Chapter Thirty-One

STEELY DAWN LIGHT crept over the buildings as they gathered in the street the next morning. Constantin eyed Michel-Leon as he swung up on his horse and checked his weapons. He hadn’t slept well, tossing and turning and muttering all night, which kept Constantin awake as well. Michel-Leon had risen early enough to ensure he inoculated every one of their entourage, and still he fretted over whether they had enough masks and constructs.

He’d needed to sleep after the ordeal he’d gone through yesterday and the night before. But he’d driven himself to accomplish everything that needed to be done for this morning’s raid. The burn marks stood out in angry lines on his face. Constantin suspected Michel-Leon would be marked for life from his encounter. Just like Constantin was. He fingered the scar Nightingale left him and banished the memory. He was alive and Nightingale wasn’t.

Jeanne d’Arc. Constantin shook his head, still in disbelief. It made a certain logical sense, given what he knew of the chevaliers, but it still stunned him. He had so many questions, but they would have to wait for another place and time.

“Stop worrying about me,” Michel-Leon ordered calmly with a glance toward Constantin. “I am rested enough. Once this is over, I’ll rest more soundly than I have in months.”

“Let’s not waste any time, then.” Constantin eyed the wagon and the crates of constructs packed inside filled with as many as he’d been able to churn out. “And let’s pray the barrier is merely a glamour.”

“You think your theory will work if it is?” Michel-Leon asked as they left side by side.

“Glamours shatter easily if you trigger the right pressure points. I’ve been careful not to alert Vautrin I’ve been able to penetrate his barrier. One of these things crossing the barrier when I’m in another location is not enough to break the spell. However, my hope is, if I send a couple hundred from several directions, all zeroed in on him while we’re surveying the barrier, that’ll be enough to take it down.”

“It’s going to leave you vulnerable,” Michel-Leon warned.

Constantin grimaced. “For a brief time. I’m more worried about what we’ll discover when it comes down. And that’s not even mentioning the swarm nest.” The warping of Vautrin’s soul painted an ugly picture. Constantin braced himself for a brutal scene.

The streets deserted as the company marched down them. People watched and whispered from doorways and windows. Some stood wide open and empty from past depredations of the mists. The closer they got to the barrier, the more those empty holes stared back at them.

Constantin held up his hand and pulled his horse to a stop as they reached the street that branched off toward Vautrin. “It is around the corner.” He swung down and clambered into the back of the wagon, where Lyon was already pulling the tops off the crates.

Régine approached with the commandant. “We’ll take the north end. I’ll meet you at the catacomb entrance. Don’t you think about going in without me, Michie.”

Michel-Leon smiled faintly. “I wouldn’t dare.”

She hugged him and then turned to Constantin and did the same. “If anyone can do this, it’s you.” She gestured to the commandant and his men and strode off to take up her position, a long, leggy figure with a bright tail of hair.

“She could replace us both.” Michel-Leon tied his horse to a post and went to the corner of the building to peer around. “The best glamours are those that are so innocuous you don’t even realize there is the slightest thing off. This one is good and is fueled by blood magic.”

“That explains my reaction to it.” Constantin laid out his army of constructs with the help of Lyon as the volunteers gathered torches. “Is everyone ready? If this goes down, things are going to happen fast. I’m sending half through Régine’s side. They’ll all move at the same time, and that will be the signal.”

“I’m ready,” Michel-Leon replied with a pistol in one hand and his sword in the other. “Follow my lead. We have to neutralize Vautrin before we go after the nest. If a creature doesn’t appear human anymore, kill it. They will keep attacking until we do. Otherwise, let’s try to contain them. Once it’s under control, I’ll meet with Régine and her men, and we’ll go down.”

Constantin noted Michel-Leon didn’t give the order to kill Vautrin. Fair enough. He’d do it for him. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the mass of small mechanicals in front of him. A gasp rose from the watchers as they hummed to life and the air filled with the whir of hundreds of little metal wings and the roll of wheels. He sent half to Régine, conscious of the waiting expectation. “They’re in place.”

Michel-Leon gave him a grim smile. “Take it down.”

Constantin nodded and relayed the sense of Vautrin to the constructs. He made sure they were in a wide formation and then sent them arrowing toward the barrier and the monster hiding behind it.

When he’d sent constructs singly to Vautrin to test them, he’d never sensed the barrier. He did this time as hundreds bombarded it at the same moment. He felt the ripple of reaction, the momentary desire to turn away as the barrier resisted the sense of his mind, and then the glamour shattered.

“It’s down,” Michel-Leon shouted as alarmed cries rose from down the street. “Go!”

A sense of satisfaction filled Constantin as Michel-Leon rushed off with his volunteers. Constantin began to pull the constructs back as they reached Vautrin and then broke off with a gasp.

“Mon Dieu.” His mind filled with the agony of souls being ripped from their mortal frames. Not one or two, but dozens. The pain of it amplified by the hundreds of signals bouncing back at him. Lyon grabbed him as the edges of his vision went black and he swayed. He clung to him, struggling to regain his sense of self.

“He’s killing them!” Then the sense overwhelmed him completely, and he went under.