Faerie Wars 02 - The Purple Emperor (19 page)

Blue grinned at him.

Mr Fogarty said, 'Any idea who might be behind the attack?'

'Hairstreak?' Pyrgus ventured.

'That would be my guess. You know him better than I do - what's his style?'

'Stealth. Surprise. Likes to outnumber the enemy, but will rely more on speed than weight of numbers.'

'It's him all right,' Fogarty said, looking past Pyrgus through the window. 'They're using unmarked foo discs. Think he wants to kill us?'

'Yes,' Blue said simply.

'Then we'd better try to disappoint him. Did you notice how many were flying this carriage?'

'Just a footman,' Pyrgus said. 'The spell's set to take us direct to Haleklind - it's a known route. Not much for the driver to do but admire the scenery. The outriders are there to make sure we don't jump out.'

'The outriders look pretty busy to me - those that are left,' Mr Fogarty said. 'Think you can tackle the footman? Do it myself except I'm getting a bit old to climb out of moving carriages.'

Pyrgus nodded.

'I think we'll hold back on the steen,' Mr Fogarty said to Blue, smiling a little. She grinned at him again. Used inside the carriage, a steen would have killed them all. Even used above on the coachman, it could have caused them considerable damage.

Pyrgus said, 'We won't outrun them even if we get control. Not in an ouklo.'

'Send it over open water,' Fogarty said shortly. 'Foo discs can't handle open water. Isn't there a lake around here somewhere?'

'Think so,' Pyrgus nodded. He glanced round at the sound of a loud crash outside.

'Use the window,' Fogarty said. Then, as Pyrgus moved, 'The other one - too much action that side.'

Pyrgus moved fast. He pulled down the window and swung out in a single movement.

'Good luck,' Blue whispered.

It was a war zone outside. A huge fight was going on between the ouklo escort and a band of green-uniformed attackers. The air was full of elf-bolts, humming like enraged bees. Pyrgus flattened himself against the side of the ouklo, then pulled himself up on to the roof, keeping his head low.

The driving cabin of the ouklo was an ornate affair set near the front of the carriage. It was high-backed with ceremonial wings so that the driver had no chance of spotting Pyrgus as he crawled along the roof behind him. But at the same time, both back and wings were reinforced with adamantine silver so the man was safe from any attack except a frontal assault. To reach him, Pyrgus would have to climb over the top of the cabin, then drop down. He didn't want to kill the man - he was a palace servant, after all, and only doing his duty - so he would have to wrestle him out of the control seat and, hopefully, push him off the carriage altogether. None of it was going to be easy.

An elf-bolt shaved skin off his earlobe.

Pyrgus moved. The less time he spent exposed like this, the safer he would be. Bent double, he ran along the roof of the carriage and scrambled on top of the cabin. To his right he could see a pod rider locked in a vicious, hacking swordfight with one of the green attackers on a foo disc. They swung close to the ouklo itself, which reacted by jerking away from the weapons as its security system cut in. Pyrgus was half thrown from the cabin, but managed to grip the roof felt with his fingernails. For a moment he was convinced he was going to fall, but somehow pulled himself back. In a moment more, he was dropping down at the front of the cabin, ready to grab the driver.

The driver was dead. He sat in the control seat, eyes wide and staring, a trickle of blood dribbling from the left side of his mouth. There was no obvious wound, but the expression on his face was one of intense surprise.

For a moment Pyrgus couldn't quite take it in, but the man was dead all right. There was nothing Pyrgus could do for him now and he had to get the ouklo away from the fight. He grabbed the man's arms and tried to pull the body from its seat. The head seemed to be stuck to the back of the chair.

It was an elf-bolt! It had penetrated the back of the cabin and skewered the driver from behind. But it was impossible for an elf-bolt - or anything else for that matter - to penetrate adamantine silver. The material was spell-woven to resist attack in any form. Pyrgus jerked the body and the head came away, tearing the elf-bolt with it. Pyrgus muttered an apology, then pushed the corpse off the ouklo and slammed himself into the driver's seat.

There were no controls. The ouklo responded to spoken commands from anyone in the driving seat so long as he first gave the password. Fortunately the password for all ceremonial ouklos was the same and Pyrgus knew it - it was the name of his paternal grandfather, a beloved Emperor now long dead. 'Dispar,' he murmured, then, 'Turn right!'

The ouklo maintained its course as if he hadn't spoken.

'Dispart' Pyrgus said again, then swore quietly. Comma had changed the password! Of course he had, the sneaky little twit. This ouklo was headed for Haleklind by the shortest route and nothing in the Realm was going to stop it. What now? What to do now?

There was a brake word for the ouklo. He was sure of it. It didn't give you control of the vehicle, but it stopped you in an emergency. And it was built into the fabric of the carriage, so it couldn't be changed. He glanced round the edge of the cabin and a thrown knife missed him by inches. Fierce fighting was still underway. If he stopped the carriage now, two things would happen. The first was that both pods and foo discs would sweep past as they continued their aerial battle. The second was that Blue, Mr Fogarty and he could make a break for it on foot. They were passing through wild terrain with plenty of hiding places. In the confusion there was a chance - maybe even a good chance - they might get away.

What was the brake word? He couldn't remember the brake word!

There was a scraping sound behind him. Pyrgus looked round the edge of the cabin again to discover that one of Hairstreak's green-uniformed men had jumped from his foo disc and clambered on to the roof of the ouklo. He was on his feet now and making his way carefully towards Pyrgus.

If Pyrgus was reluctant to harm palace staff, he had no such reservations about Hairstreak's men. He grabbed the dagger from his belt, clambered out of the cabin and threw himself on his attacker.

His attacker was a girl!

Pyrgus was so surprised he almost dropped the dagger. The green-uniformed soldier was a slender girl and a pretty one at that. He hadn't known Hairstreak used girls in his military. He had gripped her jerkin and his dagger was raised to strike, but she had beautiful violet eyes. He was still admiring them when she kneed him between the legs.

The pain was unbelievable. Pyrgus felt the dagger slipping from his nerveless hands and knew he had to hold it, had to hold his attacker, knew he was dead if he didn't somehow dispatch this soldier and dispatch her fast. He knew what he had to do, but what he did do was drop the dagger and fold forward with a howl of agony.

The girl pressed a neat little weapon wand behind his left ear and Pyrgus tumbled into darkness.

Henry fell into light.

It was an incredible sensation. As he touched the spider with his mind it scuttled forward and embraced him. That should have been terrifying, but somehow wasn't, partly because everything happened so suddenly. The effect was almost indescribable. A window opened and pure, dazzling light flooded through to swallow him.

Henry gasped as his perceptions expanded. He was aware of his physical body fluttering down to land beside the physical spider, but he knew now he was in no danger. As his body slumped, his mind enlarged. He was aware of the whole of Blue's bedroom, then the suite of rooms that composed her quarters, then the corridors outside and the whole upper storey of the palace, then the entire palace.

But it didn't end there. His perceptions continued to expand to take in the river island where the palace stood, then the river, then, incredibly, the city beyond. It was so weird, so cool. He saw busy thoroughfares. He saw a dimly-lit simbala parlour and tasted the music writhing in it. He saw a strolling player strumming on a lute. He saw an alley cat chewing on a mouse.

Henry continued to expand and the sensation was pure ecstasy. Tendrils of his mind reached out to every corner of the Realm. He felt the pulsing heart of reality itself and saw the filaments that joined all things. He wanted to expand until he ate up the whole world and worlds beyond. He thought he might reach out and take in the entire universe. It occurred to him that he was God.

It occurred to him he could find Blue.

The thought halted his expansion, gave him focus. He saw Blue at once, but in a strange way. He saw the winding pathway of her life, moving through Space and Time, visiting differing locations of her Realm and once, disturbingly, penetrating the very fabric of reality as she disappeared from the Realm altogether. But she returned again, close to the point of exit, and continued as before.

Where was she now? It was difficult to see, yet the very question helped him. It was as if he stepped out of his body and stepped into a forest glade. Blue was there, and Pyrgus too, and, a little beyond them both, Mr Fogarty in dirty, crumpled formal robes. All three were lying on the forest floor.

All three seemed to be dead.

'Blue!!' Henry shouted in sudden agony. He lost focus, then control. His mind expanded to infinity and his consciousness exploded.

Henry felt as if somebody had put his head through a mincer, then followed up by crushing his whole body in a vice. Every limb ached and he felt weak as a lamb. Movement seemed impossible. Even opening his eyes was an effort and the lids scratched his eyeballs like coarse sandpaper.

He was lying on a floor somewhere, curled into a foetal position, both hands between his knees.

He was not sure who he was.

Or where.

The inside of his mouth tasted like a sewer and his tongue seemed swollen to twice its normal size. There was a distant ringing in his ears.

He moved cautiously. The aches throughout his body peaked, then died a little. He'd had the feeling before when he got a leg cramp playing football. But now the cramps were in every muscle. All the same, they might be bearable. He moved again and this time the pain didn't peak as high. Gradually he straightened out and clambered slowly to his feet.

There was something wrong with the room. He tried to figure what it was, but his head wouldn't function right.

He felt dizzy and reached out for a nearby chair.

That's what it was! Blue's room was its normal size. He was his normal size. And there was something wrong with his back. It felt... it felt... this was stupid, but it felt sort of empty.

His wings were gone!

As he stood there, unsteadily holding the chair, it occurred to him that this was what had happened to Pyrgus. When the House Iris portal had been sabotaged and Pyrgus had become a tiny fairy figure with butterfly wings, the effect had worn off completely and his wings had disappeared. But it had only happened after several days. Had Henry been unconscious that long? His heart dropped to his boots. How was he going to explain all this to Blue? How could he explain losing his portal control and turning up so late? The emergency was probably over by now and he'd done nothing at all to help. It was mortifying.

What was it she'd said? Her father's body had disappeared and there was some plot to assassinate Pyrgus? A horrid thought struck him. What if the plot had succeeded? What if Pyrgus was dead now? Henry would never forgive himself and he didn't think Blue would either.

He was feeling stronger by the minute, but as his brain began to focus he was certainly not feeling any better. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a mental picture of Pyrgus, Blue and Mr Fogarty lying dead on a forest floor. He'd seen that. He knew he'd seen that. But where?

He tried to tell himself the whole thing was no more important than a dream. For heaven's sake, it probably just was a dream! Except he didn't believe that, not for a minute. He had to find out what had happened to Pyrgus and Blue. He had to find out this minute!