The Queen's Viper

by Lesley Donaldson

  Viper squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to see Robert’s rapidly waning aeir. She had been so intent on the offending tumor that she didn’t recognize the clogging of his arteries. His heart couldn’t handle the increased blood flow from his excitement and dancing. The whomp of his body hitting the floor echoed in her ears. Mouse’s appeals for her help stabbed Viper’s heart.

  “I hath not the strength to best the Reaper,” she whispered to her Foundling. “I am so very sorry.”

  Viper gently banged her head on the wall, wishing the steady rhythm belonged to Robert’s heart instead of the pounding of Mouse’s fists on the floor in a tantrum of grief.

  31: The Wrath

  The Underground, Hammersmith & City Line.

  June 5, 2012: moments later.

  The nearest fluorescent light in the tunnel towards Aldgate East flickered as it clung to life. A thick framework of Victorian girders pressed upon them from the ceiling above. Strangled cables mounted the walls to either ends of the curving tunnel. Viper’s hands burned with fire so hot she melted the steel of the access hatch at track level. Behind her, the humans breathed sighs of relief as the smoke cleared.

  “I hath sealed the panel with fire and blod magic.” Small wounds marked Viper’s palms from where she had dragged her nails across her hand to enact the enchantment. Charcoal and ash dusted the cuffs of her hooded sweater. She eased herself onto the black ballast, depleted.

  Owain found his footing, moving with an unsteady gait without his cane. His bowed legs threatened his stability.

  “I built several flood gates around the safe house,” he said. “I don’t know how long they will hold Annys. She found her way in. No doubt she can find her way out when she comes to.”

  “The men, those armed men that the stag spoke of, they’ll take care of her,” Dhillon said. His voice didn’t sound as optimistic as his words.

  “Let’s hope,” Graeme said. He raised his head and canvassed the perimeter of the tunnel with sharp eyes.

  Clare scooted to Viper’s side, offering her hand to help the immortal stand. “You were amazing! No offense,” Clare added when Viper frowned at her quizzically, “but when you faced Annys’ avatar at Dugan’s Bode, you could barely hold your own against it.”

  “I do not take any,” Viper said, without taking the girl’s assistance. Viper didn’t feel like moving. She noted to herself that Clare didn’t mention Viper’s recent defeat.

  “Yes, Mistress,” Owain said, “you are different since the crystal implanted itself into your chest.”

  The immortal nodded. “My strength hath markedly improved, of that am I a-certain.” Viper didn’t speak of the other feelings the crystal had provoked. She sat up abruptly. “The sage’s other Glass! We left them down there, with Annys!” She crawled for the hatch she had just sealed. “No! No! No!” Viper pounded her hands on the impenetrable barrier.

  “I…I have them,” Dhillon said, taking the satchel off his shoulder.

  “You?” Viper didn’t know whether to be awash with relief or disbelief. “How?”

  “Clare and I thought it best that I carry the Mort Lake Glass. She didn’t want the rest to fall out from the coat she used.”

  “OMG! I could kiss you!” Clare jumped up and into Dhillon’s arms. Any trace of her previous disapproval in him vanished when her lips landed on his.

  Owain patted Dhillon on the shoulder, interrupting the mushy embrace. “Well, my boy, that was very clever, indeed.”

  Graeme said, “Viper’s suped-up rapier is still in the safe house. Modern weapons we can get in a goodly amount, but they won’t set the heather alight. You transformed that sword into a special jobbie.”

  Viper’s eyes widened with excitement. “Aye, there’s the rub!”

  “What’s that?”

  “Transformation! The crystal in my chest hath enhanced me. I shall not use the Glass to capture Annys. I shall absorb the rest of the crystals and become so invincible that I can destroy her.” Viper held out her hand to Dhillon. “Yield them unto me.”

  His eyes darted to Owain, who nodded in approval. Dhillon pulled two crystals from his satchel.

  The magic stones didn’t leap to life as the other stone had done in the safe house. “Lay them on the ground,” Viper said. She enclosed the crystals with her elldyr. When her magic wouldn’t touch their surface, Viper snatched one of the crystals like a starving beggar with complete disregard as to how it might affect her. The sage’s Glass remained dormant in her hand. “Do something!” she yelled at the inert object. Her mind raced with the possible outcomes if she challenged Annys in the future without additional skill buffs.

  “Why isn’t it working?”

  With her head so full of questions of her own, Viper couldn’t tell which of the men spoke.

  “I know not. Unless…” She absentmindedly held the Mort Lake Glass to her lips, mediating over the Parhelion. She remembered how the amulet activated suppressed memories the first time she saw its image. The V’Braed talisman exhibited significant magical power. Perhaps the Parhelion, the item that plagued her centuries, had another role to play.

  “I thought only frogs transform with a kiss,” Graeme said good-naturedly.

  Viper gripped the crystal with such intensity, she thought her fingers might break against the unyielding stone. “You must take me to the Queen of the Second Throne,” she demanded, without acknowledging Graeme’s attempt at charm.

  “Why?” Clare protested. “She imprisoned you.”

  “Your queen will not do so now. I was too stubborn when she spake to me afore. I did not tell her what I knew of the V’Braed, or of Annys and her devious plan.”

  “Pride goeth before a fall,” muttered Dhillon. Viper’s new plan fired so rapidly in her brain that she failed to respond to the proverb.

  Graeme didn’t. “Hold yer wheesht,” he said, with a smack to the back of Dhillon’s head.

  Viper gave back the crystal without any sign that she’d heard his quip. He took it and, picking up the one from the ground, secured the Glass in his bag.

  “Elizabeth acted only for the sake of her kingdom. We shall go unto your queen and explain in earnest. She holds the Parhelion. Mayhap she will use it on my behalf, that it may grant me a vision of how to make the other Mort Lake crystals enter my body.”

  “We’re still missing one,” Clare said sheepishly.

  “For now I must be content with the two we carry and the one in my body,” Viper said. “As for the fourth, we may yet find it. Come, let us make hay whilst the sun shines.” The immortal placed her hand upon the large chunks of coal-black ballast stones on the ground, then paused. “These metal rods, they doth convey modern machines?” she asked of the rails on either side of the tunnel.

  Owain confirmed her observation. “The thickest rail is electrified. Best not to touch it, Mistress, just in case.”

  “They are for trains, large transportation vehicles,” Graeme said before academic Dhillon chimed in. “The backbone of Britain.”

  Viper felt the vibration of the oncoming train through the ground and she heard its rumble, inaudible to the humans. “Britain’s backbone doth approach.”

  “The train is ahead of schedule,” Owain said, checking his pocket watch.

  Graeme swore as Clare asked, “Which way do we go?”

  Owain pointed east, past the curve. “Head to Aldgate East. It’s under renovation and we shan’t be discovered.” Graeme wrapped his arm around Owain’s torso and they shuffled quickly towards the faint light originating from the station. Clare and Dhillon ran ahead of them. Capable of moving past the humans, Viper stayed with Owain, intermittently turning her head over her shoulder. She sensed the increasing wind pressure, a sign of the train coming closer.

  Dhillon stumbled, then stopped. “Why are we rushing? Isn’t there enough room for us to stand to one side?”

  “The track narrows here, on the curve,” Owain said between breaths. “If two trains pass at the same time, we’ll be ra
ther squished.”

  “Point taken,” the young man puffed. He set off with extra effort.

  The air sweeping forwards by the oncoming train urged them into the station. The increasing rumble of the train was unlike anything Viper had experienced before. Light seeped around the corner from behind them, and the train blasted its horn.

  Terror spurred her onwards.

  She bundled Clare and Dhillon under her arms, bounded up the tunnel, then hoisted the youths onto an empty platform. Behind them, tiles had been removed from the wall. Bits of renovation rubble scattered around the floor. Plastic sheeting hung from gaping holes in the ceiling, and bars covered the stairwells.

  A second horn sounded. The Westbound train approached Aldgate East from the far end of the station. The Eastbound train rounded the corner. Viper faced the closer train and saw the driver staring at her. His shock at seeing her too-tall, purple body made him freeze. Viper doubted that either train would stop.

  Graeme and Owain hobble-ran towards the station like a three legged mule. Viper reached them in a blur of speed. She scooped Owain from Graeme and hoisted her Foundling over her shoulder, then lifted Graeme off of the ground with elldyr, cast from her free arm. Viper propelled him adjacent to the platform, where he swung himself out of harm’s way. She sprinted into the station and delivered Owain to Graeme’s waiting hands.

  The dual trains were upon her.

  Owain and Graeme inadvertently blocked the platform in front of Viper. She instinctively jumped backwards and onto the opposite platform just before the trains crossed where she had been standing.

  The trains thundered through the station trumpeting their deafening warnings. Viper didn’t have any strength left for her concealment glamour. The vehicles were moving so fast that if the humans saw her, she couldn’t tell. She felt exposed and vulnerable.

  When the last portion of the eastbound train cleared, bullets riddled the wall beside Viper’s head. She scrambled into a predatory crouch.

  “Hold your fire!” hollered a tall man with broad shoulders in a black armoured suit and helmet.

  The stairwell gates had been blown open from the outside when the trains had rocketed past Viper. Ten heavily armed fighters now swarmed the opposite platform. Four men strong-armed Graeme against fencing near the tunnel’s mouth. His gun lay several feet away. Clare and Dhillon faced the wall, guarded by two men, while two others unceremoniously hauled Owain away from Graeme. The one who’d fired at Viper kept his trigger finger tight and his laser sight over Viper’s heart.

  These were not the queen’s men. They didn’t bear any royal insignias on their black tactical gear. Darkened visors covered their eyes, across which electronic data flickered. The leader’s face was the only one not completely covered by a helmet. His lips were as commanding as his tone, presiding over rough stubble and a deep cleft in his chin.

  “If you hurt the old man, I’ll kill you!” Dhillon swore.

  “Shut up!” A gunman punched Dhillon’s shoulder. The assailant’s voice sounded tinny through the speaker in his helmet. “Next time, you get a bullet.”

  The man on Graeme’s left laughed when the youth yelped with pain. Taking advantage of the attacker’s distraction, Graeme freed his right arm. He cross-punched the laughing man and sent him tumbling into the rails. Graeme roundhouse kicked two of the three men holding him onto the floor. The fourth man pinned Graeme’s left arm to the pedestrian barrier.

  The leader fired a Taser at Graeme’s chest. His muscles contracted involuntarily. Both the Scotsman and the man touching him keeled over, convulsing and swearing.

  “Delta Four,” the leader said to the man on the tracks who Graeme hit, “you have a choice. Go over there with it,” he thrust his chin at Viper, “or get your ass back up here and help Delta Six.” Viper couldn’t place his accent but she knew his type, domineering without forgiveness.

  “Yes, Delta One, sir!” Delta Four opted to assist his electrified squad member and climbed up from the tracks.

  Graeme pushed himself up to his knees with a groan. Delta One shocked him a second, then a third time when Graeme fought the effect of the electro-weapon. The leader threw the spent Taser on his body.

  “Delta Five, Seven, bring him to me,” he ordered to the men Graeme had knocked over.

  “With pleasure, sir,” Delta Five replied, kicking Graeme in the stomach. Graeme didn’t respond.

  “Stop it!” Clare cried out. Viper clenched her teeth at the pressure with which Clare’s guard crammed her face into the wall with his gun. Concrete chips pressed into the girl’s cheek.

  Elldyr burned beneath Viper’s palms, a faint purple haze on the smooth platform. She was too weak to strike. Delta One tilted his head, noting her reaction.

  Deltas Five and Seven had dragged Graeme in front of Delta One. The leader toed at the Scotsman’s unconscious body.

  “Does the little lady have a soft spot for the big lug?” Delta One sneered at Clare. Dhillon’s hand curled into a fist. The action didn’t escape the wide attention of Delta One. “No. She’s into book worms. Geek is the new chic, right lads?” He laughed, a sneering malicious sound. The Deltas cheered like barking foxes over a kill. Viper couldn’t place their countries of origin by their accents.

  Delta One turned silent. He signalled to the Deltas guarding Clare and Dhillon. One man pulled Clare’s arms behind her back and spun her facing into the station. The other yanked Dhillon from the wall and thrust him onto his stomach in front of her.

  “You know,” Delta One said to Viper as he hovered his toes over Dhillon’s left fingers, “I’ve never seen a creature like you traveling with humans, much less helping them.” He pressed his heavy boot into the ground.

  Dhillon’s bones cracked and he screamed. His body thrashed. He ineffectively struck Delta One’s boot with his right hand. A Delta kicked Dhillon’s moving arm away from his body and stepped on it to keep it still.

  The words a creature like you reverberated in Viper’s head. This man had seen other V’Braed! Her heart skipped a beat. Since Annys and the Sisters didn’t interact with people, Viper wondered what others of her kindred this mercenary meant, and what men like him had done to them.

  “What care hath I for humaines?” she growled, playing cat and mouse with him as she lied. Her nails dug into the floor tile.

  The scowl on his lips brightened with self-satisfaction. “Do you hear that dialect Deltas? We’ve caught ourselves another old one.”

  If she was like an old V’Braed, whom had they previously captured?

  Or worse, killed?

  Her head desired calm, trying to understand the meaning of his words, but the garen clamoured for the Deltas’ life-force in the most heinous manner possible.

  “I like to give my soldiers choice, as you saw.” Delta One’s gruff sarcasm was anything except affable. “Tell you what, I’ll extend the same courtesy to you. You come with us willingly, and we’ll let your companions leave, unharmed.” Delta One applied additional pressure to Dhillon’s hand.

  “Stop, please!” Dhillon sobbed. Clare’s tears silently beseeched Viper to intervene.

  “Mostly unharmed,” Delta One continued with a nonchalant shrug. “Put up any kind of fight, and I’ll let my team open fire, starting with the boyfriend.”

  Clare murmured, “No, no, no,” as best as she could with her face smushed against the wall.

  “You see, she’ll suffer more that way. Then, you’ll suffer more. That wouldn’t be a very good choice.”

  “Why dost thou think me incapable of destroying thee and thy men?” The pressure in Viper’s chest mounted.

  “The Rho and Gamma teams scouted out your other exits. Nasty business with some stags. Rho radioed before we broke into the station. They found signs of a pretty significant fight in your underground hidey-hole. Quite a messy romp by the sounds of it. I know your kind, monster. You consume the energy of people to use your powers. Right now, you look pretty knackered.” With a grandiose motion he said
, “Can’t say as I see too many humans here who’d let you prey upon them, hey lads?” The men shook their heads in agreement with their leader. Delta One nodded curtly to one of the gunmen. The man cocked his weapon and pointed it at Dhillon’s thigh. “You have to the count of three to comply. One. Two…”

  Delta One pulled his trigger. A bullet punctured Dhillon’s thigh and he fainted from shock. Viper pushed up from her crouch and projected herself at the intruders. Mid-air, halfway between the tracks, an invisible sonic wave impacted into her. She lost her trajectory and plunged to the ground.

  “Idiot! You almost made the asset contact the electrified rail.” Delta One shot the foot of the man who had fired at Viper. His team member swore in pain. “We need it intact and alive.”

  Viper felt sluggish. Her muscles required every ounce of effort for the smallest movement. She raised herself onto her hands, then flopped back onto the ground. The stale smell of the ballast made her gag. Her body lay still, mind reeling.

  Delta One glowered over her from the edge of the platform. “Did you like that? We call it ‘Little A.’ Don’t ask me how it works. It’s some sort of sonic weapon the folks in tech dreamed up.” He extended a gloved hand. The leather creaked as he unfurled his fingers. “I’ll give you one last opportunity. Are you going to comply, or do I aim for the boy’s skull?”

  Dust swirled around her mouth as she answered.

  Delta One tapped the side of his helmet. “What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

  “God save the queen,” Viper said through gritted teeth. She summoned the energy to throw dirt and stones into Delta One’s face. He jerked backwards coughing on the rubble.

  “Little A” had partially paralyzed Viper’s muscles, but her senses had gone into overdrive. She had heard Captain Ellis and a battalion of the queen’s soldiers approaching long before Delta One and his team became aware of them. Ellis’ soldiers lobbed gas grenades into the station from the tunnel at the far end.