Storm of Shadows (Lumineers 1)

CHAPTER 31: A KING'S DEATH

Conrad froze at the sound of the watchman's voice in the street. "King Alistair—dead! The king is dead!" He glanced about, careful of his surroundings. The cry was taken up by any who could hear. "The king is dead! Long live King Edwin!" He swore under his breath.

The cry continued, echoing from the buildings. All districts had watchmen. They performed wakeup calls if you paid them enough, kept an eye on things for the city's inspectors, broke up fights when necessary, shouted the time throughout the day, and in this case, any breaking news that would take hours for the newspapers to print.

He hurried his pace. Elias's shop came into view. Night had fallen and it would be some hours before the papers reflected the story. He needed to pay Prince Albert another visit. Preferably before then.

He went around back and climbed the ladder to the roof, cautious. No one loitered about. Even with windows boarded up, Crock's Row had been respectful. Elias was much loved in the community here, and even with him gone, no one would dare touch his shop. Especially not when Tabby paid The Forsaken well enough to keep people away. He'd seen two of them on his way to the back, lurking, keeping an eye on things.

As soon as his feet touched the roof, he heard buzzing. Nit zoomed past him, circling, before landing on his shoulder to tweet. "Hello little fellow. Tabby has you keeping watch, eh?" Nit chirped in response. "Yes, I don't think there's a better person for the job, quite frankly." More buzzing sounded, and he found himself surrounded by a small swarm of dragonflies. He gaped, watching them. "All these are hers?" Nit chirped again. "Quite the little army. All of you keeping watch, eh? Smart." He nodded his approval. Smart indeed. He could already see many uses for tech like this. "All right, back to work with you."

He checked the hatch for traps, disabled a wire he found attached to a loaded dart, then proceeded downstairs. The loft was empty, but he heard hushed voices below.

He found Tabby and Midnight at a workbench in the back. Tabby hunched over a project, goggles affixed to her face. "Nit told me you'd arrived," she said without looking up.

Midnight stood, eyed him for a moment, then extended a hand in greeting. "Thank you for sending the note. For everything, really."

"Don't mention it." He shook Midnight's hand then nodded towards Tabby, eying the gun in her hands, though it didn't look like any gun he'd ever seen. Aside from the narrow barrel and grip. "What's she working on?"

"She's—"

"You'll see," Tabby interrupted. "Just—there!" She sat up, smiling, and propped her goggles on her forehead. Rings had formed around her eyes. He found it rather endearing, but pushed the thought away.

She held up her device into the light. He saw the prisms then. His mind turned over, thoughts tumbling into realization.

"Only one way to test it out," she said, obvious excitement ringing in her voice.

"She's been at it all evening," Midnight muttered, though there wasn't a single shred of annoyance in his voice. He eyed Tabby's master, noticing the way Midnight's gaze never quite left his apprentice, tracking her every movement. Interesting...

She went to the middle of the room and adjusted several gears on the device. "Here goes nothing..." Her finger clicked against the trigger. A beam of white light shot from the barrel with a hissing noise, burning a hole straight through a nearby set of shelves.

"Light!" Both men jumped back and shot surprised glances at each other.

A laugh escaped Tabby's chest. "It worked? I...shit! Shit! It worked!" She turned the gun over in her hands, eyeing it for the marvel it was.