Inkcaster (Library Gate Series Book 4)

by H. Duke

  Footsteps moved towards the master bedroom, and Mr. Utterson’s voice came from that direction. “Is anyone in here?”

  Following his friend’s lead, Jekyll stepped into the guest bedroom. April shrank back behind the door. He stepped past her to the center of the room so that she could see his back. His back was covered in ink rot from the tips of his coattails to the top of his head.

  He walked back to the bed and looked behind it, then opened a gigantic wardrobe that was set against the wall opposite the foot of the bed. He must not have found anything of note inside, because as he turned back, his face was confused, irritated.

  April thanked whichever deity lay in the heavens above that the darkness behind the door was enough to mask her. But how would she deal with the ink rot? She couldn’t just leave it on him, not when it was so advanced. Who knew if she would get a chance to deal with it later…

  Jekyll shook his head, then made to move back out into the hallway. At the last moment he turned back, as though to check just once more to make sure. Seeing her chance, April reached out and brushed the tips of her fingers against the very bottoms of his coattails. The ink rot turned powdery and dissipated.

  She pulled her hand back right away, and it was a good thing she did, because Jekyll turned suddenly, as though he’d felt her touch. Maybe he had, or maybe he’d sensed the ink rot dying, releasing its leeching hold on him.

  For a moment, April thought he was going to check behind the door.

  “The master bedroom’s clear,” Utterson said. “I didn’t hear any yelling from your room—I take it you also found nothing?”

  Jekyll paused for a moment, then shook his head. “Yes. It’s empty.”

  “Ah. It must have been the house settling. My house wakes me up in the middle of the night all the time. Sometimes I could swear someone’s running up and down my halls.”

  “You’re probably right.” Jekyll stepped into the hallway.

  “Shall we finish our night cap?” Utterson said.

  “Yes, of course.”

  They headed back towards the study. April, seeing her last chance to check the state of the ink rot in the room, stepped around the door as quietly as possible, trusting that they wouldn’t notice the noise she was making over the sound of their own footsteps.

  She glanced into the room. The walls appeared completely normal; it was devoid of all ink rot. Thank god. One less thing she’d have to deal with.

  A shriek erupted from Jekyll’s throat.

  April’s heart began hammering in her chest. Had he seen her? How was that possible? His back was towards her, as was Utterson’s…

  Then she saw it: a mirror set at the end of the hall. In it she was making eye-contact with Dr. Henry Jekyll.

  She retracted back behind the door, but instead of returning to her post behind the door, she hurried across the room to the spot behind the wardrobe.

  “Henry, what is it?”

  “I saw… I saw a face, his face,” Jekyll said, his voice high-pitched and trembling.

  “Whose face? Where?” Utterson turned to look behind him, searching for some would-be attacker.

  “In the mirror,” Jekyll said. “The face of a demon, a face that haunts my darkest nightmares…”

  April heard footsteps as Utterson entered the room. She knew it was Utterson and not Jekyll because she could still hear Jekyll’s trembling breath from the hall.

  Utterson stepped inside the room. “If there is any person in here, I demand you show yourself.”

  April wondered what she should do. If Utterson looked back here—and he surely would—then he would find her. Should she just reveal herself now, and stick with her original plan of posing as a servant looking for some lost article? But what name would she give him? She realized suddenly that she hadn’t bothered to find out any of the names of Jekyll’s guests… She could have been doing that instead of standing around in Jekyll’s laboratory talking with Thaddeus. She mentally kicked herself.

  An orange blur shot out from behind on the curtains near the window. The animal hissed as it passed Utterson, apparently not taking Utterson’s harsh demeanor well.

  Utterson laughed, tension gone. “Why, it’s nothing but your cat,” he said. “Damnable things. They’re necessary for keeping the mice in check, but they can be nuisances themselves.”

  “The cat?” Jekyll said. He sounded confused.

  “Yes. The thing just ran out from behind the curtain. Surely that’s what made the noises we were hearing earlier.”

  “But I saw…” Jekyll’s voice faded slightly as he turned to face the direction of the mirror. “Never mind. It was nothing.”

  “You’re welcome to have a look yourself,” Utterson said, “But I didn’t see a soul inside.”

  “No!” Jekyll said forcefully, then repeated the word more gently. “No, that won’t be necessary. I checked earlier and saw no one. You’re right—it was that blasted feline.”

  From his still-tremulous voice, April gathered that he didn’t quite believe his own words.

  Utterson must have thought so, too. “Perhaps we should leave our drinks unfinished,” he said. “I think we’ve both had enough.”

  “Perhaps you’re right.”

  Utterson bowed his head slightly. “I shall see myself out.”

  The men said their goodbyes. After Utterson started downstairs, Jekyll closed himself into his room. For the next twenty minutes, April heard him moving about. He seemed to be pacing for a while, but he eventually settled.

  When several minutes had passed where April didn’t hear any noise at all, she crept out from behind the wardrobe and made her way downstairs. She managed to get back to the lab without further incident.

  “Is everything all right?” Thaddeus said. “I thought perhaps they caught you. The only thing that kept me from going after you was the fact that there seemed to be no commotion going on. I took that as a good sign.”

  “You would have come to my rescue, eh?” April asked.

  His eyebrows raised slightly, as though he hadn’t expected the question. “Well, I can’t very well return to the library without you, can I? The others would never believe that you met an untimely end without my intervention.”

  There was something insincere about the words. Did he actually care? April shook her head.

  “You’re so unpredictable,” she said. “I wish you would just choose a side. It would make things easier on both of us.”

  He looked like he was going to protest, but then he nodded. “I suppose it would, wouldn’t it?” he fumbled with something inside his coat, and Rex growled at him. Rex had been keeping a close eye on Thaddeus all night, hadn’t he?

  “What do you have there?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.

  He reached into the pocket and pulled out the four vials of serum. “I’m keeping them in the inner pockets of my coat for safe keeping.”

  She nodded. That made sense. They had to protect the vials.

  As they made their way towards the gate, her mind again turned to Thaddeus’ loyalty—or lack thereof.

  “Why do you flip flop so much?” she asked as the gate appeared in view.

  He considered the question. “Because I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  The simplicity of his answer surprised her almost as much as the realization that she could relate to the sentiment.

  “Me, too. It’s not always easy. In fact, it’s freaking hard.”

  He nodded. “It often seems like there’s no right answer that won’t cause harm to someone, somewhere.”

  She thought about that for a moment. “I guess it’s our job to choose who to help, isn’t it?”

  He nodded, and they stepped through the gate.

  “Did you get it?” Dorian said. The combination of ice and Ibuprofen must have worked, because the knot on his head had shrunk by half, though he still looked somewhat lopsided. Not that he looked any less handsome than usual; it lent him a certain ruggedness that his boyish face usu
ally lacked.

  “We did,” April said.

  “Five of them, in fact,” Thaddeus added. He reached into his coat and pulled out the vials. Rex’s head lowered as he did so, and April again got a bad feeling, like Rex was seeing something that she wasn’t. Was he trying to tell her something?

  “Let’s not waste time,” April said. “We should head back in.”

  “I agree,” Thaddeus said. “Sara’s been alone for who knows how long. That’s if William the Bold hasn’t gotten to her yet.”

  “I should go with you,” Randall said. “This truce between you two ends after you give William the Bold the serum, right? Thaddeus might attack you.”

  “I’m fine, Randall,” April said. She gave Thaddeus a calculative look. “You won’t do that, right, Thaddeus?”

  Thaddeus looked at her for a moment. “I won’t. You have my word. Not until we return to this library.”

  “No flip-flopping?”

  He nodded almost imperceptibly.

  April and Thaddeus crossed back over the threshold, Rex almost nipping their heels behind them.

  “I’ll take care of any ink rot I see as we go,” she said. “I’m not worried about being overtly thorough; I just want this world to become stable again. We can come back later after we’ve stabilized the other books on the verge of blackening.”

  Thaddeus nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

  They heard stomping from a street up in front of them. Frightened people scurried away from the source of the noise. Some of them had the empty-eyed look of UNCs, others appeared to have reverted to their normal selves, poor people caught up in this hellscape.

  “Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of Englishmen,” a too-deep voice cackled. From the wide-eyed look on Thaddeus’ face, he was just as startled by the deepness of the voice. It was so deep as to be almost inaudible. “Make way for William the Brutal!”

  April and Thaddeus exchanged glances. It sounded like the monster had given himself a new name.

  A shadow rounded the corner. It was only a motionless form, as the thing casting it was taller even then the ten-foot street lamps that lined the sides of the road.

  Then it rounded the corner. April knew it was William the Bold, but he was unrecognizable from even the monstrous form they’d seen when they’d last left him in Jekyll’s lab. By now most his clothing had worn away. Only a shred of fabric hung around his waist, and even that didn’t do a good job of covering anything up.

  The worst part was that the ink rot had grown almost entirely over his face, obscuring his right eye. Only the left eye and one nostril remained uncovered. His mouth was completely coated by the stuff.

  “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Thaddeus said.

  “You mean the ink rot covering its mouth?”

  “How is he going to take the antidote?” Thaddeus said.

  “I don’t know.” Was it too late? Even after all this, was it all for nothing?

  She saw movement in a second-story window of Jekyll’s house. April recognized the waif-like form of Dr. Jekyll, though he seemed thinner and gaunter than before. As though he could sense her gaze, he moved quickly out of view.

  “Come on,” April said, and she hurried towards the front door. Locked. She moved over and tried the door to the laboratory, which had been repaired and locked.

  “Damn it,” she said.

  “Let’s try doing things the old-fashioned way.” Thaddeus pulled the bobby pin from his coat pocket and went to start picking the lock, but the door swung open before he was able to push the pin in.

  Mr. Poole stood in the doorway, the dim lamplight from the house framing him from behind.

  “What is the meaning of this?” He said, his lips pressed into a thin line.

  Thaddeus, who was still holding the bobby pin in his hands, looked sheepish for a moment but quickly recovered. “We need to speak with Dr. Jekyll.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Mr. Poole said. His nose was wrinkled as though he smelled something foul.

  “I mean, he’s home, isn’t he?” April said. “I saw him in the window.”

  “He’s home, but he’s not taking visitors. The master is in a fragile state of mind. One that I dare say you triggered. Everything that’s been going on started with you, and that damnable police officer.”

  April didn’t know how Mr. Poole had convinced himself that William the Brutal was just a regular police officer. Maybe it had something to do with the book.

  She had an idea. “You say that all of Dr. Jekyll’s problems started when we showed up,” she said. “But that’s not true, is it? They started months ago. He spent some long nights shut up in his laboratory. Maybe you heard some strange noises coming from inside, but like a good employee you never went and checked.”

  “How do you know all that?” Mr. Poole said.

  “That’s not important. What’s important is that all of this didn’t start with us—it started with Dr. Jekyll. And we might just have a way to end this. To not only help him, but to help the community as well.”

  Mr. Poole considered her words. Finally he stepped aside. “Come in.”

  Once inside he closed the door behind them. “May I take you coats?”

  “No,” Thaddeus said, too quickly. It seemed strange until April remembered that he had the reversal serum in his pocket.

  “Very well. I will show you to his study.”

  April didn’t mention that she knew exactly where Dr. Jekyll’s study was. They followed Mr. Poole up to the second floor. He knocked on the study door.

  “Doctor, you have visitors.” He waited a few seconds before opening the door. He didn’t bother waiting for Dr. Jekyll’s permission to send them in.

  Dr. Jekyll looked surprised. His hair was more disheveled than the last time, and he had a shadow of stubble around his otherwise impeccable moustache.

  “Very well,” Dr. Jekyll said, as though they hadn’t already entered his study. “Come in.”

  Mr. Poole bowed. “I will be downstairs should you need me.” He fixed them with one last grave look, then closed the door.

  “I recognize you,” Dr. Jekyll said. “You were with him when I discovered him in my lab. You were lucky to escape.”

  “How long ago was that?” April asked.

  Dr. Jekyll looked at her as though the question was strange, but he must have become accustomed to strange occurrences, because he did not question her. “About two nights, now. He’s no longer William the Bold—now he’s William the Brutal.”

  “We’ve heard,” April said.

  “How much fortification serum has he consumed?” Thaddeus asked.

  Jekyll winced. “About ten vials since you left. Fourteen total. He would consume more, if I could distill it that fast. Luckily, I have run out of my base ingredients. That won’t last. He’s forced an errand boy to go to a nearby district and acquire more. He wouldn’t let me go. I’m free to roam the neighborhood, but I have not been able to get farther than that. He’s somehow enchanted the inhabitants of this area to do his bidding. They won’t harm me, but they will not let me pass.”

  “What do you mean, enchanted?” April asked.

  “Forgive me,” Jekyll said. “I am a man of science and not normally prone to such folly. But that is how it seems. They act like zombies, their eyes completely empty. Why, the local baker-woman, a warm, gregarious person whom I consider a good friend, does not even return my greetings anymore. I think he must be doing it with some concoction, maybe from a plant in the nightshade family…”

  April and Thaddeus exchanged glances and nodded. This sounded like UNCs. It seemed that they had gone from not interfering with Officer Powers to following his commands. Were they really that afraid of him, or was the ink rot affecting them?

  “I was too damned curious,” Jekyll said, slamming his hand down on the table. “It seems my darker half has begun to affect me even when I’m not taking his form, removing my inhibitions and higher thought-processes, enslav
ing me to my base desires…”

  “Your darker half?” Thaddeus said with a raised eyebrow.

  Jekyll realized his slip-up. “A turn of phrase. We all have some darkness inside of us, do we not?”

  April shot Thaddeus a warning look. “We do,” she said. “Speaking of base desires, we think we might have a way to control him. To bring him back down to size, for lack of a better analogy.”

  Jekyll looked up, hope in his eyes. “You do? What is it?”

  April nodded to Thaddeus, who reached inside of his coat and pulled out the vials. He handed one to Jekyll. Jekyll took it. “I don’t see how the fortification serum could do anything but exasperate our circumstances. Hold on a moment,” he squinted at the vial. “This isn’t fortification serum; the color is too dark—it’s the reversal serum.” His eyebrows lifted as he put it together. “You mean to trick him?”

  “We do,” April said. “Do you think it will work?”

  “Possibly. I doubt that he would notice the subtle difference in color; each time he’s taken the serum he’s guzzled it down without looking at the bottle. Yes, it might work. Of course, he will be suspicious if I give him more serum after I’ve said I’ve run out of ingredients. We’ll have to wait for the errand boy to come back with the replacements.”

  “We have a bigger problem than that,” April said. “How is he going to take the serum when his mouth is covered?”

  Jekyll squinted at her. “How do you mean?”

  April pointed out the window where the hulking form was pacing back and forth. She only looked out for a moment, not wanting to linger in front of the window in case he looked up and saw her, but she saw William the Brutal long enough to see that his mouth was still covered.

  Jekyll squinted down. “My, his mouth is covered, isn’t it? I don’t know how I missed that. Actually, it seems to come in and out with the light.” His eyes widened. “It must be a side-effect of taking the serum at such high quantities. How fascinating…”

  He looked as though he might go off on a tangent, so April waved at him. “You’re right, it’s probably a side-effect of the serum. But it still poses an obstacle to giving him the antidote.”