The Sunken City Trilogy

by Phil Williams

  Valoria’s fuming silence confirmed Pax was on the right track. Some of the governor’s suits had drifted a little away from her. The countless onlookers were raptly watching, not sure what to believe. The governor said, “We do not have to justify ourselves to humans.”

  “Okay, but can you justify yourself to them?” Pax jerked a thumb to their audience. “Do they all know your real reasons for avoiding this discussion? Your dust manufacture is done behind closed doors; how many people actually understand your connection to the Sunken City?”

  “Our dust is –”

  “I know,” Pax said. “Specialised, unique, your own recipe. Also closely connected, somehow, to whatever the minotaur – excuse me, what you call the berserker – feeds off. The energy that its masters manipulate.”

  “Nonsense!” Valoria erupted. “More diversions, while our septjad is unaccounted for! The monster before us is –”

  “Not sure exactly what you’re talking about,” Pax said. “You lost control of your weapon? If that was Lightgate’s ploy, then whoever she forced into helping her is unlikely to keep going with her dead. And I heard you were trying to suppress Fae across the city, so dealing with rebel Fae sure sounds like a mess you created.”

  Valoria was speechless, at last, whatever paranoia she’d been sowing undermined.

  Pax continued, “It’s you that’s looking for a diversion. Soon as I talk about your dust?” She twisted, looming over the vats, arms out to her side, trying to take in that feeling. It wasn’t much, but she got it. A little piece of the Sunken City in there, for sure. Whatever energy pervaded those tunnels was here, too. Hadn’t Palleday said Valoria’s family, the Magnus clan, had adapted outside the tunnels?

  “That’s it!” Pax turned back to the governor, eyes wide.

  “Hearlon,” Valoria said, “this has gone far enough. Prepare the System of True –”

  “The Fae thrived in the Sunken City,” Pax said, quickly. “Or at least they could have. It wasn’t just the freedom of Ordshaw it offered, it was something in the tunnels, too. You farmed weird crap down there, and the blue screens were drawn to some similar opportunity. They ousted you – but if you returned, if we got rid of them, you’d have options again. You wouldn’t need . . . this.” She pointed at the vats.

  The Fae uneasily shifted on roofs and tilted in the air. Glaring wickedly, Valoria said, “Enough!”

  Pax moved closer, ignoring the fairies scattering around her. “Letty’s crime wasn’t talking to me or wanting a space you could all call your own – it was raising the question of the Sunken City at all. Down there, you couldn’t limit dust, could you?”

  “What –”

  “Whatever’s in there” – Pax raised her voice, pointing at the vats – “is the reason you don’t want to work with humans. You’re not scared of conflict; you just don’t want to reclaim the Sunken City because that would expose what you use to control everyone. What is it? The means for Fae to grow their own dust?”

  “Utterly ludicrous!” Valoria gave a bellowing laugh to prove it. “In the generations that the Fae lived underground, you think such a truth would’ve eluded everyone?”

  “Yeah,” Pax said. “Between the bickering, and the running, and the fighting for survival. And a coup that cost the lives of those that held onto that truth. You built this city on the blood of people that wanted something better.”

  Pax rested a hand against the wall of a Fae tower as she drew as close to eye-level with Valoria as the city would let her. The governor stared defiantly back, big torso heaving with angry breaths. She said, “Each word you say draws you closer to sealing your fate, human. Tie your own noose.”

  “If it’s not true then what have you got to lose? Give me the Dispenser and we’ll clear out the Sunken City. You can go back –”

  “We’re not giving butchering humans the slightest advantage! Enough – execution is too kind –”

  “Stop,” a bald, rotund Fae with many earrings said from close to her. He regarded the governor with suspicious eyes, and he wasn’t the only one. Many of her companions were distancing themselves, even some of the soldiers. The civilians watched uneasily. “These claims require due consideration.”

  “This human wishes to divide us,” Valoria hissed. “Her words are poison – it’s time our Stabilisers did their job.” She raised her voice to the barrelling tone of one passing judgement. “Pax Kuranes, the human, stands accused of devouring a Fae. Further, of conspiring with the Ministry to harm our people. Of murdering Councilman Edwing, and plotting our destruction by scheming to subvert the septjad!” Many shouts of disagreement rose in protest, but Valoria continued, “Further, she admits to the murder of Lightgate!”

  As the voices of discontent rose, with Letty joining in, Valoria built towards a final instruction with her soldiers readying guns. It didn’t matter if all these Fae saw reason; even with a clear majority, it’d only take one of Valoria’s zealous supporters to shoot Pax. Her eyes flitted back to the vats. If they could feel what she felt, if they understood –

  “Escort her to the wall!” Valoria commanded. “She will be –”

  Pax took a step back and drove her shoe through the roof of the closest vat. The fencing tangled around her leg, scratching where it caught above her ankle, but offered little resistance. The roof and curved walls cracked like an egg, with an eruption of dust and debris. Cringing, hoping there was no one inside, Pax drew her foot slowly back out and wafted the air clear to reveal one of the vats. It was open-topped, the substance inside slowly revolving. Glowing, faintly, a murky green-blue. A miniature conveyor channelled something mossy into the mix.

  A moment of confused shock passed before Valoria screamed, “Shoot her!”

  “No! She’d crush the rest of it!” another Fae roared, spreading rapid dissent as Pax crouched and grabbed moss from the wrecked building. A figure darted between shards of the crumbling building – there was someone in there – apparently unharmed. Half a dozen soldiers fluttered into Pax’s face, guns up, as she stood, amid the yelled arguments of the Fae councillors calling for her to be shot or spared – a contest joined by the crowd. Civilians were drawing guns, and Letty yelled at Pax to get down. One soldier shouted above the others, “Hold your fire! I’m ordering you, hold your fire!”

  “There’s heaps of this shit in the Sunken City!” Pax said, her raised voice shaking the towers and causing Fae to stumble. She held the glowing moss up, and as the Fae grew still she realised it was affecting her. Her vision was changing, energy pulsing into her through contact alone. The Fae glowed. She put it on the roof in front of the Fae Council, taking deep breaths and blinking away the effects. Trying to ignore that sensation, she said to Valoria, “This grows down there, doesn’t it? You already know that?”

  The room was deathly quiet.

  Valoria glared at the moss, exposed for everyone to see. The pale horror on her face confirmed Pax’s hunch. Her councillors and soldiers alike looked from the moss to her, no one quite sure what to do. Valoria’s bodyguard, a pistol held firmly in two hands, took a defensive step in front of her. Across the city, Letty rattled her hanging cage and shouted, “I fucking love you, Pax! Give her a fucking medal!”

  Pax fought the urge to smile, or even look Letty’s way, standing firm, serious, waiting for the reality to settle in. It was on Valoria now, and the governor knew it. The large Fae didn’t look up from the moss. She swallowed and said, “Everything I have done has been to protect our community. What would we have, if our systems broke down. What chaos, if everyone had access –”

  “Just say it’s not true,” a thin, sallow-faced councilman demanded. “The Fae fungus was cultured in France. There are no means to harvest it here, in Ordshaw.”

  From the way Valoria winced, it was clear his disapproval carried a particular sting, and even clearer that she wasn’t going to deny it. “I kept peace –”

  “When it suited you!” Letty shouted. “Aiding the monsters you should’ve resiste
d!”

  Valoria went quiet again. Other Fae were finding their voices, muttering disbelief.

  “It’s a lot,” Pax said, trying to speak softly. “It’s complicated, but – I have a way forward. Your Dispenser was designed to destroy what you call the berserker. I want to use it –”

  “It won’t work,” Valoria said, sounding more defeated by the second. “It’ll come back. The Sunken City was never worth –”

  “Upsetting your seat of power for?” Pax cut in. “Yeah, I got that. Only, I think I can stop it coming back. The berserker’s not the boss down there, it’s the blue screens. And if I can draw them together, your weapon might wipe them out. Then we can talk about recognising your people, officially. Restoring your home.”

  “We have our place . . .” Valoria said.

  “This is too much to process now,” the sallow-faced Fae decided. “You will leave –”

  “We’re all out of time,” Pax said. “The Sunken City is unstable. It needs to be now. Seriously. What have you got to lose?”

  “Our technology –”

  “For heaven’s sake, get on with it,” the bald councillor commanded. “Let the humans fight the fight we should’ve fought ourselves.” To Pax, he said, “You truly have the means to stop these monsters?”

  Pax paused. Of course, there was still that problem. The maniac Fae that deserved the fate of the horde bearing down on her was dead. She needed Fae energy to drive the entire horde to one target. An invalid Fae, not long for this world? A criminal up for capital punishment? There might be brave-hearted volunteers, even. Letty, shaking her cage, ready for release. She would do it, for sure. If she only knew.

  But how could Pax ask that of any of them?

  And then she understood, looking at that lightly glowing moss on the roof, that there was another option. She wouldn’t just draw the creatures together, she could also confirm they were there to strike. Could confirm whether or not the weapon worked. Pax had felt it, time and again, the pulse of the screens. The glow in her veins. The feeling when her mind buzzed on dust, the tingle when she picked up that moss.

  She gave the suited Fae a weak smile. “I will have the means. With your help.”

  14

  Outside the Fae warehouse, Pax rolled the Dispenser over in her hands. About the size of a big water bottle, all glass and brass, and as esoteric now as it had been when she’d first set eyes on it in Rufaizu’s slum apartment. She said, “Hard to believe I had this in my cupboard all that time. For all the trouble it’s caused.”

  “Probably the least hard thing to believe about you,” Letty replied, sitting on her shoulder, eyeing the road ahead as they left the FTC behind. There was a car waiting, lights on, people inside. “I cannot believe you just did that.”

  “You and me both,” Pax said.

  “Put Val in her place. Stomped on a building. I thought you might go full Godzilla for a minute. Not that you didn’t do enough damage. Unbalanced our whole fucking society.”

  Pax smiled uncomfortably.

  The car doors opened, revealing the familiar bulk of Darren Barton and Holly’s angular shoulders. Waving her over, Holly called out, “Thank heavens, you’re alive!”

  “I got it!” Pax held up the Dispenser.

  “Then you might want to hurry up!” Barton said.

  Taking a breath, Pax picked up her pace, trotting towards them. Another Fae flew down, announcing, “Wait!”

  She recognised the voice: Edwing’s protector. He kept a careful distance as he hovered near Pax, holding a plastic canister about the size of a D battery. Letty stood, saying, “Pax, meet Flynt. The only person in that whole city I could count on. Had my back. And I broke his nose.”

  “It’s not broke,” Flynt replied with a nervous smile. “And don’t forget Newbry.” He flew closer, holding out the canister. “This should be enough, right?”

  As the Bartons approached, and Flynt backed off, Pax gently took the canister and peeled back the lid. Full of white powder.

  “If that’s all for you,” Letty said, “it could be lethal, Pax.”

  “Yeah,” Pax said. It was a king’s ransom in Fae dust, and reportedly higher grade than what she’d got from Palleday. Hopefully that’d make it more effective, rather than more likely to kill her. She explained for the Bartons, “If my theory’s right, this’ll draw those creatures. And help me stop them.”

  “Draw them where?” Barton frowned. “To you?”

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Pax said. She looked over to Flynt. “You coming?” The tiny man looked moderately terrified, so she held out a hand to him. “I can give you a ride.”

  “We can’t go down there . . .” Flynt said.

  “Not all the danger’s below ground,” Letty said. “You want some adventure, don’t you?” Flynt took a bracing breath and nodded. He didn’t go near Pax’s hand, but flew closer.

  Moving towards the car, Barton said, “They’re already securing a position. One of those dark spots. They’ll have at least a few tunnels cordoned off by the time we catch up. You really think it’ll work?”

  “Hey,” Pax said, “I’ve just overturned the Fae seat of power. I did the same for the Ministry, so I’m quietly confident I can achieve a hat-trick?”

  It was a five-minute drive to the closest Sunken City entrance. Holly kept sneaking glances at Pax and the fairies in the mirrors as she drove, trying and failing to ask questions, too many to know where to begin. Rufaizu, in the back, with Barton, was less restrained. “Great to see you again, Letty, little Letty, told you we’d do big things!”

  “Less of the little, you bloody idiot,” Letty said, not without affection.

  “I’ll take the weapon,” Barton said, developing his own strategy. “I might not be able to run fast, but I take a lot of knocking over. Once you’ve got that dust in position, or however you want to do it, I’ll be ready.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Pax said. “How about you guard the least likely tunnel for the monsters to use? I’m not going through all this only to have Holly bite my head off for letting you die.”

  “It was my fight long before it was yours. Before it was any of yours.” Barton leant forward in his seat, a hand on Holly’s shoulder. “You know I’m the best person for this. Our whole city’s at risk. For Grace, I can do it.”

  Conflicted, Holly refused to answer.

  “It’s not up for discussion.” Pax saved her the trouble. “Near as I’m aware, you never developed a sixth sense for what these things are, or tested how fucked up you get on Fae dust, or had the universe basically shouting at you from all directions that this is, like, your shitty fate.”

  It was said partly in jest but definitely not taken that way. They all realised, as one, the gravity of her own strategy. Letty glared from the dashboard and said, “You planning on facing this thing alone or something?”

  “Doing what I have to,” Pax said.

  “I thought the Fae –” Barton started. She quickly interrupted.

  “The energy that draws the creatures, it’s connected to this dust, and it’s something the screens sense in me. They want me dead, they’ve made that clear. I’m pretty sure when I’m down there, tanked up on this shit, they won’t see me much different to the Fae. They won’t be able to resist, whether they like it or not.”

  “You barely survived being touched by the minotaur the first time,” Holly reminded her. “We didn’t come this far to –”

  “Yeah,” Pax sighed. “Yeah, we did.”

  “What’s this pretty sure bullshit?” Letty asked, quietly. “You’re talking about pissing them off to the highest degree. You want bait, fuck it, I’m right here – anyone gets to screw them, it should be me.”

  Pax shook her head. “Like Holly said, I survived the minotaur before. And a human needs to set off this weapon. I can do both jobs.”

  “Pax, you’re out of your mind if you think I’d let you do that alone,” Letty told her.

  “And you’re out of
your mind if –” Pax began, but the fairy raised an angry fist.

  “We need to be sure to get all those things together. I’m not banking on you being pretty sure they’ll come for you. They’ll definitely come for me.”

  Pax was quiet. Exactly what she’d hoped to avoid. But she knew how stubborn Letty could be. She conceded, carefully, “Let me get in position, first. Then come down after me?”

  There might still be a way, if she was quick with the dust. She could keep Letty out of this. The steely look on Letty’s face said it would be difficult.

  They pulled into a parking bay for a low-rise complex, near a row of garages. Obrington was waiting, jacket and shirt crumpled, slick hair out of place, flecks of dark liquid across his face. With the barest squint at the Fae on Pax’s shoulder, he waved a big hand to invite them all over and opened the end garage. “Hope you’ve got something good for us, Kuranes. Called me away from an important meeting.”

  Humouring him with a weary smile, Pax held up the Dispenser. He nodded, satisfied, and stepped back to reveal a trapdoor inside the garage. They all entered and he pulled the door shut behind them. “We’ve got men converging on here from all directions. It’s messy but we’ll have you secure.” He handed Pax a radio, opened the trapdoor onto a set of descending stairs, and asked, “Who’s first?” When no one moved, he said, “Kidding, of course. Follow me. Not you lot.” He waved a hand generally, unclear who he meant. He took a few steps down before turning back. “Come on, Kuranes. The rest of you watch this space while we handle the beasts below. Ward’s on her way, with medics.”

  “I’m coming too,” Barton said.

  “And me –” Rufaizu chimed, but Holly caught his elbow, shaking her head.

  Obrington looked to Pax, deferring to her the same way he did to Ward. Christ, Pax wanted them all to come, just to surround her and keep the rest of the world at bay. But it’d be madness. She said, “You’ve all already done enough – Darren –”