The Last City Read online

  ‘He was the only one of thirteen victims to survive,’ Eli whispered.

  ‘Not surprising,’ Ev’r said. ‘He’s a machine-breed. They have a high resistance to magics.’

  ‘I didn’t know that.’ Eli watched the slow rise and fall of the man’s chest.

  ‘Not many people do,’ Ev’r said. ‘See that mark?’ She traced the black on the man’s face. ‘That’s a death-curse. He was hit close, too. These other marks are torture scars.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Eli asked.

  She glanced at him then lifted up the front of her shirt. The same type of thin straight scars crisscrossed her stomach and sides to her back. ‘You learn dark magics through what witches call corporal application.’ She dropped her shirt. ‘Basically they torture you until you pick up enough to fight back. They must have needed information from this guy – otherwise they wouldn’t have wasted the energy.’

  Ev’r’s eyes darted to the door as more shadows appeared and passed. ‘We may as well go,’ she said. ‘He’s fried.’

  Eli touched a hand to the man’s arm, the skin cold beneath his fingertips. ‘Keep well,’ he said.

  The Androt’s eyelids flipped open. He stared at them, terrified. ‘Please don’t leave me,’ he whispered. ‘The witches are here. They’re just outside the door.’

  Eli helped the Androt man, Lao, sit up in the bed.

  ‘I’ve been too scared to show anyone I’m conscious,’ Lao said. ‘The soldiers guarding me are some of the witches who attacked the Galleria.’

  ‘How do you know if you haven’t opened your eyes?’ Ev’r asked.

  ‘Beak6.’ He pointed to the little parrot robot sitting on the side table. She appeared to be deactivated, but when he named her, she blinked and red lights fired up behind her eyes. The lights reminded Eli of SevenM. ‘I can see with her eyes.’

  ‘What happened at the Galleria?’ Ev’r asked.

  The man gulped. He shivered as he remembered. ‘They came in. They . . . they were asking me things . . .’

  ‘What were they asking you?’

  The Androt bit his lip.

  ‘Do you want our help or not?’ Ev’r demanded.

  ‘They wanted information about someone.’

  ‘Who?’ Ev’r asked.

  ‘I can’t say.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Ev’r said to Eli. ‘We’re wasting our time.’

  ‘Wait!’ Lao said. ‘They wanted to know about Kry.’

  ‘Kry,’ Eli repeated, his nerves jumping. ‘Kry – who works at Fortitude Hill?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lao whispered. ‘Did they find him? I didn’t give them anything. I swear I didn’t. Is he . . . okay?’

  ‘We don’t know. We never found a body, and the military is now reporting him as a threat.’

  ‘Then I have to find him. I have to warn him,’ Lao said.

  ‘What did they want from him?’ Ev’r asked.

  ‘I don’t know. They were chanting – something about blood.’

  Ev’r gripped the bed frame and almost doubled over. Eli saw that the black on her fingertips had started to spread again along her fingers and hands.

  ‘Time to go,’ he said to Lao. ‘Do you need any of this equipment?’

  ‘Just my medicine.’ He pointed to the bottle of pills on the bedside table. ‘It’s for my allergy.’

  Eli grabbed the bottle and noticed the medication was the same one that he took for his allergies, except his tooth refill was in liquid form. A thought sprouted in his mind.

  ‘You wouldn’t be a cross-breed by any chance, would you?’ he asked.

  The man’s eyebrows lifted. It wasn’t a question that was usually asked so directly, if at all. ‘Yes I am, actually,’ he replied. ‘My father was part human-breed.’ He pulled back the covers and manoeuvred himself out of bed. Beak6 flapped to his shoulder.

  Eli turned to Ev’r. ‘I think I know how to help Luther.’

  ‘Who?’ Ev’r asked. She clutched at a pain in her stomach.

  ‘The Midnight Man cross-breed. I don’t think it’s just the metamorphosis that’s making him sick; I think it might also be an allergy that’s stopping him taking in nutrients. Allergies appear to be common for mixed people. I know several others in the same situation. I hadn’t made the link before, but maybe Luther’s allergies are just flaring up now that he’s reaching maturity, like a delayed effect because of the way a Midnight Man’s body changes at the time of metamorphosis. Maybe if I treated his allergy, he wouldn’t need to eat the near-dead to change and survive. Maybe he just needs to —’

  The door to the room swung open and a nurse stood in the doorway, holding a tray of medication. She looked from Eli to Ev’r to Lao, then dropped the tray with a clattering crash and screamed. Eli screamed as well. Ev’r grabbed him and the Androt by the wrist and sank them into the Murk.

  Eli plummeted through the uncertain space behind space. He could hear Lao yelling in agony. Eli found it didn’t hurt him as much as it had the first time, but it was still painful and disorientating. It was like one of his recurring nightmares where he was running away from something bad, but could never quite focus his eyes.

  Colour suddenly ripped into the grey and the three of them sprawled out onto the concrete in the middle of the largest shopping level in the city. It was packed with people enjoying the all-night sales in honour of the noctus-renium. Shoppers cried out and scattered in all directions. Some froze to stare at them. A pleasant upbeat tune jingled in the background. Eli scrambled to his feet and pushed the Androt and Ev’r into a side street. He checked Nelly in his pocket and felt that she was alright – sleeping soundly.

  ‘Quick.’ Ev’r grimaced and clutched at her stomach. ‘The Skreaf were in the Murk. They’re onto us.’

  Lao moaned in fear and held his injured arm.

  Not far from where they had dropped out, the two guardians from the hospital appeared from around a corner and began scoping for them with body-form sensors.

  ‘You two keep going. I’ll try to lead them away,’ Eli said.

  ‘No,’ Ev’r argued. ‘We stay together.’

  ‘You’re both sick!’ Eli said. ‘I can fly. Just go. I’ll find you!’

  Eli darted out from the side street and the military sensors instantly locked onto him. The guardians spun in his direction. Eli ripped off his shirt, buzzed his wings and took off. He kept to the packed shopping strip, jumping off people’s shoulders and scrambling through the crowd, using them as a shield. The guardians struggled to keep up, nowhere near as fast as he was and unable to discharge their electrifiers or to use their dark-words with so many witnesses around. He raced past the centre of the open mall, past a stage of performing dancers. Someone yelled behind him and the sound was answered by more shouting and frightened screams.

  Eli glanced over his shoulder. Gangsters from the Crook’d Town Pride had spread out behind him, and all around them shoppers were fleeing as fast as they could go. The Pride’s feline companions roared and flexed dagger claws. The guardians chasing Eli were forced to stop and question the gangsters. Eli, sure that Ev’r and Lao would have had time to disappear, took the opportunity to vanish as well. Whirring his wings, he flew upwards, above the lamp lights lining the strip and further into the sky. He flew parallel with an enormous, many-storeyed transflyer parking centre. He ducked through onto one of the higher levels and dropped down behind the wheels of the closest craft. As he was pulling his shirt back on, he heard approaching voices. Peering from his hiding place towards the sound, he saw that two human-breed women, laden with shopping bags of all colours, were heading to their craft. Their voices echoed in the quiet of the parking lot and he picked up on their conversation.

  ‘They just came and dragged him out of the house. They didn’t even explain why. They just said he was being detained by the state. Camilla was devastated. That Androt had been with them for years. I think it’s wrong.’

  The other woman, with the long neck and pursed lips of a goose-blood human-breed
, cast a nervous look around the parking lot and said, ‘Let’s talk more inside the craft.’

  They disappeared behind a row of transflyers and left Eli to consider their words. They supported his theory that the witches were using the United Regiment to hunt Kry. Eli realised that in locating Kry’s cousin, they now actually had a chance of finding Kry himself before the Skreaf did.

  He grabbed his communicator and checked Ev’r’s location. She was moving through a lower level of the city. The machine buzzed and displayed a message that the results from the elements analysis had been sent from the laboratory’s system. He glanced around for witnesses then opened the communicator’s holo-screen to read the outcomes. The ingredients of the potion that Ev’r needed flashed up. Eli stared, reading through the list with growing disbelief. All the ingredients were either impossible to come by without spending a lifetime searching for them, or were completely extinct. There was zero chance he would be able to re-create the potion in time to save Ev’r.

  His communicator buzzed with an incoming call and he saw it was the woman herself. He breathed in deeply and answered, ‘Ev’r.’

  ‘You clear?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes – are you?’ he replied.

  ‘Far as I can tell.’ Her voice gasped at the end of the sentence and Eli winced. The slowing elixir he had given her wasn’t having as much effect as last time.

  ‘Where are you going?’ he asked her.

  ‘The Androt says he knows a place to lie low. He thinks Kry will be there.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Eli said. ‘Ev’r, you have to convince Kry to come with us so that we can protect him.’

  She grunted agreement. ‘Did you get the lab results?’

  ‘Yes,’ Eli said and cringed. He had been trying to lie and say no.

  ‘And?’

  ‘It’s all good, I’ll be able to get the potion together,’ he said in a falsely positive tone.

  ‘Then it better be soon because . . .’ She didn’t finish and she didn’t need to – the growl behind her voice was enough. Eli gulped.

  ‘Keep your communicator with you. I’ll find you,’ he said.

  She disconnected.

  ‘What am I going to do?’ Eli whispered, holding his head in one hand. He had to find an alternative cure for Ev’r, but before that he needed to find out where the Skreaf had taken the Mazurus Machine. He stretched out his aching legs, his closed eyes prickling with tiredness. The ground shuddered underneath him as another mini-quake shook the city. It spurred him to keep moving. He dragged himself up and spoke to Nelly, who was peeping out of his pocket.

  ‘Plan B – on all accounts.’

  She chattered nervously and Eli said, ‘I know. I wish we didn’t have to either, but we’re running out of options.’

  He gave her some fish treats to calm her then clipped his communicator back in place and stepped out from behind the transflyer.

  Caesar K-Ruz crouched on the railing of the parking level just ahead of him. His nocturnal eyes glowed in the darkness and his shadow beast stalked along the wall beside him.

  ‘Where is he?’ Caesar demanded.

  ‘Who?’ Eli squeaked.

  ‘Shawe.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Eli shook his head.

  ‘He’s with Kane. Have you had any contact?’

  ‘No – I mean yes, but we didn’t discuss locations or Shawe.’

  ‘Call your boss and get a location – now,’ Caesar ordered.

  ‘I can’t. I have to wait for the hedge we’re running between our systems to complete, otherwise the Regiment will pick up on the signal.’

  ‘How long?’

  ‘I’m not sure – there’s been some damage to the machines and a lot of interference. They’re definitely targeting the commander’s lines. It could be some time —’

  ‘Then we’ll wait – together,’ Caesar said, settling down on the railing.

  ‘I can’t wait,’ Eli said, panic stirring nerves in his wings. ‘The Skreaf are taking over. I have to keep working.’

  ‘You’ll wait,’ the Pride boss responded. It wasn’t a request.

  Eli stepped from one foot to the other, gnawing on his lip with frustration. Obviously if his main focus was on killing Shawe and taking over the Gangland, Caesar hadn’t comprehended exactly how dire their situation was and how much worse it could become.

  ‘Instead of killing Shawe, can’t you just banish him like the olden-day kings used to – just declare him gone and take over his rule?’ Eli suggested.

  ‘No. Shawe must die. It is Gangland law.’

  ‘So change the law.’ Eli’s voice rose slightly, his urgency overcoming his fear of the gangster.

  ‘Who am I to do that?’ Caesar said.

  ‘The warlord Damesai said, rules are set by the powerful and re-written by the great,’ Eli said, thinking quickly. ‘I don’t know whether you realise this, but you are great. Everyone looks up to you, even your rivals, and it’s not because of your religious adherence to the law – it’s because you’re different. If I were you, I would make changes. I would let Shawe live just as an example of what I could do.’

  ‘Let him live?’ Caesar growled. ‘Impossible.’

  ‘Is it?’ Eli said. ‘Why? Did you ever think that maybe even the gangsters are tired of the bloodshed? Why do you think everyone wants to unite?’

  The glow of Caesar’s eyes flared. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I know things like you know things.’ Eli deflected the question. ‘And something else I know is that our whole existence is about to crumble if we don’t stop the Skreaf. They’re going to raise their master, the Morsmalus.’

  Caesar took this in. ‘How?’

  ‘I’m not exactly sure, but they have a machine they stole from the Galleria and we know they’re hunting for an Androt named Kry.’

  ‘Kry,’ Caesar’s voice registered recognition.

  ‘You know him?’ Eli said.

  ‘He’s the leader of the Androt uprising.’

  ‘The Androts are uprising?’ Eli asked with no small degree of shock.

  ‘Kry is a maniac,’ Caesar said.

  ‘Well, Ev’r Keets has gone to talk to him now. Hopefully she will be able to reason in a way he understands.’

  ‘The blind leading the blind,’ Caesar snarled. ‘You said this creature Morsmalus could destroy us?’

  ‘To put it nicely.’

  Caesar studied Eli for a long moment. His expression remained cool, but a storm raged in his eyes.

  ‘Then I’ll get Kry,’ the gangster finally offered. ‘You find Shawe – and I haven’t forgotten our deal.’

  Caesar stood up and leapt from the parking level. Eli ran to the edge and saw the gangster boss landing comfortably on an awning far below. He jumped down onto the street and vanished from sight.

  ‘Time to fly,’ Eli whispered to Nelly. He vaulted over the railing and took off into the dark sky.

  *****

  The beaded curtains swish-clink-clanked as Eli pushed them aside and entered the basement shop. He blinked through the haze of musk incense mingling with the sweet smoke of illegal fungi. Particles of matter danced beneath the faded globes hanging from the low ceiling. He moved into the entrance of the shop, laid out like a waiting room with a few tattered chairs along both walls. The wooden floor was scratched and scuffed, the polish long gone.

  He stopped at the front desk and knocked on it. A reply sounded somewhere past the black sheet hanging behind the desk, obscuring the innards of the shop. Tapping footsteps made their way towards him, gradually growing louder until a face pushed out of the blackness. Purple eyes fixed on Eli and his old Greer friend, Swifty, gave a clearly wicked, sharp-toothed grin.

  ‘Please tell me that’s not how I look when I smile,’ Eli said.

  ‘Eli!’ Swifty rushed out and smothered him in hugs and kisses.

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Eli untangled himself.

  ‘Haven’t seen you in ages, man,’ Swifty said, speaking in Impish. His
eyes roamed over Eli’s jacket, sizing up the pockets. ‘What? You’re too good for your peoples now you’re a big-shot military soldier?’

  ‘You heard, then, did you?’ Eli said, realising the United Regiment must have released his profile to the media to aid in hunting him. ‘How much does silence cost?’

  ‘Lai Lai, Eli man . . . you think so little of me. I know I’m not tall but I’m not that small, you catch me?’

  ‘How much?’ Eli repeated, patiently. Being imp-breed, especially half-Greer, half-Glee, made him well aware of the general weaknesses of his race. They were addicted to causing havoc and couldn’t keep a secret to save themselves, but he hoped money would be enough at least to buy him some time.

  Swifty stroked the little purple beard on his chin and said, ‘What’s coin between brothers, Eli?’

  ‘Swift – how much?’

  The Greer rolled his eyes. ‘You’re no fun anymore. Must be the Glee in you.’

  ‘Low blow,’ Eli said. He pulled a fat coin bag from his pocket and handed it to his friend. ‘That’s all I have. Frisk me if you doubt it, but trust me on this – the only result you’ll get from calling the Regiment is a smashed-up shop and jail time for all the contraband you’ve got here. They won’t give you a cent of any reward. You know I’m right.’

  Swift took the coin bag with light-speed stealth and shoved it into his pocket. ‘Speaking of contraband . . .’ He flashed his grin.

  ‘No,’ Eli said.

  ‘I have Blue-Ten, I have Estle Thistle, I have red, orange and pink fungi.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘We could set up a few rounds – just like old times.’

  ‘I just gave you all my coin,’ Eli said. ‘How do you think I’m going to pay for it?’

  Swifty considered it for a moment. He took a sovereign out of his pocket and gave it to Eli. He said with a grin, ‘Now you can pay.’

  Eli slapped the coin back into Swifty’s hand and said, ‘No. I want to see Mr Bellbeater.’