Monstrous Races (26 page)

'And if you had any dangly bits that would
have
really hurt,' she said calmly, before dropping the shield and bending over next to Rufus.

'I hope I still have,' he whimpered as she helped him up.

Ahead of them Lord Lansdown crept forward in front of the cage, his arms outstretched towards the chewing weasel. 'Throw it further,' called out Rufus, his voice cracking, as George pulled his
arm back and sent the globular
mass in a clean arc over Lord Lansdown's head and into a patch of dusty land in front of the cage
, his eyes still tightly closed
.

All was still for a moment and then two huge eyes turned slowly in a great white feathered head, a small reflection of a long black tunic and a pointed beard in their centre. The weasel darted towards it, flinging itself over knees and heads, its claws scratching the yielding flesh underneath until it reached the glistening red lump.

Lord Lansdown ran, his arms outstretched and his head bobbing as he tripped and fell, grasping for the silky brow
n fur of the weasel
. He thre
w himself into the air and grasp
ed
at
it, his fingers gripping the surprised body as he rolled around in the dust, finally coming to a stop in front of the cage. Two huge red eyes looked down at him and blinked. He stood, ripping the thin chain around its neck and dropping the weasel to hold up the nebulous stone in front of him, his back turned to the cockatrice.
'No,' mumbled Rufus, stumbling and reaching out for Josie.

Elli and George kept their eyes firmly shut, knowing that things had tipped the wrong way as Lord Lansdown looked at the second stone with sparkling eyes, removing his chain and holding them up next to one another. Sparks of light and flame shot out from them both as the stones reached towards one another, a sizzling, crackling beam
moving up over his arms.

'Excuse me,' came a voice, thin and distant and w
ise. He felt a gentle tap on his
shoulder and span around, a faraway look in his eyes. 'Thank you,' said the old man as a hand reached out and took the stones away from him with smiling green eyes, and then vanished. Lord Lansdown stood still, the enormity having some trouble reaching his brain as he stared at his empty hands. He brought them down slowly, his mouth still hanging open and two red, piercing eyes looked int
o his, the crimson wattle below
them rocking gently as it moved its head.

Lord
Lansdown
went to speak but no words came, the pulsing energy that had been seepi
ng through his body seconds ago
replaced by cold, dead certainty. His pale skin became ashen and then dull grey, the life extinguished forever. The cockatrice screeched, its rage finding an outlet and its fathomless eyes looking to do it again.

'Keep your eyes sh
ut,' called out Josie, calm and
authoritative, and Elli held on tightly to George's hand. Behind her Captain Briggs began to swing the heavy ball inside of the old sock back and forth, back and forth. The crack to the back of his knees surprised him just before the pain came, sending him sprawling forward and onto his face, his arms in the dust in front of him and the sock landing with a thump on the ground. Lady Lansdown stood behind him with a riding crop in her hand.

'I never could stan
d to use them on horses.
Oh Gerald my love,' she called out demurely
through lips like sandpaper
. 'I believe you wanted a word with him.'

Josie volunteered to do it in the end, giving Rufus a cold hard stare when he said 'no really, I'll do it,' with no conviction whatsoever. She pulled herself up onto the top of the cage and grabbed at the tarpaulin, hoisting it quickly over the top of the cockatrice as it wriggled and screeched beneath her. Rufus was armed with a sword and shield but neither were needed as it became still and was pushed towards the cage
with averted
eyes
. She secured it inside and jumped down, glad to have some distance from the cockatrice. 'Where did he find this thing?' she called to Lady Lansdown, who was powdering her nose in a small cracked mirror.

'Captain Briggs procured it for him. It cost a
small fortune and ate mountains
of food. I'll be glad to see the back of it,' she said heartily as Josie p
inned the grimy fabric down over
the cart. The cockatrice inside bellowed once and then settled into rhythmic nasal snores.

'When was it last fed and watered?' called out George, peering from behind the covered cage and shuddering at the sight of Lady Lansdown. She was different though; softer somehow, like a picture soaked in rain.

'George my dear,
I'm so pleased you're alri
ght. Meet my intended,' she announced
proudly. He felt his eyes move towards the statue of her husband moments before, its palms held in front of it with a quizzical look on its face. 'This is Gerald,' she said as a
withered old stump of a man moved into view, his mouth open in a wide smile bereft of teeth but full of vigour.

'Watch yer son,
’ he said, looking at George
carefully. 'I can see the resemblance. You look a bit like your aunt, you lucky boy.' Gerald nuzzled into her neck with a faint sucking motion and George turned away as he heard her giggle and fawn, thinking that perhaps looking at the cockatrice would have been preferable. Elli stood at his side, looking around from sleeping ogres to the tall statue in front of her. She walked towards it carefully and reached out to touch it, withdrawing her hand quickly as she felt the cool hard stone.

'It's quite a sight, isn't it,' said Rufus, looking down at the dull grey figure. '
The question is should we draw
a moustache and glasse
s on it now or wait for students to have that pleasure
?' He pulled
her towards him and gave
her such a tight hug that she felt the breath leave her body. 'Well done girl,' he said quietly, his wet nose against her skin. 'And you,' he added, pulling George in towards them both.

'So, you're her nephew?' Rufus asked him quietly, looking across as Lady Lansdown knelt down in her fine dress and tied Billy's hands behind his back expertly. 'What a family.'

'I try to ignore it
,' said George despondently, watching as she reached into Billy's coat pocket and extracted some jingling gold coins. 'You would, wouldn't you?' Rufus nodded as the cart shuddered and there was movement and a loud sigh from inside the covered cage. 'I'll just get him something
to drink
,' he said, brushing off his hands and walking towards the tents at the back.

'Spike,' called out Rufus, watching as Gerald extricated himself from Lady Lansdown's neck and waved over. 'Do you need a hand?' he asked, gesturing to Captain Briggs who was wriggling to release his arms.

'I'm not that old,' called out Gerald teasingly, 'and she can vouch for that!' Lady Lansdown hid her face as a faint blush tried to make its way up through the small creases on her neck
and then gave up
. They heard his harsh words towards Captain Briggs as he looked down at the ground, his feet kicking at bare earth. 'You wait till your mother hears...' carried his throaty old sea-dog voice, the lethal sock confiscated in his leathery old hands.

The huge solid door into Brayston opened with juddering and clanging and then a thin stream of them poured out with Max and Alpha Sawyre leading at the front. His gendarme uniform was dusty and torn but sat on his broad physique as though he was born to wear it.
Which is, after all, an irony,
thought Elli, watching them stand side by side as they walked forwards, stepping over
sleeping
figur
es that were st
rewn over the ground
. Alpha Sawyre raised her robes up gently from the ground, her greyhound head proud as she walked towards them. Behind them others in gendarme uniforms began pulling the prone bodies into piles, their arms tied behind their backs quickly and
efficiently as they dribbled onto one another in a heap.

As he came closer
,
Max looked up at the sky through the grey-filtered dregs of sunlight. 'They're coming,' he said gravely, 'well done all. Now I suggest that you get inside,
we have to talk to the Queen's
Guard and I'd rather they didn't ask you any questions. And there's a wall inside that needs repairing,' he added with a glint in his eye.

'That's a hanging offence, impersonating a gendarme you k
now,' Josie said slowly, seeing dozens more
uniforms
behind him.

'Not when you look this good in it, my girl,' he answered, his eyes still on the circling white dots above them.

Maud and Effi were waiting for them when they returned and had rustled up four buckets of biscuits as well as
a large suspicious-looking gateaux
in their absence.
'I hope you
don't mind,' said Maud
, sitting on the sofa in a huge fluffy dressing gown and matching slippers. 'We discovered your heated shower. Oh it's wonderful Max, so invig
orating,' she added, her great-dane
dog-head still beaded with foamy water.

'Just what we need
ed,' adde
d
Effi
, wearing an identical fluffy robe so that it was hard to tell where she started and the robe ended. She combed the hair on her face with an ornate silver brush and looked up.

'Lovely,' said a third deep voice from the middle of the room, jolly and unencumbered by a body. 'Really first rate.'

Max removed his gendarme hat and sat in his armchair, stretching out his legs in front of him. 'I'm sure we can put one in for you. It's the least we can do to say thank you,' he said as Alpha Sawyre sat down next to him. 'Rufus, tea all round son,' he added, watching as Rufus was perched above a seat and then stood back up with a sigh and sidled into the kitchen.

'Oh,
you're too kind Max,' said Maud
, her eyes half-closed. 'And how are you feeling young lady?' she asked Elli, her glasses perched on the end of her nose. Elli fought
back
a yawn and sank into the soft chair, hearing the clanking of crockery and pouring water from the kitchen.

'It's been a long day,' she answered, reaching across for a dappled biscuit. 'What happened to those
thugs who attacked us earlier?
When we left we had to step over their naked bodies.'
She looked across at their innocent faces and saw hard steel glinting behind the eyes.

'All taken care of,' came a cheery reply, as a biscuit hovered in mid-air and then slowly disappeared with bite marks and noisy crunching. 'We put them in a cart with instructions to set them down in the gendarme's yard. Maud and Effi kept the clothes, no point in wasting them.'

'
Exactly,' said Maud
through a mouth filled with crumbs.

'Where's
your young man then?' asked Effi
sleepily. 'We thought you'd end up with t
hat blonde fella, didn't we Maud
.' There was a mute nod in reply.

'He's just finishing up with the cockatrice,' said Elli squirming. 'And he's not really my young man.'

Rufus breezed in carrying a loaded tray and placed it daintily on the table. 'Turns out old blondie is a terrible one for the girls anyhow,' he said, cutting himself a large slice of gateaux and sniffing it carefully before taking a great bite. 'You know what these young males can be like,' he added, getting icing on his nose and coating his whiskers.

'Yes, you do,' said Alpha Sawyre archly, glancing at him as he swallowed the cake in a noisy gulp.

'And did you sort it all out with the Queen's Guard?' asked Effi, as a gentle ru
mbling snore was heard from
Effi
next to her.

'I said there was a group of armed persons advancing on the city and their leader had been killed in the skirmish by looking at his own cockatrice,' announced Max, as Alpha Sawyre cut the remaining cake into equal pieces. 'There were too many left to put in prison so they were given a choice. They could either join the Queen's Guard as footsoldiers and receive the right training and conditions or...'

'Yes?' asked a booming voice as a large piece of cake disappeared up above Alpha Sawyre.

'...or look into the eyes of the cockatrice and ta
ke their chances,' answered Alpha Sawyre.
Max
told them
that one statue is quite fetching. Hundreds begin to look like carelessness.' Rufus flung open the door and entered carrying the steaming tea.

'That's Commander Maximillian to you,' said Rufus, setting the tray down. 'Never thought we'd say that, hey Max?'

'I very much doubt that you'll ever get to say it again as well,' he replied, his hand resting on Alpha Sawyre's.