Eliza looked miserable. 'I cannot bear to think of leaving you here, George!' she said.
'Chin up, lass,' said George, trying to sound cheerful. 'I'm perfectly safe and well looked after by Mrs. Tucker.'
Eliza smiled weakly but seemed unconvinced.
'We can do this,' I said, taking her hand and squeezing it reassuringly. Fishing by day and smuggling by night had afforded me an enormous amount of grit, and my father's Royalist sympathies had inspired in me a fierce loyalty to the Crown.
'I do hope so,' murmured Eliza.
Chapter 16
'Here it is!' said Eliza, jamming her finger into a rather faded page of the hand-written book George had instructed us to find in the library. It was the repellent spell.
'We will need the alchemy laboratory to prepare it,' said Eliza, skimming through the method.
'How are we to prepare it without anyone noticing?' I asked.
'We will use the laboratory at night when no one else is around. When Emerson returns, I believe he will begin your instruction on the equipment in there. Make sure you pay attention; this looks like a difficult spell, and we must get it absolutely right.'
'Hemlocks?' I said, reading over Eliza's shoulder. 'Wherever will we find hemlocks in London? And what is manganese?'
'It is a chemical element. The spell says we will need to extract it from manganese dioxide using carbon. Manganese dioxide is used in glassmaking, so it should still be in the laboratory from when George made his compasses.'
At that moment, the library door opened, and Emerson entered, his cloak drenched with rain and his boots splattered with mud. He had just returned from Osmington Mills.
'Good evening,' he said, taking a seat at the table and removing his hat. 'I see you have been making friends, young Wild.' He glanced at Eliza before continuing. 'I hope you have found time to study the books I left you too.'
'Yes, sir,' I replied.
'Good. Well, it is done. Your family may live quite comfortably from now on with the annuity that they will receive.'
'Please, sir, what did you tell them?' I asked.
'That I was the merchant whose ship was wrecked, and I saw you swept out to sea after you kindly offered to help me retrieve some cargo deposited upon the rocks. I said my company would pay the annuity as a gesture of thanks for your kind deed.'
'Did they weep?' I asked.
Emerson was silent for a moment before answering. 'Do not think on it, lad. No good will come of it. They accept you are dead, and you must too.'
I nodded, but my stomach was in knots and my head giddy as though the pronouncement of my doom had just been made. My family now believed me dead; undoubtedly, they would be weeping for me, my father scouring the beach, searching vainly for a body he would not find, yet here I was: alive and unharmed, knowing how they must weep. Guilt and hopelessness swept over me. Emerson rose to leave.
'Please, sir,' I said suddenly.
Emerson turned.
'Will you show me the alchemy laboratory? I would like to start practicing, if I may.'
A look of surprise flashed across Emerson's face, but he answered quickly.
'I will show you tomorrow. Wait for me in here after breakfast.' With that, he left the library, shutting the door quietly behind him.
The next morning, I peeped out of the grille in the dormitory to find the first frost of autumn clinging to the ground and the window panes of the houses in the lane. The year was hurrying towards its end, but dark and dangerous business sill lay ahead. I shuddered in the cold of the morning and dressed quickly. Emerson was already waiting for me outside the library when I slipped out of the dormitory.
'Follow me,' he said, leading me across the hall and up the staircase.
I had not been beyond it since my initiation, but I now saw that the gallery at the top of the stairs was shaped like a half moon with doors along its curve. The door in the centre was richly carved of rosewood and surrounded by plaster stucco work. I guessed it was the room I had been initiated in. The surrounding doors were smaller and plainer with the rooms behind them made up of the Keeper's apartments, an astronomy room, Bridget Blyth’s studio, and the alchemy laboratory.
Emerson stopped before the second door and unlocked it. He crossed to the window and opened the shutters, which at once illuminated the most peculiar space I had ever seen. The stuffed carcasses of strange and monstrous-looking animals with scaled hides and sharp teeth were suspended from the ceiling, and running along the width of the room was an immense oak table, laden with all sorts of bizarre instruments. In the centre, a small iron cauldron sat atop a tripod. Shelves on either side of the chimney breast heaved with beakers and jars of liquids, powders and the pickled remains of birds and animals. At one end of the table, an enormous copper furnace smouldered and steamed.
'This is the alchemy laboratory,' said Emerson. 'We shall start with the basics of alchemy, which you should already be familiar with from your reading.'
He gave me a sideways glance which expressed his doubt that I had read what I was supposed to.
'Tell me, what are the four classical elements?'
'Earth, air, fire and water,' I replied, amazed at my own recollection.
'Good. Now, open that book,' he said, gesturing to a heavy tome at the end of the table.
I opened it onto the first page and looked at Emerson, puzzled, for amongst the richly detailed illustrations of laboratory equipment and strange symbols, a text constructed of unfamiliar characters was written in black ink.
'I cannot read the letters,' I said.
'That is because it is a code- my own code. You will come to learn that alchemists are a jealous breed and guard their work closely,' replied Emerson with a wry smile. 'Nonetheless, the images will suffice for today's instruction. Now, the three essentials of alchemy are salt, mercury and sulfur. Salt is a product of earth and water, mercury of water and air, and sulfur of air and fire. Take that cup of salt water and pour it into the beaker with the rounded bottom. Fix the tube to it and place the end into the empty cup as the image shows. Now light a candle beneath the beaker and wait for a few minutes.'
I did as I was instructed. After a minute, curls of steam started to rise from the water inside the beaker as it began to bubble. Soon it was boiling. Emerson turned over a sand timer and waited as the empty chamber began to fill. I watched with fascination as the water inside the beaker steamed furiously and the bubbling gradually stopped.
'Look inside the beaker,' said Emerson as the steam inside it cleared. 'What do you see?'
'There is a white residue, sir,' I replied. 'What is it?'
'Salt,' replied Emerson. 'Now look inside the empty cup you put the end of the tube into.'
''Tis full of water!' I cried.
'Yes,' said Emerson. 'We have separated the salt and water through evaporation and distillation. These are basic principles which encompass all alchemical processes. There are many more, and you will come to know each one.'
Chapter 17
I did not emerge from the laboratory until well past dark that evening. I was a keen student, and Emerson worked me hard. As I took my evening meal with Eliza, I could barely hold my eyes open long enough to finish eating.
'What did Emerson show you?' asked Eliza. She was eager to hear all about the laboratory.
'Lots,' I replied. 'He showed me the basic alchemical processes- how to separate and reduce substances, and he showed me how all of the equipment works.'
'Excellent,' said Eliza, handing me a slip of paper. 'I retrieved the map of the labyrinth from the back of the book, and this is a list of ingredients we need for the potion. I tore the page out of the book yesterday and copied them out. Can you check whether those I have marked are in the laboratory tomorrow? If not, we will have to try and obtain them somehow. The rest we can harvest ourselves. I slipped into the Agriculturian's workshop and copied down the moon phases for the next month. The spell is very specific about when the plant ingredients are to be harve
sted. I suggest you get what you can from the laboratory, and I will find the plants.’
I nodded, a little overwhelmed with exhaustion and Eliza's ceaseless chatter.
'Don't be troubled,' said Eliza, mistaking my quietness for worry. 'I have read through the spell. 'Tis quite simple once the correct preparation has been undertaken. The Coquinarian has a cat we can test it on before we use it in the labyrinth.'
'I'm sorry, Eliza,' I said, yawning. 'I'm so weary, I fear I will fall asleep sitting up. Let me find what I can in the laboratory tomorrow.'
'Very well,’ said Eliza. 'The spell must be cast under a full moon, but the next one is in five days hence, and I will not have harvested all of the ingredients by then. We will have to prepare it under the next one, which is the night of the 31st of October: All Hallows' Eve. The Keeper holds his annual autumn ball at the Apothecaries' Hall in Blackfriars on that evening for all of his well-connected friends outside the Guild. It is the only time members mix with people from outside the Guild. We will not be invited- apprentices never are -so we will have the laboratory to ourselves all night. It is quite a stroke of luck. All that remains is to get hold of the key.'
'I will see to that,' I replied.
For the next month, I spent every waking moment studying in the library or experimenting in the laboratory. Emerson tutored me diligently, and I suspected he was privately impressed with my commitment, if not my aptitude. Secretly, I noted which substances the laboratory stocked and subtly questioned Emerson on the creation of the more complex ingredients.
Time marched on, and I hardly had time to feel sad or homesick, being so occupied with alchemy, but when I glanced out of the laboratory window one morning and saw that the trees outside were half bare, I thought suddenly of my home and family. Sloe and rose haws would be out in the hedgerows, and Lizzie would be carving the turnip lantern ready for All Hallows' Eve. I wished more than anything that I could be there with her, scooping out the fleshy centre on the kitchen table, with our mother scolding us about the mess.
That night, with sleep far from my eyes, I listened as the branches of the tree outside my window scraped across the glass pane. In my head, I checked off all the ingredients Eliza had asked me to find.
'Tom,' whispered a voice behind me as a hand shook my shoulder gently. I almost leapt out of the bed in fright. Eliza stood over me, carrying an uncovered lantern.
'Eliza!' I hissed with annoyance. 'What are you doing? 'Tis almost midnight!'
'I know,' she whispered, 'but I must harvest the hemlocks at the stroke of midnight. There is a stream where they grow behind the church. Will you come with me? I am afraid to go alone.'
I groaned and pulled on my boots and tunic.
'I'm quite sure it makes little difference at all when they are harvested,' I muttered as we slipped out of the dormitory and across the hall.
The front door was bolted from inside at night, but there was no keyhole with which to lock it. Eliza lifted the bolt and eased the door open silently. Outside, frost already clung to the bare tree branches and sealed the windows shut. Clouds moved swiftly across the star-pricked sky and obscured the moon, almost at its full, for a few moments.
We hurried down the lane and along a few more quiet roads to where the little church of St. Mary stood. Behind the church yard, a narrow stream wound its way through the thickness of trees and bushes which grew there. The fields behind were an outlier of rural peace and beauty, having escaped development by the ever-expanding city either by chance or deliberate choice. Either way, the lack of human interference had created a haven for wildlife where rhododendrons and hazel jostled for space amongst strangling ivy and bindweed.
'Here it is,' said Eliza, kneeling down at the stream bank. 'Hold up that lantern.'
She gently lifted a clump of hemlock out of the ground from the base of the stem and scraped back the damp earth, exposing the pale, fleshy root. Careful to preserve the plant in its entirety, she wrapped the roots in a damp linen cloth and carefully stowed it in a leather pouch.
'That should be enough,' she said. 'Come, let’s get back before anyone notices we are missing.'
A chilly wind swept around us as we hurried back to the Gatehouse with our precious cargo. The next day was All Hallows' Eve and the night we must prepare the repellent.
As we reached the steps of the Gatehouse, a loud yowl startled us. Eliza started, and I covered the lantern over as a large black cat strolled up the steps and sat on the doorstep, having just seen off a contender for his territory.
Eliza exhaled softly. 'It’s just the Coquinarian's cat. Come, let's get back inside.'
We had left the door unbolted, and it opened soundlessly as we slipped back into the darkness of the hall.
'May I enquire where you have been at this hour?' came a voice from the shadows.
Chapter 18
My heart almost leapt into my throat as I uncovered the lantern to see the speaker. Before us stood the Keeper, dressed as though it was daytime, his hands clasped in front of him. I froze, too shocked to speak.
'Well?' he said, bending his glare upon me and Eliza alternately.
'Please sir, I heard the Coquinarian's cat yowling outside and was afraid for him. I feared he was hurt, so I awoke Tom to help me find him and see him safe,' said Eliza. There wasn't a quiver of hesitation in her voice.
'And where is the cat now?' asked the Keeper, evidently doubtful of the truth of her story.
'Why, here, sir,' said Eliza, opening the door again just a crack and beckoning in the cat. It slunk through and settled itself at the bottom of the staircase. For a moment the Keeper looked uncertain, his triumphant exposure of a lie unexpectedly thwarted.
'I will be speaking to your father in the morning, Miss Ellery,’ he said acidly, recovering his composure. ‘You, young Wild, I will be keeping a close eye upon. Get back to your rooms now.’
His eyes blazed and regarded me with the same look of severity he had given me at my initiation. A cold sweat broke across my neck as we shuffled past with our heads bowed. I hadn't had such a fright since I was forced to hide in a tree with a sack-full of smuggled tobacco while the custom's man grazed his horse at the roadside below for a full half hour.
'Thank goodness you had your wits about you,' I said the next morning as Eliza and I sat in the library studying together.
'It was fortunate the cat was there,' Eliza replied.
'Do you think Devere believed you?' I asked.
Eliza shook her head. ‘I fear not. He is no fool. He suspects something. Let us hope he thinks it is merely a foolish teenage tryst.'
'Yes, let's,' I replied.
The day slid slowly by as we waited anxiously for evening to come, then we watched through the grille in the dormitory as the Keeper and the Guild members boarded the waiting coaches and slid away into the rainy night.
'Let's go. We haven't any time to waste,' said Eliza as the lantern from the last carriage disappeared from view.
The Gatehouse was empty but for the two of us, and our footsteps echoed in the silence as we hurried up to the laboratory with our precious ingredients and two cloaks Eliza had taken from the weaving room.
'Hold the lantern steady,' I said as I knelt before the door with one of Mr. Ellery's pins.
'Are you certain you won't break the lock? None can know we have been in there,' said Eliza.
'No one will know,' I confirmed as the lock slid back with a click.
We set to work at once lighting the furnace and weighing out quantities of our ingredients. Water boiled in the cauldron above the tripod and bubbled through tubes and beakers.
'Has the moon risen yet?' I asked as I measured a dram of manganese dioxide.
Eliza peeped behind the drapes that hung over the window.
'Yes,' she said. 'Let's begin.'
Once we had waited for the manganese and oxygen to separate, we set to work preparing the hemlocks, cloves, mallow blossom and thorn apple and crushed them all together with pestle
and mortar.
'We must boil up the ash bark,' said Eliza, consulting the torn-out page from the book.
At last, all the ingredients were prepared. I set a clean cauldron on the table, and the ingredients were combined. The resulting mixture was a dark grey powder with a silvery sheen.
'Now we have only to sprinkle it onto our cloaks,' I said as I returned the jars we had used to their correct places on the shelves and washed out the equipment. Soon, the laboratory looked just as it had before.
'Do you think that is enough?' asked Eliza, holding up her cloak.
I shrugged. 'Let’s try it on the cat.'
We cast our cloaks about us and grabbed the lantern and the map of the labyrinth. Taking the steps down to the hall two at a time, we dashed across to the Coquinarian's workshop where the cat had been shut in for the night. As I opened the door just a crack, I peeped through and saw that it lay curled up beside the stove. It opened one eye as it heard us approach then jumped up and stiffened. We stopped, but it darted past us and out into the hall with a loud meow.
'It works!' cried Eliza. 'Now to the labyrinth!'
We hurried back out into the hall and followed the passageway past the staircase to the back of the hall. In the centre of the floor, a trapdoor had been marked out with a border of red and yellow tiles.
'This is it,' said Eliza.
'I'll go first,' I said grimly. I drew a breath, pulled back the bolt and opened the trapdoor. A rush of cold air hit us, followed by a damp, musty smell. I held the lantern aloft and saw a steep flight of wooden stairs descending for an unknown depth into the darkness. I gripped the lantern firmly and ducked into the darkness, followed by Eliza.
There was no handrail to steady ourselves with, just the uneven stone of the walls on either side of the stairs that enclosed them. Gradually, the light from the hall above disappeared, and the stairs came to an end.
A Skin of a Dragon (The Guild of Gatekeepers Book 1) Page 7
