The Pyramids of London

by Andrea K Höst

  Nor would their aunt speculate further about the fulgite or Princess Leodhild, only adding that not becoming a vampire was at the top of her list of priorities for the moment, and whisking them through a breakfast and departure at an uncomfortably early hour.

  "She's a trompe l'oeil."

  "A what?" Griff tore his attention from the hotel foyer's ceiling, puzzled, but Eleri nodded.

  "Especially now."

  Gathered together at the top of the Ketterley's sweeping foyer stairs, they watched a little constellation of hotel staff orbit their aunt. Eluned had noticed before that Aunt Arianne had a knack for getting people to want to help her, but it had become much more marked now that she was deceptively young. And it surely didn't hurt that, despite her tight purse strings, she was dressed in a very elegant and modern version of traditional Prytennian daywear: her white shirt had decorative laces down the arms, the hunter green outer panels of her knee-length doubled skirt flared to reveal the patterned ivory layer beneath, and a day belt of sage cloth hugged and emphasised the curve of her waist. Matching sage undertrousers were cut close to the line of her legs and it was all fashioned from the lightest of cloth: an outfit chosen to cover skin while managing the summer heat.

  "It means a trick of the eye, Griff. An object painted to look like it's something else." Eluned, dressed in her uniform of shirt and summer shendy because all her other clothing was too hot or too small, started down the stair. "Aunt Arianne acts very open, but it's all an illusion."

  "Like we haven't been keeping stuff back from her? How does that make her an illusion?"

  Eluned, who had slept badly thanks to a collection of chafed patches of skin, shrugged and regretted it. Their aunt, finishing arrangements for their baggage to be called for, smiled brightly at their arrival and led them outside, lowering her veil. Only the speed with which she was getting things done betrayed any hint that she might be worried.

  "Cab, dama?"

  "Please."

  "May we have that autocarriage, instead of a hummingbird?" Eleri asked immediately, pointing to the single automaton-drawn carriage standing behind two more modern self-propelled vehicles.

  "Good choice," the hotel doorman said. "No-one knows London better than Mama Lu." He made a complicated beckoning gesture, and the autocarriage drew out of line.

  Eluned, who preferred hummingbirds both for their speed and relative quiet, hid her sigh and reflected that at least the open carriage was wide and looked comfortably sprung, unlike many of the boxy little hummingbirds. A plump woman wearing a straw hat decorated with flowers was sitting at the controls, and nodded them in cheerfully.

  The automaton—for Eleri had explained on past occasions that only a single device was involved, even though it looked like the front half of two horses—was quite detailed: the two proud metal necks could lift and turn, and the ears even swivelled. The legs, hooves shod neatly in vulcanised rubber booties, had a fine stepping movement, and the thing was obviously better at making turns than the last couple of autocarriages Eluned had seen.

  Unlike Eluned, Eleri never had the slightest difficulty striking up conversations with strangers, and immediately asked if she could sit up front.

  "If you like, duck," the driver replied, obligingly making room on her bench. "Call me Mama Lu. Where can I take you?"

  "Do you know Vine Street, Lamhythe?" Aunt Arianne asked, tugging at her veil again even though the sun was still quite low.

  "That I do." Mama Lu touched her own hat in response, her round and amiable face lighting with curiosity before she turned to answer Eleri's questions about the controls.

  Eluned settled down next to her aunt with a sigh, and inched a finger beneath the strap that crossed her shoulder. No matter how she shifted it, the leather would slide back to wear against the raw spots. And yet she hadn't left it off, despite Eleri and Griff both making pointed remarks. It was true that she was stared at no less when wearing such an obviously artificial arm, but she could do more.

  The autocarriage started off, drawn effortlessly by its four front hooves, and Eluned caught at Griff's shirt as he stood to better peer into the great open pit next to Paddington Station, where part of the new underground track was being laid.

  "Think of it, Ned," he said, sitting down as they picked up speed. "Miles of it, everywhere underneath us. There's entire brickworks dedicated to the project." Sitting in the rear-facing seat, he slewed around to address the cab driver. "Will you learn to drive a train instead, when people can get anywhere in London by going underground?"

  "Won't happen, duck. Even with the clever digging machines, there's years upon years of construction to go, and when there's a station under every part of London, there'll still be gaps in between them. Some folk wouldn't walk to the end of the street, if they could help it."

  Eluned tilted her head back to take in the red brick buildings, the spinning blades driving household dynamos, the golden cap of the nearest pyramid, and a minor fleet of airships lifting into the blue vault of sky. "Look, the new Wingbird type!"

  "They're getting off ahead of the morning windstorm," the driver said. "Hold on, this turn's a sharp one."

  The intersection was frenetically busy, with hummingbirds, a bus, and two big haulers all converging, but Mama Lu took them through it at a smart pace. As they swung sharply onto a main road, Eluned's eyes widened as she spotted a girl with a sharply pointed face raised up on a seat above a single middle-sized wheel in the centre of three tiny wheels on extended legs that flexed and bent as she turned. The curious machine's engine made a sound like a frantically purring kitten.

  The girl, alertly watching the traffic, caught Eluned looking and spun effortlessly to match pace with the autocarriage.

  "Newspaper, damini?"

  "That—what is that called?" Eleri's tone matched Eluned's own excitement.

  "Not seen a dragonfly before? Out of Nathaner's Workshop. Sweet, yes?" The girl reached out adroitly to accept the coin Aunt Arianne was holding out to her, and fished into metal panniers built into her seat. "Daily Yell?"

  "Courant."

  Eluned glanced at her aunt, and before the girl could zip off pushed herself to say: "How fast is that thing? Could you go buy something and come back before we get too far?"

  "That would depend on what it is," the girl replied, with a wide grin.

  "Umbrella. Or parasol."

  "Not a problem."

  "I'll take them around the Circus, Sun Li Sen," their driver said, as Aunt Arianne silently reopened her purse. "Don't drag your heels."

  "No, Grandmother." The girl bowed her head hastily to their driver, took the new coin, and zoomed away.

  "She's your granddaughter?" Griff asked, still trying to look in every direction at once as they passed a thousand fascinations.

  "One of them." Mama Lu clicked her tongue. "She'll go far, little minx."

  Eluned eyed her aunt, who had tucked her purse away and now unfolded the paper, holding it up so it blocked the slanting light of early morning.

  "Well spotted," Aunt Arianne murmured.

  "At first I thought you were worried about running out of time, but you wanted to get there before the sun was too far up, right?"

  "Sunlight seems much harder to deal with than lamplight. As for running out of time, according to Lord Msrah I should have a couple of days before I'm in real danger. Besides, from what I've seen of Dem Makepeace, he's likely to not be home, or be conveniently out of town, purely for the entertainment value of keeping me waiting."

  This prompted a rich and unexpected chuckle from their driver. "You four are heading for Forest House?"

  "If that's number three Vine Street." Aunt Arianne lowered her paper a little, then hastily raised it back up. "You know the place?"

  "The House of the Keeper of the Deep Grove? I should think so."

  This sounded promising. Aunt Arianne's description of her new vampire had made it seem like they'd be stuck in a cellar with barely room to turn around.

&n
bsp; "So Dem Makepeace is a vampire and a dryw?" Griff asked.

  "He's no seer." Mama Lu laughed again. "Vampire, yes, and technically the true Keeper of the Deep Grove, but he has nothing to do with the Order of the Oak, and has long appointed someone else to look after Forest House. It's stood empty these past eight years, since Dama Fulbright passed. It's good to learn he's found another Keeper."

  Eluned glanced at Aunt Arianne, but the veil made it impossible to read any reaction. Still, she had to be pleased, as Eleri and Griff so obviously were, because 'the House of the Keeper' would maybe have room for a workshop, and perhaps be an interesting building in itself, and surely this Deep Grove would offer a wealth of the shapes and forms that Eluned so liked to work with. A garden, unlikely to be as large as the one at Sheerside House, but more than the postage stamp they'd had back in Caerlleon.

  The thought failed to excite her, which was a strangeness she had suffered all summer. Even the prospect of the gardens at Sheerside hadn't moved her, and despite all she'd seen the past few days her sketchbook remained unopened. It wasn't only that the world kept moving with Mother and Father gone on to Annwn. Eluned had accepted that, and the sharp hurt no longer consumed all her waking hours. But a part of Eluned herself had flattened and been lost, and she did not know how to get it back.

  The girl on the dragonfly caught up with them as they circled a statue of a laughing Epona standing on the back of two horses, and then Mama Lu took them over the river, cheerfully answering a stream of questions from Griff, and even letting Eleri drive, once they'd turned off the busy roads. Eluned caught a glimpse of a grand curve of green to her right and shifted to try for a better look down the next street.

  "Is that the Great Barrows? Is this Deep Grove nearby?"

  "It is, though that's Sceadu Barrow and Vine Street is north of Seolfor Barrow. A short walk from its tip."

  Eluned exchanged a look with Griff and Eleri. "Would we be able to hear the Song of the Solstice from the house?"

  "I should think so. Though, being so close, you should absolutely join the crowds. There's nothing like it."

  "Kites," Eleri said, and they gave full attention to bright points of colour rising above rooftops. Eluned's mood remained as high as the dancing scraps of silk until she noticed the area they were moving into, which was full of tidily-kept but very compact houses. This did not bode well for an expansive garden.

  "Do you worry about your fulgite getting stolen?" Griff was asking their driver.

  "Not from Ha and Mu here. With hummingbirds, all you need do is lift up the driver's seat and do some sharp work with a crowbar, but these old models are a good deal sturdier."

  "Is that why you keep it?" Griff had his head thrust between Mama Lu and Eleri's shoulders. "I can't remember the last time we rode in one."

  "Not many of them about any more, duck. Too much maintenance. Too noisy. Never did make much sense in the first place, but that's Romans for you—the show's half the point. I keep Ha and Mu for old time's sake. I got my start driving for First Minister Halned, and when he retired he gave me his autocarriage. Gave me a big step up, that did." Mama Lu let out a satisfied sigh, then added: "Turn right up here, duck, and we'll be on Vine Street."

  Eleri, always quick to master anything mechanical, turned neatly, and a long stretch of terraces opened before them. Well maintained, but many looking as if they had no garden at all, or only a tiny yard. Down at the end of the street, though, taller buildings loomed on the right, and Eluned eyed them hopefully as they rolled past a public house.

  "That's the Lyre and Razor," Mama Lu said. "Run by a pair of sisters. Aquitanian, but none the worse for it. From this cross-street ahead, to our right and one block down, is a grocer and post office. If you need a cab, run down there and if there's not one waiting ask for one to be sent on. It's a good neighbourhood, near but not amongst the playhouses, and quiet most weeks, though lively during the solstices, of course."

  She nodded genially toward the green slopes in the near distance, but all Eluned cared about at that moment were the buildings up ahead. Warehouses. Another terraced row facing them, a little less compact than the houses they'd been passing, but lacking more than postage stamp gardens. Despite that inner flatness, she found herself disappointed.

  Inevitably, their driver told Eleri to pull up, and Eluned saw her own feelings reflected on Griff's face, but at least he kept his mouth shut as he contemplated their future.

  Take the positive and move on, their mother would say, and so Eluned resolutely admired the fresh paint and clean windows.

  As their driver said, "Here we are ducks," the door of the house Eluned was studying opened, and a girl dressed in a sari of the medical clan the Daughters of Lakshmi stepped through.

  Ducking her head at having been caught looking, Eluned turned away. The doors of the warehouse opposite were papered thickly with posters proclaiming the latest offerings of the playhouses, of the Brass Menagerie, of fine soaps, and silks all the way from the Huaxia kingdoms.

  "Would you mind waiting until I'm certain we can open the door?" Aunt Arianne asked, as she handed over coin.

  "Not a problem, my pet. Fish under the lad's seat and you'll find a tool or two you can put to clearing some of that paper away."

  Blinking, Eluned followed the driver's gesture toward what she had thought a warehouse. Just a blank wall of bricks and an enormous double door, so coated in posters that only the top and bottom were visible. There were no windows until the top third of the building, where squares of glass were protected by stern metal bars.

  "Closed up long?" Eleri asked, as Griff fished up a chisel and crowbar from beneath his seat.

  "Eight years since Dama Fulbright," Aunt Arianne murmured, stepping down. "There seems to be a service door built into the right half of the larger one. Shall we see if we can find a keyhole?"

  Eluned glanced back at the terrace house in fascinated comparison, and again met the eyes of the Daughter of Lakshmi, who pulled her own door shut and marched off down the street as if to deny any staring.

  "Why is it disguised as a warehouse?" Eluned asked Mama Lu.

  "The Deep Grove has always been a guarded place." The driver laughed. "In more ways than one. Ah, it's a fine thing to have some good news."

  Fired with curiosity, Eluned clambered down to help tear away the layered posters, exposing the person-sized door built into the weighty and very solid larger entrance. Griff eagerly fished the key up from inside his shirt, where he'd been wearing it on a bootlace, and turned it with only a little difficulty. The door didn't budge, but Eluned and Eleri together dug their fingers in and pulled it free of the grip of old poster glue.

  "Rather an oversized vestibule," Aunt Arianne remarked of the room beyond. "Breach the inner fastness for me." She gathered up the tools borrowed from Mama Lu and turned back to the autocarriage.

  Griff headed to a shadowy second door, and Eluned turned to the one they'd passed through, finding two thick wooden slides.

  "Lend me your shoulder, Eleri."

  With the accompaniment of much tearing of paper, they pushed open the two great outer doors, exposing a room the same width as the doors, and around six feet deep. There were benches to either side, racks for shoes, places for umbrellas, and dozens of coat hooks. Dust swam in the air.

  "What is this place?" Eluned could not imagine any family needing such an entrance.

  The second set of doors were paned with dark glass and far from warehouse-like, though still on the large side. They unlocked easily and glided open when Griff pushed them inward.

  His delighted inhalation—followed by an enormous sneeze—told Eluned that the place at least offered something of interest to their architecture-mad brother, and she and Eleri eagerly stepped around him into a hall that filled the whole three stories of what was most certainly not a warehouse.

  Two trees of glass. They rose first as leadlight columns then spread, opening fingers of twig and leaf until the entire upper half of the far wa
ll was lost to transparent foliage. Most of it was frosted white, but pale motes of colour glimmered where translucent branches supported flowers, fruit, and tiny birds.

  Between the windows of intertwined trees was a third doubled door, a tall pointed arch of dark wood, severe and plain. Again there were sturdy bars, and Griff was already racing to slide them open.

  The rest of the hall was empty but for stairs that began halfway back along the walls to either side, and curved up to join a walkway above the vestibule then climbed again to a second walkway. Discreet doors revealed the place extended to either side of the hall.

  "And so the Deep Grove?" Aunt Arianne murmured, coming up behind them. "I was expecting trees, but my imagination seems to have fallen short. Lead on, Griff, lead on."

  Griff needed no urging, throwing open the hall's rear doors, pausing to survey the wealth of greenery, and then letting out a yelp and racing forward along a slate path between the trunks of ash trees.

  "Got yourself a garden," Eleri said.

  "More like a forest," Eluned replied, wondering what about trees had so fired Griff, whose interest in greenery was usually confined to removing any from his plate.

  The open doorway was easily wide enough for all three to pause on the heavy stone doorstep. Aunt Arianne lifted her umbrella against the play of sunlight through a canopy of green, and they surveyed a long rectangle bounded on all sides by brick walls over which only the roofs of warehouses rose. The rectangle was divided into two squares by a shorter central wall, and on the near side of the dividing wall the slate path led through comfortably spaced trees and split around a circle of standing stones almost completely buried in a thick spread of purple-crowned thistle.

  "A circle?" Eluned said. "Is this place a grove, or does it belong to Sulis?"

  "Set up for a lot of visitors. But what's—"

  Breaking off, Eleri strode ahead down the path, and Eluned dogged her heels, past the stone circle to where the split path merged back into a single line of stones. To the Gate.

  If the whole of the house seemed set up to allow a stream of people to visit the grove and circle of standing stones, this final barrier, rising twice the height of a tall man, clearly made keeping people out its business. Yet it was beautiful, the bars of stern black metal supporting an interlacing of copper gone green with age: verdigris leaves hiding all but a few glimpses of the space beyond the dividing wall. Grapes rested heavily among the green: some silver dark with neglect, others dusky red, a metal that Eluned did not recognise.