She was slower this time, and the joy I’d seen in her onstage was completely missing. Had that, too, been just part of the act? Part of her magic? I didn’t think so—I had been around enough vicimorph magic to tell what was magic and what was real. Or so I thought.
But then she stopped in a narrow alley and leaned her shoulder against a sooty brick wall. She shuddered, and I heard sobs.
She was crying. For once, it wasn’t her pretty-tears-get-my-way sort of crying. She sounded scared and tired and…I didn’t know what else, but it gave me goosebumps. I should have been glad for her distress, after everything she’d done. But all I felt was pity. Concern.
I don’t know what made me do it. But I stepped out of the shadows and walked toward her.
“Delphine?”
Chapter Six
She didn’t react. Maybe she hadn’t heard me. I said her name again, louder, and touched her shoulder.
She screeched. Grabbed my arm and flung me from her. My body slammed against the brick. I couldn’t breathe.
Another shriek—hers, I thought. Her fists grabbed my hair, yanked my head down. My cheek scraped against the rough brick surface.
“It’s me!” I yelled. “Minx. Stop it!”
My hat went flying. Felt like a good chunk of hair went with it. Pain sizzled along my scalp. Howling, I dug my fingernails into her wrists.
She grunted, but didn’t let go. Just rammed my head into the wall again.
I flailed, slapping her face. My fingers found her ear. I pulled and twisted as hard as I could.
She screamed and finally released me.
I stumbled out of her reach. My head throbbed. I put my hand to my stinging cheek, and it came away smeared with blood. I’d felt sorry for this haybag? “What the hell is your problem, Delphine?”
“You,” she said, panting, hand cupped over her ear, “are a gammy bitch.”
“And you are a bloody criminal.” I retrieved my fallen hat, jammed it on my aching head, and refastened the remaining hat pins. “And crazy, to boot.”
“I should have known when your cog-brained friend started on about thrunge plates that you were up to something.”
“Yes, well, at least we weren’t up to anything illegal—like, I don’t know…performing sub rosa at some cheap penny gaff theater.”
“Stow it, Minx. I don’t give two bits what you think.”
“You might care what Master Fenrey thinks—or Dame Fairchild. I’m sure they’ll be interested to hear that their star apprentice has been breaking the law for the last three years. I wonder what Nadine will say to that?”
She drew a quick breath. “Don’t you dare use her given name.”
We all knew Delphine worshipped Nadine Fairchild. I was about to be cruel, but someone who had just tried to beat me up shouldn’t expect any mercy. “Why not? Oh, that’s right.” I gave her a sticky-sweet look of sympathy. “Nadine is mentoring you. You’re not actually friends with her like I am.”
She glared at me like an angry sewer alligator. Then she tilted her nose in the air. “Even if I were, I wouldn’t address her so informally. I have too much respect for her.”
“So much respect that you risk ruining her reputation with your little side job? Blimey, I’m sure Nadine will be totally flattered.”
Her chest heaved. “You don’t have any idea what’s going on here.” The hopeless tone had returned to her voice.
My sarcasm left me. “I know enough. And I care too much about Nadine to keep it from her.”
We stared at each other. I could feel the fury rising in her.
“I care too!” she screamed.
She lunged for me again. I beat her hands away from my head.
She heaved her bag at me. I twisted to the side to shield myself. It slammed into my shoulder. My hat tumbled to the cobblestones again.
Her arm slapped around my waist, dragging me in front of her. I stomped on her foot and yanked her arm. She grunted. Stumbled.
Using her arm for leverage, I threw her against the wall. Her body thudded, and she gasped for air.
“You’re crazy.” Panting, I pinned her arms to the wall as best I could.
Her arms flailed, her hands scrabbled for a fistful of my hair. “You—” Squealing, she wrenched free and grabbed my head again. “—don’t understand!”
I punched her side, but her corset didn’t give much.
“More important things—” She shoved my head down.
Pain shot through my neck. I cried out.
“—than..a stupid acting job!”
I clawed at her hands and face. “God, Delphine. Let me go!”
I couldn’t stand up, so I threw myself at her. We tumbled into a pile of discarded crates and boxes. She still wouldn’t release me. I grabbed a nearby crate lid and slammed it at her face. It connected with a dull slap that made me feel sick to hear it.
With a sharp cry, she dropped her hold. I scrambled to my feet and pulled out my pepper-spray gun. Pointed it at her.
“Stay away from me, you crazy haybag.” My breath came in labored puffs, restricted a little by my harness.
She didn’t try to get up. Just curled onto her side, moaning. “He’s coming…”
I lowered the pepper-spray gun and glanced around. No one was there. Then I realized Delphine was crying again. Had I hurt her that badly? I hesitated to get too near. My head ached and I felt a little dizzy.
“Who’s coming?”
She just sobbed harder.
“Good grief.” Shoving aside my fear, I crouched next to her and shook her a bit. “Stop blubbering and tell me what on earth is wrong with you.”
Her face was reddened, and welted scratches criss-crossed it. “The Peacock.”
The serial killer—the one that had murdered three of the empire’s best actors so far. “What about him?”
Suddenly, I was all fought out. I stood again, scowling, and held out my hand to her. She took it, and I pulled her to her feet. I even offered her the handkerchief Benjamin Pierce had given me earlier. She scrubbed at her eyes and wiped her nose.
Her breath came in shuddering gasps. “I…heard someone talking. Tonight. She said Dame Fairchild is the Peacock’s next victim.”
Her words enveloped me like frozen steam. My mind felt numb. Then my common sense broke through the sudden ice. It was all rumor. Speculation. If someone knew who the Peacock’s next victim was, they’d go to the police and have it stopped. And anyway, I wasn’t about to let Delphine see she’d frightened me. Not for a second.
“You couldn’t have told me that without trying to rip my head off?” I snatched the handkerchief back and tucked it into my bag. “I can’t believe you’re blubbering over a coggle-brained rumor.”
Before she could answer me, a sharp whistle pierced the air. A tall, bulky figure rounded the corner into the alley and jogged toward us. I inhaled sharply.
A rozzer.
I could tell by the gleaming metal and gears protruding from the stump of his left arm. Empress Antonia, long may she rot in hell, made all police and soldiers have an arm or leg amputated and replaced by a mechanical prosthetic that was basically a built-in weapon. The prosthetic also contained a spell that, over time, took command of the rozzer’s soul until he or she was completely under the empress’s control. Rozzers were ruthless and dangerous.
And one was heading straight toward us.
I tucked my pepper-spray gun close to me, in the folds of my skirt.
“You there!” He pointed at us with his mechanical arm. “Stay where you are.”
As if we were planning to do anything else? I glanced at Delphine. Her face was blotchy and tearstained but suddenly pale. I had a brief urge to take her hand. My heart pounded. Rozzers were everywhere, of course, but I’d never before had one bearing down on me in a darkened alley.
At least he was only a police officer—they were never totally overtaken by the spell. Even the empress knew that her police force needed to have something resembling human
ity. Once the spell became stronger, this rozzer would be transferred to a military unit. No one needed humanity on the battlefield—according to our gentle empress.
Delphine stared at him, eyes wide, mouth blissfully silent for once. I thought she might faint. It was clear I’d need to handle this. It was essential that neither of us be connected to the Alchemy Theater. We were too well dressed to be street children or child workers, but not well dressed enough to be Polite Society. We were in the wrong part of town for that, anyway.
It would be obvious that we were either young working class females, apprentices, or possibly dollymops—street walkers. Letting him know we were apprentices was out of the question—he’d take us into custody until we told him which training program we belonged to. And I preferred not to be taken for a whore. Young employees it had to be, then.
I pushed down my own fear, and willed my mind into action.
“Good evening, Officer. Is everything all right?” I assumed my most innocent, charming expression. The one that rarely failed to get me out of trouble.
His face didn’t soften. “I heard screaming and shouting three blocks away. You tell me if everything is all right.” He took another step nearer.
A metallic buzzing filled my ears. My mouth went dry. I forced myself not to step back. We couldn’t admit to fighting—it would be a disturbance of the public peace, and he would take us to the nearest police station and fine us. “Oh it was awful! My friend and I were walking home from our shift, and a man tried to rob us. We fought him off, but he went that way.” I pointed behind us.
Delphine suddenly returned to life. “Yes, it was so frightening!” She gave a little shudder.
The rozzer’s eyes narrowed. He stepped even closer. I could barely breathe. I hated for men to stand too close to me, especially men that could hurt me. I eyed his mechanical arm. It had extensions on it that could snap my wrist in two.
“Strange,” he said at last. “I heard no man’s voice. Only a couple of women screaming like dollymops.”
“Of course,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear the tremor in my voice. “He didn’t want to be heard. We were trying to make as much noise as possible.”
Doubt flickered across his face. “Didn’t sound like a mugging to me. Sounded like a cat fight.”
Damn him for being reasonably smart. “So?” He was too close. My self-control was about to break. “You’re going to let him get away because he didn’t make enough noise?”
Delphine gasped. “Minx!” she hissed.
“I’m just saying that the thief is going to get away. And we victims are being detained. How is that fair?”
Oh, I was so close to crossing the line. No one sassed a rozzer. No one was that coggled.
Except me, apparently.
Don’t run. Don’t run. I felt ill. If I vomited on him, would he let me go or arrest me?
In one more step, he was at my side. His mechanical hand clamped around my arm. The world went dark and spun sideways. I fought against the sickening panic.
“Officer!” Delphine’s voice was pleading and high-pitched. “My friend didn’t mean any disrespect. She’s just still upset from the attack.”
“Obviously it was a terrible experience.” He sounded sarcastic. “I think both of you need to come to the station and give a full report.”
His steel vice pressed into my skin. He tugged hard.
The darkness cleared. No. I wasn’t going to be taken. Not again.
I raised my free hand. Aimed the pepper-spray gun.
And shot him straight in the face.
Someone screamed. I’m not sure who. But he released my arm. He threw his natural hand over his face and staggered back.
Oh my god.
I pepper-sprayed a rozzer.
That was what—a felony offense?
Before that thought could sink in, I grabbed Delphine’s arm. “Run!”
We hadn’t reached the corner before we heard another loud whistle. The rozzer wouldn’t be able to see well enough to follow us, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t call for back-up.
“You just had to spray him, didn’t you!” Delphine gasped.
“Shut up.”
A solitary carriage rumbled down the street. We pressed to the side to let it pass. Then we took off again.
I raced after Delphine, wishing we had trousers instead of skirts. My hat blew off, but it didn’t matter now.
Shouts and police whistles erupted blocks behind us. More rozzers.
Fear gave us another burst of speed. We half-stumbled across the road to the park. I threw a glance over my shoulder. Three rozzers chased us, only two blocks away now.
We slipped and skidded down the limestone steps into the underground river channel. Voices echoed down to us from above ground.
“This way,” Delphine whispered, breathing hard.
She led me along the walkway beside the river. The light disappeared and there was no time to fire up Delphine’s lantern. I grabbed my electric torch from my harness and turned it to moon-glow.
A clattering of boots on limestone told me the rozzers had reached the stone steps. Moments later, bright electric torches lit up the channel.
The rozzers shouted at us to stop. Then there was a series of small popping sounds. Bricks seemed to explode around me.
They were shooting at us!
Only the dim lighting kept us from getting hit. We ran as fast as we could. But they still gained on us.
Where was a sewer alligator when you needed one?
Only yards ahead of us, the channel narrowed and formed a “Y.” The river shrank to a small stream and disappeared down the passage on the right. The drainage tunnel we needed was on the left. We would have had a chance to lose the rozzers there, but they were too close behind us now. A few more bullets struck the tunnel walls.
They were going to catch us. Or kill us trying. There was no way we could outrun them much longer. The black fear threatened to take me again.
Delphine slowed. Then she grabbed my arm and dragged me into a small outlet across from the y-junction. Above us was a narrow passage with an iron ladder rising to a manhole at street level.
“They’re going to find us,” I whispered.
“Several holes,” she murmured. “Have to search them all.”
And then what? We’d still be caught. I turned off my torch, and tried not to think about how small our hiding space was.
The rozzers reached the junction. We saw their torchlight flashing on the channel walls and sparkling on the water. They shouted to each other to check all the street access outlets. We pressed together at the back of our hole, breathing as quietly as possible.
I pointed upwards in the dim light from the rozzers’ torches.
Delphine shook her head. “Can’t open,” she breathed. “Not strong enough.”
Damn.
I wasn’t going to stand there just waiting to get caught. Slowly, I slid down until my hand touched the ground. I felt around in the dirt and rubble until I touched several larger pebbles. I stood. Then edged carefully toward the opening.
Delphine tugged my harness strap. I glanced back at her. She shook her head vigorously.
“Don’t worry,” I mouthed to her.
She glared at me.
I flattened myself against the opening and peeked out at the channel. The three rozzers were inspecting the other access outlets spaced down the channel. None were looking our direction.
Blood pounded in my head so hard I thought it would explode. My fist clamped around the handful of pebbles. I drew my arm back.
I threw the pebbles as hard as I could toward the right-hand channel. They clattered against the brick on the other side. The rozzers went silent.
Quickly, I reached down and grabbed some more gravel and threw that, too.
The rozzers turned their torches our direction.
“Over here!” One rozzer yelled.
I hurtled myself to the back of the outlet, nearly smashing D
elphine. The rozzers stopped in front of our outlet, backs to us, looking across at the junction.
“I heard something over there,” the one rozzer said, motioning with his torch.
“How did they cross the river?”
“Looks narrow enough to jump.”
The third rozzer sighed. “Better check it out. Mucking through the Aldwych sewer system was not what I wanted to be doing this evening. Damn dollymops.”
One of the others muttered something I was pretty sure was obscene. Then they jumped across the stream and entered the right-hand tunnel.
When their lights dimmed enough, I turned my torch back to moon-glow. “Let’s go,” I whispered.
We crept out of the hole and into the drainage tunnel. I felt dizzy with triumph and relief. I had not really expected to outwit three angry rozzers.
Neither of us spoke the rest of the way through the tunnels and back to the cavern under the theater. The rozzers didn’t find us, but we were too scared to risk it by slowing down or talking.
When we slid down from the ventilation shaft into the storage room, though, Delphine turned on me, her eyes practically spitting fire.
“You are the most cog-headed, brainless arse!” She slammed the grate over the opening and started bolting it back in place. “We could have been arrested. Or killed!”
Just for fun, I turned my torch away from the grate so she couldn’t see what she was doing. “Yes, yes—I hate you, you hate me. Stow it—it’s so tedious.”
When she grabbed her lantern and started rifling through her bag for matches, I gave my torchlight back to her.
“What I want to know,” I continued, “is more about Nadine. Do you really think the rumor you heard is trustworthy?”
“The person who said it accurately predicted the last two murders.”
“Then why doesn’t this person go to the police?”
She threw me a disgusted look. “I know it’s hard for you, but…think about it. Why might a member of an illegal theater not want to talk to the police? Hmm.”
“But if they could help stop the Peacock…”
“It doesn’t work that way there. People have to look out for themselves first. Nobody can afford to be noble.”
Chains of Silver: a YA Theater Steampunk Novel (Alchemy Empire Book 1) Page 6