A Little Knowledge (38 page)

Cathy closed her eyes and sighed. “Sod it. Look, I’m behind it all. You’ll only Truth Charm her, or worse, and I’d rather she not be put through anything more awful than she has been already.”

The knot of tension that had been at the centre of his back for days started to ease. “I knew it. Good, at least you’ve been decent enough to own up.”

“I accept all responsibility. I put her up to it, and I funded all of it too. So there’s no need to do anything to her, all right?”

He could see how desperate she was to protect her. “Cat, I have to exile her.”

“Why?
I
did it! I wrote the bloody thing!”

“I have to demonstrate that I’ve identified the culprit and taken action should the Patroons catch up. She’s not a member of the Great Families, she’s not Agency staff…they could do anything they want with her. I’m going to exile her to keep her safe. And you safe too.”

“Me?”

“She’s not good for you, Cat. She encourages you, I’m sure. And I can’t risk the connection between the two of you being uncovered. If the Patroons traced her, got hold of her, forced her to talk…it would be all they need to attack you.”

She stuck her chin out. “Let those bastards try.”

He tutted at her childish stubbornness. “You have no idea….At least you have me to protect you from yourself in this. And don’t bother trying to think a way around this, Cat, I’ve already filed my report and judgement with the Tower. I left your name out of it.”

“Then why bother to come and get me?!”

“Because I needed to know if you were behind it. And I thought you would want a chance to say goodbye.” Her brow crinkled as the attack she was about to launch was quashed by the thought of being given one last meeting with Rainer. “It could have been a lot worse for her if someone else had found out,” he said. “What were you thinking?”

“I wanted the women in Society to know what they should. No one else was going to tell them.”

“It’s one thing to educate, it’s another to incite. Cat, you told them that most women in mundane England choose who they’re going to marry and when to have children. Why do that?”

“Because it’s the truth!”

“But what can it possibly achieve, other than making them unhappy? Don’t you see? The ones who might have been scared or reluctant to marry, for whatever reason, now know things have changed for other people but not for them, and it never will. Why tell them there’s another way when they can never benefit from it themselves?”

Cathy’s eyes shone with tears. “Because when I wrote it, I believed I could achieve that for them. I thought that if they knew it was possible for women to have more rights, they would start to push for it themselves. If daughters talked to fathers who loved them, furnished with the arguments and words from that pamphlet, maybe they could have started something quietly, a sea change from the bottom up, as I worked on change from the top down.” Tears broke free and she started to weep, openly. “But everything I’ve tried has failed. Short of burning it all down and starting over, I can’t see how anything is going to change.”

Tom reached across and took her hands. “God’s teeth, Cat, never say anything about burning everything down ever again. Never! You understand?” When she didn’t reply, he edged forwards, resting his head against hers, feeling her tears dripping onto his hands. “I don’t think you realise how many enemies you have. They tried to kill you, Cat!”

“They were just trying to scare me.”

“They had a modern pistol!”

“They could have used it, too. They just wanted to frighten me into shutting up.” She pulled back from him, freeing her hands to wipe at her cheeks. “All I did was voice an opinion, Tom! That’s all! And they shot at my bodyguard. Disproportionate is an understatement. Am I supposed to be quiet, to hide away, just because some twats have tried to bully me? I’ll show them! I’ll—”

“You’ll get yourself killed. Or worse. Silenced. The Patroons are already talking about you in worrying ways, Cat. Will and I can’t keep you safe forever if you insist upon being so difficult.”

“But how will things ever change if I don’t force them to?”

He sighed. “More people should study history. Don’t you remember any of your lessons with Miss Rainer? I heard the ones she gave you after I left were all about the suffragists and the suffragettes!”

“A lot of them were.”

“She couldn’t have taught you about them without the wider picture. There were other factors, Cat, other forces operating in the world. In
Mundanus.
The Nether is stagnant. It will never change because it is literally incapable of change.”

“No, you’re wrong! What about Gujarat? That’s the kind of change the Patroons will never admit is possible, but it’s already happened!”

“But that’s a world away from what you’re fighting for. They had genuine grievances. The Patroons here have done what all imperialists do—taken more than they’ve given back. There are no grievances at the heart of Albion. There are no reasons for the changes in Mundanus to have any impact upon us. England is as it ever was, stable. We’re not being oppressed, here or there.”

“The women in the Nether are!”

“No they’re not, Cat. They are cherished and protected. The vast majority are comfortable, cared for, and want for nothing. You forget that you’re an exception. You were corrupted at a very impressionable age and I know you’re very…vocal, but one or two voices amount to nothing. There are no economic factors or world wars to force men to see women differently here. Yes, the young men go off on the Grand Tour, but only the wealthiest of our families, not all. And the wealthiest are the ones most likely to toe the line with the Patroons because they want to keep what they have.” From the way she was staring at him, tears still rolling down her cheeks, he felt he was finally getting through to her at last. “Cat, I love you, but you are a complete idiot if you think you can bring about change in Society when it comes to the rights of women. Even your own husband, who’s a decent enough chap and has been incredibly lenient with you, knows this is true. Haven’t you noticed how he’s been stalling the Ladies’ Court? He’s been in meetings with the men of Londinium for hours and hours, every day, trying to hold everything together because of you.”

The carriage rolled through an archway and he saw the Tower come into view. It seemed to snap Cathy out of her shock. She wiped her face again, sniffing loudly.

“Will and I just want you to be safe,” Tom said. “And for you to accept things as they are. Like Lucy. She’s found a way to be happy. Can’t you find a way too?”

The carriage rolled to a stop. “I’d rather die than eat this shit and pretend it tastes good,” she said, and opened the door, jumping out before the footman had even lowered the step.

• • •

Max was glad that he’d had the foresight to ask Rupert to make a box in the Nether for him, just in case. It was good to be able to just thrust the door handle and pin into the Iris hallway wall and open a door straight into it.

As Rupert had instructed, when Max said “Light,” the entire ceiling glowed white, exposing the confines of a plain black box. There was nothing inside except a table and two chairs, cuffs attached to the top of the table. He locked Iris’s wrists in them and left without a word, using the same door handle but twisting in the opposite direction to exit into the office at Cambridge House.

He ate alone and went to bed, Kay having left, Amesbury back at his hostel and the gargoyle still sniffing about the park. At least it had the sense to stay hidden whenever anyone came close.

It returned in the small hours and curled up at the foot of the camp bed, waking Max. It was four in the morning. Good. The Iris would be tired and at his least alert.

“Are you going to beat him up?” the gargoyle asked as Max drank some coffee, wanting to be more alert than his prisoner.

“It wasn’t what I was planning to start with.”

“Because I am more than happy to do that for you.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near that man. You know why.”

The gargoyle nodded. “I found the bench.”

“Did it make you feel better?”

The gargoyle frowned at him. “You think I’m stupid, wanting to find it.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid. I just don’t see the point. It won’t bring her back. And before you ask, we are not going to find her children. Nothing good would come of it.”

The gargoyle sniffed. “Go beat that bastard up for me.”

Max drained the cup and pulled the file containing all the pictures they had of the people who’d disappeared. Then he went to the darkest empty corner of the office and used the door handle again.

George Iris was slumped forwards, his head resting on one arm. Max could see from the red skin on his wrists that he’d tried to free himself. He jolted upright at the sound of the door closing, blinking away the disorientation as best he could.

“I’m going to ask you some questions. The way you answer them will affect the case I present to your Patroon. If I think you’re lying or holding anything back, I’ll go and get some tools and ask the questions again.”

“I’m sure there’s a clause regarding the use of torture in the Split Worlds Treaty,” Iris said, swallowing hard.

“There is. It says that Arbiters are allowed to use it on puppets who kidnap innocents.” Max dropped the file on the table and sat down opposite Iris. “You probably made plans before you fell asleep,” Max said, “but there’s nothing you can say here that will convince me you’re innocent. I have enough evidence to push for your immediate expulsion from Society.”

“So why bother with the questions?”

I want to know whether I need to ask for your legs to be broken first.
That was what gargoyle wanted him to say. Max ignored it. “I like to be thorough.”

Iris sighed. “There’s barely any point to this. I’m the head of a powerful family and my Patroon will be very motivated to protect me.”

“Your Patroon can’t protect you from my boss.” He opened the file and spread the photos out on the table. “These are the one hundred and twenty-three people who have gone missing from the city of Bath and surrounds over the past one hundred and sixteen years. I know there are more, but let’s start with these.”

Iris scanned the images, his face impassive.

“How many of these people did you steal to order for your patron?”

“That’s a rather bold assumption.”

“If you’re going to fight me on every question, you’ll be chained to that table for a very long time. I can go and sleep, eat, drink. Go to the bathroom. You can’t.” He tapped the table. “How many?”

Iris sighed. “I’d much rather discuss a deal.”

“I’m an Arbiter. I can’t be bribed.”

“I know that, but you’re not without sense either.”

He tapped the table again. “How many.”

Iris looked away.

Max stood up. “I’ll come back in a few hours. I’ll bring a Truth Mask with me. The one with the extra-sharp spikes.”

“About half of them. I think. I don’t recall exactly.”

“Do they all just blur into one over the years?” Max said, sitting back down.

“Something like that. You have to understand, Mr Arbiter, it wasn’t my choice to do this. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide it would be a jolly jape to go into Mundanus and destroy people’s lives.”

“But you went and did it anyway.”

“I had no choice. My patron expects his requests to be carried out immediately and without question. If I had disobeyed, I would have been replaced and another would have done his bidding.”

“I have no interest in the pressure he put on you. You’re a puppet, I know that already. I’m going to point to each picture, you say yes if you took them, no if you did not.”

The photos were sorted and the ones he denied taking were put back in the file. All of the pictures from the newspaper article were included among those left on the table.

“Why did Lord Iris want these people?”

“I have no idea. It’s not my place to question why.”

“Let me rephrase that. Did he ask for these people specifically?”

“No. He asked for people with particular qualities. That one, on the edge there, I took him because my Lord asked for a skilled musician. And that girl there, the same reason.” He paused, frowning to himself. “I didn’t want to. I knew their families would—”

“What other qualities?”

Iris sighed. “That one in the red shirt, he was taken because he had committed a crime, a violent one. The same for that one with the awful hair, yes, him, and that one with the appalling teeth. They were easier to take, I confess. I think I did some good removing them from Mundanus.”

Max noted the reason on the back of each picture and placed them back in the file. When they were done, he scanned the remainder. Over forty photos remained, including that of his father. “Which quality did these people have?”

“They were rebellious, in a variety of ways, but that was the quality he wanted.”

Max pointed to the picture of his father and the other foundry workers. “Tell me about those.”

Iris frowned. “That was a difficult night.”

“That’s when you got your scar.”

Iris nodded. “I’d already taken about half of them the previous night. They were a common lot, but they were some of the first to unionise in the city and were very vocal about it too. They were planning to strike and force the owner to increase pay. It was rather controversial at the time.”

“And how did you take them?”

“A very simple Persuasion Charm. Nothing violent. I invited them to my house for dinner, just like all the others. Once they were in the Nether, I simply told them to step through a mirror into Exilium.”

“And what happened the second night?”

“The owner of the factory was waiting for me and attacked. That’s how I got the scar. I never went back there again.”

“The people taken for being rebellious. What happened to them?”

“I have no idea. They were certainly never returned from Exilium.”

“Could they still be alive?”

“One can live indefinitely in Exilium, but only with the favour and care of one of the Lords or Ladies. Lord Iris is not one for keeping pets.”