall. What happened?'

‘He tried to show them how animor works, but they didn't see it properly. They're just assuming that he's crazy.'

Above, the light was beginning to fade from the sky.

‘We can't get to him in time,' Kelpie said in frustration. ‘Not with all those saints standing between him and us.'

‘Yes,' said Velody patiently. ‘If only one of us had the power to become something small enough to escape their notice.'

Kelpie glared. ‘I liked you better when you weren't sarcastic all the time.'

‘No, you didn't.' Velody reached out and patted the arm of the secretary, who looked distressed and ill. ‘What's your name?'

‘Troyes,' he managed.

‘I think it wouldn't hurt to fetch a few more friends for this, don't you think, Troyes? Just in case stealth fails us. Backup is important.'

 

Ashiol was lost in the darkness now. There had been more drugs, he was fairly sure, something green and sticky that left a coating on his mouth. Dust clung to it, so he could taste Priest all the way down his throat.

Not Priest. The sky. The sky was not Priest. Priest was dead.

Ashiol was so far gone that his vision was almost clear again. He saw the Duc-Elected cross the floor, coughing, and saw the dust that emerged from his throat onto a handkerchief. He saw Velody under him, crying out, her skin so hot he couldn't bear to touch her. He saw Livilla, head thrown back in a laugh, only it wasn't Livilla at all, it was Tasha …

He saw Celeste, blood all over her white dress and wings, shrieking angry owl hoots at Garnet. A child. Not one of them had a child they hadn't stolen from someone else or
rescued from the streets. If Celeste had managed it, it had to mean something. Had to be for a reason.

The next drug they gave him made his skin so hot that he screamed. There were clockwork saints everywhere, holding him down, standing guard at the side of the Duc-Elected and his sons.

Dust. There was dust everywhere.

‘Forgive me for what I have done,' said Priest, sounding older and sadder than in the entire time Ashiol had known him. ‘I am not myself.'

Ashiol opened his eyes, squinting through damp eyelashes, and a mouse ran over his pillow.

He smiled.

 

Velody waited, her tiny heartbeat chiming the seconds, until the old man in the brocade suit and his clockwork saints had left the room. Then she called in the rest of her, one mouse at a time, and formed her own body. Naked, she leaned over the sweating, shaking figure of Ashiol.

‘Wake up,' she crooned. ‘Come on.'

He smelled of potions and salt, and he opened his eyes easily enough, but only to grin stupidly at her, his face feverish.

It wasn't endearing.

‘Nearly nox,' she said. ‘Snap out of it. We couldn't get Kelpie in; she's waiting at the trees. You can have her blood, as much of it as you like, but not yet. I need you on your feet.'

‘I love you,' he said dreamily, to the ceiling and not in any way to Velody. ‘You can't make me stop. You're mine now.'

Velody sighed. ‘Fine,' she said impatiently, and shaped herself into chimaera. The power buzzed through her muscles and broadened her back, and she was able to scoop him up from his bed as if he were a doll. He was heavy, but she was strong.

Somewhere, a clock was chiming. Everywhere, clocks were chiming, one after the other. The Palazzo shuddered with the sound of clocks heralding the hour.

Velody went to the balcony doors and pulled back the curtain. Three clockwork saints stood nearby, unmoving. She could hear every whirr and scrape of their inner workings.

‘You are too late, my dear,' said a voice.

Velody turned, and saw an older gentleman in a bright red velvet suit — the Duc-Elected — standing in the doorway.

‘We do not need protection from the likes of you,' he said politely. ‘As you can see, we have everything under control.'

Velody shifted into Lord form, her naked skin glowing white in the dim room, Ashiol's body still cradled in her powerful arms. ‘Your saints betrayed the Court.'

‘They did as they were expected to do.'

‘They're not defending the city,' she said angrily. ‘They're working for those … things that lie beyond the sky. Our enemy.'

‘Your enemy, perhaps,' said the Duc-Elected. He coughed discreetly into his handkerchief. ‘But what on earth made you think that we are supposed to defend the city from them?'

Velody stared at him. ‘You're behind this? You sold out your own city to them. Your own people!'

‘We will be safe beyond the sky. It is an honour that they want us there.'

‘Believe me, I've been there,' she grated. ‘It's nothing special.'

There was an eerie light in the Duc-Elected's eyes. ‘That is not for you to say.'

Velody made a quick step towards the balcony, but the clockwork saints clanked into her path, preventing her escape. She went chimaera and flew at the Duc-Elected. He
shoved back against her, unreasonably strong, and she stumbled, almost dropping Ashiol. She growled under her breath.

The glass doors shattered suddenly, shards falling everywhere. White owls and grey falcons filled the room with harsh cries.

The clockwork saints fell to pieces as a skysilver sword sliced through them as if they were made of cotton. Kelpie sat astride a lynx, swords bared, looking terribly pleased with herself. ‘Time to go!'

V
elody threw herself towards the balcony in chimaera form, dragging Ashiol into the sky. It was so close to nox, but she couldn't think about that now.

They made it outside the city bounds, and Velody lay Ashiol down. She returned to her own shape, and brushed his cheek with her hand. He barely seemed aware that she was there.

‘Those bastards,' said Lysandor, changing from lynx to Lord form once Kelpie was on her own feet. ‘What did they give him?'

‘I don't know,' said Velody, checking Ashiol's eyes and peering down his throat. ‘The dust devils did this in Aufleur, or they tried to. They got into Priest to pull the Creature Court apart from the inside, and they got under the skin of the Duchessa, used her to lower the city's defences.'

‘Tierce, too,' said Lysandor. ‘Must have been.'

Velody slid her hands under Ashiol's shirt, touching his bare skin. ‘Come back to us,' she said, and pushed at him with her animor. She pictured her power brushing against his, and then pressing more firmly. Then she visualised the potions inside him, alien and poisonous. She flexed her animor hard.

Ashiol screamed and choked as liquid filled his mouth. Velody pulled him onto his side, with Lysandor's help, and Ashiol vomited onto the paving stones, sticky, dark green gunk.

‘He should feel much better for that,' Kelpie suggested.

Colour was beginning to streak across the fading sky.

‘It's starting,' Lysandor said gravely. He clapped Troyes on the shoulder. ‘Up for another battle, aye? Who needs sleep?'

Troyes laughed faintly.

Velody looked around. ‘Where is Celeste?'

‘I'm here.' Celeste walked out of the city on foot, holding the hand of her daughter. The child looked untroubled. ‘I have to ask a favour of you.'

‘You can't leave her with strangers,' Lysandor protested.

‘Ashiol isn't a stranger.'

‘Ashiol can hardly walk upright; he's in no position to help anyone.'

‘What are you talking about?' Velody interrupted.

‘We have to fight for our city,' said Celeste. ‘If we fail, I need to know Lucia is safe.'

Kelpie swore under her breath.

‘I was planning on fighting at your side,' said Velody. ‘We all were.' She looked down at Ashiol, who was now groaning and half-conscious. ‘We're not going to leave you to battle this alone.'

‘If Velody fights at our side,' Lysandor told Celeste, hope lighting his eyes, ‘you could stay out of it.'

‘Don't be a fool,' she said sharply. ‘Bazeppe needs all of us. All the power we can muster.'

‘Lucia needs a mother,' he countered.

‘And a father.'

They stared at each other.

Ashiol muttered something and spat more green onto the cobbles.

‘This is why we don't have families,' Kelpie translated.

‘We've been lucky so far,' said Celeste. ‘But I am the Power and Majesty here. I have a duty.'

‘Oh, for saints' sake,' Kelpie said crossly. ‘I'll look after the pup. But one of you had better come back. I'm not the mothering kind.'

Celeste squeezed her daughter's hand. ‘Will you stay with the nice demoiselle while Mama fights the sky?'

‘She doesn't look like a nice demoiselle,' said Lucia clearly. She eyed Kelpie. ‘Can I play with your swords?'

Kelpie shrugged. ‘Sure.'

 

The sky peeled back in layers of light, each more fierce than the last. ‘And here they come,' Velody said beneath her breath.

The dust devils poured out, one after another. They ignored the Clockwork Court, who hovered battle-ready at cloud height, and streaked straight towards the remains of the Emporium.

‘Ha,' said Celeste with some satisfaction.

‘Try making your bodies solid with that.' They had put every piece of skysilver from the wreckage on the last train to Aufleur. It was too far away, and the dust devils were too late.

Velody was just pleased her idea had worked. ‘Incoming,' she warned, and then the devils were upon them, swarming from underneath, their eyes glowing fiercely.

There was clanking and whirring in the streets below and the remaining clockwork saints processed down from the Palazzo to join the battle.

‘Hope you've got a really good war cry,' said Celeste.

‘I've been working on it,' said Velody, and then the battle started and there was no more time for bravado.

The dust got everywhere, in their mouths, against their skin, biting hard. And every time a wave of the devils was blasted from the sky by the Clockwork Court, there were more to take their place.

Lysandor was killed when a dust devil sank inside him, its false fingers bursting him from the inside out. It wore his skin for a moment, laughing with his mouth, and then tore him to ribbons so that there was no mistaking it.

Celeste did not react, and Velody thought she had not seen it; but she fought with greater rigor, her animor slashing out of her in fiery white bursts, and oh yes, Velody realised: she knew.

 

Ashiol dreamed of Garnet, who was poisoning him. One drop of skysilver in every measure of imperium. They drank, and glared at each other, and each mouthful was pain.

‘Hate you,' said Ashiol.

‘No, you never will,' said Garnet with glee.

Footsteps sounded outside the room. The handle turned.

‘Here you both are,' said Lysandor. ‘Livilla's in a foul mood and, as the only one not sleeping with her, I nominate one of you bastards to deal with it.'

‘Livilla's dead,' Ashiol blurted.

Lysandor looked unimpressed. ‘We're all dead. I hardly think that counts as a valid excuse.'

Ashiol let out a startled laugh. ‘I missed you. Someone around here has to be sane.'

 

It was not yet full dark when the last of the courtesi died. There were three Lords left, and then two.

Troyes, the Falcon Lord, lost half his leg in a cloudburst that came close to sucking him entirely into the sky. He fought his way free and Velody went to help him, but it was too late, the blood pouring out too fast. He changed to bird form, but the wound was still there, and he fell, crying out only once as he dropped from the sky.

The dust devils kept coming, faster and faster, shining brighter, and the city buildings were smashed below them, one by one.

The Palazzo was ground to pieces. Velody could not find it in her to be sorry, though a small inner part of her was horrified at the deaths. The servants. The people of the city. So many; too many nameless faces to care about.

Finally it was just the two of them, Velody and Celeste, fighting back to back as the dust devils closed in around them.

‘We should have just let the fucking city fall,' said Celeste through a rubbed-dry throat. ‘We shouldn't have tried. There was a train. We could have got on it.'

‘What else were we going to do?' Velody demanded.

Saving the city was everything. She had been doing this for only half a year and she knew it in her blood and her bones. There was nothing else but this: fighting and struggling against the sky. Postponing the inevitable, perhaps, but that was life for you.

‘I'm sorry you're going to die,' said Celeste, still unwavering.

‘Be sorry for your daughter,' Velody snapped.

The sky was so bright she could hardly see, and even in her chimaera form her muscles ached with exhaustion.
Help
, she thought desperately, hoping for some kind of miracle, hoping for Ashiol to climb out of his fugue and come to her aid, hoping for sentinels and Lords and Court to stand at her side.

There was blood dripping into her eyes, and she could barely move one of her wings after the last firebolt that had scorched across the top layer of skin. She would give anything right now for familiar faces, for Warlord and Livilla and Priest and Poet.

Seriously?
a voice said inside her head.
After everything, that's what you ask for?

Garnet. Bloody Garnet, so far away. How desperate was she that her call had reached him?

Tierce was on her mind. That must be it.

It's the least you owe me,
she sent to him, expecting nothing.

True enough. But now you will owe me, I think.

And then blissful animor was pouring into her from an unseen place, filling her veins with power so bright that it put the sky to shame.

Oh, yes. That.

Velody spun around and seized hold of Celeste as the world flared fiercely around them. The sky itself flickered and disappeared.

They hit the railway platform rolling, their skin charred from battle, both gasping for breath.

‘How did we —' Celeste began to say, then choked out a breath as her daughter hit her hard, wrapping her arms around her waist and burying a tiny tear-streaked face in her stomach.

Ashiol was sitting up, leaning against the wall of the station, his face grey.

‘You're alive, then,' said Velody, not knowing what else to say.

‘You, too,' he noted without inflection.

The city of Bazeppe creaked and groaned behind them.

‘We should go back,' said Celeste, her face buried in Lucia's coat.

‘It's too late,' said Velody. ‘It's gone.'

The city screamed, and, as they watched, the paved streets tore loose from the ground and hovered, the bronze-coloured buildings seeming to float in the air. The railway platform buckled under them, but held fast. The sky blazed like salamander fire, bright enough to sear the eyes. And then it was calm, and the city was gone.

Silence fell over the survivors on the platform.

‘I always thought,' Ashiol said slowly, his tongue getting in the way of making coherent words, ‘that if we had gone to Tierce's aid, if we had listened to Heliora's warning and
Garnet had allowed us to leave, we might have saved them. I don't think that's true.'

‘No,' said Velody. It was so dark out there with the city gone. No lamps were lit, except the one above them. ‘If they want to take us, they just … take.'

‘Enough to make you think we might have been wasting our time all these years,' Ashiol said. He smiled wearily, an old man of a smile. ‘We're going to need to travel on foot. By tomorrow, no one will remember why trains ever ran this far south.'

‘Can you walk?' Velody asked him.

He looked offended. ‘That's hardly relevant.'

Celeste and Lucia were crying softly together, wrapped in each other's pain.

‘What are we going to do about Aufleur?' Kelpie said to the empty air.

Neither Ashiol nor Velody had an answer for her, and Celeste was too busy holding her daughter to say a word.