Strangeness and Charm cotf-3

by Mike Shevdon

  "Meanwhile you want to give that Scottish git more ammunition," said Garvin.

  "He has access to information that we do not," I pointed out. "We need to know what else has been stolen — not just trinkets and home comforts, but odd things — items that might have some symbolic significance."

  "Why do you need to know this again?"

  "Blackbird thinks they might be trying to create some sort of ritual, or to prevent one. You remember the fuss about the Quit Rents Ceremony? She thinks it might be something like that."

  I carefully didn't mention Gregor. Garvin wouldn't be keen on Blackbird's involvement, but getting an outsider involved would not meet his approval at all.

  "Is there nowhere else you could find that out?"

  I thought for a moment about asking Sam Veldon. He worked for the security services and might have access to this information, but it would be outside of his normal sphere of interest and asking the wrong questions in that environment tended to draw attention. I had used most of my favours with Sam getting Alex back — he was unlikely to be helpful.

  "Unless you have some other contacts with access to the police computer systems? That'll be the quickest way to find out what's going on — if we can narrow it down to thefts from museums, private collections, art galleries and anywhere else with artefacts which might have symbolic significance, stolen between the summer solstice and now, that should give us enough to work on."

  "And if I get you this list, what are you going to do with it?" he asked me.

  "That depends what's on the list," I demurred.

  "You're sure this isn't one of Blackbird's games?"

  "To what end?"

  Garvin sighed, "It's enough that she goes off on wild goose chases, Niall, without sending the Warders off on one as well."

  "Aren't you always telling me to find out what I'm walking into before I engage?" I asked.

  "Don't quote me back, Niall. I haven't the patience for it."

  "We know they've stolen a feather and a key. The question is, what else have they stolen, and what will they go after next? I thought you'd be pleased that I was following my training."

  Garvin raised an eyebrow, then folded his hands. "OK, I'll put a request in today. I don't know how long it will take them to respond. I'll get back to you when they do."

  "Thanks," I said, standing. "Oh, and I'd like to borrow Amber, if I may?"

  "Amber? Why?"

  "I've tracked one of the escapees down, but every time I have him cornered, he disappears. I think it would be easier with some backup."

  Garvin studied my face for a moment. "Very well. I'll talk to her."

  "I've already mentioned it to her. It's OK with her if it's OK with you," I said.

  "She's a Warder, she doesn't need permission," he said.

  "She seemed to think it would be best to clear it with you first," I said.

  Garvin looked at me long and hard. "Amber hasn't asked my permission to act on anything for a very long time."

  "I'm only saying what she said to me."

  "I'll speak to her," said Garvin, "but it's fine. In fact, I encourage you to work with the other Warders. Maybe some of their experience will rub off on you."

  "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

  I turned and walked away.

  "It's kept them alive," Garvin called after me. "You might want to bear that in mind."

  At whose expense, I wondered.

  "You don't need me for this," said Amber. "It's a job for one."

  "You agreed to help," I pointed out.

  "I thought he was dangerous. From what you've said, every time he spots you he takes off. That's hardly a threat."

  "I still haven't managed to catch up with him."

  She shook her head. "You're making it too easy for him — approaching in plain sight, announcing your presence before you need to — no wonder he gets away from you. If you're going to use those tactics you're going to have to learn to run a lot faster."

  "I don't want to scare him. I'm trying to build trust."

  "Perhaps that's not working out so well for him?" she suggested.

  "Look, Amber, are you going to help me or not?"

  She studied me for a while, and then nodded.

  "Twice now I've chased him and each time he's come to this alley. Where he goes, I don't know, but he comes round here and then vanishes."

  She turned around slowly, checking walls, floor, the rolldown shutters and the slot windows. "Not many places to go. Are you sure he isn't hiding out until you've gone?"

  "Where?" I asked.

  She drew her blade and poked through some of the binbags, finding only discarded waste and flies.

  "My plan," I explained, "is to wait for him to appear and then introduce myself. I'll try and talk to him. If he bolts then he'll likely come here, where you can be waiting for him."

  "Cornered animals fight harder," she remarked.

  "I only want to talk to him. There's no reason for a fight."

  "On your part, at least," she said. "We don't know about him."

  "He hasn't shown any inclination to fight up until now. Let's keep it that way, shall we?"

  "It would help if you knew what talents he possesses — evasion is clearly part of it."

  "There's not enough information in the files to make any sense of it. We'll have to play it by ear. Are you OK with the plan? You'll have to wait here."

  She leaned against the wall by the down-pipe. "I'm good at waiting."

  As I watched, she closed in on herself, settling into stillness. After only a moment or two she might as well have been part of the wall.

  "Great," I said, wishing I was more confident.

  I made my way back to the market, wandering through the aisles and keeping a low profile, hoping to see Andy before he saw me. I looked for signs of someone using glamour — the faint heat haze in the air where someone is trying not to be seen, the unaccounted urge to look away when someone passes. As it was, I needn't have bothered. Half an hour later, Andy walked through the market wearing the coat, carrying the rucksack I'd left with the stallholder. Having escaped twice, he'd developed a boldness to his approach and sauntered casually through the stalls, greeting regulars by name.

  I followed him through the stalls, watching him ply his trade. He sold jars of honey to a couple of stallholders, exchanging the golden jars for coins and notes. I began to see that he wasn't trying to supply the market with honey in bulk, but was selling jars individually to the stallholders themselves. The comment the guy who'd kept his coat had made about him charging retail price began to make sense. He wasn't looking for trade, he was looking for customers.

  I followed him to the guy I'd left his coat with, and he stopped there and spoke with him. He passed over a jar, gesturing that he would take no money for it. It was a reward for returning the coat, perhaps. I waited out of sight until he finished his conversation and moved on, winding his way through the stalls. I placed myself in a position where he would be coming towards me on his way back out again, leaning casually against a pillar so that he could see I wouldn't chase him.

  As he turned the corner and scanned the stalls he spotted me. I tried for a wave of the hand as a casual greeting, but he interpreted my move as a threat and bolted for the side street. I ran after him, tracking his progress out of the market into the street, heading for the alley.

  I was only moments behind him. He had the rucksack hampering him and the coat flying out like a banner behind him as he ran. As soon as he came to the alley he dipped sideways.

  I came around the corner to find him standing, arms raised and held out from his body. In front on him, Amber held her sword level with his throat, the tip of the blade only inches from him. Poised, she stood like a dancer. He looked back at me as I caught up behind him.

  "It's OK," I said, slightly winded, "We only want to talk. She won't hurt you."

  "Buuddzzz," he said.

  I looked at him. "What?"

  Th
ere was something strange about him. His skin became bumpy, as if some disease was erupting from within him. His form rippled as he swayed drunkenly, Amber's blade following his movement. It was as if he was no longer able to support his own weight.

  Amber said, "What the…?"

  His skin broke into fragments and evaporated, falling away to reveal a living crawling mass of tiny creatures. They streamed into a flying mass, spiralling out from the manshape, the coat and rucksack falling to the ground amid them. Amber and I staggered back from the swarming, circling mass as they filled the alley with their buzzing, rising and swirling upwards in a harmonious melee, spilling out over the roof until they vanished out of sight.

  "Bees." I said, finally grasping what I'd seen. "He's made of bees!"

  "Shapechanger," said Amber, "and not one I've seen before. Come on." She headed out of the alley.

  "Where are you going?" I asked. "We're never going to catch him now."

  "That's where you're wrong," she said.

  I raced after her as she headed down the side street, rounded the block and turned back on herself into the shopping street that fronted the row. She scanned the skyline.

  "Not far then," she said.

  "What's not far?"

  "You see any bees?" she asked.

  "No."

  "Quite." She ran along the row, counting the shops until she came to a vegetarian cafe. "This is about right," she said.

  She glanced to either side at the private doorways to flats on either side, choosing a black door that looked newly painted. "Black's my favourite colour," she explained.

  "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "You'll see."

  She put her hand on the door and it popped open. Inside was a short hallway with stairs up to the first floor. We mounted the stairs quickly, running along the corridor past a door from behind which a heavy reggae beat was thumping, to the next set of stairs. She didn't hesitate but kept moving upwards. The next floor was quieter, but we went up again. This stairway was narrower and came to a plain door at the top of the stairs.

  "Make a wish," she said.

  "What kind of wish?"

  "Too late." She laid her hand on the door and pushed it open. Inside was a small one room bedsit that looked as if it had been ransacked. There were clothes on the floor, hanging from door handles, in piles on the bed. Books and magazines were strewn among the mayhem.

  "Is this where Andy lives?" I asked.

  "I doubt it," said Amber. "Now that would be a coincidence. Besides, I can't see Andy finding this kind of chaos comfortable. He'll be a man who likes things in their place."

  "How do you know that."

  "I don't. But I know bees."

  She threaded her way through the flat until she reached a window overlooking the rooftops at the back. From here you could see the market across the way.

  "Perfect," she said, sliding the window up. She stepped out onto a small balcony.

  I followed to the window. She stepped on a planter with an array of brown dead chrysanthemums, up onto the balcony rail and walked around until she could climb upwards onto the flat roof above.

  I stepped out, looking over the balcony three floors down to the side street below. My stomach sank as I realised I would have to climb up on the rail. I turned away, looking up to where Amber stood on the flat roof above the window.

  "You better come up," she said. "You're going to love this."

  Less confident with heights than Amber, I moved the planter to the side where the rail met the wall and then mounted the rail to lean against the wall and scrabble to the roof. When I stood up I saw what prompted her remark.

  The rooftop was a repeated pattern of leaded flat roofs and gabled peaks. All down the row, wooden hives had been placed where flat roofs offered a sheltered spot. There must have been eight or nine hives, each one circled by bees visiting or leaving. They flew past us, oblivious of our presence, heading off to roof gardens, parks and window boxes to return with nectar and pollen.

  "This is why he keeps coming back," I said. "I couldn't figure out why he didn't head off somewhere else where I wouldn't look for him."

  "And now you know," said Amber.

  As we watched, the bees became more active, circling an area near the centre of the hives. Bees circled inwards, landing and climbing on one another until a mound appeared which grew and formed into the shape of a man — a man that became Andy.

  "You shouldn't have come here," he said darkly. There was a hoarse rasp to his voice which made me wonder how much of a struggle maintaining that shape had become.

  "I'm not here to hurt you," I called across the roof.

  "In this place, you cannot hurt me," he said. The buzzing from the hives increased and a column of bees rose from each one, circling menacingly as if looking for a target.

  Amber's eyes turned hard as glass. "You might want to take things easy," she said quietly.

  "Or what?" he said. "Will you cut me with your sword? You can kill a few of us, but we are many, many more than you can imagine."

  In answer Amber held out her arm and flames licked up her wrist up onto her hand, rising until heat haze shimmered from it. "We all have our talents," she said.

  "Enough," I said. "Stop it. Amber, please don't. It's not helping. Andy, I'm sorry, it seems like I've been pursuing you but actually I want your help."

  "You have a strange way of asking for it." The circling of the bees continued.

  "I know, and I apologise. Can we talk? I think you may find what I have to say interesting, and it could help you and potentially others like you — like us."

  "Us?"

  I glanced at Amber. "As she said, we all have our talents."

  "What's yours?"

  "I could show you, but I'm not sure your bees would like it. Another time, maybe."

  "I don't want you here. Go away," he said.

  "I wish it were that simple. I know where you were taken, what they did to you."

  He shook his head, denying my words. "How can you know? You weren't there. You don't bear the scars. I should know." There was anger in his words now, and remembered fear.

  "I was there, but at the end. I was the one who broke in, a… colleague and I, we stopped it. We were the ones who finished it and set you all free." It felt wrong portraying myself as a hero, when what I'd done felt far from heroic, but perhaps Andy needed something to believe in, something to connect with.

  "Why? Why should I believe you?"

  "Because you can hear it in my voice. Because you know I'm telling the truth. I didn't go there to rescue you, it's true. I went to free my daughter who was there with you. I rescued her, but I set you all free."

  "You brought the darkness?"

  To him, as an inmate of Porton Down, where the lights blazed twenty-four hours a day every day, it must have seemed like that. Raffmir and I brought darkness to a place that knew only light.

  "I brought the darkness. As she said, we all have our talents."

  He looked thoughtful, glancing across at the hives and then back at us. Then he came to a decision.

  "Go away," he said. "Leave the hives alone."

  "I need to speak to you."

  "Go back down, and I will come to you. Go back to the market. I will find you."

  "You'll come?"

  "If you leave now."

  I glanced at Amber.

  "It's not like he can run off somewhere," she said quietly. "He'd have to take the hives with him, and it's not easy moving them. The bees know the area. They're creatures of habit."

  "OK," I called to him. "I'll wait for you."

  We climbed down and made our way back through the flat, locking the door after us.

  "How did you know where he was?" I asked Amber.

  "Bees fly horizontally unless you give them a reason not to. There were no bees at ground level, so they had to be up a height somewhere. The rooftop is an obvious place. Plenty of room, and no one to disturb them."

  "He keeps
the bees, and they keep him," I said, remembering him selling the honey.

  "He is the bees. What do you want to say to him?" asked Amber as we made our way back to the street.

  "I want his help in bringing together the escapees. He tried to organise them in Porton Down, so he knows some of them — more than most, anyway."

  "He tried to organise them," said Amber. "Figures."

  "I think he could be helpful," I said.

  "Bear in mind he won't travel far," she said. "He's ruled at least partly by his animal shape. By winter he's liable to be mostly dormant."

  "The other inmates may trust him. You've seen how little they trust anyone else."

  "Well, you don't need me for this. Are you OK to find your own way back to the courts?"

  "I'll be fine. I'll join you later," I said.

  A smile touched her lips. "Don't get yourself stung to death."

  When I got back to the courts, Garvin wanted an update.

  "So you didn't bring him in?" he challenged.

  "I'm not sure anyone could make him go anywhere he didn't want to go," I said.

  "Amber did say it was unusual."

  "He's tied to the hives in ways I probably can't comprehend. He can't move anywhere any more than the bees can. If I brought him here, he couldn't stay for more than a short while. It's not a choice, it's how he is."

  Garvin raised an eyebrow. "Do you think he can have children?"

  "What kind of a question is that?" I asked. "Can Lord Kane? Or is there a risk of kittens?"

  "You need to be careful, saying things like that," said Garvin.

  "Because Kane's fey, or because he's a Lord of the Seven Courts?"

  "Both, and because he's liable to tear your heart out and eat it," said Garvin.

  "He's promised not to harm me."

  "Then it's his word that's standing between you and sudden death. How far do you want to test it?"

  "Point taken."

  Garvin folded his hands. "I'd rather you didn't test his level of patience."

  "My point is that it's not an appropriate question in either case. Sure, Kane is one of the Lords and Ladies, but why is it anyone's business whether Andy can be a successful father? That's between him and his partner, if he has one, surely?"