The Shattered City (17 page)

‘
A
shiol, wait!' Velody hurried along the main thoroughfare that was Via Alysaundre, a step behind Ashiol and some way ahead of the rest of their group. It was late enough that there were few people around, and those that were here paid no attention at all to a bloodstained mob with bared swords, a wolf and several hounds at their heels. Even the boy had shaped himself into animal form — a small gang of weasels.

‘I'm going to tear that bastard limb from limb,' snarled Ashiol.

‘Priest or Poet?'

‘Both.'

‘You know Poet,' she chided him. ‘He wouldn't have seriously meant to put Heliora in harm's way.'

‘Would he not?' Ashiol raged. ‘You don't know the first thing about the Creature Court, Velody. Don't start pretending that you do.'

‘I am the Power and Majesty,' she said furiously.

Ashiol just snorted.

‘You never said we were going to kill Priest,' she tried, only just keeping up with his long strides.

‘I thought that was implied.'

‘This isn't his fault. Are we going to be murdering the Duchessa, too? Just so I'm clear on the order of events.'

‘I'm not enjoying this,' he snapped at her. ‘Isangell isn't responsible for a bloodbath. Priest, or whatever the hell is walking around inside his body, is killing us.'

‘So we create our own bloodbath. Lovely.'

‘Did you think being Power and Majesty was going to be easy? That there would be no hard choices to make?'

‘You're not giving me a choice!'

‘No one forced you to be part of this world, Velody. You chose us. You stepped up to be our Power and Majesty. Maybe it's time you started behaving like it. Sky falls, we fight it. Danger comes, we fight it. Something tries to destroy us, we destroy it first. What the hells else can we do?'

He stopped suddenly. They were at the arched entrance to the Forum. The Basilica was lit up from within — the only public building which was open all nox.

‘He won't be in there,' said Velody. ‘Too many witnesses.'

‘Heliora might be. If she's not, we have to find her before he does. She doesn't even have a fucking sword any more.'

The sentinels and the others were close to catching up with them.

‘I'm not going to kill anybody,' Velody said quickly. ‘You can't make me do that.'

‘So your battle with Dhynar Lord Ferax was a onetime deal? Good to know.'

‘He was already dead,' she said, stung by his words.

‘Dhynar was trailing pollution from the sky. He was tainted. He broke the rules. Any of this sounding familiar?'

‘I won't kill anyone,' Velody said again. ‘Not in cold blood.'

‘But you're happy for us to kill on your behalf — for your sentinels to kill on your behalf.' He raised his eyebrows, looking scornful. ‘Not even sentinels.'

Anger flared through her. ‘You put me here because you thought I could be something different. Something better than what you had before. Stop being angry at me for not being Garnet, or Tasha, or whatever standard it is you are holding me to. Help me be
Velody
!'

There had to be a solution to all this. Some way of bringing everyone through it alive.

‘We've gone as far as we can with you being Velody. You can't handle this world. You never could.'

She was furious and tired and hungry and beaten down, and this was the last thing she needed. ‘You're wrong.'

Ashiol was gazing across the Forum to the lights of the Basilica. ‘I was wrong before. You should go back to your seams and hems. I'm taking over the fucking Creature Court. Follow me or get out of my way.' He stepped down into the darkness, and a figure rose up out of the Forum to confront him.

‘That's hardly the way for a King to speak to his Power and Majesty,' said a familiar voice, rich and deep. Warlord.

 

Priest was a murderer. Poet was a fool. Livilla was a basket-case. Velody would not. Stop. Yapping. Ashiol wanted to burn the lot of them. Where the hells was
Garnet when you needed him? Garnet would have killed Priest already and be looking around for a celebratory fuck.

Now here was Warlord, on his own two feet, dressed every inch like the Zafiran Prince he was, in gleaming red silk robes with gold embroidery. He still looked like death warmed up, and his courtesi stood nearby, as if ready to lunge forward and catch him when he fell, but it was an improvement.

‘Cats,' Mars said in his deep voice, looking over Ashiol's shoulder to Velody. ‘They're little fiends for lashing out when you kick them. And their scratches last a long time.'

‘I am sick of talking in metaphors,' said Velody.

Mars smiled with bright white teeth. ‘Aren't we all?'

‘Let me pass,' Ashiol advised. ‘Or I'll push you over with my little finger.'

‘Not yet. It's rude to turn your back on a lady.'

‘Ashiol is right,' said Velody, sounding defeated. ‘I don't know how to find Priest, or stop him. I don't know how to fix this whole unholy mess. Thanks to the Duchessa, in her infinite wisdom, I don't even have any hems to sew. Maybe he should be the Power and Majesty.'

Ashiol turned and looked at her. He could take her, in a fight, if he had to. She had more animor, more raw power, but he had years of dirty tricks behind him. He had been a match for Garnet, most days. He could just take it from her. He could make her whimper.

‘I will say this,' said Mars, pretending that he was only speaking for Velody's benefit. ‘Ashiol is a better leader than he thinks he is. But no one can match him when it comes to being stupidly loyal. He has never broken an oath in his life. He swore to serve you as Power and
Majesty, and if he says otherwise now, it's just words. That's how he's made.'

Ashiol turned and glared at him. ‘I can break an oath any time I like.'

Mars shook his head slowly. ‘I don't see it.'

‘How is he following me by walking away?' Velody demanded.

Mars chuckled. ‘I didn't say he wasn't complex.'

‘Giving away all my secrets,' Ashiol said in a low voice.

Mars met his gaze. ‘You came for me, when I was hurt and in hiding. You brought Velody to me, so she could heal me. We were friends once. I hope we can be again someday.'

Friends. Yes. Ashiol had missed that. Silently, he reached out one arm, and Mars clasped it. The Panther Lord's animor felt weak still, but it was returning.

‘The time for playing mind games, for pitting Lord against Lord, is over,' said Mars. ‘We need you both. Power and Majesty, Kings. We are fighting for our survival now.'

‘Some of us were always fighting for our survival,' remarked Ashiol.

Velody didn't look uncertain any more. She looked strong, and ready. Like someone you could count on. ‘Let's find Priest,' she said. ‘We can discuss what to do with him after that.'

‘Oh good,' muttered Ashiol. ‘More talking.'

 

Velody could not quite believe that it had taken Warlord to broker a peace between the two Kings. She was glad of it though, not wanting to expend more energy in fighting Ash. Then screams rang out across the Forum, and there was more reason to be glad of it.

‘Hate to interrupt this touching scene,' said Kelpie. ‘But I reckon we've found Priest.'

Ashiol moved the fastest, all but flying to the wide doors of the Basilica. He couldn't get through, for the crowd of people flooding their way out of the building. ‘Round the back!' he yelled to the others, but that door was full of merchants and customers scrabbling their way out as well. Some of them were wounded, or streaked with blood. All of them looked terrified.

Ashiol really did fly this time, up to the domed roof, and broke one of the high glass skylights to get inside. The other Lords and Court, some in animal form and others glowing bright as day, followed him in. Velody shaped herself into Lord form and lifted Crane and Kelpie up into the air and through the skylights.

Inside, the Basilica was a wreck. Stalls and tents had been overturned, hot food bars lay cracked open, and most of the vendors and customers had fled the scene. Bodies lay dead or bleeding on the ground. Priest had been here. Priest and whatever dreadful monster the sky had put inside his skin.

‘Saints and devils,' breathed Crane. ‘What has he done?'

Velody couldn't answer. There were no words for this. The Creature Court were supposed to be above and beyond the daylight folk. They didn't slaughter them for their own entertainment. They didn't play these games with anyone but each other. True, the message that they were supposed to protect the daylight folk often got lost along the way, but this … This was more than neglect. It was sport.

‘Priest!' thundered out an angry voice.

‘There's our boy,' said Kelpie, her blades bared as she
headed towards the sound of Ashiol's voice, ignoring the wreckage and the death around her.

They found the rest of the Creature Court in a cleared space, where several tents had been torn up and cast aside.

‘Have you been looking for me, king of cats?' boomed the voice of Priest. He appeared in his usual stately glory of velvets and silks, the new waistcoat gleaming over his portly stomach. It made Velody sick to look at it. Her hands, as Mars had told her, over and over. Her fault.

Priest was surrounded by birds — the gulls, plovers and sparrows of his retinue.

How could they go along with this? Courtesi served Lords, yes, but surely it was blatantly obvious that their master was not the one driving this cabriolet?

‘What the hells do you think you are doing?' Ashiol raged.

‘Isn't it obvious, my boy? I'm looking for the Seer.' Priest tilted his head thoughtfully to one side. ‘She's a slippery little thing, I can't find hide nor hair of her. I'd demand you produce her, but if you had possession I doubt you'd have that shocked look on your face. She'd have seen this coming, and told you everything.' He laughed. ‘Clever creature that she is, she's a challenge to find.'

Heliora's tent was in pieces, her belongings scattered across the Basilica floor.

‘Priest,' Velody said now, trying to sound calm and assured as she stepped forward to stand at Ashiol's side. ‘This isn't you. This isn't what you want. The sky is controlling you, but you don't have to let it.'

Priest laughed a big belly laugh. ‘My dear demme. You surely don't think that you're dealing with Priest any more? He's long gone.'

‘Who are you, then?' Velody asked.

Priest smiled. ‘Ask the dust, my sweet. When the dust falls, you will all die.'

‘What does that even mean?' Velody demanded. ‘“When the dust falls?”' But if this was not Priest, what was he? A dozen people of the daylight lay dead, and more had been wounded, for no reason but being in this creature's way. It made no sense.

‘Where's Poet?' Velody asked.

Priest smiled expansively. ‘Lost another Lord, have you? How careless. You'll hardly have any remaining by the time we arrive.'

Velody turned her eyes up to the birds that still flocked around him. Priest smiled as he followed her gaze. ‘A pretty retinue, but I suspect they have outlived their usefulness.' He held up a hand, and one of the gulls burst into a mess of blood and feathers. A sparrow next, and then a plover. The other birds shrieked pitifully and rose up to flap against the domed Basilica roof, but there was no way out.

‘Stop it,' Ashiol roared, enraged. ‘You'll cripple them. And —'

‘Myself?' Priest said with a smirk. ‘I am well aware whom I am crippling, little King. Flesh and meat bodies mean very little to me, I assure you. We are dust. We will not be denied, nor slowed. Mourning the meat left behind is your distraction, not ours.'

One more bird exploded into a mess of guts, and Velody's vision tunnelled darkly down into itself. She changed without thinking about it, shaping herself into the fearsome chimaera. But Ashiol was faster, and he reached Priest first.

Priest held up one large hand, and Ashiol's body froze
in mid-air. Priest flexed his fingers, and Ashiol changed: from glowing Lord form to winged black chimaera, then a horde of cats. Lord — chimaera — cats — over and over, like it was some kind of game.

‘You didn't think I was limited to Lord Pigeon's powers, did you?' taunted Priest.

Velody could not move. Her clawed feet scrabbled uselessly in the air. She wanted to scream, wanted to tear the creature limb from limb. The thing in control of Priest was toying with Ashiol, and then it would move to her, and how could she defeat it if she could not move?

Priest smiled at her. ‘Wait your turn,' he chided, and made a slashing motion with his hand, making Ashiol twist and scream with pain as he hovered in the air.

Velody closed her eyes, hating herself for being so weak, but why should she watch Ashiol's pain if she could not move to help him?

She could hear other sounds in the Basilica. There were Crane and Kelpie, helping the last few stallkeepers and wounded daylight folk to make their way to the exits. Poet. They had found Poet. She opened her eyes and saw the Rat Lord being lifted gently out of the wrecked remains of Heliora's stall. His wrists and ankles were shackled with skysilver, and he was battered and bruised down his face and half his body.

‘Sentinels to the rescue,' he said through swollen lips as Crane unchained him. ‘Aren't you useful little helpers.'

‘This is your fault,' Kelpie snapped. ‘Kill the Seer indeed.'

‘I thought it would be a fine distraction,' said Poet, spitting blood. ‘Not to mention a bright beacon to lure in our Ashiol. I wouldn't worry about Madama Fortuna, she
can take care of herself.' He tried to stand up, wobbled, and then sat down again in a hurry. ‘Well, that was fun.'

Velody could not hear them now, their voices drowned out as Ashiol's screams filled the huge space. Priest made a casual gesture and Ashiol's long black wings tore free from his chimaera body. His body sagged, finally silent as blood fountained from the stumps.