Reign of Beasts

by Tansy Rayner Roberts

  If I asked too many questions, Tasha would leave me without a lamp. I never minded, though. Maybe it was the rat in me, or maybe it was just all those years climbing around backstage, but I had pretty good vision in darkness. Sometimes, when they were gone and I was feeling itchy-footed, I’d go exploring. There were tunnels all around us, but most of them led nowhere, or to ruined buildings and rockfalls. Once I found my way into a massive tunnel with a canal running through it, and followed it far enough to see a cathedral as fancy as any theatre. I knew I was underground by then. I just didn’t know why.

  Then one nox — Tasha and the cubs said ‘nox’ when they were awake and ‘daylight’ when they wanted to sleep, though I could never figure out how they could tell the difference — Lord Saturn found me.

  I felt him coming before I heard him. I’d started doing that with Tasha and the cubs — like an early warning system that let me scamper back to the den and act like I’d never been anywhere. This was different, I knew. It was like something crawling over my skin.

  He stepped into the den, all tricked out in his fancy top hat and morning coat, and stared at me. I tried to hide, but he lashed out his hand, pulling me out from behind our little stove. Madalena’s murderer.

  ‘My word,’ he said, staring at my dirty face. ‘I know you. You’re the theatre boy.’

  ‘Poet,’ I said sullenly. ‘My name’s Poet.’

  ‘I don’t care what she named you, wretch, what are you doing here?’ He stared into my face as if trying to see some great truth.

  There was a knife near the stove — Lysandor had been slicing bread before Tasha got the call and went swooping out with the cubs in her wake. I didn’t even think. Everything came rushing back, all my old anger, and I seized the hilt and drove the blade hard into the man’s chest.

  That was it, then. I was a killer now.

  Saturn looked confused rather than angry or hurt. He reached down and prised my fingers from the hilt, then drew out the knife and flung it hard against the nearest wall. There was no blood. What was he?

  He stared hard at me, and it was as if he had a hand inside me, fingers prodding at my bones, squeezing my heart so hard I couldn’t breathe.

  ‘Stop it!’ I yelled, and did the only thing I knew how to do when cornered. I exploded into white rats.

  It was a mistake, because he was hawks, and they had the better of me. When he changed, too, I panicked, scurrying and cringing, and those beaks came down, terrorising me back into my human form, skinny and shuddering.

  There was a long pause, in which I heard the rustling of clothing, and then Saturn wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. ‘Tasha,’ he said in a disgusted voice. ‘She should never have done this to you, boy.’

  ‘I didn’t have nowhere to go,’ I snivelled. ‘Not after what you did to my …’ But there was no word for what she was to me. ‘Madalena!’

  ‘Madalena?’ he said, and I hated him for the lack of recognition in his voice. ‘The actress?’

  ‘She wasn’t no mask,’ I said scornfully. ‘She was the stellar. Our stellar. She looked after me. You made her play the Angel in our revue. And you killed her.’

  ‘Killed her? She went back to that little town, didn’t she? I saw she was no longer in the show, but I never thought …’ His voice went chill. ‘Dead, you say?’

  ‘Ripped apart,’ I said softly, not sure what to think. He sounded genuine but he’d always been an actor and a liar, hadn’t he? ‘By animals.’

  Saturn looked sadly at me and finally I knew the thing I had been trying not to know for so long.

  ‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘I’ll get you home.’

  I pulled on the shirt and ragged trews — Tasha had given them to me. Everything I had was hers, really. Even the little mug I drank my tea out of. I laced my boots.

  ‘Lord Saturn,’ said a voice at the doorway. ‘What are you doing?’

  Garnet. It was Garnet, and my heart hurt to see him, because he’d always been my friend, more than the others.

  ‘I am taking this boy,’ said Saturn. ‘You won’t stop me, courteso. Your mistress has done badly by him — he should never have been brought here.’

  ‘You can’t just take him,’ Garnet snapped. ‘He’s ours now. He’s family.’

  ‘Yours?’ Saturn said in disbelief. ‘Will he still think so when I tell him what you did to his mother? All of you?’

  I looked at Garnet then and saw it in his eyes. Gattopardo. Lynx. Lioness. Maybe even plain old house cats. ‘Madalena,’ I said softly.

  ‘I brought your company to Aufleur, to the Vittorina Royale, as a gift for Tasha,’ Saturn told me. ‘She has a liking for grandiose gestures, for elaborate gifts. It was a mistake. She is easily bored, and she was jealous of the actresses. I got so angry at her, after all the trouble I had gone to. We fought …’

  ‘She told you not to come back,’ Garnet drawled. His eyes looked sort of … dead. Cold. Different from how I was used to seeing him. ‘And you went straight out and consoled yourself by seducing the actress you had sworn to her you didn’t even fancy.’

  ‘I didn’t know she knew about that,’ sighed Saturn.

  ‘She always knows,’ Garnet hissed. ‘There are no secrets from Tasha. You know what she’s like. How could you do it?’

  ‘Am I really the one on trial here?’ Saturn flung back at him. ‘After what she did to that poor dame?’

  ‘You’re not taking him,’ Garnet said, resolute. ‘Poet is ours.’

  Saturn got taller and wider and brighter all at once. He let out a cry like a dozen hawks, and then he held up one palm. Garnet fell as if struck in the chest.

  ‘When you are grown and a Lord, you may challenge me,’ said Saturn between clenched teeth.

  He held his hand out to me and we left together.

  He took me along the tunnel with the canal in it, past the cathedral and on into a large space like a dockyard, only with no ships in sight.

  ‘My Power!’ he called. ‘Majesty!’

  A shadow fell over us. I looked up, to the balcony above, and saw a shape. At first I thought it was a monster, and then I thought it was a Camoiserian paper dragon, the kind that the dancers carried through the streets. It wasn’t any of those things. It was a snake, as thick as the canal itself, and it slid down the poles to the floor and slithered towards us. I was so scared I couldn’t do anything but clutch at Saturn’s coat.

  The snake rolled itself into a coil and shaped itself into a man. He had a soft stomach and a bald head, and he gave me a look like he knew everything that I’d ever thought.

  ‘I didn’t realise you had a taste for children, Saturn.’ His tongue still had something of the snake to it, a thin lisp.

  ‘Tasha had him,’ Saturn said. ‘She brought him over as a courteso despite his age. She goes too far, Power. She will challenge you next.’

  ‘Not I,’ said the snake man, smiling. ‘You, perhaps. She is ambitious, but she knows her limits.’ He peered down at me and I got that feeling again, like something was poking around my insides. ‘I’m surprised the lad survived it. Are you well, boy?’

  I resisted the urge to correct him, though I was not happy about being ‘Boy’ again. ‘I was sick, seigneur. I had a fever.’

  ‘She can’t be trusted,’ Saturn said. ‘She murdered this boy’s mother — a daylight dame — because I had a dalliance with her.’

  ‘Indeed?’ The snake man looked far from surprised. ‘That should teach you to keep your distance from the daylight, should it not?’

  ‘Majesty!’ shrieked a voice, and Tasha strode into the yard. ‘The Lord of Hawks has stolen my courteso. Give him back.’

  She was blazing and beautiful and, even knowing what she had done, I felt drawn to her. I understood how Lord Saturn could love and hate her at the same time. She was power, down to the flesh and bone.

  The cubs stood behind her, arms crossed, muscles on display.

  ‘A child,’ Saturn said, his voice dripping with disgust.
<
br />   ‘Mine,’ Tasha retorted.

  ‘He wasn’t ready. What did you do to him?’

  She arched her eyebrow. ‘I made him mine. If you are going to take him from me, you must expect a battle.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said the snake man. ‘That is settled, then.’

  Saturn looked at him in horror. ‘Power and Majesty, you can’t be on her side in this.’

  ‘You presume much, Lord Saturn,’ said the snake man, looking utterly relaxed. ‘I expect you to work for your privileges, like anyone else. The boy is one of us now. How it happened is irrelevant. Tasha Lord Lion cannot let an insult like this pass. You know that. If you want him, you must fight for him.’

  Saturn looked down at me, and I let go of his coat, unsure what I was supposed to do.

  Owls fluttered into the yard from every direction, white snowy creatures flapping and gliding down to form a bright white shape: a big woman with pale hair and dark eyes. She stood beside Saturn, as careless of her naked breasts as the columbines who changed their costumes backstage.

  ‘You were not invited, Celeste,’ said Tasha with a glare at the newcomer.

  ‘Where my Lord needs me,’ the pale-haired woman said with an easy smile.

  ‘Play on,’ commanded the snake man.

  I hung back, at the edge of the canal.

  The fight was swift and vicious, and I was hardly aware of what it entailed. They flung handfuls of light across the canal, ducking and weaving to avoid each other missiles. Then Tasha was a lion, tearing and biting, and Saturn flashed into a storm of hawks.

  Garnet changed first, hurling his two gattopardo bodies into the fray, and the hawks tore at him, claws and beaks drawing a hundred points of blood. Lysandor shifted into his furry lynx form and bit birds out of the air, spitting them broken onto the floor. Celeste screamed into owl form, savaging his eyes and throat.

  Ashiol was the last to change. He looked at me, head tilted a little to one side as if trying to work out if I was worth it. Then he was cats, and the hawks tore chunks out of him, too. Fur flew. Blood splashed.

  I closed my eyes because I couldn’t bear it any more. A large, slippery hand grabbed me at the back of the neck. ‘Watch them, little cub,’ said the snake man. ‘This is for your benefit.’ He smelled of cheap imperium.

  I wanted to say that I was a lamb, not a cub, and I wanted to go home, but the words caught in my throat. The snake man — the Power and Majesty — squeezed my neck until I opened my eyes and stared.

  They fought, tearing themselves to pieces. Lysandor broke first, rolling aside and into his human body, nursing too many wounds. Celeste reformed her body and then fell apart into owls again, unable to hold it all together. Ashiol slunk away one bloodied black cat at a time.

  Garnet was cornered by several hawks, biting and snapping at them, but then one pecked hard at the back of his foot and he went whining to the corner, his whole body in convulsions.

  Tasha shifted from lioness to human, rolling in the blood that smeared across the concrete floor. She laughed, tilting her head up to the ceiling, exposing her throat to the hawks. ‘Go on,’ she said with great relish. ‘Savage me.’

  Saturn shaped back into his human form. He reached a hand down to her and she tugged him down on top of her instead, laughing as he kissed her neck.

  ‘An important lesson, little rat,’ the Power and Majesty said with relish. ‘You are of the least value of anyone in this Court.’

  Well, that was nothing new for me, was it? Bottom of the pecking order.

  Saturn and Tasha rolled together, petting and biting like the animals they were. Saturn looked up at one point, guilt crossing his face, but she dragged him back to her.

  The cubs regained their breath, and then Garnet came over to me, holding out a hand. ‘You don’t have to,’ he said, and he looked as guilty as Saturn.

  ‘Aye, I do,’ I said, because I understood them now. I took his hand and let him lead me back to the den.

  PART IV

  Tournament of Kings

  10

  Two days after the Ides of Bestialis

  Velody could smell the steam and coal dust from the train clinging to her skirt as she let herself into the kitchen. Crane followed her in, unapologetic about the fact that he had been trailing her since the station.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ he asked, but she ignored him, stumbling through to the workroom.

  Delphine and Rhian weren’t even pretending to keep busy. Delphine was tucked into a chair, foot rocking impatiently back and forth. Rhian sat still, staring at nothing. They both started up when Velody entered.

  ‘What happened?’ Delphine demanded.

  Velody’s legs were wobbly. ‘I have to fight,’ she said. ‘This nox.’

  ‘Who?’ Crane asked.

  ‘Ashiol. Garnet.’

  ‘Both of them?’ Delphine demanded. ‘You can’t do that on your own — it’s crazy.’

  ‘They’re not together — none of us is on each other’s side,’ said Velody. ‘The three of us have to duel to prove who is to be Power and Majesty.’

  ‘But that’s ridiculous,’ said Delphine. ‘The Creature Court chose you. Months ago.’

  ‘I’ve been gone,’ said Velody. ‘The Lords and Court only agreed to it back then because Ashiol stepped aside for me. He’s not doing that any more. He seems so angry. He wants us to fight to the death.’

  ‘But we do the fighting for you,’ Delphine said earnestly. ‘The sentinels. That’s what the swords are for, right?’

  Velody looked at her in alarm. ‘You’re not going to fight them in my place, Delphine.’

  ‘More to the point, she can’t,’ said Crane.

  ‘But our job is to protect Velody,’ Delphine argued.

  ‘To protect all of the Kings,’ he said firmly. ‘That includes Ashiol and Garnet.’

  Delphine was furious. ‘The rapist and the psycho? I don’t think so. I’m on Velody’s side.’

  ‘We can’t take sides, Delphine.’

  ‘He’s not a rapist,’ said Rhian.

  Delphine turned on her. ‘You don’t get to talk about this. Don’t talk about anything.’

  ‘Dee,’ said Velody, shocked by the violence in her voice.

  ‘Oh, don’t you dare take her side. You don’t know anything of what she’s been getting up to while you were away. Remember how we cosseted her, how we did everything to protect her, turned our lives upside down because she was sick, because we loved her, because she was so afraid of men …’

  ‘Delphine, stop it,’ said Rhian.

  ‘No,’ Delphine howled. ‘Because either he’s a rapist or you’re a liar. You’ve been lying for nearly two years, about men, about everything!’

  Rhian was shaking now, her hands pressed to her mouth.

  Velody gave Delphine an accusing look and went to Rhian. ‘You’re speaking nonsense.’

  ‘Ask her, then,’ Delphine demanded. ‘Ask her what made her fall into bed with Ashiol Xandelian the second you were gone.’

  Ashiol? Ashiol and Rhian? Of all the combinations, that one had never occurred to Velody. She frowned at Delphine, and then looked at Rhian. ‘But she can’t …’ Rhian could barely stand to be around men. Her rape had broken her mind, made her so afraid of life, of men, of people.

  ‘Unless she’s a liar,’ Delphine said in grim satisfaction.

  Tears ran down Rhian’s face. Velody reached out a hand to comfort her.

  ‘Don’t touch me,’ Rhian shrieked.

  There was a burst of heat where Velody’s fingertips had brushed Rhian’s arm. Velody stepped back, startled. There were black flames running over Rhian’s skin, just for a moment, and then they were gone. Had Velody done that, or Rhian? What powers did the Seer have?

  Rhian stood up, panicky and taking quick, shallow breaths. ‘I have to go.’

  ‘Run away again,’ Delphine said cruelly. ‘Why not? Make us all look for you, worry about you, over and over, because you’re too fucking selfish to
admit you have been playing us for fools.’

  Rhian walked slowly to the staircase.

  Delphine leaned in as she passed her. ‘He thought you were Heliora. That makes you the rapist.’

  Rhian gave her an odd smile. ‘I know.’ She kept going, up the stairs to her room.

  Velody blew out a long breath. ‘What has been going on around here?’

  Delphine collapsed into a chair. ‘So,’ she said to Crane, as if nothing had happened. ‘If we’re not allowed to protect or help Velody in this battle, what are the sentinels supposed to contribute?’

  ‘We make sure no one cheats,’ said Crane.

  Ashiol prepared for battle on the roof of the Palazzo. It was a long time since he had let himself fall into a meditative trance. All the anger and annoyances and grief piled in on him, making it almost impossible to still his mind.

  Then there was Kelpie at his side, which made it doubly hard because she couldn’t shut her fucking trap.

  ‘What the hells do you think you’re doing?’ she demanded.

  ‘I’m taking the lead,’ he told her. ‘You wanted this.’

  Kelpie sat on the clay tiles, knees up to her chin, staring at him as if he were a stranger. ‘You’re too late. You chose Velody. You made them all choose Velody.’

  ‘And then she chose Garnet.’

  ‘Is that what this is about?’ Kelpie laughed at him, though there was little humour in it. ‘After all you’ve been through, you’ll let jealousy make your decisions for you? Can you really not forgive the demme for bedding someone other than you?’

  He met her eyes, unfriendly. ‘Are we still talking about Velody?’

  Kelpie stared back, bristling with anger and defensiveness and all those other emotions Ashiol associated with her. Only more so than usual. ‘Apparently not.’

  Of all of them, he had thought Kelpie would be on his side. Kelpie was always on his side.

  ‘I didn’t think sentinels could take sides against the Kings, but here you are, choosing her over me.’