The Violent Fae Blog Tour – The Ordshaw Vignettes

To celebrate the release of The Violent Fae, the closing chapter of the Ordshaw series’ The Sunken City Trilogy, Phil Williams is sharing twelve short stories from the city of Ordshaw. The Ordshaw Vignettes are tiny insights into life in the UK’s worst-behaved city, each presenting a self-contained mystery.

You can read today’s story below. For the full collection, visit all the wonderful blogs in the tour.

About Ordshaw and The Violent Fae

The Ordshaw series are urban fantasy thrillers set in a modern UK city with more than a few terrible secrets. The Violent Fae completes a story that began with Under Ordshaw and its sequel Blue Angel, which I reviewed yesterday, following poker player Pax Kuranes’ journey into the Ordshaw underworld. Over the space of one week, Pax unravels mysteries that warp reality and threaten the entire city.

The Violent Fae will be available from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback from November 5th 2019.

If these vignettes are your first foray in Ordshaw, note that Under Ordshaw is on offer on Kindle in the US and UK between October 28th October – 1st November.  

The Crane Driver

It was already late when the radio cut out. Sure way to make a long day longer. 350ft up in the crane, Dave had eyes on the roof and the waiting men, could easily lower the pipe into their waiting hands. But you didn’t do that. Didn’t touch a damn thing without the radio. He kept his hands away from the lever, eyes off the function displays – you do nothing until the banksman gets back in touch.

You had to keep cool, isolated in this little metal cage. No noise from the traffic, nor the shouts and clanks of the construction site. All you’ve got is crackling radio instructions, and that’s good because you need steel focus. Slow, steady, everyone depending on you.

When the radio cuts out, you wait.

Dave looked across the city rather than down at the blokes waving from the roof, just get the job done. Nope. He scanned the Net, a plain of buildings due north, the whole district in need of renovation. Lot of space there; if he got up some savings he was gonna take a crew himself, show some –

A blue spark drew his eye to a big red-brick church, taller than the surrounding derelicts. And – it came again – blue light sparked in its windows like someone flicking lights inside. Dave squinted. Welding? Half a dozen guys going at it throughout the church? Something unnatural there …

You saw weird things up here. The silence made them worse. Technical skill was one thing, a disregard for heights another. Dave had both in spades – could waltz along a high wire, though you wouldn’t get him down a sewer, not for all the tea in China. They’d had collapses, accidents in the metro. Much safer up here. But the crane had other dangers. You had to keep your head.

Barry Wicket, he got it bad. Hadn’t jumped but almost did. They were all shouting from the ground when they saw him perched on the crane arm. This high up, alone, hour after hour, it could make a man do things. Barry claimed he heard a little lady goading him. Wanted him to do it, said his life was worthless. He agreed. Only, last minute, the voice laughed at him and broke the spell. He was about to step off when it said, “Oh my God you’re actually going to do it?”

The voice in his head, mocking him. That confusion saved his life. Took him another hour but he made it down. He never went up again, Barry Wicket. Lost his license and saw a therapist, ended up a stadium steward. Got scared of being alone.

Proper creepy, Dave thought, that voice laughing after all that negative persuading. Might’ve saved Barry’s life, but left it sounding more real. Not just him freaking out, too weird for that. Then, a wandering mind went complicated places.

Yet thinking on that, Dave couldn’t deny the church was lighting up. These lances of light shot out the door – open, wasn’t it? Spitting lightning, like the building held a storm inside. Dave blinked, but it didn’t go away. He stared instead.

Finally, it stopped.

A dead, empty church again, another Net district husk.

Had he imagined it the same way Barry Wicket heard that voice?

“Dave – you with us?” the radio buzzed, and Dave threw himself back to the controls, focused on the displays to centre himself.

“Got you loud and clear, Bob,” he said.

“Good, great, not sure what cut us off. All good up there?”

“Hunky dory,” Dave answered. One focus now. Lower that pipe, get the job done. Definitely not thinking on whatever might or might not have been in that church. You saw weird things up there. Heard things, too. You didn’t dwell on it. Didn’t talk about it.

That’s how you got on.

Previous Story
For more Ordshaw shorts, you can check out yesterday’s story, The Concierge on Bookshine & Readbows. The next story, The Chemist, will be available on BiblioSanctum from October 28th.

Links:
The Violent Fae Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48246084-the-violent-fae
The Violent Fae UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Y7CRV1L
The Violent Fae US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y7CRV1L
Under Ordshaw Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40092074-under-ordshaw
Under Ordshaw UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CXYSZVN
Under Ordshaw US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CXYSZVN
Blue Angel Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43232280-blue-angel
Blue Angel UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07L33XJZ7
Blue Angel US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L33XJZ7

Find Phil Williams: https://www.phil-williams.co.uk