Scar Night

by Alan Campbell

  Then he remembered.

  He turned round just in time.

  Carnival flew at him like a demon, wings wide, hair wild, eyes black with fury.

  Mr. Nettle raised his cleaver.

  She grinned.

  Then veered to the left as a score of crossbow bolts smashed to fragments on the cobbles between them.

  Mr. Nettle wheeled.

  Spine, dozens of them, on the rooftops. “Civilian,” a voice called down, “get indoors immediately. If you do not have a residence in this district, temporary sanctuary may be granted in one of the Church boltholes or beggars’ nooks for a fee of six doubles or one and a half pennies—”

  “Piss off,” Mr. Nettle yelled. He turned back to the angel.

  Carnival was thrashing skywards through a second barrage of crossbow bolts. Several ripped through her wings, while others punched deep into her ancient, mould-patched leathers. She howled and headed away from the Church’s assassins.

  Mr. Nettle ran after her.

  The alley emerged into a broader lane he recognized at once. Narrow and undulating, Cage Wynd sank gradually from the old planetarium in Applecross, running south over a series of humped bridges towards the shipyards. Its name came from the grates and spikes bolted over every window and door. The chainmen and yard workers who lived here had access, more often than not, to more iron than the smithies did. Everyone but the Church knew they were at it: for every two tons of iron that went missing in Deepgate, one of them ended up here, smuggled in and put to use securing local homes from attack. Whole façades of heavy bars and plate and needle-sharp points—it felt like you were standing in the open jaws of a monster. With its sheer weight of metal defences, it was a wonder Cage Wynd hadn’t dragged the whole district into the abyss years ago. Even the old planetarium surmounting the mansion at the top of the lane had been stripped of its cogs and support joists—the brass and steel recycled into makeshift armour for the many tenements below. Little more than brickleweed held the heavy globe to the clock tower’s summit.

  Mr. Nettle heard a sudden hiss and looked up to see dark shapes swarm over the rooftops opposite. The Spine were loosing dozens of bolts at a spot higher up on his side of the street, just a short distance to the north. The scrounger grunted and set off again, crossing the lane to give him a better view of the assassins’ target.

  They appeared to be driving Carnival north, towards the planetarium. Bolts glanced off flint, iron plate, and roof slates, thudded into exposed beams.

  “Bitch!” Mr. Nettle threw his arms wide.

  She twisted in midair, diving towards him.

  Again, the Spine crossbows forced her back, further up Cage Wynd towards the planetarium. They would harry her thus till dawn, keep her moving away from the temple districts and the Warrens. Out of his reach.

  The scrounger roared, and surged after her.

  Whenever the Spine hurt Carnival she took vicious revenge. The more she was hurt, the worse her retribution became. Even the strongest barricades couldn’t keep the angel out when she was injured. Ropers and beggars hated the Spine for it, for they suffered most. Their pulpboard shacks in the League might as well have been made of paper. Those who could afford it had cages made inside their homes, and locked themselves and their children in. Sometimes it kept them safe; most often not. Carnival had been known to rip through a dozen such homes on Scar Night, tearing whole buildings free of the chains which supported them.

  The Spine were hurrying now, their silhouettes converging on the planetarium under a vast expanse of stars. They had stopped shooting.

  “Here, whore!”

  But Carnival ignored him. Something else had caught her attention—something inside the planetarium itself. Cursing, Mr. Nettle studied the mansion below the huge brass globe. The old house stank of Iril. The clock tower had been bound in chains to keep the crumbling stone together; the windows had been boarded up, but there were wide gaps visible between the planks. Mr. Nettle thought he saw movement within: oddly shaped figures capering. Some said the corridors inside the house moved and shifted, constantly forming new mazes to keep the things trapped there entertained.

  He hesitated for a heartbeat before setting off again. When he reached the chains around the clock tower, he began to climb.

  * * * *

  Asilhouette suddenly covered the stars that were visible through one of the missing windows. Rachel leaned back in her chair, just enough to make it creak. The silhouette changed shape. Carnival had seen her, but didn’t move yet to engage.

  No wonder you suspect a trap. Those idiots have stopped shooting, now they’ve got you in position. And I’m supposed to sit here and do nothing.

  So Rachel threw a knife, aimed to kill.

  Carnival flinched away from it, snarling. But still she didn’t attack.

  Come on, you bitch, come get me. The assassin threw another knife, and another, but the angel avoided them as easily as if they were wind-blown leaves. How can she even see them coming? Rachel pursed her lips. Provoke her, they said .

  “Hey, freak,” Rachel yelled out.

  That did it. Carnival dove.

  Rachel leapt forward and sideways just as the chair she’d been sitting in smashed to pieces behind her. She rolled across the observation platform, pulling another knife from her sleeve, and at that same moment heard the heavy crossbow hidden on the mansion roof below fire its payload.

  A steel-mesh net engulfed the entire planetarium. The whole structure shuddered as the heavy bolas wrapped around its base.

  The angel growled.

  Now the scary part. I’m trapped here too. Rachel threw the knife, but heard it clatter against a strut in a different direction to the one she’d thrown it in. Shit shit shit. Carnival knocked that knife aside. I may as well be lobbing balloons at her . She got to her feet, drawing her sword. In the starlit gloom the angel’s wings loomed huge and black.

  “You are to be sacrificed,” Carnival hissed.

  “Not if I can help it.”

  Carnival charged her, a blur of darkness. Rachel lunged out with her sword, felt it deflected. The angel merely pushed the blade aside with the heel of her hand, moved inside Rachel’s reach. Oh God . Suddenly Rachel felt overstretched, vulnerable to attack, and Carnival was reaching for her throat. Rachel flexed at the knees, dodged beneath her assailant’s hand, and, thereby unbalanced, had no option but to throw herself backwards. Carnival’s own momentum shot her clear.

  Pain jarred through Rachel’s neck, a chair collapsing under her shoulders. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that, for Carnival was moving again, turning, coming for her. So fast! The assassin rolled over, scrambled away, lashing her sword blindly behind her. I’m fighting like some frightened recruit . By luck, the clumsy manoeuvre bought her just enough time to regain her feet.

  Glass burst inwards overhead.What? Rachel whirled round. For a crazy moment, it appeared to be raining again, though the sky above was cloudless. Water streamed through missing panes, dripped from the planetarium’s skeleton struts. Carnival recoiled from the downpour, widening the gap between them. A drip splashed over Rachel’s hand, greasy on her skin. Then she recognized the dense, chemical odour, and she realized what was happening.

  Not water. This wasn’t part of their plan. Not part of the plan they told me.

  Evidently the angel had noticed the smell too. “Sacrifice,” she said with a mocking grin.

  Rachel heard the flame arrows before she saw them. The first struck the brickleweed growing on the west curve of wall, fizzled for an instant, then erupted. The second smashed through one of the constellation-etched facets in the eastern side of the globe and lodged inside the viewing platform. Flames blossomed around it. Half a dozen more arrows followed.

  Lamp oil—they’ve drenched the place in it. They’re going to burn us both alive.

  In as many heartbeats as there had been arrows, Oberhammer’s planetarium was ablaze.

  “Spine,” Rachel snarled. “The ut
ter bastards.”

  Carnival’s eyes narrowed to slits; her scars seemed to turn blood-red in the firelight. She lashed her wings and lifted herself six feet above the platform. Flames reached out and plucked at the air around her.

  Expendable? Rachel lowered her sword. They weren’t joking .

  Carnival, however, did not appear to share her fellow captive’s resignation. Wreathed in flames, the angel’s wings thundered in the centre of the globe. She paused to gather her strength, then threw herself against the southern curve of the planetarium.

  Rachel felt the jolt through the floor as all of the facets on that side shattered. Glass exploded outwards, showered into the lane below. Metal groaned under the impact.

  Oh shit, she’s not going to…She can’t…This globe must weigh a hundred tons.

  Carnival drew back, tensed, and then slammed herself again against the inside surface of the globe.

  A deep grinding sound. The planetarium tilted.

  Flames had taken good hold of the viewing platform and were rising, crawling over the rows of chairs. Smoke hissed from their padding, rose in billowing columns to spread across the roof. Twists of it spiralled behind Carnival’s outstretched wings. The heat forced Rachel back, closer to the southern edge. Hand over her mouth, she hopped down from the platform itself and clung to a curve of metal protruding between two broken facets. She pulled at the steel net, uselessly. The planetarium’s brass skeleton gleamed in the firelight, sweated streams of green and red and gold.

  Carnival pulled back again, whipping the flames around her into a frenzy. She closed her eyes, gave a roar, and plunged forward again.

  Grrrrrrnnd.

  Rachel heard stone crack and crumble below her. Metal grated, moaned, buckled. The brickleweed trembled, crackled, and then tore apart.

  Oberhammer’s folly toppled.

  * * * *

  Mr. Nettle was two-thirds of the way up the external wall of the clock tower when the fire started. He paused, breathless and uncertain, his boots wedged between the supporting chains and the mouldering wall. He’d seen the metal net go flying over the planetarium and the bolas wrap themselves around the pinions at its base. He’d cursed the Spine for that; now he cursed them for the fire. Three thousand years of battle and they manage to best Carnival tonight ? The notion sat in his belly like poisoned meat. Stinking luck: the angel didn’t deserve to die at the hands of the Spine. She deserved his cleaver in her skull. Maybe he could still get to her before the fire took firm hold. Wouldn’t matter if he burned too, as long as he got one good swipe at her, left one deep scar behind for Abigail.

  He looked down. Spine had gathered on the roofs on either side of the lane below, twenty or thirty of them, armed with crossbows. Cage Wynd dropped away between them, sank down the hill towards the cranes and airship pits in the yards.

  The scrounger sucked in a breath through his teeth. He wasn’t going to let the angel burn until he’d gotten his revenge. He turned to face the wall again, began hauling himself up faster.

  Above him, the planetarium tilted. Stone and mortar crumbled, showered past. And then the whole huge brass globe came loose.

  Mr. Nettle pressed himself tight against the wall. Heat slammed into him as the planetarium roared by. It struck the tenements below, smashing into eaves on both sides of the lane with a thunderous boom. Clouds of dust and burning embers bloomed skywards. But the globe itself was wider than the lane. It had lodged there, pinned by iron façades, eighty feet from the ground. Spine scrambled away from it as chimneys toppled. Landslides of slates slipped from roofs into the lane below.

  Mr. Nettle grinned. He had her now.

  Then his grin faded.

  Still blazing and wrapped in the tight steel net, Oberhammer’s planetarium let loose a mighty groan and pitched forward, smashing roofs on either side and crumpling eaves and dislodging gutters, and began to roll along the top of Cage Wynd down towards the dockyards.

  * * * *

  The impact knocked Rachel from her feet. Every facet in the globe exploded, and painted shards of glass rained down on her. She fell through a square gap between adjacent brass struts, one leg dangling through the enveloping steel mesh. Far below, glass tinkled on cobbles. Rachel winced as Carnival howled with pleasure.

  Shit.

  The fall could have killed her.

  Fortunately the planetarium was wide enough to get trapped above Cage Wynd, the lane’s iron-plated façades proving strong enough to support its weight. They had fallen only thirty feet from the summit of the clock tower. Rachel eased her leg out from the mesh of net and lay back gasping. The globe was still on fire, and she was still trapped inside it with Carnival. She had to get out of here.

  Then came a groan like the cry of a wounded god.

  The whole structure began to roll.

  Shit shit shit shit.

  The viewing platform, chairs ablaze, tipped vertically, then rose higher till it loomed overhead like a burning ceiling about to collapse. Still clinging tightly to the net, Rachel followed it up and over. She looked down to see Carnival hovering six feet above the brass curves now shifting beneath her. Through the smoke, Deepgate seemed to be tilting towards Rachel, rising up to fill her field of vision: crowded alleys of iron-clad tenements, a labyrinth of rain-soaked roofs, the temple…

  The shipyards.

  Cranes loomed over spaces large enough to swallow airships.

  Shit shit shit shit shit shit.

  Rachel held on grimly. The globe revolved over and down again, crunching through slates and eaves on either side. When the metal structure beneath her levelled, she pushed herself upright and hopped from strut to strut like a rat in a wheel.

  Carnival thumped her chest. “Come on.”

  Rachel closed on the angel, brought down her blade, and swung it hard to the right, anticipating deflection. But Carnival merely backed away, laughing, making no effort to push inside the assassin’s reach. Now Carnival was behind her.

  Unable to stop moving but vulnerable at the rear, Rachel ran even faster. She scrambled up the inside of the planetarium, gripping the steel net, and lashed back savagely with her blade. The blow hissed an inch in front of Carnival’s chin, halting the angel’s attack. Rachel kicked out and caught her opponent in the belly, sending her tumbling away.

  The flames! She must be almost blind in this light.

  Oberhammer’s folly blazed. Burning brickleweed whined and popped and whirled through the turbulent air. Rachel picked herself up and ran. The viewing platform surged overhead again and back down towards her. She leapt onto it, sprinted along an aisle between burning chairs, and jumped down off the other side. She grabbed the net and pulled at its steel links, using all of her weight. Her muscles bunched, strained, but the net would not break. She held on. The globe rolled faster, bumping and pitching as it hurtled down Cage Wynd.

  Carnival had by now recovered. The scarred angel took to the air again, pounding her wings to keep well in the centre of the globe, away from its spinning walls. Rachel slipped beneath her, rose up on the other side. Debris rained down: pieces of a broken chair, burning leaves and snarls of branches. Flames whipped and roared. Deepgate reeled across the heavens—cobbles, gas lamps, brickwork, chains—while stars raced underfoot.

  Picking up speed now.

  The force of spin pushed Rachel back against the net. She arced once more under Carnival, up one side, overhead, back down. She struggled to move but the impetus held her firm. Her bones felt brittle, ready to snap. Faster and faster—now she was directly above the angel. The planetarium struck something solid, jumped, and for a heartbeat Rachel was weightless.

  She kicked away from the net with every shred of strength she had left.

  Carnival twisted to one side, but she wasn’t quick enough. Rachel’s sword clipped the angel’s knee, drew blood, and then the assassin collided with the net below. The globe smashed back into the eaves above Cage Wynd, lurched forward faster.

  Carnival launched herself
at the spot Rachel had occupied moments before.

  But the assassin was already above the angel again. She ripped a knife from her sleeve, threw it. The blade sank into Carnival’s shoulder.

  Carnival shrieked, tore the knife free. “Spine,” she snarled, her voice murderous, “I’m going to come for you when it’s dark. Do you hear me? When it’s dark, when I can see, I’ll find you and rip your fucking heart out.”

  Rachel doubted the angel would get the chance to act on this threat. The globe was spinning so fast she herself could hardly move. And it was getting faster: each jolt punched her in the ribs and whiplashed her neck. Her leathers were singed from the flames, her hands blistered; she smelled her hair burning. Loose embers and burning feathers whirled and looped and spun. One instant Carnival was there in front of her, the next below her, the next upside down. Rachel felt sick. She pulled at the net behind her, tore at it desperately, kicked it. Though of steel, the mesh was thin. Any Spine Adept could have broken it apart.

  Any Adept except her.

  She focused, heaved herself at the net, muscles screaming.

  Nothing happened.

  Rachel Hael collapsed against the net, making no effort to quieten her breathing. Carnival was somewhere overhead, or behind, or below. It didn’t matter now: she couldn’t fight her, couldn’t stop her. She had never been ready to confront the angel. Now she never would be. There was nothing more she could do. Her tenure with the Spine ended here.

  And then she spotted the hole.

  In a facet four feet away, the steel mesh had been shredded and hung in tatters. She hadn’t noticed it before because of the flames.

  Half the net must have been ripped away. Gods below, I’m lucky I haven’t already fallen through.

  Teeth clenched, the assassin dragged herself towards the gap. She could hardly breathe. She seemed to be climbing and falling all at once, didn’t know which way was down or up. Flames spun and howled and tore at her exposed hands and neck.

  “I hear you,” Carnival growled.

  Rachel caught a glimpse of the angel: eyes screwed shut, wings smouldering, face livid with scars. Then everything around her was smoke and fire.