Carlotta and the Krius Scepter (Carlotta Series Book 1) (15 page)

26.
              
Escape

I waited till after they fed us. I hate escaping on an empty stomach and, anyway, I knew they’d give us a good meal. And so it proved: steak and jacket potatoes with sour cream washed down with a decent Merlot. Memo to self: teach Brian about wines and educate his palate. I felt embarrassed for him when he asked the guards if they could get him a cola.

After we’d eaten and they’d taken the plates away I put my finger to my lips and pulled Brian over to the corner of the brick wall with the gaslights. I indicated he should put his hands together and boost me up to the top of the wall. He got the idea immediately, the boy is bright. I counted down three bricks and across the same from the lights and pressed hard. The mortar around the brick cracked and it moved inwards a couple of inches.

I tapped Brian on the head and he lowered me to the ground. The bottom of the gas fittings were just within my reach without jumping. The builder and I had an argument about that, I remembered. He said it was suspicious to put them that low on the wall, but I had won him over with a night of dirty sex. He was human, of course; you can’t change the mind of a Fey with sex.

I turned both fittings through ninety degrees clockwise, only possible now they were unlocked. Brian watched with a broad grin on his face. I stepped back and aimed my body at the exact centre of the wall and ran at it. There was a soft
whoomth
sound and the hidden door broke free of the thin layer of mortar concealing it.

Returning to the centre of the room I said clearly. “I think we should get some sleep, Brian. We’re going to be before the Council again soon and I want to feel refreshed.”

“But I want to do that thing you did with your mouth again,” Brian said in a crestfallen voice while using very rude hand gestures to indicate what he was talking about. It was difficult to avoid laughing and I vowed to get him back for that later.

“Later,” I said and yawned loudly.

We tiptoed out of the cell and into the secret passage beyond. There were candle lanterns and several ancient lighting tools including flint on a stone lintel just inside. Brian didn’t have a clue what to do with them so I lit the kindling with the flint and then the candles. I smiled with satisfaction. My builder friend had wanted to fit gas lights but I’d told him they couldn’t be relied on. Candles never fail and I had left spares in a tin box in case rats got at the ones in the lanterns.

I pushed the door shut with Brian’s help and turned two metal levers so the gaslights on the other side rotated back into position and locked the door with thick iron bolts. It would be obvious how we escaped, but it would take them hours to get the door open again.

“You really think ahead,” Brian whispered as we made our way along the passage.

“Never build a cage you can’t get out of. I think a philosopher told me that once. It might have been Aristotle, my memory is perfect but my cataloguing is not so good.”

“Is there anyone you haven’t met?”

“Millions of them, but I’ve always had a fondness for artists and philosophers.” I smiled as flashes of memories ran through my mind. My life has been very long, but it has rarely been dull.

“Where are we going?”

I laughed. “That you won’t believe until you see it for yourself.”

We were in a maze, created by my builder’s superb imagination. These passages led to almost every room in the house if you could figure out where you were going. I had the plans in my memory but I didn’t need them to find my way around. I’d walked every passage before we’d sealed them up.

There were only a few entrances, though there were places you could listen in to conversations in the room. We’d decided that peep holes might be found and hadn’t drilled any. Several of the entrances were one-use only, like those from the cells. They were much easier to build and had much lower chances of being discovered. However, there were a couple of special entrances that could be reused and I was leading Brian to one of those.

“Here,” I said and knelt down. There was a one-brick-thick niche in the wall that was almost invisible unless you knelt down. It was two and half feet square.

“Help me push.”

The small door disguised as wall took quite a bit of effort to open. My beloved builder’s idea again, who else could have come up with the concept of a secret passage hidden in a secret passage?

“What’s this for?” Brian asked. The tunnel was only six feet long and ended at what looked like a safe door complete with combination tumbler lock and a big handle. The door was only inches smaller than the passage.

“It’s a door. Guess where it goes?”

Brian shook his head as I crawled down to the door and put in the combination. Then I did the one risky thing in my escape plan and opened the door. There was darkness on the other side, a great relief. I crawled through the door using my lantern to light the way.

Brian had only just reached the door when I returned with what I’d been looking for. I shoved the Thampthis Box into his hands and shooed him back down the tunnel.

When I joined Brian back in the original secret passage he was leaning against the wall trying to suppress his laughter.

“You built a secret passage into the Council’s super secret vault?”

“You do need the combination to get in. It’s not like I left it vulnerable to thieves or anything,” I said defensively.

“No, only to you.” Brian’s barely suppressed giggles grew louder.

I thumped him on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here. We need to get the box as far away from here as possible.”

“Where were you thinking?”

“
London
would be best. My sword’s in
London
.”

Boston
is a big place. I’ve visited it a couple of times over the last forty years, staying well clear of the Council and its headquarters when I came. It’s a useful city for certain kinds of illegal products that attract a gal like me. I get around a lot and I never look any older. Identity cards, driving licenses and passports need continual updates. I claim to be a young looking twenty-one in the
United States
. My
United Kingdom
documents state I’m eighteen. At the moment, I didn’t have any documents, but that was about to change.

The sun had set by the time we got to the house in the suburbs. I’d never been here, but I keep track of where certain people move to because you never know when that knowledge might come in handy.

I knocked on the door of a typical suburban house with Brian standing a couple of yards back from me as if we were still hitchhiking. The door opened a crack on its security chain.

“It’s me.”

The door closed and opened fully to reveal Gil standing in the doorway. He looked a lot older than I remembered.

“Carlotta. I thought you’d be round today.”

I stepped forward and kissed him passionately. His lips quivered under mine. Brian made some sort of choking sound in the background reminding me he was there.

“Meet my friend Brian, Gil. After fifteen years out of contact you were expecting me today?”

Gil waved us into his house and shut and bolted the door behind us. He picked up a walking stick leaning against the wall and led us into the lounge.

“My leg’s gone, old army wound, but my hands and eyes still work. I’m still in the trade. Word went out about you a couple of hours ago.” Gil sat down on a raised chair with a groan and pressed a control that moved its seat into a lower position.

“I need a passport and one for Brian.”

Gil shook his head. “You’re not listening, Carlotta. The Council have all the airports and rail stations covered. They’ve got the police looking for you. They posted your pictures on the news claiming you’re a couple of youngsters who’ve run away from home. Unless you stole a car, likely someone’s telling them where they dropped you off right now.”

“You know about the Council?” Gil was human and he shouldn’t be aware they existed.

“Your people have been active recently, especially David Mersey. I might not have put it together who the Council was if I hadn’t seen a few of them. You’re a very distinctive people, Carlotta.”

I uttered a very unladylike word and then followed it with a couple more. I met other Fey so rarely it was easy to claim close family links to anybody who asked. But put a dozen of us in a room together and it soon became clear we were much more than that.

“How do we get out?”

Gil smiled. “I’ll give you an American and British passport before you go. You’ll need to die your hair black. I’ve made up dozens for you over the years, just in case. A
US
driver’s license too, that might help. You’ll find the keys to my Jeep over on the table. Go west and take the 90 towards
Worcester
, you might have to cut across country, but the GPS should get you there. I’d suggest bus or rail after that.”

“Where’s the hair dye?”

“In the bathroom upstairs.”

I turned to Brian, who had been unusually quiet since we entered the house. “Go upstairs and dye your hair.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

Brian slouched as he headed upstairs. I guess seeing me kiss an old man like that at the door had upset him. I’d sent him away rather than let him watch what I intended to do now.

“You don’t have to,” Gil said as I started to strip. “It doesn’t matter so much to me these days.”

“I should have come earlier. I’ve owed you for years.”

“You’ve given me memories that make my life worth while, Goddess,” Gil told me. Then he was incapable of talking coherently for a while.

I pulled the car away from the house very aware of the seething mass of emotions sitting in the seat next to me.

“You did it with him, didn’t you? He’s … old.” As accusations go, I suppose it was fairly mild.

“He’s a child compared to me. You all are.”

Brian grappled with what he wanted to say. “I thought you and I were … special.”

“It’s always special, Brian. That man probably saved our lives, would you begrudge him a few moments of pleasure?”

“But…”

We stopped at a red light and I was able to look him in the eye. “I’ve made love to men dying on the battlefield and of the plague. I’ve seen things so horrible you can’t conceive of them and I’ve seen things beautiful beyond belief. I’m
old
Brian. I’ve been a goddess and watched people come to me with hope in their eyes when the crops failed, expecting
me
to save them. I’ve found desperate people butchering their children in my name. IN MY NAME, Brian.”

I shut up. The lights had changed and the drivers were honking their horns. I pulled away and we sat in silence for a long time. There was a roadblock set up out of town and a police officer shone his light into the vehicle and over us. We both had black hair and I had a driving license claiming I was Gil’s daughter. They let us through.

“Carlotta?”

I sighed, “Yes Brian?”

“I love you and I’m strong enough to share you with anyone you choose.”

I pulled the car off the road and Brian and I made love in an open field. The moonlight shone down on us and he was magnificent. He may even have set a record.

27.
              
The Hawks

I woke in the field as dawn broke. I shook myself to get rid of all the plants and insects that decided to set up house on me. Brian lay snoring on the ground looking a little like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, except that the Scarecrow in the film always buttoned himself up and didn’t leave his bits dangling. I kicked Brian hard up the backside and he woke spluttering.

“We need to get moving.”

He looked a little dazed and shook his head. “Where are we going?”

I smiled. “Back to your home town and our allies.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call The Don and his men allies,” he grumbled as he dusted himself down and adjusted his clothing until he looked a little less comical.

“Never knock those who fight on your side,” I told him. It was going to be difficult for Brian soon and ignorance was the only gift I could grant him.

“Is that another saying from one of your philosopher friends?”

I thought about it, “No, probably something George W. Bush or Dick Cheney would say.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve met them too?”

I laughed at the thought and shook my head. After all, I do have some standards. I’d met Obama though.

There was a large black holdall filled with tools in the boot. I tipped out the tools and put the Thampthis Box inside it using a blanket around it to disguise its shape. The police wouldn’t be looking for someone smuggling it back into the city so that should be enough to hide it.

“We need to dump this car somewhere it’ll be found. Gill will report it missing this morning.”

“So how are we going to get back?”

I grinned. “I have a cunning plan.” He didn’t get the reference; Americans watch so little British television.

The railway station was crowded, but there was a certain amount of safety in numbers and I hoped our dyed hair would allow us to escape detection. There were surveillance cameras at the ticket office and I tensed when a couple of security guys walked past. Fortunately, I’d liberated a few thousand dollars from the Council Vault when I recovered the Box so we weren’t short of cash.

The train was also crowded and a far cry from the luxury carriages we’d travelled in with Peleus. Brian took the window seat and stared out as the countryside whizzed by. I read a free magazine I picked up on the platform and tried to make myself look inconspicuous.

This was hard for me. Though I rarely wear makeup, I attract the attention of men wherever I go. I kept the magazine high so it covered my face. The holdall sat on the floor between my legs, providing an obstacle for anyone trying to sit down on the other side.

It was an interminable journey. Brian went in search of refreshments after a couple of hours and brought back sandwiches that looked as though they’d been made with real sand. I stayed away from the cans of cola he bought because I didn’t want to have to go to the toilet and leave the Box unguarded. Okay, technically I would have been leaving it with Brian, but that amounted to much the same thing.

When we reached our destination it was getting dark. As we approached the end of the platform two people in trench coats and hats stepped behind us and I felt a gun barrel poking into my back.

“Go to the emergency exit on your right,” my captor whispered in my ear. Something about the voice suggested it might be a woman. That inspired a revelation and I relaxed.

“Do what they say, Brian,” I ordered. The last thing we needed was a fight between friends.

Going through the emergency exit set off an alarm. Bells rang loudly. “Down the stairs and across the car park,” a familiar voice instructed.

I grabbed Brian’s hand in mine. “Quickly, they’re on our side.”

Fey can move very fast when we want to and the four of us were across the car park in less than five seconds. We would have looked like a smear on the security cameras. As we approached a black SUV its lights flashed. I opened the rear door and pushed Brian in, before flinging the holdall and myself after. The others got in the front seats and the engine started.

“There’s a blanket back there. Throw it over yourselves and get down,” Sara instructed. I did what I was told and Brian and I crouched down in the space between the front and back seats with the blanket over us.

“Who are they?” Brian whispered. I put my fingers to his lips and shook my head.

We stopped after a minute or so and I heard an electric motor whine as the driver’s window wound down.

“Hi officer, what’s the problem?” Torin sounded relaxed.

“We’re looking for those missing kids.”

“But they’re in
Boston
, why would they come back here?”

I could almost hear the officer shrug. “Beats me, I just follow orders.”

“Well, if we see them we’ll be sure to let you know,” Sara put in cheerfully. “We’ve just come from the mall, is that where they were seen?”

“No, the Railway Station. Thanks for your time, folks.”

The window wound back up and we moved off. Some time later Sara tugged at the blanket. “You can get up now.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“The Warehouse. It’s the one place we’re pretty sure the Council doesn’t know about.”

“You’re Fey,” Brian said rather obviously. “You must be part of the Hawks.” Hah, he’d figured it out.

“We’re all of the Hawks, unless you count Cear. Welcome home, son,” Torin said with some feeling.

“I think introductions are in order,” I said, though technically only Brian didn’t know who everybody was.

“Brian Talbot, meet Sara Muldoon. She’s been resident in the city for over a hundred years and before that spent half a millennia causing trouble over in
Ireland
. She has been the chief and sometimes only Hawk during her years here.”

Sara smiled and put out a hand, which Brian shook. She looked to be about thirty, which was a typical age-look for a Fey woman. She winked at me and put on a broad Irish accent. “Well sure, and what was I supposed to do when the Mafia started robbing hard working Irish families of what little they earned?”

Torin pulled the SUV into an alleyway and then into the open doors of the warehouse before turning round in the vehicle to stare anxiously at Brian.

“And this is Torin Dar. We have known each other since he led me into Queen Boudicca’s camp a few centuries ago. When he met your mother he was playing lead guitar in a British rock band and his stage name was
Brian Lane
. He’s also your father.”

Brian’s mouth fell open and he stared back at Torin.

Torin spoke hesitantly, “Son, I’ve wanted to meet you since the day you were born, but the Council forbade it. I’ve been watching over you your whole life. The only time you ever got away from me was that day in the stadium.”

“Why…?”

“The Council wanted to see if it made a difference to be brought up as a human…”

“It was a mad idea,” Sara said with some feeling.

“No it wasn’t,” I said and the others turned to look at me. “It may have been the only good idea they’ve ever had.”

“To keep me from my father?” Bitterness dripped from every word.

I looked at Sara. “A human child is going to die, but you can save her at the risk of revealing yourself. Would you?”

Sara frowned. “No, not unless I knew her or her family.”

Torin shook his head. “None of us would, except you, Cear. You’ve always taken insane risks for humans.”

“Two of us would, Torin. Counting your son.”

There was an office in the warehouse, a glass shed within a metal shed complete with fridge, microwave and electric kettle, not to mention a table and a set of plastic chairs. I’d been here a couple of times before, but tonight it felt like coming home. I was comfortable here.

The other three were subdued. Torin and Brian wanted to hug each other, with neither willing to risk the first move. I could see it in their eyes. Sara made us instant coffee and avoided looking at me.

“The plan worked after a fashion, but you should have told me about the Council, Torin.”

“I wasn’t sure about them until they got hold of you and the Box. Greta rang me and told me what happened in
Boston
. Nevin is apoplectic with rage and he’s sure to come after you, all guns blazing.”

I sighed, “Nevin is insane. Every bit as insane as Peleus and every bit as dangerous. Will Greta do anything to stop him?”

It was Torin’s turn to sigh. “She can’t. Peter is under Nevin’s spell and believes all this nonsense about saving the world. It would be a two to one vote, and if she tried it they’d throw her off the Council.”

“Why did Cear lose her memory?” Brian asked, “And why did she come to save me? She barely knows the city.”

The easy questions I could answer.

“Sara and Torin called me when they heard the Box was going to be stolen by
The Don
. I suggested putting
The Don
’s team into coffins to scare them off. Then they kidnapped you and I flew in from
London
to rescue you.”

“Just like that?”

I nodded at Brian. “Just like that. Torin is an old friend and you are his first Fey son. It was my fault they took you anyway. Also, I was worried that someone was after the Krius and I needed to get into
The Don
’s organization to find out exactly who was after it.”

“It was always about the Krius first?” Brian made his question into a statement.

I nodded reluctantly, but it was only fair he knew the truth. “Getting in was the problem. I figured
The Don
wouldn’t know much about female Fey and if I could trick him into thinking I wasn’t that dangerous, he’d keep me around. The hypnosis was supposed to stop me from acting too arrogantly and make the action real by reducing my strength.”

“Cear’s so battle experienced she might have won even then, if she’d been herself,” Torin put in.

“I got a stage hypnotist to do it. It should have worn off by the time I got up to the Penthouse and the fact that it didn’t screwed the plan.” I grinned at Sara. “By the way, your son is wonderful, if a little crazy. He tried to talk me out of going.”

“Thank you. It’s hard playing an old woman around him, though. I wish I could see him more.”

Brian looked confused.

“Who’s her son?”

“Rex King. The detective I mentioned. He’s a human.”