Chapter 434: The Hail Storm

Chapter 433: The Hail Storm

Lyria’s POV

I wasted not a single moment.

I left Lucke and Evan in charge of the shelters, and of accounting for all present. My maids, together with Helen and several other women who had joined our undertaking, I set in charge of food and such necessities as would be required. Tommy, Oliver, and Ellis I dispatched to procure whatever dry wood might be laid hands upon, and I sent word to Bennett, along with yet more carriages for the conveyance of everyone yet remaining.

The whole place became a scene of considerable activity.

And yet, even as we laboured, scarcely a sound issued from the commoners. They understood, as well as any among us, that should the Crown discover what we were about, they themselves should suffer for it in turn. And so they worked in silence, their movements swift, their voices no louder than a whisper. A tension hung in the air that had nothing whatsoever to do with the approaching storm — a fear long settled into their very bones, bred by years spent living beneath the Crown’s shadow.

Those lightly hurt joined readily in the work. Before long, every commoner able to stand was gathering food and herbs and ointments for those who could not.

It was not long before Bennett joined us within the capital, and a census was taken of all those requiring accommodation.

We were fortunate in that Bennett possessed certain buildings at his disposal, as did Xander and Jules. But Bennett’s accommodations could not hold above ten at the very most, and only five if we were to proceed with due caution. This left some hundred people yet in need of shelter.

Jules was rather better situated. His establishment was an orphanage, and received twenty without raising the least suspicion. I saw to it that sufficient food, wood, and water were provided, and instructed several of the men to assist in barring the windows.

There remained still some eighty more to be accounted for.

Only one of Lucke’s properties possessed sufficient space. The other could receive but five, and men only, lest it alarm the usual clientele, consisting chiefly of nobility. These men would pass themselves off as labourers. I was grateful regardless, and they took only wood from us, professing to have food enough of their own.

The remaining property lay some distance from Mercer’s Row, but Lucke took twenty souls with him, promising they should be properly settled. Xander was able to accommodate fifteen within his own establishment, and Evan took the remainder amongst various properties. None lay within Mercer’s Row, but all stood within the capital, and he made certain every person was properly housed.

We were cutting the matter very close indeed by the time we had finished.

And we had need to depart at once.

But Lucke had not yet returned, and I would not leave without him.

Much to Jules’s evident displeasure.

He attempted to persuade me to think first of my own safety, but I turned a deaf ear to him entirely. I would not stir until I was certain Lucke had properly housed those he had taken, and had returned to us safely.

None of the others raised objection. Only Jules.

And so we waited.

The minutes stretched on, each one longer than the last. The sky above had grown unnaturally dark, the clouds heavy and low, and the wind had begun to rise, tugging at cloaks and sending debris skittering across the cobblestones. I drew my own cloak tighter about myself and watched the road, willing horses to appear upon it.

Jules paced beside me, his spectacles catching the faint light of such lanterns as yet burned in a few scattered windows.

"Your—" He caught himself, and shook his head. "I must insist—"

"I am n-not leaving," I said, sharply, caring not that my stammer slipped through entirely, "until I am c-certain he has r-returned."

"But the storm—"

"I am w-well aware of the s-storm."

He opened his mouth to argue further, but Xander laid a hand upon his arm and shook his head. He fell silent at that, though his countenance made plain enough his displeasure.

And then, at last, we heard the sound of horses.

I turned towards the road, and there was Lucke, with Gilbert, his carriage drawing to a halt before us. He descended at once, his movements swift.

"Is it d-done?" I asked him. "Are you h-hurt?"

"It is done, and I am not," he said, a smile upon his face.

I released a breath I had not realised I held.

Just then Tommy gave a groan.

"We had best begin running," he said. "It is a hail storm."

"Bloody goddess’s tits!" Evan swore.

I blinked, quite astonished, for it was the first occasion upon which I had heard him curse in such a manner.

I had no opportunity to utter a word, for Bennett swept me up at once.

I gave a small sound of surprise, but there was no time whatever for protest.

"Get within, the lot of you!" Bridget cried out towards Helen and several other commoners yet loitering nearby.

They lost not a moment in hurrying into their homes. I had no chance even to bid Helen farewell, for we too had begun running towards the palace.

Tommy proved swiftest, as though his very life depended upon the pace, his feet scarcely seeming to touch the ground. Bennett was not far behind, even bearing me upon his shoulders, his stride long and powerful. Dorian carried Kathryn as though she weighed nothing at all. Cade bore up Jules, the man possessing not an athletic bone in his body, as Xander had observed, while Gilbert carried Elara.

No one among us troubled themselves with propriety in that moment. We had need only of shelter.

The wind howled about us, growing fiercer with every passing instant. I could hear it whistling through the streets, rattling shutters, sending loose debris flying in every direction. And behind us, drawing ever nearer with each beat of my heart, came a sound unlike any I had heard before — a roar, a rumbling, as of a thousand thousand pieces of ice striking stone and timber and earth all at once.

We had only just gained the palace walls when the sound overtook us.

Closing from behind.

As though in pursuit of us entire.

Tommy ran the faster for it.

I should have found the whole scene rather comical, had it not been so plainly dangerous. The sight of grown men — dukes and earls and barons among them — sprinting through the streets of the capital as children might flee some game, their valets and guards in tow, and, in my own case, a princess borne upon one man’s very shoulders, was absurd enough to have warranted no small laughter, under any other circumstance.

But this was no other circumstance.

A hail storm had never once occurred within the capital, in all the years I had dwelt here. Not once. Not within my whole memory of the place. The capital was temperate, sheltered, protected by its situation within the valley. Storms came and went, certainly, but they were gentle things — rain, wind, the occasional peal of thunder, nothing more.

This was something else entirely.