Bloodtide

by Melvin Burgess

  A thousand people sat and watched Val walk up the long aisle with Signy on his arm and give her away to Conor. From above, the crumbling saints watched from their niches and the dead man swayed lightly, his hair hanging straight to the ground as the bride held her head up and said, ‘I do.’

  Siggy stood with his brothers and hated it all. Ben leaned across and hissed, ‘Siggy, you’ve got a face like a ferret.’

  Siggy looked at him and tried to smile.

  ‘It’s supposed to be a happy day,’ Ben told him, and sniggered. As far as he was concerned, Val was God. He never did a thing wrong.

  His other brother, Hadrian, just grunted. ‘He won’t be gentle with her tonight or any night,’ he said.

  ‘She said he was tender,’ said Siggy.

  ‘Tender or rough, it’ll be worth it if the treaty holds,’ said Ben confidently. Hadrian nodded grimly. But Siggy didn’t care about the treaty or the world or any amount of ambition. When he saw Conor lean forward and whisper something into the bride’s ear, he let out a sigh like a pot bursting.

  7

  hadrian

  The night after the wedding the guards found someone walking up the staircase towards our living quarters. It was certainly the most serious lapse of security I can ever remember. They apprehended a man – or creature, perhaps, I have my doubts. He was stepping onto the stairs without a care in the world, as if he was taking a stroll around some public amusement. Unbelievable. As if he wanted to be caught, having already got so close to us. Perhaps he did.

  As head of security in Galaxy, it was my responsibility. I supervised the interrogation myself. He suffered, by the gods, he did, and there was a lot more to come, but he never said a single word. Not one. As a result I had no more to report when Val brought Ben and Siggy along to have a look than when we first caught him. I felt like a fool standing there with the guards as my father came up. Torture, you have to understand, is a fellow with a very forceful personality. It reduces the bravest of us to so much gobshite. But this man, he just seemed to soak it up. The suffering was like meat and drink to him.

  I never saw anyone like him. He had only one eye, and it was like stone. Really, like a stone. The white was grey-blue, flinty, and you had the feeling that if you flung a pebble at it, it’d click. He stood there with two guards hanging on him like they were holding on to a bull and he stared down at us like it was us who were going to die.

  He was weird – but the weirdest thing was that he was there in the first place. The security was solid. How’d he done it? Val was so furious I thought he might strike me, which I deserved. But I think my father understood what I was up against when he stood looking up at the prisoner, because I never saw anyone look Val down like that. That one eye in his big, bony face, like the face of an animal. He was wearing a wide black hat tied under his chin, which had somehow stayed on his head despite the beating he’d taken. He was about seven foot tall and he looked down at Val as if he was a child.

  My nerves were already stretched and Ben was making it worse. Why Val insists on bringing him along to this sort of thing I don’t know. Loyalty. That’s Val, loyalty before sense.

  ‘He’s a spy, he’s a spy!’ Ben kept insisting. He jiggled up and down in excitement, grinning. ‘We cleaned out the whole place, didn’t we, Father? Didn’t we? He must be a spy!’ I hissed at him to try and make him shut up. Val was even angrier than I was and someone was going to get it any minute. But poor Ben was beside himself. ‘He’ll tell us if we torture him!’ he squealed, as if I hadn’t spent the last hour doing just that. He spun right round on his heel and stood there clapping and grinning.

  My father stood gazing up into the prisoner’s face. ‘He’ll tell, one way or the other,’ he said quietly.

  ‘It’d be better for him if it was now!’ crowed Ben.

  The prisoner was so tall we had to bend our necks back to look at him. Tied with nylon ropes around his shoulders, legs and neck, the guards on either side of him looked as if they’d lift up off the ground if he stretched himself. He made me feel like a little bit of shit.

  I shook my head, trying to keep thinking clearly. ‘Spies are people you’re not supposed to see. Why should Conor send out a spy you can see from half a mile away? There’s more to it than that.’

  Ben gasped. ‘An assassin! No! An assassin!’ He went white, but he was grinning and giggling again a second later.

  ‘Calm down,’ ordered Val. Ben looked, saw his look and went quiet. Val was serious.

  ‘Sorry, Father.’

  The prisoner began to make a ghastly noise from the blood gathering in his lungs. With every breath he let out a crackle like a foot turning in gravel. His clothes were soaked in blood. His face was strange, like I say. His expression didn’t seem right, somehow. Perhaps he had some halfman in him.

  Siggy looked away. He always hated this sort of thing.

  ‘Kill him and finish it. If he hasn’t talked yet he isn’t going to,’ he said. It was the first time Siggy had said anything and for some reason it caught the prisoner’s attention. He looked at him as if he’d only just caught sight of him standing behind the rest of us… and he smiled at him. It was a friendly smile, but it was a terrible shock – like a dog or a statue suddenly smiled.

  We all took a step back without thinking. Then we all turned to look at Siggy.

  ‘I’ve never even seen him before,’ he protested.

  Ben was furious because the man had scared him. He took a pistol from his belt and whipped him with it. He had to jump off the ground to reach the big face. There was a gasp and a moan, but no words.

  Val was watching Siggy. ‘Come to the front,’ he ordered. Siggy shrugged again, but he came forward under the shadow of the big man, who looked down at him and smiled again. Val was cross with Siggy these days. Father was the sort of man who could make anyone think anything, but not Siggy. Siggy had his own thoughts. Even Val couldn’t change his mind.

  Siggy had on his sulky face. He had it written all over him what he thought of this whole treaty business: so much bullshit.

  ‘Well?’ demanded Val. ‘What’s your opinion?’

  Siggy shrugged again. ‘I’d like to know how he got in with the security so tight,’ he said at last. I snorted in disgust. Wouldn’t we all? He looked at the guard. ‘Is he human? I don’t mean a halfman. Is he a machine?’

  In answer the guards dragged the big man round on his ropes. His clothes were almost torn off him at the back, he was all but naked. From his neck to his feet he was a mass of bleeding bruises. ‘I didn’t find any metal,’ said the guard grimly.

  ‘And he said nothing?’ asked Val incredulously, which made me proud. He knew how thorough I am.

  ‘Nothing. I mean, nothing. Not a single word,’ I said.

  I turned to look at the big man, and I couldn’t help it… I was in awe of him. Not a single word! God knows, my men know how to do their job. Not one single word!

  ‘Perhaps he’s dumb. A big dummy,’ suggested Ben. ‘Are you a dummy, big man?’

  The man lifted his face, black with bruises, and said, ‘No.’

  We all jumped, even Val. Ben squealed. That dark voice! And damn him – to speak like that just to show me he could if he felt like it! Without realising it, we all took another step away – even the guards, who had let go of the ropes for a moment.

  ‘Quick step,’ giggled Siggy.

  The big man seemed to rise up even higher. The guards on either side seized the ropes and tried to hold him but he just pulled them up. He seemed to grow in front of our eyes. And I got this terrible feeling that I’d met him somewhere before. Just for a minute it seemed that if he felt like it, he could stop all of this with a wave of his hand, and for a minute all our plans and ambitions were like dust on my lips.

  ‘God,’ I said, and he looked at me with a slight smile. I felt my limbs begin to tremble. I licked my lips. ‘He must be a spy,’ I said. I had to try hard to speak. ‘No thief would keep so quiet. This one hasn’t
even got lies to tell. God,’ I said again, without even meaning to. He was really spooking me. Then I felt myself getting angry. What did all this mean? Who did this creature think he was?

  I’d had enough of it. I said, ‘Kill him. Do it quick.’

  But Val turned to the guard. ‘Hang him by his heel in the lift shaft. He’ll be dead by the morning. If he’s a thief, who cares? If he’s a spy, Conor and his men can eat and drink and wonder what he told us.’

  ‘Yes! We’ll be able to tell by their faces if they know him or not!’ crowed Ben. He clapped his hands. ‘And let them do the same to any others they catch, Father! That’ll show them.’

  Val nodded. ‘Certainly.’ He looked at me sideways and added, ‘But there’d better not be.’

  8

  signy

  My wedding night. Conor was being sweet again but I wasn’t sure it suited him.

  ‘You haven’t been looking forward to this part,’ he suggested.

  ‘Says who?’ I snapped. I only said it to disagree with him, but of course he thought I was encouraging him and he reached out to touch me. I lifted up my finger and said, ‘Ah, ah!’ Actually, I practically screamed it. No way was he going to touch me!

  Then he looked so confused I felt sorry for him. He’d been told all about me, but I think he still thought I was some sort of girlie-girlie girl. I thought, I’ll show you, and I turned the tables suddenly by rushing up and pinching his bum. ‘You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?’ I bellowed, and he looked shocked, which made me giggle. I thought to myself, this is easier than I thought.

  We had this suite of rooms, a sitting room and two bedrooms. I asked if anyone had teased him about having two separate bedrooms on his wedding night and he looked surprised.

  ‘No one ever teases me,’ he promised.

  I said, ‘Soon change that, then.’

  We had a couple of drinks in the sitting room. He was very respectful. I appreciated that, although who was to say he’d keep it up when we got back to the north?

  He put some music on. He was so clumsy! It was this disco-thump stuff. ‘Bang-a-shub BANG-a-shub, bang-a-shub,’ I groaned. ‘Do you really like this sort of thing?’

  He said, ‘No, I thought you might.’ I just rolled my eyes. He’d obviously had squads of advisers telling him how to woo a young girl, but no one had thought of asking about my taste in music. I just turned it off and we stood there in silence. Uncomfortable silence. I was prepared to make him suffer.

  He paced up and down, glaring at me half the time and chewing his lip and blushing the other half. After a bit he came and sat next to me on the sofa and said, ‘Have you thought about what I said? Have you made up your mind?’

  I could feel my heart going at once. I’d talked to Sigs about it and we figured out what he was up to. ‘Nice rape,’ I sneered, because that’s all it was. Easier for him if the victim was willing and how much nicer if I liked him sticking his pork where it wasn’t wanted.

  But it didn’t feel like that. It was so weird because I’d been told all my life that he was some kind of demon. Soft sort of demon, I thought. I wasn’t thinking, sweet, though – not yet. I was thinking, wimp. But that didn’t really fit. You don’t get to be a ganglord by being a wimp.

  I just wrinkled up my nose. He frowned and then, very slowly so there could no mistake, he lifted up his hand and touched me, very lightly, touched my neck. I was wearing an open-necked top and he went down to that little hollow under your neck; it made me shiver. I put my hand on his to stop him – just to stop him, but somehow it was a close gesture and he took it for consent. Conor put his hand slowly around the back of my head and pulled me close, tipped up my face and kissed me.

  I’d kissed boys before – but this was different. He was years older than me, but he wasn’t thirty yet. He wasn’t old like my father is. I thought, he’s not that old after all. The kiss went right through me, and I was scared I wouldn’t be any good at kissing, but it must have gone right through him too, because he pulled me right up tight against him and pressed me into him.

  I said, ‘I’m going to bed now.’ I pulled away and almost ran into my bedroom. I lay down on the bed with all my clothes on. I heard him put a new CD on, I heard him rattle ice in a glass. I thought, if he tries to come in here I’ll cut him. Then there was a soft little knock at my door that sent my heart thundering. I could have squeaked! But it was – so pleasurable. I thought, listen, girl, if you want to you can slit him, he’s no trouble to you. So why be scared? And then I thought, what’s happening to me?

  I didn’t answer the soft little knock. After a bit he went away and I just lay there. It was impossible to sleep. And you know – I didn’t want him to go away! I lay there thinking, what would Had do, or Ben? What would my father do, what would Siggy do? Most of all what would Siggy do if he were me?

  I could hear him saying, ‘Go next door and give him one…’ Except of course he wouldn’t say that. He’d say that about anyone else I fancied except Conor. He was so jealous. But I suddenly thought, that’s what Sigs would say, that’s what I’d say to him. Let’s face it, just about the only advantage I can think of being married at bloody fourteen is, you can have sex without your parents minding. I thought, maybe I’ll take your advice, Sigs, even if you wouldn’t give it to me…

  I mean, you gotta start somehow. And what I haven’t said is… being there in that room with that man – it’d horned me right up.

  Conor hadn’t gone to bed yet. I slipped out of bed, tiptoed over to the door and pushed it open a few inches. Then I sort of giggled and ran back to bed. He had to come to me!

  He stopped in the other room. I could hear him stopping. Then there was the door moving open, his foot half in, half out…

  ‘Signy? Signy?’

  I didn’t say anything. I flung the covers over my head and I let out this stupid little squeak, it was so embarrassing. It made me furious with him. I tucked myself up. He tiptoed in. I was pretending to be asleep, and then I thought, this is stupid! So I sat up suddenly and said, ‘What do you want?’

  He just stood there looking at me. I felt so excited and alone, curled up in my bed with this tall man looking at me.

  I said, ‘I’ve had sex before, you know.’

  He scowled and said, ‘You mean…’ Then he stopped and sort of shrugged and said, ‘You’re very young. But I guess that’s your business.’

  I said, ‘That’s right.’ I felt – in control. I patted the bed and said, ‘Sit down,’ and he did as he was told. It was exciting, him doing what he was told. I was getting the giggles but I was scared!

  He sat on the bed and put his arms round me and kissed me again. It was so gorgeous. It was so gorgeous! Then his fingers began to open the buttons on my top.

  I whispered in his ear, ‘I’ve had lots of sex before.’

  He went a bit still and said, ‘So you keep saying.’

  I pulled away from him and said, ‘Lots of them. Loads of them!’

  He leaned back and said, ‘What, do you mean all the way?’

  I said, ‘Fourteen-year-olds are allowed to have a sex life too.’ Then I added very quietly, ‘Even if it’s only with themselves…’

  I said that because it’s so private, I had never talked about that to anyone before, not even Siggy. I don’t know why I said it, but I suppose, thinking about it after, I must have wanted to tell him something as private as that. It was something to give him, because I’d made him feel bad about all those boys I never had. Well, actually I had touched a couple and they’d touched me, but not like I was saying to him.

  He laughed. He sounded happy about that. Very gently, very, very gently, he touched my ears and face with his fingers and kissed my neck and slid the tips of his fingers down my neck and the tops of my breasts, and then stroked right down the whole length of me, pressing his hand down into me and I thought I’d burst. And then I started to undo my buttons for him.

  He didn’t want to do the whole thing – to put it in m
e. He just wanted to touch but quite a lot later on I made him. It hurt but it was OK – I mean, it’d be OK later on. I knew it’d be OK. The thing is, everything sort of just took off. Suddenly it was all so easy! We sat and talked and talked and did things and talked all night. He was… he was so like me! I felt so close, even closer than I had to Siggy because of course I never could do things like that with Sigs.

  I told him all about me and Sigs and the things we did, and he told me about his father, who sounds as if he was a complete bastard. I told him all about mine and he said he was jealous about Val, who seemed such a good man.

  We were talking and talking, and then doing things again. That’s when I made him put it in me. You should have seen his face… he looked like his head was about to fall off! I thought, this must be falling in love. That must be what I’m doing.

  I said, ‘Conor, are we falling in love?’

  He said, ‘I think we must be, but it hasn’t happened to me before…’

  I said, ‘Well, we’ll have to wait and see, then.’ That was funny, and we started laughing and laughing… it was so funny! Here we were, married and having sex and we were having to wait and see if we were falling in love!

  ‘That must be what sex does for you,’ I declared.

  ‘But not before. Not for me. Do you think you’d be like this with anyone, then?’ he asked, and he looked so hurt I had to smack him, hard on the leg, for being so stupid.

  9

  There were fireworks and music, there was dancing in the streets. The party went on all day and in the morning it started again. There were fairs and shows, carnivals and festivals. Trestle tables were set up throughout London and for these days at least, there was food for everyone. In the evening came the grand finale – a great feast, where Conor was to be guest of honour, and the treaty was to be signed. An end to one war, and the beginning of new ones as the lords of London would now begin to try to move out into the halfman lands, and beyond.