With every ounce of strength she possessed, Serena swung the wrench into Pierro’s mouth, smashing the few teeth from his gums and filling his face with blood.
He collapsed back onto the ground.
‘You don’t look so big down there,’ she said.
‘Come on!’
Serena pulled Gallows over the lip of the manhole. Enoch followed behind him, passing Scruff up with cracked, grey fingers.
‘We’re just off Coppertan Road,’ she said, peering through an alleyway. Looming towers looked down on her, each connected by arching skybridges. Stars littered the ink-blue sky, pin-sized peepholes examining her. Instead of feeling relieved at escaping the sewers, Serena only felt exposed. Who knew what dangers the shadows concealed? Who knew whose eyes were upon her? She caught a breath, but the air stifled her. All those nights she had escaped the orphanage, convinced she’d got away with it—laughing at the Watch, the sisters, daring to be caught…
And a junkie caught her.
Stupid, stupid girl.
‘C’mon,’ urged Gallows. Serena followed him through a narrow alleyway, glass crunching under her fancy shoes. Not so fancy now.
Torches and ignium lamps painted Coppertan Road the colour of phoenix feathers. Voices filled the air like a swarm of beating mosquito wings.
‘That’s a big crowd,’ said Serena. But it wasn’t one big crowd so much as smaller knots of people, huddled together, choking the thoroughfare of Coppertan Road.
Men and women, young and old, kids out way beyond curfew. Some of them wore the bronze shade of the Watch, others in tattered finery or light cloth. They huddled among those wearing the same gear, different voices barking conflicting orders.
But they had one thing in common.
‘They’re looking for m-’
‘Sh,’ said Gallows. ‘They’ll have your description—green hair.’
Most of the dye was still in place. ‘So?’
‘We’re okay. We can pass them. Act normal.’
‘What’s “normal”? When was the last time you had an entire city out for your blood?’
‘At least a fortnight,’ Gallows answered. ‘C’mon.’
Serena peeled herself away from the safety of the shadows and out into the street. The air crackled with energy, like the buzz before a thunderstorm. For a moment, no-one paid them any attention. Eyes passed over them, lingering only to stare at Enoch.
‘This is insane,’ she said. ‘Wish we could’ve got more from Enfield.’ I could have got into his head, made him stop all of this.
‘Men who know little talk a lot,’ Gallows started. ‘Men who know a lot keep quiet. I reckon Enfield told us everything he knew—half of it probably bullshit.’
‘What do you think he meant, “our knowledge comes from a deep place?”’
Gallows shook his head. ‘Just posturing.’
‘Yeah, I guess,’ Serena said, but she wasn’t convinced.
‘Sarge says they were in the tunnels,’ she heard a watchman say.
‘Don’t give a rat’s ass,’ his partner spat, ‘I take my orders from Zoven.’
Serena trailed behind Gallows. Her heart hammered harder with every step. A tombstone-grey Information Tower loomed in the road ahead.
‘If we can get through the gatehouse to Petrel’s Tail,’ Gallows started, ‘I reckon we-’
‘Oi!’ called a woman at Serena’s back. ‘Oi! Ty!’
‘Damn it.’ Gallows stopped and turned, stepping in front of Serena. ‘Drina.’
The woman called Drina took a step closer, eyeing Serena and Enoch with the blue eyes of a doll. Her hand didn’t stray from the cleaver tied to her belt. Her shaved head bore scars too numerous to count, and her thin, bare arms were lined with muscle. The way she stood reminded Serena of Tiera. ‘Strange night.’
‘Yep,’ said Gallows.
‘Strange company.’
‘Yep.’
Drina took another step. ‘You see what went down at the opera house?’ Serena couldn’t quite place her accent. Tarevian, maybe?
‘Yeah.’ Gallows’ hand rested by the pommel of his sword. ‘I was there. Barely made it out.’
Another step closer. ‘Heard you’re a traitor. Bounty out for you. Hear the Watch is looking for you—and a young girl.’
‘That a fact?’ said Gallows.
‘Is what they say true?’ Drina’s hands tightened around the hilt of her hatchet. ‘You an Idari conspirator?’
‘No. We done?’
Drina’s eyes scanned the sky and towers. ‘Fieri—he got the night off?’
A breeze bounced between buildings, carrying the scent of copper. Gallows eased a crick from his neck. ‘Sure has.’
Drina took another step, her posse fanning out by her side. The exchange was drawing attention now; more people closed in, hovering behind Serena like phantoms. Her abdomen tightened. She was grateful when Enoch’s cold form drew close to her.
‘Da, well—I got a contract to keep,’ said Drina. ‘Kirivanti’s orders. Apprehend you and the girl. No mention of a big priest though, so your friend may go.’
‘I am happy where I am.’ Enoch made the statement sound like a threat.
Silver glinted as Drina’s blade slid from her belt. ‘I got no quarrel with you, Ty—if you say the Watch is wrong, then I’ll let you be on your merry. Leave the girl and go. We’ll be square, da?’
Gallows’ own steel cleared leather. ‘Not gonna happen.’
‘She’s Zoven’s!’ called a voice.
A fistfight broke out, but Drina ignored it. ‘Better she comes with me.’
‘Is it? I hear you’re on friendly terms with Farro Zoven too.’
Drina’s eyes narrowed, and her rough hands clasped her hilt with more force. ‘Your friend Veronica tell you that?’
Serena watched Gallows take a step closer, feeling her heart rise in her chest.
Every member of the enclosing circle held a weapon—blades, sticks, a couple of guns—someone even cradled a crossbow.
Drina raised her chin. ‘You gonna make me do this?’
Gallows looked around him, weighing his options. Serena tried to focus on Drina, tried to get inside her head—but her heart rang too loud in her ears to concentrate.
‘I ain’t making you do anything,’ said Gallows. ‘I deny it. I ain’t a traitor. And the girl’s just a girl.’
Drina’s mouth tightened.
She doesn’t want to hurt you, Gallows. We can just walk away…
‘I wanna believe you, Ty.’
‘Great,’ said Gallows, ‘because I’m telling the tru-’
‘The time is eleven o’clock in the evening on the Twelfth Day of Terros. EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOLLOWS: Tyson Gallows and associates wanted for charges of terrorism, murder and sabotage! Suspects last spotted heading towards The Sands! Suspects to be shot on sight! Repeat: Suspects to be shot on sight!’
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘Run!’
Serena broke from the throng, keeping pace with Enoch as he flew through the street, swatting two men away. Gallows’ sword slashed through the air, gouging into his opponent’s belly. Gallows barely gave him a second glance before engaging another enemy.
‘On them!’ screamed Drina, leading a charge.
The slow, rhythmic burst of gunfire rang out; Enoch lifted Serena and spun her around—bullets sank into his back with dull thumps. ‘Go!’ he commanded.
‘But-’
‘Go!’
Glass smashed around Serena from raining bottles. ‘Come on, boy!’
Scruff howled and yelped at her feet as she caught up with Gallows. Blood glistened on his face.
Serena risked a glance behind her; Enoch batted at swords and pipes, hurling bodies away with great power and ferocious speed.
But he couldn’t get everyone.
The hordes split around him like a river around a rock.
‘Watch!’ a voice called. ‘Zoven’s men! On me!’
‘Serena, c’mo
n!’ cried Gallows.
They pelted through a manufacturing district lined with immense warehouses and crooked towers. Gallows beckoned Serena towards a blacksmith’s shop—a can of jellied eels sailed past Serena’s ear and burst open onto the dirty ground, followed by another glass bottle.
No matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t escape the surrounding voices. The Hunters spat every curse and swear word Serena had heard of, and a few more; they didn’t seem to enjoy being betrayed by one of their own.
Scruff snarled and sank his teeth into a lad not much older than Serena. ‘Boy, here!’ she commanded.
The dog didn’t obey—the lad tried to shake Scruff off, but his teeth were embedded deep into his ankle. The kid fell and thrashed on the ground, slapping Scruff’s growling face.
‘Boy!’ Serena implored.
But it was too late—Serena’s pursuers closed in like a tide, and the dog was lost.
No!
‘Serena!’ Gallows called.
She hesitated, fighting the urge to dive in to save Scruff.
Gallows called her name again.
‘Shit.’ Serena tore herself away and caught up with the Hunter. The blacksmith’s door peeled open ahead of them—Gallows drove a punch into a man’s jaw as he popped out and swung a pair of iron tongs at him. ‘This way!’
A chorus of missiles whistled around Serena as she followed Gallows—accompanied by more gunfire.
‘Where we going?’ she demanded.
‘This way!’ Gallows burst through a wooden door, into a dank wash house. ‘Here!’ Gallows threw a wooden beam to Serena. She grabbed it and barred the door behind her. It convulsed with pressure from the other side.
Gallows lunged over more debris and barrelled up a staircase. Serena took the steps two at a time, legs complaining every time she moved.
‘Shit, locked!’ Gallows punched the door he’d run flat against. The centre of the sliding lock bolt had been hammered out of shape to prevent it from moving back.
‘Not it’s not.’ Serena pulled her wrench out and adjusted its jaws. She pulled at the nuts holding the lock in place, yanking like a drunken dentist.
A rabble broke out on the floor beneath them. Thick black smoke billowed up and filled the stairwell. Fire.
Gallows peered down. ‘Might want to hurry.’
‘Might want to stop leading us into dead ends.’ The nuts were small but the wrench found enough purchase to twist them loose. ‘There!’
The sliding lock fell to the floor and Serena kicked the door open.
Their feet rattled along the corridor, boiled ham and rotten fish filling Serena’s nostrils. An old man with a face full of folds peeked from his doorway and disappeared again.
Gallows rounded a corner, his feet slapping on the tiles—and ran straight into a watchwoman.
Her boot sent him flying. ‘You’re under arrest.’ She bent over and threw his shortsword behind her. ‘Hunter scum.’
Serena readied her wrench, but the copper batted her hand away with a baton. She followed up by grabbing Serena’s hair and yanking her head off of the brick wall. Dull reds and purples filled Serena’s vision. ‘You’re under arre-’
From the floor, Gallows’ knife slashed the watchwoman’s ankle. She screamed and collapsed to one knee. Serena wobbled on her feet, dizzy, then backhanded the watchwoman.
‘You okay?’ Gallows sheathed his blade and extended a hand.
Serena didn’t take it; instead, she gripped the wrench so tight she thought she might break it. ‘I’m fine.’
They left the watchwoman screaming and thrashing on the floor.
Beyond the smudge of a filthy window, Serena spotted an empty skybridge, arching thirty feet above the street and connecting to another tower. ‘Bridge!’
Gallows grunted his agreement. He elbowed the glass away and climbed out onto the bridge.
In the daytime, the skybridges heralded adventure—a city-sized jungle gym inviting exploration. But at night, the bridges shouldered darkness and were fraught with false steps and dizzying turns.
A stitch knifed Serena’s side as she ran up the incline. Whistles pierced the air and faces resolved from the darkness—in the windows of the towers, along the street below, from behind. ‘We’ve been spotted!’
Serena’s heart froze as an arrow whooshed up and arced down onto the ground, its steel tip bending from the impact.
Gallows swore. ‘They’re everywhere.’ He hunkered down but kept moving along the skybridge.
Bullets zinged overhead, punching into stone. Acrid smoke invaded Serena’s nose. ‘This would be a good time to break out some gods damn magic powers!’ she yelled.
‘Stay focused!’
‘--Suspect was last spotted heading towards The Sands! Suspect is to be shot on sight!--’
Gallows was thrown back as something colossal struck the bridge. Serena tripped, her fingers scraping against jagged masonry. Chunks of stone sailed to the street below—whatever had shot at them, it was big.
Serena peered over the edge—a metal beast of a motorcarriage revved and snarled at her. The sight instilled cold fear in her; two glowing red headlamps peered at her, its front grille a mouth of metal teeth. Curling brass pipes ran over its hood like bines, spewing ignium. As it rolled towards her, a head poked up from behind its turret-
Gallows pulled Serena to the ground as its shells cleaved stonework away. The shots rang like thunder, drowning out the voices howling after her. Stone rained onto her back.
‘You don’t want to pick a fight with a Bulldog,’ the Hunter said. ‘You okay?’
Serena was about to reply, but something cracked and jerked beneath her.
Then the world tilted.
The bridge was coming apart.
‘Serena!’
She slid down across the jagged surface as the skybridge crumbled. Her fingers reached out but grasped only air, and her legs kicking out in a vain effort to keep herself from falling. Rough stone scraped Serena’s forearms as gravity pulled her, her heart rising into her mouth.
The sky loomed on top of her. Stars looked down—and the ground rushed up.
A scream ripped from Serena’s throat as she fell-
Sharp pain burned in her shoulder. Serena swung, suspended in the air.
Gallows’ fingers were clasped around her wrist.
She hung over the edge, staring up at him, pulse buzzing like a RADIOM readout. Stone and dirt poured on her—and a thin crack started crawling across the masonry. Below, voices called out—laughing, jeering.
Serena wanted to call out to Gallows but her head swam with a cocktail of relief and terror.
‘Let go of the wrench!’
Serena didn’t realise she still clutched it. She let go, and the wrench spun to the ground in a spiral. With her free hand, she reached up to the lip of stone jutting out—but it crumbled at her touch. With two hands, Gallows reached and pulled her over and onto her feet—but the arch was weak.
‘Run!’ Gallows breathed.
Massive chunks of rock trailed away behind them. Bullets razed overhead, and another volley of shells crashed into the bridge.
Move move move move…
The stone fell away as soon as Serena’s feet left it.
Wind rushed by as she pummelled the ground, and the roar of engines rolled out beneath her.
Gallows slipped and skidded on the floor; Serena didn’t stop—she hoisted him up as she bolted past.
‘That Bulldog sees us, we’re done,’ he panted.
Stone exploded at their heels.
They reached the sandstone tower at the other end of the skybridge, pain enveloping Serena’s body. A gatehouse loomed at the end of the path—no doubt locked—and a climbing staircase was hewn into the wall.
Serena wasn’t sure if her legs would carry her up just yet—she fell to her knees, dragging in breaths.
‘Serena…’ Gallows looked past her.
‘I know… Just give me a second…’
&nb
sp; Then she saw it.
Glowing soft lamplight materialised by the gatehouse at the other end of the tower. A knot of people rallied by it, and the metal bars chugged and groaned as the gate ascended.
It revealed a familiar face.
‘Hullo!’ Pierro hollered. A scarlet welt blazed on his face and blood stained his coat. When he spoke, the words were muffled and accompanied by flying spit. ‘Reckon you’re owed a smack in the mouth.’
‘Getting really tired of this asshole,’ Gallows muttered.
‘Lads, don’t be too gentle! Boss wants the girl alive—but take the Hunter’s head! Reckon V will like it.’
Gallows lurched forward but Serena stopped him. ‘Don’t be stupid.’
But what else was there to do? The towers and skybridges would be crawling with Zoven’s men, the Watch and Hunters—there was no way they could escape.
Then an arrow whistled past, piercing the throat of one of Pierro’s men.
‘Oh for the love of Nyr’s cold clam!’ the giant yelled.
Drina and the Hunters appeared behind Pierro’s squad, their swords and knives clashing in a steel tangle. The few coppers present stood stunned until Pierro threw one of ’em into the Hunters, who smashed the watchman’s skull in. The rest chose their side quickly after that.
Drina locked eyes with Gallows as she gutted someone.
Gallows nodded, and together he and Serena climbed the stone staircase skirting along the side of the tower.
‘After ’em!’ Pierro ordered.
The stairs led to another skybridge. It rose sixty feet from the street but at least it was empty.
Finally, some gods damn luck.
But it didn’t last.
A second Bulldog bounded across the undulating Coppertan Road. Both vehicles growled like two predators—one of them spat bullets with malicious abandon.
‘Move! I’ll take point!’ said Gallows.
‘Whatever that means!’
Wind whipped Serena’s hair as she ran. The centre of the skybridge curved inwards at both sides, so narrow it forced them to cross it in single-file.
Perhaps that was why the two thugs chose it for their ambush.
Zoven’s men.
Symphony of the Wind Page 47
