Queen's Shadow || Kingdom at the End of the World - Book II

[9] Lies and Teacups

Lord Fane's messenger came for them at sunset.

Ira had retired to the study, and was busy reading when Orlova arrived. She set the History of Samodevia aside to waken Valeri. Only then did she answer Orlova's insistent and increasingly agressive knocking.

"We will be a moment," Ira said. She did not move from the doorway.

Orlova leaned in with a sharp smile. "Am I not welcomed inside?" she asked.

"Not presently," Ira agreed calmly.

Orlova laughed, displaying sharp fangs. Ira's eyes darted to the woman's shadow. If Orlova's human twin hid within it, there was no indication of her presence.

Valeri joined them soon enough. Orlova winked at the man, then bid them follow her down yet more winding tunnels. Chervnik thrummed around them. Voices, footsteps, the ringing of machines all melted into a constant hum of incongruent sounds. Those who lived in Chervnik no longer noticed its existence. Ira felt it as a vibration in her bones, and could not quite convince her wary mind to allow the noise to fade into the background. Her head ached as it had not since her rebirth in Beaufort Manor.

They reached a bowl-bellied room. It connected half a dozen tunnels, and allowed Ira and Valeri their first glimpse of Chervnik's residents. Men and women passed through in a hurry, some speaking in whispers with their companions. The few humans in their midst caught Ira by surprise.

"Since when does the Dvor employ humans?" she asked Valeri.

"The Dvor would not," Valeri answered. The man appeared troubled.

"They are refugees, Miss Hale," Orlova said, not bothering to lower her voice or feign ignorance of their conversation. "Through here, if you would please."

She pointed down, to a large, circular door cut into the floor. Ira's mouth thinned.

"Are we not underground enough?" Valeri sighed.

Orlova laughed. She pulled the sunken door open with a flourish, revealing a staircase.

"Watch your step!" the woman called out. She then belied her own advice by jumping straight down, disappearing from sight.

Ira followed the woman. She took the stairs rather than the shortcut, mindful of the thin metal rungs under her feet.

"I do not remember ever traveling this deeply into Chervnik, in Iavor's company," Valeri commented quietly.

The door closed above them when they were halfway down. The sound of it falling shut put Ira in mind of a sprung trap.

The passageway sloped downward. The walls thickened around them, the metal clang of wheels grinding against each other pronounced. Lanterns painted red shadows over their skin. Ira glanced at Valeri. The man's head was bowed, his eyes glazed in thought.

Orlova led them to a door. "Lord Fane's office," she explained. The woman knocked twice, then wrenched the door open and waltzed in without further ceremony.

The room was small. It was also cluttered and bright enough to give Ira pause. There was a desk pushed against a wall. It was buried under paper and flanked by an assortment of mismatched chairs. Ira followed a trail of pillows from there to a low table on the other side of the room, which suffered a similar deluge of parchment. Teacups peeked between stacks of paper. There were yet more under the table itself, along with a teapot, a man's foot, and what looked like a toy train.

Ira backtracked mentally.

The foot was attached to a leg and the leg to a body mostly hidden from view by a thick, purple blanket. Ira looked at Valeri. The man was staring in open disbelief, so an explanation did not seem likely from his corner.