The Mortality of Queens

18 - The Umbra Abominable

Stanton

'Black-hearted murder of the Borderer by Greynhym and evil Umbra' called out a young girl on the corner of Marksfayre Square. She was selling one of the 'Umbra Abominables', salacious scandal sheets that were produced weekly and read out by literate folk on street corners, in ale saloons and bawdy houses.

Others of her kind shouted their competing news from publications of the same ilk. Stanton had never been disposed to buy them but dug out his halfpenny for the girl, who was doing brisk trade.

'Monstrous business, sir,' she informed him, curtseying. 'There'll be no stopping those Greynhym horrors now – there's not one of us safe from plague.'

Dusk was mustering in the city and the street lamps were already being lit in the square as he entered his house, hoping that Isabella might have followed him out from Pickadills Coffee House. She hadn't.

Stanton had already purchased a copy of Lloyds Evening Post on his way back from Pickadills. He sat in the parlour and opened the paper on the story of the 'Death macabre of the Umbra Charon and thereby Countess Alnwick'.

It was relegated to the smallest section of the front page, owing to the urgency of the news of events in France, which included the de-establishment of Christianity on the Friday just past.

The Post report on Charon was much focussed on the Countess and reports of her early life and elevation to The Five Hundred. Details of the death of her Umbra were scant:

'Umbra were called to arms on the news of the sinister death of Charon, the Borderer, doubtless by a band of Greynhym. Charon, known as "the scourge of the Greynhym", led his forces to many victories holding the line near the Rivers of Witham and Trent and keeping the pestilential horde at bay.

'The Countess of Alnwick, now taken from us, readily told of the courageous deeds of her Umbra and his efforts to keep the north safe from the evil that is the Greynhym and the plague they carry into our world. Charon fletched his arrows with white feathers, dipped in blood and bore a sword and dagger made of argentium. His armour was said to be impervious to blade or arrow point. The Countess was quoted in the latest edition of The Book of Five Hundred as saying: "Never have I any fears for my own life. Charon is so brutal and cruel in battle, 'tis the Greynhym I fear for."'

The paper spoke of the Borderer and 'his brave Umbra band of Spriggans and Wood Elves as they dashed to push back against any breach'. The paper also named several towns and villages 'to the north of the Province of Pestilence, that should carry themselves wary for any sign of swellings or tumours in the groin or armpit, or of black spots or livid in the arm, thigh or elsewhere.'

Stanton's eyes ran, though, to the bottom of the column where he saw the word 'disquieting'.

'There are several disquieting aspects to the murder of the Borderer. Not least among these are that a small band of Greynhym spawn would be able to withstand such a resolute and accomplished warrior whose armour they could not breach. Also, that they might attack on the strand line of a beach.'

Stanton's mind went to Larkwing's suspicion. Could it be that Viscount Exeter's Umbra had been turned by the French and tricked the Borderer into an ambush? He inked his quill and applied himself to some notes:

• Is Exeter's Muscari the undercover Umbra?

• Could she have access to the King's Umbra, Hannah Lightfoot?

• The 'People's Queen' may not be guarded in the Other Realm.

• George the Third is well protected here, but Miss Lightfoot's
death there, would decapitate this world's most powerful empire.