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1The Crown - Nobles
2
3The Lords of Ladies of the Crown Empire, they are the "rulers" of the land, enhanced with top-of-line medical science and equipment to give them a supernatural mythos. With some exceptions, no two nobles are the same, due to the various and different types of doctors and professors they employ.
4
5[SPOILER="General"]
6We don't know the specifics, but we are told of at least one illegitimate Noble
7[QUOTE=Esprit de Corpse 5.9]
8“There,” Jamie said.  “Man with the red tie?”
9
10I looked and saw a man, blond haired, with a jaw prominent enough that it looked like it had been surgically modified.
11
12“Nobility,” Jamie said.
13
14“Here?” I asked.  A two-legged cat might have had as much sense to walk into a wolf’s den.
15
16“He’s illegitimate.  Of everyone here that might hate the Crown and the people that fall under its umbrella, he probably hates the Crown the most.”
17
18“Tall order,” I said.  I grabbed a tiny cake.
19[/QUOTE]
20
21The Duke claims that there are many Nobles of similar age to Lilian at that point in the story (around age 12)
22[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.13]“Were I to start talking about the Lambs and how things work, my hopes for the project and the possibility for the Crown, heads would turn.  I know how I was when I was young, my brain working the way it does, and I have many family members who are roughly your age,” the Duke said.  He arched one eyebrow and looked at Lillian.  “My younger relatives might well want to be Lambs, as a lark, or to have a way of stretching their legs as I did earlier today, I would imagine you’re the easiest one to replace, should we need to make room on this team.”[/QUOTE]
23
24Noble anatomy
25[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]Noble anatomy, modified to be stronger, faster, inhuman by most measures.[/QUOTE]
26[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Girls]
27Four nobles.  Augmented physiology, augmented minds.  They were, as Mr. Percy would have said, ‘top notch‘.  Absolute monsters.  Depending on what unfolded, the Lambs might find themselves in a fight by the day’s end.
28
29It wasn’t a situation the Lambs would survive.
30[/QUOTE]
31
32Why they like the added height, wear armored clothing, and aware of their surroundings
33[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Girls]
34The Nobles were tall.  They liked that, being above the common people.  Mary was far from full grown, with a three-quarter foot to grow, if she compared herself to the woman who was supposed to be her mother.  The legs would be her best target.
35
36But that wasn’t the whole story.  The jackets the Duke and Baron had been wearing were heavy, and they flowed oddly as they walked.  There was something in them, armor.
37
38She had to attack from the front, knowing that the one she chose as her target was quicker, faster, and very aware of what was going on around them.
39[/QUOTE]
40
41On Mary's personal belief's in fighting the Nobles
42[QUOTE=enemy Arc 7 Girls]
43Topple her enemy, target the spine.  She tried to picture the scenarios unfolding.
44
45Not the throat or the jugular, unless she could do that as part of something else.  The spine was a better target.  Cervical four, third bundle was a likely target, but would only shut off breathing, freezing the diaphragm.  She would get pulled away, the doctors would swoop in.  They would fix the noble in the time it took them to die from a lack of breath.  Depending on how their bodies had been changed, that could be a very long time.
46
47Thoracics one through four had places she could drive a blade in to shut off the heart, lungs, and larynx.  Drive in the blade, do as much damage as possible, shut off heart function or ability to breathe.  Hard to do if the back was armored and protected, if the twins might have open backed dresses, or she could reach in past the collar.  It was worth keeping in mind, reciting that play in her head as a possibility.
48
49If she could drive the blade in, knowing how small it was, then it would be harder to fix, the damage more severe.  It would require something harder than any one part of her body.  Something from the environment.
50
51She could do it if her hands were bound, it would be harder but possible.  But being restrained was the least of her concerns, as she imagined different factors.  They might not fall, even as she leveraged a kick that could break ordinary bone into one of the more vulnerable parts of the human body.  Their spine might be protected.  She might not be able to access and keep a blade.  Her hands might even be bound, which wouldn’t stop her, but it could cost her the time she needed to grab the blade and follow through.
52
53She would die.  That bothered her less than the cold hollow emptiness that Helen had articulated so well, the loneliness that took hold inside her even now at imagining Helen’s dead eyes staring off into space, or Lillian in horrible pain.
54
55She would die, but even if she tried, if she was clever about it, the nobles who remained might think twice about giving personal attention to the Lambs who remained.  If they deferred to another method of execution or torture, then the remaining Lambs might have a chance to escape that they wouldn’t have with the nobles.
56[/QUOTE]
57
58How even drastic alterations by the rich doesn't compare to the Nobles
59[QUOTE=Bleeding Edge 8.1]
60Husband and wife. He was a middle-aged gentleman with obviously altered features, cut a little too sharp.  His face was clean shaven, his blond hair waxed to the point that it looked artificial through and through, as if it were finely carved of wood.  He wore a jacket with tails and thin slacks, and held a bone cane, more for style than out of any need for one.
61
62She was a woman who’d had more work done on her body than most.  I might have taken her for his daughter, but she was wearing the open-front blouse that was so common to yesteryear’s high courts.  The cut of the dress bared the space between breasts, and the resulting picture was decorated with low-hanging jewelry and framed with ruffles and lace.  It would have been the style for Lillian’s mother when the woman was Lillian’s age or a few years older, if Lillian’s mother was born to a good family.
63
64That dress told me a lot.  It suggested she was forty, for one, her apparent age cut in half by good care by good doctors.  It wasn’t unfashionable, but it took courage or reasons to wear it when she could have an easier time following modern fashion trends.  The risque styles of dress had been a reaction or signal of support to the Crown around the time the infighting between Crown and Church had started.  It was very possible that she or her entire family had a deeper stake in that particular fight, remembered even today.
65
66She also had a tic, one finger moving rhythmically where she thought we couldn’t see, one hand in the other arm’s sleeve of her.  If I remembered right, it was a problem common to people who had had certain augmentations placed within their forearms.  A precursor to the same sort of thing that let Fray hide needles in her fingertips.
67
68No, even from the way they held themselves, and the ease and care with which they moved, it was clear they were augmented from head to toe.  Grafts, physical alterations, drugs, changes to their biological construction at the ground level, and more.
69
70They weren’t nobles, but by golly, they wanted to be.
71[/QUOTE]
72
73More about how the line of succession works
74[QUOTE=Bleeding Edge 8.2]
75“The runaway.  It sounds like she had good reasons for leaving home.  Being pushed into marriage with a noble?”
76
77“The Baron, no less,” Jamie said.  “The Duke got started early in terms of military strategy and leadership.  The Baron?  Sixty-four nobles would have to die before he got his shot at the Crown, possibly sixty-five if the Infante of Crown Hispana gets a younger sibling this year.  The Baron is closer to the Gages in social rank than to the Duke.  Five steps below the Duke, four steps above the Gages.  Few opportunities, few reasons to go out and do things.”
78[/QUOTE]
79
80The surgeries Nobles go through
81[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
82“I move for transplants of parts A, B, and D between steps twenty-seven and thirty.”
83
84“On what basis?”
85
86“Temperature of the transplanted parts is deviating by point four percent high while they’re sitting in the cold rigging.  I’m putting it down as risk level three.  Nobody marked anything below thirty with higher risk than that.”
87
88“Convenient.”
89
90“Thanks for the reminder.  Putting down step thirty-four as risk level two.”
91
92“We can argue about that in a second, you sneaky bastard.  Cameron, justify risk level three?”
93
94“The latest version of Wollstone’s recordings, cilia in the trachea are down on Ian’s global vulnerability scale as a thirty-three nine, damage to the cilia now would increase maintenance further down the road, and could lead to post-operative infection.”
95
96“We could give him a new trachea if it comes to that.”
97
98“Which is why I argued for three, Adams.  A new trachea has its costs too, which I would argue raises it above a two on our crude priority list.”
99
100“Fine.  Well argued.  I’ll second.”
101
102“Thank you.”
103
104“I’ll third if you don’t give me a hard time about thirty-four, I’m too tired to argue.  Good.  Let the record keeper take note that I got a nod from Cameron.”
105
106“I might give you a hard time in a second.  Put it on the board, nurse?  Don’t lose track of the numbers as you move everything.”
107
108“Yes, doctor.”
109
110“I know you jokers in black coats are going to insist on blabbing about priorities like a bunch of old hens while I’m elbow deep in vat-grown intestine, but can we please make a rule where the nurses keep quiet?  I’ve gone and forgotten the length of the cut.”
111
112“Four-fifty.”
113
114“At least you’re good for something, Berg.  Sectioning four-fifty.  Are you going to be done step twenty-two in the next minute?”
115
116“Yes, yes.  I’m a useless sod, that’s why I’m in this room.  Nurse, you there.  You’ve been shuffling your weight from foot to foot.  Go scrub down, get the good professor here something to eat, scrub up, and hand feed him while he works.  He’s getting cranky.”
117
118“I’ll have step twenty-two done in twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two… one…  Done.”
119
120“Out of the way of the stomach cavity.  Organs going in.  I hope you dunces have been careful about this.  If he gets a hernia in ten years because I had to fumble around for two minutes getting your organs in the right places instead of taking the time to set the intestines into place-”
121
122A voice cut through the conversation, deep and heavy.
123
124“If my nephew gets a hernia in ten years because of incompetent work done today, you collectively pay the price.”
125
126“My apologies, my lord.”
127
128“Lord Archduke, sir.”
129
130“My lord,” the third voice spoke.
131
132“My lord,” echoed the fourth.
133
134“Stop with the bowing and scraping.  Look after the boy.  He’s in pieces on four separate tables.  I would like to see him put back together before the night is over.  Aimless formality at this stage is in poor taste.”
135
136Wet, sucking sounds, squelching, and spatters marked the silence that followed.  There was no negotiation, no discussion of scales, ratios, values or markers.
137
138Heavy footfalls drew closer to the table.
139
140On the table, the boy, blind, unable to breathe or move anything but the stump of one arm, reached up for his uncle.  Further down the table, the hand that was joined to the stump by tubes both real and unnatural opened, fingers splayed, reaching in the wrong direction.
141
142The uncle’s hand ran along the child’s bare scalp.
143
144“It hurts, doesn’t it?” the Archduke murmured.
145
146The boy opened his mouth, pleading, but the mouth wasn’t joined to anything.
147
148“To this day, I still remember being on tables very similar to these.  Different procedures, different advancements.  But I remember the agony.  A lifetime’s worth of pain in one night, at the age of three.  Then another lifetime’s worth at the age of five, and at seven, and one last time at ten, to bring it all together.”
149
150The hand stroked the boy’s head again, large enough that the bottom end of the palm grazed one ear and the fingertips grazed the other.
151
152“You’ll endure tonight, then have two more nights like this, and you’ll be done.  You will be state of the art, and you’ll be art, my little Duke.”
153
154The boy tried to move his body, but some pieces weren’t connected, and other pieces weren’t in the right place.
155
156“I came to talk to you because I want you to pay attention.  Cherish this pain.  Come to know it and carve it into that beautiful brain we gave you.  You’ll choose to inflict pain on others thousands of times in your lifetime.  You’ll condemn entire cities to agony so dire that people’s bodies destroy themselves, their own muscles trying to tear bones from sockets and break their own backs.”
157
158The boy felt a soft kiss on his forehead.
159
160“Two years ago, we gave you a great mind.  Now we give you a body to suit.  Remember tonight, because it is the last night you are human in any way.  From tonight until the day you pass from this world, you look down on them.”
161
162Another caress of the head, and the hand was taken away.
163
164The boy stared in the Archduke’s general direction with eyeless sockets, and gawped with a tongueless mouth that lacked wind to make a single utterance.
165
166The heavy footsteps retreated.  The only noise was the wet sound of guts being arranged in a stomach cavity, the rhythmic knocking and whooshing of machines, and the sound of fluids in narrow spaces.
167
168*****
169
170The room emptied.
171
172“Over here.  The boy can hear.”
173
174Footsteps retreated.  The boy was alone, no longer being handled by three people at once.  He opened and closed his hand.
175
176He could strain and hear the distant conversation with the ears he had been given two years ago.
177
178“The boy is supposed to be in pain?”
179
180“Nobody said anything about that.”
181
182“The Lord Archduke just did.”
183
184“We weren’t told in advance, is what I mean.”
185
186“We cornered ourselves.  If we continue to apply the nerve controls to minimize the pain and he reports it to the Lord Archduke, we’ll be known liars.  If we cut it off and the boy remembers, he’ll know we could have spared him the pain, and he could seek vengeance at a later date.”
187
188“We should have said something while the Archduke was here.”
189
190“I didn’t see you stepping up.  I know I didn’t want to interrupt that intimate moment.  I was too busy shitting myself.”
191
192“Enough bickering.  We need to decide what we’re doing.”
193
194“We’re dead either way.”
195
196“It’s a question of whether we want to stay in the boy’s good graces and risk the Archduke’s wrath, or the reverse.”
197
198“The reverse could see the Archduke wrathful all the same.”
199
200“Enough with the bickering.  You’re children, all of you.  We can’t follow the spirit of the Archduke’s expectations, but we can follow the letter of them.  Disconnect the nerve controls, let the remaining painkillers wear out.  It’ll be worse with the backswing.”
201
202“Not quite worse.  By Wollstone’s third ratio, we can expect-”
203
204“Enough bickering, Adams.  If anyone asks, the backswing adds to the agony, and compensates for the fact that he’s feeling almost nothing right now.  He’ll get that lifetime’s worth of agony.”
205
206“If anyone asks, the fact they’re asking means our goose is cooked and we’re as good as dead.”
207
208“Yes, well, say what you will, but I think we’re in this together from here on out.  I don’t know about you lads, but I was told that if I bollocksed this up in any way shape or form, they would search out every person I cared about, snuff them, and then erase any and every record of us from history.  I do have people I care about.”
209
210“We all do.  We keep mum on this.  Agreed?”
211
212“Agreed,” three voices spoke in unison.
213
214“Let’s get back to work, then.”
215
216“I want my tracheal transplant bumped up.  We spent time talking.”
217
218“I’ll help you.  Give me a hand with the eyes, leading up to that?”
219
220The four professors returned to the table, now cooperating.
221
222The discussion and the noise of the doctors starting work anew came to a sudden stop.  Hands that held body parts remained where they were, momentarily frozen.
223
224“Lord Duke,” Berger said, quiet, “I know I do far too much in asking anything of you.  Let me say only this.  If you’ll forgive us of this, I will give you a lifetime of service so devoted that other nobles will look on you in envy.”
225
226“Agreed,” one of the professors echoed, barely audible.  The remaining two joined in, echoing him.
227
228A switch was flicked.  The boy Duke jerked.
229
230“Painkiller at three percent and ticking down.  He’s feeling it, but the edges are dulled.  We’ve got about ten minutes before painkiller is clear.  Can the next person with a free moment go fetch the nurses?”
231
232Lying on the table, the Duke clenched one hand.
233
234******
235
236His body was new, he’d been looked after for the last time, and at ten years old, he stood taller than the average man.  Even with a cane, it was hard to move his new arms and legs without stumbling now and again.
237
238The first three nights of agony had added to him, or taken away weaknesses.  Mind, body, and power.  The fourth had made him noble, physically better and more beautiful.  His genetics had been better than some, and he’d been presentable even before the last series of operations.  Some weren’t so lucky, and were cooped up away from the public eye for a full decade.
239
240******
241
242Every day, he was thrust into situations and others expected him to keep up.  A small failure could weaken his standing in the eyes of his extended family, and open him up to a lifetime of sabotage or small abuses.  A larger failure could ruin his chance of achieving anything at all before he died.
243
244But, for the very first time since he was three years old, he was without the quartet of professors that looked after him, the tools they had implanted within him, and the adjustments they had made to his body and mind.
245[/QUOTE]
246
247Nobles have fine hairs for detecting movements around them
248[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]Fine hairs on the backs of his hands and neck alerted him to movement behind him. He didn’t startle, and kept his reaction slow as he looked back at the twins.
249
250*****
251
252He raised a hand.  The hairs on the back of his hands and neck were telling him about the movements all around him, the sway of branches with few leaves, the movement of wind, the movement of the twins, as one reached around Richmond to run a finger up and down her sister’s back, and now the approach of a military commander.  He moved his fingers slightly, letting his brain interpret the signals, reading the wind.  The one with the mustache and thick head of hair beneath his helmet, it seemed.  One of the good ones, as the mere humans went.
253
254“My lord.”
255[/QUOTE]
256[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The Duke sensed someone approach the tent, and turned.  The Baron and Baronet twins looked over, as well.[/QUOTE]
257
258Can understand and focus on their facial muscles
259[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
260“Fair point.  But I meant that you have that look about you that I’ve only seen on two occasions, when you stood in the midst of a sea of corpses.”
261
262Did he?  The Duke wondered, studying his own expression with a calculated measure of where and how his facial muscles were arranged.
263[/QUOTE]
264
265Nobles can alter their mental processing and perceptions
266[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
267The Duke didn’t answer the question.  He stared, watching, thinking.  Between the sea creatures in the water, his forces here at the east end of the city, his forces at the south end, and the mountains to the north, he had them boxed in.  He let his mind take the ideas and let the rest of the world slow down so he could think over everything in detail.
268
269He didn’t know enough about the mountains.
270[/QUOTE]
271[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
272When he was three years old, his mind had been altered, to allow him to better control how fast he thought, and how he perceived the passage of time.  He had only mastered it a few years ago, and controlling it took effort that often left him exhausted at the day’s end.  Still, he kept up the practice, and his control improved.
273
274In this moment, he let his awareness speed up, to better survey things from all of the angles.  A part of his thoughts were dedicated to making sure he maintained the same speed and pace.  Slowing his pace by a fraction would signal to others that something was wrong.
275
276He contemplated how he might go about this, if this prison was indeed intended for him, if he needed to run, or else face imprisonment for the rest of his days, bereft of the doctors who were supposed to tend him, slowly going to pieces over decades.
277
278In the end, he decided that he couldn’t beat his mother and aunt in a fight.  At least, not like this, with his body so new and untested.
279[/QUOTE]
280
281More about the quality difference of nobles in different standings
282[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The young Duke allowed himself to peer over the room, looking at each of the people within.  They were sculpted, every one of them altered, set one half-step away from ordinary people.  But where the trained eye could see the difference in quality of work, like the vast chasm between the Duke and his cousin Richmond, it was clear that the room was filled with lower quality nobles.[/QUOTE]
283
284Mundane and experimental routes of nobles
285[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
286The Baron Richmond wasn’t as impressive as the Duke, because he hadn’t had the same clout, power, and money that was needed to get the very best doctors for the very best surgeries and experiments.  Richmond had gone the mundane route, and mundane remained very, very impressive, paling only in comparison to the likes of the Duke.  The Twins had been taken down the experimental route, more monstrous than a self-respecting noble would allow, riskier and more questionable.
287
288But still the very best sort of work that was out there.  The sort of work I suspected Ibott wanted to do.
289[/QUOTE]
290
291More about Noble biology and their defenses against normal bullets vs the new enhanced ones
292[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.4]Then, in short succession, two more splintering sounds.  These were regular bullets, powerful ones capable of punching past a handspan’s width of wood and still flying true enough for the bullets to embed in the floor or opposite door of the carriage.[/QUOTE]
293[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.17]“Nobles favor a layer of something like armor, an interskeletal barrier between their skin and their muscle or bone structure.  Normal guns are meant to ricochet, their bullets move slowly, to pass into the subject and bounce around, doing grievous harm.  Few think twice of this.  But the Crown has reasons for perpetuating this standard.  Those slower, bouncing bullets aren’t so effective against the nobles.”  Bullets sink in and stop at the armor, or they bounce right out.  The noble bleeds but doesn’t stop.  They appear immortal, and enemy morale suffers.  The myth that surrounds them grows.”
294
295*****
296
297“These bullets penetrate that layer.  That armor helps strips the outer shell off as the bullet passes through, and what remains unfolds and expands as an umbrella might,” Mauer said.  His hand, all fingertips and thumb meeting, tapped my chest, hard, then opened up, fingers splaying.  “The final part of the projectile sometimes punches through on exit, or joins the expanded metal in complicating the efforts of doctors and staff.  Especially uncareful or hasty doctors might even do further harm to themselves, if an expanding bullet finishes expanding too near a prodding finger or working hand.”
298
299“It wouldn’t be as effective against an ordinary person,” Lillian said.
300
301“It might, if it hit hard bone, but no, it isn’t meant for ordinary people,” Mauer said.  “The guns are long range, they’re accurate, and they’re felt before they can be easily reacted to.  This incident isn’t the important part of what I’m doing.  Killing the Duke, it means something.  But after one or two more incidents, they’ll realize what it really means.”
302
303That unless they find you and stop your group from manufacturing these things,” I said, “No noble can ever show their face in public again.”
304
305“And they need to show their faces,” Mauer said.  “It’s why they go to such efforts to tailor themselves and make themselves into dangerous weapons.  That was why I could be sure the Duke would show himself in one way or another, when he was positive the scales were tipped and victory was in hand.”
306[/QUOTE]
307
308Despite the effectiveness of the bullets, the maker is confident that Nobles can augment themselves to better defend against it
309[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.17]“They’ll respond,” Mauer said.  “At some time in the next year, they’ll finish arguing among themselves, rally, and arrive in force.  Newly augmented, so they can be more confident against these guns.  Things are going to change, and they’ll fear that.  That’s a fear that makes them predictable.”[/QUOTE]
310
311Nobles tend to marry once
312[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.18]“The deal… marriage is essential.  You hate the idea, I know, but don’t take the bait if he offers a compromise that doesn’t include it.  If he does, it’s probably a ruse, and he plans to kill us all at the next opportunity.  Nobles only marry once, usually, and if he’s not willing to look you in the eye and agree to the idea of marrying for the tidbit of knowledge you can offer him, then he’s not really staking anything on the deal.  If he takes the offer, then he thinks you have something, and you have leverage.  Not a lot, but some.”[/QUOTE]
313
314More enhanced Noble senses
315[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]He was true to form.  Monte spoke, “Shall we stay like this all the way to New Amsterdam?  My arm won’t get tired.  I can smell the blood coming from the back of your throat.  I can see your muscles moving as you hold yourself back from gagging.  If you try to vomit, you might tear your own throat open.  How many hours is it?”[/QUOTE]
316
317The skill of Noble Doctors
318[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]“Each member of our group here has our own doctors, who are occupying the next car and keeping miss Shirley company.  There are twenty four doctors in that train car.  Many were the top of their class in their respective years and Academies.  They can bid with ideas, from their polished, Academy-trained brains.  The doctor who can devise the most fiendish punishment for miss Shirley gets a reward.  Predicated, mind you, on their follow through after the fact.”[/QUOTE]
319
320More about Noble classes
321[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.3]
322“What I’ve been piecing together, what we’ve been piecing together,” Jamie spoke to me, “Is that these nobles are very small.  They identify by their families.  The Mothmonts.  By places.  Leeds.  But they sure as hell aren’t major players in those families or places.  Monte is the one with the highest rank and he’s only a ‘lord’.  They’re small.”
323
324*****
325
326“They’re not just small nobles.  They’re brand new nobles.  They’ve probably been raised by their families in houses like Richmond House was for the Baron.  This might be some of their first exposure to the world, their first time being expected to act.”
327[/QUOTE] 
328
329While not salvageable with Noble killing guns, Noble doctors can revive Nobles in some cases
330[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.5]
331“Are their corpses salvageable?”
332
333“No, father.  They’ll try, the bodies are only thirty minutes cold, but the damage is extensive.  It’s the new guns.”
334
335“Go to the labs, August.  Don’t interrupt the man, but talk to Jeremy’s lead,” the Infante said.  “He’ll be upset, already thinking about leaving, if the revival isn’t possible.  If we don’t catch him, he’ll convince himself to leave by the finish of the mandatory three tries.  We want to keep him.”
336
337“Yes, father,” ‘August’ said.
338
339“Tell him that the Lady Charlotte needs an attending first.  That’s a move up for him.  A fresh start.  She was only just born.”
340
341“London, uncle?” the Falconer asked.
342
343“My brother will owe me one,” the Infante said.
344[/QUOTE]
345
346More about young Nobles
347[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
348“I’d offer something to help,” Jamie said, “But I don’t know much.  Augustus is close to the Infante, and is in the Infante’s neighborhood when it comes to the line of succession.  The way things unfold, he probably won’t ever wear the crown, barring incident.  Children are born, they’ll fill up the space between Augustus and the Crown, but… it’s not entirely out of the question?”
349
350“Yeah.”
351
352“From what I read in the news, he’s only just ventured out from noble holdings to take a hand in affecting the world.”
353
354“Reminds me of the young nobles that I met on the train.  They were new to the world too.”
355
356“Stems from the work they have done on them, I think.  They need time to recuperate, so they’re fully prepared and fully recovered by the first time they show their faces,” Jamie said.
357
358“Can’t show the public the wrong face.”
359[/QUOTE]
360
361Nobles (of an unknown amount) are actually random individuals taken as children to be transformed.
362[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.18]
363“They made your friend into a noble?” Shirley asked.  “A clone of her?”
364
365“Our friend was a clone,” I said.  “And the original was… discarded.  She found her way here, or to a place like this one, or… no.  It makes more sense if she never made it this far.  Or if these people never made it that far.  Children collected from various places, using a quota system, then gathered, tested and examined.  If they met criteria…”
366
367Jamie picked up the thread.  “Reaction times, recall, attractiveness, natural strength, endurance, flexibility, overall health, anything along those lines.”
368
369“Yeah.  They’d be whisked away.  The rest of the children go up on an auction block for the Academies, as test subjects.  To obfuscate, explain why children are being collected and transported?  There is a demand, after all.  And then when someone gets too close, gets one or two steps away, burn it all.  I wonder how much Percy knew.  Mauer said Percy knew enough to point him and Fray in this direction.”
370
371“Percy had her, and he… sold her?  Traded her?” Jamie asked.
372
373“Assuming it’s the Academy proper that’s focused on meeting quotas… he traded to someone in the Academy for some lab equipment, maybe.  Or for knowledge.  Or he traded her to Cynthia, and Cynthia made the trade, looking for something similar,” I said.
374
375“Why?” Jamie asked.  “Why does the Academy do it this way?”
376
377“That’s a mystery we’re going to have to solve,” I said.
378
379Jamie frowned.
380
381“Much like the Twins,” I said.  “The Baron’s low status.  He knew something about this.  He- he laughed, when I asked where the children go.”
382
383“I think we could benefit from studying the narrative,” Jamie said.  “The Falconer, you called her.  She was distant.  The Baron and Baronet Twins, distant, again.  Brought on board at a later age?  Explained away as distant relations?  While more effective projects, worked on from birth, are said to be direct relations.  Or they are direct relations, and the like of the Baron is… supplementary.”
384
385“It might not be how early they were brought on board,” I said.  “It could be that he learned, he was allowed into the loop, and he took it badly.  All that ugliness in him, what if he just stewed in the knowledge that his nobility was a farce.”
386
387“A farce,” Jamie echoed me.
388
389“Yeah,” I said.
390
391“This is big,” he said.  “Bigger than showing a noble can die.  It’s showing that nobles aren’t real.  The way you were talking about Mauer.  We want to be careful how we use this.”
392[/QUOTE]
393
394Nobles (and the Crown) can and have layed waste to continents
395[QUOTE=Bitter Pill 15.14]
396Yet you decided not to use that information.  And it wasn’t because the timing was wrong.”
397
398We walked, and we crossed from empty street to a busier one with some crowd.  Fray indicated a turn, looping back in the direction we’d come.  I obliged.
399
400“Did you think they wouldn’t cover their weakness, Sylvester?  I put other pieces together.  I was uniquely positioned to see the greater chessboard.  My grave concern is that you are the most dangerous element possible.  Smart enough to see the truth, yet not informed enough to see that for any piece we could take, the cost is far, far too great, and reckless enough that you might take that piece regardless.”
401
402“Flattering,” I said.  “Uniformed Sylvester.”
403
404“You’re focusing on the wrong aspect of this.”
405
406“Then please, inform me,” I said.
407
408“You’re already informed, Sylvester.  This is where the recklessness comes into play.  You know exactly what the reality is.  It’s a common saying among anyone from families at dinner tables to rebellion leaders to members of the Academy.  The Crown does not lose.”
409
410“There’s a first time for everything.”
411
412“This wouldn’t be the first time, Sylvester.  I’m sure this has happened.  Other people, groups, and nations have devised the means by which to deliver fatal blows, in times where the Crown was younger and more vulnerable, when events conspired against it.  It isn’t easy to grow an empire, so soon after the upheaval required for the Crown to become what it is now, so soon after the rise of the Academies and everything they meant.  There have been other opportunities.”
413
414“Yet the Crown doesn’t lose?” I asked.
415
416“It feels wrong, doesn’t it?  Or when you consider the sheer power of the biological science and the military at the Crown’s disposal, yet pay mind to the fact that the Crown has only seized a quarter of the world?”
417
418“They move slowly, establish their Academies, secure every region before moving on.”
419
420“Absolutely, they do.  But Sylvester, there’s more to it.  There are regions, places I’ve borne witness to, which are sealed off.  They use things like the same cloud seeding we see at Radham, only to ensure death rather than parcel out leashes.  They use grown walls like you no doubt saw at Tynewear, only far taller, and they flood the areas on the other side with biological agents, parasites, and weapons.  They tell people that these were the places where disasters happened.  That this is why only the Academy can be trusted with the knowledge the Academy disseminates.”
421
422I looked over at Fray.  She seemed somber.
423
424“The Academy is the sorest of losers, Sylvester.  They suggested to us that the places they showed us were several of a handful.  I have reason to believe they number in the hundreds.  Places where primordials were loosed, where academies were reclaimed, knowledge disseminated, weapons turned against the Crown and Academy…”
425
426“Places where people spoke of secrets that could cause irreparable harm to the Academy.”
427
428“Yes, Sylvester.”
429
430I fell silent.
431
432“They have laid waste to continents, in whole or in part.  If they can’t win, then they ensure nobody can.  If they rule a world that they’ve reduced to a half the normal size, they still rule.  Given science and sufficient time, they can fix what they leveled.  When they do, the world will be theirs.  Unopposed.  The Infante, the Judge, is someone who oftentimes handles these sorts of decisions.  Even nobles like the Duke are rightly terrified of what he might decide.”
433
434“Just like that,” I said.
435[/QUOTE]
436[QUOTE=Head over Heels 16.8]
437“If Mr. and Mrs. Block were found, it was their bodies.  Maybe written record, but even there, we are careful.  If they or anyone like them were in a position to be found, they would be killed pre-emptively.  I’ve had my turn, once, ensuring this was done.  With luck, you will too.”
438
439The two were silent.
440
441“Nobles represent our best work, our best people.  Yet you know that some of them, despite our best efforts, despite breeding going back to before the Crown Empire was an Empire, and was only one island country in the middle of a place we called Europe… some nobles disappoint.  I know the both of you have met the Baron Richmond.  He would be an example of such a disappointment.”
442
443“Yes father,” was one response.
444
445“Yes uncle,” was another, softer response.
446
447“The Blocks… you could say they’re responsible for the nobles being as noble as they are.  Much like how Florence talked about dressing one way, putting on makeup, learning manners, Mr. and Mrs. Block were among those responsible for one stage in the noble’s development.  They are in a unique position to know just how many disappointing individuals there are that the public never sees, do you understand?  The faces and natures of nobles who never properly become nobles in the public eye.”
448
449The two children remained quiet, clearly taken aback with the gravity of what was being said.
450
451“Pride, reputation, and status are things that build on each other, and we have built very tall towers in the last century.  At the top, the towers are supported by people like my wife.  Her family, and families like hers.  At the bottom, the towers are supported by a firm foundation, given food and stone and all the resources they need by a people who look up and respect the height and fortitude of those constructions.  But when an empire grows to a certain measure of strength, it cannot be torn down by guns, weapons, or warbeasts.  Only by division from within, a severe crisis of faith.”
452
453I felt Eric’s hand tighten on my throat, only by a little.  The regular breath my body was providing became insufficient.
454
455“This would be such a crisis, Father?”
456
457I hadn’t been taking very deep breaths before, so the strangulation was going further than it might otherwise.  I couldn’t even defend myself.
458
459“Who can say?  But I think the Crown Empire would rather risk a thousand wars over one test of that faith and pride.  Because they can win a thousand wars, but one such test?  We don’t 
460[/QUOTE]
461[QUOTE=Head over Heels 16.11]
462“In another world, if we had been able to save Sylvia there, if my allegiances lay elsewhere, would she be a candidate for the Block?”
463
464“One as young as this?  No.  We only collected the very young from the best breeding stock, for the ones we needed to work with the most.  We usually tapped the aristocracy in those cases.”
465
466“Right,” I said.
467
468“You don’t seem to know very much about it, yet you aren’t asking many questions.”
469
470“I’m trying to lull you into a false sense of security,” I said.  “I am curious just what things really look like at the top.”
471
472“The Lord King?”
473
474“I’m insinuating that he’s not at the top, Professor.  It’s the Academies, isn’t it?”
475
476“It’s a delicate balancing act.  The true monsters and the men who made them.  We pull the strings, if you’ll excuse my using the term, and they obey, but…”
477
478“There’s always a risk of mutual destruction, should you push them too far?”
479
480“It helps that only a handful of them have really figured out that the very best of the men in black coats are calling most of the shots in the end.”
481
482“And if this story gets out, then the altercation is forced.”
483
484“Perhaps,” Berger said.  “Probably.  There are other problems, like the ones I spelled out for Florence and Charles.”
485[/QUOTE]
486[QUOTE=Gut Feeling 17.3]
487“Mary Cobourn, as we saw her, was the Falconer, a young noble in the charge of the Lord Infante, modified heavily.”
488
489“What?” Lillian asked.
490
491“Not unique to her.  It’s the case for all nobles.  Selected from the crop that’s sent to the Block, modified, indoctrinated.  There is no family tree, they get allocated to locations with histories made up based on how high quality they end up.  There is no Crown, really, because the Academy controls the process.  Many of the nobles don’t know, and if they were to find out, it’s not out of the question that it could spark an internecine conflict between Crown and Academy as they cease working together with the top dogs each feeling smugly superior of the other.”
492[/QUOTE]
493
494How Nobles and Academy bigwigs secretly communicate
495[QUOTE=Dog Eat Dog 18.6]
496I spoke.  “There’s a code you use when communicating with other professors, Academies, and nobles.  A higher level of security.”
497
498“Is there?” Ferres asked.
499
500I raised my eyebrow.
501
502She sighed.  “There is.  For all that your abilities are vaunted, you Lambs haven’t been able to crack it, hm?”
503
504“We know where the numbers are.  Stop gloating and just tell us what the numbers mean.”
505
506“Implants.  Mine is under my left thumbnail.  It looks like blood but isn’t, it’s an agent with a specific chemical balance.  It takes two minutes with the lab in my office to extract and find out the current percentage.  They’ll check the date and time of any messages I send against the number in the margins, match it against the same chemical they have in their offices.”
507
508“No bruising?” Jessie asked.  “I haven’t seen any physical markers.”
509
510“That would defeat the purpose,” Ferres said.
511
512“It’s all very complicated,” I said.
513
514“They pushed for higher security after the infiltration of the communications office in Radham.  We did have measures before, but we had to change them when she went rogue.”
515[/QUOTE]
516[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]He sorted through the mail, skimming each letter.  Chemicals in one side of his throat allowed him to track and remember the numbers used with the security measures on mail.  With each such letter with a number in the margins, he was able to verify that the sender had used the appropriate codes.[/QUOTE]
517
518More about what might have went into Noble creation
519[QUOTE=Lamb I Arc 18]
520Mary’s thoughts touched briefly on what Sylvester and Jessie had said about the Block.  Her thoughts touched briefly on the vague image of this noble that supposedly shared blood and history with her, and the glass coffin the noble had laid within.
521
522How many of those monsters had been human once?  How many others had been pieced together from components that were obtained from human donors?  Any one of them could have benefited from root cells, muscle transplants, or sections of brains, if not whole brains then molded with drug regimens.
523[/QUOTE]
524
525Some lesser nobles can survive a massive explosion and fall from great heights
526[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.4]Applause shook the main hall of Hackthorn.  Lesser nobles, Doctors, Professors, students, soldiers, experiments, and more.  More still filed into the space, each bringing their entourage, each bringing their own protection.[/QUOTE]
527[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.6]Our students were backing off.  Many, including Bea, had fled for one of the bridges.  They were shutting the gate, and the people below us were just now realizing it.  In places below, students and rebels were slipping away, setting up roadblocks and other obstacles.  It would buy them time to reach secure points, to run to the lowest-floor doors of dormitories and the admin building.
528
529*****
530
531There were no more attachments to the exterior of the main building- only to the bridge that connected it to the admin building.
532
533*****
534
535The enemy was attacking the gate now, setting something strong and powerful at the door.  I could hear the crunches, the bangs, and the chops that were like axes on wood.  I could hear glass break, and knew that there were things that weren’t human that would be crawling out through the broken windows and onto the exterior, out toward the bridge, giving chase.
536
537*****
538
539“Just in time,” Davis said, meeting us at a waiting window.  “They’re coming over the bridge now.  There’s a lot more of them than we anticipated.”
540
541*****
542
543The bridge detonated, a rolling explosion that caught first at one end, then the middle, and finally at the end closest to the main building.  Wood, stone, the garden baskets that had lined either side, bits of metal and a portion of the enemy’s front-line capable troops tumbled through the open air.  I hoped there were some young nobles among them.[/QUOTE]
544[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.7]
545“Some of the nobles on the bridge we just blew up are climbing out of the rubble,” she observed.
546
547“Really?” I asked.  “That’s pretty impressive.  Pick one out, make him or her our measuring stick?”
548
549*****
550
551I focused on the rubble, and saw two nobles.  A young Lord had already emerged, and a young Lady was in the process of moving rubble to free her legs.  Both were dirty and both were bleeding in places.
552
553The Lord began stripping down.  He stood there almost completely naked for a short time while he picked through the various dead in the wreckage, shaking their less tattered clothes free of dust before donning them.
554
555The Lady was more hurt.  She crawled forth, made her way to the nearest piece of rubble she could sit on, and began tending to her injuries, including a smashed leg.  I couldn’t see much of what she was doing, given the angle and the distance.
556
557They would look after themselves to the point they could show their faces without too much shame, and then they would rejoin the proceedings.
558
559*****
560
561"Five tried to cross the bridge here and only two climbed out, for what it’s worth.”[/QUOTE]
562
563Lesser nobles still have incredible speeds, notice when they are being watched, and can combat hazardous warbeasts with only slight injuries
564[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.11]
565 I could see the admin building itself, more a gnarled twist of wood and vines than a proper building now.  I could see the distant silhouettes of the nobles who stood or sat on the roof and the branches that were reaching over it.
566
567They barely moved.  Almost anyone else would have gotten impatient, paced, or given some indication that they were talking among themselves.
568
569I wondered how much of their decision to stay as still as they were staying was because they were trying to conserve their energy and strength, how much was because they knew they were being watched and they were trying to unnerve us, and how much had to do with the fact that they had left their humanity long behind.
570
571*****
572
573I was pretty content to watch Lillian smiling, with the occasional glance spared for the Nobles, who had shifted their position a little as the overall footing had changed.  Three of them had gathered together to talk.
574
575[/QUOTE]
576[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]
577The Nobles stood on the rooftop, amid the bodies of scattered warbeasts and experiments.  Ribcages had been torn apart so they spiked skyward from otherwise unrecognizable piles of meat and gristle.  Skulls had been bifurcated, some so neatly that it seemed inconceivable that it had been done in combat, while others had been divided in a messy way, skull fragments sticking through torn flesh and scale.
578
579It was getting late, and we’d decided that they were too relaxed up there.  We’d taken care to ensure the warbeasts didn’t suit as food.  The ones who scattered the rooftop and hung from the branches that had grown across it were only a small share.  Some had been bloated, filled with gas or parasites.  Junior and Poppy- Persephone?  Prissy?  I wasn’t sure of her name.  Whoever she’d been, she and Junior had made sure that many of the warbeasts, when slain, had smelled as pungent as possible.
580
581My sampling of the smell had revealed it to be something like faeces mixed with perfume.  I’d prepared myself in advance of the sample by liberally coating every inch of my body, hair, and clothing in powder, inside and out, changing out of the clothes in question right after.
582
583Even with that, only Ashton had been willing to keep me company for the twelve hours that followed.
584
585The Nobles were holding up remarkably well.  One or two had been lightly injured by the second wave of warbeasts we’d sent their way.  When they’d realized the traps hidden within the beasts, they’d changed their tactics, parrying tooth or claw while physically throwing the beasts off the rooftop.  It was harder and more hazardous, when most of the beasts were several hundred pounds.  Most beasts had accelerated reflexes and enhanced strength.  Some had barbs in their fur to make letting go that much harder.
586
587The Lady Gloria was one of the injured.  She had torn off her sleeves and used them to wrap the wound at her middle, and she was the only noble who wasn’t standing, seating herself on one corner of the roof, her head turned our way, the wind periodically blowing her hair this way or that.
588
589The rest stood, pretending to be impervious to the elements.  They had been up there since dawn, and now the sun was going down.  The light was fading, and the Nobles on the rooftop were getting harder and harder to make out.
590
591*****
592
593We passed a window.  I peered through, raising my binoculars.  The light was worse, but I could make out the Nobles.
594
595We passed the next window, and the combination of light and angle made it next to impossible to tell if the Nobles were there.  I met Mary’s eyes.  “They’re gone.”
596
597“I saw,” she said.
598[/QUOTE]
599
600A lesser noble, Wharton, may be similar to the Baronettes. Still unbothered by rifle fire and crushing a warbeast
601[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]Duncan hauled open another cage.  His Grabber pawed its way forward, tentacles lashing this way and that as it felt its way, exploring the world beyond its cage.  It was the size of a horse, but its body was lighter and its legs longer and stronger.  The thing’s children were closer to large dogs in size.  All headless, all with tentacles framing the stumps where the necks should have begun.
602
603*****
604
605It was also a mask, something meant to grab my attention, and distract from the reality that one of the figures in the smoke had gone very still.  An illusion, or a hollow Noble like the sisters had been, or- I had no idea what.  But I saw the silhouette of one of the Nobles standing in the fog and smoke, and in the next moment, he was also charging forward, a mere five paces from me.
606
607A rifle shot caught him.  He barely stumbled, but he did stumble a little.
608
609One of Duncan’s larger tentacle-hounds caught the noble.
610
611Even with tentacles catching at his leg and both hands, he managed to lift the thing up, then dash it to a bloody ruin on the ground.  The time it cost him and the limited mobility meant he caught two more rifle shots.  Lillian and Jessie.
612
613“Hold, Wharton,” Carling said.
614
615Wharton, the attacking noble, moved forward a few steps, then stopped.  Whatever rifles had been aimed his way fired again, but they didn’t seem to catch him.  He was practically unbothered by the fact he was being repeatedly shot.
616[/QUOTE]
617
618Nobles are dependent on their Doctors to an extent
619[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.15]
620“I’m not even ‘Lady Gloria’ anymore, then.  Two of my three Professors are sick with dehydration and hunger.  Their care of me has floundered,” she said.  “Being atop that building over there for a day and night hasn’t helped matters.”
621
622“That was the intent,” Mary said.  “We might not be able to defeat Nobles, but we can drive home just how dependent you are on them.”
623
624“One among many of a series of realities I’ve suspected but never had to face,” Gloria said.
625[/QUOTE]
626
627Nobles seemt to have issues breeding
628[QUOTE]It was another kind of contingency.  If the Lambs faced the same dilemma that Nobles the world over had, if breeding proved difficult, and if we couldn’t create our successors as so many Nobles did, then we would need a way to strike out, ensuring the Crown couldn’t flourish in our absence.[/QUOTE]
629
630[/SPOILER]
631
632[SPOILER="The Duke"]
633The Duke is 16th in line to the thrown, led armies, and is placed in charge of Radham
634[QUOTE=Lips Sealed 3.10]“Radham will be looked after by a Duke, I believe the man is sixteenth in line for the Crown, and he has led armies in war,” Hayle said, looking at me. “If I actually have to convey to you why you are not to get on his bad side, I’ve failed on multiple levels.”[/QUOTE]
635The Duke's arrival entailed a heavy and top of the line guard of a variety of creatures and people
636[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaugher 6.1]
637The Duke was there, and as royalty, he was surrounded by a guard of sorts.  The gauntlet of creatures investigating each and every person that came or went was part of it.  Some of the weapons were top of the line, too.  Two giants were sitting on either side of the door.  Skinless, with three or four layers of muscle and bone set atop one another, with gaps suggesting what lay beneath.   Humanoid warbeasts, capable of using weapons.  Probably from another Academy.  They didn’t move much, probably to reduce the amount of resources they consumed.
638
639As we approached the gate beside the Hedge, we were subjected to another battery of searches.  As the tentacles and prehensile noses stretched toward her, Mary heaved out a sigh.
640
641For my part, I got the one with a sense of humor.  It prodded at my face, repeatedly, apparently aiming for my nose and eye.  I squinted and tilted my head a few times, dodging the pokes.
642
643I couldn’t begrudge it that, though.  If the roles were reversed, I would have annoyed people all I could, knowing there was nothing they could do about it.
644
645I snapped my teeth as it got too close, again.  As the experiment overseer rose from his seat, I drew my badge.
646
647He waved us on through, the search ending prematurely.
648[/QUOTE]
649
650The Duke's altered appearance and voice
651[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.5]
652He rounded the corner at the far end of the hall.  As he reached the window, he extended a long arm and rapped the window, startling the birds just outside the window, scattering them to the air.  A smile touched his lips.
653
654He was taller than a man should be, and he was beautiful.  His overall appearance made me think of the face cards of a deck of playing cards.  All of the pieces put together could have and should have made him look inhuman, but they only barely toed the ‘human’ side of the line.  Shoulders and upper chest broad, waist narrow, legs lean, features sharp, with long arms and legs.
655
656His blond hair was parted sharply, the majority of it tumbling down one side of his face and down one shoulder, more extending straight back behind him.  His clothes were as fine as clothes got, with a decorated jacket in black and gold, the tail of it extending behind him, nearly to the ground.
657
658Despite the heavy clothing, he had alabaster skin, without the slightest shine of sweat.  He could have been sixteen or thirty, none of the usual indicators were there, but he carried himself like a sixteen year old might, while logic and what I’d heard of the man told me he was much older.  He loomed, slouching just slightly, as if under the weight of the golden spill of hair and the heavy jacket.
659
660My assessment of him was interrupted somewhat, as I was falling to one knee as soon as he appeared.
661
662“Hm,” he made a sound, amused.  The voice was deep.  Altered, augmented.
663
664*****
665
666As one, we stood, straightening.
667
668It was the eyes that got me. They were eyes that made me think of countless people we’d gone after and killed. People who’d been pushed too far, or who’d gone over the edge before we even found them. A little too much in the way of whites around the edges, they didn’t blink enough. Tension did it, adrenaline pumping hard and fast through the veins for too long, muscles too tight in the face. People under a deep, profound, long-term sort of stress and those with mental illnesses often had those eyes.
669
670He didn’t strike me as someone who was under any stress. His movements were too languid.
671
672“The Lambs,” he said, voice quiet and tender, yet still deep enough to reverberate, nearly musical in tone, “I was looking for you.”
673
674We’ve been actively avoiding you, I thought.[/QUOTE]
675
676He has 4 Personal Doctors and how others react to him
677[QUOTE]The Duke of Francis was accompanied by four doctors. All four stood behind him, waiting for instruction. We were frozen. There was no talking without being asked to speak. No moving without permission to go. From the time he’d been born to now, his world had revolved at his whim. Only his family members would be able to gainsay him or check his conduct. As far as I was aware, the next member of the Crown was on the other side of the Crown States.
678
679Long, strong fingers touched the side of my face, stroking me as if I was a pet.
680
681His index finger slid under my chin, then lifted it, turning my face up, not so I could look at him, but so he could look at me.
682
683Wearing the wrong expression could be dangerous.  If I looked like I was frowning or sullen, he might take offense.  If I smiled, he might be pleased with me, which could be worse.
684
685“Hm!” he made that amused noise again.  His hand dropped away from my face.  “Look at you.”
686[/QUOTE]
687
688About his modifications and how Helen is almost looks Noble
689[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.5]
690He moved over to Helen.  I watched out of the corner of my eye as he stroked her hair, took the collar of her dress in hand and adjusted it, before bending down to tug at her belt, straightening out wrinkles in the fabric.  He touched her face, running a thumb over her lips.
691
692“Beautiful,” he said.
693
694Helen smiled.
695
696The Duke smiled back.  “Those doctors that accompany me back there, they’re the best at what they do.  They create art.”
697
698He gestured at himself, as if to demonstrate.
699
700“They made me immortal, or close enough to count.  They made me beautiful, strong, and quick.  They made me dangerous enough to dispatch anyone who might seek to take my life.  Yet here you are, and you could pass for a cousin of mine, with the same treatment.”
701
702Helen bowed a little, a coy smile on her face.
703
704My heart pounded in my chest.  The Duke’s thumb pushed its way between Helen’s lips, then lifted one up, making her sneer.  Looking at her teeth, as one might the proverbial gift horse.
705[/QUOTE]
706
707Apparently able to read Helen's intentions
708[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.5]
709You look like you want to say something,” he said.  “Speak.”
710
711“I was crafted by Professor Ibott, lord,” Helen said, demure.
712
713“Hm!” the Duke made that noise again.  It was probably a tic, or he didn’t realize he was doing it.  Or maybe he didn’t care.  “He’s made noises about wanting to dine with me.  I had a glimpse of him and I soured on the idea.  But seeing the work he does… hm!”
714[/QUOTE]
715
716Enhanced Lungs and voice
717[QUOTE=Lambs to the Slaughter]“I’ve been homesick,” the Duke said, as quiet as he was capable of being, with a voice and lungs modified to give him the ability to effectively address crowds.  “Having you nearby might be like having family close at hand.  You’d be little more than a toy, but wouldn’t that be fun?  You could play at being a noble lady.”[/QUOTE]
718
719Not falling for Helen's deception
720[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.5]
721Having a knife in hand this close to the Duke, of all people, could be a death sentence for her and all the rest of us put together.
722
723Casually enough that it wouldn’t draw attention, Mary extended the knife forward, and pressed the point against the back of Helen’s dress.  She pressed with enough force that it penetrated fabric and sank into flesh.  A spot of blood welled around the cut.
724
725Helen didn’t move or jump.
726
727“The Lambs won’t suffer unduly for the loss of one?”
728
729“They’ll be less effective, of course, but no, not unduly, lord,” Hayle said.
730
731I knew it was what he had to say, but I went from thinking the best of him to loathing him in the time it took him to finish the sentence.
732
733Mary twisted the knife.  Helen didn’t budge a hair.
734
735I couldn’t figure out the point or intent behind the action, if Mary had intended a different result or not, but Mary quickly resumed a normal standing position as the Duke moved, turning.
736
737He still cupped Helen’s face.  He looked down at it.
738
739She’d changed her face.  Not so much it was definable, but tension here, relaxation there, a fractional shifting of features, a smaller scale version of what she’d done to emulate Melancholy.
740
741The Duke’s expression was haunting, or perhaps haunted.  Looking at him, I fully believed he saw through the ruse.  That Helen had made herself just a little bit uglier or stranger.  He wasn’t a stupid man.
742
743He let her head drop down to its resting position, from where he’d moved it.
744
745She relaxed her features.
746
747He lifted her chin again.  She added the strange tension, even less than before.
748
749“Perhaps not,” he finally said.  There was a long, tense pause.
750[/QUOTE]
751
752Catcher's impression of the Duke
753[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.6]“The Duke was giving the orders?” Jamie asked. “Assigning you your missions?”
754
755“He was.”
756
757“Have you met him?” Lillian asked.
758
759“No. But there was a dialogue. He gave us tasks. We accomplished them. We would get one or two days to breathe or heal, then he would give us another set of tasks. A lot was said, in terms of expectations and results. I walked away thinking he knows what we’re comfortable doing better than the team that created us,” Catcher said.
760
761******
762
763“I like the Duke,” Catcher said, to the rest of us, as he took his weapon back from Gordon and Mary, strapping it to his back. “I would not want to be in the same room with him, or have to endure a conversation with him, but I like him.”
764
765“Based on the… what, scraps of paper with written instruction? The ‘dialogue’ of job given and job completed?” I asked. “His intuition and command?”
766
767“Yes.”[/QUOTE]
768
769More on his presence and how people react to him
770[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.10]
771Our approach as a group was somewhat staggered, as Lambs came in ones and twos to kneel before the Duke.  Jamie first, then me a few seconds later, then Helen and Lillian as a pair, Gordon and Mary, with Gordon helping Mary ease down to her knees as he knelt himself.  Dog didn’t kneel, but there were anatomical issues there. He bowed his head instead.
772
773“Stand,” the Duke said.
774
775We stood.
776
777“I heard you left as a group.  I asked to be notified the moment you were seen returning,” the Duke said.  “Dog, Catcher, it is nice to put faces to the names.  Faces that aren’t from medical sketches, at least.  From the injuries, I assume you found something out?  Gordon, speak.”
778
779“Lord, there are at least twelve of the enhanced clones in the city.  We found their base of operations with Catcher’s help.  We couldn’t run down the clones, but we killed three and captured a different type of clone.  Percy’s.  They’re in the rear hatch of the carriage.  Three rescued children are within the carriage itself.”
780
781The Duke indicated the carriage with a hand.  Soldiers and one doctor approached it.  “Continue.”
782
783“He’s distributed the clones to several cities or several points in this city, my lord, with his own clones producing further generations.  They’re taking a viral approach.  Occupying our cities, proliferating within, then spreading.”
784
785The Duke remained very quiet for a moment.  Not a single person present dared speak.  Many of the people on the road around the Academy campus were keeping their heads down, sharply aware of the Duke’s presence.  People a third of the way across the Academy grounds probably sensed the shift in tempo and focus, all rippling from this one location.
786
787“How severe a problem do you believe it is?” the Duke asked.
788
789“At this stage, it might be manageable, my lord.  They won’t have spread very far in the last year.  They might only be working on the second generation now, but that could mean ten to twenty sites.  Individually, they’re dangerous, they have incredible amounts of spatial awareness and tracking ability.  They are training themselves in combat, but their ability isn’t high.  Not yet.  They rely more on their natural ability, their environment, and picking the place and time of their attacks to win.”
790
791“This ability?”  The Duke cut in.
792
793“Lord, we think it’s echolocation, derived from the escaped experiment we named ‘Whiskers’.”
794
795“I know the one you’re talking about,” the Duke said.
796
797I was a little bit surprised at that.  I was a little more concerned that Gordon hadn’t had the chance to finish speaking.
798
799*****
800
801The silence lingered as the Duke seemed to take it in.  Nobody was permitted to speak without permission, and there was more to say.  It felt uncomfortable, having the things left unsaid hanging over our heads.[/QUOTE]
802
803Figuring out Avis's treason
804[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.10]
805I could tell how the conversation was going to go.  I could play it through in my head, muddy as it was, and I could see several ways it could go poorly.  We weren’t used to being around the nobility, and Gordon had made a tactical error.  He hadn’t divulged the most critical, dangerous information, and now he wouldn’t get a chance to do it without being rude.  Being rude could have repercussions.
806
807“This is effective work,” the Duke said.  “I’ll allot you some time to rest and heal before assigning you another job.”
808
809“Thank you, my lord,” Gordon said.
810
811“My lord,” I said, quickly.  I spoke at the same time I raised my eyes and saw the ruling body of Radham opening his mouth to speak.
812
813“Sylvester,” he said.  His tone had the faintest hint of danger as he said, “You seem eager to speak.  Don’t waste our time.”
814
815“Lord Duke, there’s another facet to this that needs mention.  They were using Academy resources.  Vats, chemicals, uniforms, this carriage, chemicals, and very possibly communication.”
816
817“Communication?”
818
819“My lord, it’s only speculation, but they were using birds.  They tried to burn the cage and their papers as Dog and Gordon made their approach.  I only recovered remains of the cage.  There are no guarantees, but-”
820
821“Enough.”
822
823I couldn’t meet his eyes, but I was aware of how he was moving and how he stood.  He seemed to assert himself, straightening.  He began pacing.
824
825Having the Duke pacing before us was nerve-wracking.  He was moving his hand, as if to punctuate thoughts he wasn’t sharing with us.
826
827******
828
829“Sylvester,” he said, coming to a complete stop as he whirled on me.  His coat flared behind him.  His eyes fixed mine, wild with too much white around them.  My entire body jolted with the accidental eye contact.
830
831“Sir,” I said.  No!  No!  “I- I mean, my lord.”
832
833Wrong word, sir was.  Wrong, very offensive word to use when referring to a noble.
834
835The word seemed to hang in the air.
836
837“Do you know the name of the woman who manages the birds and all incoming and outgoing communication in Radham?”
838
839What?
840
841Memory was Jamie’s strength.  It was most definitely not mine.
842
843I could have named Jamie, could have said something, but then the agitated, upset Duke would be focusing on him.  Whatever weirdness Jamie had brought up, even if he’d changed the paradigm between us, I wasn’t about to do that to him.  No, especially now, I wasn’t willing to.
844
845“I don’t know, my lord.”
846
847“Avis Pardoe,” the Duke said.  “She manages the phone bank, and she looks after the birds who transmit more secure messages.  She was subtle, to work against us like this.”
848
849“Yes, my lord.  I know the person, the name escaped me, I’m sorry,” I said.  A little too fast, all together.  I might as well have been rambling.
850
851“I last saw her in Claret Hall, right behind me,” the Duke said.  He straightened a little.  He still gestured, his eyes moving in a way that reminded me of Mary’s, earlier.  “Dog, Catcher.  You were just in active duty, and you assisted the Lambs.  I would not begrudge you if you said you weren’t in fighting form.”
852
853“My lord,” Catcher said.  “I am able and willing.”
854
855“For the time being, we’ll dispense of formalities,” the Duke said.  “I won’t brook disrespect or disobeyed orders, but there’s no need for titles.  Foley, I want available forces to converge here.  Cut off escape routes.”
856
857What was he doing?
858
859“I’m not sure I understand,” Gordon said.
860
861“Then I’ll explain what I know.  After our last discussion, I had the men at the entrance to Radham Academy questioned about these women you described.  Off-duty soldiers have been partaking of the services of some ladies of the evening.  They were recognized, and while thoroughly frisked, they thought that a professor or, ahem, a dignitary had arranged for the women to come visit.  As of right now, by their recollection, two such women entered Radham and have not yet left.  Did you intercept the bird leaving the enemy’s headquarters?”
862
863“No, my lord,” Gordon said.  “I’m not sure if there was a bird.”
864
865“Avis Pardoe may have received a warning.  If she’s not already running, she’s braced for us to come after her.  We’ll enter and move through the building.  The other usable weapons of Radham Academy are out of the city or preoccupied.  The uninjured Lambs will address this, in addition to Dog and Catcher and every able bodied man I can summon.  I’ll lead the capture.”
866
867He’ll lead?
868
869That spooked me more than anything Avis could bring to bear.
870
871“Do what you do,” the Duke said.  “Keep me informed, relay information back to me in as timely a fashion as you can.”
872
873“Yes, my lord,” Gordon said.
874
875“I told you to forget the title,” the Duke said.  “It wastes time.”
876[/QUOTE]
877
878His equipment
879[QUOTE=Lamb to Slaughter 6.10]The Duke snapped his fingers, then pointed. The doctors who’d accompanied the Duke had little bags with wheels and handles. He was pointing at one bag.
880
881It reminded me of our signals, but it was different. Our signals were something cooperative, that we’d devised between us as a matter of course, because it seemed only natural. For the Duke, he expected people to do as he bid, and people who spent any length of time around him adopted a way of thinking that involved anticipating and predicting the man every step of the way.
882
883One doctor had opened the bag, withdrawing weapons. A sword, one-handed, and a pistol. Both were overly ornate.
884
885The Duke stood, eyes surveying the building while the doctor strapped the weapons onto his belt.[/QUOTE]
886
887Savvy enough to not leave things to chance
888[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.10]
889There were more soldiers approaching.  I could see others further along, approaching from a distance to surround the building.  They were keeping their distance, picking positions where buildings would obscure the view.  Somehow, knowing what the ghosts were capable of, I didn’t believe that Avis was oblivious to any of this.
890
891The Duke only watched, listened, and reached out to stroke Helen’s hair in an absent way.
892
893It was gratuitous force. A hundred armed men, Dog, Catcher, the Lambs and the Duke himself, to catch three people?
894
895This was a man who, given the opportunity, left nothing up to chance.
896
897******
898
899My mind was struggling to draw up explanations even as fast as I provided them.  “We Lambs push in, spreading out while remaining in contact.  Catcher knows the hand signals.  We keep eyes on one another, watch each other’s backs.  Signal with right hand, relay with left.  If you see a signal, relay it.  As we extend in, the Duke and Mary can advance, Mary selectively informs the Duke what we’re saying and doing, keeping in mind that the Ghosts can hear us.  The Duke, in turn, can give orders to the soldiers and stitched.  Soldiers complement what we’re doing.  At our signal, Dog and Catcher can move.”
900
901I glanced at Mary, who looked back my way, and there was emotion on her face.  She was upset.  Galled, to use a clever word for it.
902
903Being left out or being told she was incapable, both struck to the heart of who she was, stinging her at her core.
904
905I hated to leave her with the Duke, but it made the most sense.  Of all of us, short of Gordon, she was the one who could deal with the man, impress him, and yet not impress him to the degree that he wanted to take a Lamb for himself.
906
907“Avis knows we’re here.  She’s got ghosts with her.  If we leave ourselves exposed in any way, they’ll get us like they got Mary.  But she’s a smart woman.  Has to be, to have that position.  I assume the Duke is using this show of force out of concern for any bioweapons or other failsafes she stashed in the event she was caught.”
908
909“It was a consideration,” the Duke said.  “I trust your ability to manage it more than I trust the common soldier.”
910[/QUOTE]
911
912Claims to have experienced true fear only a few times in life and more of his thinking
913[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.10]
914“She’s been at this for a while.  Maybe since she joined the Academy.  She’s been fearing being caught and having the entirety of the Academy collapse in on her since day one.  Every time she’s sent a bird out with a message intended to work against the Academy, she’s been fearing what might happen if it got intercepted, if the wrong person read it.  She’s worried if someone would say the wrong word and turn her in.  That’s a fear that eats at you and even consumes you.”
915
916“How interesting, to hear how people think,” the Duke said.  “I can’t imagine living with fear.  I’ve only experienced it a few times in my life.”
917
918“Wariness,” I said.  “Having to be on guard, think everything through.  You surely experience that when you look at the maps and plot strategy for the war, my lord.”
919
920“I do.  But I do not fear anything when I do it,” the Duke said.  He observed, “Dog and Catcher have returned.”
921
922“I see them,” I said.  “The thing about that fear, is I don’t think she’d be content to sit back and let it wash over her.  You can’t be that passive and rise to the position she did.  She’d take measures.  It would have to be subtle, something that wouldn’t get found, and it would have to be effective.  Something that would give her the security that there was a way out at any time.”
923
924I was saying this not just to elaborate on the enemy, but to convince the Duke that this was a bad idea.  If he’d be willing to send someone else, or reconsider using the Lambs.
925
926“A bomb would not be likely,” the Duke said.  “Poison gas or no, we have the like of Dog and Catcher to identify something like that.”
927[/QUOTE]
928
929More on how quickly people obey him
930[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.10]
931The doors banged as the stitched pushed them open.  We marched into the hallway, the rows of rifle-wielding stitched taking up so much space that bystanders were being squeezed out or pushed up against the wall.
932
933The ground floor was shaped like a cross, with a long hallway leading to a crossroad with a desk in the middle.  Offices and services were set off to either side of the hallway.  Beyond the desk was the north hallway, leading to the door that Dog and Catcher watched.  All of it was worked up in dark wood that gleamed with lacquer and resin, with gold trim and deep red woods here and there for accent.
934
935And the people – there were hundreds of students in the space, and as large as Claret Hall was, it made for a jumble.  More so when they reacted to the approach of a full regiment with chaos and confusion.
936
937The soldiers went out, checking offices to either side.  The hand signals came out from Gordon.  I relayed it back.  No sign.
938
939“Hear me!” the Duke proclaimed, and his voice boomed down the length of the hall.  Before he was even done speaking, people were dropping to their knees.  “By order of the Crown, lay on the ground with your arms straight out above your head, and we will know you are no enemy of ours!”
940
941It was as if an invisible wave was crashing into the crowd.  There was no question, there was no hesitation.  Every person in the crowded hall dropped, and many had already been in the process of kneeling or kneeling already.
942
943Well, that was his contribution, I supposed.  We hadn’t had the element of surprise to begin with, and now we didn’t need to worry nearly so much about the people who were lingering.
944
945Helen raised a hand, signaling.  Escape.  She swept it out to point to people behind us.
946
947I passed it on.
948
949“If you’re within five paces of me or behind me, you evacuate,” the Duke said.
950
951I heard the people shuffling, scrambling to get off the ground and head for the South door.
952[/QUOTE]
953
954Fighting and Defeating a Ghost in it's element
955[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.11]
956The stairs above where we’d been were on fire.
957
958There were any number of offices in this hallway, each one with windows looking in at the hallway, and windows looking out. Just around the corner from where Gordon was was the vantage point we’d used to spy on his conversation with Shipman. Because the building was a square, the hallway ringing it, there was plenty of space for a set of rooms in the center of it all, these ones had windows for us to see within, the bottom of each sitting at shoulder level for me. A reference library, a room with a long table and many chairs, a tea room, all of which were littered with bleeding corpses. Each had windows that failed to give us a view of the ghosts, and each had multiple doors, so one could pass from any point in the hallway or pass from room to room.
959
960The fire Gordon had signaled us about was at the opposite end of the building. Around two corners, or through the room with the table and chairs. It seemed strategically set to limit access to the upstairs, the flames set on and around the only other set of stairs. Wood burned but didn’t ignite. The designers of the Academy weren’t so stupid as to make the building well and truly flammable.
961
962That said, while I imagined the wood had been treated to make it less likely, I wasn’t sure it was impossible for a proper blaze to take hold. If it was only the surface of the wood that was treated, or only the floorboards, then there was a risk.
963
964*****
965
966They’d left us no apparent way up, short of quenching the fire.
967
968If it weren’t for the windows that seemed to be everywhere, I might have said it was the best possible environment for our enemy to be fighting in. Too many avenues for access and escape. Two strides in any direction meant passing a door that a ghost could be lurking behind.
969
970*****
971
972A full six of them were there, crouched, poised, waiting, using furniture and the low wall beneath the window to hide, each of them in the position a sprinter maintained pre-run.  All amid chairs and round tables, each table furnished with kettles and little bowls of tea bags.  There were pastries and baked goods here and there on plates.
973
974With the cacophony of noise affecting their clarity of echolocation, it took them a full second to register my approach, as I threw myself at the full group of them.
975
976Knife in hand, blade pointing down, I swung down and at an angle.  I nearly lost the knife as it caught on the front of one of the ghost’s throats.
977
978I’m shit in a fight, but that’s all the more reason to keep it from being one.
979
980As fast as I’d been to get close to them, I reversed direction, heading for the door.  I threw the knife, and this time, I was pleased to note, the person I was throwing at had to move to avoid getting hit.
981
982I was in such a hurry to get out of the tea room that I fell over on passing through the threshold of the door.  I watched the ghost I’d cut gurgle.  She clutched at the wound on her throat and she wasn’t able to stop the blood from flowing out.
983
984They rose up as if they were buoyed by some force I couldn’t see, puppets on strings, or stitched in the first moment they were given power, all as one, a collective.  Each and every one bristled with hostility, the stress of the glass noises clear in their faces.
985
986I rolled to one side, so they could no longer see me through the doorway, expecting them to come lunging out, swarming atop me.
987
988They didn’t.
989
990******
991
992Figuring out where the ghosts were went hand in hand with figuring out why they hadn’t retaliated.  I figured both out as I looked back to check on Lillian and Jamie.
993
994The Duke.  He’d emerged at the top of the stairs.
995
996Everyone else, stitched included, was crouched over, keeping low to the ground.  It made us all harder to see, and it meant the enemy couldn’t reach through a broken window to attack or grab.  The Duke didn’t care about either.  He stood tall, surveying the situation.
997
998“You’ve stopped,” he said, his voice carrying down the hall.
999
1000“Fire in the way, and we’re kind of busy killing these guys and trying not to die,” I said, the words escaping my lips.
1001
1002“Sy,” Gordon said, voice soft.
1003
1004But I saw the change in the Duke’s expression.  He approached, footsteps heavy and swift, coat moving behind him.  I had the impression of an onrushing train, and I was stuck on the tracks.
1005
1006It was a ghost that saved me.  She approached from the room with the table, leaping through the shattered window, straight for the Duke.
1007
1008He saw her and he turned, one hand reaching out.  She contorted in the air, twisting just out of his reach, before landing on the wooden floorboards with both hands and both feet.
1009
1010The Duke drew his sword and cut in the same motion.  She slipped out of the way of that strike as well.
1011
1012His pistol fired without even leaving the holster.  His hand had come down, he’d pressed the hammer down and adjusted the angle, while touching the trigger in the same motion.  She’d already danced to one side.  He fired twice more from the hip, before drawing the pistol and firing three more times.  At the end of the hall, Jamie and Lillian threw themselves flat to the ground to avoid getting hit by one of the stray bullets.  Lillian shrieked.
1013
1014“Hm,” the Duke made an amused sound.  He sheathed his sword, then reached to his belt before sliding bullets into his pistol.  The ghost took the opportunity to duck through a doorway, running through the conference room with its long table and many chairs.
1015
1016“You see what we’re up against, my lord,” I said.
1017
1018“I do see,” he said.  He drew closer, and put one finger under my chin.  He offered only the lightest touch, but I still rose to my feet.  He spoke, “I also heard the insolence in your tone.  I’ll remember it.”
1019
1020My heart skipped a beat in time with the click of his pistol, as he closed it up and cocked the hammer, just a foot from my head.  He tossed it into the air and caught it with his other hand.
1021
1022Then, so suddenly I wasn’t sure I’d processed it right, he grabbed one of the sections of window frame with only scant glass shards remaining, and carried through on the movement to hurl it violently across the tea room.  It crashed through the window there.
1023
1024I only barely saw the ghost move, abandoning her cover where she’d been standing.  The Duke’s arm was already extended, pistol pointing.  In the eyeblink the ghost’s head was visible, he put a bullet through it.
1025
1026“Hm,” he made that amused sound again.
1027
1028He walked past me, and he did it in a roundabout way that had the pistol in his hand touch my face.  It traced along cheekbone, catching on the ridge of my nose, and then stopping there, between my eyes, before he moved on.  He was tall enough he didn’t even need to move his arm or change the angle of his wrist to do it.  His arm hanging down at his side put his hand at eye level for me.
1029
1030“I heard you say that you killed the one,” he said, as he walked away, “Lying on the floor, throat cut?”
1031
1032“Sy isn’t normally-” Gordon started.
1033
1034“You’re not the one I asked.”
1035
1036“I am, lord,” I said.  I figured formalities couldn’t hurt, given circumstances.
1037
1038There was no response, nor any explanation over the question.  Or perhaps the question was the response.
1039[/QUOTE]
1040
1041Easily moving an 18 person wooden table
1042[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.11]“The fire is barring your way?” he asked. He wasn’t asking me, Gordon, or Helen. He was talking to Jamie and Lillian.
1043
1044“Yes, my lord,” Jamie said.
1045
1046“I see,” the man said. He stepped into the conference room.
1047
1048Helen and I gave Gordon a hand in standing, and I was a little surprised at how much help he needed. He was sweating a little.
1049
1050As a trio, we approached. I could see Mary at the center of the group, with Jamie and Lillian. She looked better than Gordon did.
1051
1052Wood scraped against wood, a haunting, awful sound. The long table looked like it could sit eighteen, the wood of the tabletop two inches thick and very probably dense. Rather than legs, it had boards of the same thickness at two ends, poised diagonally. The Duke pushed it across the floor, out the double doors on the far end of the conference room, until it sat beside the fire that stood between us and the stairs.
1053
1054Broad shoulders strained as he tilted it. The table fell on its side. Another turn, and it landed upside-down. The heavy table’s top squashed the fire and sent licks of the flaming chemical dancing over hardwood.
1055
1056He raised his pistol and fired down the length of the hall, toward the tea room.[/QUOTE]
1057
1058Beheading 4 Stitched in one swing
1059[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.11]We reached the third floor of the building, and came face to face with stitched.  None of the four were armed.  None even appeared hostile.
1060
1061******
1062
1063“You know you can’t kill me,” the Duke said, as he stepped into the hallway.  He very casually put a sword through the throat of one stitched, then swiped it to one side, beheading the other three.[/QUOTE]
1064
1065Raised for any eventuality and calling out Avis's bluff
1066[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.11]
1067“I’ve been preparing for this eventuality for years,” Avis said.
1068
1069“I’ve been prepared for any eventuality since birth,” the Duke said, very quietly.  “You’re building something.”
1070
1071“Built.  It’s done.”
1072
1073“No it’s not.  You’re biding your time,” he said.  He advanced further into the third floor.
1074
1075The Lambs, too, climbed a little higher.  I could see across the floor, now.  A lot of open space.  There were few walls, and the floor sat in a depression, the staggered steps down doubling as seats or benches, with pillows here and there.
1076
1077A social area.
1078
1079“I’m done building,” she said.  “I’m just having a drink.  It’s taking a few goes to get all of it down.”
1080
1081“A combat drug,” Lillian whispered.
1082
1083“Whatever you need to do,” the Duke said.  He smiled, as he picked his way around the staggered steps.  He leaned his head one way, to try and look beyond the wall that only extended partway down the room.  “I’m hoping for a good contest.”
1084
1085“Contest?” Avis asked, and her voice sounded different.  “Never.”
1086[/QUOTE]
1087
1088Fighting Avis and her Ghosts
1089[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.11-12]
1090It was an echo of a thought that had passed through my head as I’d cut the ghost’s throat.
1091
1092I didn’t even see the catalyst.  The depression in the floor ignited, the deepest part filling up with fire, clearly filled with an odorless accelerant of some kind.  Stripes of flame swept up the stairs to each corner of the room, separating it into four quadrants, the Duke cut off from us.
1093
1094The sound of glass shattering and the roar of flame below us suggested our retreat was being cut off.
1095
1096I fought to keep my breathing under control, my thoughts in focus, and the sound didn’t help in the slightest.  The Duke was chuckling, and the chuckle became a laugh.  He stood with flames within feet of him, arms spread, weapons in hand.
1097
1098We didn’t even matter.  This fight, this scenario, it was all for him.
1099
1100******
1101
1102The room had been built and grown in such a way that the furniture was an extension of the room, rather than an addition to it. The only walls that weren’t exterior walls were standalone, decorative more than anything, with benches built into them, facing tables. Nothing we could lift up to copy the Duke’s trick and form a bridge over fire.
1103
1104Not that I necessarily felt confident, with the sparks flying around.
1105
1106None of the walls were connected to any others. They might have been once, with walls removed as this part of the building was repurposed; an octagon with the diagonals removed.
1107
1108Two of the walls separated the staircases on either side of the floor from the main area; I was looking past one to see the sea of fire in the center of the room. The other two walls did much the same thing for rooms on the north and south faces of the building, with balconies extending those rooms. The two rooms served for private conversation, and one of them was a hiding spot for our quarry.
1109
1110******
1111
1112“Those floorboards,” Gordon commented.  His face looked drawn, especially in the light of the fire.  “They’re burning.”
1113
1114My eyes moved to the area he was looking at.  Sure enough, the floorboards were catching fire.
1115
1116Every second floorboard.
1117
1118“She modified the room,” I spoke the realization aloud.  “Maybe the building.”
1119
1120The Duke turned his head, noting our presence, and I saw a smile on his face.  He was cast in hues of orange and crimson, tall enough that the top of his head touched the smoke that was concentrating at the center of the ceiling and slowly creeping out toward the edges.
1121
1122He leaped from a standing position, and the wall in front of us broke my line of sight.
1123
1124He’d crossed the pool of fire.  Approaching the other end of the building.
1125
1126I saw figures in the shadows.
1127
1128“Ghosts!” Jamie called out.
1129
1130“I know,” the Duke said.  But he ignored them, approaching the northernmost wall.
1131
1132Ghosts crept nearer.  The room didn’t offer much cover, and they didn’t seem to know how to use the fire or smoke for cover.  It wasn’t physical enough for their senses to process.
1133
1134Still, there were five ghosts there, and possibly two more we couldn’t see, if I was keeping count right.  I probably wasn’t keeping count right.
1135
1136The Duke stepped around the wall, pistol going out, and fired four times.  A large, dark shape darted out, passing around the far end of that wall, leaping well over the wall of flame that cut across her path.
1137
1138Fast, agile.  That would be the combat drug.
1139
1140******
1141
1142I clenched my teeth and endured, watching, trying to figure out what Avis was doing.
1143
1144As she rounded the end of the wall that was furthest from us, I could get a better view of her.
1145
1146She’d altered herself to the point that she looked more experiment than human.  Four white-feathered wings framed her.
1147
1148Her hair, skin and clothing were dusted white, too – she’d covered herself in a powder, and much of it had been concentrated on her head.  The effects of the combat drug were obvious.  Her muscles were strained tight, and it included her face and neck.  Her eyes were wide and unblinking, her lips parted to show teeth and gums that were too red.  The bloodshot edges of her eyes and the crimson of her flushed lips were slices of red in an otherwise pale, powder-mottled complexion.
1149
1150She’d taken off her lab coat, and wore a top that consisted only of a bit of cloth and straps to hold it in place.  The same straps that held her harness on provided a little bit more security in binding the set of wings to her back.  The feathers were slick with fresh blood, and that blood had been covered with more powder in turn.  Bony, insectile limbs reached around her, hooking into flesh of rib and breast.  At her shoulder, one had been shattered, a bullet grazing flesh, leaving the point of the limb embedded in flesh, the other end twitching.
1151
1152Moving quickly, low to the ground, wings folded close to her back, she leaped through flame.  The feathers didn’t ignite, and she didn’t react to any burn she might have sustained.
1153
1154The Duke was a matter of steps behind her.  She was faster, she was more agile, and she was apparently fireproof, or fire resistant.  She could presumably fly, or she’d been able to, before the one hook had been damaged by a bullet.
1155
1156She wants to run, to fly, I thought.
1157
1158******
1159
1160The Duke’s gun fired twice.  He hurdled one six-foot wall of fire with seemingly no problem, landing on the bench by the western wall, opposite us.  He called out as he picked his way across it, closing the distance, “You gave yourself wings, Avis.  Why don’t you fly?”
1161
1162“You know why,” she said.
1163
1164She was so close to us.  Five or six paces.  Three, and I could have possibly had an angle to throw a knife at her.
1165
1166The ghosts crept closer to the duke, staying just out of arm’s reach.  He didn’t seem to pay much attention to them, except to hold one sword out in the direction of the nearest one, so the woman would run herself through if she lunged.
1167
1168“I could promise to hold my fire,” the Duke said.  “I’m good for my word.”
1169
1170There was no answer from Avis.
1171
1172I followed the Duke’s line of thought to its natural conclusion.  She doesn’t want to fly because she’ll be a sitting duck in the air, without cover.  She knows how good a shot the Duke is.
1173
1174******
1175
1176The Duke had to pick his way across the room more carefully as the fire took over more of the area.  He took a step to one side as flame touched one of the cushions a matter of feet from the Duke, only for the cushion to explode in a violent roll of fire.
1177
1178A ghost appeared, airborne, taking advantage of the Duke’s turned back.  She landed astride his shoulders, and, so quickly it looked like I’d missed something, she began slamming a knife into the side of his neck, once, twice, three times.
1179
1180He tossed his sword down, reached back, and grabbed her.
1181
1182She slammed the knife deep into his face once, as he hauled her around in front of him.
1183
1184One-handed, he tossed her into the pool of fire at the center of the room.
1185
1186The Duke made that amused sound.  He turned, a little overdramatically, his coat sweeping out around behind him.  His eyes were wide, the heavy lines in his face catching the light and shadow of the fire and smoke, the veneer of humanity no longer visible.  The gaping wound in his cheek wasn’t helping matters.
1187
1188He spat out what looked like a full mouthful of blood, directly at the flame.  It hissed in response.
1189
1190That much blood, the knife had to have gouged the roof of his mouth.
1191
1192“Reminds me of home,” he called out, to Avis.  His voice was different, with the wound.  He spat again.
1193
1194******
1195
1196“Will we have our duel after all?” the Duke asked.  “I’ve been handicapped.  I was stabbed no less than thirteen times.  One pole of some sort was thrust through my leg.”
1197
1198He barely showed it, though blood ran down his clothing and dripped from a few spots here and there.  There was a steady and unbroken stream of blood trailing down from the wound in his cheek to the edge of his chin, where it carried on.
1199
1200“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction.”
1201
1202“I can’t imagine any sort of true satisfaction,” the Duke said.  He was smiling.  He spread his arms, and he looked like the giant of a man he was, especially in contrast to Avis’ frail form.  “A snack of a conflict, rather than a meal.”
1203
1204“With all due respect, my lord,” I said, not taking my eyes off Avis- I fully expected her to make the leap at any second.  I said, “Where the heck are you taking in your meals?”
1205
1206“I don’t,” he said.  “Not here.  But home?  I’ve always sparred with my brothers and sister.  That’s a meal.”
1207
1208“You’re making this out to be something trivial?” Avis asked, eyes narrowed.
1209
1210“You are trivial,” the Duke said, with the confidence that nothing else was even possible.
1211
1212******
1213
1214“I’ll chance being shot. If you want to catch me on the way down, feel free to try.”
1215
1216Then she started to topple backward over the railing. The Duke lifted his pistol, aiming skyward, rather than shooting.
1217
1218I bolted, running.
1219
1220I felt rather than saw the movement of the knife, just to my left.
1221
1222It raked her shoulder, and it caught her wing. Feathers and fire-resistant powder flew into the air. I saw her eyes, already wide and bloodshot, go wider.
1223
1224I dropped, throwing myself forward. I reached past the rails of the railing, grabbing-
1225
1226I seized a strap of her top with both hands. Her weight dragged me forward, my head and ribs slamming into the rails. I managed to keep my grip.
1227
1228“Let me go,” she said. Her fingernails bit into my arm. “Let. Go!”
1229
1230My fingers started to give. She was lighter than she should’ve been, more modifications, no doubt, but I wasn’t strong. I felt a pain in my hands that suggested they’d be hurting for days.
1231
1232And then the burden was lifted.
1233
1234“Power, and powerlessness, hm?” I heard the Duke speak, close.
1235
1236The Duke loomed over me. He grabbed her as she kicked and fought, and held her so she was face to face with him. An angel with the face of a demon and a demon with the face of an angel.
1237
1238She’d enhanced her strength with the combat drug, but for purposes far from fighting the Duke. Only to fly, or to make the attempt. She wasn’t up to fighting the Duke, even as he drew a syringe from one pocket and plunged it into her neck.[/QUOTE]
1239
1240His Doctors patching up his wounds
1241[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.13]
1242“Avis,” the Duke spoke.
1243
1244The noises ceased.  Her eyes found us.  The Duke stood, his doctors behind him.  His wounds had been patched up, now virtually invisible, and he’d changed both shirt and coat for something less bloodstained.
1245
1246******
1247
1248“If your chest hurts,” the Duke said, “It’s because of the day’s surgeries.  I imagine the drug you took was intended to kill you if you didn’t take a very specific antidote, but my doctors are very good.  You are going to live, Avis Pardoe.”[/QUOTE]
1249
1250He can physically control the perceptions of time within his mind
1251[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.13]“My lord,” I said. “May I ask?”
1252
1253“Ask.”
1254
1255“Lord, time is kind of of the essence, isn’t it?
1256
1257“It is. Time is the operative word, as it happens, Sylvester,” the Duke told me. “You know, I’m very interested in the brain. You raised the topic with Avis Pardoe, and the timing felt serendipitous.”
1258
1259“Time and brains, my lord?” I asked. I felt as if he was getting at something.
1260
1261“While you were looking after your fellow Lambs at the Hedge, seeing that they got the care they needed, I was busy looking after Mrs. Pardoe. All four of my doctors worked on her. One worked on her brain. She’ll experience time in a very different way from now on.”
1262
1263It dawned on me. “With utmost respect, my lord, I’m assuming she won’t think you were gone for a few minutes?”
1264
1265“She won’t feel as if I was gone for a few minutes, no. In terms of raw thinking ability, I’m sure she’ll be able to rationalize it and logically work out that time is passing normally. But she’ll think faster in some ways and slower in others. Perhaps she’ll feel as if it has been days. Weeks, more likely?”
1266
1267He made it a question One of his doctors gave him a nod, and a murmured, “M’lord.”
1268
1269“Months aren’t out of the question?”
1270
1271“No, my lord. Not out of the question,” the Doctor said, quiet. “Without patience or pacing, years or decades aren’t out of the question either. It depends on her coping mechanisms. If she tries to keep count of passing seconds and minutes, it will seem more pronounced. The watched pot, in this case, never boils.”
1272
1273“No torture, no pain, no mutilation,” the Duke said. He looked pleased. “I’m doing nothing more than giving her the time she needs to reconsider her stance. After that, I will let her consider whether to turn in people she worked with, and whether to join the Academy in earnest, working to put herself back in our good graces. I suppose we might have her report the whereabouts of her family and acquaintances, for future leverage. I imagine it will be a productive night.”
1274
1275“My lord,” Lillian said.
1276
1277“Lillian, was it? You’re the student.”
1278
1279“Yes, my lord.”
1280
1281“Speak your mind, child.”
1282
1283“I don’t- I think what you’re doing is torture. Worse than anything you could do to her body, my lord.”
1284
1285“I’d think a student was more on top of what the Academy is capable of doing, Lillian,” the Duke said. “Is it truly so bad?”
1286
1287“I wouldn’t wait too long, my lord. You may be underestimating how frail the average person is.”
1288
1289“Good advice,” he said, nodding. He touched her hair. “Good child. I’ll see to her after we’re done talking, then, rather than waiting the full thirty minutes.”
1290
1291Lillian ventured a smile.
1292
1293“I hadn’t considered. My doctors said it would be effective, and I almost didn’t believe them, but the principle wasn’t unsound, giving her more time to think, so to speak, or giving that time a different sort of meaning."
1294
1295******
1296
1297“My lord,” I said, “Was something similar done to you?”
1298
1299The Duke smiled. “It was. I do suppose I’ve had the advantage of it being the case from birth, something I’ve learned to harness, while our guest is experiencing it new, not a shift from a walk to a canter, or vice versa, but to a different vehicle altogether. Even I wouldn’t enjoy the deprivation of sensation she’s experiencing now. Doing nothing with my time is an alien idea to me, and wouldn’t have been permitted regardless. I wouldn’t say I think faster, but I can devote exactly the right amount of time to a problem as is needed. Brains are so fascinating, aren’t they?”
1300
1301******
1302
1303“When my brothers, sister and I were asked who was willing to come to Radham, the research being on brains here was one reason I volunteered,” the Duke said.  “As clever as this small alteration to my own brain is, it’s crude.  I often find myself wondering if my own heirs will have better brains.  If it’s possible that one of you will be the model for the next generation of nobles.  Or perhaps one of you will, when given permission, explore other options and open the doors to a new age.”[/QUOTE]
1304
1305Noticing that Lambs various faults during their brief time together
1306[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.13]
1307“With all due respect, my lord, you were testing her.  We all have default behaviors we go back to when we’re on unstable footing.  Lillian’s a good soldier, she defaults to shutting up and following orders, to insecurity and not speaking up when she needs to.  If you move forward with either of the options you’re thinking about, you will utterly destroy her.  You will hurt the Lambs, lord Duke.”
1308
1309“A strategic break, nothing more.”
1310
1311“We’re growing, my lord, we’re still young, we’re not fully developed.  Jamie’s improving by leaps and bounds, Lillian’s getting better.  We’re evolving the team dynamic.”
1312
1313“‘Evolving’ may be the wrong word,” the Duke said.  “Going by reports and what I’ve seen, things might be trending in the opposite direction.”
1314
1315He’d noticed.  The realization almost took my breath away, stealing my ability to argue.
1316[/QUOTE]
1317
1318Verbal sparring with Sylvester and detecting his being seen as a hostile by Sy
1319[QUOTE=Lamb to the Slaughter 6.13]
1320“As an experiment, you’re too muddled with one another to assess independently,” the Duke spoke.  “I have the distinct impression you’re arguing with me.”
1321
1322“My lord, I would say I’m arguing for the Lambs, not arguing against you.  Forgive me, but when I talked about my views in front of Avis, I couldn’t help but feel you and I are on the same page, of similar views on where we should be collectively headed.  Let me add my views to yours, and yours to mine, my lord.”
1323
1324“Presumptuous, too,” he said.
1325
1326Oh.  Well.  That was that.  I’d gone and offended him.
1327
1328“I’ve had others challenge me like this,” the Duke observed.  “Trying to appeal to my desire for excitement and challenge by arguing points, being reckless in conversation with me, foregoing custom and formality.”
1329
1330I didn’t dare speak at this point.  I’d let my mouth run off with me.
1331
1332“I’m trying to decide if you’ve crossed the line that the rest did in trying to challenge me,” he said.
1333
1334“My lord,” I said.  I waited for an indication I had permission to continue.  He gave it, raising his chin a fraction.  “I wasn’t actively trying to challenge you.  I swear this.”
1335
1336He nodded.
1337
1338“I’ve read your file, Sylvester,” he said.  He touched the side of my face.  “You talked about the behavior we all return to when we’re on shaky footing.  I know this is where you go when you’re insecure, how you function as a living being.  I do believe you when you say that, and it does inform my answer.”
1339
1340As much as you know and believe that that, I know that you default to playing with the lives of those around you.  When the world doesn’t suit you or make sense, you reorder it.  You’re good at reordering it.  A builder more than a destroyer.  But you’re too big of a man, Lord Duke.  You’re a giant among mere mortals, and the most trivial actions you undertake are ones with massive ramifications for the rest of us.  That’s how you function.
1341
1342Except you’re not a dumb giant, trampling over everything in your path.  You know just how small we are.
1343
1344“You’re seeing me as a threat, you’re studying me, and you’re working out a plan of attack,” he observed.
1345
1346“Sy,” Jamie said, just behind me.
1347
1348No, couldn’t dwell on Jamie, had to focus.  As if mirroring the thought, the Duke raised a hand, indicating with a raised finger that Jamie should stay silent and stay out of this.
1349
1350In this, too, the Duke and I were on the same page.
1351
1352“What are you thinking, ‘Sy’?” the Duke asked me, staring down at me with eyes that showed too much white.
1353
1354“My lord.  I’m thinking that you’re smarter than you’re acting right now.”
1355
1356If Gordon had been present, I was pretty sure he would have socked me one right there, to shut me up, then worked to beg for mercy.  He was being looked after for his heart.  Mary might have stabbed my butt like she had Helen’s, just to make it clear I was being stupid.
1357
1358But this wasn’t a man who accepted half-measures.
1359
1360“Precious Sylvester,” the Duke said.  His body language and voice softened.  He smiled, and his tone became something very dangerous, alongside the gentle phrasing and volume.  “I think you should explain yourself very carefully.”
1361
1362“The Lambs are a unit, my lord.  We developed to cover each others’ weaknesses.  I, myself, was pushed forward to patch a gaping hole in the group.  But splitting us up now is like clipping a rose branch when it hasn’t budded yet.  You know you can let us reach a more complete state before evaluating us.  You have people come to you wanting to challenge you because you want to be challenged, you signal it, you outright asked for it with Avis.”
1363
1364“I signal this?” he asked.  Not a question so much as a challenge.
1365
1366“You’ve talked about home.  You want what you had there, on a deeper level.  Back home, I have to assume, if you bared your throat like you’re doing here, someone would seize the opportunity.  You’re doing it here, I’m seizing, and I’m hoping I’m doing it well enough you’re going to accept it where you’ve rejected others.”
1367
1368He stared down at me.
1369
1370“First of all,” he said.  “You forgot to call me ‘lord’.  I have a grave appreciation of formality, Sylvester.  It signals respect.  Forgetting something so simple is a telling blow to your attempt to earn my respect by challenging me.”
1371
1372I didn’t budge an inch or give any outward sign or change of expression, but interally I was screaming and running around in circles.
1373
1374“Second, your argument hinges on the notion that you’re not yet done developing to your full strength.  Yet your Gordon is near the end.  You’ve had more injuries.  Your group dynamic is reportedly and observably breaking down.”
1375
1376He let that point hang in the air.
1377
1378I ventured a response.  “My lord.”
1379
1380He gave me consent to continue, a dismissive backhand swipe with the fingers of one hand.  His eyes and body remained stone still, not budging.
1381
1382I lowered my eyes.  “We’ve had more injuries because we’ve been taking on more challenging missions.  If the Lambs are breaking down, if we’re dying or nearly done, let the first Lamb die or break away before you take any action.  You only lose the opportunity to work on the most perishable of us, and you stand to gain our loyal service in the meantime.”
1383
1384My eyes still lowered, my heart pounding, I couldn’t see his expression, nor how much I’d succeeded or failed in swaying him.
1385
1386It was a massive weight on my shoulders, wondering if I’d doomed myself or doomed the group.  I let that weight be something real, driving me to the ground.  Eyes fixed on the floor of the hallway in the Bowels, I dropped to my knee.  I heard and felt the movement of Jamie and Lillian behind me.
1387
1388“That was my plan already, Sylvester,” the Duke said, above me.  “You’re not entirely wrong in your judgment of what I was doing.  The Lambs are not ready to be broken up.  We already have enough experiments capable of acting independently, too few who work as a collective.  I was thinking aloud, wanting to see your response.”
1389
1390“Yes, my lord,” I said.
1391
1392“You’re forgiven for this.  Stand.”
1393
1394I stood.  My hands shook a bit as I did.  I hooked my thumbs into the pockets of my shorts.  The fact that my shirt stuck to my back had nothing to do with the summer heat – we’d spent the last while in the Bowels, and it was cool this deep underground, if not quite refreshing.
1395
1396“You are not, however, forgiven the transgression earlier.  I know it is your nature, but I did say I would punish you, and I do what I say.  I will decide on something fitting.”
1397
1398“Yes, my lord,” I said.
1399
1400“Your fellow Lambs should be going straight from getting care to having their appointments.  Have yours as your doctors are able.  I expect you to be ready for another task before the week is over.  The war wages on, and our enemy is catching up to us in fits and starts.”
1401
1402“Yes, my lord,” I said.  My voice was joined by Jamie and Lillian’s.
1403
1404******
1405
1406“My lord?” Jamie asked.  “Forgive me.”
1407
1408“What is it?”
1409
1410Jamie’s eyes remained fixed on the ground.  With just a bit of sweat on his nose, his glasses slid down the bridge of the nose.  He pushed them back up into place.  “It’s customary for the Lambs to fill each other in, so none of us are in the dark or lagging behind the others.  Most often that’s me.  But we’re going to talk to the others, and we’re going to talk about this conversation.  May I ask, if Sy hadn’t spoken up, would this have ended differently?”
1411
1412“I would have given it thought first, much as Avis is giving her matter some consideration right now.  My instinct is that you would have been disbanded,” the Duke said.  “Dear Lillian thrown to the nobles, perhaps, Helen ordered to my apartments, the rest of you left to fend for yourselves, with every expectation you wouldn’t fend for particularly long, but you’d see to the most essential tasks in the meantime.”
1413
1414“Yes, my lord,” Jamie said.  “Thank you, my lord.  Knowing that will make this easier to convey to Mary and Gordon.”
1415
1416The Duke declined his head in acknowledgement.  He swept his fingers to one side to dismiss us, and we were gone.
1417[/QUOTE]
1418
1419Hunting the monsters in the Bowels with the Baron and understanding the Lamb's actions
1420[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]“We’ll be taking our leave.  I did promise Baron Richmond a hunt today, we’ll be visiting the underground labs to see what can be loosed.  Keep the Lambs separate, watch for their hand-signs, see to their appointments after or during, so we can be sure they won’t coordinate or correct one another’s stories.  Though I imagine they would have already, were they lying.”[/QUOTE]
1421
1422His height and armored clothing
1423[QUOTE=enemy Arc 7 Girls]
1424The Nobles were tall.  They liked that, being above the common people.  Mary was far from full grown, with a three-quarter foot to grow, if she compared herself to the woman who was supposed to be her mother.  The legs would be her best target.
1425
1426But that wasn’t the whole story.  The jackets the Duke and Baron had been wearing were heavy, and they flowed oddly as they walked.  There was something in them, armor.
1427[/QUOTE]
1428
1429He has fine hairs that allow him to sense his surroundings
1430[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]Fine hairs on the backs of his hands and neck alerted him to movement behind him. He didn’t startle, and kept his reaction slow as he looked back at the twins.
1431
1432*****
1433
1434He raised a hand.  The hairs on the back of his hands and neck were telling him about the movements all around him, the sway of branches with few leaves, the movement of wind, the movement of the twins, as one reached around Richmond to run a finger up and down her sister’s back, and now the approach of a military commander.  He moved his fingers slightly, letting his brain interpret the signals, reading the wind.  The one with the mustache and thick head of hair beneath his helmet, it seemed.  One of the good ones, as the mere humans went.
1435
1436“My lord.”
1437[/QUOTE]
1438
1439He's been experienced with war ever since he was six years old
1440[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]He had seen battlefields since he was six years old, and had studied battlefields for just as long.  Teachers had posited scenarios and he had been asked to solve them, or to find the best answer if it wasn’t solvable.  There very rarely was any middle ground between the two, in his experience.  They both called for radically different kinds of thinking.[/QUOTE]
1441
1442He personally considers the Baron to be a low-level threat
1443[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1444Richmond was as dangerous as a snake too, but that was all the more reason for the Duke to enjoy his company.  He imagined it was how ordinary people saw the world.  Didn’t life seem so much more like life with that breath of danger, where any bystander in the street could be a threat to one’s person?  A killer, an enemy to the state and its people, looking for a target?
1445
1446Yes, the risk was very low, but a natural wariness kept the mind sharper.  That narrow possibility, however very slim it might be, it had to help, didn’t it?
1447[/QUOTE]
1448
1449The forces the Duke can call to bare and his calculations
1450[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1451For every citizen carrying a torch down below, he had one stitched soldier, and those soldiers were gathering at the periphery of the city now, in tidy rank and file, twenty five soldiers to one handler.  The soldiers were equipped with uniforms and guns.  The citizens wouldn’t be.
1452
1453That wasn’t counting the Crown’s rank and file soldiers, either.  A two to one numbers advantage, his forces had the high ground if they were advancing down the slope toward the harbor, and he didn’t even need to fight to win much of this conflict.  Fire and noxious clouds would flow downhill in advance of his troops and kill or cripple nine in ten members of the opposition.
1454
1455Fifty warbeasts were ready, shackled and caged, ready to assault the city, and to his experienced eye, every one of the warbeasts his forces had at their disposal had been born this year or the year before.  Newer, better, stronger.  The best Radham Academy had to offer.
1456
1457******
1458
1459He quickly calculated the number of homes in Lugh, and estimated the population at one hundred and ten thousand.  A full third of that number was scattered, still, too far on the fringes to really feed into the center mass that was organizing so readily.  Men and women who worked in quarries and on farms at the outskirts.  Some were already being put to gunpoint by the Crown’s forces, or their homes were being torched.
1460
1461Was it that more than eighty thousand people might die in the next twenty four hours, the vast majority on the enemy’s side, that woke up his blood and breathing so readily?  Death, blood and pain, if not directly by his hand?
1462[/QUOTE]
1463
1464He can alter his perceptions 
1465[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1466The Duke didn’t answer the question.  He stared, watching, thinking.  Between the sea creatures in the water, his forces here at the east end of the city, his forces at the south end, and the mountains to the north, he had them boxed in.  He let his mind take the ideas and let the rest of the world slow down so he could think over everything in detail.
1467
1468He didn’t know enough about the mountains.
1469[/QUOTE]
1470[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1471When he was three years old, his mind had been altered, to allow him to better control how fast he thought, and how he perceived the passage of time.  He had only mastered it a few years ago, and controlling it took effort that often left him exhausted at the day’s end.  Still, he kept up the practice, and his control improved.
1472
1473In this moment, he let his awareness speed up, to better survey things from all of the angles.  A part of his thoughts were dedicated to making sure he maintained the same speed and pace.  Slowing his pace by a fraction would signal to others that something was wrong.
1474
1475He contemplated how he might go about this, if this prison was indeed intended for him, if he needed to run, or else face imprisonment for the rest of his days, bereft of the doctors who were supposed to tend him, slowly going to pieces over decades.
1476
1477In the end, he decided that he couldn’t beat his mother and aunt in a fight.  At least, not like this, with his body so new and untested.
1478[/QUOTE]
1479
1480Duke's strategy
1481[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.15]
1482The Crown’s forces were capable of committing a hell of a lot more explosives and firepower than they had.  But in feeding the damn thing, and in holding back firepower, I was starting to see what was really at work.
1483
1484Somewhere along the line, the battle lines had shifted, the Duke made his play in a way that probably wasn’t even perceptible to the people fighting on the front line.  All they would’ve known was that they were losing, suddenly, being pushed back, despite the monsters that was tearing through the Duke’s forces.
1485
1486It was like a macabre chess game, where the pieces were building-sized, and every movement of one swept across and landed atop crowds, leaving dozens or hundreds crippled and maimed.  In this macabre game that only the Duke, Mauer and I could understand on any level, the Duke had gone to great ends to push his forces up, isolating the worst of the primordials behind his own lines.
1487
1488Now he held onto it, at the cost of stitched life and human life both.  If it grew too weak, he threw warbeasts at it, to make it harder to shoot at, to feed it and give it the fuel it needed.  If it grew too strong, he ordered more shots of artillery.
1489
1490Control.  When it comes down to it, the Academy has control and seeks power, and the Crown has power and seeks control.  By intertwining to the point they were frequently indistinguishable, they maintained both, and they continued to expect both in every situation.  The Duke had orchestrated a situation where, if my gut feeling was right, Lugh would fall, and the Primordial would eventually die.
1491
1492Except that death would only happen if and when the Duke allowed it, and the Duke would only allow it if Mauer recognized the stakes and surrendered.
1493[/QUOTE]
1494
1495Had implanted spies throughout Mauer's army
1496[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.16]
1497“What will it take to save the lives of the people in this city?” Mauer called out.  “My own life?  My surrender?”
1498
1499His voice carried so well.  He’d always been at his best on the stage, addressing a group.  Now he addressed the Crown forces.  The Duke was near enough to respond with his own powerful voice.
1500
1501One voice natural, the other artificial.
1502
1503“I don’t think you have any plan to surrender,” the Duke responded.  “To give your own life?  Perhaps.  With the explosives you planted on either side of the street?  Did you hope to take me with you?  Or just to take me?  Because you won’t have either of those things.”
1504
1505Mauer reacted.  He backed away a step.
1506
1507“When you rule over rabble, Reverend,” the Duke said, “You lose sight of who the individuals are.  There is no organization, the people in command do not know the people who are subservient to them.  Clever, talented individuals can blend in with the rabble.  They can fan out through the area, they can watch your men, and they can surreptitiously disarm those explosives.”
1508[/QUOTE]
1509
1510Survived being shot by a Noble killing bullet
1511[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.16]
1512Mauer reached out with his monstrous limb, as if supplicating, then let it drop, heavy.
1513
1514I heard the gunshots, loud, crystal clear, and high.  So many of Mauer’s guns had been lower quality, older.  The Crown’s good quality but in such a way that it could be mass produced.
1515
1516These shots were different, and the sound was oddly disconnected from the Duke’s reaction, as he took a step back, staggering.
1517
1518My right hand found Lillian’s, squeezing it.  I would have held Jamie’s too, but my arm was in the sling.  When I looked at him, his eyes were as wide as mine were.
1519
1520Fray and Mauer hadn’t just been working on the primordial.  I thought of the Engineer, and the others they’d had with them.  Powerful people, ones with resources and connections.  Mauer, all this while, knowing that spies might be looking, had been holding this card up his sleeve.
1521
1522One shot sounded after another.  And as the Crown forces heard and saw what was happening, they began to open fire as well.  Mauer was already retreating, taking cover behind the wagon he’d been using as his stage.
1523
1524Through the chaos that quickly billowed out of the silence, the sweet song of those guns could be heard.
1525
1526I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d sensed us somehow, or if it was sheer luck, as bullets punched through him and tore out the other side, casting out sprays of blood and bone as they exited, but the Duke looked our way.
1527
1528A bullet passed through his skull.  Fragments of metal joined bone and brain on making a messy exit.
1529
1530I heard Mauer’s forces cheering.  To them, Mauer had won, proven the lie.  That the Crown didn’t always win.
1531
1532I wasn’t so sure it was about to play out that way, and from Mauer’s body language, as he strode through the lines of his people, he wasn’t so sure either.
1533
1534The Duke might still be in play.
1535
1536*****
1537
1538“We already did, once.  The guns that shot the Duke have a distinctive sound.  That sound was the signal for an attack on his rear lines.  Our elite soldiers have already signaled that they successfully opened fire on the Duke’s home tent.”
1539
1540“So they can’t heal the Duke,” Lillian said.
1541
1542“A precautionary measure, in case he was faster to react.  It doesn’t matter.  We hit him.  The noble has been slain.”
1543
1544From a range that he didn’t think guns could shoot from.  Longer range, high accuracy.  Something special.  Still…
1545
1546“I’ve seen him get shot before and survive,” I said.
1547
1548“Nobles favor a layer of something like armor, an interskeletal barrier between their skin and their muscle or bone structure.  Normal guns are meant to ricochet, their bullets move slowly, to pass into the subject and bounce around, doing grievous harm.  Few think twice of this.  But the Crown has reasons for perpetuating this standard.  Those slower, bouncing bullets aren’t so effective against the nobles.”  Bullets sink in and stop at the armor, or they bounce right out.  The noble bleeds but doesn’t stop.  They appear immortal, and enemy morale suffers.  The myth that surrounds them grows.”
1549
1550I nodded.  I’d seen the Duke in battle.
1551
1552“These bullets penetrate that layer.  That armor helps strips the outer shell off as the bullet passes through, and what remains unfolds and expands as an umbrella might,” Mauer said.  His hand, all fingertips and thumb meeting, tapped my chest, hard, then opened up, fingers splaying.  “The final part of the projectile sometimes punches through on exit, or joins the expanded metal in complicating the efforts of doctors and staff.  Especially uncareful or hasty doctors might even do further harm to themselves, if an expanding bullet finishes expanding too near a prodding finger or working hand.”
1553
1554“It wouldn’t be as effective against an ordinary person,” Lillian said.
1555
1556“It might, if it hit hard bone, but no, it isn’t meant for ordinary people,” Mauer said.  “The guns are long range, they’re accurate, and they’re felt before they can be easily reacted to."
1557[/QUOTE]
1558[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
1559“Lord Infante, he hoped to lure in others that stand between him and the throne.  In the recent skirmish in Lugh, he found out about guns designed to kill nobles, and secured an alliance with the man who made them.  The Duke of Francis-”
1560
1561“Is left with half of a brain.  A vegetable in a pretty package.  I’m aware.  This neatly explains how that came about.  The attack is arranged for later, then?”
1562[/QUOTE]
1563[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]
1564Sitting in a chair near him was the Duke of Francis.  Intact, no damage, dressed as impressively as he’d ever been.
1565
1566But, as I looked, the sharpness was gone, the light absent.  He moved his hands, placing one over the other in his lap, and the movement was slow.
1567
1568*****
1569
1570Gordon and I watched the Duke’s eye move.  There was a delay.  As if it took willful effort to direct his eye, to fixate on us.  Whether there was recognition or a complete mental blank, the man gave no indication.
1571
1572“A pity you’re not up to talking,” the Infante spoke.  “Your counsel would have been appreciated.”
1573[/QUOTE]
1574[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.10]“It’s very cold, as trails go.” Mauer said.  “There were two people who knew the full story about how this worked, and just why they had a protocol like this in place.  One of the two people was the Duke of Francis.  I put a bullet in him, destroying his brain.  Word from within the Infante’s castle is that he drools and doesn’t eat unless a tube is pushed into his throat.”[/QUOTE]
1575[QUOTE=Lamb Arc 14]
1576“Ccome,” the voice said.
1577
1578Her blood ran cold.
1579
1580She turned her head, and she saw.  Sitting in a chair at the other end of the garden, the Duke still sat.  So still in the evening gloom, all dressed in black, he was easy to miss.
1581
1582“Did he hear?” Ashton asked.
1583
1584“More concerning is did he speak?” Duncan asked.
1585
1586Lillian, quickly joined by Mary, approached the Duke.
1587
1588Stiff, unsure, she bent into a bow.
1589
1590“Lilliann,” the word came.  Uneven, not flowing as a word should, drawn out, awkward.
1591
1592“My lord,” she said.  “You can speak?”
1593
1594“A tthird off my mind gone.  Slow.  Unnn-befitting forr aa nobble, I know-w.  But aa-ugmmentations… cann speak iff Ii consscentrate.  Concenntrating alll my life.”
1595
1596“Yes, my lord.  Does- does the Infante know?”
1597
1598“Nno.  You will nott tell himm-m.”
1599
1600She glanced at the others.
1601
1602“Why us?” she asked.  Then, “My lord.”
1603
1604“For Ssylvesster.  Yyou keep, inn your medicinne bag, W-wyvverrn?”
1605
1606“Yes,” she said.  She didn’t append the ‘my lord’ this time.
1607
1608“Willl hellp mme work arround damaged parrts.  Iin exchannge, I willl be ann allly.  The innfannte, more dangerrous thann you knoww.  I knoww things.  Uniite the Llambs.  I sso sswear this.”
1609
1610*****
1611
1612“Perhaps on a future visit, my lord?” she offered.  “It’s something the Lambs will need to discuss.”
1613
1614With glacial slowness, the Duke nodded his head.
1615[/QUOTE]
1616
1617The Dukes political power
1618[QUOTE=Gut Feeling 17.3]
1619“They don’t, and it doesn’t,” Lillian said.  “At least, we don’t think so.  We talked to the Duke, insofar as he can talk.  He told us he was concerned the Infante wouldn’t stop until he had all of the Crown States.  Sealed and burned to the ground.”
1620
1621I looked at Jessie.  We’d heard something like that.
1622
1623“The Duke told us the Infante might loose every single last one of the superweapons in the Crown States.”
1624
1625My heart dropped out of my chest at that.  Every city and every town within a short distance of the Academies themselves has one.
1626
1627That wasn’t what we’d heard before.
1628
1629“If we can get Berger to the Duke of Francis, he can revive him, and there’ll be an effective voice of dissent in play,” Mary said.  “The Duke is of a lower station but not so low he can be ignored.  He has resources, and if the Infante wants to preserve any appearance of propriety, he’ll have to stop or wait.  That’s the mission.”
1630[/QUOTE]
1631[QUOTE=Gut Feeling 17.5]
1632“There has to be something we can do,” she said.
1633
1634“There is,” Berger said.  “But it won’t be as direct as you’re imagining.  The Duke of Francis knows people, and if his interests align with yours, which I think they do, he’ll do just that.  But things are rarely simple.  I’ll need assistance to get close enough to him to try fixing him, and you’ll be that assistance.  We’ll need to cooperate to get the right words to the right people, and again, you’ll play a part.  This is not impossible.”
1635
1636“Improbable,” Lillian said.
1637
1638“The Duke of Francis can talk,” Duncan said.  “He asked for Wyvern, and we provided it.  He seems better every time we see him… not that the Infante knows.”
1639
1640“Ah,” Berger said.
1641
1642“Is that a problem?” Duncan asked.
1643
1644“No.  But it was a risk.  There was a chance it would have exacerbated the damage to his brain.  He chose to make the gamble when he asked you.  A gamble on two fronts, as it was something the Infante might have figured out, on top of being something that could have cost him the remainder of his life or faculties.”
1645[/QUOTE]
1646[QUOTE=Enemy arc 20]
1647The Duke was brought forth by a team of vat-grown servants, and followed by two of his professors.  Adams and Berger, if Lawrence was remembering right.
1648
1649They looked weary.
1650
1651The Duke looked almost normal.  He held himself with poise, he looked at everyone with eyes that seemed no less alert than any other person’s might be, he looked healthy and even magnificent, and only his silence might mark him as unusual to the untrained.
1652[/QUOTE]
1653
1654Using combat drugs to handle his impairment and fighting the Golden Calf/Infante
1655[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.9]The Duke lowered his head, reaching down to Berger’s belt.  He retrieved a handful of vials.
1656
1657*****
1658
1659Berger held the vials that the Duke had retrieved and put in his hands.
1660
1661“Combat drugs?” Lillian asked.
1662
1663The Duke turned, facing the burning building.
1664
1665He’d left one arm extended.
1666
1667“In your condition-” Lillian started.
1668
1669Duncan touched her arm.
1670
1671The rain continued to pour down.  Berger extracted the drug with a syringe, and he placed the syringe point into the Duke’s arm.
1672
1673*****
1674
1675“Donn’t,” the Duke said.  His voice was rich, the words crude, as painful to listen to as they must have been to utter.
1676
1677I turned to look at him.
1678
1679“Donn’t… disappoint me,” the Duke spoke.
1680
1681Thunder rumbled, and we we ran, ducking our heads down, jackets and hoods pulled up.  The Duke almost resembled his old self, but his expression was a stricken one.  One I recognized, in a morbid way, the expression mirroring sentiments I’d harbored in my heart in my darkest moments.
1682
1683The Duke of Francis was going to die, for the burst of vigor and focus he was demonstrating now.
1684
1685He kept his head down, his movements efficient, not graceful but not graceless either.  I knew that kind of movement too: it was the mechanical movement of someone who had to keep putting one foot in front of the other because there was no guarantee they would be able to resume moving if their rhythm broke or if they stopped.
1686
1687*****
1688
1689The Duke had barely budged or reacted.  He couldn’t spare the strength or effort for anything that wasn’t our primary enemy in this.
1690
1691But, as we ran, he held his sword arm out, his hooded cloak stretching down the length of his very long arms.  It had been black once, but it was mottled, the color bleeding out of it, the parts where the fabric was tight against shoulder and head were outright bleached.
1692
1693The length of cloak he’d extended and the sweep of his arm provided a canopy, sufficient to shelter Lillian, Jessie and I.
1694
1695*****
1696
1697The Golden Calf reached up, closing its helmet, doing up the clasp.
1698
1699I saw the Primordial Child, standing in the background, watching.
1700
1701“How dangerous is it?” Duncan asked.
1702
1703“They create primordials in the Crown Capitol, in the most controlled of environments.  They cut and pruned until they came to a conclusion.  Few of the resulting creations were truly capable of anything,” Berger said, his voice muffled by the mask he’d returned to wearing.  “Even of those few, most are only fodder for research and advancing Academy knowledge, primordial-derived advancements that greater minds than mine may spend a decade or more reverse-engineering.”
1704
1705The Duke moved, lunging for the Infante, blade in one hand.
1706
1707The Calf, as far from its master as the Duke had been before the attack was initiated, was fast enough interpose itself between Infante and Duke before the Duke could strike.  It parried the blade with a backhand swipe of a claw.
1708
1709The Infante hadn’t so much as flinched or glanced the Duke’s way.
1710
1711His focus was on us.
1712[/QUOTE]
1713[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]The Infante glowered, his veneer of humanity pulling away.  He was burned, but the burns hadn’t penetrated far past the surface, his skin almost seeming to grow tougher where the fire had seared it.  He remained unfazed by the life and death fight between the Duke and the Golden Calf that was moving back and forth around him, the two combatants within his arm’s reach at times.
1714
1715******
1716
1717It wasn’t a Lamb that stepped to the fore.  The Duke pulled away from his fight with the Golden Calf.  With long strides, he charged at the Infante, sword leveled for the higher noble’s throat.
1718
1719The Infante grabbed for the sword, and the blade dipped, danced around, then returned to course, aimed for the jugular.
1720
1721With a quarter-turn away, the Infante had shoulder and arm catch the blade instead.  His flesh suffered what looked to be a shallow cut as he turned his back to our Duke of Francis.
1722
1723He swung his fist in a backhand, not even looking at his attacker.  The Duke stepped back and away, turning and bringing his sword up to catch the Calf’s claw.  He was disarmed.
1724
1725“Syylvester,” the Duke said, his vowel hitching, as if he was a stitched with a faulty wire, movements replicating.
1726
1727In the next moment, the Calf had gouged him three times, digging deep furrows into his chest and stomach.  I could have laid my arm into those furrows and covered them with skin, with no bulge to be seen.  From the look of the slices of black, there were dark gaps hinting at cavities beneath.
1728
1729It was a modest distraction, but the attack had bought us a chance to retreat.  Mary had found her feet, dragging Jessie with her.  I climbed to my own feet and backed away, stepping into the shelter of a shop.  Duncan and Ashton dragged Helen into shadow.
1730
1731“You’re mad,” the Duke said, drawing a pair of blades to defend himself with- scaled down to my size, they might have been daggers, but the Duke was tall and his idea of a ‘dagger’ would have been a short sword in my hands.
1732
1733“You say that like you’re surprised,” I said.  “You know this, you know what I am.”
1734
1735“Nno,” the Duke said.
1736
1737The Calf attacked again.  It was fast, it was strong, and it sat askew in my mind’s eye, too hard to calculate and predict.  It didn’t stop to breathe, it didn’t slow, it only seemed to stop to think, to work out how best to dismantle its enemy.  The Duke stopped both claws from striking him by parrying with his blades.  The Calf headbutted him.
1738
1739The Duke of Francis’ head was a weak point.  He tried to adopt a fighting stance, and the blade fell from his right hand.
1740
1741“Sorry,” I said.
1742
1743“Wanted-” the Duke said.  He looked at the Infante.
1744
1745I filled in the gap.  I wanted to stop him.
1746
1747*****
1748
1749We were all at either side of the street now, with the Duke, Infante and the Calf in the center of the road.
1750
1751The Calf moved to finish off the Duke.  The Infante stopped it.
1752
1753“Was it-  worth it?” the Duke asked.
1754
1755“None of you survive the day,” the Infante said.  “‘Worth’ is irrelevant.”
1756
1757“Absolutely worth it,” I said.
1758
1759The Infante reached out for the Duke, using his plague-ridden hand to seize the man by the face.  There was almost surrender on the Duke’s face as he was seized.  No fight, no effort to defend himself.  He’d spent all he had.
1760
1761No.  Not quite.  He reached out and grabbed the Infante’s arm, brought a leg around and hooked the Infante’s.  He was holding on, burdening the High Noble, hampering him so we could run.
1762
1763That didn’t stop the Infante for telling the Calf to come after us.  It barely hampered the Infante from turning, walking as if there was barely any obstruction.
1764
1765But he wasn’t running.  That counted for something.
1766[/QUOTE]
1767
1768[/SPOILER]
1769
1770[SPOILER="The Baron"]
1771The Baron's description and Noble anatomy
1772[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]
1773The Duke and the new noble were wearing hunting clothes, pants clinging to their legs, long jackets.  The noble in the Duke’s company was younger, no older than eighteen, as far as age could be estimated by appearance when a noble was concerned.  He had a pointed, jutting chin, stood tall at seven feet, narrow and long-necked.  A swan turned human.  Graceful, imperious, and, Gordon knew, swans were absolute bastards when met face to face.
1774
1775Like the Duke, the man’s hair was long and golden, but his hair was straight and flowed straight down his back, more supple than hair should be.  He wore a checkered scarf in yellow and black.  His teeth, as he smiled, seemed wrong somehow, too uniform and white, and his fingers were especially long, poking out of the embroidered sleeve of a hunting jacket.  The nails were long and sharp, and the fingers were marked with jewelry.
1776
1777He wore a sword, Gordon noted.  Noble anatomy, modified to be stronger, faster, inhuman by most measures.  Gordon couldn’t say why, but he had the vague sense that the man could and would draw and use that sword to dispatch anyone who insulted him.
1778[/QUOTE]
1779[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The Duke turned his attention to the Baron, taking his time in doing so.  The Baron was a snake of a man, and everything about him completed that particular picture.  Straight golden hair swept back from his hairline and straight down the man’s back, his checkered scarf conjured scales to mind, and his method of dress was tailored very close to his body, marking a very lithe, sinuous figure, complete with long, jeweled fingers.  The teeth, eyes, and jewelry the man wore were designed to draw the eye.  When he desired it, he could beguile the unwary, drawing the eye this way, that way, and then lashing out in the next moment.[/QUOTE]
1780
1781His position in the Hiearchy
1782[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]
1783“This is the Baron Richmond,” the Duke said.  “A cousin.  We were near Brechwell when we heard of the situation in Brechwell.  Genevieve Fray spotted and effectively cornered.”
1784
1785Lower in status than the Duke by six orders of nobility, Gordon estimated.  He wouldn’t speak out of turn.  That was good.  Gordon could imagine the man establishing his presence through violence and the making of examples.
1786[/QUOTE]
1787
1788Hunting the monsters in the Bowels with the Duke
1789[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]“We’ll be taking our leave.  I did promise Baron Richmond a hunt today, we’ll be visiting the underground labs to see what can be loosed.  Keep the Lambs separate, watch for their hand-signs, see to their appointments after or during, so we can be sure they won’t coordinate or correct one another’s stories.  Though I imagine they would have already, were they lying.”[/QUOTE]
1790
1791His height and armored clothing
1792[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7]
1793The Nobles were tall.  They liked that, being above the common people.  Mary was far from full grown, with a three-quarter foot to grow, if she compared herself to the woman who was supposed to be her mother.  The legs would be her best target.
1794
1795But that wasn’t the whole story.  The jackets the Duke and Baron had been wearing were heavy, and they flowed oddly as they walked.  There was something in them, armor.
1796[/QUOTE]
1797Baron's appearance and how he can mislead opponents
1798[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The Duke turned his attention to the Baron, taking his time in doing so.  The Baron was a snake of a man, and everything about him completed that particular picture.  Straight golden hair swept back from his hairline and straight down the man’s back, his checkered scarf conjured scales to mind, and his method of dress was tailored very close to his body, marking a very lithe, sinuous figure, complete with long, jeweled fingers.  The teeth, eyes, and jewelry the man wore were designed to draw the eye.  When he desired it, he could beguile the unwary, drawing the eye this way, that way, and then lashing out in the next moment.[/QUOTE]
1799Showing some insight about the Duke
1800[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1801Richmond turned his head toward the Duke.  He smiled.  “No.”
1802
1803“No,” the Duke agreed.  “How did you know, my friend?”
1804
1805“You have that look in your eyes that I’ve only seen when you’re in a fight.”
1806
1807“This is a fight,” the Duke said.  “Parry, thrust, move, counter-move.”
1808
1809“Fair point.  But I meant that you have that look about you that I’ve only seen on two occasions, when you stood in the midst of a sea of corpses.”
1810
1811Did he?  The Duke wondered, studying his own expression with a calculated measure of where and how his facial muscles were arranged.
1812
1813Even I can learn something new from someone lesser like Richmond, he mused.
1814[/QUOTE]
1815
1816Sensing someone approaching
1817[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The Duke sensed someone approach the tent, and turned.  The Baron and Baronet twins looked over, as well.[/QUOTE]
1818
1819More about his clout and personality
1820[QUOTE=Countign Sheep 9.13]The Baron had less clout than the Duke did, but he had less reason to keep up appearances.  It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he could take issue with someone and then slap them down.[/QUOTE]
1821
1822More about his appearance and battle armor
1823[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.3]
1824The Baron Richmond didn’t look like a person at all.  Too tall, his features alien, but not in a way I could pin down.  His hair was too fine, perhaps, moving like gossamer rather than hair, moving in a very ethereal way in the wind.
1825
1826He was dressed for battle, with a cape and pauldrons that wrapped around his upper body, concealing torso and arms, a helmet with gold tracing, and boots with the same.  The end of a scabbard was visible below the end of the cape.
1827[/QUOTE]
1828
1829Lifting Sy up by the hair one handed
1830[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.3]He nodded, took one step to bridge the distance between us, and seized me by the hair.  When he lifted, my feet left the ground.[/QUOTE]
1831
1832Has faith in his doctors
1833[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.3]“I meant it,” the Baron said.  “Do what you will with him.  I’m taking the other one back to my tent to question.  Don’t kill him, my orders about his eye have to stand for at least a few years more.  Break him, or take him apart, so long as he can be unbroken and put back together.  The doctors are good enough that anything short of plunging a knife into his heart will be fine, I imagine.”[/QUOTE]
1834
1835Seeing through Sy's play-acting and surprising Sy
1836[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
1837In the haze of pain, my head still throbbing, I drew a vague series of connections between the thought of the heart, what the twins were saying, the blood that still dripped and trickled from my eye, and the sound of battle.
1838
1839“My lord,” I said.
1840
1841“A brave lad, you are,” the Baron answered, so quick to utter the words that it was as if he was pouncing on me.  “Don’t tell me you dare to ask for mercy.”
1842
1843“We know where the other Lambs might be, my lord.  Or the general area.  We can signal them.  But we need soldiers to get that far in.  I’d say they might have other information, but I’m not sure.  It would, at least…”
1844
1845I hesitated.
1846
1847“I’ve been a member of the courts long enough to know when someone is trying to manipulate me.”
1848
1849“My lord, It would mean that your noble sisters, miladies, would not have to share.”
1850
1851“Let’s pretend you’re not spinning a web of deceit in front of me.  What do you want for this?  Again, little Lamb, I stress that we’re pretending you’re not being canny.”
1852
1853He was speaking through grit teeth, not because of any emotion, but more as if he was holding himself back.  I could imagine him plunging that sword into my back, just for the satisfaction of the act.
1854
1855And all of the stitched soldiers in the area would watch it happen with dead eyes, and the soldiers would look away and tell themselves that I’d done something to deserve it, because that made life easier to live.
1856
1857The Crown and the Academy made monsters like this, and it made rules and hid things that kept these monsters from seeing true justice.
1858
1859“Mercy, my lord.  Less, in any event, if you would be so kind.  I lost my best friend a year ago, and I just lost my eye.  I’m not a fighter, I’m a manipulator who seems to be surrounded more and more by people he can’t manipulate, and I manage, I do good work when I’m able, but the drugs I take, I pay for them in agony.  I’m so tired of hurting, my lord, please.”
1860
1861He didn’t answer.
1862
1863“Brother,” the Twins spoke in unison.
1864
1865“I know what you’re going to say.  He’s play-acting, at least in part.  I hope you realize that, you two.”
1866
1867“I realize,” one of the twins said.  The other added, “But he’s clever enough to make a good offer all the same.”
1868
1869Something in the distance screeched.
1870
1871“I think attempting to manipulate a noble warrants the worst sort of punishment,” the Baron said.  “The Duke of Francis thinks this child’s manipulative play is entertaining, and it reminds him of home… but when I’m reminded of home I want to spit.”
1872
1873“Do you know what else warrants punishment, dear brother?” one twin asked.
1874
1875“Underestimating a noble.  If he thinks he can try something against us, exhausted, soaked through, bleeding and missing an eye, then why don’t we oblige him?  If he’s asking, he doesn’t even know what the two of us are.”
1876
1877That last sentence sounded so amused that it alarmed me.  Despite myself, I looked up, shooting a look at the twins.
1878
1879It was, perhaps, that glance that won the Baron over.  He smiled.
1880[/QUOTE]
1881[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.3]
1882“I can’t find the place on my own, my lord,” I said.  I looked at Jamie.  “I need him.”
1883
1884The group turned their eyes to Jamie.
1885
1886“You’re the one with memory,” the Baron said.
1887
1888“Yes, my lord.  I know the area and the layout.  I remember where we last saw them and know the locations they might be in.”
1889
1890“Then he stays, and you go,” the Baron said.
1891
1892That caught me off guard.  With the pain and distraction, I wasn’t thinking straight, and I’d let myself fall into an obvious trap.  Baron Richmond wasn’t a great contender in the political arena, but he didn’t miss anything.
1893
1894I didn’t have a ready answer, and I couldn’t have voiced it anyway, without it being more manipulation and weaker footing for me and for us.
1895[/QUOTE]
1896
1897The Baron went for the mundane Noble route
1898[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
1899The Baron Richmond wasn’t as impressive as the Duke, because he hadn’t had the same clout, power, and money that was needed to get the very best doctors for the very best surgeries and experiments.  Richmond had gone the mundane route, and mundane remained very, very impressive, paling only in comparison to the likes of the Duke.  The Twins had been taken down the experimental route, more monstrous than a self-respecting noble would allow, riskier and more questionable.
1900
1901But still the very best sort of work that was out there.  The sort of work I suspected Ibott  wanted to do.
1902[/QUOTE]
1903
1904Baron surviving a massive explosion
1905[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.16]
1906The soldiers caught up with us, a corpse slung over one shoulder, another two soldiers carrying a skull and canvas bags that looked heavy.
1907
1908“Those are the explosives?” I asked.  A lot.
1909
1910“Mauer said yes, and if we’re walking away from this, we’re not bringing all of this with us, so we might as well be thorough.  Brought someone who knows this stuff.”
1911
1912*****
1913
1914“That building’s front door is open,” I said, pointing at what looked to be a store in the middle of a residential area.  The building was more ramshackle than some, with three floors and an open roof.  Tattered lengths of cloth with the ends tied bound together were draped over the roof, poked up into a point above by a long pole, a tent-like arrangement to keep water off the roof itself.  “We’ll set up up top.”
1915
1916*****
1917
1918Mauer’s soldiers set the bags at the roof.  One unwound a coil of wire, an electric fuse, and led it down the stairs, tucking it in along a wooden strut that ran down the stairwell.
1919
1920With a prybar, he freed one step from the surrounding boards and wall, lifting it straight out.  Placing it back down, he put something metal between the step and the nearest board.  When a foot came down on the step, it would compress the metal, create a connection, and in that same moment, the explosives in the bags would blow.
1921
1922“Head outside,” he said.  “I have to attach the wire.  If a mistake happens at any point, it’s here.”
1923
1924*****
1925
1926One of Mauer’s men spoke, “He’s here.”
1927
1928I wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
1929
1930You took my eye, you bastard.  Let’s see how much of you this takes out.
1931
1932A whistle cut through the air.  Not Jamie’s.
1933
1934It was the Baron, calling out to his sister.  Crown soldiers spoke, calling out to each other.  The door banged against the wall as they shoved their way through.
1935
1936I heard the whispered words, “He’s not going inside.”
1937
1938I closed my eyes.  I listened, and I heard the Baron call out.  “Sisters!”
1939
1940His voice rang through the night.
1941
1942I prayed, not because I truly believed, but because in this moment, I really would have liked it if there was a bloody, vengeful sort of god looking down on us.
1943
1944The explosion was a rollicking walloping series of hits, one after another, building on each other to rip away all my hearing and most of my breath.  As my hearing returned, my vision went, dust rolling out to blanket everything and choke the air.
1945
1946“Move!” one soldier called out.  A hand shoved me.  The soldiers ran, and the Lambs were dragged with them.  “That hit him!”
1947
1948“He’s dead!?” Lillian cried out.
1949
1950“No, but that’s going to hurt ‘im!”
1951
1952“We should go back, finish him, pick through-”
1953
1954“No!” was the one word response.
1955
1956“If we can damn well finish him off-”
1957
1958“He’s a noble!  If he needs finishing off, he’s too dangerous to get near!  Only noble that’s safe to be near is a dead one!”
1959
1960Frustration welled up in me.
1961
1962“If he’s hurt, he’s not going to be attacking!  It’s good, it’s good!”  A hand clapped on my back.
1963
1964He’d tried to call out to his sister twice, and when he hadn’t gotten a response, he’d been suspicious.
1965
1966We were letting him live, and I knew for an absolute fact that the man would recover and he would plague us.
1967
1968*****
1969
1970The Baron was seated, one of his sisters seated behind him.  He didn’t stand as we made our approach.  He’d donned a cloak, and wore it over his head and shoulders.  A metal brace had been fit over one arm, screws puncturing flesh, and his exposed flesh was alternately bandaged and scalded.  The eyes behind the bandages were open so wide that I had to wonder if his eyelids had been burned away.  That illusion was broken as he blinked.
1971
1972But it wasn’t all burns.  There was an awful lot of damage that seemed like there had been more tearing and ripping of the skin, connective tissue, and the flesh.  I could study the wounds and try to envision how they had come about, telling myself a story in reverse, and the mental image that came to mind was of the Baron half-buried by rubble, tearing himself free, with such force that skin came off.  Things had been put back into a roughly approximate position and held there with the bandage, then covered with fresh clothes, primarily black and green.
1973[/QUOTE]
1974
1975Baron taking notice of weaknesses or making his own
1976[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.18]
1977“I’m not offering you the Lambs,” Mauer said.  “I arranged this because I was asked to.  By that girl there.”
1978
1979The Baron fixed his bulging eyes on Emily.  She didn’t flinch.  She was steel, from head to toe.  Too rigid, but it was better than backing down.  I looked at her as he saw her: a girl, horned, clawed, teeth sharpened, eyes altered, her muscles changed to make her faster, more powerful, her skin marked with tattoos.
1980
1981“Trash,” the Baron said.
1982
1983She reacted slightly, surprised.  I saw the Baron’s eyes taking that in.  She would pay for that tiny reaction in spades, because he would know he could demean her.  I hated him a little more for that.  Emily had earned my respect in the time I’d spent with her.  But the Baron was a monster, one that fed on weakness and created weaknesses where they didn’t exist.  He’d cut straight to my core, and I’d been fighting monsters since I could remember.
1984[/QUOTE]
1985
1986Modulating his expression for his own purposes
1987[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.18]“And here I was, trying to be fair,” the Baron said.  Eyelids appeared around the bulging orbs and then narrowed, giving him a sudden, sly look.  His facial features had been altered to give him finer control over them.  The bulging look up to this point had been at least partially intentional – the other part would be the sheer damage to his face.[/QUOTE]
1988
1989How guarded his home is
1990[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.9]
1991“The Baron?  His behavior,” I said.
1992
1993“Stays in Richmond House, most days.  The house is guarded by leftover Academy projects, warbeasts and weapons that don’t crowd the place up too bad.  The ones that aren’t housetrained, bigger and nastier, they lurk in the woods between here and there.  The screw-ups go to him in wagons that get checked at three different places, near start, middle, and end.  When there haven’t been enough or when Baron or Twin get in a mood, they get in their wagons and come down here in a procession.  About twice a year, at unpredictable times, there’ll be other nobles with them.  Those are the worst times.  Nobody’s safe, and they usually want a lot of people.”
1994
1995*****
1996
1997“Church with no symbols.  It’s a symbol unto itself, isn’t it?  A slap in the face of people who are most in need of the church as a refuge.  Hollow, empty, bastardized.”
1998
1999“Something like that,” Mcormick said.  His daughter had walked over to him, where he still sat in the chair.  He put his forearm across her narrow shoulders.  “Some used to make a habit of dropping flowers in front of the door, as surreptitiously as they could.  The Baron’s doctors invented a beast that could sniff people out by the oils their fingers left on the flowers or something.  It’s not the first time that something has happened with one of the churches that are around town.  They’re there to tempt us, to bait us.  All of this, it’s a game to that noble, a farce.”
2000
2001*****
2002
2003“When and if he comes into town, it’ll be with a guard?  How many?” Mary asked.
2004
2005“Varies.  Fifty soldiers.  Plus some beasts his doctors have put together.  Four or so wagons, they’re nearly identical, each with soldiers standing on the outside, one hand on a railing, another on their gun.  I’d give you particulars, but they don’t come down this road often enough for me to have seen ’em.  They’ll park, soldiers get out, so they’re all ready with guns up, some protecting the Baron, some going after the family he’s targeting.  He’ll emerge only sometimes, protected by circled wagons and by a squadron of soldiers, and if he doesn’t leave someone behind with their Firstborn, the house will be left alone for a few days before the neighborhood gathers, assigns duties, and work together to clean up.  Once the house is scrubbed and the things moved out, someone else gets moved in.”
2006[/QUOTE]
2007
2008His new apparel and modifications
2009[QUOTE=In sheep's clothing 10.13]
2010The Baron arrived in the far corner of the Plaza from where we stood, and that was partially my intent.  He stood taller than the last time I’d seen him, which suggested modifications, and he looked positively regal.  In any other circumstance, the man might have been laughed at for dressing up to the extent that he was, but he had several advantages here.  The crowd was his, and he had the opportunity to meet and greet the important people before his enemies did.  This event, too, was all about him, and few would attack a man who was celebrating a wedding or engagement, whichever this was.
2011
2012He was tall, like the figures in myth were tall, pale, with sly eyes and straight golden hair.  The colors of Richmond were worked into his clothes, black intermingled with yellow for the lining, and emerald for the draping jacket and slacks.  He wore high boots, I noted, and I imagined that people would see that as reason to adopt the fashion.
2013
2014Provided the night went well for the Baron and the noble still lived.  No need to curry favor with a dead man, of course.
2015
2016His expectations of how the night would go clearly differed from mine; he wore a gold circlet.  It was a ballsy move, wearing something so close to being a crown or coronet, especially with other nobles due to show up.  It signaled ambition, and his confidence moving forward.  I could imagine five or ten different ways that he could use that one simple detail of what he wore on his head to shape the coming narrative.  Whether Fray or Mauer attacked or not, the relationships he sought to make or capitalize on with other lesser nobles, if he wanted to actually provoke someone…
2017[/QUOTE]
2018
2019Detecting Mary
2020[QUOTE=In sheep's Clothing 10.18]
2021We reunited with Mary and Chance, and Lainie ran up to her cousin, throwing her arm around him.
2022
2023“What happened?” Mary asked.
2024
2025“Ran into trouble.  It doesn’t matter,” I said.  “He saw you?”
2026
2027“I was quiet enough.  It’s like he has eyes in the back of his head.”
2028
2029“But did he see you?”
2030
2031“No,” Mary said.  “I ducked out of the way as his head turned.”
2032[/QUOTE]
2033
2034Had better doctors than the Twins
2035[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.18]He had better doctors than either of the Twins, and it had taken more than one Lamb to take out any of the Twins. [/QUOTE]
2036
2037Throwing a rapier hard enough to impale it into a wooden pew
2038[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.18]
2039He felt the weight of his rapier in his hand, as if testing it.  Then he hurled it.
2040
2041I didn’t move a muscle as the blade plunged into the pew nearest me, the end wobbling with the force of the impact.
2042
2043“Take it,” the Baron said.
2044
2045I glanced at the blade, but I didn’t move.
2046
2047“Take the sword, Sylvester.  I’ll wait.”
2048
2049I took a step forward, watching him, and reached up for the handle of the blade.  I tugged, and it didn’t come free.  I pulled again, and it moved down like a lever might, while the tip remained embedded.  A third tugged hauled it free.
2050[/QUOTE]
2051
2052Easily tossing around Sylvester and smashing a pistol to pieces with a swipe of his hand
2053[QUOTE=In sheep's Clothing 10.18]
2054His narrow, bright-green eyes mocked me.  He moved left, then right, fine clothes and too-fine hair moving like quicksilver around him.  Only his face seemed like it was in focus, steady amid hair and clothes that flowed almost like water might.  He moved forward, stepping up onto the seat of the pew.  He stepped onto the back of the next pew, then down onto the seat of it, cutting a direct path toward me.
2055
2056He picked up speed as he closed the distance.  Both hands on the rapier’s handle, I moved to intercept, ducking low, aiming for the lower stomach and groin, stabbing.
2057
2058He slapped the blade with the back of a hand, the slap carrying enough force that I felt it in my shoulder.  He closed the distance, stepping so close that the toes of his left shoe nearly touched the toes of my right one.
2059
2060His right leg, however, came up.  His knee caught me in the chin.  My teeth were already clenched tight together, and I wasn’t sure if that helped or not.  Teeth might have broken if my mouth had been open and driven closed, but as it was, the impact shook my head and its contents.  I tumbled to the ground, the rapier falling from my hand, and was left sitting in the leftmost aisle, staring up at the man, while the various candles around the church seemed to brighten until they blinded me.
2061
2062*****
2063
2064He was waiting patiently, as I reached for and found the rapier.  I wavered a little as I got to my feet and straightened.  My eye wandered.  Candida was still sitting on the stage, now with a glove removed, folded up, and pressed to the bleeding wound at her throat.  Beside her was my imagined Lillian, ever silent.
2065
2066The lights remained so bright I could barely see the Baron.  He walked toward me, confident.
2067
2068“I was raised being taught that we all have a place in the world, Sylvester,” the Baron said.  “But I’ve come to think of that as complete and utter tripe.  The world isn’t that inflexible.  We break new ground on a daily basis.”
2069
2070I made like I was going to retreat, then stepped in, swinging.  Again, he used his hand, striking at the flatter side of the blade, as if this was all proceeding in slow motion.  I was more prepared for it this time, and recovered enough to make a quick slash in the opposite direction.  This time, as his hand moved toward it, I turned the blade.
2071
2072He, too, changed the position of his hand.  With the same ease he might toss his hair with a movement of his hand, he moved the blade up and away, the flat of the blade momentarily sliding past knuckles and the back of his hand.  It was so forceful I nearly lost my grip on the blade as it went from being pointed in his general direction to being pointed the complete other way.
2073
2074Reaching down, he seized me by the collar.  With a heave, he lifted me and threw me into the pews, through one of the decrepit bodies that decorated it.  Dust and death filled my nostrils, while wood found its way into my solar plexus and the side of my neck, leaving me groaning and coughing.
2075
2076“Advancement is possible.  So is falling,” he said.  “And both are very difficult, painful things.  Change always is.”
2077
2078He found where the rapier had fallen, put his foot on it, and kicked it, sending it skidding across the floor to me.
2079
2080“From the moment I was reborn as a proper noble, taken apart and put together as something greater, I grabbed hold of that idea.  The pain and difficulty that go hand in hand with change.  I was bitter, Sylvester.  I realized how this system really works and where I stood in the grand scheme of it all.  I saw the injustice of it, and it ate away at me.”
2081
2082*****
2083
2084I pulled myself to my feet, pulling away a tattered bit of cloth that had transferred from the body to me before I reached down for the sword.  I coughed.
2085
2086“And here I’d wondered if you’d taken something into your mouth, hoping to spit it at me at an opportune moment.  Not with that cough, though.  What was I saying?” he asked.  He was approaching along the pew.  He hooked one toe at the base of the skull of the body I’d just been tossed through, flicked it into the air, and caught it with one hand.  ”  They saw me as dangerous, so they hobbled me even further.  Put me here.”
2087
2088He punctuated ‘here’ by throwing the skull, straight down to the ground.  It shattered.
2089
2090As I retreated, trying to catch my breath, I moved past my imagining of Jamie.
2091
2092“And here I’ve rotted.  Stagnated.  I’m a symbol, don’t you see?  I’m a noble, seemingly nothing more, nothing less.  I’m here because they needed a noble here.  I’m expendable.  It would drive anyone mad with boredom, left to write letters and beg for permission to go elsewhere or to visit another noble.  Just me…”
2093
2094He moved quickly, three running steps without any warning he was doing it.  I only barely got the sword around in time to swing it in his direction, trying to ward him off.  He moved back just enough to let it move past him, then hooked one toe behind my ankle, toppling me to the tattered black carpet that ran through the middle of the church.  I wasn’t even fully settled there when he kicked me, sending me rolling.
2095
2096Mere pain was an old companion of mine.  I could deal with that more than my skull being rattled or my breath stolen away.  I gripped the sword harder.
2097
2098“Just me and the freedom to do with my little township what I wanted.  I latched on to that idea I’d been convinced of as I was reborn.  How closely linked pain and struggle are to greatness.”
2099
2100I stood again, one hand at my chest where he’d kicked me, rapier again in hand.
2101
2102*****
2103
2104“Don’t worry, Sylvester,” the Baron said.  “I’m not one of those fanatics who put far too much stock in Wallace’s Law or anything of the sort.  I’m not going to say that I’m creating better people by doing what I do to them.  I simply like to see people suffer, to see how it unfolds, what it reveals about them.  And I like to see what it lacks, compared to the suffering that goes hand in hand with greatness.  That is where I find you amusing, Sylvester.  You straddle that line.  So talented, yet so small.”
2105
2106Small.  I did feel small.  The hits I’d taken to my stomach and chest were making it hard to breathe, and that paralleled the crushing loneliness I’d been feeling for a while now, compounding it, as if I could no longer shake it or turn my mind from it.
2107
2108*****
2109
2110He stepped close.  I moved the sword, then abandoned it, ducking in closer, too low to be in his reach, as I freed the knife from my boot.  I turned, looking to hamstring, cut the Achilles tendon, for any vulnerable area-
2111
2112His hand caught mine, effectively trapping my hand as it gripped the knife handle.
2113
2114He squeezed, and I felt the strain in the small bones of my hands, fingers threatening to break and dislocate as he ground them against the knife handle.
2115
2116My free hand went back, seizing the gun I’d put behind my belt.  I brought it around as fast as I could, and he struck it with his hand.
2117
2118Fragments of the gun scattered the pews and grounds of the church, struck so hard the chamber, barrel, and handle had broken free of one another.
2119
2120He backhanded me across the face, very casually, then slapped me.
2121
2122Before I could even see straight again, he backhanded me again.  I moved my head, trying to put myself out of his reach, and was struck across the head.  The jewelry on his fingers had cut me in a dozen places.  I had blood running through my hair and down my face.
2123
2124*****
2125
2126The Baron let go of my crushed hand, and I felt my numb fingers losing their grip on the knife.  I caught it with my other hand just before it fell to the ground, and we were so close together that I knew he hadn’t seen.
2127
2128*****
2129
2130I stabbed, and his forearm caught mine, deflecting the blow.  The hand at the end of that forearm caught me by the side of my head.
2131
2132Again, he threw me bodily into the pews, but this time, the throw coincided with pain that swallowed up all vision in my good eye, filling it with darkness and stars.  I felt blood flowing.
2133
2134I blinked, struggling to make out the situation and surroundings.
2135
2136I could see him dusting himself off with one hand, the other hand held at a distance.  He let the ragged bit of tissue fall to the floor and then crushed it beneath his heel.  My ear, torn from my head.
2137
2138“What did you expect, Sylvester?  That you would taunt me with the death of my last sister, and I would bare my neck, show you a moment of weakness?  I know where I stand in the grand scheme of things, I know where I come from and where I’m slated to go.  Where I was slated to go, that is, before you and Mauer handed me the key to a greater future.  My sisters… are not so important.  I have no attachment to them.”
2139
2140Again, he made his approach.
2141
2142He wanted to break me.  He sought to keep on giving me chances and taking pieces of me, until I finally gave up.  Why?  To see some glimmer of what lay within me?  For amusement?  Because I was the closest thing he had to a peer?
2143
2144*****
2145
2146“I’ll wrap this up, change clothes, and go to greet the nobles.  If you’re the only troublemaker to show, I’ll find that disappointing, but I’ll find other ways to amuse myself, knowing that the bastards who’ve been lording their power over me will soon get theirs.”
2147
2148“I know,” I said.  I backed away as he approached, and my injured face managed a smile.  “I talked to the Infante before I came here.  He arrived early, and I told him what you were doing.”
2149
2150I got to watch as his expression transformed.  The amusement dripped away.
2151
2152“I see.  I suppose I should deal with you now and handle that.”
2153
2154There were no more games, and there was no more intent to break.  He stalked toward me, a gleam of murder in his eyes, and I didn’t have the tools to stop him.
2155
2156He grabbed me by the throat, lifting me off the ground.
2157
2158Then, with a remarkable sort of ease, the heel of his hand pressed in and something gave, taking away my ability to breathe.
2159
2160There were no final words from him.  No mockery, no comments.  His green eyes stared into mine.  I tried to breathe and to cough, and only produced the wheezing crackle of air pushing hopelessly against cartilage.  I could breathe, but only a whisper’s worth, not enough to survive.
2161[/QUOTE]
2162
2163Baron gains Candida's Immortality and how his adjustments mean it'd take an hour of hitting him with a sword to behead him.
2164[QUOTE=Bleeding Edge 8.1]
2165“What alterations, sir?” Gordon asked.
2166
2167“She’s immortal,” Adelaide said.
2168
2169“Immortal, ma’am?” Lillian asked.
2170
2171“We don’t know the particulars.  The doctor who started her on the regimen left for the war and hasn’t yet returned, though we’ve corresponded by mail.  Exceptional fellow.  He says that the drugs he’s given her will extend her lifespan indefinitely, and give her some healing ability.  If it doesn’t, or if there are problems, she should last long enough for care to advance to the point of being able to fix it.”
2172
2173“Some experiments have been done that seem to be pointing in that direction, sir, but the level of care required is high,” Lillian said.  “Immortality exists, but it’s paradoxically fragile, enough that even many nobles avoid it.”
2174
2175“Her doctor thinks he’s unraveled it, and our daughter was the test subject.  We provided the funding.  There was and is a massive chance she’ll die from complications, but the chance to pioneer something like this, we had to take it.  Setting her above the rest.”
2176[/QUOTE]
2177[QUOTE=Bleeding Edge 8.11]
2178Drake’s eyebrows went up.  “Immortal?”
2179
2180“Not like that,” Candy said, too quickly.  “It can die, we can hurt it.  Just like I can be hurt.  I can die.”
2181
2182The ‘I think’ was on her lips, left unspoken.
2183
2184“What are they talking about?” Drake asked.
2185
2186“They’re using the wrong word.  Immortal isn’t right.”
2187
2188“It’s the word your parents used,” Gordon said.
2189
2190“It’s not accurate!” Candy raised her voice.  She looked more wild animal than person for an instant, in the flare of anger.  She appeared to try and visibly calm herself down.  “No.  They hired doctors to experiment on me, they extended my lifespan, made me more susceptible to some problems and resistant to others.  They’re trying to pass it off as something it isn’t.”
2191
2192“Extended it how much?” Drake asked.  “Ten years?  Twenty-five?  Fifty?  A hundred?”
2193
2194“I don’t know!” Candy shouted, wheeling on him.  “I won’t know until I get there!  If I get there.  The doctor said I might become ugly and said I might lose my mind to a kind of treatment-related dementia before I’m forty and then in the next breath he said I might live three-”
2195
2196She stopped herself.
2197
2198She remained there, panting for breath.
2199
2200“Three?”  Drake asked.  “Unless you were misspeaking, and you were going to say three-ty years…”
2201
2202Candy didn’t budge an inch or give an answer.
2203
2204“Three hundred?” he asked.  “Three thousand?”
2205
2206“Three hundred,” Candy said.  “At a minimum, the doctor thinks.  Probably longer.  Maybe three thousand.  Maybe thirty thousand.  I don’t know.  I think the doctor didn’t know either, he said one thing to my parents and another to me, I got the impression he didn’t care so much about what my parents thought, so long as I outlived them and they never saw if it was real immortality or not.  All I know-”
2207[/QUOTE]
2208[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.18]“That sword won’t do you any good, Candida,” the Baron said.  “My organs are protected.  My throat can’t be cut, and you’ve given me immortality, you stupid girl.  You’ll have to whittle at me for an hour, and neither of you have the strength to do that.  If either of you move one step closer, I’ll call my guards.”[/QUOTE]
2209
2210His sword can penetrate his own armor
2211[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.18]
2212Both of his hands seized me, fighting me, up until Candida managed a second thrust, piercing his lower chest.  I managed to sink it in as deep as it would go.  I’d managed the right angle.  Past the bone inside the eye socket, and into the cavity where the brain was.
2213
2214He froze.  The rapier blade kept one of his arms from moving to intercept me.  The other groped me, searching for a hold.
2215[/QUOTE]
2216
2217Resistant to poisons
2218[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.18]The Baron would be mildly resistant to most poisons[/QUOTE]
2219
2220Baron was once a clever Noble rising the ranks
2221[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]The Infante set his eyes on me.  “Richmond was clever, once upon a time.  He could have climbed a fair way up the ladder, done more with himself, and done more for the Crown.  But he learned the wrong lessons along the way.  Tragic, but all too common.  His death at your hands was just.”[/QUOTE]
2222
2223[/SPOILER]
2224
2225[SPOILER="The Baronets"]
2226
2227A description of their appearance 
2228[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
2229The Baronets were identical in a way twins and even clones rarely were, each in old fashioned white gowns with fur collars, with pale, straight  blond hair.  They sat shoulder to shoulder, one with a hand in the other’s lap, caressing, the other with a hand at her sister’s chin, tracing the bottom lip with a gloved finger.  Both were leaning forward in the chairs that had been set down for them for a view, but not yet standing or intruding.
2230
2231In unison, their eyes flicked up at the Duke.  In unison, they smiled, hands going down to their own laps as if they were small children that had been caught doing something naughty.
2232
2233He didn’t particularly care.  In fact, he would rather they kept to such things if it kept them amused.  Their other form of amusement involved payments to families and quiet threats to ensure those families didn’t ask any questions about the whereabouts of their loved ones.  He didn’t have to busy himself with such things, but the people who worked for him did, and it was so much trouble to go to for a pair of bastards.
2234[/QUOTE]
2235The infamy of the Baronets
2236[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Boys]
2237“My sisters will want to participate as well,” the Baron said.
2238
2239“Do you think so?” the Duke asked.
2240
2241“They’ve been so bored, and have complained about being left out of the hunting trip.”
2242
2243“Very well, the twins as well.”
2244
2245The twins.  The words were akin to a bell in Gordon’s memory.
2246
2247Gordon had heard of the twins.  To be exact, he’d heard about them in the context of the mad nobles.  On the flip side, mention of mad nobles as a general topic invariably meant mention of the twins.
2248[/QUOTE]
2249
2250More on their behaviors
2251[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 7 Girls]The Twins were torturers with a retinue of doctors and madmen who catered to their whims.  The bodies might well be on display.  What was left of them, if they were lucky enough to be dead.[/QUOTE]
2252Seeming to glide even over uneven terrain
2253[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
2254“Stand.  Step closer, and have a look for yourself,” the Duke said.
2255
2256They stood.  Rather than walk, they seemed to glide, even on the uneven terrain.  They found positions on either side of their brother, hands falling on different positions on his body as they gazed out over the landscape of Lugh.
2257[/QUOTE]
2258
2259Sensing someone approaching
2260[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]The Duke sensed someone approach the tent, and turned.  The Baron and Baronet twins looked over, as well.[/QUOTE]
2261
2262The Baronets appearance, bloodlust, and uncaring of weather
2263[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.3]
2264His bastard sisters.  I had nothing against bastards, I was probably one myself, but for the nobles, those things mattered.  The Baron Richmond was disenfranchised by virtue of his lower status.  Too powerful to deal with the common people on any level, too low in status to wield any meaningful power.  The bastard twins were below him in status.  Were it not for their brother’s continued hard work, they might have found an early grave to assassins or other subtleties.
2265
2266They were beautiful, I had to admit, wrapped in heavy coats, though theirs had albino wolf pelts around their otherwise bare shoulders, and were a stark, startling white.  Pale skin, pale fur, and white cloth that surrounded them and with the bare shoulders, suggested they weren’t even dressed beneath the overcoats.
2267
2268They reminded me of Helen, if I imagined a Helen with more bloodlust, and the inability or an unwillingness to suppress it. Their hands were all over their brother.
2269[/QUOTE]
2270
2271More about their bloodlust and controlled movements
2272[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2273We were flanked by the twins and a squad of soldiers.  The soldiers I could deal with, if the cards fell down right.  The noble twins, however, I wasn’t sure how to handle that.
2274
2275I’d drawn them this far using sadism.  Now, to look at them, or to look at one of them, since it was too obvious when I looked to the one to my left, I could see an energy in her stride.  Her eyes were alert, and she swishedmore than she had earlier, in her brother’s company.  The way she moved played with the flow of her coat, and with what must have been a massive weight in fabric, that simple playfulness utilized more strength than Jamie and I had between us, too.  The placement of her feet wasn’t automatic, but chosen.
2276
2277I’d seen that swish in Mary, and I’d seen the predatory alertness in Helen.
2278
2279Another person in my situation could have taken the same clues and suggestions and ended up with one of a dozen different conclusions, even someone else with more years of studying people under their belt than I’d spent on the Crown’s green earth.  The less talented ones would have read the added movement as annoyance, dissatisfaction, irritation, ill temper, or drugs.  The Twins were hard to read, and their expression didn’t suggest anything positive or negative, but bias and a few misleading elements like the periodic use of nails as the one caressed my scalp and the tension in her hand could have thrown someone off.
2280
2281The more talented ones would have read it as excitement, childlike enthusiasm, playfulness or simple restlessness.  There were only three people I’d ever met who I suspected understood people well enough to guess at something like arousal or hunger.  If I hadn’t had the benefit of knowing Helen or Mary, I might have been one of them.
2282
2283But I did have the benefit.  Putting the two together, that mix of confidence and an aching desire to stretch their muscles and act, with that bizarre mix of hunger and arousal?
2284
2285It wasn’t an emotion most humans had any experience with.  Bloodlust.  It only existed when killing and hurting were an intrinsic part of one’s makeup, and the need to exercise it became a need as fundamental as eating and breathing.  The rush, the intensity, it left one wanting to feel the sensation again.
2286[/QUOTE]
2287
2288Knowing that the Lambs were leadign them into a trap
2289[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 8]
2290I forced myself to unclench my hands, and with communication with Jamie being so limited, not wanting to move my hands so much that the Richmond Twins might notice, I could only keep it in one sign.
2291
2292Aggression.
2293
2294It was a sign in the abstract, and while we’d used it for regular activity and for combat and other encounters at the outset, as we’d developed more accurate gestures we’d relegated it mostly for conversation, to encourage someone to take a more in-their-face approach to arguing with someone, to lean on them more, to attack if an opportunity was seen.
2295
2296To sign charge would have been misleading, as would attack or hurt.
2297
2298By avoiding eye contact, leaving the gesture, I was leaving it up to Jamie to read.  He had only one task at present, one avenue to act and one reason to speak.
2299
2300“Turn right.  Main road, my ladies,” he said.
2301
2302He pointed us in the direction of the plague men.
2303
2304In the corner of my eye, I saw the twin to my right smile.  I could only assume the other one was wearing a matching expression.
2305
2306The reaction was alarming.  I wanted them to open their mouths to talk to me, to taunt, and to shed some light on what was happening.  It was as if they were well and truly aware of what we were doing.
2307
2308Marching straight for the nearest fight.
2309[/QUOTE]
2310
2311Sensing nearby enemies
2312[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2313We went to one side of the street, half of the soldiers accompanying us.  Jamie and the other twin went to the other.
2314
2315My heart rate picked up as we separated.  My captor gestured something I couldn’t see, and the soldiers took cover, hiding.
2316
2317We were a few streets up from where the wagons had been.  The Twin that held me had her back to a wall between two houses, and held me close to that same wall.  The soldiers were packed into the dark, narrow space.
2318
2319“Shh,” the Twin told me.  There was no need for the instruction – Her hand on the back of my throat, she adjusted her grip, and the tips of her long fingers pressed down on my windpipe, blocking off my flow of air.
2320
2321All I could do was endure, let the anger burn in my head, and seek opportunity.
2322
2323Enemies are close, I thought.  You’re brimming with bloodlust, you want to fight, and you can’t do that with us in tow.  Not easily.  You separated us to make it harder for us to collaborate and break free while you’re stepping away to pick a fight.
2324[/QUOTE]
2325
2326Revealing her body and her hidden twin within her, hidden weapons inside of her, and enhanced hearing
2327[QUOTE=Coutning Sheep 9.4]
2328The captain of the unit that accompanied us reached back, and caught the bulk of her coat as she slowly shrugged it free, letting it fall.
2329
2330I turned my head to look, and saw her looking down at me from her relatively towering height.  All ivory skin.  To call it pale would have been a misnomer.  She was statuesque, and she was utterly naked beneath her coat.
2331
2332And, like the weaving cut of a jigsaw puzzle or a snake entwining her body, I could see a thread of gold.  It moved as she did, more a liquid vein than something more serious, tracing a corkscrew path down each arm, around her back, down one shoulder, and reaching down to short-trimmed pubic hair, before breaking apart to spiral down each leg.
2333
2334As she moved, the line, narrow as it was, broke in two.  The two halves of her body separated.  Her breast seemed to leap out and down, before wrenching itself to one side, the skull within stretched against skin as it pulled to one side, opening its jaw wide.  Half of a head of wet golden hair draped out and down to cover the nipple.
2335
2336The front of the breast was the back of the creature’s head, and that breast, however soft it might have looked, was probably hard to the touch.  Weighing no more than eighty pounds, the creature pulled away from the Twin, leaving her incomplete, nearly half of her body carved away with her none the worse for wear.  Half of the flesh of her legs and feet, half of the flesh of her arms, and much of her chest cavity didn’t exist.  It had simply been a spot for this thing to nestle into, a fit with but one seam.
2337
2338The thread of gold to beautify a singular scar for a monstrous alteration to her body.
2339
2340She arched her back, as if in ecstasy, and the thing reached into the void at one side of her body, grabbing hold of her spine, and withdrew two spikes of metal that ran parallel to it.  Like the claws of a praying mantis, the spikes were pointed at one end, sharp-edged, and had knobs of bone at the fatter end.  The creature that had pulled away pressed the ends of its upper limbs into the knobs until something clicked in a very solid way.  Three fingers were now at the ‘elbow’ of a long limb, the spike extending the rest of the way.  It moved on all fours, spikes against the ground.  It was twisted, gnarled, hunched over at the shoulders, a skeletal gargoyle charcoal in color with strips of ivory flesh winding around it, giving it form and the ability to move, crowned by long golden hair that seemed out of place on the figure, draping one side of its face and running down its back.
2341
2342“Were you listening, sister?” the Twin asked, her voice a mere breath.  “Did you hear them?”
2343
2344The thing rasped out a breath, gurgling.
2345
2346The twin bent down and kissed it on the forehead.  “That’s right.  Seven.  Don’t go and leave the seventh alive because you want to be fair.  Kill him together.”
2347[/QUOTE]
2348
2349Scaling buildings with enhanced speed and killing 7 men in a few seconds, showing explosive strength
2350[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2351The gargoyle climbed the wall so fast it might as well have flown.
2352
2353Up the space between buildings, touching both walls with overlong arms, onto the roof, and gone.
2354
2355Not one second later, I heard the heavy blast of an Exorcist rifle, then another.
2356[/QUOTE]
2357[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2358“Quadruplets, milady?” I asked.
2359
2360“No, Lamb,” she said.  “Our precious younger sisters,” she said.  She used that still-iron grip to usher me out into the street where the approaching plague men were.
2361
2362The seven men were dead.  Two of the skeletal gargoyle twins were perched amid the carnage, each a mirror to the other, licking blood off of the spikes with long tongues.
2363
2364The younger sisters would have been bastards too.  I could imagine how the story went.  Their Baron father, exasperated, might have decided they should be hidden, that the bitter and biting tongues of nobles talking to nobles couldn’t have more fodder.  With the other set of twins just three years older, ready for their first set of operations.  By the time people found out that there were two more, the Twins would have had a chance to demonstrate their effectiveness.
2365[/QUOTE]
2366[QUOTE=Coutnign Sheep 9.4]
2367Fear, respect, and anger mixed in equal quantity as we reunited with the other group, all the while approaching the carnage the golden-haired gargoyle-twins had wrought.  I could see the holes the spikes had punched in neck, chest, and stomach, and the places where slashing cuts hadn’t just torn throats out but had destroyed them.
2368
2369Explosive strength in a small package.
2370
2371One opened its mouth wide, and with only a dark membrane of flesh, there wasn’t much to keep that skull-face from opening all the way, sharp teeth bared.  The tongue stuck out and waggled at me, two feet long.
2372
2373The other only huffed for breath, the thin covering of gray-black skin at the two nostrils on the noseless face flaring open and closed repeatedly.  Neither had been hit by the shots from the advanced rifles.
2374[/QUOTE]
2375[QUOTE=Esprit De Corpse 5.1]A rifle with a bayonet hung behind his back.  I’d heard people refer to the particular brand of rifles as ‘exorcists’.  They were single-shot, heavy, ugly weapons, but they made big holes, they were easy to reload, they were reliable, and they were well made.  The name ‘exorcist’ had probably come up because they were supposed to put spirits to rest.  Or was it because they were supposed to help the little guys stop the real devils of the battlefields?[/QUOTE]
2376
2377Armored fur-coat and wearing it without much strain despite losing most of her mass
2378[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2379She’d been slender for a person of her stature, statuesque, and it had made me wonder to see the weight of her coat, the way it moved, and her strength in how she moved even as she wore it.  Armor panels within the fabric, I suspected.  Plates of steel or iron to catch bullets, perhaps, if not simply for effect.
2380
2381Seeing her now, with perhaps a third or two-fifths of her mass now scampering over rooftops, I was left to watch as she took the weight of the coat, barely sagging under the burden.
2382
2383She reached out to touch my face with an ivory ring and pinky finger, and the two added fingers and a thumb of charcoal-colored bone that had unfolded to extend from the gap.
2384[/QUOTE]
2385
2386How the Baronets went down the experiment route 
2387[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2388The Baron Richmond wasn’t as impressive as the Duke, because he hadn’t had the same clout, power, and money that was needed to get the very best doctors for the very best surgeries and experiments.  Richmond had gone the mundane route, and mundane remained very, very impressive, paling only in comparison to the likes of the Duke.  The Twins had been taken down the experimental route, more monstrous than a self-respecting noble would allow, riskier and more questionable.
2389
2390But still the very best sort of work that was out there.  The sort of work I suspected Ibott wanted to do.
2391[/QUOTE]
2392
2393The youngers weren't social creatures
2394[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2395The eyes, if there were any, were small and dark, in eye sockets filled with shadow.  No expressions beyond mouth opening and mouth closing, a unique language of gurgles and hisses.  Not social creatures.
2396
2397They were killing machines.  Fast, strong, with explosive strength.
2398[/QUOTE]
2399
2400The baronets communicating without speaking and enhanced sensing, stronger than Dog and Catcher, but also possible weaknesses
2401[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2402In an instant, both sets of Twins turned their heads to look in the same direction.  Two sets of eyes and two sets of skeletal eye sockets remained pointed in the same direction.
2403
2404A moment later, the younger twins were dashing through the darkness, never in a straight line.
2405
2406We continued our brisk walk, the Twin letting go of my neck to keep one hand on my head instead.
2407
2408Three civilians, dead before we even reached them, still-dripping blood painting the road and the faces of buildings on either side of them.  The same savage, efficient killing we’d seen with the plague men.
2409
2410On par with Dog and Catcher, or the Hangman, in terms of quality, if not stronger.  But there had to be drawbacks.  A reason the Richmond twins didn’t have the younger twins out at every opportunity.  If the Academy could make experiments that dangerous, there had to be a reason there weren’t a handful on every battlefield.
2411
2412That kind of explosive strength… perhaps a lack of stamina.
2413
2414Not enough to warrant them being this uncommon.  They probably needed a stern hand, too.  Or a particularly loving one.  Being raised with a sister, it was effectively full time care with a trainer.  One they were dependent on?  Were the elder twins a food source?  An absolute necessity?
2415
2416We found another pile of bodies that the younger twins had assaulted.  More civilians of Lugh, though these ones had guns.  Militants, enemy soldiers that might have fired on us.  They hadn’t even had a chance to pull a trigger before the six of them were cut down.
2417
2418******
2419
2420Impatience suggested I was right.  That the younger twins couldn’t be out and about for too long before they needed sustenance, rest, and the security of nestling into their elder sisters.
2421
2422There was a window of opportunity here.  Within a few minutes, maybe five, but no more than fifteen, the killing spree would end, and so would the elder twins’ patience.  But with the younger twins called back and put away to rest.
2423[/QUOTE]
2424
2425Noticing Sy's plan and his signing
2426[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]
2427“Sir,” I said, turning around.  In that same moment, he grabbed me by the shoulder.
2428
2429The Twins both looked at me, heads snapping around.  Alert, aware that I was trying something.
2430
2431With that simple fact, the plan had failed.  The lantern I wanted was behind me but out of reach of the hands that were shackled there.  I couldn’t pull away, grab it and make a move all at once, not without him reacting.
2432
2433I didn’t have an answer.  I gestured.  Help.
2434
2435“They’re communicating,” the twins spoke, their voices out of sync.  They could barely move while they took in their sisters.  “They’re using their hands.  Break their fingers.”
2436
2437“Yes, miladies,” the voices sounded in unison.
2438[/QUOTE]
2439
2440The enhanced senses
2441[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.4]The asymmetry mattered.  The tongue sticking out, the nostrils flaring.  The symmetry as the group had turned their head, all four Twins at once.  Their senses were altered.  They’d been aware of every threat well ahead of time. Taste, smell, with enhanced hearing across the board.[/QUOTE]
2442[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.5]“The Richmond twins were out of sync only once, and that’s when the little one was sniffing at the air, the other one sticking its tongue out,” I said.  “Why not act in sync?  I figured it would be letting their guard down, to stretch their tongues at the same time.  Why?  Senses.”[/QUOTE]
2443
2444Trying to determine the Baronets weaknesses, the incredible modifications done to them, and durable enough to take any bullets not from an Exorcist rifle with minimum damage
2445[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.7]
2446“Twins.  We need a countermeasure.  Think about it.  Jamie, explain the twins.”
2447
2448“They smelled you,” she said.
2449
2450The words came across as abrupt.  I was anticipating a certain pacing and pattern to her speech, I’d had years to get used to the measure of time she took to take things in, to wait to see if any of us spoke before adding her opinion.  It didn’t surprise me that she spoke, but it did catch me off guard.
2451
2452“Enhanced hearing and smell was Sy’s take, yeah,” Jamie said.  “Small, black, recessed eyes that they didn’t seem to rely on.  They interlock with their older sisters to form one complete, adult body-”
2453
2454“What color are they?”  Abrupt.
2455
2456“Black,” Jamie said.
2457
2458“Charcoal black,” I clarified.  “Dull, not glossy.”
2459
2460“Except for the parts where you see the skin, from the interlock,” Jamie added.
2461
2462Lillian nodded, taking in the words, even while her thoughts were somewhere else.
2463
2464“Is that important?” Jamie asked.
2465
2466“Maybe.  How much did their chests move when they stood still?  Did they stand still?”
2467
2468“They breathed harder than seemed necessary,” Jamie said.
2469
2470Had they?  I hadn’t noticed.
2471
2472******
2473
2474“…and bony pincers instead of arms.  They were attached after the fact,” Jamie was saying.  Right back onto the subject of the Twins.
2475
2476“That’s interesting.  Were the legs okay?  Flexible?”
2477
2478“The legs moved,” Jamie said.  “They were fast.”
2479
2480“But the feet.  How was the mobility in the feet?”
2481
2482“Feet were straight out, almost one solid piece from knee to the end of the foot, maybe fifteen degrees of movement at the knee and at the ankle, with toes giving them traction.”
2483
2484“Did the toes wiggle?  Or did they look like metal, or bone, or-”
2485
2486“I didn’t see.  Puddles, and I wasn’t focused on the feet when there weren’t puddles.”
2487
2488“I’m getting this mental picture, but I’m not sure if my imagination is running away with me,” Lillian said.  Her voice was breathy, like she hadn’t taken in a full proper lungful of air before leaping into the thought.  She took in a partial breath, then cut it off to say, “It’s really hard to tell if I’m imagining it or understanding it.”
2489
2490“What are you thinking?” I asked.
2491
2492“I’m imagining a problem with oxygen.  The integration would take time to get right, they’ve got very contained physiologies with very dense bone, blood flow is low, redirected, or they went with another means of oxygen absorption altogether.  It would take time to get right, and it could go wrong easily, with catastrophic consequences.  The extremities nearly withered away, and in the case of the arms, weren’t salvageable or weren’t salvageable enough.  Chop them off, give them weapons.  Legs with the thicker bones were salvaged, and or they rely on strength and flexibility in the hip over the legs.”
2493
2494“Okay,” I said.  “How can we use that?”
2495
2496“That they made it work at all is incredible.  They can probably take any bullet that isn’t from an exorcist, with minimal damage.  No vital areas, fast, strong, with big bursts of energy.  When they plug into their sisters, they borrow blood flow.”
2497[/QUOTE]
2498
2499More of the damage they do
2500[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.7]A body, a recent death.  The corpse had been demolished, pieces of skull scattered across road, with massive puncture wounds I could have thrust a hand into.[/QUOTE]
2501
2502Ambushing tactics
2503[QUOTE=Coutning Sheep 9.7]
2504“The twins,” Jamie said.
2505
2506“Oh no,” Lillian said.  Strange to hear her speak when I expected Lillian to be horrified into silence.
2507
2508“Came from the east,” I said.  “Sudden attack, only one dead?”
2509
2510“Could be tired,” Jamie said.  He looked to Lillian.
2511
2512“They probably are.  If they plug into their sisters for the sake of borrowing blood flow and re-oxygenating, then they-”
2513
2514“Or it’s bait,” I said, cutting her off only because I suspected she would ramble.  I wheeled around, eyes scanning nearby buildings and surfaces.  I held the jar higher.  “They smelled us on the people we sent running, now they’re hunting us, and a body lying in our path slows us down, buys a chance to get in position and pounce.”
2515
2516I spun around again, now facing what had been our rear.
2517
2518*****
2519
2520“Then keep it in mind, but let’s focus on what we need to focus on.  I think we’re surrounded.”
2521
2522“Can you even be surrounded by two people?” Jamie asked.
2523
2524“When they’re the Twins?  Yeah.” I asked.  My eyes scanned the surroundings.  Wood piles, a shed, the eaves of a rooftop.  The shadows played tricks with my eyes.  Lillian’s comment about imagination playing tricks with the mind was an accurate one.  I was seeing the shadows pull themselves into configurations resembling skulls, bones, and praying-mantis like spikes at the end of their forelimbs.
2525
2526I’d done the tests for Hayle that involved drawing the perfect, clean white rectangle in my mind’s eye.  The trick for focusing my senses was similar.  I had to sort the visual information, look for the flow of things.  The way buildings were constructed had a sense to them.  The things that littered the ground were the same.  There was a reasoning at play.
2527
2528Once I had that mental image, I could see more distinctly.  My brain was rapidly catching up with what I was trying to see, the bits of visual noise and dancing shadow fewer and farther between.  I could recognize the spots in my vision for what they were.
2529
2530Within an attic window that overlooked the streets, I saw the younger Twins.  They were interlocked in their own way, both at a small window, one practically hanging off of the other so it could occupy the narrow space, dark skull faces surrounded by darkness, peering through.
2531
2532Could they see after all, or were they simply there because it positioned them well to attack?  They were thirty metres out, across the street and two houses down, and if they wanted to attack, they could charge through the glass, run, and hit us within a few seconds.  If they wanted to be subtle about it, I was sure even their limited limbs could open the window, allowing them to slip out and close the distance while we meandered on, unaware, or focused on the body.
2533
2534My heart was pounding.
2535
2536I gestured for silence, and indicated the direction of the Twins.
2537
2538The Twins in the window didn’t move.
2539
2540Slowly, surely, Jamie raised the rifle to his shoulder, aiming.
2541
2542In the blink of an eye, the Twins in the window were gone.  They hadn’t exited through the window- they were moving through the home.  That put them on the street level, and it gave us zero idea of which direction they would come from.
2543
2544“Run!” I shouted, grabbing Lillian’s arm, hauling her with me.  Have to get to a better position.
2545[/QUOTE]
2546
2547For every meter people ran, they crossed five or six
2548[QUOTE=Coutning Sheep 9.8]Two enemies.  Faster than us, better coordinated, stealthier, stronger, and more aware of our environment.  For every meter of terrain we crossed, I had to imagine they crossed five or six.[/QUOTE]
2549
2550Fire might be effective?
2551[QUOTE=Coutning Sheep 9.8]
2552“Fire,” I said, “Will it work?”
2553
2554“Yes,” Lillian said.  Then, “No.”
2555
2556******
2557
2558“They won’t want to get burned, the pale flesh on the outside will be vulnerable,” Lillian said, finishing the thought she’d nearly dropped altogether.
2559
2560******
2561
2562“But if they really want to kill us,” Lillian continued, “The fire won’t really slow them down.  They’ll get burned and they’ll get patched up later.”
2563
2564The fire still worked, then.  At least until we upped the stakes.  The Twins were vain, and that had to extend to the younger Twins.  The older ones wouldn’t use them like this if they were going to turn around and go back to their brother with scars and scratches still needing serious attention.  They would avoid it where possible.
2565[/QUOTE]
2566
2567Stalking the Lambs, moving fast even while tired, and using second senses to avoid being aimed at
2568[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.8]
2569Too late.  I was already leading her and Jamie over to the corner of one street, where the rubble at the foot of one building burned like a bonfire, not yet spread to the building proper.
2570
2571I had the jar.  The contents could distract enough that Jamie could theoretically get a clean shot.
2572
2573Then what?
2574
2575The four of us stopped, standing near the burning rubble.  The light the fire cast was uneven and sporadic, with the rubble in and around it casting very misleading shadows.  My senses were already primed to pick the twins out of the background, but it was far from easy.
2576
2577The road formed an intersection here.  The far sides of the street had short walls and parked wagons, crates and fences.  There was far too much cover, but at least the roads were clear and open.  We stood on one corner, just beyond the sidewalk, with the bonfire roaring to one side, the damaged building looming high above us.  One of the less sturdy, sloping buildings, a tenement.
2578
2579*****
2580
2581My eye scanned the shadows around us.  The younger Twins should have caught up with us already.
2582
2583*****
2584
2585Hubris noticed the movement before I did.  I didn’t wait to verify with my own eye, hurling the bottle into the edge of the flame.  A roll of fire erupted, illuminating the Twin, who leaped back and away.  The spot in my vision that followed after the brighter light made it easier to lose track of the skeletal form as she disappeared into shadow.
2586
2587In my peripheral vision, I saw Lillian’s head turn.
2588
2589“No!” I said.  “Keep eyes in all directions!”
2590
2591Jamie had turned to look too.  He turned his head to look the other way, leveling the rifle, aiming, and I could see the change in his posture as he spotted the other Twin making her approach.
2592
2593Another second, and she would have impaled him.  As it was, she threw herself back from where the Executioner’s barrel pointed, landed with arm-spikes and feet on the ground, a ‘belly’ that was a knot of organs and dessicated flesh wrapped around a spine now facing the sky, and a moment later had bounded off to one side, without even flipping herself the right way around.
2594
2595And the fact that I was looking meant-
2596
2597I turned.
2598
2599No, the first one wouldn’t come from the same direction she had.  The side?  Too obvious.  The fire?
2600
2601I put my hand out, gesturing to Hubris to watch my back, as I turned my attention away from the most likely directions the first Twin might have used to approach.
2602
2603Peering past the thick smoke that rose from the fire, I could see the Twin scaling the wall, twenty feet above our heads.
2604
2605“Above our heads,” I said.
2606
2607I didn’t want to take my eye off her, but if there was a remote possibility of her throwing herself off the side of the building, over the flames and onto us, I needed to be able to do something.
2608
2609I turned my attention to the rubble, reaching, close enough to the flame that I thought my clothes might catch.  I found a length of wood and hauled on it, lifting-
2610
2611“She’s moving!” Lillian cried out, voice going higher.
2612
2613My gaze went up, even while I still hauled on the wood.  Too long to be a proper weapon, thin and supple, it was a baseboard from the house, or a long, grown piece of floorboard.  The end of it traced a half circle on the road to my right as I pointed the thing in a different direction.  Still, I was able to haul the end of it up, pointed toward the Twin.
2614
2615Not even a pointed length of wood.  There was a one in five chance, if she leaped, that I’d be able to put the end of the length of wood between her and her target.   The wood wouldn’t survive, but she would be knocked to the ground or knocked back into the fire.
2616
2617The twin on the surface of the building did move, and my heart leaped as I tried to track the potential angle of the jump, with zero depth perception to go by.
2618
2619Instead, she put her claws up onto a windowsill and climbed through.
2620
2621“They’re not moving as fast as they were,” Jamie said.  “They’re tired.”
2622
2623“They’re still moving pretty fricking fast,” I said.
2624
2625“Yeah,” Jamie said.  “They’re being careful.  This one over here has a second sense about my gun.  I start to move the gun to aim at her and she slips away, disappears.”
2626
2627Looking for a hole.
2628
2629******
2630
2631“Got eyes on one,” Jamie murmured.
2632
2633“I don’t know where the other is,” I said.
2634
2635Hubris didn’t seem to know either.
2636
2637“She’s upstairs,” Jamie said.  “She opened a window.  She could come jumping through, or she’s trying to draw the eye while she approaches from another direction.”
2638
2639“Right,” I said.  “Good.”
2640
2641They were going to circle us independently and attack the moment they saw an opportunity, and we would lose one of the Lambs.  I couldn’t think of a scenario where that wasn’t the case.  If anyone happened across us, Crown or rebellion, then the distraction would probably kill us.  If the elder Twins happened across us, then we would be as good as dead.
2642
2643I could break the jar of stink, but again, I had to ask myself what followed that.  The enemy would be distracted, Jamie would get one shot off, and we’d have another Twin or another in our midst.  All four of us would die.
2644
2645It was like a rhyme or litany in my head.  Every time I followed a train of thought, it led to the same line.  An echoing refrain of doom, gloom, and the end of this particular group of Lambs.
2646[/QUOTE]
2647
2648Another possible weakness
2649[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.8]
2650“Lillian,” I said, careful not to raise or lower my voice, “You had another idea.  You mentioned it a moment ago.  A way to counteract how the Twins work.”
2651
2652“Yes!” she said, too intense.  “I think!  But I need-”
2653
2654I was ready for the ‘but’, and cut her off.  “What is it?”
2655
2656“They need to have a way to open themselves up to their sisters.  They-”
2657
2658She stopped as Jamie startled, jerking his rifle a distance to his right.
2659
2660“Keep going!” I ordered.
2661
2662“They probably have sphincters or other controls that allow blood to come in from the connection to their sisters.  A chemical reaction.  If I had a chance to try a catch-all means of getting them to open themselves up, maybe their bodies would open the doors, with blood pouring out, or it would hamper their ability to reconnect with their sisters.  But-”
2663[/QUOTE]
2664
2665The Lambs being toyed with and juked by the baronets
2666[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.8]
2667It was a bluff, one more thing to keep them at bay.
2668
2669That same bluff came at a cost, because it drove them to attack sooner than later.
2670
2671The attack was an unexpected one.  I didn’t even see the Twin at the window.  There was only the object, briefly lit by the flames as it whipped top over bottom.
2672
2673“Jamie, move!” I called out, grabbing Lillian, hauling her to one side.  Jamie took a step forward.
2674
2675A vase bigger than my head crashed onto the street in the midst of the group.  There was still water in it.
2676
2677Off-balance from having to get out of the way, Jamie was slow to move the rifle to track the one on the ground.  It threw itself to one side, then closed the distance.  My lack of depth perception wasn’t wholly responsible for the sensation that it simply appeared.  It was fast, and it was a hell of a lot faster when it was lunging right for us.
2678
2679Jamie tried to put the rifle’s bayonet blade between himself and the Twin.  The long spike of bone that jutted from its one arm struck the rifle to one side, nearly disarming Jamie.
2680
2681I was already swinging my broken length of wood towards the twin.  The attack was inevitable, I just needed to stop the follow-up.  Each twin had two spikes of bone, and the other spike would be stabbing right for Jamie’s heart.
2682
2683My stick swung through to hit empty air, the very end splintering against the road.
2684
2685The Twin was retreating, dancing out of the way before Jamie could reassert his grip on the rifle.
2686
2687There was no real expression on its face.  Shadow-colored flesh formed a thin, gnarled veneer over the bone, with barely any visible musculature.  The eye sockets were empty and dark, hiding eyes half the normal size, eyes that were probably mostly blind.
2688
2689Yet I had the sense that it was laughing at me, mocking, and that sense coincided with a sinking feeling I knew all too well.
2690
2691I’d taken wyvern to make my brain easier to mold.  I had taught myself new patterns, but it came with a drawback.  One of the patterns I learned was that I could rely on others to handle the fighting.  At best, I could do the ambushes and sneak attacks.  Catch the enemy off guard, make sure they didn’t have the chance to fight, and I was fine.
2692
2693Give them a chance, and I felt this sinking feeling, that things were now out of my control, and I was at the mercy of our enemies.
2694
2695I turned my attention up toward the building where the vase had come from.
2696
2697In that same moment, Hubris growled, lunging.
2698
2699The other Twin, in the time it had taken me to turn to my left, swing my stick and turn back to my right, had dropped down two stories, moved around behind me, and lunged.
2700
2701Hubris caught the spike of bone that was meant for Lillian’s throat, clamping it in his teeth, his weight pulling the spike down and away, the spike’s forward momentum continuing, so that Hubris slammed into Lillian.
2702
2703But, as I’d observed in the moment Jamie had nearly been disarmed, each Twin had two spikes.
2704
2705Neat, precise, and so fast I didn’t even see it, the same Twin threaded its other spike of bone through Hubris’ middle and into Lillian.
2706
2707Time seemed to stand still.
2708[/QUOTE]
2709
2710Overpowering Hubris, Lilian, and Sy, taking no damage from fire
2711[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.8]
2712A tearing, agonized noise ripped itself from my throat as I brought the edge of the stick around, point aimed at the Twin’s throat and collarbone.  She tried to move, but Hubris still held one limb, and the other was stick inside the pair of dog and girl.
2713
2714The point hit dead on, all of the force I could humanly bring to bear driven into a vital area.  The broken end of the point splintered, and the splinters raked across the twisted black-gray flesh that covered her spine.
2715
2716No damage.  It was like she was skin and skeleton, and all of my effort couldn’t even break the skin in any meaningful way.
2717
2718She pulled a point free of both Hubris and Lillian, and I could hear Lillian make a pained sound.
2719
2720A backhand slap with the bone spike broke the middle of my stick, and I only barely kept it from catching me in the chin, point bisecting the skin of my face.
2721
2722I floundered, off balance, stepping back to catch my footing, arms moving out to the sides, not even sure what I could do if I was armed and the Twin was standing still to let me hit her.
2723
2724Not that she was.  The limb she’d brought up to break my stick and nearly cleave my face in half was still in the air, poised, point aimed at me.  She moved forward, bringing it down.
2725
2726My balance was such that I could have regained my footing, but I would stop backpedaling in the process, and the spike would strike home.  I chose the other option, losing my balance while still moving back.  The point struck the road between my knees as I fell.
2727
2728She moved the point to one side, and I was too slow to move my leg back and out of the way.  The point of the spike-limb cut the meat of my calf.
2729
2730She took a step toward me, raising the limb to bring it down again, then stopped.
2731
2732Her head turned, attention turning to Hubris, who still held her other limb, holding her back, even though his hind legs no longer worked.
2733
2734She stabbed him again with her other limb, and he used his forelimbs to heave himself to one side.  The movement was small, but it meant that the lance of bone caught him at one side of his head and the ruff of his neck and shoulder instead of between the eyes.
2735
2736“No!” I heard the shout.  “No!”
2737
2738Lillian made a throwing motion, but she didn’t actually throw anything.  The motion was meant to shake out the contents of a bottle, except it was a weak motion, the contents not flying far enough.
2739
2740The Twin danced back and away, about three long paces, before swinging its arm out.   Hubris was thrown loose, body sailing through the air to hit a wall, hard.
2741
2742A moment later, the Twin was gone, retreating.
2743
2744Lillian was alive.  She’d even pulled off the bluff.  Something that smelledlike something the Twins should fear.  A small mercy Lillian had lacked the strength to successfully get the stuff on the Twin.  If she’d hit, the Twin would have realized the ruse.
2745
2746I flipped over onto my stomach and moved to Lillian’s side.
2747
2748She was clutching her bag with one arm, and the little bottle with another.
2749
2750The bag had traces of blood on it from where the spike had penetrated Hubris and hit the bag.  It had absorbed the blow.
2751
2752Gently, gingerly, Lillian pulled the bag to one side, looking down, before wincing.  There was more blood, and that creative, flexible part of my brain went to great lengths to envision how the blood had run down the spike, through the bag, and pooled there.
2753
2754But no, the spike had gone right through the satchel and into her midsection.
2755
2756Lillian stared down at it, then let her head fall down, short brown hair getting mussed up with snow, wet, and ash.
2757
2758“Vital,” she said.
2759[/QUOTE]
2760
2761How deadly the Baronets are to even squads of soldiers
2762[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2763“The Twins,” I said.  Again, I had to raise my voice.  It was somehow hard to put words together.  I felt emotionally shaken, and while I could use Wyvern to center myself and bring myself to a point where I felt like the usual Sylvester, it bothered me that I had to.  The more I looked at Mauer, the harder it was.  Still, I managed, “We were running from them.  The Twins have pet weapons that are fast, they stalk, pick off the weak or tear through an entire squad, and then they leave.  They’re accompanied by Crown soldiers, and they’re absolutely, one hundred percent confident that they can take what you throw at them.  If you send your men out to the-”
2764
2765“The northeast,” Jamie said, pointing.
2766
2767“-Then those men are going to run into the Twins, and they are going to die.”
2768[/QUOTE]
2769
2770If given the chance they could kill an entire rebel camp with ease
2771[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2772“If we ignore the ones who were chasing you, what do you expect will happen?” he asked.
2773
2774“They infiltrate your lines, they kill us, your lieutenants, or you, if not everyone,” I said.  “Given the chance, they might even make it look easy.”
2775[/QUOTE]
2776
2777Against 40 armed soldiers, it could go either way
2778[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2779He didn’t even blink at that.  “What does it take to kill them?”
2780
2781“Lillian knows,” Jamie said, “But she’s in the care of your doctors.”
2782
2783“In terms of men with guns, then,” Mauer said.  “How many?”
2784
2785“Forty, at the very least,” I said.  “Might give you good odds, if they know what they’re doing.  But if things go south, I don’t think there’s a nice middle ground where half the men die and you hurt the nobles.  If your men start dying, they all die, toppling like dominoes.  Those creatures are like bolts of lightning, they’ll strike one target and carry on through while the rest are still getting their footing.”
2786[/QUOTE]
2787
2788A rifle shot only glances off their skin
2789[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2790I kicked myself forward over the fence.  A short four-foot drop, and I was stepping foot on wet, frozen lawn, the ground simultaneously harder than it should be for soil, but giving under my weight, as the sodden ground beneath the frozen layer caved in.  I gripped my rifle, holding it in both hands, ready.
2791
2792One running step.  Two.
2793
2794Like a stone three times her weight, and with just as much impact, the Twin dropped onto the porch stairs in front of me, all four limbs meeting the frozen slats and boards.
2795
2796Placing herself so that my body was between her and the group of ten.  Not enough that I was guaranteed to block the shot, but enough to raise the question.
2797
2798Someone shot anyway.  It missed.
2799
2800“Eyes forward!” Jamie shouted, voice high with alarm.  “Look in the direction I-”
2801
2802More gunshots, not aimed at me.
2803
2804I threw myself to the right.  She threw herself to her left, almost faster than I did, matching me and keeping me positioned between her and the group.  She had to extend a spike out to slam it into the wall of the house and arrest her sideways movement.
2805
2806Right.  She wouldn’t kill me, but she could maim me and then leave me to watch her decimate the group.
2807
2808I raised my rifle, aiming.  In much the way Jamie had dealt with, she hurled herself away, leg strength allowing her to dive to one side, her profile narrow, spikes extended out in front of her, so she could slip through the gap between the railing and the short set of stairs at the base of the porch.
2809
2810Spikes caught the ground, and I could see as they punched through the harder, colder layer and sank into the yet-unfrozen mush beneath.  I could hear it.
2811
2812A part of me expected the other Lambs to be there, to capitalize on it.
2813
2814But the group of Lambs had dwindled.  There was no Gordon, no Mary, no Helen to capitalize on that moment of weakness.  There was only me.
2815
2816Mary was at my shoulder and Gordon stood in front of me, pushing the barrel of my rifle, as I swiveled to point it at the Twin, already squeezing the trigger a moment before I had her in my sights.
2817
2818Forelimbs caught in the ground, she used her forward momentum to bring her legs over, forward, setting them on the ground, and hauling her spikes up and out.  It took a moment for her to reassert her balance, to bend her legs in preparation for another bounding leap, directly at the group.
2819
2820The rifle fired, violent, bucking in my hands and kicking back against my shoulder where I hadn’t positioned it perfectly.
2821
2822I caught her, right across the back.  A dark fleck of something flew off.  I didn’t see what, and I didn’t see the full extent of the damage as she spun in a half circle, caught her balance, and hopped over the fence.
2823
2824Then she and the other twin were gone.
2825
2826I could hear the gasps and the shouts of the ten.  The disbelief.
2827
2828I didn’t turn to face them, and I didn’t speak, instead focusing on ignoring the pain in my shoulder and the ringing in my ears as I brought the rifle up, using the battered bayonet blade to slice at the clothesline.  I grabbed it with a numb hand and hauled it down.
2829
2830“I hit one,” I said, as I hopped over the fence, rifle in one hand, cord in the other.  “I’m pretty sure that gets me a reward.”
2831
2832They looked at me like I was crazy.  But that wasn’t exactly right.  I was sane, and I’d been talking crazy, up until this point.
2833
2834This was real for them, now.
2835[/QUOTE]
2836
2837Dodging the majority of a surprise attack and a bullet unable to damage her limbs
2838[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2839The twin was in place to attack.  There was nothing saying she would attack now, but I imagined she was angry.  I’d made her sister bleed.  We had no idea where that sister was.
2840
2841“Cross the street!  Fast!” I called out.  My hand went up, signaling Jamie.  Behind.  Three…
2842
2843Boots tramped on the road.  We were moving directly away from the younger twin, now, slightly toward Mauer’s lines, and toward the soldiers and the elder twins, if they had been ahead of us.
2844
2845Two, I gestured, as I called out, “Be ready!”
2846
2847The explosions continued in the distance, the dull noise baffling and muting the finer sounds around us.
2848
2849One, I gestured, the gesture segueing into the sign for behind.
2850
2851“About face!” Jamie and I called out, at the same time.
2852
2853As one, the entire squad turned.  Too slow, some, others confused.  One or two might not even have known what ‘about face’ meant.
2854
2855But most did.  Half of those individuals saw the twin, at the other side of the street.  They fired, their rifle shots and pistols firing in time with mine and Jamie’s.  One of the others threw a bola.
2856
2857She was too fast.  A leap to our right, reacting as she caught a singular bullet to the limb, hard enough that her spike-limb scratched against the road.  Footing secured, she leaped back, crashing through a window.
2858
2859In the midst of it, the thrown bola did a lazy spin before landing halfway between us and her.
2860
2861“Holy mother of god!” Tattoo Belly gasped the words.  “Holy mother, I was looking back and I didn’t even see her at first.”
2862[/QUOTE]
2863
2864More on their durability
2865[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2866“We shot her and didn’t even break the skin!” Lookout said.
2867
2868“The old man here hit exposed bone.  Thicker end of the spike,” Jamie said.  “It probably hurt.  Might have fractured bone.  I don’t know.  Lillian said the bone was hardened.  Carbon-dense, heavier than lead.”
2869
2870And it’s pissing them off, I thought.  This isn’t what they’re used to.  Pain and being predicted.  Those dense, hard bones take energy to haul around.  Efficient as they are, they’re getting tired and they’re getting more emotional.
2871[/QUOTE]
2872
2873Brutally attacking and killing rebel soldiers, destroying a rifle barrel, and wounding Adam, a Bruno with enhanced muscle and skin
2874[QUOTE=Bleeding Edge 8.3]
2875Though it was chilly, without even the sun for light, the man had his shirt off, the straps of his overalls tied around his waist.  He had virtually no body fat on his frame, and more muscle in his forearm alone than I had in my entire body.  Tattoos covered him, his arms and back an artist’s doodle pad of fish tailed goats, mermaids, and other scantily-clad women.
2876
2877I watched as he lifted a crate onto the bed of a cart.  The crate was filled with metal, and rattled, the cart’s end bobbing as it adjusted to the weight.
2878
2879He was a ‘Bruno’.  While Bruno was slang for a brute, a guy that was more strong than smart, it also was the term used most often to describe the men and the exceedingly rare women who went to back alley clinics and walked out with more muscle than they’d had when they started.  Sometimes it was drugs, sometimes it was a rewriting of their physical makeup, and sometimes it was grafts, from vat-grown sources or from animals.
2880
2881Most did it because the cost of the procedure was low, compared to the added dollars they could make being manual laborers.  It meant a year or two to pay off the medical expenses, then a few decades of living like a king.  Relatively speaking, anyway, in a place like Lugh.
2882
2883But the drugs meant dependency and tolerance.  The rewriting of one’s makeup always had other consequences in the long run.  Grafts from animals meant possible rejection or having to take drugs, and grafts from vat-grown life didn’t always last that long, meaning more surgeries and replacements.
2884
2885It amounted to the same thing.  A shortened lifespan.  Maybe a halved one.
2886
2887*****
2888
2889“We’re looking for work,” I said.
2890
2891The Bruno belted out a laugh.
2892
2893Altered lungs, to go with an altered heart.  Adding seventeen stone of raw muscle to your frame means needing more oxygen to that muscle, and a heart to push that blood around.
2894[/QUOTE]
2895[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2896“There!”
2897
2898For the people to aim and fire even as I was turning my head, they had to have been paying attention to our left flank, watching out for the twin we’d just shot at.  The rifle shot exploded right next to my ear, and was doubly worse because I hadn’t even seen the gun or anticipated the shot.
2899
2900But the twin was already moving.  Showing herself and retreating in the same smooth motion.
2901
2902There was no reason to do that unless-
2903
2904“Incoming!” I shouted, “Turn-”
2905
2906The other twin dropped like a stone, right into the midst of the group.
2907
2908Her two forelimbs plunged down with her.  Spikes of bone, as hard as steel and heavier than lead, one through Bat’s shoulder.  The other went through Scrub-Brush’s collarbone and out the front of his ribcage.
2909
2910He’d been the only one that was a decent shot in our group, I was ninety-percent sure.  He’d had calluses on his fingers that suggested he spent whole days with his gun in his hands.  A hunter, if I had to guess, one who had picked up their gun during past military service and had kept it well maintained since.  Smart enough to shut up and follow orders without comment or complaint.
2911
2912Forelimbs firmly planted in two members of our group, she swung her feet up in unison.   Sharp talons at the ends swept up Brawler’s face, from chin to hairline, tearing up everything between.  Cheeks shredded enough I could see teeth past the blood and meat, eyes just gone.
2913
2914I told them to watch our right side, I thought.  The person who’d shot at the twin had been one of the ones who had been supposed to watch the other direction.
2915
2916The twin remained there, spike forelimbs still thrust down, anchored in meat that had yet to collapse to the ground, feet pointing straight up, a grisly handstand, one that showed her gouged back to me, held for one second, two seconds-
2917
2918I knew, seeing it, that there was no action anyone would take that would stop her from killing at least two more people.  If the fight were chess, she had us in check, and none of us had the instincts or skill to see how or why.  We would make our next move, blind, and it would be the wrong move.
2919
2920Goiter stabbed at her with a bayonet blade.
2921
2922Easily, fluidly, she moved out of the way, letting her body fall back and away from the thrust.  She yanked one limb out of the old man, bringing it over her head and down, slashing it with a deceptive speed, far faster than the slower movement of the rest of her body.
2923
2924At Adam.  He brought his rifle up, blocking the slash.  The twin’s limb came down through the construction of metal and wood.  The former bent and broke, the latter splintered.  The weapon came apart in two uneven halves.
2925
2926She was left with one arm still inside Bat-nose’s shoulder, the girl doubled over, torso twisted as she tried to avoid having it wrenched apart by the movement of the twin’s limb, and her other limb down at Adam’s midsection.
2927
2928Swipe.  Slice Adam at the lower stomach, cutting an inch deep.
2929
2930Haul one limb out of Bat-nose, and bring it up and around, cutting the woman with the glasses from lower ribs to shoulder, carrying on to aim for Adam’s throat.  He caught the limb in one hand, and, as if she expected it, she tugged the blood-slick bone back out of his grip, leaving it still pointed at him.  At a tall, broad-target who had zero way of getting out of the way in time.
2931
2932It was Lookout who moved, swinging overhead, using the makeshift bola like a flail, down at the arm.
2933
2934The weight at the end swing over, around, cord encircling the folded limb twice before cracking ineffectually against bone.
2935
2936One limb possibly bound, but she was still a killing machine, smack dab in the center of the killable.  The people who were reeling or outright dying from her attacks were in the way of the people who had any chance of doing anything.
2937
2938Again, Adam grabbed at her, seizing her by the upper arm.
2939
2940Don’t- I thought, but he was already doing it, and he couldn’t read my mind.
2941
2942It was the wrong thing to do, throwing her to one side, away and out of the group, but there were no right things to do.  While she moved, she raised her legs, talons cutting again at Glasses, and once at Tattoo Belly.  She hit the ground, less graceful with one limb wrapped in the bola-flail, but I could see how she was swift to get her feet under her, ready to move.
2943
2944I hadn’t been able to shoot while she was in the midst of the group, with so many bodies blocking my shot.  Others were in the same boat.  I recognized the impatience I felt, and I knew what it meant.  The tables had been turned.  One side wounded, left wanting to retaliate, and finding themselves frustrated instead.  An opening was now given, just like when we’d crossed the street, our backs to the twin, soon to be followed by the reversal.
2945
2946“Hold fire!” I shouted.
2947
2948Too late.  The speed of the air moving from my lips to their ears was slower than the impulse from their brains to their fingers.
2949
2950The members of the group who weren’t blinded, mortally wounded, disarmed, or in agonizing pain fired.
2951
2952To someone who didn’t see exactly what she’d done, it was like she could read minds, dodge bullets.  She hopped and slid to one side, head low, three available limbs skidding on the road until they found traction.  No less than five guns were fired at her – three rifles and two pistols, and not one bullet touched her.
2953
2954But she’d known we would be impatient, wanting to shoot.  She had performed in situations almost identical to this countless times in her life, often enough to know the time it took most to aim and pull the trigger.
2955
2956While our people worked to reload, she lunged to intercept her sister, who was crossing the street, heading right for us.  The one twin would cut the binding without breaking stride, and would run into our midst a split-second before the first person managed to reload, carrying out the second half of the twins’ bloody dance.
2957[/QUOTE]
2958[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.11]
2959The twin had come down like a nail driven by a hammer.  One member of our group killed, another injured to the point that I couldn’t expect her to be useful.  The rest had taken varying degrees of damage, ranging from blindness and near-disembowelment to deep cuts.
2960
2961The nail had been dealt with, but the group was still nailed down, in a manner of speaking.  This number of people was a critical liability.  They weren’t running, they were still too shocked and traumatized to properly bolt for safety, and even if I somehow drove them to move, it would be horrendously disorganized, muddled by the state of the group.
2962
2963Old scrub-brush, dead.  The brawny Bruno, blind and missing most of his face.  Both were as good as dead.
2964
2965Adam, who I hadn’t wanted to bring, had one arm, not hand, cupped against the wound at his stomach.  Bat-nose, who I’d analyzed so thoroughly, had a hole through the top of one shoulder and out the armpit, the shoulder itself likely dislocated.  I had no idea how hurt Glasses was, but two good cuts meant I had to put her in the same category: those three would slow us down.
2966
2967Tattoo Belly was scratched.  Lookout, Glassblower, Salt, and Goiter were uninjured.  They were also, with the possible exception of Goiter, people who couldn’t fight.
2968
2969Too many people were moving for the cover of the alley, but the injured and blind members of the group were obstacles more than teammates.
2970[/QUOTE]
2971
2972Powerful voices for their size and some Exorcist Bullets can penetrate skin
2973[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.10]
2974But the scenario wasn’t going to go as they had planned. I  hadn’t fired.  I aimed, looking down my rifle’s sights.
2975
2976The one who had just cut through our ranks wasn’t aware, but the twin who was charging our way saw.  She changed direction, moving explosively, tackling her own sister, to knock her off course.
2977
2978I suppressed a smile, exhaling slowly.  Her timing was off there, too.
2979
2980Patience.
2981
2982The two sisters, tangled together, placed perfectly for one bullet to penetrate the both of them.  I squeezed the trigger.
2983
2984The bullet pinged off the street, a miss.
2985
2986Fuck!
2987
2988I could sense Gordon’s disapproving eyes on me as I fumbled to reload.  Don’t fight, Sy.  You’re bad at it.
2989
2990While I joined the others in trying to reload in time, knowing it wouldn’t be fast enough, another shot rang out.  The bullet passed through one twin’s back, out the front.  Thick black blood and bone fragments sprayed out, and she collapsed into her sister.
2991
2992Jamie.
2993
2994Jamie had held his fire, too.
2995
2996The twin with one bound limb struggled to rise with the weight of her sister on her.  There was a glimmer of emotion to the haste, and that emotion mirrored the fumbling movements of the people around me who were trying to reload faster than their numb hands were allowing.
2997
2998Awkwardly, moving on three limbs instead of four, she backed away from her sister’s body, pausing.
2999
3000Her skeletal jaw opened, and she screamed, far louder than her narrow frame should have allowed.
3001
3002The scream was joined by two others, just as inhuman.
3003
3004It was the elder twins, each with a rifle, stalking toward the rear of our bleeding, crippled group.
3005[/QUOTE]
3006
3007Elder Twins reload superhumanly fast
3008[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]I could feel the fear and panic.  Both elder twins had raised their rifles.  They fired, one shot after another.  Good rifles.  Probably accurate.  With the body of the blind Bruno between me and them, I couldn’t see if they were hitting us or not.
3009
3010*****
3011
3012I took in the scene beyond our little group.  I couldn’t see the elder twins, but I had a sense of where they were.  Each time they fired their rifles, I could place their locations.  Striding or stalking forward, with all of the tense muscles and barely restrained power of a pair of jungle cats, they fired relentlessly, reloaded with practiced motions, and then fired again.
3013
3014Four shots each, a pause so short I couldn’t believe they were prepping another four bullets, and then four more shots.
3015
3016A spray of blood coincided with a sound like a great weight dropping onto wet gravel.  It was Goiter, too far out, not benefiting from the blind man’s mass and cover.  Goiter had been aiming at the elder twins.
3017[/QUOTE]
3018
3019The leftover younger distracting Jaimie
3020[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]The younger twin didn’t even react to the death, her eyes fixed on Jamie, her body jerking left and right, forward and back.  Every adjustment was to throw him off as he changed where his rifle pointed.  With every spare moment, her teeth snapped and gnashed at the clothesline that bound her trapped limb.  Her elder sisters were shooting, and crossing that general trajectory meant risking getting shot, so she waited, watched, and distracted.  The hesitation might have been helped with a frustration with her own limited movements and insecurity, however that strange life-form might process such a thing.  She’d lost her sister, and she was lost.[/QUOTE]
3021
3022Elder Twin not going down to an Exorcist bullet
3023[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]
3024I completed the throwing motion, letting myself fall forward.  Jamie, having stepped slightly out of the cover the blind Bruno provided, put a bullet right over my head.
3025
3026Not at the younger twin, but at the elder.
3027
3028*****
3029
3030“I shot her,” Jamie said.  “She didn’t go down!”
3031
3032Scared, uncertain.
3033[/QUOTE]
3034
3035Bending a gun barrel
3036[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]
3037She was there, in the window.  I’d dropped my weapon and held Jamie’s, which he’d just fired.  All the same, I tried for my third feint of the night, aiming it at her, trusting that she wouldn’t know it wasn’t loaded, that she would reflexively jump away as she had so many times.
3038
3039But she’d been paying attention to the gun, where it was, the fact it had fired its shot.
3040
3041I thrust it at her, jabbing with the blade in an ineffectual way, still sprawled on the ground, facing the window, and she swung a spike to smash the barrel, bending it visibly.
3042[/QUOTE]
3043
3044Punchign through a floor and door
3045[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]
3046“And the little one?”
3047
3048“She’s patient,” I told Jamie, my eye on the staircase, on the hallways and doorways.  “Even in the darkest, blackest rage she’s experienced in her life, she knows-”
3049
3050The younger twin made her entry, tearing through the floor above us and the ceiling in a shower of plaster and wood splinters, dropping.
3051
3052She’d fixed the issue with the binding at one limb, but she remained off balance.  Used to working in concert with a sister who could instinctively cover any gaps, more coordinated with her own movements than the Lambs ever were, she landed to one side, leaving us a direction to run.  We took it.
3053
3054Through a dining room.  I slammed the door behind us, buying us a few more steps.  The violence with which she destroyed the door and tore through made my eye widen, putting an idea in my head.
3055
3056I knocked over a chair, putting it in her way, grabbed a wheeled tea trolley and pulled it back into the path behind me.
3057
3058******
3059
3060The tea trolley in place, I slammed the kitchen door.
3061
3062“Helen!” I called out,  grabbing the kitchen cabinet to arrest my forward movement.  Rather than run, I swung my feet up onto the counter.
3063
3064Don’t try to fight, I thought.  Can’t fight.  The longer we draw this out, the worse it goes.
3065
3066Ambush.
3067
3068A spear of carbon-dense bone punctured the door near the knob.  It shifted angle dramatically, tearing at the wood even worse.
3069
3070Then it pulled back, disappearing.
3071
3072She knows we have one working gun.  She’s wary of being shot.
3073
3074*****
3075
3076The twin slammed bodily into the door.  The door opened, the top swinging in.
3077
3078I leaped.  One foot went out, touching the door, while one hand caught the top of the door.  I hung there for a moment, my grip and sideways momentum keeping me in place, eye watching below me.
3079
3080A half-second after the door had crashed open, sooner than might be expected, she dashed in, low to the ground.
3081[/QUOTE]
3082
3083How the younger twin body works like alligator jaws and her death
3084[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.13]
3085I landed on top of her, all hard bone and edges, and I embraced her.
3086
3087She had so little muscle.  The muscle she did have had to move heavy bone, so it was very specialized toward that task.  Lillian had given me clues, talking about the low range of movement.  Lookout’s bola had been another, showing just how much difficulty she’d had tearing the remaining cord when an ordinary human might have been able to extend their arm and have the cord snap.
3088
3089An alligator’s jaws.  Powerful as an alligator’s jaws were, if the mouth was held closed with a human’s hands, the muscles weren’t powerful enough to haul it open against the resistance.
3090
3091Arms pinned against her side, me on her back, she could only use her legs, and those legs were limited in movement, solely for climbing, running, and kicking at opponents who weren’t hugging her.
3092
3093Not that she didn’t try.  She had talons, and she scratched for my shoes and calves.
3094
3095Her head turned, teeth snapping, and I had to pull my head back and away to avoid having my nose or chin taken off.
3096
3097I heard a heavy knock.
3098
3099She’d released a spike, with the thing no longer extending from what should have been her right wrist.
3100
3101Fingers free, ‘hand’ able to move, she brought long fingers around and started to dig them into my forearm.
3102
3103For long seconds, we thrashed, her kicking at cabinets and furniture to try and move us across the floor, to violently push me against cabinets, against the wall, trying to loosen my hold.  She tried to stand, and I tangled her leg with mine, keeping mine straight, to keep her from getting both feet under her.  I wasn’t even sure she could stand without her forelimbs to help.
3104
3105With the finger-bones digging into flesh, I had to admit I was losing my grip.
3106
3107I wasn’t Helen.  I couldn’t take this someplace, utterly destroying my target.
3108
3109I could only hold her mostly still, long enough for Jamie to draw near, and slam the rifle’s bayonet blade into her eye socket.
3110
3111The blade kept her head mostly in place.  She couldn’t do much except dig her fingers in deeper as Jamie changed the angle of his rifle, turning the barrel more toward the top of her head.
3112
3113He pulled the trigger, firing a bullet into her brainpan.
3114
3115Slowly, wincing in pain from a hundred new, small sorts of hurt, I made my way to my feet.
3116
3117*****
3118
3119Jamie nodded.  He pulled the rifle free of the now-shattered eye socket, and jammed the bayonet past ribs and into the chest cavity, once, twice.[/QUOTE]
3120
3121Elder Twin aim-dodging and shooting another rebel while missing 1/3rd of her body
3122[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.14]
3123Ahead of me, one of the Richmond Twins stepped out of the shadows, putting herself directly in our path.  Her eyes were wide, and they were wild.
3124
3125Without wasting a moment, I raised my rifle, aiming and firing. Gordon might have approved the minimal hesitation in the action.  Mary would have shaken her head at the miserable aim.  What would have been a glancing blow became a miss as the woman took one step to the side, a slower, lazier version of what her smaller counterpart had done, swaying out of the way of my rifle’s point.
3126
3127In the next moment, I pivoted on my toes and ran for cover.  The others had skipped the shooting part and gone right for the cover, and some of those people, wounded, were slower than I was in getting there.
3128
3129The Twin held a rifle in one hand.  She raised it, aimed, and fired at the mass of our group.  Salt, the boy with sailor’s clothes, toppled, shrieking in a high voice, reminiscent of a woman’s.
3130[/QUOTE]
3131
3132Taking an Exorcist bullet without flinching, shooting another Rebel, and whistle communication
3133[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.14]
3134The glassblower looked over cover, aimed, and fired.  Hit home.
3135
3136Yet the Twin didn’t seem to care.  Blood welled out of the wound.  She’d finished reloading, aimed, and fired.
3137
3138The cover the glassblower was behind wasn’t quite good enough.  The woman shrieked, splinters and a bullet catching her upper arm.
3139
3140The Twin raised her fingers to her mouth.  She whistled, tremolo, like a bird’s song.
3141
3142The whistle reminded me of the noise the younger twins had made.  A twin language, shared among the four.
3143
3144I heard the answer, distant.  A different sort of song.
3145
3146“She found your friend.  He’s secured,” the twin said.
3147[/QUOTE]
3148
3149Dislocating Sy's shoulder
3150[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.14]
3151I struggled, but it was futile to begin with, and even if I’d been able to break free, I would have been slower than she was.  Casually, the Twin reached past Glasses and the Lookout to seize me.
3152
3153She didn’t lift me up into the air.  Her hand gripped me, fingers digging in deep, and with one hand, she held me with her arm extended down at her side, my head at her mid-thigh, my body slightly bent forward.
3154
3155She dropped her rifle.  One hand seized my arm.  She gripped it, and she pulled it back behind my back.
3156
3157With virtually no effort at all, she lifted it back and up beyond its tolerance.  I felt a flare of pain, blinding agony, and felt bone grind against bone, muscle wrenching with a weird springing sensation, too hot, then too cold.
3158
3159When she let go of my arm, it dangled, shoulder disconnected from everything else.  Attached by some yet-untorn muscle, some connective tissue, and by skin.
3160
3161I found it in me not to scream, somehow.  My breath being caught in my throat played a part in it.
3162[/QUOTE]
3163
3164Swinging Sy like a fan and running twice as fast as any human, later recovering from the deadly gas
3165[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.14]
3166Something metal clinked.  Unable to move my head, I rolled my eye to see.
3167
3168Before I could see the source of the clink, I saw the a white mist unfold from what must have been a metal canister or glass jar.  The twin, seeing it, lifted me bodily, nearly breaking my neck as she swung out, using my body as a kind of fan to push the smoke away, backing away in the same movement.
3169
3170She released me with a snap motion that suggested she’d been trying to break my jaw or neck in the course that she tossed me aside.
3171
3172Both of her hands went to her face.  A trickle of blood flowed out of her nose.
3173
3174All of the emotion she’d been barely repressing gave way.  She howled, ragged and mad, glaring at me in abject hatred.  Glaring past me, to Jamie, and at Lillian, who was walking with Jamie’s support.  There were soldiers behind them.  Lillian’s escort.
3175
3176Then she fled, one hand still to her face.  She ran with power, not the sheer speed of her younger sisters.  Bounding movements, each one powerful enough to carry her twice as far as an ordinary human stride might.
3177[/QUOTE]
3178[QUOTE=Counting Sheep 9.18]His sister looked almost pristine, wearing a more concealing change of clothes that masked the fact that much of her body was missing.  Only one side of her cleavage was laid bare for eyes to settle on.  She would be the one who had screamed at me, losing her composure.[/QUOTE]
3179
3180A single Twin can still be intimidating
3181[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing]And I could see the Baron’s sister.  The sole surviving Twin.  A giantess compared to the crowd she walked through, a monster that, even more than the Baron, made the citizens of Warrick shrink down and away.  That she’d arrived alone stirred faint murmurs from the crowd, and a sharp look from her immediately silenced those same murmurs.[/QUOTE]
3182
3183A single Twin fighting Mary and Sy, defeating Mary, shifting her body, and choosing to die
3184[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.15]
3185Stay?  Go?”  Mary asked.
3186
3187My eyes swept over the room, Ruth Bloxham, our hostages, and the doctor.  I could see the items strewn across the bed.
3188
3189“Stay,” I said.  “How long?”
3190
3191“Seconds,” Mary said.  She was already reaching beneath her skirt to retrieve the ribbons she’d bound around her thigh.  She wound them around one hand.
3192
3193“You four, back away from the door,” I said.  “Doctor, keep treating Ruth.”
3194
3195“You’re insane!” the man said.
3196
3197I pointed the gun at his head.  I circled halfway around the bed, until I was at the foot of it.
3198
3199Small room, not much elbow room for a fight.  Mary reached over to the bed, grabbing two tools from a leather set of surgical implements.  She already had wire in her hand.  She went straight to the door, winding one loop of wire around the hinge.  Then, with the tools in hand, she pushed the wire through the space between the top of the door and the frame.
3200
3201“Strong, tall, fast, heightened senses.  Her body opens up, used to be two people nested in one body.  The baron’s doctors would have given her something,” I said.  I looked at the doctor who was working on Ruth.
3202
3203“Nothing to say,” he said.  His eyes were fixed on his patient, neck stiff, head rigid, as if he would fight me if I tried to turn his head or budge him from his current position, even on a physical level.
3204
3205Mary slid the wire down from the top of the door, until she had the wire stretched at a diagonal across the other side of the door, all done without having opened it.  She stood beside the door, wire wrapped around the handle of a knife,  A whole loop worth of slack hanging from her other hand, every muscle tense.
3206
3207*****
3208
3209It was as if he’d summoned her.  The door swung into the room, banging against the wall.  The Twin had to stoop as she came through the door.  Pale, eyes wide, face contorted, golden hair already disheveled from her march across the town hall.
3210
3211“Lambs.”
3212
3213The wire was too low, cutting across her chest, not her throat.  Mary remedied that, hurling herself at the Twin, knife out, her other hand manipulating wire.
3214
3215The second length of wire settled, loose, around the Twin’s neck and shoulders, around the time she saw Mary.  Mary hauled back, tugging the wire tight.  The twin’s hand moved as fast as the wire did.  Fingers went up and between the wire and throat.  One hand was pinned, flesh sliced, palm outward.  Mary hung there, feet against the Twin’s chest and stomach, suspended by that same wire, facing the Twin.
3216
3217They almost had the same look in their eyes.
3218
3219“Little girl,” the Twin spoke, her voice barely impacted by the weight of a seven-plus stone girl hanging off of her neck.  “Do you really think you can win?”
3220
3221She started to take a step forward, and then stopped – the wire was still bound at one end, wrapped around the hinge.
3222
3223“My lady,” one of the guards outside spoke.  It was almost a question.
3224
3225My hand inched toward the bomb with the gas.
3226
3227“Stay,” the Twin said.  “It’s handled.”
3228
3229“Yes, my lady.”
3230
3231She didn’t even sound concerned.
3232
3233One of the noble’s hands was trapped under the wire, but the other one was free, hanging at the Twin’s side.  I saw it, and I knew Mary saw it.
3234
3235Mary’s foot, poised against the Twin’s stomach, slipped from its position.  The hand flashed out, grabbing, to capitalize on the slip, and Mary’s foot snapped back up as fast as it had dropped, this time with a blade.  A feint.
3236
3237As fast as the Twin’s hand was moving, Mary only needed to put her foot in the right position, toe pointed, to let the blade plunge through the hand.  Knives in the soles of her boots.  Flick the foot out with the right motion, the knife swung out, until it pointed forward.  Flick back the other way or knock it against some part of the environment, and it went back in.
3238
3239*****
3240
3241She let her other foot leave the Twin’s upper chest, her body suspended between the boot-knife that impaled the Twin’s hand and the hand that held the knife, wire extending from that knife to the Twin’s neck.  Her foot free, she flicked it, drawing the blade, and swept it toward the Twin’s wrist, a half-foot from her other boot.
3242
3243She got two quick slashes in before the Twin pulled the hand back and away.  Mary’s boot-knife came free of the hand.  Both boot-knives immediately found a home in the side of the Twin’s stomach, kick, kick.  Then they were out again, in again, as Mary moved from one side of the Twin’s body to the other, like an ice climber hurrying out of the way of a catastrophic amount of falling ice, still hanging by one hand from the knife and wire.
3244
3245*****
3246
3247The Twin started to reach for Mary again.  Mary’s foot moved, ready to intervene, and the Twin stopped there.
3248
3249Then the free hand reached back, taking hold of the door.
3250
3251In one wrenching movement, she tore the door from its hinges.  Mary avoided the first swing of the improvised weapon, wincing as half of the door splintered around her, punching into the wall, but she didn’t avoid the second or third hits.  She scrambled back and away, until she was near me, still holding the knife, moving it in quick circular motions to unwind the thread around the handle.  It stopped short.
3252
3253Out of thread.
3254
3255*****
3256
3257I heard the tap as Mary knocked the toes of one boot against the floor to set the knives back inside her boots.  She was bleeding badly.  Her skin had been shredded near her temple and ear, and some of the tag of skin that hung loose had hair on it.  She pulled her lips back from her teeth, showing how bloody those teeth were, then spat blood onto the floor.  I put my hands out to balance her as she returned the other knife to the sole of her boot with a tap on the floor, wavered, and nearly lost her balance.
3258
3259The twin, possessed of more lack than she’d had before, pulled her hand out from beneath the razor wire.  The act of doing so meant dragging meat against the wire, slicing it clean off the fingers.  The wire caught as it found a groove between those charcoal-black finger bones.
3260
3261Her eyes still fixed on us, she pushed, her hand straining against the wire, skeletal fingers clawing at the air as she worked them.  While she did so, however, she wasn’t just loosening the wire around her neck.  The wire was biting into the flesh at the back of her neck.  Anyone else would have worried about paralysis.  Not her.
3262
3263She took half the flesh on her fingers off as she did it, but she managed to slide the hand out from under the wire.
3264
3265Mary spat blood again.
3266
3267*****
3268
3269Her hand went up, found Mary’s wire, and traced it back to the damaged door hinge, which had been half-torn from the wall in the process of the door’s removal.  She gripped the hinge, then ripped it the rest of the way from the wall.
3270
3271Mary was hurt.  She wasn’t the sort to deny help when it was given, but she also wasn’t the sort to ask for it.  That she’d asked suggested she was spooked.  It was possible that she wanted me in the fray to make up for whatever issues her injuries had introduced.  Balance the scales once again.
3272
3273“I understand, milady,” the doctor said.  “Do you want us out of the way?”
3274
3275She reached out, seized Ruth Bloxham with one hand, and moved Ruth to the corner of the room opposite Mary and I, propping her unconscious body up against the wall.  Her hand lingered there, finger extended and pointing.  “Stay.”
3276
3277The doctor obediently retreated to the corner.
3278
3279The Twin was bleeding considerably.  Her hand, wrist, throat, and stomach had been sliced and punctured in multiple places.  Blood welled out and pooled beneath her.  She hardly seemed to care.
3280
3281As Mary and I watched, the woman’s flesh parted.  A golden seam appeared, across chest, circling around one breast, then moving to the side of the ribcage.  Mucousy fluids extended from the sucking meat on one side of the divide to the meat on the other.
3282
3283She reached up, in-
3284
3285And Mary threw a knife.  The Twin was just fast enough to avoid having the knife strike her in one eye.  Her hand came out of the divide with a rapier in it.  All charcoal-black bone, roughly five feet in length.  I knew how dense and heavy that material was, but she had no trouble holding it like she might a fencer’s foil.
3286
3287Our hostages were cowering, ducked down low.  I saw Lainie practically curl up at the sight of the weapon, head hung, not even willing to look.
3288
3289The room wasn’t that large.  Between the length of the Twin’s arms and the length of the weapon, there wasn’t much room to maneuver.
3290
3291Her foot was the first thing to move, coming out, catching the edge of the bed, and kicking it toward us.  It flipped as it came, wooden base, headboard, footboard and all.  I didn’t have to worry about the harder edges, as it was mostly the mattress that came flying my way.
3292
3293“Down!” Mary cried out.
3294
3295I went limp, letting myself sprawl, mattress threatening to pin me between bed and wall.
3296
3297The rapier’s point punched through the bed, mattress, and into the exterior wall.
3298
3299I more or less crawled to the end of the bed, making a point of pushing along the various medicines and tools that had fallen off the bed and against the wall.  I crawled free, and saw Mary and the Twin fighting again.  Mary was slower.  She couldn’t move and throw a knife at the same time.  She found opportunities to stop, get her bearings for a half-second, and then throw, before she threw herself out of the way of the next swing or thrust of the sword, or pre-emptively repositioned herself.
3300
3301My eye went to the stuff that had fallen from the bed.  Medicines, drugs, sharp implements.  I saw the powder that the doctor had planned to use against Mary and I.  I saw his eyes widen as I grabbed it, pulling off the lid.
3302
3303“Milady!” he warned her, as I hurled it.
3304
3305Her free, damaged hand went out, blocking the incoming object, swatting it out of the air.  A cloud of white powder billowed from the impact point.  She moved away from it, putting herself in the corner, her hand up near her face to block one of Mary’s knives from striking her head while her movements were more limited.  The knife sank into her already mangled hand.
3306
3307*****
3308
3309So much chaos and noise surrounding us, and Mary and the Twin were so still.  It wasn’t an even fight.  Mary was more hurt than before, and the Twin wasn’t moving any more slowly or suffering on any perceptible level.
3310
3311The twin was taller than average, a foot taller than a very tall man might be, but in her sheer ability to be indomitable, seemingly untouchable and unreachable, she seemed a giantess, too big for the room.
3312
3313*****
3314
3315I hefted the bottle.  This label I could read.  Sterile alcohol.
3316
3317I knew I could have improvised something with the bottle, given a moment, a rag, and a source of flame, but I doubted Mary had it in her to hold out that long.  Holding the neck of the bottle in two hands, I hurled it.  I realized, too late, that the Twin was watching me, ready.
3318
3319She caught the bottle out of the air before it could strike any hard surfaces.
3320
3321She drew her hand back, ready to fling it back at me, and a flying object struck the bottle, shattering the upper half of the bottle in the Twin’s hand.  Fluid and broken glass showered one hand and one side of her body.
3322
3323The Twin used her free hand to wipe the worst of it off.  Her eye fell to the doctor, who lay on the floor, bleeding out.
3324
3325She thrust, without a glance toward Mary, and Mary only barely avoided the rapier’s point.  Without drawing back, the Twin swept her blade to one side, practically flicking Mary across the room.  A spray of blood flew out where the rapier’s edge had caught Mary in the side.
3326
3327“Is it only you two?” the Twin asked.  She sauntered my way.  I backed up until my feet bumped against Mary’s body.
3328
3329I felt hollow, completely and utterly alone in the world, though I was surrounded by a small crowd, and a larger one surrounded much of the rest of the building.
3330
3331I couldn’t even reach for the imaginings of the other Lambs, because I wasn’t sure if Mary was dead or seriously hurt, and I couldn’t be distracted.
3332
3333I was left to stand alone.
3334
3335“Only us,” I said.  “I didn’t expect to run into you this soon.  Wanted to talk to the doctor here, figure out a strategy, for dealing with you and for dealing with your brother.  It’s… kind of a damn shame that you showed up as soon as you did.”
3336
3337“A part of me wants to taunt you,” she said.  “Talk about what will happen to the other Lambs, after this.  But you should know by now, and I don’t think you’re worth the time and the breath.”
3338
3339I thought about the other Lambs, and I thought about how I was already saying goodbye to them.
3340
3341But to give up even the glimmer of hope?  To know that they were gone?  Say goodbye to another Lamb forever?
3342
3343“I know that look,” the Twin said.  “Backed into a corner, fight or flight.  But you’ve got nowhere to go, and you know you can’t beat me in a fight.”
3344
3345At my feet, moving against the back of my calves and my ankles, Mary stirred.  She wasn’t in fighting shape, and she wasn’t, I knew, playing possum.
3346
3347“I was hoping to see that look of despair,” she said.  “I haven’t gone ten minutes without wanting it, without wanting to see it and then tear your face off, to preserve it forever.”
3348
3349My eyes followed the point of her rapier.  The damn thing was long enough to be a lance.  She moved it left to right, right to left.  A snake charmer charming the snake with the movement of the flute, only I was the snake.
3350
3351*****
3352
3353She drew the rapier back, then thrust it, straight for me.  I threw myself to the side, tumbling to the floor and skidding as I landed atop vials, pill-bottles and tools.  Nothing I could really use, at a glance.
3354
3355She drew back, ready to stab again, and I knew her target was Mary’s body.
3356
3357“No!” I shouted.  Too loud.
3358
3359Howls and screeches echoed through the building at the cry.  They responded more to speech than to anything, and they responded here.  One of the firstborn beyond the door broke past the soldiers, and came tearing into the room.
3360
3361It didn’t even have the sense to dodge or minimize the damage as the Twin swung the rapier.  Had it been one step back, the rapier might have missed.  One step further forward, and the rapier would have had to cleave through the meat of the throat, the bone of the spine.  It was a strong material, but I doubted it would make it through.  As it was, it cut cleanly past the flesh at the front of the firstborn’s throat.  A backhand swipe disemboweled.
3362
3363There was no more time.  My hands were empty.  I’d had a gun.  It was-
3364
3365I turned my head, and I saw the hostages.  The gun was in arm’s reach of Simon and of Chance.
3366
3367As if in slow motion, Chance reached for the gun, then slid it across the floor.
3368
3369I swept it up off the ground, then ran toward the twin.  Firing at range wouldn’t work any more than a half-dozen serious stabbings had.  Fast as she was with the rapier, it was ungainly.  I closed the distance, hurling myself at her, saw the weapon come around, and dove.
3370
3371I mentally recited an apology for everyone who was about to get hurt or die, but I knew that this was something I’d do ten times over, if it meant Mary had a chance of making it through.
3372
3373I moved the gun near the Twin’s leg, and I fired it, the bullet aimed at nothing in particular.  In the wake of the shot, I heard screams, and howls, many of them from the street.
3374
3375The hammer of the gun struck the metal, and it created sparks.  The spark touched the alcohol, and half of the Twin swiftly went up in flame.  I flipped over onto my back to look up, to see, and I knew immediately that it wouldn’t be enough.  Smoke and fire reached up toward the ceiling, flesh burned and I could smell it burning, but she didn’t scream, and she didn’t flail.  Instead, she let the rapier fall to the floor.
3376
3377I hurried to move out of the way while she was half-blind and preoccupied.  One of her limbs, a hand or a foot, clipped me, and sent me sprawling, reawakening the recent injury to my shoulder that adrenaline had quieted.
3378
3379To a backdrop of screaming, I scrambled back, until my back was against the wall.  I panted from the burst of exertion, and watched as the Twin opened up her body, unzipping it, reaching for something within herself that would serve to end my existence or to stop the burning and free her to resume her cold rampage.
3380
3381She drew her hand out with an organ within it, bulbous and unrecognizable.  She squeezed, and fingertips and bone punctured the flesh to let liquid cascade out.  It drenched her arm, and where it did, the alcohol wicked off, the fires going out or dropping to the floor.  She held it high, and she let the liquid rain down over her.
3382
3383So much effort, and she didn’t even burn properly.
3384
3385Fire was the most common answer to the Academy’s creations, and she’d been given a clear answer to it.
3386
3387I picked myself up off the ground.  To my left, Mary was doing the same
3388
3389*****
3390
3391 I reached into the folded towels, and took hold of the poisonous gas.
3392
3393I hucked it at her.  Half-disassembled, limiting the spread of the flame by keeping herself in distinct pieces, she wasn’t as mobile.  The gas erupted around her, forming an opaque yellow-green cloud, the little globe continuing to billow as it fell to the ground.
3394
3395“Cover your mouths!” Simon called out.
3396
3397I saw a glimpse of the Twin as she backed away, moving to one corner of the room.  She was pulling herself together.
3398
3399*****
3400
3401I was already walking forward into the gas, breath held, bending down to fumble for the source of the billowing gas.  Once I had it, I held it close to my body to minimize how much it spread.
3402
3403My eyes teared up, my vision swimming in a way very unlike vertigo.  I could only see the smoke, billowing and noxious, and feel it burn my nose, mouth, ear canals, dickhole and asshole.
3404
3405But, as I got closer to the end of the room, I could see the windows, pale squares of yellow-green in the midst of the smoke.  I saw as one of her hands smashed the window, and how the gas suddenly flowed toward the opening in the glass.
3406
3407I could see the dark shadow and silhouette of the Twin, and the light of the fires that still burned at one of her hands.
3408
3409I plunged the smoking globe into the fissure of the Twin’s body, saw her tense and react, and braced myself for the retaliatory strike.  It hit my arms, my upper body, my head, all at once, the shock spreading through more than half of my body as it knocked me off my feet and onto the ground.
3410
3411Not as strong a blow as it might have been.  She couldn’t see me.
3412
3413The hit did make me take in an involuntary breath.  The entire inside of my mouth burned in a way that reminded me of disinfectant poured on a wound, but it treated my entire mouth as that wound, and made me feel like every affected surface would erupt in ulcers, if it wasn’t already.
3414
3415Coughing, sputtering, I staggered out of the worst of the smoke, stumbled into a wall, and collapsed against the ground.
3416
3417The hostages, Mary, and Ruth were mostly out of the worst of the smoke.  Especially now that it was contained.  The Twin hadn’t accessed the globe, she wasn’t pulling it free and tossing it at us.  She didn’t scream or taunt us.  Only silence.
3418
3419My breath wheezed as I stared into the smoke.  I realized I wouldn’t see anything, and looked away.  I looked to Mary, who sat against the wall, bloody and battered.  She had a nasty cut running from belly button to shoulder blade.  I wasn’t sure how deep it was.
3420
3421*****
3422
3423Chance and Simon opened windows, staying as far from the smoke as they could, mouths covered.  The smoke began to clear.  The Twin was there, sitting against the wall much as Mary was.
3424
3425Bled, burned, gassed, and to look at her, she was still breathing.
3426
3427I patted myself down, and found no weapon.  I looked to Mary, and saw her holding a knife out.
3428
3429I took it.
3430
3431I approached the twin, while Mary threw more knives toward the door.  I saw the twin meet my eyes.
3432
3433“He didn’t even care,” she spoke, her voice ragged, ravaged by the smoke.  I thought she should cough, given what I was experiencing, but she didn’t.
3434
3435“The Baron?” I asked.
3436
3437“He took that woman as if it was payment enough.  Didn’t care.  Immortality was more important than our sisters.  He smiled.  He laughed for his guests.  Didn’t want me to wear black, to mourn.”
3438
3439“To be fair,” I said, “You’re awfully hard people to feel sorry for.  You want to be mourned?”
3440
3441“We were supposed to-” she wheezed a breath.  She tensed, like she was going to swing for me, try and execute me on the spot.  Something didn’t let her.  “Supposed to have him, if nobody else.  Him.  But we’re just bastard children.  Even to him.  Now-”
3442
3443I could hear movement outside.  I gestured to Mary.
3444
3445“-Now I die alone.”
3446
3447“Yeah,” I said.  I choked back ten different sorts of emotion.  I didn’t sympathize with her, but I could sympathize with what she was saying.  “I don’t suppose you’ll give me some advice on how to deal with your brother?”
3448
3449She shook her head.
3450
3451I wasn’t surprised in the least.
3452
3453A part of me, hearing what she’d said, wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t fighting more.  The damage wasn’t that severe.  She could have mustered the strength to hit me, fought to the door, gotten access to a doctor, and gotten patched together.
3454
3455But she had no reason to.  Not anymore.
3456
3457“Then… Want to help me help you move along?”
3458
3459I wasn’t sure if she’d even heard me, but then she slouched.  As she did so, her body came further apart.  I could see how the gas had affected the meaty inner layers.  It looked like the inside of my mouth felt.
3460
3461She strained, and I saw her bones shift and move.  Her entire body was reconfigurable, to help the doctors do their work and to make room for her little sister.  Her ribs pulled back and away, exposing organs in her chest.
3462
3463I sank the knife into place.  I had to grip it with both hands to rake it across the surface.  I watched as it strained, gushing blood, and then stopped beating.
3464
3465I stepped back and away.  The other Lambs surrounded me.  Gordon, Jamie, Mary, Lillian, Ashton, Helen, Hubris… all watching as the Twin slowly died.
3466
3467I saw the peace on her face, and every sense was aware of the violence and chaos all around us.  Warrick had finally snapped, and it wasn’t pretty.
3468[/QUOTE]
3469
3470[/SPOILER]
3471
3472[SPOILER="The Infante"]
3473Description of the Infante
3474[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.16]The fourth was older, exceptionally fat to a degree that had to have been created by academy doctors, with crimson hair, and I couldn’t even tell if they were male or female.[/QUOTE]
3475[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
3476The adult noble was the obese one I had seen before.  His body type could only be described as a cylinder.  Rolls of his chin disappeared beneath a huge ruffled collar, and his clothes formed a kind of drape that extended to his ankles, with war medals on his chest.  He’d chosen to look like this, or someone had chosen this aesthetic, and I immediately had an impression why.  He was a giant of a man, all size, and he radiated sheer, undeniable power.  He was a titan that I suspected the Duke of Francis would have felt small beside, decorated with alabaster skin and hair that was parted in the middle and curled at the sides, fine and like spun gold.
3477
3478Yet for all that he made me think of an ogre, his eyes looked like they belonged on a fey trickster.  Almond-shaped, bright blue, and animated, they immediately locked onto me, supposedly a Warrick local, instead of on Lainie.
3479[/QUOTE]
3480
3481Description of his Golden Calf weapon
3482[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]A fourth was an experiment, head and shoulders above the adult, who was a good eight feet tall, at my best estimation.  The experiment looked to be all morbid, tumorous flesh, packed into a shell of well-tended cast iron, the flesh throbbing against the shell as if the entire beast was made up of giant hearts.  Digitigrade legs and a tail all styled after a bull’s, three sculpted breasts, two long, feminine arms, and a head, overlarge, gold rather than iron, with two faces, sculpted with four twisting horns.  One had a mouth that yawned open, the other a serene expression.  The imagery couldn’t be mistaken.  The noble had a pet, a vat-grown devil.[/QUOTE]
3483[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
3484The superweapon I’d glimpsed earlier was at the other end of the building.  The Infante’s personal superweapon, by the looks of it.  It was a tower of throbbing flesh that made me think of a beating heart, but scarred flesh.  It bore a horned head of gold with two faces, had three breasts, two arms, and three legs.
3485
3486It warred with the Tangle, turning with surprising speed while lashing out, tearing with surgical precision.  It was winning.
3487[/QUOTE]
3488[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
3489“We’ll be cornered if we take too long here,” Duncan said.  “The others are coming.  Infante’s forces, the primordial spawn.”
3490
3491“Primordial what?” I asked.
3492
3493“Spawn.  The gold-helmed thing.  Derived of primordial, by the looks of it.”
3494[/QUOTE]
3495[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.9]I saw the Golden Calf.  The two-faced helmet had been unclasped, but its face wasn’t visible.  It hunched over a tangle, it ate, the helm blocking our view of its face and process of eating.  Its back and body were bulging, larger for the mass it had taken into its body.  Its arms were longer, stouter at the shoulders.
3496
3497*****
3498
3499The Golden Calf reached up, closing its helmet, doing up the clasp.
3500
3501I saw the Primordial Child, standing in the background, watching.
3502
3503“How dangerous is it?” Duncan asked.
3504
3505“They create primordials in the Crown Capitol, in the most controlled of environments.  They cut and pruned until they came to a conclusion.  Few of the resulting creations were truly capable of anything,” Berger said, his voice muffled by the mask he’d returned to wearing.  “Even of those few, most are only fodder for research and advancing Academy knowledge, primordial-derived advancements that greater minds than mine may spend a decade or more reverse-engineering.”
3506
3507The Duke moved, lunging for the Infante, blade in one hand.
3508
3509The Calf, as far from its master as the Duke had been before the attack was initiated, was fast enough interpose itself between Infante and Duke before the Duke could strike.  It parried the blade with a backhand swipe of a claw.
3510
3511The Infante hadn’t so much as flinched or glanced the Duke’s way.
3512
3513His focus was on us.
3514[/QUOTE]
3515[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
3516He remained unfazed by the life and death fight between the Duke and the Golden Calf that was moving back and forth around him, the two combatants within his arm’s reach at times.
3517
3518Had the Duke been able to find an advantage, he could have used the closing of the distance to attack.
3519
3520
3521*****
3522
3523In the background, I could see Ashton edging closer to the fight between the Duke and the Calf.
3524
3525If he could gain any influence over it-
3526
3527“Your Ashton won’t affect it,” the Infante said.  “It doesn’t have senses as you and I do.  It doesn’t have muscles in the same sense, nor the bones you might expect.  Its shape is… accident, but not unintentional.”
3528
3529*****
3530
3531It wasn’t a Lamb that stepped to the fore.  The Duke pulled away from his fight with the Golden Calf.  With long strides, he charged at the Infante, sword leveled for the higher noble’s throat.
3532
3533The Infante grabbed for the sword, and the blade dipped, danced around, then returned to course, aimed for the jugular.
3534
3535With a quarter-turn away, the Infante had shoulder and arm catch the blade instead.  His flesh suffered what looked to be a shallow cut as he turned his back to our Duke of Francis.
3536
3537He swung his fist in a backhand, not even looking at his attacker.  The Duke stepped back and away, turning and bringing his sword up to catch the Calf’s claw.  He was disarmed.
3538
3539“Syylvester,” the Duke said, his vowel hitching, as if he was a stitched with a faulty wire, movements replicating.
3540
3541In the next moment, the Calf had gouged him three times, digging deep furrows into his chest and stomach.  I could have laid my arm into those furrows and covered them with skin, with no bulge to be seen.  From the look of the slices of black, there were dark gaps hinting at cavities beneath.
3542
3543It was a modest distraction, but the attack had bought us a chance to retreat.  Mary had found her feet, dragging Jessie with her.  I climbed to my own feet and backed away, stepping into the shelter of a shop.  Duncan and Ashton dragged Helen into shadow.
3544
3545“You’re mad,” the Duke said, drawing a pair of blades to defend himself with- scaled down to my size, they might have been daggers, but the Duke was tall and his idea of a ‘dagger’ would have been a short sword in my hands.
3546
3547“You say that like you’re surprised,” I said.  “You know this, you know what I am.”
3548
3549“Nno,” the Duke said.
3550
3551The Calf attacked again.  It was fast, it was strong, and it sat askew in my mind’s eye, too hard to calculate and predict.  It didn’t stop to breathe, it didn’t slow, it only seemed to stop to think, to work out how best to dismantle its enemy.  The Duke stopped both claws from striking him by parrying with his blades.  The Calf headbutted him.
3552
3553The Duke of Francis’ head was a weak point.  He tried to adopt a fighting stance, and the blade fell from his right hand.
3554
3555“Sorry,” I said.
3556
3557“Wanted-” the Duke said.  He looked at the Infante.
3558
3559I filled in the gap.  I wanted to stop him.
3560
3561*****
3562
3563That didn’t stop the Infante for telling the Calf to come after us.  It barely hampered the Infante from turning, walking as if there was barely any obstruction.
3564
3565But he wasn’t running.  That counted for something.
3566
3567Duncan couldn’t throw anything while he held Helen, so he handed off what he could to Ashton.  Lillian threw what she could as I held her bag and kept the coat in place over us.  it was three to five seconds of rummaging for every second she spent deploying a pouch of something she could empty into the air behind her.
3568
3569It was Berger and the other Professors that served the most effective role.  Berger had his puppeteer-insects, hidden within his coat.  Others had canisters and pistols.  They’d been ordered to this battlefield and they’d come with some ability to fight.
3570
3571The puppeteer bugs latched on, trying to find some physiology they understood.  One or two paralyzed an arm or a leg for a second or two as the Calf raced forward on all fours, making it stumble or veer to one side.  It shook its head violently for a moment as it charged into a cloud of powder Lillian had tossed into the rain.
3572
3573It barely slowed.
3574
3575We were charging straight into a morass of experiments and soldiers.
3576
3577We needed-
3578
3579The Calf caught us.  It tore into Berger and one of his colleagues with enough violence that the collateral violence sent Duncan and Ashton sprawling, Helen with them.
3580[/QUOTE]
3581
3582Infante's voice and his position in the Crown
3583[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
3584“Elaine Dexter?” the adult spoke.  His voice was exactly as one might expect, as if the skies had opened and a higher power had spoken, words reverberating as if they rattled the walls.  The fact that the syllables were as deep and slow as they were made his voice sound distorted, akin to how I’d once heard an altered baby who had a crying scream of an adult.
3585
3586“Yes, Lord Infante,” Lainie said.
3587
3588Infante.  That put this man around the ninth, tenth, or eleventh place from the throne, though it was always hard to tell, with new births and deaths that weren’t spoken of.  My memory of these things was bad to begin with, but I thought of two possibilities for who he might be.  Either the Lord King’s second grandchild or husband to the youngest child of the king.
3589[/QUOTE]
3590
3591A really good memory
3592[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
3593His voice boomed, “I had a glance of you once, when you were still on your mother’s breast.  You became frightened at my voice and squawked, interrupting me.”
3594
3595“I-I have heard the story, Lord Infante.  I am dearly sorry.”
3596
3597He laughed, and I imagined, had he had a normal voice, it might have sounded warm.
3598
3599“Not to worry, dear child.  I have a good recollection for people and events, and I don’t use it for nursing grudges.  Stand, now.  Look me in the eye.  Let me see how you’ve grown.
3600[/QUOTE]
3601[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.19]
3602I paused, taking in a breath, “No.  You live, Lainie.  But you can’t go home.”
3603
3604The change in her expression, it was as if what I was saying was even more terrifying than the idea of dying.
3605
3606Perhaps death was a great mystery, but the idea of never going home again was something she could understand.
3607
3608“No,” she said.  Her eyes were as wide as they could get.  They might have been puppy dog eyes, but they were too haunted.  “I tried.”
3609
3610“The Infante saw you.  He said he would check up on you,” I said.  “He wanted you punished.  If you show your face, if you reach out to family, give him or them any clue at all, he’ll see to it that you suffer the worst sort of fate.”
3611
3612“No, please.”
3613
3614“It’s not up to me,” I said.  “The only thing you can do is to stay away.  Keep your distance.  So long as he never sees hide or hair of you, his imagination will fill in the blanks, and he’ll believe you’ll have suffered.”
3615
3616“I’ll stay away for a few years, then.  Five years?  Won’t that be enough?”
3617
3618“No, Lainie.”
3619
3620“Ten?  Fifteen?  Twenty?”
3621
3622“No,” I said, again.  “He remembered one incident from when you were a newborn, didn’t he?  Fourteen or fifteen years ago?  He’ll remember your face.”
3623
3624Lainie’s hands went to her mouth.
3625[/QUOTE]
3626
3627His keen eye for detail
3628[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
3629“Alright, child, alright.  Shush,” the man spoke.  “Now tell me, who is this rapscallion that is keeping you company?”
3630
3631I tensed.
3632
3633“Raps- my Lord Infante, I-”
3634
3635“Shush, I told you, there’s no need to worry.  You’re keeping the company of someone who has had droplets of blood fall on him from above, landing on his back, with very full pockets and clothes that belonged to someone else.  Any of these things might be fine on their own, but they add up to quite a picture.”
3636[/QUOTE]
3637
3638Can and would rip a person apart
3639[QUOTE=In sheep's Clothing 10.17]“If you take more time than it takes me to draw a breath to give me an answer, boy, I will personally twist you into two pieces and hand you over to my elite guard with instructions to put each half in a different outhouse.”[/QUOTE]
3640
3641The Infante's role
3642[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.3]
3643Moth spoke, “What he just said, pretending to be working for the Infante, being expected, and now this?  It implies collusion between the rebellion soldier with the guns and the lord Infante.”
3644
3645“What you just suggested is treason enough to get us all executed, my Lady,” Leeds said.  “The lord Infante primarily operates in the capacity of magistrate and judge.  Particularly over other nobles.  He wouldn’t be shy about using the guillotine.”
3646[/QUOTE]
3647
3648Larger than the Ogre and Duke
3649[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]The Infante, with sprightly eyes and a frame that dwarfed even the Ogre, wore only a ruffled collar and a simple black outfit.[/QUOTE]
3650[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]“The bad, unfortunately, being ours to bear,” the Infante placed his other hand on the Duke’s other shoulder as he said that, standing behind the man in the chair.  He made the Duke look small.[/QUOTE]
3651
3652Mentally breaking Sy with the truth
3653[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]
3654“The act of killing the Baron was the nail in the coffin, my last act as a Lamb.  I was cornered by a former ally, I had to shoot-”
3655
3656“Mary Cobourn.  In one knee,” the Infante finished for me.  “I’m well aware.  Faced with a strange boy with high aspirations and two dead noble ladies already killed by his hand, I sought to inform myself.  I asked after you, and I obtained my answers.”
3657
3658“Yes, Lord Infante,” Gordon and I said.  We bowed, acknowledging him.
3659
3660“I’ve remained aware of you as you cut a violent and explosive swathe through Tynewear.  I read your records and I put good minds to work on analyzing data, about Wyvern and similar drugs, to project forward and to reach conclusions that your doctors wouldn’t have found until five years after you expired.”
3661
3662The Falconer was watching.  Very quiet.  Her eyes matched the Infante’s.  Dark, penetrating, and suggestive of something very clever going on beneath the surface.
3663
3664The Infante continued, “When word of you being on a train heading south from Tynewear reached my ears, I had investigators track down people who were on that same train.  We traced things backward, in the midst of some of the greatest chaos this continent has ever seen outside of wartime.”
3665
3666Gordon and I remained silent.
3667
3668“I could make threats, but what good is a threat?  You’ve lived with Wyvern’s venomed stinger for all your life, promising pain today and lost sanity before you’re twenty-one.  I could threaten the life of Shirley Pope, hold her hostage, but you grew up with your fellow Lambs and you knew you would likely live to see them die.  They’ve been hostages all your life, and they remain hostages now.  You lost your childhood friend and brother Gordon to one pull of the trigger.  Jamie, another childhood friend and brother, lost to oblivion after a throw of the switch.  Threatening you and holding things you love hostage is old hat for you.  Those things have permeated every day of your existence for a long time now.”
3669
3670Jamie loomed in my peripheral vision, to my left.  Gordon loomed in my right.
3671
3672I wanted to say something, and I couldn’t.  I wanted Gordon and I to say something, and he wasn’t volunteering anything.
3673
3674“You left them behind,” he said.  “All of the rest of the Lambs.  One by one, you’ll hear stories.  Your Mary Cobourn already has notes in her file.  Fatty deposits under her skin, in the armpit, behind one ear.  Moles.  In a year and a half, they will be noticeable.  Within six months of that point, she’ll be slowed or crippled by it.  In three years, she’ll be dead.”
3675
3676I looked over in Mary’s direction, then wished I hadn’t.  My mind jumped straight to trying to paint her with the Infante’s brush, complete with lumps and blemishes, and in the effort to erase that part of the image, I blurred the picture and lost the clarity in her.
3677
3678“Duncan reported to Professor Hayle early on that your Helen was becoming emotionally disturbed.  I’ve had other sources say that Ibbot is neglecting her as a project.  He invests too much energy into the political side of things, when his talent is solely limited to the art of biology.  She’ll soon reach a point where she requires more upkeep than he is willing to provide while he is so eager to seize greater opportunities, and the idea of a custom wife, pillow companion and personal weapon that he grew in a vat will lose out in the end.”
3679
3680I didn’t look at Helen.  I didn’t want that image to be blurry like Mary’s had.
3681
3682But the Infante kept talking on the subject.  “She will go to his lab for a standard appointment, bubbly, smiling and laughing.  That preferred personality is in her records.  She’ll be nonetheless obedient as he asks her to lay down across the counter and opens her up to examine her organs.  And I can assure you, that spiteful, vitriolic little man will be in the midst of palpating her insides with a scalpel lying within arm’s reach, and he will find his way to the decision that frees him to pursue his politics.  That is, if she doesn’t break before then, slip up, and lead him to the conclusion herself.  Whatever the case, he will make a single small cut, deep inside her, and she will go quiet and cold.”
3683
3684Shirley shot me a nervous glance.  I remained very still.
3685
3686“You’ve condemned yourself to a very lonely existence, Sylvester Lambsbridge,” he said.  “You’ve put considerable distance between yourself and the people you love to avoid having to see them go.  But word of their passing will find you, no matter where you hide, and you will, with your last vestiges of sanity, wish you had been there.”
3687
3688He released the Duke’s shoulders, and he approached me.
3689
3690I didn’t move as he placed his hands across my cheeks, cupping my head in his hands.
3691
3692“What do I do with you, child?” he asked.  “I have all the resources in the Crown States at my disposal, and you’ve confounded me.  How do I invent you a punishment fit for hell when you seem so intent on flinging yourself there first?”
3693
3694He knelt before me, and the weight of him made the thick black stones under my feet shift slightly, crunching with a stone against stone sound.
3695
3696He embraced me.  Even kneeling, he was far taller than me, but he hugged me to his prodigious stomach.
3697
3698“Wretched child,” he said.
3699[/QUOTE]
3700
3701The Infante terrifying Evette
3702[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.12]Evette and the Lambs had rehearsed this conversation a hundred times over the course of the night.  Various permutations, likely scenarios and points to cover.  The Infante scared her like nothing else did, because he could so easily destroy her.  Physically, taking away the things she valued, changing her circumstance, or crushing her psychologically.  Worse, he could do it all with no effort at all.[/QUOTE]
3703
3704The difference in power between Infante and the Duke
3705[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.12]“Look at how he acted in the past,” Jamie said.  “He’s always been impervious, untouchable, unmovable.  He’s powerful in a way that, when we imagine him dealing with the Duke, it’s a power difference as vast as the one between the Duke and ordinary civilians.  Maybe not quite that extreme, but…”[/QUOTE]
3706
3707The forces the Infante brings to bear against Mauer in their short clash
3708[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
3709Stalled, key pieces knocked down, their front ranks thrown into disarray and mauled by the initial attack and the disorganization I’d helped promote, they were still a rank and file.  The smoke rolled past some of their rows and columns of men, but I could make out the general shape of them.  Two or three companies, extending down the street.  Three or four hundred men, women, and stitched.
3710
3711That didn’t count the others, the ones who had entered buildings to clear them of rebels and secure the flanks.  It didn’t count the innumerable men that had been taken out of action in the rolling explosions and detonating ammunition carts, from my methane stitched.
3712
3713“How many of them are there?” I asked.  “Three, four hundred, then another three or four-”
3714
3715“Six hundred, coming from the other side,” Jamie said.  “Not counting the one or two regiments waiting out in the wings.  Depends if the Infante wanted to keep one closer to home in case this was all a ploy to distract, or if he really wanted to get Mauer.”
3716
3717“How many in a regiment?”
3718
3719“Close to a thousand, mixed number of soldier and stitched.”
3720
3721I looked at the scene, and saw how the soldiers were gathering together.  Stitched pushed mobile forms of cover, covered wagons with raised walls provided shelter for the commanding officers.
3722
3723It was as if no damage had been done, no losses sustained.  The army marched on, over the bodies, and into the square, diverting fifty or more people to break into each building the greater army moved past, troops sweeping through.
3724
3725An allegory for the Crown, for the seeming immunity of it.  They could be made to bleed, but the consequences… so rarely felt.  Kill fifty or a hundred men, and another fifty or a hundred advanced to take their place.  Deal with one set of nobles, and the Crown sent a smattering of young nobles, the Infante, and the Infante’s favored two young nobles overseas to handle matters.
3726[/QUOTE]
3727
3728Psychologically messing with Lillian and detecting her emotions
3729[QUOTE=Lamb 14]
3730Lillian glanced back at Professor Hayle and Professor Ibbot, watching as the doors shut, leaving the Lambs with the great noble.
3731
3732“I’ve met Sylvester several times now,” the Infante said.  “I had no illusions about who or what I was dealing with.  On the first meeting, someone in pain, looking to lash out.  And lash out, he did, against the Baron Richmond.  On our second meeting, it wasn’t pain, but loss.  I wanted to meet the people he lost.”
3733
3734The Infante set his eyes on Lillian.
3735
3736“Lillian Garey,” he said.
3737
3738“Lord Infante,” she said, giving him her best curtsey, bending her upper body into a bow.
3739
3740“Tell me.  How would you completely and utterly destroy him?”
3741
3742She froze, head still bent.
3743
3744“No answer?  That’s an answer unto itself.”
3745
3746“If it were me, Lord Infante, I would tell him that he was poison to me, that I was worse off for having him in my life,” Lillian said.
3747
3748“That’s hardly of any use to me,” the Infante said.
3749
3750“My apologies, my lord.”
3751
3752“If you were in my shoes, Ms. Garey, how would you completely and utterly destroy him?” that deep voice asked her.
3753
3754Her vision swam.
3755
3756There was no good answer.  She had to satisfy him, or the Lambs would be deemed useless and wiped out, but answering…
3757
3758No.  She had to give him exactly the right answer.
3759
3760“Lord Infante, in your shoes, I would first ask how to completely and utterly destroy each and every last one of the Lambs, and then I would see it through.”
3761
3762“Then you are blacker of heart than I am, Ms. Garey.  Are you the one that he fell in love with?”
3763
3764“He fell in love with all of us, Lord Infante, but he and I were close.”
3765
3766“Tell me, Lillian Garey, were you the one that suggested that Professor Ibbot come?”
3767
3768“No, my lord.”
3769
3770“It was not Headmaster Hayle’s idea, and it was not by my request, although I allowed it when Hayle presented it.”
3771
3772“I believe that suggestion was Duncan’s, Lord Infante.”
3773
3774“And in the doing, the small Professor sees his Galatea as the gatekeeper to this realm, and a crisis is postponed,” the Infante said.  “Deftly done.”
3775
3776“Thank you, Lord Infante,” Duncan said.
3777
3778“Ms. Garey,” the Infante said.  “You desire a black coat?”
3779
3780“Yes, Lord Infante.”
3781
3782“With a single instruction, I could give you a coat.  Would you want to attend a noble?  An Academy?  Pursue a project?”
3783
3784“Lord Infante, I would run an Academy, given a choice, but given a choice, I wouldn’t want a coat in that form.”
3785
3786“Of course,” the noble said.  “But if you had it, and if I gave you command of Radham, for an example, what would you do with it?”
3787
3788Her heart was hammering.  She felt nauseous.
3789
3790“With the utmost of respect, Lord Infante, I don’t feel this is a fair line of questioning.  I don’t know with any certainty what I would do because I haven’t traveled there yet.  The journey there will let me see what is right and what is wrong, what needs to change and what needs to stay the same.”
3791
3792“Do you wish to have power for power’s own sake, then?” the Infante asked.
3793
3794“No, Lord Infante.”
3795
3796“Duncan,” the Infante spoke.  “Do you wish for a black coat?”
3797
3798“Yes, Lord Infante.”
3799
3800“Do you want that power and position for power’s own sake?”
3801
3802“I admit I do, Lord Infante.  For the access to learning, and for the chance to have a hand in history.”
3803
3804Lillian was breathing harder.  It wasn’t just panic.  There was anger there too.
3805
3806Some of it at Duncan.  But only some.
3807
3808“Lillian,” the Infante said.  “I’m at a loss.  What did he see in you?”
3809
3810For a paralyzing moment, she wasn’t sure she had an answer.
3811
3812Then, glancing at the casket, she thought of Gordon.  Gordon’s words.
3813
3814Gordon had described each of the Lambs in turn as being something elemental in its simplicity.  A flame that burned too bright, for too short of a time.  Capricious whimsy and stolen breath.  Etched memories and a monument.  Then Sylvester, fluid, a reflection.
3815
3816But what was she?
3817
3818“Lord Infante, Sylvester is fluid.  He conforms to fit those closest to him.  He reflects them.  But he doesn’t often get the chance to see himself.  He got that from Jamie, once upon a time, I think, someone who saw all of him, even though a perfect recall is harsh, sometimes.  He could leave a softer message behind, with me.  One that wouldn’t be as stark, and which would carry forward better.  And maybe, the lessons he imparted on me would matter, down the road.”
3819
3820“He cares about legacy, then.  It makes sense.”
3821
3822Had she betrayed Sylvester, by sharing all of this?  Had she betrayed herself and the Lambs, by sounding too fond of Sylvester?
3823
3824“Yes, Lord Infante,” Lillian said, her voice sounding distant.
3825
3826“Thank you, Lillian, for educating me about our mutual enemy,” the Infante said.
3827
3828“Yes, Lord Infante,” she said, feeling numb and hot with anger at the same time.  Staying composed and keeping her voice level was all she could do.
3829
3830“I’ve upset you,” he said.
3831
3832She couldn’t find the words to respond.
3833
3834“I understand.  Take a moment, gather your composure.  I’ll have a word with the headmaster and the professor.  Join us when you’re ready.”
3835
3836“Yes, Lord Infante,” she said.  She only felt worse now.
3837
3838The Infante strode from the room.  The doors closed behind him.
3839
3840“That wasn’t what I expected,” Duncan said, his voice quiet.
3841
3842Lillian frowned, staring down at the ground.
3843
3844“You needed to answer his questions, which you did, and you needed to satisfy him, and you did.  I think that was a loyalty test, and-”
3845
3846“It wasn’t a loyalty test,” Lillian said.  “He was sticking the knife in and twisting it.”
3847[/QUOTE]
3848
3849More about the power he wields
3850[QUOTE=Gut Feeling 17.3]
3851“The Infante is declaring parts of the Crown States unsalvageable,” Lillian said.  “Whole regions, because they have plague, or they’re close to places with plague.  Or cities with high rebel populations, out of concern that they’re deliberately spreading the illness.”
3852
3853“I don’t think that’s true,” I said.  “It doesn’t feel rebel.  Timelines don’t match up.”
3854
3855“They don’t, and it doesn’t,” Lillian said.  “At least, we don’t think so.  We talked to the Duke, insofar as he can talk.  He told us he was concerned the Infante wouldn’t stop until he had all of the Crown States.  Sealed and burned to the ground.”
3856
3857I looked at Jessie.  We’d heard something like that.
3858
3859“The Duke told us the Infante might loose every single last one of the superweapons in the Crown States.”
3860
3861My heart dropped out of my chest at that.  Every city and every town within a short distance of the Academies themselves has one.
3862
3863That wasn’t what we’d heard before.
3864[/QUOTE]
3865[QUOTE=Gut Feeling 17.5]
3866Lillian spoke, her voice low, “It’s the hope of the Lambs that we can take you off of Sylvester’s hands and that you’d be able to help the Duke find his voice again.  With luck, perhaps he could convince the Infante?”
3867
3868Berger made a sound that might have been a laugh or a snort.  Given the state of his face, the line between the two was ambiguous.
3869
3870I could see how crestfallen Lillian was at that noise.  Laugh or snort, it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
3871
3872“The Infante does what the Infante wants,” Berger said.  “As far as he’s concerned, the good Duke of Francis is as far below him as the Baron was below the Duke.  The noble of higher standing might allow the lesser noble to speak, but chances are good they’ve already made up their mind.  To be approached by a noble and receive unasked-for advice?  I wouldn’t say it never happens, but it’s rare.  Rarer still that the advice in question would be listened to.”
3873[/QUOTE]
3874
3875His brains and impressive memory
3876[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]
3877His memory was exceptional, his brains the best brains the Crown could provide.  When he turned those brains and that memory to the task of thinking back, trying to picture the last time he’d strolled, as one might stroll in a garden, he only found scenes he’d staged, scenes where he was conveying an image.  In those moments, his brains had been set to the task of focusing on the individual or individuals that he was strolling for, so it was never truly an opportunity to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.
3878
3879But it was important to convey that he was unruffled, whether to an ally who needed reassurance or an enemy who needed to know their enemy was invincible.
3880
3881As he dug through his memories, he had to reach back to childhood to find a time and place where he’d truly focused on the moment and not the destination.  He’d been confined to a chair, legs missing, his upper body as much a series of containers and vessels for organ systems and ongoing work as it was actual body.  He’d pushed himself, while his team of doctors followed behind.
3882
3883He couldn’t remember the why of that moment.  He’d been upset, angry at a relative, and he had wanted to think, so he had pushed himself out into the garden, and nobody had stopped him or wrested control of the chair from him.  It was curious, because it must have been a justifiable anger, but when he’d found himself in the garden, the anger had faded, and he’d been free to witness the moment.  Even now, he wasn’t sure what it had been about.
3884[/QUOTE]
3885
3886Has countermeasure capable of holding off the Ravage/Red Plague
3887[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]The Infante walked with his hands clasped behind him, drawing in a deep breath.  His throat and lungs prickled with plague and the responses of the implanted countermeasures fighting it off.
3888
3889*****
3890
3891A part of him felt like a child unfettered.  He breathed this air in the same way a child ate candy.  It was prescribed as bad for him by the people who looked after his well being, but so long as there weren’t too many watching he would indulge himself.  He felt it in his hands, and he felt it on his skin, countless spores trying to find root in his flesh.
3892
3893He liked to understand his enemy.
3894[/QUOTE]
3895
3896An insanely strong diaphragm
3897[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]
3898His deep breaths were mechanically powerful, forceful enough that if someone had clapped their hand over his mouth, he could have pulled the hand into his mouth with the power of the draw and even broken fingers in the process.
3899
3900This was a principle that applied to every part of him.  It applied to his legs as his professors emerged, finding him, and he started forward once again.
3901[/QUOTE]
3902
3903Phsyically tearing down a wall tougher than most buildings in Lugh
3904[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]
3905In some places, the bodies were embraced by the red vines, a papery, dry skin drawn tight around bones and the networks of vines that stretched beneath skin.  In other areas, there had been bones, some pulled away from the bodies by the pull and spread of the plague growth.  In this particular garden, he had seen child and parent, a man and his dog, he had seen rodents aplenty.
3906
3907But this was something else.  It wasn’t anything natural to the Crown’s earth or derived of its denizens.  The formation that peeked through a gap in a wall that the weather had cracked hadn’t even been fabricated, really, by any man.  It had fabricated itself.
3908
3909The Infante had to reach out and pull down a wall that was newer and more sturdily built than many of the ramshackle constructions in the area.
3910[/QUOTE]
3911
3912He will apparently live for a century
3913[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]“You were temporary.  A stroke of lightning.  Your desperate action had ramifications that may well be felt for a thousand years or more.  Your plague is stubborn.  I will live for a century and exercise a power you never had, and yet I’m only one piece of a greater system, performing a role that history will forget.”[/QUOTE]
3914
3915Could tear down the crystal prison entombing the Primordial skeleton
3916[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]The bones were marked, as if a thousand deep cuts had been made into each bone, some at angles from one another.  To do it by hand would have required wire to get into the crevices, and it would have required a hundred years.  There was no flesh to draw tight against these bones, for it had been burned thoroughly.  Quarantine chemicals had been thrown over it and catalyzed.  If anything had remained alive and functional, trapped within char and gristle, it had been sealed away from the world by the clear crystalline growths that had resulted.  A bug trapped in amber.
3917
3918*****
3919
3920For an instant, he had the urge to reach up and turn his prodigious strength to tearing down the quarantine encasement, breaking one of those bones so that whatever lay within them could be exposed to the world again.[/QUOTE]
3921
3922Pushing down parts of the roof and exterior wall
3923[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]
3924The creation had been injured enough that it could be made to stay still while it burned.  The burning had been followed with chemicals, which formed a solid and clear binding chemical.  After the binding chemical, walls had been erected with the creature at the center.
3925
3926All Mauer’s work.  To do anything less would have been tempting fate.
3927
3928But there was one wall that had been part of the adjoining building, and that wall had a message inscribed on it.  He had to push down part of the roof and exterior wall to allow sufficient light into the dark, enclosed space.  Once he had, he could reread the message and be sure he’d read it right the first time.
3929[/QUOTE]
3930
3931Hyper-aware of his own internal organs and body
3932[QUOTE=Enemy I Arc 18]
3933“I suspect we’ll have to take you apart, Lord Infante,” his chief professor decided.
3934
3935The Infante turned his head to stare down the man.
3936
3937“To be absolutely sure, My Lord.”
3938
3939“I am hyperaware of my own function,” the Infante said.  “I can turn my mind’s eye inward and I’m aware of every component, of temperature and nutrition levels.  I am intimately aware of every weapon stored within me.  I am very much aware that the plague has not found root in me.”
3940
3941“The exposure level you just endured was unprecedented, Lord Infante.”
3942
3943“Others have faced the same,” the Infante said.
3944
3945“If you mean the ones who now lie dead, then I have to protest, My Lord.”
3946
3947“I will take that under advisement,” the Infante said.
3948[/QUOTE]
3949
3950The Infante's entourage
3951[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
3952The gate at the north end of the city cracked open.  There was shouting from beyond the gate, of refugees.
3953
3954But the Infante was making his entrance in style.  Along his trip to this town on Radham’s very periphery, the noble had picked up an entourage.
3955
3956The entourage had been changed to be uniform.  Lillian recognized the work, and connected it to what she had seen written about in articles as theory, only months ago.  The Chrysomallon.  Drawn from an effect seen very rarely in nature, they ate rust and they absorbed the metal into their bodies.
3957
3958In practice, they were quadruped warbeasts and biped soldiers.  All were large and muscled, though the muscle wasn’t always symmetric.  Shells formed around heads, making the soldiers resemble gladiators, the warbeasts appearing to be great reptiles with heads encased in helmets.  All of them had shells crusting their bodies elsewhere, a mingling of actual iron, mollusc shell, and keratin, like that of the fingernail.  The metal was black, the keratin pale, and the combined effect something like a translucent marble.
3959
3960They walked in procession, and almost effortlessly beat back or struck down any refugees or other troublemaker who ventured too close.  It gave them a kind of aura, where people backed away from their presence.
3961
3962*****
3963
3964The parade was making its way into the city, and the Infante’s carriage appeared.  It was drawn by the largest of the warbeasts, one twice the size as the other reptilian hulks with its helmet and patches of grown-in plate mail.[/QUOTE]
3965
3966Deforming a metal door
3967[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
3968Which made it feel almost ten times worse as the front door to the building opened wide.  Hinges creaked and groaned in the opening, because the hand that pushed the door moved the door at an odd angle, bent the metal and tugged at the screws and nails.  The door would deform from the action.
3969
3970The Infante was capable of gentleness, and he’d chosen to damage the door.
3971[/QUOTE]
3972
3973Survivng mortar shells
3974[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
3975The Infante spoke the word as the last utterance of a longer line, and then he smiled.  He held up his hand as if he had something in it, but it was empty.
3976
3977Eighty feet away, at the other end of the expansive office, Mary kept one hand on Lillian’s shoulder and held a knife in the other.  The Infante didn’t even seem to recognize the knife as a weapon.
3978
3979*****
3980
3981Once within, she immediately went to the mortars, collecting one, and a strapped-together stack of rounds in tidy wooden boxes.  Both the mortar and the strapped-together crates were arranged so they had wheels on one end and handles on the other, so they could be pulled along.  Checking the coast was clear, she hauled them behind her.
3982
3983*****
3984
3985The Infante had barely moved from where he stood, but his forces had closed around the building.  Mary was holding one side of her face, moving unsteadily.  She had tried something and been struck, at a glance.
3986
3987*****
3988
3989She couldn’t see the Infante from this angle, couldn’t peer through the window.  But she could extrapolate, imagine where he would be if he’d advanced at his typical slow pace, she could place him if he’d remained where he was.
3990
3991He wasn’t one to step back.  He wasn’t one to meander.  It was a narrow range of possibilities, and she chose an angle that aimed to put the mortar in the middle of that range.
3992
3993She held her arm to one side of her head, the hand at the end of that arm clapped over her ear, and she fired.  The blast of the mortar took the breath she’d been holding and shook it loose.
3994
3995*****
3996
3997She looked through the binoculars, to see where the shot had landed, to see how the scene had played out in the wake of it.
3998
3999The two soldiers that had been flanking the Infante were on the ground.  The side of the building had been torn open, the blast taking out much of the structure.  The devastation and fragments of ruined building were scattered around the Infante, even some splinters and dust on him.  It hadn’t penetrated the side of the building, hadn’t actually hurt him, where it should have at least bowled him over with the shockwave.  His head was turned in her direction.
4000
4001Mary and Lillian ran for it, taking the opportunity to go for the doors.  Both fired their guns at the Infante as they ran.
4002
4003Again.  Another shot, with no time to waste.  Jessie hopped down, dragging the mortar to one side, changing the angle.
4004
4005She fired again, hoping to time it to catch the Infante as he followed them out of the building.
4006
4007A third shot.  The last of the ones she’d been able to bring with her.  Again, she loaded it so she could fire as quickly as possible after glancing at the scene.  She worried she wouldn’t have a view of the scene, that intervening buildings would block her.  It would mean shooting with a higher risk of hitting Mary as she engaged the noble lord.
4008
4009*****
4010
4011Overkill, to shoot a warbeast with a mortar and turn it into bloody ruins.  It only stood a chance of being sufficient harm for the Infante.
4012
4013*****
4014
4015The second shot hadn’t hit the Infante.  She wasn’t too surprised.  He would have delayed, anticipated it, or listened for the distant sound of the mortar firing before its projectile reached him.
4016
4017He was faster than he looked.  All power, all force.  Jessie was far enough away she couldn’t reasonably feel it, but she imagined the ground shaking with every footfall.  He was heavy, and he had no difficulty at all in moving that mass.
4018[/QUOTE]
4019
4020Taking Bullets to the face
4021[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
4022“Taken,” the Infante pronounced.  “It is time you all realize you exist at our mercy.”
4023
4024Mary aimed her gun, and she opened fire, putting bullets in the Infante’s head, emptying the gun.  He had to close his eyes and twist his head to one side, but he barely reacted outside of that.
4025[/QUOTE]
4026
4027Parasite he can deploy
4028[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
4029Lillian thrashed, fought to escape the one-handed grip on her neck and shoulder.  The struggles increased as the Infante lifted her, bringing her to a position where her back was to his chest.  His hand moved to cover her nose and mouth.
4030
4031“Lord Infante!” Jessie screamed.
4032
4033“Jamie Lambsbridge,” the Infante said.  He turned slightly, to better face the two girls.  “So to speak.”
4034
4035“I know-” she started.  The words trailed off.
4036
4037The angle the Infante stood at gave her a view of Lillian.  She could see Lillian’s continued struggle, and she could see Lillian’s eyes roll back in her head.  Lillian’s throat distended, then distended more, until it threatened to split down the middle, as if an ordinary-sized man was shoving his full arm down her windpipe.  Her body arched, hands clawing at the Infante’s, then at open air.
4038
4039“Stop,” Jessie said.
4040
4041“I’m most sure that you know how to properly address nobles,” the Infante said.
4042
4043*****
4044
4045Lillian dropped to the ground, still writhing, coughing and gagging in an attempt to dislodge that which had found its way into her throat.  Two tendrils like that of an octopus, one large, one small, both encrusted with hornlike growths, were thrashing out of her mouth.  The longer one groped at her nostril, looking for a way in and finding it.
4046
4047“Lil-” Jessie started.
4048
4049The tendrils contorted, becoming squat, rather than long, and in the doing, produced spikes.  Sharp points penetrated Lillian’s nostril, cheek, and three points at her throat that Jessie could see.  Lillian spasmed in one moment, then went limp and still in the next.
4050
4051*****
4052
4053The Infante almost ignored them.  He held up one hand, and one tendril like that of the horror he’d just unleashed on Lillian was slurping its way back into a slit in his heavy palm.  As it disappeared within, the slit closed, indistinguishable from a line in the noble’s hand.[/QUOTE]
4054
4055Easily fending off Mary
4056[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
4057Mary took that opportunity to attack, approaching at a run.  The Infante’s hand warded her off, at first, but two swift kicks with blades revealed from her boots allowed her to dig the knives in, and use those footholds as points to leap forward.  She lunged for his face.
4058
4059Treating Lillian as if she weighed nothing at all, he used the hand that held the Lamb’s medic to swat Mary out of the air.  She landed on her feet, ready to renew her assault, and stopped short as the Infante let Lillian go.
4060
4061*****
4062
4063Lillian stood, her body lopsided, as if one side of it was heavier than the other.  Her mouth was open, and she coughed, gagged, groping with hands, to seize, scratch with nails.
4064
4065Not Lillian’s actions, but the parasite’s.
4066
4067It was all the Infante needed.  He stepped in, reaching, and Jessie didn’t have the opportunity to slip away before the noble seized her.
4068
4069Jessie was lifted clean off the ground.  The Infante swatted at Mary again, then held out one hand, palm out, as if one hand was all he needed to keep her at bay, now.  He glanced down at Lillian, then touched her cheek with two fingers, turning her head by force, so she looked at Mary.
4070
4071Lillian took three staggering steps in Mary’s direction, making guttural sounds.
4072
4073*****
4074
4075She looked at Lillian, then hopped to her feet.  She rushed Lillian, throwing herself at her friend, and was clawed at in return.  The parasite ruled here, the parasite decided the order of action, lashing out at movement or at faces.
4076
4077Jessie endured the scratches and injuries, reached into Lillian’s belt pocket, and retrieved a syringe.  She plunged it into Lillian’s throat.  Tranquilizer.
4078[/QUOTE]
4079
4080Carries weapons of war in his body
4081[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
4082“A weapon of war, this,” the Infante spoke.  “I keep an assortment, change it out, to remind myself.  These ones, like many of the ones I carry, are the sort we rain down on battlefields and unleash on places under siege-”
4083
4084“Shut up,” Mary said.
4085
4086“-to terrorize, destabilize, and to create openings.  Marvelously elegant and nuanced, believe it or not-”
4087
4088“Shut up!”
4089
4090“-and only one of five weapons I bear with me today.”
4091
4092*****
4093
4094“Shall I make you bear the plague, Mary Cobourn?  It’s a burden, to carry this one.  For every hour I leave it unattended, I must spend an hour under the knife, ensuring it doesn’t get a grip on me.  Would you like it if I put you up for display?   I could do it so that as it crawls over you, it makes you a diorama.  A centerpiece to the greater scene, as Mauer’s God is in Lugh.”
4095[/QUOTE]
4096
4097Fighting Mary and Jessie
4098[QUOTE=Lamb II Arc 18]
4099Jessie moved, trying to maintain a position that would keep the Infante perfectly between them, unable to look at the two of them at the same time.  It was a distraction, something that begged a moment’s thought from the opponent while Mary moved in.
4100
4101Again, Mary used the boot-knives to penetrate flesh, to scale the Infante as if he were a mountain to be hurdled, positioning herself to attack the face and head-
4102
4103He reacted quickly, slapping Mary down before she even got that far.
4104
4105*****
4106
4107Jessie attacked.  Slashes, cuts.  A man this large needed support, and every cut was at the knee, with one chance swipe at the ankle as the Infante raised one foot.
4108
4109It was brief, the initial foray meant to only let the Infante know she was present.  All to grab attention, to seize it.  Almost without having stopped after being struck at, Mary returned to the fray, going low this time, tumbling down into a roll, before striking up, at the Infante’s inner thighs and genitals.
4110
4111The memories merged with reality.  This was where Jamie grabbed Mary, to put her off balance.
4112
4113Jessie grabbed Mary, hauled her to her feet, pulling her up and away as the Infante shifted his footing, kicking and only grazing Mary.  As adroit as she was, Mary wouldn’t have successfully gotten out of the way.
4114
4115*****
4116
4117In this, they attacked in concert, two sets of attacks from two directions.  The Infante moved to deal with Mary, who was no doubt cutting more effectively, and Jessie redoubled her attack, gripping the knife handle with both hands to add more strength to the cuts.
4118
4119It was meditative, it might even have been calming, if the circumstances were different.  Pain and fear and desperation flattened out, the frenzied immobility of shock meeting the peaks and valleys of highest and lowest emotion and finding something in between.  It was easier to stick to the recitation, the dance they had worked through, Mary’s therapy.
4120
4121The problem, then and now, was that Jessie wasn’t a fighter.  In this, she was much like Sylvester, dependent on another.  The Infante changed tacks, choosing to go after the weaker of the two interlinked individuals, his sights falling on her.
4122
4123The moment he turned on her, Mary was on his back, dealing as much damage as she could with her blades.  She produced loops of razor wire, and they moved almost impossibly slowly through the air as they approached the Infante’s head, threatening to wrap around his face.
4124
4125He struck at Mary, then swiped at the wire, brushing it out of the air and lacerating the back of his hand with the force of the movement and the sharpness of the wire.
4126
4127He was strong, and Mary wasn’t invincible.  But her technique and skill was such that she could move with the blows.  Razor wire connected elsewhere allowed her to haul with one arm, and pull herself slightly out of position.  Knives jutting out of the toes of her shoes stabbed into belly and back and allowed her to kick out, move up or step down.  In this way, as much as he hurt her, he didn’t remove her from the fight with any one strike.
4128
4129Mary hit the ground, rebounded, and was on the offense again, while Jessie focused on movement, on not being in a position where she could be grabbed or struck down.  She wasn’t so adroit.
4130
4131She maintained her end of the dance, as best as she could.
4132
4133His reaching hand was surrounded by loops of razor wire.  They tightened around his fingers and palm, and the wire didn’t penetrate the thick skin.  He hauled his arm forward, and Mary skidded, skipped, and fought to get her balance.
4134
4135That alone wouldn’t have been so bad.  But as Jessie maneuvered, pushing herself to move just a little bit further, a little bit faster, a hand gripped her.
4136
4137Lillian stood, her body lopsided, as if one side of it was heavier than the other.  Her mouth was open, and she coughed, gagged, groping with hands, to seize, scratch with nails.
4138
4139Not Lillian’s actions, but the parasite’s.
4140
4141It was all the Infante needed.  He stepped in, reaching, and Jessie didn’t have the opportunity to slip away before the noble seized her.
4142
4143Jessie was lifted clean off the ground.  The Infante swatted at Mary again, then held out one hand, palm out, as if one hand was all he needed to keep her at bay, now.  He glanced down at Lillian, then touched her cheek with two fingers, turning her head by force, so she looked at Mary.
4144
4145Lillian took three staggering steps in Mary’s direction, making guttural sounds.
4146
4147“Shall I use spiders that stitch you into a cocoon of your own flesh?” the Infante asked.  Slits and folds in his arm yawned open as if reflexively answering that question.  “No.  You wouldn’t remember that one.  It wouldn’t hold the same meaning.”
4148
4149He shifted his grip, and pressed his hand over Jessie’s nose and mouth.
4150
4151The first of the tendrils slithered into her mouth, like a long, wet tongue.  It was covered in hard growths, like warts, ulcers, or small horns, and each periodically stabbed and pricked, producing the spikes it would use to no doubt impale her spinal column and get near-permanent leverage in her throat.  They struck out at nerves, numbing and paralyzing when and where they made contact, un-numbing and freeing the part as they withdrew.  A wet member slithered into her nose, then scraped against her upper lip as the rest of the thing hauled itself deeper into her throat.
4152
4153Her throat distended.  She couldn’t breathe.  It sucked at the air in her lungs and took it against her will, in one end, out the other.
4154
4155It angled the spikes to better its grip, to ensure that any ground it gained going in and down was ground it didn’t give up.  It numbed and paralyzed to close the throat to coughs, to keep the gag reflex there but unsuccessful.
4156
4157She hurtled this way and that as the Infante moved, addressing Mary.  She closed her eyes, remembered the dance, the steps taken-
4158
4159*****
4160
4161The sacrifice play.  No- the reaction, allowing the injury to happen.  The Sylvester play.
4162
4163Jessie remembered what she’d seen Lillian do.  The spasm, the stillness.
4164
4165She emulated it, body arching, a whole-body flinch.  Then-
4166
4167She didn’t even have to go any further.  The Infante looked her way, curious.  In that instant, standing five feet behind him, Mary lashed out.
4168
4169Two knives attached to razor wire flashed out, each traveling in a half-circle in each direction.  The blades struck home, each one slicing the Infante across one eye.
4170
4171Superficial damage.  Not complete blindness, but partial blindness at the least.
4172
4173But she repeated the strike.  Flicking knives on wire, one after another.  Each one furthered the damage.  When he raised one hand to cover his eyes, she opened other wounds.
4174
4175He dropped Jessie, and she collapsed.  The horror still lurked in her throat, tendrils reaching down past epiglottis, toward lungs and stomach both.  Her fingers found little purchase on the thing’s skin, and even the hornlike growths weren’t enough.
4176
4177Tendrils wrapped around her face and neck, trying to secure the thing’s position.
4178
4179“You know my reinforcements are approaching even now,” the Infante said.
4180
4181“I know,” Mary said.
4182
4183“You won’t win.”
4184
4185“I know,” Mary said.
4186
4187Jessie stabbed at the thing, the blade sticking through a cluster of tendrils and biting into the wood of the road.  The struggle that followed was a hellish thing, because it mandated she take the hardest road and threatened to end her if she hesitated for a second while walking it.  She dragged the thing free of her sinuses, throat and mouth, inch by inch, and it made sure that every inch felt like she was hauling knives and fishhooks out, the points facing in the worst directions.
4188
4189It felt like it was grabbing the inside of her chest.  It closed its airways and tried to starve its host of oxygen so she might relent.  A tentacle touched her eye, and threatened to find a gap to disappear inside and unfurl hooks in there.
4190
4191*****
4192
4193Jessie hauled the thing free, then stabbed it, and stabbed it again, and again, and again-
4194
4195*****
4196
4197Jessie finished stabbing the horror to death.
4198[/QUOTE]
4199[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.1]“I’m not very alright,” she said.  “It scared me more than almost anything.  I’m fairly sure he let us go and I’m worried about why…[/QUOTE]
4200
4201He revels in pain and chaos
4202[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 20]
4203“He’s in a dangerous state,” Lawrence observed.  “I’d be much happier if a team three times our size was working on him.”
4204
4205“He’s plague-infected,” Poole said.  “He has to be in incredible pain, but he’s hiding it.”
4206
4207“He’s reveling in it,” Savage said.  “The pain, and the fact that he’s holding onto the plague.”
4208
4209“In all of this,” Copeland said.  “He’s reveling in all of it.”
4210[/QUOTE]
4211
4212His ship and army
4213[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 20]
4214The vessel was of a scale to do any warship proud, but it wasn’t a warship, quite.  Metal and wood, with enough fortitude to withstand artillery and cannons, it traveled over plains and through sparse forest, cleaved across hills and crossed rivers with scarcely any hesitation.
4215
4216Great insect legs dragged it forward with steady, mechanical movement.  Altogether, the craft might have looked like a great beetle with the exterior of a grand ship, but it was really a number of creatures working in concert.
4217
4218*****
4219
4220“Which experiments do we have on board?” Savage asked.
4221
4222“The belchers, the locust knights, the tunnel gnawers, and the helmed,” Lawrence said.
4223
4224“A veritable army.  Any issues?”
4225
4226“Hydration for the gnawers.  We debated stopping to take on water- you were there.”
4227
4228“I was distracted.  We were talking about other concerns at the side of the room.”
4229
4230*****
4231
4232The vessel marched onward.  Even at a distance, the army on the field seemed to react to the approaching vessel.  Most of them wouldn’t even know what this was.  The others would know and they would be awestruck.  The Infante’s personal conveyance, normally meant for travel across the oceans.
4233
4234*****
4235
4236The vessel slowed as they approached a settlement.  It looked to be the staging point of the battle.  They remained silent until it had ground to its stop, the keel of the craft dragging into the earth.  Far below the railing at the prow, legs folded back into the front, protected by layers of armor
4237
4238*****
4239
4240The stairwell led down through the literal guts of the vessel, and gates in the side cracked open, stairs unfolding by the same insect-leg mechanisms that dragged the ship forward over land.  At the very last hallway, leading to those stairs, they were joined by gargantuan stitched that carried the mobile laboratories.
4241
4242Soldiers knelt by the hundreds as they emerged and made their way down the final set of stairs.
4243
4244*****
4245
4246It was a ship to rival any naval vessel, with a structure much the same, grey and tall, with a jutting prow and lights illuminating its portholes and windows.  It moved with a steady pace, though there was no sea to sail, and no sails for that matter.
4247
4248*****
4249
4250“That… thing, the crawling monolith, ship, craft, whatever it is,” I said, gesturing in the direction of the massive thing, “It’s coming toward us.  Collision course.”
4251
4252*****
4253
4254The Crown’s monolith crashed into the side of the city.  Everything from the harvester slugs to the soldiers to us, even Lillian’s stitched, was knocked to one side.  I flinched, turning my face away from the rain.  Helen remained on the ground on all fours.
4255
4256If Helen had been considering going, then the howling and roars of the creatures who were stepping off and away from the monolith and into the city were a counterpoint to that consideration.
4257
4258“The way’s open,” Lillian said.
4259
4260The collision had helped the way to open again, the cliff surging a few feet skyward, or the level we were on dropping by that same measure.
4261[/QUOTE]
4262[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10] could see the Infante’s craft, impaling the wall that framed this section of the city.  Like a great pirate’s ship ramming a smaller craft, biting into railing and deck, it had cut into the city.  It was guarded by a section of his army, and by a scattered assortment of his experiments.  The weasel warbeasts with the augmented jaws, humanoids with helmets, and others I couldn’t make out through the rain.[/QUOTE]
4263
4264Infecting Lady Gloria and soldiers with Plague and his status is high enough that keeping the plague is one of the only reasons the Lord King would kill him
4265[QUOTE=Enemy Arc 20]
4266The Lady Gloria approached, bowing as she acknowledged the Infante.
4267
4268The Infante reached out with his left hand, and touched her face, raising her up to a standing position.
4269
4270Killing her, Lawrence realized.
4271
4272Very possibly killing her with plague that would strike her down within the hour.
4273
4274*****
4275
4276“We’ll cleanse him of it before we cross back to the Capitol,” Lawrence said.  His eye roved over the crowd.
4277
4278“I can see us making the argument.  It’s one of the few things that the Lord King might kill him for, bringing plague with him,” Savage said.
4279
4280*****
4281
4282He could see the Infante deciding that betrayal was betrayal.  That they’d acted against the Crown, they might very well be seeded with betrayers, with agents and provocateurs.  A few touches of plague in the midst of this army, it was only a few steps down the road the Infante was traveling.
4283[/QUOTE]
4284
4285His "elite" soldiers
4286[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.7]
4287“The Infante’s people,” I whispered.  I thought about the layout we’d observed, where the enemy was, and gestured.
4288
4289We moved into the side tunnels and the shadows, close to the grate where there was light.  The light would be deceptive, giving the illusion that if there was anything close by, they’d be able to see it.
4290
4291I peered around the corner.  They were a squadron of soldiers.  Crown soldiers, dressed in black, with quarantine masks, the hoses worked into the masks, armored and protected from gunfire as the hose parted and disappeared over their shoulders, behind their backs.  Glass glinted in the light at their shoulders, tinted fluids within the tubes in question.  Shoulder-mounted drug injections.
4292
4293****
4294
4295Five soldiers sloshed through the water of the tunnel.  Some still had guns in hand.  Others were empty-handed.  Most were wounded.
4296
4297We shrank back into the shadows, listening to the noise of boots in water.  Where the lesser and standard-issue quarantine gear seemed to dissolve and break down in the face of the acid rain, this gear seemed to be top quality.  They waded in dangerous waters that churned with acid and parasites as if it was of no concern.
4298
4299The Crown’s elite soldiers.  I wondered how they got there.  Was it an alternate promotion path?  Be leader of a squad, or remain a foot soldier in a squad of higher esteem?  Were they picked from the cream of the crop of the aristocracy?
4300
4301*****
4302
4303They reached a point further down the tunnel, and they spotted the enemy.  They picked up the pace, insofar as their injuries allowed them to.
4304
4305The enemy was Crown.  Elite soldiers.  They wore uniforms of the topmost quality, in the same black material.  The enemy had the gas masks that protected the hoses and tubes with armor.
4306
4307The defending side was slow to act.  It made me think of a group of men staring into a mirror, realizing too late that they weren’t staring at their own reflection.
4308
4309The reality wasn’t so neat and tidy.  There was no mirror.  There was only the assumption that men and women who were alive and well who wore the same uniforms were friendly.
4310
4311That, if they weren’t friendly, that they wouldn’t be suicidal enough to throw themselves at a larger, better-armed group.
4312
4313A squad of five collided with a squad of ten.  The front ranks were dragged to the ground, and here, the tunnel was dry enough that they wouldn’t be soaked in the drainage water.
4314
4315The ones who still stood started to pull the attackers off, sticking them with bayonets, when there was no armor or defending soldier getting in the way.  One gun fired from the attacking five, an accidental trigger pull, not something intentional.  It made them balk.
4316
4317Mary gestured.  The Lambs stepped out of shadow, moving quickly and soundlessly.
4318
4319Where the defending ten had held the upper hand, they were now outnumbered.  Helen pounced on one.  Mary attacked another two.  I seized a third, burdened as I was with Jessie, and Lillian helped me.  Duncan and Ashton went after the last one who wasn’t preoccupied.
4320
4321For an instant, it seemed we had the upper hand.  We’d caught them unawares, they were preoccupied, and we’d seized them, knocked them down, or we’d disarmed them.
4322
4323Then they began using the combat drugs.  They surged in strength.  They threw us off.
4324
4325Mary cut them more.  I dropped Jessie rather unceremoniously, then joined Mary in disabling them, kicking at one kneecap.  My foot slid across the ground to kick at the side of one foot, which just so happened to be resting on ground that looked particularly slimy.  It slid, the owner’s balance went with it, and Duncan was able to kick at the spot on the man’s arm where the vials were mounted.
4326
4327The ones who had been dosed were too strong, getting stronger, and so we killed them.
4328
4329We regained the upper hand.  We broke more of the vials before they could use whatever mechanism it was that dumped combat drugs into their systems.
4330[/QUOTE]
4331
4332Overpowering a Tangle made up of 27 people
4333[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.7]Our tangle, caught and built by our hands, formed of twenty-seven individuals we’d hunted as they tried to use the underground to reposition in the battle.
4334
4335*****
4336
4337It was a warehouse, but fortified.  At another time, in proper wartime, it might have housed munitions, in addition to a share of the city’s defensive munitions.  The munitions weren’t present.  There were no manned turrets, no warbeasts chained up and held at bay.  There were only squads, the detritus of war, both in corpses and in discarded articles, and those squads were preoccupied, fighting either the tangle or the enemy beyond the door.
4338
4339The Tangle bludgeoned its way through a squad of soldiers.
4340
4341*****
4342
4343He spoke again, louder now that he was inside, and the Tangle responded to it.
4344
4345It charged him, and he moved clear out of the way.
4346
4347It charged past him, and it collided with the wall.  The building began to collapse, rubble falling around the Infante, around the battle lines closest to the noble, around the monsters the Infante had gathered around him.
4348
4349Acid water streamed into the building.  Dust rose and was beaten down by rain.  Harvesters churned.
4350
4351The Infante pulled his hand away from the Tangle, which was trying to figure out how to move again, with much of the rubble still resting atop it.  It stirred, and the Infante walked away from it, putting distance between himself and it.
4352
4353*****
4354
4355With the sharp and booming emphasis he put in the word ‘thing’, it was as if he’d seized the creature’s attention on purpose.  It reacted, and it lunged.
4356
4357He struck at it with one hand as it closed the distance.  It dwarfed him, but it still reacted to the impact, the direction of its charge turned by five degrees, maybe as much as ten.  His hand remained in place, skidding along the wet, acid-slick surface of the creature’s head and neck, while the weight and force of the tangle’s lunge drove him back, his feet sliding on the floor of the building.
4358
4359The tangle collapsed, belly-flopping onto the ground.  The Infante remained standing.
4360[/QUOTE]
4361
4362Finding acid rain to be merely irritating
4363[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.7]“The building is fortified.  There’s one exit, and the chemicals in the water would blind you in seconds and melt you in minutes.  I find it irritating, but hardly that limiting.”[/QUOTE]
4364
4365More about how he thinks
4366[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4367“Lambs,” he intoned.  He walked further into the room, casually, unhurried.  “The bulk of the group hiding at my flanks while the boy with the heaviest burden and smallest ability to defend himself stands in the distance?  I’ll assume you didn’t discuss your strategy ahead of time.  You’re running on instinct.”
4368
4369“You’re waddling in our direction, noble,” I said.  “You barely seem to be realizing you’re doing it.  See a threat, face it head on and crush it.  Aren’t you running on instinct here too?”
4370
4371“I consider everything, Sylvester,” the Infante said.  “Position, strength, costs, advantages.  There are thousands of individuals now fighting in this pointless war of yours.  I’m very mindful of them.  You seem content to use them to put together this thing of Professor Brigg’s conception.”
4372[/QUOTE]
4373
4374Seeing through Helen and Mary's deception
4375[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4376The Infante remained standing.  In the next moment, he turned, raising a leg.  His robes billowed as he kicked a stack of crates that had been lashed together.  Wood splintered and broke, contents spraying into the air, but the pallet moved with the impact, slamming into the adjacent stack of barrels.
4377
4378He backhanded the damage he’d done, sending the fragments of wood and wood splinters into the air- just as Mary had stepped up onto a stack of barrels behind him.  She raised her arms, shielding her face from the spray.  Caught off guard- defenseless.
4379
4380“No,” the Infante said, reaching to his left, while Mary was behind him and to his right.
4381
4382In the doing, he blocked and caught a knife attached to a wire, that Mary had sent flying at him, while pretending to be on the defensive.
4383
4384He gripped the knife in his hand, the knife disappeared in the midst of it.  He hauled his closed fist back, and Mary raised her leg- the wire was still attached to her shoe, and by pulling on the wire, the Infante divested her of the shoe.
4385
4386She dropped out of sight, gesturing.
4387
4388Hurt.
4389
4390She’d gestured in a direction.  I already suspected.  The initial kick at the pallet.  Helen had entered the collection of barrels and crates at a point further from the Infante than Mary had, but in the interest of deceiving the enemy, she’d moved to a point well beyond Mary’s position, trying to circle around to the back and side of the Infante.  The Infante had heard or guessed.
4391
4392“I’m not reeling from any artillery shells, and I don’t make the same mistakes twice.  Your pet here doesn’t equalize the odds,” the Infante said.  “And I have few soldiers here for you to try and use against me- none I’m interested in keeping alive.  They were idiotic enough to obey your orders.  At best, now, I’ll let them remain on this continent, in a city I’ll allow to be claimed by plague.  They’ll be erased and forgotten by history.  You have no leverage, Lambs.  You have no advantages on this battlefield.”
4393[/QUOTE]
4394
4395Casually tossing barrels of liquids 1 handed
4396[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]He reached out with one hand, and he raised a barrel into the air.  It was full of liquid, by the sound of it as he lifted it into the air.  One-armed, he threw it in the general direction Duncan and Ashton had gone, not far from the Tangle, which was preparing for another strike.[/QUOTE]
4397
4398Seeing through Sy's distractions
4399[QUOTE=Crown of Throns 20.8]
4400“Being vulgar, Lamb?” he asked.  “Changing your approach, trying to evoke disgust or attention from me, so I don’t pay attention to what’s happening behind me.”
4401
4402He’d hit the nail on the head there.
4403
4404The Tangle rose up behind him.  He leaped aside as it charged through crates, planks that had been tied together, and into one pillar that was helping to hold the roof up.  The pillar didn’t fall, but it bent, and with it, the roof shifted.  Hundreds of gallons of water that had collected on areas of the roof that were more or less level poured down onto the broken wall and rubble on the far end of the building.
4405
4406I raised my gun, firing as Helen and Mary attacked in concert, moving out of the space between vat and pallet, and from the damaged stack of crates behind the man.  My bullets struck the side of his head, his ear, his temple, distracting him while Mary threw knives.  Helen leaped onto his back, grabbing one knife that had lodged in his shoulder, using it as a handhold to climb up.
4407
4408Mary’s next thrown knife was a soft toss, arcing through the air more than it followed a straight line.  The Infante seemed to recognize what was happening with it, and moved away from it.  Helen stuck out a bare foot, tried to catch the knife with her toes, and caught the thread that trailed behind it instead.
4409
4410Her next movements were as fast as a mousetrap snapping shut, knife passed to hand, the provided thread pulled against the Infante’s throat.
4411
4412He hurled himself at the pillar, to sandwich Helen between himself and it.  She jumped clear, still holdng the thread so it pulled taut, and -while Mary and I both emptied our guns into the side and back of his head- kicked Helen.
4413
4414One Lamb down, I thought, with a cold, sick feeling.
4415
4416Helen wasn’t getting back up.  If she remained there, then she would be vulnerable to any enemy charging through.
4417[/QUOTE]
4418
4419How he planned on destroying Sy's scouts and spies
4420[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4421“You ordered your agents to watch the Nobles, aristocrats, generals and Doctors you coerced,” the Infante said.
4422
4423“This is where you say you found them, and they’re suffering right now.”
4424
4425“Not right now, Sylvester, not right now.  I could lie and say I rooted them out.  I could say that, yes, but you’re too clever to position them where they could be overturned with a single move.  They’re scattered through the camps and armies.  They watch, they communicate, and they operate in discrete cells.  I know this.”
4426
4427“Sure,” I said.
4428
4429“The Lady Gloria bowed before me, and I knew she was broken or gone.  I infected her.  The plague will take her.  It will take those near her.  It will take the ones you have watching her, the ones they communicate with, and countless others,” the Infante said.  “Not right now.  Not even soon.  But you cannot get from here to there in the next few hours.  Not easily, with things being what they are.  Even if I and the army standing outside this building were to stand down, letting you do as you pleased, you would be hard-pressed to communicate what you’d need to communicate to your assembled army.”
4430[/QUOTE]
4431
4432Garottes had limited effects
4433[QUOTE=Crown fo Throns 20.8]Mary was at Helen’s side now.  The Infante looked at her.  He didn’t move a muscle, only pulling the razor wire away from the bloody ruin at his neck.  There wasn’t enough blood to matter.[/QUOTE]
4434
4435Surpsingly fast for his size
4436[QUOTE=Crown fo Thorns 20.8]
4437 He looked back in the direction of Mary and Helen, and at the Tangle.
4438
4439He charged at me.
4440
4441He was fast, and it felt as though each of his feet struck the ground with such an impact that it made it harder for me to keep my own feet under me.  With my burden, I felt glacial compared to the speed and ease with which the Noble moved.
4442
4443I’d resisted calling him a Noble, choosing appellations to nettle, but he wasa Noble.  One of the best of them.  He was the god I’d painted him as, him and the forces that were currently being held back by the worst of the rain and by the pressures of the forces of Radham.
4444
4445I couldn’t run, so I didn’t try.  I couldn’t defend myself, maneuver, be clever and do anything else at the same time.  I sucked at fighting, if it wasn’t an ambush.  I didn’t try anything fancy.
4446
4447I aimed and shot, standing my ground, with zero thought to self-preservation.
4448
4449If this is the way we go, Jessie-
4450
4451Jars shattered, contents splashing out onto the ground between the Infante and I.  Thrown from the flanks.
4452
4453The Infante, large as he was, had a lot of momentum.  He couldn’t stop outright, even with his prodigious strength, but he could drop one knee and both hands to the ground.
4454
4455He slid on the slick of wet ground.  Had he been running, he might have sprawled.  He came to a stop, fifteen long strides away from me.
4456
4457Soap or scented oil, by the smell of it.
4458
4459Thanks Lil.
4460[/QUOTE]
4461
4462More speed, strength, superweapons, defenses, and clipping Mary
4463[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4464The Infante went on the offense.  He moved with the same speed he’d used to charge after me, but this time he went after Lillian, wading through crates and vats, sending chemicals spilling around him.  Mary hurdled onto the highest ground available- the top of a set of shelves, and gestured in my direction.
4465
4466I was to look after Helen.  Mary would help Lillian.
4467
4468There were things that might have been birds and might have been large insects gathering in a cloud around the Infante.  Another experiment, contained within his body.  Mary’s initial attempt at stopping him was quickly aborted.  She emptied a gun as she backed off.
4469
4470He didn’t slow, he didn’t stop.  Nothing we did seemed to do much damage.
4471
4472Mary threw a knife, and it glanced off of his eye, as if she’d struck steel with steel.
4473
4474He hurled a metal cover from a vat, and he clipped Mary.
4475
4476*****
4477
4478The swarm the Infante had unleashed was spreading through the area.  One of the things swooped at me.  It took a chunk out of my shoulder, and a piece out of Jessie’s arm.
4479
4480Insect-bird hybrid, to look at it.  Locust-crow.
4481
4482*****
4483
4484There were more crashes.  Each disturbance seemed to bring more of the swarming things into the air.  It seemed they could smell my blood, and they could smell Helen’s.
4485
4486I wrestled with Jessie’s hands, and I made her let go, depositing her near Helen.  I drew a knife.
4487
4488One locust-crow swooped, flitting one way, then the other.  I shot with the gun and swiped with my knife, to hopefully hit it if the bullet missed.  The bullet missed, and it darted back out of the way of the knife.
4489
4490In the background, Mary leaped into the air, working wire.  Something that might have been tentacles snapped up in her direction, seizing her out of the air.  She was hurled, thrown down at the ground, with a strength that left me little doubt the Infante was the source of those things.
4491
4492We weren’t winning.  Just the opposite.  It was very possible Mary was down and out, like this.
4493
4494*****
4495
4496Two swooped at once.  I sliced one.  The other caught the back of my neck, and latched on, apparently intent on digging in the direction of my spine.  I dropped my gun and grabbed it, slicing its head off.  The gun clattered to the ground.
4497[/QUOTE]
4498
4499Backhanding the shelving unit and uncaring of the damage done to him
4500[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4501The Infante backhanded the shelving unit, toppling it.  He stood before me.  We’d taken chunks out of him with the bullets we’d fired his way, we’d sliced his throat, though the blood flow had outright ceased.  He had knives sticking out of one shoulder, where Mary had tried to arrest the movement of that arm.  He barely seemed to care.
4502
4503Helen, lying on the ground behind me, screeched.
4504
4505The Infante turned his head.  His hand went up to catch one of the experiments that launched at him.  It was like a primate, black, and matured, and as it clutched at his arm and hand, tendrils snapped out of its fingertips and toes, taking curious geometric patterns as they seized him.  They flayed flesh and dug in as they went.  More leaped on.
4506
4507“This on its own won’t stop me,” the Infante said, simply bearing the burden of the pack of flesh-flaying primates that was tearing into him.
4508[/QUOTE]
4509
4510Despite being surprised by Gorger, isn't in any real danger, and even holding back his strength
4511[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.8]
4512Gorger loomed behind him, massive, bug-eyed, naked and pale.
4513
4514Gorger bit down on the Infante’s head.
4515
4516A hole opened in the Infante’s right hand, and tentacles reached out, seizing Gorger.  His other hand twitched, another hole opening and he grabbed one of Gorger’s arms.
4517
4518“You finally showed,” I addressed Gorger.
4519
4520Helen’s friends seemed to know Gorger.  They cooperated with him.
4521
4522I joined them, leaping onto the Infante, fully aware one swing of an arm could destroy me.  I stabbed, over and over.
4523
4524The locust-crows swooped and tore at me, and I fell.  Gorger’s arm was blistering around where the Infante grabbed it, and I recognized the nature of that particular rash as the red plague getting a foothold, though his skin was durable and virtually a quarantine suit unto itself.
4525
4526Mary had appeared, limping, one arm draped at her side.  With her other, she began shooting the locust-crows out of the air.  Lillian was right behind her, throwing something that produced a gas.
4527
4528That helped.
4529
4530*****
4531
4532We all formed a loose circle around the Infante, who wasn’t losing the struggle, but who was taking his time winning.  None of us were strong or effective enough to truly capitalize on what Gorger was doing for us.
4533
4534*****
4535
4536Gorger strained against the tentacles and hand that gripped his hand.  He turned his head back in the direction he’d come.  The main hatch that led back underground.
4537
4538“Yeah, we need to go,” I said, hushed.
4539
4540Our enemy was now on his knees, arms occupied.  His belly was exposed.
4541
4542Yet he was too strong for us to really stop.  We didn’t have any blades that cut deep enough, nor any guns that would penetrate far enough.  He was too big, too solid.  Had Mary been in fighting shape, maybe.  If the Tangle had been intact, we could have consumed him.
4543
4544If we’d been willing to give our complete and total attention to destroying the Infante, we could.  Probably.  But we weren’t and we couldn’t.  It would mean giving up the rest of what we needed to accomplish and do.
4545[/QUOTE]
4546[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.9]
4547His clothes had burned and melted away from the upper body, and it was clear where lifeforms squirmed and writhed within him, visible in and near the gouges and holes we had made in him.
4548
4549He could have used them, to slow us down, to distract, even to attack.  He was holding back his strength.
4550
4551He was a pillar of strength, in many ways, tall, stout, indomitable.  We could wound him, but killing him seemed almost impossible.  Even serious attempts to disable were questionable at best.
4552
4553The noble’s blood streamed from my elbows to my fingertips, and the thick fluid formed tendrils that stretched from my fingertips to the ground.
4554
4555*****
4556
4557Mary tugged on Gorger’s arm, hauling him back and away.  His mouth yawned open, a second kind of mouth that was a wormlike, muscle-laden esophagus relaxed, loosening its hold on the Infante’s head.
4558
4559For an instant, it looked like the Infante wasn’t going to let Gorger go, even though Gorger had released him.  His arms were extended to either side- an eruption of tentacles reaching from one palm to Gorger’s hand, arm, and shoulder.  The other held Gorger’s wrist, with red veins spiderwebbing out and around from the point of contact.
4560
4561The Infante looked like he was crucified, one knee on the ground, arms out to either side, his head bowed.  Wounds marked him.
4562
4563But he wasn’t a man.  Like this, close up, clothes done away with, his inhumanity had been laid bare.  The flesh, the fat, the muscle, the monstrous things that peeked out of his wounds before he flexed the muscle, flexing the wound closed a fraction, it marked him as something else.
4564
4565*****
4566
4567“I can smell the chemicals,” the Infante said.  “I can smell the pinewood and sulphur in your hand, Sylvester.  I won’t bow, you won’t show mercy.  Let’s be done with this discourse.”
4568
4569My hand was still so covered in blood that I could barely see any skin, beyond some of the knuckles and where it had scraped away from beside my thumb, when I’d reached into my pocket.  I opened it, then thumbed open the matchbox.
4570
4571The others backed away, Gorger retreating toward the hatch, growls and other sounds suggesting that the Infante’s minions had seen him.
4572
4573I struck the match and threw it as a single motion.
4574
4575The chemical ignited with a whoosh, rolling into the air up and around the Infante in a way that suggested some of it was airborne, before it had caught the flame.
4576
4577The Infante, midway to working his way to a full standing position, burned.  Things from further down the warehouse took notice of the light and sound.  The primordial-spawn superweapon would be among them.
4578
4579I allowed myself a second to take in the scene, the Infante as a silhouette, surrounded and framed by flames.  
4580
4581He didn’t scream or flinch.
4582
4583*****
4584
4585The building we’d met the Infante in was still in plain view.  The chemical fire we’d started was blazing, catching on wood.  The orange light of the flame was visible through the windows, even if the flames themselves weren’t.[/QUOTE]
4586
4587Unhindered by his battle scars and acid rain
4588[QUOTE=Crown of Thorn 20.9]I saw the Infante, standing in the street.  He let the rain wash over him.  His flesh was bleaching and mottling less than the high quality fabric of the Duke of Francis’ cloak.
4589
4590*****
4591
4592The Infante was scorched, flesh peeling from body in black, twisted clusters rimmed by red, damaged flesh, fluids streaking him as they flowed from open wounds.  He didn’t look weaker, for the damage that had been done.  He didn’t hang his head any lower, he didn’t bow down.  He didn’t look less, wearing his battle wounds rather than his highest-quality robes.[/QUOTE]
4593
4594Easier to predict but harder to handle than the Golden Calf
4595[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
4596Lillian handed a jar to Mary.  Duncan and Ashton paced backward and to the side.  They wanted to find an avenue to act.  I could draw the connection, imagine what they wanted to do.  I could picture how this might play out, if they succeeded.  I could picture the moves as if they were moves on one of Hayle’s chessboards, during those early days where he’d made us compete with one another.  Counting moves ahead of time, figuring out where we wanted to be, how to cheat effectively…
4597
4598I pushed myself.  I tried to take in the situation, to see where the others might position themselves, how the enemy might respond.  The Golden Calf was a whirling dervish of destruction that had a way of appearing at every point, devastating every contingency.  I held every image in my head, tried to account for the Infante, and found him easier to predict, harder to deal with.
4599
4600The Calf might have been stronger in a sense, but it was feral.  The Infante was only feral when it was inconvenient.
4601
4602The more I focused, the more I felt everything slip.
4603[/QUOTE]
4604
4605Tossing tons of rubble with his tentacle arms
4606[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
4607Duncan and Ashton ascended to a sloped rooftop.  Duncan carried Helen.
4608
4609The Infante reached in the direction of a pile of rubble.
4610
4611“Duncan!” I shouted.  “Down!”
4612
4613Boneless limbs reaching from the Infante’s hand to the rubble, seizing it.  Duncan dropped, pulling Ashton down with him, and the Infante adjusted the throw as all three tumbled off the roof to the street.
4614
4615Stone pulverized stone and wood.  Scattered fragments of the rubble that had broken away as it was hurled forth chipped at the ground and wall near Duncan.  Duncan and Ashton covered their faces and heads.
4616
4617The worst of the rubble had struck the wall above them.  Some shattered pieces landed around them, or bounced off of the three Lambs.
4618
4619The Infante turned his attention to me.
4620[/QUOTE]
4621
4622Using his tentacles as a club to destroy a barrel and gutter of a building
4623[QUOTE]
4624He strode forward, one step, then two, and then was running by the third step.
4625
4626I turned, moving perpendicular to him, closer to Lillian and Mary.
4627
4628Mary threw the jar, sending it arcing high into the air.  She drew her pistol with the same hand, aiming it-
4629
4630The Infante reached up to catch the jar out of the air with the same boneless limbs that had gripped the rubble.  Mary, for her part, turned on the spot, bringing one foot up, kicking out at the air- at thread.
4631
4632Wound around the jar-top, the thread was pulled taut.  Held firmly in the grip of the Infante’s coiling symbiote, the bottle broke.  The contents showered down on one side of his face, his shoulders, and into the mess of tentacles and the hand that was almost hidden among them.  It was powdery, and it clung to him where the rainwater soaked his skin.
4633
4634I wondered what Lillian had in her kit that she thought might serve against the Infante.
4635
4636Momentarily blinded in one eye, hand and the associated tentacles coated in the powder, he continued charging at us.  I skipped up on top of a rain barrel that was rigged to divert some water into a garden that was protected by an overhang.  From there, I stepped up onto the arm of a diagonal gutter that fed into the barrel, and made the hop to get to the roof of the one-story building.
4637
4638My legs were tired.  The combined weight of Jessie and I and the running we’d done to this point was adding up, and I didn’t get my feet onto the roof.  I hit the edge of the roof with my stomach.
4639
4640“Damn it, Sy.”
4641
4642A moment later, something jabbed me hard in between the ass cheeks.  It was Mary- driving her shoulder into my butt, as she’d hopped up right behind and beneath me, she was using the force of her entire body to force me up.
4643
4644“Perilously close to the droopier vitals, Mary!” I called out, as I clambered onto the roof.
4645
4646The Infante swung his arm at us, the various tentacles that extended from his hand and arm forming a singular, club-like entity.  Mary leaped up and away, Lillian dove for the ground.  The rain barrel and gutter were demolished.
4647[/QUOTE]
4648
4649Anticipating Sy and cracking cobblestone roads with his tentacles
4650[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
4651In the background, I could see Ashton edging closer to the fight between the Duke and the Calf.
4652
4653If he could gain any influence over it-
4654
4655“Your Ashton won’t affect it,” the Infante said.  “It doesn’t have senses as you and I do.  It doesn’t have muscles in the same sense, nor the bones you might expect.  Its shape is… accident, but not unintentional.”
4656
4657Had he seen me looking at it, or did he anticipate me?
4658
4659I glanced at the ship.
4660
4661“I thought you weren’t planning to run, Lambs?” the Infante asked.
4662
4663Lillian started to move right, and the Infante moved, ready to lunge to cut her off.  His limb struck the cobblestone street, again as a singular limb, hitting with a strength sufficient to crack the stone.
4664
4665She started to move the other direction, and he struck the ground over there, cutting her off.
4666[/QUOTE]
4667
4668Using the tentacle club to hit buildings hard enough to shake a nearby building and shatter stone
4669[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
4670The Infante struck at the building near Lillian.  He shattered stone and he upset my footing.  I dropped to all fours.  Jessie’s grip threatened to slip, and I reached up to grab her, securing her, made her hold on tighter.
4671
4672The white powder had created a milky texture on the Infante’s face and arm. He barely seemed to care that Duncan and Helen were gingerly picking themselves up, or that Mary was flanking him, moving into position.
4673
4674He repeated the action, striking the building.  Lillian ducked low.  No shriek, no wail, no tears that I could see.  Grim silence.
4675
4676Those impacts- the tentacles that sprouted from his hand weren’t indestructible.  Stone was… well, it was hard.  He was doing more damage to himself than to Lillian.
4677
4678I realized why, seeing the white stuff, seeing the pattern, that he kept on using the arm like a club.
4679
4680Glue.  It was glue, or something that became like glue, when exposed to the water.  It bound the tentacles together, it hampered his movement, and it blinded him in one eye.  Mary’s movements to flank were taking advantage of the fact that he had a limited field of view.
4681
4682*****
4683
4684He approached, footsteps plodding.  I tensed.
4685
4686He swung, once again, and Lillian once again leaped clear of it.  The limb had bent in the air, it hit her or something she was wearing and made her stagger, left her defenseless to the follow-up.  In that same strike, however, the Infante had managed to kill the symbiote that was clinging to him.  It slithered out of his hand and the wounds in his arm, a morass of worms that were glued together at one end, a hydra’s mane of worms at the other, groping and grasping.
4687[/QUOTE]
4688
4689Fluttering weapons in his arm and able to wrestle warbeasts to the ground
4690[QUOTE=Crown of Throns 20.10]
4691Lillian made a break for it.  The Infante, arm still extended from the swing, simply kept walking in her direction.  Things fluttered out of the opening in his hand.
4692
4693Mary lashed out, closing in, cutting, using thread, trying to hamper his hand by hurling a knife and having the attached razor wire encircle the hand and opening several times.
4694
4695It wasn’t enough.  Slices and cuts didn’t mean anything when the Infante had been meant to weather bullets and wrestle warbeasts to the ground with his hands.  She had stemmed the flow of the Infante’s creatures from his hand, but they were gnashing at the wire, and there wasn’t any leverage keeping it in place- it was falling away from his hand, if I went by the dangling knife that drooped closer and closer to the ground.
4696[/QUOTE]
4697
4698Ignoring knife stabs to the head, his durable fake eyes, tough skin, and killing the Duke
4699[QUOTE=Crown of Throns 20.10]
4700My jump up to the rooftop had been weak, faltering.  Now I jumped from the peak of a bungalow house, with the Infante as my landing point.  One of my feet touched his shoulder, where the powder had settled, and it stuck enough I worried I’d lose my shoe.
4701
4702My hand reached for the noble’s head, knife stabbing in, seeking a grip. 
4703
4704*****
4705
4706The Infante ignored me, turning toward Mary and Jessie, the pair crouched down on the ground.
4707
4708“Trust the Lambs,” I murmured.  I ignored them.  I ignored everything, trying to secure my footing, perching on the Infante’s shoulders, my knife at his head.
4709
4710His eye was apparently made of something that wouldn’t be touched by blade or bullet.  It was possible the eyes in the sockets weren’t even real.  Eyes elsewhere on the face, where the glue still covered some?  At the shoulder?  The hands?
4711
4712No, blinding him wouldn’t work, in any event.
4713
4714I cut his scalp, dragging the knife along it, adding to wounds we’d already made.  His flesh was hard to cut, requiring that I drag the knife through it with both hands, even for the thin skin that sat next to skull.
4715
4716The Infante raised the hand that hadn’t gotten glue on it, the one that hadn’t had the tentacles, or the swarm.  I saw him form a fist.
4717
4718Veins bulged along his arm.  The veins turned dark, then broke, blistering.  The vine-veins that were so characteristic of the plague were visible there.
4719
4720He was going to infect the pair.  Jessie and Mary both.
4721
4722Scales of burns mingled with the eruption of the plague that his body had been keeping contained, all red and angry.  I liked to imagine it was all of the pent up anger from within him finding its way out.
4723
4724*****
4725
4726I dragged the knife toward the base of the Infante’s skull, where it met his spine.  The skin became thicker as I reached that point.
4727
4728“Nuisances, nothing more,” he said.
4729
4730He swiped a hand at me.  I had to grab his head to keep from falling.  I put the point of my knife near his ear and kicked it, hard with my heel, kicking myself away from the Infante and toward the road below as I did it.
4731
4732I screwed my eyes shut, twisting my face away from the rain.
4733
4734It was a bad moment.  A moment where I realized I’d been focused on what I had to do moment to moment, but I’d allowed myself to be cornered, thinking too shallowly, only about the current move, then the current move again.  I’d spared too much thought for the instant and for the ten-minutes-from-now.
4735
4736*****
4737
4738A whistle.  From Lillian’s direction.
4739
4740Only a distraction- and not an effective one.  It was one of the tools that Academy Doctors carried with them for directing Stitched on the battlefield.  I could see why she had it.
4741
4742I could see why the Infante could ignore it, his focus on Mary and Jessie.
4743
4744Duncan fired his rifle, aiming for the Infante.  He was kneeling by Helen and Ashton was near them.  He fired again, then again.
4745
4746It might as well have been the shrill whistle.
4747
4748It wasn’t a Lamb that stepped to the fore.  The Duke pulled away from his fight with the Golden Calf.  With long strides, he charged at the Infante, sword leveled for the higher noble’s throat.
4749
4750The Infante grabbed for the sword, and the blade dipped, danced around, then returned to course, aimed for the jugular.
4751
4752With a quarter-turn away, the Infante had shoulder and arm catch the blade instead.  His flesh suffered what looked to be a shallow cut as he turned his back to our Duke of Francis.
4753
4754He swung his fist in a backhand, not even looking at his attacker.  The Duke stepped back and away, turning and bringing his sword up to catch the Calf’s claw.  He was disarmed.
4755
4756“Syylvester,” the Duke said, his vowel hitching, as if he was a stitched with a faulty wire, movements replicating.
4757
4758In the next moment, the Calf had gouged him three times, digging deep furrows into his chest and stomach.  I could have laid my arm into those furrows and covered them with skin, with no bulge to be seen.  From the look of the slices of black, there were dark gaps hinting at cavities beneath.
4759
4760It was a modest distraction, but the attack had bought us a chance to retreat.  Mary had found her feet, dragging Jessie with her.  I climbed to my own feet and backed away, stepping into the shelter of a shop.  Duncan and Ashton dragged Helen into shadow.
4761
4762*****
4763
4764We were all at either side of the street now, with the Duke, Infante and the Calf in the center of the road.
4765
4766The Calf moved to finish off the Duke.  The Infante stopped it.
4767
4768“Was it-  worth it?” the Duke asked.
4769
4770“None of you survive the day,” the Infante said.  “‘Worth’ is irrelevant.”
4771
4772“Absolutely worth it,” I said.
4773
4774The Infante reached out for the Duke, using his plague-ridden hand to seize the man by the face.  There was almost surrender on the Duke’s face as he was seized.  No fight, no effort to defend himself.  He’d spent all he had.
4775
4776No.  Not quite.  He reached out and grabbed the Infante’s arm, brought a leg around and hooked the Infante’s.  He was holding on, burdening the High Noble, hampering him so we could run.
4777
4778That didn’t stop the Infante for telling the Calf to come after us.  It barely hampered the Infante from turning, walking as if there was barely any obstruction.
4779
4780But he wasn’t running.  That counted for something.
4781[/QUOTE]
4782
4783Ripping off his own flesh
4784[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]The Infante approached the crowd.  He’d torn the glue away from his eye, taking flesh and eyelids with it.  He didn’t seem to care that he bled anymore.[/QUOTE]
4785
4786Needing a harpoon meant for rogue warbeasts and Helen damaging his internal organs to finally kill him
4787[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.10]
4788“Harpoon gun?” I asked.
4789
4790“Harpoon gun?”
4791
4792“Or anything sufficient for catching a rogue warbeast.”
4793
4794
4795*****
4796
4797The saving grace wasn’t any harpoon.  It was a creature from the crowd, bloody and hard to make out, as it tore past the people nearest the Infante, stepped onto the railing, and pounced onto the Infante’s face.
4798
4799Helen.
4800
4801Her arm was broken, but she still used her hand, flinging her body around to the side to get her hand to where it could hold on.  Her other hand clutched.  Her one good leg scrabbled for purchase.
4802
4803“Harpoon!” I shouted, looking for the professor that had run off.
4804
4805He emerged from the stairs, looked at the scene, and threw the oversized crossbow.
4806
4807To me.  The idiot.  I caught it in a bear hug, reversed it in my grip, and gave it to Mary.  I knew her arm was hurt from our first skirmish with the Infante, so I held the front end, ducking low, while I let Mary do the aiming.
4808
4809The plague-ridden hand struck Helen, pulling her back and away.  The harpoon caught the hand before another blow could be delivered.  I, Duncan, Ashton, Lillian, and Mary all seized the rope, pulling it to one side.
4810
4811The Infante’s attempt at smashing Helen away from his face was thrown off as we pulled him slightly off balance.  He caught himself.
4812
4813*****
4814
4815The rope from the harpoon was secured, tied down.  As one, we made the Infante’s sole remaining arm our target.  Fluids were oozing from it, and he slapped Helen’s back, smearing the fluids onto her clothing.  He grabbed her, trying to pull her away.
4816
4817Mary’s razor wire and a rifle that several of us could grab provided some leverage on that hand.  Duncan poured something on the deck, and the Infante lost his footing, dropping to his knees.  I threw a coat over the Infante’s face and over Helen, to keep the rain off of her.  It wouldn’t do for her to dissolve while trying to do this.
4818
4819*****
4820
4821I dropped away from the struggle to hamper the Infante’s one arm that wasn’t harpooned.  It took some doing, but I needed to sway the crowd.
4822
4823Lillian’s coat over me, I climbed up the Infante’s arm to where Helen was.
4824
4825Helen, our beautiful Helen.  She was a monster in disguise, but above all else, her role in the team had always been the actress.
4826
4827Our glorious actress, from the point that she’d been kicked and injured, had played dead.  She’d played out her part, to the point it convinced us, because the Infante had needed to believe it to let his guard down.  No longer able to play effectively at being human, she had played her role perfectly when it came to being broken.
4828
4829“Turn his head thirty degrees to the right,” I said.
4830
4831I heard an exasperated sigh from her.  She was using her body to stifle him, to deny him air and keep him from effectively closing his jaw.  It yawned open now, to the point even one of the weasel-thing’s jaws might have dislocated.
4832
4833*****
4834
4835Helen’s arm reached into the Infante’s mouth and up, likely finding a grip on the uvula or on the ledge that would lead up to the sinuses.  If the Infante was one to reflexively gag, he would have thrown up then.
4836
4837As it was, it was purchase for her to go contortionist, to draw herself inches in deeper, a young lady making the giant of a man swallow her.
4838
4839Minutes passed.  The harpoon gun was used twice more, lashing the Infante down further, so both arms were pinned down.  It meant the others could back off and get out of the rain.
4840
4841I draped another coat over Helen, then backed off.
4842
4843It took what I estimated to be nine minutes, all in all.  Struggles, two attempts at hauling hands and arms free of the barbed harpoons.  We fired more that had been brought from belowdecks.  
4844
4845The Infante slowly went limp, sagging to the ground.
4846[/QUOTE]
4847[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.11]
4848Lillian provided some light, a bright little bioluminescent flask, and Ashton held it.  Helen was visible in a stark blue-green and black.
4849
4850“Plague,” Duncan observed.  “We’ve got the pinprick signs.”
4851
4852“Surgery?” Lillian asked.
4853
4854“How fun,” Helen said, barely audible.  She sounded like it was fun.
4855
4856*****
4857
4858Duncan was using a gloved hand to explore where the plague was setting in.  He tapped at one spot near Helen’s armpit, and gave Lillian a severe look.  “He got you good.”
4859
4860*****
4861
4862“Oh, you should know I have a stab wound from the fight on the rooftop, in my side.  Something bitey squirmed its way inside of me, through that entry point.  I pinned it down, squeezing it with surrounding muscles.  If you get close to it, it might come unpinned, depending.”
4863
4864“Something bitey?” Ashton asked.
4865
4866“It got a few nips at my insides before I squeezed its head shut,” Helen said.  “Nothing too bad, I don’t think, but I wouldn’t want you sliding your hand inside of me and coming out with a stump.”
4867
4868“Thank you, Helen,” Duncan said, unfazed.  “That’s appreciated.”
4869
4870
4871*****
4872
4873Duncan gestured, then swapped places with Lillian.
4874
4875“Darn it,” Duncan murmured.  “It progressed.  I wanted to come back to see if it would.  Helen?  I’m going to have to take your left breast.”
4876
4877*****
4878
4879“Found your little buddy,” Lillian said.
4880
4881“Speaking of names, we should give it a name,” Helen said.  “Tell me about it.”
4882
4883“We’re going to kill it,” Mary said.
4884
4885“All the more reason to give it a name,” Helen said.  “It came from somewhere, it has feelings, even if those feelings are ‘destroy this pretty girl’s insides’ and ‘squirm’.
4886
4887“Those aren’t feelings,” I said.  “Those are instincts.”
4888
4889“I would have you know, Sylvester Lamsbridge, you loon,” Helen said, “That not only are those feelings, but they’re feelings I’ve held close to my heart at times.”
4890
4891“Alright,” I said.
4892
4893“Red,” Lillian said.  “It’s red.”
4894
4895“Rosie?” Helen jumped in.  “No, too close to Sub Rosa.”
4896
4897“Yeah,” I said.
4898
4899“It’s plague-affected,” Lillian elaborated.  “Duncan, best if you drop what you’re doing.  The Infante laced the creature with plague before sending it after Helen.”
4900
4901“That would explain why the plague is spreading from smaller bite wounds,” Duncan said.
4902
4903*****
4904
4905“We’re going to have to take pretty much everything in your stomach, ribs to pelvis.”
4906
4907Helen craned her head around, trying to see.  Mary and Lillian weren’t saying anything.
4908
4909*****
4910
4911“You’re going to have to do without,” Duncan said.  “It might have reached into your upper chest cavity, by the looks of it.”
4912
4913*****
4914
4915“We’re going to have to take everything below the ribcage,” Lillian said.  “No preserving spine, no more legs.”
4916[/QUOTE]
4917
4918[/SPOILER]
4919
4920[SPOILER="The August Ogre"]
4921Description of the Ogre
4922[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]The boy in the noble’s company was his son, or some close relative.  The resemblance was uncanny, but the boy was not yet a giant.  Five times my size, easily, but not yet of his father’s height.  His eyes didn’t seem nearly so sharp.  He wore a vest and jacket with a long coat.[/QUOTE]
4923[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.4]The first was a young man, heavy, an ogre dressed up as a prince.  He was six times as large as I was, sheer physicality, but with a beautiful face, and crisp clothing.  His pants were tucked into socks, so they crumpled and puffed at the knee.  Those socks, in turn, that came up to the top of utterly massive calves that looked like they might let him grind granite underfoot.  He wore a dress shirt with suspenders and a belt.  His hair was neatly parted to one side and slicked down.[/QUOTE]
4924
4925Moving as fast as a Ghost, and hitting like a cannonball
4926[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]
4927There was a momentary pause.  Something felt wrong.  I shifted my weight, ready to bolt-
4928
4929The Infante’s son lunged.  As fast as any Ghost, despite his mass.  His hand hit me like a cannonball.  I flew back, and I jerked short, as his fingers had grabbed my shirt-front.  Lainie shrieked.
4930
4931*****
4932
4933I couldn’t speak.  Fabric threatened to tear.  I suspected that I would die the moment it did, because he would seize my actual throat instead, and crush it like a small child might squeeze gruel between his fingers.[/QUOTE]
4934
4935His menacing aura
4936[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.12]August was there.  With a group of soldiers gathered around him.  He wore a suit jacket with long sleeves, shorts, and high socks, and he had a menacing aura to put any warbeast to shame.[/QUOTE]
4937
4938August's Giant Stitched and leaping higher than 2 stories
4939[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.14]
4940Across the street, a stitched had already emerged from a covered wagon.  One stitched, but it had taken up the whole wagon.  Ten feet tall, it carried the floor of the wagon as a shield, wood reinforced by bands of metal and bolts as fat as my arm.  It was joined by a matching stitched, a second shieldbearer.  One had long hair, the other was bald, with a beard that reached its navel.  Both wore the same robes, waterproof coverings that sheltered them from the rain, augmented with armor here and there.  Both steamed as if the water that was on them boiled on contact.  Not that it did, but such was the effect.
4941
4942I had to run between them to get where I needed to be.
4943
4944I was running, only running, trying to get away.  I’m a chicken that needs desperately to get to the other side.
4945
4946One of the shieldbearers raised their shield high overhead, holding only the bottom end.  The other raised its shield overhead, but held it horizontally, not vertically.
4947
4948August dropped down from a window much higher than the second story window I’d leaped from.  Shielded from Mauer’s gunfire by the wall the long haired giant had created, given a platform to land on by the bearded one, he landed with both hands and one foot on the ground.
4949
4950As I passed between the giants, beneath August, he stood, turning to face me.  Anyone else would have been shattered from foot to hip by such a landing, but he didn’t seem to have even paused.
4951[/QUOTE]
4952
4953He and the Falconer surviving a massive explosion
4954[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14..14]
4955It sounded like a rockslide, starting at one end of the street, sweeping to the next.  A series of detonations, one after another.  The nobles stopped, looking back and over.
4956
4957I kept moving away, bracing myself.
4958
4959The explosion swept over the street, and it caught something.  It wasn’t the other gas, which had enough methane to keep the chain reaction alive.  No.  One or several of the wagons that had been parked along the street had borne gunpowder, or explosives, or fuel.
4960
4961Stitched were capable of burning.  They were dry, combustible.  Wagons were wood.  Soldiers carried grenades.
4962
4963Whatever the case, that ominous rumble as the methane caught and was consumed in a rolling flame, it was soon punctuated by the crack and the blast of real explosives going off, each with their individual shockwaves and ripple effects.
4964
4965I stumbled, tripping and falling as I wrapped my head around what was happening.  The nobles, their giants and their pet bird, they were closer to the street and the nearest wagon loaded with munitions.  The shockwave hit them.  The nobles were bowled over, the giants staggered, one of their robes setting alight.  The bird went down in that same lick of flame.
4966
4967The goal had been to stir the pot, to give people reason to leave or be evacuated.  It also, in the roundabout path, would mean that people who had been further away would gather here, that numbers would be more concentrated.  All of that required buying time.
4968
4969It wouldn’t be a guarantee, some civilians would have been caught in the blast.
4970
4971The act of buying time had also given Jamie time to get in position, to spring the methane trap with the next of the command words.
4972
4973The nobles had been bowled over.  The bird and one giant had been burned.
4974
4975I picked myself up, and climbed to my feet, still breathing hard from the running, shaking from exhaustion that was half due to exertion and half due to my not having wood on the fire, food in the belly.
4976
4977They remained on the ground for long moments.
4978
4979I waited, watching.
4980
4981August was the first to move.  The Falconer stirred after that.
4982
4983Not even looking up at me or at her pet, she gestured at the bird, and she made a short whistling sound.
4984
4985The bird moved, shifting its stance.  Wings stretched forward, and it crawled to its master on its bladed wing-tips and talons, much as the spike warbeasts had moved on four spikes.  No longer able to fly, but entirely capable of operating as an attack beast all the same.  Just as resilient as the noble it served.
4986
4987The Falconer put one hand on its back, and rose to her feet, head still hanging, hair forming a curtain in front of her face.
4988
4989I’d seen all I needed to see, gotten the measure of the damage we’d managed to inflict, by way of how slowly they moved.
4990
4991The nobles, I was sure, would chase, and they would be sure to make us answer this.
4992[/QUOTE]
4993[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
4994The crash and the ensuing disruption might have bought me time.  The elements of the crowd that were lingering gave me some room to move.  The nobles were, by dint of the bodyguards, big.  I could thread the needle, weaving through the crowd, that was only just realizing they were in the way, and hope that the nobles would either show some conscience and avoid the worst of the crowd, or at least stumble on the bodies and wreckage left behind and slow down because of that.
4995
4996I preferred the former to the latter, but I preferred living above all else.
4997
4998It was telling, then, that the nobles chose to detour and slow down, and that I was able to put some distance between myself and them.
4999
5000Good thing too, because for all of their injuries, they had caught up to me fast, and they would again.  I had little doubt they had more stamina than I did, too.
5001[/QUOTE]
5002[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5003“No opportunities to use the explosion?” Jamie asked.
5004
5005“The blast set off other things,” I said.  “Our guess was off.  I got knocked to the ground.  I felt like if I went after them while they were down, they would jolt like a new stitched, reach out, and grab me.”
5006
5007“It’s good if you go with your gut,” Jamie said.
5008
5009“Done pretty well for me so far,” I said.
5010[/QUOTE]
5011Falconer and August are better built Nobles than Baron
5012[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]“I’m not sure the nobles here have any.  The pet bird didn’t have any.  The explosion roughed them up, but… they’re a step above the Baron and the Twins.  A few steps above.  Even with that, I wouldn’t say there’s a weak point to hit, or anything I can do or say that would affect them.”[/QUOTE]
5013
5014August's rankings
5015[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5016“I’d offer something to help,” Jamie said, “But I don’t know much.  Augustus is close to the Infante, and is in the Infante’s neighborhood when it comes to the line of succession.  The way things unfold, he probably won’t ever wear the crown, barring incident.  Children are born, they’ll fill up the space between Augustus and the Crown, but… it’s not entirely out of the question?”
5017
5018“Yeah.”
5019
5020“From what I read in the news, he’s only just ventured out from noble holdings to take a hand in affecting the world.”
5021[/QUOTE]
5022
5023Unharmed by Noble Killing Guns
5024[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5025Mauer was in the alley, along with a small regiment of his soldiers.  There were two rows of the men, some kneeling, others standing behind them.  The guns they held were special.  Exorcist rifles, and then the new ones.  The noble-slaying ones.  What had he called them?  Guillotines?  Something else?
5026
5027With all the guns pointed our way, Jamie and I balked momentarily.  But when Mauer didn’t give the order to fire, and when the soldiers didn’t take their own initiative on the matter, we started forward again, weaving between the soldiers to reach the other side.
5028
5029“Not wholly what I had in mind,” I told Mauer, “But this will do.”
5030
5031His face was stone, his expression dark.
5032
5033I could hear the stomps of the giant, and for an instant, I thought I knew what we would see – the giant appearing, holding his shield before him, ready to plow through our ranks like a runaway carriage.
5034
5035But it was Augustus.  Only Augustus.
5036
5037“Fire,” Mauer said.
5038
5039The soldiers did.  One clean shot from each of them, the Exorcist rifles first.  Then the special noble-slaying rifles.  Augustus raised his arm, blocking his eyes with one forearm.
5040
5041I saw the blood, and the flecks of flesh tearing away, and the explosions of gore as the special noble-killing rifles did their work.
5042
5043The shots fired, the soldiers broke rank, backing away swiftly, the ones with the exorcists reloading quickly.
5044
5045Augustus lowered his arm.  All over his body, in places, I could see that the damage was less than a centimeter deep.  It stopped at a layer of fat beneath the skin, and where whole chunks had been peeled away, I could see strange patterns.
5046
5047“I thought those special rifles were supposed to be able to penetrate the plates of a warbeast’s armor,” I told Mauer.
5048
5049Mauer was silent.
5050
5051“You’ve shot him before, and it didn’t work.”
5052
5053He didn’t answer me.  Instead, he said, “Flame.”
5054
5055Two of the men pulled the pins out of containers, lobbing them.  They erupted with what looked like flaming oil, fiery droplets and dribblings falling as they arced in the air.
5056
5057Augustus moved to one side, in the same moment it made contact with the ground, he knocked it back with the side of one foot.  Flames licked against his boot.
5058
5059With the other, the noble grabbed it with one bare hand, and he cast it back and behind him.  Open flame licked his hand, front and back, and he ignored it.
5060
5061Ogre indeed.
5062[/QUOTE]
5063
5064Tossing and crushing various soldiers
5065[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
5066Augustus charged after us, while Mauer’s contingent aimed backwards, shooting in his general direction.  One arm remained raised, protecting his face, his other arm reaching forward.
5067
5068Without losing momentum, he put a hand out and pushed one of the men, a hand on the back of the man’s head.
5069
5070Augustus’ weight, heft, strength and momentum were enough that when he shoved the man’s head to one side, he could grind it against the nearest building.  Brick, branch, and stone tore and chipped at the man’s face, and the man’s feet stumbled, then dragged uselessly against the ground.
5071
5072Something more significant shattered as the fellow’s face was driven into a bit of trim at the outside corner of the building.
5073
5074He caught up to the stragglers, seized one, and hurled him into another, before stepping more to one side, to step where the two men’s legs overlapped.
5075
5076A moment later, switching the arm he covered his face with while reaching out with the other, he’d seized a fourth man.  The motion he used to toss him aside was a sharper one – one that I suspected left the victim dead before he even smashed into the nearest surface.
5077[/QUOTE]
5078
5079Easily manhandling a grown woman and bending iron bars
5080[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5081We passed through a wrought-iron arch and gate that was fixed to the walls on either side of the alley and a moment later, Mauer was through, standing by it, ready to close it as the stragglers came through.
5082
5083Augustus caught up to some of those stragglers, grabbed one of them, a woman in a shirt and pants, not a uniform.
5084
5085-And held her, without killing her outright.  He advanced, moving quickly, dragging her with him.  He knew what Mauer was doing, and he was making the decision has hard as possible.
5086
5087Mauer slammed the gate, then turned the heavy key that was in the lock.
5088
5089Augustus drew back, and kicked out as he drew near enough.  His foot slammed into the bars of the gate, bending them outward.
5090
5091Guns cocked, aiming at the spaces between the bars.  Mauer raised his good arm, telling them to stop.
5092
5093Augustus leaned forward, fingers interlocked with the horizontal and vertical grille of the wrought iron, his forearm across his forehead and eyes.  Metal creaked.
5094
5095I wondered if he was strong enough to tear metal.  I really wasn’t sure.
5096[/QUOTE]
5097
5098Survived four assassination attempts by Mauer
5099[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
5100“I mark this as the fourth time you’ve shot at me,” Augustus said.  “Each time, I live, and people who serve you suffer…”
5101
5102The woman he held screamed, scratching at his hand with her hands, kicking with her legs.  He held her lower face by one hand, arm limp at one side, and his white-knuckled fingers were pushing into her mouth.  From the looks of it, the pressure of the fingers was pushing teeth out of place or breaking them outright.
5103
5104“…And die,” Augustus finished the statement.  He glanced down at the woman.  “Eventually.”
5105
5106“Judging by the shield-bearing stitched you brought this time around, you seem to have some concerns.”
5107
5108“Time spent getting new flesh put back on is time I’m not spending on hobbies and studies,” Augustus said.  He smiled, his cheeks dimpling.  “But I don’t think it’s worth throwing these lives away to cost me an afternoon of my time.  Not unless you hate me beyond all measure and reason.”
5109[/QUOTE]
5110
5111A different sort of focus compared to the Infante
5112[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5113He mimed shooting a gun with his fingers, as he articulated ‘punctuation’.  The action or the wit made Augustus laugh, loud.
5114
5115Not quite as refined as the Infante.  The laugh gave him away.  But there were hints of the Infante there.  A different sort of focus.  He knew full well what he was, and he was eminently comfortable here.  He was confident.
5116[/QUOTE]
5117
5118Outplaying Mauer
5119[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
5120But… Augustus was smiling.  One dimple, a lopsided smile.
5121
5122I knew, in the instant that I had that realization, that Augustus was going to try something.
5123
5124“Full stop,” Augustus said.
5125
5126“We all die someday, even boy nobles,” Mauer said, and he made those last two words sound more contemptuous and insulting than if he’d called Augustus a pile of bird shit.
5127
5128Augustus smiled.  Still one-sided.  One dimple, not two.
5129
5130“You may well be right.  They talk about true immortality, and we’ve even devised some forms of it, mind you, there were rumors about some work being done in the western Crown States, but there are always rumors.  It is always a few years on.  In coming decades, we’ll see if some of the current trials pan out.  But I expect to live a very long, comfortable life, all the same.”
5131
5132Don’t, I thought.  Just walk away, Mauer.
5133
5134*****
5135
5136“I plan to prove you wrong on that,” Mauer said.
5137
5138“Do you?  Then take aim, reverend,” Augustus said.  He dropped his arm.  His little eyes narrowed, and he spoke through a half-smile.  “You alone, I’ll let you draw your gun, aim at me, pull the trigger.  Aim for my supposed weak point.  Punctuate that statement you’re trying so desperately to make.  One shot.”
5139
5140I backed away a few steps.  I bumped up against the front of a soldier, who put his hand on my shoulder.  Off to the side, Jamie was leading Shirley back as well.
5141
5142“And you won’t move?” Mauer asked, moving his coat aside to put a hand on the handle of the pistol at his waist.
5143
5144“Not a-”
5145
5146Mauer drew, and the crack was sharp, audible, and visceral.
5147
5148The crack had nothing to do with Mauer’s gun.  No, that fired too, a fraction of a second later.
5149
5150I could see the blood at Augustus’ temple, where the bullet had grazed.
5151
5152The ringing aftermath of the gunshot was joined by the renewed screams of Augustus’ captive.  Her lower face in his grip, he’d snapped her jaw in the moment before Mauer had placed his bullet through one of those small, piggy eyes.
5153
5154Mauer had flinched.
5155
5156The moment passed, and Mauer adjusted, pulled the trigger again, four shots in rapid succession.
5157
5158But Augustus was turning away, the bullets gouged flesh at the side and back of his head, and caught one ear.
5159
5160Mauer changed tack, aiming at the woman Augustus held.
5161
5162The whites of her eyes were visible.
5163
5164His back to Mauer and the gun that was aimed at the woman’s forehead, Augustus said, “Take her.  Give her care.  I’m not without mercy.”
5165
5166And he dropped her.
5167
5168Mauer gestured, arm sweeping down, and the rest of his men fired.  Rifles unleashed their bullets, each aimed through the wrought iron gate.
5169
5170Augustus simply walked away, the bullets punching holes into him, and tearing off their chunks of flesh.
5171[/QUOTE]
5172[/SPOILER]
5173
5174[SPOILER="The Falconer"]
5175Description of the Falconer
5176[QUOTE=In Sheep's Clothing 10.17]And the young lady… about my age, and undoubtedly a noble, was leaner than her guardian and relative.  Statuesque, with the man’s fey glittering eyes, yet with none of the apparent humor behind them.  I wanted to despise her by default, to hate her, and I couldn’t find a flaw to pick at, to latch on to.  Not overdone, but not so indistinct as to be lost amid all of the other worked beauties.  Her features were soft, her almond eyes green and cold.  Her costume, and I didn’t have a word for it otherwise, was black, half-dress and half-suit, with calf-length leather boots and a fine leather falconer’s glove on her right hand, though she had no bird with her.  She stood with one hand on her hip, body askew, glove hanging at one side, and she made it look natural.  Raven hair hung down one side of her head, exposing only the one ear, which had black jewels set into it.
5177
5178She looked like the sort of noble I might have wanted to be, had I been one.  Whoever had decided on her aesthetic had made good choices, ones that I suspected made a great deal of sense, with attractiveness as a byproduct.  I suspected it all flowed seamlessly, in a way that made me think of the artistry behind Helen.  That design was almost enough to distract me from the situation.  The situation was bad.[/QUOTE]
5179[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.4]The slender woman next to him… I didn’t like nobles, but I’d found something I liked about her when I’d first seen her.  She did what the Lady Moth seemed so intent on doing, making herself into a physical and fashionable entity without going over the top, and she managed to sell herself as a Noble without being ostentatious.  A lot of that was how she moved, and her focus.  Her hair was black, swept over to one side, and her clothes were black silk, leather belts, and a shoulder ornamentation that looked like a roost for the falcon.  her hand on that same side was clad in a stylized falconer’s glove.[/QUOTE]
5180
5181Her raptor
5182[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.5]
5183The Falconer’s bird, perched on her shoulder, watched us.  It was half again as large as any bird of prey I’d seen, and Avis had once had some very large eagles.  The bird of prey had a head of golden feathers, and a body of black ones.  Its talons and beak were oil black, adding to the contrast.  Modified.  Possibly a chimera.
5184
5185Gordon and I assessed the thing, and judged that if we had to bolt, and if we couldn’t close a door behind us, that thing would probably win in a fight.
5186[/QUOTE]
5187
5188Tracking Sy, Jamie, and shirley with her Raptor
5189[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.13]
5190“I’m just saying, if there’s talking to do, maybe we talk it out before we tackle this,” I said, gesturing at the window.
5191
5192As if prompted by the gesture, a bird flew past the window.
5193
5194A very large bird.
5195
5196“Shit on a mad bat,” I said, stepping back from the window.  Jamie mirrored me, backing away.  “Shoes on, Shirley.”
5197
5198“What was that?” Jamie asked.
5199
5200“That would be the Falconer’s bird,” I said.  “A pet of one of the Infante’s charges.”
5201
5202“Ah,” Jamie said.  “Shitty bat indeed.”
5203
5204The bird flew past the window again.
5205
5206“Confirms it, that.  She knows where we are,” I said.  “And she will be harder to slip away from than the spike beasts.”
5207[/QUOTE]
5208
5209Sy vs Raptor
5210
5211[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.14]
5212I chose my path carefully, used the terrain, used the rain and the haze of moisture that it produced, water streaming off of me, soaking me from skin to bone and back again.  I watched for soldiers and I watched the sky.
5213
5214I saw the Falconer’s bird, as it flew into the alley, flapping its wings to pause, taking in the scene, and began following me.
5215
5216This danged thing.
5217
5218Where were you, bird?  You disappeared for a while.  Reported to your master, then came to look for us again.  Did you bother Jamie?  Did you scare Shirley?
5219
5220My eyes were opened as wide as I could get them, to better take in everything, see in the gloom and the rain.  My only blinks were really the reflexive ones, in reaction to the rain.
5221
5222As I reached out to a windowsill of an open window, gripping it hard to hurdle over and inside, I saw the great black bird diving for me.
5223
5224I let go of the windowsill, pulling my hand back and away, falling inside the kitchen there rather than gracefully leaping through.  The talon raked the base of the window where my hand had been, and flecks of water and wood splinters flew into the air.
5225
5226I heard its cry, and I imagined it was a shrill, eardrum-piercing cry of frustration.  It was certainly loud.  Even after it ended, there was a kind of echo in my ears as my ears rang from the volume.
5227
5228Before it could reorient and fly into the house, I hauled the window shut, then shut a second window.
5229
5230That cry – everyone within two city blocks might have heard it.  The Falconer certainly would have.
5231
5232The bird arrived, flapping violently before settling on the windowsill, the far side of the glass.  It stared at me, then shrieked again, a sound so loud and sharp it made my brain hurt.
5233
5234“Yeah, get plucked, bird.  You going to come through that window?” I asked, backing away.
5235
5236It rapped its beak against the glass.  One motion, sharp and backed by the full physique of its dense, well engineered body, and the glass shattered wholesale.  It flapped its wings, taking off.
5237
5238I reached for my waist, and I drew a gun.
5239
5240Except I didn’t really have a gun.  I’d sought to fake the bird out, force an instinctive reaction, much as I had with the stitched.
5241
5242The thing didn’t even give a dang.  As I turned on my toes to scramble for the nearest doorway, my brain dwelt on why.  Did it not care about me drawing a gun because it was that smart?  That perceptive?  Was it capable of figuring out that I didn’t actually have a weapon?
5243
5244Or was it tough enough that a bullet wouldn’t necessarily kill it before it killed me?
5245
5246There were other possibilities, but I had to consider that this was a noble’s pet.  Hubris had been a beautifully engineered piece of work, dangerous to underestimate, smarter than all get out.  There was no reason to think this was anything less.
5247
5248I would assume the worst, which meant assuming this thing was the best piece of work I could imagine it as, if not better.
5249
5250At least it didn’t have hands.
5251
5252Before it could fly at me and tear into me with talons long enough to reach into my chest and pluck out my recently repaired heart, I passed through a doorway and slammed that door behind me.
5253
5254I heard the impact as it struck the door.  It was a sound like one I’d heard countless times before.  A sharp object striking wood with confidence.
5255
5256Then silence.
5257
5258I ran down the hallway, making my way to the front door of the house.
5259
5260My hand had only just made contact with the doorknob when the bird came through the glass of the window by the staircase, to my left.  Its wings were spread wide, making it seem far larger than it already had, and it had already been the size of a proper attack dog.
5261
5262I threw myself back and away, landing on my back on the rug that ran down the hallway.  The bird was a blur, talons raking the door in passing before it flew into the living room.  The doorway to the living room was an arch, with no doors for me to slam shut.
5263
5264It knew exactly where I was, and it had gotten out of the building and around in time to intercept me.  It likely hadn’t hesitated longer than an eye’s blink before tearing away from the door and heading around to intercept.
5265
5266Even that attack, slashing at the door with its talons- it knew full well that I wasn’t at the front door anymore, that I’d thrown myself to the ground.  It hadn’t actually been trying to hit me.  It was a show of strength, intimidation.
5267
5268It perched on the mantlepiece, staring me down, extending that show.
5269
5270“I’m not a fan of you,” I informed the bird.  “You’re too big, too sharp, and too fast.”
5271
5272It flapped its wings and adjusted its footing, but it looked to be a show, just exercising them, posturing.
5273
5274Then it shrieked at me.
5275
5276I winced.  “And you’re loud.  Does your master put up with that?”
5277
5278I wanted the creature to make the first move, so I could react.
5279
5280The problem was, it seemed content to wait, let me act, and then it would probably scream at me, take off, and fly right for me.  It would scalp me, slash my throat, and I would have to deal with blood loss while making a run for it, if I even got that far.
5281
5282Or I could wait, and the Falconer would saunter over here and kill me.
5283
5284The tight confines, the countless little objects here and there, the pieces of furniture, the doors, they were supposed to be to my advantage.  This wasn’t a space that bird was supposed to be able to maneuver in.  It couldn’t even fully spread its wings in the hallway.
5285
5286Why, then, was it so damn hard to think of a good way to deal with it?
5287
5288Okay.  Have to do something.  Jamie and Shirley are waiting, and timing does matter.
5289
5290I didn’t climb to my feet.  By the time I did that, the bird would be on top of me.  Instead, I raised my feet up, slowly, my eye on the bird, watching carefully.
5291
5292I jumped to my feet, bringing my legs down as I brought my upper body up and forward.  I had to bring a leg back to catch myself from falling backward, but I was able to lunge for the front door.
5293
5294It would be locked.  It was a two-step action, to unlock it and haul it open.  Another two steps to move through the doorway and close the door behind me.
5295
5296And at no point would I actually be rid of the bird.  It would exit through the window it had entered through and be on top of me in seconds.
5297
5298Four steps was still too many.  Seconds was a reprieve, time to think and act when this encounter moved at double that tempo.  Every half-second mattered, every action had to flow into another.
5299
5300My rolling to my feet became a lunge for the door.  That became a jump, where I set one foot on top of the doorknob, running up, twisting around, aiming to go over the Falcon, utilizing the blind spot of the archway and wall that separated the hall from the living room.
5301
5302My head grazed the ceiling, and I found myself face to face with the bird, which within an armspan of me.
5303
5304I’d been out-anticipated and outsmarted by an animal with a head the size of two fists pressed together.
5305
5306I struck for one wing – the most vulnerable and least sharp part of the thing, and hit it, but as gravity pulled me down, the bird maintained its height.  Talons raked my scalp and caught the side of my neck.
5307
5308I’d have blood running down my face and the back of my shirt, and that neck wound would bleed like an alkie’s asshole, but he hadn’t gotten anything vital.
5309
5310My eye was on the prize.  I landed, shifted to face a right angle, and sprinted to the window by the stairs, diving through it.
5311
5312The bird was a second behind me, but it didn’t dive for me.
5313
5314I tumbled to the ground, got my feet under me, and rose from the tumble to a standing position, reaching out for the wall to steady myself.
5315
5316I saw the flapping of those great black wings in the corner of my eye, and I turned to look.
5317[/QUOTE]
5318
5319More on her appearance
5320[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.14]
5321The Falconer had arrived.  Tall, raven haired, dressed in a white silk shirt with black leather over it in something between armor and a corset.  Much as the shirt was constrained by the black leather, belts constrained her skirt, which was just short enough to show how tall her boots were. The boots matched the falconer’s glove she wore.  Her free hand, ungloved, held a saber.
5322
5323Every piece of her was decorated, but it was subtle, not ostentatious as nobles so often were.  Etching in the leather, stitching in the silk.  It drew the eye, made that part of me that wanted to investigate want to pay attention and discern meaning, whereupon I only fell into the trap and her dangerous allure.
5324
5325Her eyes resembled those of her bird.
5326[/QUOTE]
5327
5328Leaping across carriage tops
5329[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.14]
5330I turned and ran, knowing that she was faster.
5331
5332As I approached the street, however, I saw something glorious.
5333
5334The haze of the rain was made even hazier by thick clouds of gas.  I could see the spatters of gore.  I could see people reeling, hands to their ears
5335
5336Woe unto the birds.
5337
5338This particular command phrase, in retrospect, was very fitting, considering who my current pursuers.
5339
5340I ran straight into the fog of gas.
5341
5342The Falconer leaped up onto the top of a carriage, then leaped across to the next.  Staying high, above the fog and the smoke, while still pursuing.
5343
5344I saw one wagon with a slope leading down to the bench, rain-slick, and put it between myself and the Falconer.
5345
5346She leaped, and I doubted she saw the slope before she was in the air.  She skidded on landing, momentum carrying her into the slope.
5347
5348I watched her adjust her weight, the foot that was set lower on the roof sweeping in a sharp, focused half-circle, scraping the wet wood for maximum traction.  Not quite enough to stop her downward movement, but it slowed her enough that she could leap to the next carriage.  One that had a flatter top.
5349[/QUOTE]
5350
5351Ramming her blade six inches into paved road
5352[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.14]
5353The Falconer’s fell bird came down, shifting its trajectory to follow me.  I’d anticipated it, because the Falconer had been too calm, too measured in her advance even as I’d slowed down to watch her.  Anyone else with her capacity for killing would have reacted on some level, quickened her advance.
5354
5355But the guillotine had already been coming down, and she had no reason to hurry.
5356
5357I had to shift direction a second time, letting myself fall to the ground right next to the rearing, stomping horse, to avoid the bird’s talons.
5358
5359The Falconer leaped, in perfect step with her pet, and I rolled, beneath and through the stomping hooves.  The puddling water I moved through made my already drenched clothing even heavier, pooling within it, weighing me down, pouring out and altering my balance every step of the way.
5360
5361The Falconer’s saber had been buried a half-foot into the road by her plunge.  With cool confidence, she stood, pulling it free with no effort at all.
5362[/QUOTE]
5363
5364She and August surviving a massive explosion
5365[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14..14]
5366It sounded like a rockslide, starting at one end of the street, sweeping to the next.  A series of detonations, one after another.  The nobles stopped, looking back and over.
5367
5368I kept moving away, bracing myself.
5369
5370The explosion swept over the street, and it caught something.  It wasn’t the other gas, which had enough methane to keep the chain reaction alive.  No.  One or several of the wagons that had been parked along the street had borne gunpowder, or explosives, or fuel.
5371
5372Stitched were capable of burning.  They were dry, combustible.  Wagons were wood.  Soldiers carried grenades.
5373
5374Whatever the case, that ominous rumble as the methane caught and was consumed in a rolling flame, it was soon punctuated by the crack and the blast of real explosives going off, each with their individual shockwaves and ripple effects.
5375
5376I stumbled, tripping and falling as I wrapped my head around what was happening.  The nobles, their giants and their pet bird, they were closer to the street and the nearest wagon loaded with munitions.  The shockwave hit them.  The nobles were bowled over, the giants staggered, one of their robes setting alight.  The bird went down in that same lick of flame.
5377
5378The goal had been to stir the pot, to give people reason to leave or be evacuated.  It also, in the roundabout path, would mean that people who had been further away would gather here, that numbers would be more concentrated.  All of that required buying time.
5379
5380It wouldn’t be a guarantee, some civilians would have been caught in the blast.
5381
5382The act of buying time had also given Jamie time to get in position, to spring the methane trap with the next of the command words.
5383
5384The nobles had been bowled over.  The bird and one giant had been burned.
5385
5386I picked myself up, and climbed to my feet, still breathing hard from the running, shaking from exhaustion that was half due to exertion and half due to my not having wood on the fire, food in the belly.
5387
5388They remained on the ground for long moments.
5389
5390I waited, watching.
5391
5392August was the first to move.  The Falconer stirred after that.
5393
5394Not even looking up at me or at her pet, she gestured at the bird, and she made a short whistling sound.
5395
5396The bird moved, shifting its stance.  Wings stretched forward, and it crawled to its master on its bladed wing-tips and talons, much as the spike warbeasts had moved on four spikes.  No longer able to fly, but entirely capable of operating as an attack beast all the same.  Just as resilient as the noble it served.
5397
5398The Falconer put one hand on its back, and rose to her feet, head still hanging, hair forming a curtain in front of her face.
5399
5400I’d seen all I needed to see, gotten the measure of the damage we’d managed to inflict, by way of how slowly they moved.
5401
5402The nobles, I was sure, would chase, and they would be sure to make us answer this.[/QUOTE]
5403[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5404The crash and the ensuing disruption might have bought me time.  The elements of the crowd that were lingering gave me some room to move.  The nobles were, by dint of the bodyguards, big.  I could thread the needle, weaving through the crowd, that was only just realizing they were in the way, and hope that the nobles would either show some conscience and avoid the worst of the crowd, or at least stumble on the bodies and wreckage left behind and slow down because of that.
5405
5406I preferred the former to the latter, but I preferred living above all else.
5407
5408It was telling, then, that the nobles chose to detour and slow down, and that I was able to put some distance between myself and them.
5409
5410Good thing too, because for all of their injuries, they had caught up to me fast, and they would again.  I had little doubt they had more stamina than I did, too.
5411[/QUOTE]
5412[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5413“No opportunities to use the explosion?” Jamie asked.
5414
5415“The blast set off other things,” I said.  “Our guess was off.  I got knocked to the ground.  I felt like if I went after them while they were down, they would jolt like a new stitched, reach out, and grab me.”
5416
5417“It’s good if you go with your gut,” Jamie said.
5418
5419“Done pretty well for me so far,” I said.
5420[/QUOTE]
5421
5422Falconer and August are better built Nobles than Baron
5423[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]“I’m not sure the nobles here have any.  The pet bird didn’t have any.  The explosion roughed them up, but… they’re a step above the Baron and the Twins.  A few steps above.  Even with that, I wouldn’t say there’s a weak point to hit, or anything I can do or say that would affect them.”[/QUOTE]
5424
5425Falconer's ranking
5426[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5427“Closer to the Duke in general rankings, but kind of a youngest-daughter of the youngest-daughter thing.  Further away in the chance of getting the Crown, but maybe one day she would marry someone close to the Crown, and settle into a position of power.  It says a lot that the Infante seems to like her.”
5428
5429“Where did she first appear?”
5430
5431“London, or so I heard.  Her debut was here,” Jamie said.  “Same as Augustus.”
5432[/QUOTE]
5433
5434Falconer's smoke and her startling recovery
5435[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.15]
5436Jamie and I opened our doors.
5437
5438I saw something move, fast, out of the corner of my eye, and I slammed my door shut.  Jamie was a second behind me.
5439
5440It crashed rather than explode.  A kind of artillery shell, but made of something closer to glass than to metal.
5441
5442There were other impacts.  One struck the carriage itself.
5443
5444Each splash of liquid from the containers billowed smoke on contact from air.
5445
5446*****
5447
5448The smoke was expanding to the point that some of it was leaking in through gaps in the carriage.  Shirley still had the gas mask I’d given her in the lab, and she pulled it on.
5449
5450I leaned over, as the gas came in through a crack in the door, and I wafted it to my nose with one hand, like I’d seen scientists do.
5451
5452Slightly acrid, but I couldn’t smell much in the way of chemicals.  Nothing too medicinal.  Subtle.
5453
5454I’d spent my life around labs, both hostile and questionably friendly.
5455
5456I opened my door and stepped outside, breathing deeper.
5457
5458Even with my emotions running high, I couldn’t sense any shifts, major or miniscule, in how my body reacted.  My capillaries didn’t suddenly draw up more blood or vent it.  My breathing was fine.  The taste on my tongue was mostly neutral.
5459
5460“Safe?” Jamie asked from within the carriage.
5461
5462“No idea.  But it doesn’t seem unsafe,” I said.
5463
5464With the smoke and rain being what they were, the visibility had been reduced.  I could make out large details within fifteen feet or so, and the general shape of things out to thirty feet, maybe.  But beyond that, things were a blur.
5465
5466Very likely the intention.
5467
5468*****
5469
5470The Falconer stepped out of the smoke.  It flowed off and around her, as if she was eminently at home in it.  Her bird wasn’t with her.
5471
5472She moved easily, with no suggestion of the injuries we’d inflicted with the rolling explosion.  Her head was angled in such a way that she could watch the both of us with one eye.  She maintained a set distance from us, walking sideways across our field of view, emerging from and disappearing into smoke.
5473[/QUOTE]
5474
5475Her agility and not-killable by pistols
5476[QUOTE=Thicker than water 14.15]
5477“Trade you,” he said.  He reached over to the seat and handed over a pistol.
5478
5479“I could have used this earlier.”
5480
5481“I didn’t have this earlier, you ninny,” he said.  “I grabbed it while we were looking for a carriage with a driver we could bribe.”
5482
5483I sighed, took the pistol, and slid the scalpel across the seat between us.
5484
5485*****
5486
5487I was looking back at her as I saw the Falconer jump up and onto the wagon, as if she was as light as air.  Graceful.
5488
5489If she cared about her beast dying or having been shot, she didn’t show it.
5490
5491I fired my gun backward and in her general direction, and I saw a hint of a reaction.
5492
5493I doubted it would kill her.
5494[/QUOTE]
5495
5496More on her physicals
5497[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
5498She was barely visible, through the rain.  A small figure on a building six floors tall.
5499
5500Her head was angled, her hair blowing across her face, her skirt flapping in the wind.  She stood at one corner of the building with one arm extended, saber in hand and pointing up and out.  It caught the light, and for that reason alone, she was visible.
5501
5502*****
5503
5504“Her position,” Jamie said.  “Where she is now.  Where she can be.  The routes open to her, given what I know about the environment.  She can travel down the building face, I assume, or jump down to the next building, detour to one side.  Go down the stairs in the building itself, if she’s hurt and doesn’t feel up to any acrobatics.”
5505
5506“She wouldn’t be that high up if she wasn’t sure she could swoop down,” I said.
5507
5508“Right,” Jamie said.
5509
5510“I don’t get the impression she’s angry.  We killed her bird, but I feel more like she has others.  They’re tools.  Weapons.  But she’s motivated, and that’s more dangerous than her being angry.  She’ll take a more direct path.”
5511
5512“Jumps down to next building, jumps down to overhang above door, then to street.  Moves along our right, catches up, flanks?” Jamie asked.
5513
5514“I can see it,” I said.
5515
5516“Or straight down building face, to road.  Using cover of smoke, comes right after us,” Jamie said.  “Risking getting shot at.”
5517
5518I thought of how she had stalked us.  “Any paths that branch off of that one?  Flanking us?  Or descending on us?”
5519
5520“Several,” Jamie said.  He gestured for me.
5521
5522Mauer surveyed the area.  We’d reached an area where, in place of a block of four to six large buildings, there was an empty lot.  It had sat empty for some time.  Crushed stone littered the area that would later be the foot of a building, and a combination of grass and brick paths filled out the rest of the square.  Tall buildings surrounded us.
5523[/QUOTE]
5524
5525Slaughtering rebel soldiers and experiments with her smoke cloak
5526[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.16]
5527Leaping down from a higher vantage point, the Falconer had made her appearance.
5528
5529She had a hood up, protecting her hair from the rain, wore a jacket, skirt, and high boots, and even without her raptor’s company, she wore the falconer’s glove on one hand, carried the saber in the other.
5530
5531People at the fringes saw her, and people fired.
5532
5533Each bullet that struck home made her move, by the sheer weight of impact, but it didn’t stop her.  She crossed the short distance to the edge of the enemy group, and then she began cutting the rebel forces down.
5534
5535Bullets didn’t stop her.  At best, they carved away half of a handful of flesh.
5536
5537She didn’t have as much flesh to spare as Augustus or the Infante might, but she didn’t need it.  Once she was in the midst of the rebel forces, she was shot far less.  They needed to use knives, axes, shovels, and bayonets instead, and in every case, they failed.
5538
5539Every swing in her direction was deftly evaded, frequently punished by death.
5540
5541She had no less than twenty fresh corpses behind her before nerve started breaking.  People saw her coming, backed away and backed into others, and they aimed and shot.  They didn’t care anymore that there were people on the far side.  That every miss was liable to kill one of their own.
5542
5543They cared that a number of others before them had tried to match the young woman in melee and failed.  She was a reaper, death imminent, and they were using the most lethal means they had at their disposal to try to postpone or gamble against that death.
5544
5545She was cutting a swathe through the crowd, heading for Mauer and the rest of the rebel leadership.
5546
5547As heavier munitions were turned her way, she ducked low, hiding among the people she was killing.  Smoke billowed in her wake as she used canisters of gas or something like the stitched giants had been deploying.
5548
5549She was getting harder and harder to track as she built up steam.
5550
5551****
5552
5553We ran, my hand reaching out for and pulling at Shirley’s.  We ducked low as we crossed open space to reach the fringes of the group, and we reached the trail of bodies she had left behind her.
5554
5555With Shirley in tow, it was slower to weave through the crowd, chasing.  The Falconer wasn’t slow, either.  She was graceful as she killed, her economy of actions efficient.
5556
5557If she killed or even hurt Mauer, then it would be a devastating blow to everyone present.  They would know that even the greatest of them, in the midst of an army, would be vulnerable.  That the enemy was thatdangerous, that relentless and hard to stop.
5558
5559I let go of Shirley’s hand, leaving her to Jamie as I ran ahead, accelerating my pace, dodging past people and experiments to close the distance, striving to catch up.
5560
5561More bodies.  And people were retreating from her and from Mauer, to better save their own skin, which meant there were areas I was free to run forward without having to pause, without having to duck left or right or keep my head down to keep from braining myself on the butt end of a rifle someone was holding.
5562
5563The increments were small, but I was gaining ground on her.
5564
5565I saw snippets of her through the crowd, moving in the midst of rain and mob and sprays of blood.  Her wounds were superficial, her eyes wide, entirely the eyes of a predator and killer.  She didn’t look directly at those she killed, but, airborne in a leap, saber held high, she spared a moment’s glance at me, meeting my eyes.
5566
5567As if to let me know that she had seen me.  She had seen my efforts, and the actions that followed would prove them vain.
5568
5569Mauer led his army, and was yet unaware of what was tearing his way.
5570
5571The moment ended.  The Falconer swooped down.  Three people died in that swing of a saber, by my estimation.
5572
5573Mauer was perhaps fifty paces ahead of me.  Thirty paces ahead of her.
5574
5575Black smoke billowed here and there.  The same stuff the giants had used.  I could tell by the size of the clouds how fresh they were.
5576
5577I could tell, as I came across the latest, that it was only two or three seconds old.
5578
5579She should have been further ahead of me.
5580
5581She’d stopped.
5582
5583I turned around, looking, my first thought being that she’d seen me, she’d ducked through the crowd to circle around, and she would be coming at me now, from an unexpected angle.
5584
5585An unexpected angle, yes.
5586
5587I looked past the people who were scattering.  I saw Jamie and Shirley, running toward me.  Confusion on Jamie’s face as he saw that I’d stopped.
5588
5589The Falconer practically materialized behind them.  Stepping out of the crowd, silently killing two people as she did it.
5590
5591Black haired, black garbed, with eyes like a hawk, spelling only cold death, she loomed behind them.  I saw Jamie’s expression change, as he registered my expression.
5592
5593Jamie couldn’t react in time.  Let alone me.
5594
5595With all of the Lambs but one standing in the crowd, watching, I cried out.
5596[/QUOTE]
5597
5598Nearly cutting a rifle in half
5599[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.17]
5600She swung her saber, blind, and he held up his rifle.  Metal cut into metal, almost but not quite severing the rifle in half.
5601
5602Jamie and Shirley backed away from the blinded noble, to my side.
5603
5604And then, by unspoken agreement, we fled the battlefield.
5605[/QUOTE]
5606
5607Even while blinded, she's able to slaughter various experiments and soldiers before being overrun
5608[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.18]
5609The soldiers on the rebellion side backed away from the blinded Falconer, giving her a twenty-foot berth.  The very sound of the battlefield had shifted, with the rebellion side watching in a kind of awe, while the Crown forces pushed hard, shouting and urging the front ranks into more of a forward push.
5610
5611Striving to get to their noble.  Through rain and smoke, someone had seen and passed on the word.  Now, belatedly, they were fighting to give her a place to escape to.
5612
5613Jamie and I ran, with Jamie taking the lead, my hand holding Shirley’s.  I kept one eye on what was going on in front of me and one eye on the Falconer, as we circled around.
5614
5615Orders were given, and experiments from the rebel side charged in from all directions.  They included several stitched, a modified hound with spines, an oversized insect, a modified human with weapons built into him, and a crude vat-grown man that was seven feet tall.  The vat-man looked like he was formed entirely of scar tissue, the details washed out.
5616
5617There was some loose degree of coordination.  The stitched marched forward, more or less mindless, while the animals shied back, looking to dart in while her back was turned, while she turned this way and that reacting to sounds, her sword moving.
5618
5619She must have heard the tramping footsteps of the stitched, because she lunged toward the nearest two, striking out.  One beheaded, another slashed across the lower face.  She reversed the cut, this time aiming for the throat, and beheaded that one as well.
5620
5621She’d been able to figure out what she had cut, and adjust accordingly.
5622
5623But as she turned on the third, the spined hound leaped for her.  Quieter than the stitched, harder to hear, it got its teeth on her.
5624
5625She whirled, moving the sword, not cutting so much as she brought the blade under, sawing along the creature’s head.
5626
5627The scar-man clubbed her, making her stagger a few steps, and was killed for the insult.
5628
5629She fought blind, with clear mental visualizations of where her enemies were.
5630
5631And, as she held the sword out, holding it so it pointed generally in the direction of a third stitched, who had stopped in its tracks after seeing others die.
5632
5633Deciding on discretion over valor, she bolted, running in the general direction of the Crown forces – Montgomery’s group.
5634
5635She cut a swathe, stumbling here and there as bullets were fired in her direction.
5636
5637She didn’t make it out of the clearing.  The man with weapon arms flung himself at her, caught her legs, and tripped her.
5638
5639Stabbing toward the man who still held her legs, she pierced him in the chest.
5640
5641The Falconer -Mary Cobourn- might have been able to escape if she’d managed to start running again, cutting her way through the crowd, but it didn’t get that far.  The man with the weapon arms was still alive as someone threw something incendiary at him and the Falconer.
5642
5643I saw only a glimpse of the fire that sprang into being around her and the man, and then Jamie and I were too far into the thicker part of the crowd.  I couldn’t see what unfolded from that, but I could guess well enough.
5644[/QUOTE]
5645
5646[/SPOILER]
5647
5648[SPOILER="The Monte Crew"]
5649Monte catching Sy as he tried to escape
5650[QUOTE=Thicker than Water 14.2]
5651Seven young men and women, adolescents, to look at them.  All tall, most gorgeous, and all wearing the finest and most modern fashions I’d seen, no doubt custom made to their individual forms.  They had intensity in their eyes and cold, mask-like expressions.
5652
5653“Window,” Gordon said.
5654
5655I bolted.  The window was open, and the train was going full-speed.  The fact that I could see the upper halves of trees and not the bottom halves suggested it was a slope, and it was a fall that was likely to kill me.
5656
5657Preferable to this.
5658
5659One hand on the side of the window, one hand on the bottom, I moved to launch myself out.
5660
5661The hook-end of a cane caught me by the neck.  I was wrenched back, stumbling, then neatly deposited in the middle of the three seats.  The one that Jamie had been sitting in.
5662
5663The young noble took a seat opposite me.  He raised a long leg and propped one foot up on the seat to my left, then moved his cane so it was the other way around, bottom end facing me.
5664
5665I moved to escape, and the cane caught me again.  I froze, pinned where I was, the end of the cane pressing against my guzzler’s knot.
5666[/QUOTE]
5667
5668Description of Monte and Sy considering him to be the biggest threat
5669[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5670The young man who was sitting across from me looked as though he had just had a team of hairdressers, a barber, and a tailor just finish working on him.  His black hair was slicked back, the faint messiness at the front of his hair and over his ears looked sculpted.  It was late, but his chin was clean of even the shadow of stubble.  Chin and cheekbones were sculpted, giving his face a mask-like appearance that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  He wore a white collared shirt with ornate silver trim at the edges of the collar, a tie, vest, and a long black coat.  The silver ornamentation extended to his cufflinks, embossed buttons, the buckles of his shoes, and, now that I looked, to the irises of his eyes.
5671
5672He was the biggest threat, so I fixed the whole of my attention on him.
5673
5674“What a shame,” he said.  “By bringing you in, we’re denying a good citizen the ability to do the same.  There was good money placed on you, sir.  Good money the Crown was willing to part with, a sum that could have raised someone up from obscurity to aristocracy.”
5675[/QUOTE]
5676
5677Monte reading Sy's change in expression
5678[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water]
5679“You don’t look like much, do you?” Monte with the silver ornamentation spoke, studying me.  “But you certainly did something to deserve being worth that reward money.”
5680
5681Jamie’s voice overlapped with his, “Think.  Gordon’s right, we need to play along, and we’re getting swept up in the observations without picking out the things we can use.  You used Wyvern to shut out the world, Sy, but we need you to access the world again.”
5682
5683I stared into Monte’s silver eyes, and I was reminded of how I’d met Lillian’s, when she and I had been so close.  It was a painful reminder, but it was a barb that helped wake me up to reality, connect this situation to the way I’d been thinking there.
5684
5685The emotional equivalent of reaching out, seizing a knife by the blade, and squeezing.
5686
5687Something must have changed in my expression, because Monte said, “There you are.”
5688[/QUOTE]
5689
5690Monte is seen as the pack leader
5691[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]“No titles,” Evette said.  Evette was now behind Monte’s seat, arms folded over the top of the seats.  Her chin had been resting on her forearm, but now her head was raised just enough to let her talk.  “Look at him, look at them.  They’re deferring.  The woman, the way she talked, you know He’s the leader of this pack.  Your instincts said to focus on him for a reason.”[/QUOTE]
5692
5693Monte's knowledge of anatomy
5694[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5695The cane moved from my guzzler’s knot to the side.  It jerked, pressing in hard, just beside my windpipe.  Had it been sharp, a thrust of that force would have gone right through my neck to the seat behind me.
5696
5697He knew where nerve clusters, veins, and arteries were, I was guessing.
5698[/QUOTE]
5699[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5700“Cease your barking and speak, boy,” Monte said, imperious.  His hand gripped my hair and pushed my head back against the seat.  The movement of my head made my throat hurt, and the shift in angle forced blood out of the open wound, which only exacerbated the problem.
5701
5702He’d known about the veins and nerve clusters.  He had to know he was demanding I speak while I was helpless to do so.
5703[/QUOTE]
5704
5705Monte's quick reflexes
5706[QUOTE=Thcker Than Water 14.2]
5707“Stay strong, he won’t kill you this quickly,” Gordon said.  “Bend the knee, Sy.”
5708
5709“Bend the knee,” Jamie echoed.
5710
5711I looked up at Evette.  Her chin rested on her arm, now.  She only smiled.
5712
5713“Ah,” I managed.
5714
5715Monte let up with the cane.  I took a second to let my vision start to go back to normal, the light returning at the periphery.
5716
5717“My apologies,” I said.
5718
5719Monte declined his head in acknowledgement of my apology.
5720
5721“Good evening to you,” I said, looking again at Evette.  “Monte.”
5722
5723The cane stabbed forward before I was even done uttering the word.  Fast reflexes.  The butt end of it thrust past my teeth and into my open mouth, then stabbed at the soft flesh at the back of my throat.
5724
5725My eyes went wide.  The contact there and the natural physiological reactions mandated that I gag and upchuck, but the fact that I hadn’t eaten in recent memory, giving my lunch to Shirley instead, and the fact that I’d dulled my senses and put myself into a kind of hibernation mode meant I was only barely able to repress my reaction.
5726
5727My hands went out, gripping the armrests to either side of me, as he pressed hard, the back of my neck being compressed against my pillowed seat back.
5728
5729He kept me like that, my breath coming in short, pained gasps, while he continued to stare me down.  The others stood on the sidelines, quiet and analytical.  Even bemused.
5730[/QUOTE]
5731
5732Monte's enhanced senses and endurance
5733[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]He was true to form.  Monte spoke, “Shall we stay like this all the way to New Amsterdam?  My arm won’t get tired.  I can smell the blood coming from the back of your throat.  I can see your muscles moving as you hold yourself back from gagging.  If you try to vomit, you might tear your own throat open.  How many hours is it?”[/QUOTE]
5734
5735Lord Leeds, third in group hierarchy
5736[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]“Long enough,” one of the other nobles said.  A man, wearing only a vest over a collared shirt.  His blond hair was damp from the rain of Radham.[/QUOTE]
5737[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5738“Don’t be a sore loser now, Monte,” one of the other nobles said.  The blond male that had been doing most of the talking.
5739
5740“Third in the hierarchy,” Jamie guessed.
5741[/QUOTE]
5742[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.3]
5743Leeds was tall, but that wasn’t unusual.  All of the nobles but the ‘Lady Moth’ were.  His hair was immaculately slicked back, his skin lacked any sort of blemish, and he sat with such perfect stillness that I might have thought he had died on the spot.
5744
5745That would have been quite the thing to deal with.
5746
5747I shifted the position of my hand.  Leeds’ hand moved almost in unison, as if there were strings attached to me, and any movement on my part made for an equal and matching reaction on his.
5748
5749If I moved my hand in any way that put me in a better position to grab the sword, his hand moved closer to the handle.
5750
5751No other part of him moved.  No tells, no tricks.
5752[/QUOTE]
5753
5754Leed's analytical mind
5755[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.3]
5756Helen and I looked down at the gleaming length of the blade.
5757
5758We looked up to meet his eyes.  My eyes were cold, dispassionate.  I was Helen without the mask on.
5759
5760Gut feeling told me that the noble would respect this more than the act.
5761
5762“I’m going to assume you found a way to give yourself a dose of one drug or another, based on the things I’m seeing,” Leeds said.  “Narrowed pupil, change in breathing.”
5763
5764My breathing was slower.  I was calmer.
5765
5766Monte approached, traveling down half the aisle before asking, “Is there a problem?”
5767
5768“I don’t think so,” Leeds said.  “He may have found a way to dose himself with something without moving his hands or feet.”
5769[/QUOTE]
5770
5771Monte's sister, Moth, second in group hierarchy 
5772[QUOTE=thicker Than Water 14.2]
5773“This is dull, Monte,” one of the other nobles said.  The second of the two young ladies.  She was the shortest of the group, with black hair, intense blue eyes, and a light fur ruff at her collar, built into her dress.  Where the fur ruff might have been too warm for summer, the fact that her hair was an ‘up’ style that exposed her neck and that her dress was open backed and mid-thigh in length made up for it.  The series of careful balances continued, as she wore just enough tasteful jewelry to make up for the minimal quantity of cloth.  She, too, had chosen silver.
5774
5775The dress tied at the back, behind the neck.  The elaborate tie looked like a small set of wings.
5776[/QUOTE]
5777[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5778“Sylvester,” the sister said.  The others were drawing nearer.  The spectres of the Lambs moved to accommodate the group.
5779
5780“Monte is the leader, he gets first pickings,” Gordon commented.  “But if he doesn’t maintain that standing, the power moves to the next figure in the hierarchy.  We have hours left on this train, several stops, and they’ll keep rotating out until they find an excuse to eat us alive.”
5781[/QUOTE]
5782
5783Monte's sister analyzing Sy
5784[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5785The sister crossed one leg over the other, so they folded over at the knee, her hands clasped in her lap.
5786
5787“You’re a hard one to get a read on,” she said.
5788
5789“I’ve been told that,” I said.
5790
5791“You’re more methodical than I thought you’d be, at first glance,” she said.  “You think before you say or do anything.  I even suspect you feigned coughing for longer than you needed to, to work out what you were doing.  I suppose that’s necessary for an assassin, but it feels very mechanical.  Like a stitched, albeit a clever one.”
5792[/QUOTE]
5793[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5794“Me?” she asked.  “In this sort of game, it’s a disadvantage to go first.  I only encourage the others to top me.”
5795
5796“It’s only fair that you set the bar, as the inventor of the game,” I said.  “Besides, I suspect you’re more interested in seeing the creative efforts of others.  I imagine you have an idea in mind already.”
5797
5798She wanted us to be fluid, less mechanical.  Now we were responding faster, ready with answers the moment she spoke.  Throughout, we maintained the eye contact, the confident body language, the faint mirroring of her own body language here and there.
5799
5800And she had to know that we were moving to force her hand.  If she said that no, she didn’t have an idea in mind already, then she looked ignorant, she forfeited power in the eyes of her peers.
5801
5802Where the eye contact, the body language, and all of the word choice up to this point were important was in making this more of a tease than an attack.  It wasn’t so different from how I’d approached Lillian.  ‘I know you’re capable of handling this.’
5803
5804I could handle teasing, as painful as it was to execute.
5805
5806So could Gordon, for that matter.  His teasing had been a different sort.  Natural, less manipulative, and more because people had been drawn to him automatically, and all he’d had to do was step back and let them follow.
5807
5808She knew what I was doing.
5809[/QUOTE]
5810
5811Lady Marcel, 4th in group hierarchy
5812[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.2]
5813Jamie and I patiently watched as the sister seemed to decide on the other girl as the next to take her turn.  The taller, blonde noblewoman, the only other girl in the group of seven.
5814
5815The finger pointed, the sister enjoying her moment.  “Marcella, dear.”
5816
5817“My lady,” Marcella said, curtsying in the aisle.
5818[/QUOTE]
5819
5820How the Monte Crew of noble's acted as one
5821[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.4]
5822There was a surprising degree of positioning, and the dark mirror was one that put the nobles in stark contrast to the Lambs.  Everything was deliberate, where the positioning was so fluid with the Lambs.
5823
5824For us, it had always been something we naturally did.  Once we got to know each other and things became second nature, we would take up positions as the situation warranted, as comfort levels and skills in different fields dictated.
5825
5826For the nobles, it felt mechanical, even as they did something very similar.  Everyone had a place they belonged, ordered by hierarchy.  They were, as far as I was aware, more similar to one another than individually specialized, and that informed how they moved, where they stood, and the order they fell into.
5827[/QUOTE]
5828
5829Leed's damaged by a Noble Bullet but has the grit to try and remove it by hand
5830[QUOTE=Thicker Than Water 14.4]Leeds had been shot.  He’d dropped to one knee by the nose of the next carriage over.  An expanding bullet.  It had torn into his hip, burrowing into the hollow of his pelvic bone.  He was working methodically to extract it.[/QUOTE]
5831
5832[/SPOILER]
5833
5834[SPOILER="Lady Gloria"]
5835Her description
5836[QUOTE=Lamb Arc 17]The noble lady stood before her.  Pale, white-haired, with oil-black lashes on her eyes and a slender, graceful frame and a gossamer-thin dress, the woman was young as nobles went, no older than twenty-five.  The noble lady’s fingers were long, the painted, pointed fingernails like a brandishing of daggers that fenced Lillian off from being able to reach out and take the commendation that lay in the cup of the palm[/QUOTE]
5837
5838Gloria using herself like a shield, rifle bullets not even drawing blood
5839[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.7]He was joined by a woman a foot taller than him, and he wasn’t short.  Her hair was white, her lashes black and almost overly long, in a way that would have looked ridiculous had she not been so very well put together in every other respect.  Her nails were like daggers, and she held a fan.
5840
5841*****
5842
5843“Guns out,” Jessie gave the order.  “Pass on word.  Don’t waste bullets, but open fire on him, now.”
5844
5845*****
5846
5847Almost immediately, the rifles sounded.  I saw a glimpse of the Professor raising one hand before the Lady stepped in front of him, a body shield.
5848
5849“Aim high!  Account for gravity!” I called out, raising my voice to be heard over the battery of gunshots.  “Like you practiced!”
5850
5851The shots hit windows, the bridge, and they hit the Lady.  She felt the impact of them, but she didn’t step back or stagger.  They didn’t draw blood, either.
5852
5853“That would be Lady Gloria,” Jessie said.
5854[/QUOTE]
5855
5856Understanding the danger, noting that Jamie isreading her lips, and knowing when the gas is fading
5857[QUOTE]
5858“Emmett’s station.”
5859
5860The words were barely out of Mary’s mouth when the crash occurred at the leftmost end of the admin building.  Every head on the ground turned to look.
5861
5862What we’d set up overnight to look like boards shoring up a hole in the wall was… akin to a dam.  Emmett had just breached it.
5863
5864No water fell, no billowing smoke.  There was no rain of spiders or parasites.
5865
5866“Hoy!” I raised my voice, bellowing.
5867
5868I wanted their attention.  Some of the nobles could hear me, but they were halfway occupied with surveying the scene, trying to get a better idea of what was happening.
5869
5870To all appearances, we’d shattered a wall of wooden planks.  Keen eyes would see that the space beyond was simply more wood, an empty box.
5871
5872“Carling!” I called out, pushing my voice to its limits.  My throat was raw from shouting I didn’t remember doing.  “Gloria!  It’s a joke!”
5873
5874“It’s not a joke,” Jessie said, translating what seemed to be Lady Gloria’s words.  She was backing up swiftly, barking out orders.  She flung her hands to either side of her as she gestured with the same efficacy that another person might swing a sword.  She was likely as dangerous, not that the elaborate white dress and elbow-length gloves conveyed that impression.  “Get back.  Get back.  Get to higher ground.”
5875
5876Jessie didn’t normally speak in a monotone, but she did here, and it made for a curious juxtaposition with the scene.
5877
5878They were retreating, backing off.  They moved to rooftops and the skeletal remains of burned buildings, but some soldiers, some beasts, and some stitched were slow to move.
5879
5880A small few of that ‘some’ reacted with pain.  They stopped, dropped, and thrashed.
5881
5882“Don’t fall,” Jessie translated Gloria’s words.
5883
5884We’d released a volume of gas coupled with a few treats we’d suspended in the mixture.  Naked to the eye, the gas hung close to the ground, pulled by gravity and displacing air.
5885
5886Junior had led the team that had come up with this, but the idea belonged to a grey coat that had lost their standing and ability to keep progressing when they’d been deemed too tame, too averse to combat.  They’d been a specialist in sterilization methods.
5887
5888This was the specialist’s answer.  A rebuke of the people that had stopped them from getting their black coat.  It was sterilization, microscopic fibrils floating through the gas, binding to cell walls, be it bacteria, skin, or eye.
5889
5890They quickly induced cell death.
5891
5892The idea had been to eradicate bacteria, then remove lingering fibrils.  They’d never gotten that far.
5893
5894Now, well, we could remove fibrils, but for now it hurt like nothing else, and it made flesh break out in rashes, ruptured veins, and then the flesh would turn black and wither away.
5895
5896Some of the warbeasts were succumbing.  Some were already bleeding from more sensitive tissues, like the nose, ears, eyes, and softer flesh on the arms and legs.
5897
5898It didn’t look like we’d caught any of ours.  They hadn’t thought to bring hostages or anything like it, if the students who’d stayed behind in the main hall were even suitable as such.
5899
5900All six nobles had found places to roost.  They stood on chimneys and sat on rooftops.  Gloria had chosen to stand on a pillar of wood from a burned building.
5901
5902*****
5903
5904“Gloria’s saying-” Jessie started.  “The hazard is…”
5905
5906“Is?” Nora asked.
5907
5908But there was no telling.  Lady Gloria had raised a hand to her mouth.  No more lipreading was possible until she moved it.
5909
5910“The hazard is already clearing up,” I guessed.
5911
5912“Yeah,” Lillian said.
5913[/QUOTE]
5914
5915Lady Gloria is only slightly injured after fighting several warbeasts
5916[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]
5917The Nobles stood on the rooftop, amid the bodies of scattered warbeasts and experiments.  Ribcages had been torn apart so they spiked skyward from otherwise unrecognizable piles of meat and gristle.  Skulls had been bifurcated, some so neatly that it seemed inconceivable that it had been done in combat, while others had been divided in a messy way, skull fragments sticking through torn flesh and scale.
5918
5919It was getting late, and we’d decided that they were too relaxed up there.  We’d taken care to ensure the warbeasts didn’t suit as food.  The ones who scattered the rooftop and hung from the branches that had grown across it were only a small share.  Some had been bloated, filled with gas or parasites.  Junior and Poppy- Persephone?  Prissy?  I wasn’t sure of her name.  Whoever she’d been, she and Junior had made sure that many of the warbeasts, when slain, had smelled as pungent as possible.
5920
5921My sampling of the smell had revealed it to be something like faeces mixed with perfume.  I’d prepared myself in advance of the sample by liberally coating every inch of my body, hair, and clothing in powder, inside and out, changing out of the clothes in question right after.
5922
5923Even with that, only Ashton had been willing to keep me company for the twelve hours that followed.
5924
5925The Nobles were holding up remarkably well.  One or two had been lightly injured by the second wave of warbeasts we’d sent their way.  When they’d realized the traps hidden within the beasts, they’d changed their tactics, parrying tooth or claw while physically throwing the beasts off the rooftop.  It was harder and more hazardous, when most of the beasts were several hundred pounds.  Most beasts had accelerated reflexes and enhanced strength.  Some had barbs in their fur to make letting go that much harder.
5926
5927Junior had been one of the more dangerous, devious, and ruthless of Beattle’s students, leading the Rank.  We’d told him, Prissy and Gordeux to go all out, and this had been the result.  Spite, traps and overall nastiness blended together with snarling warbeasts we’d mostly inured to the gas.
5928
5929The Lady Gloria was one of the injured.  She had torn off her sleeves and used them to wrap the wound at her middle, and she was the only noble who wasn’t standing, seating herself on one corner of the roof, her head turned our way, the wind periodically blowing her hair this way or that.
5930[/QUOTE]
5931
5932Can see the color of gases and their tastes
5933[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]“The gas is spreading, my lord,” a female voice said.  “Multiple colors, more than one taste in the air.”[/QUOTE]
5934
5935Her efforts with handling her people
5936[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]“You’d kill me, but only because I’m Noble-born.  I’ve never harmed my subjects, I’ve been gentle, and I’ve devoted time to ensure they’re looked after.  I’ve always been gentle, and it’s a task, sometimes.  I host lessons and tutor the gifted, and I host events, even for middling families.  Balls to give them a taste of what they could have if they worked hard, welcoming young ladies into their bachelorette years, giving them a chance to be beautiful.  I’ve shared my wealth out, not hoarding it.  Whatever you represent, whatever you fight for, I can’t imagine you’re my enemy.”[/QUOTE]
5937
5938Even as she's dying of Plague, she still charges forth in a hail of bullets and acid rain, before subcumbing to her wounds
5939[QUOTE=Crown of Thorns 20.12]
5940I wasn’t sure it was her, but Lady Gloria appeared to be one of the figures being sent out with the teeming masses.  The sick, the ones without quarantine suits and requisite rank.
5941
5942Depending on the degree to which that was a thing, it could utterly disarm us.  The vulnerable would be our rebels, the key figures the Infante had no doubt run into, Gloria included, who we’d been using to steer things.  They were the biggest fish of the small lakes and ponds, but the Infante’s Professors trumped even then.
5943
5944*****
5945
5946Here, it was almost more awful.  The houses and homes were emptied, explosives shook the town where the inhabitants might not have opened the doors quickly enough or willingly left.  People were sent out and left to stumble their way through the streets, trying to cover their heads.
5947
5948The battalion of soldiers lowered their weapons in unison, and then they began firing.  Those who didn’t move fast enough were gunned down.  Those who did move fast enough were forced into the open fields, beyond the town, where the rain could pour on them, where the scattered few harvesters might lurk in the taller grass or the irrigated rows of crops.
5949
5950I worried some of those might be ours.
5951
5952While everyone fled, it was the tall woman who moved in the opposite direction.  Against the flow.
5953
5954The tall woman, who marched against the tide, charging at the Infante’s Professors and the elite soldiers they were retaining for the voyage home.  She endured the hail of bullets until she was three-quarters of the way to them.  She stumbled for the first time, found her feet, and only made it another two steps before stumbling again.  Then she fell.
5955[/QUOTE]
5956
5957[/SPOILER]
5958
5959[SPOILER="Lord Carling"]
5960His sense of tactics in a chaotic environment impresses even Sy
5961[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.7]
5962I started paying more attention to the nature of the movements, tracking the patterns in this kicked anthill.  I began taking in a general sense of where the leaders were, and who the followers were.  I tried to pay attention to where the followers hesitated, as if that could highlight where the leadership was weaker.
5963
5964There were some that were starting to break into homes and businesses on the ground level.
5965
5966“They’re raiding the buildings,” I observed.
5967
5968“Looks like,” Jessie said.  She lifted up her glasses to look down with clearer vision.
5969
5970“One group,” I said.
5971
5972“No,” Jessie said.  “Lots are doing it.  They’re clearing their flanks, making sure we don’t have experiments or soldiers waiting in the houses and alleys.”
5973
5974“Mostly from the one group, I mean,” I said.  I moved closer to her, my arm resting against hers, and pointed.
5975
5976“Okay, I see who you mean.”
5977
5978We watched the little black dot that was the leader of that particular group.  It was taller than average, moving with leisure, and it was watching what the rest of the groups were doing at the main gate.  People slowed as they drew closer to him.
5979
5980Tall dot was a noble, I was fairly sure.
5981
5982“It’s… interesting that he’s taking that course of action.  It’s not flank clearing.”
5983
5984“No,” Jessie said.
5985
5986“What is it?” Ashton asked.  He dropped down onto his belly, crawling forward to look down over the edge of the crumbled, broken bridge.
5987
5988“Well, the whole storming the gates or going on the offense is the most obvious path they could take, and one of the more pointless,” I said.  “What he’s doing isn’t obvious, and it’s… rather more pointful.  It’s maybe on the top five paths they could take that hurt us.  Third most pointful thing.”
5989
5990“Please stop saying pointful,” Jessie said, her eyes still on the scene below.  “With my memory, I have to remember each and every butchery of Stateside English you commit.”
5991
5992I snickered, and she elbowed me.
5993
5994“He’s checking the surroundings, gathering information,” Jessie said.  “He’s going to find out very quickly that we’ve been through each and every one of those houses.”
5995[/QUOTE]
5996
5997His description and his weapons/eyesight
5998[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.7]
5999Tall dot was a tall young noble with a red jacket that he’d taken off and slung over one shoulder.  He had a blond beard that came to a sharp point, his hair was short but for a flourish of wavy hair that extended in front of his face, and he stood there with a battle axe resting on the ground.
6000
6001He picked up the weapon as if it weighed nothing and used it to point at a side street.  Soldiers and the stitched that accompanied them moved down the street.
6002
6003Then his head turned, and he looked up in our general direction.  I wondered if his eyesight was keen enough to see us without binoculars, or if he was simply taking in the bridge.
6004
6005“What’s his name?” I asked.
6006
6007“Lord Carling,” Jessie said.
6008[/QUOTE]
6009
6010His stealth
6011[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.9]
6012A new flash of light appeared at the girl’s dormitory.  A very bright point of white that sailed skyward.  It detonated in the sky, so bright it left a spark on my field of vision.  The brilliant, flickering flash quickly died out as the projectile sailed toward the ground.
6013
6014The smoke and the deep shadows made it hard to track what was going on
6015
6016*****
6017
6018On the one side of the wall, the enemy was retreating into the main building.  The lowest ranked students, doctors, aristocrats and experiments had taken up roost there, in hopes of some comfort or refuge, and they’d been denied it.  If we couldn’t divide them up, we’d force them to cram in together in the main building.  Maybe it would drive friction.
6019
6020On the other side of the wall, I couldn’t see it, but Mary, Helen, and the team that had crawled down were carting off barrels and containers.  They would float them out to set points and they would release the chemicals, hopefully without exposing themselves to the stuff.
6021
6022*****
6023
6024I was silent, watching the shadows.  Was that someone I saw, or a thick cloud of smoke?
6025
6026*****
6027
6028It was a person.  A figure.
6029
6030The noble I’d seen before, who’d worn the red jacket.  He wasn’t wearing the jacket now – only a black silk shirt and pants tucked into boots.  He was watching the walltop.
6031
6032*****
6033
6034Carling paused, and in that pause, I wondered if he’d made eye contact with me.  I couldn’t see well enough in the dark to tell.
6035
6036*****
6037
6038Carling turned, and he strode into the smoke and darkness.  If he was making a play, it wouldn’t be immediate.
6039
6040Carling, the pale Lady Gloria, Professor Gossamer.  There were others.  The smarter enemies that were watching and acting decisively rather than milling about.  They were coordinating, and I felt as though they were keeping pace with us so far.
6041[/QUOTE]
6042[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.10]
6043By the looks of it, Carling was leading this particular expedition.  Gloria wasn’t far behind him.  The other nobles looked to be lesser.
6044
6045We were near the middle floors of the admin building, peering through a hole in the wall.  We were closer to the ground floor floor of the building than to the roof, which meant  I had to crane my neck to look up and see the higher floors of the lady of Hackthorn.  Countless people were gathered at the windows, peering through to watch proceedings.
6046
6047I could see the subtle shift in shade where the professors were gathering en masse.
6048
6049The advancing group’s pace slowed as they drew nearer.
6050
6051“I see Lambs,” Jessie said.
6052
6053“Who?” I asked.
6054
6055“Carling,” she said.  “He says he doesn’t see many of our people at the windows.”
6056
6057Lipreading.
6058
6059“He’s been given remarkably keen eyes,” I said.  “And keener intuition.  He had a pretty good sense of where we’d be last night.  He didn’t use that knowledge, but he was watching us.”
6060
6061Mary gave me a sidelong glance, clearly unimpressed.
6062
6063“He was looking in the first place.  If we hadn’t been there, he would’ve been able to follow you or cut off your return to Hackthorn.”
6064
6065“I didn’t say anything,” she said.
6066
6067“Sure,” I said.  “Carling’s intel is probably why they haven’t sent the gossamer thing to go get another drink.  They figured out what we were doing.”
6068
6069It’s not the first time he’s positioned himself well to collect information and be right on top of what we were doing.  He realized the houses had been stripped within the first quarter-hour of our attack beginning.
6070[/QUOTE]
6071
6072Calculated and placed his group just out of range of projectiles
6073[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.10]
6074“They’re standing a set distance away,” Jessie said.  “Look at that.  Just beyond the point our fire arrows reached.  It’s calculated.”
6075
6076“A man after your own heart, Jess?” I asked.
6077
6078Jessie tilted her head my way and rolled her eyes.
6079
6080“We have guns, they have to know we have guns.”
6081
6082“Guns are inaccurate at a tenth this distance, even if the range on modern rifles might be superior” Jessie said.  “Unless we’re talking Mauer’s special guns, and we don’t have any of those.”
6083[/QUOTE]
6084
6085Has enhanced speed after dropping from a chimney
6086[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.10]The statement meant that Lord Carling was more or less free to move.  He dropped from the chimney, and moved with surprising speed as he headed toward the barrels they’d brought.[/QUOTE]
6087
6088Enhanced strength, throwing a giant bone drum hundreds of meters away into a sixth story building
6089[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.7]“The rifles fire eight hundred yards, but they’re not accurate at that distance.  As you saw.”[/QUOTE]
6090[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.10]
6091The Lady Gloria was observing the stitched who were hauling the barrels.  They were made of sturdy material that wasn’t metal.  Possibly bone, possibly painted or coated wood.  The barrels were being gathered, stacked in piles.
6092
6093“They’re standing a set distance away,” Jessie said.  “Look at that.  Just beyond the point our fire arrows reached.  It’s calculated.”
6094
6095“A man after your own heart, Jess?” I asked.
6096
6097Jessie tilted her head my way and rolled her eyes.
6098
6099“We have guns, they have to know we have guns.”
6100
6101“Guns are inaccurate at a tenth this distance, even if the range on modern rifles might be superior” Jessie said.  “Unless we’re talking Mauer’s special guns, and we don’t have any of those.”
6102
6103*****
6104
6105Carling reached the barrels, seizing the upper rim in his hands.
6106
6107Stepping forward, he twisted his upper body around, then swung the barrel.  He released it three-quarters of the way through the swing, and the barrel sailed our way.
6108
6109I didn’t see where it hit, but I heard glass break, just a couple of floors down.  It had penetrated a window.
6110
6111“We’re going to find out what that is, I suppose,” I said.
6112
6113“Bastard of ten bitches.  That had to be a sixth story window,” Duncan said.
6114
6115He managed to hurl another before our second play came into effect. 
6116
6117*****
6118
6119Lillian pushed a set of doors open, and I saw the scant light moving over the shards of glass from the broken window.  The barrel had come to rest here too; both the top and bottom ends had been designed to come off on impact.
6120
6121One gaunt figure had already come forth and stood, where he or she had been contorted within.  Another was crawling out.  They were crimson, their flesh more like something coagulated and hardened, blood clots in crude humanoid form, and they barely looked ambulatory.
6122
6123But they were crusted with growths.  More of the growths crusted the inner walls of the barrel.
6124
6125It looked like a hive, and a swarm of insects as red as the blood clot ambulatory hosts were spreading through the air.  They crawled in and out of the hives and crevices in the hosts.
6126[/QUOTE]
6127
6128Fighting warbeasts
6129[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.10]
6130Warbeasts.  They were minor, all things considered, scarcely more than attack dogs with extra mass and ruffs of quills and spines extending down their backs, cresting at the shoulders.
6131
6132There were no special tricks, no poisons on the quills, no hidden benefits to using the dogs.  They’d been something we’d been able to prepare in the short time we’d had, and they now unwittingly attacked a target that they had virtually no chance against.
6133
6134They were, in this moment, little more than obstacles that made Carling take just a little bit longer before he could throw another barrel.
6135[/QUOTE]
6136
6137More about his eyesight
6138[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.10]
6139Carling attacked yet again.  Another broken window.
6140
6141He was spacing them out.  The last one had been close to the middle of the building, which was also very close to where we were.  Had he seen us with that keen eyesight, Carling would have known that a good offensive measure would be best placed hereabouts.
6142[/QUOTE]
6143
6144Enhanced detection and hearing through a haze of gas, as well as subvocal comms
6145[QUOTE=Root and Branch 19.13]With that, we stepped through the morass of builder’s wood that had been cleaved and pulled down out of the way, freeing the doors to open, and we passed through the gap and into the city proper.  There was a haze, but the word from our Doctors was that it was supposed to be inert, now.  The moisture was still heavy in the air, but the chemicals wouldn’t be active.  Ominous, to see ambient clouds of what had been corrosive gas, but not hazardous.
6146
6147*****
6148
6149“Calm, Clifford,” a voice replied, further away.  It was only the sheer silence that hung over the city that allowed me to catch it.  “Calm.  They want us agitated.  It wouldn’t do to give them what they want without something in return.”
6150
6151Something told me it was Carling.
6152
6153“We’re not alone anymore,” a woman said.  “And it isn’t the beasts.  Not entirely.”
6154
6155*****
6156
6157“Ho!” Carling called out.  “Fine evening, isn’t it?  Fine weather, not too warm for a summer evening.”
6158
6159We all remained silent.
6160
6161“Something just scurried across the rooftops, my Lord,” a Lady said.
6162
6163“I know,” Carling said.
6164
6165“It was smaller than the others, but larger than a housecat.  My Lord, cats and cockroaches aside, nothing should have survived the gas.”
6166
6167“It was theirs.  They uncaged it just now.  I heard the hinges.  Just be on guard.  I imagine the blasted things have poison or they go for the eyes.  Whatever they do, they-”
6168
6169The explosion cut him off.  A flare of orange struggled to penetrate the fog, and only served to bring a spot of warmth to it before fading, replaced with rolling black smoke.  Masonry crumbled to the ground in a steady patter.
6170
6171“Ho ho!  That was an improbably big detonation for a small package!  Everyone alright!?” Carling called out.
6172
6173I didn’t hear the responses.  The fog was thinning out, though.  The fire had burned away a lot of it, and much of the fog we had was rolling in to occupy the area around the explosion site.
6174
6175Carling was talking an awful lot, taking an optimistic, lighthearted stance.  I suspected it wasn’t really for his fellow Nobles.
6176
6177“You could have sustained the siege, couldn’t you?” Carling asked.  “You could have held back, remained secure at the perimeter, while letting us reunite with the others.  You’re done with your white gas, so you would have had to.  But you saw the need to venture out here yourselves.  I can hear two of you whispering.  A girl and a boy.  You’re worried.”
6178
6179He wasn’t entirely wrong.  The skew of the worry might have been slightly different than he’d expected, though.
6180
6181I glanced over at Jessie, who stood with her back to the corner of one house.  The house had taken some damage in the earlier fires.  I gestured as best as I was able to, without releasing my chains.
6182
6183They flank.
6184
6185Carling was communicating by some unnatural means, like subvocalizations, directing another noble to circle around.  That was very likely what Helen and Duncan or Helen and Ashton were discussing.
6186
6187“You’re worried we’re going to stand firm.  We’re proud, and rightfully so.  Crown and Academy will hold out to the last.  The people in that building can do it in part because we represent something.  The Nobility matters to them.  You’re thusly compelled to act against us.  You Lambs need to take a piece out of us, for symbolic reasons.  And you’ll stake a great deal on it.  You put yourselves on the line.”
6188
6189*****
6190
6191I heard Carling’s voice.  Not directed at me, this time.  “Where’s Lord Willoughby?”
6192
6193There was a pause.
6194
6195In the distance, there was a softer explosion, less sharp.
6196
6197That last one was likely our safeguard to hold enemy reinforcements at bay.  They’d want to send people and experiments out to answer the explosions and help their nobles.  A fresh cloud of gas would buy us a little bit of time.
6198
6199“Gas, that time?  You’ve injured a Lady and, unrelated to the gas, you’ve made Lord Willoughby disappear.”
6200
6201*****
6202
6203With the heat burning away the fog, the figures in the distance were becoming clearer.  There was a distant glow of fire.
6204
6205“I can hear the rattle of your chains, Sylvester.  Why are you chained up?  Are you that far gone?”
6206[/QUOTE]
6207
6208More on his capabilities
6209[QUOTE=Root and branch 19.13]
6210The smoke and gas had cleared enough that I could see the other two nobles in the back.  I could see Lillian, a ways off to the side, a rifle in her hands, aimed but not fired.  I saw Duncan’s dogs gathered, alongside three of the baboon-wolf warbeasts, all poised and ready for the excuse.
6211
6212I suspected he could deal with them, and the rifles besides.  It would buy me time to run, however.  I’d have to move fast.
6213[/QUOTE]
6214
6215[/SPOILER]
6216
6217[SPOILER="Lord King Adam"]
6218His sea dragon transportation
6219[QUOTE=Forest for the trees 34]
6220A sea creature was making its way to the Eastern shore of the Crown States.  Other sea creatures and weapons were gravitating toward it.  She couldn’t see the battle or the frothing of the water, but she could see that the great sea creature continued its inexorable approach, and the water around it was dark with the floating bodies and viscera of its hundred challengers.
6221
6222It wasn’t the largest creature in the world.  It probably wasn’t.  It wasn’t the most powerful.
6223
6224It would, all the same, hit the shore, and the Crown States could well be broken by that arrival.  She had absolutely no say in the outcome.  Her say had been in the beginning, when she’d played her part in setting this in motion.
6225
6226*****
6227
6228He had no carpet unfurled before him, but he had one trail behind him.  Tubes, wires, and conduits of all sorts followed him, flowing from his back and shoulders, arranged in fine, orderly lines behind him.  For every ten steps he took, there was a set of servants to take up position at the trail of fluid-filled tubes, to ensure that everything flowed straight and without issue.  He took corners and traveled bends in the path, and the team worked discreetly to manage the trail so nothing caught, nothing became disorderly.
6229
6230The trail extended to the mouth of the great sea beast that had borne him across his ocean, down at the harbor.  The beast had unfolded itself, turning itself inside out to provide functional accommodations at the harbor, the revealed buildings taller than any building in the not-immodest city.
6231[/QUOTE]
6232
6233He could probably smell metal and oils used for sharpening blades
6234[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6235“I do miss the feeling of the flats of the metal blades resting on my skin.  Not that I’m any less dangerous.  Just the opposite.”
6236
6237“Yes, my Lady.  You could still use the blades, I imagine.”
6238
6239“Not today.  They wouldn’t make a difference, but the others thought that our guest might be able to smell the metal or the oils used on it.  I had some special work done, blades of material other than metal.  It’s not the same.  Very different.  Lighter.”
6240[/QUOTE]
6241
6242His description
6243[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6244An entire city bent at the knee with his arrival.
6245
6246He was a giant.  His humanity had long been discarded.  He was only human in the face he wore and his rough shape.
6247
6248He strode down the carefully swept road, his retinue of fantastical beasts on either side of him and behind him.  His beard was heavy, his hair long, and his footsteps had gravity, which made the bowing heads near him bend lower.
6249
6250He had no carpet unfurled before him, but he had one trail behind him.  Tubes, wires, and conduits of all sorts followed him, flowing from his back and shoulders, arranged in fine, orderly lines behind him.  For every ten steps he took, there was a set of servants to take up position at the trail of fluid-filled tubes, to ensure that everything flowed straight and without issue.  He took corners and traveled bends in the path, and the team worked discreetly to manage the trail so nothing caught, nothing became disorderly.
6251[/QUOTE]
6252
6253Uses a false body
6254[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6255“You,” the King spoke.  Most present startled at the sound.  “Have succeeded in drawing my attention.”
6256
6257His head turned, taking in the surroundings.
6258
6259“If this is an attempt to kill me, you should know this isn’t my true body.  Your attempts will fail.  If this is a mere farce, then the perpetrators of it should announce and explain themselves.”
6260[/QUOTE]
6261
6262He and his immediate kin's artistry is comparable to Helena (Helen) and he can smell blood
6263[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6264“Lady Helena.”
6265
6266A beauty, possessed of grace.  There was artistry there that few beyond the Lord King himself, his Queen and his Prince could lay any claim to.  Most importantly, she carried it all with the bearing of someone that had known it from birth.
6267
6268She smelled like blood.
6269[/QUOTE]
6270
6271Analyzing the Lords and Ladies
6272[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6273“If I may, Lord King” one figure said, rising, only to segue straight into a deep, flourishing bow.  His dark hair was long, and he was Noble in appearance, with sharp green eyes and a taller frame than even many Nobles.  “I would announce those who invited you.”
6274
6275“You may.”
6276
6277“Lord Asher.”
6278
6279The young man appeared to be close kin to the first, but was red haired, his hair tidily taken care of.  He was adolescent, but had all of the hallmarks of anyone Noble-made.  He had a woman of similar age beside him, still bowing.  They wore clothes of similar colors, both in dark blues, in the finest fabrics.
6280
6281The expression that Lord Asher wore was an unflinching one.
6282
6283“Lady Helena.”
6284
6285A beauty, possessed of grace.  There was artistry there that few beyond the Lord King himself, his Queen and his Prince could lay any claim to.  Most importantly, she carried it all with the bearing of someone that had known it from birth.
6286
6287She smelled like blood.
6288
6289“Lady Margaret.”
6290
6291Another beauty, if a sharper one, in the dangerous glint of her eyes and the way she held herself.  Had he seen her in another context, he would have believed she was any of his new Nobles, still learning their new bodies.  Promising.  Dangerous.
6292
6293“Lady Jessica.”
6294
6295Something else, there.  Confident, but not nearly as immediately dangerous as the other two announced, supposed Ladies.  Silver haired, modest, alert, her hands clasped together.  She immediately went to the side of the tall man that had announced her, her hand on his arm.
6296
6297One of the key players in this, then.
6298
6299“You may, if you so desire, my Lord King, call me Lord Simon.”
6300
6301****
6302
6303Most, if taken at face value as Nobles, were only of the caliber that would be called bastards.  Odd, that the one doing the speaking was one of those.  Some were better, or had more promise.
6304[/QUOTE]
6305
6306Easily crumpling an iron key
6307[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6308But she turned over the iron key.
6309
6310Simon approached, and he reached up to hand the Lord King the key.  “The experiments are ready to be unleashed with a turn of the key, Lord King.  They’re sitting dormant in the red-decked boat on port.  You’ll want to dispose of them, I imagine.”
6311
6312The key almost disappeared in the Lord King’s palm, as he held it.  It was almost weightless.
6313
6314****
6315
6316The King clenched his fist, destroying the key.
6317
6318“Do as you will.”
6319[/QUOTE]
6320
6321Not threatened by Primordial derived weapons
6322[QUOTE=Forest for the Trees e4]
6323“The alternative was that we would raise the spectre of primordial-derived superweapons unleashed on the world at large, my Lord King.”
6324
6325“You would not even be the first to do so.”
6326[/QUOTE]
6327[/SPOILER]