Ella, The Slayer

by A. W. Exley

  "And you just happened to have a drum of it in the back of the lorry?" I threw a glance at the army vehicle. It looked innocuous enough, but now I would worry about spontaneous explosions ruining the peace of the countryside.

  "When you explained your theory about the turned having a nest, we thought it prudent to have something on hand, just in case we needed to take the whole thing out," he explained.

  I laid back against his chest and stared at the sky. What a night, and it certainly ended with a bang. My hearing returned to normal as his heart pulsed under my cheek. His hand stroked through my tangled hair. We stayed that way for several minutes, while the fire burned, and we all caught our breath.

  "Well, you certainly know how to show a girl a spectacular evening." I gave his side a gentle punch.

  He caught my hand and kissed my fingertips. "Any time you want an explosive evening, I'm happy to deliver."

  A thrill shot through my stomach all the way to my toes. I curled them up in my boots and kept tight hold on the squee building in my chest. I wasn't entirely sure he was still referring to blowing up vermin, or something far more intimate.

  Then cold water dashed over me as the joy swirled down a drain. I had to go home and face them. Events of the previous night still laid unresolved, and sleeping under the stars might be a permanent thing in my future.

  Seth tugged on my hand and pulled my attention back to him. "Shall we go look at what's left?"

  Around us, the other men stood and brushed themselves off. Dawn broke over the horizon, and the soft strands of light touched the burial mound. The explosion had taken off the top, and now it looked like a savaged boiled egg —cracked and split with the innards rolling down the side. Smoke rose from within, mingling and curling with the mist rising off the damp earth.

  I drew a shallow breath. It still smelt foul, but it probably didn't help I had vermin queen smeared all over my handkerchief. I undid the cloth, shoved it into my pocket, and surveyed the debris rolling down the sides of the hillock. Something glinted at my foot, and I bent to pick up a spear head. "I can already hear the archaeologists crying at your wanton destruction."

  The mound had slumbered undisturbed for centuries, no one had yet broken through the tough exterior to find the treasure that lay within. And we had just blown the lot up. Priceless artefacts were seared to the bodies of vermin, torn apart to litter the ground like fallen leaves.

  Sunlight crept up one side and tumbled down the other. Damp grass glinted, birds broke into song to greet the morning, and sheep called in the distance. It seemed a regular Somerset morning, save for that I was climbing a destroyed burial mound to check on the nest of vermin we had just detonated.

  "Careful, it might cave in," Seth said as the ground wobbled and shifted under our feet.

  The one foot square hole was now over six feet square, opened to the burgeoning day for the first time in centuries. Smoke drifted up through the impromptu chimney, making our eyes water. Down below were several spot fires, smouldering on forms covered in fake Greek fire. The detergent made the flames viscous and adhesive. It stuck wherever it landed and couldn't be brushed away. You could run, but the fire would cling to your limbs. The vermin had tried to escape, but were piled up at the narrow entrance tunnel. I wondered why none had dashed out to the open night, and there lay my answer, in a tangled heap of charred bone.

  A sigh broke free of my chest. I needed names for my book, to match departed family members with those below. Such a task was near impossible now. We would never know who they once were, or where they had journeyed from.

  The men glanced at one another. Only one question was left unanswered.

  "Do you think we got them all?" Lieutenant Bain asked.

  "We'll have to drop down, the entrance is blocked. It will be easier to pull them back from this side. Fetch some rope." Seth gave the order, and one of the twins scuttled down the side, half sliding on his arse with the steep descent.

  Ropes were anchored to trees, draped up the side and the down. It wasn't a huge drop, only twenty feet, but no one wanted to break an ankle and find out we missed a pocket of vermin.

  Henry and the twins volunteered to go first, and they disappeared in the puff of smoke, mouths covered so they didn't inhale the noxious fumes. Once below, we threw down woollen blankets for them to smother the smouldering remains, and soon fresh air began to circulate.

  "Ready?" Seth asked. "I'll go first." He dropped over the edge and whizzed down the rope.

  I eased my body over the edge, my feet dangling in thin air, and then wrapped my hands around the rope. My arms took my weight, and just as my muscles began to burn and protest, hands clasped my legs and lowered me to the ground.

  My gaze roamed the interior, the walls were blackened and charred. I disposed of vermin for the locals, usually singularly, but had once took on four. That experience didn't prepare me for this… destruction. The explosion had rent them apart. Limbs were scattered, remnants of clothing torn from bodies. And laid over it all, that overwhelming stench, sharp and sweet with the cloying heat of charcoal. Not since that first day had I thrown up, and now my stomach rebelled. It clenched and churned, and I tried to breathe as deeply as I dared to settle it back down.

  Seth took my hand and turned my face to his. "Are you all right?" he asked in a quiet tone.

  I nodded. "There's just so many of them."

  He swallowed and his gaze darted around us. "I thought I would never see something like this again."

  In that moment, I understood what the war had meant for our men. We all thought we knew that it was horrible, that they suffered having seen their friends slain and trampled into the mud at their feet. But everything was just words and hollow platitudes, until you had it covering your boots, trapped under your fingernails, and clawing its way down your throat. Down here, in the shattered barrow with the ruined bodies of the vermin, I had a small glimpse into the world they had endured for years. No wonder Henry had lost his voice, his mind unable to process all that assaulted it on a daily basis.

  "At least they were already dead." A curious thing about the vermin, although dead, they would keep following their unseen orders until decapitated. Things scuttled in the dark corners down here like overlarge spiders, but I suspected it was limbs trying to re-join a fallen body.

  Seth squeezed my hand. "Let's be thorough. The War Office will want a full report on why we don't have a captured queen for them."

  If some bigwig from the War Office wanted a queen, then perhaps he should stop wasting time waxing his moustache, and join us down in this hell pit to look for it. A small kernel of self-satisfaction took root in my gut — I was right. They did follow a similar pattern to bees, working to the command of their queen. We thought them mindless, but here they had built an altar to their ruler. Her bloated body had reclined on the enormous stone sarcophagus of an Iron Age warrior. She had controlled their actions, but we still didn't know to what end, apart from her eerie words: they need more, not enough yet.

  Who were they, and what did they need more for? Cold shivers raced up and down my spine. There was something far larger at play here, and we had just glimpsed a tiny part of it.

  Scorched vermin covered Rose's mother, each one a blackened scale on monstrous armour. We took as many as we could with our swords before they threatened to overwhelm us. The look in her eyes would forever haunt me. She knew what she had become, and she begged for me to end it. Perhaps there was some mercy that they took her first, and she didn't know the fate that had befallen her little girl. I wiped away a tear before the men noticed, and we continued our examination.

  We walked with care, watching each step we took. Heads lay among shields and fallen swords. In one corner sat a chariot with two skeletal horses still in their harness, although the blast had knocked them sideways, and one now lay on top of the other. Soldiers picked up spears and pinned wriggling hands to the earth, before they could find the body that still had an intact head.

  We
found nothing larger than a hand trying to crawl away. In all, we counted thirty-seven skulls, but there was a chance some belonged to the original residents. Or had the queen summoned them as well? Could a vermin convert the already dead? There was a question for the War Office to ponder. Although if they could, why did they grab a rural farmer's wife to be their queen, and not turn the warrior in their midst?

  "Do you think this is the end of them?" Lieutenant Bain asked.

  I shook my head. "No. This is one hive in this corner of Somerset, I imagine there will be many more, hidden in rural areas all over the globe. Who knows how many vermin queens our country alone can support? Their drones and workers will spread out and seek new recruits."

  The men pulled the skeletons away from the tunnel, and we were able to walk out into the fresh air. Smoke clung to my clothing and hair, and I longed for a bath to scrub myself clean, but my journey was not over yet.

  Seth clapped his hands together. "Let's go back to Serenity House for breakfast, I think we have all deserved one."

  We walked over to the vehicles. The welcoming sun warmed my back, but still the cold remained, rooted deep inside me. Seth held open the car door for me and took my chilled hand. I looked up to meet his worried gaze. "I have to go home and face them."

  Chapter Twenty Four

  It was a quiet trip back through the country lanes to the estate. I was lost in my thoughts, worried about father and how to deal with step-mother. I expected to find my scant belongings scattering the cobbles in the yard when I returned.

  Seth stroked the back of my hand in comforting circles. "The War Office is extremely interested in employing you, if you're looking for another occupation and could stomach working with me?"

  I had to smile at that. Yes, I think I could stomach working alongside the Duke of Leithfield, especially if it involved cramped quarters with him holding me close. But the idea of leaving made my mind stutter, like a vermin cut off from the queen. That would leave father at home, and my friends exposed to her toxicity. Could I chase my own career and leave them all behind? I longed deeply for freedom, but part of me couldn't do it. Not until I dealt to her and removed her from our lives. Somehow.

  "Let me make it through today first, and then we can discuss it." My smile dropped, I was too exhausted and still had too much to do. The world pressed down on me.

  "Hey," he whispered and tilted my face to his. "You're not alone. You have friends who worry and will support you. I'll come find you this afternoon."

  He drew me into his arms and kissed me, not hard like my body cried out for, but gentle. His lips brushed mine in the merest hint of a kiss, and then he released me. "We'll talk later, when you have other matters resolved."

  For the rest of the ride he simply held me, tucked in against his side. I couldn't speak, my body lost the adrenaline that had kept me going, and weariness crashed through me. Then I climbed out of his large motor, and into the sidecar. Henry piloted the motorcycle as we rattled and jostled along the narrow lane. The knot of anxiety grew bigger in my gut with each mile passing under the tyres.

  As we came up the driveway, I gazed at the grey stone of the house, and thought it looked no different than normal. I shielded my eyes and tried to see if father sat at the window, waiting for my return, but couldn't see past the sun reflecting off the glass.

  A small measure of relief came back to me to see that my clothes weren't flung in the dirt. Perhaps she burned them instead? I squeezed Henry's arm as I climbed out, and he patted my hand. With a deep breath, I pushed into the kitchen, expecting her to start screaming at me as soon as I touched the wood. Instead, I found only the normal activity. Magda stirred a pot on the range, looking up to smile at me.

  "Rather exciting night, I hear." She chuckled to herself.

  "Yes, things went off with a bang." I looked around, waiting for the ambush. Elizabeth made it clear I was thrown out, homeless and unemployed. The suspense was worse than creeping through the destroyed mound. "Where is she?"

  "Upstairs, haven't heard her arise yet." She gestured with the wooden spoon.

  Right, temporary reprieve then while I try to figure out what exactly I will say.

  I climbed the stairs and stood in the hallway, wondering what course of action to take. Did I wake her up and demand… what? My quandary was interrupted by muffled noises coming from father's room. My heart jumped, was he awake and calling out?

  I pushed his door opened and beheld something worse than scattered vermin. Elizabeth sat on father's chest, a pillow over his face as she leaned her weight against the object.

  My brain froze. I faced lunging vermin, had just cleaned out the first nest we had ever discovered, and I couldn't rescue my father from the evil cow trying to kill him. Even more shocking, he struggled against her. His hands clawed at her legs, weakly, but he still moved.

  "Henry!" I screamed down the hallway for help, praying he would hear me.

  Then I launched myself at her.

  "You have ruined everything," she said, fighting on two fronts and striking out as I crawled over the huge bed.

  Henry burst through the door and stopped in the threshold. At least it wasn't just me who took valuable seconds to process the fact that father was moving. Father flung out a hand and grabbed the first thing he touched, a paring knife, left beside an apple. He racked it down her arm as Henry and I dragged her off.

  Henry held her around the waist as she kicked and fought. Blood welled up along the gash in her forearm. Father lay back down, as though he had a temporary resurrection. But he moved, we all saw it. He had reacted and defended himself.

  "Why?" It was the only word I could muster. Why would she seek to murder her husband? And yet, I was beyond rage. I occupied a state of eerie calm. Her actions over the years crashed over me like a breaking wave, drawing back to reveal the evil being she was at her centre. No better than a vermin, she just had more of a pulse.

  "You ruined everything. With him out of the way, we could start afresh." She hissed and spat like a cornered cat.

  "I don't understand. You would lose everything," I said.

  She cackled at that. "I would gain everything. Hubert Jeffrey returned from the war with hideous burns. No woman will ever want him, so I gave him Charlotte. He would inherit this filthy farm, and we could stay here until Louise marries the duke."

  I dropped to the bed as pieces fell into place. Hubert was Charlotte's long time correspondent. That was why she wanted to know who would inherit the estate, to ensure her daughter played her part in snaring him. I shook my head in disbelief, and tried to meet her wild gaze.

  "Is there no level you would not stoop to do?" I whispered, but I knew the answer. She had chained me, helpless, and left me for a vermin to find. She had tried to murder father. None of us were safe with her around. Would she murder all of us in our beds?

  "You have cast me as the evil queen in this charade, when all I ever did was look out for my girls," she screamed, struggling against Henry.

  Blood ran down her arm, dribbling from her fingertips to the carpet. On instinct, I pulled the scarf from my pocket, and wrapped it tight to stem the flow. Otherwise she would make a mess, and then Alice and I would have to scrub the stains out.

  "No. You have only ever advanced your own cause to the detriment of those around you. And now, you stoop to murder." I stood back and shook my head. We would have to alert the local constable, and there would be a trial. In court, it would be her word against Henry's and mine.

  I blew out a sigh, and just then the light caught the handkerchief around her arm. The dark patches of sludge gleamed as a black line crept from under the fabric, and followed the path of her veins up her arm. What have I done?

  "You are right. I have made you a queen." I watched the black, fascinated as it raced along and then disappeared under the sleeve of her gown. It spread so fast.

  Her nose wrinkled, and she laughed. "You're as mad as your father."

  I pointed to the cloth where the v
ermin's blood seeped into her wound; already its black touch spread through her body. "I wore that handkerchief around my face when we slaughtered the vermin queen. It is coated in her blood."

  Her eyes widened, no one could ever call Elizabeth dumb. When vermin blood met the blood of a living person, it transformed one into the other.

  "No!" she cried and her hand clawed at the fabric.

  Elizabeth wrenched free of Henry, or perhaps he let her go, not wanting to be tainted by her. She tore the bandage off and flung it to the floor. Too late. I had watched the exchange happen. Never had I seen it move so fast, but then we had no experience with a queen. Was this their royal jelly? Her nails tore at her skin, as though she could pull the disease out of her body.

  The deed was done, whether consciously or not. All night I had brooded over how to remove her from our lives. Thought of how to repay every harsh word she spoke, every lash she laid across my back, every degradation she made us all suffer. My instinct had found a way. I could never raise a hand against my step-mother, but I could raise my sword to a vermin.

  "You will transform into their queen. Like bees, vermin will be drawn to the smell of you. Wherever you go, they will seek you out, as they did Rose's mother at the barrow. Arise your highness, and run, for you are now the most hunted thing in this country."

  I anointed her their queen, and yet still I could not strike. We needed answers, and Elizabeth's new state might just provide them.

  She stared at me, and I watched in horror as the irises of her eyes turned black and filled with vermin blood. Elizabeth shuddered and blinked, and the black retreated. Louise ran into the room, drawn by her mother's screaming. Elizabeth reached for her daughter and wrapped her arms around her. Then, before Henry or I could do anything, she sunk her teeth into her daughter's neck. Louise's scream escalated in pitch, which brought Charlotte running. Henry was prepared this time and caught her as she barrelled through the door, keeping her hugged to his chest.