by P M Cole
Lucas’s hand lit with flame once more.
“No… I’ll go outside, try and distract them. You climb out the other side, see where Colin and Katerina are.”
He nodded.
I grabbed a beam that was now partially bent, pulled it free, and crafted one end of it into a spear. I then crawled back to the envelope and with a swipe, tore it open, revealing snow, branches, and the lights of a large building in the distance.
“I think she wants to play, sister,” said a different Fury. Her voice sounded similar to the one from the oracle's garden.
I took a deep breath and crawled forward on my hands and knees until I was free of the material and being mindful of what was around me.
A light from far off provided just enough light to see my surroundings. We had landed at the edge of a forest which contained nothing but darkness. Ahead was a snow-covered slope, with trees and bushes in regular alignment, maybe a garden, but where were the Furies?
“Up here, dear…”
I slowly looked up at the tree we had fallen through, and my heart sank. Colin was being dangled, doll-like from near the top, held aloft by one arm by one of the Furies, who clung to the trunk. He was unconscious.
“Oh, he’s not dead yet. I wanted you to have a chance to say goodbye…”
I scrambled to my feet, being ready to send the beam I was holding skyward. “Don’t you dare drop him!”
More cackling. “Drop? Maybe I’ll do the opposite and take him higher!”
I felt a presence behind me.
“Where’s my sister!” shouted Gloria looking upwards.
The demon smiled. “Already on her way back to London, where I’m sure she will be of use to Hades. Oh, and Cog, Hades has a message for you.”
I heard her break Colin’s neck from the ground.
“No!” I screamed, then scrambled forward as she had already let him fall.
Her strong wings beat, taking her upwards into the gloom. “Maybe I’ll take you to the sky next time!”
I had no interest in her words and I lunged forward, just as Colin’s body crashed through the lowest set of branches and landed on me.
Momentarily dazed, I shook myself out of it. “Daniel!” I shouted into the dark trying to locate him.
The crunching of snow heralded his arrival, and he knelt next to Colin, his eyes already aflame. He grimaced, shaking his head.
“What is it?” I cried.
“My power, I’ve used it too much recently, I don’t know—”
I grabbed his arm. “Please! You have to!”
He nodded and his face contorted, his hands becoming claw-like as he strained every fibre of his being.
Colin’s hand twitched, then his head moved, but his eyes were still closed.
Daniel let out a breath which formed a white cloud. “That’s all… I can… do for now,” he said out of breath.
I briefly hugged him. “Thank you!” Then looked back down to Colin. “Colin can you hear me?”
He mumbled something.
“Don’t try and move, we will—” I stopped because I realised everyone around me was looking past me, over my shoulder. I turned around to the face of three men holding guns on us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
As snow fell, we trekked across the frozen ground, towards the pinkish-beige stonework of a castle. I kept looking up at the dark grey clouds and icy flakes hoping not to see more wings and creatures from nightmares.
The three gruff-looking men hadn’t said much, other than we were trespassing, but the Duke had asked for us to be brought inside, so that’s what they were doing. Daniel and Lucas carried Colin, who was conscious at least, but in a lot of pain.
Gloria and Melanie walked together, huddled against the biting wind. I’m sure they were making plans to get their sister back even as we walked.
The building was mostly a three-storey structure with a triangular roof and spires, although at the far side to which we were approaching I could see an even higher shape, escaping into the sky, no doubt a tower of some sort.
We moved up a stone staircase, to an arched door that was already open. A broad-shouldered ruddy-faced man, with red hair stood in the doorway with a lantern in one hand and a pistol in the other.
“Found this lot around that carriage that fell out of the sky, sir,” said the oldest of the three men. One of the younger went to speak, but the older one discouraged him from doing so.
The man in the doorway stepped forward and waved his flame in Lucas’s and Daniel's direction, who were clearly feeling the weight of their cargo. “What’s your name, sir?”
“Lucas Wraith…”
The man looked puzzled. “I’ve heard of Wraith. Tragedy hit their family some time ago. Are you connected with that family?”
“Yes, my child and wife were taken from me many years ago. We are sorry to show up on your doorstep like this, but our craft had a malfunction and well, we had nowhere else to land.”
“Crash more like it!” Sniggered one of the housekeepers. The older one frowned.
Lucas continued. “May I ask of your name?”
“I am William Hamilton, twelfth Duke of Hamilton. This castle and all the land you see around you is my home.” He looked at the others, including myself, then finally at the oldest housekeeper. “Help that man and his friends; take them into the living room.”
We walked inside, glad for the warmth which the large fire in the hallway was providing us. Two maids, one much older than the other, stood at the bottom of a staircase which spiralled to another floor. The white-painted walls around them sported the dead eyes of animal heads and paintings of the lands we had flown across.
Hamilton looked at the women. “Bring warm towels and wine… oh,” he looked at me. “Have you eaten?”
“If it’s not too much trouble some food would be appreciated.”
He nodded and looked back at the maids who did the same and disappeared down the side of the staircase.
“Thank you for hospitality,” I said.
We followed the others into a large room. “Not at all. Out here we don’t get much in the way of visitors.” He nodded towards Colin. “Is the young man seriously injured? I can call for the doctor, but he won’t be able to get here until the morning.”
I looked at Daniel, who shook his head.
I smiled at the Duke. “I think we will be OK.”
The maids came into the opulent room with two silver platters carrying jugs. bread, and some kind of meat. All of us looked upon it with eager eyes.
“I have heard of carriages that can fly from my time in London. I believe they are called dirigibles? Held aloft by gases that are lighter than air?”
I nodded. “Yes, we were using it to travel around the country, we had come from Edinburgh, but the weather blew us off course.” I was surprised by how easily the falsehood came to me, but it was required.
The duke looked at the maids again. “Get the guest bedrooms made up.”
“Thank you, sir, for your kindness,” said Lucas.
“It is no trouble.” He smiled. “I will leave you to rest and Mrs Ross will see you to your rooms when you ready.”
The duke then left, closing the door behind him.
“What are we going to do!” said Daniel. “Your craft is shot through.”
He was right. Even if I could repair the envelope, where would I get the gas required to fill it with?
I sat heavily on one of the plush chairs. “I don’t know.” I looked at Gloria. “Please don’t worry, I will find your sister.”
“Yes, we will,” said Lucas.
She looked between us. “Those creatures, you appeared to recognise them?”
I nodded. “They are known as the Furies—”
“The Furies!” shouted Melanie. She looked at her sister. “You see what you have gotten us into!”
“You know of them?” I asked Gloria.
“Only by reputation. We know they do Hades' bidding.”
&nbs
p; Lucas was shaking his head. “It is perplexing how they found us in the great expanse of sky. Perhaps they have some trace of our blood…”
Athena’s words came back to me about my father’s blood being my blood. I shivered, despite logs burning in a smaller fire nearby. “I think I know how they tracked us…” They all looked at me expectantly. “When in the other realm, Athena said we do not need more of Hades' blood, for his blood runs through my veins…”
“What!” said Gloria, getting to her feet, while Lucas wavered as if hearing the news of my ancestry for the first time. “Of course!” he said, ignoring Gloria’s surprise. “That is how they knew of the Crystal Palace, and our excursion to the museum…”
“I told you we should have stayed out of this. She’s his family!” said Melanie.
“I am nothing of the sort!” I shouted back. “He’s a demon and I mean to send him back from where he came!” My outburst appeared to quieten the younger sister who turned away, but I could feel Gloria’s blame for what happened to her sister in her eyes, which remained fixed on me.
“Can we please keep our voices down,” said Lucas.
Gloria took a step towards me. “That thing is your father?”
“We do not choose our parents…” said Daniel.
Her head flicked towards him. “It would have been nice if the god of the underworld's daughter had told me who she was at the start of this little outing of ours! Maybe my sister wouldn’t be being dragged through the sky if she had!”
I bowed my head. “I am sorry…” Then looked back up at her. “Please believe me, I will do everything I can to return Katerina to you.”
“You're damn right you will!”
I looked at Lucas. “They can track me…”
He nodded with a frown. “I’m afraid so.”
“Then we are not even safe here,” said Daniel.
*****
“And this is your room,” said the older maid who I learned was Mrs Ross. She opened the door to a scene as opulent as any other in the castle. Silk sheets rested upon a four-poster bed, and furniture which I recognised as having come from the continent sat along two of the walls with a wash basin and bed pan. Two oil lamps provided light.
“Thank you.”
“Breakfast is at 7 a.m. sharp.”
“OK…”
She appeared to be waiting for me to go inside, so I stepped over the threshold at which point she promptly closed the door. A key turned in the lock. I waited for her steps to fade and tried the handle.
Locked.
I wondered if it was the same for everyone else. If we were attacked it might prove to be a problem. I walked towards the bed and opened my coat, taking Auto from my pocket and placing him on the sideboard.
‘F…u…r…i…’
“Shh… You have to be quiet in this castle. The sound might travel, and I really do not want to have to explain what you are. I think the Furies have gone. But they took Katerina with them, and Colin is poorly…”
His wings clacked on his side.
“They probably took her back to Hades. But we will get her back.”
‘H…o…w…?’
The sounds he made were thankfully quieter, but that didn’t make the question any easier. I sat on the soft sheets and pulled out a bread roll I had hidden up my sleeve, placing it to my side. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how we are going to leave this island. The Dirigible is finished.”
I was too exhausted to eat, so I took my coat off, slipped the roll back into the sleeve, and then lay back on the pillow. The day's events flashed before my eyes, each one almost startling me back to consciousness, but sleep came quickly regardless.
I awoke with a start into a dark room, the lamps seemingly having extinguished themselves, with only the light of the moon showing me the walls, drawers, and Hades.
I went to scream but nothing came from my throat, so instead I scrambled from the side of my bed, trying to sense any metal I could around me.
“How did—”
Hades smiled. He was dressed in his usual shirt, black winter coat, and hat. He also had his new silver dog-headed walking stick.
He realised what I was looking at. “It took a great expense, but I was able to acquire the necessary materials to refashion the staff of Cerberus.”
“How are you here!” I cried.
He lifted the stick and pointed at the bed. “Oh, but I am not ‘here’, wherever ‘here’ is. Somewhere in the wilds of Scotland?”
I looked down at myself still on the bed, eyes closed, sleeping… "This is a dream? How are you in my dream?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. He and I were connected. A familial bond. It was what explained the awful visions I had been seeing. I had been glimpsing into the mind of a demon, and his warped plans.
“Get out of my head!” I shouted, not knowing if the sound was real or not.
“I will return soon enough, but you should know it caused me great sadness what you did to Grace. Me and her did not always see eye to eye, but as with all of you, she had an important role to play in future events. Anyway, I had planned to keep some of those you felt were dear to you, alive. So you would have some friends to converse with once all of this is over. But alas, you have lost that privilege.”
“I didn’t want to kill her! You forced her to fight in that stupid trial!”
His face turned angry and he walked towards me causing me to back up against the wall. “Stupid child! She wanted to fight you! She wanted to prove herself! And she believed in what I could do for those of this realm! Daniel believed too, until you took him from me!”
Anger surged through me. “He never believed in anything you wanted! You tricked him! Like you tricked all of them!” I pushed off of the wall, until I was just mere inches from his face. “I’m going to stop you.”
He smiled then turned and walked a few paces away. “Hmm, well you are the fruits of my loins as it were, so maybe you will, but not before I lay waste to your precious London, and all that lie within it. Cassandra and that scientist have been hard at work, and even you would marvel at what they have achieved… Such raw power, in such a small device. One day maybe the humans won’t even need magic!”
No…
He looked around the room. “How many hundreds of miles are you from the capital? Two hundred? Three? And without your little magic tricks to—” he wiggled his fingers, “—carry you across the sky, you will not make it back by sunset tomorrow. But please do come and see the aftermath. Perhaps that will convince you to join with me.”
He smiled, touching the tip of his hat, and was gone.
I opened my eyes to the same dark room, and immediately scrambled backwards to the headboard then fumbled to light the closest lamp. Its flame showed no sign of the demon. My forehead felt damp and my heart was pounding. I was still in my clothes, which I quickly had to pull myself partly free of due to the heat emanating from my skin. I allowed the cool air to calm me, then swung my legs around so my feet could touch the floor.
As I sat there, it suddenly came to me what he meant by ‘aftermath’. He was going to explode one of his bombs in the city I called home.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A knock boomed in my head and my eyes flicked open. Before I was even fully conscious, I was scanning the room for Hades' presence. On realising I was alone, I sighed in relief and my thundering heart returned to some form of regular rhythm.
The knock came again, this time harder.
“Yes?” I meekly said.
“It’s 7:05 a.m. I do not serve breakfast in bed! If you want to eat this morn, then you better be downstairs within the next five minutes!”
“Sorry, I—” The fading steps confirmed she didn’t care for my excuses.
I had a headache, but that was the least of my concerns. I was sure what I had seen in the middle of night was real, as was the intent he had informed me of. Who knew for what perverted reason he wanted to lay waste to London, maybe it would serve as a demonstration
to others of his power, or maybe he just grew tired of being stuck in this realm? Whatever it may be, there wasn’t much I could do about it on a Scottish island hundreds of miles away. Even travelling by locomotive would take a day to return, unless…
Another knock came at the door, this time softer.
“Seeing you weren’t going to come down stairs, I thought I’d bring breakfast to you,” said Lucas.
I smiled, then walked across the cold wood floor reaching for the handle then realised I couldn’t open it. “I’m afraid it is locked.”
A clicking sound came from the other side and the door opened towards me. Lucas was standing with a platter containing some boiled eggs, a buttered roll, and a glass of milk. He also held up the key. “I took the liberty of asking Mrs Ross for it. It’s a master which opens all of our rooms. Can’t say I really blamed them for locking us in. I would have done the same. Can I come in?”
I stepped back. “Please.”
He laid the metal tray down on the end of the bed.
“Nice room, I slept in a chair all night with Daniel in another. Colin had the bed.”
“How is he?”
“In some pain but sitting up and talking. He asked about you.”
I sat on the bed and started to eat one of the eggs. “I will visit him after I have eaten…”
“What is it?”
My father visited me in my sleep… In my dream.
Lucas pulled a small footstool from the wall and sat on it. “He did? What did he say?”
“You remember the weapons I told you he has? That he and Cassandra along with a scientist are building?”
Lucas nodded.
“I think he means to detonate one of them in London…”
A look of horror flashed across Lucas’s face. “But you said their power is many times greater than gunpowder?”
“It will destroy the buildings, people, everything… I have seen it in my dreams.”
Lucas looked down, sliding his hand across his beard. “Why would he destroy his home? He wants to rule this realm for himself, why do that?”
