by SJ Griffin
Chapter Sixteen
‘How is it?’ Lola said.
‘It’s stopped bleeding,’ Casino said, pulling his top back down. ‘It was just a scratch.’
‘Could he see you?’ Roach said.
‘Not quite. But I don’t think they’re unfamiliar with the concept,’ he said. ‘It didn’t seem half so surprised as Enforce did.’
We stopped in an anteroom after ten minutes half running, half walking, down an ever-narrowing passage that seemed to twist and turn until we had no idea which direction we were heading in. Minos consulted a map, running a finger that shook a little along the lines drawn there. Our torches were beginning to flicker as they drained the mixed vegetable oil soaked into their rags.
‘There’s a door ahead,’ he said. ‘And on the other side of that door are thousands more like the one we’ve just narrowly beaten despite generous odds.’ Minos gave Roach the cartridge for Vermina’s gun.
‘I don’t want that,’ Roach said.
‘Take it, you’re the least likely to use it,’ Minos said.
‘What about you,’ he said to me.
‘You’re kidding, right? She’s been waiting years to get rid of Minos,’ Casino said.
Minos grinned with his mouth but the rest of his face didn’t join in.
‘Casino, get to the robe room and find five robes,’ I said.
‘How do I get them back?’ he said.
‘Put one on and carry the rest,’ I said. ‘Make it look official. You know the drill.’
We watched his footprints appearing the sand as he ran to the door. It opened and closed. There was no going back.
The robes were heavy, made of velvet with fur edging around the huge hoods. I doubted that even Tourniquet would look good in one. Lola’s dragged along the floor behind her and Roach’s hung mid-calf. Casino and I looked like we were being swallowed up by ours and Minos looked like a tramp, but he always looked like that. We pulled our hoods up and looked like occult monks, corrupt and corpulent.
‘Right, we need to set up here if we can,’ Minos pointed to a room on the map, it was up the bell tower. ‘This is the rendezvous point when something goes wrong.’
‘If,’ Casino said. ‘Surely you mean if something goes wrong?’
The door opened on to a long hallway with a thick red carpet that should have been water damaged. But everything looked pristine, not period authentic but real. Windows along one side of the hallway let in a murky light. The glass was warm to the touch and the water reached two thirds of the way up. The weight of it should have broken the windows but this water, like that in the tunnels below, was very well behaved. We followed Minos along the hallway, passing grand paintings of people they didn’t bother to teach children about anymore and great vases with elaborate red and gold patterns. Behind heavy double doors at the end was a room filled with rows of coats hooks on long stands arranged in neat intervals along the room.
‘Cloakroom,’ Minos said. ‘Not being used today. It’s through the next room, an armoury as was, and then to the right.’
The armoury was enormous, and empty of everything apart from a few wall-hung tapestries depicting bloody and gruesome battles. And Latch. He was standing in the middle of the room facing the other door but when he heard us enter he turned around, almost in slow motion. He was wearing a thin cotton robe, in grey. It was threadbare in some places and torn in others. He looked better than when I’d seen him before but still not right. We had no choice but to walk around him as though we had every right to be there, but as Lola passed him he reached down and pulled her hood from her head. There was no question that he would recognise her. His face was calm and relaxed but his eyes were wild, like he was trying to crawl out of his mind. The tapestries ripped themselves from the wall and tried to wrap themselves around him but they were too unwieldy and I lost my grasp on them. It all happened so fast. Casino dropped his robe and tried to get his bag from around his body to swing at Latch but Latch was dancing out of the way like a prize fighter. Roach pointed the gun at Latch’s forehead, his hand trembling. He pulled the trigger and the gun gave an empty click as it jammed. Latch hit him in the jaw with his right fist and Roach stumbled. Then Latch cried out in something like pain, and a little confusion maybe, as he was forced to his knees. Lola was staring at him with a strange look on her face.
‘It’s too strong,’ she said as Latch struggled to his feet again.
He roared and ran toward her. Then Minos rushed at him and leapt on him in a bear hug as he burst into flames. It was hard to see what was happening in the confusion of flames and limbs, but somehow Latch caught him around the throat, even though the flames caught his robe and the cloth began to burn away. I could hear Minos choking but the fire burnt as bright as ever, consuming them both. Latch whimpered but hung on. There was no smoke but the smell, the smell was all I could think about.
Then the fire went out.
Latch fell to his knees, his clothes gone, his skin going, he was unrecognisable but he was still alive. He was making a sound like a wounded animal. He got to his feet somehow, like an unwished for miracle and staggered away. I heard a door slam behind me but I didn’t care where he had gone. Latch had thrown Minos from him. He was lying on the ground, his face turned into the red carpet and his left arm twisted behind him. One of his shoes had fallen off, it lay on its side with its laces coming undone like they always were. Lola shook her head and her tears escaped down her cheeks. I looked at her so I didn’t have to look at Mino anymore.
He was dead.
I don’t know how long we stood there. A long time. Until I picked up Minos’s bag and the map.
‘Roach and Lola. Take him to the bell tower, if anyone asks he fainted in the excitement,’ I said. ‘Casino. Find the main hall and then met them in the bell tower.’
‘What about you?’ Lola said.
‘I’ll just be a minute,’ I said. He was my best friend since before I was three and he was four. We’d been through everything together. They knew this so they did as I asked without saying a word.
Roach carried Minos away like he weighed nothing at all. I put the tapestries back on the wall to occupy my mind and stood in the middle of the room feeling useless but not much else. Lola said I’d get someone else killed but she said it would be me. I should’ve made her promise. I heard the door open and thought for a moment it might be Latch coming back but it was the other door. A man with his hood pulled up backed into the room with a cigarette in one hand and a lighter in other. He pulled the hood off and was about to light up when he saw me.
‘Hey, you are here,’ Tourniquet said. ‘What’s with you? You don’t write, you don’t call?’
‘That’s me,’ my voice sounded all wrong.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘My...’
‘What?’ he shoved the cigarette and lighter into his trouser pocket, inside his robes, and came across the room.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘It’s fine.’
‘You don’t look like it’s fine,’ he pushed my hair aside so it wasn’t hanging into my eyes.
I stepped back and he looked thoughtful. I wasn’t sure if I liked that.
‘Well, what do we have here?’ said a voice I recognised from the news.
Tourniquet turned and I saw Terminus shut the armoury door with him on the wrong side.
‘Good afternoon, Agent Tourniquet,’ Terminus said.
‘Good afternoon, Lord Protector. That is right, isn’t it?’ Tourniquet said.
‘Yes, perfect,’ Terminus said. ‘And you are?’
‘Not important,’ I said.
‘Au contraire,’ Terminus said. ‘I know who you are, forgive me, I was being disingenuous. I have heard all about you. I get a little report from my new Minister of Securities on my desk every morning with your lovely face staring out at me.’
‘Can I take this silly robe off then?’ I said.
‘Be my guest,’ Terminus said.
I shrugged it to the floor. <
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‘No respect for property, these people,’ Terminus said to Tourniquet.
‘They are very uncomfortable,’ Tourniquet said.
‘Crowns are also uncomfortable I hear,’ Terminus said. ‘I think it comes with the territory.’
‘What are you going to do with her?’ Tourniquet said as though he was asking what the weather would be like tomorrow.
‘Try her for the murders of Chichester Rhone, Tulan Haq and Latch.’
‘The Guardian is dead?’ Tourniquet said.
‘No, but he will be. He’s badly injured and his mind has gone,’ he chuckled. ‘Of course, it had gone before but it had gone where we wanted it to, now he’s raving and no use to anyone. He’s certainly no Lord Protector’s Guardian, not in that state. There’s no point in my controlling a mind like that.’
‘I’m assuming it was you lot,’ Tourniquet said to me. ‘How did you do it?’
‘Fire,’ Terminus said. ‘Is the pyromancer dead?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘Funny,’ Terminus said. ‘It is written.’
‘It is?’ I said to Tourniquet. I wouldn’t believe that, I couldn’t. ‘In one of your books?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid it is,’ Tourniquet said. ‘He’s dead, Terminus. He has to be.’
‘Excellent,’ Terminus said. ‘It’s good to know everything is going as planned. The peasants are so predictable. Even now they’re massing outside with their pathetic protest and their tiny heroes but it’s all for nothing. Your fiery little friend has died for no reason other than to turn the pages of the prophecy. Decent of him, and you, to make the sacrifice.’
The tapestries on the walls billowed as though a strong wind had blown around the room, they snapped like sails.
‘You’ll need reinforcements, Terminus,’ Tourniquet said.
‘She’s going to come quietly,’ Terminus said. ‘Because if she doesn’t I’m going to round up every single one of her remaining friends and she can watch while the Galearii tear them apart.’ He ran two fingers around the inside of his collar. It was a tight fit. ‘I’m interested to know how you two know each other though, before we go,’ his voice was a little hoarse.
Terminus’s collar tore away from his shirt as if it had been ripped off. I remembered on the ship I’d thought I couldn’t move a body, but then I found that I could. I figured that being inanimate didn’t matter so much, it was only semantics after all. Terminus didn’t notice he wasn’t touching the floor until there were a couple of inches of air beneath him. His feet fluttered, searching for the floor, but he was rising, rising up toward the wood panelled ceiling.
‘I’m keen to know more about you controlling the mind of the Guardian,’ I said.
‘Sorcha,’ Tourniquet said. ‘What are you doing?’
Terminus spluttered and stammered as he rose, he was floating lighter than air. If he’d just stopped struggling it would have felt wonderful. I was only lifting him up.
‘Because if you were controlling his mind, that would mean that you killed the pyromancer, wouldn’t it?’ I said.
‘Stop,’ Tourniquet grabbed my arm. There was something in the way he said it that caught all of my attention, just for a moment. It was long enough. Audi Terminus fell to the floor with a crack, blood pooled around his head.
‘Well,’ Tourniquet said after a moment. ‘The score’s tied.’
‘No, it’s not,’ I said. ‘I owe them another two.’ I wanted to say that it had been an accident, that I hadn’t meant it, like I hadn’t meant it before at Stadium City.
‘Follow me,’ he said. ‘We need to get you out of here.’
My brain slipped itself into neutral and I followed him as he turned left, away from the bell tower. We slipped up a narrow staircase to the second floor before we reached a throng of robed people all milling about drinking from fluted glass and talking over each other. I could hear international accents all around me, a little Oceanic, some New Canadian. It was getting hard to keep everything under control. I could feel how all the objects around me would move, just one misplaced thought and they would all go flying around our heads. A suit of armour on a wooden plinth rattled as we rushed by.
‘He’s fine, just a little nervous,’ Rowling said as we rounded a corner. She was standing up ahead looking out of a window, on a call with her back to us. Tourniquet opened a small door in the wall near where I’d come to a sudden halt and before I could say anything, he pushed me inside and shut the door. The room was small and dusty, the glass in the narrow window dark with dirt. Without that window it would have been a cupboard. I could hear Tourniquet and Rowling talking. I peered through the keyhole. Tourniquet was leaning against the wall opposite the door looking like he had all the time in the world to lounge about. Rowling was standing in profile, her posture cramped with age.
‘Is it done?’ Rowling said.
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Good, he was becoming demanding.’
‘How so?’
‘Money, mostly. Terminus never had any class.’
‘How tedious.’
‘You didn’t kill him though? We need to keep you out of anything unsavoury.’
‘Of course not, she did. My hands are clean,’ he held them up to prove it.
‘And your conscience?’
They both laughed that private joke laugh, the kind people do when they are very familiar with each other.
‘Vermina thinks they’re harmless, but then she would,’ Rowling turned to him, I could see his face over her shoulder. ‘Galen wants a new Lord Protector. You are the obvious choice, don’t you think?’
‘Well, I’m happy to step in given that time is pressing. If you don’t want the role?’
‘You know me, Tourniquet. I want the power, not the prestige. Besides I know my face doesn’t fit.’
‘Yet,’ Tourniquet said.
‘So, they’re just putting the final touches to the hall and preparing the Father then we’ll be ready to go,’ Rowling said in a loud voice, making me jump.
‘Excellent, excellent,’ Tourniquet said at a similar volume.
A robed figure walked between the door and the conspirators. They were being secretive about their plans. I could hear doors opening and closing along the corridors like someone was looking for something. Rowling and Tourniquet waited for the figure to pass but the footsteps came back towards the door.
‘Excuse me,’ a voice said. ‘Technical problem.’
‘Does everyone really have to wear a robe? It seems a bit over the top,’ Tourniquet said.
‘If they are front of house, yes,’ Rowling said. ‘It’s all about creating the right appearance. We can’t have a load of unwashed people wandering around in overalls.’
The door opened, I just had time to hide behind it so Rowling didn’t see me.
Casino pulled the robe off. ‘Is that who I think it is?’ he said under his breath with a wan smile. ‘He looks different with clothes on.’
‘Now is not the time,’ I said.
‘Put this on,’ he said and disappeared.
‘How did you know I was here?’
‘I was following you,’ he said.
I opened the door with my hood up and my head down and began to walk down the corridor.
‘Everything all right?’ Tourniquet said.
‘Yes,’ Casino said, so they would hear the voice they expected. ‘Wiring issue.’
We made our way to the bell tower through the large crowd waiting to get into the hall, there was great anticipation everywhere. Casino appeared halfway up the stairs to the tower. They’d laid Minos out on a bench. He looked like he was asleep but having a terrible nightmare from which he was desperate to wake. I could only look at him out of the corner of my eye.
‘Found her,’ Casino said.
‘Terminus is dead,’ I said.
‘What happened?’ Roach said.
‘I dropped him,’ I said and sat on the floor as my legs gave up. ‘Oh, and Age
nt Tourniquet is the new Lord Protector.’
‘I see,’ Lola said.
There was very uncomfortable silence. ‘Casino, how bad is it?’ Roach said.
‘It’s pretty bad,’ Casino said. ‘They’re not looking for us but they have closed down the perimeter so we can’t get out. This also means no one can get in so we can’t call on Mole Town.’
‘We can’t do that anyway, it’s not fair,’ I said.
Lola raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
‘I agree,’ Roach said. ‘So, we’re trapped.’
‘Yes,’ Casino said. ‘The only option we have, as far as I can tell, is to carry on with the plan and stop whatever is going to happen. Any clues Lola?’
‘The Father is in a chamber above ground, I can find it,’ Lola said. ‘Someone was thinking about taking him something to eat.’
‘Sorcha,’ Roach said. ‘What do you think?’
‘This can’t be for nothing,’ I pointed towards Minos but I still couldn’t look at him. ‘So we find the Father and get rid of him.’
‘Another one,’ Casino said. ‘We’re getting good at this.’
‘It’s all right,’ Lola said to me, reading a thought, or perhaps my face. ‘It’s all right.’
By cross referencing the impression Lola had plucked from someone’s head with the map we worked out that the Galearii’s goon could be hidden in one of three places. One was more likely than the others so we donned our robes and left Minos alone. The parliament building had been extended over time, with great enthusiasm but not much planning. The offices and studies clustered at the west end of the building were over a jumble of different levels, scattered between staircases. We knew we’d gone up more than down but beyond that we were teetering on the verge of confusion. We heard voices from a room just below us. They were speaking Galearian.
‘They’re talking about preparing the vessel,’ Roach said. ‘For the ceremony.’
He listened some more, his chin resting on top of his fingertips.
‘I’ll go and see who’s down there,’ Casino said, fading from view.
‘They’re just running through some things about the ceremony. It’s an ancient ritual and the... there isn’t a word in English, it’s like a priest but not, this person has been preparing for years and now it is all coming together. They are very excited,’ Roach said.
‘How much longer?’ said a voice.
Lola almost fell down the stairs in surprise. It sounded like Stark.
‘That must be the Father,’ Roach said.
Casino materialised. ‘It’s not him,’ he said.
‘Who?’ Roach said.
‘It’s not Stark,’ Casino said.
‘That’s a relief,’ I said.
‘It really sounds like him,’ Lola said.
‘It’s not, he’s about two hundred years old,’ Casino said. ‘I’ve never seen anyone so old.’
Just like Rowling.
‘He’s with three Galearii,’ Casino said.
‘They’re going to leave him,’ Roach said. ‘The Father is to wait alone and pray. Well, not pray but gather his thoughts. Like meditating, maybe. There’s not really a direct translation for that either.’
‘There’s another exit,’ Casino said. ‘The door they came through and this one.’
We heard a door close and crept down the rest of the stairs. An ornate throne stood in the middle of the room, its tall back to us, hiding anyone sitting in it. The rest of the room was empty. The sunlight streamed in through a dusty window.
‘Is someone there?’
Roach peered over the top of the throne. ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m very well, thank you,’ the old man said. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine, thank you,’ Roach said.
‘What are you doing?’ Lola said.
‘Oh, hello. I’m preparing for the ceremony,’ he said. ‘Are you coming?’
‘Yes,’ Casino said.
‘Anyone else back there?’
‘Only me,’ I stood in front of him.
He was tiny. His feet didn’t touch the ground. He had light grey eyes hooded by heavy lids. The lower half of his wrinkled face was caving into loose jowls. He was wearing a white robe with gold piping around the cuffs, collar and hem. He was far too old for his voice, it was as though he hadn’t used it much.
‘There are only four of you,’ he said. ‘I think everyone is expecting five. Has something happened?’
‘You could say that,’ I said.
‘I am sorry,’ he said. ‘Is that why my Protector and Guardian have disappeared?’
‘You could say that too,’ I said.
‘I see,’ the man said. ‘I suppose I should have expected that.’ He said something in Galearian. His accent wasn’t as good as Rowling’s.
‘Evil is as evil does,’ Roach said.
‘Evil?’ Casino said. ‘We’re the good guys, grandpa.’
‘I’m afraid you’re not. You are the darkness before the dawn. You are evil,’ then he pointed at me. ‘You particularly.’
‘Whatever you say,’ I said.
‘You are here to kill me, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘I would say that is evil. I have no power. I am defenceless. A defenceless old man.’
‘He’s right,’ Lola said. ‘He has no power.’
‘I am just a vessel,’ the old man said. ‘After the ceremony I will be the Father but right now I am just a defenceless old man.’
‘Keep saying that and we might believe it,’ Casino said.
‘You heard her, I have no power.’
‘It’s not about that though,’ I said. ‘It’s all about what people think you are, not what you are. You know that.’
‘Yes, you’re right. I am a symbol. And it is the symbols that are important. Maybe you should kill me.’
I wanted a glass of champagne in an elegant hotel with a woman who could look like anyone you wanted. That would clear my head. Or cloud it. I couldn’t think. I just wanted to know what Minos thought we should do.
‘I suppose you believe we can carry on like this,’ the old man said. ‘The world I mean.’
‘No, things need to change,’ Lola said. ‘Just not like this.’
Why not?’ the old man said.
‘Too much power in the hands of too few,’ I said. ‘The few who bought it.’
The old man laughed, it was too youthful and joyful for his mouth. ‘Who would have thought that when the end came it would be so long and drawn out. No one. They thought they would go out with a big bang, in the same way they thought we came in. Or that we’d destroy everything and struggle on with nothing for a few years until we succumbed to starvation, or radiation, or mass psychosis. But this? Who expected this? It’s extraordinary. Decades pass and still we limp on. And what for? Nothing.’
‘No, not for nothing,’ Roach said.
‘For friendship, for love?’ the old man laughed again. ‘These are tiny things, tiny things. Just specks. There are much more important things than those. The time has come for them now.’
‘And that’s your time, is it?’ I said. ‘What a coincidence.’
‘No,’ the old man said. ‘It is not for me to take the place of the old gods. I have angels for that.’
‘The Galearii?’ said Roach.
‘They aren’t angels,’ Lola said. ‘We’ve seen them, waiting for orders. They’re nothing.’
‘They are just the bodies. There are three minds. They change bodies as they wish but the three minds, and the three minds alone, are the Galearii.’
There were three when Doodle died and three at the warehouse. Three talking to the old man. The three are close to the end, Prophet had said. It was there all along.
He pointed to Lola’s wrist and her wristset. ‘What does that do?’ he said.
She looked confused, ‘Lots of things, sends messages, let’s me talk to people, find out information.’
‘I suppose you know about the we
b and these games and all that, the technology?’
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘Dark magic,’ the old man snorted. ‘The filth flying around in the air that no one can see. It is time for some order. Did you see that water? How they held it back?’
‘Yes,’ Casino said.
‘That is what we should use magic for, for good useful things.’
‘Where have you come from?’ Roach said.
‘And when?’ Casino said.
The old man laughed again. Looking at him I expected a cacophony of ancient lungs and blocked airways but his laugh was full of impetuous, energetic promises. ‘You think you know everything, with your clever, busy air and yet you know nothing. They’ve been here, right under your nose all along and you were too arrogant to see it.’ He paused for a moment to catch his breath. ‘No, no, not arrogant. Complacent.’
‘Well, you have some very interesting opinions,’ I said, fighting back the rise of a hot nausea in my throat. ‘And it’s been a real pleasure to meet you but we have to go and get ready for the ceremony.’
‘Then I will see you later,’ the old man closed his eyes.
We scurried back up the stairs.
‘What are we doing?’ Casino said. ‘We had him.’
‘Don’t ask me,’ I said. ‘She did it.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Lola said. ‘But I need to tell you something important.’
Lola had placed in my mind the very strong inclination to say certain things and walk up the stairs.
‘It had better be good,’ I said.
‘That old man is not sure about all this at all,’ Lola said. ‘He’s worried about the ceremony. He thinks they are lying to him and mean to kill him as some kind of sacrifice. His memories don’t start very long ago, that worries him. He is a bundle of anxiety.’
We all looked at her waiting for the punch line.
‘And?’ Casino said.
‘And? He’s just an old man. Like he said,’ Lola said. ‘Could we turn him, make him a double agent?’
‘Now is not the time for doubts,’ I said. ‘If we could turn everyone, then it would work.’
‘Says you,’ she glared at me. ‘You’ve got doubts.’
‘You’re supposed to be able to switch it on and off,’ I said. ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t trample through my head whenever you felt like it.’
‘Mine either,’ Casino said.
‘I don’t need to, it’s written all over your face,’ Lola said. ‘I’m not having doubts. It’s the only way I’ll get Stark back. Isn’t it?’
Roach held his hands up to plead for calm. We heard the door downstairs open. The Galearii were back. I had to act fast.
‘Hey,’ I shouted. ‘We’re up here.’
They looked at me in shock for a moment then Roach bundled me to the floor and Casino got his hand over my mouth. I could feel Lola rummaging around on the edge of my thoughts but I wasn’t going to let her in. I wriggled free of Casino’s hand. The three of them were getting in each other’s way, unwilling to inflict the pain that would shut me up. I took full advantage.
‘Hey, we’re up here!’
The Galearii ran up the stairs as I heard more footsteps running into the room below. They dragged Roach and Casino off me and pulled me to my feet.
‘Hello,’ I dusted myself down. ‘I’m here. Sorry to have kept you.’
Close up, the Galearii were beautiful, but only in the most objective sense. There was nothing desirable about them, their beauty didn’t take your heart anywhere, only your head. They looked as though they had been designed by a masterful eye, as well proportioned as an anatomical diagram. They had almost black eyes that you could see the room, yourself even, reflected in. And then there was the hair. It looked like the spun gold of fairytales. One had his, or maybe her, fingers around my arms in a very firm grip as we were hauled down the stairs. I could hear Roach struggling and more Galearii were running up the stairs to help. The one holding me said something in Galearian. I looked at Roach for a translation, but he was looking at the floor. The old man obliged.
‘Galen says your timing is impeccable,’ he said.
‘This is not Galen,’ I said. It was another ordinary one.
‘No. His mind is here,’ the old man said. ‘It’s everywhere the other two are not.’
The Galearii said something else and bowed.
‘You are to watch the ceremony, of course,’ the old man said. ‘Then...’
‘Then what?’ Casino said.
‘Then we die,’ Roach shot me a look that wished me a million miseries. ‘Well, some of us do.’
‘No,’ Lola shook her head. ‘This isn’t right. It can’t be.’
My Galearii guard let me walk a little in front of him, I was the model of co-operation, but the others were not so well behaved. Nine Galearii had to pull and push Roach to get him to move anywhere. Casino only needed two of them but they didn’t let go of his arms, he tried disappearing but they clung on to him and he couldn’t go anywhere. Lola had given up, one Galearii pulled her behind like a broken toy. We were all cuffed with the thin plastic ties that Enforce used during mass arrests. They had to be cut off because they were too sharp for fingers to grip and pull open.
Rowling and Tourniquet were waiting for us in a room deep in the twisted bowels of the building. It should have been underwater but instead the broad flagstones on the ground were smooth and dry.
‘Hello,’ I said.
Tourniquet saluted with three fingers to his temple and Rowling leant back in her chair like a big city tycoon pondering profit margins.
‘I wondered when you’d turn up,’ she said.
‘Here I am,’ I said.
‘You brought friends,’ she said. ‘How kind. If you hold on for a second your friends can play with my friends.’
‘Do you have paddling pool? Or a sand pit?’ I said.
‘It’s a soundproofed room with a heavy lock but I think they’ll still have fun,’ she said.
I rubbed my wrists as the ties binding them fell to the floor. ‘They were a bit tight,’ I said. There was a thin line of blood on the inside of my wrist.
The Galearii stepped forward with some more cuffs but Rowling waved him away. ‘They won’t hold her,’ she said, then looked at me. ‘Why don’t you undo the others? Not on the best of terms anymore?’
‘Maybe later,’ I said.
‘It is written that your powers increase the closer to the Father you get,’ Tourniquet said. ‘All of your powers.’
‘There are a lot of things written,’ I said.
‘Yes,’ Rowling said. ‘In important books too, not scrappy little comics and tatty flyers.’
‘I bet you don’t spray things on walls either,’ I said.
There was a change in the atmosphere, our guards seemed to stand up straighter somehow. Even Tourniquet stopped slouching against the desk.
‘Welcome,’ Rowling stood up.
Three Galearii walked between us. These were the three. They had a power, a charisma that the others lacked. They were lit from within by it. One said something to Rowling.
‘Of course,’ she said. ‘This is Galen, Gama and Galipolan. The three.’
‘Hello,’ I said, somehow I could tell them apart. They were each different. ‘We’re the five.’
‘Four,’ Lola said, spitting the word at me.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Maths never was my strong point.’
‘That’s not maths,’ Tourniquet said, as though making a very important and wise point. ‘It’s arithmetic.’
Galen spoke at length, Rowling nodded once or twice and at one point Roach made a sudden gesture and ended up under a pile of Galearii for his trouble. I waited for a translation.
‘You will attend the ceremony, of course,’ Rowling said. ‘It will be good for your followers to see you here with us, joining in the celebrations. Then when they realise it was you that killed, let’s see it’s quite a list now isn’t it? Whe
n they realise that you killed Rhone, Haq and Terminus to smooth the way for us, they won’t be very pleased. But when you’re executed for those crimes they’ll appreciate what we’ve done for them, we’ll make sure of that. The Vanguard will be dismissed as the fairytale it always was. You will be forgotten about. Not even a footnote in history.’
Casino tried to disappear again and had about as much success as Roach had trying to get out from under his escort. Lola let out a sound halfway between a sob and a derisive snort.
‘We’re getting a pretty rough deal there,’ I kept my voice even and amiable.
Gama spoke then.
‘Not you,’ Rowling said. ‘We’re going to keep you.’
I hit the ground as though someone had hit me hard on the side of my head, but no one had touched me. It was Lola. She ripped into my mind with such force that the room tilted and whirled, roaring at me. She didn’t get anything because I blacked out. Her fury was too much.