Herbie Brennan - Ruler of the Realm

Madame Cardui nodded briefly to Fogarty, who said, ‘You’re what they call a follower, is that right?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘You were assigned to follow Queen Blue?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Which is what you did?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Just yes will do.’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

Fogarty sighed. ‘Did you follow her to Lord Hairstreak’s mansion?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Did you follow her inside Hairstreak’s mansion?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Did you follow her when young Henry Atherton took her out again?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Where did they go to?’

Black John said, ‘I don’t know, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

Fogarty frowned. ‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’

‘They left the mansion and walked north along the main driveway,’ Black John said. A curiously mechanical tone entered his voice. ‘Then turned north-east on the subsidiary driveway and disappeared in the vicinity of the Haleklind folly.’

Fogarty glanced at Pyrgus, who said quietly, ‘There are follies all over the estate, Mr Fogarty. The last owner…’ He kept his eyes on the imp. It made him nervous.

Fogarty said to Black John, ‘What do you mean by disappeared?’

‘I mean disappeared, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘You mean disappeared without a trace? One minute they were there and the next they were gone?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Did they use an invisibility spell?’

‘No, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘You couldn’t follow them any more?’

‘No, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Did Queen Blue go with Henry of her own free will?’

‘Yes, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘And you have no idea where either of them are now?’

‘No, Gatekeeper Fogarty.’

‘Is he telling the truth?’ Fogarty asked Flapwazzle.

‘Lying through his teeth,’ Flapwazzle said.

Hairstreak watched the military preparations with a certain satisfaction.

He’d embarked on a risky course. But not, he thought, too risky. With the Queen missing, the Realm would be in chaos, at least for a while. Given any luck at all, his allies wouldn’t discover he was lying until it was too late. There was even a slim chance that Blue hadn’t told her advisors of her real decision – she was notoriously secretive – so even her people might not be able to contradict him until she turned up again. If she turned up again. Even then, he could probably bluff it out. It was her word against his, after all, and his word would carry more weight with the Faeries of the Night. Besides, by that stage, preparations for war would be at an advanced stage. Such events tended to take on a momentum of their own.

The only thing that really concerned him was the fact he didn’t know yet who had kidnapped her – clearly the boy wasn’t acting alone. It was a weakness in his position. But hopefully that might change soon. His entire espionage service was working to find out who was involved.

Meanwhile the combined armies of the Great Houses had begun stockpiling munitions and supplies in the vast caverns beneath Yammeth Cretch. Duke Electo, who knew about such things, estimated just days before the entire Nighter community was on a war footing.

Not that the timing mattered greatly. The Lighters had no idea at all what was happening. They were far too involved with looking for their Queen. Unless the rumours of a Countdown were true. But he very much doubted that. Not even his niece was mad enough to revive that old custom.

A soldier stacking crates – one of Burgundy’s men, from his insignia – missed his footing, thrashed wildly for a moment, then succeeded in pulling the entire stack down on top of him. He made a thin mewling sound as the heavy equipment began to crush his chest. Hairstreak considered briefly sounding an alarm, then decided against it. Much more interesting to watch the man die.

There would be many more deaths in the coming weeks.

Mr Fogarty hitched the imperial robes above his knee and sat scratching a blemish on one skinny shank. ‘Well, that was a waste of time,’ he said.

Pyrgus watched him warily. You could never tell what Mr Fogarty would do next, and now he was Acting Purple Emperor, that was a nerve-wracking situation.

‘Couldn’t you have forced it out of him?’ he asked cautiously.

Mr Fogarty looked up from under steel-grey eyebrows. ‘That was the old idea,’ he said. ‘Threaten them with torments. You heard Cynthia hitting him with the traditional formula. But know what, Pyrgus? I’ve been reading up on demons and I think they’ve had us all fooled – human and faerie – for an awfully long time.’ He stopped scratching and flipped the robe back over his knee. ‘You know the deal with demons, don’t you? They’re organised like insects.’ He waved Pyrgus towards a nearby chair. ‘Sit down a minute, will you?’

Pyrgus perched on the edge of a chair and waited. They were in the Gatekeeper’s official office, having left Madame Cardui and Flapwazzle to clear up after dismissing the demon. Mr Fogarty said, ‘You can’t deal with insects. Not as individuals. You deal with the hive. It’s the hive that’s the individual. Same with demons. You think you’re talking to this one or that one – Black John or whoever – but you’re really talking to them all. They’re linked inside their heads. They’re all linked. And all the links join up in their king. So really you’re always talking to Beleth.’

‘Beleth?’ Pyrgus wasn’t sure he was following this.

‘You’re not following this, are you?’ Mr Fogarty said. He sighed. ‘Doesn’t matter. Except you’ll never get anywhere tormenting an individual demon. What does Beleth care about Black John? Poor little sod got sold into service, had to do what he was told while Beleth collected his pay. Torment Black John as much as you like, he’s not going to tell you anything Beleth doesn’t want him to. Beleth has his own plans.’

‘But people – Faeries of the Night – do torment demons,’ Pyrgus said. ‘It’s one of the ways of controlling them.’

Mr Fogarty gave a small shrug. ‘Just a game, as far as I can make out. Just a way to make people think they’re in control. But you’re never in control with a demon. It’s always got a hidden agenda. It’s always following Beleth ’s orders.’

Pyrgus said, ‘What are we going to do, Mr Fogarty? About finding Blue?’ He hesitated a beat, then added, ‘And Henry?’

‘Well,’ Mr Fogarty said, ‘Black John sure as hell isn’t going to tell us.’ He glanced sideways at Pyrgus. ‘But you might.’

Pyrgus had one of those sinking feelings he got sometimes. ‘What?’ he asked uncertainly.

‘What did Henry have in his hand?’ Mr Fogarty asked. He waited a second, then said, ‘Oh, come on, Pyrgus – I saw your face when Kitterick was on replay. We were wondering if it was a crystal goblet or a Halek knife, but you knew what it was, didn’t you?’

Pyrgus looked down at his feet, then glanced briefly behind him, then looked down at his feet again. ‘Yes,’ he said eventually.

Fogarty waited. ‘Well, are you going to tell me or are you just going to sit there looking miserable?’

‘It was a crystal flower,’ Pyrgus said.

‘And what was the fairy dust?’

Pyrgus blinked. ‘Faerie dust…?’

‘That sparkling stuff. You could just about see it in the replay.’

‘I don’t know what that was,’ Pyrgus said. ‘I’ve never seen that sparkling stuff before. Maybe it’s what you get when you crush something crystal into powder.’