Ruler of the Realm

Eighty-six

It was strange, Blue thought: Hairstreak suddenly looked small. He was still the same man, but he seemed strangely shrunken, as if life was leaking out of him like a punctured balloon. As Mr Fogarty said, there was fear in his eyes. She’d never seen her uncle afraid before.

Madame Cardui said, ‘They have not attacked Yammeth City…?’ She was speaking of Beleth’s demon hordes. It was half musing, half a question.

‘Not yet,’ Hairstreak said.

‘Or anywhere else in the Cretch?’

Hairstreak shook his head. He was answering Cynthia, but his eyes were on Blue.

Blue said nothing, watching and waiting. She was hoping against hope something would come out of the discussion that would clear her mind. But all she could think of was that here they were, holding a strategy conference with her uncle. Even as a child she’d been taught to think of him as her wicked uncle, like a character in a mythic tale. Now, suddenly, he wasn’t the enemy any more and nor were the Faeries of the Night. Or so it seemed.

‘Why do you think that is?’ Madame Cardui asked. ‘It seems he has his forces well in place. No more than an hour’s march from your city walls from what I understand.’

‘And why did he tip his hand by killing Burgundy?’ Fogarty put in. ‘Why not just accept your invitation, bring his whole army in from the cold and then attack you by surprise from inside your defences? That’s what I’d have done.’

Hairstreak shrugged. ‘Perhaps he is waiting for you to do his dirty work.’

Fogarty leaned forward. ‘Assuming I believe you, why should he turn against his old friends? Faeries of the Night and Hell have been pals for centuries. Beleth has provided you with demon servants, demon labour, God knows what else, in return for…’ He trailed off, suddenly unsure.

‘Not quite an accurate assessment, Gatekeeper Fogarty,’ Hairstreak said coldly. ‘Beleth never willingly gave us anything. Generations ago, our wizards developed techniques for compelling demons into certain pacts. The filth have been our servants ever since. Faeries of the Light could have had the same benefits, but they elected not to do so out of some… misplaced sense of morality, I suppose. I’ve never understood the thinking myself.’ He turned his attention back to Blue. ‘I’m no historian, but I understand it was the demon question that caused the split between us in the first place.’

‘I don’t suppose you can compel them now?’ Blue asked suddenly.

Hairstreak smiled coldly. ‘There are more than a million demons in the Eastern Desert. That is a number well beyond compulsion.’

‘So you think this is his revenge for centuries of exploitation?’ There was a wicked glint in Fogarty’s eye.

If her uncle had a sense of humour, it didn’t show. ‘Oh, I don’t think it’s us he’s after,’ he said soberly.

‘Very well,’ said Fogarty briskly. ‘What do you think he’s planning?’

Hairstreak looked from one to the other. ‘I think he was waiting for war to break out between the Faeries of the Night and the Light.’

‘Which it has,’ Blue put in. ‘Thanks to your preemptive strike.’

Hairstreak’s eyes flashed. ‘I was not the one to instigate a Countdown, niece.’

Madame Cardui said smoothly, ‘Perhaps we should allow your uncle to continue, Majesty. After all, he has more experience of demons than we have.’ She glanced at Hairstreak and smiled sweetly.

‘Go on, Uncle,’ Blue said shortly. ‘Beleth’s plans…?’

Hairstreak said, ‘I do not believe he will intervene in the war. I think it is completely irrelevant to him who wins it. When the war is finished, he will attack the victor, confident in the knowledge that the victor has been weakened by the conflict. In that way, Beleth plans to take the entire Realm.’

It sounded hideously plausible. But then many of Hairstreak’s most devious schemes had seemed hideously plausible too. Blue still wasn’t sure she trusted him.

‘How do you think we can stop him?’

Hairstreak shrugged. ‘You know my proposal. An immediate military alliance between the Nighters and the Lighters. Our combined forces can then attack Beleth in the desert and, hopefully, drive him back to Hael where he belongs.’

Gatekeeper Fogarty suddenly asked, ‘Why don’t you use your time flowers against him?’

‘What time flowers?’ Hairstreak asked.