by KJ Harlow
“I’m fine,” I said forcing a smile. “Are you ready to play hide and seek?”
Tor’s head seemed to be in the clouds as we walked through Buckingham Palace. He wouldn’t tell me who ‘they’ were. It was lucky we hadn’t come across any more waves of Conflicted because I wasn’t sure that he would be ready to take them down in this state. It was lucky that Sid and Agatha were alert, despite being in awe of the residence of the royal family. We had passed through a number of state rooms that were unoccupied. Now we were in the section of the Palace where the staff resided.
“I’ve never stayed in a five-star hotel, but I dare say that this is what it must be like,” Sid said as he peeked into yet another bedroom. There was a dull aching pain in my hands as I tried fruitlessly to flex my fingers.
“If these are the servants’ quarters, imagine what it must be like going into the bedrooms of the royal family,” I said. I yelped as my hand bumped into a round table on which an ornamental vase stood. Reaching out in vain, I watched as it fell to the floor. Bracing for it to shatter, I watched in surprise as it clanked onto the floor, stagnant flower water splashing out.
“Don’t touch anything!” Agatha said, chastising me. I looked ruefully at her, mumbling an apology. Usually, Tor would have rushed to stop the vase from falling and asked me if my hands were OK. This time he walked ahead, not noticing what had happened. I thought back to our session of 21 Questions we had after I had walked in on him training topless in The Room. He had said that he and Matylda had grown up together. Were they siblings like Mortimer and Sid? Were ‘they’ other people that he had grown up with?
“Rule Number Four,” Sid said under his breath. He looked at me. “What if this is all a trap? Matylda could just be buying Mortimer time to go after the royal family and assassinate them.” I exchanged grim looks with Agatha. It was entirely possible but not something we were willing to entertain.
“This is not a trap,” Tor said hollowly. It had been the first thing he said since Matylda had left the guest room. He looked at me his eyes dark and fathomless. “Matylda wouldn’t tell me ‘they’ are alive for no reason. She wouldn’t lie to me about that.” He turned back to the front and started walking again but I barred his way.
“Yes she would, she’s a Tormented!” I shouted. “Their existence is powered by the absence of truth!” For the first time since I’d met him, he looked wretched. I looked deeply into his eyes, trying to find what it was he wasn’t telling me. Before I could find anything, his mask was back on.
“The absence of truth doesn’t mean that they would lie,” he said, a hard edge underlining his response. He stepped around me and continued to move forward.
“Rose…” Agatha began. I held one of my heavily bandaged hands up. She shut her mouth before she could anything and followed after Tor, her habit soundlessly brushing against the carpet. Sid stopped and looked at me sympathetically.
“You’re doing the right thing by asking,” he said gently. I looked into his wrinkled face, lined with years of regret. “He’ll open up to you eventually.”
“You don’t know Tor,” I said sullenly. “He was a Norwegian soldier before he became a Deliverer. He’s used to not talking about his feelings. I only just started to get him to open up to me then that brat Matylda appears and undoes everything.” I looked down at my hand, wanting to clench it. Sid looked at my hand then turned to me.
“If there’s one thing I wish I did all those years back, it’s telling Mortimer that I was his brother.” Sid sighed as he looked up at one of the ornate portraits on the wall. Seeing that Agatha and Tor were about 10 yards in front, we started walking to catch up to them. “I thought he was better off not knowing who I was but it’s only after the damage was done that I can see that I was wrong.” He looked down at his feet contritely. “You have to keep trying.”
I looked at Sid. His hands were in the small of his back as he reminisced. I couldn’t believe I thought this man was crazy when I found him at Westminster Station. Not only was he an adept medic, he was also thoughtful with his wisdom. Glancing forward, Tor’s wide back sagged as he kept moving forward. After seeing Matylda, it seemed like he was being saddled with something that weighed heavily on his shoulders and mind.
“Where are we now?” I asked, catching up to Agatha. The rows of doors leading to servants’ quarters had stopped as we entered a darkened hall. Agatha and Tor held their guns up to their chests. Looking at one another, they nodded then opened the double doors. I stayed behind Tor as he started firing at the Conflicted Queen’s Guards on either side of the room. Sid pounced to the front and also started Ridding the Conflicted. They lined both sides of the room and crumpled as soon as the Lucent Guns’ bullets hit them.
“Wait!” Tor barked, holding up a hand. Agatha and Sid stopped firing. When the black ash cleared, we could see why he ordered us to cease fire: the remaining Conflicted in the room weren’t fighting back. They stood motionless unaware that their colleagues had left this world.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Sid asked under his breath.
“Because I told them not to.” Matylda’s voice floated in from the far end of the room where two thrones proudly stood. She stepped out from behind one of them, wearing a resplendent dress fit for a princess. With three Lucent Guns trained on her, she walked out and stood in front of us. She swished the dress about and looked up, smiling at us. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? I wonder what it would have been like to be a princess.” She sighed as she sat down on one of the thrones.
“Why aren’t you attacking us?” Agatha asked tersely.
“Because I don’t want to fight.” Matylda leaned back and crossed her legs. “Go on, shoot me. I don’t–” I jumped as a gun went off. There was a slight tremor in Tor’s hands as smoke floated lazily from the barrel. Agatha pointed my Lucent Gun at the Conflicted on her right, but they didn’t budge. We waited a few seconds before Matylda reanimated. A red stain where Tor had shot her bloomed through her dress. She cleared her throat.
“You have found me. A deal’s a deal. I will tell you where Mortimer is. In exchange, I want Tor to stay here with me. I need to speak to him in private.” Her dark eyes darted across to Tor, who kept his gun pointed at her. He was now beginning to sweat. She sat forward, putting her elbows on her knees as she looked at him intently. “Erik, Dasha, Viktor…” she smiled as Tor’s breath caught in his throat. “They escaped. They are alive. All of them.” Right then in that moment, Tor had eyes for no one but Matylda. He slowly holstered his gun then, as if in a trance, he plodded over to Matylda and sat on the throne next to her. She smiled at him sweetly before glancing back at us.
“Mortimer has gone down into the secret tunnel that runs beneath the Palace and Clarence House.” Sid flinched as Matylda threw something towards him. It twinkled as it landed. Agatha picked up the key and pocketed it. “Go through the door on the right,” Matylda said, waving vaguely towards it. Her eyes stayed fixated on Tor, who stared at the floor in front of him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said quietly, looking desperately at Tor.
“Rose,” Tor said, his voice barely audible. “Go.” He didn’t look up at me. I didn’t budge. Agatha approached me, trying to thread her hand around my arm. I violently jerked away from her.
“No!” I yelled. “Tor, what’s going on?” He kept staring into the floor, not blinking.
“Go.”
Twenty-Five
Agatha, Sid and I walked in silence, each preoccupied with our own thoughts. I couldn’t shake the image of Tor’s face as he sat next to Matylda. ‘Erik’, ‘Dasha’ and ‘Viktor’… whoever these people were, they rocked him to his core. Matylda didn’t make matters better. I didn’t know what was worse: when she was trying shooting at me or when she didn’t want to. Vision of her looking sweetly at Tor refused to disappear even when I violently shook my head.
I looked at my heavily bandaged hands and focused on the dull throbbing pain, which seemed to clear my head.
Agatha suddenly held up her hand, making Sid and I stop.
“What is it?” I said under my breath.
“How long have we been walking for?” She asked. I had been so caught up in thoughts about Tor that I had no idea.
“15 minutes or so,” Sid said quietly. Agatha looked behind me. Even though it was a secret tunnel, it was cozy and inviting. Warm globe lamps illuminated the path along regular intervals. The walls looked like they had been freshly redone with intricate, cream-colored wallpaper. “Why, what’s the matter?” Agatha became very still as she looked at Sid.
“It feels like too long since we have been attacked,” she said. “There haven’t been any traps laid for us either.” I looked at Sid. Now that I thought about it, it did feel like we had been alone down here for quite a while. He gave a half smile and chuckled.
“We’re not a popular bunch, are we?” I looked at him and shook my head.
“Not to the Tormented, we aren’t.” He looked at me, then stepped forward to Agatha, laying a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t you worry Agatha. We’ll turn the corner and I’m sure there will be a massive hoard of Conflicted who are dying to make us feel welcome.” His sarcasm was laid on so thick I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. That seemed to make Agatha relax as she smiled too. Sid walked between us to the front. “Come on, I’ll take the lead for a while now.” We turned the corner and there weren’t any Conflicted, just another straight path that seemed to go on for about 30 yards. Agatha kept looking back over her shoulder as if she expected Mortimer to spring a surprise attack on her at any moment.
“Do you like Sid?” I said, making sure that we were out of earshot. Agatha snapped her head forward so fast I was afraid that she would get whiplash.
“What?” she blurted out loud. Sid looked back at us, smiling faintly. I shook my head, beckoning him to keep walking. “Why are you asking such absurd–”
“It’s just that Mortimer and Sid are such different men, but there’s something about them both that makes you weak at the knees.” Agatha opened her mouth in outrage.
“He does not make me weak at the knees!” She scoffed, her pink cheeks betraying her.
“Will you two keep it down?” Sid said. Agatha and I were stunned into silence by his sudden brusqueness. “I think I hear gunshots.” I shut out every other sound in the room and focused. There it was! There was intermittent gunfire, but it sounded like it was coming from far away.
“That must be Mortimer,” Sid murmured, “it must be. If he’s gone and shot the Queen of England in the head I’m going to…” he rounded another corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Gun fire erupted as he sprang back towards us, drawing his Lucent Gun at the same time. In a fraction of a second, Agatha had drawn my Lucent Gun from her holster, pointing it forward.
“Why isn’t it changing?” She said looking at the gun before it dawned on her. We heard several dozen footsteps marching towards us, about to turn the corner at any second. “Damn it!” She swore. “We are going to have to do this the hard way.” Sid backed up until he stood side by side with Agatha, keeping me behind them.
“Here they come!” He yelled. He opened fire as soon as he saw the first of the Conflicted Queen’s Guard coming around the corner. They collapsed, tripping up the ones coming from behind them. Agatha gritted her teeth, trying to stem the tide of Conflicted that were coming from behind the first wave.
“Get back!” She ordered. I ran back about 10 yards, putting enough distance between me and the Conflicted to dodge their bullets but not far enough to not be able to see Sid and Agatha. She had begun to side step towards the other wall, giving her better access to the Conflicted around the corner, but putting herself at higher risk of being shot. Sid stayed close to the left wall, continuing to incapacitate the Conflicted that appeared closest to him.
Together, they pushed back the Conflicted until all that remained of them were their rifles. All of a sudden, Agatha fell to her knee. I rushed toward her, clumsily collecting her body as she crumpled to the floor. My bandaged hands now were stained with her blood as I ran them over her habit to try and find the source of her bleeding. She had been shot in the right side of her chest. Not lethal but she was bleeding out – fast.
“Agatha!” Sid shouted, running over.
“Don’t worry,” Agatha rasped. “Remember, we’re already dead.” She swallowed and coughed as Sid pulled out his little medical kit. Mustering what was left of her energy, she looked up at me. “Just… try and stem the flow.” Sid fumbled as he pulled open Agatha’s habit and extracted the bullet from her chest cavity. She cried out in agony as he tossed it away.
“I need to see Mortimer,” Agatha said weakly, her face pale. Sid hesitated for a moment before he continued putting padding in to soak up the blood. After a minute, he leaned back and did up Agatha’s habit again. Her face was ghostly pale, her lips beginning to blacken.
“I’ll carry her,” I said to Sid, squatting down in front of her. “Could you put her on my back?” He looked at me, then gently wrapped an arm around Agatha’s torso before hoisting her onto my back. “Come on,” I said, “let’s find Mortimer.” Sid packed up his kit and quietly stood up, walking quickly to catch up to me. I tried my best to ignore Agatha’s increasingly shallow breath in my ear as we came to the end of the tunnel. There was a mahogany door with an ornate doorknob, finished in chrome.
“The… key…” Agatha whispered. I looked across at Sid, who put his hand onto Agatha’s leg and felt for the key. He slipped his hand into the pocket and extracted it. He lined it up and pushed the key in, turning clockwise until the deadlock slid back into the door. Glancing at me, he laid his hand on the doorknob and turned it, pulling the door open. The hairs on my forearm rose as a weak draft blew in. Sid stepped in, his gun raised. Ice trickled down my spine as the door closed itself behind me.
I gently laid Agatha down on a lounge chair; she clung to the Overworld, but only just. Moonlight streamed in through the tall windows, making every shadow and silhouette look menacing.
“We need to find Mortimer,” I said, looking at Sid. He looked down at my hands and back to me. “Don’t worry about me. If we see him, I’ll make myself scarce.”
“What about Agatha?”
“Mortimer won’t shoot her.” Sid caught the moment of hesitation in my voice. The draft we felt from before was more pronounced in the lounge room. He followed my line of vision to the intricate lace curtains that were gently fluttering.
“There’s an open door somewhere,” Sid said under his breath. Glancing back at Agatha once more, he walked out of the lounge room as I trailed him, a few feet away. We entered a new room and immediately felt the change in temperature. It was warm as if people had been cooking in the room recently.
“Is the royal family–” My head jerked back towards the direction that we came from. There were gunshots; a lot of them. We could make out outraged yelling as well. My blood curdled when I heard the voice. Mortimer was in here. In a fraction of a second, Sid was out of the kitchen. He took a sharp right and headed toward the source of the yelling. I tailed him, trying to avoid hitting anything with my hands. We approached what looked like an emergency stairwell. Sid pushed the door open and froze.
“What is it?” I asked. He stayed very still as he listened.
“The gunshots have stopped.” He looked at me, his gray eyebrows knitted in concentration. Without another word, he pushed open the door and loped up the stairs two at a time. I tried to keep pace, but I was tiring. After half a minute, I made it the top. A door leading to the roof of the house was wide open. I stepped out onto the roof. Sid stood in the middle, looking into the sky. In the distance, a helicopter was flying away.
“He’s not here,” Sid said, spinning around to look at me. His eyes blazed fiercely as he took deep breaths in. I looked up at the helicopter again. Was he on board? Or had he been shooting at it?
“Where did he–” We heard a gunshot from downstairs. We exchanged a wi
ld look then both Soul Stepped off the roof and back into the lounge. Agatha’s hand was shaking as she grasped my Lucent Gun. She was pointing at a man wearing a trench coat that was face down on the floor.
“Mortimer!” Sid and I ran over to Agatha who had just dropped my gun onto the lounge chair. “We’ve got to get you somewhere–”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Mortimer said, his voice as soft as a rose petal. I looked frantically at Sid. His Lucent Gun hung loosely in his hand as he watched Mortimer get to his feet. His trench coat flapped open as he stood up. As he drew his Ombre Gun, I saw Agatha’s Lucent Gun holstered on his other hip.
“What did you do to her?” Mortimer hissed, gesturing his gun towards her. I froze, not knowing what to say. Even though there were three Deliverers in the room, I still felt like we were outnumbered. Sid continued to stare at him.
“Mortimer…” Agatha said. Mortimer’s eyes flitted to her. “No more running.” His eyes narrowed and he spat.
“If my memory serves me well, you were the ones who ran away from us at the House of Commons.”
“Mortimer Weston…” Agatha whispered. He visibly stiffened when he heard his real name. “There’s someone we would like you to meet.” Mortimer’s eyes slid across to Sid who remained motionless as he stared at his long-lost brother.
“Who the devil are you?”
“Mort, it’s me, Sid.” Sid slowly lowered his gun as he continued staring at Mortimer. Mortimer didn’t even blink as he considered the man before him.
