The Alchemist's Key

by Traci Harding

  ‘The path of power?’ Andrew quizzed innocently.

  ‘The paths of power that extend around the world and are marked by the great megalithic sites. The earth’s natural energies are very strong along these paths. I had hoped that it would increase my chances of making my creation work … which, of course, it must.’ He clapped his hands with new-found resolve.

  ‘But Ashby has never given host to any great megalithic marker.’ Well, it hadn’t as far as Andrew knew.

  ‘Ah, but it did,’ John enlightened him. ‘In the time of my great forefather, Gisborne, this spot was marked as sacred by a huge stone boulder. When the manor was temporarily stolen from him by Cromwell’s injustice, the man who came to run Ashby removed the marker and built a damn church in its stead.’

  Andrew recalled reading about this. ‘But upon Gisborne’s return he tore the church down, right?’

  ‘That he did. None of my forefather’s ever could stand organised religion.’ John screwed up his nose in disgust.

  ‘So, this path of power …’ Andrew questioned further. ‘In which direction does it extend?’

  John advised that the path ran at an angle through the house.

  ‘Let me guess,’ ventured Andrew. ‘Downstairs it would run through the greenhouse, through part of the marble dining room and on through the kitchens. And upstairs it would run through the long gallery, the domed salon, the musician’s gallery and the music room.’

  ‘Very good.’ John gave him a round of applause. ‘How did you guess?’

  ‘That’s where strange time phenomenon occur.’ When Andrew considered the time period John Ashby was born into that lacked the advanced scientific tools of the twentieth century, he had to wonder at this man’s knowledge. ‘So how did you discover this path of power?’

  ‘By dowsing, of course.’

  ‘Dowsing?’ Andrew wasn’t sure he understood correctly. ‘But isn’t that how you find water?’

  ‘It has been used for that. But it also has many other applications. It’s a simple matter really … all one does is hold a bent metal or wooden rod in front of oneself, and when you are confronted by the path, the dowsing tool will flip up, repelled by the force.’

  Andrew thought this a useful piece of information. ‘So, how far beyond Ashby does this path of power extend?’

  ‘Quite a way would be my guess,’ said John. ‘Through the township, then it would continue on through the madhouse and beyond.’

  ‘But beyond the township is Glenoak College.’ Andrew began to panic.

  ‘In your time, perhaps.’ John raised his brow. ‘But here, I can assure you, you’ll find the madhouse.’

  ‘Oh, dear God.’ Andrew jumped to his feet. ‘The others are in deep shit! We have to find the cat. He’ll show us the way back.’

  ‘But how?’ Grace reasoned. ‘With the whole house looking for us?’

  ‘Fear not,’ John assured the couple. ‘I shall take care of my staff and family. You two are free to find your way back … to the future,’ he added with a smile, impressed with himself.

  Out in front of the asylum, Rex and Phil assisted Wade in hijacking Madam’s coach. The ladies and investors were crammed into the carriage. Hugh took the reins and Wade rode up front with him, whilst Phil and Rex clung to the rear.

  As the night was dark, the gatehouse guard opened the front gates at the coach’s approach. The carriage whizzed past him and down the road. Thus the guard was none the wiser about the occupants or the theft.

  ‘Hugh, we’re clear. I think you can slow down now,’ Wade advised, as they approached the town.

  ‘Whoa,’ Hugh encouraged the horses to a calmer pace, and looking ahead, the buildings of the township suddenly lit up.

  ‘I believe we just got lucky.’ Wade slapped his hands together, well pleased to note the cars parked under the streetlights down both sides of the road.

  Hugh pulled the carriage to a stop, and both he and Wade climbed off to free their cramped passengers.

  ‘Thank Christ!’ commented Phil as he jumped off the back, and headed towards his police car.

  ‘Hey, Constable.’ Wade followed him. ‘You wouldn’t happen to have a map of the area lying about?’

  ‘Sure would.’ He opened the car door to root around for it.

  ‘Is it over?’ the Contessa asked Hugh as she climbed out into the familiar surroundings.

  ‘For you, yes,’ he assured her, then looked to Louisa. ‘Make sure everyone is alright, will you? I’m going to see what Wade is up to.’

  Louisa nodded, then grabbed Hugh’s arm. ‘Don’t do anything without me, will you?’

  ‘Anything?’ he teased with a smile. Despite her grin Louisa hesitated to comment, thus, Hugh headed off across the road.

  As Louisa wasn’t too sure if his response meant yes or no, she kept a watchful eye on the Baron’s movements as she carried out Hugh’s bidding.

  Phil shone the torch over the map that Wade had laid out on the bonnet of the car.

  ‘Got a pen, anyone?’ Wade requested as Hugh and Rex joined them.

  ‘I do.’ Hugh passed it over, curious as to what Wade was doing.

  ‘Okay.’ Wade looked back to the map. ‘Here’s Ashby.’ He marked the manor with an X. ‘The town of Ashbury and Glenoak.’ He marked them also. ‘Now, where is this old farmer Brackstone place that you were telling me about earlier?’

  ‘Here.’ Phil pointed, and Wade marked it, ahead of drawing a straight line through all four locations.

  ‘There seems to be a pattern emerging, wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘So, what are you getting at, exactly?’ Rex inquired, completely engrossed in following the mystery of what had taken place this day. And not for the sake of a story either. It was now more just to satisfy his own curiosity and bewilderment.

  ‘What I’m saying is, the time phenomenon seems to be concentrated in the areas along this line.’

  ‘So?’ said Phil.

  ‘So,’ Wade emphasized, ‘if I need to get back to Ashby, without becoming misplaced in time, chances are that if I go around this area, I should be safe.’

  ‘That goes along with what you were suggesting earlier, about the time holes being channelled by something.’ Rex looked at Hugh in awe, as if he considered the scholar to be some sort of genius.

  ‘Yes, but by what?’ Hugh pondered, looking back to Wade. ‘And what’s all this I business,’ Hugh corrected. ‘If you’re heading back to Ashby, I’m coming with you.’

  ‘Me too,’ added Rex.

  ‘Me three,’ said Phil.

  The three men looked at the policeman, not too sure if they wanted him along or not.

  ‘Hell,’ Phil shrugged. ‘I haven’t seen this much action in my whole career. And if what you have told me is true, and this whole situation isn’t really your fault, then it’s not like I’m going to charge you or anything.’

  ‘Alright then.’ Wade settled it. ‘We’ll head around the back of the town, and cut across country.’

  The other three men all nodded in agreement.

  When Louisa spied the map being folded and the policeman approaching to have a quiet word with the Contessa, she tried to off-load her responsibility onto Hannah. ‘Could you keep an eye on everyone?’

  ‘Hold on,’ Hannah protested, knowing Louisa was off after the boys. ‘Why should you get to go?’

  ‘You’ve already got your man,’ Louisa reasoned. ‘I should be so lucky.’

  Hannah cracked half a smile at this. ‘Are you saying —’

  ‘I don’t know what I’m saying,’ Louisa cut in. ‘I just know I don’t want to lose track of Hugh, before I have a chance to figure out exactly how I do feel about him.’ But inside, Louisa knew what the truth was, well enough.

  ‘But what if Wade gets lost?’ Hannah panicked.

  Louisa calmed Hannah with a shake of her head and a gentle smile. ‘If there’s one thing I do know about our Baron, it’s that he is never lost … unlike the rest of us,’ she added, some
what remorseful about the fact.

  Both women were distracted as the Contessa approached, and the policeman ran back to join the Baron’s party.

  ‘What did he say?’ Hannah wanted to know.

  The Contessa waited until she had reached them, before answering the query. ‘Officer Stewart has suggested I take the investors across country to my house. He seems to be of the impression that we’ll be out of harm’s way there.’ Both Hannah and Louisa shot a fleeting glance towards the Baron’s party and then back to the Contessa. The look on both of their faces said it all.

  ‘You go,’ the Contessa urged. ‘I may not know exactly what is going on here this evening, but whatever it is, I’m sure I am capable of handling anything that might arise. Now that I have some idea what to expect, that is.’

  She didn’t have to suggest it twice. Louisa had gone.

  ‘Take care,’ Hannah cautioned, squeezing the Contessa’s hand before racing off after Louisa.

  When Wade saw Hannah and Louisa approaching he started waving his hands around in protest. ‘No,’ he stated firmly; that is, until Hannah was close enough to sway his judgment personally.

  ‘I made the mistake of not standing by you once before.’ She took hold of both his hands. ‘I won’t make that same mistake twice.’

  ‘This is different,’ he argued.

  Hannah shook her head to disagree. ‘If we get lost, we get lost together.’

  Wade was surprised by her resolution. ‘But what about your responsibilities?’ he quoted some of her own logic back at her.

  ‘I’m making you my main responsibility from now on.’ She sealed her vow with a kiss.

  Whilst Wade was losing his argument with Hannah, Hugh urged Louisa to return with the Contessa to her house.

  As Louisa was clearly not going to win her argument as easily as Hannah had, she dragged Hugh aside. ‘Alright, I’ll go,’ she told him, ‘provided you come with me.’

  ‘Louisa?’ Hugh was surprised by her selfish fears. ‘You’ll be fine.’

  Louisa rolled her eyes at his misunderstanding. ‘It’s not me I’m worried about.’

  Now Hugh was even more shocked. ‘Surely you couldn’t be worried about me?’

  ‘Why not?’ Louisa asked. ‘Because I couldn’t possibly aspire to a relationship with someone of your high morals and intellectual standing?’ She barely got the words out, before the welling tears made her choke on them.

  Hugh required no further prompting to kiss away her confession.

  When his lips parted from hers, Louisa’s senses were left swimming in a heavenly mixture of excitement and desire. ‘My word,’ she uttered. And unable to ravish him where they stood, she settled for another taste of that kiss.

  ‘Oh great!’ Rex threw his arms in the air. ‘Are we going to get on with this, or are we all going to just stand around and suck face all day?’

  ‘Well, sucking face is good,’ Phil commented, noticing that neither couple broke from their preoccupation with each other. ‘That is, provided you’ve got someone to suck face with.’

  ‘Alright … you can come,’ Wade relented, when he finally came up for air. ‘But you stay close. Speaking of close.’ Wade noted Hugh and Louisa glued together over yonder. ‘I can’t believe they took this long to work it out.’

  ‘Well, you know what they say about people pulling together in a time of crisis,’ Hannah jested, raising half a smile from Wade.

  He whistled to get their attention, whereby Hugh and Louisa parted abruptly, appearing to have totally forgotten where they were or that anyone else was present.

  ‘Yes, right.’ Hugh snapped to attention. ‘We were, um?’

  ‘Moving,’ informed Wade, heading down an alley and into the back streets, away from the main road and the invisible force that pulsed along it.

  16

  The Ghost in

  the Machine

  It took Wade’s party about half an hour to reach Ashby across country. In the garden, but still some distance away, they stood staring in wonder at the energy transferral from the main power grid of the house to the glowing white rod of the temple.

  ‘So now what?’ Hugh quizzed.

  The way Wade figured it, the first thing he needed to do was to cut the power feed. The question was, how?

  ‘Baron!’ Andrew called, as he and Grace came racing across the lawn to join them. ‘I’m so glad you’re all alright. In John Ashby’s time, Glenoak was an asylum,’ he explained his concern.

  Everyone present rolled their eyes, thinking his news a tad late.

  ‘Yes, thank you, Andrew.’ Wade slapped his shoulder in a condescending fashion. ‘We are all painfully aware of that now.’

  ‘Sorry I couldn’t have warned you sooner, but I’ve been detained in the eighteenth century for the past few hours, speaking with John Ashby, as a matter of fact.’

  ‘What?’ Everyone in the Baron’s party was immediately intrigued.

  Andrew nodded to confirm his words ahead of giving them all an explanation of why he held a forked copper rod in his hands.

  ‘Did he tell you how to switch this thing off?’ Wade questioned, hopeful.

  Andrew shook his head. ‘He couldn’t. He hadn’t even finished constructing it yet.’

  ‘Excuse I,’ Hannah interrupted. ‘But isn’t that Arthur?’ She directed everyone’s attention to the small glowing figure heading across the lawn towards the dig site.

  ‘What’s he up to?’ Wade wondered out loud, moving to investigate.

  ‘Are you nuts? Don’t follow it!’ Hugh insisted, grabbing hold of his friend by the arm. ‘We need you here, in the twentieth century.’

  ‘Settle,’ Wade advised, loosening Hugh’s grip to continue his pursuit. ‘He’s trying to help us.’

  ‘How the hell do you know that?’ protested Hugh.

  ‘He’s been trying to help us all along,’ Wade explained.

  ‘Hold on!’ Andrew took off after Wade, holding the metal fork out in front of himself. ‘Just in case,’ he advised the Baron.

  Arthur came to a stop beside the chainsaw, and began to circle the power tool.

  At first Wade didn’t know what to make of the cat’s interest in the device, but glancing back at the large wooden poles that ran the power across the huge property to the house, it suddenly dawned on him. ‘Nice thinking,’ Wade commented to the cat, as he took the chainsaw in hand.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Hugh grew frustrated as Wade walked past him towards the long driveway.

  ‘Just get back out of the way,’ Wade advised them all.

  ‘Oh my Lord,’ uttered Rex, ‘he’s going to bring down the power lines.’

  ‘No!’ Hannah went to race off after her boyfriend, but Rex detained her and dragged her kicking and screaming out of harm’s way.

  Wade made sure he was a good distance from the house and the dig before he fired up the saw. ‘Here goes nothing,’ he mumbled, digging the blade into one of the wooden poles. It was a race against time to get the saw blade through the thick timber pole, as the threatening blue force overhead began lashing out towards the power tool Wade held. The pole began to waver and Wade gave it a good kick before making a run for it. When he’d reached a safe distance, he turned to watch it crash to the ground. The power lines snapped from the adjoining pole and began to whip around wildly. The surge of electricity from the house’s mains to the dig disappeared, although the rod still glowed white with energy.

  As Phil approached the Baron, he gave him a firm slap on the shoulder. ‘Well, that’s one way of doing it, I guess.’

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Hugh, ‘but that machine is still powered up to the hilt, and is therefore highly unstable.’

  ‘Then we’ll just have to power it down.’ Wade dropped the chainsaw. ‘The three of us may have been unable to throw the “off” lever, but with a bit of help from Phil and Hercules here,’ he motioned to Rex, ‘we might just do it. Who’s with me?’

  As all the men nodded in accord, Hannah barged t
hrough them. ‘You’re not going anywhere without me.’

  ‘We’ve been here from the beginning,’ Louisa added. ‘We should be allowed to see this thing through.’

  ‘I don’t want to risk being separated again,’ Grace directed a plea at Andrew, taking hold of his hand.

  Wade covered his frustrated expression with both his hands. Why did these women always have to make things so difficult for him? ‘Goddamn it!’ he cried, exasperated. ‘Alright, you can come,’ he decided, just knowing he was going to regret the decision.

  Down in the dig site, the blue waves of power pulsated over the main body of the machine, making access to the metal boxes containing the keys impossible.

  ‘Is this the lever?’ Rex wandered over to evaluate how hard it was going to be to shift.

  ‘That’s it alright,’ Wade confirmed, as he and the other three men followed to assist with the chore.

  ‘Well then,’ Rex placed both his hands on the large lever, ‘let’s give this a whirl.’

  All five men took a firm hold.

  ‘Ready?’ Wade asked, and as all nodded to confirm, he announced, ‘on three. One, two —’

  ‘Don’t do it, lads!’

  They all paused, hearing the imploring voice, and looked to find the source. John Ashby had emerged from the shadows.

  ‘If you throw that lever, all this energy shall be wasted. Now is our best chance.’ He was quite excited about the fact.

  ‘How the hell did he get here?’ Wade looked to Andrew, as he’d been the last to encounter the late Baron.

  ‘He must have followed us here,’ Andrew admitted.

  ‘And who might he be?’ Phil queried, eyeing over the gentleman’s old-fashioned attire.

  ‘He’s my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who’s been dead for the last three hundred years.’ Wade filled him in.

  ‘No wonder you’re on drugs,’ Phil allowed, with a shake of his head.

  ‘This is spooky … the ramifications of this could be mind blowing!’ advised Hugh.

  ‘We’ll discuss that after we shut this thing down.’ Wade motioned everyone back to the task at hand, choosing to completely ignore his forefather’s plea.