Menagerie - Martin Day [16]
In the main doorway stood a small number of dirty-looking soldiers, dressed in similar rough garb to the city dwellers. They wore sashes as some mark of authority and tiny conical helmets. A selection of swords and converted agricultural implements were clutched in their dark leather gloves.
At their head stood two knights in brightly polished, almost ceremonial armour. Unlike the soldiers, they reminded Zoe of 3D representations of medieval Terran knights that she had seen, all polished and ornate and almost clumsy. Their breast plates were intricately carved and inset with gold leaf. The rest of their armour, which took the form of mail or leather strips covered with plate metal, was equally clean and shy of real battle. They carried full-face helms under their arms and elaborate swords at their belts.
Zoe noticed the entire room had become quiet and motionless. All eyes were on the knights.
One of the knights held up his hand. 'This establishment is not acceptable to the Knights of Kuabris. It is unlicensed.
You will all be taken away for questioning.'
Three
Cosmae watched the grey figure walk out through the door and into the darkness of the yard beyond. Defrabax placed a fatherly hand on the young man's shoulders. 'Your girl must have been frightened out of her mind,' he commented.
'Her name's Kaquaan,' said Cosmae in a quiet voice. He pushed the door closed, and turned to look at Defrabax. The mage suddenly seemed very old, despite his strong arms and darting eyes. His encounter with the knights appeared to have sapped even his limitless energy. Cosmae shuddered.
'You think there was a knight watching the house?'
'I'm sure of it. It's my business to know these things,'
Defrabax announced grandly, returning to the main room.
Spurning the electric light, he bustled towards the table with a candle.
'Then the attack of the brutes from the sewers was most fortunate.'
'Fortunate?' queried Defrabax, rooting through the papers on the table for something.
'You mean you planned that? You know these creatures?'
Defrabax smiled. 'I tell you little, so that if things go wrong, you will not find the knights pursuing you. It is best that you don't know.'
'But you've done so much for me,' said Cosmae. 'I feel that I ought to be involved and —'
'Now you're sounding like a child again. Do hush a moment. I'm looking for something.' Defrabax almost threw the parchments and books to the floor in increasing exasperation.
'What?'
'A key. The homunculus needs access to a special room.'
'Why?'
Defrabax ignored him. 'Where is that key?' he muttered angrily. 'Cosmae, I can peer into the mists of the not yet, I can feel the temperature of minds in a locked room, I can even animate creatures from the clay of graveyard soil —
but I cannot find this accursed key!'
'Why did you let the homunculus go without the key?'
Defrabax sighed. 'Because, my young friend,' he said with irritation, 'the knights could be back at any moment. I have just told them that I know nothing of the homunculus. If they found the creature here . . . Well, the knights can't abide liars.' Defrabax abandoned the table, and walked around the room, peering up at shelves and scratching his head.
'What does this key look like?'
'Now, that's the first sensible question you've asked in many minutes.' Defrabax eased himself down into a chair in resignation. 'It's not what you would think of as a key. It looks like a glass square inset with coloured filaments.'
'I don't think it's here,' announced Cosmae after a while.
'I last saw it on that table. And unless you've taken it . .
'I have not!'
'Then that whore of yours must have walked off with it,'
said Defrabax darkly.
Cosmae's face went pale.
'Therefore, you will go and get it back.'
To his immense irritation, the Doctor had been separated almost at once from Jamie and Zoe. A group of soldiers had marched them promptly from the drinking house to a large building not too far away. This, the Doctor had learned, was the headquarters of the City Guard. Its rotten and dark interior indicated