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“Fifty of you. ” I felt horrified. “But surely you were rescued?”
“We were too deep, Miss Kit. Weren’t nothing could be done for us. ” The corners of his mouth turned down. “All the others had blacked out, and I were a blink from it when I saw a bit of pretty speckled stone, all the colors of the rainbow, and picked it up for luck. Soon as it’s in me hand, Harry shows up. Like some angel to save us. ” He started to say something, paused, and then shook his head.
“You don’t have to tell me any more, Mr. Hedgeworth,” I hurried to assure him. “I shouldn’t have asked. ”
“No. I can tell ye. I have to, I think. ” He looked down at his battered waders. “Harry led me out some back tunnel none of us knew were there. He’d been digging himself, ye see. But as soon as I’m topside, everything goes black again. Harry, he were in spirit form. Took me body over so he could use me to do sommat his spy business for him. ”
I winced. “But he did save your lives. ”
“Aye. One. Me life. ” He spat on the ground. “While he was riding me about like a carri, the rest of me brothers and mates choked to death in that hole. Forty-nine men, Miss Kit. After, when I was shed of him and came to, I went back to me village. Seen all me brothers’ wives in black, all the other widows, and then everyone crowded round, wanting to know how I got out. How I could leave ’em behind. When I told ’em about Harry and what he did, they thought I’d gone mad. Tried to send me to the loony bin, afore I nipped out of there, signed on a cargo ship, and came here. So yeah, Harry saved me life. It just cost me home, me family, me mates, everything in the world I cared for. ”
I knew exactly how that felt. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Hedgeworth. ”
“Ah, weren’t none of yer doing, lass. ” He looked a little embarrassed now. “I shouldna’ve scared ye with me clubs. Ye’re a good gel. Only make the old bugger mind ye, not the other way round. ”
“I’ll do my best. ” I took out my father’s pocket watch. “Harry’s been gone almost ten minutes. ”
Hedger made a rude sound. “Ye still think he’s coming back for ye?”
I couldn’t afford to wait and find out. Since I couldn’t drift through the hatch like Harry, I asked Hedger to help me pry it open.
Just as I stepped inside, he touched my shoulder. “He’ll never tell ye anything unless ye force it out of him, Miss Kit. If naught else, make him tell ye his name. His true name, what he was born with, afore all the others. ”
I frowned, but before I could ask him what he meant the old tunneler scurried off, disappearing behind the snarl of tubes.
I turned and started down the old line. The rounded walls remained coated with a layer of dried, caked-on mold, and the lingering stench was equally alluring. But there was enough room for me to walk upright, and I didn’t encounter any living vermin along the way.
I knew I was getting close to the tinnery when I picked up the scents of old fish, brackish water, damp rope, and tar. Although Rumsen’s fish market had relocated to the north side of the docks, where the fish merchants had built their new canning factories, the old tinnery was still used by anyone who needed inside space to work, mostly hull menders, trap builders, and net makers.
When I came to the end of the line I encountered the rotting wood of the planks nailed over the sea outlet, and carefully climbed up the rickety ladder to the topside hatch. I emerged in an empty alley just behind the tinnery, and stopped only to brush from my head and shoulders the snow that I’d dislodged coming up.
Harry’s form took shape beside me, but almost immediately he moved several feet away. “Archibald gave you iron. ”
“A nice, big rail spike. ” I patted my pocket. “Can I try it out on you, see if it works like he said it would?”
“There’s a more pressing matter. ” He pointed out to sea. “The Reaper ships are beginning to appear on the horizon. Once their army is in place, all Zarath will have to do is cast a spell, wake the dreamstone, and take whatever he likes. ”
“Dreamstone, icestone, spirit stone,” I taunted. “Why can’t you mages do anything without these bloody rocks?”
“They’re all that’s left of Aramantha,” Harry told me. “The rest of it the ocean swallowed long ago, after the first mage war. That is how old and powerful we are, Charm. You can’t fight my sort or kill them. You can never defeat them. Get away from here while you still can. ”
I looked at the cluster of vessels coming in with the tide. They were large military galleons flying Talian colors. “If I kill Dredmore before Zarath’s army arrives, and I keep Zarath from possessing any other body, what happens then?”
“Without a physical form to channel and project his power, Zarath will be unable to use it. None of the other mages in his service have his gift for marshalling armies. If the men choose to fight, they’ll have to battle like ordinary men. ” Harry glared at me. “These immortals aren’t fools. You’ll never get close enough. Even if you could kill Dredmore, Zarath will jump from him to the next warm body. ” As a flicker of daylight came over the horizon, he began to fade. “For all that is holy, Charm, please. When the fighting begins I have to retreat to the netherside. ”
“Why?” When he didn’t answer I stamped my foot. “Harry, you can’t be neutral anymore. You have to choose a side. ”
He shook his head. “Run, gel. Run for your life. ”
I had no burning desire to be Rumsen’s savior. Since I’d come here, the city had shown no particular affection for me. Nor did I want to kill Dredmore, who despite being an arrogant ass had cared for me in his own fashion. I even understood why Harry didn’t wish to get involved; this business between the Reapers and the Tillers was none of mine.
But there were the women of the city, the women who were so often treated like so many nameless cattle, who would not know to run away. Carina, and Bridget, the cartlass round the corner from my building, they had no one to defend them. Even Lady Diana Walsh, snob that she was, would be left helpless before Zarath—and from what I had seen in his bloody eyes, the women would be made to suffer unthinkable horrors.
I waited until my grandfather had almost faded from sight before I said, “I’m staying, Harry, and I’m fighting. ”
“So like my Connie,” he replied, but he was still shaking his head when he vanished.
Once Harry had gone my courage wanted to accompany him. To keep from changing my mind I crept along the back of the tinnery and peeked round the corner at the docks, which stood empty. Zarath and his men had either not arrived, or had taken refuge in one of the cargo houses to wait for the ships.
As I put together a plan, the wind off the sea made Tommy’s coat flap. I cinched it tight and pulled the long brim down before I darted across to one of the scale shacks where fish were brought to be weighed. I opened the door to the stench of death, and the sight of a woman’s mangled corpse.
“I’ll be. ” Something batted the long brim from my head. “If it isn’t Dredmore’s little tart. ” A hard hand spun me round, and Montrose leered at me. “Nipped away from the beaters? You should have stayed in jail. ”
“Cousin Monty. How delightful to see you again. ” I looked round for Zarath and the others, but Walsh’s son appeared to be alone. “Where are your Talian mates, then?”
“Waiting in the cargo house with the master. ” He gestured toward the largest of them. “Zarath sent me to see if you’d crawled out the rubbish yet. Don’t know how he knew you’d show yourself, but he did. ”
My heart sank a little. “How could he know I was here?”
“Felt you like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Seems the spirit-eater fancies the taste of cheap trollop. Meant to come back to the hotel to collect you for him once we’d finished some business. ” He smirked as he nodded at the dead woman. “Likes to play with them a bit first. Not especially careful, either. ”
“But I’d much rather be your plaything, Monty. ” I sidled u
p to him. “You wanted your da to give me to you, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. ” He reached down and pinched my buttock through my skirts. “So you fancy it with me, then?”
“Oh, I would, if you still had something to use. Too bad all you can do now is talk. And drip. ” I rammed my knee into his groin, delighting in the shrill squeak he uttered as he sank to the deck. I shoved him inside the scale shack atop the dead woman, mentally apologizing to her spirit as I did for the indignity. Even with his stones bruised Montrose could come after me when he recovered, which I didn’t need, so I used Hedger’s spike to jam the door latch.
I wouldn’t need the spike for my plan to work; all I needed was to get close enough to Zarath while making him believe he’d already enchanted and enslaved me. I didn’t expect it would be difficult. Spirit that he was, the warlord was still a male, and he had been very interested in my body. Finally I could make useful the ridiculous ways in which men regarded my sex.
I straightened my skirts and smoothed my hair before I hurried to the cargo house. I made no effort to be stealthy or silent as I hurried inside, putting on my best loon face as I looked about. “Lucien? Lucien, where are you?”
Celestino showed himself first, and held a pistol that he pointed at my chest. “Do not take another step, miss. ”
“Where is Lucien?” I demanded, striding toward him as if I didn’t see the gun. “I have escaped those who tried to keep us apart, milord. ” I raised my voice and called out his name several times, wringing my hands as I did. “Please, Lucien, I need to see you so desperately. ”
Dredmore stepped out of the shadows, his head tilted back as he surveyed me.
“How did you evade the authorities?” Celestino demanded.
“Lucien. ” I ran to Zarath as if he were a great pile of prezzies on Christmas morn and threw myself at him. “Thank heavens you’re safe. ”