Reign of Beasts (Creature Court) - By Tansy Rayner Roberts Page 0,65

how valuable you are?’ Garnet’s voice was like honey.

Poet was so very still, as if he wanted to blend into the walls and floor. Topaz could barely feel his power, let alone see him among the shadows.

‘The flames are getting hotter,’ said the woman in a low, low voice. ‘The heat in my skin. I can’t stop it. I get so angry. I’ve never been this angry before. When I lose control … I don’t want to hurt anyone.’

‘You can’t hurt me,’ said Garnet. He almost sounded amused at the thought of it.

Topaz stared at her own hands, barely visible in the dark. Flames under the skin. Was there someone else like her?

‘Come in, Poet,’ Garnet said suddenly, his voice sharp. ‘Don’t hide in the shadows like an interloper. We are your guests.’

Poet stepped forward into the light of the room. ‘Didn’t want to interrupt,’ he said. ‘I’d hate Mistress Rhian to be startled. It’s such a bore to clean up the mess afterwards.’

Rhian. The Seer, then. Livilla spoke of her, but always sounded dismissive, uninterested.

‘I have such terrible dreams,’ Rhian said. ‘Of Saturnalia, and a sacrifice. Are you really going to —’

‘Enough,’ Garnet commanded. ‘I have no secrets from Poet, but there are some things that should never be spoken aloud. Not until the time is right.’

Topaz felt a shiver. Did he know she was there? She could feel the heat of his animor, and Poet’s, shining out of that room like a beacon.

She had to get out of here.

She turned, stumbling on the steps as she went. Her human body was too big and clumsy for this. She felt a hand in the small of her back, pushing her hard down the stairs. She shaped herself into her real form, burning and cool-skinned, lizard feet scrabbling on the steps as she rushed down.

They were everywhere, Poet’s people, all around her, leaping in from the darkness. She felt the shadehound snapping at her heels, the weasels sliding between her feet, and she burned brightly, her flames bursting free to keep them at bay, all of them.

None of them could touch her. She scattered into several lizard bodies, making for the door, but fierce silver threads held her back, wrapping around her feet and limbs, a different kind of burn tangling around her.

This one hurt.

She couldn’t see, and there was no heat to the burn, just pain, pain, a tangled net of crossed threads binding her forms together. Topaz howled, slithering, biting, but it was too late.

She was trapped.

24

Neptunalia; Kalends of Saturnalis

There were many things wrong with the sight of Livilla on Velody’s doorstep, but the fact that she apparently didn’t spend the daylight hours hanging upside down by her ankles somewhere (or, to be fair, curled up in a basket) came as something of a surprise.

Livilla wore a glittering cocktail dress that most definitely did not suit the occasion. She posed, as ever, like she expected a chorus line of men to carry her from place to place, lighting her cigarette and kissing her feet. She also looked worried. That was new.

‘I suppose you’d better come in,’ said Velody, standing aside.

She was alone in the house. Delphine was out doing something stupid to prove how over Macready she was, and Rhian was just gone. She came and went as she pleased, and while Velody would never get used to that, she had grudgingly accepted it. The world was different now. Everything was different. Rhian and Delphine had, after all, accepted what she’d had to do when she was Power and Majesty. This was no different, except that it was Rhian and it was all Velody could do not to wrap her in a quilt and drag her home from wherever she was.

Livilla graciously stepped into the kitchen, and looked around once as if wondering how people could actually live in such a hovel. ‘I need your help,’ she said.

‘Shouldn’t you ask your Power and Majesty for that?’ Velody couldn’t help saying. ‘That’s what he’s there for.’

Livilla turned on her, unsmiling. ‘My Power and Majesty has abducted a thirteen-year-old courtesa and is holding her prisoner in the cage. You know the cage I mean.’

Velody kept her face as composed as she could. ‘What is it you expect me to do? Go to war against Garnet for the sake of one courtesa?’

‘I expect you to live up to your promise,’ Livilla snapped. ‘Heliora believed in you. Ashiol believed in you. You were supposed to change everything for us, and what have