The Fall of the House of Cabal (34 page)

‘Hello, young lady,' he said. ‘I see my brother has made a friend.'

‘Lumme,' said Minty. ‘He's a liver, but he can see me!'

‘I can see you, but I cannot hear you,' said Cabal. ‘These spectacles only enhance my eyesight, rendering certain unusual wavelengths into visible light. If we are to talk, it must be through the medium of my brother.'

‘Oh, goody,' said Horst. ‘Now I'm a medium.'

‘Better than being a poor. You should savour the promotion.'

They were interrupted by Miss Smith entering. ‘You're back, Horst!' she said, stating the obvious. Then she looked at Minty, and crouched down to her height. ‘And a sweet little girl. What's your name, darling?'

Minty blinked, her dark smudge eyes narrowing to lines and then open again. ‘Minty,' she said, finding herself at something of a loss.

‘Minty! What a lovely name.'

‘But … you're a liver, too, miss. An' you don't 'ave no magic specs. 'Ow is it that you can see me?'

‘Magic specs?' Miss Smith looked to Cabal, who was bracing himself for the inevitable slight. ‘Magic specs are for amateurs. I don't need them.' She leaned closer to Minty and whispered, ‘I'm a witch.'

‘Lumme,' said Minty again.

A clatter of arachnoid feet announced the arrival of Zarenyia. She clapped with pleasure at seeing Horst, who was no less delighted to see her back on her feet—all of them—even if the sources of the sustenance necessary for this remarkable recovery were hanging swathed in webbing behind him. ‘Zarenyia! You're up and about!'

‘And you're back, Horst.' She swivelled her head inquisitively to regard Minty. ‘And you have a ghostly girl with you. Hello, poppet. My name's Zarenyia. I am simply delighted to meet you. What's your name?'

‘Minty,' said Minty again. ‘Pardon me asking, missus, but what are you?'

‘What am I? Oh, isn't she a delight? I'm a devil, sweetheart.'

‘Wot? You're the Devil?'

‘
A
devil. There are quite a few of us. But no, not
the
Devil at all, although the job is going begging if you want a change in career.'

At which point Leonie Barrow stepped from the western doorway. ‘Why is everyone talking to Horst's left hand?' she wanted to know.

‘Lumme,' said Minty.

*   *   *

‘Livers an' deaders' an' leechers an' ghosties an'—'

Johannes Cabal sighed. ‘Yes, thank you, Horst. While Miss Barrow and I appreciate the relay service, taking such pains over the impersonation of the girl is really not necessary. Please use your own diction.'

Horst paused and looked off to one side where Cabal could see the ghost (and Leonie couldn't) as if listening. Cabal could see her lips moving with a certain emphasis. Horst nodded and reported, ‘Minty says it was a brilliant impersonation and I should carry on using it.'

Minty's expression clouded indignantly.

‘I can lip read a little, Horst, and what I caught was—and you'll forgive me any tonal inaccuracies, I'm sure—
That don't sound nuffink like me
.'

Minty nodded once with righteousness, crossed her arms, and glared at Horst.

He conceded with poor grace. ‘Very well, but you're missing a fine performance. To recap, the city contains some roving gangs of thugs much like those that made the acquaintance of Zarenyia, vampires, ghosts, zombies—'

Minty's mouth moved, and Horst stopped abruptly. He looked at her, and frowned.

‘What was that?' said Cabal. ‘I made out two syllables, but I have no idea what the word was.'

Minty said it again to Horst, and then to Cabal with a serious nod at the end. It was nice to be the centre of attention for once, and taken seriously, to boot. She seemed intent on wringing every moment out of the situation that she might.

‘I caught it that time, I think. Horst, did she say “soldiers”?'

‘Soldiers, Minty? There are really soldiers here? What are they doing? Fighting the zombies. The deaders, that is?'

‘A bit. Most o' the time they're huntin' down the leeches.'

Cabal considered this intelligence when it was passed onto him. ‘That is unexpected. I would have thought the zombies a greater threat. Certainly a more numerous one. Ask her how they destroy the vampires.'

When she was asked, she looked at Horst as if he were an idiot. He weathered it easily, inured from long exposure. ‘I din't say they was killin' the leeches. They talks wiv 'em. Give 'em bits of paper like them notices what they sticks on walls, too.'

‘Notices? The army is handing out pieces of paper to vampires? I know the British have a reputation for politeness, but surely that doesn't extend to issuing vampires with cease-and-desist notices?'

Horst listened as Minty spoke and relayed her words immediately. ‘She didn't say they were British, either.'

‘What?' Cabal rose to his feet. ‘She's sure?'

Minty was sure. She'd seen enough British soldiers and sailors in her neighbourhood to recognise the uniforms. The soldiers running around London wore different uniforms entirely; a dark grey ‘wiv red bits,' said Minty, tapping her shoulders.

Cabal's expression grew astonished, but the astonishment was being eaten away by a growing dismay.

‘Dark grey with red epaulets?' Horst shrugged. ‘Who's that, then? The French? It would be typical of the French to take advantage of things if Britain is all of a mess like this, wouldn't it?'

‘It isn't the French.' Cabal's voice was a harsh whisper.

‘Cabal!' Leonie had taken position by the window to make sure they suffered no more incursions that night. ‘Over here!'

There was a dull droning sound from outside, growing louder and very occasionally marked with a sharp cracking sound. They all crowded around the windows to look out and then, following Leonie Barrow's cue, up.

In the sky over Trafalgar Square, a great airborne vessel flew by at a stately pace. A huge, vaguely rectangular lozenge with four great flat mechanical housings mounted on pylons that thrust out of the port and starboard sides, fore and aft. Gun ports showed clearly over the hull, studding it regularly.

‘I'm not mistaken, am I, Cabal?' Leonie's whisper was as strained as Cabal's. ‘That is what I think it is?'

‘It's an aeroship!' Horst's voice was, by contrast, full of enthusiasm. ‘An aeroship! I've never seen one so close! Well, there was the
Catullus,
but that was an aeroboat, really. That thing is huge! Gosh!'

‘It's not just an aeroship, Horst. Yes, I am very much afraid that you are right, Miss Barrow. It is the
Princess Hortense,
of unhappy memory.'

*   *   *

They allowed the
Princess Hortense,
or whatever it was called in this splinter of reality, to move on. The reason for its slow flight was clear now; it was monitoring the city. Once a searchlight stabbed into the metropolitan darkness and was followed a few seconds later by a rattle of machine-gun fire. They watched the tracer-laden stream of bullets lash an area near Horse Guards Parade. The searchlight scanned around a little after the fire ceased, then settled and tightened. Another burst of fire, and the searchlight was extinguished. The aeroship turned eastwards and travelled on following the line of the Thames until it was lost to their sight.

‘Mirkarvia,' said Cabal. ‘Again. And yet…' He looked at their little party, his gaze settling on each in turn until it reached Miss Smith, upon whom it tarried. ‘I begin to see it.'

‘See what, brother?' asked Horst.

‘The pattern. I have been guilty of developing an incomplete and untested thesis; trusting to it simply because we have been pushed reluctantly and at speed between pillar and post from the instant we set foot upon these Five Ways to which Ratuth Slabuth alluded. I suspect I have allowed myself to fall under a misapprehension because of a pleasing coincidence.'

‘Right,' said Horst. ‘Of course. I see.'

‘You do?'

Horst shook his head.

‘You never start to surprise me, Horst. I am not prepared to postulate at present—'

Horst nodded, supportive of the decision. ‘Good. There are ladies and a child present.'

‘—as to the basis of my suspicion. I would prefer more facts, although the few I have to hand already certainly point in a suggestive fashion.'

Zarenyia smiled blandly as if daring anyone to make an obvious comment. When no one did, she said, ‘So we're off on an adventure again, are we? Fact hunting, and derring-do, and ideally killing a few people. Proper people. These “deaders” Minty talks about will be soulless already, and where's the nutritional value in that?'

‘You just …
had
half a dozen. You want more?' Leonie looked at the spider-devil with horror.

Zarenyia managed a contrite expression. ‘I'm afraid so, dear heart. I used a lot of the … ah,
essence
I took from those frightful men in growing back my legs and generally improving the state of my health. To be blunt, I'm still famished.' There was an awkward silence. ‘Have I mentioned how much I like your hat? It looks lovely on you.'

‘What exactly are we looking for, Johannes?' asked Miss Smith. ‘And, while I'm asking questions, why that very hard look you gave me earlier? Don't you trust me all of a sudden?'

‘I value common cause over trust usually. But, in your case, you have my trust, too. You shouldn't place too much significance upon my eye happening to linger upon you. Just something that occurred to me, and thinking of how we met in the great cemetery was the stimulus that started that particular train of thought.'

‘So there you go,' said Zarenyia brightly. ‘Dear Johannes looked at you and was all stimulated. Happens to me simply all of the time.'

‘Not quite what I—'

‘Hush. Ladies like to be flattered.'

Dear Johannes settled into an exasperated silence for a moment before remembering he'd been asked two questions.

‘To answer your first question, we must find some of these soldiers. We need to know what they know.'

‘Stalking soldiers. This sounds dangerous,' said Leonie.

Zarenyia smiled a not entirely pleasant smile. ‘Which is what makes it fun.'

*   *   *

If there is any better scout for moving through a city occupied by monsters and foreign troops than a ghost of a former citizen who is lent near invisibility by the former attribute and familiarity of the locale by the latter, they must be few in number. Certainly Minty—finding herself treated far more respectfully in death than she ever was in life—took on the role with enthusiasm and the sober mien of the young when graced with a vital undertaking. The rest of the party moved slowly, watching side streets, windows, and the sky in case the aeroship or another like it might return. It was this last consideration that had been used to dissuade Zarenyia from taking to the rooftops; if the crew of the aeroship had grown used to spotting and attacking individuals on the street from a height of perhaps two hundred feet, they were unlikely to have any trouble at all spotting a large spiderish woman skipping along the tops of the buildings.

The plan was to find and investigate the area where the aeroship had opened fire, the reasoning being that there was only so much that could be done from the air, and that survivors would have sought refuge off the street as soon as the firing began. This would necessitate the deployment of ground troops to clear the surrounding buildings and declare the area secure. Cabal's group would get there first with any luck and be waiting for the soldiers by the time they arrived. Assuming that troops were following in the aeroship's slow progress, then they would be heading west to east. Cabal's group would be approaching from the north, and arriving at the same time as a platoon or two of Mirkarvian soldiers did not seem very advantageous. Therefore, they determined to move slowly enough that they would get there second, but not so slowly that the troops would have moved on by the time they had arrived.

‘There's an art to an ambush,' said Zarenyia, and nobody else felt confident enough about it to argue.

Her instincts were reliable, as was only reasonable given that she was—quite apart from being thoroughly charming and a very pleasant conversationalist—an ancient supernatural predator. Horse Guards Parade had definitely seen better days. The ubiquitous abandoned carts, cabs, and carriages dotted the area, the skeletons of the horses still in more traces than not. A hansom cab lay on its side, shattered by heavy machine-gun fire, leaving the naked wood exposed beneath the glossy black paint. By it a body lay, and around the body two men crouched, checking it, while a cordon of soldiers armed with repeating rifles in tactically sound positions protected the area. Cabal and his party would have blundered straight into the guards if Minty hadn't turned a corner and run into one, and then directly through him. The soldier shuddered as if a chill breeze had caught him, but otherwise did not react.

Minty took in the state of affairs in the parade, and then trotted back to report, this time taking the time to go around the soldier.

‘There's about twelve blokes wiv big guns,' Minty demonstrated by stretching her arms, ‘an' a couple of blokes wiv little guns. Those two are 'avin' a look at a deader. A proper dead deader. I fink that aeroship done for it. It was all full of 'oles and ever so 'orrible.' This, she said gleefully.

Cabal ruminated. ‘The Mirkarvian Army models itself on the Prussian, perhaps unsurprisingly. Twelve would be a
Gruppe,
with a couple of officers along. Five of us versus over a dozen soldiers. I am not sure that I like those odds.'

‘You're right, Johannes.' Horst started counting off points on his fingers. ‘We have a devil, we have a vampire, we have a witch, we have two heavily armed civilians, we have total surprise—' He looked to his side as if listening. ‘—yes, a splendid point. We have a ghost. Those hapless swine with the rifles are the ones in trouble, Johannes.'