Morley, using a stick for a cane, asked, "Remember the smell when we raided that vampire nest?"
"Yeah. This may be worse."
Ten minutes later a pair of red tops emerged with a limp figure between them. The man screamed when they brought him into the light.
"More stuff like that nest," Morley said.
There wasn't much light for those of us used to the surface world. The overcast was growing heavier. It would rain again soon.
The Windwalker plunged like a striking hawk. A bolt of actinic light preceded her.
104
I started to yell at Block. That wasn't necessary. He grabbed able bodies and headed out. I told Morley, "I'll be right back."
"Take your time. I'll be here."
Strike point for the Windwalker's bolt was two blocks away. I was winded when I joined the circle. The Windwalker remained upright, right foot planted on the throat of the woman in black. The latter wore a silver wig and was at her absolute peak of perfection, fully recovered from my brutality. She was singed and had a bad case of the shakes.
The Windwalker growled, "Can't any of you stop staring at her tits long enough to do something useful?"
I have mentioned how good the woman looked going away. With her top torn open the full frontal view was even more striking.
I rolled her over. That helped. The red tops bound her hands behind her and hobbled her. Relway took her wig. That helped some more.
The Windwalker said, "Stuff her into a gunnysack if that's what it takes." She stepped close to me, shut down the Windwalker some and hit me with a minor dose of her own magic. "You did good. I'm proud of you. You might find a little something special in your bed tonight."
A big racket broke out back whence we had come. The Windwalker reestablished herself. She floated upward. "Yeah! I am so ready for this." She shot that direction, did a loop and plunged. I charged after her, huffing and puffing. She swooped and darted like a smaller bird harassing a raider raven.
Something below her screamed and screamed.
Morley's mention of the vampire nest reminded me that I had heard that kind of scream before. It was rooted in the agony of knowing that immortality had been betrayed.
Tentacles whipped at the Windwalker. She dodged them easily.
Coming into the last hundred fifty feet of my run I saw that the monster had only two tentacles free to fend off an aerial attacker. The rest all had hold of people, the most notable of who was Morley. Several men threw things ineffectively. Nobody had come prepared to deal with this. But it could not flee while in squid form.
I was fifty feet away, lungs afire, wishing I'd had the stones to bring something lethal to the fight. The Windwalker made a quick run.
She pelted the beast with precisely delivered handfuls of rock salt.
It stopped trying to fight. It began to shudder, to shake. It turned loose of Morley and the others. I got in close, grabbed Sarge's arms, and started dragging. Other guys got hold of other victims, some of who had gotten thoroughly squeezed.
The Windwalker dropped down beside me. She turned into Strafa Algarda again. She was not breathing as hard as I was. "I ran out of salt!" She was exasperated.
"But you had enough."
She slipped her right hand into my left hand and pulled me forward.
The monster ripped through one final, violent, screaming convulsion, followed by a bizarre, noisy death rattle. It relaxed into the Nathan of the Bird's portrait, only looking as he might have at twenty, improved by a vast suite of cosmetic enhancements.
This was the male equivalent of the sweet thing in black leather-except for proportional wounds where its alternate form had been showered with salt.
Block caught up. He clamped his right hand on my left shoulder, facing me, while he fought for wind. "We got 'em. Finally."
"Not all of them. Not yet."
Morley stumbled over and hung on to Block. He could not take his eyes off our prisoner. "I remember most of it." He pointed at Nathan, who was getting the hog-tie treatment despite his poor health. "Him. He was the one who locked me up down there. I think because I saw them bringing prisoners off a barge over there." At which point he became completely confused.
I asked the question that was troubling him. "What were you doing here in the middle of the night?"
"I don't remember." But he did before he finished saying that. And it was something he dared not discuss with Westman Block close by.
This near the river, after dark, meant smuggling. In Morley's case, undoubtedly to avoid import duties. He donned a broad, weak grin.
Block said, "We won this round." His men had Nathan cocooned in rope in case he decided to come back to life. "But we still have work to do."
105
They picked me to step up to the Knodical door and ask for Prince Rupert. Strafa went along. The door opened. We went inside.
Other than the servants who admitted us there were no visible staff. The place was halfway a ruin. Maintenance had been neglected for years.
I went in all worked up to protect my best girl. A few minutes later I was thinking more rationally. I understood who would be protecting whom.
The servants led us to Prince Rupert. He was the absolute antithesis of happy. My message was brief. "The people outside want you to see something before this situation gets any uglier."
He had no choice. We had seen the inside of the Knodical. We would take that information back with us. And go we would because the Windwalker would make it happen.
"What?"
"You need to see it with a virgin mind."
Strafa said, "You have no choice, Rupert. See what you must see. Then we'll put this trial to bed."
He asked, "Is it still raining?"
Prince Rupert shared our coach. We reached the Landing. General Block had the army setting up a field hospital. Morley, Belinda, and Deal Relway were still on site and getting underfoot. The ratpeople were all gone. Nobody offered the Crown Prince a welcoming smile.
Rupert was fresh out of smiles himself. Life was a nightmare that was sure to get worse.
The rain picked up.
As we approached it three valiant red tops emerged from the nearest door with a liberated prisoner. The man was just barely alive. One of the Guards said, "This is the last live one, General. There's still a dozen corpses."
"Leave them. Your Highness, do you smell that?"
"I do." Making no pretence to misunderstand.
"It's worse inside. I won't force you to experience it. I don't want to give you any more reason to hate me. This was their headquarters. This was where they made themselves young. One level down is another laboratory like the one on the edge of Elf Town, a tailor shop, and a woodshop. Below that are the cellars where they kept their human resources."
Relway joined us. "I told Berry to break through the back wall so we can flood the cellars."
"That should help. Windwalker, Mr. Garrett, His Highness grasps the true enormity of the situation. You may return him to the Knodical."
I wasn't part of the in-group here. I was day labor. "Yes, sir."
Block and Relway eyed me with immense suspicion.
Block said, "Day after tomorrow we'll open this to the public."
Rupert said, "You don't want to do that."
"You're right. I don't. But I will. I remind you, it was Crown Prince Rupert who proclaimed a new Civil Guard and an era when no one would be above the law."
Rupert had nothing more to say. We returned him to the Knodical, at which point we had to give up the coach. The Windwalker flew us back to my house. In a downpour.
Though it was not yet late everyone but Penny had gone to bed. Penny helped slap together a half-assed supper. There were loose ends to the day but I didn't care. All I wanted was a full belly and a warm bed.