Power and Majesty - TR Roberts (SOLD!)

[marianne]

Power and Majesty: Book 1 of the Creature Court
By Tansy Rayner Roberts

Unpublished manuscript
Copyright ©2007 Tansy Rayner Roberts
www.tansyrr.com
cassiphone.livejournal.com



DO NOT DISTRIBUTE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR.




The day before the Nones of Cerialis.
Nox.


1.

Velody couldn’t sleep in this city. The ancient, gothic weight of Aufleur pressed around her, through the walls of the rented room.

No one else had this problem. The other girls were asleep on their makeshift cots, while the chaperones snored lightly from the larger beds. Every room in the city was packed like this, so their landlady claimed. The apprentice fair drew in crowds from every town and village from coast to country.

Velody missed Tierce. She missed the warmth of her room above her Papa’s bakery, and the familiar sleepy sounds of her sisters and brothers. Every street and canalway in Cheapside and the Market District of Tierce was known and safe and hers. This place was huge and dark and foreign.

I can’t live here, she thought desperately. Not for seven years. This city will eat me alive.

A mouse ran over her pillow.

Velody sat up in a rush, pushing off the thin blankets and scrambling out of her cot. One of the other girls – Rhian, she thought her name was – muttered and sighed at the noise, but quickly fell back to sleep.

There was no sign of the mouse, but Velody would now rather die than return to the cot. It was warm despite the darkness – Cerialis was the last month of summer, and Aufleur was warmer than Tierce at this time of year. Wearing nothing but her cambric noxgown, Velody slipped to the window and let herself out on to the balcony.

The city was no less oppressive out here, but at least she could see the looming domes and towers, instead of merely feeling them in her bones. Velody breathed in the calm air. Four hours until dawn? Six, at most. It wouldn’t do to have shadows under her eyes in the morning – what kind of master would take an apprentice who looked ill and shaky? Perhaps if she calmed herself out here a little longer, she would be able to sleep.

There was a soft sound beside her, and Velody turned to see a little brown mouse creep across her balcony. She was prepared for it this time, and managed not to behave like a damsel in a musette melodrama.

A second mouse emerged from the shadows, and then a third. Velody was beginning to feel somewhat outnumbered, and her eyes were so fixed to the soft little rodents than she almost missed the sight of a naked youth falling out of the sky.

He crashed shoulders-first into the roof of the house across the street, shattering slate tiles. He rolled and dropped on the cobbles below, bare limbs splayed in all directions. Incredibly, he was laughing, his head thrown back in hysterical giggles. He was long and lean and muscled, almost a man. He was also completely off his face.

The sky came alive with colour – iridescent green with the occasional splash of pink and gold. Velody had heard of such strange light effects, but never over a city. In any case, she was far more interested in the effect that the lights from the sky had upon the naked, laughing youth. He was beautiful, if utterly shameless.

Velody pressed herself against the window of the boarding house, hoping he would not see her. Then again, she doubted he could see his hand in front of his face, the state he was in.

The sky flashed brighter than before, in colours that Velody couldn’t even name. Was this normal?

A second naked youth stepped out of the sky, and Velody lost her breath. Normal, it seemed, had been flung out with the scraps.

This young man was dark where the laughing boy was fair, and he walked down from the sky as if there were steps beneath his feet, instead of empty air. He wore his nakedness like armour, and his skin glowed like a lantern.

And really, the fact that he could walk on air was far more important than the fact that he didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, but Velody couldn’t help blushing. When her mother had lectured her on the dangers a fourteen-year-old maiden might face in the big city, this wasn’t quite what she had in mind.

“Garnet,” said the dark-haired youth, his bare feet brushing the cobbles as he stood over the other. “Are you hurt?”

The fair boy, still sprawled in the street, whooped as if this were the funniest thing anyone had ever said to him.

“Are you drunk?” demanded his friend, crouching down to his level. “Are you high?”

“I might – might, I say – have had a tiny pinch of Surrender in my flame-and-gin,” said the one called Garnet, enounciating carefully.

His friend smacked him. “You went into the sky with that cack in your blood? What were you thinking?”

“Can’t all be perfect little saints and soldiers, Ash.”

“Tasha’s going to kill you,” Ash growled. “She’ll cut your frigging balls off.”

“A fine nox’s work, then.” Garnet tipped his head back, and stared up at the blazing sky. “Think the gin might be wearing off.” He shivered a little.

Ash glared at him. “Where are your clothes?

“One of the roofs around here.” Garnet waved an arm aimlessly, and stared at it as if it were fascinating. “I was sort of looking for them when I got sideswiped by that – was it a lightweb, or a cluster?

“The things I do for you,” said his friend and – this was the bit that had Velody pressing a fist to her mouth to stifle her gasp – his body exploded into a cloud of black shapes.

Not shapes. Cats. The cats separated and swamped up the walls on both sides of the street. One came up Velody’s balcony, and blinked with interest at the small horde of brown mice that had gathered there. She pressed herself further back against the wall, hoping not to be seen.

The cats returned to Garnet, several of them dragging items of clothing with them.

Garnet snatched the garments from them, and pulled on a pair of trews. “Claw marks. Lovely.”

The cats came together and glowed, before reshaping into the tall, muscled and still very much naked figure of Ash. “Grateful as ever. Shoes?”

“Didn’t bring any.”

“Fine. Just stay out of the sky for the rest of the nox. Crawl home if you can – sleep in the gutter if you can’t, and I’ll come drag you home after.”

“My m*th*rf**k**g hero.” Garnet shrugged into the shirt, but didn’t button it, staring instead at his hand. “How many arms did I start with?”

Ash groaned. “You’re too smashed to make it below without killing yourself.”

“S’a warm nox, I’ll manage.” Garnet slumped back against the nearest house, almost comfortable.

“Arse,” said Ash. “Why do you do this to yourself?”

“Know you’ll catch me when I fall,” said Garnet with a yawn, and a smirk.

“One day I won’t.” Ash spun apart again into his swarm of cats, and took off into the sky in a blur of paws and tails and raw power.

* * *

Velody breathed out, and closed her eyes for a moment. Really, someone should have warned her that the city of Aufleur was rife with flying naked men who transformed into cats.

When she opened her eyes, the street was empty and Garnet was gone.

Velody pushed herself up on to her feet. It was all far too exciting out here. Time to get some sleep before the morning. Something grabbed her wrist, dragging her back against the railings of the balcony.

“Little mouse,” hissed a voice in her ear. “Did you enjoy the show?”

Fingers dug into her wrist. Garnet’s fingers. She gazed up into the strange, beautiful face of the youth who now stood on the outside of the balcony railings, his eyes blazing at her. What did he do, fly up here? Oh, saints, he probably did.

“I have to go inside,” she said in a small voice.

“Not yet, little mouse. I want to talk to you.” He slid a slender leg over the railings, jumping properly on to the balcony.

It occurred to Velody that she should be very grateful he had put his clothes on first. Then he was grasping her other arm as well, holding her fast. “If I scream,” she said, “The whole boarding house will come awake.”

“Good luck with that,” he drawled. “Daylighters sleep deep in this city.” He squeezed her wrists cruelly.

“What are you doing?”

“Mostly? I’m wondering what a little mouse like you is doing out on a fine nox like this.” His eyes were a little crazy, and Velody wondered what kind of potion Surrender was. It sounded like the kind of thing Sage, her eldest brother, had been into that first year after the dock accident. “You see me, yes?”

“Of course I see you.” She pulled, but he wouldn’t release her wrists.

“And you see the sky.”

“Hard to miss it.”

“What colour is it?”

She looked blankly at him. “What?”

“What colour is the sky, little mouse?”

Velody looked up, just as veins of rose and lilac threaded across the clouds. “Pink – purple,” she admitted. There were three flashes in quick successful, as bright emerald as the spun silk she had admired in a shop several days before she left Tierce. “Green.”

“And my friend,” Garnet said in a whisper. “What is his animal?”

“Cat,” she said.

He wetted his lips a little. “Poor mouse. Didn’t see this one coming, did you? You’re one of us. And it’s going to eat you alive.”

Velody was angry now. Close up, this boy wasn’t even as big as her brother Sage. Who did he think he was, trying to terrorise her like this? “And what are you?” she flung at him. “Am I supposed to be afraid of you?”

Garnet laughed, and he was lit up from behind by a sweep of bright white light in the sky. His hair was red-gold, not blond, and he had tiny freckles on his throat. “Small town girl,” he said. “I know your type. Here for the apprentice fair, I suppose. You want to spend your days as a threadsmith, or a ribboner, or –“

“A dressmaker,” Velody said.

“A dressmaker.” His hands loosened their grip on her wrists, still encircling them lightly. “You can kiss that goodbye, my sweetheart. You belong to the nox now. No apprenticeship for you, no shilleins to send home to your family, no warm husband and children in your future.”

To her horror, Velody saw her hands darken, as soft brown fur tufted out from her fingers. Her ribs squeezed her, as if she was about to burst apart. “Stop it!”

“That’s not me, little mouse,” said Garnet. “It’s all you.”

She concentrated on her hands, and the fur diminished until the skin was clear and moon-pale again. “Am I going to turn into – cats?” she asked.

“Not cats,” as if she was stupid for suggesting it. “I can take it away. Take the curse from you, right this minute. Leave you to your little daylight life, just as you want. You’ll never see me or my kind again. Never see the sky light up with colours.”

Somewhere along the way, Garnet had let go of Velody’s wrists. She rubbed them now. “What’s in it for you?”

“Sharp.. I’ll admit it will do me no harm to hold your power under my skin.” He stared seriously at her. “You don’t want this, mouseling. You don’t want the nox in your blood and your life. I’ve seen too many children burned by it.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Are you not?” He seemed amused. “I don’t think I was ever as young as you.”

Velody’s mind was racing. She was scared of this strange youth and the things she had seen. She didn’t want any part of it. A dressmaking apprenticeship, shilleins to send home… that was what she wanted.

[marianne]

“You’ll have to give it willingly,” said Garnet. “There’s only one way I can take it by force, and I’m really not that much of a bastard.” He eyed her body up and down, a little too appreciatively.

“What is it you are taking?” Velody asked.

“Animor,” he said, and his mouth curved around the word like a lover’s lick.

She closed her eyes. “Take it, then.”

Something warm brushed against her mouth, and she realised too late that he was kissing her. She had never been kissed like this before. His mouth swamped her, and his tongue flicked deep against hers.

For a moment, her chest felt itchy and strange, as if something was scrabbling to get out. She was briefly aware of every vein in her body humming. Something left her, and at the time it didn’t feel particularly important.

It was the best kiss of her life, and within an hour of returning to her little cot in the dormitory, Velody had entirely forgotten it.



Nones of Cerialis
Daylight


2.

Velody was almost the last one to rouse. She awoke with the strange sense that something was missing.

The blonde girl, Delphine, who had a cut-glass accent and had brought a family servant along as her chaperone, was holding court in the midst of the other girls. “Of course, Madame Mauris is the best dressmaker in Aufleur,” she was saying loudly. “She only takes one apprentice every seven years. My mother expects me to catch her eye – with my fine stitching.”

“And her fine vowels,” whispered a tall girl near Velody.

Velody covered her laugh with a cough, and climbed out of her cot.

“My father still thinks sending me here is some sort of punishment,” Delphine went on, shaking her long golden curls. “Learning about the value of hard work, and all that. As if it’s going to stop me flirting with the gardener! My mother is in on the conspiracy, of course.”

“Conspiracy?” asked one of the girls who had gathered around Delphine like beetles on a rose.

Delphine rolled her eyes dramatically. “To make me a world-famous dressmaker, of course. Weren’t you listening?”

The tall girl snorted at that.

Delphine glanced up, her eyes hardening. “Rhian, isn’t it? You’re the one who brought a boy as your chaperone.” She laughed, and the girls around her giggled dutifully.

Velody remembered Rhian’s brother– a gangling boy with spectacles and auburn hair like his sister. Their landlady was quite flummoxed by his presence, considering that chaperones were usually not only female, but middle aged, and she had eventually sent him to sleep in the attic with her sons and nephews.

Rhian set her chin squarely. “My brother was the only one who could be spared to come all this way. We don’t all have family retainers. I can’t imagine someone like you will last ten minutes as an apprentice. You won’t be allowed servants to bring you rose oil and sweetmeats, you know.”

“And what are you going to be?’ Delphine sneered. “With shoulders like yours – a carpenter, perhaps?”

“I would if they let girls practice the hard crafts,” Rhian said, which set the beetles giggling again. “I’m going to be a florister.”

“How sweet, to care nothing of wealth and status,” said Delphine, dismissing her. “I wish you well of it.”

*

The Aufleur Forum was a hive of activity. It was a huge area, more than six times the size of the piazza at the centre of Tierce. The council had set out trestles upon which the prospective apprentices could display samples of their work.

The boy’s fair had been two weeks earlier, so today the Forum was awash with girls and their handicrafts.

Rhian was chosen early, her floral arrangements catching the eye of several respectable floristers. She gave Velody a grin as she packed up her stall, and even her dour brother offered a smile as they left for the apprentice registry to announce which offer she had decided to accept.

There was far more competition for the needlecrafts, and Velody waited for most of the day. Her Aunt Agnet was supposed to stay at her side, but she kept disappearing to peer at the other stalls, or to gape at the huge public buildings that surrounded the impressive Forum.

Delphine had the stall beside Velody. The two girls eyed each other discreetly for the first few hours, but finally cracked and examined each other’s wares with every appearance of amity.

“This stitching is very fine,” said Delphine, fingering a soft noxgown. “Did you knit the lace yourself?”

“Never again,” said Velody. “Work like that would turn me blind in a year.”

“Lacemakers make great sacrifice,” Delphine agreed with a smirk.

Velody relaxed a little at this evidence that the aristocratic girl had a sense of humour. “The ribbons on that festival gown are marvellous,” she said.

“Ribbons are easy,” shrugged Delphine.

Velody was dreadful at the finework required for ribbons, but did not say so. “I’ve heard that Mistress Sincy the ribboner is looking for apprentices this year,” she said, then bit her lip. “I didn’t mean –”

“Well, yes,” said Delphine. “Ribboning is hardly the most prestigious profession, is it? But I suppose it’s better to be a first class ribboner than a second class anything.” She eyed Velody. “You never said what kind of apprenticeship you were hoping for.”

Velody opened her mouth to say something like “Anything with a needle, really,” which was half-true. But why should she cower at the feet of this girl, just because she had pretty hair and spoke like a lady? “Dressmaking,” she said. “I want to be a dressmaker.”

Delphine gave her an amused look. “Lucky for you, I thrive on competition.”

Rhian returned later, sporting a scarlet band on her wrist. “I’m to report to the Apprentice House tomorrow morning,” she said with glee. “My new mistress seems nice enough – though she has a mouth on her, I hope she’s not the type to reach for the birch rods the first time you drop a plate.”

“If she is, you’re doomed,” said her brother. He came forward to shake Velody’s hand. “I’m Cyniver.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Velody. He seemed nice enough, and her hand was warm where he had touched it. “Not too bored?”

“Not now I’ve got our girl off my hands,” said Cyniver. “I can visit the librarion in peace tomorrow, before I return home.”

“You and your books,” Rhian scoffed. “Velody, can we fetch you some lunch? You must be starved by now.”

“Anything, please,” said Velody.

Rhian hesitated, and glanced over at Delphine. “Shall I fetch you something while I’m at it?”

Velody waited for Delphine to say something cutting, but the other girl surprised her. “That would be kind,” was all she said.

There were plenty of seamstresses and needleworkers among the crowd during the afternoon. Velody received three tokens, and Delphine four – one of them from the famed Mistress Sincy the ribboner.

“Keep me in mind if nothing more prestigious comes your way,” the dame said as Delphine hesitated over the indigo token.

Rhian didn’t wait around after bringing pasties and cider to the other girls. She insisted on dragging Cyniver the entire breadth of the Forum, to look at all the stalls. Velody didn’t mind. They would all be living in the Apprentice House by the river for the next seven years, so there was time enough to get to know her new friend.

The Forum took on something of a festival atmosphere as the afternoon lengthened, with more of the crowd here for sightseeing than official business. Velody sat with the remains of her pasty in her lap and her cider hidden beneath the trestle, watching the world go by.

She almost bit the neck off her bottle when she saw a tall young man with red-gold hair stroll through the Forum. He had one arm thrown carelessly around the shoulders of a muscular dark-haired youth, and he held hands with a girl about Velody’s age whose face was painted – as Aunt Agnet would say – like a trollop.

The three of them wore bright, dandy clothes like stage costumes. It was the redhead who had caught Velody’s eye, though. He was strangely familiar.

How can that be? she chided herself. You’ve never been to this city before yesterday. You have met no one here.

So why did this pretty young man make her head hurt and her chest ache, as if he reminded her of some colossal embarrassment?

The redhead leaned down and kissed his painted girlfriend, messily, with lips and tongue and teeth. Before Velody could even blush at the impropriety of it – kissing in the streets! – he turned his head and bestowed a similar kiss upon his male friend.

As the three of them passed Velody’s little stall, the redhead winked saucily at her, and she quite forgot how to breathe. She looked over at Delphine to see the other girl fanning herself with a handful of ribbons.

“Things are quite different in the big city,” said Velody.

“You’re telling me,” said Delphine, pretending to swoon. “I plan to enjoy every last minute of freedom that I get here.” She sat up straight all of a sudden. “There! In the mauve shawl. That’s Madame Mauris!”

“How can you tell?” Velody asked.

“I sent Letty to her boutique this morning, of course. She reported back with a very detailed description. There can’t be two noses like that. Shh! She’s coming this way!”

*

A little while later, Velody leaned back on her stool in something like shock. Madame Mauris had examined the work of every young seamstress and needleworker at the fair, and her bronze token had very purposely been placed on Velody’s table.

Once Velody recovered herself, she tore her eyes away from Madame Mauris’ departing back to look apologetically at Delphine. She was not there.

When Delphine returned from the registration table with the indigo band of Mistress Sincy the ribboner around her wrist, Velody congratulated her. From that day forward, Delphine pretended that she had intended to take the ribboning apprenticeship all along, and neither Velody nor Rhian ever challenged her on it.

That was what friends did.

[marianne]

Tansy Rayner Roberts has since sold this novel to Harper Collins Voyager. It will be released in early 2010 as the first part of a trilogy. You saw it here first!