“Physically,” Holly answered. “But I think everyone’s had quite enough.” She toed the old bit of advertising board on the floor. “We’re setting up camp here, are we?”
“Yeah,” Pax said. “We’ve got food, blankets, come see.”
Pax waited at the lip of the escalator as they filed past her, each giving her tired smiles. She couldn’t help smiling back. Letty hovered up to her as Pax said, “We made it through another day, huh?”
“Yeah,” Letty said. “And these pillocks set the woods on fire. Ministry almost had them. What the fuck are you wearing?”
Pax gave the clothes another look as Grace passed. New jeans (too tight), tennis shoes (too light), and a long-sleeved top (striped white and blue). Was it that bad?
“You look like a catalogue model for sad single mums,” Letty confirmed. “Revelling in mediocrity.”
“I think it’s good,” Grace whispered, in an uncertain voice that hinted the opposite. She hesitated in front of Pax, worried eyes wanting for something, and Pax gave her another smile. Awkward this time. The teenager jumped forward and hugged her. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”
Pax seized up, looking at Letty over the girl’s shoulder. The fairy smirked at her discomfort. Grace let go and quickly continued down the stairs.
“Are you okay?” Letty said. She’d last seen Pax keeling over outside the burnt house, hadn’t she? As Pax struggled for how best to explain, Barton’s booming voice saved her the trouble.
“We have to share breathing space with him?”
Casaria replied with something Pax didn’t catch. She gave Letty a shrug and raced down the steps to intervene. The Bartons had bunched at the bottom of the escalator, blocking her way.
“Alright, he’s with us now!” Pax insisted, pushing through. “Come over – sit down.”
Casaria leered as he leaned against a pillar, seeming to enjoy the concern on the Bartons’ faces. He looked sinister, between the light of Rolarn’s lantern and the unnatural luminescence of the jar of glo Pax had retrieved from the bike. Pax directed the Bartons to the blanket padding she’d arranged on the floor, away from Casaria, as Letty hovered above, eyeing him, too. Pax asked, “Where’s Lightgate?”
“Who?” Barton said. “How many of these bastards have you been courting?”
“Don’t insult me,” Casaria said, “by association with these wretched insects.”
Pax tried to move swiftly on. “Lightgate is another Fae, with concerns about the Ministry and the Fae leadership. She’s working with Rolarn here – it’s his place. There’s Arnold, somewhere, too, but apparently he’s busy. Which is no great loss.” Pax gave Rolarn a knowing look. The plump fairy shook his head. “Anyway – they can protect us.”
“If you can help us fuck the system.” Lightgate’s voice came from the escalator. She floated into view with her hands on her pistols like a Wild West sheriff looking for trouble. Her focus rested on Barton. “Welcome to my sanctuary.” She flew through the room, looking over each human in turn. “You will be fed. Sheltered. And you will like it.”
She landed on the till, staggering a few steps on the landing, marring the smooth entrance. As she pivoted on one leg, for a moment it looked like she might fall over. But she steadied, spreading her arms like this display was something to be proud of.
“Jesus Christ,” Pax said, under her breath.
Rolarn, stood by the lantern, watched Lightgate with unhappily folded arms. This was, of course, his sanctuary. But he didn’t complain, letting her continue, “And yes, Arnold and his boys won’t be joining us. Hopefully we won’t need them, because Pax has a plan. Don’t you?”
The Bartons were watching her, with Rimes awkwardly looking for a space behind them. Letty settled onto Pax’s shoulder and said, “It’s like you’ve rustled up an ensemble superhero team. Except made up of the shit heroes licensed in the public domain.” She shifted closer, lowering her voice. “And you need to tell me what’s up with you.”
“I’m fine.” Pax forced a smile, and Letty stared up at her, looking for more. Now that they were all here, waiting for her plan, it was no time to explain her psychic spasms, nor that she’d seen herself glowing. It’d only distract them. They needed a way forward. She did too. She said, “We’ll talk later, okay?” then turned to the others.
“Okay,” Pax said. “For starters, we are safe here. I think.” She gave Rolarn a look, and the fairy nodded like it was obvious. “And the next bit doesn’t need to involve any of you. This man here has agreed to help us.” She gestured towards Casaria.
The Bartons regarded Casaria with wary scowls, even Grace, as Casaria smirked back. None of them said anything, apparently trusting that Pax knew what she was doing.
“We’re gonna get Rufaizu back,” Pax said, then pointed to Lightgate, “and the Fae weapon, too. With what Rufaizu knows, we’ll figure out this Blue Angel, and with the Dispenser, Lightgate and her people can convince the Fae that we’re not their enemy.”
“How?” Barton said. “The Fae leadership wanted us silenced.”
“It’s high time the Fae people questioned the leadership.” Lightgate rolled a hand to one side. “They lied about the weapon. That’s the point. Right, Letty?”
Barton slowly took his distrusting gaze from one fairy to settle equally suspiciously on the other. Letty regarded Lightgate warily, but said, “If you say so. It’s here nor there. We get the Dispenser back in our hands, we can end that fucking berserker.”
“This is going be fun,” Lightgate concluded.
“Sorry,” Holly cut in, “but that’s our plan? Relying on her, who – no offence – I have no idea who she is, and” – she eyed Casaria – “relying on him? I thought he was stabbed?”
“It was nothing,” Casaria said, lifting his shirt to demonstrate the grim mess of his crudely sealed knife wound. Grace gasped and Holly shielded her daughter from the view.
Pax tapped the jar of glowing liquid on the counter. “This helped, apparently.”
“Or not,” Casaria said. “I probably could have walked it off.”
“With all the effort in the world,” Pax shot back, “you might’ve crawled into a gutter.” She hurried on, “But he’s up, as long as this liquid isn’t a temporary fix. Your foot’s alright, Darren? Not gone black and dropped off?”
Barton lifted his injured leg, outstretched on the floor. The bandaging was dark from being dragged through Ordshaw, falling apart at the seams. “Still there.”
“Is it magic?” Grace asked, fully serious, and Holly responded with pity, “Honey.”
“Accelerated healing,” Rimes said, her voice distant. She was engaging on some kind of autopilot, while her eyes fixed with unblinking wonder on Lightgate and Rolarn. “The body can heal itself, given the right conditions. You were able – able to stuff the wound.” She nodded to Casaria’s hideously soiled shirt.
“Yeah,” Pax said, as Lightgate blew Rimes a kiss. The doctor flinched.
“You’ll need more,” Barton said.
“I’m not touching another drop of that poison,” Casaria replied at once.
“That ‘poison’ gives us the means to stop what’s going on in the Sunken City,” Barton said. “Without it, we might as well rely on the Ministry; they can’t see the world for what it really is, and it’s left them doing the exact opposite of what’s necessary.”
“Actually,” Pax said, “I’m leaning towards Casaria’s view. I’d rather not rely on this liquid, not knowing exactly what it is or what it does.”
Barton gave her a cold look. “It makes sense of all that’s down there, that’s what it does. Even the Fae – their trails light up in the sky.”
“Trails?” Letty said, spinning to jab her arse his way. “You see any trails? We look like slugs? Fuck off.”
“Take a sip, you don’t believe me,” Barton said.
“I believe you,” Pax sighed, though she wished she didn’t. “It works. Doesn’t mean I trust it. Or the things it helps you see
.”
Barton’s glare softened. “You tried it yourself?”
“Yeah,” Pax said. “I had a bit of trouble pulling it out of Chaucer Crescent.”
“You what?” Letty said. “There was nothing there!” She shot a look to Lightgate, as though the other fairy could back her up. “I checked –”
“There was something there,” Pax said. “I dealt with it.”
“I knew it’d be trouble,” Holly piped up. “I knew you shouldn’t have –”
“I dealt with it,” Pax repeated. “But I used that liquid, and I saw what it does. If the Blue Angel manipulated the things we think we know, couldn’t it manipulate this liquid too? Maybe corrupting what it reveals?”
“What did it reveal?” Barton asked, cautiously. He was looking at her with the same look as when he’d tried the glo in the morning, which made total sense now. Casaria was, too. Yes, they’d seen the same damned electric veins she saw.
“Enough for me to escape something,” Pax said, avoiding the issue.
“Well, we certainly shouldn’t be going on any more dangerous wild goose chases for it,” Holly said, shifting onto her haunches. “You ask me, it’s all sorts of suspicious. These blue screens always being so far away from this liquid is weird on its own.”
Pax paused. It was a curious detail, especially if they considered the screens themselves might have transported the glo. “I’d still give you good odds on there being screens near those glo drop-offs,” she said, addressing Barton, “but you just never saw them. The Angel wanted to hide the pattern.” She recalled the feeling on Chaucer Crescent. The feeling in the chapel basement. Not the pained pull of the surges, but the way she’d sensed something was there, beforehand. She took a breath. “My theory is the Blue Angel’s using those screens for more than just communicating. It sent a creature to attack me in the chapel. It put this jar,” she pointed, “in Chaucer Crescent. And there was another creature there, like before.” She twisted to Letty. “There’s every chance it wasn’t there when you checked. And an equal chance a blue screen was.”
“So,” Barton said, starting to get angry, “you’re saying everything connected to this drink, everything we saw, everything we did – is mixed up in their trickery?”
“Possibly,” Pax said. “But it’s not all a lie. This liquid works. The Blue Angel needed to give you something that worked so you could survive the Sunken City and herd the monsters. You just weren’t herding them the way you thought. You were reporting to the Blue Angel so it could keep track of its monsters.” The word herd called to Pax’s mind exactly what they were doing. “When you told the Angel where to find the minotaur, it used its blue screens to suck energy for itself. It was milking that thing, and you were its farmers.”
“Yeah?” Barton held off accepting it on principle alone. His accusing eyes fell on Casaria, a way to process it. “And now the MEE do the same?”
“Yeah,” Pax said. “Maybe. There’s only one thing that I’m certain of about the Blue Angel. Its highest priority is to stay hidden. If the Ministry are helping it, chances are they don’t know so, either. Agents like Casaria, even their InterSpecies Relations division, they don’t even know the screens exist. I think that’s something we can use. They’d be less inclined to kill us if we could explain what’s really going on.”
Lightgate made a sound that could have been amusement. She said, “You like to make things complicated.” Pax glared; it was the second time today she’d been accused of that. “If the Ministry’s a bit corrupt or a lot, they’re still a plague, aren’t they?”
“They think they’re doing good work. The Ministry believe the minotaur has a positive effect on the city. They’re trying to preserve that effect, securing and hiding the Sunken City. They aren’t fully aware of how fucked up it is.”
“That’s generous,” Barton said, and gestured to Casaria. “You’re getting this from him?”
“Partly. I ran into a woman from InterSpecies Relations, too, and she –”
Casaria grunted like a pig choking, making Rimes and Holly jump in surprise. He coughed, putting a fist to his mouth to conceal his alarm. “You spoke to Sam Ward?”
“Yeah, her,” Pax said. “She’s been hounding me. But I get the idea she was questioning where they’re at, the same as us. Why, what’s wrong with her?”
“She sold me out,” Casaria snarled. “All she’s interested in is climbing their ladder.”
Aware his judgement of character wasn’t entirely trustworthy, Pax said, “Is there anyone in the Ministry you would trust?”
“I work alone for a reason,” Casaria said. “That way no one can let you down.”
“Except yourself,” Pax pointed out, to a few murmurs of agreement.
“Unlikely,” Casaria huffed. “You’ve done well to rely on me, Pax, don’t worry. I’ll get that boy out of there alone, we’ll beat answers out of him if we –”
“No!” Pax exclaimed.
“You try it and see what I do to you,” Barton threatened.
It only made Casaria’s eyes light up. He said, “Oh, I’d like that.”
“No,” Pax repeated. “Absolutely not. We want to help Rufaizu, for fuck’s sake.”
Casaria went quiet, but his eyes narrowed like he was picturing violence.
“Damn, Pax,” Letty said. “How you gonna stop him from killing the kid before we get a chance to talk?”
“Sorry,” the agent said, “I just assumed that as you’ve thrown your hat in with these monsters, anything goes.”
Lightgate sprang into the air faster than anyone could track. She reappeared a metre in front of Casaria, pose squared-off elegantly with a bent knee and a straight, outstretched leg. She had a highly polished pistol, glistening in the lantern-light, aimed towards Casaria’s face. He looked at her cross-eyed, his surprise shared by the rest of the room. The speed of her movement was counterbalanced by her slow voice, as she said, “Why don’t I make this easy and suggest you leave the necessary violence to me? Then you can focus on doing...” She paused to give Pax a thoughtful look. “Whatever she tells you to.”
Casaria’s concerned eyes ran to Pax. Pax was frozen herself, for the first time appreciating this fairy might be as dangerous as her reputation suggested.
“All clear, now?” Lightgate asked. He didn’t respond, which she seemed to take as acceptance. She turned in the air to question the others, all too startled to answer. Grace alone offered a nervous nod. Lightgate turned back to Casaria. “You’re boring me, and we’ve already established the plan, yes? I suggest you all sleep on it. I’ve got better places to be, now.”
“What?” Letty jumped off Pax’s shoulder. “Where?”
“Places.” Lightgate paused and yawned loudly. “Places you can’t come. Fun as this is, I’ve got other plates spinning. You need anything...” She waved loosely Rolarn’s way. “My butler can assist you.”
“What other plates?” Letty called out, but Lightgate drifted towards the escalator with a dismissive wave. She veered from side to side, as though she couldn’t pick out a straight line. Pax gave Letty a concerned look, suddenly feeling Lightgate was more complicated than she seemed.
Once she was out of earshot, Casaria commented, “Useless fucking fairies.”
“Whatever, she’s right,” Pax said. “It’s time to get some rest.”
She turned away and exhaled her own relief that this hadn’t devolved into arguing or fighting. The others sounded like they were relaxing behind her, too, whispers passing between the Bartons and Rimes. Letty flew close to her, though, and quietly said, “So? Shall we?”
“Tomorrow,” Pax said, almost inaudibly. “Let’s talk tomorrow. I need to take a break. More than you can believe.”
Letty didn’t argue, but her eyes said an explanation would be necessary soon. Pax wanted one herself. But she wanted to sleep more. She wanted, at least for a little while, to pretend everything would be okay.
Part 2
Tuesday
&nb
sp; 1
Casaria watched them sleeping. An innocent family huddled on blankets, in desperate need of protection. Half-innocent, anyway; the bruiser of a father was at least partly responsible for their problems. The ratty doctor was hardly innocent, either. She looked like something found caught in the sluice gates of the River Gader. It had taken him a little while to realise who she was; he had met her once, when the MEE sent him to deliver samples. Once was enough. She was plainly as loopy as Apothel, but Management deemed her worth keeping around. Then there was Pax, sleeping apart from the others, near the counter, closer to the Fae than the humans. On her side, arms and legs folded gently, breathing lightly. Almost delicate. In need of protection, too, even if she commanded this group like she knew what she was doing.
If she knew what she was doing, there was no way she’d be able to sleep.
No way any of them would.
They were in a lair of villainous insects who’d done precious little to prove their worth. The one called Letty, of course, had a thing for Pax, but that would prove fickle. Casaria understood that Pax had a strange effect on people. Like most women that drew you to their will. When the dizzying effect wore off, the vile little creature would turn on them. The other two might not even wait that long.
The plump one with the simple aspect, he was the worst.
Casaria had noticed him watching, not sleeping either, sitting on top of the till. Murderous, looking for a chance to strike. Casaria stared, making sure the Fae saw the white of his eyes in the dark. Bad things might happen if the Fae thought he was asleep.
Just as well Casaria didn’t need to sleep. He’d rested when strapped to that torture chair, and even more during the lengthy bike ride across Ordshaw, even if he’d been too close to Pax for comfort. His wounds weren’t troubling him now. Much as he despised the drink that had been forced on him, it didn’t seem to have had any ill effects. And he’d been careful to keep hydrated, the large bottles of water his single concession to Pax’s stolen goods. That and the shoes. He could hardly function without shoes. He would return money to the shop they came from when all this was over. If he could find it.
The Sunken City Trilogy Page 53
