Reign of Beasts

by Tansy Rayner Roberts

  ‘A sweet thought, sentinel,’ Garnet sneered. ‘But whatever they are is well and truly tangled up in my body. They took my animor and put something else inside me. Something valuable. We need power, dearlings, raw animal power, enough to beat them back and seal the sky over for good. There’s only one way to get that kind of power.’

  ‘The sacred marriage,’ Velody said breathlessly.

  Garnet snapped his fingers at her. ‘See, I knew you had to be smarter than the rest of them. It’s really the only explanation for why they like you more than me.’

  ‘That’s what happened last time,’ said Kelpie, waving her damned book. ‘The old mad Duc married a flock of ducks or whatever, and the skywar went away. Only it didn’t. We know it didn’t. It shifted into the nox and the Creature Court were left alone, the only ones who could see the danger.’

  Poet snatched the book from her and threw it against a wall. ‘Don’t you get it? The book doesn’t matter. Our history is false. Our whole fucking city is false. Nothing matters.’

  ‘That’s hardly a useful contribution,’ Delphine snapped, picking up the book and handing it back to Kelpie. ‘Why not let them make the sacred marriage? Better to try something than to die whining.’

  ‘They didn’t do it right,’ Garnet said. ‘Not the mad Duc. No one since the very first Powers and Majesties.’ His eyes flicked in Ashiol’s direction.

  Ashiol swallowed.

  ‘How is it done?’ Velody asked, all businesslike. ‘Is it documented in any of these books? Do the Seers know?’

  ‘The Seer is a pile of firewood in the kitchen,’ Ashiol snarled.

  ‘No,’ Isangell said. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. But the Seer is in my head right now.’

  He stared at her. After everything else that had happened today, that shouldn’t be the thing that broke his brain. ‘Heliora?’

  ‘Heliora and Rhian both,’ Isangell admitted. ‘The Seers know all about the sacred marriage. They also say they’re not the only ones. Better to ask the King who tried and failed.’ She frowned, not understanding what she was saying.

  Velody understood, though. In that moment, at least. Ashiol could see the surprise and disappointment cross her face.

  ‘You knew all along about the sacred marriage,’ she said, staring at him. ‘When Garnet stole your powers …’

  ‘That was what he was trying to do,’ Ashiol agreed. ‘He found the books Poet was hoarding. We stole one — Saturn had pieced together how the sacred marriage worked, what it was supposed to do. Garnet offered —’ His voice broke on that. He could not continue.

  Garnet was gripping the bars tightly, his knuckles almost white. ‘I offered to share,’ he said. ‘I was losing you. I had lost everything else, and I offered to share. We would be Power and Majesty together. But you still couldn’t trust me.’

  He had the balls to sound upset about it. Ashiol wanted to punch him.

  A shock wave from outside shook the nest.

  ‘I tried,’ Ashiol said between his teeth.

  ‘You held back, lover. You wouldn’t give me everything. That’s what the sacred marriage is, Velody-my-sweet. You pour everything of yourself into the other vessel. Exchange animor fully. But even with everything I was offering, he held back.’ Garnet smiled horribly. ‘So I took it from him instead.’

  ‘You didn’t give me the chance,’ Ashiol said. ‘It was only a moment.’

  ‘That was enough.’

  ‘A split second of hesitation!’ Ashiol roared at him. ‘After everything you’ve done to me, that was the unforgiveable act?’

  Garnet gazed at him, mouth twisted. ‘Yes,’ he said simply.

  ‘I can’t do this any more,’ Velody said suddenly. She looked from Garnet to Ashiol, throwing up her hands in frustration. ‘The sacred marriage can’t be about you and me, Ashiol. I’m not the one you have to work things out with.’

  Garnet began to laugh.

  ‘You can’t be serious,’ Ashiol demanded.

  ‘I mean it,’ Velody snapped. ‘It’s up to you and Garnet. I’ll be defending the city while you talk in circles and try to tear each other to pieces.’ She turned and headed for the kitchen.

  Ashiol ran after her. She had obviously gone insane.

  ‘You can’t be suggesting that Garnet and I make the sacred marriage. The sky will infect me, too.’

  ‘Will it?’ Velody’s eyes were luminous in the low light of the kitchen. ‘The sky couldn’t have taken him over unless she let it. Maybe he thought he was strong enough to handle it; maybe he really did think it was necessary to keep them believing he was on their side. But it was his choice. You have a choice, too. You spend your whole life trying to let other people decide for you. I won’t do that, not now. Sort it out, Ashiol.’

  ‘Stop saying that!’

  ‘I need to fight the sky,’ Velody said furiously. ‘The city is coming down around our ears and we are running out of time. I can’t perform the sacred marriage with you because you’re never going to give me everything you have. You won’t even give me a piece of you.’

  He kissed her then, caught her face in his hands and kissed her as hard as he could. She kissed him back, and they leaned into each other. Ashiol felt her animor pulsing against her skin and against his, but they were both holding back, preserving what they had.

  ‘It’s not about you and me,’ he said in a low voice.

  She shook her head. ‘How could it possibly be about you and me? If the sacred marriage is really about uniting the Creature Court, then it’s all of us. Every single one of us.’

  Ashiol drew away, and went back into the workroom where Garnet stood in the cage.

  ‘You were wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘My hesitation wasn’t because I didn’t trust you, or because I was trying to hoard my power. I didn’t want to be Majesty to your Power. I didn’t want to share your rule. I was happy to be ruled by you, always, but you never believed me.’

  Garnet stared at him as if seeing him for the first time, and then held his hand out through the bars. ‘Save the fucking city,’ he said hoarsely. ‘It’s all we’re good for.’

  Ashiol clasped his hand and felt animor flooding his fingers. It wasn’t Garnet’s, nothing like it, but it was stronger than anything he had ever felt before. It came faster and faster, like rushing water and a fierce alien light. He was dizzy with it, power heating every inch of his skin. Garnet’s gattopardi stretched inside him, along with Ashiol’s own black cats. There was a nameless creature there, pulsing with the voice of their enemy, but the cats and the gattopardi surrounded it, not letting it take control of his body.

  Ashiol stumbled away from the cage and towards the kitchen.

  Poet caught him as he leaned against the staircase, and placed a slow kiss on his forehead. ‘Let’s not do this by halves, kitten,’ he said, and Ashiol felt a new surge of animor press inside him. He was almost bursting with power now, his head full of white rats as well as the other creatures.

  Left without power, Poet looked surprised and then oddly relaxed. ‘It’s over for me, then,’ he said. ‘Good luck.’

  The enemy animor that Ashiol had taken from Garnet was a smaller piece of him now, a shock of cold inside his thudding, heated body. He stood in the kitchen doorway, breathing. The enemy voice thudded inside his head, but he kept it at bay. Ignoring what he did not want to hear was one of his greatest skills.

  He looked down and saw the brown-skinned demme, Topaz. She was holding the old ginger tom that Ashiol had left here with Velody so long ago. One of the many cats that were always drawn to him when he was in Court shape. Old Tom filled her skinny arms, all bulge and fur.

  Yes, that.

  Ashiol reached out and placed his hands on the cat, giving the enemy inside his animor a sudden push out of his body and into that of Old Tom. The cat yowled and glowed fiercely with all the colours of skybattle before Topaz released it and it went running across the floor.

  Kelpie brought her swords around in two sweeping
arcs, cutting the cat in half before it reached the door. The steel blade made no mark, but the skysilver blade cut true. The cat’s body burst into blue flame and burned there for a moment.

  ‘I really hate you for making me do that,’ said Kelpie.

  ‘Add it to the list,’ said Ashiol.

  He reached a hand out solemnly to Topaz, who nodded and took his loosely in hers. Suddenly his head was full of fire and rage and the cool skin of salamanders.

  One by one, the children came forward, either to him or Velody, and gave them their animor.

  Livilla caught Velody in a gleeful kiss, handing over her power as easily as breathing. ‘Since the world is ending,’ she said with an odd smile.

  Shade went to Velody, as did Clara. Bree hesitated before coming to Ashiol as Topaz had done. There was no one left to share what they had. There were so few of them left.

  Ashiol looked at Velody across the kitchen. ‘A city to save, you say?’

  She almost laughed, but caught herself. She was glowing with power, brighter than he had ever seen her.

  ‘This is better,’ she said finally. ‘A marriage really should be about the whole family.’

  He took two strides across the kitchen and grabbed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they sank their animor into each other, giving everything.

  For once in his life, Ashiol did not hold back.

  55

  Velody felt hot and cold all at once. She gave everything to Ashiol and took the animor he channelled back into her skin. She had never felt so alive and alert. The world was brighter than it had ever been before.

  ‘Now you have to return it,’ said a soft voice.

  Velody broke the kiss, but she could not take her eyes off Ashiol. He was glowing, all dark and shiny, and smiling so stupidly at her that it was hard to pay attention to anything else. Eventually she realised it was the Duchessa who had spoken.

  ‘We did that,’ said Ashiol, and even his voice was beautiful, like power and sex and ciocolata all poured into one. He had never sounded that good before.

  ‘Not to each other,’ Isangell said patiently. ‘You have to give it to Rhian.’

  Velody turned then, still in Ashiol’s arms, and looked. She had been keeping away from the twisted statue that lay prone in the corner of her kitchen, not wanting to believe that was all that remained of her friend. But it was Rhian, when you looked at it. Her face was unmistakeable, even if she was half stone and half wood, with rose vines wrapped around her thorny ankles.

  ‘Why Rhian?’ she asked.

  ‘Because she was never supposed to be the Seer,’ said Isangell. ‘Or a sentinel, or King, Lord, Court. She is something else. She is the seed of destruction.’

  ‘How can we know this is the right thing to do?’ Ashiol asked.

  Isangell gave a small smile, her eyes distant. ‘You have to trust your Seers. This is what they are here for, all this time. Give her everything, and Rhian will save the city.’

  Velody hesitated too long. She felt Ashiol’s fingers curl into her own as he held her hand.

  ‘We have to trust,’ he said.

  As Velody watched, Ashiol poured everything he had into Rhian. Light burst out of her, haloing her twisted body as he filled her with the animor of the Creature Court.

  Isangell held out her hand, too, and something silver shone out of her fingers, streaming into Rhian’s body. Isangell crumpled into a faint and Kelpie leaped forward to catch her.

  Rhian stood up. She was still stone and plant and water and sun, roses and wood and light and dust, but she was human, too, and whole. More whole than she had been in a very long time. Velody stared at her, feeling Rhian’s power. The animor was there — from Ashiol, Poet, Garnet, so many of them. The flame of the salamanders.

  When Rhian held a hand out to her, though, Velody hesitated. ‘We can do it together,’ she said.

  Rhian shook her head. ‘I am the last weapon. Forged by the Smith of Tierce before she fell into the sky. Placed here to be the final redemption. It is up to me to heal the shattered sky once and for all, and to give back what was stolen. To make amends and end the war. It’s time to lay down your burden, Velody. This is my task.’

  No. Velody couldn’t do it. It was all right for Ashiol, who had never wanted the responsibility of being Power and Majesty. But she had taken on that duty, and she could not relinquish it now.

  ‘You can’t sacrifice yourself to the damned sky,’ she said, unable to stop her voice from shaking. ‘That never works. I tried, remember? I won’t let you.’

  ‘You’re so used to protecting everyone,’ said Rhian, her voice so very confident. ‘But you can’t fight this battle for me.’

  ‘Yes, I can,’ Velody yelled at her. ‘It’s the only way.’

  They were all looking at her like she was the crazy one, hoarding power for herself. Like she should just give it all up and trust Rhian to save the city. Rhian had barely left this house in nearly two years.

  ‘It’s a trick,’ she added. ‘Garnet, the sky, all of it. How do we know it’s not a trick? We’ll lose you and get nothing back. They want us to give up all the animor and be left defenceless!’

  She felt Ashiol’s hand rest against her shoulders, and it was a shock to get no spark from him, no sense of his power. He had given it all up. How could she be the last one standing?

  ‘We’ve been fighting for years,’ he said. ‘Centuries, maybe. What if not fighting is the only way to end the war?’

  ‘Don’t you dare be on her side,’ Velody choked.

  Rhian was what she had been fighting for. She would not lose her like this.

  ‘You heard it from Garnet’s mouth,’ Ashiol said softly into her ear. ‘The animor was never ours.’

  ‘You don’t have to trust Garnet, or the sky, or any of them,’ Rhian said. ‘You have to trust me. Do you?’

  Velody took a deep breath because Rhian had once been the most reliable person that she knew. Someone whose strong hands had built their kitchen table, whose even temper had kept things calm between Velody and Delphine.

  With something like a sob, she let go of her animor. It fought, not wanting to leave, and she had a vision of hundreds of blindingly bright mouse bodies streaming from her and into Rhian.

  Then it was over and Velody felt nothing but empty.

  ‘Open the door, please,’ said Rhian in a voice that was familiar but radiated power.

  Delphine had tears running down her face as she released the catch on the door. Suddenly the kitchen was full of sounds again, of crashes and breaking stone and icy rain hitting the broken, rubble-strewn remains of their courtyard. ‘Give them hells,’ she said.

  Rhian stepped out into the yard, glowing more brightly, new vines springing up where she walked, pushing their way through the stones.

  Velody stood still, unable to move until Ashiol tugged her by the hand and led her outside, where the battle still raged. The rain felt like ordinary water on her skin. Daylight. She was daylight. They were all entirely human; all of them except Rhian.

  Her friend smiled at her, looking for a moment just like that demme who had wanted to be a florister when she grew up.

  ‘Take me back to Tierce,’ she said. ‘When it’s over.’

  As the scrappy remains of the Creature Court emerged from the kitchen one by one, Rhian rose into the air, glowing brighter and brighter, and then flew straight up into the sky like an arrow. For one long moment, everything was achingly, painfully white from one edge of Velody’s vision to the other.

  The rain stopped.

  Rhian had not felt so much like herself in years. Strength flooded her body; the kind of strength that used to haul heavy loads of stems and branches, that had built their kitchen table and mended the broken furniture they had refurbished when making their house a home.

  The whole city spread out beneath her, wide and scarred and aching. Buildings lay in rubble, hills had become mudslides, there were fires and floods in every street.


  She felt the dust devils become aware of her, and then the steam angels, and all the other faceless, voiceless creatures of the sky. She was blazing like a beacon, like a thousand skysilver blades flashing all at once. They smelled her, tasted her. They wanted her dead.

  See me, she cried across the city to them. You think you can take us? Think we’re easy meat? That we will crumple like Tierce, like Bazeppe? You think we are not defended?

  She could feel Velody inside her, and Ashiol, and Garnet, and Poet, and Livilla. So many other faces and voices and songs. After holding the Seers inside her for so long, it seemed almost easy to take the whole Creature Court, those who had died and those who lived.

  They rampaged inside her, a tumbling mess of cats and mice and wolves and gattopardi, of rats and salamanders and hounds, of panthers and bats and feraxes and birds and lions.

  She was Warlord, she was Lennoc, she was Priest, she was Dhynar, she was Lief, she was Saturn, she was Ortheus, she was Tasha, she was sentinel and Seer.

  Rhian stopped, finally, so high that a human could barely breathe, surrounded by a thousand different fractures in the sky. They swarmed to her, devils and angels and skybolts and gleamspray. She smiled politely at them as they closed in around her body.

  ‘My name is Rhian,’ she said aloud. ‘On behalf of the city of Aufleur, I am here to negotiate a truce.’

  Her body burst apart into salamander flames and she took every fucking one of them with her.

  This time, the sky would mend clean.

  56

  Topaz did not go outside with the other lambs. She crept back into the room with the cage.

  Garnet sat leaning back against the bars that he could now touch because he was human, like the rest of them, and skysilver would not burn. One hand was painfully curled around a spot just above his belly, and she realised too late what it was.

  Poet knew. She saw his hands shake as he unlocked the door of the cage and fell down on his knees beside Garnet. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘Not a lot,’ Garnet said, sounding almost lazy. ‘Come closer.’