I rejoined Darla on the deck and shouldered my way to a place at her side. The man I pushed away gave me a look but then he saw my face and he wisely walked away.
The shrieking whistles fell silent.
“Bad news.” She wasn’t asking, but observing.
“It wasn’t good. Lovely day, though. How does it feel to make nautical history, my dear?”
“I’d rather be going home.” She hugged me, brief and tight, and then she was all smiles.
A flotilla of curious fishermen headed our way, waving and shouting. We on the rail waved and shouted back, and the Queen’s pistons pumped, and we left every boat behind as Evis turned her south and let her engines sing.
The evening meal was a dour affair. Evis barely spoke. Gertriss laid into the wine with a grim determination I’d never seen in her before. Darla moved her food around but ate very little, which led Dutson to fuss and hover until we were all ready to help him overboard for a brisk, invigorating swim.
Only I managed the sacred task of cleaning my plate, because come wrack or ruin, roast beef cooked to absolute perfection and served on a bed of rice and carrots is not to be ignored.
“I’m glad someone found the dish palatable,” muttered Dutson as he took my empty plate. “Would sir care for dessert? We have a very nice lemon meringue pie this evening.”
“Sounds marvelous,” I said. “You have any cigars back there?” Evis was so distraught he’d forgotten. “Nothing like a good cigar after a fine meal.”
“I’m sure I can procure one,” said Dutson, who briefly glanced at Evis before turning away with an injured look.
“Bring two, if you please.” I leaned back in my chair and waited for Dutson to amble out of earshot. “Some party this is.”
“Sorry, boss.” Gertriss drained her glass. “Hard to be festive after today.”
“You should know that better than anybody,” grumbled Evis.
“He speaks!” I caught Darla’s eye. “See, he wasn’t asleep after all.”
“You’re hilarious.” Evis sighed. “Gertriss, how do you get any work done, what with laughing all the time?”
“She manages. Look. I know this has been a blow, but I’ve got a plan.”
Evis didn’t smile. Neither did Gertriss.
“I can’t wait to hear it,” said Evis.
“We sink the Queen,” I said. “Tonight. Right here, at the dock.”
“Boss.”
“Well, we can’t take to the river if we’re on the bottom, now can we?”
“I think I may have wasted my thousand crowns.”
“Why? Because sinking the Queen is a better idea than any other idea I’ve heard. Hell, it’s the only idea I’ve heard, and that, my old friend, is what troubles me most.”
Dutson appeared, a saucer bearing a slice of yellow and white pie in one hand and two cigars in the other.
He set the pie down before me, and I slipped the cigars in my pocket.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Evis when Dutson headed back to the shadows. “You can’t leave the Queen. I can’t abandon my place in the House. Certain other people”-he didn’t point at Gertriss, but he didn’t need to-“won’t listen to reason. We’re stuck here, all of us, and we’re being led by the nose right into the kind of epic dust-up that leaves people talking about the big holes in the ground a thousand years hence.”
I took a bite of pie. “Best damned pie I ever tasted.”
“One of the last, too.”
I swallowed. “No. I refuse to accept that. We’ve been in some tight spots before. But here we are, not enjoying a truly remarkable meal.”
“We got lucky.”
“Maybe. Who’s to say we won’t get lucky again?” I took another bite. “What’s got into you, Evis? What aren’t you telling me?”
Gertriss gave him a long hard look before speaking. “Spill it.”
He sighed, right through his needle-sharp teeth, making a dry whistling noise. “Something I heard on the Hill. Right from the High House. The Corpsemaster. She’s dead, Markhat.”
“We assumed as much. I’m still not convinced.”
Evis started, as though kicked in his shin.
“Tell him all of it,” whispered Gertriss.
I put my fork down.
“The Regent.” Evis kept his voice low. “He killed the Corpsemaster. Not the bunch from Prince. Angels help us all.”
Darla blanched. I lost my appetite, possibly for the rest of my life.
“Why?”
“She got too powerful. Outlived her usefulness. Lot of that going around.”
“So you think it’s true.”
Evis nodded. “Makes sense. I never believed she bought it up the Brown. Those three from Prince were none of them her equal. Not even close. Hell, Markhat. You know where that leaves us.”
The red lamps hidden by the ornate trim flared to life. Blood-tinged shadows flew. Horns sounded-one long note, half a beat, one short note.
The air went cold. Breaths came out as gouts of steam. The fancy lights flickered and flared, sending shadows dancing about us. Some of the shadows lingered longer than they should have, and some massed at the ceiling, as though trying to come together and take on a monstrous many-limbed form.
The empty casino filled with armed halfdead. Dutson and the wait staff joined them, their hands full of guns or knives, their faces a mix of trepidation or youthful stupid bravado.
Evis rose.
“Dutson. Take Miss Hog and Mrs. Markhat to the dunways.”
“Yes, sir.”
Neither Mrs. Markhat nor Miss Hog made any move to follow. Darla produced her silver gun and aimed a defiant smile at me.
Stitches stepped out of a fold in the dark. The shadows fled, and the winter chill with them.
We are under a sustained arcane attack. Thus far, the Queen’s defenses have held.
“Attack by whom?”
Persons unknown. The method of their offense is archaic. I may be able to better ascertain their origin if I am given permission to engage them.
“Silence the alarm.” Evis cast a furious glance toward Gertriss, who didn’t flinch. The blaring horns fell silent. “Will exposing yourself present additional risk?”
The protection will hold or not. It was designed to allow for simple verbal commerce.
Evis put his gun away. “Permission granted. If the protection begins to fail, what action should I take?”
Pray, for all the good it will do you. Stitches pushed back her hood. You are as safe on the deck as you are within, if you wish to observe. The hull of this vessel will offer no protection if the protective spellworks fail.
She headed for the doors.
I know when to pick my battles, so I just offered Darla my arm. “Let’s take a stroll on the deck,” I said. “I hear there may be fireworks.”
She took my arm but kept her gun handy.
Evis frowned at me before turning to Gertriss. “After you,” he said with a sweeping bow.
Darla, at least, had the good grace not to smirk.
Outside, on the deck, we found chaos.
Gone was the dock and the wharf and the water and sky. The Queen floated inside a bubble, and beyond that thin membrane all hell had broken loose.
Dark masses, some distant kin to thunderclouds, boiled and railed against the spherical volume that held us just beyond their reach. Monstrous shrieks sounded from within the roiling murk. I heard voices cry out, shouting strange words across an echoing gulf. The words, if indeed they were words, made no sense, but even so my skin crawled and my hair tried to stand at the mere echo of them.
Our bubble rang like a struck bell, and I saw Stitches wince and catch hold of the rail briefly before straightening and throwing back her hood.
By the ancient rite of challenge, I demand your name, you who would trouble me and mine.