had been so much better when she was poor and living on gruel; at least no one had ever filled her mouth with blood. It tasted good, that was the worst of it, and she found herself lapping, drinking deeply.
The burning sensation in her stomach stopped. The heat died away. Panicked, she stared at the two who had saved her. Sentinels. The sentinels who had walked away. ‘What did you do?’
‘The skysilver wound wouldn’t heal without it,’ said the man, taking back his bleeding wrist and wrapping it tightly with a bandage from his pocket.
Topaz had no animor. This was worse than the drug. She tried to shape herself back into salamander form, but couldn’t. ‘Take it back. Take it back!’
‘It’s all right,’ the blonde woman said, as if Topaz was somehow stupid. ‘We have our blades, we’ll protect you.’
‘But who’s going to protect her?’ Topaz wailed.
‘What do you mean?’
Another voice broke in over them, one Topaz would know with her eyes closed, even here in the dark with her animor quiet inside her body. Poet, the Orphan Princel. He stood on the bank of the lake, looking down at the three of them.
‘Topaz was never the sacrifice Garnet wanted,’ said Poet sadly. ‘She was the bait.’
28
Some of the crowd had fled when the battle began between the Creature Court. Others still watched, as if they thought it was some kind of organised spectacle. They ate chestnuts, or drank bean syrup from paper boats.
Velody, bruised and battered from her fight with Garnet, found herself held down by Warlord and Lennoc, each of them pouring all of the animor they had into keeping of her arms pinned to the floor of the pavilion.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded hoarsely. ‘This isn’t right. Did you know he meant to do this when you pledged your loyalty to him?’
‘That’s how loyalty works,’ said Lennoc. He could barely see after what she had done to him in the fight, but his hands were still strong and steady. ‘We serve Garnet, whatever he chooses to do. He is our Power and Majesty.’
‘I could tear you to pieces,’ she said.
She could, even with their power so directed in keeping her down. She could go chimaera. She could make their animor burst out of their bodies. She was a King and they were Lords.
‘If you were willing to hurt us, you would have done it by now,’ said Warlord in that rich voice of his. ‘You are weak.’
Velody could feel her animor uncurl within her body. It was desperate to hurt, slash, kill, to be free. It was all she could do to contain it. Maybe she should just let it go. That was what Ashiol would do. She had done it before, allowed the animor to make the decisions for her.
She had pledged never to be like Ashiol; and besides, he was a coward and he wasn’t here.
Somewhere, Livilla screamed. Velody knew it was Livilla: she could feel the wolf-animor in the pain and outrage of the cry. The crowd was protesting now, muttering amongst themselves. The Sea-father’s script was no longer familiar to them.
Garnet rose slowly above the lake pavilion, glowing bright like a Lord. The blue hood of his costume had fallen back and his beard had slipped away into the waters of the lake. He held Livilla by the throat, the skysilver blade gleaming as he threatened her with it.
‘What, such distress?’ he roared at them all. ‘I thought you people were used to sacrifices. You love to cut the entrails out of sheep and deer and poor little birdies. The blood runs thick across the floor of this fucking city. How is this any different?’
‘He’s going to kill her,’ Velody whispered. There was nothing teasing about Garnet’s stance, or the hold he had on Livilla. ‘I thought you loved her,’ she hissed at Warlord. ‘How can you let him do this to her?’
Warlord’s grip on Velody loosened, his animor fluctuating a little. ‘Garnet loves her. He’s just trying to scare her into joining us.’
‘Because Garnet has been so kind in the past to those he loves!’
Garnet had loved Ashiol so much he’d almost killed him. Velody could see that memory in Warlord’s eyes.
‘He will kill her,’ she repeated.
‘She betrayed him,’ Warlord said, but she felt another waver in his animor.
‘He took her courtesa, threatened to sacrifice her to the sky. He set Livilla up to betray him. She can’t change sides with no air to breathe, even if she wants to.’
Velody sent