Marigold Estoban lead their party through the dark, her hand haloed in orange fire that only barely pushed against the night.
"This darkness, it's so..." Natalina reflected as she followed Coraline along the path.
"Dark?" Stenman Xavier offered.
"Am I about to get told-off for pointing out the obvious?" Natalina asked him.
"Not at all," Stenman replied, and Natalina was surprised to see Porters' boss' face was oddly sombre. "I notice it too, when I come back from being topside. The City exists because it burns. There's no room for darkness."
"There is no night in the City," Marigold reflected, ahead of them.
"There can never be," Coraline added.
"And on that grim thought, our meeting place is five minutes away," Stenman said. "Sound carries extremely well through these tunnels, so from here on out, don't say anything I don't want overheard."
"Which is Xavier for 'shut the burning hell up about our guests'," Marigold added.
"Right, boss," came a chorus of murmurs in reply, as nearly a dozen people drew their weapons and started moving forward.
"Crafter Estoban," Xavier said softly. "Please do not reveal yourself too early. We have a very limited window where the members of the Coal Oven will think they have an advantage. People tend to tighten their lips when they know they're being threatened. And from what you've told me, time is essential. Leave this to me, for as long as you can."
"I understand. But if this goes south, I'd like something from you," Coraline said.
"Get your sister out? I can-" Xavier said, but Coraline laughed, cutting him off.
"No, I want you to leave the violence to me," Coraline replied.
"Ma'am, have you ever killed anyone before?" Xavier asked, sceptically.
"Half a dozen, last night," Natalina said.
"Boss, if my sister throws down, there isn't anything in the Undercity to stop her. There's apparently a very brief list of people in the City they could call to fight her."
"Where did you learn that?" Coraline asked.
"My, uh, contact in Research."
"Oh, burn my eyes out of with molten metal. Could you please stop talking about sleeping with Theo?" Coraline asked.
"I'm not sure this is the time for-" Stenman began to say, but Natalina elbowed him.
"Thought we'd wait a few days before you start disapproving of my love life," Marigold said.
"It's just, Theo?" Coraline asked.
"Have you seen his apartment windows? It's a giant glass ball," Marigold said. "And the soirees he's willing to take me to!"
"Just no," Coraline muttered, covering her ears.
"Marigold, eyes forward. Heart hard," Stenman said, his voice somehow dropping half an octave as he stepped forward.
"Aye, boss," Marigold replied, flexing her fingers. Her other hand burst into flames, and she started forward at a hard march, her boots clapping against the stone.
Another few minutes of walking brought them into a wide cave, with a series of track set on the ground, and torches set in irregular intervals along the walls. The cave, to Natalina's surprise, was already occupied by two dozen people, two of whom were casually holding tendrils of flames in their hands.
"Madam Ghally," Stenman said, striding forward as if he were approaching an old friend. "I heard you managed to relieve some poor lieutenant in Central of something valuable."
"I did," an elderly woman, leaning hard on a cane, replied.
"My dear, you can abandon the theatre. We're all quite aware of your prodigious vigour," Stenman Xavier said.
To Natalina's immediate surprise, the old woman stood up straight and flourished the cane once, before casually leaning on it. "You should allow an old woman her foibles, Xavier. This bit of theatre has saved my life before."
Xavier strode forward until he stood into the centre of the room, and the torchlight stretched the gang boss's shadow into a mass of tendrils, like the points of some unnatural, light-drinking star. Natalina admired the gang boss' sense of the theatrical.
"The right lie at the right moment can do that. So can the right truth," Xavier said. "I have to admire how you gave the young boy Keates just enough assistance to escape. It was superbly subtle."
"I wish I could take credit for it," Madam Ghally said.
"I imagine. It's a little out of character for you, considering how heavy-handed you've been," Xavier said. "I hear your people have made moves topside."
"You're well-informed, as always," Madam Ghally replied. "Are you willing to make this deal, or did you come down here to listen to yourself speak?"
"I have a small problem with the deal," Stenman said, as he held something between his fingers, and raised his hand over his head. "The sword was missing a piece."
Stenman tossed the object he was holding at Madam Ghally's feet, where it clattered with the musical tang of steel striking stone.
Natalina felt at her coat pockets and realised the metal hoop of Colonel Darrower's sword was gone.
"Four bars," Xavier said. "A lieutenant's sword only has a single bar in the hoop. Also, that pommel piece would still be attached to the sword, if it were only stolen. You're trying to sell me a Colonel's sword."
"It's still Coldstone," Madam Ghally replied.
"The trouble, my dear, is that you're making deals topside. And as much as any of us would like to see some High Central folks get their due, dabbling in the politics of a Lord Captain's election is the kind of attention that could have battalions of soldiers tearing us apart," Xavier explained, his voice slowly lowering until his last words were barely more than an ominous whisper.
"They won't dare march down here," Madam Ghally insisted. "The Sixth is due."
"True. As long as we're productive and keep our power struggles beneath the surface," Xavier said. "But what happens if we start assassinating Colonels in their beds? What happens when the Military comes down her for us, with numbers and Salamanders? What happens when they ask the City for Crafters? The City might not survive the Sixth, but the Undercity wouldn't survive long enough to know the rest of their fates."
"What the burning hell is he playing at?" Natalina whispered for Coraline.
The crafter only shrugged in response.
"Are you here to buy the sword, Xavier? Because if not, I have three enforcers who can Craft, and a shadow, against your Marigold," Madam Ghally said. "Removing you and moving into your bar has a certain appeal to it."
"Just tell me, have you picked a winner to back?" Xavier asked. "Call it professional curiosity."
"Wouldn't you like to know," Madam Ghally said.
"Indulge me?" Xavier asked, his hands spread wide. "You have me in your power. Who better to share it with, than a man condemned to die."
"By the end of the day, she'll have won. And the Coal Oven will move to the surface, and leave this ash-pit behind us," Madam Ghally said, as she struck her cane against the ground.
"Kill him," Madam Ghally ordered, just as knives flashed in the group behind her.
Steel glinted in the firelight, and one of the two men standing behind Madam Ghally screamed, the fire in his hand vanishing in a small puff of air. The other didn't scream, but was clutching at his throat as he fell to his knees.
A woman, dressed in black, set her boot against the man's shoulder, tipped his head back, and pulled hard at a handle buried behind the man's jaw.
"Irene?" Madam Ghally asked, softly.
"The right lie at the right moment can save a life," Xavier said, taking a step forward just as the corpse struck the stone.
"Your plan with Keates," Xavier spoke as he stepped forward again. Despite the nearly two dozen people still arrayed around Madam Ghally, all of them shrank back as the Porter's gang boss approached. "Irene brought you the idea, didn't she?"
"It-" Madam Ghally stared hard at the woman with knives in her hands. "It was her idea."
"No, my dear," Xavier said, his voice nearly quivering as chuckled to himself. "It was mine."
Xavier clapped his hands, and everyone except Coraline and Natalina moved forward, stepping beside him. "The right truth at the right moment can save a life. Now, the first person to tell me who Madam Ghally made a deal with on the surface gets to walk away. Just give me a name, turn around, and start a new life."
"Daria Cavilla," Madam Ghally said, hanging her head. "Secretary Daria Cavilla."
Xavier strode up to her, knelt down in front of her, and picked up both the sword, and the pommel piece he had thrown at her earlier. "I'll offer you a ride up to the surface. The Coal Oven no longer exists. Step back into the Undercity only if you're tired of living."
Xavier strode back towards his companions but looked over his shoulder to Irene, who stood apart from the others, looming over two corpses, her black clothes drenched in blood. "You'll start tomorrow?"
"Bright and early, boss," the woman in black replied.
"You betrayed me for a position in his gang?" Madam Ghally asked.
"In my bar, actually," Xavier corrected her with a wag of his finger. "When you've spent your entire adult life with a knife in your hand and danger all around you, pouring drinks sounds like paradise. Goodbye, Madam Ghally. We won't see each other again."
Xavier passed Natalina by, as she watched the crowd disperse. Madam Ghally, crime boss of the Coal Oven and slavemaster to thousands, was stripped apart one desertion at a time, until the only thing Natalina could see was an old woman.
Alone in the dark.
*****
"That was," Natalina said, as she followed the leader of the Porters down the same cave tunnels.
Stenman slowed a little, to let her fall into step beside him. His face was solemn, the manic joy on his face just moments ago vanished as completely as the Coal Oven.
When Xavier met her inquiring gaze, she could see that his lip was twisted in a grimace, and his eyes were slightly wet.
"That, Mrs Casper, is what it takes to thrive in the Undercity," Xavier said, softly. "That is the world that you're changing
"Can I trust you, though?" Natalina asked. "Can I trust you help change this world that you're on top of?"
Something in the back of Natalina's mind was relieved to see the Undercity boss shake his head. "No," Xavier said. "You can't trust me. The only way to clean the blood off my hands would be to cut them off. Which, metaphorically, I'm hoping to do."
As he spoke, Xavier handed her Colonel Darrower's sword. "I want you to take this to that inspector you mentioned. Tell him what you saw here, and tell him that the Porters will actively move to facilitate the development of water, plumbing, and hospice services at the Rust Pit."
"The rust pit?" Natalina asked.
"It's the cargo elevator you took to come down here. This area was once the single supplier of iron to the City, about a hundred and fifty years ago," Stenman said.
As Natalina took the sword, Xavier's hands rested on the scabbard, and his gaze was locked on hers. "It is your trustworthiness that matters, Mrs Casper. Your honour that I am banking my hopes on."
"I don't make very many promises," Natalina warned him.
"Good. That means they matter to you," Xavier replied.
"I can't promise things will get better here. But I'll try," Natalina promised him.
"And I'm sorry," Xavier said.
"What for?"
"I don't know what Madam Ghally was talking about when she said this would all be over by the end of the day. I suspect it means this Secretary Cavilla will move on her main competitors today," Xavier said.
"Spit and burning ash," Natalina muttered. "I think I know where it will happen. There's a ceremony at the Last Wall, commemorating the reintroduction of coffee plants. Colonel Tammerlane will be there, and Redgrave might."
Xavier nodded. "Getting to the last wall takes time. More time than we have. Most of the transportation is restricted, and what isn't only runs for the farming crews."
Natalina fingered her sword and recalled a conversation she had with an army clerk with gorilla-like arms. "I have a plan. But I'll need your boots," Natalina said, pointing at Coraline. "Your coat," she then pointed to Marigold. "And the cleanest shirt you can find."