The Scale Empire

by Cate Farren

  “Come on,” I declared. “Let’s go.”

  We headed down the steps, Leopold leading the way. Veins of light shone from the walls, illuminating our way. It was very ancient magic, though simple.

  “So are you and my sister courting?” Dorian asked.

  I stopped on the stairs, shocked. “What makes you say that?”

  “I see the way you look at him,” Dorian confessed. “Plus you’re happy. I like it when you’re happy.”

  We continued on, the conversation over. I couldn’t help but smile deliriously. The rest of my family wouldn’t be too pleased over my and Leopold’s affair, but it felt good to have at least one person genuinely on our side.

  We reached the bottom after a good ten minutes of walking. I figured we must be at least a mile under Buckingham Palace by now. I was a little unnerved. I’d never felt so caged in before, unable to escape.

  I can’t breathe…

  Leopold clutched my hand. “Lean on me. Breathe deeply. I know it’s very claustrophobic down here.”

  “You’re telling me,” I muttered.

  He smiled and kissed me on the lips. “It won’t last long.”

  He pressed his hand against the vein of light in the wall. The veins spread out like a virus, pulsing over the walls, revealing a massive, cavernous structure a hundred times the size of the palace. It was so brightly lit it was blinding, but my eyes soon adjusted. When they did the contents of the vault were revealed in all their glory.

  I stepped back. “Oh Leopold…”

  It was a cave of wonders. Hundreds of bookcases, containing books, vellum and scrolls. Artefacts from glowing swords to skeletons of demons, shrunken giant’s heads, pickled claws in jars, a full dinosaur frozen in amber, even something that looked like a horse cart with rubber wheels and odd flashing lights on its inside. It was a museum of secrets and wonders.

  “What do you think?” Leopold asked me.

  “There’s just so much,” I confessed.

  He nodded. “I know. I don’t even know what most of it is.”

  I watched Dorian as he stared at the frozen dinosaur. I didn’t know what species it was, but it was fearsome. The amber seemed magical in nature. I knew that, with one simple spell, the creature could be out and rampaging down here.

  “Don’t touch it,” I warned him.

  Dorian smiled, eyes transfixed. I’d never seen him like this before. He looked happy.

  “Who looks after all this?” I asked.

  “We have a vampire keeper called Clay,” said Leopold. “But he could be anywhere. This place is rather big. He once told me he was waiting for the love of his life to be born so he could leave here and be with her. It’s a romantic story.”

  I heard something. I looked forward and saw a figure strolling through the stacks in the book section. He stopped, nodded toward me, and carried on. Clay was a young man, younger than me, but he seemed bent over with tragedy. I wanted to talk to him.

  “How long has he been here?” I asked.

  “A thousand years,” Leopold answered sadly.

  He led me toward a table that was covered in scraps of paper and journals. He sat down at a chair, seemingly comfortable in this setting. I knew instantly that this was his work.

  “What are you researching?” I asked him.

  “The origins of the universe,” he replied.

  “I’m not a Christian, but even I have to admit that the only reason I can come up with for the existence of the universe is God.”

  He winked at me. “Or a god.”

  I had a feeling this was what he wanted to show me, not the vast panoply of artefacts in the vault. I’d never seen him so animated before. He seemed to be a different person.

  “I’ve been looking into this my whole life,” said Leopold. “I’ve come to the conclusion that this universe isn’t the first. We were created by a team of omnipotent beings.”

  “How do you know this?” I asked. I was definitely intrigued.

  He smiled up at me, mischief and wonder written on his face. He pulled open a drawer on his desk and pulled out a small lavender rock. No, not a rock. It was some sort of fossil. I could discern bones and some sort of tail. The magic it emanated was colossal. I’d never felt anything like it. It actually made my head spin.

  “How can you touch it without exploding?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t affect me,” said Leopold. “Well, it doesn’t any more. The first time I touched it I had this vision. This vision of…of beings creating this universe.”

  “It’s…it’s making me feel sick.”

  My hand struck out and grabbed it, seemingly of its own accord. Magic charged through me, making my every nerve ending feel like it was on fire. I screamed as I felt something, some presence, trying to contact me; a presence inside the fossil.

  “Prepare your flesh! Prepare for me!”

  I tried to drop the fossil but it was stuck to my hand. It was literally melding itself to my flesh. The entity inside it was trying to invade my body. I could feel it trying to push at my soul.

  “Leopold!” I screamed.

  He tried to grab the fossil but he was thrown back against the desk. I gasped and arched my back, my soul in pain as the thing in the fossil tried to invade me.

  “Perfect skin! Perfect flesh!”

  I pushed with every ounce of magic in my body, but the entity was too strong. Yet I refused to give up. I would never acquiesce. Never.

  “Kezia!” Dorian cried.

  Dorian reached out and grabbed the fossil. It came away from me, taking the skin from my palm with it. I fell back, the light fading from my eyes. The last thing I heard was my brother shrieking in agony.

  ***

  I was woken by a savage kick to the gut.

  “Wake up,” Dorian said.

  I staggered to my feet. I looked at the palm of my hand, noting the red flesh where the skin used to be. I was confused at first, not remembering what had happened.

  Then it came to me.

  “Kezia?” said Leopold.

  My lover was pinned in the air by some sort of magic. I tried to free him, but the forces holding him were too powerful. I looked toward Dorian, noting with horror the guise of pure malice on his face. I stepped back, shocked.

  “Dorian?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “You’re the thing from the fossil.”

  “I’m a thing? That’s rude, Kezia.” He grinned wickedly. “I know all about you. I have all his memories, you see.”

  “Leave my brother’s body!”

  He shook his head sadly. “I have too much work to do.” He looked up with hatred at Leopold, still hanging in the air. “I’ve had you prodding me and staring at me for years. I hate you.”

  Dorian grinned and waved his fingers. Leopold screamed in agony as I heard tearing flesh. I charged toward Dorian and punched him in the face. He shot a spell my way, snapping the bones in my legs. I sank to the floor, trying to think of a spell to help. I didn’t know anything about healing. I’d been too busy with defensive and offensive spells to protect the queen.

  “This is going to be great,” said Dorian.

  He forced me to watch as Dorian used vile arcane magic to skin Leopold alive. When the screams were over and my lover, my life, was dead, I finally passed out.

  ***

  “Try to rest.”

  I looked up into the eyes of the vault keeper. He smiled shyly at me before handing me a glass of water. Up close I could tell he was even younger than I thought, despite the beard, long hair and ancient eyes. He was no older than twenty.

  “Where am I?” I asked.

  I tried to lift myself up but couldn’t. I felt no magic in me at all. I started to panic before I realised it was slowly coming back.

  “You’re upstairs,” he said. “In one of the guest suites.”

  I could still hear Leopold’s cries in my head. I never thought someone could be in so much pain and still live. />
  “He killed Leopold,” I stated.

  “The queen is with him now,” said Clay. “She is in mourning.”

  I wanted to laugh. She didn’t know her son, not really. I was the only one who knew the real Leopold. I was the only one who loved him for the man he was.

  Dorian!

  “Where’s Dorian?” I cried.

  “Gone,” said Clay.

  I looked at my hand, remembering the feel of the thing inside the fossil as it tried to possess me. My hand was healed now, but something remained, some remnant of the parasitic demon.

  “He’s not here,” I whispered. “He’s not on this world.”

  Clay looked curious. “How do you know that?”

  “I can feel it.”

  I felt nauseous all of a sudden. Before I could do anything I vomited over the side of the bed.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I still feel a little…”

  “Pregnant,” said Victoria.

  I looked up into the hateful visage of Queen Victoria. Her eyes were puffy and her lips were trembling, but she was still as severe and terrifying as ever. She gave Clay a glare before he nodded and left.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring the vomit on the floor.

  “You are pregnant with my grandchild,” Victoria stated.

  I shook my head, but I knew she was right. I could literally feel the life growing inside me. Not the soul or the flesh but the magic. My daughter was going to be a powerful witch, just like her mother.

  My daughter.

  “Where is he?” I asked.

  “Attempts are being made to…reattach his skin.” Victoria paled. A single tear attempted to escape her eye before she wiped it away. “He should be respectable for his funeral.”

  “I tried to stop it. I tried, but…”

  “It killed every guard and most of the servants.” A brief smirk appeared at the corner of her lips for a second. “He went to your home and killed your parents.”

  “No…”

  She pulled a dagger from the folds of her dress. She lunged at me, the blade piercing my shoulder blade. I screamed, fighting to restore some semblance of magic to my body, but I could hardly move.

  “Leopold was the only innocent thing in my life,” Victoria cried. “The only good thing!”

  She plunged the knife down again. The blade was about to stab into my head when Clay grabbed the queen and slammed her against the floor. She fell unconscious.

  “We have to get you out of here,” said Clay, scooping me up into his arms. “Come on.”

  “Was it true about my parents?” I asked. “Are they dead?”

  “Yes,” he said. “But Dorian didn’t kill them. Victoria sent Magenta to kill Dorian, and she killed them.”

  I was glad my parents put up a fight before they died.

  “Stop!” I ordered.

  I struggled against Clay. He let me drop to the floor. I pulled myself to my feet and staggered over to Queen Victoria. She looked so peaceful in her unconscious state.

  “She had my parents killed.” I picked up her knife. “And she deserves to die too.”

  “Do you really want to be known as the woman who killed a queen?” Clay asked me.

  I turned to him. “I’d relish it.”

  He rushed to stop me. I lashed out, discovering a hidden reserve a magic I knew immediately came from my unborn child. Clay screamed and was propelled through the window.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  I kneeled down and slit the queen’s throat. I waited until she was dead before making my way from the palace. Nobody tried to stop me. I was a witch drenched in blood, my face fierce. They knew not to try or I’d slaughter them. Besides, Dorian had killed most of the palace guards already. I had it easy.

  ***

  The queen had left my parents’ bodies in their home to rot. She hadn’t even had them buried. I was glad I killed her. England didn’t deserve a thing like her as its monarch.

  Killing her had been fun.

  I kneeled down on the floor between my mother and father’s bodies. They were holding hands in death, even though they had looks of pain etched on their faces as they died.

  “I killed her for you,” I told them. “I avenged you.”

  I laughed deliriously, falling back onto the floor. I stared up at the ceiling, my mind fixated on all the death. I’d lost Leopold. I’d lost my parents. I’d killed the queen. I was surrounded by death and destruction and blood and it made me want to die myself.

  Yet I couldn’t die. I had a child to raise. But what kind of world would my daughter be brought up in? I’d killed the Queen of England. I was a wanted woman.

  I flipped to my feet, saying one last goodbye to my parents. I’d never forget what they went through to bring my brother and me to safety. They’d lost so much, including a daughter, my sister, who never even got the chance to grow up. They deserved better than to be left here to rot.

  I had to help them.

  I summoned a fireball in my hands. The dark kitchen lit up, lighting up their dead faces. I set them alight, pushing the heat of the flames up high enough so they were cremated within seconds.

  “Goodbye,” I whispered.

  I reached out for Dorian again, but he was even farther away than ever. I wasn’t sure exactly where he was. I didn’t understand. I only wished to never see the creature who had possessed my brother again.

  I turned and walked straight into Clay.

  “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “I’ve come to help you get out of the city,” he explained. “Queen Victoria is looking for you.”

  I was confused. “I slit her throat. She won’t be looking for me. But I am leaving the country. I’m going back home to Chapel Green.” Something akin to recognition crossed his face. “You’ve been to Chapel Green?”

  “Perhaps.”

  He ushered me outside and into the back of a hansom cab. The horses galloped away across the dirty, cobbled streets. I closed the curtains, glad to be away from London. I always hated the smelly, awful city anyway.

  “How is she alive?” I asked. “I killed her.”

  “I smelled something on her…something dark.” He looked away, lost in thought. “She must have a necromancer on staff. That’s the only explanation.”

  I leaned against Clay’s shoulder, feeling sleepy. He stiffened for a moment, as if he’d never been touched by another person before. I ignored him and slept. I dreamed of Dorian, accusing me of leaving him to a fate worse than death.

  ***

  I was woken when Clay lifted me into his arms again, bringing me out of the cab. We were at the docks. Tall masted ships bobbed on the water, men crawling around them, moving boxes, trimming sails, drinking and laughing. The smell was rotten but intoxicating.

  “I can walk,” I complained.

  “Let me be the gentleman here,” he said.

  “Put me down.”

  He allowed me to stand on my own two feet. I pressed down my dress, still shocked to find I was covered in dried blood.

  “This boat is headed to Boston,” Clay explained. “You can get to Chapel Green from there.”

  “Are you coming with me?” I asked.

  He looked torn for a second. “I’ll see you again some day. I can promise you that.”

  “Thank you for everything. I mean that.”

  I kissed him on the cheek, intrigued by this sad, gentle man. I hoped he’d be all right. I didn’t like the thought of him returning to work for the queen, hiding in that terrible vault. He deserved the daylight.

  I walked toward the ship, feeling my future stretch ahead of me. I would honour all those I’d lost by bringing my daughter up right. She would know of her father, the honourable prince, and her grandparents and uncle. She would know where she came from. I looked forward to a life with her.

  Chapter 23

  I opened one eye, waiting for the killing blow. The scorched courtyard and gardens were embraced in darkness, like an
eclipse was blotting out the sun. Leviathan was staring into the Heavens, mouth agape, shock written on his face.

  “Hello, Bram,” I whispered.

  Leviathan turned to me before a triceratops rammed into him, sending him crashing into the walls of the palace. Tina winked at me as her family of weresaurs came charging in, surrounding me. Circe blinked [NJA13]into existence beside me and immediately started healing me with her advanced magic.

  “What took you so long?” I asked.

  I sat up as my bones started to heal. Leviathan was pulling himself up from the broken remains of the wall, snarling with fury. He directed his gaze at me and started forward. He was engulfed immediately in Bram’s dragon fire. His clothes burned away around him as he endured the fire and the heat. He truly looked like a demon.

  I got to my feet, ignoring Circe’s protests. I still felt weak, but Circe had healed me enough. It was time to end Leviathan while he was weak.

  The fire dissipated, leaving him naked. His skin was blackened with soot but it wasn’t burned. Even his beard had stayed intact. He grinned.

  “I thrive in fire,” he bellowed. “You think that can stop me?”

  Sini placed her hand on the back of his neck. He hadn’t noticed her coming up behind him, he’d been so focused on me.

  “Don’t think about her,” she whispered provocatively. “Think about what you can do to me.”

  He turned to her slowly. He was obviously resisting, but Sini wasn’t an ordinary succubus. She was an ancient species, just like he was. She knew how to control men.

  “You’re very beautiful,” he said, smiling. He touched her face. “But you’re not really my type, sweetie.”

  Leviathan grinned and stabbed his middle finger into Sini’s left eye. She screamed in pain and fell to the floor. I ran at him, throwing a ball of ultra cold ice at his head. If he thrived in fire, then ice was certainly going to hurt him.

  He screamed as ice crystals shattered around his head. Sini crawled away, crying in pain, light blue blood leaking from her eye socket. I ignored her for the time being. I had to take Leviathan out.