Jenny felt hot tears of shock and anger slide down her face as she stared at Albie, mouth agape. There were no tears in his eyes, only a resigned sorrow at her own, as he stared back at her. Anagesic darted from Peggy's jacket pocket, scuttled across the floor and onto the platform. Albie bent to collect her and the rat wound its way up to his shoulder, where it sat like a monarch. Anagesic squeaked once and the rest of the rat speakers hastily looked to their fires or disappeared into dark holes that Jenny assumed were tunnels. The rats merely kept their beady eyes fixed on Jenny as Albie waited in silence.
"But you got taken." Jenny said eventually, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "You…"
"Yes." His voice held no emotion about the fact.
"Below."
"Yes."
"Who took yer?" Jenny asked, her rage mounting at the monosyllabic answers.
"The rats." Albie replied simply.
"An' you never thought to come back?" Jenny asked furiously. "Left yer family wonderin' all these years wot 'ad 'appened to yer? Left us…" her voice broke.
Albie ducked his head, finally breaking his steady gaze and stared at his feet. Anagesic put a paw on his ear.
"I cannot." His jaw clenched. "You cannot belong to both worlds."
"So why dincha come back to ours?" Jenny folded her arms.
"I owed a debt to the rats."
"Why what 'appened?" The lack of detail in Albie's answers was beginning to frustrate Jenny.
"That is a story for another time. When you do not have a case to deal with." He smiled stiffly. "I fear it would draw unwelcome attention to Below, if the Prime Minister's wife were lost here. And we in Below have all heard about your…exploits. So I sent Peggy to fetch you. We want you to act as the Upworlder's agent in this matter."
"You sent Peggy…"
"Yes."
A suspicion reared its head in Jenny's mind, interrupting her acerbic answer. "When I met her at the docks that time…" she narrowed her eyes.
"The case, Jenny. The Prime Minister's wife." Albie interrupted curtly. "Time enough for explanations later." He smiled his stiff smile again, as if he were trying to be caring and failing. "I will not be able to offer you any protection. She has been taken by the Gold Hawks faction. They are in bitter dispute with the Ravens of the Court over territory. And what use is a rat against either? But I can offer you a path there. Do not stray from it." His tone became stern.
"When you say Gold Hawks and Ravens…"
"Ravens. And Hawks. Big ones. Even bigger than the Isle Dogs." Albie laughed humourlessly. "Don't worry, they're not made of gold. Feathers and flesh as any other bird. Mortal." He said pointedly, nodding at Jenny's sword. "Travel by boat down the Stamford Brook, it will take you into their territory. I will send Peggy with you as guide. She has yet to redeem herself for losing you to the Isle Path. This may be her opportunity." Albie's lips remained in a grin but his eyes narrowed.
Jenny turned to look at Peggy who visibly wilted in his glare. Jenny swung back to face Albie, her mouth open, to question, to chide, but he cut her off once more.
"Answers will have to wait." Albie stepped forward urgently, looking down his nose at her. "You must not fail. Below must not draw further attention from the Above world. Croup and Vandemar did damage enough with Queen Victoria. An Isle Dog on the loose didn't help matters either." He cut his eyes at Peggy again. "It is a delicate situation." He turned his attention back to Jenny. "I have no personal quarrel with the Gold Hawks. But they see no danger. They think claws and beaks enough to hold back an invasion from Above. From Torchwood. And there is an alley which Torchwood would find objection to if they investigated, but we in Below find it to our advantage to keep safe."
"There's more aliens in Below?!" Jenny wondered how many others were scattered around London. She was beginning to see Queen Victoria's point in investigating them.
"The case, Jenny." Albie glowered at her, lifted his chin at Peggy in a dismissal and turned in a flurry of rags to stalk off the ledge into darkness.
The rats hissed simultaneously, creating a roar that echoed sinisterly round the chamber and then all fled, apart from Anagesic who had leapt from Albie's shoulder onto the ledge and was now scurrying across the deserted floor towards Peggy. Peggy collected it and tugged at Jenny's sleeve, pulling her backwards down another tunnel leading off to who knew where.
"C'mon. If we want to take the Stamford Brook, we'll need a boat. And for that we'll need a favour. And I already owe a really big one to the Marquis fer warning you about the Hound." Peggy sighed. "That sword might trade in for one at the Floating Market." She eyed it appreciatively. "Or your waistcoat."
"No." Jenny said firmly.
"No? Hafta be the Sewer Folk then. I 'ope you ain't got a strong sense of smell."
Jenny's nose was already complaining about the rank air of Below. It handed in its resignation when Peggy took them to a small bridge across a tunnel. The smell made her eyes water as Peggy gestured and pointed with a group of what looked like people but Jenny couldn't be entirely sure.
After about ten minutes, during which Jenny began to feel faint from not breathing properly, it being the type of smell that left a taste in the mouth, Peggy declared that they had no boat to speak of but there was a raft. She pulled a small block of soap, slightly chewed by Anagesic, and handed it to the leader. It beckoned them to a large-ish pallet of wood, splintered at the edges.
Jenny looked at it doubtfully but Peggy ushered her on and she cautiously sat down on it. It lurched and she clutched at the edges, very determined not to fall into the vaguely liquid substance that the raft floated on. Peggy hopped on and let go the rope that had tied it to the bridge.
"Away we go." She muttered.
Jenny didn't say a word, consumed by her thoughts of Albie and Below, as the sludge around them carried them to another tunnel flowing with clearer water. She thought him a coward that he would send her as an envoy, to avoid starting a "quarrel" she supposed. He was nothing like the brother she remembered. But then she reviewed her memories of him. Albie was the boy who had introduced her to the mud larks, invited her to be a snake for a gang when he got too old to slither through open windows for them, who had been the worst of them, according to Jess. And it had been more than a decade since Albie had disappeared, everyone saying he'd run off to sea to get away from their father. A decade Below. Jenny shivered involuntarily.
"Shame they din't 'ave a paddle as well." Peggy muttered as they banged off the wall, startling Jenny out of her reverie. The water had become clearer and was running more swiftly. Peggy was struggling to control their progress.
"What's the Floating Market?" Jenny asked once they'd reached a calmer bit of water and could stop clinging quite so desperately to the raft.
"S'a market place ain't it. In a different place each time. S'where you c'n buy stuff. Well I say buy. It's a trade. Anythin' useful for anythin' useful but it's each person decides what's useful to his or herself. Most tis just what you pick up, what you scavenge."
"Oh." Jenny thought it sounded a lot like the world of the mudlarks and pickpockets. No wonder Albie had wanted to stay Below. She didn't believe his excuse of owing the rats.
"Woulda been too late anyway if we went. The lady would've been etted up afore we finished the deal." Peggy crouched a little lower on the raft and stilled, as a rat would upon noticing an owl fly overhead.
"The Hawks…eat people?" Jenny had never lived in the countryside to know much about the habits of hawks but the idea that there were birds that ate people was a shock.
"So does your wife before you sound so uppity about it." Peggy pointed out.
Jenny opened her mouth but snapped it shut again. She settled for muttering "she ain't my wife."
"Matter of time." Peggy waved her hand to dismiss the argument. The raft jolted and the hand speedily returned to the rope. "Must be nearly on Stamford Brook. Don't worry it'll calm down in a bit."
"What do we do once we get there?"
"Slay a few hawks an' rescue a lady." Peggy grinned but her eyes were large and staring, panic-stricken. "Yor the big Isle Dog Slayer ain'tcha? No worries."
Jenny thought back to the size of the hound, remembered suddenly how Albie had said "even bigger" and grasped her sword a little tighter, wondering how Vastra was getting on.
Vastra disliked the way that Abberline looked at her awkwardly on the cab ride there. She was used to his earnest stare, trying to make something out through the veil, having heard of her skin condition but it was annoying when close up as he sat across from her.
"Tell me the precise details of what happened." She instructed him. Perhaps his prattle would distract her from wanting to eat him.
"Ah! Yes." He seemed startled at the sudden conversation. "The Marchioness, the Prime Minister's wife, was visiting a friend in Goldhawk Road. They walked down towards the river together through Ravenscourt Park. The friend stopped briefly, heard what she described as a beating of mighty wings, the cries of great birds fighting and she turned round to find the Marchioness gone. But you'll see more when we get there. It's only about an hour's journey or so."
Vastra sighed at the prospect. She missed her own cab. The police vehicle was not as comfortable and smelt of men.
The scene that met her in Ravenscourt Park was confusing. By the small pond, there were great scours in the earth, as if giant talons had raked across it. Strewn about the place were large golden feathers mingled with equally large black ones, as long as her arm. She picked one up and twirled it, raising it above her head and bringing it down with a whoosh. The air resistance was impressive.
"What is this place called again?" she looked about her.
"Ravenscourt Park."
"And the road?"
"Goldhawk Road." Inspector Abberline looked at her confused.
"A fight. A battle." She pointed to the feathers. "Between giant golden hawks and ravens."
"But that's impossible!" The Inspector snorted.
"Do you have another solution?" Vastra asked, piqued.
"But I mean…I…they don't exist. It's…and what happened to the Marchioness? Is this political? The Prime Minister is very worried. The Unionists have been…"
"Unionists?"
"The Irish…surely you heard about the riots last year?" the Inspector babbled. Vastra blocked him out, remembering Jenny talking about riots. Jess had been at them.
"A union between Ravens and Hawks." She muttered to herself. It seemed nonsensical but she wondered what the Doctor would've made of it. "And the Marchioness…a hostage? Caught in the middle? Fallen through the cracks?" Vastra wished for a detector. If there had been a space time anomaly for example, if the fight had broken through certain boundaries.
She walked along the deep scores in the earth, almost wide enough that her boot could fit down them. The fight had been vicious. Over territory? This was all to do with Below, Peggy had intimated. One could not rule out anything in a land where blue flames could grow into people. But no blood. The blood of the hound had disappeared, she remembered and she wondered if the Marchioness's would have disappeared as well, or whether she was unharmed still. Vastra imagined telling the Prime Minister that his wife had been eaten by a giant golden hawk that resided beneath his capital city and laughed to herself.
"Well?" Abberline asked, a little impatiently.
"It's political. But not human politics. A territorial dispute. I would need to speak to Jenny but alas, I have no way of getting Below." Vastra stepped carefully towards what appeared to have been the centre of the battle, near to the edge of a pond. She kept her senses alert for any sense of an odd tingle but felt nothing. No pathway. No sliver of unreality to slip through. She hissed in frustration that she had not accompanied Jenny and Peggy and wondered again how Jenny was faring Below. After all, she could not trust the little urchin to keep Jenny safe.
Stamford Brook was substantially calmer after a short waterfall and they drifted along in the gloom to the sound of trickling water, increasingly sodden and nervous.
"S'not underground or anything. The brook. It's just Below. Don't get quite as much light as it should." Peggy explained as Jenny wondered out loud how they could see as well as they could when they were Below. "We gotta steal the sunlight." She grinned. "Gets it secondhand."
"Are we gettin' close?" Jenny asked tersely, glad that she would not be fighting gigantic birds in the dark.
"Aye. We're nearly in the Raven's Court."
"Ravens? I thought I was gonna be fightin' hawks."
"Might be fightin' both if you ain't careful. It's an 'istorical dispute over this territory, whether it's Raven or Hawk."
"So 'ow'd this Marchioness get involved then?"
"Wrong place, wrong time. Like you. Slipped through the cracks. Bit of a to-do. Usually the people who do that, they don't exactly get missed when they do."
"I missed Albie." Jenny interjected.
"The world miss him did it?" Peggy spat. "Would the world've missed you?"
"Vastra would've. An' the urchins."
"Yeah. Well." Peggy sniffed.
"Did you know I was gonna get lost down there?"
Peggy shifted uncomfortably, giving Jenny her answer. "I was curious y'see. About why I was watchin' yer. I did ask, y'know. About Albie. Lord Rat Speaker were a bit shocked to hear that name spoke by one of his own. I never knew it was 'is name."
"What happened with Albie?"
"Me know an' tell Lord Rat Speaker's intimate secrets?" Peggy scoffed. "'e asked Anagesic to keep an eye on yer. An' Gesic bein' a particular friend of mine, I figgered I'd join 'em. An' after the lil cockup at the Docks, I figgered I'd join the Irregulars as an easier way to keep an eye on yer. They say you can't 'ave both worlds but the urchins run along the border of it. Easy enough to slip in with 'em."
"Vandemar said I 'ad a rat problem." Things were clicking slowly into place now for Jenny.
"Yeah well he would wouldn't 'e. The non-bleeder. Now shush. Ain't wanna draw attention to ourselves. The Hawks don't often get fresh meat. They'd be more'n 'appy to add us to the Prime Minister's wife. On'y the bleedin' Prime Minister's wife." She tutted in anguish. "But can the bird brains see the risk? Oh noes. Why she afta fall through for anyways? All the Upworlders in the Upworld and she got to…"
"Shush." Jenny said flatly in retaliation.
"Shush me! A bleedin' upworlder shush me!" Peggy's voice was shrill with fear and sounded all the louder.
There was a hiss that sounded more like a "shhhhh" from the lump in Peggy's sleeve that was Anagesic and she swiftly withdrew into silence for the remainder of the journey.
They left the raft at the edge of the Brook and went forward on barefoot, as Jenny's boots made a squelching noise from the water in them. She tied them to her sword belt. The ground was the dense damp earth of a riverbank and the occasional patch of grass, easy enough to walk on. Jenny kept a hand on her sword hilt as they crept along.
There was a sudden rustling to their left, accompanied by sharp clicks and snaps, as if a wind was blowing through a vast amount of loose paper. Peggy grasped her arm, tugging her low and fast past the dark observing eyes. Jenny felt Peggy's hand tremble as it clutched at her, heard her breathing turn shaky and shallow and realised her companion was almost gone with terror. Jenny led them to a small hollow at the base of a tree and crouched there with Peggy.
"I'm just a rat speaker." Peggy whispered as she twisted and turned round and round restlessly in the small space. "I'm gonna get etted. Thas 'ow 'e's gonna make me pay fer the Docks." Peggy let out a whimper. Jenny grabbed her arm but withdrew her hand with a hissed exclamation as she felt Peggy's teeth close on her skin before the young Rat speaker fled along the bank, back towards where they'd left the raft.
"OI!" Jenny shouted in disbelief, darting out of the hollow after Peggy. She froze almost immediately that she left it, wincing at each echo of her voice that faded away to nothing. The hairs on her nape rose up and she drew her sword with a soft shing. Her own arm started trembling and her mouth went dry. Her breathing sounded loud in the stillness that surrounded her. A breeze ruffled the loose strands of her hair, tickling her. She froze, stopped even her breathing, listening intently but heard nothing to warn her of the mighty downdraft that knocked her off her feet. She rolled into a crouch position, spinning on her toes to find a shimmering Hawk folding its wings into its body in front of her. It was taller than Vastra, as large as Jenny imagined a dragon to be. Its feathers shone like fine jewellery, reflecting light in a way that would've been dazzling in full light, but even in the dimness of Below created an aura around the bird. It clacked its hooked beak before lowering its head to Jenny's eye level.
Jenny swallowed as an amber eye as large as her fist stared at her.
An: The fun of taking street names literally.
