Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key

by Derek Benz; Jon S. Lewis

  “That’s a real pick-me-up,” Harley noted sarcastically.

  Obadiah shrugged. “You take the good with the bad. That’s life.”

  “What is the Codex?” Max pressed.

  “In scientific terms, it is a Von-Welling Type Seven Singularity… sort of a bridge between two worlds. Only in this case, it bridges the Guardian and several worlds. How many? We don’t know. It could easily be dozens. One of which, however, is the Shadowlands. The others act as pocket dimensions for your so-called zoo.”

  Finally, Max thought, he was getting some answers.

  Strange continued. “Originally, the Codex was connected to a crystal known as the Jewel of Titania, which increased the book’s power a thousandfold. But you already know all about that. So now the Jewel is gone, and it’s just you and the Codex.”

  “What can it do?”

  Obadiah smirked. “Do? Almost anything you can imagine, but it takes time to get the hang of it. Just about the time you think you’ve got the knack, you’ll be too old to use it and will have to hand it down to the next Guardian. That’s the way these things usually work. Anyway, why don’t we give it a try.”

  “Right now?”

  “Do you have something better to do?”

  Max looked down at his ring. He was used to transforming it into the gauntlet. It required a little more effort to change it into a book. As he focused, the ring slowly melted away from his finger and pooled into the palm of his hand, quickly building itself up and out until, in a few moments, he was holding an enormous leather-bound book. He quickly spoke the familiar words of opening. The lock sprung back and the pages unfurled.

  “All right,” began Obadiah. “The lesson for today is your empathetic link to the Codex. That is, how it can respond to your emotions. You have already sensed it. If I guess correctly, Skyfire works more effectively when you are angry or frightened, correct?”

  Max nodded.

  “It’s the same way with the Codex. Now, I want you to open to a page. Not just any page, though. I want you to open to the page you need right at this moment.”

  “I don’t need anything.”

  “Let the Codex make that decision. Just let your feelings guide you, and the page you need will appear.”

  Max paused. “Do I close my eyes and meditate or something?”

  Obadiah snorted. “This is science, not some hocus-pocus shenanigans.”

  Max took in a deep breath and focused on moving the page in front of him. He stared. He glared. He squinted. He even managed to give himself a headache. The book didn’t move.

  “You’re thinking, not feeling! Shut your mind off.”

  Max focused, trying to feel the page in his mind. He imagined the texture of the paper on his cheek… the smell of the leather… the taste of the ink. Then he tried to imagine being the page and falling open. After a few minutes, his mind began to wander, and instead of thinking about his training, all he could think about was being back home, before his parents had divorced, and eating strawberries on the porch with his family. It was one of his favorite memories. Then his mind drifted again, and he feared he might fall asleep on his feet. He opened his eyes.

  “Congratulations!” Harley nudged him.

  “What?” Max rubbed his eyes and looked down. The pages had indeed turned, without his even knowing it.

  “You’re a quick study,” Obadiah admitted.

  Max studied the page. There was a painting of a lush green field of strawberries under a warm sun. He scratched his head, smiled, and looked up at Strange. “Well, I guess I was kind of hungry,” he admitted.

  Obadiah shook his head. “Those aren’t ordinary strawberries. They are a species of fragaria somnus, otherwise known as Sleeping Berries. The Codex is telling you that you are working too hard. You need to get some sleep.”

  Max yawned despite himself.

  “I think you’ve learned enough for one night. We have three more days before we reach Durban. Let’s try again tomorrow.”

  “Aren’t you going to have Max release the berries from the Codex?” asked Harley. “They look pretty good.”

  Obadiah shook his head. “Unless you want to sleep until next spring, I suggest you try some warm milk instead.”

  58

  DURBAN

  Max trained with Obadiah the next few mornings and was making good progress. Of course, foisting a basket of Sleeping Berries on a horde of clockworks didn’t sound particularly heroic, but if he trusted the book, Obadiah assured him that things would turn out all right.

  There were other times, moments of quiet as they sailed through the clouds, that Max spent alone. He would walk down the observation decks and stare out the windows, deep in thought. At night, his mind would often return to Sprig, and what she must have gone through. He didn’t know what to hope for. Max just knew he wanted her to be happy. If she ever returned to him, he’d promise to take better care of her.

  “What the heck is that?” Harley exclaimed as the Graf Zeppelin swung over a city that sprawled like a maze on the surface of the Durban Sea. The bridges and white stone towers made it look like it had been constructed from the bones of a dead giant. Every inch of the island was covered by a road or building. There wasn’t a single natural rock formation, tree, or even a patch of grass.

  “Durban is an island entirely manufactured by dwarves,” Strange explained. “With nearly unlimited energy and resources, and a free market economy, there is nothing they can’t build or design. The dwarves ensure Durban’s neutrality. They have never engaged in war, finding it a waste of time and resources. However, they certainly don’t mind benefiting from it by selling weapons of destruction to the highest bidder.”

  “I just radioed in,” Monti announced, as he joined them on the observation deck. “We have clearance to land, but we’re supposed to keep our stay short. No more than six hours.”

  Logan checked his chronometer. “Should be enough.”

  “How is this place still a secret after so many years?” asked Natalia.

  Obadiah smiled and motioned toward his pocket, where Saxon’s diary lay. “MERLIN Tech keeps it cloaked under an intricate illusion. It’s backed up with a Class Nine Mesmero Field, which confuses anyone who gets close. Even if someone stumbled on it by chance, they would never understand what they saw. What’s more, they would quickly forget.”

  Max felt a bump. Outside the window, he saw that the Graf Zeppelin was being lowered with ropes to the ground, where a team of gnomes hung, swaying like spiders in the wind.

  “We have to move quickly,” Logan advised, as he stepped onto the ramp. “In and out. No sightseeing.”

  “Hold on!” Monti exclaimed, as he ran down the ramp with a box under his arm. “You’ll want to put these on.” He handed each of the Griffins a pair of goggles. “They’ll supply a live camera feed so I can monitor your progress while you are away.”

  Ernie smiled. “Do they work at a hundred miles an hour?”

  “Of course,” Monti replied. “I can’t say the same for the jump boots. I don’t recommend activating them at high speed, unless you want to become a permanent part of the ceiling. Anyway, good luck down there.”

  “Down where?” asked Ernie.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Logan answered. “Shoulder your packs. We’re moving out.”

  Obadiah, with map in hand, set off with the Griffins trotting behind him. As Max stepped off the ramp, he felt Logan’s hand on his shoulder.

  “This should be routine, Grasshopper. But just in case, stay close.”

  Max nodded. The Scotsman was the only continuity in Max’s life since his parents’ divorce, his father’s betrayal, and Iver’s death. If it weren’t for Logan, Max might not even be alive. He smiled up at the Scotsman, who in turn gave him a wink.

  “We’ll stick together, mate. You and me.”

  The entrance to the Brimstone Facility turned out to be just on the other side of the harbor—or so Obadiah assured them. They were standing on t
he bottom level of a double-decker stone pier, which ran a good way out toward the breakwater. There were seagulls, waddling pelicans, and barking seals everywhere. Nobody could see the Brimstone Facility, though.

  “What are we supposed to be looking for?” Ernie asked, as he scanned the waters. “Are we being affected by that Mesmero thing you mentioned?”

  “Patience,” reprimanded Obadiah, who was busy counting out his footsteps in synchronization with Lord Saxon’s instructional map. “Ah, I must have missed it before!” Strange exclaimed suddenly. He retraced his steps, turned left, murmured a few strange words, and proceeded to step right off the side of the pier. Max braced for the splash, but Obadiah didn’t fall.

  “It’s a bridge—invisible, naturally,” he explained from his ethereal perch. “Please try to keep up. The bridge will dissipate shortly, so we will have to make this effort count.”

  The Griffins rushed onto the invisible platform, eyeing the crashing waves just below their feet as they followed after Obadiah Strange.

  “Can’t everyone see us out here?” Natalia asked, glancing over her shoulder at the town behind them.

  Obadiah shook his head as he continued on. “We are now part of the illusion.”

  A moment later, he came to an abrupt stop, holding up his hand and removing a glove. Obadiah placed his fingers on what Max imagined to be an invisible door. He muttered more unrecognizable words, and the door opened.

  Strange stepped through. Max followed.

  They were standing in a stone cavern. Two lamps flickered, affording little light. Except for a circular pool in the middle of the floor filled with bright blue water, and an odd-looking brass post with a single ivory button marked Call, the room was empty. Obadiah pushed the button and the water bubbled.

  “The Bell will arrive in a few minutes,” Obadiah assured everyone. “Lord Saxon designed it himself, and even though this place had been dormant for nearly a hundred years, it should be exactly as he left it.”

  “Checking video feed,” came Monti’s crackling voice out of an earphone attached to Max’s goggles. “Channel Three. Do you copy, Max?”

  Max nodded.

  “Thanks.” He heard Monti laugh. “But if it gets really dark where you are going, I won’t be able to see you nodding through the camera, so speak up.”

  “Sorry,” Max replied. “I copy.”

  “Good. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll check the others,” he said. Then his voice disappeared with a crackling noise.

  “So what is the Brimstone Key?” asked Ernie, tightening his helmet in preparation for the descent. “What does it look like?”

  “It certainly doesn’t resemble a house key, if that’s what you mean,” Strange replied. “It is cylindrical, about arm’s length, and very heavy. After all, it is made of meteoric iron. Also, it isn’t a single piece, but rather a series of six gears, lined up one beside the other.”

  The call button on the brass panel lit up, and with a whirring of invisible gears, a round globe blossomed from the water like a shimmering bubble. The vehicle, known as the Bell, was wrought of iron and polished wood. Through the hatch, Max could see a room of padded walls, a circular divan, and a domed roof.

  “Looks like our ride is here,” Logan said, shouldering his well-stocked weapons rucksack.

  Soon, the Griffins had taken their seats and were looking around in expectation. Strange stood in front of a large, round window with his back to the others. Pressing a similar call button near the window, he closed them in with a hiss of steam.

  A chime sounded briefly, and the Bell began its clanking descent.

  As the water level rose above the viewing window, Max saw that they were in a glass elevator shaft. The water, light blue at first, gradually grew darker. There were colossal shapes just off in the distance.

  “Whales!” Natalia exclaimed as one particularly playful cetacean came close to examine the earthly visitors.

  Just when the water became the darkest, Max perceived a soft glow below them. As they approached he saw the rising spires of a city of glass.

  “What about Von Strife?” asked Max. “Do you think he beat us here?”

  “All that matters is the Brimstone Key,” Obadiah replied, as the Bell reached its destination. “But if he were here, I think we’d be dead already.”

  59

  THE BRIMSTONE FACILITY

  Logan led them into a cylindrical hallway of glass, framed by thick metal girders and interlocking rings. Its raised floor was plush red carpet, framed on either side by gold. The expeditionary crew stepped out of the elevator and entered the first of many maze-like intersections. Just outside, the sea was dark and menacing.

  Obadiah Strange consulted Saxon’s diary closely. The wrong path meant death, and there were lethal self-defense systems built into the Brimstone Facility to ensure that any misstep was definitively punished.

  “What sort of defenses does this place have?” Harley asked, wondering what they might come up against.

  “Clockworks and other types of security systems,” Monti replied through the comlink.“Machines don’t require oxygen, so if there were ever a breach or some kind of malfunction, there would be no risk of suffocation.”

  At a nod from Obadiah, Logan led the way forward, a flashlight mounted just beneath the barrel of his MERLIN Tech Pulse Rifle.

  “Wow, Saxon was a genius,” Monti’s voice crackled over the line as he watched their progress through the video feed. “He built this almost a hundred years ago, and it’s still state-of-the-art today. I wish I could have met the guy.”

  “You’d be disappointed,” Obadiah said flatly. “Saxon wasn’t the sociable type and there was only room for one genius in his world.”

  As the Griffins walked through the passageways, it was hard for them to grasp just how immense the Brimstone Facility was. Inside the glass maze, they could only see the next intersection, but outside the window, they could see the faint shimmering of more structures in the distance.

  “There it is,” Obadiah said, pointing out the window to the right. “The Brimstone Chamber.” It was an immense pentagonal structure. Golden light rose like smoke from a ceiling of spider-webbed glass. Only a few more turns and they would be there.

  “Hold it.” Logan lifted his arm up.

  “What?” asked Ernie.

  Logan knelt down, swiped his fingers over a dark spot on the rug, and whispered something into his comlink to Monti. He turned back to Obadiah and the Griffins and held up two fingers. They were covered in grime.

  “Grease,” he explained. “The same kind used in the Class Six Nemesis we encountered back in Scotland.”

  “Is it recent?” Max asked.

  “It’s warm, if that’s what you mean.”

  “They must have used a portal,” Strange reasoned. “I have no idea how Von Strife could have done it without alerting the facility’s security system, though.”

  “Smoke…” Max muttered. “He can teleport without using portals.”

  “Only if he’d been here before, though,” Harley noted.

  “Maybe all he needs are the coordinates,” Harley suggested.

  “Should we go back?” asked Natalia.

  “We can’t be sure they have the key in their possession yet,” Obadiah stated. “We must go on, at least a little farther.” Strange pointed at the open hatchway in front of them that led into the Brimstone Chamber, where the key rested. It was dark in the room, and there were no sounds of clockwork ticking or energy cannons being charged up. Everything was deathly quiet.

  “Do we have to go in there?” Ernie whined.

  “There’s a remote-control Imager drone in Harley’s pack,” Monti offered. “Power it up and I’ll take control. You’ll be able to see what it sees through your goggles.”

  Logan set his rifle down and extracted the clockwork from Harley’s backpack.

  Similar to the hornets that Smoke had unleashed back at school, this drone was a palm-sized clockwork mode
led after a golden dragonfly, with two huge eye-shaped cameras. In a flash, Monti sent it buzzing off through the dark hatchway and into the silence beyond. At the same instant, one of Max’s goggle lenses began to feed the drone’s video back to him.

  The room was circular, dressed in black and white tile and supported by two pillars that rose up to support the massive glass ceiling. Surrounding the room were statues of men whose eyes were trained upon the shattered remains of the resting place that had once held the Brimstone Key: a coffin-sized glass case bound with meteoric iron. Its contents had been ripped out and scattered on the ground. There was no sign of the Brimstone Key.

  “I think we came a little late to the party,” Monti commented grimly. “You should probably get back here on the double.”

  Even as he spoke, the sound of clanging metal echoed ominously from the passageway behind them. An instant later, the first of the Grimbots appeared, followed by a stream of blaster fire that lit up the hallways.

  “Take cover!” Logan shouted as he pulled everyone behind a steel beam and grabbed his MVX Pulse Rifle. In a blur of professional finesse, he took aim and blew away the arm of the lead Grimbot. Next went the left knee, and finally its head. It took two seconds at most, and Logan had trimmed it like a tree. Several others fell just as quickly, as Logan let loose a deadly barrage of plasma charges.

  “Forget about it! Those things are at least Class Five. They have regen sub-programs,” Monti warned. “You don’t have enough firepower. Get out of there… now!”

  Already, the Grimbots that had fallen were beginning to repair themselves. Behind those, a dozen more clockworks appeared, blasters firing. At the rate the Grimbots were coming, the Griffins would be overrun no matter how fast Logan could pull the trigger.