The Merchant of Dreams (Night's Masque, #2)(128)

"Ned? Ned? Don't die on me…"

Then he was falling into blissful oblivion, far from all pain.

Coby huddled against the palazzo wall, trying not to puke at the memory of that… thing crunching Ned's wrist like a dog with a new bone. She had failed to stop the demons and now her friends were suffering. Lead bullets were useless – but what about iron ones? She put down her guns and reached behind her neck, managing to unfasten the necklace on the third attempt. If lodestone protected against evil spirits, perhaps it would also kill them.

She swabbed out the still-warm barrel of each pistol and gingerly poured in a measure of black powder, then cut the waxed thread of the necklace and slid off two of the beads. The dark metal spheres were a bit smaller than her usual shot, but they had to be better than nothing. She shoved the rest of the necklace into her pocket and finished loading and priming the pistols. The next devourer to emerge from the palazzo would not be so lucky as the last.

? ? ? ?
Mal ran through the main chambers of the piano nobile, but there was no sign of the devourers. Had they really killed them all? He leaned out of the window, hoping to get a good view of the square, and stopped, heart in mouth. Someone lay by the bridge steps, a pale-haired figure crouching over him… Blessed Lady, one down already? He ran back down the stairs and out into the garden.

"Master Catlyn, look out! Above you!"

Mal looked up, just in time to see a dark shape launch itself from the uppermost floor. It floated to the ground as if underwater, landing light as thistledown about halfway between Mal and the garden wall.

"Duck!" Coby shouted at him.

A moment later a pistol snapped and a bullet whistled overhead, far too close for comfort. The creature, undaunted, loped towards the wall. Mal ran after it, but as it leapt onto the coping a second pistol shot rang out around the square and the creature screamed and dissolved into smoke.

"Got it!"

Coby grinned at him through the gate. Her face was pale and smeared with grime, but she had never looked so beautiful to him.

"You're hurt," she said as he clambered awkwardly up the gate and dropped down beside her.

"Just a scratch. Looks worse than it is. At least I got out alive."

"Charles?"

Mal shook his head. "What about the… Sweet Jesu! Ned!"

Parrish was helping a white-faced Ned to his feet. Blood dripped onto the cobbles from Ned's mangled right arm, splinters of bones poking out of the raw mess. Mal had seen a few injuries like that on the battlefield, and there was only one treatment.

"Get him out of here," Mal called out to Gabriel. "Find Cinquedea, find a surgeon to–"

"I know," Parrish said quietly. He turned back to Ned, murmuring to him like a mother with her child, and together they limped up the steps of the bridge.

"Is that all of them?" Coby asked, looking up from reloading her pistols.

"We killed four inside, and yours makes five."

"Eight, then. Ned accounted for two, then Gabriel finished the one that…" She grimaced.

"We don't know for sure how many there were to begin with, though," he said, scanning the building. "There could still be some left, hiding in the shadows. The only way to be certain is to wait. If none emerge between now and dawn…"

"There is another way," a voice said behind them.

Mal looked round. "Sandy!"

"We came as fast as we could," his brother said.

"We?"

"Kiiren is here as well. He is fetching a sleeping draught for Ned."

"Lucky Ned." Mal pulled a face. "You said something about there being another way. You know how to destroy these creatures?"

"You already know that part. No, I meant that I can find out if there are any left here."

"How?"

"They cast shadows in the dreamworld, just as we cast light."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Assuming I still can.

Sandy sat down with his back to the wall. "I need you to protect my earthly body; I cannot see into both places at once."

"Nothing will get past me, I swear."

Sandy closed his eyes, and within a few moments his eyelids began to twitch as if he were asleep and dreaming. Mal peered through the gate, trying to ignore the returning ache in his shoulders. As soon as this was over, he would press Kiiren for another draught of that foul-tasting potion. Or get drunk. He hefted his rapier, and hissed through clenched teeth at the sudden movement. Perhaps both.

All was still within at first, then he heard a dry rattle, as of clawed feet on stone. Shadows pooled in the doorway. At least two of the beasts, perhaps three, it was impossible to tell. Mal hefted his rapier and stepped closer to Sandy. Coby cocked her pistol.

Two of the creatures rushed them in a smoky blur. One was felled by a pistol shot halfway across the garden, but the other reached the wall before Coby could fire again. Out of the corner of his eye Mal saw the third leap the wall in a single bound, heading for the bridge, but he had no time to pay it any further mind. A triangular head snaked down at him, jaws clashing, too close for blade-work. Mal turned his wrist and slammed the pommel of his rapier into the creature's snout. It hissed and snapped at him, dead-white eyes rolling in their sockets. He drew his dagger and thrust upwards into its soft under-jaw until the steel blade grated on the inside of its brainpan. The creature gave an inhuman scream and was gone. But the scream continued.