When Gods Die

Chapter 62

The light filtering down through the gratings had dimmed with the approach of evening. Soon, Sebastian realized, it would be night. And with the fall of night would come the rising tide.

Reaching the main culvert, Sebastian turned left, moving away from the river. The water here was already running deep and swift enough to carry a man away. He kept to the narrow elevated footpath that ran beside the chasm. But the path was treacherous, its stones broken and crumbling, forcing him to slow down. It wasn’t long before he saw the flare of a light behind him, heard Portland’s loud, angry voice. “Leave him! There’s nothing you can do for him. The man’s dead.”

Sebastian pushed on.

At one point he came upon a broad shaft opening to the street above, with a sturdy iron ladder firmly bolted to the damp stone walls. Taking a chance, Sebastian scrambled up the ladder to find the bars on the culvert above soundly in position. Conscious of the passing of precious seconds, he dropped back down and kept going.

A quarter of a mile or so farther on he came to a place where a side tunnel had collapsed into the main vault, bringing down a heap of rubble and dirt that formed a makeshift dam. Water shot over the lip of the cave-in like a waterfall. But when he scrambled to the top of the tumulus, Sebastian found a broad expanse of water that had backed up behind the debris. A subterranean lake stretched from one side of the vault to the other, submerging the footpaths on either side.

“Well, hell.”

The light was fading fast, the dam alive with rats that scuttled, screeching, across the refuse at his feet. Reaching down to pick up a stout branch, he found himself staring at the pale body of a newborn baby mixed up with the carcasses of dead cats and dogs, and the broken chairs and filthy twisted rags that had snagged on the rubble. The stench here was almost overwhelming.

Moving gingerly in the near darkness, Sebastian lowered himself into the cold, murky water on the far side of the dam. His cravat wasn’t exactly white anymore, but he tore it off anyway, and buttoned up his dark coat to hide the betraying gleam of his silk waistcoat. Scooping up a fistful of muck, he smeared his face with mud. Then he settled down to wait, the branch held ready.

The glow of the lantern grew closer. He heard a man say, “Oh, God,” in a voice half strangled by disgust. “Rats. And look what they’re eating.”

“Here,” snapped Portland. “Give me the lantern.”

Sebastian could see him now, the light from the battered tin lantern wobbling over the vaulted ceiling of the sewer as he clambered across the debris. The Home Secretary’s hat was gone, his once fine coat torn and muddied. A jagged scrape trickled blood down one cheek. At the top of the dam he paused.

“Mother of God, it’s a lake,” said the other man, coming up beside him. “We can’t get across that.”

“Devlin obviously did.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe he drowned.”

“He didn’t drown.” Perching the lantern on the end of an out-thrust slab of rubble, Portland waded into the lake. The water swirled up over his boots until it was lapping at his thighs, then his hips. As he lifted his arms above the dark water, Sebastian could see the pistol stuck in the waistband of his breeches.

Hidden behind a pile of trash, Sebastian sank lower in the water and let him pass.

The other man hesitated, then scampered after him. He was reaching back to grab the lantern when Sebastian rose like a specter from the water, the branch gripped in both hands.

The man’s eyes widened, his lips parting in a high-pitched shriek. Sebastian put the entire weight of his body into the swing and sent the wood smashing into the man’s legs.

The crack of breaking bone echoed around the shadowy, lamplit vault. The man screamed in pain, his legs buckling beneath him. Sebastian swung again as the man splashed into the water, the branch splintering in Sebastian’s hands as it shattered against the man’s head.

Portland turned, moving awkwardly in the waist-deep water. “Devlin!”

The other man’s body floated between them, facedown.

Portland surged forward, wading into the shallows. Smiling grimly, he reached to snatch the pistol from his waistband. He held it out in a steady grip, the dark bore of the barrel pointed at Sebastian’s chest. “You lose, my friend,” he said, and pulled the trigger.

Sebastian listened to the click of the locking mechanism striking steel and smiled. “Powder doesn’t like to get wet.”

“You son of a bitch.” Portland’s nostrils flared, his lips pressing together in a tight, grim line. Shifting his grip on the pistol, he swung it over his head like a club and lunged at Sebastian.

Dodging sideways, Sebastian felt the slime-coated rubble shift beneath his feet. He lost his balance and plunged deep, sucking in a quick breath just before the water closed over his head.

He had to fight his way to the surface, the ground beneath his feet still treacherous. Breaking water, he found Portland there before him. The Home Secretary raised the pistol to bring it down on Sebastian’s head again, the barrel blue-black in the faint glow of the lantern, the dark, polished wood of the handle dripping water.

Sebastian still gripped the splintered remnants of his cudgel in his fist, and he used it now like a dagger, driving it up into Portland’s gut just as the man leapt.

Portland’s eyes flew open wide, a gasp coming from the back of his throat as the jagged wood thrust deep into his stomach. Sebastian took a quick step back. The man’s legs collapsed beneath him.

He sank quickly, the lake closing over his head, his body sucked along by the current so that Sebastian had to dive into the murky water to find him.

Fisting his hands in Portland’s coat, Sebastian hauled the man out of the water and dragged him up onto the pile of rubble. “Why Guinevere Anglessey?” Sebastian said with a gasp, dropping down beside him. “Why did she have to die?”

Portland’s eyes were open, his chest jerking with each breath. “Varden was careless,” he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. “He let her find the letter….”

Water dripped down Sebastian’s cheeks, ran into his eyes. He swiped at his face with one wet sleeve. “What letter?”

“A letter from Savoy. Varden…he swore she wouldn’t tell anyone. But we couldn’t take the chance.”

“So you lured her to the Norfolk Arms and killed her?”

“No. Not me.” Portland shook his head, the movement causing his chest to heave as he fell to coughing. “Carter needed help getting the body out of his inn. It was my idea to use her death to”—his face twisted in a spasm of pain—“to discredit the Prince. It was working, too. Until you interfered.”

“What are you saying? That Carter killed her?”

Portland’s eyelids flickered closed.

Sebastian gripped the man’s shoulders, shaking him. “Damn you! Who killed her?”

Portland’s jaw had gone slack. Pressing his fingers to the side of the man’s neck, Sebastian caught the thread of a pulse. A man could live for hours, even days, with a gut wound.

Sebastian sat back on his heels, his gaze on the man before him. If he tried to haul the Home Secretary out of the sewers by himself, he’d simply kill the man.

Slipping his hands beneath Portland’s shoulders, Sebastian dragged the man’s limp body to the highest point of the landslide, where he’d hopefully be safe from the rising tide. He left him the lantern, too, in case Portland should come back to consciousness.

Then he retraced his route to the surface.

IT WAS AN HOUR OR MORE BEFORE SEBASTIAN and a troop of constables made it back to the ancient, stone-walled sewer, the lights from their lanterns reflecting eerily off the dark walls and high, soaring ceiling. But when they reached the site of the cave-in, the Home Secretary was gone.

Standing at the top of the pile of rubble, Sebastian looked out across the dark expanse of water. The body of the other man he’d killed lay half-submerged at the base of the rubble. But the Home Secretary still floated, his body lying facedown in the subterranean lake.

“I don’t understand it,” said the Chief Constable, coming to stand beside Sebastian. “The rocks aren’t wet here. The tide couldn’t ’ave come high enough to carry him off. So what happened?”

Sebastian stared down at the smear of blood that led to the water’s edge and said nothing.