The Sunken City Trilogy

by Phil Williams

  Casaria waved at the frozen Ward, shouting, “Go!”

  “Casaria!” Pax ran after him, grabbing his arm as Ward came to life, scanning the doors near her. “There must be something –” Casaria pushed Pax back.

  “Only had one shot,” he snapped, smacking the tube gun from her hands. “You missed.”

  Pax stood frozen for a second, looking from the apparently empty gun back towards the turnbold. Its tentacles were becoming more animated, searching the air. One of its heads came out of the shell, eyes dim but widening. As Rufaizu burst out from under its mass, staggering into the open, the eyes brightened. The creature shuddered all over and Rufaizu cursed as he stumbled upright.

  Pax raced the short distance back to him as the turnbold screeched again. Another of its heads stuck out, jaws biting at Rufaizu, and he ducked out of the way. The monster wrenched itself to the side, ripping a massive fragment of wall free, lurching halfway clear of the remnants of the lift. Pax grabbed Rufaizu and pushed him the other way. As she turned again, something caught her ankle. It pulled her leg from under her and she met the floor with a knock to the head. She saw one of the tentacles tangled around her leg, dragging her towards an extended head with a wide skeletal maw.

  “Get to hell!” Rufaizu yelled, jumping past her, feet first. He caught the turnbold shell beyond the head with both feet. The tentacle came free as the turnbold rolled onto its side with more snaps and screeches, toppling into the lift. Rufaizu landed heavily beside Pax, coughing in shock like he hadn’t expected the impact.

  Pax jumped up and pulled him with her. “Move, move, move!” He lifted himself, with her help, and they ran arm in arm down the hall. The turnbold writhed in the lift, screeching and clawing and scraping its clawed tentacles against the walls. At the end of the hall, Casaria was waiting, holding a door open. Ward was already gone.

  “This way!” he shouted, uselessly.

  The cries of the struggling turnbold were met with a groan from the elevator shaft. Pushing her legs as fast as they’d go, Pax didn’t dare look back.

  “It’s going down!” Rufaizu whooped, twisting in her grip.

  Another metal groan. More turnbold screams as it bucked at its confines.

  Pax turned to see the elevator break free. With a final splitting of the walls around it and a tremendous crash, the lift fell out of sight, dragging the turnbold down with it. A cloud of dust rose to fill the corridor, silhouetting the flopping shapes of two severed tentacles and a flying head.

  Rufaizu was laughing again.

  The lift landed far below, and the building shook with an enormous boom. Another cloud of dust burst out of the shaft and there was a second’s silence before the avian shrieks resumed. The creature, at the base of the building, sounding angrier than ever.

  “This way,” Casaria said again. “Out the back.”

  9

  In the Plaza, waiting, ruing Pax for not having a phone, Letty kept scanning through Fae websites, finding articles complementing the first headlines she’d discovered. They confirmed her fears: between the rumours about Pax eating a Fae, and the news reports about the return of the dangerous Apothel Five, the Fae media was being led to believe the humans were fiendishly mad. It would look bad if someone came forward with the Dispenser, claiming some humans actually wanted to help them. Even worse if those humans had been killed by Val.

  Arnold had called three times, but Letty didn’t answer. They’d be here soon enough, better if they didn’t come too prepared.

  Letty scanned from her phone down to Rolarn’s festering body, forcing herself to look at him. It wasn’t right, having to kill another Fae, even a Grade A arsehole. There weren’t enough of them, and he was a soldier, one way or another. And she’d done it for the sake of the humans. Weighed their lives against one of her own.

  Except it was right.

  She didn’t owe her people loyalty – not when all they did was make things worse.

  She needed a better distraction. Who was the guy that’d come visiting? How important was he?

  Letty searched for his name. The suited dork’s face came up right away, in multiple posed photos. Councilman Edwing, as he’d claimed. A young blood in the FTC government, he hadn’t been around when Letty was still there. She checked the headlines relating to him. He’d rapidly risen to Chair of Information, whatever the hell position that was. So Lightgate had the ear of the government. Plotting another coup. Letty bit her lip. Considering Valoria’s attitudes to the Dispenser, she wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing, but Edwing hadn’t been entirely on board, had he? Lightgate’s people needed to create a scene that forced him to act. A dead family of humans would do that.

  Letty tried the news sites again.

  A new headline came up. Well, shit, that had to be another of Lightgate’s spinning plates.

  The footage was lifted from the human media. Smoke coming out of the Ministry building. Emergency service vehicles blocking the streets. Never mind their plans for the Bartons – they’d gone right for the jugular. Lightgate had activated one of the Fae weapons that had never been put to rest. Early reports said it was a creature. There’d be bodies, with Lightgate involved. No way Pax would’ve gone in, was there?

  She should go – find her. These punks might give hot pursuit of the Bartons, but Pax needed her more –

  A noise disturbed Letty’s thoughts; men talking on the floor above. One of them called down: “Rolarn, you there?” Arnold.

  Letty stood, straightening out the hefty strap of her artificial wing, Rolarn’s shotgun ready across her waist. She kept close to the edge of the till, pretty much the only object in this massive room that would provide any cover.

  “Rolarn, talk to me, why aren’t you answering your phone?” Arnold demanded, angrily, as the dark shapes of him and his men floated into view from above. There had to be six or more of them: the Tupsom Trawlers.

  Here to do a job.

  “You brought the whole gang?” Letty called out to stop them. They hung in the air near the ceiling opening, all quiet as they understood Rolarn wasn’t just being quiet.

  “Where’s the damn humans?” Arnold asked. “Letty, if you’ve –”

  “If I’ve what? Interrupted a seriously dumb idea?” Letty said. “How do you think this ends? We need those humans to take back the Sunken City.”

  “Sunken City shit,” Arnold sneered. “Where are you, Letty? Get a light on.”

  “Sunken City shit,” Letty echoed, quietly. Was she the only person who gave a damn about their heritage? The only one that wanted a return to something respectable? Of course, this lot hadn’t ever known respectable. She called out, “The humans are gone, you should be too.”

  “You damn idiot!” Arnold snarled. “This is our chance – we’re taking our place –”

  “Your place is the gutter! What the fuck is there to aspire to, if not the Sunken City?”

  “The FTC!” Arnold raised his voice, quick to anger, and his boys joined in with snarls of agreement. “It’s time someone with true Fae blood took charge.”

  “The FTC?” Letty shouted, her own temper rising. “Who wants the FTC? You genital wart, you wanna die trying to dominate a consolation prize?”

  The gang went quiet. They’d come here suspecting something, no doubt, but couldn’t have expected to have to face her. Please, Letty silently begged, give it the fuck up and go home. “You all know who I am. You want trouble, I’ve got it for you. But the last thing any of us need is more dead Fae.”

  Silence again.

  “We got no beef with you, Letty,” Arnold told her. A little cautious. “We just want the humans. Things are moving – promises been made.”

  “Like what? Kill a human and your three wishes come true?”

  “Only one wish. We get people to take up arms against Val. She’s been denouncing them, but things are going crazy. They set the turnbold loose – you heard that? The humans show up dead now, at Val’s hand –”

  “They show up a
live and Val’s in the shit.”

  “It’s not enough. These are humans that took our tech – they killed our –”

  “They didn’t kill shit!” Letty shouted. “I’m right here, no one killed me!”

  Arnold stalled, logic failing. “They’re still human. Still scum. Better off dead.”

  “These humans can help us, you dense pillock.”

  “No,” Arnold said, mind settling. “This is how it’s gonna work – how it’s gotta work. Without bodies to pin on Val, it’s your word against hers. The Citizen has to die.”

  “Smoking geese,” Letty muttered. It was no use. “You’re even thicker than you look. You and the whole damned FTC. You’ve got the chance to fly away, right now. Take it.”

  “You know what Lightgate would do to us?” Arnold said.

  “Fly fast, then.”

  “Sorry, Letty.” He sounded like he meant it. “We got no choice.”

  “Then neither do I.” Letty took aim with Rolarn’s shotgun.

  Five flights of stairs (or ten? They doubled up, didn’t they?), and Pax was having an unpleasant time breathing. When they burst out of the fire exit into a walled courtyard with a single, narrow exit, she couldn’t speak. Sam Ward was blocking the exit, but she didn’t look particularly great herself, her frightened skin the colour of porridge.

  The sounds inside hadn’t stopped, with things continuing to break apart and collapse, people shouting and screaming, the turnbold shrieking. It had slowed down and wasn’t getting any closer, though. Maybe still stuck in the lift shaft.

  “Step aside,” Casaria said, facing Ward with his jacket pushed back over his hands on his hips. A mock cop pose. It looked forced, but Ward took a concerned step back.

  “Why?” Ward said. Her pleading eyes found Pax. “How could you?”

  Pax said nothing. She didn’t have the breath.

  “You still don’t get it?” Casaria snarled. “There’s more going on here than you can begin to comprehend. There’s enemies you don’t even understand.”

  It was a fine summary, Pax supposed, especially as she was sure it applied to the man saying it. Good to see his enthusiasm reapplied, either way.

  Rufaizu shifted at Pax’s shoulder, apparently pumped enough to be standing straight. He said, “Enemies underground, who made them come up, huh?”

  “That thing...” Ward said.

  “This was the fucking Fae!” Casaria pointed into the building. “The Ministry should’ve seen it coming. Should’ve purged the lot of them a long –”

  “Stop.” Pax held up a hand. The courtyard seemed to dance before her eyes, all a bit whiter than it should’ve been. Oh, to be fit and healthy for times like this. “Wait.” They did. This weird situation again, with everyone looking at her like she would speak their troubles away. “Not the Fae. Not that simple.”

  “Have you any idea the damage you’ve done?” Ward asked, genuinely.

  “Yeah,” Pax sighed. “But...” She took another deep breath, rolled her eyes up, unsure if she was seeing thick white cloud or her vision was failing. “I didn’t do it. The Fae...” She flapped a hand Casaria’s way. “This is them – but not all of them.” Lightgate had been turned down by the other Fae. It might have been a lone madman that left Lightgate the note with those codes; a conspiracy of two. Without the energy to get all that out, Pax huffed, “Most said no.”

  “You’re wasting what little breath you’ve got,” Casaria said. “She’s a company man.”

  “I am not!” Ward protested, then repeated it in what she clearly hoped was a more reasonable tone. “I am not. I’ve been trying to trace where the energy goes.”

  A siren whined nearby. Emergency vehicles rapidly approaching. Pax couldn’t help feeling she needed to get used to these sounds.

  “We can’t stay here,” said Casaria, stating the obvious.

  “You can’t leave,” Ward said. “Our people will surround this area.” Another birdlike shrill came from the building. “Thankfully.”

  “Okay.” Pax took a step forward. “You can’t stop us.”

  “I won’t –”

  Casaria moved towards her too, and Ward jumped back into the wall. His fists were clenched, perhaps intending to do more than scare her. She had both hands up, frightened. Pax growled, “She’s not the enemy, either, for Christ’s sake!”

  He looked back at her, confused.

  Pax advanced and Rufaizu jumped to her side to help, taking her arm. He, fresh from his hospital bed doping, offering her support. She let him. Taking a few more breaths, Pax said to Ward, “Think before you retaliate. There’s a bigger picture – the Blue Angel. Not the Fae.”

  “The grugulochs?” Ward uttered back. In agreement?

  Pax paused. “Yeah. That, too.”

  “What is it?”

  “You tell me. You’ve got the technology.”

  “Is it the praelucente itself?” Ward said, almost hopeful. That would be simple, wouldn’t it?

  “No,” Pax replied. “Whatever’s behind the praelucente. Whatever’s moving that energy around. Manipulating everyone. You track that energy, you’ll find where that word comes from.”

  Sam started shaking her head. “It’ll take time –”

  “Your people are gonna want to hang the Fae,” Pax warned, then paused for another breath. She cleared her throat and said, “The Fae won’t take it lightly. I don’t know...the Blue Angel, or your grugulochs, made this happen here. Even if the Fae pulled the trigger, the Angel is to blame.”

  The sirens were getting closer.

  “We need to go.”

  Ward pushed off from the wall, desperately. “Where? Where are you going?”

  Pax walked past her, not looking back, not answering because she didn’t know.

  10

  Letty sheltered behind a metal strut. It was a minor miracle she’d fought her way out of the cover-free shop into the steel rafters of the plaza’s loft space. But pretty clear why Lightgate chose Rolarn as a guard over Arnold and his Trawlers. They were amateurs, soft from picking on humans and never tussling with real Fae. She’d left three dead on the shop floor, filling the place with gunfire as she flew for the ceiling. That left another three, by her counting, and they weren’t happy following her up here.

  “On me, you bastards!” Arnold shouted. “Use your heads!”

  Letty leant around the steel support to watch their shapes flitting between the beams. None of them was racing her way. A good chance they hadn’t seen where she’d ended up. One movement a few tiers above, another in the opposite direction. Arnold’s voice had come from somewhere in between. That put all of them more or less in her line of sight.

  She ducked as a bullet sparked off the adjacent beam. The muzzle flash was about two feet back. Had to be Arnold.

  “Still time to fly away, Arnold!” Letty shouted.

  “You shot my men!” he snarled furiously.

  “Like you gave me a choice? No one ever told you I eat street thugs like you for breakfast?”

  “Better a street thug than a human-lover!” the one to the left shouted. Pinpointing his position, thank you. A movement to the right indicated the third one, dashing to another beam, trying to flank her.

  Letty jammed her pistol in the holster and hefted up the shotgun. Still a couple shots left, there. She kept goading: “I already did for Mix and Fresko. And Rolarn? He must’ve been worth your whole crew. You got nothing on any of them, Arnold. Fly away.”

  The flanking Fae dashed for another beam and Letty opened fire. A pistol shot would’ve been impossible, but the guy couldn’t fly through a cloud of buckshot. She unloaded both barrels and he spun in the air like a fly in a tornado – one more down. Throwing the gun away and whipping out her pistol, she spun back and fired at the one on the left as he moved to another position. The bullet thunked into the ceiling far behind him, but the message was sent. She heard the goon’s heavy breathing. Freaking out. There was a reason he was the only one left, she guessed. Letty
threw a comment his way: “Go now or when Arnold dies, you’re a free man either way.”

  The pair of them were quiet, except for the minion’s worried breathing.

  “Like hell,” Arnold snarled, finally. “Let’s finish this.”

  She cursed at the sound of his fluttering wings and ducked to see his approach. He moved fast, springing from one strut to another; she fired and missed by a mile. The next shot glanced him but he took it. Two beams away, a foot between them.

  “Now!” Arnold shouted, coming into the open firing. The shots sparked against Letty’s cover, making her take shelter, and she turned in the other direction to take on his companion. He didn’t materialise, and Arnold started screaming, “Shoot her!”

  Nothing.

  She spun around to the other side of the beam, into Arnold’s confused face. He was coming too quickly to react; she got her free hand on his wrist and twisted his gun away as she turned hers on him. Fired two shots into his wing as his other arm came up to punch her. She fired a third shot into his chest. His own single shot slapped uselessly into the floor. His eyes met Letty’s with shock, asking why. She returned a grim look. Didn’t need to be this way. His wings slowed as blood spread across his chest. She let go and he dropped like a sack of nuts.

  Something fluttered behind Letty and she spun. The last Trawler was speeding between the beams towards the ceiling. The only one of them with any damned sense.

  “Idiots,” Letty muttered, thick with regret. “I don’t know.”

  “Hey,” a voice said above.

  Letty half-raised her pistol before freezing.

  Lightgate was perched one beam up, a shining silver pistol, with a host of gadgets, held in a limp hand, loosely aimed at Letty’s head. “Those idiots got us here, at least.”

  “Where’s here, bitchsticks?” Letty growled. “The humans are gone. Your boys are dead. What’ve you got?”

  “My health,” Lightgate said. She stood, drunkenly teetering. Letty knew better than to believe it. The barrel of Lightgate’s gun didn’t stray from her forehead.