by Mark Hayden
I ignored that issue because Mina was here, and that took priority over everything. As I swept Mina up into my arms, I saw that the Boss had got into Karina’s ambulance. Whatever.
‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ whispered Mina. ‘The bad news is that it doesn’t get any easier waiting for you to live or die. The good news is that it hasn’t got any harder.’
We kissed again, enough for now, then separated.
‘Walk back with me,’ said Hannah.
‘Do you mind if Scout joins us?’
She reached down to scratch him. ‘He’s not quite 100% dog, is he?’
‘I think he’s about five per cent Pale Horseman. Why else would he think Gnomes are tasty? It’s quite embarrassing in a small space.’
She stood up and we started walking. After two steps, I had to catch her when she stumbled. ‘Are you alright?’
‘Yes. It’s bloody dark is all.’
‘Oh. About that. I think I’m becoming part Gnome – I’ve developed some night vision. Take my arm?’
‘So long as that’s the only Gnomish trait you’ve acquired. Go on.’ We linked arms and continued.
‘If you’re wondering how I got here,’ she said, ‘it’s down to Saskia. I called her and told her to keep me in the loop. As soon as I heard about Mina and DCI Morton, I got a taxi to Euston Station. Vicky kept me up to speed as well.’
‘Of course.’
There’s a lot I haven’t told you about tonight – we kept the Clerkswell Coven up to date, for example, but only when it was too late for them to get here.
‘Saskia drove me to Knutsford Services,’ she continued, ‘and I had an interesting chat to DCI Morton. Tom. The only thing that worried me, Conrad, was that you’d Entangled him deliberately. You didn’t, so you met the challenge.’
I shivered, and hoped she thought it was the night air. ‘Challenge?’
‘These sorts of things happen often enough. We don’t write it up when the Fae and the Gnomes tear strips out of each other. The Fae Queens, out of courtesy, always ask me if we’re interested in getting involved, and I’ve always said no. Until now. I wanted to see how you handled it, and I’m very, very sorry that Mina got dragged into it.’ She squeezed my arm. ‘Can you forgive me?’
‘You’ve forgiven me often enough, Hannah.’
‘I’ve needed to. Your chutzpah gets bigger by the day, Conrad. Only you could walk out unscathed and with your own pack of Dual Natured wolves.’
I thought about mentioning the claw marks on my face, and then I thought of her head. I passed.
‘I’ve been thinking. About Tom Morton,’ she continued. ‘You were right: we need more police support than Ruth can give us. I’ve offered Tom the job of MI7 Liaison, and he said yes.’
‘Good. He and I seem to have reached an unspoken understanding, and besides, Lucy has hired Mina as her financial consultant.’
She laughed. ‘And so would I, if they paid me enough to need one. Tom said that his first job tomorrow is looking into that burnt out car. We’re used to Mages driving round with fake index plates, but they don’t generally change the VIN. Could be interesting.’
‘There’s something else, ma’am. I can’t be Deputy Constable like this. I want the King’s Watch to lease the Smurf from the Mowbrays. They’ll give us a good rate.’
She stopped and pulled her arm away. ‘Tell me you’re joking.’
‘No. I’m using it tomorrow to transport the pack to new ground. I won’t use it frivolously. Promise you’ll think about it.’
She put her arm back and said, ‘If I must. And besides, I’ve already got my revenge in advance.’
Hannah doesn’t have an I’m joking! tone of voice; instead, she has an I might be joking tone, and was the one she’d just used to tell me about getting her revenge in first.
‘Go on,’ I said. ‘Tell me the worst.’
‘It’s like this. When I called the President of the Occult Council to tell him about Princess Birkdale’s pack, and that they’d been officially discovered, he whimpered. He said, “Why me?” And now you have your own pack, he may faint. There’s going to be a Council committee of enquiry, and you’re going to chair it.’
‘Tell me you’re joking, ma’am. Please.’
‘Now you’re management, you have to get used to it.’
‘Fine. There’s a good train service to Manchester. I’ll hire a committee room in the Alchemical Institute.’
‘You’ll hold it London.’
‘If you want it in London, Hannah, chair it yourbloodyself.’
She snorted. Demurely, but a snort nonetheless. ‘So be it. And you’ll be wanting a new partner.’
‘Needing, more like.’
‘Stay out of trouble for a week while I think about it, okay?’
We passed Kenver at the edge of the Wards, and the Boss made doubly sure that he hadn’t been in any real danger.
We were nearly at the farm when I asked, ‘What about Karina?’
‘I thought long and hard about her, and I’ve given her a mention in dispatches. She deserves that. She also deserves three days in the Undercroft for disobeying orders. If she reports to the Bailiff when she’s left hospital, I’ll wipe her record and transfer her to the Reserves.’
That’s why I love my Boss. Firm but fair.
‘What now?’ she asked. ‘Do you want me to ring Princess Birkdale and the Blackrods?’
‘Blackrod will be here shortly. We have business with them that you might not want to watch. A conversation with Tara Doyle would be a very good idea. There are things she needs to hear about her beloved Count.’
‘Fine. I presume there’s tea on the go?’
‘Always. Let me introduce you to Alex and Cara first.’
We gathered in front of the mine, light spilling out from twisted doors and supplemented by a couple of magickal lanterns. The bodies of Fergus and Colm had already been disposed of, and that left three laid out on tarpaulins in front of the doors: Gregor, Andriss and the poor Gnome who’d surrendered and still been stabbed in the back. He would be returned to his clan in due course.
Behind the bodies, pushed down on to their knees were the surviving prisoners: Hans, Max and Ricky. They’d been as good as their word after I’d arrested them, doing what they were told and helping out, but now was the time of reckoning, and I’d put them in restraints. The wives, all five of them, were locked into the spare cottage. This wasn’t about them.
Tom Morton stood to the left: for one night only, he was acting as Counsel to Lloyd and Wesley. Mina stood to the right, now almost swamped by a padded jacket and almost hidden by shadows. Her job was to act as witness for the Cloister Court. I stood at the front, because the first part, at least, was my show.
Clan Blackrod arrived in a Bentley Flying Spur that whispered over the gravel as if it were on a dancefloor and pulled up just beyond the circle of light. The driver got out and opened the rear doors.
First Chief Stefan, then Lachlan, and finally two younger Gnomes emerged. The younger ones would be Drake’s sons. Stefan took his time looking around and scoping out the magick before coming round and shaking hands.
‘Lord Guardian. You’ve had a busy night.’
‘We have, Chief. The four who killed Drake are dead. Two of them were of your clan, and both died at the hand of Lloyd Flint.’
‘Only four?’
‘Only four.’
‘And what of the Mannwolves?’
‘At the time, they were under the Protection of an unknown Fae. They are now with me.’
He nodded. ‘Was it that whore from Birkdale?’
‘It was not. When we find out, and we will, then I will see justice done.’
‘So be it.’
‘I offer the bodies of the two who turned against their own clan to you.’
He bowed. ‘Thank you. Boys? Take them away.’
I stepped aside, next to Mina. The two sons of Drake Blackrod quickly wrapped Gregor and Andriss in t
heir tarpaulins and loaded them into the boot of the Bentley. When they’d finished, they remained by the car, watching and listening.
‘We’re not done here, are we?’ said Stefan.
‘No, Chief,’ said Lloyd. ‘This night we Consecrate a new First Mine. Here.’
‘We?’ said Stefan mildly, as if it were of no interest to him. No one was fooled.
Lloyd spoke up. ‘Myself and Wesley, with others who are on their way. Two from Clan Trent and two from London. There’s a lot trying to leave Octavius at the moment.’
‘So I hear,’ said Stefan. ‘That makes six. And the other two?’
‘Hans and Max here, Clan Palatinate.’
‘You would consecrate a mine on my doorstep with two of those who killed Drake?’ Stefan’s voice was icy now.
Lloyd stepped forward and pushed the two Gnomes from Germany face down. He pushed gently, but when your hands are tied behind your back, it’s hard to fall flat on your face with any dignity. Their necks were now exposed, and Lloyd picked up the blood-stained axe that Gregor had wielded. He stepped into the open space and offered the hilt to Stefan. ‘Take this offering. If you have a quarrel with Hans and Max, show it.’
I’d warned Tom that this might happen, and that the prisoners wouldn’t actually be beheaded in front of him.
Stefan took the axe and weighed it in his hands. ‘A fit offering to our Mother.’ He turned to me. ‘These two will face your judgement.’
‘They will.’
‘Then I have no quarrel with them, nor with the other one.’
Lloyd lifted the two prostrate Gnomes back to their knees, then helped all three to their feet.
It was Stefan’s call, now. ‘There’s been enough blood this year. Rivalry is always a good thing. From a tribute clan, of course.’
Lloyd spread his hands. ‘We could pay tribute to Blackrod while we set up. For a limited time.’
‘By eight by eight,’ said Stefan. ‘You’ll be a slow-growing bunch.’
What he meant was 8x8x8 – five hundred and twelve years. ‘We thought once,’ countered Lloyd. ‘Eight years is enough.’
I’ll spare you the haggling. They agreed on sixty-four years in the end, with further offerings thrown in. At the end, it was Tom Morton and Lachlan Mace who shook hands on the deal, Counsel to Counsel.
‘What name will you take?’ said Stefan as he prepared to go.
‘Clan Salz,’ said Lloyd. Salz being their word for salt.
‘Fitting. It does stink of salt here. What will you specialise in?’
‘Watch this space, Chief.’
Stefan grunted and got back in his car. Once the Bentley had gone, Lloyd rubbed his hands. ‘Right, we ay half got a lot to do.’ His first job was to cut the restraints and embrace his new clansmen-to-be. He sent the others down the mine and started to examine the doors, with a view to repairing them.
I released Ricky and told him to help out down at the farm. Wesley came up to me and said, ‘It’s time to say goodbye, Lord Guardian. I never thought, when you walked into Flint House that it would end here. Never in my wildest dreams.’
When Wesley went through the doors, he wouldn’t be coming out. Eight would enter the mine and only seven return: Wesley was giving himself to Mother Earth. His sacrifice would be the Consecration that turned the salty hole in the ground into a First Mine.
‘Thank you for tonight,’ I replied. I couldn’t thank him for much else, because we both knew that his rule of Clan Flint had been pretty disastrous.
‘It was an honour to stand with you,’ he said. ‘Here. Take this. It’s a little something I’ve been working on.’ He offered me a brass tube, sealed with a screw cap at one end. ‘There are four poles in there. As in North Pole. A portable Limbo Chamber. You might find it useful.’
‘Thank you. And may the Mother receive you.’
We shook hands and he turned to go. I watched his silhouette pass through the doors and disappear into the light.
I turned to Tom. ‘You’ve got more work to do, haven’t you?’
‘Thank God for the Internet. I don’t think I’ve ever done a conveyance like this. Tell me, Conrad, why did Chief Stefan take the two bodies? I thought he’d have wanted nothing to do with them.’
‘About that,’ I replied. ‘I’m afraid there’s no way to shield you from this, Tom. Not that I want to. Gnomes are very particular about their dead. Most are laid to rest in the First Mine of their clan.’ I pointed to the remaining body. ‘This guy will be laid outdoors, exposed to the air, for as long as he would have spent in prison. What’s left after that will go underground.’ I sighed. ‘Gregor and Andriss were traitors. They’ll be cut up and fed to the pigs.’
‘Tell me this is a joke.’
‘I wish. Lloyd did it to his own brother. Fergus and Colm have already been chopped up because they have no clan: it ceased to exist last year when the mine was destroyed. By the Fae.’
Tom looked a little green about the gills, and if I hadn’t seen Lloyd spit on his own brother’s body, I’d feel the same. ‘Can’t this Occult Council control that sort of thing?’ he asked.
I shook my head. ‘Humans can change quickly. Gnomes can’t. Dwarves can’t. The Fae can’t. None of them can. Their essential nature is different to ours. Some of the Creatures of Light are changing. Slowly. One day, perhaps.’
‘And Hans and Max are going to this Undercroft prison?’
I laughed. ‘No point. They’d just reach down to Mother Earth and dig their way out. The prison for Gnomes – and their wives – is a boggy island in the Wash. There is no metal on the island at all. Not even a nail, and they can’t dig more than two feet down before they hit water. As soon as the Mine is Consecrated, they’ll be taken into custody.’
He put his hands in the pockets of his Crombie overcoat, which had survived today’s ordeal without so much as a stain. How does he do that? ‘Tom, can you do me a favour?’
He gave me a dark look. ‘Depends. I’ve learnt a lot about you and your favours.’
‘This one has the Boss’s approval, even if it is a little personal. Do you remember what I told you about Piers Wetherill?’
‘That he dropped you in it with this Nymph? Yes.’
I held out a piece of paper. ‘Piers was member of the Lib Dems, for some reason. To do that he needed to be on the electoral roll, and to do that he needed an alternative identity. He registered himself at Saskia and Evie’s rental property. They had no clue. Could you see if you can find him?’
Tom’s hands stayed in his pockets. ‘With a view to what, exactly?’
‘With a view to having a quiet word. That’s all. Part of the solution, Tom, part of the solution.’
He took the paper and shoved it into his pocket. ‘Right. I’d better go underground and finish this conveyance.’
‘Thanks, Tom. And remember, if they offer you refreshment, accept it. Trust me, the beer is excellent. See you later.’
I took Mina in my arms when we were alone and pulled down her hood. ‘How do you feel now?’
‘Happy. Relieved. I’ve already told Marcia that I’m taking the rest of the week off to recover. Shall we give the Coven a call now that we’ve got a minute?’
‘Good idea. Let’s walk up to the top of the mine. Don’t want to be interrupted.’
I took a lantern and found a safe path to the top of the mound over the mine. Mina passed me her phone and we soon had a conference call going with Vicky, Myfanwy, Saffron and Erin on the other end. They knew the headlines already, so we filled them in on the details and plans. At the end, Myfanwy coughed and said, ‘I know you’ve been through a lot, you two, but I can’t put it off any longer.’
‘You mean you’re about to burst,’ said Vicky.
‘Shut up, you. Right. Here’s the thing. I’m expecting. It happened the night of the party, would you believe.’
‘Wow! Congratulations,’ said Mina. And being Mina, she added, ‘You’ll be eight months gone at my wedding, won’t you?�
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‘I know. I can still manage a toast, cwch.’
‘That means she’s out of the running for chief bridesmaid,’ said Vicky.
‘She was anyway,’ said Mina. ‘Not being able to leave the village meant she couldn’t join the hen party.’ She paused and changed tone, ‘I am so thrilled for you Myfanwy. I really am.’
‘And me,’ I added.
I drifted away while there was much baby-related talk. When Mina joined me, I had turned the lantern off and I was staring at the Plough.
‘You know something,’ she said. ‘When I first fell in love with you, I looked up 7 Squadron. And the badge.’ She pointed up. ‘In India, the Plough is called the Saptarishi. The Seven Rishi, or wise men. And the seventh is Kratu. He was the one who led you here to rescue me, because as soon as the Nachtkrieger arrived, I was a dead woman. Ganesh opened the door for you, and Kratu gave you the wisdom to enter. I will make puja very soon.’
I kissed the top of her head and held her close.
‘Kratu and his wife had 60,000 children, you know. Each one the size of a thumb. I don’t think I want that many. Imagine trying to remember their names. And it’s an average of 165 birthday parties every day. I worked it out at the service station while I was trying not to think about what was happening to you.’
She pulled me closer and buried her face in the part of my uniform that wasn’t covered by blood. ‘There was something else I thought about,’ she murmured. ‘What if you could only become pack Protector after having sex with the Queen?’
‘Thankfully the question is hypothetical and I’m not a paedophile,’ I replied. Where on earth was she going with this?
‘But what if it wasn’t hypothetical? Did you lie with Nimue when she drank your blood?’
‘It was offered. Of course, I declined.’
‘One day soon, one of these non-human creatures may demand something of you. If it means saving lives, do it. I mean that.’
‘Do you?’
‘You can’t leave the word of magick, and I can’t leave you. If it is the only way to get through a door that Ganesh has opened, you have my blessing. And don’t tell me. I’ll know, but don’t tell me. Promise?’
