The Demi-Monde: Summer Read Online Free Page B

NoirVille are under the protection of the Messiah and of ABBA. And soon they will march to victory in the Demi-Monde. Soon we will begin the Mfecane … the Crushing.’
    Selim took the sceptre and knelt. ‘I accept this on behalf of NoirVille. The HimPis of NoirVille stand ready for your command.’
    ‘And what of the fugitive doge-icide, Vanka Maykov, the murderer of Doge Catherine-Sophia? Have you taken him yet? I understand he is attempting to enter the JAD.’
    Maykov again
? Why, de Sade wondered, was the Doge so anxious about Maykov? The man’s capture and execution seemed to have an urgency his low status hardly warranted.
    ‘Agents of the HimPeril are searching for him even as we speak, Your Excellency.’
    A scowl from the Doge. ‘I am displeased. Surely, for a ruler as powerful as Lord Shaka, finding one Blank is not difficult.’
    By way of a reply the Grand Vizier gestured to one of his lieutenants, who ushered a tall and very broad-shouldered Shade boy forward.
    ‘Maykov will be found, Your Excellency. But, in atonement for the dilatoriness of the HimPeril, His HimPerial Majesty brings you your brother.’
    The boy stepped into the halo of light cast by one of the great candelabras that lit the Sala and gave an arrogant wave of his hand. ‘Yo, Sis,’ he said. ‘Long time no see. Septimus Bole sends his regards, and says if yo’ don’t stop fucking around with miracles and shit then he’s gonna get real hot and heavy on yo’ ass.’
    ‘Billy?’ gasped a stunned Doge IMmanual.

3
NoirVille
The Demi-Monde: 2nd Day of Summer, 1005 … 01:00
    Of all the secret organisations in the Demi-Monde – of which there are many – perhaps the most elusive is the Code Noir. Rumour has it – and there are no facts about the Code Noir, just gossip, innuendo and speculation – that the Code Noir was formed around 975 AC by a group of powerful WhoDoo mambos to oppose the coming to power of the WhoDoo Queen, Marie Laveau (957-984 AC). Reputedly the mightiest mambo ever seen in the Demi-Monde, Marie Laveau was considered by many of her disciples to be the reincarnation of Lilith, a belief supported by her attempts to take control of NoirVille and the vicious manner in which she disposed of her rivals. Marie Laveau was assassinated in 984 AC, a killing ascribed to the Code Noir.
    Trying to Pin WhoDoo Down:
Colonel Percy Fawcett, Shangri-La Books
    A crack of a rifle, then …
    Zing!
    A bullet whizzed six inches or so beyond Vanka’s left ear, but he didn’t even flinch. He was too depressed to flinch. Flinching was for people who cared if they lived or died.
    But some residual, autonomic instinct for self-preservationpersuaded him to crouch lower behind the gunwale of the steamboat that was chugging him across the Nile towards the sanctuary of the JAD. This same instinct provoked him to pull the collar of his mackintosh up to try – in a futile sort of way – to deflect the rain that was lashing down on him. Bang on the stroke of midnight on the first day of Summer the heavens had opened, the monsoon rains had come and they hadn’t stopped coming since. Not that Vanka cared. He was past caring.
    He’d always scoffed at the plots of some of the soppier penny dreadfuls that related the anguish suffered when a true love was lost, but he wasn’t scoffing now. His soul was breaking.
    Correction: broken.
    He felt empty inside and even the effort to pull his waterproof around his shoulders was too much for his fretted spirits. He actually welcomed the chilled numbness the teeming rain was driving into his body … he just wished his mind could be numbed too.
    He just wished he was dead.
    Crack, crack
.
    Zing, zing
.
    Two more bullets whined overhead, seeking to oblige.
    ‘Dis am de last time ah do a gig fo’ dem Code Noir cats,’ moaned the Shade at the helm of the steamboat. ‘Ah don’t care how much foldin’ dem cats lay on yours truly, nuffing is worth de bad cats cappin’ a barrel full o’ buckshot up ma