The Secret City

by C. J. Daugherty

  ‘This was once the home of a famous French alchemist and scientist in the seventeenth century, the Marquis D’Orbay,’ Louisa explained. ‘Have you heard of him?’

  They both shook their heads.

  ‘He was a friend of Isaac Newton – a scientist, an inventor. He was years ahead of his time. He invented things we still use today – a kind of early test tube, a process for distilling alcohol…’ She made a vague gesture. ‘More importantly, he understood early medicine better than almost anyone – how to set bones, how to treat infections. He was hugely popular. In Paris, people lined up at his door to be treated by him. There were so many, he moved his practice out here to this chateau, which he used as a kind of hospital. Some people thought he had mystical powers… which, to be fair, he kind of did.’ She waved a hand. Taylor felt the warmth of her drawing power and then the lantern on the table blinked out, coming back to life again with a flick of her fingers. ‘Unfortunately, his success brought him to the attention of the French authorities. They accused him of witchcraft. Threatened him with a show trial and a terrible death. He hid this house to stay alive.’

  ‘He hid the house?’ Sacha’s eyebrows winged up. ‘How?’

  ‘The windmill.’

  Seeing the blank looks on their faces, Louisa smiled.

  ‘The windmill draws water from an underground aquifer. There is tremendous energy in water. For us, it’s like a nuclear power station. And he was sitting on top of it. Using a complex alchemical formula he invented himself, he drew the energy of the water to make it appear to normal people like there was nothing here but trees. To the rest of the world, it was as if this house disappeared overnight. The police searched for him, and it was a great mystery what became of him but, eventually, life went on and they forgot about him.’

  She leaned her chair back against the wall, so the front two legs rose off the ground. It creaked alarmingly.

  ‘After he disappeared, he could no longer treat the ill, of course, but he continued his research for the rest of his life. When he died, the house was bequeathed to the French branch of our organisation. They used it as a science institute for many years, but moved to a more modern building in the early twentieth century. These days it is mostly unused.’ She flicked a glance at Sacha. ‘Unless we have something to hide.’

  Taylor put a hand on the wall to feel the humming more clearly. Suddenly the house made sense.

  Next to her, Sacha was frowning. ‘If he’s dead, how is the house still invisible?’

  ‘That’s the weird part,’ Louisa said. ‘We can’t figure it out.’

  Taylor’s hand dropped. ‘You mean, you don’t know how it works?’

  ‘Not a clue.’

  ‘But… wait. How can we not know?’

  ‘He was an inventor, remember?’ Alastair had woken without them noticing. He walked over to join them, rubbing his eyes. ‘Glad you made it.’

  Pulling up a chair next to Louisa’s, he took the tea from her hand with a questioning look. She nodded permission. He took a sip.

  ‘We think he invented a technique or device that operates in perpetuity,’ he explained. ‘It doesn’t need us in order to function. We just don’t know how it works. We were never able to find his plans for it. Maybe it somehow uses his energy after death. He’s buried in the cellar after all.’

  ‘He’s buried downstairs?’ Taylor shuddered.

  ‘Apparently, being entombed in the house was his final wish.’ Louisa yawned and stretched, letting the chair drop back to the floor with a thud. ‘So there he lies.’

  ‘If this house is really invisible then how come I could see it when we drove up?’ There was a hint of scepticism in Sacha’s voice.

  ‘You could see it,’ Louisa said, ‘because we wanted you to see it.’

  Draining the last of Louisa’s cup, Alastair set it down on a spindly table.

  ‘We can use our energy to counter the house’s energy,’ he explained. ‘Revealing the house for short periods of time. As soon as we stop, D’Orbay’s invention kicks back in again, and it disappears.’

  Looking up to where the ornate ceiling disappeared into shadows, Taylor thought about the hunted marquis. She was beginning to know what it felt like to be pursued like that. To have death snapping at her heels. And why someone might want to disappear.

  ‘It’s a beautiful building to hide in,’ she said.

  ‘We’ve been fixing it up bit by bit,’ Louisa said. ‘But we have to be careful not to draw attention to what we’re doing. The house must stay invisible. That’s why there’s no electricity. How could we hook it to the grid without telling someone the house exists?’

  ‘Why can’t we use the rooms in the front of the house?’ Sacha asked.

  ‘Water shifts and moves – its power is uneven,’ Alastair explained. ‘Besides, light has power of its own. The two can conflict. Very rarely, local residents have reported seeing lights and the shape of a house from behind the windmill.’ A wicked smile crossed his face. ‘They think the property is haunted. Which is fine with us. If they’re scared, they stay away. Still, we have to take care not to draw attention to ourselves, especially now. Mortimer is out there somewhere, searching for us.’

  Taylor’s gaze darted involuntarily to the window. All she could see was the dancing candle flames reflected back at her.

  Night had arrived.

  Twenty-Eight

  It was dinner time when Deide returned from Carcassonne.

  Alastair had cooked spaghetti on the old stove, and they were gathered around the kitchen table eating by candlelight when Deide strode into the room, dropping his shoulder bag on the floor with a thud. In a white shirt and khaki trousers, he looked for all the world like someone’s father coming home from work.

  Spotting Taylor and Sacha, he smiled.

  ‘I knew you’d make it.’ Then he turned to the others. ‘Any trouble?’

  Louisa shook her head. ‘Quiet as a tomb.’

  ‘Good.’

  They waited as the teacher spooned pasta onto a fine china plate. Taylor was learning there was nothing in the house that wasn’t incredibly old and very beautiful. The fork in her hand was chunky silver, heavy as stone.

  They all waited until Deide sat down at the table across from them and reached for the bottle of wine.

  ‘How’d it go in town?’ Louisa asked.

  Deide took a sip of wine that looked black in the shadowy room.

  ‘I saw no sign of Mortimer anywhere in Carcassonne,’ he said, setting his glass back down. ‘The town felt very strange. Too clean.’

  ‘Nothing?’ A crease formed on Alastair’s brow. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Deide met his eyes. ‘I don’t like it.’

  ‘He’s there.’ Louisa reached for the wine bottle, her face set in grim lines. ‘I know he’s there.’

  ‘I know it, too. But I can’t find him. I can’t find anyone. It’s hard to explain, but the city feels empty even though it is very crowded. I think this is something he is doing to protect himself.’

  Looking back and forth between them, Sacha asked the question that had also formed in Taylor’s mind.

  ‘Isn’t it possible he isn’t there? Maybe he’s given up.’

  ‘He’s never giving up,’ Louisa said. ‘He can’t. He’s tied into this deal with the demon. Even if he wanted to walk away now, he couldn’t.’

  Alastair leaned back in his chair. ‘I’m not surprised we can’t locate him. He’ll be doing as much as we are to stay undetected right now. He may have used some demonic weirdness to make himself invisible.’ He glanced out the window into the dark night. ‘I’m afraid if we don’t find him soon, he’ll find us. We can’t wait. It’s only two days until Sacha’s birthday. He’s got to be desperate to find us now.’

  ‘Did you visit the church?’ Taylor asked, thinking of the map in Jones’ office. The cross marking the spot.

  Deide nodded. ‘It is even stranger than the town. There is a power there I
couldn’t identify. It wasn’t Dark. It was… how should I say? Incredibly dangerous. I intended to search it, but I didn’t dare. I didn’t want to give away our presence too soon.’

  He glanced at Louisa. ‘We should go back tomorrow and search again. We have to find the precise location where Isabelle Montclair was executed before the ceremony can ever happen. It won’t be easy – I am told it will be hidden. Everything about the ceremony must be so precise, we can’t wait until Sacha’s birthday to find it. We need to know where it is now. So, I think we must take the risk of going back together to look for it.’

  The ceremony.

  Taylor had been trying not to think about it. Zeitinger’s instructions were still tucked away in her pocket – crumpled but disturbingly clear. She hadn’t told Sacha what had to happen yet. That conversation was still to come.

  His birthday was so close. She had to tell him the truth, soon.

  ‘Fine.’ Looking as if she’d lost her appetite, Louisa pushed her plate away. ‘We go into town tomorrow together, and we somehow manage to search the church to find the special room. If the place is being watched, this will let Mortimer know we’re here. He’ll unleash all he’s got on us. He’ll want to get Sacha before his birthday, so if he can grab him tomorrow, he will.’ She looked around at their faces. ‘Am I the only one who sees the flaws in this plan?’

  Taylor glanced at Sacha – he was listening to all this without expression – as if they were talking about someone else.

  Alastair cleared his throat. ‘I’ve been thinking. The key to everything is getting rid of Mortimer. So… we need to get rid of Mortimer.’

  Louisa rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah. And maybe Santa Claus will do it for us if we ask really nicely.’

  ‘I’m serious,’ Alastair chided her. ‘Just hear me out. Mortimer doesn’t expect us to attack him. He thinks all we want is to get Sacha to the church on his birthday and perform the ceremony. Everything he’s doing is based on stopping us from doing that. So if we could find a way to draw him out and then kill him tomorrow…’

  ‘… then there’s nobody left to stop us when the time comes for the ceremony.’ Deide straightened slowly. ‘That’s not a terrible idea.’

  ‘But how?’ Louisa looked unconvinced. ‘We can’t just say “And now we kill Mortimer Pierce” and have it happen. The guy won’t want to die.’

  ‘He won’t,’ Deide conceded. ‘Still, as Alastair says, we are in a good place as he doesn’t even expect us to try. We have the element of surprise.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Alastair said, excitedly. ‘We can do this.’

  The idea of killing Mortimer seemed to enervate them. All of their earlier tiredness had disappeared.

  A cold shiver ran down Taylor’s spine.

  ‘How?’ she asked, looking at the adults at the table. Their faces were hard to read in the scant light. ‘We can’t just… I don’t know… shoot Mortimer. Can we?’

  Louisa and Alastair exchanged a glance, but neither of them answered.

  ‘It is easy,’ Deide said simply, ‘to kill.’

  Picking up his heavy silver knife, he held it up so the flickering light caught it, and gave it a deadly shine.

  ‘I could kill someone with this knife in two seconds.’ He spun the knife off his fingertips and into his hand, thrusting it into the air.

  ‘I will kill him,’ Sacha said suddenly.

  Taylor turned around to look at him. His eyes were fierce and filled with hatred.

  ‘Let me do it.’

  Deide set the knife down with a thump.

  ‘We will all be involved in this plan,’ he said. ‘First, though, we must find him. And today, I could not do this. We have only two days left to find him. And then it will be too late.’

  Louisa looked dubious. ‘You said you think he’s protected, in some way. How do we find him if he doesn’t want to be found?’

  Deide’s gaze slid to Sacha and Taylor.

  ‘We use bait.’

  * * *

  The next morning, Taylor woke with a start in an unfamiliar room.

  Pale light filtered through thick curtains that had once been yellow, with a delicate pattern of flowers, but that time had darkened to dull gold.

  Blinking, she sat up slowly. The room was huge – four times the size of her dormitory room at St Wilfred’s. A marble fireplace dominated one wall, and an enormous armoire loomed across from it. The four-poster bed had the same yellow fabric the curtains were made from tied around each thick post.

  It must once have been bright and cheerful, but the fabric was rotting in places and it smelled musty.

  It had been late when they’d finally gone to bed. They’d carried candles to light their way as they made their way up the once-grand staircase. The steps creaked alarmingly, but Louisa insisted they were safe as long as they stuck to the edges.

  ‘No one’s fallen through, yet,’ she’d said unconvincingly.

  Sacha’s room was on one side of Taylor’s – Louisa’s on the other.

  As she’d got ready for bed she could hear the reassuring sounds of the two of them padding around their own cavernous rooms. Now, there was an uncanny quiet, but she thought she could smell coffee brewing downstairs.

  She knew they’d be waiting for her; still, she didn’t get up right away. She stayed in the surprisingly comfortable bed and went over the things they’d discussed the night before.

  She needed to be ready when she faced the others. This was no time to look uncertain. No time for doubt.

  After they’d eaten last night, they’d returned to the parlour. Taylor had curled up in one corner of a sagging sofa. Sacha sat stiffly at the other end. He’d been quiet all evening, his eyes dark with thought.

  ‘Here’s the plan,’ Deide said. ‘Tomorrow morning we go into Carcassonne. You two…’ He pointed at Taylor and Sacha. ‘… go in together. Don’t try to hide yourselves, but don’t act obvious either. Blend in with the crowd. The rest of us will keep a safe distance away but we’ll be there if you need us.’

  ‘What are we going to do there?’ Sacha asked. ‘Aside from blending.’

  ‘We have two aims. First, you will have to follow your instructions to find the precise location for the ceremony. You are looking for symbols, yes?’

  ‘Professor Zeitinger said we look for an ourobouros – a snake, eating its tail,’ Taylor said hesitantly. ‘He said it would be carved on the stone where the… Where we need to perform the ceremony.’

  ‘Precisely,’ Deide nodded. ‘So you must find this stone. This is so you will be able to locate it easily the next night. At the same time, make sure you are seen.’

  He glanced at Louisa and Alastair. ‘The other goal for tomorrow is to be seen by Mortimer. We want him to know that you are here. We hope he will come out to try and take Sacha. When he does…’

  ‘We kill him.’ Sacha said it flatly.

  ‘Exactly so.’

  ‘In broad daylight, though?’ Taylor objected. ‘There will be so many people around. How will that work?’

  The teacher shrugged. ‘We will do what we have to. Better to be thought a murderer than to end up dead ourselves, I think.’

  When he put it like that it made an awful kind of sense.

  ‘So. The plan.’ Deide removed a map from the pocket of his blazer and spread it out on the scratched top of a tiny occasional table. He shifted a candle to cast its flickering light onto the page. They crowded around to see.

  The room was warm, and smelled pleasantly of melted wax and burning lamp oil.

  Pointing to a green space on the map, Deide said, ‘There’s a car park at the top of the hill near the citadel – Sacha and Taylor will park here. There’s another at the edge of town but this is the one that will get you to the church the quickest. Mortimer will know this. He’ll be keeping an eye on it. Move fast.’

  ‘How can Mortimer watch the car park and all these streets at the same time?’ Taylor asked.

  Louisa lifted her gaze to meet Taylor’s
eyes. ‘He won’t be alone.’

  Taylor’s stomach tightened. ‘How do you know…’

  She never finished the sentence. Across the candlelit room, in Taylor’s bag, her phone had begun to ring. It was Georgie’s ring tone – her favourite pop song of the moment. The jaunty tune seemed wildly out of place in this setting.

  ‘Sorry,’ Taylor said, flushing.

  She ran across the room and fumbled with the zipper on her bag, finally extricating it from the depths just as the ringing stopped.

  Georgie’s high-cheekboned, dark-skinned face beamed up at her. As the others resumed their conversation – a low rumble of tense discussion – Taylor stared at that beautiful face until it blurred.

  Then she hit the ignore button. Switching the phone off, she shoved it back into her bag.

  ‘Where were we?’ she asked.

  Louisa glanced at her.

  ‘Once you get to the church,’ she said, ‘search for the room as quickly as you can. It could be in one of the side chapels located off the central nave. It might be in a crypt. It could be behind a locked door. Be thorough. It will be at the front of the building. Look for the symbol.’

  Deide took over. ‘There will be many tourists – the church is a popular attraction – so you should be safe. But you must endeavour not to become trapped in that church. You must be seen but not captured.’

  Taylor swallowed hard. Trapped with Mortimer and his demons. The possibility hadn’t occurred to her before now.

  ‘From there, you will walk to your motorcycle as quickly as possible, and return here,’ Deide continued. ‘The rest of us will follow you all the way, hoping Mortimer takes the bait. If he does, we’ll be ready for him.’ He paused. ‘I must be honest – I do not believe Mortimer will attack you in daylight. I hope he will, but I don’t think he will. If he does not, we must return that night and try again. We will keep trying until Sacha’s birthday.’

  ‘We will never give up.’