by Leyland, L J
‘There have been some problems with the succession. Apparently his son is even more hard-line than the Imperial Monarch was, and his wife is even worse. But the Metropole is finally preparing for the announcement that the Imperial Monarch is dead and his son will take over. Brigadus has the honour of being the first stop on the Coronation Tour of the Empire.’
This struck me as bizarre. Brigadus was considered savage and barbaric, somewhere that the Metropolites hated coming to and we were often, thankfully, missed out of tours.
‘Why were we chosen?’ Matthias asked.
‘Apparently his wife has a keen interest in Brigadus, God knows why. But we’ll be their first destination. It’s in one week. They will expect a good show. And I intend to give it to them – I’m going to interrupt the coronation ceremony to show the tape to the nation and to the Empire. Broadcast it live where everyone can see their treachery – so that everyone knows what they’ve done.’
Matthias and I looked at each other in shock. Noah’s plan trumped every plan we had ever made; every little act of resistance, every small rebellion, even the most recent plan to get the food from the Complex. This was the ultimate act of defiance that would bring the entire Empire, the entire world order, crashing down. I didn’t need to hesitate.
‘Count me in,’ I said.
‘Me too,’ added Matthias.
‘I need to find those tapes quickly. And that means I need Iris. I need to bring her back from the Highlands, only it’s hundreds of miles across the flooded plains.’
‘Need a boat?’ I asked.
He nodded. Matthias and I smiled.
‘No problem. Consider it done,’ I said.
I wondered how our creaky houseboat would fair on the high seas.
Chapter Thirteen
It was 3.30 am by the time Matthias had dropped me off at our houseboat.
‘You think she’ll sail?’ he asked, looking sceptically at the old hull. The creaking was particularly loud in the darkness.
‘Well, she hasn’t ever sprung a leak. I better get inside, make sure Edie and Aiden are OK and tucked up.’
‘All right, see you tomorrow at six.’
We had been invited by Noah to his parents’ mansion for tea. Apparently they wanted to talk to us; they had some information that they thought would be useful before we set sail. The thought of stepping into a Blueblood mansion scared me for a number of reasons. It was like offering yourself up to the wolves, willingly. I’d need a strategy to cope with being there. But first: sleep was my priority.
Matthias yawned loudly and started down the jetty in the direction of his grandmother’s house.
‘Matt – tell your grandmother I’ll call in on her tomorrow, OK?’ I hadn’t been to visit her in a few days. I had been too caught up in my own plans that I had forgotten about her. I scooped together a small pile of kindling on the deck and made a mental note to take it to her tomorrow. He looked back and nodded. He had to be in the munitions factory at 7 a.m. for his morning shift. I regretted making him stay up so late. He’d be exhausted. It was dangerous work in the factories; every worker needed his wits about him to avoid a fatal mistake. I hoped he’d manage to get some sleep and not lie awake, mind whirling, as I knew mine would be.
Wolf greeted me with a happy wag but stayed in his basket. I stuck my head around the twins’ bedroom and saw them sleeping softly, blonde hair stuck to their foreheads and looking much younger than they were. I closed the door quietly and went to my room in the old captain’s cabin. I blew out the oil lamp and fell on the bed, persuading my overactive mind into a state of calm emptiness. I was asleep within the hour.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. Acrid, pungent, like vinegar, filling the room. I then noticed that there was a weight at the foot-end of the bed, tipping the mattress and pulling at the bedcovers. It was still completely dark. Morning had not arrived yet. I was blind and disorientated. I could hear shallow, quick breathing coming from somewhere. I pushed tentatively at the weight with my toes and found an unrelenting, warm figure. I pulled my toes in quickly.
‘Wolf?’ I asked.
No reply.
Of course no reply, stupid, dogs can’t talk .
The breathing continued.
‘Aiden, if that’s you out of bed I’ll give you five seconds to go back or face a rollicking.’
No reply. No movement. Just raspy breathing.
Sounding braver than I felt I said, ‘Fine have it your way. One. Two. Three. Four …’ I hesitated, waiting to see if he was playing a game. ‘Five!’ I yelled.
At that very second, the oil lamp burst into light and a man’s voice very close to my ear said, ‘Boo.’
I tried to scream and scrabble up the bed towards the headrest, but the man placed his hand over my mouth and pinned me down whilst I struggled. A dirty, gremlin face leered over me. The smell was vile, almost so thick I could taste it. His clothes were torn rags and his eyes had that manic look that very drunk people have when they have left the realm of the rational and have wandered into territory of the hallucinatory.
It was the singing drunk from outside Nora’s.
‘Didn’t think an old drunk would be clever enough to follow you, did you? Thought I was a good fer nothin’, you and that giant friend. But, here I am!’
His cackle turned into a hacking cough and I saw my chance. I shoved his stinking body off me and dashed for the door. I needed to get Edie and Aiden out. But he suddenly appeared directly in front of me, blocking the exit. How the hell did he get there so quickly? His flattened palm found the middle of my chest and I bounced backwards off it. Normal fights didn’t consist of moves like that. They consisted of wild punches, scratching fingernails, kicks to any part of the body one could find. But obviously this man had been trained in combat somewhere. His drunkenness belied the composure of a soldier.
‘Now, now, behave why don’t you? I’m not gonna hurt you,’ he said.
‘What do you want? We have no money.’
He laughed again. ‘What do I want with money? I don’t care about money. I just want to talk to you, put a proposition to you if I may.’
‘Proposition?’ I asked warily.
I was edging towards my dresser where I knew my comb was. It wasn’t the ideal weapon but it had a pointed handle that might be useful for gouging at eyes if needs be.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ the man said.
With that, he left my room, banging the door open, striding into the living room and began throwing chopped firewood on the smouldering embers in the potbellied stove. The embers barely emitted any light but cast elongated shadows across the walls and floors, like a strange funhouse mirror, stretching figures into creepily distorted shapes. The man’s shadow was looming and large, dancing across the walls. I crept to the door and peered round it, half-hiding, unsure what to do. Usually an intruder would be met with a clang of a saucepan over his head but my mind was still whirling from the conversation a few hours ago and I couldn’t help thinking this proposition could be something vital. A door creaked open to the right of me. Edie walked straight out, rubbing her eyes.
‘Maida, what time is it? Have you just got back?’
She halted in her tracks when she saw the drunk and looked around wildly. ‘Maida? Maida?!’ she cried.
‘It’s OK, I’m here.’ I appeared from around the door. ‘Go back to bed now and don’t come in here again. I’ll let you know when to come out.’
‘Oh, big sister’s so mean to send you to bed! Let her join the party, I’ve brought sugar drops.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out small lumps of pink candies. Edie bounded forward and grabbed one before I could stop her.
‘I always see these in the shop in town but we can never afford them,’ she gushed. ‘Mmm, they’re delicious!’ she said, chomping on one with a look of pure pleasure. She smiled a sugary smile at me.
‘Edie, just go and sit on the sofa and don’t eat any more of those. Now!’ I added as I saw her
about to protest. Aiden came out of his bedroom and looked around at the strange scene. He always took things in his stride and didn’t question who the man was or why we suddenly had a wealth of expensive sugar drops on our table. He simply reached for one as he walked by the table and joined Edie on the couch.
‘Where did you get those?’ I asked, pointing at the drops.
He waggled his fingers at me. ‘Five-finger discount,’ he said.
A thief as well as a drunk. Marvellous.
When the man had finished coaxing the fire into something warm and light-giving, he faced me and indicated the rocking chair.
‘Sit,’ he ordered.
‘I don’t appreciate being dictated to in my own house.’
‘Then stand,’ he said with a sneer.
Damn it. I couldn’t do either now without it seeming like I was obeying his instructions. So I perched defiantly on the corner of the kitchen table. He laughed heartily.
‘Just like her,’ he said to himself.
‘Like who?’ I asked.
He ignored my question and began opening and closing cupboards.
‘Got anything to drink?’
‘We’ve got milk, water, some apple juice that I pressed this morning, and some lemon barley,’ Edie said.
‘He doesn’t mean that kind of drink,’ I told her. ‘No, we don’t. But I hardly think you need any more,’ I said to him.
He laughed again. ‘So speaks the puritan. From what I’ve seen you and that giant drink at Nora’s, you’re not one to talk, love.’
‘What does he mean, Mai-?’
‘Nothing,’ I cut Aiden off. ‘Speaking of that giant, he’ll be back here shortly and when he finds you here you’ll wish you were never born.’
‘No, he’s not. He’s not due back until six tonight. Don’t lie to old Grimmy. Grimmy can always tell when people are lying,’ he said. ‘But enough of all this chatter, charming as it is. Do you want to know why I’m here and what I have to offer or not?’
‘Fine. It better be good,’ I growled.
‘I heard everything you were talking about tonight. Down by the shore. I heard what you and the giant and that fancy-pants Blueblood are planning and I want in. I can be of help,’ he said.
‘Help? Really? What’s your special skill, then? Making people pass out from your stench?’
‘And what’s yours? Running away and leaving others to take the flack?’ he retorted.
I gasped. He smiled when he saw my shocked expression. ‘That’s right, I know all about what happened in the Complex. Not bad detective work for an old drunk, is it?’
‘How do you know?’
‘It’s amazing what people will talk about in front of you when they think you’re nothing but a wasted old sot. No mind though, their prejudice is all to my advantage. I find out a lot of things when people think I’m not listening. Just like earlier. I heard all about your little scheme. And, like I said, I want in. I won’t take no for an answer.’
‘Why on earth should we let you? I don’t know you, you could be anyone. You could be a spy for the Mayor,’ I said.
‘Well, in that case you better kill me now.’ He slid a knife across the kitchen table and I caught the handle before it fell to the floor. ‘Go on. I won’t resist. If you really think I’m a spy you better end it now.’
I looked at the blade and back to the man, Grimmy. I put the knife back on the table and slid it away from me.
‘That’s right, love. You know I’m not a spy. You know, deep down, I’m on your side.’
And I did. I’m not sure how I knew but it says a lot for my judgement and the state of the Protectorate when a young girl is more willing to put her trust in a drunken tramp than a government official.
I thought back to his song:
We’ll walk together, down the line; and see the sun begin to shine;
the past is dead, our joy divine; our dream is won, the future’s mine
and I knew that I could put my faith in him.
‘That song you were singing. Where’s it from?’ I asked.
‘It was our anthem last time we rebelled. Eighteen years ago. The song that rallied us all. We used it in the underground resistance. If you heard someone else singing it, you knew you could trust them.’
‘I know it,’ I told him.
‘No, you don’t,’ he replied.
‘Excuse me, yes, I do. How do you know what I do and don’t know? Didn’t know you could read minds.’
‘I can’t read minds but I do know you’ve never heard it before. It was a secret song. Regina made it up. She was always clever. Only rebels knew it. And all the rebels are dead now. Executed. Apart from me. And I’ve never told anyone about it. I’m the last person alive who knows it so that’s how I know you’re lying.’
‘I have heard it before. You probably sang it to others when you were drunk. Probably everyone at Nora’s knows it,’ I insisted.
‘Wrong again, darling. I’ve sang it to no-one but you, last night. First time in eighteen years.’
‘Why me?’
He shrugged and said, ‘Just a look about you. About your eyes. Looked like her a little.’
‘Like Regina?’ I asked, but he had lost interest and began rooting around in the cupboard for food.
He found a small loaf of bread and started to rip chunks off with his teeth, dog-like.
‘Please, help yourself,’ I said sarcastically and moved to the sofa to sit with Edie and Aiden.
‘You were part of the resistance? How are you still alive? The giant’s – I mean Matthias’s – parents were part of the resistance but were executed after Regina abandoned them.’
‘Regina didn’t abandon us,’ he hissed, suddenly very angry. ‘She wouldn’t do that, I don’t believe it. The Mayor got her, I’m sure of it. Not my Regina.’
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant – after she disappeared. My friend’s parents were caught and killed. How are you still alive?’
‘What’s the giant’s last name?’
‘Redman.’
‘Ah yeah, the Redmans. They were very brave. After Regina disappeared, some of the others wanted to abandon the final push to take the Complex. But the Redmans argued that Regina would have wanted us to carry on. Brave but stupid. We couldn’t do it without her. Fell apart.’
‘That doesn’t answer my question,’ I said. ‘How come you survived the rebellion when everyone else got executed for it?’
His eyes looked downwards shiftily and refused to meet my gaze.
‘Oh,’ I said, softly, ‘looks like I’m not the only abandoner round here. Got scared, did you?’
‘I’m not scared of anything,’ he replied ‘least of all a scrawny teenager with an attitude problem.’
We stared at each other; he puffed himself up, his chin angled towards me in a hostile pose. It struck me how similar we both were. He pulled a thin cylinder of rolled-up tobacco leaves from the pocket of his wax jacket and thrust its end into the stove. It caught alight with a hiss and a thin wisp of blue smoke slithered from it, like a snake charmer coaxing a cobra into a dance. Grimmy put it to his mouth and inhaled deeply. He held it out to me. I declined.
‘I didn’t run away,’ he said after four longs puffs on the roll up. ‘I was the insider. Undercover. Worked in the Complex for the Mayor.’
‘You? A Parrot?’ It was like two opposing magnetic forces – I simply could not force the images of a clean, officious Parrot together with this flea-ridden vagrant before me.
‘Why so surprised? I was the Munitions Inspector for the armouries. Reported back the status in the factories and ensured output and safety standards. One of the highest positions.’
He took another long drag, deliberately blowing the cloud of smoke into my face, temporarily obscuring my view of him. ‘After we lost Regina, the other rebels knew that we didn’t stand a chance but they wanted to try anyway. I didn’t join them in the push for the Complex because I was supposed to be the
ir back-up in case it all went wrong. In the best case scenario, they took the Complex and killed the Mayor, I would come out of my undercover operation and begin a new munitions programme. Worst case scenario: rebellion failed, I was to go back to my undercover job – a sleeper cell, readily placed to start the resistance again with a new generation. They needed at least one person to remain anonymous to carry on the torch if they were all exposed and arrested. Unthinkable scenario: rebellion fails, Regina gone, rebels dead, Mayor and Metropole even more brutal than before, I was supposed to set in motion the final operation.’
‘What does that mean?’
He leaned forward, smoke seeping from the smouldering tobacco in his mouth, eyes glinting with malice. ‘Blow us all sky-high.’ He gestured an explosion with his hands and blew a jet of tobacco smoke towards the ceiling. ‘Brigadus … boom …’
Edie and Aiden gasped.
‘Kill everyone? Townspeople? Children?’ I was utterly horrified.
He nodded. ‘Better off dead. Only … I couldn’t do it. The unthinkable happened. Everyone dead but me. No hope. But still I couldn’t bring myself to light that fuse in the munitions factory …’
He suddenly looked sober.
‘I think you did the right thing,’ said Edie.
‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘Sometimes, I think that it’d be better if we were all gone. Let nature reclaim the world. Ruined beyond repair. Look at the state of us; look at what we’ve done. Better off if none of us had ever lived. Better late than never. If I had my chance again, I’d do it. No question, I’d do it and enjoy it. There are far more innocent things in this world than us and they deserve their chance.’
‘Why couldn’t you do it?’ I asked, feeling uncomfortable.
He quietly looked down at his hands, covered in dirt, grime deep-set into the lines of his palm and beds of his nails. ‘I thought she might still be alive somewhere. It was selfish. But I could never have killed her. Would never have been able to do it.’
‘You loved her,’ I said.
He nodded, then added bitterly, ‘It was never returned.’
He got up and staggered to the other end of the boat. ‘I’ve never forgiven myself for not doing it. For letting that moment pass. It’s haunted me forever. But now, you’ve given me a gift – a second chance. During the Coronation Ceremony, we’ll teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. I won’t let it slip away this time.’
