City of Ruin - Mark Charan Newton [198]
‘Drugs, sort of. Alcohol. Nothing fancy.’ It was the most he had said during their journey.
‘Is that a body?’ She gestured to one half-open crate that looked like a human arm was hanging out of it.
‘Just a golem – you know, for sex and stuff. This is the vault you want.’ A cave-like opening barred by a sturdy wooden door. The kid unlocked it and, with surprising strength, pushed it open.
As he stepped aside, he handed her the torch so she could go in first. It was an unremarkable chamber, filled with the contents of their past life together. She wasn’t even that old, so how was it possible to have accrued so much junk? Vases, rugs, brass figures, paintings, all these things were infused with memories, but she shoved them aside and searched for the better part of half an hour, while the kid stood sighing and tutting outside.
‘You gonna be much longer?’ he asked finally.
‘Nearly done.’
He had kept all her relics together in a box at the far end, untouched. She’d half expected them to be smashed up out of anger.
As soon as she found the Brotna relic, the cone she’d spent days working on, all her tension ebbed away. There was nothing else in the box she needed, so she grabbed it and exited the vault.
‘ ’Bout fucking time,’ the kid muttered.
*
Night, as Beami placed the relic in her small room at the Citadel. Due to the proximity of the military lines, she’d had to trek the long way around to get there. Everywhere she went, a figure from the Dragoons or Regiment of Foot would redirect her path. The invasion force had penetrated deep, had seized one half of the city, but it was still relatively safe on that side.
There were fewer than ten thousand Imperial soldiers left. A staggering number had died. Exhausted men and women, lined up time and time again to resist the incursion, their faces haunted and determined and frightened. The citizen units were now few and far between, and Beami wondered if most had been slaughtered or were stationed elsewhere. Some streets had become bloodbaths, lined with human and rumel remains, and in one road she came across the bodies of several Dragoons who had been lined up against a wall and decapitated. She forced herself to look upon this carnage, to remember what was happening here.
Safely in the Citadel, as she lay back in a chair by the fire, mentally exhausted, she forced herself to think that Lupus might still be alive somewhere on his secret mission. He was a Night Guard, for Bohr’s sake, and one of the best, but that didn’t alleviate her fears. She promised herself that the two of them would get out of this mess as soon as possible. For him the priority was his job as a soldier and, if he survived, they would leave together and find peace.
There was a knock at the door and a soldier entered.
Beami bolted up straight. ‘Have the Night Guard returned?’
‘No miss, not yet,’ the young man answered. ‘There’s a new cultist who’s just arrived, and she needs some help in finding someone. The others are all asleep, I’m afraid, so would you mind seeing to her?’
‘Who is it?’ Beami demanded, her heart sinking.
‘She said her name was Bellis, and she’s quite old.’
‘Tell her I’ll be out in a moment.’
*
Out in a dingy corridor, with soldiers rushing past them, Bellixplained carefully who she was and what she wanted. ‘I’m lookinor the boys, they’re called Ramon and Abaris, and it’s been so lonince I’ve seen either of them.’
‘I remember them.’ Beami’s voice was soothing. ‘They came to offeheir services, but I’m afraid they’re thought to have passed away in the fighting. They made an incredibly impressive golem of body parts which hampered the invasion . . . They really were very brave . . .’
‘The silly buggers,’ Bellis whispered, trying hard not to sob.
Beami came to her side and held her. ‘I’m sorry. Were you very close to them?’
‘How can I explain that bond of companionship in a world where no one regarded us of any use?’ Tears filled her eyes, and she closed them tight.
‘Come on,’ Beami soothed. ‘Let’s get you somewhere warm.’
They went back to Beami’s room,