Cadence of truth, p.63
Cadence of Truth, page 63
“Is that why you’re so sad, Granny?” Kite yells back. “Because the world doesn’t like you? I told you already… that little girl is dead.”
Glenda punches Asha so hard she topples backwards over Michael’s marble hair, squawking until she lands in the water. Kite follows her over the edge with a roar.
When Asha surfaces, I yell, “We love Kite,” and send her many fingers.
Kite blows me a kiss then turns back to Asha, unfolding his wings. “I hope you took my advice about your underwear.”
Something sparkles in Kite’s feathers, and Asha’s mouth falls open. “Thief,” she spits.
“Just a trinket to remember my dear granny,” Kite says.
Asha screams, clawing at her own head, ripping at her hair. Lucifer emerges from the water behind her, slapping his cuffs on her wrists. TRAITOR etches itself into her forehead as Lucifer sentences her, her screams getting louder. TRAITOR is replaced with ETERNAL BANISHMENT. The writing’s a bit small; Asha could do with a bigger forehead. Her eyes go dead like she’s not there anymore, and Lucifer drags her through the water like she’s a badly dressed surfboard.
“Only one despotic fuckpie left,” Kite calls out, flying more gracefully indoors than Michael does despite the newness of his wings. Then he looks at Albert and Oskar. “God, you look so alike.” Then Zach arrives, and Kite shakes his head. “Clone weirdos.”
Outside, the battle rages. Cascade’s forces are sandwiched between the demons spewing from the river and a horde of advancing vampires. Wounds write themselves into demon skin as Jaz’s arms multiply, moving delicately like she’s performing a dance. Jet’s flashing hands distract the demons enough for my dad to slice through them with the triblade as they scramble in confusion. Amethyst’s knife-throwing hand is a blur as yellow robes drop beneath the flickering tongues of her shadows.
Leia is bound to need another top-up by now, but I can’t find Archer to send him back to the château. I didn’t see him when Kite and I swam through the atrium after Zach left with Albert and Oskar, and he’s not on the riverbank, forcing the vampires back with the others.
Kite and I run, distracted by the sound of howling in the thickening trees. We share a look then veer towards the sound. Vaewolves growl and snarl at one another, most yet to shift, some already on all fours. Some wear the dark blue robes of the Isangrim elders, others wear grey, and those crouched close to the ground ready to pounce wear nothing at all.
Kite and I hide behind a tree.
“It’s the elders,” I whisper.
“The one on the left is Conall,” he says.
Speeding bodies hurl themselves forward, colliding and snapping. It’s impossible to get a clear shot, and there’s no way to get in there without being mauled. When they all back away from one another, grunting and wheezing through their injuries, two empty grey robes are left behind in the blood. One of the elders digs his heels into the snow, attempting to get to his feet while two vaewolves in grey drag him backwards.
“You dishonour your order,” he bellows. It’s Soren, clutching his leg and hissing through his teeth. “You dishonour your robes.”
The blue robes come off. The grey robes come off. Bones crack, bodies stretch and shift, and hair sprouts.
We won’t get a better chance than this. I nod at Kite. I shoot seven. Four disappear, then a fifth. I try to see if the other two will drop but my view is obscured.
A light hiss like the stretch of dead elastic on old socks tickles my ear, readjusting my focus to the fuzzy object in my way. A vaewolf is charging at me. I fly straight up to avoid the wolf, but it jumps, its huge paws reaching for me. It howls when I shoot its ear. I kick it in the face, then shoot again. It disappears before it hits the ground.
I’m winded when something huge thuds into my back. I hit the ground, my face in the snow. My back and left leg are numb. My first thought is kernyx, but I can’t hear chittering. I can only hear howls, low and mournful, and screaming, angry growls. Human despair from within a wolf.
Something clamps around my leg, dragging me backwards. Kite shouts, then the ground around me shakes, and the grip on my leg loosens. Then it’s gone altogether, but I can’t get up. I’ve lost my guns somewhere, but I’m still wearing my quillarms.
Something huge and growling covers me, its furred feet brushing my hands. More snarling and gnashing plays out above me. Something tumbles over my body.
Show me, I whisper.
The plague shows me my still body beneath a vaewolf protecting me from three others. One is circling behind my protector. I turn my head a little, coughing into the frigid air. Above me, hot vaewolf breath puffs into my hair as it crouches low, ready to pounce. A shot comes from nowhere. The wolf behind me falls away to nothing. Another shot rings out as the three remaining vaewolves pounce at one another. I still can’t move.
Bones crack. A vaewolf whines and howls. Another shot rings out. A thunk sounds, followed by a pained howl and two heavy thuds. The last two vaewolves lie on their sides, one with obviously broken bones. The two front legs are sticking out the wrong way and are spurting blood. The other wolf has been shot in what I assume is its shoulder and has an axe sticking out of its thigh. My stomach knots itself and my throat burns, because I know that wolf.
Then Kite is above me. She shoots the vaewolf with the broken bones. With Kite’s help, I manage to sit. Then Seth is screaming, and fear shudders through me, thick and burning.
“Boxer,” he yells, skidding to his knees beside me.
Not beside me.
“He was protecting Violet,” Kite says. “I was caught up in the fight back there.”
“He’s been shot with one of our bullets.” Seth’s voice is dull. “How did this happen?”
“I’m so sorry.” Kite’s eyes spill over, and I realise I’ve never seen him cry before. “They all moved so fast.”
Seth frowns. “It… it just glanced off him, so… why did he pass out?”
“Seth.” My throat feels like it’s filled with gravel. “He’s got an axe in his leg.”
“Oh, thank fuck for that.” He jiggles the axe embedded in Boxer’s thigh, and the hair on Boxer’s body starts receding.
“Grab one of those robes, Kite,” I say. “I’m about to see way more of Boxer than I want.”
Seth grins. “Best turn away now. He’ll ruin you for other men.”
I snort but turn away anyway. “It’s only you who goes wild for that much hair on a man. Not that Amethyst would cry if Noah suddenly sprouted fur.”
“Buggering hell,” Kite mutters, when he returns with the robe, dropping it onto Seth’s head.
Seth sniggers. “I’m taking him back to Uriel’s. You should both go back. Almost everyone else has. Outside is clear, and a few have gone in to check the building’s empty.”
“Who?” I ask.
“Archer, Albert, Reno, Elvis and Frank.”
“Albert came back?”
“He’s in good hands,” Seth says.
“Here.” Kite hands me my guns. “Found these by that tree. Might want to check they’re properly calibrated. This one looks a bit mangled.”
I tuck them in the magic bum bag with a murmur of thanks.
“Can you stand?” Kite asks.
I hold my hand up, and he hauls me to my feet. I hiss as pain shoots through my left ankle. “I think I twisted my ankle or something.”
A shriek comes from the woods, and we turn to find a demon thrashing from side to side. Before either of us can raise a gun, Rowie climbs out of the demon and its skin collapses to the forest floor. “Can I get a ride back?” Even though one of her cheeks is peeling and she’s covered in gore, her face looks so innocent as she scuttles out of the darkness.
“How do we know it’s really you?” I shout.
“Honestly, if this wasn’t the only bus out of here, I’d rather sit in the piss and blood until someone less annoying gets here.”
I laugh. “Come on, then.”
My ankle gives way when I turn to face her fully, and a horrible noise pours out of my face. Before Kite even turns to look at me, Rowie’s shoulder is under my armpit, her arm around my back.
“You alright?” she asks.
“Yeah, just wondering if I’m in an alternate universe.”
She snorts, then Kite grabs us both and we follow Seth and Boxer back to the château.
The château is dense with bodies, riotous in all but sound, all mutinous glares and silent dances of avoidance. It smells worse than a zoo even above the antiseptic. The hall is full of chairs, and haggard people sitting in chairs, and haggard people wandering between chairs like lost ghosts.
The dining room is worse. To make way for the beds lined up hospital ward style along the wall, the excessively long table is lying on its side on the lawn outside the front door, like a giant stray dog that’s been thrown out of the house for snouting around the kitchen. Milo, Glenda, and many, many nuns are charging around with stacks of towels and bowls of water and buckets of I don’t wanna know.
The eyes and ears of the plague are different here. It’s like the château is too bright, so the plague is muting the colours until only the fuzziness of vibrant auras remain, like refracted rainbow light through foggy glass. And it’s too noisy, so it muffles the sound until it’s all nuance and intonation, so every suspicion and shadow and implication sounds like a foghorn among the desperate murmurings and panicked pleas. It’s unsettling, setting my teeth and stomach on edge. The riot would’ve been unwelcome even if I didn’t feel like Amos Blackmore just ran over my ankle with one of his tractors.
Lucifer is stalking Glenda.
“Get on with you,” she barks. “It’s just a bloody flesh wound.”
Dr Gantry’s blonde head pops up from beside one of the beds. “Keep it down, please.”
“Sorry,” Glenda whispers.
Then she sees me, relief dawning on her face. She tries to readjust the pile of towels in her arms, so she can wave, but she winces and grips the top of her arm, dropping her towels.
Lucifer puts the spilled towels on the nearest bed, chasing Glenda when she hurries from the room. Did she get shot? I didn’t see what happened after she threw her mother off the balcony in the atrium.
I look around at the beds. All full. I only need a chair and some painkillers, and I’ll be fine. My ankle throbs, sending bile up my throat and wave after wave of nausea into my stomach. I don’t want to puke. I just want to get fixed and get back out there.
I need this to end.
Leia looks exhausted, all pink and sweaty, her blonde hair fluffing up around her face, where it’s freed itself from her plaits. Relief fills her eyes at the sight of me.
She hurries over and hugs me. “Is Archer back yet?”
I shake my head. “Seth said he’s securing the building or something. Don’t panic. He’s not on his own. Albert’s there, and a few others.”
She looks me over. “You broke your ankle.”
“Technically, a vaewolf broke my ankle.”
She pushes me onto a bench and carefully pulls my boot off. I make a horrible noise.
She winces, then rolls my trouser leg up. “You’ve got some kind of scabby pus growing on your leg.”
“Awesome,” I mumble.
“Bite or scratch?”
“Just a scratch, I think.”
“It’s not as bad as last time.”
She calls Milo over, and they mumble at each other. He goes off to get whatever pills Leia told him I need while she fixes my ankle by setting my whole leg on invisible fire.
I bite down on the wrist of my glove, which is a mistake considering how many times my fist has been inside a demon tonight. At least I didn’t say that out loud.
“Can you do anything about the bacteria I just ate?” I ask sheepishly.
She smothers her hands in some kind of menthol grease and coats the scratch on my calf. “You’re fine. Your immune system is a tank.”
It feels like she plunged my leg into a bucket of ice, but she keeps at it, kneading me like I’m bread. When Milo comes back, he hands me pills and a glass of water. I really don’t care what they are. I’m going to eat them and feel better.
“There’s a bed free in the green room,” Milo says. “You should rest up for a bit.”
Some of the beds clear when those who’ve already been treated are teleported to other rooms. Leia says there are eighty beds filled with people in recovery on top of however many they managed to cram into the dining room. When I look up at her again, Leia’s puffy pink face is almost white.
“I’ll go in a minute,” I tell Milo, just as a new bunch of shuffling and commotion arrives in the hall. When Milo excuses himself, I lower my voice so only Leia can hear. “Do you need another top-up?”
She shakes her head. “I’ll wait for Archer.”
“It could be ages.”
“No, there’s Albert now. And Zach. And—”
Zach is carrying a huge person into the room. Around them, people gasp at the sight of the injuries. Leia lets out a strangled sound when his head lolls to the side.
It’s not Archer.
She washes her hands, points to a nearby bed, then gets to work on Reno, whose body is missing a whole heap of flesh from its side.
“What happened?” I ask when Albert drops onto the bench beside me.
“It was a weapon we’ve never seen before. Zach thinks it was forged by angels.”
“There were still people at the library, then?”
Albert nods. “Not many. Everyone left behind showed up on Elvis’ tracker, so it was easy to pick them off.”
“So, everyone’s back now?”
“Frank was right behind us,” he says. “Archer said he’d bring Elvis back.”
“Leia needs blood,” I whisper. “She won’t take mine.”
He puts his arm around me and kisses my forehead. “He won’t be long.”
Will Gantry raises his head when Seth and Boxer start arguing. Even when they lower their voices at his stern look I can hear what they’re saying.
“You can’t go. You’ve got an axe wound in your leg.”
Boxer folds his arms and glares. “I’m going.”
“Thank you for protecting Violet, but you’ve done your bit. I doubt anything else will happen tonight. Get some rest while you can.”
Boxer’s eyes narrow. “So you can all sneak off without me once I’m asleep? I don’t think so.”
Seth rests his head on Boxer’s shoulder. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I don’t want to sit here waiting for news about you, so you’ll have to, uh… suck it up.”
Seth lets out a gentle puff of laughter. “Side by side, then?”
Boxer grins with all his teeth. “Side by side only because you’ll have a better chance of keeping up with me now I have an injured leg.”
Seth huffs, then Boxer shuts him up with a kiss before he can object to being called slow. They both disappear.
And it’s lucky they do because I’m sure Seth would lose both eyebrows to gravity if he could see Ben and Ezra right now. It’s not unusual to see Ezra dressed from head to toe in black, but Ben never wears black, and with no other differences between them, the only way to identify Ben now is by how uncomfortable he looks in such restrictive clothing.
“What are you wearing?” I ask, even though it’s completely obvious what they’re wearing.
Ezra arches an eyebrow. “This would be a uniform. It’s a bit like what you’ve got on. Only cleaner.”
“Has Magnus seen you?”
Ezra doesn’t answer, distracted by the sight of Leia tending to Reno.
Ben says, “Yeah. We’re… the distraction.”
“Why does that word sound like bait?” I ask.
Before anyone can answer, Milo points at me. “You. Green room. Now.”
Albert helps me into the green room, even though my ankle feels fine now. I glance quickly around the room, seeking familiar faces among the injured, but only find Arlo, who’s trying to recover.
Arlo waves me over. Up close, his face is as green as his hair. “I need them to move me.”
“Too noisy?”
He nods. “I’ve been grounded, or I’d move myself. Well, house-bounded like a bloody criminal.”
“I’ll get someone,” Albert says, leaving me with Arlo.
“They’re grounding us?” I ask.
“For our own good apparently.”
“Do you want me to leave you alone?” I ask.
“No. At least all you do is talk. Better than the extraneous noises and thoughts and whatnot.” He screws his nose up, making him look like War. “Sorry, that didn’t sound very complimentary, did it?”
“Not really, no.” I smile anyway. “Do you know how Silas is doing?”
“He’s better. Leia… God, I don’t know what we’d do without her.”
“She doesn’t seem to have done a good job with you,” I say. “You look like you’re gonna hurl.”
“It’s the combination of noise and painkillers. Feels like I’m on a waltzer.”
I grin when I spot Daniel behind Albert, and blurt out, “Dad.”
He hugs me. “Feeling alright?”
I nod. “Bit tired, but Leia’s fixed everything up. I haven’t seen Amethyst since I got back.”
“She’s fine. Upstairs talking to Shanti. You didn’t let Leia fix your eyes?”
“I see better with the plague, that’s all,” I say. “Arlo needs to be moved to a room on his own. He can’t get better with all this noise.”
Daniel nods while Arlo shuffles himself out of bed. “I’ll get him upstairs, but you stay put. Lucifer will be in to see you in a minute.”
Daniel’s hand hovers above Arlo’s arm while he waits for his nod, then they disappear.
“Are Archer and Elvis back yet?” I ask Albert.
He gives me a cautious look, then sighs. “No.”
“Does anyone actually know they’re missing?” I ask. “Where is everyone who’s not injured? If they’re not at the library helping clear it, where the hell are they?”
