The Last City

by Nina D'Aleo

  ‘Because we were about to die and that’s what Midnight Men do,’ Ev’r said though she thought the other explanation was a possibility, aside from the ‘Kane helping someone’ part. Kane never did anything unless it would benefit him. She voiced this thought but Eli shook his head vehemently.

  ‘That’s not true. You don’t know him.’

  ‘I know him better than you think,’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Eli asked.

  ‘I knew him when he ran with Christy Shawe. He likes antique weapons – and so do I – so we made an acquaintance.’ She lifted her eyebrows and Eli nodded, understanding.

  ‘Then you knew him as a lover, probably as a rival, but not as a friend.’

  ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’ Ev’r sat down on a chair beside the workbench. ‘There is no such thing as friends.’

  ‘Then what are we?’ Eli asked her.

  ‘A means to an ends,’ Ev’r replied. ‘That’s all.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ Eli said. He touched the holo-screen beside the spoiled experiment and scrolled through the information.

  ‘Look! I was right. There’s a hologram of him!’ he said.

  Ev’r stood up, noticing a growing heaviness in her limbs and discomfort in her jaw. She hid her unease and went to look at the image of the man they’d mistaken as a Death.

  ‘The commander has notes on him,’ Eli said. ‘His name is Luther Birman. He first appeared to the commander at his father’s carnival when they were both still kids.’ Eli read directly from the notes. ‘Luther is voiceless like all Midnight Men, but like a human-breed he wants to communicate. He has to eat meat, but he cannot kill. He does not want to. He has a conscience and he feels pity. The opposing needs of his body make him constantly ill. He is always hungry and never satisfied. Luther is desperately lonely and unable to connect with anyone – neither Midnight Men nor human-breed will accept him and he lives in constant danger of discovery by the state. Luther has explained in written word that as he draws closer to the metamorphosis, he grows sicker. He needs to feed on the near-dead, but cannot morally do so. He said he would rather die than kill. An alternative to the flesh and blood of the dying must be found to feed him. His time is limited.’

  ‘I know how he feels,’ Ev’r said then cursed herself. It sounded so weak.

  ‘Do you have the broken vial?’ Eli asked. ‘I’ll start analysing it now.’

  Ev’r took out the cloth with the jagged pieces of glass and unwrapped them. The imp set them up inside the compound-assessor on a parallel bench.

  ‘I’ll set it for deep analysis 7,’ he said. ‘It’ll have to be exact. Any idea what could have been in there – just to give us a jump on it?’

  Ev’r shook her head. If the Mocking Witch had produced it, it could be absolutely anything. She watched Eli precisely lining up the glass inside the machine to get the best possible reading. His actions tested her distrust and scepticism.

  ‘You’re really going to try to find a cure?’ she said.

  ‘I promised you I would.’ He said it so simply and she could hear he believed it. ‘But the devil will be in the details,’ Eli added, still manoeuvring the glass.

  No the devil is in me, she thought. ‘And if it doesn’t work?’

  ‘Then I’ll buy you a nice cage.’ He gave her a slightly evil grin.

  He started the machine and straightened up. He gazed at the vials of blood encased behind glass along one wall of the laboratory.

  ‘There’s something I’m missing,’ Eli said. ‘There was Androt blood at the place where the Skreaf attacked Silho and Jude. One of the crime scenes we attended just before everything happened involved a missing Androt, presumed dead – and while I was in Moris-Isles I saw a renegade bunch of Androts hanging around. Perhaps the machine-breeds are somehow part of the witch’s plan.’ He turned to Ev’r and asked, ‘Can you go into the system and do a search for case notes 1618? Run it through search code 24 – that’ll hedge it, so no one can see us in the system.’

  Ev’r walked over to the computer and keyed in the passcode. Holograms and compiled information flashed up on a holo-screen. She flicked through, looking over the scenes of obvious dark magics attacks – bodies where the demons had burst out of their hosts. One of the victims lay in a pool of mixed human-breed and Androt blood.

  ‘Flick over to the next picture,’ Eli said, coming to stand beside her.

  She did and saw a hologram of four Androts in serving uniforms.

  ‘The man,’ Eli pointed to one of the machine-breeds. ‘His name is Kry – he’s the one who went missing from the second scene. Can you run another search for any updates on his status?’

  Ev’r ran the check and while the system was searching, she studied the face of the Androt man. There was something about his grey eyes that didn’t sit right with her, the way they didn’t smile even though his mouth did – their fixed stony stare.

  The computer returned a search summary and Eli said, ‘That’s very strange.’ Kry’s status as missing had been changed to dangerous fugitive and state traitor. Ev’r touched a link under his name that took them to a report regarding machine-breeds in the city. It included an order from top military officials that Androts were to be rounded up, without warrants or reason, and taken to a holding facility at Castlereagh for questioning regarding a suspected plot against the king.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Eli said. ‘It doesn’t make sense. Randomly arresting Androts without proper evidence is unlawful. How could this be?’

  ‘The Skreaf are inside the military,’ Ev’r said. ‘You must be right. They need the Androts for some reason, and in particular they need this guy.’ She flicked back to the image of Kry.

  ‘Why?’ Eli asked.

  Ev’r shrugged. The imp-breed went back to the other bench and began mixing some kind of formula as he thought through what they’d discovered. Ev’r’s stomach grumbled, reminding her it was almost three days since they had last eaten anything. She said to Eli, ‘Do you think Kane has any food down here?’

  ‘I can’t imagine the boss would ever eat where he worked, but I put some things into that bag.’ He nodded to the backpack he’d brought from his own laboratory.

  Ev’r snatched at the rucksack and dragged out packets of dried chips and a few cans of juice. As she was shoving the food into her mouth, she noticed Eli was deliberately not looking and took that to mean he was also starving hungry, but was being chivalrous and letting her eat everything. It almost made her smile. He was so very naively hopeful and unshakeably pleasant that it was laughable. She’d never met anyone like him before.

  She ripped the packets more and spread them out between them.

  ‘Don’t be shy,’ she said. ‘Or there’ll be nothing left. Where I grew up you ate fast or not at all.’

  ‘I can do fast,’ Eli said and grabbed up a handful in a flash of movement.

  ‘You are fast, I’ll give you that,’ she said.

  ‘You know, these taste great with tomato sauce,’ he said with his mouth full. He went to a set of cupboards above the parallel workbench and opened them, digging through the contents. ‘Hey!’ he called. ‘Look what I found.’

  Eli dragged out Ev’r’s own bag. She lunged at it and snatched it away. Ripping open the zips, she checked her equipment. Anything liquid had been removed, but everything else was exactly as she had left it. To her, these objects felt like home. She grabbed her blade and clenched it in her hand. It buzzed and hummed against her skin, and the little otter kicked again inside her pocket, trying to free itself to get to Eli. A strange feeling niggled inside her gut. What was it? She looked at Eli. He had gone back to working on his formula.

  ‘I’m just whipping up a new slowing potion for you,’ he said. ‘It’ll keep the symptoms back until we can come up with a cure.’

  The feeling gnawed again and she recognised it – guilt. Its appearance startled her. She hadn’t felt guilty in longer than she could remember. The feeling was more u
npleasant than pain.

  Ev’r unzipped her pocket, grabbed out the otter and shoved it under the bench.

  ‘Hey, Snack-size, I think I saw something moving under the table,’ she said.

  Eli glanced under and his face stretched into the biggest and most joyful grin she had ever seen. It was a truly disturbingly wide smile.

  ‘Nelly!’

  He pounced on his otter and lifted her up. She licked his face with a pink darting tongue. He laughed and hugged her close against him.

  ‘I can’t believe it! You found her!’ Eli threw an arm around Ev’r before she could stop him. She pulled away, but found part of her wanted to stay in the embrace. It had been so long since anyone had touched her except in violence or lust, she’d forgotten how warm it could feel.

  When his excitement settled, Eli put the otter on the bench with a dish of water and some fish treats from his pocket, then finished mixing the elixir. Still grinning, he handed Ev’r a full syringe of it for her to dose herself.

  They both jolted as Eli’s communicator buzzed. He checked the signal and said, ‘Unknown.’ He pressed the answer key. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Eli.’ Ev’r recognised Kane’s voice, sharp and cold like a frozen blade.

  ‘Boss!’ The imp-breed’s eyes welled up with tears. ‘Are you alright? Are the others okay? Where are you?’

  ‘We’re back in Scorpia and we’re all fine except for Jude,’ Kane responded. ‘He’s been captured by the Skreaf. Eli, I’m running a hedge on old tech so we don’t have long. Do you have anything on the witches?’

  ‘Yes,’ Eli said quickly. ‘We believe the ring you asked me to analyse is a missing part of the Mazurus Machine, which the Skreaf stole from the Galleria, but we don’t know why they’d want an ancient telescope.’

  After a brief pause, Kane said, ‘We think they’re trying to raise their master, the Morsmalus. We have a prophecy that indicates they need the blood from the line of the warriors who first imprisoned him and a powerful curse. It could be that they think they can use the Mazurus to magnify their curses.’

  Ev’r thought it made sense, but kept quiet. She’d rather have her tongue cut out than be heard agreeing with Kane.

  ‘We also thought the Androts might be involved somehow,’ Eli said. ‘We found a Regiment order to round them all up and take them to the Castlereagh Holding for questioning.’

  ‘The holding?’ Copernicus repeated, the significance of the words not clear to Eli.

  The communicator gave a warning beep that the hedge was running out.

  ‘And we also discovered that the Androt Kry’s status has been changed from missing to fugitive traitor,’ Eli added.

  ‘The Skreaf must want him,’ Kane said. ‘We have to get to him first, but more importantly we have to find where they’ve taken the Mazurus, which will be where they’re planning to raise their master. Eli, there was a survivor from the Galleria attack. He was taken to Scorpia State Hospital. We have to talk to him – see if he knows anything.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Eli said.

  ‘Be careful. He may be under surveillance.’

  ‘Ev’r and I will manage.’

  ‘Keets?’ Copernicus’ voice darkened and Ev’r smiled. ‘Watch her, Eli. Don’t turn your back.’

  The communicator beeped for the second time.

  ‘Boss, just one other thing,’ Eli rushed. ‘Your friend Luther appeared to us. He needs help.’

  ‘Help him if you can, but he can’t be a priority,’ Kane replied, and it sounded as though it affected him to say that. ‘The rest of us will track Jude.’

  ‘Where will we meet afterwards?’ Eli asked.

  ‘I think it’s better to stay separate. If something happens to us, you’ll have to carry on.’

  ‘Now that I have your frequency, I’ll run a hedge and call you back when it’s ready,’ Eli said. ‘Boss, I —’

  They heard the third and final warning beep and the communicators automatically disconnected.

  Eli’s wings drooped and Ev’r studied him. She held the Morsus Ictus behind her back.

  ‘Now that you know your friends are alive, you don’t need me to help you,’ she said.

  ‘Of course I still need you,’ he said. ‘And you still need me. Nothing’s changed.’

  Ev’r didn’t reply, but gradually pushed her blade back into its sheath.

  ‘I think we should try to talk to the survivor now.’ Eli eyed the compound-assessor processing the witch’s cure-all. ‘It’ll be running for a while yet. I can get the results remotely through my communicator.’

  He began moving around the room, replenishing the stores of his weapon belt from Kane’s stock. His hand strayed to his neck, feeling for the chain and pendant that he’d lost in the desert.

  ‘Why do you think the Skreaf reacted like they did to the diamond?’ he asked Ev’r.

  ‘Skreaf magics are based on symbols,’ she responded.

  ‘And the diamond means good and they mean evil,’ Eli said.

  Ev’r shook her head. ‘Any symbol can be used for good or evil depending on who is using it. It’s not what the symbol is – it’s what it can be in your hands. They intended harm – you intended help and your intention behind that particular symbol was stronger than theirs. It’s a fundamental of magics.’

  ‘Do you think,’ he asked in a lowered voice, ‘that their intention to destroy us will be stronger than our will to survive?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ev’r said truthfully. She had tried to use her scullion skills to look into the future, but all she had seen was an all-consuming darkness. Their paths were unset, their fate unwritten.

  She dragged her backpack onto her shoulders and said, ‘No rest for the wicked.’

  29

  Copernicus laid his weapon belt out on the table and checked his guns one by one. Bringing a gun to a battle of dark magics was like bringing a spoon to a nuclear war, but he checked them anyway. It was a necessary distraction. During the last few days he’d felt as though his secrets were a bunch of joined scarves being extracted with an excruciating gradual unravelling out of a magician’s hat. Now it was known: he had a heart and it had been broken, he had trusted and been betrayed, had thought he knew someone and been wrong, had dreamed of a future with a girl who wasn’t dreaming of him. He wasn’t the first person in history and he wouldn’t be the last, but it still felt so shameful, perhaps because he had spent so long building up his image as a person who couldn’t be hurt, someone not afflicted by the same needs and drives, hopes and fears as everyone else. All the pride and fury of the younger man he’d been, just seventeen year-cycles at the time, had driven him to a revenge he now regretted. In hindsight he saw the girl hadn’t been worth that kind of vengeance, but hindsight was one of those ultimately useless things, like sympathy without any offer of help.

  He understood why he had fallen for her. She had been the first person – the only person – to tell him that she loved him. She’d been a good liar, or maybe not; maybe he had just wanted to believe someone could love him, even though his mother had left him as a baby and his father had hated him enough to want him dead.

  Regardless, he knew he couldn’t change the past. All he could do was control his actions in the present, and now, with the cover of darkness, extended by the noctus-renium spreading across the city, their objective was to find Jude, alive or dead and, in doing so, hopefully not just recover a member of the team, but advance their knowledge of the enemy. Copernicus hated flying blindly from moment to moment and, as it stood, all they had on the Skreaf was conjecture and prophecy. They needed some solid facts.

  He secured his weapon belt around his waist and turned to the others. After their communication with Eli, he’d ordered everyone to shower off their foul sewerage taint. Then they’d searched the facility and found both clothing and several packets of dry provisions. So now they were slightly less ravenous and significantly cleaner, but the mood was still black. Diega paced the room, arming and disarming her
electrifier in a compulsive way. Shawe sat on a crate, swivelling his blade in one hand. Raine drifted in and out of the shadows staring into a hand mirror and Silho stood at one of the windows. The vibration of her thoughts was a steady constant pattern as she repeated the enchant he had taught her over and over in her mind. She sensed his eyes and glanced back at him. He held her stare, needing to know if Shawe’s latest tell-all had changed her opinion of him. She met his eyes with the same searching gaze as before. Now he realised he’d been wrong thinking she looked like her mother. Oren Harvey’s eyes had been hard and pitiless. Brabel’s eyes were far softer. They told him she understood what it was like to make mistakes and she could forgive.

  He found himself studying the way her hair curled at the ends, the uptilt of her eyes, the shapes and curves of her body. Uncomfortable, he looked away. He’d seen as soon as they’d met that she had a natural allure about her, something quite different from anyone else he’d ever seen, but it had been just a fact. Now it was a feeling – one he didn’t want.

  He adjusted his weapon belt. Diega stopped pacing and gave him a dark look. Fens sensed hormonal changes in the opposite sex. Copernicus’ discomfort deepened. He cleared his throat and the others looked up at him.

  ‘It’s time to move out,’ he said. ‘As you know our target destination is the Castlereagh Holding, which I believe may be where the Skreaf have Jude. We won’t know what security measures we’re facing until we get there. I want to emphasise, at this point, the utmost importance of maintaining focus on our objective. Uncontrolled outbursts and irrational reactions will not only jeopardise the mission and our lives, but the survival of our whole world. This is far bigger than any one of us.’ He directed his words at Diega and Shawe. He seriously doubted either would pay the slightest attention to it, but at least it was said.

  ‘You know this is probably a trap,’ Shawe said. ‘Why else would they have your man out in the open where they know you can find him?’