28
Some of the crowd had fled when the battle began between the Creature Court. Others still watched, as if they thought it was some kind of organised spectacle. They ate chestnuts, or drank bean syrup from paper boats.
Velody, bruised and battered from her fight with Garnet, found herself held down by Warlord and Lennoc, each of them pouring all of the animor they had into keeping of her arms pinned to the floor of the pavilion.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded hoarsely. ‘This isn’t right. Did you know he meant to do this when you pledged your loyalty to him?’
‘That’s how loyalty works,’ said Lennoc. He could barely see after what she had done to him in the fight, but his hands were still strong and steady. ‘We serve Garnet, whatever he chooses to do. He is our Power and Majesty.’
‘I could tear you to pieces,’ she said.
She could, even with their power so directed in keeping her down. She could go chimaera. She could make their animor burst out of their bodies. She was a King and they were Lords.
‘If you were willing to hurt us, you would have done it by now,’ said Warlord in that rich voice of his. ‘You are weak.’
Velody could feel her animor uncurl within her body. It was desperate to hurt, slash, kill, to be free. It was all she could do to contain it. Maybe she should just let it go. That was what Ashiol would do. She had done it before, allowed the animor to make the decisions for her.
She had pledged never to be like Ashiol; and besides, he was a coward and he wasn’t here.
Somewhere, Livilla screamed. Velody knew it was Livilla: she could feel the wolf-animor in the pain and outrage of the cry. The crowd was protesting now, muttering amongst themselves. The Sea-father’s script was no longer familiar to them.
Garnet rose slowly above the lake pavilion, glowing bright like a Lord. The blue hood of his costume had fallen back and his beard had slipped away into the waters of the lake. He held Livilla by the throat, the skysilver blade gleaming as he threatened her with it.
‘What, such distress?’ he roared at them all. ‘I thought you people were used to sacrifices. You love to cut the entrails out of sheep and deer and poor little birdies. The blood runs thick across the floor of this f*cking city. How is this any different?’
‘He’s going to kill her,’ Velody whispered. There was nothing teasing about Garnet’s stance, or the hold he had on Livilla. ‘I thought you loved her,’ she hissed at Warlord. ‘How can you let him do this to her?’
Warlord’s grip on Velody loosened, his animor fluctuating a little. ‘Garnet loves her. He’s just trying to scare her into joining us.’
‘Because Garnet has been so kind in the past to those he loves!’
Garnet had loved Ashiol so much he’d almost killed him. Velody could see that memory in Warlord’s eyes.
‘He will kill her,’ she repeated.
‘She betrayed him,’ Warlord said, but she felt another waver in his animor.
‘He took her courtesa, threatened to sacrifice her to the sky. He set Livilla up to betray him. She can’t change sides with no air to breathe, even if she wants to.’
Velody sent one sharp pulse of animor stabbing out at Warlord, testing his grip, and then at Lennoc. ‘Get the hells off me. No one has to die this nox.’
Garnet laughed from far above them, a long and melodious sound. ‘Do you think I can’t hear you, little mouse? You’re so very wrong. Someone does have to die. It’s part of the deal.’
What deal? she sent silently at him, but he didn’t reply.
‘What deal?’ she demanded of Warlord and Lennoc. Both of them shook their heads, not willing to speak.
‘He’s our Power and Majesty,’ said Warlord.
‘He’s a f*cking lunatic,’ declared Velody.
‘The two concepts are not exclusive.’
Lennoc snorted. ‘We’re all f*cking lunatics,’ he observed. ‘But we swore an oath to him. We can’t go back on that.’
‘You swore an oath to me,’ she said furiously. ‘You wanted to change the Creature Court. Did you really want this?’
Delphine and Crane hurried over, half-carrying a young demme between them.
‘Topaz says she was never the sacrifice,’ blurted Delphine.
Crane had wrapped his cloak around Topaz but she shook it off impatiently. ‘It was always Lady Livilla he wanted,’ she gasped out. ‘Please — my animor — it’s my job to protect her! You have to give it back.’
‘If the sentinels gave you their blood, there’s nothing else we can do,’ said Velody.
‘The sentinels were supposed to give her blood,’ said Warlord. ‘Getting the salamander out of the equation was Garnet’s first thought.’
Saints, Velody had been so busy trying to find Garnet, she had forgotten to try thinking like him. He really was this crazy. She freed herself from Lennoc and Warword with a single burst of power, and took to the sky, flying towards Garnet and Livilla.
Stay back, little mouse, or I’ll burst her head open, Garnet threatened.
I don’t believe you. It’s trick after trick. You want something from me, or you wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.
It’s not always about you, Velody. This city is on the edge of falling into the sky and I’m the only one who can save it.
Talk to me. I can help you. We should be working together.
No. Look at them. They were following me until you turned up, batting your pretty grey eyes and making them distrust me all over again. I’m the only one who knows how to save us.
How? How do you know?
Livilla struggled out of his grip just enough to speak. ‘He made a deal with them,’ she snarled. ‘Isn’t it obvious? He made a deal with the dust devils.’
Velody didn’t know what to believe. ‘Is this true?’ she asked Garnet.
He laughed again. ‘Your little Seer friend isn’t the only who hears voices in her head. I know the truth. I have always known. They tell me what we have to do to save the city, and it’s hard, and there will be sacrifices. Real blood-draining, bodies-falling sacrifices. But we will be free.’
‘How many sacrifices will they ask for before it’s not worth it any more?’ Velody demanded.
Garnet smiled. ‘It’s always worth it.’ He looked past Velody, past all of them, to a lone figure at the edge of the lake. ‘Listen to her, if you won’t listen to me.’
Rhian stood there wrapped in a heavy green shawl, looking sad. ‘Bazeppe will fall before the Ides of Saturnalis, and Aufleur will follow,’ she said.
‘No!’ Delphine yelled at her. ‘That’s just one of your stupid futures — it doesn’t mean anything.’
‘What do we do to change it?’ Velody asked.
‘We can’t change it,’ Rhian said in an awful voice devoid of emotion. ‘That is the future; it’s all the futures.’
‘But there must be something we can do.’
‘Something I can do,’ said Garnet sweetly. ‘Ashiol’s gone, and you walked away, Velody. I’m the one who’s going to save us from our fate. Starting with the first sacrifice.’
He released Livilla, letting her hover for a moment in the air, and slashed at her with the sword faster than she could move.
There were screams. Velody felt numb as the blood arced through the air.
Livilla looked startled, a line of red across the front of her throat. Then she fell, her body crumpling as it hit the lake.
‘So much prettier when she’s silent,’ said Garnet with some satisfaction.
Animor washed over them all, thick and rich and real. It tasted like wolf and perfumed smoke, and Velody was giddy with the power of it before she remembered to be sickened. Saints, he had done it. Sacrificed one more thing that he loved. How long had he been listening to the voices from the sky?
Light poured from the lake in a bright burst, turning the sky blue with its intensity before the nox closed in once more. Livilla had been powerful, and the taste of her lingered in the air.
Warlord lay on the pavilion, his head down and his body very still, grieving even as he quenched the lost Lord. Velody could see the strands of power that he dragged into himself, as if wanting to keep as much of Livilla as he could.
They were all quenching her, and there was so damned much of it. How had Livilla not become a King?
Garnet’s laughter fell over them all, and he took off across the sky with trails of Livilla’s animor dragged in his wake.
Velody couldn’t breathe for a moment. She didn’t know what to feel. She watched Macready wade across the lake to reclaim his sword, and she was still numb.
Macready called to Kelpie and Crane and the three of them ducked under the water, searching. Macready came up with a string of pearls, finally, but no body.
‘There’s nothing to bury,’ he said flatly. ‘The lake has taken her.’
Velody still felt nothing.
Topaz started to scream. She was a small figure, sodden and wrapped in Delphine’s cloak, and she had no power and presence in this sad scene, muffled as she was by sentinel’s blood. Still, she screamed. Poet was by her side, and Delphine, but Topaz shook them both away from her.
‘You, this is your fault,’ she sobbed at Poet. ‘You let him do this. You were supposed to protect us!’
Poet looked at her, seeming dazed, and she smacked him on the shoulder, in the stomach, crying so hard she could hardly breathe.
Delphine tried to touch the child, who slapped her hand and bared her teeth. ‘Don’t touch me. None of you. You think you’re so special! Not one of you is any use that I can see. What do you do but rip at each other and show off all the time? I hate you all!’
She ran away into the darkness, and was gone.
Velody walked into her kitchen. The sentinels trailed after her, squelching in their wet clothes. Only Rhian was dry.
‘That little demme was right,’ Velody said. ‘We’re useless. We can’t even protect …’ She pressed her hands to her mouth, not sure if she was going to throw up.
‘None of us liked Livilla,’ Macready said gruffly. Kelpie elbowed him. ‘What? Afraid of the truth? She annoyed the hell out of all of us. You especially. She was a crazy bitch who didn’t give a damn about any of us —’
‘Shut up,’ snapped Delphine. ‘Just shut up. Is that how you’ll talk about me when I’m dead?’
‘I’m sure I could think of a few more original words.’
‘No one else is going to die,’ said Velody.
Macready laughed unpleasantly. ‘Do you not listen to our Seer? We’re all dying. Bazeppe first; and when the clockmakers have vanished off the face of the earth, it’s our turn.’
‘Why don’t you just have a drink?’ Delphine said sweetly. ‘Make it all go away.’
‘Oh, you’re a fine one to judge,’ Macready said, his voice rising. ‘A real expert on making the pain go away, aren’t you, lass?’ He leaned in towards her, his face hard. ‘I can still smell him on you,’ he hissed.
Delphine looked as if he’d hit her. ‘I’m not the one who went looking elsewhere,’ she replied.
Velody didn’t have time for this, for any of it. She didn’t care about the stricken expression on Delphine’s face, and she really didn’t want to know why Crane looked like he’d been caught stealing from the poor box, or why Rhian was refusing to look at anyone. She could feel their emotions, all of them, prickly and savage, beating against her skin, and she wanted none of it. She stretched her back, and was so tired that her body protested even that movement. More than anything, she wanted to break into a thousand pieces, run away from this rabble of sentinels and sleep the calm, unhurried sleep of a heap of mice. But there was work to do. Always work to do.
‘I’m going to Bazeppe,’ she said. They didn’t hear her at first, so she raised her voice. ‘I said, I’m going to Bazeppe. I’m going to find Ashiol and bring him home. And … if we save that city, then that future is broken and Aufleur will be safe.’
‘No,’ said Macready, turning away from Delphine, returning to thoughts of duty. ‘It doesn’t work that way, lass. You’re needed here.’
‘To stand by and watch as Garnet murders the Court, one by one?’ Velody asked. ‘I don’t think so. We need Ashiol.’
‘What the hells do you think he can do that you can’t?’ Macready asked, his voice cracking. ‘He abandoned us. He walked away from all this —’
‘We all walked away,’ Velody snapped at him. ‘We all gave up. I can’t fight Garnet without Ash.’
‘Ashiol doesn’t want to fight Garnet.’ Kelpie spoke up from the doorway, breaking her usual stony silence. ‘He doesn’t think he can.’
‘Well, he’s better than that,’ Velody declared. ‘We can do anything, we can survive this, we only need something to believe in. Something bigger than our own petty concerns. If you can’t believe in me, then … I’ll create something you can believe in. For that, I need Ashiol.’
Garnet had given her the answer. He had worked so damned hard to keep her and Ashiol apart.
‘The sacred marriage,’ said Crane, and his eyes met Velody’s. Her heart turned over a little at the tone in his voice — as if he was working so hard not to be hurt.
‘Perhaps,’ she said. ‘I don’t know. But I have to try. If Ashiol and I working together frightens Garnet so much, we have to try.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Kelpie said unexpectedly. ‘If you want me to.’
Velody was not surprised. If there was a musette melodrama breaking out between Macready and Delphine, Delphine and Crane, Macready and Rhian, then Bazeppe was looking like a pretty fine option.
‘Thank you,’ she said to Kelpie. ‘I would be glad to have you.’