A Queen Among Crows: Book One of Empire's End

by M. S. Linsenmayer

"Oh yes, quite safe. The operation was a perfect success, the young lady is no threat to anyone now, not even herself. Through our modern scientific methods, we have transformed a terrible, terrible criminal into a productive member of society. Do say something, dear Eryma."

  "Cloud."

  "What? Oh no dear, there are no clouds today. The sky is crystal clear."

  "Cloud."

  "Ah yes.... Well please excuse my patient, the process does have some unfortunate side effects."

  "Cloud."

  "Of course, doctor, I under.... Wait, what is that?"

  "What is what.... It can't be a storm, it's coming too fast...."

  (screaming starts)

  "KILL HER! KILL HER!"

  (louder screaming)

  "MY EYES! MY EYES!"

  (End transcript)

  It took twenty minutes for the good captain and his men to arrive, ten more for explanations, and another ten for Dame Julie to slide over the wooden slat bridge. Forty minutes wasted, while I spent staring at the empty building and watching to make sure no one tried to sneak in or out. I was certain I was correct, the existence of the bridge proved it, but what exactly had we stumbled into? This operation was too well established to be the Skoptsy, and was obviously very well-funded indeed; or perhaps, it was being used to fund something else entirely.

  If this was some secret operation of the Princess Catherine she would be so thrilled by my uncovering it. I might even get a medal! When pigs flew. Without my birds assisting. Yes, they once threw a pig off a cliff just to see if one could fly. No, I don't want to describe it, except to say 'messy'. Also, they made bacon.

  Captain Alessandro elected not to join us going across the bridge, concerned about some mythical force he called 'gravity'. He said he would, after posting guards, enter from the bottom and meet us in the middle someplace. I pointed out the doors were certainly locked shut; he pointed to his fist. Fair enough.

  The door at the top of the roof was also locked, but before I could take a look at the lock, Dame Julie kicked it in.

  "There is no word for 'subtle' in any European language, is there?" I asked her.

  "No," she smiled "Empires, by definition, are allergic to subtle. I can think of no legitimate reason for the Imperial Land Bank to have a secret walkway to an abandoned office building. To Hell with Subtle."

  A few moments search found the light switch, revealing with great and dramatic anticlimax.... A simple concrete flight of stairs. They were dusty, and rusty, and as Dame Julie stomped on them with her slick black boots possibly lusty, but what there were not was unused. Regular foot traffic had passed through this 'abandoned' office building, with clear prints visible in the harsh electric light.

  "Well" I noted " The cleaning crews are innocent."

  "But they may have heard something, so I think they shall be my guests for a while longer." Julie replied.

  We continued down to the red door at the next level down; Julie stopped at it, and pushed it open. Strangely, no one shot at us.

  "Think anyone is home?" I asked.

  "If they were, the noise would have sent them screaming." Julie answered.

  "True.... Oh look." I pointed at the floor.

  "A cat trail?" Julie said.

  "Not a cat. Clear claw marks, front set almost hand like, tail.... That my dear Julie, is a rat."

  "Must be a rodent of unusual size." Lois chimed in from my shoulder.

  " Is it my money laundering terrorist? And that was a strangely erudite comment from ... A simple bird." Julie looked at me

  "Squawk " Lois squawked

  " I am starting to have a bad feeling about this... Let me know if you see any more trails, or just this one." I walked through the door and down the hallway, glancing into open and abandoned offices as I passed. They had all been cleared, the furniture in some cases ripped off the floors, just bare wood floors and boarded up windows. The smuggling storage, if it was here, must be at a lower level.

  "Why is it important?" Dame Julie insisted.

  "Because if there is only one trail, that means they are walking single file, to hide their numbers" I said.

  "That makes no sense, Eryma, even coming from you. If they had been hiding the money here, it would have been on the top floor, as their entrance is on the top. Same goes for any weapons." Julie said.

  "Yes, IF" I answered. "But there are weapons and there are weapons... Let us head back to the stairs, then down to the Captain, and see if we can find a basement hatch of some kind. Hell, right now I would settle for just a hole in the floor."

  "But what of the other floors?"

  "Skip them. We want the basement. Or the sewer."

  #

  The bottom floor had been a sales floor of some kind, with wooden counters and old shelves still remaining in some disarray. Captain Alessandro had gotten in by the simple expedient of ripping the double doors entirely off their frames, I could see them leaning against the hole where they used to stand.

  Well, I liked a man with strong hands.

  The living mountain himself, along with a half dozen of his soldiers, was hunched murmuring over one of the counters, sporting through some sort of papers. He glanced up, saw us, smiled, and waved us over to join him at his treasure.

  "What have you found?" Dame Julie stalked over to the counter, boots striking the floor like twin gun hammers.

  "A good find, I think" Captain Alessandro said, "I believe these are the second set of books for your bank, left right here, someone was working on them very recently... Names, dates, transaction, why we can break this whole criminal enterprise wide open with this."

  I stopped. That made no sense. For them to be in this building, yes, but why walk down four flights of stairs every night? I started looking around. Counters, shelves, old carpets, empty burlap sacks, several doors- one to the stairs, one to a set of rest rooms, there should be a manager's room or break room or even a kitchen somewhere... Yes, back here, this side door leads to a small hallway...

  Filled with more burlap sacks, stacked by the walls.

  In the center, a large hole in the floor.

  And a very large rat.

  Holding a cigarette lighter.

  "RUN!" I screamed

  Time seemed to slow.

  The Europeans, staring at me.

  The double doors, now too far away.

  A flash of umber as Lois flew past me.

  A force like a tidal wave picking me up and throwing me at the street.

  Bricks falling from the sky like rain.

  I staggered up, screaming for Lois, but could hear no sound, not even my own voice. Some feeling made me turn left, there past shards of shattered glass and broken stone a small pile of blue black feathers lay. I tried to run, fell, got up and crawled fore ward.

  Oh no no not my Lois not my first and only friend.

  One eye, the left, opened and saw me; the right was just a bloody smear. I gently poked her, trying to see what else was broken, raised and cuddled her body to my chest.

  A hand grabbed my shoulder. Some noise came back, shouting in German and Russian. The soldier who grabbed me shook me, trying to drag me away from Lois.

  So, I hit him.

  More German screaming, more soldiers, more men pointing their weapons at me.

  I smiled. Flights of black birds, called by my power, began to circle above. They would not hurt my Lois any more.

  Julie pushed her way through the men.

  "Eryma." She said "Eryma, can you hear me?"

  "Yes. Lois hurt."

  "As are a dozen men... I have sent for the surgeons. Now stand down, and tell me... Was this some sort of trap?"

  "Yes, trap. For you. This bait."

  "Der Rattenmann" Julie growled " I shall kill him."

  I laughed.

  My vision got too sharp, the lights too bright.

  "What?" Julie glared.

  "Not rat man... Rat Queen."

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  E Rat In Crate />
  Interlude:

  POLICE DETECTIVES MURDERED

  A scene of horror was found last night in the city's harbor district, near the intersection of Second and Dorchester. A Ms Agatha Spencer, age 22, found the partially consumed remains of two men in the alley there. While the police have not yet officially identified the remains, citing the damage to the bodies, several sources with the department have informed us that it is very probable they belong to the missing Detective Derastus Clapp, age 54, and Detective Edgar James Poe, age 56.

  Both men had been assigned to the recent Currier & Trott jewelry store heist, a baffling mystery involving over $16,000 in diamonds being removed from a locked room without any evidence that the door had ever been opened. The Detectives had reported to their supervisor, Captain Rayburn, that they had a hot lead on May 6th, and had not been seen since.

  While the cause of death is impossible to determine at this time, our sources say both men had drawn and fired their service revolvers, as the weapons were found in the alley with their ammunition expended. Of whom they were fighting no trace has been reported. The bodies themselves were apparently consumed, sometime after death, by rats.

  The loss of two such fine officers to the community cannot be overstated.

  Any information leading to the arrest of suspects in this heinous crime will be rewarded.

  -Boston Herald, May 9th, 1856

  I did hard thing. Hardest thing. Gave doctor Lois. Must think. Words. Clouds. No, clouds later. Hunt now. Find rat girl, make rat girl hurt. Clouds.

  My nice girl. My Cat girl. My scary nice cat girl. Saying words?

  "Doctor" Cat girl said "Doctor, I think she might have a concussion... Eryma, if you can understand me, what do you mean rat queen? There is no rat queen!"

  More birds called around me. More shadows on the ground. More lights in the sky. Sparks of white and blue between black feathers.

  Cat girl grabbed me. I shook, and pushed her back off. Not touch me. Not again.

  Cat Girl snarled. I yelled back. Words. Need words.

  A street below, two women fighting, the street rushing up to meet me.

  James. James.

  I held my bird to my breast, feeling his head tucked in my shoulder. I breathed in once, his crisp almost lemony smell, buried my nose in his feathers. He cawed once, and I pulled back, holding his weight in both arms.

  "James" I said "You should go with Lois, and watch over those surgeons. They may think she is a simple animal and not treat her right."

  "I sent several of the children with her. You need me now. And We need to hunt down that camel yanking freak and make her pay. Was this a trap for us?" James growled, sounding more like a dragon than a raven.

  "No, this was a long-term operation, we are too recent. But it is surely a trap, yes, but not for us. ... For Dame Julie" I looked at her "And Captain Alessandro, I suspect. Although Grand Duke Aleksandr would not have been amiss. From this, we can deduce several things:"

  Something small fell from the sky

  (Skreeeeeeplop)

  "One " I continued " Our enemy knows by now their plan has failed. Two, said plan was always circumspect; Kill Grand Duke Karl, yes, but to do so in a way that either the Skoptsy or the drug dealers would be held responsible. Three, will they either now flee the country, or will they take bold dramatic action? If it is the latter, we don't need to find them."

  (Skreeeeeeplop)(Skreeeeeeplop)

  "And why" Dame Julie asked, "Is that?"

  "Because my dear knight, they will find us. One Queen cannot expect to take a knight, rook, two bishops, and a queen by themselves; Not directly. They will as we speak be madly preparing other traps, to kill us one by one. We, my friends, are being hunted."

  (Skreeeeeeplop)(Skreeeeeeplop)(Skreeeeeeplop)

  "And what" Captain Alessandro said, "Is that damned noise?"

  "The local rodent population, I suspect, discovering gravity" I said, pointing to a small furry body falling from the sky. I looked at it again. "James, was that some child's pet hamster?"

  "Better safe than sorry" He said. "Anything so much as squeaks funny right now, it's dead. We spy on people, they do NOT spy on us."

  "Well let’s leave the locals to the cleanup then. Captain, Dame, we need a car and men, and we need to get to the Castle. If the Rat Queen is after the Grand Duke Karl, she will be there. Or close by. With ten to twenty miles; to control an operation this complex, they will want to be close. And rats are not nearly as smart as my birds."

  Captain Alessandro turned to his waiting men and began barking orders in German.

  "What else can you tell me? Have you met this Queen before?" Dame Julie asked.

  "Not directly, only during the war, we were on opposite sides, fencing through fog. If it is the same queen, they will be perhaps ten or twenty years older than I. They are British, or colonial; some rumors said they were Arabic or Egyptian, from the colonies there. Once we get to the castle, we may wish to take unexpected direct action- arrest every woman in the place, and strip them."

  Dame Julies eyes got wide at that.

  "Silver threads" I said, pulling down my sleeve to show her. "Just as you have your altered speed, and the Captain his toughness, so too are the bodies of Queens different; we have silver threads growing alongside our nerves, visible under the skin in bright light. They are densest along the spine, and between the thighs."

  "And no" I said, as she was about to speak "I am not hiking my skirt, so you can see that."

  "Disappointing. I shall grieve, but... I could not help but notice, Eryma, how closely you are holding your bird now, and how much better is your speech. Downright miraculous. It brings to mind several old rumors about you I had before discounted... Tell me, can you even function at all without them?"

  "Ask the British" Said James and I, together.

  #

  The auto mobile was roaring across the bridge towards the highway and then the castle beyond; for once, I was not complaining about the speed. Dame Julie was snarling as she thumped the pedals, forcing the engine into one faster turn. James. His body somehow forced into the shelf rack behind our seats, had his head over the side, beak open full and eyes brilliant, some like insane blue black feathered dog. Behind us farther, many trucks of men vainly tried to catch up, with the poor Captain's own staff car taking the rear, wheezing and conking under his considerable weight.

  The poor man. Cars simply did not work for him, he needed a farm tractor at least.

  "Did the men get any answer on the telephone?" I asked.

  "No answer, on telephone or the shortwave in the truck." Dame Julie said. "And there should have been some answer.... There is an entire army unit there at all times. What exactly are we dealing with? And are you certain it is a woman?"

  "There has never been a male queen, at least in recorded history. Had this been a king, they could simply have ordered the Grand Duke to kill himself. The phone lines would have been underground, rats like underground; and the radio tower would be the most likely first target. As to the first question, did you notice all the sacks?"

  "Yes, for the store, when it was open, I thought."

  "No, Dame Julie, it was grain... For the rats. While not nearly as intelligent as my birds, they breed very quickly. Several years of preparation, funds provided by the criminal side, they could breed an army. The lack of intelligence is a weakness we can exploit... The queen must be close, so find her, and kill her, and they shall become simply rats again."

  Our car passed the ruins of the old castle, meaning we had to crest one more hill to be able to see the new... Black smoke, a twister of it, began to come into view. Julie somehow began to drive even faster, the auto mobile engine screaming in its pain. Leaping over the top of the hill, flying in the air for a brief moment, the castle itself became clear.

  What was left of it.

  The guard house and entry way where both gone, blasted from within or below by some explosive. Through the hole we could see the high w
alls of the castle itself, still standing, but many of the rooms clearly on fire, billowing black veins of smoke bleeding up into the air.

  Surrounding the outer wall, a great brown, black and gray carpet spread out like some mad butcher's idea of a flower garden... Hundreds of thousands, no millions of rats, moving, swarming, mounding over the dead and feasting on their remains. Here and there a single human hand or leg could be seen jutting up from the morass. Some mounds were too large to be people, and must have been horses, the cavalry charging into the ravenous mouths of hell to try and save their commander.

  Dame Julie slowed the auto mobile then stopped, a few hundred yards from the teeming mass. "Are we too late?" She looked at me, her eyes, for perhaps the first time in centuries, afraid.

  As if by divine answer, a green bolt of lightning clawed from the dark gray sky to the inside of the castle. A silver peal more like flutes than the crash of thunder followed a fraction of a second later.

  "Well, at least Grand Duke Aleksandr must be alive" I said.

  "That cannot be him, he left for the Hindenburg plant right after your duel. He wanted to make sure the airship would be ready on schedule." Julie answered.

  More silver flutes. More green strikes of lightning. This time followed by gunfire as well, scattered, but clearly audible. There were some survivors among the guards, then.

  "We need to get in there..." Julie opened her door. The rats raised their heads. "Somehow."

  "No, what you need to do is put it in reverse and get us some distance, while we wait for the Captain and his troops. And also, forgive me; while all of you were so distracted, I robbed that nice liqueur store."

  "What?? Make sense." Julie started backing up the automobile. "You are worried about drinks now?"

  "Vodka. I love vodka." I smiled at James.

  He nodded back, and began to hum.

  "Why vodka??" Julie almost screamed.

  "It burns" I said.

  "Dum dum DUM be da dum" James intoned

  Above us, shadows flicked across the sky, as my black thunderclouds rolled in to do battle with the millions of rats. But not with beak and claw, each pass went right over the rats, shards of light glittering from lit bottles as they dropped into the mass. Bottles of vodka, bottles of rum, bottles of whiskey and fortified wine; some enterprising birds had even found jars of petrol or sticks of powder. It made a gorgeous explosion, all fantastic crimsons and golds.