Reign of Beasts

by Tansy Rayner Roberts

  Ashiol was unmoved. ‘I’ve missed much, it seems.’

  ‘That happens,’ said Kelpie sharply, recovering a little from his first blow, ‘when you run away.’

  ‘You’re a fine one to talk about running away.’

  ‘I did my duty,’ she flared, and then turned away from him with some effort, going to look out of the window. ‘Cushy set-up you have here. Very nice. Do they pay you in honey wine and figs?’

  ‘The Creature Court aren’t the only ones I have a duty to,’ said Ashiol, but he wasn’t looking at Kelpie now. His eyes roamed over Velody, dark and serious. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘I came to bring you home.’

  Ashiol’s face closed over, taking on some of that false formality he had shown in the presence of the secretaries. ‘I’m sorry you had a wasted journey. But I’m not going anywhere.’

  Velody glared at him. ‘Is that all you have to say to me?’

  ‘I don’t need new shirts.’

  ‘Funny.’

  He moved then, past Velody to the door. For a moment, he was close enough to touch her and her animor sparked hard. Didn’t he feel it?

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘If you want to know what’s keeping me here, I’ll show you.’

  Velody followed him out, Kelpie trailing sullenly behind them. Ashiol led them down several flights of stairs and out into a wide courtyard lined with bronze statues. It was cold enough to make their breath steam, though there was sufficient heat rolling off Ashiol to keep all three of them warm.

  ‘What are we looking at?’ Velody asked.

  Ashiol grinned, looking oddly carefree. Since when did he recover his humour that quickly?

  When Kelpie stepped out into the courtyard, two of the statues moved, barring her way. ‘Hey,’ she protested.

  One of the statues made a noise, all whirrs and chimes.

  ‘Is it talking?’ Velody said in astonishment.

  The other statue flipped up Kelpie’s cloak and laid its hand on her swords. She stepped back out of range, fury evident on her face. ‘Don’t you dare! Ashiol, stop this.’

  ‘It’s not me,’ said Ashiol, enjoying himself far too much. ‘They don’t want you to approach me armed.’

  ‘Tell them I can kill you with my bare hands,’ Kelpie said sarcastically, then ducked back once more as all the statues turned to look at her. ‘That was a joke — eugh, what are they?’

  ‘The clockwork saints,’ said Ashiol. ‘They’re all over this city. These are just the ones that protect the Palazzo. They’re what the Creature Court of Bazeppe have instead of sentinels.’

  ‘I’ve been replaced by a few hunks of articulated bronze?’ Kelpie said in disgust. ‘Lovely.’

  ‘They’re more than soldiers,’ said Ashiol. ‘They fight the sky, as well. They’re the reason Bazeppe is in no danger of being swallowed like Tierce.’

  Velody bit back a reply. Rhian had said that Bazeppe would fall before Saturnalia, and Aufleur would follow. But just because the Seer said it didn’t make it true.

  ‘It’s the clockwork,’ Ashiol explained, his voice alight with enthusiasm. ‘They don’t bother much with festivals here. They don’t need them. The clockwork holds the sky at bay.’

  ‘But doesn’t stop it,’ said Velody. ‘Doesn’t end it. The Court of Bazeppe are trapped in the same everlasting war that we are.’

  ‘No,’ said Ashiol, shaking his head furiously. ‘You don’t understand. They break all the rules. They don’t fight each other. They elect the Power and Majesty — they take turns, for fuck’s sake. They’ve figured out the answer, the essence we were searching for when you took over in Aufleur. They’ve been doing it this way for years.’

  ‘And how is that going to help us with Garnet?’ Velody pressed. ‘How is it going to stop the sky falling?’

  There was an intense light in Ashiol’s eyes. ‘If I can just figure out how it all works, if I can stay a little longer, I can save everyone,’ he said.

  ‘Can you do it by Saturnalia? That’s how long we have.’ Velody took a deep breath. ‘Bazeppe is under threat, too. Whatever is happening, whatever Garnet is up to, it will affect them.’

  ‘The clockwork saints are the answer,’ Ashiol said stubbornly. ‘I know they are.’

  ‘You won’t come home with us, then?’

  ‘No, I won’t.’

  She darted a quick look at Kelpie, who was still being prevented from entering the courtyard as she refused to take off her blades. Velody stepped forward, telling herself it was necessary, and not just because her animor was screaming out to touch Ashiol and to be touched. ‘Do you know what the sacred marriage means?’ she said in a low voice.

  He gave her an odd look. ‘Is that a proposal?’

  ‘Don’t be a fool. Garnet knows more about the Creature Court than anyone — not only its future, but its past. Power and Majesty was never supposed to be one person, it was two. A pair of Kings, joined together.’

  Velody stared up into Ashiol’s face as he thought it over. ‘That makes a lot of sense,’ he said slowly. ‘How did we not know about this?’

  ‘I think the Creature Court have forgotten more about their own traditions and history than we ever guessed.’

  ‘That I’m sure of,’ he said firmly. ‘It feels as if each Court, each city, only knew a handful of the secrets. Why did we never talk to each other? If Bazeppe also had festivals and Aufleur also had clockwork, how strong would we be?’

  Velody closed her eyes. He was so close, she could almost lean in and rest against his chest. She wanted to, so badly. He smelled like home.

  What had Tierce had that the other cities did not? They’d had no clockwork saints, she was sure of that — she would have seen some remains of them when she and Garnet were alone in that city, surely.

  ‘My brother used to tell me stories of steam angels,’ she said. ‘Tierce was a city full of water, and they used steam to open temple doors and to push the boats. Do you think that was their secret? The steam?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Ashiol. She opened her eyes again and saw him gazing at her. ‘Did Garnet want you to be Majesty to his Power?’

  Velody almost laughed. ‘I think he wanted to be the Majesty. But yes. He offered me that.’

  Ashiol stepped away from her, marking a firm distance between them. ‘Perhaps you should take him up on the offer.’

  ‘You don’t mean that.’

  ‘Why not? By all means, let’s follow the pointless, long-dead traditions of our people. What else have we to lose?’ He was almost shouting now.

  ‘You’re such a child, Ashiol. If you and I could work together for half a day, perhaps we could take the Court back from Garnet,’ she threw at him.

  ‘I don’t want it back.’

  ‘Stop saying things you don’t mean! It only wastes time.’

  ‘If you want the sacred marriage from me, Velody, I can’t give you that.’

  She folded her arms defensively. ‘I didn’t ask.’

  ‘I’m not stupid. Last time I opened myself up to a fellow King, he stole my power. I can’t do that again.’

  ‘Then what are we going to do?’ she asked him softly.

  He almost smiled. ‘You are going to go back to Aufleur. I am going to stay here and find out the secrets of the clockwork saints.’

  No, it wasn’t right. She couldn’t leave him here; couldn’t trust him to keep himself alive, let alone save everyone else. ‘It’s not enough.’

  ‘It will have to do.’

  Ashiol turned and walked back towards the Palazzo. Halfway up the steps, he made an impatient gesture and the clockwork saints moved back to their original positions, releasing Kelpie.

  Kelpie blew out a breath. ‘So what do we do now?’

  Velody couldn’t take her eyes off Ashiol’s back. ‘Will you wait for me at the train station?’

  ‘What am I, a lady’s companion?’ Kelpie muttered.

  ‘I have to convince him he’s wrong, and he’ll never admit that in fr
ont of an audience.’

  ‘Fine. But don’t blame me if he uses those clockwork saints on you. He seems suspiciously fond of them.’

  36

  Velody followed Ashiol back up the various flights to his office. He turned around impatiently as they reached the door. ‘Don’t you understand a farewell when you hear one?’

  The finely garbed secretary gave her a half-hidden a smirk. Velody ignored him. ‘We still have things to discuss.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Despite his obvious reluctance, Ashiol held the door open for her and followed her in. ‘What do you have to say to me that you couldn’t utter in front of Kelpie?’ He widened his eyes and grabbed her hand mockingly, holding it to his heart. ‘Velody, is this a seduction?’

  ‘Let’s not be too ridiculous.’ She snatched her hand away, but not before his animor sent a surge of heat through her own. He tasted different with Bazeppe inside him as well as Aufleur, and she was starting to sense the power of this new city in other ways. She wasn’t used to a playful Ashiol, let alone one who switched from humorous to serious in the blink of an eye. Had he reclaimed his youth, or found some different powders to swallow?

  ‘I really don’t see what else there is to say.’

  ‘You’ve changed,’ Velody accused. ‘You seem so different.’

  ‘This is what I’m like when I’m not angry and scared all the time. I realise that it’s novel.’

  ‘But why aren’t you angry and scared? Is this city really so much better than Aufleur? A few days of clockwork saints fighting your battles for you and suddenly you’re all serene?’

  ‘I like to be looked after. Simple as that.’

  ‘Is it that Garnet isn’t here? Is that what makes you so happy?’

  But no, Garnet had been gone before and Ashiol had never looked like this.

  ‘Lysandor is here,’ he said, and his face softened. ‘He’s fighting the sky, they all are, but they have the clockwork saints to help them, and they don’t tear each other to pieces. He has a wife and a child, the closest thing to a normal life that anyone of the Creature Court has ever managed to pull together. Bazeppe has given me hope, Velody. I didn’t realise how seductive it could be: the possibility of being normal. Mundane. Of balancing the daylight and the nox without sacrificing my own humanity.’

  Velody folded her arms. ‘You had plenty of opportunity for a normal life in the five years you were exiled from Aufleur. You didn’t exactly settle down and start having babies, did you?’

  Though, to be fair, she knew nothing of what he had done in that time. He could have impregnated dozens of milkmaids and shepherdesses.

  His face clouded over, for one moment looking like the old Ashiol. ‘That was different.’

  ‘Was it? I thought you were unhappy because you spent that five years hiding from what you were supposed to be doing, and yet here you are, hiding again and apparently delighted about it.’

  ‘You only want me back because I’m a better proposition for the sacred marriage than dear Garnet,’ he said sourly. ‘That’s hardly flattering, Velody.’

  ‘I never said you were a better proposition. I never said I wanted anything from you!’

  ‘But you do. You want everything, and I can’t give it. Why don’t you stay?’

  She looked at him in surprise. ‘Here? In Bazeppe? What would I do — sew cravats for the Duc-Elected?’

  ‘He has daughters as well as sons. I expect they need dresses from time to time.’

  ‘That’s not even funny.’ But she saw no humour in his face.

  ‘Let Garnet get on with whatever he plans to do to keep Aufleur from falling into the sky. He wants the Creature Court so damn much. Give it to him.’

  Did he have any idea what he was actually saying?

  ‘Ashiol — Garnet is sacrificing children.’

  He shrugged callously. ‘Perhaps the people of Tierce should have sacrificed a child or two, if that’s what it takes.’

  Overwhelmed with fury, Velody shoved at his chest, too upset even to coordinate a slap across his face. He stumbled back a step and took hold of her wrists. Heat shot from his skin to hers.

  ‘I can’t stop him,’ he said between his teeth.

  Tears stung her eyes, which she hated herself for, just a little. ‘You don’t want to try.’

  The proximity of him after so long made her heart beat faster. Their animor recognised each other. Being this close was almost like being within the walls of Aufleur again, only more intense because Bazeppe was beating at their skin, too.

  ‘We can’t fight him without you,’ she said breathlessly.

  He turned her face up to his. ‘Liar. You know full well that when it comes to Garnet, I’m a liability, not a weapon.’

  It would really be good if they could stop touching right now. The city’s metallic energy was already coursing through Velody, and Ashiol was just … bright, from the inside out. She had missed him so much, and hadn’t realised it until now.

  ‘Are you still angry at me? Is that what this is about?’

  He gave her a very Ducomte expression. ‘Angry?’

  ‘You were so furious,’ she said helplessly. ‘About Garnet and me. About everything.’

  ‘I don’t remember,’ he said, and the mask of his face was horribly perfect. ‘Why don’t we let it go? I’m sure none of that matters now.’

  ‘You have to stop pretending,’ Velody insisted.

  He was so changed. Calm. Did she have any right to take him away from this life, this place, that made him a real person instead of a raving maniac?

  Even if she preferred the maniac.

  ‘Pretending to be sane?’ said Ashiol. Finally, the mask cracked, if only a little. He still held her arm, keeping her close to him. ‘Pretending I belong here? Or just pretending I have something to offer beyond tilting at shadows?’

  ‘We need you. I need you. Garnet …’ Velody didn’t know how to say it any other way. Surely there had been enough words that he could start believing her.

  She could tell he was getting impatient now, though he kept it under control. His animor flared with it. ‘You brought him back. You knew what he was. Or you should have done, if you’d believed me. Trusted me. But Velody always knows best. Velody, the kind, compassionate little mother.’ His hand was tight, now, over her arm. ‘You gave him the Creature Court. It’s not my job to take his toys away from him, it’s yours.’

  ‘I can’t do it alone.’

  She should pull away, walk away. But she had to try. She couldn’t go back to the sentinels, to Kelpie, without being able to say that she’d tried with every mote of her being to get him back.

  She couldn’t leave him to fall with Bazeppe.

  ‘Yes, you can. Don’t you get it, Velody? I’m a liability. I always have been. I’m not a leader. I didn’t beat him last time. I gave in. Submitted to his will. How is that going to be helpful?’

  The fury rolled off him, finally. If he was in cat shape, all his fur would be standing up. Velody liked him angry. He made so much more sense that way. Did that make her a bad person?

  ‘You are stronger than you think you are,’ she said.

  Ashiol laughed in her face. ‘I’m really not.’

  ‘Everything you’ve learnt here, about the clockwork saints, about Lysandor and this Court — we can take the secrets of Bazeppe back with us. Use them to end the skywar and free Aufleur. If we could only work together, perhaps we could end it once and for all.’

  An odd look crossed Ashiol’s face. ‘But what would we do with the slaves?’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘One of the early Ducs in Aufleur was shown a steam engine, hundreds of years ago. He ordered it destroyed, and said “What would we do with the slaves?” I believe they did something similar when clockwork crossed their paths.’

  ‘But there’s never been slavery in Aufleur.’

  ‘Just us. What do you think will happen if the skywar ends? Do you think Livilla will give up biting chunks out of un
derage boys and take up needlecraft? That the others will get jobs in wine bars or factories, settle down to being ordinary little daylight folk? You’ll have a bunch of bored, disenfranchised monsters on your hands and it will be a fucking massacre.’

  Velody stared at him. Part of her wanted to argue that they couldn’t give up hope of ending the skywar because it gave gainful employment to the Creature Court, but there wasn’t time for that, because saints, oh saints, oh saints, he still thought Livilla was alive, and she had to be the one to tell him otherwise. How had she forgotten?

  Ashiol responded to her stricken look. ‘What?’

  There was no kind way to put it.

  ‘Livilla’s dead,’ Velody blurted out. ‘I’m sorry.’

  This time, he released her. ‘You should go.’

  But no, not with that. She had to give him more than that.

  ‘I need to tell you how —’

  ‘No, thank you kindly,’ he said, with a smile that was more of a snarl. ‘That’s not my world any more. I don’t need to know.’

  Livilla was a hero. Would he laugh if Velody said that out loud? Livilla had died to save her courtesa from Garnet’s cruel sacrifice. ‘Ashiol —’

  ‘Get out!’ he snapped. ‘You’ve done your bit, properly simulated care and attention for my feelings, but I’m done with the Creature Court of Aufleur and with you. I’ll end my days happily sitting in the shadow of the clockwork saints and there’s not one fucking thing you can do about it.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Velody. She was tired of this, of stepping around the emotions and egos of everyone else. She wasn’t the Power and Majesty any more and the job had still got harder.

  Ashiol went back to sit behind his desk, playing the stone-faced bureaucrat. He didn’t say goodbye, didn’t say anything. It was as if she’d already left.

  Velody made it as far as the door, then turned back. She couldn’t help herself. She walked to Ashiol quickly and tugged at the sleeves of the sapphire morning coat, feeling the stiff fabric under her fingers. ‘This doesn’t suit you. You can’t wear bright colours; you look like something that escaped from a gipsy carnivale.’

  He couldn’t say this was none of her business. Not if they were talking about clothes. Not that Ashiol was saying anything. He looked at her vaguely, as if wondering why she was still here.