Terrestrial Undead

Chapter 26

ORLA ARLINGTON. 5YRS. INCARCERATED BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY FOR HIS MAJESTY'S AIR BRIGADE EXPANSION PROGRAMME.
Orla had spent more time than she cared to admit looking at the picture of her five-year-old self. She had grown up knowing herself as 009; this Orla felt like a stranger. Still, having taken her name back felt like another middle finger raised toward the Captain of Airship 11, so she stuck with it.
"It's a pretty name."
Tesla had sat down next to her, cradling Miu.
"There she is," Orla sighed, relieved. "She's been getting adventurous. I haven't seen her all day. I think she's getting fed elsewhere. See how chubby she's getting?"
Tesla laughed and tickled Miu's plump belly, and then turned to Orla again, serious.
"I know it's getting to you. What you've found out about yourself, I mean. It's okay to be angry."
Orla blinked. The truth was rage burned in her belly day in, day out, but paying attention to it was exhausting. Unable to find the words to express herself, she let Tesla continue.
"I've caught word of who the coordinator behind the Airship Brigade is. A Sir Pendleton who's been mentioned in the papers. Only problem is..." Tesla glanced at Orla from the corner of her eye, "... He's in Sect 12."
Sect 12. the place of origin written under 009's profile in the Captain's quarters. The shifty look that played over Tesla's face told Orla that her friend remembered what she'd told her about that day in ten-year-old Orla's life.
"You can't go around making excuses to go to different sects just so I can—"
"Find out who Orla is?" Tesla cut in. "You have the right to know. The king took it away from you for a reason. Besides, I'm sure Pendleton has to know something useful. He's been quoted in the papers about the airships."
Orla sighed as Tesla presented a newspaper. She was right— he was quoted as having some authority.
"Alright. I guess it's time for a road trip."

Sect 12 was all marshland, and the pair had to procure a boat at the edge of the city. It was a sad little tub, but it was the best they could get when they had to lay so low. the Gaze had doubled their patrols, and there was constantly an airship somewhere overhead. Orla swayed as they paddled up a grimy canal.
"I don't feel so good."
"Seriously? You spent years on an airship, and a little boat gets the better of you?"
Orla answered by throwing up over the side.
A water bird looked at her askance.
At length, a city rose out of the mist.
"Bugger me."
It was different to the rusty browns of Sect 4; the way the dark buildings leered out of the fog matched the warped brambles that twisted up either side of their boat. Towards the centre of the city, a stately building in black imposed over the other misshapen houses.
"I'm guessing that's where our man is?" Orla asked, not taking her eyes off a particularly unwholesome looking stone gargoyle.
"That's it. Pendleton Manor," Tesla announced as they drifted through the inky veins of the city towards the old mansion. Tying off their boat to a rickety boardwalk, they took to the streets. They were grimy and desolate, inhabited only by gloomy tendrils of mist from the waters. Despite it's abandonment, Orla and Tesla instinctively kept close to the walls as they crept through the damp night towards their target.
Pendleton Manor's windows were well lit, glowering starkly from their shady settings. Ladies and gentlemen in ruffles and bustles alighted from carriages and headed towards the relative warmth of the house. Sir Pendleton was entertaining; this made things difficult. Taking to the roofs, the pair watched Pendleton greet his guests.
"We'll need to lure him away from the party somehow," Tesla muttered. Orla nodded, watching carefully as a woman dressed in a gory red approached the lord of the house. She outstretched her hand to the gentleman, and Tesla felt her companion freeze as he spoke to his guest.
"Lady Arlington," he crooned as the assassins in the gloom's eyebrows raised in unison. His lips lingered over the woman's fingers far too long for a mere acquaintance, and she giggled and raised a small mechanical fan to her face, keeping it fluttering under her eyes until she disappeared inside on Pendleton's arm followed by two armed footmen, she was clearly of some consequence.
"Well. That gives me an idea," Orla paused and then added, "if we can get those two apart."
Slinking from roof to roof, they made it onto the Manor's parapet, and Orla peeped in a few windows before exclaiming at the one to the study.
"I need those paper and pens," she whispered, "I'm going to write the lovebirds some letters."
Clambering inside, Orla scribbled messages on two slips of paper— the first addressed to Pendleton and the second to Arlington. The first bore the message, 'meet me in the garden. A', and the other, 'meet me in the study. P'.
"If we can slip these to them somehow, we should be able to get Pendleton alone."
Tesla smirked.
"Leave it to me."
Orla watched as she climbed down onto the street again, arranging her good so it covered her face. She approached a servant waiting at the door.
"I've messaged for guests of this household which ought to be delivered privately. They are of a sensitive nature."
The servant looked incredulous, and Tesla shrugged.
"It ain't my ass on the line if the Sir and Lady don't get this information before the public," she drawled, "When they're in the middle of a scandal, I'll just tell them the servant on Sir Pendleton's door this evening decided he knew what was best for the gentleman and lady," and she turned to leave.
"Give it to me," the servant growled, snatching the papers and disappearing inside. Tesla made a little fist pump and headed back to Orla, and the two headed into the garden to lie in wait.
Sure enough, a slick haired figure appeared from behind the hedges with a spring in his step.
"My dear Lady," he called, "you have grown bold. Ah, but how could I resist? Where are you, my love?"
Tesla leapt onto Pendleton's head and twisted it to the side while Orla pounced on his exposed neck. He struggled as she sunk her metal teeth into his skin and then threw him from her. He thrashed on the ground as the poison riddled his veins when a thin scream sounded from behind the vampires.
"Alfred!" The woman in red wailed, "what have you done to him?"
He began to choke up blood and she screamed again, rushing to him. Orla felt her stomach lurch as Lady Arlington turned her eyes on her, and not just because they were full of heartbreak; they were reflections of her own green eyes.
"Arlington..." Orla murmured. "Who are you?"
"You are quite right," the lady snapped back, "I am an Arlington, and direct descendant of His Majesty! You'll pay for this, if you don't fix him! Please," she began to beg, "I'll do anything you want if you just save him! Please, I love him! I'll make you rich, I'll do anything, just save him!"
"Why would the king send his own family onto an airship?" Tesla asked, looking between the two Arlingtons.
"Is this about my wretched aunt and her bastard child?" The woman in red sobbed, "I have nothing to do with them, I swear!"
Orla swallowed hard. "What was the child's name?"
The woman looked down at her Alfred.
"Orla."