Page 56 of Inferno

“We could keep a couple of guards on it,” Kent suggested. “Just for a day or so, ‘til we execute it. And someone would have to stick around to make arrangements for the unicorn, anyway, so we’d be no worse off over at the gate being a couple of men short than we would be anyway.”

“It’s not the worst plan,” Renfold admitted finally. “Fair enough. Cage it and display it for twenty-four hours, then kill it and we can get on with our job. Kent, head back to camp and get someone to bring the cage out here.”

The young man looked dismayed. “But I wanted to stay with the unicorn!”

“And if you don’t learn to follow orders, you’ll be out on your ass before the end of the cycle!”

That made Kent pay attention. His face paled and he snapped a sharp salute. “Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” He took off down the path of singed vegetation like a hellhound was on his tail.

A cage rather than a sword, then,the unicorn said to Nerik.Can’t say I envy you.He glanced at the warriors again.Although, given what they apparently want to do to me, perhaps I should.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Yorin was deep in concentration at his work desk on Monday morning, trying to work out how to suitably amend the design of a shirt for a boy who had had the misfortune of being born with only one arm. His mother had previously just bought shirts with two sleeves and pinned one of them up, but she’d come in early to ask Yorin if there might be another way. Removing the sleeve would have been easy enough, but the boy’s torso was also twisted sideways, and Yorin, being the perfectionist that he was, wanted something that would be comfortable and fit well, rather than just slapping a few stitches in and calling it good enough.

So deep was he in his thoughts that it took him a moment to realise that people out in the street were yelling. And then another moment to realise that, far from a regular argument between two or three people, this seemed to be a commotion of a far greater proportion.

Setting his measuring tape down, Yorin went to the window, startled to see groups of people pointing down the street, a large number of them moving in the direction of the town square. Equal parts curious and concerned, he stepped outside his shop, pulling up the first person he could find heading in that direction. “What’s going on?” he asked, in the sort of tone that would invite a gossip to spill the beans.

“Oh, they’ve captured a demon,” the woman said, wide eyed and with her hair escaping its knot. “Charice said it’s a new one, and then Lenny said they’re putting it on display in the town square! Oh, goodness, I don’t like it one bit, not after what happened with the last one.” But despite the woman’s protests, she rushed off down the street,towardsthe town square, rather than away from it.

Yorin felt a cold chill run through his body at the news. A ‘demon’, he now knew, actually meant a Chalandrian – someone who had attempted to cross the gate out of pure desperation, and was now to be publicly humiliated and murdered for simply wanting to survive. Gods above, it was a travesty. But at the same time, Yorin didn’t have a clue what he could do about it. Nerik had said there were other Chalandrians living in Minia – people who would almost certainly want to help this hapless captive – but he’d refused to tell Yorin any details about who they were.

Well, there was half his answer. Nerik would certainly get wind of this captive and he could spread the news to the relevant people. But Nerik could be flitting about all over town, Yorin reminded himself. He could be over at the south end, far from the square and news of a captive demon. Or he could have been sent on an errand off into the forest and not be back for hours.

Oh, admit it, you’re just as curious as everyone else, Yorin scolded himself. The truth was that yes, he did want to see what this captive demon looked like – not to point and stare, but more out of a sense of wonder. There was a whole underground society operating in plain sight in Minia, and he felt excited to be able to be just a little part of that. At the same time, he felt a very real dread for the poor soul who had been captured.

What was the more civilised thing to do? To go and have a look, and see if he could help in any way, or avoid the crowds out of a sense of decency and leave it to people like Nerik, who no doubt knew far more about the situation than he did?

Oh, the gods curse it all. He was going to have to go and have a look. He ducked back into his shop just long enough to grab the key and lock the front door, then he joined the throngs of people meandering down the road towards the square.

As he reached the end of the road, he could see the crowd forming around the cage. It was propped up on a platform in the middle of the town square, but given all the people milling around, Yorin couldn’t see from this far away what the so-called demon looked like.

What he could see was that there were three guards maintaining a wide space around the cage, so that no one could get too close, and Captain Renfold was in the thick of it.

“See that you stay back,” Renfold was saying to the crowd. “We haven’t seen one of these before, so while we believe it to be reasonably harmless, I don’t want to take any chances. I’ll be leaving the guards here overnight, and there’ll be a public execution tomorrow morning.” That was all the captain had to say, and for a moment, Yorin was grateful that he didn’t tend to go for the long speeches and grand pronouncements that the late Captain Leefe had been so fond of.

But a moment later, it became apparent that other members of the army were not so restrained. Henrick hopped up on a table, waving his arms to get people’s attention. “Make sure you’re here bright and early tomorrow,” he bellowed, grinning as people stopped to stare at him. “Eight o’clock sharp, we’ll be taking this maggot’s head off. No telling what will happen then, since we haven’t seen one of these before. It’ll be a perfect time to thank the brave men who face fiends like this every day for protecting you!” He didn’t get any further before Captain Renfold started tugging him down off the table, with what looked like a few stern words in his ear, but Henrick’s announcement had already had the desired effect. A small crowd near him burst into applause, while another group pressed closer to the cage to see the captive, forcing one of the guards to draw his sword in warning.

Goodness, was it even worth trying to get a look? With all the people milling about, there was certainly nothing Yorin could do for the captive that would be in any way useful. Perhaps he should just come back later.

But then he wondered what he would say to Nerik later, if his boyfriend asked if he’d seen the captive. Coming to check what species they were and if there was anything he could do to help them seemed a reasonable statement in Yorin’s mind, but to say that he’d wandered off without seeing them because in the end, it was just too great an inconvenience sounded harsh and negligent – regardless of the fact that there was likely little he could do. This was going to be one of the consequences of getting involved with Nerik, he realised, as he stood there with people swirling all around him. He was necessarily going to have to take an interest in any events that involved Chalandrians. Knowing they were innocent refugees meant an obligation to try to assist them, even if it was just in so small a way as managing to sneak a little food over to the cage when a guard wasn’t looking.

Fine. He would go and have a look. And at the same time, see if he could spot anyone who seemed a likely ally. Perhaps he might run into someone wearing the same sort of obsidian necklace that Nerik wore. Or perhaps there would be some other tell tale clue, though Yorin couldn’t think of what that might be.

He moved forward with the crowd, waiting for people at the front to have a look and move aside, then stepping closer again. He made his way slowly around towards the rear of the cage, where there seemed to be fewer people, keeping an eye on who else was out and about in the crowd. Perhaps the other Chalandrians would be scowling and shaking their heads, instead of pointing with wide eyes.

Perhaps Yorin was fooling himself. He had no idea how to contact other Chalandrians, and it was probable that Nerik was keeping him apart from them for a reason. Chalandrians didn’t trust humans, on the whole, and it would take more than Nerik’s good word for them to change their minds.

Yorin finally managed to clear his way through enough of the crowd to see over people’s heads… and then he froze in his tracks. Good gods, it was a…

But it couldn’t be…

Maybe it was just another…

Was thatNerikin the cage? It was an infernal, that much was certain, jet black and largely featureless, hunched over on the floor of the cage.

Yorin clearly remembered Nerik saying that only a handful of infernals had ever come through the gate. So was it just an almighty coincidence that one had come through now, or…