by A. W. Exley
I walked back to the truck. "Are we ready to go, Lieutenant Bain?"
"I believe we are all fighting ready, Miss Alice," the lieutenant said and he clapped his hands together. "We'll send in the thirty flamethrower units first, then another forty men, then Miss Alice in the middle and the remaining thirty men at the back."
"Would you prefer a gun?" Frank asked, pointing to my mallet.
I tried to smile but I didn't want my teeth to chatter. Being a brave new woman was hard work. "No. I'm not terribly proficient with either gun or blade, despite Ella trying ever so hard to teach me. But I can wield a mallet well enough to keep vermin away from me."
He nodded and wisely didn't protest my inclusion. "Then let us rescue Ella and Seth and deal with Lady Jeffrey, so I can begin to convince you that you are the only woman I want in my life."
His gaze bore through me for a moment and my shattered heart stuttered and gasped back into life. Lord, how I loved this man, and yet how I hated him with the same breath. Could I ever trust him again? Maybe. But the game had been flipped on Frank the player, and now he would dance to my tune.
19
Ella
Confronting the evil queen
I stared at the open cage as Louise's taunt of dog rang in my ears. Where had they even found a cage? I wasn’t sure Elizabeth understood her job as vermin queen. Instead of converting all the locals, she seemed to have her minions out stealing clothes, furniture, and farmyard objects. At least they hadn't claimed any more souls as far as we knew. My conscience much preferred thievery over the mass slaughter of innocent people.
"I shall keep you as a pet, while I drag every one of your sorry family down here and have them Turned before you," Elizabeth said.
"Including your father the vegetable." Louise spat the words out as she shoved me into the open pen. The gate clanged shut and she turned the key in the lock. Then she pulled the brass key out and threw it toward the silver river.
I strained my ears for a splash. Did it reach the water or lie on the bank? Either way, I was reduced to a circus attraction. The cage was too small for me to stand upright and I had to kneel. In my mind, I whittled down captive Louise even further. I wondered if she would continue to speak if I halved her torso and just kept her lungs? She would resemble a Greek bust that museums displayed on plinths. Shame we needed whatever knowledge lurked in her head, or I would remove her tongue before handing her over to the War Office.
I sat back on my heels and glared at her. "Father gave you a home."
How could they be so heartless? Father had opened his home and heart to them. I believe he had even loved them, after a fashion. What sort of evil women would torture an injured man? I had my answer; they stood in front of me. How different our little world would have been, if father had got a dog for companionship instead of a new wife.
The thought of companions sparked a memory. There’d been no mention of one person missing from our conversation. "What of Charlotte? Will she become one of your courtiers, like Louise?"
With all this talk of destroying families, it was odd that they had not sought out their sister and daughter to become part of their undead one. I long thought that between the three of them, Charlotte was the one most likely to possess a heart. Did bonds of blood transcend death? I had watched over Charlotte, even though she didn't want to see me. I had worried they would snatch her and drag her away.
Louise laughed and tossed her tangled hair over her shoulder. "She will never be one of us. We don't want her taint here."
"Taint?" Did they mean her humanity or her pulse? Certainly these two had embraced their new roles and shed any pretence at compassion. Did the inherent nature of a person change when they Turned?
Given their hive mentality, it seemed likely that the individual parts displayed the attributes of their queen. So this lot would be dripping, pure rotten, evil. Mrs Linton hadn't been evil, but a devoted mother when Turned. Her vermin had roamed the countryside biting and infecting others. So who ultimately controlled who? I couldn't fathom the relationship between master and servants. The goose bumps on my flesh foretold of a layer yet to be revealed and of something that controlled the queens.
"She is of no matter." Elizabeth waved a hand, silencing Louise. "We will begin with the Duke of Leithfield. He would have married Louise and been part of our family, so now we will make him a prince in a fitting ceremony."
My fingers curled around the bars and I shook them. Part of me hoped the old metal would break under my fists and I would find myself outside the cage.
Louise kicked out, her boot clanging against the bars, and I winced as she caught the fingers of one hand. Every small blow, insult, and injury would be revisited upon her when I was free.
While my mind knew Lieutenant Bain and the lads weren't far away, these two didn't need a lot of time to Turn Seth. It would only take one bite, or one tiny scratch, and he would be beyond my reach forever. Worse, I would have to finish him. There was an awkward conversation—I could finally tell Seth I loved him just before I lopped his head off.
What was the source of their need to possess Seth? Part of it, I suspected, was purely the remnants of Louise's petty mind; I had him, therefore she wanted him all the more. But the whisper from the depths of my mind said it was more than that.
"He would never have married Louise. You must truly be desperate if you have to make him vermin like you to finally get your clutches in him. What's wrong, not enough willing corpses for you to pick from?"
Louise hissed again. Her transformation seemed to have made her part snake. Fitting, since alive she had wrapped herself around Seth as though she was an anaconda. I needed a closer look to see if she had a forked tongue. She kicked at my cage again, but I had withdrawn my hands and she only rattled the bars.
At that moment, the duke in question returned with his undead entourage. Seth strode out front, carrying a lantern and looking entirely in charge of the situation. He might have trod dirt in a dim underground cavern, but from his manner he could have crossed marble tiles under chandeliers at a palace.
He glanced at my captive state and raised an eyebrow. "I see you girls have been catching up. Playing a game of sardines?"
Catching up was one way of putting it. Trading insults and getting under each other's skin was another. I added peeling Louise like a grape to my list of things to try out on her.
Elizabeth's lips pulled up in a smile so cold it nearly froze my blood. "I've just been explaining a few things to Eleanor. She always was a bit slow, and I have to use very small words so she will understand."
"Really? I've always found the opposite to be true—that Ella grasps a situation much quicker than those around her." His gaze seemed to take a leisurely stroll over the surrounding vermin, as he assessed the numbers around us.
Seth's perusal paused at one point behind Louise and Elizabeth, and then returned to the vile queen. I turned my head to see what briefly caught his eye—a fresh looking vermin in a dirty and torn uniform. Jake. He shuffled back and forth, swaying like the others, but at the same time he moved sideways. Closer to my cage. I hoped he was better and faster at picking locks than me.
Seth tracked one particular vermin, the one acting as a claymore scabbard. "Do enlighten me as to what Eleanor is failing to understand, in your opinion?"
"Breeding. Such a difficult concept for commoners to grasp." Elizabeth reclined on her throne. A vermin scurried to throw itself at her feet. I couldn't tell if it was the same one as before or another. Past a certain point of decomposition, all vermin looked alike.
I made eye contact with Seth and pressed my face closer to the bounds of my cage. "Elizabeth was explaining why she needs you as part of her court."
Seth huffed a light chuckle. "I have quite a full plate with my current responsibilities, so would have to decline your kind offer, Lady Jeffrey. Do we still call you Lady Jeffrey, or does the hive have some other form of address? One does want to get these things right."
"I am their queen, mother, general, and so much more." She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. The vermin around us emitted a soft hum and even Louise's hard features relaxed for a moment as they harmonised. Then Elizabeth opened her eyes and a faint, disappointed whine rose from her subjects, as though she had dangled something wondrous in front of them and then snatched it away. "You cannot understand the depth of our connection unless you are a part of it."
While she talked, Jake shuffled closer. Another few feet and he would be next to me. Soon I would slip free. If only the vermin holding my katana would reappear. How long would it take for Frank and Alice to reach topside, brief Lieutenant Bain, rally the troops, and return? Two hours? I couldn't judge the passage of minutes in this mad world.
I needed them distracted while Jake released me, which meant focusing their attention on Seth. "Since I'm so slow, Step-mother, why don't you use little words to explain the ceremony you wish the duke to participate in?"
Elizabeth and Louise chortled at some secret joke between mother and daughter. "A waste of my breath, even if I had any. You would never understand, Eleanor. I always tried to stress the importance of a person's pedigree, but it was all beyond your common little mind. Seth descends from a great ducal line and his breeding is pivotal for our new empire. Our ceremony requires his blood from three phases: as it is, in the process of change, and in its new state."
I definitely did not like the sound of that, but it did explain why Louise hadn't sunk her teeth into him yet. They needed his untainted blood first.
Seth arched an eyebrow and rubbed his chin. "I'm not a bull, you know. You can't just use me to improve your bloodstock."
Were they going to Turn Seth and then force him to make vermin babies with Louise? My mind and stomach simultaneously revolted at the hideous image. Bile washed back up my throat and I swallowed it down with a shudder.
Louise prowled around behind Seth and her arms wrapped around his waist as she pressed herself close to him. There she went, being the anaconda again. I’d soon be vomiting in my confined space if she didn’t stop. A rattle pulled my attention to the side. Jake had bumped into the cage. No one noticed.
Louise's arms moved up Seth's chest. He caught her hand and pulled it away from his body. I expected to hear a sucking noise as he broke her grip, like peeling an octopus off a surface. Maybe she was part snake, part octopus?
"Steady on, old girl. I am a taken man." He used her arm to propel her off him but she lingered close, twisting her hand so she gripped his forearm.
"But soon you will be a Turned man." She blew him a kiss and then bared her teeth.
"Won't he be a mindless drone, though?" I had to ask, or did it prove they wanted Seth for his body, not his mind?
Elizabeth swept an arm at the vermin around her. "These are mindless drones, peasants if you will. We are evolving with my rule and Louise has retained her intelligence as the first of my knights. Now, she will beget more knights to command my drones on the battlefield."
Seth swore under his breath. Seth never swore, which said something about the figurative grenade Elizabeth had just thrown at us. The idea of cunning vermin like Louise swarming the countryside made my body shake as though I were gripped by a fever. This could turn the Grim War to their favour. We had to stop them.
One problem at a time, Ella. I hauled my rampant imagination back to the current predicament. I needed to concentrate on Jake or on finding my wandering sword. I narrowed my gaze and searched for the glint of metal amongst the pack of bodies.
Seth cleared his throat and waited until he had their attention before speaking. "Just to clarify one tiny point before we proceed, do you require the person who holds the ducal title, or the ducal bloodline?"
"What?" Elizabeth and Louise said in unison.
Seth used his other hand to break Louise's grip on his arm and he took a step away from her, and away from my cage and the vermin trying to pick the lock. "Well, they're not the same thing actually, so which do you require in your future knight?"
Elizabeth narrowed her black gaze. "Stop playing games. You are the duke and the direct descendant from the first Duke of Leithfield, whom Millicent chose as her husband."
Seth clucked his tongue. "No, sorry to disappoint. I hold the title, yes, but I'm not of Millicent's blood line."
I abandoned trying to find my sword, riveted by Seth's confession as he threw his own verbal grenade back at step-mother. I had no idea he had so many skeletons rattling around in his closet. To be fair, he had lots of big closets, so he could have lots of very big secrets.
"Don't be ridiculous. You are the old duke's son." A strident note entered Elizabeth's voice and she rose from her throne in short jerky movements as though her limbs wouldn't obey her commands. Events weren't playing out quite as she planned.
Seth brushed the sleeves of his jacket, as though he flicked away any trace of Louise's touch. He took his time answering, thankfully. Jake seemed to be having issues trying to appear undead and mindless and tackle the lock at the same time.
"I am my mother's son, but by another man. Did you not listen to local rumour? It was quite the scandal. My parents always had an unhappy marriage. Who knows who strayed first, but they each found love elsewhere before I was born. That's why my mother took passage on the Titanic, heading off to America and a new life with her lover."
"No." Elizabeth clutched a hand to her chest.
I hoped she was getting heart palpitations, but that would require a beating heart. Was there an undead equivalent, like a rat gnawing through her chest cavity? I couldn't believe Elizabeth was so dense. Everybody knew the gossip about Seth's mother. They should have paid more attention to recent events and less to the digging up of thousand-year-old death roads and catacombs.
Seth frowned and tapped his chin. "If you need the deMage bloodline in particular, you'd be wanting Frank. He is the duke's natural child by another woman."
If Elizabeth was unsettled, Louise was frantic. She pulled at her long hair and looked close to a full-on tantrum. She stamped her foot and uttered a low, frustrated moan. "This is impossible. He deceives us, Mother. You and the servant look similar; you must share the same father."
Whose wrath would Louise incur for grabbing the wrong blood—Elizabeth or someone higher?
Seth shrugged. "I believe my mother fancied a certain type of man, if you will, which is the cause of the similarity between us. Rather a shame you let Frank go. Perhaps you should run back up top and see if he's still around?"
For once, Elizabeth was lost for words. Her mouth opened and shut like a goldfish drowning on land. The moan from the vermin turned to a higher pitch, as though the creatures were in pain. She managed to emit one, lone word. "No!"
Then, for once in this entire sad escape mission, events swung in my favour. A faint click heralded Jake’s success opening my door, and the vermin carrying my katana wandered into view. To Hell with subtlety, we knew enough. It was time to play our last hand in this game. I burst through the gate and lunged at the sword.
Relief coursed through my body as my fingers curled around the hilt. With two hands gripping my weapon, I shoved upward, nearly cleaving the creature in two. Then I pulled the sword free and cut off its head.
It was time to end this nightmare.
20
"Kill her!" Louise screamed, spinning away from Seth to point an accusing finger at me. I wondered if, as her mother's knight, she could override the order not to harm me. Somehow I doubted vermin had complex thought processes beyond, Queen say no bite, knight say bite. I hoped the queen's orders prevailed and offered me a small measure of immunity.
"Jack’s close," Jake whispered from beside me, and then he disappeared into the sea of vermin. After this was over, I was going to ask how he had done that. Why did they not bite him?
Seth raised his foot and booted Louise from behind. She lurched forward and hit the ground. I was outraged and proud at the same time. An ignoble act from my aristocratic suitor,
but I cheered that the horrid bint finally ate dirt. Seth jumped past Elizabeth and leapt up onto the queen's throne, giving him the higher ground as he cast around for a weapon.
Elizabeth looked somewhat bemused, as though a serious dinner party had turned into drunken charades. She adjusted the cuffs of her dress as though waiting for the staff to evict the troublemakers. It had always bothered me when step-mother was calm; it meant she knew something I didn't, and it usually ended up with me black and blue. Louise turned as red as her jacket as she scrabbled to her feet and screamed at the vermin to capture me and Seth.
Seth's claymore waved in and out of my view and I charged toward it, slashing vermin as I went. I didn't bother to take the time to decapitate; I simply swung at limbs that blocked my way. Jack and reinforcements may have been close, but my immediate concern was reclaiming our weapons and giving Seth a way to defend himself.
A whump rattled my bones and I squinted as fire blazed through my vision. I tried to ignore the flames leaping to the roof of the cavern and concentrated on the dancing claymore. A new bonfire blazed in one part of the vermin ocean. Judging by its similarity to the smouldering stand of trees, I'd say Seth had tossed his grenade. I was disappointed he hadn't made good on his promise to shove it into Louise's chest.
This time, instead of staring at the fire, the vermin seemed to heave. A wave rolled through the packed bodies, and raced toward the burning section. These ones stood close to the edge of the river. As the wave crashed into them, the human-sized candles were tossed into the water and extinguished.
Clearing the red haze from my eyes, I lunged at the glint of metal before me. My hand finally grabbed the claymore and I pulled it free by booting the vermin backwards. I spun to locate Seth, hoping I hadn't run too far from the Elizabeth's central stage. I found him whacking vermin with a lump of slate. Louise danced beyond his reach, screaming for someone to do something, but it was step-mother who drew my gaze.