something.
He moved away from the cage, to find Isangell following him. She looked battered and exhausted and more like their grandmama than he had ever realised.
‘I’m glad you’re all right,’ he said in a low voice.
She gave him an exasperated look and said nothing.
Poet was circling the cage, trying to talk to the creature inside Garnet’s skin. ‘You’ve told this story before, haven’t you? Through that damned watch. Did Garnet know all this?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Garnet, smiling widely. ‘We spoke to him, many times, as we did with Saturn before him. He didn’t take it very well, it has to be said.’
‘If your argument is with the exiles,’ Delphine broke in, ‘then take it up with them, not us. If these creatures are so damned powerful, let them solve this mess. Where are they?’
Garnet met her gaze and seemed to bask in the muted glow of her skysilver dress. ‘The last one fell in battle this nox. You called him the Smith. It is of little account. You all still have what we want returned.’
‘So we’ll return it,’ Velody insisted. ‘We’ll negotiate a treaty. Are you their leader? Can you speak for them?’
‘Leader,’ their enemy said scornfully. ‘We are all as one.’
‘Then you can help us end the war,’ said Velody. ‘The Smith and the others like him are gone, so you’ve had your vengeance.’
The creature smiled with all of Garnet’s teeth. ‘Once this city is dust as the other two are dust, the war will end. The light will be back where it belongs, on our side of the sky.’
Isangell let go of Ashiol’s hand and stepped forward. ‘We can’t let you destroy another city full of people,’ she said, speaking firmly. ‘There must be some agreement we can make to save everyone who is left.’
‘You people love to make sacrifices,’ said the sky-Garnet. ‘By all means, sacrifice to us. Burn your honey cakes, wave your ribbons, build your statues. It is meat and drink to our world. But we will still eat you alive. We will not rest until every stone they placed, every weapon they forged, is destroyed.’
Ashiol was exasperated. Would these demmes do nothing but talk?
‘You can’t negotiate with them,’ he insisted. ‘Don’t you get it? We’re the weapons. The only way it will be happy is if we’re all destroyed.’
‘Ashiol’s right for once,’ said Kelpie. He tried not to resent the ‘for once’. ‘The battle or storm or whatever is still going on while we make small talk with this … random piece of cloud. It’s distracting us from the main event.’ She stepped closer to the bars, hatred all over her face. ‘Kill it and be done.’
Ashiol knew all of Garnet’s moves, and he saw this one happening before he could stop it. Garnet’s hand darted out to grasp the skysilver knife on Kelpie’s left hip, and as she shifted back on one foot to keep it out of his reach, he grabbed the other knife, the steel one, and plunged it directly into his own chest. It slid in like butter — steel could not draw the blood of one of the Creature Court — and Garnet’s face cleared. His eyes were suddenly far more hungry and alert.
‘Right then,’ he said. ‘That’s better. We can talk.’
‘What are you up to?’ Velody demanded.
Garnet met Ashiol’s gaze and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.
Ashiol sighed. ‘This is the real Garnet,’ he said.
Poet nodded in confirmation.
Kelpie’s face didn’t change. ‘Not an improvement,’ she sneered.
‘This won’t work for long,’ Garnet said quickly. ‘There’s something about steel — it mixes up their signals. Back when they were speaking to me through the watch, putting a steel blade to my skin would shut them up for nearly an hour sometimes. It was the only way to get a decent sleep.’
‘Why should we believe you?’ Velody asked.
Garnet gave her his best ‘bored now’ expression. It twisted in Ashiol’s stomach like the knife was sticking into him instead of his oldest friend. ‘If you can’t contribute anything useful, little mouse, keep your mouth shut. The fucking army on the other side of the sky has been grooming me for years for this moment. This day. As long as they’re inside me, they don’t need to break paths through the sky any more. They can come through me.’
‘So if we kill you,’ said Kelpie helpfully, ‘it’s all over.’
‘A sweet thought, sentinel,’ Garnet sneered. ‘But whatever they are is well and truly tangled up in my body. They took my animor and put something else