The geomancer slowly lifted herself from prone to sitting, wedging herself against the wall. The white and gold dress was tattered and torn: one sleeve was down by her wrist, and the other’s stitching had all but unravelled. Her front, bare chest and sculpted bodice, was stained scarlet from the copious nose bleed Mary had given her. She lifted a hand and scraped her hair away from her face enough to reveal one baleful red eye.

She wiped her puffy lips with the back of her hand. Her teeth were white against the red.

‘Why are you letting me live?’

‘Because I don’t feel like killing you, right? You want to die? There’s the window.’ Mary glared at her. ‘This should have been different. You could have been nice to us. We would have answered all your questions. We’d have probably stayed here while we found our feet. Instead, you treat us like shit, then wonder why we don’t do as we’re told. You can fuck right off with that. You’re going to have to answer our questions now, and you’d better tell us the truth.’

26

26

Dalip found a stand-off at the bottom of the tower. The guards had forced the door, but those inside had barricaded the stairwell making it impossible for them to pass further.

‘Let me through,’ he said to Mama, and even though it was a squeeze to get by her on the stairs, they were both past the point of embarrassment. Elena was next, and it was no more nor less awkward. The front line consisted of Luiza and Stanislav, and Dalip peered between them over the jumble of furniture at the thwarted guards. He threw the geomancer’s broken toy into the midst of the snarling men.

‘What was that?’ asked Stanislav. He’d been cut on the forehead by some flying object, a raised lump with a gash at its centre had streamed blood down the side of his face and neck.

‘I’ve no idea what it was, but it should mean we can stop fighting for a bit.’

‘You’ve taken her, then,’ came the shouted response.

‘It’s over. She’s still alive, but she’s our prisoner now.’

‘You should have finished her,’ hissed Stanislav. ‘She is dangerous.’

‘Look, just …’ Dalip screwed his face up in concentration. ‘Shut up about that. We know what we’re doing.’ He returned his attention to the guards. ‘Leave the tower. Leave the castle if that’s what you want, we can’t stop you and we wouldn’t want to. Everything’s changed here – we’re not slaves anymore.’

He could see the guards individually weighing up the balance of power: one by one, they left the downstairs room. There was no door to pull shut behind them – it was lying flat on the floor – but once the last of them had gone, the only thing stealing back through was the night.