CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
Fox took a moment to consider his options. He couldn’t accept this outcome. He stood at the bottom of the dais and appeared as though he wasn’t going to move.
’Follow me,’ said the Butler in a rigid tone.
Still Fox didn’t move. He watched as the Emperor summoned Elion to ascend the stairs to the dais. He watched the Emperor whisper to one of his aids. He watched the Emperor gesture to a guard. It seemed that the Emperor was finished with Fox and there was nothing more that Fox could do other than follow the Butler and collect his much diminished reward.
Half a million rizers could work?
As Fox left with the Butler the military men began to clap. At first it was just the mean-spirited men who clapped - the men who knew Fox by his reputation (men who didn’t like a renegade ... men who couldn’t cope with a free spirit),, then suddenly all the men were clapping.
Someone called, ‘The Little Fox is leaving.’
The dapper little man tried to keep his head up, and his chin out, but there was an obvious slumping as the jeers poured over him.
Tom now stood in front of the Emperor. He continued to hold the mask up to cover his face, unsure whether it was time to reveal himself. The Emperor had to weave his head to line his eyes up with Tom’s eyes. He stared into Tom’s eyes for several seconds. The Emperor had dull blue eyeballs that held no great depth. They were the eyes of a ruthless man … but not an intelligent one.
The Emperor didn’t recognise Tom as Elion.
He gestured to a red coated palace guard who stood at attention on one side of the dais. The guard turned, with a stiff formality, to face the Emperor. The Emperor gestured for the guard to scan Tom’s eyes. Tom remembered the that Emperor couldn’t see the ‘shine’.
Tom turned to the guard and had a sudden feeling that he may have miscalculated things, and that the guard wouldn’t recognise him as Elion. What then?
However, the look came over the guard’s face, the same as the looks that had come over the previous residents of Paris when they had stared into Tom’s eyes. For a moment it seemed as though the guard was going to fall to his knees, the way the Thrip had back on the boardwalk, so long ago now. Only the guard faltered as though realising that bowing would be the wrong thing to do. He looked to the Emperor for guidance, but the Emperor ignored him.
The Emperor leaned toward Tom. He put a hand up to shield his mouth and whispered. His voice was high and breathy.
‘Keep the mask up to your face until we are out of the Throne Room.’
Tom nodded.
The Emperor sat back and thought for a moment before leaning forward again.
‘Do you have the key?’
Tom put his hand up to the leather strap at his throat, but the Emperor spoke quickly:
‘Leave it ... Don’t,’
Standing behind the Emperor was a man with long curly hair. He wore a red uniform, similar to that of the Palace guards, but without the look of a warrior. He had bulging eyes and a big mouth. This was the Emperor’s Public Proclaimer.
The Emperor whispered an instruction into this man’s ear.
Stepping forward to the front of the dais, the long haired man put his hands into the air.
‘Silence.’
The crowd of men, and the lounging socialites gradually fell silent.
‘The Emperor has business to attend to in another part of the Palace. He will return shortly.’
One of the Generals erupted, ‘Coronet is under attack … this is not the time for other business.’
Another man yelled, ‘Gibor will come through the gate while we are playing like fools.’
The Emperor stood from the throne. He paid no attention to the lack of confidence displayed by his military leaders. He walked down from the dais.
Keeping the mask over his face, Tom followed.
Two Palace guards walked ahead of the Emperor, clearing a space between the military men for the Emperor and Tom to follow.
Tom could hear the fighting men grumbling, confused at the sight of the Emperor leaving the seat of council in the middle of a crisis, all because of some boy wearing a mask.
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Even though he was obscuring his face with the mask, Tom still kept his eyes averted from everyone. The ‘shine’ seemed to come through his eyes and face, so he had to keep his eyes away from the fighting men and the fancy people.
As they moved through the great throne room Tom could see the white blobs of the socialites faces, and the strips of silver light reflected off diamonds, and the whitewashed colours of ladies dresses. Everyone quieted as the group passed, and Tom could hear tiny whispers: what is happening now? Who was behind the mask? A large woman wearing what might have been a Paris version of taffeta, reeked of perfume. For a moment the oxygen seemed to get sucked from the air, replaced by the scent of lavender and sandalwood.
Finally the group exited the throne room and the door was shut behind, and the noise of the great room subsided. Now there was only the Emperor and Tom and four guards (the two escorts and the two guards protecting the Throne room door). The Emperor relaxed. He to Tom.
‘Remove your mask.’
The four guards watched as Tom slipped the mask up from his face.
The two guards who had seen Tom earlier when he had arrived at the Throne room with Fox, were not surprised at the reveal of Tom as the fabled Elion. Their expressions were impassive as the real identity of the boy behind the mask suddenly became apparent. The two guards who had accompanied the Emperor and Tom from the throne room were impacted though. They opened their mouths and widened their eyes, and one of them gasped, ‘My Lord.’.
The Emperor spoke to Tom.
‘I can see by the guards’ reaction that you have the ‘shine’ of Elion.’
‘Apparently.’
‘Show me the key.’
Tom took the key out from under his shirt and the Emperor stepped close. He took the key into his hand and while he studied it he asked:
‘Where is Trinket?’
’Why Trinket?’
‘Your fancy dressed kidnapper told me that you were accompanied by the Thrip princess.’
Tom wondered how much to tell the Emperor. Would talking about Trinket and Jane harm the goal of getting to the machine? Would it harm the goal of finding the Wyld Book of Secrets? How would this all play out?
Without any better idea, Tom decided to tell the truth.
‘We entered the Palace through an air vent, somewhere near the Needle gate.’
‘She won’t be there now,’ said one of the guards.
‘She will have moved,’ said the other guard.
‘She will make her way to the machine,’ said the first guard.
The Emperor asked Tom, ‘Did the Princess negotiate with Gibor to mount an attack tonight?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Tom. ‘I only just joined her yesterday after the big storm.’
‘Did she know that you were in Paris before you met with her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then she organised the attack.’
The Emperor had his hands crossed beneath his belly, and he rocked back and forth on his feet.
‘I don’t know,’ said Tom.
‘Do you know your role? Do you understand that you are the only one who can operate the machine?’
‘I have been told,’ said Tom. ‘I don’t know the details.’
‘I thought I could operate the machine without you … that is why I had you killed.’
‘Did you have me killed?’
‘You don’t remember?’
‘No. I don’t remember anything from before. I don’t remember Paris.’
One of the Palace guards looked at the Emperor with horror. His hand went instinctively to the sword at his side, but his fellow guard whispered ‘Don’t’
The Emperor ignored the guard.
He said, ‘Come. Let us go.’
The group set off.
One of the guards spoke quietly to the Emperor:
’The bulky boy who tried to say he was Elion is currently being held in the machine receptacle.’
The Emperor sniffed, but didn’t answer
They took a different route than the earlier route that Tom had followed with Fox. They went through a rabbit warren of turns and intersection, the tunnels tight and dark. Water dripped from the walls into gutters that ran along the ground beside the paths. The guard’s boots clumped, and the Emperor’s slippers whispered. Tom counted steps. He was up to three hundred and ninety four when they arrived at a lift.
The lift was a little cage of wood and copper with grids of crisscross iron. The cage had a locked door. Above the lift was an enormously fat rope that disappeared up into an unknown void of darkness that terrified Tom with his fear of heights. How did the lift work? Back in London, at the big shopping centre where Tom’s father sometimes took Tom, there was a lift attendant who drove the lift with a wooden handle. There was no lift attendant and there was no device to drive the lift.
Four torches sent a warm yellow light across the timber and copper inside the lift.
A guard produced a spider shaped key, which he pushed into a strangely patterned lock. He turned the key and the lift door swung outwards.
The Emperor stepped into the lift, followed by Tom. Inside, the lift smelled of grease. It was a tight fit, and when the first guard followed Tom and the Emperor in it was almost impossible to move. The second guard began to shove his way in, when the Emperor said, ‘No.’
The second guard protested, ‘It is not safe to only have one guard.’
‘I will be safe,’ said the Emperor. ‘The boy Elion is too small to be dangerous.’
The guard’s eyes flicked from the Emperor to Tom, and it suddenly became apparent to Tom (and the Emperor) that the guard was actually talking about the safety of Tom (Elion). He was hinting that Elion would be in danger from the Emperor.
The Emperor stared at the guard in a way that would have left the guard in no doubt as to the inevitability of future punishment.
‘I will remain here, your excellency,’ said the second guard, and he stepped back and shut the lift door.
Inside, the first guard pulled on a chord that hung from the ceiling of the lift. From somewhere, quite distant, there came a sonorous gong, like the deep bell tolling for the dead. This was the signal to some distant operator to start raising the lift.
The lift creaked then began a slow ascent into the dark. The thick rope overhead strained against the weight of the three occupants. The journey was slow, with the rope going through a pulley that geared down whatever was the motive power.
Tom shut his eyes.
The Emperor reached up and pulled the chord that had started the lift on its slow ascent.
Shuddering, the lift stopped.
The Emperor turned to Tom.
'We have things we must discuss.'