Chapter Three #2
She headed toward the door, and I saw the back of her gown was bunched oddly, meaning her wings were probably contained within.
At some point, when I was not escorting the Prince of Darkness to various mild amusements, I should start making a list of all the supernatural entities I’d dealt with thus far in my position.
If things went well and I was able to hire new ombudsmen, I would need to prepare them adequately.
I had been thrown into the position with no training, and it had taken me quite a few months to grow accustomed to all the species I’d met so far.
Mr. Connors, when he’d interviewed me, had said that there wasn’t a precedent for the position, so no actual training was possible; the most important skill I had was my unflappability.
That, and no other human had even dared to apply.
I had no doubt there would be more species for me to meet in the future. I just had to complete this assignment and make certain I had a future.
Within a few moments, the entire entourage was inside the church, the Devil already prowling the various tables, picking up items that piqued his interest.
“Does he actually want embroidered handkerchiefs?” I muttered under my breath as I followed a few feet behind.
The marquis stood leaning against one of the pillars watching his father. Several beings—both supernatural and human—walked by, their expressions ranging from startled to admiring when they saw him.
I wanted to tell them I understood entirely—he was both beautiful and terrifying—but that would initiate conversations I shouldn’t be engaging in.
Trailing behind the Devil, but ahead of me, were some of his entourage, the beings that had accompanied him to Clarence House yesterday. I hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at them before, but now I could make out their distinguishing characteristics.
It seemed, in general, that having multiple heads on one body was preferred. I saw a being with three human heads; another with the head of a human, a toad, and a cat; and then there was an enormous dog with three heads, all whose mouths were drooling saliva on the floor.
I hoped that wouldn’t be too hard to mop up afterward.
And then there were various lesser beings that looked like the Devil writ small: beings with the same horn/tail setup as the Devil himself but about half the height and therefore half the presence. I assumed they would be fully as evil, however.
All of them seemed just as delighted with the bazaar’s offerings as their leader, with the exception of the dog, which—to my dismay—appeared to be looking for a place to do its business.
I was quite familiar with what that looked like, thanks to Dante, and I was just about to try to circumvent the whole thing when I heard the first rumble.
It sounded like an overloaded carriage when it started, and a few of the beings inside the church glanced about in surprise. The noise intensified, however, within just a few minutes, and I undid the blade of my cane, keeping it close to my side to avoid mishap.
I saw smoke coming from where the sermon would be given, near the front of the church. Only the smoke wasn’t the kind you’d see from a natural fire; this smoke was vibrantly colored and curling down, shades of purple and orange and silver intertwining like some sort of reverse fireworks.
I barely had time to register it when I saw the first…whatever they were emerging from the space. There was too much smoke to see where they were coming from, but they certainly hadn’t been there a few minutes ago.
Tiny creatures even shorter than Hannah scampered out, looking like beetles, only with almost-human faces and standing upright.
Their expressions were gleefully dangerous, and I caught my breath as they ran toward the entrance.
Something made a sharp clicking noise as they moved, and I realized it was the plates of their outer shells, or whatever their exoskeleton was, shifting against each other.
Then I heard a loud clanging sound and whipped my head around to see the harpy and the marquis, surprisingly, slamming the front door of the church shut, sliding the bolts home so the creatures couldn’t escape.
Wonderful. That just meant they were trapped inside with all of us. I couldn’t imagine what the plan was—if there even was a plan—but I supposed it was better than letting them out among the populace.
I grabbed a stack of linen napkins and a particularly hideous tablecloth from one of the tables, then unfurled the tablecloth onto the scurrying creatures, trapping many under the fabric.
The others just ran on top, apparently heedless of their companions underneath.
They were moving so quickly I couldn’t use my blade on them, and I also knew I couldn’t make much of a difference, since there were so many of them.
If I could create a boundary they couldn’t get through, I could effectively cage them and then see about sending them back to wherever they’d come from—I strongly suspected Hell, of course, what with the smoke and the general menace the little creatures had—but I couldn’t think too much about their provenance, because after the humanoid beetles came more, and different, creatures—beings that looked vaguely like the various demons I’d seen but were clearly not as powerful or as in command of their faculties.
Their heads lolled from one side to the other as their eyes spun separate from one another, their tails lashing behind them.
These creatures had some sort of language, but it wasn’t anything I’d heard before—just a string of garbled sounds emerging from their mouths, not seeming as though any of them were listening to the other.
To be frank, rather like some of the larger staff meetings I’d attended, but that wasn’t the point here.
I swung my cane in an arc around myself as I flung the napkins in the air, hoping the general chaos might slow things down a bit so I could implement the boundary idea. Or look around to see if anyone else had figured something out.
It didn’t seem as though there was any kind of purpose to this invasion, which gave me hope that it could be stopped as quickly as it had begun; if it was just random, then it shouldn’t be difficult to change their course, given proper incentive.
Thus far, all I’d seen was them swerving erratically between the tables, sometimes picking up one of the items for sale, crowing at it, then flinging it away. I understood the impulse; I never saw the purpose of pen wipers myself.
I felt a yank on my arm as I was assessing the various options—it was unfortunate the bazaar wasn’t offering weapons for sale, though that might have proven troublesome if a squabble broke out among opinionated matrons and one of them picked up a blackjack from a table nearby.
I didn’t want to use my amulet, because it would affect everyone in the building, not just the beings streaming from the portal, and then I would have to explain why the Devil’s entourage had been incapacitated on his first day here.
Not a conversation I wished to have.
“Miss Hastings,” the marquis said, “come with me. It is not safe.”
I glared at him, then at this hand still on my arm. “No, it is not. But how do I know it is safer with you?” After all, I had no clue how the creatures had gained access to this world from wherever they had originated. I shook his arm off.
His eyes narrowed, and then he huffed out a breath before bending down to wrap his arms around my waist and hoist my body over his shoulders.
I whacked him with my cane, right on his ass, but that did little to stop him. He carried me toward the entrance, then to the right, then plopped me down with little consideration for how I landed.
“Just what—?” I began, then saw the harpy, the Devil, some of his entourage, the vicar—who seemed visibly inebriated—and a few frightened bazaar customers all gathered together.
“How did it get opened?” the Devil thundered, plumes of smoke emerging from his mouth. I gathered that was what happened when he was truly angry.
So perhaps this wasn’t his work? I’d assumed it had some connection, but he looked as perturbed as any of the other beings in the corner. Unless he was pretending to be outraged.
That seemed above my pay grade, to be honest.
“We’ll have to find out,” the marquis said grimly. “In the meantime, you stay here,” he commanded. He met my gaze. “Stay here,” he repeated in a stern tone. “Stay safe.”
He whirled away before I could answer and headed back toward where the beings were streaming out from.
I shrugged at the other people—and one devil—waiting there and took a deep breath before following him, wishing I had thought to ask our landlady if she had any potions that could disperse crowds of hellish creatures.