The Demi-Monde: Summer (48 page)

That was when he saw the tiny Chink girl who had bested him slink out of the door and limp in the direction of the postern gate. He knew instinctively that the bitch must have heard him giving instructions to Borgia about where the horses were hidden.

Suddenly there was an explosion from Ptah’s laboratory and as the Amazons rushed to take cover, Chazaqijal seized his chance, hobbling after the Chink, his hatred making him oblivious to the pain racking his body. He would have his revenge.

It took thirty minutes before the temple spire was in sight and Dong E knew that she was close to the SheTong’s safe house. Very gingerly she urged the horse on – she didn’t like the way it had been wheezing for the last couple of minutes – and finally came to the door of the house. She dismounted and tethered the horse then looked around anxiously: she had the troubling thought that she’d been followed.

Before Dong E realised what was happening, the vampyre was on her, his enormously powerful hands closing around her neck, crushing the breath out of her. In an instant she was struggling for her life, his fingernails gouging into her skin, his thumbs pressing down savagely onto her windpipe. He was
like something from the depths of Hel, his face horribly scarred and his right eye red and blank.

‘So I have you, bitch. Now you must suffer the fury of the Grigori.’

With that the man redoubled his efforts to throttle her. Desperately she grappled with him, trying to pull his hands away, trying to claw at his eyes, but he was too strong … amazingly strong. A red mist shaded her sight. She heard a rattle in her throat. She knew she was losing her fight for life.

There was the crack of a rifle shot. The Grigori sagged like a deflating balloon, his hands relaxed and then he sank to the ground. As Dong E collapsed to her knees in choking confusion beside his body, she felt a dark presence at her elbow. Looking up, she found herself peering into the face of Su Xiaoxiao.

‘Su Xiaoxiao?’ she gasped. ‘But how did you find me?’

‘Don’t you know, Dong E, that a mother always knows when her daughter is in danger?’

Behind her, Hereji-Jo Castle was being consumed by fire, but Lucrezia Borgia gave it not a thought. She simply yanked the horse’s head towards the Forbidding City and lashed its flanks with her whip.

The past was of no interest to her, all that mattered was the future … her future.

Just as dawn was breaking she was striding – wet, cold and travel-soiled – through the corridors of the Forbidding City,
her mind racing as she weighed strategies and options, balancing risk with gain. Events were moving rapidly and it behoved any who desired power – and none desired it as fervently as Lucrezia Borgia – to grasp the opportunities presented by those events. Mao’s assassination had elevated her to the second-highest position in the Coven and given her access to the Forbidding Palace, and the appointment of Amina Zaria as the replacement for the traitor Trixie Dashwood meant that she had effective control of the Covenite army: Amina was a very obedient lover.

Yes, now was her moment of destiny.

She turned to Imperial NoN Wang Jingwei, the NoN who had replaced Mao as Guardian of the Imperial Bedchamber, who was trotting along whimpering and fretting at her side.

‘NoN Wang Jingwei,’ she asked, ‘do you wish to live?’

Wang Jingwei gawped at her and then twisted his head from side to side, checking that their conversation wasn’t being overheard. ‘Of course, Imperial Administrator,’ he whispered.

‘Project YiYi is no more; the Plague weapon has been destroyed.’

‘You are sure?’ There was a distinct tremble on the NoN’s bottom lip as he imagined the awful consequences of that piece of news.

‘Saboteurs detonated bombs in the Fermentation Plant. I was there; I saw and heard the destruction.’ She stopped and stared at the NoN. ‘You realise the implications?’

A nod from Wang Jingwei. ‘The ForthRight will triumph.’

That was now a certainty and there was no point, as Lucrezia Borgia judged it, in denying what was inevitable. The ForthRight would conquer the Coven and so the best ploy would be for her to align herself with Heydrich and, of course, Crowley. Better to reign in a Coven that was a mere satellite of the ForthRight than to commune with her ancestors.

‘Indeed. But before that I expect the Empress to purge all those she thinks are responsible for her defeat. The Empress Wu is nothing if not vindictive and I think she will blame the remaining NoNs in the Forbidding City for her failure.’ Wang Jingwei had the courtesy to blanch at the prospect. ‘So I ask again: do you wish to live?’

The implications of this simple question were stark. The NoN did not hesitate. ‘Yes.’

‘Are the guardFemmes who protect the Empress loyal to you?’

‘No … but they will obey Noble Consort Yu Lang.’

‘Really? But they are oath-bound to sacrifice their lives to protect the Empress.’

‘Oath-bound or not, the Plucking of all the Fresh Blooms, following the treachery of Dong E, was a fearful thing and many of the guardFemmes had lovers amongst them. They doubt an Empress who orders such a purging can retain the Grace of ABBA, and hence suspect their oaths have no validity.’ Wang Jingwei shuffled his feet nervously. ‘But even so, Imperial Administrator Borgia, I doubt whether they would put their souls at risk by assassinating the Empress.’

A laugh from Borgia. ‘I am not asking them to do something so … direct. You should advise Noble Consort Yu Lang that I do not require them to harm the Empress, merely not to intervene to
prevent
her being harmed. Will she do this?’

There wasn’t the merest hesitation in Wang Jingwei giving his reply, ‘Yes.’

A strange calm descended on Lucrezia Borgia as she walked across the floor of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This was the moment when she would grasp her destiny and become all that she should become. This was the moment when she would step out of the shadows and into the glare of the limelight of
HerTory. She would become Empress or she would die in the attempt.

She stopped at the kowtow line, but before she could perform her devotions, the Empress interrupted. ‘Is it true? Is it true?’ she squawked. ‘Is it true what the semaphore messages tell us? Is it true that Hereji-Jo Castle has been attacked and the Plague weapon destroyed?’

As she walked towards the Dragon Throne – the Empress seemingly oblivious to the contravention of Li this entailed – she could see the Empress was wide-eyed and nigh on hysterical. Disgusting … in her opinion, an Empress should never display weakness or emotion. But such weakness and emotion did offer opportunities: the stupid Femme would not be thinking straight.

Borgia bowed. ‘Yes, Your Majesty. I have just returned from Hereji-Jo Castle where I saw with my own eyes the destruction of the Fermenting Plant.’

The Empress seemed to wither, sinking back into the Dragon Throne looking old and broken. ‘Then what is to be done?’

‘Your Majesty … this is a dark moment for the Coven, but I believe we have an opportunity even at this late hour to snatch victory from defeat.’ She looked around at the courtiers gathered in the room as though assessing their trustworthiness. ‘Unfortunately, Your Majesty, there are traitors to HerEticalism everywhere.’

‘Clear the room! Clear the room!’ the Empress screamed and she waved her hands around urging her courtiers and servants from the Hall. Only when the room was emptied of everyone apart from her guardFemmes and the Imperial Administrator did the Empress signal that Borgia should continue. ‘So what is this secret intelligence, Imperial Administrator?’

‘If I might approach the Dragon Throne? Even the walls in the Forbidding City have ears.’

The Empress gave an impatient nod and Borgia quickly ascended the steps leading to the throne. As she drew nearer to the Empress, the toll the stress and strain of the last few weeks had levied on her became more obvious. There were deep – though skilfully disguised – shadows under her eyes and her hands were trembling: she was a nervous wreck.

With a smile Lucrezia Borgia leant closer to her Empress. ‘Your Majesty, I have learnt through my own cryptos that traitorous NoNs have been poisoning the river cucumbers of which you are so fond.’

‘What …?’ gasped the Empress.

‘They have been administering a slow-acting poison.’

‘Those bastard NoNs want us dead?’

‘Yes, Your Majesty, they are all disciples of that villainous NoN, Heii.’

‘Yes, yes. We see now,’ the Empress gabbled. ‘They poisoned us. That is why we were no longer able to commune with ABBA, that was why the divinations of the iChing were so inauspicious.’ Her face set in a scowl. ‘We should have destroyed all the NoNs when Heii betrayed us. We should have known that only Femmes like you, our trusted Imperial Administrator, could be relied on.’

‘Exactly, Your Majesty. But I am pleased to advise you that I have acquired an antidote to this poison.’ Here Borgia tapped the large ring on the index finger of her left hand. ‘If you would permit me?’

An eager nod from the Empress, and Borgia slid the emerald adorning the ring to one side and poured the powder hidden in the recess beneath into a glass of Solution. A smell of almonds immediately engulfed them. ‘The antidote is perfectly harmless, Your Majesty, and will render the poisons in your body impotent. Just this single drink will make you as one with ABBA.’

Even as a frantic Empress grabbed the glass, the guard-Femme who acted as her food taster stepped forward, but she was waved away. ‘Not now, you fool, the Imperial Administrator is trying to save our life, not take it.’ With that she swirled the red Solution around to ensure that all of the powder had been dissolved and then drank it down.

Borgia stepped back in order to better see the effect the cyanide had on the woman. To assassinate the Empress she had shunned cantarella, her poison of choice, on the grounds that it was too slow-acting. She had instead chosen to use cyanide, the effects of which were almost immediate. Even as she watched, Empress Wu clutched at her throat and began making strange gasping sounds.

‘What …?’ she croaked.

‘Have Imperial NoN Wang Jingwei attend the Empress!’ she ordered and a guardFemme scuttled off to carry out the order.

When a breathless Wang Jingwei scampered into the Hall, Borgia gave more orders. ‘Have a semaphore message sent to GeneralFemme Amina that Imperial Edict 723 is to be put into immediate effect.’

She was interrupted by the Empress tumbling down the steps to land in a twitching heap on the floor of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The Empress’s face had taken on a decidedly blue tinge, her eyes were bulging and foam and spittle were oozing from her mouth. The Femme looked, Borgia decided, disgusting. She turned away and was shocked to see that the Imperial NoN hadn’t moved; the sight of his Empress writhing in her death throes seemed to have driven all thoughts of obedience from his mind.

‘Imperial NoN Wang Jingwei, I have issued an order! It is imperative that the instruction regarding Imperial Edict 723 is communicated without delay.’

The threat in Borgia’s voice seemed to shake the NoN out of his trance. He tore his eyes away from the Empress as she shuddered and shook on the floor. ‘I am not familiar with Imperial Edict 723, Imperial Administrator Borgia.’

‘It relates to the armistice between the ForthRight and the Coven. Hostilities between our two Sectors will cease immediately and the gates of the Great Wall will be thrown open to allow the ForthRight Army entry to Beijing.’ This was the agreement she had reached with Crowley: she would have the Coven surrender in exchange for being acknowledged as the rightful Empress by the ForthRight. ‘Only in this way, Imperial NoN Wang Jingwei, will we end the terrible suffering of my people.’

‘But only the Empress may issue Imperial Edicts.’

‘The law of the Coven states that upon the death of the Empress, if she dies childless, the Imperial Administrator shall take the throne, so be sure to sign the message “By Order of Empress Lucrezia Borgia”.’ She nudged the body of Empress Wu with the toe of her boot. ‘Yes, I think we can definitely say that the reign of Empress Wu is at an end.’ She smiled. ‘And there is one other thing. Have Dr Merit Ptah taken into protective custody.’ Now that Hereji Jo had been destroyed, the only person who possessed the secrets of the Plague was Ptah. The Femme would make a very valuable bargaining chip in the negotiations she would be having with Heydrich.

Still Wang Jingwei hesitated. Lucrezia Borgia snaked a hand around to the pistol she had hidden beneath her jacket: if he refused to obey she would have to kill him. Finally the NoN bowed. ‘I salute the True Empress, and pray that ABBA grants her Nine Thousand Years of Peace and Contentment. Great Empress Borgia, Mistress of the Demi-Monde, of the Great Beyond and of all the Kosmos, Blessed and Much Beloved by ABBA and Defender of the Faith of HerEticalism, it gives me
much pleasure to transmit the message that will bring peace to the Coven and contentment to my fellow NoNs.’

That Su Xiaoxiao had refused Norma permission to join Burlesque and his band when they had attacked Hereji-Jo Castle – on the grounds that the Messiah couldn’t be put in harm’s way – had been difficult enough for her to handle, but the anguish she’d felt when they’d returned had been almost too much to bear. That these brave people had been risking their lives when she was skulking in the SheTong safe house she found very trying.