Chapter 42: Onwards and Upwards

I stilled at the news of Ishanti’s betrayal.

Across the room, Rel looked completely poleaxed, like someone had broken her legs off and she was just waiting for gravity to catch up and slam her into the ground.

I was, in a word, furious.

“Dee,” I said. “Muster the militia, and get everyone inside the walls, they kicked off the monster stampede.”

His eyes widened.

I continued. “You and Llen are in charge. If Ishanti shows up again, keep her out of my town until this whole mess is over.”

“She was…” Dee looks pained.

“She was lying.” I nodded. “Make sure the people in charge know, but for now, we have bigger fish to fry. It takes about a day and a half for you to walk from Silverwall down to Lady’s Port, I imagine a horde of monsters will be there by nightfall.”

Dee grunted. “At the latest. But boss, why’d they start the migration now? River’s running high enough that even a boat’d have trouble crossing it.”

“I don’t know what they’re planning to do about the river.” Which had me worried most of all. “Assume they have a plan.”

“Right.”

“And—fuck. The hummingbirds. Did you set everything up?”

Dee looked pained. “Thought so. I’ll send a runner out to check.”

“Be quick about it, after that, focus on the plan.”

“Boss,” Dee interrupted just as I was about to close the mirror. “Will you be back in time?”

I quirked my lip. “Don’t count on it.” I snapped the case shut. Straightening, I looked over my two remaining companions. “Things,” I said, “are not preceding according to plan.”

Rel took a jerking step forward. “Mistress, I—”

I held up a hand. “Save it for after. You’ve made your bed, now we just have to figure out who’s gonna be lying in it.”

Electra blew out a breath against her bangs. “Like, for real. We’re in kinda deep now, Em.”

“Circumstances have changed.” I nodded. “Our current course of action has not. We find Hawkwright, find the source of the gold dust, and remove them both.”

“That’s a euphemism for killing, right?” Electra asked.

“Let me put it this way: we are no longer in a situation where we have the luxury of taking prisoners, even if we wanted to.” I crossed my arms. “Lady’s Port is about to get hit with a massive attack while four of our heaviest hitters are missing. We have to trust they’ll hold.”

“Gonna be a mess afterwards.” Electra nodded. “Well alright then. Guess we’re cutting off the head of the snake then.”

“We’re close to a tower already. We’ll start there. Now let’s move; that riot will only keep the inhabitants of the manor busy for so long.”

As if summoned by my words, the door to our hiding place opened. A younger boy, with messy hair and a kitchen smock, walked inside with an empty wicker basket propped against his hip. He didn’t even notice us until he was two steps towards the pile of root vegetables stacked in crates against the far wall.

The door thunked shut.

Blinking, the young man looked at the three of us. “Uh…pardon, yer ladyships.”

I pinched my nose. “Electra.”

“Got it.” She hopped off the crate she was perched on, striding over with a big friendly smile on her face. “Hey, kid, how about you take a nap for us, cool?”

“A nap? I—” Electra put a hand on his shoulder, and with a quiet zap, he slumped to the floor.

“Most useful skill I ever got.”

“Put him against the wall.” I moved over to the door. “Quickly. We’re on a timer now.”

“Don’t think you have to be too worried about a kitchen boy taking a nap in the cellar.” Electra gave a giggle as she propped him against the nearest crate.

“Forgive me for not wanting any more distractions.” I pulled the door open. The hallway was empty of any more wandering kitchen hands. “On me.”

The three of us slipped deeper into the castle, pausing only at intersections. The layout was confusing, perhaps even on purpose, until we finally found our way out of the servant’s hallways into the main corridors. Rich blue carpet with silver decorations served to muffle our steps. With most people still worried about the mass of people pressing against the far gate, Electra and I managed to subdue the few servants or guards who stumbled across us. Hawkwright’s fancy little castle even had enough drawing rooms and side halls to stash the unconscious victims out of sight.

That changed when we made it to the base of the tower.

A thick wooden door blocked our way. With banded steel and a grate at head level, it formed a secure checkpoint. I shared a silent glance with Electra before sidling up and trying the handle. Locked.

The clink of metal alerted someone inside. “Heh?” I saw the tip of a nose press against the grate. “Whos’ere!”

I swallowed a curse. “Food from the kitchens.” I tried. “Cook thought wiff all the excitement, you’d like a bit.”

“Cook fuckin’ hates me.” The man’s voice deepened. He pressed his face against the grate to try to catch a glimpse of me. “Come where I can see you.”

“Worth a try,” I said. Rearing back, I punched my fist through the flimsy pig iron, sending the man crashing back into the room. I heard a shout; more than one guard, then.

With a snap of my fingers, I summoned a few demons into the room, and the shouts turned into screams. “Get the door open!” I shouted at my minions. Demons, however, were distractible creatures at the best of times. I yanked twice at the hole in the door, before giving it up for a bad job. “Over here, idiots! The handle!”

Electra let out a loud sigh. “Oh, gosh darn it all.”

My head snapped to the side. Two women had just rounded the corner, one clearly a noble, the other perhaps her own maid. They saw us, heard the screams, and the noblewoman immediately turned and ducked back around the nearest bend.

“Stop!” Rel’s carved a gash into the stone a second too late.

“Fuck.” I said. “Now we’re on a timer.” I kicked the door again, denting the wood, but it didn’t even splinter. A few seconds later, the metal latch and deadbolt rasped as one of my hobblefiends finally managed to piece together what I wanted. I yanked the door open to find what was left of the two guards posted inside, both fully deceased, and a clockwise staircase spiraling up the tower itself.

“There.” I pointed to the ceiling about two stories up. “Trapdoor.”

“Let’s hustle!” Electra started up the stairs. “C’mon Rel, might need some knifework soon.”

The woman glanced at me, face still lined with worry. I merely nodded. “I’ll bring up the rear.”

Shouts of surprise and alarm followed us up the tower, nipping at our heels. Electra put her hand against the wooden surface of the trap door, pushing once. “Locked as well.” She shot a worried glance over her shoulder. “Any ideas?”

I opened my mouth. Then the trap door opened from the other side. I saw a flash of metal greaves as Electra’s head snapped back up.

“Oh.” I could hear the grin in her voice. “Lucky.” Her hand snapped out, catching the guard around the ankle. With a crack of thunder, he flew across the room, landing out of sight with a crash.

“Go!”

The three of us piled into the next room, triple teaming the last remaining guard. I swiped a set of keys from one of their belts and bolted the trapdoor shut behind us.

“Where to next?” Electra asked.

I gave the room a quick once over. Another banded door led back to the castle proper, second or maybe even third story. The rest of the room was more richly appointed than the base, with a desk and a shelf pressed against the castle’s outer wall. Leading up was a slim wooden staircase that ended in a proper door, and…

I paused, drawing over closer to the staircase. The highest steps had golden flecks embedded into their lacquered surface. At first, it looked like decoration, and the rest of this place had more than enough accents to make it blend in.

But all the flourishes in this castle were silver.

“Up again.” I turned to Electra. “Looks like you’re lucky after all.”

She grinned. “Pretty useful sometimes, isn’t it?”

“Rel.” She snapped to attention at my words. “Are they in the tower yet?”

She nodded. “Sounds like it, Mistress. Not sure how long the trapdoor’ll hold.”

I glanced at the larger door as well. So far, no one was pounding on it, but that was only a matter of time. If someone else had the keys…

“Dump the shelf on the trapdoor and shove that desk over there. Hopefully that’ll buy us some time.”

Electra raised an eyebrow. “And what are you doing?”

I spun the keys around my finger. “I’m about to figure out why he kept this tower all locked up.”

This time, I didn’t need to bust the door open. It just took a few seconds to find the right key. The door to the next floor was made of finely-lacquered wood, so deep brown it was almost black, and it opened silently on its hinges.

The last room of the tower was dark. Where the lower two floors had been lit with lamps and torches, this one was kept cool, almost damp. I slipped inside, letting my eyes adjust to the dim blue glow of a lone magical light, pulsing gently on a stand in the center of the room.

Plants covered the ceiling, climbing vines and rows of mossy undergrowth with small flowers barely larger than my pinky. Four columns ringed the room, wrapped in yet more ivy. The air had a smell to it: mossy, with just a hint of dust.

Golden moths fluttered from flower to vine and back again. After my eyes finished adjusting, they almost seemed to glow themselves. Occasionally, a thin wisp of gold would spill from their wings. More damning was the row of golden vials against the far wall. There were three full vials, each stoppered with a small piece of cork, but the rack holding them had space for many more.

“So, whatever these moths are, you farm them for this drug, huh?” I stalked across the room, opening the small box that rested on a side table next to the vials. Within were more documents, some old and weathered. If I had been hoping for a deeper explanation in the process, I would have been sorely disappointed.

Instead, they were medical records, or close enough. Diagrams, health progress, or rather, degradation. They implanted the moth pupa into…the Duchess by the looks of things. That was part of their lifecycle, without which they wouldn’t hatch properly.

But, of course, parasitic relationships always had a cost. In this case, it came from the health of the host, who would slowly wither away, which would explain why Seneschal Hawkwright was so desperate to get his hands on Ishanti.

I put the papers down just as Rel and Electra came up the stairs.

“Bought us some time, ‘Em, but we gotta move quick.” She glanced around. “What’s this?”

“Our target.” I passed her the notes.

“Heh, lucky!” She went over the pages, and the smile vanished. “Wow. This is…dark.”

“Don’t worry, we’re burning it.”

“Cool, but uh, how are we going to get out of a burning tower when all the exits are surrounded?”

I looked around again, catching sight of a slim ladder leading up to the ceiling, the only other exit to the chamber.

“Don’t worry.” I placed a hand on the pouch containing my spy mirror. We’d be needing my little skywhale pretty soon. “I have a plan.”