The Hunting of the Princes

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Sophie folded her wings down tight, and shrugged into the coat. She could hear Jemima’s muffled voice above the noise of the train.

  Taggie was peering through the window. ‘Someone’s in the corridor. Jemima’s bumped into them. Hurry.’ She took her gloves off, and pulled her coat sleeve up, exposing the charmsward. Its bands were turning slowly.

  Sophie fastened several laces on the coat as fast as she could, then soothed down her twisting hair, and pushed it inside the coat’s hood. Lantic was on his knees, helping her into her boots.

  ‘Finished,’ Sophie sang out.

  Lantic opened the door into the third carriage, just as Jemima backed out of the fourth. ‘Sorry again,’ she called as she closed the door behind her.

  Everyone scurried back into the third carriage. Taggie turned back for one last check, and draw a breath in dismay.

  ‘What is it?’ Sophie asked.

  ‘It was the man in the fur-lined coat,’ Taggie said. ‘I saw him at the far end of the corridor.’

  ‘Did he see me?’

  ‘No. Not your wings, anyway. But he certainly saw Jemima causing a commotion.’

  They hurried back to their compartment and shut the door.

  ‘What happened?’ Felix asked.

  ‘The man in the fur-lined coat,’ Taggie said. ‘He might be a problem after all.’

  They all stared at the door, waiting to see if the man in the fur-lined coat would open it.

  ‘This is silly,’ Lantic announced. He twisted a ring so that its gaudy jewel glowed a sullen scarlet. Then he pulled the door open and stepped out into the corridor. ‘Nobody here,’ he said.

  Sophie let out a long breath in relief.

  ‘What did you find?’ Taggie asked eagerly.

  Sophie quickly untied her coat laces and opened her belt pouch. She took the clip out gingerly, making sure she didn’t touch the lead balls. ‘These. I’ve no idea what they are, but there’s thousands of them.’

  ‘Oh, great Heavens!’ Taggie exclaimed in shock. ‘They’re bullets.’

  CUTTING LOOSE

  It took Taggie a good quarter of an hour to explain bullets and guns to her alarmed friends.

  ‘Will they work in the Fourth Realm?’ Jemima asked uncertainly.

  ‘Bullets use simple chemicals,’ Taggie said. ‘Gunpowder is going to explode no matter where it is.’ She held up one of the horrible bullets Sophie had retrieved, its sickly violet glow was almost invisible in the daylight. ‘And the Karraks have given them tips of bad magic. I doubt many enchanted shields can withstand them. No wonder they’re confident enough to start a war.’

  ‘There are thousands of them in those crates,’ Sophie said in a troubled voice. ‘Tens of thousands. And this is but one trainload.’

  ‘We should blow them up,’ Jemima said. ‘Sabotage the Karraks’ war. Taggie, all you have to do is hit one crate with your destruction spell. That’ll set off the rest, they’ll all explode.’

  Taggie had to admit it was extremely tempting, but . . . ‘That’s not why we’re here,’ she said reluctantly. ‘I know it would damage the Karraks’ plans – a little. But there will be more ammunition in storage somewhere. Not to mention all the guns to fire them. We have to prevent the war from ever starting.’

  Jemima looked disappointed, but nodded agreement.

  ‘What do guns look like?’ Lantic asked. ‘I assume from your description they’re made of metal?’

  ‘Yes,’ Taggie said. ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m thinking of the gol arms Jemima saw back in Shatha’hal. The attachments were for machines from the Outer Realm. Enchanted bullets have to be made here, but it sounds like guns need a lot of precision moving parts. They would have to come from experts in producing such things.’

  ‘Outer Realm weapons companies,’ Taggie said in dismay. ‘They’ll make anything for anybody who has money. Oh my, the Karraks are going to fit Outer Realm guns to an army of gols.’ She shivered at the terrible notion.

  ‘We have to warn the War Emperor,’ Felix said. ‘He must be told the armies of the Realms are walking into a trap. Majesty, we cannot allow soldiers with enchanted swords and shields to go up against gols with machine guns firing these bullets. They’ll be slaughtered.’

  Taggie’s hand went to the dark gate she was carrying in a bag hanging from her neck. ‘You’re right. We do have to warn them. But we can always escape this Realm at any time. I’m still going to try and talk to Lord Colgath. If it looks like we’re in trouble, then we’ll use the dark gate to leave immediately, I promise.’

  The train raced on across the frozen plain for hours. It was mid-afternoon when they all heard a blast from the engine’s whistle.

  ‘We’re slowing down,’ Lantic said. ‘Is this Valaran already?’

  ‘No,’ Taggie said. ‘It’s too soon.’

  ‘So why are we stopping here?’ Sophie asked with an anxious edge to her voice.

  ‘Novarl said there would be other stops,’ Felix reminded them.

  ‘I see a station,’ Jemima said, her eyes tight closed. ‘There are passengers waiting on the platform.’ She flinched. ‘Some Karraks live here.’

  ‘That’s all we need,’ Felix grunted.

  ‘Jemima, cast a wardveil,’ Taggie said. She opened her bag and took out the gold and ebony ring. ‘Everyone take hold. If they find us, the dark gate will take us away in a second.’

  There they stood, in the middle of the compartment, each gripping a section of the ring as the train slowly came to a halt beside a long platform. The town, whatever it was called, could have been New Aurestel, but for the missing hills behind. The big cube-buildings were identical, as were the squads of Rannalal knights marching about. A group of Ethanu stood at one end of the platform, with a few passengers keeping their distance from the dark creatures. A rathwai cried high overhead, and Sophie shuddered.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Taggie reassured her friend quietly. ‘It can’t see you. And we can be gone in an eyeblink.’

  Sophie nodded her thanks.

  ‘I can see some people getting off,’ Lantic said, pressing his face to the broad window. ‘People getting on. Only a couple in our carriage.’

  After a minute the engine blew its whistle. Doors began to slam shut.

  ‘Oh,’ Lantic said.

  ‘What?’ Sophie and Felix asked together.

  ‘The fur-coat man. I see him.’ Lantic twisted, trying to look right along the platform. ‘He’s talking to the Ethanu.’

  Taggie clenched her teeth. The charmsward bands turned, and she prepared a portrayal enchantment. All she had to do was decide the location: her palace in the First Realm or Mum’s house. The palace would be best, she thought. I am Queen there. Perhaps I can still do something about the war, and we have the bullets as evidence now.

  The engine whistle sounded again. Wheels and pistons started clanking. They started to creep forward.

  ‘I can’t see the Ethanu,’ Lantic said in frustration.

  ‘They got on,’ Jemima said. Her face was white with fright. ‘They’re in the last carriage.’

  The train began to pick up speed. Wisps of smoke churned past the window.

  ‘We have to go,’ Sophie said. ‘We’ll never get to Valaran now.’

  Everyone looked at Taggie.

  ‘Jem? Can you see what the Ethanu are doing?’

  Jemima gave her a resentful look. She threw the runes on to a bench, and studied them for a long moment. ‘Questioning people,’ she said. ‘They’re making their way along the compartments.’

  Taggie looked down at the gate ring. She could feel the magic stirring in it, as if it knew it was about to be called upon. It wasn’t fair! They’d come this far against all the odds, and they knew where Lord Colgath was. Just a few hours away now.

  ‘Taggie!’ Sophie said. ‘There’s six of them.’

  ‘I know,’ Taggie said. ‘But six isn’t a problem, not really.’

  ‘You can’t be serious, Majesty,’ Felix said. ‘We�
��re barely outside the town. There are Karrak Lords here.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Taggie said slowly as an idea came together in her head. ‘So we need to wait until we’re as far away as we can be.’

  Felix went first, speeding along the corridor to the second carriage, keeping well below the windows on the other compartments so no one saw him. Taggie brought up the rear, just in case the Ethanu caught up with them.

  By the time they reached the second carriage, the train was back up to full speed, and the desolate countryside was a white blur outside. They went through the second carriage and into the first.

  ‘Jem?’ Taggie asked.

  ‘They’re still in the last carriage,’Jemima said happily.

  ‘Right then.’

  The door at the end of the first carriage was locked. Lantic adjusted one of his rings and muttered a soft enchantment. The lock broke with a loud snap.

  Outside on the little metal platform the noise of the engine was a constant roar. Smoke swirled in the gap between them and the high blank wall of the coal tender in front.

  ‘Here you go,’ Lantic said, and handed one of his anamage spiders to Felix.

  The squirrel nodded and sprang down on to the thick coupling. Wind flattened his white fur as he scampered along, three feet above the tracks. Then he was climbing the tender wall, claws grabbing the rivets. Taggie couldn’t believe he could do it so easily. But in less than a minute he was on top. A single slender gossamer thread stretched out between the carriage platform and the spider he held.

  When he put it down, the little contraption began to clamber back along the thread, spinning another behind it.

  Jemima shook the runes in her hand, and examined them. ‘They’ve arrived at the fifth carriage,’ she announced.

  ‘That’s the Ethanu I remember,’ Taggie said wryly. ‘Slow and methodical. And never giving up.’

  ‘You were right, then, we have plenty of time,’ Lantic said, and now even he was relaxing. ‘This isn’t quite as frightening as I thought it was going to be.’

  Taggie grinned. ‘So how scared are you?’ She tried to make it sound light so he wouldn’t realize how scared she was.

  ‘Oh. Badly.’ He grinned back. ‘You know, my father will want to throw me into the deepest dungeon below the city when we get back. But even he will have to admit he never expected me to do anything so reckless. Not even Rogreth sneaked a visit to the Fourth Realm.’

  ‘You’re not doing this just to prove something to your father, are you?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘No. Taggie, I absolutely believe we’re doing the right thing. That’s why I’m here with you.’ His grin grew sheepish. ‘Mind you, showing my father I’m not the useless ana-nerd he thinks I am is a pretty good bonus.’

  ‘I’m just glad you’re with us,’ she told him truthfully.

  In three minutes the spider had woven a net like a sagging ladder between the carriage and the tender. Jemima was first across, swaying from side to side as she scrambled up the mesh. Then she was on top of the coal, and smiling brightly back at Taggie. ‘Easy,’ she taunted.

  ‘Go on,’ Taggie told Lantic.

  While the prince was crawling gingerly across the mesh, Taggie helped Sophie take off her coat and boots. The skymaid simply flew over to the coal tender, carrying the bulky coat.

  Taggie was last across. Seeing how easy it had been for the others didn’t necessarily make it easy for her. The train was hurtling along at a terrific speed. The track was a smear below her, and the gossamer impossibly thin to be holding her weight. The wind was constantly whipping her rag coat about, and she swayed from side to side a lot more than Jemima had. It was cold, too, making her fingers stiff.

  But she made it over and joined the others sitting atop the coal as the engine’s grubby smoke swirled around them. Together they watched the spider unwind the mesh.

  Jemima looked up from the runes in her hand. ‘They’ve reached the fourth carriage,’ she announced.

  Taggie looked across the countryside, trying to work out distances. It had changed since leaving the last town. No longer a flat empty plain. Undulations were gradually getting bigger. She could see hills and valleys on both sides of the track. Somehow the dismal grey sky seemed lower.

  They were miles from the town. It would take hours for anyone to walk back, especially the Ethanu.

  ‘OK, they’re in the third carriage now,’ Jemima announced. Then later: ‘Second carriage.’

  They’d been sitting on the tender for at least forty minutes, which by Taggie’s reckoning put them at least sixty miles past the town, when Jemima finally said: ‘Here they come. First carriage.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Taggie said.

  Felix, who was now as tall as her elbow, drew his sword. The blade shone a bright green through the acrid vapour streaming past them from the engine’s funnel. Sophie cocked her crossbow. Lantic turned two rings until they glowed a bleary amber.

  Taggie knelt on all fours and looked down at the coupling. The charmsward bands spun round. ‘Droiak.’

  She’d been expecting the tender to lurch about when the coupling disintegrated. But it was made from iron and was still two-thirds full of coal. Something that heavy barely quaked as it broke free from the carriages and trucks. The change in speed as it began to accelerate was quite noticeable, however.

  Felix sprang nimbly across the coal, while Sophie flew alongside. The engine driver and the fireman who shovelled coal into the firebox had just started to realize something was wrong when Felix jumped down into the engine’s cab. The fireman, who was so big he could have been a troll, lifted up his huge shovel, ready to swipe at the intruder. Felix calmly pointed a forepaw behind him. The fireman turned his thick neck to find a fierce-looking skymaid with wild red hair flying just outside the cab, her crossbow aimed unwaveringly at his head. His shovel clattered on to the metal floor, and he joined the driver in raising his hands.

  There was some talk about what to do with them. Lantic expanded the rope in his satchel, and used it to tie them both up. They sat with their backs to the coal tender, looking miserable as their fate was discussed right in front of them.

  ‘We can’t just stop the train and chuck them out,’ Jemima said. ‘They’ll freeze to death out here.’

  It was hot in the cab, with the coal in the firebox glowing like lava, throwing out a huge amount of heat. They’d even taken off their Outer Realm coats.

  ‘We can’t take them with us,’ Sophie exclaimed.

  ‘Taggie!’ Jemima cried.

  ‘We’ll not tell anyone,’ said Losovan, the driver. ‘Honest. Will we, Jarley?’

  ‘Not say nuffink,’ Jarley the fireman agreed. ‘’Oo are you, anyways?’ He couldn’t stop looking at Sophie. ‘Never seen a flying girl before.’

  ‘Not say anything?’ Lantic said in exasperation as he examined the cab’s multitude of dials and levers. ‘We’ve stolen your train and left the carriages behind. Do you think the Karraks won’t notice that?’

  ‘We won’t say who, though,’ Losovan promised desperately.

  ‘Yes you will,’ Taggie said. ‘You’ll answer every single question they ask you as best you can. Don’t lie to them. Don’t hide anything from them. Understand?’

  ‘Gorrit, miss,’ Jarley said.

  Swarz was the next town on the line, Losovan told them – the only scheduled stop before Valaran. So Taggie and Lantic and Sophie took it in turns to shovel coal into the firebox, while Felix and Jemima kept watch.

  The huge engine roared through Swarz at a scary eighty miles an hour, with Felix letting off a long blast on the whistle as they zoomed past the platform.

  ‘Sorry,’ he muttered, his teeth chittering unrepentantly. ‘Always wanted to do that. And it should confuse the station staff.’

  From the smeared glimpse she’d managed, Taggie hadn’t even seen any Ethanu waiting on the platform. Now station and town were vanishing fast behind them.

  Taggie told them to stop the big engi
ne a couple of miles outside Valaran. Everyone put their coats back on and stepped down on to the track while Losovan and Jarley gave them a baleful look. Lantic threw several levers in the cab, turned some valve stopcocks, and the pistons hissed and pumped. The engine began to roll forward. Lantic jumped down. They all watched it pick up speed and charge off down the track. Without any more coal added to the firebox, it would loose pressure and slow down soon enough.

  ‘I hope it is only two miles,’ Sophie said. The grey sky was starting to darken. Nightfall was near.

  ‘It is,’ Jemima said.

  They walked down the track until they saw the lights of Valaran ahead of them, then crept off to one side. Valaran was a fishing village nestling in the cliffs above the sea, with a big stone harbour curving out into the dark waters below. Here at least the houses were ordinary, with small cottages clumped together in a maze of narrow streets. Several dozen ships bobbed about at anchor inside the safety of the harbour walls.

  From their vantage point on a small hill behind the village they could see a lot of activity at the tiny railway station. People were running round frantically.

  ‘This is my job,’ Felix announced. ‘Wait here. I’ll go into town and find some horses.’

  Taggie’s instinct was to object, but she couldn’t actually think of a good reason. Felix was right, he was the perfect person to creep into the village without being seen. So they waited in the frozen bushes at the base of the hill, stamping their feet as the cold slowly soaked through their two layers of coats.

  It took him an hour. But he eventually returned riding one horse and leading another. Taggie hid a smile at the extraordinary sight of a squirrel on horseback. Jemima giggled hysterically.

  BY THE LIGHT OF THE RED LOCH

  It was a two-hour ride along a narrow coastal road. Their horses’ hoofs made little sound on the snow. Above them the immovable sheet of cloud glimmered faintly from the light cast across its upper surface by whatever moon and stars roamed this Realm’s Heavens. But it did provide just enough light to make out the road and a few dark shapes in the distance.