Moonlands

by Steven Savile

  Blaze returned a moment later, and she knew he must have been watching her, at least for a while. He had food. They ate.

  An hour later they were walking again.

  Ashley began to pick out more details on the tower itself; first there were the windows that looked like tears, and then she saw the balconies and terraces that ringed the Shard. They seemed to divide it into tiers. There were towers growing out from the tower, each of these easily as big as a skyscraper. It was huge. It was more of a mountain than a tower. Actually it was more of a mountain-fortress than a tower. There was a high wall around the Shard, with a moat and drawbridge ringing around that. Gigantic links of rusting chain that fed back up into the tower wall anchored the drawbridge in place. Jagged tooth-like spikes guarded the gate that the drawbridge led to. Beyond the she could see a courtyard filled with garishly coloured tents and stalls of a marketplace that teemed with life.

  There was a thriving city behind the high wall.

  It was a hive, she thought, looking up at the windows, and the Shard is the honeycomb in the centre.

  She couldn't possibly begin to guess how many windows there were, but they all had one thing in common: someone or something lurked behind them, watching their approach.

  "Why are they all staring at us?"

  "Vultures," Blaze snorted. "Ignore them."

  "But how did they know we were coming?"

  "Word travels fast."

  "But we haven't seen anyone apart from Grimtooth and the Mere."

  "The Redpelts will have sent word to Jax, and the Coribrae have been feeding the King Under the Moon reports since they found you. There are no secrets here. Too many people have a vested interest in what happens to you, princess. It would be naïve to think we could just walk into the heart of the Kingdoms unseen. That is why I wanted the others to spread the word, let the world know you were coming. I wanted them here today to witness your return. So let them watch." With that, they set foot on the drawbridge.

  Ashley didn't say anything as they crossed to the other side. Every creak and groan of the old wood made her twitch. She couldn't help it. She knew that the bridge was the point of no return.

  She was a dead girl walking.

  Ashley should have been frightened, but for the first time since crossing over into the Moonlands, she wasn't.

  She drew in a deep breath and looked at Blaze for reassurance. He nodded.

  They went through the gate into the city.

  There were guards that wore beautiful silver-lacquered armour with the symbol of the seven moons embossed on the breastplate and helmets with their visors down. They could have been statues for all the life they exhibited. There could have been any nature of creature under their armour, living or dead. They didn't move so much as an inch as Blaze and Ashley walked between them.

  It was a shock going from the solitude of the road to the press of heaving and sweaty bodies crammed into the courtyard. But even thinking of it as a courtyard was wrong, it was so much bigger than that. It was a city that had grown up behind the wall: a huge, dirty, smelly, claustrophobic city.

  For all that, the single most overwhelming thing she noticed was the noise. It was deafening. She was assailed on all sides by the constant chatter of barkers as they tried to drum up custom, "Getchur fresh fruit here! Pomegranates and Pears! Fresh off the boat!", "Luscious ripe tomatoes, so juicy they'll stain your chin like blood!", "Straaaaaaawberries, blackberries, and cloud berries! Any berry you want, we've got coming out of our ears!" and so on, all of them calling out their wares.

  Ashley watched them, fascinated not by the differences to home but the similarities. They weren't hawking incredible hybrid fruits she'd never heard of, their stalls weren't laden with foreign-looking Moon fruits, Gildebars and Froobers or whatever other imaginary name imaginary food would have. They had apples and oranges, pears and plums and damsons and cherries. And just like home, shoppers haggled over the prices and the freshness of vegetables with sharp-faced stallholders laughing off their complaints.

  Other stalls had cuts of meat being dressed by butchers, some had flowers and bolts of cloth and earthenware.

  Everything your heart could desire.

  She looked around the crowd at the faces.

  Back home the one telling detail would be just how different everyone looked, every body type, every hair colour, every eye colour and complexion gathered in one place, but here every shopper seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to the man or woman beside them. They shared the same delicate bone structure and the same fair complexion and thin straight hair. It was as though they were all part of the same family. And, in a way they were.

  Fae, she thought. They're all Fae. Every single one of them.

  It wasn't a shocking realisation. This wasn't London, after all. But it brought home just how far from home she really was. Even as she struggled to take it all in and come to terms with the enormity of the Shard—and the entire city wrapped around it—Blaze whispered, "You need to do this alone. I cannot help you now." And propelled her forward.

  He seemed to change once they set foot inside the Shard. It was more than the fact that he had returned to Wolfen form—she knew that made sense if they were going to have to fight—but he drew himself more erect, baring his fangs and extending his claws. Over the long road she'd managed to forget what the book had told her, and the juggler, Targyn, and all the rest of the warnings she'd had and only remembered that her companion had saved her life, that he had become her friend, and that when she had kissed him her entire life—which was already upside down—had turned inside out.

  She'd wanted to believe that somehow just the very fact that he knew her had changed him.

  It hadn't.

  He was still the same Blackwater Blaze that had been sent over to London to kill her.

  A curious thought struck her: Grimtooth had called him Kinslayer. He hadn't denied it. She'd assumed the Rock Troll was referring to the dead Redpelts, but what if he had been referring to something else? The only thing she knew was that she didn't actually know anything about her champion, not really. He could have been the truth behind the Big Bad Wolf for all she knew.

  Ashley took a deep breath and thought for a moment about running.

  It was then that something caught her eye: a shimmer of movement on one of the balconies up above. She followed the direction of it with her gaze, and saw him. It was like looking in a mirror and being confronted by an older masculine version of herself. He had the same shock of red hair, the same paler than pale complexion, and no doubt the same shock of freckles. He wore armour like the guards, but his suit was white which only served to make him seem even paler to the point of being ghostly. The King Under the Moon.

  He looked down at her.

  She looked up at him.

  If she had expected any great connection to suddenly form between them, she would have been disappointed.

  There was nothing.

  She held his gaze, thinking: You might look like me, but you're not my father. My father isn't the man I look most like, he's the man I most want to be like.

  As though he sensed her dismissal, the King Under the Moon turned to go back inside. And as he did, something happened to his face. The change was slight but startling because it looked so wrong. Perhaps it was a trick of the light? Perhaps it was nothing more sinister than shadows cast from the balcony above him moving across it? Or perhaps it was something else? Something less benign? In that moment a writhing mass of black replaced his pale elfin features. The black moved. It wriggled. It squirmed, and slowly it formed an entirely different set of features, far uglier than the pale king's. When he looked at her now it was with pure black hatred. And then that mask broke apart as the black shifted and twisted again. The shadows took on a life of their own. They were like tentacles. Like feelers. Alive.

  But as quickly as they came they were gone and the King's pale mask was back in place.

  He disappeared back inside the Shard leaving As
hley to doubt what she'd just seen.

  Blaze stood still beside her. "You saw him?"

  Ashley nodded.

  "He is waiting for you."

  "I know."

  She kept looking up at the tower.

  From this angle, she could see she'd been wrong; it wasn't a single tower, it was deceptive, but the Shard was actually made up of seven smaller towers that supported the huge structure and prevented it from toppling. There wasn't a single smooth line, either. Every one of those supporting towers—themselves vast structures that could have housed thousands of people, she realised, finally beginning to appreciate the scale of the thing—seemed to be all sharp angles and jagged contours, as though blasted out of the earth itself with dynamite and the courtyard city had grown up around the towers over a period of years, constantly expanding outwards, building up its own walls, and finally outgrowing them and building some more.

  There were seven walls.

  That number again. Seven. Like the moons.

  "It's too late to go back home to London I suppose?" Ashley said. It was a joke, but in every joke there was a grain of truth.

  "He is expecting a weak girl raised in ignorance away from the old magic that flows through her veins. He is expecting a child who will fall on her knees and beg for mercy at the mere sight of him. He is expecting to win this and end Titania's line forever. Show him how wrong he is."

  "No pressure, then." She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm ready."

  Blaze nodded.

  He pushed his way through the throng, snarling at anyone stupid enough not to move immediately. Most of them did. All of them knew who he was, and who she was, that much was obvious.

  She followed, stepping into the gaps he made.

  She kept her head held up high.

  In the back of her mind a little voice kept protesting: I'm just an ordinary girl. I'm just Ashley. I'm nothing special. I'm just me. She refused to listen to it.

  The walked like that for several minutes, pushing their way across the courtyard towards the nearest of the seven inner towers. The place was teeming with people. And they all smelled ripe. It was obvious they had come en masse to see the return of the Fae Queen's daughter—though it was far from obvious whether they supported her or wanted to see her fail.

  They were halfway across the courtyard when the seemingly constant hubbub stopped.

  Suddenly it was so quite she could have heard a church mouse fart at a hundred paces never mind a pin drop.

  She didn't need to ask what they were all looking at.

  Everyone was looking at her, or more precisely, the sword in her hand.

  "She comes wielding Midnight," someone whispered. "It is her, truly," another barely breathed. "I never thought to see the Fae Queen's blade in my life time." And "The poor girl is going to die, isn't she? Look at her: she is barely a child. The King Under the Moon will eat her alive."

  Her hand tightened around the sword's hilt.

  And then one of the onlookers dropped to one knee. Tugging at his forelock, the man bowed his head. "My Queen," he said.

  Ashley didn't know how to react.

  One of the guards bellowed: "Up!"

  The man stumbled in his hurry to stand.

  No one else dared move.

  Even more people looked at her now, if that were possible. She felt incredibly self-conscious.

  And then another, and another followed suit until more than fifty of them knelt before her, each saying the words "My Queen," unable to look at her.

  The guard was enraged. She saw his fist clenching and unclenching around the hilt of his weapon, but realised he wasn't about to draw the blade. He was frightened. If he got this wrong the entire crowd could turn on him and it didn't matter if he was only acting on the King's behalf, they would tear him to shreds if she gave the word.

  That realisation scared her.

  "Have some respect, man," the guard rasped. "You're a Spiker, you do not bow down before filth just because she is wielding the dead queen's sword," he shook his head. "And you," he barked at the man on his knees beside him, "You're a Lallagan, your chief would be disgusted to see you snivelling around this girl like some arse kisser." He looked at the crowd. All of them. "Don't think this will be forgotten, any of you. Go home. Go."

  The men and women rose slowly, but one woman stayed on her knees, head bowed.

  The guard walked up to her and kicked her hard in the back, but still the woman didn't flinch and didn't stand.

  "I said up!" The guard roared.

  This time the woman did look up, her eyes filled with hate and loathing for everything the guard stood for.

  "My Queen has returned," the woman said slowly, "show her some respect before I cut your tongue out and present it to her as an offering."

  The guard went deathly pale.

  "You will not talk to me like that, woman," he said, but as she stood and he saw the silver dagger in her hand he made sure he stepped four steps further away from her.

  "My Queen," she turned to Ashley. "Would you like me to silence this idiot once and for all?"

  Ashley shook her head. "That won't be necessary, but thank you."

  "As you wish. It is good to see you home, Ashkellion, daughter of Tanaquill."

  "It's good to be home," Ashley said, surprised to find she actually meant it.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  The Chamber of the Moon

  Redpelts met them at the entrance to the Chamber of the Moon and barred their way.

  Blackwater Blaze stared them down as he approached.

  "The King is expecting us," he said, coldly. "This is Ashkellion. She has come to claim her birthright. The Briar Crown is hers."

  "And can she not speak for herself, Lone Wolf?" The Redpelt sneered.

  "She can," Ashley said, "Now stand aside. I will not be denied entry to the Council of the Moon. I am sure my father is waiting for me. And I am sure he wouldn't want to be kept waiting longer than necessary." She looked at Blaze. "And think about this, once we go through that door Blackwater Blaze will cease to be a Lone Wolf. You might want to choose your words wisely. I think he's likely to hold a grudge, don't you?"

  Blaze growled low in his throat, the sound full of menace.

  The Redpelts matched it, the same low-frequency challenge rumbling from their throats.

  Blaze flexed his claws, ready to tear their throats out if needs be.

  The door to the Chamber of the Moon opened behind the Redpelts.

  It saved their lives.

  They didn't so much as flinch as the Occulator said smoothly, "Ah, so Blackwater Blaze has finally returned, and he has brought the troublesome child with him? How marvellous. Well, what are you waiting for, come inside. The King is waiting. Let's end this nonsense now, shall we?"

  The Redpelt guards each took a single step back and to the side, allowing Blaze to stand face-to-face with Redhart Jax.

  If Blaze had expected the Occulator's black heart and blacker thoughts to ooze out across the space between them he was going to be disappointed. He trusted Jax about as far as he would be able to throw his lifeless corpse, but Jax seemed intent to treat him like the conquering hero returned.

  For now.

  "So let me get a good look at you, child."

  Blaze didn't move. He kept himself between Jax and Ashley, not willing to risk dropping his guard for a single moment. He didn't trust Jax in the slightest, and was right not to. They had come this far together. Getting the girl killed now, this close to her the Dragon Seats and his absolution wouldn't just be careless, it would be nothing short of tragic.

  "Well, I have to admit that I was expecting something more," Jax said. "After everything my birds have told me, I was sure you were a two headed demon with six fiery swords who would come striding into the Council of the Moon to claim my scalp and kill us all."

  "Very perceptive, those birds of yours," Ashley said.

  "Perhaps, perhaps not. We will learn the truth of it soon enough, but now th
at you had the bad grace to turn up here and force the King's hand, we shall do this properly. I'll tell you what is going to happen. You are going to be humiliated. You are going to be broken. You are going to crawl away into a gutter and die. That is the only truth of what is going to happen here. You won't walk into that room and become a queen. You should have stayed a long, long way away from here. He might have let you live."

  "That is kind of you," Ashley said, slowly, gauging her next words carefully. "However it is a lie, and I shall tell you how I know it is a lie. I know because you sent Blackwater Blaze's pack to my home to kill me. I know because you couldn't risk his failure and unleashed the Nightgaunt intending to kill both of us rather than leave things to chance. So keep your lies for someone who might believe them."

  Jax shrugged—not prepared to make a fight out of it when there were others to witness the standoff—and turned his back on Blaze, walking back into the Chamber of the Moon.

  When they didn't immediately move to follow, Jax turned to ask, "Are you planning on staying out there all day? If so I'll arrange for food to be sent."

  Blaze turned to Ashley.

  "Do not leave my side, no matter what he says or does. Understood?"

  "I've got no intention of doing anything stupid."

  "Your father is waiting in there. Are you ready?"

  "I'm ready." She didn't move. "But he's not my father. He hasn't been for sixteen years. He's a stranger who wants me dead."

  They walked into the Chamber of the Moon side-by-side.

  The chamber never ceased to humble Blaze.

  It was unlike any other room in all of the Kingdoms. There was an opening in the centre of the ceiling that allowed the blue moonlight to stream down into the room. The ceiling itself was more than one hundred feet above, with a gallery running around the round room, allowing spectators to sit in session, watching the business of the Kingdoms play out on the floor of the chamber. The blue moons, Aerlion and Aetherion, were visible through the ocular hole that opened on the heavens. The light of the moons spiralled down the long glassy chute inside the tower. It just seemed to go up and up and up and never end.