Herbie Brennan - Ruler of the Realm

‘Lord Hairstreak wants to see you,’ the doctor said.

In the washroom, Pyrgus found Kitterick cleaning the blood off Henry’s head with a towel. Neither of them looked too much the worse for wear.

‘We’re being taken to Hairstreak,’ Pyrgus said without preamble. ‘We’d better get our stories straight.’

Kitterick stepped back to admire his handiwork and threw the towel aside. He smiled briefly at Henry then said to Pyrgus, ‘I suggest, sir, we had an urgent personal message for Her Majesty.’

‘Nice one, Kitterick,’ Pyrgus said admiringly. ‘Why were we skulking in the bushes?’

‘Skulking, sir? Hardly. We were making our way along the driveway as legitimate representatives of Her Majesty and the Purple Palace when we were set upon by mechanical devices governed by a faulty security system.’

Pyrgus frowned. ‘Weren’t we found in the bushes?’

‘Indeed, sir, in all probability we were. At exactly the spot where we were driven by the mechanical devices.’

‘You think he’ll buy that?’ Henry asked. He had a strange expression on his face.

‘Of course not, sir, but he will be hard put to prove otherwise.’

‘And it throws the blame on his stupid security system,’ Pyrgus said, smiling suddenly.

Kitterick smiled back smugly. ‘An added bonus.’

‘Brilliant!’ Pyrgus exclaimed. ‘You happy with that, Henry?’

Henry shrugged and turned away as if their story was no concern of his.

‘OK,’ Pyrgus said briskly. ‘Let’s go see my dear uncle.’ He pushed through the washroom door and stopped. The little doctor had been joined by a man Pyrgus had never seen before. He was young and tall and thin and blond.

His skin was very pale.

They came in together in a tight bunch, a wary look in every eye.

‘Pyrgus!’ Blue squealed. She made to run to him, then stopped. Hairstreak’s vampire was standing directly behind her brother, one slim hand resting lightly on his shoulder.

Blue backed off a step. From behind her Flapwazzle gave a low, threatening growl. Henry and Kitterick were beside Pyrgus. None of them looked injured any more and there were no signs of ill-treatment.

Blue said quietly, ‘Are you all right, Henry?’

Henry’s face was expressionless. ‘Yes.’

‘Pyrgus?’

Pyrgus said, ‘We have a confidential message for you, Blue.’ He rolled his eyes in a peculiar way as if trying to signal something to her.

‘Kitterick?’

‘Never better, Madam. In the peak of my health, one might say.’

Hairstreak said, ‘Now we have the niceties out of the way, Your Majesty, perhaps your people would care to tell us why they were trespassing on my land, and what -’

‘We have a confidential message for Her Majesty,’ Pyrgus said loudly, interrupting him. ‘We were proceeding along -’

‘Shut up, Pyrgus,’ Blue said, interrupting him. She had no idea what sort of cock and bull story Pyrgus had dreamed up to explain his presence here, but the situation was far too delicate to let him come barging in with hobnailed boots on. What she needed was to take control. She needed to stop Pyrgus saying anything that might make things worse. She needed to change her uncle’s mind about questioning them. Everything was already in a bit of a mess, but she’d got what she came for. The Nighter offer was genuine and Hairstreak had the backing to make it stick. The thing now was to get back to the Purple Palace as quickly as possible and without provoking Lord Hairstreak any further. An idea occurred to her and she turned to her uncle.

‘Lord Hairstreak,’ she said formally. ‘Perhaps if we -’

Henry detached himself from the little group by the door. ‘It’s time we left, Blue,’ he said quietly, taking her arm. She stared at him in astonishment as he began to lead her from the room.

‘Pelidne,’ Hairstreak said sharply.

Pelidne stepped smoothly between them and the door. Henry moved with such superhuman speed that his arm blurred. Blue didn’t even see the blow. But as Henry stepped back she saw Pelidne staring down with horror at the wooden stake protruding from his chest. He stumbled forward, eyes wide. Blood abruptly fountained from the wound, then just as abruptly turned to clouds of choking dust. Pelidne’s handsome features wrinkled, turning in a heartbeat to those of an old, old man. His nose caved in, his lips thinned, then shrivelled over pointed, rotting teeth. Suddenly he was falling, crumbling on the inside of his clothes. A pungent smell of decay flooded the room.

‘What -?’ Blue gasped.

Henry had her arm again and was dragging her towards the door. Hairstreak looked stunned, but still produced a stiletto from a secret pocket of his jerkin. Pyrgus, mouth open, actually took a step backwards. Even Kitterick looked surprised.

Blue found her voice. ‘No, Henry!’ she shouted. This was a disaster. Her uncle’s servant had been killed. In one brief instant the potential for a treaty lay tattered on the floor. She tried to jerk her arm away, but Henry’s hand gripped her like a vice. ‘Let me go!’ she demanded.

Lord Hairstreak was already halfway across the room when Pyrgus recovered from his shock. He began to move towards Henry as well, but Kitterick was a pace ahead of him.

Then suddenly Blue and Henry were no longer there.

‘What do you mean, no longer there?’

This was Madame Cardui as Pyrgus had never seen her before. He hadn’t even realised she had an office in the Purple Palace until he went looking for her. But here he was, not simply in an office, but in a suite; and one that was all business. There was no sign of the mad colour schemes she had in her city apartment, or the lavish use of spells. Here everything was sharp, businesslike, functional. And while Madame Cardui was still the Painted Lady – purple hair, flowing gown, spandals that caressed her feet and smiled at you benignly if you looked at them – she had a hard edge now. No wonder Blue appointed her head of the Imperial Espionage Service.

‘Just… not there,’ Pyrgus said feebly.

‘You mean invisible? He used an invisibility spell?’

Pyrgus shook his head. ‘No. You know the way you vanish with an invisibility spell – you sort of fade a bit and crumble and then dissolve into sparks? Well, there was none of that. I don’t think it was invisibility. It didn’t look like invisibility. Besides, Hairstreak’s vampire thing closed the door when we came in. We’d have seen it open if they went out that way, invisible or not.’

‘There was no other way out of the room?’

‘Not even a window,’ Pyrgus said. ‘It was a privacy chamber.’

‘What about some form of transportation?’ Madame Cardui asked. ‘Alan’s been going on about his portable transporter modification – could it have been something like that?’

Pyrgus had been wondering the same thing. Where was Mr Fogarty, anyway? He hadn’t been in the palace when they got back, or at his lodge. It was Kitterick who suggested they find Madame Cardui.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I don’t think so.’ Unless, of course, it was Mr Fogarty who transported them. Seemed too much of a coincidence that somebody else would have developed exactly the same technology at the same time. Unless it was stolen. The possibilities were confusing. ‘You’ll have to ask Mr Fogarty.’

‘Yes, I will, as soon as I can find him. But you think it’s possible?’

‘I don’t know,’ Pyrgus said again, frowning. ‘I suppose it might be.’ The problem was he didn’t know what you looked like when Mr Fogarty zapped you. Maybe you simply weren’t there like Blue and Henry. Maybe you faded away like an invisibility spell. He just didn’t know.