The train came to a complete stop just as the intercom on the wall of the kitchen buzzed, the green knob on the side pulsing. Beatrice rose from her seat to answer it when Eadric returned, Admiral Vin directly behind him.
Beatrice switched on the intercom, and leaning in, said, "Charley. What do you see?"
"Evening, Captain Audreyn. Seems the Mags got a bit of a problem in her engine. She be adrift. I'm headed under to check her out," Charley's voice stated through the static of the intercom.
"What's our position?" she asked.
"We be stalled at the mouth of the Cardinal Junction, Captain," Charley said.
"Very well. Over and out," she replied, turning to Eadric and Admiral Vin. "This is a bad place to stall. We need to protect the train. Vin, do you travel with armament?" she asked, adjusting the dirk strapped to her thigh.
"On this stretch of rails, always," the Admiral said. Removing a dagger from a concealed holster under his jacket and a short sword from a scabbard at his hip, he smiled, bowing. "At your service."
"Good. Eadric, gather your weapons and a short sword for me. Meet us outside. Isobel, come, and bring Ash," Beatrice said, headed out of the kitchen for the rail car exit.
They walked the length of the Magpie and back, surveying the sleek locomotive and the surrounding tunnel. The train had stalled at a massive intersection known as the Cardinal Junction because it was the main intersection connecting the Pythean from all directions.
Beatrice motioned for Admiral Vin to get ready as Eadric joined them. Charley and his first mate, Bertrand, were under the belly of the train to repair the problem.
"The Rat Queen is looking for Isobel and the dagger. No doubt one of her demon vedettes will lead the pack," Beatrice said.
"I think you're right," Admiral Vin said, and removed his short sword from the scabbard. "Glad to use this girl of mine again," he said, thrusting it with a strong, powerful lunge, arm fully extended.
"Demon vedette. I don't understand," Isobel said, her voice catching on the first word.
"The Rat Queen's demons. We call them her vedettes because they scout the tunnels for her," Eadric offered, standing at the ready, his legs spread apart, warrior like. He held a short sword and it looked almost delicate in his large hands.
The cavernous junction was illumed under a glowing dome set high in the ceiling, and the four large tunnels, each fifteen rails wide, were dark just past the reach of the light. Water slipped off the walls, pooling along the rails, and the air smelled metallic from the rusting iron, like blood. Deep set platforms framed in shadowy arched doorways that once led to shops and eateries had crumbled to ground in part.
Eadric caught a slight movement behind one of the arches and signaled to the others. "A Queen's vedette. The rats wont be far behind," he said, gesturing to the tendrils of gray metallic sand coiling around the arches, taking the form of a woman in a billowing long dress.
"True enough, Eadric," Beatrice said, her other hand on the short sword at her side, the distant sound of grunting rats drifting down the rails. "I estimate a league ten or twelve strong. Men, prepare for a skirmish. Isobel, stay behind us with Ash."
The rats appeared in the distance, emerging from the murky depths of the tunnel as a faint white mass, rapidly growing in size with every loud synchronized grunt. Beatrice, Eadric, and Admiral Vin braced themselves, feet spread wide apart, grounded, weapons at the ready. Isobel's hand tightening around the dagger, her heart beating like a war drum, and the feeling of dread rose from her gut like bile, threatening to choke her. Ash growled, head forward, ears flat to his crown, hair raised along his back.
The rats attacked like fury unleashed, indifferent to their lives, dying in the order they attacked. Beatrice and Admiral Vin managed the front as Eadric took up the rear, fighting off the spillage, but the sheer number of them was overwhelming. With the first blow, she was down, her cheek shoved into the sharp gravel as the rat assailed her. Sharp claws dug into her arms as feet danced at her head, blood coating the ground around her. Isobel kicked and slashed at the rat, managing to stand, and just as she turned to face the beast, Ash attacked it, quickly snapping its neck.
Beatrice stepped forward and with one swift motion speared a rat through the side with the short sword, and as he doubled over, she skewered his lower cranium with the dirk, drawing both weapons out at the same time and wiping them onto the rat as he fell.
Eadric danced around the last rat standing, waiting for him to make the first move. The beast lunged at him as he jumped about lightly, and finding the perfect spot to bury his blade, nearly cut the rat in half with his short sword. Then, with a wide arcing sweep, he brought the blade down on the rat's neck, severing his head. He picked up the head by the braids and held it up, smiling at it before hurling it through the air.
Beatrice and Admiral Vin assessed the carnage. "This one here, see the single tattooed band around his arm? He's a scout. This means more rats are coming," Admiral Vin said, raising a tunnel rat by the arm, and letting him fall.
"The Queen seeks revenge for her king's death," Eadric said, looking to the arches along the platform again. "And there sits her demon, waiting."
The demon floated, smiling widely, her flowing graphite hair and dress curling about her like liquid platinum.
"The Queen's demon. She will have sent for more troops. Watch her closely, she doesn't descend," Admiral Vin stated.
Beatrice walked to the train and crouched, peering on the underside. "I say, Charley, are you there?" she asked, craning her head to better hear his reply, which came in a gruff muffled voice.
Eadric came forward, straining to hear what Charley was saying. "Does he require assistance?" he asked.
"No. You stay and fight with us, Eadric. Charley has it under control. Bertrand is with him."
"At your command, Captain," he said, glancing down at Isobel, who had found herself standing next to him. "So, that's the dagger causing all the trouble," he said.
"Yes, apparently so," she answered.
"Ancient myth tells of these daggers, three in all. Never have I seen one until now. And you are its keeper," he said and gently touched the glowing crystal. His eyes caught hers and the intensity she found in those cobalt pools caught her by surprise.
"We remain at attention," Beatrice stated, walking to the fore of the group again, bloody knuckled hand grasping the sword.
Eadric pulled away and, with a quick dip of his head to Isobel, took up his position again at the front. He held his arms at his back and grasped the sword in one hand, the blade flush up the center, at the ready. The calf length jacket he wore, made of heavy midnight blue wool and adorned with green brass buttons along the wide corded cuffs, was slit on the sides to the waist, displaying strong leather clad legs.
Barking rats resonated a few miles down the tunnel, another pack headed their way, three fold larger, the sound coming in grunting waves, primal, borrowed from the war cries of their ancestors.
Beatrice, Eadric, and Admiral Vin glanced at each other apprehensively, tightening the hold on their weapons. They demon danced in a whirl of gleaming tendrils, smiling excitedly.
Isobel could feel the approaching rats from the soles of her feet up, the ground pounding like a war drum. And through the murky dark of the tunnel she saw the army of rats, just a faint paleness, quickly growing larger.
"Vin, you stand at nine o'clock. Eadric, to your fore. I'll take the overflow. Isobel, stand back with Ash for now," Beatrice ordered and screamed a war cry. Eadric and Admiral Vin joined in the cry, and they met the onslaught head on.
The demon danced closer to Isobel, a silvery hand beckoning her forward, pulling her incrementally closer, separating her from the rest. The demon tilted her head to the side and smiled grotesquely, di
splaying rows of blunt, blackened teeth.
"Do not resist me, child. Come," she said, licking her lips with a slippery tongue, from ear to ear, holding out her hand. "You are not powerful enough to defeat me, mystic. Look. Even the strongest of your kind can't win," the glistening gray woman said.
Isobel fell to her knees, arms hanging limply to her side, as tendrils of dark silver stroked and coddled her, pulling her in. She turned to observed the battle. Beatrice, Admiral Vin, and Eadric were losing the fight.
The demon was right.
But the vedette hadn't factored one thing. With everything she had just been through, Isobel didn't care if she lived or died.
And with this acute sense of apathy, she rose to her knees and drove the dagger into the belly of the demon, leaning in to shove it to the hilt.
The demon keened, bursting into a cloud of shimmering gray particles, and in a whirling dance, reassembled herself. Shoving her detached jaw into place with a bone thin silvery hand, the demon smiled, drawing Isobel near again, long fingers wrapping around her neck, cradling her head, inhaling deeply.
"Come. I have already extracted the half of you. Allow me the rest," the demon breathed, sucking her in.
Isobel went limp, every bone in her body rubbery, the demon consuming her upright, and she didn't feel the ground quake under her. But the demon did. Surprised, it released her, pushing her away, and when a second deep quaking followed, the demon dispersed in a thin trail of silver, rearranging itself a short distance away.
Isobel fell to the ground and lay there watching Eadric kill a tunnel rat. His movements seemed unnaturally slow, blood flying through the air suspended a moment too long before falling to the ground in an exaggerated splash. Beatrice fought with both weapons, killing two or three rats at a time, her movements measured, protracted and out of sync with real time, as Admiral Vin eviscerated another, from navel to throat, and though it would seem that they were winning, Isobel could plainly see that they weren't.
She sat up and reached for the dagger and the ground rumbled under her, deeper this time. Ash, shifted into the beast she'd killed the other day, protected the rear, but even he could only handle a few rats at a time.
And more were coming.
From the shadows, the demon emerged again, and though the ground continued to quake in longer intervals, it didn't seem as concerned. It swirled and danced its way toward her, an elegant confluence of metallic tendrils forming the visage of the same woman.
Isobel laughed with a keen understanding of the futility of her situation, and welcomed the demon with a smile. It already possessed part of her and she wanted it back; She didn't intend to die in half measure.
The ground rumbled as the demon wrapped its willowy fingers around her head, pulling her close, the folds of its gossamer silver dress enveloping her. She fell into the demon, embraced the embrace, felt the last half of herself being consumed, and a glowing vision came to her, blinding her.
It wasn't a vision of a person or thing. It was a vision of a state of being. It was aurous and hallowed, impenetrable and complete. It was her, her purpose, her holy grail. And it was powerful. She was there to champion a far more noble cause than life, and in her vision she was now dressed in gold armor, a blood red ouroborus emblazoned on her chest, dagger held high in hand, victorious.
Isobel pulled away and gaped into the mouth of the demon, a surge of power saturating her, making her laugh. She raised her arms wide, grabbing the dagger by both hands. "I release you, demon," she hissed, turning the dagger onto herself. The blade cut into her and the demon vedette screeched through Isobel, falling around her like stardust.
The ground rumbled again, violently this time, followed by another, and the rats stopped fighting, their noses held high, tongue probing the air.
"The queen's vedette is dead! Retreat! Retreat!" one rat ordered and the remaining rats followed, disappearing down the westbound tunnel, when another violent rumble shook the junction.
"Charley, Bertrand, everyone to the Magpie!" Beatrice bellowed and turned for the train.
the quaking coming in shorter intervals.
Isobel called to Ash who stood facing the northbound tunnel, growling, and as she waited for another quaking rumble to subside, calling the snarling back, a massive ball of fire consumed the junction.
Chapter Thirteen