49
Ashiol had never seen the use of Delphine before this. An army of sentinels, brought into being because no one had told her it was impossible. There was no time to stop and admire her now. The sentinels were under attack from the steam angels, and there were fracture lines cracking across the sky, glowing in fierce shades of orange, red and gold.
‘Let me go,’ Garnet yelled from where he was still chained to the statue of Iustitia, surrounded by salamanders. A glowing skybolt crashed into the tiled portico behind him, and the groove it made in the ground bubbled with molten skysilver. ‘For the love of Aufleur. Let me fight.’
‘How are we supposed to know what side you would fight on?’ Poet snapped back.
Another skybolt arced over their heads and Ashiol threw animor at it, forcing it to explode before it got too close.
‘You expect us to have mercy on you, Garnet?’ he said. ‘You picked the wrong people to ask.’
The steam angels swarmed towards them. The salamanders skittered forward and burst into bright flame, which kept the angels away for a little while at least. But they circled around, darting this way and that, actively looking for a break in the salamander fire.
‘Seems it’s you they want,’ Ashiol said to Garnet.
‘All the more reason to let me go,’ Garnet replied.
It turned out as Ashiol had known it would, with him standing at the foot of the statue of Iustitia, protecting Garnet from the angels. They smelled like animor and rain, and there were other scents in there too, of familiar skin that made his head muzzy.
One of them cried out as he slashed at her — her, of course it was a woman — with his chimaera claws, and for a moment her steam blurred thin and he saw a familiar face within. No, not that. No hallucinations of lovers past, not today.
Ashiol lost focus for just long enough to enable the second angel to climb onto the statue of Iustitia, her wings of steam wrapping around Garnet’s body. Now he was the one crying out, struggling to breathe. Ashiol went to him, but the first angel held him back, surrounding him in heat and cloud. His body sagged, losing strength.
‘That’s the way, cub,’ a voice whispered in his ear. ‘Stand down.’
The angel that had Garnet was growing more solid as her hands closed around the skysilver chains that bound him to the statue. She seemed to breathe, and the chains rotted from his wrists, breaking into tiny pieces that the angel took inside herself. She was forming colours now. A long golden dress. Skin more pink than white. Razor-sharp fingernails. Short, blonde hair.
‘Tasha,’ Garnet gasped, and the angel kissed him, tipping his head back and all but swallowing him whole.
‘Hello, my cub,’ she said, and then changed in an instant to chimaera form, dark and fanged and clawed, before shaping herself into Tasha again, or something very like Tasha. ‘Look what I can do.’
‘You’re a King,’ Garnet said drowsily. ‘You finally made it. Welcome to the party.’
Ashiol wanted to fight, to shout, to insist that it wasn’t Tasha, she was dead and gone, it was a trick. But his own senses were dimming, and the air was full of the scent of lioness. Tasha. Not Tasha. Not Tasha. He could not form words.
‘We’re both Kings,’ Tasha said alluringly, her mostly solid hands stroking Garnet lovingly. ‘You don’t need Ashiol or Velody now. You have me. We can make the sacred marriage and repair what was broken long ago. We can bring the skywar back into the daylight.’
Ashiol opened his mouth to protest, because Garnet was going to doom them all, but the steam angel turned to look at him and he felt a wave of agonising heat burn through his veins. As he writhed on the ground, struggling through the pain, he heard Garnet agree, and looked up just in time to see Garnet and Tasha wrapped around each other in a kiss.
Stupid, so stupid. How could Garnet fall for the trick he himself had used on Ashiol five years ago?
It wasn’t just a kiss. It was the f*cking sacred marriage. Garnet’s animor was streaming out of him, light pouring from his mouth into the body of the angel, who was far beyond a semblance of Tasha now. She glowed white and gold, light pouring from between every sculpted feather of her wings. She pulled back from the kiss, leaving Garnet empty on the statue, and screamed with triumph.
The sky was falling in pieces — stone and sinew, bricks and pillars. Velody took shelter in the broken remains of the Basilica, and caught Crane’s sleeve as he hurried past her.
‘Where did all those sentinels come from?’ she demanded.
He glanced at her, a brief check for injury, then looked out at the whirling storm in the Forum. ‘Delphine’s idea. She figured out that it’s the skysilver that makes sentinels — and the Smith had a whole lot of spare swords. She’s brainwashed a bunch of her old friends into becoming an army.’
‘And you let her do something that crazy?’
Crane almost laughed. ‘Ever tried to stop Delphine doing something?’
She couldn’t argue with that. ‘If the creatures from the sky get hold of that many skysilver weapons, we’re doomed,’ she said desperately.
‘At least this way we can fight.’ Crane looked out again. ‘There she is.’
Delphine was a blur of light and silver in the darkness, surrounded by her new soldiers and a host of flashing blades. They were fighting creatures made of cloud and steam.
Velody felt rather than heard Ashiol scream elsewhere in the Forum.
‘Crane …’ She wanted to wish him luck, or tell him to be careful, or say something that wasn’t entirely meaningless right now, with the world coming down around them.
‘Go on,’ he said, wielding his sword again, ready to run out into the thick of it. ‘Call a sentinel if you need us. We’ve plenty to spare!’
The temple burst into stone and dust as they both ran out of its shelter into the thick of battle.
The Palazzo shook. Isangell looked with alarm at Kelpie. ‘What is happening out there?’
‘I don’t know,’ Kelpie said, then gave her a sharp look. ‘You can feel that?’
‘Of course I can feel it,’ said Isangell. She went to the window, but there was nothing there but blurred shadow against the glass. ‘I need to see out. What is happening to my city?’
‘We’re under attack, but that’s nothing new,’ said Kelpie. ‘You didn’t hear or feel anything the nox Heliora was killed,’ she added.
Isangell pressed her hands against the glass, willing herself to see beyond this cocoon Kelpie had built for them. ‘Ashiol says I am one of you now. I remember Bazeppe. As if I don’t have more important things to worry about.’
‘I think I’m supposed to give you this,’ said Kelpie, coming close. She unfolded her hand. A small, perfectly round diamond lay in the crease of her palm. ‘Ashiol didn’t send me. I wouldn’t miss out on the battle for him.’
Isangell reached out with one finger and touched the jewel. Kelpie’s hand was warm, but the diamond was very cold. ‘What is it?’
‘A tear. A seed. I don’t know. Something. When Heliora died, she wasn’t supposed to pass her gift on to Rhian. She got confused. Someone else was supposed to be our Seer — and, by the way, can I mention how much I hate that I know this without having been told? My orders fell into my head the second Rhian gave me that stone for you.’ Kelpie lifted one shoulder miserably. ‘Hate all that mystic shit. If it doesn’t involve swords, I don’t know what to do with it. There were only a few of you there when Heliora died: Delphine, Crane and you. I don’t think our Crane’s cut out to be a Seer. He can’t even work out how to fancy a demme who might like him back. And don’t get me started on that cow Delphine.’
‘I don’t want to be a Seer,’ said Isangell.
A tear. A seed. She lifted the diamond slowly, not knowing why, and held it to her lips. It tasted like metal and sadness.
Pain seared through her suddenly, pain and words and light, and she fell like a stone, gasping as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Kelpie was there, steadying her, preventing her from falling with her strong hands.
It’s about time, said a sharp female voice directly into Isangell’s head. So you’re the one who’s going to fix my mistake, are you? I suppose we could do worse.
Isangell pressed her fingers to her temples. ‘Who are you?’
You mean it’s not obvious? I’m Heliora, the Seer of the Creature Court. Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride, high and brightness. I’m not the only one in here.