by Ben Galley
As the howling continued, Merion looked up to see a shadow swipe across the grand windows above. He may have been mistaken, but he swore he could hear the drone of an airship over the cacophony.
‘Please continue, Lord Darbish,’ ordered Pagget, once silence had been restored. There was a sweat on the man’s brow. He had been asked to witness a Lord Protector’s confession, after all. Dizali was not a common thief or vagabond.
It wasn’t every day you got to take down the head of the Empire.
Darbish went on, enjoying himself now.
‘“That was the first of many steps in taking control of Hark’s position, and of his estate. To that end, I also confess the attempted murder of Karrigan’s son, Tonmerion Hark. It was I who despatched the Serpeds to the Endless Land to coerce him into signing the estate to my control. When they failed, I ordered the death of the young Hark and his aunt, in order to enact the Clean Slate Statute. It was I who tortured Mr Witchazel, for which I framed Lord Umbright. It was also I who ordered the assassination of King Lincoln, in order to turn the Americans against the Rosiyan Empire, to aid the war effort.”’
Dizali was a trembling tower of rage. He stood at the centre of his twitchy band of lordsguards, who by now were as rattled as the Benches. The Brothers lurked; mismatched eyes darting around, hands low and clenched. It was as if they were watching the ground crumbling beneath them. They knew that if Dizali fell, they did too.
‘“I coerced and bribed this parliament into believing the Queen needed to be removed. When she was cast from government, I fabricated the story of her Rosiyan involvement in order to sentence her to death. To this and more, I confess, and hereby step down as Lord Protector, and accept any and all charges against me in punishment of my crimes and lies. Signed, Lord Bremar Dizali.”’
Merion wanted to bathe in Darbish’s words as he half-closed his eyes and savoured their sounds. The death knell of his enemy’s reign.
‘Is that your signature, Lord Dizali?’ Pagget stepped forward to grasp the paper. Dizali looked close to exploding. His eyes had now shifted to Merion, who met the waves of murderous hatred with that confident smile.
‘I demand to see this document!’ Dizali bellowed. But Pagget was having none of it. As lordsguards jostled with constables to carve a path for the Lord Protector, Darbish held it up for all to see, bold now.
‘Is this not the signature we have seen many times on documents? On the Queen’s own death sentence?’ The front-benchers of each party swarm forwards to see. Chaos had descended on the hall.
Calidae chose the perfect moment to enter, with Lilain and Gunderton at her back. She wore a smile almost as smug as Merion’s. They looked ragged. Something shivered beside their striding legs.
‘GUARDS!’ Dizali bellowed, but the confusion was too much for them. They staggered about, unsure of what to do.
Merion chose his moment to pounce. He raised his voice to holler over the raucousness.
‘This is just the tip of the iceberg, Emerald Lords and Ladies! I spent yesterday evening in a cellar in Clovenhall, after being bound and coerced into handing these deeds over to Lord Dizali. The man before you has systematically and brutally hunted myself and my family to the literal ends of the Earth to achieve his goals. He will stop at nothing. War with Rosiya, war with the New Kingdom, abdication of all royalty… The list goes on. This is just the beginning! And no doubt Calidae Serped can testify to this!’
Calidae picked up the reins of the speech expertly, well practised after those long days on the Black Rosa. Merion stood back as she marched to his side. He felt his aunt’s hand on his shoulder, heard the whisper in his ear. ‘Your father would be proud,’ she said, and in that brief moment her words were more delicious than all the roaring of the Benches, and all the murderous looks Dizali could summon for him.
‘Hark speaks the truth!’ shouted Calidae. ‘I ask you, do you not find it strange that Lord Dizali has claimed not one, but two estates of dead lords in the past month? First, Harker Sheer, and now, Slickharbour Spit?’ She opened her arms and spun in a circle to address the hall.
‘When I refused to go along with his plans any longer, he had me thrown in a cell and tortured. Just like Mr Witchazel here! What the man cannot achieve through coercion and fear, he achieves through brute force and murder. We should be hanging him today and not Victorious!’
‘Hear, hear!’
Merion could feel the crowd’s mood shifting, from outraged to bloodthirsty. Calidae’s words had stoked its fire, swaying any who had still clung to doubt or held faith in their bribes. The back-benchers were now out of their seats, trying to work their way down to the tomb. The constables were creeping towards Dizali now, manoeuvring around the lordsguards, some of whom looked as guilty as the Lord Protector. The Brothers were slowly edging forwards. And Dizali, in the centre of the storm, bared his teeth at them all, grinding out words only his entourage could hear, still glaring at Merion.
It was then that the boy and the others began to move, stepping forward as one before it turned too ugly. The cat was out of the bag, but now its claws were free and it was spitting viciously. They had to act.
As Gunderton tackled Merion’s handcuffs, the boy and Calidae began to shout for Dizali’s arrest, waving to Pagget who was stuck behind a wall of lordsguards.
The order must have come from Dizali. Rifles began to thunder. One at first, then a stumbling crackle as other triggers were pulled, until screams and gunshots filled the hall. The Benches, so eager in their advance, began to flee in all directions.
Merion and the others surged forward. Bodies fell at their feet. Truncheons clashed with bayonets. Pagget was shouting at the top of his lungs. The Brothers sank their vials, magick bubbling up in spurts of light and fire as the fighting reached fever pitch.
There came a crash of glass. Shards rained down on the southern side of the Benches. As Merion fought to break through the screaming crowds, he glanced up to see a hole smashed in one of the great windows. Its jagged edges were filled with sunlight, sketching a dark figure: one with a hat and a rifle. Merion could have cheered as the weapon sang, a deeper boom than the rest. A Brother collapsed to the floor. Merion glimpsed a black hole in the man’s forehead before he was lost to the press of bodies.
‘Before he escapes!’ Merion threw himself into the fray. He picked up a discarded truncheon and began to whack anything that wasn’t dressed in blue or clad in suit-cloth. Calidae was beside him, wielding a wicked blade. Lilain and Gunderton had found rifles of their own and were delivering pain in all directions. A faded shape danced between them, biting and scratching at flesh.
‘The coward’s running!’ Calidae yelled in his ear. She was right: the fighting had shifted towards the far end of the hall, following Dizali as he worked his way towards escape. But the fleeing had choked the doorway. Merion could see Dizali snarling and bellowing over the milling heads, yelling for the remaining Eighth.
‘Lurker!’ Merion shouted, cupping hands around his mouth and wildly pointing in Dizali’s direction. ‘Stop him!’
He saw the silhouette turn and heard the rifle thunder. A bullet ricocheted from the tomb, almost catching Dizali’s elbow. The Lord Protector doubled his pace, thrashing at anything in his path. He looked back through the frenzy at Merion, and their eyes met in a vicious embrace.
‘Here!’ Gunderton yelled beside him. He’d found the body of Honorford, lying face-up and cross-eyed with a bullet in his brain. Eager fingers ripped apart his coat, swiping a spectrum of shades into his hands. He threw a handful to Merion. They had no labels, no Sanguine whatsoever.
‘Pot luck,’ Gunderton grunted as he threw one to his lips. ‘Best part of being a leech!’
Merion took a moment to duck the swing of a bayonet and followed suit, just praying it wasn’t insect. That would have been highly ironic. He felt the magick bite, swirling his head for a moment as he pressed it down. Soon enough, it was thrumming in his veins, trembling in his muscles. Anything he touche
d flew aside, constables and lordsguards alike. Strength flooded his fingers, bringing a sharper edge to his anger. He found himself snarling like a wolf as he burst forwards.
Merion and Gunderton burst through the crowd and bounded forwards to find Dizali pressed up against the wall, blocked from escaping the hall. The two remaining Brothers noticed the boy and Gunderton breaking through and stepped forward.
‘It’s over, Dizali!’ yelled Merion. ‘You’ve lost!’
‘I will have your head, Hark!’ Dizali screeched.
Edging forward with Gunderton, the boy flashed a grin. ‘You’re ruined. You’ve failed. You are nothing!’
Dizali was apoplectic. He strangled the air between them, pushing Heck and Hanister forward as he kept pushing towards escape.
Merion snuck a sideways look at Gunderton as they squared up to the Eighth. Four leeches: three Brothers and one Tonmerion Hark. Merion felt the fear flare for just a moment before his shade flooded him with breathless determination, like a starving hunter facing down a bear. He narrowed his eyes. There was no time for failure any more. He snapped the bayonet from a rifle at his feet and pointed it at Heck, whose fists were already covered with thick dark scales.
Without a word, they charged: two waves thrumming with magick, surging over velvet and spilt blood. Merion found his vision tunnelled. He did not dare glance at Gunderton. Trust held him true. He just sprinted headlong towards his Brother, bayonet flashing in the streaming light, watching his opponent’s scale-clad fist swinging.
Just before they clashed, Merion slid to his knees and swung the bayonet with all the strength the shade had given him. He nearly punched completely through the man; the blade bursting from his back with a hollow scream. Merion was on his feet in a moment, hand painted red. He stared down at Heck, crumpled up beside him, in the midst of dying. He used his foot to kick him onto his side.
‘Never underestimate your opponent. Itch Magrey taught me that,’ he hissed, before looking at Dizali. The Lord Protector was already halfway through the door with a lordsguard and Rolick in tow. Merion flashed a look at Gunderton, who was busy trading blows with Hanister. Both of them were rushing hard, buzzing with magick. Hanister’s fists were wreathed in fire, Gunderton’s in blood; but his shade seemed to be winning.
‘Go!’ he yelled over the fighting. Merion didn’t waste a moment to argue.
‘Get Witchazel to safety!’ he yelled to Lilain over his shoulder. She nodded, clearly struggling against the worried glint in her eye. She wanted to follow, to help, but she also trusted him. Calidae, however, did not, and was instantly at his side, face spotted with blood and teeth fierce.
‘Think you get to have all the fun?’ she said, as they bounded after Dizali.
‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘Good!’ said another voice. Rhin flickered into being alongside them, pale as a midwinter’s day, but eyes burning bright as any lantern. Merion crouched to scoop him up, and together they ran.
Chapter XX
RECKONING
12th August, 1867
Sunlight seared their eyes as they burst onto the steps to battle with the fleeing lords and ladies. The streets were just as uproarious as the Emerald House, only now there were random crowds to contend with; crowds with ears full of gunfire and screams. It was chaos—just as in the House—and they had to barge and bully their way across the stone.
‘There!’ Rhin’s keen sight picked out Dizali, sprinting towards the nearest carriage. Merion, Calidae and Rhin were close behind, but as they skidded to the kerb, Dizali’s horses were already clattering across the flagstones, spraying them with dust.
‘We need a carriage!’ Calidae pointed across the street to a waiting cab. Not quite the four-horse team that Dizali had taken, but it would have to do.
They battled their way to the carriage, losing precious time. A bayonet wiggled in the face of the driver convinced him to disembark. Calidae jumped up to his seat with Merion on her heels, Rhin clinging to the crook of his arm.
‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ Merion asked, as she cracked the whip over the horses’ ears.
‘No, but I’ve been in enough carriages to guess!’ she yelled, with a lopsided grimace. ‘Haven’t you?’
Merion clung on tight as they clattered over the flagstones in pursuit. Calidae soon had the horses weaving between the traffic like a needle through a seam, gaining on Dizali with every moment. He was headed south, that much was for sure, over the bridge and onto the Southbank. His driver led them a jagged path, but Calidae clung to his tails, swerving at ridiculous angles. Merion shouted apology after apology as people flung themselves screaming to the pavements in an attempt to avoid their thundering hooves.
‘Will you stop that?!’ Calidae snapped, and he went back to hanging on grimly.
Rhin was currently holed up in the footwell, watching the city flash by. He looked exhausted already, and Merion reached down to gently nudge him with his knuckles. He met the faerie’s eyes, and they were determined enough. The boy nodded and turned back to blink at the rushing wind. How did drivers do this all day long? And in the rain too!
‘He must be making for the Crucible, where the Queen is being hung!’ Merion shouted to Calidae, as she swerved into an alleyway with a snarl.
Merion channelled all his strength into his grip as they careered onto a parallel road, missing Dizali’s carriage by an inch. The horses whinnied in protest, but Calidae kept them galloping.
Now closer to Dizali, the boy felt the anger building again; he wondered what it would feel like with his hands around the man’s neck. He tested his magick but found only scraps. A hand delved into his pocket and dug out the next vial: bright orange and dubiously viscous.
‘Please don’t be the insect vein…’
‘What?’ Calidae shouted.
‘I said, here’s to pot luck!’
He quaffed down the blood. It was bitter and fiery on the tongue. For a dizzying moment, Merion feared the worst, but then it quickly clung to walls of his stomach, almost begging to be used. It must have been a fish shade. Only that vein rushed so willingly for him. He gripped it hard and hauled it into his mind. Within seconds, the magick was bubbling up in his throat, then his mouth. He had a powerful urge to spit.
Archer fish.
‘I need water!’
‘Here!’ Rhin kicked something at his feet. It was a can, filled with something that sloshed. Merion frantically unscrewed its lid.
‘Watch out!’ Calidae yanked abruptly on the reins. A dagger thunked into the seat between them, wobbling from its impact. Merion seized it by the handle and hurled it back, smashing the rear window of Dizali’s carriage. He was as shocked as anyone at his aim; he had never thrown a blade in his life. Calidae gave him an approving nod, which made it all the sweeter. It was the closest he would come to any sort of kindness from her, and he knew that.
A thought flashed across his mind, but was instantly banished. He refused to think of her threat now. This moment was for Dizali and his downfall.
Two gunshots made them duck. The bullets tore chunks from the driver’s seat.
‘Hurry up!’ Calidae barked. Merion seized the can and spilled it into his mouth as the carriage jolted. It was alcohol; probably not the kind for drinking. Except if your name is Lurker. Fortunately, Merion had no such inclination to drink it.
The magick and liquid burst from his lips as one, splintering the corner of Dizali’s carriage with a cannonball of liquid. He turned to look down at Calidae and smiled at her determined scowl.
‘One of Gile’s favourites, if I remember rightly,’ he yelled.
She stayed silent, focusing on the horses. Dizali was pulling ahead again. The galloping was taking its toll on the beasts and they were beginning to whinny between their slavering breaths. ‘Damn it!’ she yelled, cracking the whip again. ‘Keep at it!’
Merion needed no encouragement. He slurped at the disgusting alcohol and spat again and again, punching two holes below t
he rival carriage’s window. There were shouts from inside; Merion could see heads moving between the torn blinds and cobwebbed glass. Another shot turned that glass to shards, and another went right on through, making the driver curse. Merion caught it on the wind.
‘By the Roots, if I had a bow!’ Rhin yelled in his ear, having climbed back onto the seat. Merion was firing fast and loose now, peppering the carriage with holes as it surged forward.
‘The wheels!’ urged the faerie.
‘They’re too far ahead! Calidae?’
‘The horses are spent, what do you want me to do?’
Merion was taking another swig, looking up to the rushing rooftops, when he saw a shadow loom over the gutters, accompanied by a sudden roar of engines. A large red and black airship swung in and joined them in the chase. Merion didn’t know whether to cheer or cower. It was flying perilously low, brushing the chimney pots and weathervanes. He winced as one came crashing down, eliciting more screams from the street.
Black letters sprawled over the nose of its red envelope, patched and mismatched. The Cloudy Belle. Six brash engines roared at its stern. The gondola looked more like a stolen steamboat—weathered and beaten—than an elegant, streamlined construction. Had it not been for the man hanging out of the open door in its lower hull, a huge, triple-barrelled rifle in his hand, Merion would have branded its arrival the doom of their plan. It appeared as though Lurker had pulled some thick strings indeed. There was even a woman on his arm: Aunt Lilain. She too held a rifle.
Merion cheered as the Belle powered forward, bearing down on Dizali as he broke out onto the riverbank, racing between the stately lanterns and plodding carthorses. Calidae made ground in a sharp turn around a corner, almost pitching them into the river. She cracked the whip once more as the airship swung over the water, racing level with Dizali’s carriage. Great clouds of spray lurched up in the thrust of its mighty, bellowing engines.
Merion took another sip of liquid before his shade evaporated. He was rushing too hard, boiling his blood. He let the alcohol burn his cheeks as he watched the Belle rear up over a bridge, bringing her gondola to street-level. Three staccato cracks tore through the air in quick succession. Splinters exploded from the base of the carriage. As it skewed violently to the side, Merion spat another torrent of liquid. The bolt found the precise spot he had been aiming for, ripping through the axle and shattering the wheel.