Infernal Investigations Book 2 - Chapter 21 - Nightmares III

I’d forced myself out of that stupor in the coffeehouse eventually, and it was half past one in the afternoon as I strode out the front door.

Tagashin had parked the carriage a few spaces down, either finding or bullying her way into a space that it just fit into.

Given the rather anxious look the carriage driver behind kept giving her as he fed his horses, the latter.

The horses looked well, and I just assud they’d been taken care of. The water in the trough was at a low level, so perhaps?

I hesitated as I walked closer to her. She reclined on the driver’s bench, the brim of her top hat pulled over her eyes. You couldn’t tell if she was awake or napping. I doubted the latter.

I paused by the door to the carriage. My earlier snapping at her replayed in my mind. This should not be weighing on my mind, it was entirely reasonable to be suspicious of anything from a mind as warped and twisted as hers. Besides, it was entirely none of her business. And on top of that, no disguise as a simple servant would be asking their passenger questions like that!

Okay, I was hardly dressed finely enough for that to matter, but still. The wind whistled, building up from a pleasant breeze to a more blustery force, even more reason to take refuge in the carriage itself.

With an almost inaudible sigh, I hopped up onto the driver’s bench right next to Tagashin. It creaked under our combined weight, as she shed the illusion of napping as she avoided sliding into .

“Surprised you’re up here,” she noted. “Imprompiety of the passenger riding with the lower class driver not going to set off alarm bells?”

“I’m not dressed any better than you,” I said, looking down at myself. Trousers, my knee-length coat, waistcoat, and shirt underneath. Hells, with the top hat, Tagashin might be more fancily dressed than I was.

We sat there, the tension only building as she refused to say another word or even get us moving. Damnations.

“What happened earlier,” I said. “I was…rude about it. My apologies for that. I was needlessly blunt.”

“Apology accepted,” she replied cheerily. “Any other apologies you want to offer as well?”

“I apologize for criticizing so of your fashion choices,” I said after taking so ti to think about it. “It ca in handy for drawing that crowd’s attention.”

She sighed, a long-drawn-out one that brought back mories I did not need with Tagashin slotted into a relative’s place.

“Malvia-” she started.

“My life is my own,” I said firmly, cutting her off. “My personal affairs? Mine and mine alone, and that includes whether or not I discuss them with any of you.”

“As is your right,” she said. “As is mine to take notice and worry when the most brittle of us starts breaking down and sobbing. Especially when she’s never done that before.”

I bristled and idly pushed my tail away from fishing for my revolver or a knife.

“I’m the most ‘brittle’?” I said, tone barely restrained. “Is this where you reveal that you’ve been testing this entire ti, instead of needlessly poking and prodding until I poisoned you?”

“No,” she replied flippantly. “That doesn’t change the facts. You’re capable of faking pleasantness with people Malvia. I’m sure it grates, especially with that empty shell masquerading as a bishop or that poor boy it’s busy hollowing out, but you’re lucky it’s only around when asking why you were sobbing gets you throwing around barbs in an attempt to drive them off.”

“I was not tossing barbs off,” I said, teeth scraping along each other as I almost grinded them against each other. “You can hardly bla for thinking even sympathy from you would just be the lead-up for another cruel prank or joke. Tell , which person would you have witness eating a cow raw next?”

She glanced my way, took in my expression, and burst into laughter.

My fists balled as I glowered down at her, my tail wrapped firmly around the lamppost so it wouldn’t act on any of the feelings rushing through as Tagashin got that out of her system.

“Very amusing,” I hissed. “What, does revisiting that joke make you feel happy? Deciding to careen into my personal life and setting parts alight to amuse you?”

We were drawing stares now, with Tagashin’s laughing and my seething. So people were keeping a wary eye on us, probably wondering when the Infernal servant would give in to her base urges and rip her innocent human fellow apart.

The nails on my fingers pressed further into my skin as I focused every urge I had on not giving into those presumptions.

Tagashin finally finished laughing, her expression sobering just a little bit.

“If you think that part was not already being set afla by your own actions before or after, how were you going to hide that from him? Wait until one day he asked why a cow's intestine got in his mouth after you and he enjoyed so private ti in a corner?”

“You’re baiting ,” I accused, forcing my tail to unwind from the lamppost before it ripped it off the carriage’s side. “Is this your new bit of fun Tagashin? Instead of playing pranks on , deliberately try and get to crack?”

“I can do both,” she said with a grin that then vanished. “But no, I wasn’t going to. Not until your reaction to soone expressing concern for your well-being was to snap at them. That’s dangerous, especially given what we are.”

“Yes, because clearly one of us is much more of a pain for our handlers than others,” I said, keeping a wary eye out for anyone nearby. That was the only thing keeping my tone low enough to be a harsh whisper instead of anything louder. “I’m hardly going to take advice from you on being nice.”

“I’m just prickly,” she said. “They can deal with that, especially when one’s such a unique asset. Diabolists? They have others besides you, they’re sending you to one who's more experienced in learning. Soone who is struggling with sothing, sothing where they lash out at anyone who asks about it? You think that is more tolerable to them, Malvia?”

“I can keep my emotions in check-” I began, only to get interrupted by more laughter.

“Laughing in my face right when I was starting to like you isn’t doing you any favors,” I muttered as she almost fell off the far side of the carriage. If she had the space, I was sure she’d try rolling along its surface. “Knowing this is bait ans I’m not rising to it. Please stop before you draw even more attention to us.”

“Well,” she said, leaning half off the carriage. “You’ve already decided to just be angry in response to anything I say, maybe with a couple of added apologies to assuage what small pangs might be hitting your head. I might as well just see how far it can go.”

It figured it was just a ga after all.

“Can we just leave?” I asked. “You’ve had your fun, I’m sure everyone else watching has had their laugh as well. We actually have things to do today.”

“No one but was laughing,” she replied.

“That does not matter,” I hissed. “You baited . Congratulations. Can we please leave?”

“You know, is it easier to just slot into the antagonist role?” Tagashin said instead, agonizingly not just grabbing the reins. “The mont I’m inconvenient for you? Does it work better than telling him you were a monster?”

“You’ve been more than inconvenient,” I said, paying no attention to that other nonsense. “Can. We. Leave?”

“Yes,” she said after a mont. “I don’t suppose anything productive is going to co out of talking further.”

She maneuvered the carriage out onto the street, and we traveled in silence as I ignored the pain in my hands. I’d bandage where my nails had cut into my palms later.

Stolen novel; please report.

***

As we traveled through the streets of Avernon, I increasingly wished that I’d gone inside the carriage.

Not because of the awkward silence between and Tagashin, that I could withstand easily. The default between us before now, and probably after.

No, instead it was everyone else.

It wasn’t too crowded, most working folks fully in their jobs, and the only traffic was those whose work had taken them there and those who didn’t work. Still enough to clog the street.

People were staring as we passed, so of them just innocent ones, people noting an Infernal out of the quarter. Younger folks seed like they hadn’t seen one of my kind before. Probable, even with the law no longer confining us, people found their own ways to keep us settling outside the District.

Even the ones who openly stared with hatred, who rushed forward to scream “Foulhorn!” or other things about devil-fuckers, those were too few and too fleeting to bother too much.

The others though? Those who shied away to the edges of the sidewalk? Who made the signs of Halspus that made wince and my skin prickle? Who wasn’t bold enough to make their distaste apparent when I was on a swiftly moving carriage, but I could tell was disturbed by being here?

That bothered . Because that was too many to count.

I winced again as another sign of Halspus was made, the itching across my skin intensifying.

Tagashin raised an eyebrow next to . “That really bothers you that much? I thought they’d need to be a priest in order to actually have an effect?”

“Magnitudes of scale,” I muttered, glad to have anything to distract . Truth be told, I hadn’t been able to break the ice between us. “Halspus is probably the most important deity in this empire, he has probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of adherents, primacy over his pantheon, his very nature is opposed to mine, and his priests have spent decades since Her Most Profane Majesty’s defeat to drive worship and reverence into every part of this city outside the Infernal Quarter. Even soone with little faith invoking his symbol in the city and directing it at an Infernal will make their skin crawl. Actual drawing on his granted powers to cause damage doesn't work, but making hostility known isn’t that powerful an effect. It's like having soone dance on your grave while scraping rakes along your skin.”

Tagashin whistled. “Could be worse. Could be your kind finds steel and iron allergic and cos to a city making buildings out of both of them.”

“This shouldn’t be so comparison of who has it worse,” I replied, wincing as so old crone made the sign at as we passed. Even worse, she was trying to get her brats, children, or grandchildren, to make the damnable sign as well.

“Not trying to make it that,” Tagashin said as I resisted the urge to scratch at my skin until it bled. “Just noting. Lesser fey in the surrounding wilds have been driven further out over the decades. Everything wild being closer just ans easier access for people here. Part of the reason I’m glad I don’t have any roots here. It’s depressing.”

“Mining and logging?” I guessed as I gave in to temptation, idly scratching my upper arm.

“Among other things,” Tagashin agreed. “You know how sad it is listening to so water nymphs talk about how they used to swim in that pool of waste you call a river, how it used to be clear to the bottom? Now it’s barely even water and the only things living there are as clogged up with gunk as it is. Forest spirits are trying to flee, they already got a taste of what fighting the loggers would be like. Underground is even worse. Since your queen couldn’t get any mineral wealth out of the dwarves, she’s busy trying to find it anywhere else she can.”

“A rough deal,” I muttered.

She snorted. “How would you react if I called what happened with the Infernals a rough deal? You, I think, have a way out. The Fey? Again, I’m glad I don’t have roots here. So of them don’t want to leave, they’re just waiting to get paved over and have it end.”

I winced, and this ti from no symbol. I knew those types, so of them from the Fla towards the end, so just in general. Who’d decided that nothing would change for the better, only ever for the worst.

I was trying to think of anything to say in reply when a cart veered into our path, the driver dropping the reins so he could make Halspus’ sign at .

“Fuckin’ lunatic!” Tagashin said as she pulled on her own reins, stopping just short as the cart rumbled past, our own horses rearing back while he veered away, spooked by the near collision.

“You and her got so gunpowder barrels loaded in your fancy carriage?” the driver yelled at us.

The traffic took him past before Tagashin could snap back a reply. He was still yelling, but the carriage driver behind yelling at us and him for holding up traffic drowned it out.

Gunpowder in a carriage could only refer to one thing, and I wish it could be blad for all of this. But no, it was just the latest thing to have riled people up.

Halspus’ priests had stopped pushing that sentint when it was made clear Her Majesty’s Governnt would only tolerate their activities so far. What they’d stirred up though hadn’t dissipated a bit. That final gambit with the explosives? It had seed more bloody at the ti like most explosions did, but people had died. And now the newspapers were circulating the news of these latest killings, and sadly they would be the most accurate compared to what the rumor mill must be doing to those events.

“I think that path out you were talking about is smaller than you believe,” I told Tagashin, and for once she didn’t seem to have a response.

She clicked her tongue, flicked her reins, and we set off again.

“This entire empire is turning into one of cast-offs,” she muttered as we continued on our way. We were almost to Howlett’s Square, a major intersection round a monunt to Admiral Howlett, the man who’d sunk the Vertarde armada, and from there…well, I guess I hadn’t actually looked at the address yet. But before that.

“Cast-offs?”

“You people, the dwarves, the fey. The Kelts since their island got taken over. Throw in a few other lands since then. The orc and ogre tribes that got absorbed. About a dozen other groups. Even allied groups like the Elvish tribes of Quilotinue, half of them live in Anglea these days and the rest are so small the Empire could crush them if it wants.”

“The Queen has an expansionist streak,” I agreed. “I think most of them expected her enlisting them to take down Her Most Profane Majesty ant…being taken off the list. Or at least she would perhaps focus on internal matters for her reign.”

Instead, she’d been proclaid Halspus’ chosen, and short of being killed didn’t have to worry about ti. Ten years after had co the declaration of war on the Kelts, citing their use of certain kinds of magic for the many diabolic incursions across the Isles.

“Very fragile cloth she’s sewn,” Tagashin said. “A dozen different threads being pulled a dozen different ways, fighting her loom every step of the way.”

“She’s succeeded so far,” I said, glancing the monunt’s way as we continued around it. There was a crowd today, soone giving a speech. We weren’t too far off when the King of Vertarde sent his fleet to assist Charlie Fawlkes in Iltenland. Storm and Howlett had ended them all, and Vertrade had avoided engaging Anglea ever since. “Where are we going Tagashin?”

“Street after this next one,” she replied, and I looked ahead. Only one place that street led, and it was telegraphed by the silver street sign proclaiming its na.

“Address is in Silver Road?” I asked, getting a confirming nod.

“You didn’t look?” Tagashin asked teasingly. “Leaving it all on the poor servants to handle besides themselves?”

“We’ve had enough on our plate recently,” I seethed. “You said you knew where, I didn’t think we’d be going here.”

Silver Road was one of the oldest districts in Avernon, and before the last four decades considered the beating heart of magical research in Anglea. Noble families and old magic lineages put vast amounts of coin into the research of the arcane, apprentices and scholars from all over flocking to see if any of the houses or archmagi would give up any of their secrets. The Ironworks and North Bellings though, with its factories and tallurgy and alchemy were encroaching on it, especially with rumours about enchantnts capable of being produced by mundane hands growing louder and louder.

Silver Road, with its fairy tail castles, stately manors, and old families tracing their lineage back to archmagi, was beginning to be left behind.

More roads, more streets traveled down, smaller as we went. We got fewer stares now, partially because there were fewer people on the street, partially because there were other things on the street drawing the eye than . Floating carriages, a couple riding unicorns, so creatures I didn’t even have nas for. At least one ettin in a smartly dressed suit escorting a young girl who couldn’t be more than six floating in the air. We eventually ca to a halt, and I turned an eye to where we’d ended up.

When Samuel Voltar ntioned eting up with Alberta Vesper, I thought he ant sothing like a cafe, a square, or so public place to et and talk. In Silver Road? A fancier than normal one, but still a public space.

In front of us, a three-story mansion lood over us. Shorter than most other buildings here, it still managed to be the one that lood the most. Three stories of grey mixed with black around the windows, shadows behind those despite it being afternoon still. Rosebushes lined the outside of the manor, and then a layer of gravestones beyond that, before finally the tal spiked fence that denoted the property line.

“Tombstones?” I muttered before movent on the roof drew my eye upwards.

It lay across the roof, staring down at us lazily as its wings shielded it from the sun and its tail lazily drifted back and forth. It yawned, massive fangs even larger than the claws already peeking out over the roof’s edge.

Not even a spirit-possessed statue, that was a living, breathing gargoyle perched atop the manor’s roof.

Sohow, despite that being the only magical feature I could see, it stood out more than the neighbors, and the tower next door was rotating. Even the sun felt dimr than it had been a few minutes ago.

“I think it might be best if you stayed with the carriage,” I said as Tagashin lept down from the driver’s bench.

“Malvia, always such a killjoy,” she said with a fake pout.

Killjoy? One of these days I needed to talk to Voltar about if these were actual words or not. This one I could at least understand from the components.

“Yes,” I said drily. “I am if it ans you not poking the evil-looking house.”

“That seems more like a reason to go with you inside, not less,” she said.

“I think you going inside would be more dangerous,” I said, matching gazes with the gargoyle again. It theatrically yawned, displaying a set of granite fangs. “I don’t think she’d react well to a powerful fey creature unexpectedly crossing her threshold.”

Assuming Tagashin even could, as I eyed the fencing. It almost seed like overkill, the iron spikes topping the fence, but the tips glowed just faintly. I didn’t even need to look on the astral to see it. Warded, and probably to the point anything that was mostly comprised of magic would trigger them. A fey definitely would.

“Holler twice and I’ll break in to save you?” Tagashin asked.

I eyed the gargoyle again. “Sure.”

If I was screaming, I’m pretty sure any diabolist worth their pentagram would keep her out long enough to finish off. I paused, considering what I was getting myself into.

So you go to betray , The Imp whispered lodramatically. Tossing yourself like a piece of at to the first alternative.

“Statents like that are why this is happening,” I replied, and got off the carriage, my mind fully made up. I started towards the manor.