Boots for the Gentleman (41 page)

Querry began tearing away at the stones. He felt his knuckles bleed inside his gloves, but he didn’t stop. In his desperation and fear he flung aside blocks that he’d never have been able to lift before. The others joined him and in a few minutes they’d uncovered a pallid, dusty body. Despite the torture he’d inflicted on his muscles, Querry lifted Reg and carried him clear of the rubble. He sat on his heels and held Reg’s face to his chest, then pressed his face to Reg’s face. Maybe his morbid vision would prove true after all. “Reggie, please be all right,” he said in a weak and cracking voice. He touched the side of Reg’s neck and felt a pulse. “Reggie,” he said again, shaking the other gently. At last, after an eternity, Reg’s eyes fluttered open. “Reggie!” Querry gasped, pressing his lips hard against his partner’s forehead, not giving a second thought to the opinions of the others. “Are you all right? Are you hurt at all?”

“My head hurts,” he said. “Arm’s broken, I think.”

“I look,” the young woman said. “Mother was—” she struggled to find the word, “—doctor.”

She peeled back Reggie’s eyelids and examined his wrist. “Broken arm,” she confirmed. “But he is all right. Let’s get us out of here.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Reg said, holding his hand out to Querry to help him up. “By the way, what are your names? I didn’t get the chance to ask before.”

“Mei-Gwai,” the woman answered, smiling. Querry felt awkward at not having asked her earlier.

“I’m just Jack,” said the freckled man, shaking Reggie’s hand vigorously.

The four of them hurried back to the opening in the tower wall.

“How the bloody hell are we supposed to get down?” Jack asked.

Querry had planned to hang by his arms and drop. He realized now that the strategy might be more difficult for his companions. He thought. “Reggie, take off your pants.”

“I beg your pardon!”

“Jack, you too.”

“What are you on about, mate?” Jack asked.

“Gentlemen,” Querry said, “I certainly don’t intend to ask this lady to disrobe, and we need to make a rope to lower ourselves down. Now please, don’t be shy.” He waited until Jack wasn’t looking and winked at Reg.

The three men removed their trousers and Querry used his dagger to cut them up the center, making six strips of cloth from the legs. He tied these tightly together. When they lowered them, their rope reached nearly to the ground.

“Ladies first,” Jack said, grinning and blushing at Mei. He and Querry held the end of the rope as she climbed down.

“Now Reggie,” Querry insisted. “Will you be able to make it with your arm?” he asked him.

Reg nodded and gripped the makeshift rope tightly between his knees and in his good hand. He inched his way down very slowly. When his partner was safely on the ground, Querry said, “Go on, Jack.”

“What about you?”

“I’m used to this sort of thing. Go on.”

Querry watched him make his way to the ground, and then he dropped his boots, held on to the ledge, and swung his feet over. He dropped and landed softly.

“What now?” Jack asked.

“Hide,” Querry said. “Wait until this is over and get away from here. Look out for each other.”

“What will you do?” Mei asked.

“I need to find my friend Frolic,” Querry said, more for the benefit of Reg and himself.

“Good luck,” Jack said, shaking Querry’s hand. “And thanks.”

“Go on then. I’ll see you two again soon.” They hurried toward the back end of the ruined cathedral, and Querry turned to Reg, who cradled his wrist in obvious pain. “Reggie, you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to. You could say I kidnapped you back at the prison. You could have your life back. I don’t want to ruin it for you.”

“Did you crack your head?”

“No, I just, I just want you to do what’s best for yourself. I don’t want to interfere, if you want to raise a family, and all of that.”

“Querry love, shut up.” Reg stroked the side of Querry’s hair and kissed him softly. Then, with a smile in his eyes, he said, “Let’s go get our Frolic.”

“All right,” Querry agreed. They moved around the front of the cathedral and then to the side. Querry saw the magic-siphoning machine standing among the gravestones. When he approached it, he found it not broken or damaged, but just in need of winding. “Where on earth are Frolic and the others?” he wondered aloud. He didn’t notice anyone about: not Thimbleroy nor his human or clockwork soldiers. The eerie quiet unnerved Querry. “We need to get out of here,” he told Reg.

Before they could retreat, a dozen soldiers and twice as many clockworks emerged from the demolished buildings to surround them. They had no escape in any direction. Querry drew his dagger anyway. The men drew their guns and herded Querry and Reg into the street, smacking their backs with the butts of their rifles if they went too slowly.

“On your knees,” one of them commanded, hitting Reg so hard between the shoulders that he pitched forward and fell.

Irate, Querry slashed at the man with his knife. He cut the back of his hand before another soldier grabbed his wrist and removed the weapon. He twisted Querry’s arm behind his back and forced him to the ground. “Hands behind your heads,” he snarled.

With rifle barrels pressing into their hair, Querry and Reg had no choice but to comply.

Soon the flying disk carrying Thimbleroy and his angels made its obligatory appearance. The soldiers backed away, but kept their weapons trained on the two kneeling men. Querry and Reg looked at one another as it neared the ground. That glance felt so hopeless and final that Querry wanted to cry. Instead he grabbed Reggie’s hand, and the sorrow within him converted to anger at what would be stolen.

“You cowardly son of a bitch!” he cried. “Come down from there and face me like a man, if you even know what that means!”

“Oh, I know,” said Thimbleroy’s tinny, amplified voice. “I have suffered for what I have gained.” He held up his disfigured arm. “But it will all be worth it. Angels, make them both into something awful. Make them pray for death for the rest of their days.”

Querry braced himself for the magic, but it never came. Thimbleroy couldn’t command the clockwork creatures; he wasn’t the one meant to do so, despite the sick modifications he’d made to his body. Querry laughed out loud and showed Thimbleroy his fingers. “You charlatan! You know you can’t do it! You’re not the one.”

“Perhaps. But I can do this. Shoot them!” The guards raised their rifles to their shoulders and took aim, but a clear, pure voice halted them.

“Don’t do it.” Frolic pushed through the ring of armed men and stood before Thimbleroy and his creatures. He spoke not to Thimbleroy or the soldiers assembled around him, but to the clockwork angels and creatures. “Listen to me,” he pleaded. Most of the men laughed out loud as he approached the disk. Undaunted, Frolic continued to speak, his open hands lifted toward the angels as if in offering. “I’m the one you’re supposed to be listening to. Not him.”

The angels didn’t move or respond. “Take that thing into custody,” Thimbleroy told his men. “Be careful not to damage it. I’d like to dismantle it later and see what we can learn from its interior construction. Perhaps I can incorporate some of its parts into my own mechanical supplements. I’m especially curious to dissect the head and examine its sensory perceptions.”

Hearing Thimbleroy talk this way about Frolic enraged Querry. Instinct took over, and he lunged for the aristocrat. He heard a shot, felt a searing pain in his calf, and dropped to the street, unable to stand up again. He snarled with helplessness as the two soldiers secured Frolic’s hands behind his back and dragged him off toward the ruins of Thimbleroy Manor. With his speed and strength, Frolic might have escaped, but he didn’t bother to resist.

“I have no further use for these two,” Thimbleroy said, indicating Reg and Querry with his grotesque claw. “Shoot them in the heads.”

“No!” Querry screamed. It couldn’t end like this! He tried to get back on his feet as blood gushed from the wound in his leg. He felt cold and shaky. His vision began to dim.

“Querry?” Reg’s frightened voice asked. He still believed Querry could save him, but Querry couldn’t. He heard a single shot and looked over his shoulder even though he dreaded what he knew he’d see. To his surprise, he saw not Reg, but the soldier nearest him fall, fatally wounded. Three more shots rang out and three more men fell.

“Where is that coming from?” they shouted, darting for cover as Thimbleroy’s claw moved among the tower of gears. The angels flung sparkling balls of raw magic into the sky. Some dissipated, one caused the clouds to rain gold dust over a small patch, and another lodged in the branches of a tree and caused the leaves to transform into birds that sang with human voices.

Reg got to Querry and they tried to shield each other’s heads with their arms. In their retreat, the soldiers had abandoned Frolic. Reg called out to him, but he just stood staring up at the disk, completely transfixed. The shooters, presumably reinforcements for the resistance, continued their assault and eliminated a few more men. By now the soldiers had collected themselves and fought back, though not very effectively as they couldn’t locate their assailants. The clockworks spewed energy with a variety of bizarre results.

Frolic still stared at the angels. Though Querry couldn’t hear him over the shouts and shots, he saw clearly the words formed by his lips:

Wake up.

This time the angels responded. All four of them came to stand at the edge of the disk and face Frolic. Their creatures stood behind them, their collective weight tipping the disk almost vertical. Thimbleroy cursed and manipulated the controls hysterically. The fighting lulled momentarily as everyone stopped to watch the miraculous occurrence.

Frolic pulled his hands apart, snapping the manacles that had held them. With calm authority, he said, “Make this stop. Stop taking the magic and make the fighting stop.”

The green-robed angel lifted his arm and sent a stream of viridian light toward a rifle one of the soldiers held. It liquefied in the man’s hand and dripped to the ground. When it splashed against the cobblestones, little yellow flowers bloomed.

“How?” Thimbleroy growled. “How are you telling them what to do without touching the controls?”

Frolic only smiled serenely and turned to the rest of the men. “Put your weapons down and I’ll tell them not to hurt you.” The shocked soldiers quickly obeyed. Slowly, the resistance, led by Jean-Andre, emerged from their hiding places and joined the others in the street. The Belvaisian quickly covered Querry and Reg with his long-barreled, ornately engraved pistol. He spared a quick glance at Querry, and the thief nodded once to tell him that they were all right. Then Jean-Andre turned his attention back to their defense. Everyone looked awkwardly at everyone else. No one knew what to do next.

“Come down from there,” Frolic told Thimbleroy. “You have no business being there.”

“No,” the aristocrat said. “I spent my life and my fortune repairing this tower. I opened the way to the Other World so I could have access to its power. This tower is mine! Everything I’ve done has been to protect our Empire and its traditions! I’ll never give it up.”

Frolic nodded to the red angel, as if they could communicate without words. The mighty being lifted Thimbleroy by the back of the shirt and flung him down into the street. He landed on his chest and pushed himself up on his remaining elbow.

“What do we do now?” Querry wondered aloud.

“Kill the son of a bitch!” someone shouted. Someone else thrust a gun into Querry’s hand. They parted to give him a clear shot.

Querry recalled all that he and his loved ones had suffered at Thimbleroy’s hands. He sat up a little straighter, bracing his shoulder against Reg. Thimbleroy deserved to die. Querry raised his arm and aimed, but despite all that he’d been forced to do recently, he hated the idea of taking another life, and he hesitated.

The duchess didn’t. Standing behind Reg and Querry, she fired with her pistol and Thimbleroy’s head exploded into a red cloud. Afterward she approached the body, nudged it with her toe, and emptied her gun. She continued squeezing the trigger until another woman took her shoulders and led her away.

“Reggie,” Querry said weakly, “is it really over?” His leg throbbed, and he’d lost blood, but he would survive it.

“I think it is, love.”

Querry let his head relax back against Reg. The clouds above them split and shafts of golden, late-day light gilded the broken pavement. Frolic came over and stood behind Reggie, his hand on Reggie’s shoulder. Querry already sensed the magic flowing back into the world, but he wasn’t the only one.

Mad laughter drowned the confused conversation in the street. It seemed to rise up from the ground, fall from the sky, to come from everywhere and everything at once. It shook the foundations of the buildings and rumbled below the cobblestones.

“Oh no,” Querry breathed, his head shooting up.

The faerie gentleman strode to the center of the crowd like a victorious general after a battle. An aura of palpable power surrounded him, and people scrambled out of his way. Kristof stood a few feet off, his hood up and his eyes on the ground. The faerie raised his arms, threw his head back, and shouted a few words in his language. The people assembled lost any expression in their faces and moved like sleepwalkers toward the clockwork disk.

“What’s going on?” Frolic asked. More people arrived from nearby houses and shops, not soldiers but housewives, servants, bakers, and tailors. All of them converged on the tower-top. “Querry, what’s he doing?” Frolic asked. “Why is he doing this?”

The hundred or so people began to rip at the beasts and angels, tearing them apart with their bare hands. They pushed past one another, some trampling others, in their fury to dismantle the clockworks. Gears and pieces of metal flew like torn paper. Blood also fell as the crowd fervently pounded and yanked with no regard for their own welfare. Querry saw the face torn away from the yellow angel, revealing the gears beneath. All the while, the faerie gentleman giggled, danced, and twirled around. While Querry hated to see the beautiful work destroyed, he didn’t blame the faerie for what he did. It was his nature. He could no more stop himself than the sky could hold back the rain.