Twilight Robbery (54 page)

‘There’s panic in Toll-by-Day now, but that’s nothing compared to what there will be if we get the Luck out of the town. The men guarding the walls by day, they’re not like the Locksmiths, they’re just guards belonging to the mayor. Once they know the Luck has left, they’ll be too busy running to stop people leaving the town. Which means that you two can get out. And so can everybody else that wants to.

‘And then . . . you can even run off to Mandelion if you still want to. Nobody will chase you, because with the Luck gone nobody will trust the bleedin’ bridge.’ Including Sir Feldroll’s troops, Mosca added in the privacy of her own head. A distrusted bridge meant a safe Mandelion.

‘I say we take the risk,’ Brand said after a pause. ‘If we do nothing, it sounds like the Locksmiths take over the town and the sun goes down on Toll forever, trapping everyone in the dark. If Toll falls . . . it might as well do it with a splash.’

Laylow looked more reluctant, but eventually nodded. ‘So, where is the Luck being held, then?’

‘I was hoping
you
might know,’ Mosca confessed. ‘You were runnin’ around the streets the hours of Yacobray looking for that radish after the rest of us were hidin’ and prayin’. Laylow – do you remember seeing anybody else out on the streets after we all ran away? Anything that could have been the Luck being kidnapped? Any sign of the Locksmiths doing anything funny?’

Laylow crooked an eyebrow at her.

‘You mean apart from jigging about in a ghostly great horse?’

Mosca blew out her cheeks and raised her eyes to heaven. ‘The
horse
,’ she muttered. ‘Oh, I might as well sell my brains to a surgeon for all the good they do me. A lamping great horse, big enough to hold a gang of men with swords – and a skinny Luck lad to boot, no doubt. Did you see where the horse went?’

Laylow nodded. ‘Headed north-east. After Brand hit the cobbles, I dragged him back up those steps.’ She shrugged. ‘’Twas all I could think of. The Jinglers’ Clatterhorse was on wheels so it could not follow, and the bravos inside could not get loose to give chase straight away. Bought us just enough time to duck under a bush and lie there mum while they ran about looking for us. I dared a peek though, when the Clatterhorse left at last, saw it heading towards Blithers Yard. Wondered why it wasn’t snatching vegetables as it went.’

‘Probably went there to hide Paragon somewhere first, then came back for the tax-turnips.’ Mosca bit her lip. ‘Well . . . that narrows it down to Blithers Yard, anyway. Not far from the fires. And if the Locksmiths get the fright like everyone else they might run to pluck Paragon from his hide-hole to take him somewhere safer.’

‘So – this was as far as your plan went.’ Laylow grimaced, and rasped her calloused palm back and forth over her cropped hair. There was no contempt in her tone, however; it was just a blunt statement of the case. ‘All right, we search Blithers Yard, and keep a lookout for the Locksmiths trying to move this lad. I take the roofs, Mosca the streets and Brand stays here. What does this Luck look like?’ She listened intently as Mosca described Paragon.

‘And if you see him before I do,’ Mosca finished, ‘then . . . tell him the Soot-girl sent you to set him free.’

Laylow, who had put her head out through the door to peer at the roofs, ducked it back in again. ‘We need to shake our shambles and move – this hubbub will not last forever.’ She glanced back at Brand and looked irresolute.

‘I will do very well here,’ Brand reassured her hastily. ‘Go!’

Eponymous Clent had not been quite sure what manner of disaster he would be facing when he approached the walls of Toll under his white flag. If, as her letter suggested, Mosca had approached Aramai Goshawk about returning to Toll in order to revenge herself upon Beamabeth Marlebourne, he did not give much for her chances. Even in the unlikely event that Goshawk had let her live and helped her inside the town, he thought it most probable that by now Beamabeth had used her silken influence to have Mosca thrown into prison, possibly for the ‘theft’ of a lilac gown. For this reason he had asked to re-enter the town as an ambassador, who could not be so easily imprisoned, to see whether words would extricate his wayward secretary.

She is an insufferable burden
, he had muttered to himself,
but I suppose I cannot leave her trapped in a cell in a burning town
.

However, the escort that met him at the gates made no mention of Mosca having been hauled off to the Grovels, and Clent started to wonder whether his uncharacteristic impulse of loyalty had been a blind and futile one. Unfortunately his escort did not seem inclined to let him bob them a bow and duck out of the town gates again, and instead insisted on escorting him through the streets, which Clent could not help noticing were filled with a good deal of smoke and noise.

He reached the castle courtyard to find the mayor in the middle of a stand-up row with a number of subordinates and in no temper to talk to ambassadors.

‘Tearing the faces off the houses? Well, stop them! We cannot have nightlings running around the streets! There is no danger of anyone burning to death! The Luck will protect the town. Tell everybody to go back to their homes and behave in a civilized fashion!’ Tiny furry fragments of ash chased through the grass at his feet.

Seated by the door with her sketchbook was Beamabeth, who flinched very slightly when she saw Clent, and then gave him her usual sweet smile, but there was something flat about the expression in her eyes, something appraising. He made haste to her side.

‘Miss Marlebourne, what luck!’ He thought she winced almost imperceptibly at the word ‘luck’. ‘I was afraid I might miss you.’

‘Mr Clent! I thought you had left town.’

‘Without bidding farewell to Toll’s most precious jewel? Unthinkable. We owe you at
least
that much.’

Clent had the satisfaction of seeing a glimmer of unease and uncertainty pass through Beamabeth Marlebourne’s eyes.

She was confused by his return, he guessed. She was gauging him, trying to work out what cards he had up his sleeve. For now he might be able to keep her off balance by smiling meaningfully and dropping hints, delaying the moment in which she realized that she held all the cards, and that his well-brushed sleeves held nothing but his arms.

‘Wait – this door has been broken in already. Have the people left?’

Brand, who had lolled back on to his mattress in a state of helpless torpor, fought to open his eyes and look towards the voice. He could just make out two dark and fuzzy silhouettes against the door. Perhaps they would not see him.

‘Look, over on the bed! An invalid! We cannot leave him here – the wind is so changeable. Let us take him to the surgeon.’

The one time Brand needed daylighters to be callous, here they were rescuing him from the dark safety of his stop-hole and dragging him into the daylight where he could be recognized. He tried to protest when strong arms lifted him and his mattress, but his voice and limbs were too weak to prevent them bearing him outside.

He flinched as a shaft of daylight fell across his face. There was a gasp from one of his mattress bearers.

‘Wait – I have seen him before – this is Appleton! The radical! The man who kidnapped Miss Beamabeth!’

The mattress was set down roughly on the cobbles, and Brand opened his eyes to find himself confronted by the uncomfortable ends of a bill-hook, a rake, a cleaver and a chisel. The terror in his enemies’ faces suddenly tickled him unbearably, and despite the pain in his side he started to laugh, so breathlessly and helplessly that the other four took a step back, evidently fearing madness.

‘Yes,’ he choked. ‘The radical. The terrible radical.’ The absurdity was too much for him. ‘Bravo! You have captured the great Brand Appleton, the King of the Radicals! The mayor will be very proud of you.
Ow
.’ He clasped his hand to his side as his laughter threatened to reopen his wound. The very hopelessness of his position made him feel free and giddy all of a sudden. He was at death’s door, but his captors were the ones that seemed terrified.

‘We should take him to the mayor,’ whispered the billhook wielder.

‘Yes, to the mayor and his saintly daughter.’ Brand gave them a bruised and crazed grin. ‘What are you waiting for? Take me to them – do you think I will tell anyone but the mayor about my crimes? All these flames – that was me too, did you not know?’

‘What? You . . . you cur!’

‘Blame my birth.’ Brand winced as he was roughly dragged to his feet, his arms slung over two sets of shoulders so that he could be carried. ‘Blame Sparkentress, the wicked minx. Blame the mayor for sending me to Toll-by-Night, where I could mix freely with others of my seditious kind, plotting his overthrow and the destruction of Toll!’

Ah, so it ends
, he thought, as he was dragged along the streets by his captors.
And it seems I will be visiting the mayor and his daughter again after all
.

He would see Beamabeth one last time. And yet when he thought of her he could only remember a set of golden ringlets and a warm glow, with no actual face. Instead he found himself thinking of a surly, crop-headed figure with a cut lip, and thanking the Beloved that Laylow had not been caught up in his arrest.

Let us hope Laylow and Mosca find the Luck. I am all out of luck, it seems. But perhaps I can help them . . . by forcing the Locksmiths’ hand. If I can persuade everybody that the town catching fire is a sign that the Luck is dead, then the Locksmiths will probably have to bring him out of his hiding place to prove he is still alive. That might give Mosca and Laylow their chance . . .

‘You are all closer to death than I!’ he declaimed, in a carrying and manic tone, ‘I have already doomed you all! There is nothing to stop the flames now, nothing! Last night I slew the Luck myself!’

Let us see the Locksmiths ignore
that.

The reaction to his pronouncement was all he could have hoped for and more.

Toll-by-Day was blinding, and Laylow could barely keep her eyes open. As far as she was concerned, the whole world might just as well have been aflame. The colours burned, from the murky green of the yews to the red cloaks of respectable housewives. Even her good friends the roofs had developed leeringly bright patterns of moss and scratch tracery. The sky was an ache, and the sun a searing, shapeless hole, so different from the gleaming penny of the moon. The air smelt different as well, and not just because of the smoke.

Her own hands as she found holds on ledges and chimneys looked strange to her, the callouses yellow, the scars snail-white. She felt exposed, as if everyone must be able to see her every instant. In actual fact, however, most people were too busy with thoughts of the fire to wonder whether a claw-gloved girl might be running along the rooftops.

There was a lot more noise in the streets than she was used to in the night town, but some fragments floated up to her.

‘. . . says the Luck is gone! Flames spreading because the Luck is gone!’

‘. . . captured Appleton and says he cut the Luck into pieces and threw them over different walls . . .’

Laylow stiffened, and her claw-tips made squeaky sounds as they etched tiny white marks into a roof tile. Brand had been captured. He was a prisoner, and had come up with exactly the sort of mad defiant lie that would see him torn apart by a hysterical crowd. Did he
want
to die?

For a little while she could not breathe, and thought about running to the jail to find him. But what good could she do against armed guards and a tower of stone? None.

What now? Would rescuing the Luck help her save Brand? It was so hard to think in this blazing, clattering daylight. If she was lucky it would somehow. She pushed on towards what she prayed was Blithers Yard.

Looking down she saw two men stop dead and exchange glances as they overheard the report of the murder of the Luck. Both were wearing gloves. They conversed hurriedly, then broke into a run. Face puckering in concentration, Laylow set off along the rooftops, keeping pace with them.

She had to hope that these men were going to check on the Luck, make sure that he was still alive and well, and to report the rumours circulating. She almost knew where she was now. Laylow knew the Jinglers’ favourite shortcuts to most places, having conned them by rote when planning her chocolate delivery routes.

In an alley, the two men met with two more, also in gloves, and Laylow craned to hear something of their furtive conversation.

‘. . . says we should move him . . . breaking into all the houses down there . . . move him further from the fire . . .’

And on they went, now as a foursome.
Jingle-jing, jingle-jing
, the faintest silvery sound of hidden keys chiming as they ran.

No doors had been beaten in yet in Pritter’s Lane, but the house-tearers were only a street away. Casting quick glances up and down the lane, the gloved men fumbled quickly with the locks on a house-facing and slid it aside to show a small red door. This was opened, and after more conference two figures came out, a large and burly man and a boy in his teens. Laylow could not tell how closely he matched Mosca’s description of the Luck because there was a thick cloth draped over his head, as if to protect him from smoke.

If she did not act, they would lead him to another part of the town, pull him in through another door, fasten it and vanish. But there were five of them and only one Laylow. What could she do?

Only one thing.

The five Locksmiths were on the alert. Two kept an eye up and down Pritter’s Lane. One was casually keeping watch at the corner, another attending to locking the door behind them, the last making sure the hooded boy did not run or do anything sudden. None, however, were looking up, and so none were ready when a grim and wiry figure dropped down in their very midst, yanked the Luck backwards by his collar and placed the tips of three sharp iron claws to his throat.

‘Get back!’ hissed Laylow. ‘Or it’s an unlucky day for all of us! Step away!’

During the following long pause the Locksmiths glanced at each other and sent furious messages using eyebrow semaphore, but there was nothing that any of them could actually do without endangering the Luck. Carefully, but with an air of barely reined menace, they moved backwards away from her.