Bloodmoon (The Scarlet Star Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Calidae had said ‘we’ when he left her to the fire. ‘Everything we worked for’, she had said. He had known then, even in the middle of the surging fire, that ‘we’ meant more than just the Serpeds. Her words had bounced around Merion’s head for a week before he recalled the name that Castor had spat at him in the cargo hold.

  Dizali. The Bulldog’s successor. That name had been turned over and over in his mind, like a sword in a forge. Even now, staring at the jackalope meat, he wanted to mutter that name to the fire and see how it tasted. Bitter, he imagined.

  ‘What’s on your mind, Nephew?’ Lilain interrupted his brooding.

  ‘Nothing,’ Merion lied.

  His aunt was hardly convinced. ‘People only say nothing when there’s something to spit out. You’ve been staring at that meat for almost ten minutes,’ she said.

  ‘I was miles away,’ he mumbled, hoping that would placate her. Several thousand miles east, to be exact.

  ‘Mmm,’ she hummed, not convinced. ‘So what’s your plan, then, Nephew?’ she asked. She was determined to get an answer tonight. His sullen mood held no protection in the desert, it seemed.

  Merion shrugged. ‘Same as before. Head east. Work or barter our way to the coast, then somehow get on a ship heading for the Empire.’ It sounded so easy when it tumbled out of his mouth.

  ‘And where does this revenge part come in?’ rumbled Lurker, not looking up from his flask. Lilain flashed him a look, as if he had stolen her next question.

  The young Hark rolled his eyes. ‘I knew there would be questions about that,’ he muttered.

  ‘Do you blame us? We don’t hear a peep out of you for almost two weeks, and then you go sayin’ something like that? It worries me, Nephew,’ Lilain told him, as she rubbed her hands on a scrap of cloth. ‘I have to ask. I’m your aunt.’ Rhin was looking on intently now; the boy could feel his stare in the corner of his eye.

  Merion took a breath. ‘Prime Lord Dizali,’ he replied.

  ‘What’s one of those?’ asked Lurker.

  ‘My father’s successor, and the man behind the Serpeds’ treachery.’

  ‘How can you be so sure?’ Lilain asked.

  ‘You were there, Aunt Lilain, when Castor said his name. I’m sure of it. He means to take my estate from me,’ Merion stated, in a voice as cold as the night air around them.

  For a while, nobody said anything. Rhin just scraped his whetstone along his sword and cleared his throat.

  Lilain stared up at the dusty stars. ‘I’ll ask again. What’s your plan?’

  ‘Go to London. Expose Dizali for the worm he is.’

  ‘He’s a Prime Lord.’

  ‘And I’m the heir to a Prime Lord’s estate. Your point?’

  Lilain narrowed her eyes at him, and Merion felt as though he was back in her grimy kitchen, being told off for eavesdropping. It felt like such a long time ago.

  ‘My point, Nephew, is that he has the ear of the queen, and is a very powerful man. My point is that you are a boy, and he is a Prime Lord. My point is that you have no other plan besides sailing to London and marchin’ up his steps.’

  Merion glowered at the sand between his legs. She was right, and that was what cut deep. He knew he had nothing besides his anger and … bloodrushing. He had known this as soon as Dizali’s name had first crept into his head. But he refused to let that hold him back, and he said as much.

  Lilain shook her head and held her tongue, not pushing him any further tonight. The road was long, and travelling it in irksome silence would make it even longer. She changed the subject, and looked at Lurker. ‘How far are we from Nebraskar?’

  Lurker hummed, looking off towards the dark of the distant hills that cut a jagged horizon from the starry sky. ‘Two, three days of solid walkin’, maybe more,’ he said, then paused, sniffing the night air. He muttered something to himself and hauled himself up from the dust. The others watched him as he trudged out into the darkness. ‘Too much drinkin’,’ he added gruffly, before disappearing into the night.

  ‘He alright?’ Rhin asked. He had been quiet until now.

  Lilain nodded, peering after him. ‘He’s run out of blood. Hasn’t rushed in almost a week. That’s longer than he normally goes without.’

  ‘And don’t you have any?’

  ‘Not a drop, and you know that, Nephew.’

  ‘What’ll happen?’ Rhin was curious now.

  Lilain worked her lips. ‘Possibly nothing. He might just drink through it. Then again, he might not take too kindly to it, and get sick. I’ve seen that happen before. It’s called withdrawal, and it’s more in the mind than the body.’ Lilain’s voice told them the prospect weighed heavy on her.

  ‘Am I going to—?’ Merion began, but his aunt shook her head.

  ‘You’ve only been rushing for a month, Nephew. You’ll be fine.’

  Merion stared into the night, trying to spy Lurker in the shadows, but the fire had stolen his night vision, and the desert was black and empty. ‘What about Jake?’ he suggested.

  Lilain shook her head once more.

  ‘Shades have to be taken from specific places, where the blood is purest: heart, liver, brain—anywhere that involves either a scalpel or a long needle, and I don’t have either. It would kill the bird to try. If Lurker let me, that is. He loves that bird something strange.’

  ‘Where is that magpie, anyway?’

  ‘Scoutin’, probably. He wanders off for days on end. Always comes back, though. Always has,’ Lilain explained. Noting Merion’s worried look, she carried on. ‘There may be a few letters in Cheyenne. If we’re lucky.’

  ‘Good,’ Merion replied. ‘We’d better hurry then.’

  There was something selfish hiding in his words, and it stung him. He was worried for Lurker, of course, but the prospect of tasting blood again made his tongue run around the backs of his teeth and the saliva flow. He met his aunt’s eyes then, as he wondered what the next few days would hold, and saw the curiosity in them. The boy felt his cheeks grow hot, and he turned so his back was to the fire and he could stare at the stars.

  ‘Goodnight, Nephew,’ she said to him.

  ‘Goodnight,’ Merion whispered.

  Chapter V

  OF MURDER

  23rd June, 1867

  Cheyenne stank. Pure and simple. On any other day the desert town might have been pleasant, but on this particular day, with the war inching closer, with its streets swollen with townspeople, soldiers and sheriffsmen, it bordered on unbearable. Sweat, horse, dung, all mixed together into one nose-burning concoction, forced into their nostrils by the hot, dusty wind blowing in from the south.

  Merion clamped his nostrils shut for the tenth time that morning as he wrestled through the throngs of people swarming around the railroad and the station. A trio of trains sat upon the tracks, hissing like tired beasts, vomiting their occupants onto the platform with a roar of voices, shouts, and blaring whistles. Sheriffsmen hollered and barked, but nobody seemed to be listening. Everybody was drowning in their own importance: whether they were escaping the war or heading towards it, they pushed and shoved, no matter who stood before them.

  All around the edges of the chaos, the residents of Cheyenne looked on, their faces screwed up in confusion and bewilderment. This appeared to be a new state that they found themselves in. Wherever people are found in great quantity, there is always coin to be made. Here and there, stalls had been set up, selling dubious wares to those too frantic and too short of time to care about prices and quality. Gunsmiths, farriers, leather-workers, hat-vendors, travelling waresmen—even the general stores and saloons had relocated to the railroad to make a few extra dimes and florins out of the maelstrom of people. Merion heard one man, his tall stovepipe hat reaching high above the crowds, braying over the cacophony.

  ‘Charms, potions, medicines, philtres, cure-alls! Get ’em here while they last. Don’t want to find yourself on the frontier without one of Doctor Jabber’s famous remedies! Step right up!’
/>   Sometimes it helped being a thirteen-year-old boy amongst a crowd. Merion weaved his way between the people, still holding his nose, heading for the stall. He pushed his way to the front of the throng, where a kaleidoscope of bottles and vials lay on a crescent-shaped table. Doctor Jabber flashed him a silver-toothed grin and beckoned him forwards as he doled out wares, receipts, and raked in coins with his white-gloved hands.

  ‘What seems to be the malady, son? What do you need?’

  Merion didn’t reply. His eyes flicked from one bottle to the next, flashing over the hand-written labels and spurious descriptions:

  ‘Wasp Juice: For all colics and coughs!’

  ‘Extract of Pig: Balding? Devoid of a beard? Rub on your face, head, and chest for a full growth of hair!’

  ‘Bison Bone Brew: Cures palsies, boils and all manner of rashes!’

  ‘Jabber’s Jamblay Tonic: For blind eyes and cataracts!’

  ‘Come on now, son, we ain’t got all day. We got sick people here in need of my remedies!’

  Merion pointed to a bottle full of a thick, red liquid. ‘That, what’s in that?’

  Doctor Jabber held the bottle aloft for all to see. ‘This, son, is Doctor Jabber’s famous Viper Oil, distilled from the skins of Kansas vipers, boot leather, and hawk feathers. Cures all sorts of deafness, son. Yours for just a handful of dimes!’

  Merion scowled at the preposterous man and melted back into the crowds, his hope crushed like a viper under a heel. Others around him surged forward, eager for a taste of the magical remedy. Almighty’s sake!

  The young Hark battled his way through the crowds and back into the town proper, where citizens stood idly by, unsure of what to do with themselves. Once he had escaped the throngs, Merion passed by a group of women standing under lace sunbrellas, their long, billowing dresses already dusty at the hems. Their heads bobbed like geese and their painted lips twitched with gossip as they stared and pointed at the newcomers. He followed their gaze, taking a moment to stare at the madness from its fringes.

  Those that were heading towards the front were a strange mixture of people. Most were soldiers or workers, most likely headed for Kenaday or further west. They were dressed to match their weary, worried faces, the soldiers in blue uniforms almost grey with the dust. Every time a train hissed, or a whistle blew, or another young lad standing on a crate bleated out the news from the frontier, their heads sank a little lower.

  The other sort, squeezed in between their ranks, held their heads high, turning this way and that with every noise. Some shouldered packs as big as themselves, while others battled to drag carts and baggage behind them. They looked dusty, rough at the edges, half-excited or half-scared, Merion couldn’t tell.

  War or no war, the wild west still gleamed with opportunity for the taking. Homesteaders. He heard the word on the women’s lips, along with others such as ‘madness’, ‘fools’, and affirmations such as ‘They won’t get far’. Merion wondered what that meant. He thought about asking, but in truth he did not care that much. He put the yelling crowds at his back.

  Cheyenne was older than Fell Falls, but only by a few years. The railroad had quickly left it in the dust of its search for the Last Ocean. It looked startlingly similar, but then again, to Merion, so did everything out west. The streets were lined with box-shaped, flat-roofed wooden buildings, the big painted boards above their doors long-faded by the hot sun. There was a saloon of course—the prerequisite of any frontier town—a general store or two, and a few houses with curtains drawn tight across their windows. Several horses stood outside, tethered to stakes. They whinnied at the sand. It was odd to find this quiet a stone’s throw from such chaos. Merion did not mind one bit.

  The boy wandered along the street, eyeing signs and hoping to find at least one of the things he was looking for. If he couldn’t find any blood, then he would at least send a letter. It took him a few minutes to find the postal office, squeezed in between two other buildings. A queue stood outside it, idly shuffling forward. Merion joined it and tapped his feet impatiently.

  Inside, the air was hot and stuffy. Instead of the stench of horse-shit and sweat, he was greeted with the smell of old paper and ink, and something about it calmed him. Perhaps it reminded him of his father’s study. There was a dog-eared poster pasted on the wall, half-torn away as if somebody had tried, and failed, to remove it. Merion squinted at its ripped lettering. It said something about a circus.

  ‘Next, please,’ called a young woman from behind the desk. She looked tired, as if she’d already had enough of letters for one day. It was only a few hours into the morning. With one elbow propped up on the desk, she stared blankly at the boy stepping forward. ‘Yes?’ she said, in a monotone. Her hair was a jet black, and hung in sweaty curls against her forehead.

  ‘I would like to send a wiregram to London,’ Merion told her. The woman nodded, obviously bored, and slid a piece of paper across the desk with lines printed on it.

  ‘Do you have a pencil?’ he asked, and there was another sigh. A pencil followed the paper, rolling across the desk. Merion thanked her and went to scribble his wiregram. He did so with great deliberation, taking his time over his words.

  His message finished, Merion went back to the desk and returned the wiregram and the pencil.

  ‘Two sil’erbits,’ she said, half-yawning. Merion paid her, and she turned the paper over and made the necessary marks and signatures. ‘And the recipient?’ she asked.

  Merion leant closer. ‘Mr Witchazel.’

  *

  It was noon by the time he made it back to the edge of town, where his aunt and Lurker were waiting. Rhin was nowhere to be seen—as expected. Cheyenne was still in the grip of its madness, and behind Merion, the crowds still ebbed and flowed, waiting for trains.

  ‘Any luck?’ he asked Lilain. She knew exactly what he meant.

  ‘Nothing,’ she replied, and beside her, Lurker muttered something. His eyes were bloodshot, and his shoulders more hunched than usual. He did not look happy, not in the slightest.

  ‘What about you?’ Lilain asked, and Merion shook his head.

  ‘All I managed to find was some of Doctor Jabber’s viper oil, which sounded about as useful as a chocolate teapot.’

  ‘That con artist?’ Lilain looked back towards the town. ‘I ought to give him a piece of my mind.’

  ‘I think it might be a waste of your breath,’ Merion sighed. ‘What of the trains?’

  ‘That’s what the crowd is all about,’ Lurker grunted. ‘ ‘Parently there’s a war on. Most of the trains comin’ in or goin’ out are full, and those that ain’t are too expensive, even with what we have left from Fell Falls. Damn Fae, hiding that Hoard Rhin stole ‘em.’

  Merion kicked the dust. ‘Right, well. What’s next? Horses?’

  ‘All bought up by these homesteaders and soldiers,’ Lurker replied.

  ‘Ponies?’

  ‘Them too.’

  ‘Carriages?’

  ‘None to be found.’

  ‘Taken by all the rich folks of the town, most likely. Don’t want to wait around for the Buffalo Snake to get ‘ere,’ Lurker grumbled.

  ‘Well, that’s just great,’ Merion hissed. ‘Looks like we’re walking, then.’

  Lilain grimaced ever so slightly, but held her tongue. Though Merion had already noticed her expression. ‘Are you struggling?’

  His aunt almost managed to look offended. ‘I’ve been worse, Nephew. Don’t you worry about me.’

  ‘Lurker?’

  ‘Mmm,’ was all he got in the way of an answer. Merion nodded towards the eastern horizon, and readjusted his hat over his sweaty head. He relished the idea of walking about as much as the next, but his stubbornness was already pulling at his tired feet, urging them onwards. The east called to him.

  ‘Walking it is then,’ he said, and started walking. His aunt and the prospector followed, but at a slower pace. Before long he was several yards ahead, as if he were leading a pair of recalcitrant g
oats through the wilderness.

  They reached the outskirts of Cheyenne in no time at all, and were faced with yet another stretch of empty desert reaching towards the horizon. A few distant mountains shivered in the heat haze, but apart from those, and the few patches of prairie clinging to life here and there, their world was as barren as ever. Merion held back a sigh, picturing the spires of London in his head.

  A single building sat between them and the wilds, as though it had been shunned by the town. It was a small church with a half-finished steeple, clad in white wood panels and thick with sand. A few gravestones sat in the dirt around it like broken teeth. An odd welcome indeed.

  When Merion turned back to check on the others, he found Lilain was squinting at the church, obviously curious. She started walking towards it, and Merion followed, his own curiosity simmering away.

  The path led them on a curving route past the church’s door before wandering off into the wilds. They stared down at the gravestones as they passed each one. Only when they reached the final gravestone did Lilain stop in her tracks, lean on her crutch and point at its gnarled face, where a strange yet familiar shape had been carved into it. ‘Recognise that?’ she asked her nephew. Merion’s heart performed a somersault.

  ‘The Scarlet Star.’

  He moved in close to get a better look at the symbol on the stone. He was right: carved into the face of the gravestone was the six-pointed star of bloodrushing.

  ‘What on earth? Does that mean …?’

  ‘It may just do.’ Lilain was already walking towards the door. If Merion had followed any closer he might as well have sat on her bony shoulders.

  Inside, the air was cool. Sunlight streamed in from the gaps in the roof and the high windows, catching dust motes in the air, stealing form and flesh from them. There were three rows of benches before them, attentively facing a pulpit marked with the hammer of the Maker.

  ‘Would a bloodletter really live in a church?’ he whispered, not wanting to break the silence of the place. Lurker lingered in the doorway, a dark silhouette against the bright light of noon.