Just a little farther.
The tip of the blade touched the rope and the damumoto’s body dropped like a rock onto the rioters. I imagined several were crushed, but we were away so quickly I couldn’t tell. We lurched up, away from the fighters and then through the door. I slipped and dangled under the harness beside Volotora’s galloping hooves. The road they created was there. I didn’t know if I would land on it or fall through. But I couldn’t stay there, holding on with one leg and one hand. I closed my eyes and let go.
Chapter Twenty-seven
MY WINGS SNAPPED out on instinct and I sailed between the floor and wheels of the cardinal’s carriage. The knife was still in my hand. The sheath between my teeth. I shoved the sheath in my pocket and kept the knife in hand. The damumoto’s speed was increasing. Soon they’d be well away from me. I flapped so hard my wing joints burned, but I couldn’t catch up. There was no way.
“Volotora!” I screamed.
He turned his head and saw me. I think he said something and then looked at the enormous bank of windows ahead. They were going to go through it. It would kill them.
“No!”
There had to be a better way. I didn’t know what it was and there definitely wasn’t time to stop them. They outpaced me and I was struggling to stay within a foot of the carriage’s rear. I banked to the right and jolted to a stop, watching the carriage speed away. There was one chance of them surviving and clearing the building. It might reveal me, but I didn’t care. The cardinal had to get away. I waited, holding my breath.
Wait. Wait. Now!
I exploded the glass outward just as Volotora reached it. The red hot shards slicing through the icy outside air and the horses and carriage passed through them, without harm. I raced to the window and watched as the carriage sped away above the crowds of screaming Viennese fairies and turned a corner, heading toward the cathedral. Safe.
I spun around and realized I was in another dining room, one I hadn’t seen before. It had red walls and a rather small, small for royalty that is, dining table. Rioters and imperial guard were spilling through the door we’d come through, but no one was looking at me. I flew to the corner stove and looked for a fairy-sized door. No such luck. I needed to get into the servants’ hall to find the kitchens and Horc. I flew along the wall until I found the concealed human’s servants’ door. There was no fairy entrance, but there was a tiny keyhole. I darted through and made it into the servants’ hall. Surprisingly, it was empty. I took a second to breathe and see if I recognized anything. I did and I didn’t. All the halls kind of looked the same.
I flew down the hall and ran into a group of anubis huddled together. I backtracked and went through a stove on the other side of the hall. That led me into a red room with what looked like a ladder in it. Not familiar. I passed through a human doorway with weird rings hanging from the top and then through five more rooms, avoiding servants and guards. They were rushing around and nobody noticed me. Whatever was going on with the rioters, they hadn’t gotten to this part of the palace.
After making a million and a half turns, I ended up in the Sisi museum. I could’ve cried when I saw the super creepy red bust. A formation of anubis came in, fully armed and clearly searching for someone. I couldn’t afford any delays. At the very least they’d want to question me, and what was I there for anyway. Cleaning? In the Sisi museum during a riot? Not likely.
A human family walked past me and I darted close to the mother’s ear. I stayed between the soft curls of her hair and her large dangly earring. The mom walked around the glass display containing the dress where the school was. Under the ruffles were several fairies peeking out. I saw a flash of intense red. Lysander! I could ask him for directions. I stayed with the human until she reached the back of the dress. Then I darted down through the door and flew to the school entrance. I landed just outside the ruffle to the collective shock of the fairies inside.
“Who are you?” asked an angelo di pietra, his stony face angry and his halo bobbing around like crazy. Too bad it wasn’t Toratessi. She would’ve recognized me, but she’d laid her egg and was hopefully far from the craziness.
“I’m Mattie, the cardinal’s maid of all work. Is Lysander Mott here?”
The halo went still. “Yes, yes. I’ve seen you with Nanny.”
“What’s going on? asked an ashray. She had a group of students huddled around her, standing in pool of water that had dripped off her.
“I don’t really know. There’s a riot. I need to get to the kitchens. Is Lysander here?”
“Why do you need to go there?” asked the angelo di pietra.
“Because I have to get something. Please I have to go,” I said.
The crowd parted and Lysander squeezed through, carrying a snoozing Horc. “I have the something.”
I took Horc and cuddled him to my chest. “Thank goodness.”
Horc yawned and said, “I am hungry. Where is my meat?”
“No time for that. We have to go.” I touched Lysander’s warm hand. “Thank you and tell Nanny I went back to the cathedral.”
Horc touched my face. “You are bleeding.”
The ashray gasped. “You are. What happened to you?”
“Well, there were some rioters in the stables. Long story.” I turned and found an anubis blocking my path.
“You aren’t authorized,” it said in German.
I responded in English, just to be annoying. “I am too. I’m a new maid.” I tried to walk past him.
“My orders are to detain any unauthorized personnel.” He stuck his sword in my face.
“I just told you that I work here.”
The anubis’s dog face remained expressionless.
“I have to go. Now. It’s an emergency.”
“A cleaning emergency?” The anubis lifted his lip and showed me one of his canine teeth in a sneer.
I gave Lysander a pleading look and then said, “Not exactly.”
“You will have to wait,” said the anubis.
Lysander drew me aside. Unfortunately, the rest of the fairies gathered around us.
“What’s the emergency?” he asked in what I took for a whisper.
“This is the cardinal’s blood.”
The angelo di pietra gasped and pressed his hands together in prayer.
“Where is he?” asked a wood fairy in the back.
“He escaped in his carriage. I have to make sure he gets back to St. Stephen’s,” I said.
“The damumoto will ensure that,” said the ashray. “You should stay here where it’s safe.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. From what I’d seen the rioters could break through at any time. And it didn’t matter anyway. The cardinal needed me. I wasn’t going to hang out in safety while he died.
“I have to go. It’s my job,” I said.
“You’re a maid of all work,” pointed out the wood fairy. “He needs a healer, not a good scrubbing.”
Lysander watched me through all this with thoughtful eyes. “Mattie is bound to the cardinal. She was there when he was attacked. She must tell the master secretary what happened.”
“Yes. That,” I said. “I have to tell the master secretary.”
The angelo di pietra nodded. “Your loyalty does you credit, but leave Master Horc with us. Danger to yourself is one thing. Danger to a child is another.”
I bit my lip. Was Horc safer at the school or with me? I didn’t have a reputation for safety. As the commander said disaster was my middle name. Still, who was better at protection, me or a bunch of teachers? He had to go with me. “He’s my brother. We stick together.”
Lysander turned to the anubis. “She is who she says she is. Let her through.”
The anubis scoffed. “As if I’d listen to you. Everyone knows what you are. For all we know, you could’ve organized the riot. You were at the opera, conveniently enough.”
The angelo di pietra’s halo went crazy. “How dare you? This is the emperor’s kapellmeister.”
“I’m aware of what he is,” said the anubis with something like a smile.
“If you have something to say,” said Lysander, “just say it.”
“I would—”
The troll I’d seen in the kitchen barged through the crowd and stuck a large red finger in the black chest of the anubis. “Say nothing as the emperor ordered. Let the girl pass. It’s her peril.”
“You have no authority over me. You’re a pastry chef,” said the anubis, but I think I saw him quake.
The troll drew up to his full height. His horns tented up the fabric and he towered over the anubis. “Say that again.”
“Fine. She may go. Only because you vouched for her.” The anubis stepped aside and Lysander and I walked past with what I hoped was plenty of dignity. We cleared the ruffle and watched as a formation of winged guard passed outside the case.
“Thank you,” I said, hoisting Horc higher on my hip and spreading my wings.
Lysander held me back and whispered close to my face. “How is the empress?”
“How would I know? I’m here to clean.”
Lysander didn’t let go and a pain started in my chest. That stupid contract. I wasn’t going to say anything.
“Mattie, don’t you understand how we need her?” he asked.
“I get it. Let go.”
He pulled me closer and the scent of evergreen came over me. “Do we need to evacuate the school?”
I blinked in surprise. “What? I don’t know.”
“If she’s dead…”
The other fairies had come to the edge of the ruffle and were looking at us. I turned away and said under my breath, “I saw her in passing. Alive.” I wrenched my arm out of his hand and darted for the door.
Please don’t let that be a lie. Please let her be protected.
Horc put his arms around my neck and kissed my cheek with a meaty smack. “You always come for me.”
“Always.” I flew through the rest of the museum and found it surprisingly quiet. There were imperial guards everywhere as well as a new kind of guard. They wore blue jackets with gold epaulets and carried long straight swords. They paid no attention to a maid with a spriggan and I made it to the museum entrance without a problem.
I flew down the steps past the Empress Elizabeth silhouette and found a huge crowd hovering above the human tourists coming into the museum. They were jostling each other for a better look. Some had blood on them and carried pikes. I dove down and darted between human legs until I passed through the main archway. I flew around the edge of the domed entrance area until I reached the exit. I glanced back and that’s when I saw what the crowd was straining to see. A golden floating platform was in the center of the area. Dragons and imperial guard surrounded it, armed so heavily I wondered how they managed to stay aloft. It reminded me of a wedding cake with many tiers. On the top tier stood the empress, wearing her gloves and looking as though nothing in the world could ever harm her. She raised her hand and the crowd began to settle. The empress spoke, but she was far enough away that I couldn’t make out her lips clearly.
“What’s she saying?” I asked Horc.
“I am well and…something about bloodshed.”
“What about it?”
“I cannot hear her clearly,” said Horc.
The crowd began cheering and darting around, high-fiving each other.
The dragons scanned the crowd, spouting fire, and taking swipes at those who got too close. One of them was Ovid, the troublemaker dragon. He looked over the crowd and to my surprise he spotted me. He turned his head sideways and focused his yellow eye on me.
“Oh, no,” I said.
But then, instead of coming over to give me a good pee, which I totally expected, he nodded and went back to hissing at the crowd.
“Weird,” I said.
“Let us go home to lunch,” said Horc.
I turned and flew out of the palace at my top speed. We were going back to the cathedral, but I feared lunch wasn’t on the menu.
The cardinal’s carriage sat under Anton Pilgram’s nose at the pulpit. Volotora and the remaining damumoto were still in harness, their lovely heads hanging low and bits of white foam dropping from their mouths to the floor. I flew over the carriage and went directly to the servants’ entrance. Before I could land the master secretary appeared in the entrance. He braced himself against the wall, but wobbled on his feet as if he’d just gotten the worst of blows. The cardinal. I was too late.
I fluttered backwards and took deep breaths to get ready to hear what I knew he would say. I’d failed. I’d taken too long to get back. The master secretary lifted his head and focused on me. Sort of. Maybe. His neck wasn’t quite holding up his head right. He opened his mouth and, instead of speaking, he pitched forward and fell off the entrance. I was so astonished that all I could do was watch as his little dwarf body landed on Anton’s sleeve, slid over the curved edge, and finally came to rest on the skinny drafting tool he held in his hand.
I recovered and zipped down. “Sir, I’m here. Just stay still.”
Horc jumped out of my arms and landed next to him. “There is no blood.”
“I know.” I ran my hands over his head and down his short limbs. His eyes were on me but unfocused, kind of like he was drunk. That could happen from a head wound. “Sir, do you know who I am?”
He let out the longest burp I’d ever seen and that’s saying something considering that I lived with Horc. “You’re that upstart maid of no work and all other things.”
Horc and I looked at each other. Then I took a tentative sniff of his breath, totally expecting to smell wine at the very least, but there was no alcohol, only a slight meatiness.
“Sir, what happened?” I asked. “Where’s the cardinal?”
“I came to go but I didn’t went.”
Huh?
I checked his head again. Not even a bump.
“Have you been drinking, sir?” I asked.
“I drink don’t.”
That was true, if he meant it the way I took it. The master secretary didn’t drink. He was much too serious. He wouldn’t even have a glass of Chianti with the cardinal.
“Have you been attacked?” I asked.
“Stupid girl.”
I guess not. I looked around. Where was everyone? The cardinal arrives in a beat-up carriage, missing a damumoto, and mostly dead, and no one is around. I expected Lonica to be freaking out at the very least.
“Sir, where is the cardinal? I need to see the cardinal.”
He pointed a limp hand at the carriage and burped again.
“Stay here,” I said.
Burp.
I landed next to the carriage and whipped the door open and there he was. The cardinal, still inside and unconscious. I climbed in and took his pulse. Same as at the palace. Maybe a little worse. He was sweating and he’d vomited on his robes. All the superficial cuts had stopped bleeding on their own, which was good.
“Your Grace? Can you hear me?” I asked stroking his cheek.
His eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t respond. Great.
“Volotora! Volotora!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
The great horse appeared at the window, breathing hard but bright-eyed. “Yes, Mattie.”
“How long were you here before I arrived?” I asked.
“A few minutes. Not longer. We had some trouble. How is the cardinal?” Volotora asked.
“Not good. Where is everyone?”
“You know as much as I do. I expected everyone to come running when we landed as we did, but no one came.”
“This is freaking me out,” I said.
“I can see that, but I can’t change it,” he said. “You’ll have to treat him here.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“No games, Mattie. The cardinal is dying and the master secretary is…unavailable. It’s down to you and we both know what you’re capable of.”
I didn’t answer that. I couldn’t, not without admi
tting my true nature.
“He’ll have to stay here until I can get someone to help carry him.”
“Agreed.” The damumoto tossed his head back. “Help may be on the way.”
A fairy with small yellow wings and a suit made of green silk came to the door. “Excuse me. Do you work here?”
“Yes,” I said. “Who are you?”
“Graham Munt,” he said with a pleasant smile. “We were supposed to meet a docent for a tour, but no one came.” He leaned in the carriage and saw the cardinal with a start. “Is that who I think it is?”
“I’m afraid so. Have you seen anyone else that works here?”
“There were a few fairies wearing red, but they were acting like they were drunk. Do you need some help?” asked Mr. Munt.
I bit my lip and concentrated. I felt no ill will coming from the tourist, just a little bewilderment. “How many have you got with you?”
“There are ten of us.” He gestured to a group of yellow-winged fairies craning their necks at us. “It’s a family trip.”
“Good. I need you to bring the master secretary down from that ledge before he falls off and then start gathering all the other drunk fairies together here.”
“Righty-o.” Mr. Munt and his family flew up to the ledge and I took the cardinal’s pulse again. He needed my tea, but I’d have to leave him to make it.
“Volotora, I have to go get some stuff. Can you defend the cardinal if necessary?” I asked.
He snorted and flames shot out of his nostrils a whole inch in the air. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s in good hands.”
“Hooves.”
“Whatever.” I got out and crossed paths with the Munt family flying the master secretary and Horc down from their perch. I darted into the servants’ hall and ran past all the apartments until I got to the cardinal’s. The door was open and Aoife was lying on the rug, snoring. Little poofs of green glittery dust burst out of her mouth with each breath.
Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four) Page 27
