The Purple Emperor

CHAPTER SIXTY

The last time Pyrgus had been in the Keep he was only four years old. The experience had frightened him so much he'd burst into tears and wailed until his father picked him up. Afterwards, when Apatura Iris asked him why he'd been so scared, little Pyrgus told him firmly there were ghosts in the Keep.

The place still felt haunted. Pyrgus found himself in the middle of a stone-flagged floor waiting for the others to materialise. The chambers of the Keep were enormous – so enormous they dwarfed the stacks of storage crates pushed against the walls. They were also gloomy. Light filtered through slit windows, but was absorbed by the grey stone walls. The architecture was like nothing in the rest of the palace – there were levels upon levels, joined by wide, short flights of shallow steps. It gave the whole place the look of a three-dimensional maze.

Blue appeared, stepping out of a solid wall. She looked around and shivered.

'Have you been in here before?' Pyrgus asked.

She shook her head. 'Never. Do you know the way out?'

'I'm not sure. It's a long time since I've been here.' He decided not to tell her quite how long.

Nymph and her soldiers came through in a bunch. The two others were tough, silent men whose eyes darted round habitually as if watching for the possibility of an attack. Then Ziczac appeared, a bemused expression on his face. He stared at the multi-level chamber.

'Archaic engineering,' he murmured. 'I've never seen it before.'

Nymph said to Pyrgus, 'Can you lead us into the main palace, or should Ziczac…?'

Pyrgus was looking from one level to the other, trying to remember. 'I think so. I mean I think so. These are stores now, so the doors will be locked, but they should all recognise me – or Blue, come to that. With luck it'll be too early for Hairstreak to have changed the spell, even if he thought we might come back.' He hesitated. 'If we are in problems, can Ziczac get us in anywhere?'

He asked the question of Nymph, but Ziczac answered directly. 'Not exactly.'

'What do you mean, not exactly}' Blue demanded.

The wizard grinned benignly. 'We can only penetrate thick surfaces. A thin wall or door will stop us dead.'

'That doesn't make sense,' Pyrgus frowned.

'No, it doesn't, does it?' Ziczac agreed. 'I've never really followed it myself, but that's the way the magic works. You need to move inside something that's bigger than you are. The outer walls are enormous: the old cultures always built that way. But inside walls could be a different matter. I suppose we might risk it in an emergency, but…'

'There's a chance of getting stuck,' Nymph said.

'Which usually proves lethal,' Ziczac frowned. 'In fact, I've never heard of anyone who survived it.'

In the event, they managed quite well. The different levels were confusing and there were times when Pyrgus was a lot less certain than he tried to appear, but the lock spells recognised him without a problem so that they passed quickly through door after door. They reached an archway that looked decidedly familiar.

Pyrgus released a sigh of relief. 'That's it,' he said, pointing to the corridor beyond. 'That will take us into the lower reaches of the palace.' He stepped through the arch and Hairstreak's guards fell on him like an avalanche.

Stupidly, all he could think of was that he didn't have a weapon ready. He was armed with a short sword and fire wand supplied by the Forest Queen and his own Halek blade, overlooked by Hairstreak's men when they set him on the ouklo into exile. But the sword was in its scabbard, the wand in his belt and the Halek blade hidden in his boot. In short, he was helpless as an idiot. He spun and drove his elbow into the stomach of the nearest attacker and had the satisfaction of seeing the man double up and drop his sword. But there were others grinning evilly and they hadn't forgotten their weapons. He would be dead in seconds.

Then Nymph was at his side and she was utterly amazing. She moved faster than he would have believed possible, sometimes even blurring. She was carrying some sort of forest weapon, a triangular blade that was too short for a sword, too long for a dagger and left a silver energy-trail much like a Halek knife. She kicked the guard nearest him and killed him when he doubled up. Then she moved protectively in front of Pyrgus and launched herself savagely at two of the dead man's companions.

Pyrgus drew his own sword and spun to face another of their attackers. From the corner of his eye, he could see the forest soldiers hurl themselves into the fray. They had abandoned their bows for hand weapons, presumably to avoid injuring their own people in the close-pressed combat, but they moved almost as quickly as Nymph. As he parried a thrust from his opponent, Pyrgus realised suddenly how lucky he had been when he faced Nymph himself. The kick to the groin was obviously a favourite move, but at least in his case she'd not followed it up by cutting his throat.

It was over in minutes. Two of the guards were dead, the remaining three dying from multiple wounds. Now the heat of battle was over and he had a chance to remove the guards' dark glasses, Pyrgus could see from their eyes they were all Nighters – Hairstreak's men without a doubt. Even the black uniforms carried the House Hairstreak crest. Clearly Hairstreak did not trust the existing palace military, however firmly Comma was under his thumb; he had lost no time in moving in his own people.

'A thought occurs to me,' said Ziczac, staring at the bodies. 'If we wore black uniforms and glasses, we may find ourselves less liable to attack. At least if you wore black uniforms – most of these are too big for me.'

For a moment Pyrgus didn't follow, then it hit him. 'Great idea, Ziczac! Doesn't matter about your uniform. If anybody asks we'll just say… well…'

'Say I'm your prisoner. Say I'm personal wizard to Lord Hairstreak. Say -'

But Pyrgus was already stripping the nearest body.

Ziczac's ruse worked well. As a disciplined party of House Hairstreak guards, they entered the main body of the palace and passed two black-uniformed sentry posts unchallenged. As they marched along a gloomy corridor, Pyrgus took the opportunity to say quietly to Nymph, 'I think you saved my life back there.'

'I think perhaps you were not ready for the attack.'

Pyrgus suppressed a grin. 'Definitely not.' He stared into her eyes. 'I want to thank you.'

To his surprise she blushed, then covered her embarrassment by shrugging. 'It is nothing.'

It was the first sign of weakness he'd seen in her. 'You think saving my life is nothing?' He let the tease show in his voice.

Her colour rose another notch. 'I didn't mean that,' she said hurriedly. 'I -'

But he never found out what she did mean because suddenly they were under attack again. An arm circled his neck and a slim, stiletto blade plunged towards his heart. Before he had time to react, the blade stopped short of his skin and his assailant gasped. He twisted and found he had been seized by a woman. She stared at him open-mouthed. Pyrgus hesitated for a fraction of a second, then kicked out to sweep her feet from under her. She went down badly and struck her head against the wall. Her eyes rolled back, then slowly closed.

There were others attacking, all of them women and two of them almost as fast in their movements as Nymph and her companions. But their weapons were no match for those of Pyrgus's party. The Forest Faeries pointed fire wands.

'No!' Pyrgus shouted.

Nymph glanced at him in surprise.

'No killing!' Pyrgus screamed. These were Faeries of the Light – his own people. They'd attacked what they thought to be a party of Hairstreak's guards. There was resistance in the palace, maybe even an early revolt. These women were on his side! 'Don't you know me?' he called to them.

But the women had seen the wands now and were already running down the corridor. 'Leave them!' Blue shouted, having obviously reached the same conclusion as Pyrgus. Both calls came too late. The Forest Faeries were already racing after them. Even Ziczac joined the chase. 'Your new girlfriend is a menace!' Blue hissed as she ran to follow.

Pyrgus thundered after her, screaming 'Stop!' The women went through a doorway. Ziczac hurled some sort of fireball after them. Then Pyrgus caught up and fought his way through his own party. 'Leave them! Leave them!' He grabbed Nymph's arm as she was about to stab -

To one side came Blue's shocked whisper: 'My God, it's the Silk Mistresses!' Then she shouted, 'Stop it, all of you!'

Nymph pulled back, but in the general melee Pyrgus couldn't see what was happening with the others. He pushed forward frantically. They mustn't harm their own people.

Beyond the group of women, there was a body crumpled on the floor. Blue was right behind him now and she saw it a split second after he did. He heard her gasp, then she pushed him aside and ran forward wailing, 'Henry! Noooo!'