Читать книгу Blood in The Air - Katherine Wood - Страница 9

Chaos reigned for a few moments more, the panic palpably rising in the room, until the elf strode through the throng with the chief.

The elf said a few muttered words and a light breeze started to circulate, making the air slightly more tolerable. Everyone started breathing more deeply again.

“Someone killed a demon,” Trollock stated. The room seemed to agree.

“The night soil men found it in their cart. They thought it was a man at first, but once they wiped the shit off it, they saw what it really was,” Plond explained in his plaintive, I-hope-I’m-doing-this-properly voice. “I took statements from them, then loaded it into an empty cart to bring in here.”

“Did they see who put it in the cart? Or what time?” the chief grilled him.

“No, they only discovered it when they went to dump the night soil in the pits about an hour ago,” Plond replied, still looking like a rabbit caught in the lamp lights.

The elf chose at this point to speak. “I think, as the leading demon expert, that I should examine the remains.” Seemingly as an afterthought he added, “notify me when the corpse has been cleaned,” and with that he walked off, back to Kari’s files.

The excitement seemed to have passed now, especially since someone was going to have to wash the thing, and that usually was left to the ones stupid enough to still be hanging round when the chief was sure you had something better to be doing. Kari hadn’t moved since she had caught sight of the red skin.

“Thank you for volunteering, Corporal True.”

*

It took Kari an hour to clean all the filth off the demon, and then a further twenty minutes to try and clean the filth off her uniform, an extra five minutes to give up on that and then ten more to change into something clean. All the while, she tried to figure out if there was a way of once again hiding, or preferably destroying, the body without losing her job. So far none of her ideas had held any water. Kari was sure that no one would believe that a dragon had flown out of hell especially to eat this dead demon, or anything involving a sea monster as although sitting next to a tidal river, the City was in fact twenty miles from the actual coast. She resorted to praying to every god she knew of that her involvement would not be discovered. By the time she had finished she was not only still smelling of sulphur and shit, but was also a nervous wreck.

Kari carried the gigantic corpse into the former interrogation room, now Elathir’s office. She laid it on the table, completely forgetting to pretend to be weaker than she actually was. If elves were capable of showing surprise, this one did.

“You seem to have hidden skills, Corporal.” He gave her a long look then added, “deeply hidden.”

Whoops. “Well shouldn’t we examine this Azri?” she asked, trying to deflect the attention back onto the demon. Unfortunately it failed.

“Again, you surprise me Corporal. Not many can discern the subtleties between different types of demon. Maybe there is more to you than your meagre appearance would indicate.” Kari could feel her teeth growing at that last comment, but Elathir seemed to take no notice and started to examine the body in silence.

Kari took this opportunity to examine what Elathir had done to the interrogation room. It had changed drastically in the short time he had joined the Watch. Shelves now lined one wall with an assortment of books, though some remained empty still. A large cabinet covered in scrolling detail stood against another, one door was slightly open and the inside seemed to have hundreds of tiny drawers inside. A rickety old table with a hook for chains had been replaced by the marble slab the dead demon now occupied. How he had worked these changes in just a few hours she would never know. Elves are weird.

The elf finally looked up from the body. What she thought was a frown decorated his symmetrically sculpted face, although on a human it would have looked like they were trying to do long division mentally. “We will need to inform the chief that there is a dangerous demon still on the loose.”

“But it’s dead! Trust me; they don’t start walking round once they start to smell like that, unless there are some necromancers around, but they haven’t been around for years...” She trailed off when the elf-frown turned into an elf disapproving stare. This apparently looked the same on both elves and humans. “You’re not talking about this demon, are you?” Elathir frowned, “No, this demon was killed by a swift incision in the neck which severed its spinal cord, which leads me to think something managed to sneak up on it.”

Kari was shocked. Next, this elf would be telling her that she had in fact killed it and she had been wearing blue underwear at the time. “Surprising an Azri is no mean feat; they are the ruling elite of demon society, subservient only to the dragon emperor himself or his son, Drac Nazar,” Kari was well aware of this and told him so, though the elf didn’t seem impressed, and carried on regardless. “What I am trying to imply to you is that the only thing that can kill an Azri is another Azri. The other alternative does not bear thinking about.”

Kari was trying to act normally; this elf was far too clever and very good at guessing. The elf interpreted her silence as apparent stupidity. “The alternative would be that something stronger killed the Azri, and the only thing stronger than an Azri is a dragon.”

“It can’t be a dragon. There are only two dragons, and they both live in hell. Surely we would know if a dragon was on the loose in the city?” Kari said this out loud, though in her head she was screaming. If people know....she couldn’t let that thought continue. She had to keep her secret.

Elathir didn’t even look at Kari; he just strode out of the room towards the chiefs’ office. Kari followed him but at a distance. In her experience nothing good ever happened in the chief’s office. The haughty elf entered without knocking, but instead of the chief bawling him out and then giving a twenty minute lecture on the importance of manners, he just looked up and gestured to the comfy chair that was strictly for visitors and special guests only. Kari was disappointed; that lecture was one of her favourites along with “the importance of spare underwear” which he gave to Baxter after a particularly long week dealing with some water sprites in the sewage pipes. The elf chose not to sit and explained his findings about the dead demon.

“Impossible. I would know if there was a dragon on the loose in my city,” the chief blustered. In Kari’s opinion, Elathir was getting off lightly. If she had suggested that, she would have been laughed out of the office, no matter how true it appeared.

The elf’s face moved in a way that was, for a change, neither conceited nor patronising. Instead he looked concerned. “As you know, we elves have been investigating the demon threat for over two centuries now. I realise this is not a great amount of time”

To elves, Kari added silently to herself.

“But we have managed to establish a few sources in hell. One of the more startling rumours they have told us is that there are not two dragons in existence, but three.”

That last sentence seemed to reverberate around the room, bouncing around in all the corners, buzzing out of the door and into the bull pit, where it lingered nonchalantly around the desks, leaving the deafening sound of shock in its wake.

Don’t run, whatever you do, don’t run, you knew this day would come. Kari reminded herself to breathe. The people in the room had no idea of what she was, who she was or how she came into being. What she had told Bill about her life before coming to the city had been true. She had been a slave in hell, the brand on her shoulder was evidence of that, but they had no idea whose mark it had been.

The chief and the elf kept talking, but Kari didn’t hear any more of their conversation. People had started to come in and out, mostly smelling of subdued panic. This is it, I have to leave and start again. They’ll kill me if they ever find out. She turned and started to make her way, quietly, towards the door.

Kari was almost to the entrance when a voice rang out across the room, stopping everyone dead. “Where are you going, Corporal True?”

Even the nuisance flasher chained to a table waiting to be charged stopped trying to unbutton his coat. A bit early in the day for a catch like that but Markus Possle had chosen the wrong Watch officer to flash that morning when constable Hills had been on her way to work.

“I said, ‘Where are you going, Corporal True?’” Elathir repeated, in response to her quizzical expression. “We may have a dangerous dragon demon on the loose in the city, as well as disappearances of the underclasses, which I think are probably connected, and you seem to be, what is the expression? Ah yes, ‘clocking off’”

Kari struggled to find the words for any kind of answer that wouldn’t make the elf even more suspicious of her. No wonder he caused such a fuss about working with me, he probably already suspects I’m not what I say I am.

Kari opened her mouth to reply, not even knowing what she would say. She was quite sure that well done, you found the demon you’re looking for probably wasn’t appropriate. As she was about to speak, though, Bill came to her rescue. She was shocked she hadn’t noticed him enter.

“Lord Elathir, you’re probably not aware that the corporal was born into slavery in hell,” he said quietly but in the kind of voice that carried across a room, used exclusively by teachers and coppers. “Her owner was Drac-Shemal, his brand is on her shoulder.” Kari had no idea how he knew that, she had always been so careful when answering questions about it. “It’s little wonder she looks like a rabbit caught in the lamp light considering that. Or are you not aware of how demons treat their slaves?”

Bill’s tone seemed to unsettle the elf. Defensively, he replied, “I was not accusing her of a crime, Lieutenant, merely curious as to why she was leaving, as it seemed odd. And yes, I am well aware of how demons treat their slaves; they either end up dead or in thrall to the demon who owns them.” Elathir then regained some of his arrogance, “If this information had been made clear to me at the Palace yesterday, then this arrangement clearly would not have gone ahead. Instead you have utterly wasted my time.”

Kari gazed at the group of people surrounding her. The reaction on people’s faces seemed to range from disbelief to anger to smug satisfaction.

“Apologise.” This time it was chief Trollock, and he was starting to sound angry.

“It is hardly her fault that she is a demon slave, but if you think it is necessary for her to apologise for offending me, then I will not prevent it,” The elf haughtily assumed.

“Not her, you,” Trollock reiterated, his face not giving an inch. Elathir was outraged.

Kari then understood what he had been implying: that since she was not dead, she was obviously still a demon slave in thrall to her dragon overlord. Who she was probably leaving to report to, right now.

Bill was the only one quick enough. Kari was already airborne when he tackled her, deflecting her outstretched claws from the elf’s face. The chief manhandled Elathir back into the office as Hills, Longtooth and Plond dog-piled onto Kari.

*

She was aware of a pressure on her chest. She pushed whatever it was away, and then stood angrily on two square feet. She sensed something about to land on her back, so she turned and batted it away. Strange, it looked familiar. She, not it. That voice - she knew that voice, but wanted it to go away so she could kill. You must stop. She ignored it, something was pulling at her legs. She lifted it up, it didn’t weigh very much. It crumpled when she threw it against the wall.

“KARI!” the unfamiliar sound was far away.

Kari, that is us, these things are people, don’t hurt them.

“KARI!” It was closer now. A man was shouting. She knew this man. Bill.

“KARI! Come back!”

Reality rushed in like a lion on roller skates. Kari looked round at the room. Chaos greeted her sight. Furniture was in pieces, Plond was crumpled in a heap alongside Longtooth, trying to stop the bleeding from a deep gash on his skull, and Hills was on the floor near her feet holding her arm that seemed limp and disjointed. Bill was standing a few feet away shouting at someone else to stop. Kari turned just in time to see the chair Baxter was holding, but only briefly, as it quickly collided with her head.