by Rod Rees
‘No, nothing.’
The woman shrugged and went back to the study of her book. Vanka looked around the grimy hallway, saw the sign ‘Rooms’ and moved towards the staircase, his rain-wrecked boots squelching a wet trail that marked his passing.
‘A brokh!’ he heard the woman exclaim behind him. ‘I vould lose my head if it vos loose. Tell me, Mr Jim Tyler, how long vill you be staying?’
‘All Summer,’ answered Vanka, and the depressing realisation was that that might actually be the case.
7
The Coven
The Demi-Monde:
2nd Day of Summer, 1005 … 05:00
To the HerEticals of the Coven, ‘women’ is seen as a demeaning, heterosexual, bondage term for the female gender. In order to avoid the linguistic contamination of patriarchal-centric speech, this book uses the HerEtical terms ‘Femme’ in place of ‘Woman’ and ‘nonFemme’ in place of ‘Man’. The sublime experience associated with Femme2Femme love, romance and sex is referred to as MoreBienism and those who have come to embrace MoreBienism as MoreBiens. Unfortunately, the tag MoreBien has been lampooned throughout the Demi-Monde, with Femme followers of MoreBienism being ridiculed as LessBiens. LessBien is a pejorative, patriarchal word replete with connotations of the suppression and belittlement of Femmes, and will not be used in this book.
The Young Femme’s Guide to the HerTory of the Coven: HerTorianNoN Fan Ye, Covenite Textbooks and Periodicals
It was a confirmation of how badly the Coven needed Trixie that not only had they appointed her head of their armed forces, but Imperial Non Mao ZeDong had also agreed – damned reluctantly, it had to be said – that she could meet with Wysochi. The NoN had blustered and prevaricated, complaining that it was not seemly for an officerFemme of her rank to display feelings for an unneutered nonFemme, but Trixie had insisted and, as Mao had come to appreciate, Trixie was a difficult girl to refuse.
And with regard to Wysochi she was very determined: she had to know that the man she loved was alive and well. That was why she was sitting, a couple of hours shy of dawn, in a damp and draughty room in the down-at-heel barracks that the remnants of the Warsaw Free Army had been calling home since the beginning of Spring. But none of these discomforts could detract from the happiness she felt seeing Wysochi again. Of all the people in the Demi-Monde he was the only one she trusted … the only one she loved.
She knew though that she had to conceal her feelings: Mao – spiteful, vindictive bastard that he was – was sitting at her side watching for behaviour that ‘did not accord with HerEtical teachings’, having warned her that given the merest excuse, he would terminate the meeting. So every question and every answer had to be couched carefully to avoid provoking his displeasure.
Despite Mao’s baleful presence, it was still marvellous to see Wysochi again. Standing there in front of the table she and Mao were seated at, he looked very much as she remembered him from their last meeting a Season ago: big, bold and disrespectful. His face was, perhaps, a little fuller – Coven food, she decided, must agree with him – and he did look remarkably clean. Wysochi had obviously taken a liking to the steam baths the Chinks were so fond of and he looked almost respectable without his habitual frosting of mud and cordite.
Almost.
Clean, she could see every one of the scars he had picked up during the fighting in Warsaw. They made him look like a pirate. ‘You’re looking well, Major Wysochi,’ she began.
‘You too, Colonel,’ replied Wysochi and he gave her a wink.
For a moment Trixie struggled with the urge to leap up and hug the man, but with Mao in attendance this was impossible. Mao would probably swoon if she did: demonstrations of affection between men and women – between Femmes and nonFemmes – were taboo in the Coven.
‘It’s GeneralFemme now, Major. Following the death of Jeanne Dark I’ve been appointed head of the Covenite army.’
Wysochi whistled. ‘Congratulations. GeneralFemme, eh? I’ve gotta say I never thought the powers that be in the Coven would have the intelligence to do something so sensible.’
Mao sucked his teeth to show that he judged Wysochi’s observation to be borderline unacceptable.
‘I like the shaved head too. Very fetching.’
Trixie ran a hand over her shaven pate and gave a wry smile. ‘I was obliged, Major, to have my head shaved in order to conform to HerEtical protocol. Covenite women who have embraced MoreBienism have taken to having this done to show that they have cut all ties with nonFemmes and have no use for sexual objectification. And as the new Commander of the Covenite Army, it was felt necessary that I should dress in accordance with the most rigorous of HerEtical teachings.’
‘Hence the overalls?’
Trixie looked down at the plain denim boiler suit she was wearing; only the gold pips on the epaulettes denoted her new status and rank. ‘Correct. These are jiangs. Every Femme in the Coven wears them.’
‘And very nice they must look too,’ Wysochi deadpanned.
The conversation faltered for a moment and suddenly Trixie felt very tired and dispirited. She’d had hardly a moment’s sleep since she’d been released from prison just thirty-six hours before, her time taken up by a whirl of inspections, parades and briefings.
And all that time festering at the back of her mind was the suspicion that Empress Wu would eventually betray her and renege on her promise to free the WFA. That was the other reason why she’d insisted on seeing Wysochi, to confirm for herself that he and the rest of the Varsovian fighters were still alive. But the pleasure of meeting Wysochi couldn’t rid her of the belief that once her usefulness to Wu was at an end, she and the WFA would be disposed of. She would just have to get her betrayal in first, though for the moment she would bide her time by playing the dutiful and loyal GeneralFemme.
‘How have you and the rest of the WFA been treated?’ she asked as lightly as she could.
‘Oh, we’re all fine. We’re well fed and allowed to exercise. There’s been a little moaning amongst the men about their not being able to see their womenfolk, but other than that all of us are just the same.’
The key phrase of Wysochi’s was ‘all of us are just the same’ which signalled that none of the male Varsovian fighters had been gelded; this, at least, was good news. Trixie turned to Mao: ‘Why have my fighters been separated? The WFA makes no distinction between men and women, both fight and die as equals.’
The NoN’s face remained totally expressionless. She hated Mao’s inscrutability. She liked to see emotion in people; without emotion they were nothing more than automata. This was, she decided, a good metaphor: the NoNs – the eunuchs – of the Coven were automata. They spoke like robots, they acted like robots and they even looked like robots.
Just as Mao did. There was something disturbingly doll-like about the NoN; he was a little too plump, his skin too smooth and rosy, his pigtail too perfectly coiffed and his black and silver robes too clean and flawlessly pressed for him to be anything other than artificial. But artificial or not, the arrogant bastard had the ear of Empress Wu so he had to be watched.
Without a flicker of an expression Mao raised a hand adorned with excessively long fingernails – these apparently designed to show that he was engaged in intellectual rather than low-caste manual work – and with a disdainful flick of his wrist waved her question aside. ‘In the Coven the barbaric and obscene indulgence in heterosexual physical relationships is outlawed, except, that is, for the purposes of officially sanctioned procreation. Whilst in the less enlightened Sectors of the Demi-Monde nonFemmes are encouraged to force their disgusting desires on Femmes, here in the Coven this cannot be condoned. It is unthinkable that we should allow your WFA fighters to rut like animals: it would be an affront to HerEticalism.’
‘Apparently, attempts have been made to indoctrinate the WFA’s women fighters in the delights of Femme2Femme sex,’ interrupted Wysochi.
‘Not “indoctrinate”,’ corrected the NoN sharply, his sing-song
voice with its strange Chink accent rising an octave to signal his annoyance. ‘They are merely being given the opportunity to understand the philosophy of HerEticalism and to enjoy the sublime pleasures and happiness flowing from the embracing of MoreBienism.’
‘LessBienism more like,’ grumped Wysochi.
A glare from the NoN. ‘That is a pejorative term that is not used in the Coven. If you wish this interview to continue, Preferred Male Wysochi, you will desist from using such foul and offensive language.’
Trixie moved quickly to change the subject. The last thing she wanted was for the meeting to be brought to a premature end by a fit of NoNish pique. ‘I asked Imperial Secretary Mao to arrange this meeting so that I could pick your mind, Major Wysochi. Heydrich has issued an ultimatum to the Coven stating that unless trading relations are “normalised” by noon today, a state of war will exist between the ForthRight and the Coven. I am advised by Imperial Secretary Mao that the Coven will refuse these demands and therefore we must expect the ForthRight to commence its military operations in a little under eight hours. I anticipate that the invasion will be preceded by an artillery bombardment and once the Coven’s shore defences have been pummelled to powder the UnFunnies will attempt to force the Volga. So … before the Summer is very much older, there will be fighting in the streets of Rangoon. This being the case, I would like your advice regarding how best to make a disposition of my army.’
Wysochi frowned: having been kept in isolation for over three months, he was obviously having a little difficulty getting up to speed with current events. ‘Why do the UnFunnies want to invade the Coven? Last time I heard they had their hands full in the Quartier Chaud.’
‘They ran into trouble. Our friend Ella Thomas pulled another of her miracle stunts and gave the ForthRight Army the turnaround. There’s something of a stand-off going on down there.’
‘The Lady IMmanual’s up to her old tricks, eh? But that still doesn’t explain why the ForthRight has got it in for the Coven.’
‘There is a one-word answer to that question, Major: coal. The Coven is refusing to supply coal to the ForthRight until their army has withdrawn from the Quartier Chaud and, as the Coven is the only supplier of coal in the whole of the Demi-Monde, the ForthRight has got a little exercised about it.’
‘A provocative thing to have done.’
‘Not provocative, Preferred Male Wysochi,’ corrected Mao, ‘rather it was an act ordained by ABBA Herself. When the iChing was consulted during the Rite of 4Telling, it was ABBA who commanded that the Coven deny the ForthRight coal.’
Wysochi looked at Mao as though the NoN was unbalanced. ‘Then it’s a shame that ABBA isn’t here to do the fighting, because the ForthRight will be coming at you hot and heavy. Way I understand it, the ForthRight has only got seven, maybe eight weeks of coal reserves, so they’ll want to take the Coven coal mines sooner rather than later, otherwise their steamers will go cold boilers. You’re in for a hot Summer, GeneralFemme. How many fighters do you have?’
‘Trained and combat-ready, about fifty thousand.’
‘Fifty thousand! That all? What happened to the Covenite Army?’
Mao answered the question. ‘At the order of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Wu, the army was purged of all antiFemme elements when the Coven was proclaimed a HerEtical Sector on the “Glorious Day of Liberation from the evil that is MALEvolence”.’
‘That was a long time ago.’
‘Nine years. And since then most of the nonFemme fighters chose to emigrate to NoirVille rather than volunteer to have their naturally perverse MALEvolent tendencies muted by the process of castration.’
Wysochi didn’t say a word but the expression on his face was very eloquent, obviously being of the opinion that given a choice between debollocking and relocating, most men would have been looking to secure the next berth on a barge heading to Cairo.
‘We did, however, attract many Femmes from outside the Coven who wished to be part of the Sublime Revolution that is HerEticalism.’
‘And now you’ve got an all-Femme army of just fifty thousand fighters.’
‘Correct, Preferred Male Wysochi, though there are a number of NoNs within the Officer Corps. ReverendFemme Dark – may ABBA bring her soul safe to her ancestors – did a fine job of reconstituting the Covenite Army. Her Amazon Regiments are reputed to be some of the finest in the whole of the Demi-Monde.’
Trixie nodded her agreement. ‘I inspected them yesterday morning. They’re well equipped and look very capable.’
‘But there’re only fifty thousand of them.’
‘Yes.’
‘That is why,’ continued Mao, ‘upon the tragic death of ReverendFemme Dark, Her Imperial Majesty Empress Wu, in her divinely inspired wisdom, appointed GeneralFemme Dashwood as Commander of the Army. Her Imperial Majesty consulted the iChing, which indicated that if the Coven was to defeat the ForthRight then it must put its trust in General-Femme Dashwood. It was, of course, a somewhat unexpected divination but then ABBA works in mysterious ways Her wonders to perform.’ Mao took a sip of water. ‘Yet, on reflection, ABBA’s guidance was not as perverse as it first appeared. As you yourself know, Preferred Male Wysochi, the General-Femme has great experience in leading an army of untrained recruits to victory over the ForthRight. Even as we speak, Femmes are rushing to enlist in the Free Femme Army of Resistance.’
‘Terrific,’ observed an obviously unimpressed Wysochi. ‘And I guess that the ForthRight will be so desperate for coal that it’ll throw all its forces at you.’
‘Yes,’ said Trixie quietly. ‘Observation balloons tell us that the ForthRight has ten divisions massed on the St Petersburg side of the Volga.’
‘Half a million men … nonFemmes.’
‘Give or take.’
‘Who’s commanding them?
‘Archie Clement.’
‘Shit, not him again. I was hoping someone would have shot him by now.’
This prompted a sardonic laugh from Trixie. ‘I tried: that’s why I spent all Spring in a Rangoon prison cell.’
‘Shame you missed, GeneralFemme: killing that bastard would be worth three months in jail of anybody’s time.’ Wysochi gave a discouraging shake of his head. ‘But here’s the problem: military lore has it that to be successful when you attack across a river, you need to outnumber the opposition by five to one. The ForthRight outnumbers you by ten to one, so I guess, to use military terminology, GeneralFemme, you’re fucked.’
‘Maybe not, Major. There are things which give me some grounds for optimism: the WarJunks of AdmiralNoN Zheng Heii are impressive, as are the rocket batteries managed by CommanderNoN Jiao Yu. And then there’s the Geek Fire—’
‘That is classified information, GeneralFemme, and should not be discussed with a nonFemme,’ warned Mao. ‘And might I remind you, Major, that we came here today to hear your advice, not to endure your scatological comments.’
‘Then my advice, Imperial Secretary, is to make sure that Archie Clement doesn’t take the Anichkov Bridge. If he does, then he’ll be able to transport his heavy equipment – especially his armoured steamers – into the Coven, and once he’s done that, then you can prepare your NoN arse to receive a non-Femme kicking.’
The NoN leant over the table and gimleted Wysochi with a hard stare. ‘Then you should pray to whichever pagan god you subscribe, Preferred Male Wysochi, that that does not happen, because if it does – if GeneralFemme Dashwood were to fail in the ABBA-given task of protecting the Coven – then it will go hard on you and your gaijin fighters … very hard indeed.’ Mao rose to his feet. ‘This meeting is over. I am commanded to attend an audience with Her Imperial Majesty in the Forbidding City.’
As a reluctant Trixie followed Mao out of the room, her mind whirred with possibilities. Nodding goodbye to Wysochi, she made the silent pledge that, given a chance, she would shake herself – and her WFA fighters – free of these monsters.
8
The NoirVillian Hub
; The Demi-Monde:
2nd Day of Summer, 1005 … 06:00
Of all the Mantle-ite monuments built by the Pre-Folk none is more enigmatic or mysterious than the Temple of Lilith. And the reason for this is simple: despite one thousand years of effort, the great doors guarding the Temple have resisted all attempts to open them. The secrets within remain inviolate and hence the Temple has become a staple ingredient in the plots of any number of penny dreadfuls, generally being portrayed as the home of vampyres, daemons or women with decidedly accommodating attitudes towards sex.
A Potted History of Penny Dreadfuls: William Hogarth, Demi-Mondian Komic Books
The low, ominous drone of the great horn echoed across the emptiness of the Hub alerting the world that a new order had come, signalling – though the Fragiles in their stupidity did not yet realise it – that Lilith had returned.
The girl who had once been Ella Thomas stood motionless, allowing herself to revel for just an instant in the magnificence of the occasion. This must, she decided, be how St Paul felt when he had his revelation on the road to Damascus, when he understood that he had been chosen by God to lead the world to …
To what?
To Perfection. Yes, to the Perfection that had once been snatched from the world’s grasp by a delinquent Nature. But this time there would be no mistake, this time she would make HumanKind perfect.
Now everything was set fair for her to have all of the Demi-Monde kneel before her. She had had Doge Catherine-Sophia eliminated and had assumed control of Venice. She had made alliance with Shaka Zulu – his scruples about aligning himself with a woeMan swept away by his greed to possess the secrets of Aqua Benedicta – and together Venice and NoirVille could outface any enemy. But even more importantly, she had control of the Column of Loci, which would allow her to rekindle the power sleeping in the Temple of Lilith … and to conquer the Real World.
Only the question of Vanka Maykov remained unsettled.
The enigma of Vanka Maykov, more like. Thinking of Maykov gave her pause. In an earlier incarnation she had loved him and it was an affection that still nagged at her soul. But Lilith wasn’t Ella Thomas; Lilith was divine, Lilith was implacable, Lilith had no time for love. So she would use all her power to erase her memory of the man and, hopefully, any feelings for him that might still be lingering in her heart.