by Edward Cox
‘There is much that should concern you, Van Bam, but have courage.’ Bellow tapped a finger against his temple again. ‘I will continue my story shortly, and then we will discuss how to get you and Angel home ahead of the Genii’s army.’
Chapter Fifteen
The Sisterhood of Bells
The Sisterhood of Bells: a monumental city House that dwarfed great Labrys Town; a melting pot of industry, education, politics, the arts; home to over four million Aelfir.
The mighty River Bells ran through the city, wide and filthy, dissecting the districts with a network of interconnecting waterways. At certain points along the river, proud and giant clock towers reached towards the sky, and these towers were called the Sisters. There were fourteen siblings in all, with clock faces as bright as the twin moons that shone silver-blue above the House. Each Sister took turns to twice ring the hour of the day with a low, wistful song, perhaps reminding the four million citizens that time was always running out.
‘See that clock tower there?’ Hillem said, pointing. He sat opposite Van Bam, next to the window in a private carriage of the train that carried the group into the city. ‘The one with the flag?’
The train sped along its tracks on a viaduct that was higher than many of the buildings. Out of the window, Van Bam could see three Sisters rising from the banks of the River Bells. To his inner vision they were huge and slate-grey against the night sky. The closest of them had a flag flying at its summit, fluttering in the wind above its moon-like clock face. There was a crest on the flag; and although, at that distance, normal eyes would have been unable to see what it depicted, the illusionist could discern the symbol of a triangle within a circle.
‘They call that tower Little Sibling,’ Hillem continued. ‘A long time ago, it was the parliament building for the government in the Sisterhood of Bells. It was also home to the High Court, and there are dungeons beneath it that carry all kinds of grim stories. It’s said they’re haunted.’
Hillem smiled; the young Aelf clearly enjoyed sharing his knowledge. ‘During the Genii War,’ he said, ‘supporters of Spiral were supposedly tortured for information in those dungeons, but they haven’t been used for years now. However, when the war ended, and the Timewatcher departed, Little Sibling became the parliament building for every Aelfirian government.’
Van Bam stared at the clock tower. ‘It is the headquarters for the Panopticon of Houses.’
‘Yes,’ said Hillem. ‘The Aelfir have been ruled from here for the last forty years.’
Van Bam suddenly thought of Marney. He remembered his old lover’s passion for history, especially the histories of the Aelfir. He imagined that she and Hillem would have enjoyed many long conversations. For now, the illusionist seemed to be the only person in the carriage listening to the young Aelf. Hillem suddenly seemed to notice his diminished audience, and lapsed into silence.
Next to Hillem sat Namji. Her satchel on her lap, she stared out of the window, entirely lost to her thoughts. Opposite Namji, next to Van Bam, was the bulky form of Glogelder, arms folded, chin wedged into his chest, snoring. The duffle bag containing an assortment of spare weaponry rested on the floor between his legs. Next to Glogelder, Samuel was running a finger along the decorative metal of his new ice-rifle; and opposite the old bounty hunter sat Clara, watching Samuel toy with the weapon.
Considering she carried such dangerous information in her mind, the changeling looked at ease in the magical grey clothes that Namji had given her, confident, assured. I’ve grown to fit my skin, Clara had said, and Van Bam believed it; she had come a long way from the frightened young woman he had first met. It also pleased Van Bam that she and Samuel were now more comfortable in each other’s company.
The illusionist wished he could feel as comfortable with himself.
He had been thinking about Labrys Town, about the people he had governed until the Genii supplanted him. What horrors were the denizens facing now? A million humans inhabited the Labyrinth, and as their Resident, Van Bam had let each and every one of them down. Determination flamed within him. He would not fail his people a second time.
Thus far the journey through the Sisterhood of Bells had gone without problem. Earlier, Van Bam had rendered the entire group invisible to other people. This had enabled them to smuggle themselves easily onto the train. The illusionist had then concealed the door of the carriage from the perceptions of ticket inspectors and other passengers. For now, they were safe and hidden within the den of their enemies.
Even so, although the gentle rocking of the train had lulled Glogelder into an untroubled sleep almost as soon as he had sat down, a tense atmosphere surrounded the rest of the group.
At the Face of Grace and Truth, the Relic Guild had escaped the Toymaker when Van Bam had cast illusions of the group to confuse the assassin’s toys. While the hand-sized automatons had chased the doppelgangers into the forest, Hillem had set a spell sphere at the base of the portal to the Sisterhood of Bells. The casting of the magic inside had incorporated a delay, meaning the spell hadn’t activated until Van Bam, Samuel, Hillem and Glogelder had followed Clara and Namji into the portal.
Hillem had reminded them that although the spell would have destroyed the portal the moment the group had escaped the Face of Grace and Truth, the Toymaker would have known that it led to the Sisterhood of Bells. It was only a matter of time before he caught up with them again.
Somewhere, out there, right now, the Toymaker and his minions were coming, hunting for the Relic Guild, and they all knew it. And they all understood that their would-be assassin was a former Genii.
In Van Bam’s head, Gideon stirred.
Tell me, my idiot, what do you make of our current situation? As always, Gideon’s tone was inappropriately amused. The Relic Guild is public enemy number one in the Sisterhood of Bells. I can’t imagine there are many Houses more likely to string you up by your feet and flay you alive. And if everything we’ve been told about this Sisterhood is true, I don’t think they’ll be reticent about punishing you. If they capture you, that is.
What is your point, Gideon? Van Bam said miserably.
Gideon sighed, his amusement remaining, but laced with a modicum of concern. I don’t suppose execution would be as painful for me as it would be for you, but I do fear for myself. I always assumed that when a Resident died his spirit guide took the final journey to Mother Earth. Now, I’m not so sure.
This gave Van Bam pause for thought.
Since the day the Timewatcher and Her Thaumaturgists had abandoned the Labyrinth, he had been wondering about Mother Earth and the souls of the dead. When a Resident died, his or her spirit delayed the journey to the paradise of the Timewatcher’s House by becoming guide to whoever next attained the Residency. But for whom would Van Bam’s spirit be an advisor if he died? The illusionist couldn’t conceive Hagi Tabet welcoming his ghost to the Nightshade as her guide. As for what might happen to Gideon’s ghost …
I like to think that we will find success, Van Bam said. I like to hope that we will not discover what waits for us after death for a few years yet.
Denial! Gideon laughed. That’s the spirit, my idiot.
I only meant that I am choosing to focus on the present, Gideon. Once we have delivered Clara to whatever Known Things is, then I will consider the future.
Very pragmatic. Samuel would be proud of you. Gideon sounded bored. And in the meantime, here you are in the Sisterhood of Bells, a band of renegades, with every Aelfirian House searching for you, as well as a psychopathic ex-Genii – but it’s all right! You choose to trust the word of an heir to a House that no longer exists and her criminal henchmen. You have hope while you all blindly follow the orders of a blue spectre to a secret portal that will deliver Clara to Known Things. Which, by the way, is a relic that none of us had ever heard of, but that can, apparently, kill the most dangerous and corrupt Thaumaturgist who ever existed. Th
e day is surely saved!
Feeling tired, Van Bam gazed out of the window, watching the city speeding by. You still haven’t made your point, Gideon.
This all feels a little convenient to me, my idiot. Aren’t you suspicious?
No, Van Bam replied. The truth was, there wasn’t a single person in this carriage that he wasn’t willing to trust. I will not be suspicious of my colleagues.
I’m not asking you to distrust your travelling companions, my idiot. I’m asking you to see the whole picture – past, present and future. Something doesn’t sit right to me, and I’m damned if I can see what it is.
Be that as it may, Van Bam said, for the time being, what else can we do besides put our trust in each other?
Gideon sighed. This conversation is as painful as trying to talk to Clara, he said. All she wants to do is ask question after question about my past. It’s very irritating.
Van Bam looked at the changeling. Clara has endured much, Gideon – perhaps more than any of us—
Oh, for love of the Timewatcher! Isn’t anyone here willing to discuss the important things? Gideon made an exasperated noise. I’ll tell you what – the rest of you can continue sitting here in morbid silence, waiting for Hillem to bore you with more of his inane stories, but I have better things to think about. Like the one topic that you and your friends seem reluctant to address. Good talk, my idiot.
The dead Resident’s voice fell stone cold and silent inside within Van Bam’s mind. And with that silence, the face of an elderly Aelf bloomed before the illusionist’s inner vision, and his thoughts turned to the message that Councillor Tal had sent the group. He recalled the fear in Tal’s face as he told of the monks who had been attacked by wild demons at Hammer Light of Outside.
Van Bam gazed around at the group, and finally his metallic eyes settled on Namji, who was still staring out of the window.
‘What do the Aelfir know of the Retrospective?’ he asked her.
The sudden voice breaking the quiet in the carriage caused Glogelder to snort awake and look around with mild confusion.
‘Nasty place,’ he said sleepily.
‘The Retrospective?’ Namji said, turning from the window. ‘Not much,’ she admitted after a moment. ‘Beyond the fact that it was where Spiral’s Aelfirian armies were sent. We were told it was like a barrier.’ She seemed a little lost, and looked for help from Hillem sitting next to her.
‘Well,’ Hillem said, ‘I read that the Timewatcher used the Retrospective to wrap the Labyrinth in a shell of chaos, like a buffer to separate Aelfir and humans.’ He shrugged. ‘Death awaits anyone who tries to cross it, and that’s about as much as I know.’
‘At least you got the last part right,’ Samuel said.
‘Samuel is correct,’ said Van Bam. ‘The Retrospective is not a shell wrapped around the Labyrinth. It is a House. Of a kind. Founded upon the corrosion of dead time.’
‘Which makes it every inch the place of nightmare that you might imagine,’ Clara added.
‘Indeed.’ Van Bam sighed. ‘The doorway to the Retrospective is not a fixed point. It is a free-roaming portal that has been haunting the alleyways of the Great Labyrinth since the end of the Genii War.’
‘Then you think Tal was right?’ said Namji. ‘The Retrospective opened its doorway in Hammer Light of Outside?’
‘No doubt about it, if you ask me.’ Samuel’s statement was met by a nod of agreement from Clara.
Hillem sat forward. ‘You think it followed you here? That your escape from the Labyrinth caused a crack to appear between the Houses, and the Retrospective is bleeding through it?’
‘No,’ said Samuel. ‘We didn’t cause this.’
‘Then I don’t understand,’ Hillem said, looking doubtfully at Van Bam. ‘You said its doorway is trapped inside the Great Labyrinth. How can it reach an Aelfirian House?’
‘It can’t,’ Samuel answered, aiming his confusion at the illusionist too. ‘The Retrospective was designed as a punishment and a deterrent, not to go off … marauding into other realms’
‘True,’ Van Bam said. ‘But perhaps there is a way it could be manipulated.’
Samuel snorted. ‘I knew he was going to say that,’ he said to Clara.
Clara nodded. ‘You could sort of feel it coming, right?’
Glogelder grinned. Namji and Hillem gave Van Bam their full, serious attention.
‘The Nightshade,’ Van Bam explained. ‘It controls every aspect of the Labyrinth. Before the war against the Genii, the Nightshade provided the energy that sustained the portals behind the host of doorways that stood out in the Great Labyrinth, which bridged us and the Houses of the Aelfir through the Nothing of Far and Deep. After the war, the doorways disappeared, but the power to create their portals never left the Nightshade.’
Namji shared a quick look with Hillem, and said, ‘We all know the legend of the First and Greatest Spell, Van Bam. But if the Timewatcher left that kind of power behind, why haven’t you used it before? Why let Labrys Town spend forty years in isolation, when the Nightshade could’ve reached out to us?’
‘The First and Greatest Spell was created by the very highest of magic.’ Van Bam shook his head and sat back. ‘Humans and Aelfir are creatures of lower magic. Thaumaturgy is not a science the likes of us can fully understand, still less wield. Perhaps that is the reason why the Timewatcher entrusted the Nightshade to us – our inability to abuse its power. But now …’
Van Bam left the sentence hanging, suddenly feeling as though he didn’t have the energy to finish it.
Gideon’s chuckle rattled in his head. Which of them will catch on first, do you think? I bet you a hundred Labyrinth pounds that it’s Hillem.
‘Oh, I see,’ said Hillem. ‘The Genii control the Nightshade now, and the Timewatcher isn’t around to stop them.’
You owe me money, my idiot.
Van Bam ignored the dead Resident. ‘Who knows what the Genii are capable of achieving now they have the First and Greatest Spell in their grasp.’
There was a moment of silence, and then Samuel exhaled a heavy breath.
‘You think they’re using the Retrospective to attack the Aelfir? Letting it seep out of the Great Labyrinth through the Nightshade?’
Van Bam nodded. ‘Theoretically, the Nightshade could use the Retrospective as a conduit that reconnects the Labyrinth to every House out there.’
‘Shit,’ Samuel whispered. ‘That’s clever.’
‘Clever?’ said Glogelder. ‘Yeah, I suppose it is. But how bad is it really?’ He shrugged at the group. ‘Sure, the Houses will have to stay on their toes, but you all heard what Tal had to say. A crack opened. A few demons got out.’ He looked at Clara, and winked. ‘The wolf must enjoy a good fight now and then.’
Clara bared her teeth at him. ‘Glogelder, do you have any idea how big the Retrospective is? How many demons there are inside it?’
The big Aelf sank back in his seat and shook his head.
‘Nor do we,’ Clara growled. ‘And that’s because the number is so high, no one’s thought of a name for it yet.’
‘She’s right, Glogelder,’ Samuel said. ‘If that doorway starts opening wider, the Aelfir will have more than a few skirmishes to worry about. The Retrospective was designed to swallow realms as well as people. It’ll start eating the Houses one by one. The Retrospective will get bigger and bigger, the number of wild demons will swell. No one will be safe.’
Glogelder appeared suitably daunted by this prospect, and raised an eyebrow at Hillem, seeking confirmation. Hillem nodded back at him.
Gideon laughed again. I like this Glogelder. He’s as stupid as he is brave. I bet he’s the first of us to die. Double or quits, my idiot?
Actually, he has raised a good point, Van Bam replied, and then, aloud, he said, ‘The attack on Hammer Light of Outside might tell us something. It ha
s always been said that Spiral was the only Thaumaturgist who could rival the Timewatcher in power. If that is true, then only he among the Genii could fully harness the First and Greatest Spell, and use it to force the Retrospective into doing his bidding.’
‘But Spiral isn’t free, and we have the location of Oldest Place,’ Namji pointed out, motioning to Clara. ‘So Fabian Moor must have gained some command of the Nightshade’s magic. He opened the Retrospective in Hammer Light of Outside, after all.’
‘Yes, but only a crack,’ Van Bam countered. ‘Perhaps it was an experiment. The Genii must have discovered by now that Marney no longer has the information on Oldest Place. Fabian Moor and his cohorts would have been faced with the prospect that Spiral might never be free. Perhaps he is desperate, attempting to do what only his master could. Or …’
Follow the thought through, my idiot.
‘Or perhaps he is searching the Houses.’
‘For us,’ Hillem said. ‘Or more specifically, for the person Marney gave the information to.’
All eyes turned to Clara. The changeling, looking so much wiser and self-assured than she used to, met their gazes with a sheen of yellow in her eyes, the hues of her mood confident.
‘If Fabian Moor knows I’m carrying the location of Oldest Place, that still doesn’t tell him where we’re going,’ she said. ‘If he’s desperate and searching blindly – how many Houses are out there? We could be anywhere.’ She pulled an unperturbed face. ‘And let’s face it, we’ll probably get murdered by the Toymaker before the Genii catch up with us, anyway.’
Samuel smiled at the reply, and Glogelder gave a throaty laugh.
‘Be that as it may,’ said Van Bam sternly, ‘unless we get to Known Things, I doubt the attack on Hammer Light of Outside will be the last time the Aelfir sees the Retrospective.’
The train rocked, and Van Bam sensed its speed decreasing. His metallic eyes glared at Namji.
‘Perhaps now you can tell us exactly where in the Sisterhood of Bells we are headed?’
