Page 96 of Play of Shadows

He was right. Our only hope of survival was to break through the main hallway, rush past the backstage wings and into the auditorium, from where we could make for one of the street exits or the back alley. But everywhere we turned, there were more Orchids, swarming over us while setting fire to oil-soaked floors and walls.

‘How many of these steel-carapaced cockroaches have infested our home?’ Abastrini demanded, reeling back from the press of three armoured men almost as big as him, each wielding short-hafted axes.

Ornella, armed with a spear, ran to help him, Beretto and I close behind. I choked a moment, stepping over the body of an usher who’d died with his cleaning cloth in hand. His only crime had been his diligence in polishing the oak chairs in the theatre.

How many others have already perished?I wondered, but Corbier’s warning shout clanged inside of my skull.

There’ll be one more if you don’t watch yourself, you fool!

A pair of Orchids had been hiding in the alcove to our right. The first man came out with his longsword ready to decapitate me.

Drop down low when the first man swings, Corbier advised.Then use the strength of your legs to shove him into his comrade as you come back up under the blade.

The Raven’s instructions worked surprisingly well. One swordsman stumbled back into the other and both crashed to the ground. Ornella slipped past me and used the butt end of her spear to bash first one then the other in the face with surprising precision and no hesitation whatsoever.

Pity it wasn’t she who possessed the Veristor’s gift, Corbierobserved.Her, I could have worked with.

Well, I’m all you’ve got. I pushed forward through the passage behind Beretto and Abastrini.And if I die tonight, no one will ever hear the end of your tale, so best you and I deal, your Grace.

‘Which way?’ Beretto called out as he smashed the pommel of the broadsword he’d commandeered from a downed Orchid on the head of the last of the militants blocking our way. ‘Front exits or the alley?’

Whichever is narrower, Corbier advised.It will be harder to get so many through, but easier to defend.

‘The alley!’ I replied.

Beretto nodded and led us through the smoke-filled maze of halls. The fire was beginning to rage now that some of the walls were fully alight, orange-red flames licking up the sides. The muffled thud of feet and shouts of encouragement from those behind who were hauling the battering rams propelled us onwards.

You’ll have five minutes, no more, Corbier warned,and after that, your battalion will suffocate from the smoke even before the flames reach them.

I swung my blunted iron sword at the enemy, managing to force them back just long enough for Ornella to thrust her spear forward. With that look of grim determination on her face, I would have sworn she was playing Penzira the Lionesse.

‘Sainted Hells,’ Teo swore as the tip of Ornella’s spear drove up beneath the gorget protecting the Orchid’s throat.

‘Forward!’ Ornella roared as blood came gushing from the man’s mouth.

Beretto cheered and we all rushed through the gap she’d made and into the last passage, which brought us within fifteen feet of the stage door. All that separated us from freedom were the eight armoured Orchids guarding the exit.

‘Too many for us, damn it,’ Abastrini growled.

‘Turn back! We have to turn ba—’ But Teo’s shout faded into the smoke as another dozen Orchids emerged from behind us, boxing us in.

My heart sank as I saw our way out, in plain view and yet beyond our reach. Beretto and Abastrini at the front were trying to force the Orchids away from the door, but for all their prodigious strength and ferocity, the two of them were actors, not soldiers, and already exhausted. Beretto had a bleeding gash across his right shoulder and a crimson trail was winding its way down his face from a cut high on his brow. He kept shaking his head to keep the blood out of his eyes. One of the Orchids started taunting him, trying to unbalance him in preparation for the death blow.

I pressed through the crowd to get to my friends. I was holding a rapier now, though I had no recollection where it had come from– one of the downed attackers, maybe? Or perhaps one of the crew had handed it to me. . . still, none of that mattered. I stabbed at the man harrying Beretto, but my tip just snagged on the chainmail links protecting the Orchid’s neck above the top of his steel breastplate without breaking through.

A rapier is a duelling weapon, Corbier reminded me.War is butchery. The heavier the cleaver, the deeper the blow.

‘Broadsword,’ I shouted behind me, throwing my rapier to a costumer, who stared at it as if it were some kind of exotic animal. ‘Someone pass me a broadsword—’

Teo was clutching just such a weapon, but he gave me a cockeyed look. ‘What fucking good will it do you? You can’t fight any better than the rest of us.’

‘I’ve got to try, damn you!’

But Teo clung to the sword, holding it close to his chest as if it might somehow protect him from fire and militants alike.

Beretto and Abastrini were both staggering now, swingingwidely to block the enemy from getting past them to begin the mass slaughter. The smoke was getting worse. The men and women of the Belleza were fighting with courage worthy of the poets, but they would soon be overwhelmed by the well-armed thugs who’d been sent to murder every last one of us.

Injustice set its own blaze deep inside my belly with the burning need to punish these bully-boys who’d set on innocents. Fear twisted into anger, which became an unquenchable desire for violence that turned the world red.

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