Faerie Wars

'Oh no you don't!' an angry voice growled.

Kicking and struggling, Pyrgus was dragged back down from the window. The last thing he saw was the cage arcing out over the edge of the roof to drop down towards the ground below.

Pyrgus relaxed. At least the kittens were safe now and the guards would hardly kill him for rescuing a cat. 'All right, all right!' he said. 'I'll come quietly.'

'Let's kill him,' muttered one of the guards. There were more than a dozen of them milling round. Two had Pyrgus by the arms. A burly man with a sergeant's insignia on his uniform stepped forward. 'Yus, let's kill him!' he muttered as he punched Pyrgus in the stomach. Pyrgus doubled up and fought to catch his breath.

'Great idea,' said one of the men holding him. 'We could beat him to death and say he was resisting arrest.' He grabbed a handful of Pyrgus's hair and jerked him upright. The burly sergeant hit him again.

Pyrgus groaned and the whole hideous scene faded briefly to black. He shook his head fiercely, more aware of a drumming noise than anything else. Then consciousness returned and he realised three guards were now raining punches on his chest and stomach. With his arms still pinned, there was nothing he could do to defend himself. He tried to kick his attackers, but his legs wouldn't work – he felt they were moving through treacle. His body slumped and the thought occurred that he might really be beaten to death. The guards had the goblin look of Faeries of the Night, like most of Chalkhill and Brimstone's people. You could never tell how far they'd go.

Pain was flaring through his body and a blood-mist crawled across his eyes before a dark-eyed man in a green captain's uniform pushed his way through. 'What's going on here?' he demanded angrily. 'What do you think you're doing to that child?'

The guards punching Pyrgus stepped back quickly and the two holding him snapped to attention, dragging him upright as they did so. 'Nothing, sir. Sorry, sir.'

'Who is he – one of our workers?'

'Trespasser and thief, sir – that's not his coat,' one guard said smartly. 'Broke into our factory and stole our cat.'

'And five glue kittens,' the second guard put in.

The captain frowned. 'And you were beating him for that?'

'No, sir. Not necessarily, sir. He threw them through the window. Poor little things are probably dead by now.'

Poor little things? Even through the haze of pain, it was almost funny. Pyrgus tried to speak, but all that came out was a groan.

'Shut it, you!' the guard hissed in his ear.

'Let go of him!' the captain ordered coldly.

'Sir?'

'You heard me. Let go of him at once!'

The guards released their grip on Pyrgus's arms and he felt himself slide gratefully down into velvet darkness.

He came to with the captain bending over him, a look of deep concern on his face. 'Are you all right? For a minute there I thought they'd killed you.'

Pyrgus moved cautiously. The whole of his body ached and burned, but nothing seemed to be broken. He expected he'd be a mass of bruises by the morning. 'I'm OK,' he croaked, his voice little more than a whisper.

'Take your time,' the captain said. 'Those idiots beat you badly.'

Pyrgus struggled to sit up. Tm OK,' he said again and his voice was stronger now. He seemed to be in some sort of poky office, probably the captain's. The furnishings consisted of a desk, a filing cabinet and a couple of chairs. The woodwork was encrusted with grime, like everywhere else in the factory.

The captain stepped back to give him room and Pyrgus climbed shakily to his feet. But he knew he wasn't going to stay there. He grabbed one of the chairs and sat down. A wave of nausea swept through him and he ignored the pain in his body to push his head between his legs. When he sat up again, the captain said gently, 'OK? Better now?'

Pyrgus nodded.

'I'm Captain Pratellus,' the captain told him. 'And the first thing I want to do is apologise for those imbeciles. What they did to you was inexcusable.'

Pyrgus stared at him wearily and said nothing. Captain Pratellus was nearly a head smaller than the guards who'd beaten him and would have been almost handsome if he hadn't had such really rotten skin.

The look of distress on Pratellus's face increased. 'The thing is, you did trespass, so I have to ask you some questions. You understand that, don't you?'

Pyrgus nodded.

'Are you OK for that now, or would you like me to wait a little while?'

Pyrgus swallowed. 'No, it's OK.' The sooner this was done with, the sooner he could get out of this lunatic asylum. And see how quickly you can close it down, a voice hissed fiercely in his mind. Now he knew what they did to cats, there was no way he was going to let the factory stand. He'd take his story to the Emperor himself if need be. Chalkhill and Brimstone might have one or two decent employees like the captain, but that still didn't justify what they were doing. He was astonished they'd been able to keep their treatment of the kittens secret, even if the factory had only been open for a short time. You'd have thought something like that was bound to leak out.

'Well, I suppose I'd better start with your name?'

'Pyrgus,' Pyrgus told him. Pyrgus Malvae.'

'A royal name!' Pratellus exclaimed. Pyrgus smiled weakly. 'Well, Pyrgus, I'll try not to detain you a minute longer than absolutely necessary. Would you like to tell me what you were doing in the factory?'

Pyrgus stared at him for a moment, then decided on the truth. 'Somebody was chasing me, so I climbed over the gate.'

The look of concern was back on Pratellus's face. 'Who was chasing you?'

'I'm not sure,' Pyrgus said. 'I think it might have been Black Hairstreak's men.'

Pratellus sucked breath through his teeth. 'That degenerate! Yes, well, I could see you'd be advised to keep out of his clutches. So you climbed over the gate?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Crambus, Pyrgus – call me Crambus. I've a feeling we might be friends when all this is over.' Pyrgus nodded. Crambus Pratellus said, 'You know that was a dangerous thing to do?'

Pyrgus nodded again. 'I do now.'

'I argued with Mr Brimstone about the extreme security precautions.' Pratellus threw his eyes briefly upwards. 'But would he listen? Some day somebody's going to get killed and then where will we be? But you didn't get killed?'

'No, sir – no, I didn't, Crambus.'

'And, of course, it might have been far more dangerous to let yourself get caught by Black Hairstreak.'

Pyrgus nodded. That was probably true. Especially when you'd stolen his phoenix. He decided he wouldn't mention the phoenix to Captain Pratellus.

'So you weren't breaking into the factory for anything? It just happened to be your… escape route.'

'Yes.'

'What about the kittens? The guards said you stole kittens.'

Pyrgus hesitated, then said, 'I didn't steal them – I rescued them.'

Pratellus sighed. 'You're an animal lover. So am I. I hate what they do to cats here.'

'Then why don't you stop it?' Pyrgus asked with sudden passion.

Pratellus spread his hands helplessly. 'It's not illegal,' he said. 'Believe me, I've looked into it and there's absolutely nothing I can do.'

'You could tell people!' Pyrgus said. 'Once people knew what was going on, they'd put a stop to it!'

Captain Pratellus smiled sadly. 'I'm afraid people just don't care. I know this is difficult to accept at your age, but it's true. Let's not quarrel – there may be something we can do about the kittens later. I have to make a report, you see. Just for now, would you like me to say you're a little soft-hearted about cats – lots of young people are – and that was all there was to it really? Boys will be boys sort of thing?'

It was probably the best way. Pyrgus nodded gratefully.

Suddenly Captain Pratellus was no longer smiling. 'You must imagine I'm a total cretin!' he hissed furiously.