Page 94 of Play of Shadows

It was Grey Mags who was first to work out what was happening. ‘Yer fools! Yer ain’t witnessin’ the Battle of Mount Cruxia– that’srealsmoke– someone’s setting the theatre on fire!’

Chapter 46

The Barricades

Patrons entering through the Operato Belleza’s main arch for the first time would chuckle when, above their heads, they would note the bronze plaque.

Home to

the Knights of the Curtain

It was, after all, a funny name for a group of actors.

Lazy theatre critics, competing companies of players, and even the paupers and pickpockets plying their trade in the stage-door alley had found endless ways to mock the company’s ostentatious sobriquet.

But as the entire cast and crew stood in that rehearsal hall, the smoke rising all around us, the doors barred to keep us from fleeing, nobody was laughing any more.

‘They’ve jammed a steel bar across the bolt slides on the other side of the door!’ Teo shouted, yanking on the handle with such desperate determination that it came off in his hands.

The smoke was growing thicker with each passing second, making it increasingly hard to breathe. Several actors ran to join Teo in bashing at the doors with assorted stage props, althoughmost of them shattered at the first strike.

‘Not the stage weapons, you fools,’ Beretto bellowed as he raced for the props cupboard at the back end of the hall, ‘we need the old metal ones—’

He grabbed a rusted axe from one of the shelves and went charging back to the barred double doors. With a mighty roar, he swung at the wooden panels. The axe head survived three blows before coming off the haft, but by then the top panels had been smashed through.

More smoke poured inside, but with Teo’s and my assistance, Beretto was able to reach through the gap to lift the heavy steel bar holding the doors in place. It fell to the floor with a crash, but even with the three of us shoving, something outside was still keeping the doors from budging.

Beretto poked his head through the gap. ‘There’re bundles of kindling right und—’

Teo must’ve spotted something Beretto had missed because he suddenly screamed, ‘Look out—!’

‘What?’

I grabbed Beretto by the back of his collar and hauled him out of the way just as a gleaming blade sliced downwards on the other side of the door. Now we could all see the armoured men forming a blockade to keep us from escaping.

‘What the Hells are those symbols on their breastplates?’ Teo asked, blinking tears from his stinging eyes.

‘Orchids,’ I replied.

‘Somebody’s supplying these fuckers with armour now?’ Beretto groaned.

Your war begins, actor, Corbier’s voice whispered to me.Best prepare for battle.

Battle? I’m not a warrior– I don’t know how to—

Perhaps not a battle then, the spirit said contemptuously.A slaughter.

The Orchids had lengths of damp silk wrapped around their mouths and noses, but I could still make out the feral grins beneath.

‘These unconscionable cankers want to see us burned alive,’ Abastrini shouted, running towards us with both his own broadsword and another axe for Beretto. Shoville was at his heels.

‘What about the doors at the back of the hall?’ Teo asked.

‘They’ve set up fires all over,’ Ornella coughed. ‘The smoke is coming up from the basement below as well. They’ve kept the outer hall clear so they can watch us die from the smoke. . .’ She started coughing, but turned to help Rhyleis, who in turn was trying to prop up Grey Mags.

‘We can’t fight them off alone,’ Abastrini shouted out as he and Beretto employed their blades in increasingly vain attempts to push the Iron Orchids back from the doors.

There wasn’t much Teo and I could do but jab our own rusty swords through the broken panels in hope of distracting the soldiers long enough for Beretto or Abastrini to deliver a deadlier strike.

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