Winter (The Manhattan Exiles) (28 page)

Richard had a bloody gash across his cheek. He’d reclaimed his stick and was using it to prop himself upright. His left thigh was bare and black; the fabric of his trousers burned through.

“They have no reason to go back,” he said. “The trains aren’t running.”

“
There must be a hundred of the bastards,” Bran said. “And more behind.”

Richard’s mouth curled
in a sad half-smile. “We’ve never had more than six at a time. I’m out of bullets. You?”

“
I’m out. And I think my piece is about broke.”

“
At least the air is clear.” Aine couldn’t help but be grateful. “And it’s not freezing anymore.”

Neither Richard nor Bran replied. Aine supposed she knew what they were thinking.

“The Watchers will hold.” She squirmed in Bran’s grip until he set her down. “I gave them enough. Surely they’ll hold until morning.”

“
Blood magic,” said Richard. “Winter won’t like it. I’m pretty sure blood magic is a felony in Fairy land.”

Aine bit back an angry reply. She had to grip Bran’s arm to keep from swaying.

“You’re wrong. Aye, or why else would the Queen gift a lucky few with the Mending? Blood rituals are powerful, and lasting, and -”

“
Aine,” Bran interrupted. “Take a breath. I think that one’s listening.”

“
It is,” confirmed Richard. “It has been, the entire time.”

The
sluagh
in question smiled, its long white tongue curling in and out and across sharp teeth. The skin around its bright green eyes crinkled as if in amusement. Its wings were not leather, but blackly feathered, and tipped with frost. It gripped them in taloned hands, pulling the feathers.

“
You haven’t enough blood in your veins to feed the amber forever, little
síofra
,” it said, sweet-voiced. “You’ve grown fragile. The Queen’s gift cannot survive long away from the Progress, not in our world, nor in yours.”

It laughed softly. The army of shifting
sluagh
at its back grunted and cackled in amusement.

“
You can’t pass the Wards!” Richard lifted his voice to a shout. “Go back!”

The
sluagh
prince shook its misshapen head.

“
The Watchers will fail. Tonight, in all likelihood. But if I am wrong, then surely by tomorrow, when the trains sleep again in their burrows.”

Aine stiffened in surprise.
“It knows trains.”

Bran coughed.

“Go back!” Richard shouted again. “I won’t let you into my world!”

The
sluagh
prince laughed once more, and his army roared in response.

“
You can’t stop us,” it replied simply. “We’ve come for the changeling, and we will have her.”

19
. Sorrow

Siobahn cleared her household from the penthouse quickly.

Lolo couldn’t help but admire the immediate obedience given the
Fay Queen. Every attendant - and there were far more people in the penthouse than Lolo had guessed - seemed to simply drop whatever it was they’d been doing and appear in the foyer as though they’d been summoned by one of those high-pitched dog whistles normal people couldn’t hear.

Human or fairy, each bowed once to Siobahn, then exited the penthouse.

“Sweet,” Lolo said, impressed. “Someday I want to be able to do that.”

Brother Daniel had borrowed Summer’s delicate chair. He looked stupid in it, like a bear in doll’s furniture, scrunched up against the writing desk.

“Do what?” the friar asked. “Command a broken army of mindless slaves?”

Summer had taken her mother’s place in front of the fire. She shot Daniel an angry look.

“They’re not broken, and they’re not mindless,” she said. “They give my mother love and loyalty, as is her due.”

“
There is no god but God,” returned Daniel. “Love and loyalty are His due, not your mother’s.”

Summer sniffed, irritated. Her eyes were still red and swollen from weeping. Lolo chewed on the ends of his braids, trying not to wonder where Siobahn had stashed Malachi’s body.

Or did a dead fairy prince go up in a puff of magic smoke, or turn to ash, or flame away like an angry
sluagh
?

He hadn’t said goodbye to Malachi. Goodbyes weren’t Lolo’s thing, but he supposed he owed Summer’s father some sort of respectful farewell. He sort of wished he’d had the chance to say he was sorry.

Lolo realized Daniel was watching him. He spit out the ends of his braids, and glared back.

“
All God’s miracles are stories in books,” he said. “But I’ve seen Her Ladyship make rain crawl backwards up a windowpane, and coax fire to dance in her hands. Summer turned a big sword into a little necklace. Winter can read minds. His best friend’s a talking mouse.” Lolo shrugged, derisive. “I went to Mass when I was a kid. The wine never turned to blood in my mouth, and the bread was just bread.”

Brother Daniel only grinned, his gold tooth flashing.

Siobahn strode into the room, swinging a great heavy fur cloak around her shoulders as she walked.

“
We’re off to feed the ducks,” she said, expression hard. “
Samhradh
will phone me when it’s finished. Barker’s resting in my chamber. See that he doesn’t die there.”

“
Yes, ma’am.” Lolo couldn’t help himself.

Daniel folded his hands atop the writing desk. The priest regarded the
Fay Queen levelly and without expression.

“
Mama,” Summer said, pleading.

“
Now is not the time to mourn,
Samhradh
,” said Siobahn. “That time is later, after we’ve cared for our injured, and set in motion our revenge.”

She left in a final swirl of long black hair and shining fur. The penthouse door slammed shut at her back.

“My God is a merciful God,” Daniel said into the sudden silence. He sighed once, long, and then rose from his chair. “That one wouldn’t recognize mercy if it landed in her lap.”

Barker didn’t look like he was resting. Barker looked a lot like he’d died three days earlier, and his body was trying to catch up.

He lay rigid and almost motionless beneath Siobahn’s pretty silk sheets. His eyes were closed, sunk deep into the sockets of his skull, and his face seemed to have lost all muscle. Even his dark skin appeared faded.

Someone had braided his startling red hair into a long tail. The braid lay over his shoulder, gleaming.

Every light in the room was switched on, even one
in Siobahn’s closet and in the master bathroom beyond.

“
Barker’s afraid of the dark,” Summer explained softly. “Mama says it’s because he’s the only one of us with sense.”

Daniel closed the bedroom door softly. He crossed the room and set the amber box on the foot of the bed, near Barker’s feet. Then he drew a glass vial from the sleeve of his robe.

“What’s that?” Summer demanded. She frowned at the priest the same way she used to scowl at Lolo when he’d forgotten to change his underwear for a day or six.

“
Holy water.” Daniel set the vial in Lolo’s hand. “Don’t drop it.”

“
Sweet.” Lolo squinted. The water inside the small glass tube looked perfectly normal. “Does it work like in
Blade
?”

“
Vampires aren’t real,” Daniel said, just as Summer argued: “Holy water will only make him worse!”

“
Hard for anything to make him worse.” Lolo eyed Barker. Only the slight rise and fall of the fay’s chest under the sheets indicated he wasn’t already a corpse.

“
Have faith, children.”

Daniel unlatched the fairy box. Gently, he retrieved Summer’s necklace. He offered it to her with a small nod.

“Change it back, if you will?”

Summer took the necklace. The cross swung on its chain between her fingertips. She looked at Lolo. Lolo shrugged.

“Stand back,” Summer warned, then stepped away from the bed.

The necklace glowed softly as she stretched it between her hands, longer and longer until her hand
s were wider than her shoulders; the chain pulled impossibly thin. Then there was a brighter flash of white, and a pop, and Summer held the rapier balanced on her palms.

“
Buairt
,” she said, and shuddered.

“
Interesting.” Daniel considered the fay girl. “It doesn’t affect you at all?”

“
It affects me,” Summer spat. “It killed my father, and it’s killing Barker. It affects me. I hate the stupid thing!”

Lolo plucked the sword from her hand before she could stab the priest. The rapier felt very light in his hand, lighter even than Winter’s knife.

“Speaking of Barker,” he said, jerking his free thumb at the bed. “Are you sure we should have the sword in the same room? The guy’s mostly dead already. Smith’s sword’s a nasty piece of work,” he told Daniel. “You should have seen them all dropping to the sidewalk like a hooker on a bad night. Sorry, Summer.”

Summer didn’t answer. She’d turned away and was staring into Siobahn’s closet. Lolo hoped she was just suffering from shoe envy, but he guessed she didn’t want Daniel to see her cry.

“Not Smith’s sword,” corrected the priest. “Pope’s sword. Where’s the scabbard?”

“
What’s a scabbard?” Lolo knew when to play stupid. Daniel’s sharp gaze made him nervous. “I didn’t know the Pope got his own sword.” He stepped casually sideways, putting distance between himself and the priest.

Daniel sighed.

“Not
the
Pope’s sword,” he said. “Although many make that mistake. Pope’s sword. Alexander Pope’s sword. Lorenzo, if you run out the door with it I won’t be able to save Summer’s friend.”

As if in response, Barker stirred, groaning. He twitched beneath the sheets, but didn’t open his eyes. Summer left her closet-staring and hurried to the bed.

“Barker?” She touched his cheek. “Can you hear me? It’s Summer.” She looked up at Lolo, eyes wide. “He’s cold, like Papa.”

The red-headed
fay moaned again. Summer forgot all about hiding her tears. Lolo felt an uncomfortable lump form somewhere near his heart.

“
Well?” Daniel said.

“
Fine. Whatever.” He passed the sword. When it left his hands, Lolo felt briefly dizzy, and had to steady himself on the doorframe.

“
And my holy water?”

“
What? Oh. Yeah.” The vial had found its way into the pocket of Lolo’s pants. He fished it back out. “Here.”

“
Thank you. Summer.” The big friar sounded surprisingly gentle. “Move away, now. Give me room.”

Summer rose
and backed up, sniffling. Silently she dared Lolo to comment on her sloppy nose.

“
What are you going to do?” she asked Daniel, suspicious.

Brother Daniel peeled Siobahn’s expensive sheets away from Barker’s torso, dislodging the neatly arranged braid. Beneath the sheets Barker wore a loose grey T-shirt printed with giant red lips and a protruding tongue.
Under the T-shirt his left side was lumpy, wrapped in bandages from neck to hip.

“
Ah,” the friar said. “Your friend is lucky the blade missed his heart. He would have been truly beyond help.”

Lolo remembered Sorrow sticking straight through Malachi’s chest. He felt a
little sick.

Daniel laid
Sorrow on the mattress alongside Barker. Summer twitched but didn’t protest. For the first time Lolo noticed how really long the rapier was, almost as long as Barker was tall. The blade was black and dirty. The hilt might have been prettier except for the dried blood staining old metal.

“
More gold,” Lolo said wistfully.

“
Pope was a very wealthy merchant.” Brother Daniel dropped slowly to his knees next to the bed. “He was also a devout Roman-Catholic who believed the fairies of Windsor Forest were trying to kill his son.”

“
Were they?” Lolo asked, thinking of Katherine Grey.

Brother Daniel only shrugged. He folded his large, tattooed hands on the mattress and took a deep breath, exhaling it out slowly. Then he closed his faded eyes.

Lolo glanced eagerly between Barker and Sorrow. He couldn’t help half-hoping for a flash of lightning or a clap of thunder.

Summer leaned forward.

“What are you doing?” she demanded again.

Daniel’s eyes stayed closed. His mouth curled, and his gold tooth twinkled.

“Praying,” he answered.

Brother Daniel didn’t pray out loud, which meant Lolo couldn’t really be sure the friar was praying at all. Except that occasionally he did move to cross himself in the old time-honored sweep of a hand Lolo remembered from Sundays drowsing in church.

“
Spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch,” he whispered to Summer. “Bet he learned that in prison.”

Summer frowned. He’d meant to make her laugh, but guessed she didn’t really have much to smile about.

“What good’s praying going to do?” She bit her lip.

Lolo
shifted restlessly.

“
I dunno. Magic’s more exciting, that’s for sure.” He shrugged. “But her ladyship seemed to think he could help. And she’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

Summer’s frown only deepened.

Lolo slumped against the wall. Siobahn’s bed took up almost the whole room; she hadn’t bothered with chairs. It didn’t seem right to sit on the floor. But Brother Daniel prayed on, his lips moving silently, and Lolo was afraid they weren’t in for a break any time soon.

About the time his back started hurting and he was thinking the floor just might have to do, Lolo noticed something interesting.

Every time Brother Daniel crossed himself, Summer did too, in a short, fluttering sketch of her fingers. Lolo wondered if she even realized she was doing it.

He wondered if he should stop her. But she didn’t look like she was going to burst into flames, or fall over dead, or even hiccup, so he just went on pretending he didn’t notice.

Besides furniture, Siobahn’s bedroom was also short on decoration. The walls were bare, or mostly taken up by window. Lolo had an eye for pretty things, and the penthouse had plenty of them, but the only object really worth noticing in her ladyship’s room was a small clock balanced on one of the windowsills.

The clock wasn’t much bigger than a large mobile phone. The case
was enameled, deep jewel tones over ordinary silver. There were no numbers, only small yellow jewels embedded in the hour stations.

The clock had two silver hands. A diamond the size of a pea anchored the hands to the face. According to the almost silent tick in Lolo’s head, the hands were off by three minutes.

It was the sort of item Lolo would have lifted when he lived on the streets, before he’d met Winter and Richard, before he’d been forced to get a real job. It was small merchandise, easily fenced, and if the enamel was old, and the diamond real, he’d have made a small fortune for very little effort.

He might even consider lifting it now. It would be easy.

But he thought the tiny yellow jewels on the face where the numbers usually went looked an awful lot like the bigger chunks of amber in Winter’s ears, and Lolo knew messing with fairy amber was never worth the take.

Eventually Summer sat down on the floor. Lolo swallowed a groan of relief and sat next to her.