‘A couple of years ago you’d never even seen a chair,’ Lily spat back, her words rising up hot and fiery. ‘A couple of years ago you sat on crates and thought only legendary kings had chairs. Now you trade them away to drink the emotions sucked out of other people? Is this your success, Mark?’
‘People sell those emotions, Lily. It’s their choice. What’s wrong with you?’ Mark said, staring at her in disbelief. ‘Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell Lord Ruthven I was thinking of becoming a patron for your Almshouse… Some of these old men, they’re set in their ways. You just haven’t had a chance to get used to the way they do things in these circles. Not like I have…’
‘I’d never get used to this,’ Lily growled. ‘Mark, do you realize what you’re doing? Don’t you know that your consortium is ruining people’s lives?’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Mark replied. ‘I made it better. I make all the businesses I join better, and that helps everyone. Look, why not come back to the party, apologize to Lord Ruthven for running away like that –’ Lily grabbed his hand, interrupting him.
‘Mark, stop this now. A fisherman died at my Almshouse today. If anyone had bought his fish he would have been able to have his disease treated, but Theophilus couldn’t do anything by the time he came to us.’ Lily drew her face closer. ‘Mark, he had the same grey plague you had when you came to the tower. It hasn’t gone away. He could have been you.’
‘So now the diseases are my fault as well?’ Mark replied, an edge creeping into his voice. ‘I’m sorry, Lily, but bad things happen to people who don’t deserve it.’ He pushed her hand away. ‘You should know that,’ he continued bitterly. ‘I do. I was ill, just like your fisherman. I was sold off like a rag or a blanket. I watched my whole family turn as grey as stone.’ He folded his arms. ‘If you want me to give something back, if you think I “owe” something to them, fine. I’ll be a patron for you. But after what my father did, after what the Count tried to do, don’t I deserve something good in my life?’
‘You call this good?’ Lily said quietly, trying to keep calm. ‘Mark, your businesses – they’re built on other people’s pain. I understand… I don’t think you knew what was happening. But you can’t keep doing this. You can’t treat people as if they don’t matter.’
Mark looked back at her then, his eyes cold.
‘You told me to survive, Lily. Don’t you remember? You said that’s what we have to do, and I believed you.’ He moved closer to her. ‘That’s why I’m here, grabbing every chance I get, wearing stupid clothes, acting like I’ve been doing this for years, not months. This might look like the high life to you, but it’s still a fight to survive. I’ve just got more to lose than I used to.’ Mark set his mouth firmly and turned away from her. ‘I’ve been at the bottom, Lily.’ His voice grew quieter, more pained. ‘I’m not going to be worthless again. I’m going to keep fighting.’
Lily stared at him, speechless. She couldn’t believe that he could fool himself this much. She wanted to drag him by his ridiculous golden coat to the Almshouse and force him to look at the people he had trampled on as he clambered up. But she kept her mouth closed, because he clearly wouldn’t listen. All he had known for months was a world of fashion and fortune, the world that had seemed so carefree to her just a few hours ago. That was all any of them knew. They couldn’t begin to understand the value of things that couldn’t be traded for.
Suddenly, Lily had to get out. She felt the disapproving glare of the statues around her. Even the air seemed heavy, swollen with the scent of riches. She didn’t belong here, where no one would listen no matter how hard she shouted. She reached down and picked up her mask and goggles. Then she turned back to Mark.
‘The problem with fighting, Mark, is that it never stops.’ She fixed him with her eyes then, trying to burn her words into his mind, which was fogged over with glamour and dreams. ‘Eventually, everyone comes across a fight that they lose. After that, what then?’
She turned. She didn’t want to witness his reaction, didn’t want to hear him repeating the opinions of those who didn’t see. Didn’t even want to look at him any more.
Lily barely noticed the irritation of the guests as she pushed past them on her way out of the gardens. Internally, she was cursing herself. She should have forced Mark to see how wrong he was, but the last months had made her so tired. She had tried everything, they all had, but nothing seemed to be getting better. Theo still searched the city for his grandfather whenever he could take a few hours away from his patients, although his initial panic had long since faded; nowadays he searched because he couldn’t quite bring himself to give him up for lost. Meanwhile, she and Benedicta worked tirelessly to feed the debtors on the meagre food they could afford. Nothing was changing.
Actually, that wasn’t true, Lily thought grimly, as she rested against a building just outside the ornate iron gates. The Almshouse was growing poorer. Their few patrons couldn’t keep them going much longer. She had even had to give up her search for any sign of her past, or her parents, as a lost cause. It nearly broke her heart, but the Almshouse needed her every moment of the day. Lily bowed her head, trying to ignore the guilt that was creeping over her. So much for her resolution not to preach. As usual, it had only made things worse.
The streets were strangely quiet in the Leo District. The ball, she noticed, was ending and the guests were slipping away into the warm night. Lily found herself wishing, praying even, to whatever being had once been worshipped in that old temple where she lived, that something, anything, would stop this slow, painful collapse.
Lily looked up and a strange sight met her eyes.
Just a short way from where she was standing, Lord Ruthven was talking quietly to a couple of figures in black. Something was wrong. A man of Lord Ruthven’s standing did not have to skulk in the shadows. Surely no one would have dared to stop anything he chose to do. Concealed in the dark shadows of the building, she leaned closer.
‘… the meeting is tonight, My Lord, they already await you.’
‘I thought they knew I was not available tonight,’ Lord Ruthven hissed, removing his mask and glancing around. Inwardly, Lily started, but managed to keep herself completely still and he did not seem to notice her. As she watched, Lord Ruthven hastily slipped an old, nondescript cloak over his fine clothes. Then he spoke again.
‘I shall join them at the Clockwork House, but they should be reminded that I am the head of the society. They may not summon me on a whim.’
Unless…
Even the Lord Chief Justice was not above the law.
As he slipped away into the shadows, Lily found her feet following him. She pulled up the hood of her borrowed cloak, clutching her white mask inside her long, black sleeves, willing herself to blend into the night. Somewhere in her mind, she was already forming reasons. Maybe if Lord Ruthven could be proved to be corrupt, the city would change its ways. Maybe his secret was damaging people’s lives. Already she was discounting the most honest reason – sudden, burning and overwhelming curiosity. She had to know.
Lord Ruthven was not easy to follow, especially once he padded through the empty stalls of Central Plaza and into the Piscean slums, where he mingled with the thousands of others in dark, mud-stained clothes going about their night activities.
Lily could not suppress a shudder as she slipped under the crumbling archway into the Pisces District, the two fish carved on it seeming to glare at her. Her only comfort was that the grey plague seemed to have almost died out over the last year. All kinds of disease were still rife in the slums, of course, but at the height of the plague she would never have ventured in, no matter how curious she was. Even now, this part of the city disturbed her, especially at night. This city never slept, but it showed a different side in the darkness – harsher, seedier. Lily heard the echoed sounds of laughter from a public house, smelled stale odours wafting all around her. But in the moonlight she could see the fragments of glitter from his mask still caught on a cloak whose qu
ality was just a little too good.
Deeper and deeper they went into the tangled mass of streets: Fisher’s Way, Weaver’s Road. Lily tried to memorize the route, glancing over her shoulder to check the street signs. She kept her target in sight, but as she looked back again, she realized with a sickening lurch that she too was being followed. Every time she turned her head, they were there – a man and woman, their faces concealed behind heavy hoods, getting closer with every step. As an experiment, and at the risk of losing Lord Ruthven, Lily darted down a side-street. Sure enough, mere moments later, the light of the woman’s lantern appeared around the corner. Lily forced herself not to speed up, not to show the fear that made her heartbeat race. What if these were Ruthven’s servants? There was no receiver patrol in sight, but even they would be little help if the Lord Chief Justice caught her spying on him. Despite herself, she felt her pace increase, desperate to break into a run. Up ahead, a crowd burst out of another side-street, singing raucous songs and bringing with them the scent of gin and sweat. Lily plunged into the midst of them, feeling them press in around her, treading on her skirts and toes. Checking behind her, she saw her pursuers draw nearer, following her into the mob. For a few terrible seconds, she couldn’t move, pinned between two large drunken men, and then, with a sudden inspiration, she jabbed an elbow into the nearest chest. The man turned angrily, flailing his fists, but Lily dropped to the ground, crawling through the muck to avoid the escalating fight she had started. Shaking, she ducked into Lock Street, leaving her hooded followers trapped by the brawl. As she stopped to catch her breath, she caught sight of Lord Ruthven once again, ahead of her. All of her good sense was telling her to turn round, that it was too dangerous to go on.
As if mesmerized, she began to follow again.
The narrow street opened up into a square. Nearby, Lily could hear the Ora lapping against its banks, thick and sluggish at its downstream end. She guessed that she was somewhere near the far edge of the city, where the river disappeared, seeming to melt into the vastness of the great, grey city walls. It was said that only the riverboat captains knew the exact place where the Ora left the city, or where it entered, the only breaks in the walls that encircled Agora, marking and enforcing the limits of the mortal world. Some even whispered that the captains knew how to leave Agora, but that was as far as the stories went. ‘To leave the city’, in Agora, was another way of talking about death.
Lily snapped out of this train of thought as, up ahead, she saw Lord Ruthven in conversation with three other figures. He made some kind of sign – she was too far away to see what it was – and then he stepped through a door, into a building of ancient stone.
Lily moved closer, her mind buzzing. What would the highest judge in the city find in the middle of the slums? Who were these people?
And then she saw them. The man and the woman, still hooded, coming into the square from another street. Lily shrank back, flinching as their heads turned towards her, her whole body trembling. She watched as they drew closer, choosing her moment. She tensed her legs, ready to run from the square and lose herself in the twisting alleyways.
They looked away. Lily turned. She ran.
She ran straight into a man in a midnight-blue coat.
‘Hunting for debtors, Miss Lilith?’
Lily stepped back, shaken. Sergeant Pauldron stood before her. His tricorne hat shadowed his face, but even in the moonlight she could tell his look was not friendly.
‘There are many unfortunates in the Pisces District, Sergeant,’ she replied, keeping her voice as still and reasonable as she could, despite her thumping heart. ‘Some are too weak to make it to the Almshouse on their own.’
‘So I noticed, Miss Lilith. Receivers are not blind, whatever you might think.’ He moved closer, his eyes accusing. ‘I saw very well all of the debtors you passed by. Not feeling quite so charitable tonight?’
‘I… I was looking for someone in particular,’ Lily said. Even she could hear the tremble in her voice.
‘And who might that be?’ the sergeant asked, sounding reasonable, a sure sign of danger.
‘Me, sir… I’m sorry to have caused so much trouble.’
The voice was rasping but firm. Lily and the sergeant turned together. The old man who had been following Lily was now beside them, and the woman with him also came forward, lifting the hood of her cloak to reveal a mass of red curls.
‘I managed to find him first, Lily. I hope you don’t mind,’ Gloria said with a thin, nervous smile, raising her lantern to her face.
‘Of course not, Gloria,’ Lily answered rapidly, relief flooding through her. ‘It’s good to see you… er…’
‘Pete, miss,’ the man said.
In the light of Gloria’s lantern, Lily did recognize him. He had been round to the Almshouse several times, another old fisherman if the smell of the river that clung to him and his clothes could be trusted. They had offered him a bed, but he hadn’t stayed, probably out of pride alone if this was where he was living.
Lily turned back to the sergeant, who was still looking them over with a wary eye.
‘Well… we must get back. We’ll be on our way,’ Lily muttered, retreating but making a mental note. She wasn’t going to forget tonight.
‘Do that, Miss Lilith,’ the sergeant replied, stepping back into the shadows. ‘These slums are not a safe place.’
Lily shivered.
‘Come on, Gloria. Let’s get back.’
As they walked, Gloria seemed unusually calm. The usual fidgeting and sudden exclamations did not pepper her conversation, and she even accepted Lily’s thanks quietly, rather than with her normal burst of over-enthusiasm.
‘It was nothing, really. I was just on the way home from the ball and I saw Peter here returning to the slums. I thought I’d try again to get him to come back with us.’
Pete grunted, but in a friendly way.
‘When a young lady puts herself out for someone like me, the least I can do is walk her back to the Almshouse,’ he said.
Lily raised an eyebrow.
‘Quite the gentleman, Pete.’
The old fisherman snorted.
‘Never been one of them. But I wasn’t always like this. Seen a lot of change.’
Lily nodded thoughtfully. Change was what they needed now. She knew this walk home too well. She knew the sight of people still clinging on to their pieces of clothes and dignity, standing in line before their tiny door. She knew the bright voice of Benedicta as she welcomed her back. Even that smile, always there, seemed thinner nowadays. She was a great friend, of course, but sometimes Lily wondered how deeply Ben felt that cheer she tried to give to others. Lily knew that it helped the debtors and she tried to do it herself. But she also knew, even without looking in the mirror, that her eyes could not hide her thoughts.
‘Lily…’ Gloria lowered her voice as they entered the twisting streets of Sagittarius. ‘Could you keep quiet about my trip tonight? Only, Laud doesn’t like to think of me going out into the slums.’
Lily nodded and Gloria visibly relaxed, exchanging a glance with Pete. Inwardly, Lily sighed. Did Gloria really think that no one knew what she went there for? It didn’t take a genius to notice that she was no longer visiting Miss Devine. Perhaps she had found a less expensive supplier.
‘I won’t tell him,’ Lily said, taking Gloria’s arm, ‘but you should. They worry about you – both of them.’
Gloria smiled wistfully.
‘What else are families for?’ she mused. ‘We worry, all the time. Ever since we lost our parents, I don’t think there’s been a day when I haven’t worried about Laud and Ben. I haven’t been as much of a mother to them as I should have.’
For a while, they walked in silence. Then, trying to put her thoughts into words, Lily spoke again.
‘I don’t think they need a mother, not any more. But they do want their sister. Their real sister, without other people’s emotions inside her.’
Gloria nodded slowly.
/> ‘It’s hard, Lily. Until I came to the Almshouse, I used to feel…’ Gloria seemed about to tell her something, but then she changed her mind. ‘I’ll tell you soon. You’ve been so important, but Laud and Ben should be the first to know.’ She smiled, a quiet smile so different from the distracted grin she often wore. ‘It won’t be long. I’m not there yet, but… you’ll see a real change soon. I promise.’
Lily looked into Gloria’s unclouded eyes and believed her.
They got closer. In the distance, Lily could see another light. The guiding light, they called it. They had put a lamp up to show people the way to their door. It had been Laud’s idea, a kind of symbol. The Almshouse wasn’t the end of a journey, a place to die, but the way back for those who were lost. It wasn’t until the first night after they put it up that they saw it also illuminated Miss Devine’s shop, the glass decorations sparkling in the lamplight. She too was still open, despite the hour. As Lily, Gloria and Pete approached, she appeared in her doorway, framed in light from within the shop. She nodded, her expression as always unreadable. She had reduced the rent recently. Lily had so wanted to believe, like Benedicta had said, that she had taken their charity to her heart. But it would have meant ignoring the steady stream of those with nothing else to sell who left the Almshouse and drifted into her shop. Miss Devine was doing a brisk trade. One of the regulars at the Almshouse barely spoke any more; she seemed indifferent to the entire world. Nothing left to sell.
Lily let Gloria and Pete go ahead, wanting to stay a little longer in the night air. She hoped Theo would be in tonight. On the nights that he stayed in, he was usually a calming presence. Maybe she could talk to him about what Lord Ruthven had been doing. Around Benedicta and Gloria, she had to have all the answers. Lily shook her head. Right now she would even appreciate some of Laud’s barbed comments, anything to get her out of her own mind.
Anything to drive Mark’s words out of her head. She had thought he was better than that.
‘Lily!’
The Midnight Charter Page 17