Scar Night Page 0,53

he began to climb.

* * * *

Asilhouette suddenly covered the stars that were visible through one of the missing windows. Rachel leaned back in her chair, just enough to make it creak. The silhouette changed shape. Carnival had seen her, but didn’t move yet to engage.

No wonder you suspect a trap. Those idiots have stopped shooting, now they’ve got you in position. And I’m supposed to sit here and do nothing.

So Rachel threw a knife, aimed to kill.

Carnival flinched away from it, snarling. But still she didn’t attack.

Come on, you bitch, come get me. The assassin threw another knife, and another, but the angel avoided them as easily as if they were wind-blown leaves. How can she even see them coming? Rachel pursed her lips. Provoke her, they said .

“Hey, freak,” Rachel yelled out.

That did it. Carnival dove.

Rachel leapt forward and sideways just as the chair she’d been sitting in smashed to pieces behind her. She rolled across the observation platform, pulling another knife from her sleeve, and at that same moment heard the heavy crossbow hidden on the mansion roof below fire its payload.

A steel-mesh net engulfed the entire planetarium. The whole structure shuddered as the heavy bolas wrapped around its base.

The angel growled.

Now the scary part. I’m trapped here too. Rachel threw the knife, but heard it clatter against a strut in a different direction to the one she’d thrown it in. Shit shit shit. Carnival knocked that knife aside. I may as well be lobbing balloons at her . She got to her feet, drawing her sword. In the starlit gloom the angel’s wings loomed huge and black.

“You are to be sacrificed,” Carnival hissed.

“Not if I can help it.”

Carnival charged her, a blur of darkness. Rachel lunged out with her sword, felt it deflected. The angel merely pushed the blade aside with the heel of her hand, moved inside Rachel’s reach. Oh God . Suddenly Rachel felt overstretched, vulnerable to attack, and Carnival was reaching for her throat. Rachel flexed at the knees, dodged beneath her assailant’s hand, and, thereby unbalanced, had no option but to throw herself backwards. Carnival’s own momentum shot her clear.

Pain jarred through Rachel’s neck, a chair collapsing under her shoulders. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that, for Carnival was moving again, turning, coming for her. So fast! The assassin rolled over, scrambled away, lashing her sword blindly behind her. I’m fighting like some frightened recruit . By luck, the clumsy manoeuvre bought her just enough time to regain her feet.

Glass burst inwards overhead.What? Rachel whirled round. For a crazy moment, it appeared to be raining again, though the sky above was cloudless. Water streamed through missing panes, dripped from the planetarium’s skeleton struts. Carnival recoiled from the downpour, widening the gap between them. A drip splashed over Rachel’s hand, greasy on her skin. Then she recognized the dense, chemical odour, and she realized what was happening.

Not water. This wasn’t part of their plan. Not part of the plan they told me.

Evidently the angel had noticed the smell too. “Sacrifice,” she said with a mocking grin.

Rachel heard the flame arrows before she saw them. The first struck the brickleweed growing on the west curve of wall, fizzled for an instant, then erupted. The second smashed through one of the constellation-etched facets in the eastern side of the globe and lodged inside the viewing platform. Flames blossomed around it. Half a dozen more arrows followed.

Lamp oil—they’ve drenched the place in it. They’re going to burn us both alive.

In as many heartbeats as there had been arrows, Oberhammer’s planetarium was ablaze.

“Spine,” Rachel snarled. “The utter bastards.”

Carnival’s eyes narrowed to slits; her scars seemed to turn blood-red in the firelight. She lashed her wings and lifted herself six feet above the platform. Flames reached out and plucked at the air around her.

Expendable? Rachel lowered her sword. They weren’t joking .

Carnival, however, did not appear to share her fellow captive’s resignation. Wreathed in flames, the angel’s wings thundered in the centre of the globe. She paused to gather her strength, then threw herself against the southern curve of the planetarium.

Rachel felt the jolt through the floor as all of the facets on that side shattered. Glass exploded outwards, showered into the lane below. Metal groaned under the impact.

Oh shit, she’s not going to…She can’t…This globe must weigh a hundred tons.

Carnival drew back, tensed, and then slammed herself again against the inside surface of the globe.

A deep grinding sound. The planetarium tilted.

Flames had taken good