Excerpt: The Amorpheum Key

A laugh sounded in his ear, but when he turned to the lady, seeking praise, she was gone. Emptiness enveloped him. He did not fight the wind, instead let it scatter the memory of his body across the now silent fields. Somewhere far beyond the horizon, he could feel a shape, hardening in his pocket, and his fingers loosened their grip on the lump of marcasite as he opened his eyes in what felt like another world. In this place, he was the one who laughed, holding tight to the railing to keep his legs from collapsing beneath him. There was only sky now, unending swirls of smoky grey. The screen had been switched off in the wake of his victory, and what a victory it had been. He wiped at his mouth, half expecting his hand to come away smeared with blood, but his skin was clean and dry. For a moment the world spun before his eyes. When his mind cleared somewhat, he looked to the box where Lilah and Tarquin had sat, but now it was empty. It seemed he was wakening from the dream.

He whirled around, taking in the faces of the Queen and Lord Kaspian, Redfern and Hopfield. All stared at him grimly, but none spoke, and he sensed that too much fear prevented anyone from even daring to approach. At that moment, a door slid open, and Lilah and Tarquin entered, two assistants on either side of them. Julen took two or three steps forward and then stopped short. Lilah clutched Tarquin's hand and would not look at him, but Tarquin's green eyes seemed to stare straight through, filled with sorrow and confusion. At last Julen spoke, his voice hoarse. "The men I saved." He glanced from Tarquin to Redfern, struggling to focus. "They'll be set free now, will they not? Just as you promised."

Lilah put a hand to her heart and looked up, frowning at him, but at least she now dared to focus on his face. He sensed hope and despair radiating from her in equal measure. Of course, she would be hurt by what he had done. He'd gone to great lengths to ensure she'd always thought of him as essentially innocent. She wouldn't know the reasons such brutality had been required. He wanted to go to her, take her hands in his own, turn back the screen, show her the one she loved still alive and well, tell her, "Look, Lilah. I did this for you." Even if it was a partial truth. Instead, he waited for Redfern, same as the rest of them.

The doctor stiffened and opened his mouth, almost in slow motion. But Lord Kaspian marched into the centre of the room, his hateful gaze moving from Lilah to Redfern to Julen. "Men you saved, do I hear you say? What blight are you, who brings about such hell and then speaks so sweetly of salvation?"

Julen narrowed his eyes, and stood to his full height. "We played a game, each of us following our masters, in our way. You were defeated." He folded his arms across his chest, the first shadows of doubt treading his conscience as no one else offered a word to defend him. He spoke softly. "We can all espouse pretty accusations here. If your enemy had not been kept so near to your hand, would you expect him to offer you another sword when yours fell, due to your own carelessness and lack of power to wield it? I did not see you gift the men whose lives were my responsibility any such second chances. Had I let you slaughter every one of them, would I then have passed the test?" A sneer crept over his face. "Were the murders carried out under your command themselves less sinful and savage?"

Lord Kaspian glared at him. "To the last, in as much as it even warrants an answer, I can at least speak a definitive yes." He turned to Redfern and pointed the finger. "I put it to you, Doctor, that you have created demons here. And I put it to Her Majesty, just and fair and most gracious in all the world, that these aberrations of humanity constitute the highest form of treason, for which you, Redfern, should pay with your life, and that even so such payment would not be worth a single one of my men."

Redfern sighed now and rolled his eyes. "Oh, spare me the melodrama, please," he muttered. "If you wish to accuse the one who guides your hand of commissioning demons or any other creatures of superstition and peril, be that on your head, not mine. I, Lord Kaspian, simply follow my orders, as set out in the contract given to me by Her Majesty--oh-so-gracious, fair and just, as she is."

The Queen stamped a foot impatiently, shaking her head. "Do stop it, all of you. If one wished for children, one might at least have been granted the dubious pleasures of fornication, rather than be impelled into the midst of these brattish tantrums. Now, Ebeneezer," she said darkly, turning to him. "Do tell me what your Omega subject means by all this nonsense about freedom for those traitors?"

"I apologise for the misunderstanding, Your Highness," he said, bowing low. A cloud of vitriol swelled slowly over Julen's heart, as Redfern confessed the betrayal without even stooping to meet the accusation in his eyes. "But, after all, this weapon you have had me create is yet human, at the core, and if making such promises gives fuel to his fire, then who can be blamed if the tongue slips during the heat of the moment, and the fire blazes though the fuel be false?"

The Queen raised a brow then, and swept her eyes over Julen, before turning back to the doctor. "I would say only that one should be careful, especially when playing with such flames that require no more than a lie to burn so cruelly, for perhaps, in future, the lie might grow to become the fuel, and what then?" She shook her head, swept back a pleated braid from her shoulders and stroked her chin thoughtfully. "On the matters of which Lord Kaspian speaks, We are inclined to be more cruel with you, it is true." Rocking back on a heel, she placed her hand on her hips. "But I am possessed of enough wisdom now to know I would regret it ere the morning. Truly, and most reluctantly, We confess that We are rather impressed with the efforts and achievements you have made on behalf of the Empire's defences; therefore, We will be happy to advise parliament to increase this project's funding and priorities. I do think you will need it, in order to break in these whirlwinds you seek to reap. They need to ripen into storms unhampered by trivialities and romantic sensibilities. They must be able to be controlled. And that must-needs happen quickly, for the sands in the hourglass are deaf to all things, and are slipping, slowly and surely, down to mere dregs…. And there is, of course, the matter of Lord Kaspian's honour. Being a man yourself, We are sure you understand this."

Again, Redfern bowed. "Your Majesty is indeed fairest of all women ever sighted out of her native abode in the heavens. Of course. I shall make arrangements to see to it that such honour is…restored." Murmuring something in Hopfield's ear, he bowed again before leaving the room, deliberately staring straight ahead, meeting no one's eyes. The Queen and Kaspian trailed close behind. On the way past, the Lord spat at Julen's feet, but did not dare look at him. Then Tarquin's voice called his name, and a single beam of light pierced the clouds that now threatened to smother him. He spun on his heel. Lilah was already gone from the room. A pair of assistants tried to lead Tarquin away as well. For just a moment, their gaze met, and Tarquin reached out his hand, palm facing upward, fingertips outstretched, mouthing words of forgiveness that went with the motion. Julen only shook his head, rejecting it. Tarquin stopped fighting to stay behind with him then, and at last the assistants took him away. Julen slid down to the floor, completely alone in his own embrace, rocking himself from side to side, seeking out familiar patterns between the cracks of the tiles, letting his mind run empty.