Boots for the Gentleman (40 page)

“Plan?” The boy laughed without any trace of amusement. “No plan, mate. Best we can hope for is to stay alive until this massacre is over. Maybe then we can get away. Not that we’ll have anything to go back to. They’re… they’re all gone.” Lizard looked ready to cry, but he stamped it down and put on a brave face. Querry reached up and squeezed his shoulder, and he smiled with gratitude at the comfort.

“Listen, thanks for saving me,” Querry told him. “But I’m not ready to give up on the others. Stay here. I’m going after them. We’re getting out of here together.”

Lizard shocked Querry by grabbing his arm and holding tightly to it. “Don’t go,” he said in a young and fearful voice. “You’re the only friend I have left.”

It broke Querry’s heart to pull away from the frightened boy, but neither would he abandon Reg and Frolic, if there was any chance they might still live. “I’ve seen what you can do, Lizard. You can take care of yourself. Stay here where it’s safe while I go look for our friends. Then I’ll be back. I promise you.”

“I understand,” Lizard said, trying to appear unaffected.

“Can you spare me any sort of weapon?”

“All I got is this.” Lizard reached inside the soiled suit coat he wore and handed Querry a small dagger. It looked more ceremonial than functional with its engraved ivory handle and etched blade, but Querry took it gladly. He gave the boy what he hoped was a reassuring nod and crept to the corridor’s entrance. Peering around the corner, he determined that their hiding spot lay three or four houses down from the cathedral and on the opposite side of the street. Directly opposite them he saw the smoldering ruins of what had been another house, and decided his best chance would be to run and take cover there.

One of the men guarding the entrance turned to him and said, “You’re off your bleeding rocker if you go out there, mate.”

Querry knew he spoke the truth, but he saw no other choice. “Best of luck to you,” he told the guards. “I hope we’ll see each other again.”

“Right then,” said another of the men. “Good luck.”

Querry crouched low and tossed the knife from hand to hand. He scanned around for movement and then sprinted across the street. He was injured, but his fear for his friends overshadowed his discomfort, and he ran hard, reached the husk of the mansion, and dove behind a collapsing wall. He allowed himself a second to clutch his bruised ribs and catch his breath. Then, crawling carefully over heaps of rubble and beneath dubious doorways, he reached the grounds behind the house. The neighboring manor had crumpled against the stone wall dividing the two properties, and Querry was able to climb it and gain access to the next door second story. As quickly as he could go without falling through a hole in the floor, he crossed through the second house. He exited through a broken window and leapt to where a fallen chimney made a bridge to the next residence. It led him directly onto the sagging roof.

From here Querry could see the cathedral. The decorative apple and cherry trees surrounding the old building had grown and twisted, their mutated branches curling around each other to form a kind of net around the church. They stretched and spiraled as Querry watched. Behind them, blood-red windows dotted the worship hall’s slick-looking black walls. Querry looked up, and the sight of the tower tore a scream from his throat. The top half had fallen and the belfry had smashed into the street. Ebony tines rose from the top of the tower, stretching toward the sky and giving the structure a horrid resemblance to a gigantic spinal column. The spikes grew larger by the second, and the lower portion of the tower buckled under their weight. Some stray shards broke from the belly of the tower and then disappeared, leaving gaping holes and crumbling rock where they’d been. Colored lights flashed within the decimated walls.

The idea of Reg trapped inside that awful place banished any thought of his own safety from Querry’s mind. He ran along the roof, following its downward slope until he found the place where it had caved in. He had no way to reach the rubble-filled rooms below, so he opted to jump the ten feet to the street. Though he landed more lightly than most would have been able, the impact sent a jolt of pain through his knees. Ignoring it, he ran for the misshapen grove of trees and the tower beyond. He reached the base without attracting attention, but he soon realized he had a much bigger problem.

The bottom ten feet of the tower had fallen in on itself. Blocks lay around it like a pool of wax around a cheap candle. The wall where the tower met the worship hall was nothing more than a heap of stones. Querry had no way in. Swearing, close to panic, he circled around three times, hoping for any kind of an opening but finding none. He walked out beneath the leaning structure and looked up. It swayed and groaned precariously, showering him with rock and threatening to collapse and bury him at any moment. He continued on toward the street, hiding if he saw any sign of Thimbleroy’s men. The belfry hadn’t fared any better than the base, though; its impact with the ground had shattered everything. Querry hoped with everything he had that Reg had made it down. Even if he had, where would he be now? Somewhere in the belly of the bent and mutilated tower? He had to find a way inside, get to him, save him. He had to be alive!

Hurrying back toward the church, Querry looked up and saw a hole left by one of the spines. It was only about a dozen feet above his head. Hope renewed, he reached to his belt for his grapple, only to remember that he’d lost it.
Bugger it, I’ll climb,
he thought, searching desperately for anything he might hold on to. He tucked Lizard’s dagger into his belt and prepared to begin. But the surface of the stone was smooth and shiny. In some places it melted and dripped, though Querry felt no heat. The way leading up to the opening was a sharp angle, almost parallel with the ground. Short of flying, Querry had no way to reach it. He balled his fists and beat the sides of his thighs with frustration. Then an idea occurred to him, and he sprinted back to the worship hall.

He began climbing the ruined wall, planning to travel up the tower and then swing down into the hole. It would be difficult if not impossible, but he saw no other choice. Ascending the hill of stone proved easy enough, but when Querry reached the wall of the tower itself he found the black substance even slicker than it looked. His feet slid like he stood on ice, and he dropped to his hands and knees and tried to crawl. After almost sliding off of the edge, he finally sunk to his belly and shimmied along slowly. Now and then he managed to grip one of the spikes and move a little more securely, though once one of them erupted at his left side and tore through his vest and the skin beneath. It hurt and bled, but the wound was minor. Querry shuddered to think what might have happened had it emerged another few inches from where it did. He inched arduously on, his limbs aching and trembling from holding tight to the stone. His hope of finding Reggie unharmed waned with every second that passed, but he couldn’t move any faster.

Finally he reached the place opposite the hole. He found a little good fortune in that a row of spikes stretched down the side of the tower, almost like stairs. While he knew they could disappear at any moment, Querry wasted no time. He slid over the side of the tower until his foot caught on the black rock. He crouched down, bending almost in half, and wrapped his arms around it before swinging his legs down toward the next. Though he could barely trust his muscles, the opening soon came into view. It was much further away than Querry had estimated. Carefully he clutched the outcropping and let his lower body drop into the open air. His hands started to slip almost instantly. Hysterical, he reached out with his leg and found that it missed the opening by at least three feet. He looked at the ground as his hands lost another inch. The fall might not kill him, but it would render his already injured body useless and steal his chances of getting to Reggie and Frolic.

He pressed his thighs together and began swinging his body back and forth like a pendulum, trying to build enough momentum to propel himself into the hole three feet away and two feet below him. The motion pulled his hands down the side of the spike quickly. When he could hold on no longer, he closed his eyes and aimed his body as best he could.

Querry’s back met stone, and he laughed out loud with relief. Opening his eyes, he saw disarray to rival what had happened outside. He wondered whether to make his way up or down. Everything looked the same: wrecked blocks dotted with puddles of bubbling black ooze. Magic sparked and crackled unchecked. Querry felt it in his teeth. He hoped he wouldn’t find Reggie changed by the energy coursing through the tower.

“Reggie?” Querry shouted. “Anybody?” Only silence and the crash of the emerging tines answered him.

As Querry carefully navigated the remains, he saw grisly evidence of the toll Thimbleroy’s attack had taken: arms and legs sticking out from beneath massive heaps of stone, rusty smears on the walls and floor, wet chunks of what had once been human bodies. The increase of these sights as he moved lower told Querry the marksmen had been trying to get down, to get out. They also told him few, if any, had succeeded.

He saw a glowing, white shape ahead in the shadows and moved toward it. His heart leapt.
Reggie was alive!

“No,” Reg said, shaking his head, “I’m not. I’m dead. Dead because of you. You sent me here to die.”

“No. I sent you here because I thought you’d be safer here than on the ground. Reggie—”

“You selfish bastard. You always put your own desires before my happiness. Always mucking up my life. Now you’ve destroyed it. I wish I’d never met you. I’d have been better off on my own in the factory. Why couldn’t you let me go? Why did you have to drag me into this when I had a decent life? Querry, why did you let me die?”

Querry shivered and sobbed as he looked at Reg’s pale face, his hazel eyes hidden within the shadowed sockets. He tried to respond, to defend himself, but he couldn’t because he knew Reg was right. “I- I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for that now.”

“No, it can’t be! It can’t!”

“What will you do, Querry? Repair me like Frolic so you don’t have to feel guilty? Ruin my life all over again?”

Querry dropped down on his knees and reached out for Reg’s pant leg, but the shade stepped back out of his reach.

“You ruined Frolic as well,” the specter continued, “with that evil damned faerie’s heart. But you had to have him for yourself, in spite of what was best for him. You never think about the consequences of your actions. Look at the trouble you caused us by going to that faerie ball, then expecting us to tend to you while you had your fever.”

Tears streamed down Querry’s face; he felt like he’d be sick. He thought about the dagger in his belt and considered turning it on himself. He deserved no better. Reg, gone. Frolic, irreparably damaged. He deserved to die and go to hell for the life he’d led. He fell forward, his forehead on his knees, as cries and gags wracked his body. Then something clicked in his memory. Images flooded his mind.
Faerie ball. Dancing. Making love with his gentleman.
He’d never told Reg about that. He hadn’t remembered it himself until just then. He sat up and faced the sneering, ghostly Reg. He felt for his faerie sight and let it snap into place, just like one of the lenses of his goggles. Looking through this new glass, he saw not Reg, but himself standing in the shadows. He stood up and lifted his chin. “Go away,” he commanded, and the transparent figure dissolved.

Querry heard someone muttering in a language he didn’t understand, and he moved cautiously toward the sound. Behind a section of fallen stairs, he saw a young, Xianese woman lying on her back.

“Hello?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”

In response she lifted a pistol with a speed that impressed Querry and aimed at his head. He held up his empty hands and said, “I’m a friend.”

Groaning, she dropped her arm to her side as if the pistol weighed a ton. “Yes, I remember you. You were with the clockwork and the
shen.
”

“Shen?”

Her eyes squinted shut in thought. “Is a- a spirit being? Nature spirit?”

“Oh, right,” Querry said, understanding. “Are you all right? What can I do?”

She grabbed her calf and pulled on it. “My foot is trapped.”

Querry knelt down to investigate. He shifted a few pieces of stone and soon released the woman. Her ankle was swollen and bruised. Querry ran his fingers over it gently and guessed nothing was broken. “Is that better?” he asked. “Do you think you can walk?”

She nodded. “Do you know a way out of here?”

“I’ll get us out. I need to find somebody first. Check for other survivors.”

“I’ll go with you.” She pulled herself up and tested her weight on her injured foot before following Querry deeper into the tower. She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth when she saw the carnage, which only grew worse as they got lower. She whispered nervously in her native tongue. Querry wondered if he should hold her hand, but he decided against it. Every few feet he called out to his Reggie. He heard nothing for so long that he started to slip into despair.

Then, near the base of the tower, he detected a low groan, barely discernible above the gunfire outside and the crumbling stone within. Looking around, Querry saw an arm sticking out from beneath a slab of flat stone. The fingers were moving. He didn’t know if it was Reg underneath that rock, but it was a person needing help. “Come on,” he told the young woman. They both knelt down and grasped the edges of the stone sheet. The piece of rock turned out to be long and awkward, though not very heavy. Querry guessed it had been a section of veneer that had covered the tower’s block foundation. After a few minutes of work they removed the stone. Querry couldn’t help his disappointment when he saw the freckled, young man with the overbite. He grasped his hand and helped him to his feet. The fellow seemed disoriented, but not so much that he couldn’t manage a charming smile for the Xianese woman.

Querry cleared his throat, and the two of them looked away from each other at last. The freckled man rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Reginald! Reginald was right beside me! He must be close.”