The Monster at the End of Its Road: Gaslamp Faeries Series, Book 3

by Ren Ryder

  “Sorry,” I said in a distracted tone.

  I was more interested in the ten-by-ten piece of plywood laid on the ground. Crouching, I lifted up one edge to peer underneath it.

  I whistled. “Look at this.”

  “I can’t see anything, thanks to you!” Bell complained.

  I revealed a ten-foot wide stairway leading deep underground. It was too wide for a human, but perfectly sized for a manticore or any of the other monstrosities that attacked the Grand Library. There was no doubt in my mind that the stairs led beneath the streets of New London, into the Under.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Bell, you’ve gotta see this,” I said.

  Ash and Coal pattered over to join us, their nails clicking on the stone. Blaise whined and shook herself, sending more dust flying into the air. Coal growled at the stairwell like it’d personally offended him somehow. Ash’s gray fur stood all on end and she shivered uncontrollably.

  Bell spat and tried to blow away the floating dust with her breath. “Ugh, again!”

  Stepping down the first few steps, I looked back at Bell, who was struggling to clean herself off. The hounds whined and circled the stairwell, refusing to go any further.

  “You guys can stay. Stay,” I repeated, holding out a hand to the winged hounds. “The day’s not getting any younger. Let’s go, Bell” I said, looking up at the sun’s midmorning progress across the sky. “Unless you want to stay behind with the pooches.”

  “Wait just a second, geez! I can’t see anything!” Bell said.

  I grabbed Bell and stuffed her in my shirtfront pocket. “You just sit tight.”

  “Hey, that’s no way to treat a lady,” Bell complained. “Gentle, gentle~”

  I started my descent two steps at a time, until I reached a point where the stairway darkened. With no light to see by and my eyes still adjusting, I trailed the fingers of my right hand on the nearby wall to keep my balance. Moving more carefully, I descended deep beneath the earth, until the stairwell opened up to a massive chasm that breathed air like a gigantic beast.

  Stepping out into the open chamber, I let my senses feel out the wide-open spaces of the Under. The Under was a sprawling intersection of layered catacombs beneath the boisterous city of New London. Overhead, citizens went about their days with no knowledge of the dark spaces lurking beneath their feet, the old relics of past civilizations built one atop the other.

  As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could make out three wide pathways. Each would lead deeper into the unknown depths of the Under. I stepped up close to the intersection of paths to try and get a feeling for each of them.

  Bell rubbed her face clean on my shirt. “Phew! That’s better,” Bell said, then sneezed.

  An echoing cry screamed up the leftmost pathway, making my ears ring. More cries followed, each more pitiful and horrible than the last. What sounded like the pained yowls of animals overlapped with distressing human cries. Righteous anger stirred in me as the cacophony of sound reached a crescendo.

  “Looks like we found the lab. I guess our job is done once we tell that enforcer guy where to look?”

  I pounded my fist against the rock wall. “There’s no time to go through official channels. Don’t you hear that? We’d be leaving all those poor souls to suffer and die, or worse.” I didn’t want to imagine all the horrible, warped experiments that might go into creating an echidna, the snake-woman.

  “Don’t get your panties all in a bunch. We find the lab, then have the enforcers take care of the rest. Wasn’t that the plan?” Bell pushed.

  I cracked my knuckles and stared hard down the dark corridor. “The whole point was to nail the Duke. How are we supposed to know he’s here if we don’t take a look ourselves?” I countered.

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s all you’re planning to do, just take a peek right?” Bell grumbled.

  “Right, just a peek,” I lied.

  I raced off down the dank, dark corridor as fast as my legs could take me. I was making a bunch of noise, but all of it was drowned out by the yowling and wailing further in.

  About half a kilometer in was when things started to get dicey. I tripped over an empty wrought-iron cage, making a horrible racket. A new chorus of yells and howling broke out in response to my disturbance.

  “What was that?” a voice hissed.

  “I dunno. Maybe the wind?”

  “No, you imbecile, that wasn’t the wind!” I heard somebody get smacked. “Go and check around, the Duke will have our heads if we allow even a gutter-rat to spread word of what we’re doing here.”

  I ducked behind a row of cages and curled myself up behind a small herd of snuffling cows.

  The lack of light in the Under was turned on its head in this place. Great balls of contained fire burnt merrily in their gas-fed enclosures, illuminating a huge open space filled to the brim with cages. Rows and rows of cages stacked on top of one another, all made to contain the components for the profane experiments being conducted.

  Caged monkeys, lions, tigers, bears, eagles, ravens, snakes, feral cats and dogs, there were animals of all kinds housed in Machiavellian conditions. One subset of cages individually housed the most horrible of patchwork creations, failed experiments that moaned in the human tongue.

  A big, burly man holding a length of pipe stomped past my hiding spot, looked around halfheartedly, then stomped away. “I’m telling ya Doc Hargath, it was just the wind. You know how these tunnels are, always making noises that don’t sound right.”

  “Doctor Hargath?” I repeated quietly to myself.

  “You know him?” Bell asked in a whisper.

  Doctor Hargath was an amoral surgeon on the dole for Ouroboros, or he was back when he had the chance to remove a lead slug from my stomach. He had shown such incredible interest in the supernatural that heading up these experiments seemed a natural extension for his twisted fascination.

  I nodded. I knew him alright, and was not surprised to discover him as the brains behind the cobbled-together monsters being produced by Ouroboros.

  Hargath produced a white handkerchief from his coat and breathed deeply from the powdery substance sprinkled upon it: it was the addictive drug, laplace. “This place smells truly rotten. Clean out the cages and burn the mess, or do you want to become my next creation?”

  All in white, with light-colored hair and bloodstained white leather gloves, Doctor Hargath was a disgusting spot of white amid the darkness.

  The worst though was yet to come.

  Faeries. Nymphs and dryads sat in morose vigil beside their dying saplings. Imps and goblins, elementals housed in glass containers, centaurs, pixies and naiads, merfolk, hobgoblins and an assortment of other fae were imprisoned here. There was a big troll, barely contained by its cage, squatting to avoid touching the iron bars of the cage’s roof.

  Bell gnawed my shoulder. “I hate these people. Why can’t they just leave the fair folk alone?”

  Another row of cages held men, women, children and even babies, shackled together like chattel. They squatted in their own feces and urine, faces blank. I could only imagine their despair, waiting to be used like parts on a conveyor belt, twisted into monsters, losing their human forms forever.

  I was tired of seeing anything suffer in a cage at the hands of Ouroboros.

  Standing up, I walked straight over to the platform Hargath was twiddling his thumbs on. He was fussing over a wash of incomprehensible hieroglyphics inscribed into a silver circle at his feet. I didn’t know its true purpose, but you didn’t have to know how something worked to break it.

  “Hey, who’re you? Are you supposed to be here?” The burly man demanded.

  I stepped past the tough to karate chop the doctor across the back of his neck. “Doctor Hargath, long time no see. Why don’t you take a seat so we can have a nice chat.”

  The doctor stumbled around like a drunkard, waving his hands and screaming for help. His burly guard swung the pipe he was holding right at my head. I ducked
and got inside the man’s guard, then landed a palm strike on the soft underside of his jaw. The big guy fell like a pile of bricks, unconscious.

  I grabbed the pipe dropped by the henchman and used it to destroy the hieroglyphs and silver circle.

  Bell yawned. “That was too easy~”

  I shook out my hand and crouched down in front of Hargath. “I was expecting more of a fight, but I suppose an important secret requires a select few in the know to keep it under wraps. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”

  “Ouroboros will have you killed for interfering in this, my seminal work! This is blasphemy. Every day my work brings me closer to God. Who do you think you are?” Hargath asked, finally turning to look at me. “Oh, it’s you, Specter. I was informed you had expired and your remains were lost to the abyss. What a waste of a rare sample, the things I could have discovered—”

  I poked Hargath hard in the chest. “Maybe I’m a ghost after all, come to avenge myself on you.” I rustled through Hargath’s lab coat. “Where are the keys?”

  “You can’t! These are my specimens, the perfect ingredients for my art! You’ve already destroyed my workstation, you can’t free them, I need them,” Hargath protested, spittle flying from his mouth.

  I got right in Hargath’s face. “You’re going to release every last prisoner, or would you rather die than abandon your twisted art project?” I asked, my voice low and threatening.

  Hargath got on his knees and begged for his life. “Live. I want to live. Please don’t hurt me! My experiments were conducted on the Duke’s behalf in order to create a new container for his failing mortal body. But you must understand, the potential here is limitless— surely you’re interested in continuing my good work?”

  So the Duke was making monsters for his own benefit, color me surprised. That man was obsessed with immortality and he would sacrifice untold lives to achieve his goal. I just hoped he hadn’t already discovered the means to cast aside his frail human body and become a true monster.

  I grabbed Hargath by the scruff and led him to the nearest cage. “If you want to live, then release them, all of them.”

  Hargath shook his head vehemently. “No no no, you don’t understand, I can’t do that. The Duke will have my head.”

  I shook the doctor and slammed his face against the cage. “Don’t test me. Your chances are better on the run from Ouroboros than with me.”

  “Alright, all right!” Doctor Hargath said, bending down to remove a skeleton key tucked into his boot.

  I kept my hold on the Doctor, leading him to each cage in turn. We released the animals first, letting them roam free in the Under. They scampered off the first chance they got, escaping down the dark corridor. I felt bad letting them go into parts unknown, but their chances of surviving the Under were better than nothing.

  “I implore you to rethink this,” Doctor Hargath begged. “These samples are my life’s work, I need them.”

  I smacked the key from Hargath’s shaking hand and picked it up off the floor. The iron sizzled and popped in the palm of my hand. Grimacing, I moved as fast as I could to unlock all the cages, freeing the humans and supernatural entities in turns. Then I smashed the globes containing the elementals with my fist.

  As all the sentients gathered before me, their eyes shining with hope and looking for more, I pointed back down the corridor. “The exit is back there, you’ll find a stairwell to take to the surface. Go in peace.”

  A battered woman holding a crying baby in her arms fell to her knees in front of me. “Thank you, thank you.”

  An old man dressed in rags tottered forward, pushing on the backs of his two boys. “Thank the good man, we owe him our lives.”

  “Thank you,” the boys chorused.

  A gaggle of pixies formed a tornado around me. “We go in peace with thanks to our king.”

  The fae gathered in one group and knelt before me. “Your lordship, we recognize the lien owed to you for saving us. We shall devote our lives to supporting your reign.”

  My expression flattened. “No, don’t do that. I didn’t save you for any reason other than my own selfishness. Go, be free, and take word to the Other Side of the dangers of Ouroboros.”

  “My liege,” A solitary troll bowed and put a fist to his heart. “By your command.”

  Sighing, I left it at that as the sentient races moved towards the exit.

  I scanned the now-empty cages, then turned my attention back to Doctor Hargath, who was staring after at his so-called samples as they made good on their escape. “Where are your finished works, the chimeras and vampires? Are they being kept somewhere else? Hey, look at me,” I snapped in Hargath’s face to get his attention. “No one’s coming to help you.”

  Hargath’s empty eyes panned over to me. “My life is forfeit, you may as well kill me. But even though you have ruined me and any chance I had at discovering the key to godhood, you can’t stop what’s coming.”

  “I thought you might say that. Bell?”

  Bell cocked her head to one side. “Hmm?”

  I dragged Hargath over to an operating table and strapped him down with the iron manacles welded to the table's metal frame. He struggled and fought against me, but his strength was was like a child’s compared to mine. When I was done, I sat down on the raised platform and motioned for Bell to take over.

  “Give him something to think about. We need the Duke’s location.”

  Bell’s lips spread into a savage smile and her golden eyes shone with ill intent. “Leave it to me."

  “I’ve done everything you’ve asked. Just let me go, you have my word that I’ll leave New London and never return. Let me go! Unhand me, no, don’t touch me with your filthy hands, faerie scum! No, noo!” Doctor Hargath’s cries filled the Under as Bell went to work.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bell and I rose out of the darkness of the Under into the light of the cold day sweeping over New London. A few clouds dotted the sky over the city, but they weren’t numerous or swollen enough that I expected rain until later tonight. The chimeras I co-opted from lieutenant Graf had laid down to rest in the shade while they awaited our return.

  Bell stretched. “Ah, I feel so refreshed!”

  My stomach turned thinking about the mess Bell had made of Doctor Hargath. “I’m not sure whether I should be concerned that you feel refreshed after doing all that.”

  Bell went to douse herself in the fountain’s murky waters, cleaning off all the blood. “What, he was a bad guy, wasn’t he? He deserved worse.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” I admitted.

  Bell spat out the grimy water and wrung out her sopping dress. “Paah, that’s better! Plus, now we know where the Duke’s going to be. Aren’t I awesome? Praise me~”

  I patted her on the head. “You did good, Bell.”

  In the end, Doctor Hargath had parted with all the knowledge he had of Ouroboros and the Duke’s machinations. Although it was hard to believe, we now knew where the monsters were being gathered and what Duke Regulus Maddox intended to do with them.

  On this very night he was planning a coup to overthrow the emperor and claim what he believed to be his birthright.

  The staging place for the attack was the Duke’s very own mansion in the Upper Quarter. Maddox was no longer content to live in the shadows, he wanted to be seen asserting his dominance over all the world’s institutions and peoples.

  When the moon reached its highest point in the sky, monsters would overrun the imperial guardsmen at their posts and take the Royal Quarter by storm. Once inside, it was a straight shot to the crown jewel of the empire, the imperial palace set on its shining hill above the rest of the city.

  It would be a bloodbath.

  I stared off into the distance. “We better get word to enforcer HQ. It might be too late already, but we have to try and stop this.”

  Bell pumped a fist. “Right! We just have to convince them of the danger, humans are so picky about the things they believe.”

  A
flash of flame-red in the corner of my eye sent a bolt of alarm through me. I ducked and pivoted into a sliding turn to face my backside. In the same instant, a massive jewel-encrusted fist ripped through the air where I’d been a moment before.

  “And just where do you think you’re going?” Fin Macool asked, his clenched fist burning with crimson mana.

  Sammie laughed. “Kal, poor Kal. All alone in your futile fight against fate. Did you really think you did something, freeing a few leftover ingredients?”

  I launched myself a few steps back to make space, stopping when my boot-heel hit the fountain’s retaining wall. “You don't really believe the Duke’s plan is going to work, do you? The people aren’t going to follow a monster.”

  I looked over to find a smirking Samantha. “How cute, you’re so naïve. People need to be ruled, they’re just sheep in human form. After the emperor is dead, they’ll flock to the Duke’s banner in droves. All that oppose his rule will be dealt with accordingly, and the rest will fall in line. Simple as that,” Sammie said.

  “Fin, you shouldn’t be helping this girl, she’s a mean, crazy person!” Bell said.

  “She’s my sister,” Fin shrugged, as if that was the end of it.

  “Blood-ties aren't the end-all-be-all you know,” Bell muttered.

  Sammie twirled a black, ruby-tipped staff in her hands. “You’re the reason our parents are dead Kal. It was you who let those faeries into our home, you that stood by and watched as everything I knew and loved burnt to the ground, or did you forget that after leaving me to fend for myself for fifteen years?”

  I shrunk away from Sammie’s condemnation. “No, I haven’t forgotten,” I said, fighting to get the words out.

  I didn’t forget, but I had buried my guilt deep so I didn’t have to face it— my biggest mistake. I'd stolen away Fin and Sammie’s precious family with my ignorance and stupidity. A trio of redcaps had bathed in the blood of my one-time parents and by some fluke left Sammie and I alive. I would do anything to go back and redo that day, but nothing could change what happened.