The Infernal Aether Box Set: All Four Books In The Series

by Peter Oxley

  Once inside the Observatory we made our way to the roof and I pushed in front of the others, ignoring Pearce’s protests. If my friend was going to speak to anyone, it would be me—if only to answer for leading us on this ridiculous chase when we could have been out searching for Max.

  I stepped out into a now howling gale, the wind whipping my skirts up around me. I held them down and approached my friend, who still had his back to me. I couldn’t tell whether that was because he didn’t know I was there, or just didn’t care.

  As I got nearer I saw that his coat was hardly moving, as though the wind was refusing to have anything to do with him. A few steps further and I realised this was because he’d managed to find one of the few places up there that was sheltered from the atrocious weather by the remains of a high wall. As I stepped into that shelter the noise of the gale fell away like a door had been shut and I was able to speak normally rather than shout.

  “N’yotsu?” I asked.

  His shoulders straightened a little at the sound of my voice. “It’s strange how little this place has changed, given how long has passed,” he said. “I never dared come back here until now. Funny, eh?”

  “Yeah, great,” I said, hearing Pearce and the others catch up with me. “Same here. Look, are you all right?”

  “Never better,” he said, still keeping his back to me as he stared out across the grounds to the palace and the river beyond.

  “N’yotsu,” I said, “where’s the obsidian stone? You know where it is don’t you?”

  “Oh yes, it’s perfectly safe,” he said, holding his right arm out to his side, his fist closed tight. He turned his hand so the palm faced up and then opened his fingers to reveal… nothing.

  “Oops,” he said and then turned to face us, his face shifting from my old friend to a picture from every nightmare I’d had for as long as I could remember. An impossibly wide grin split those hideously sharp features. “Missed me?” asked Andras.

  Chapter 17

  Pearce raised his pistol and his men followed suit. “What have you done?” he asked.

  “Me?” asked Andras. “Why, I’ve done the one thing that all living creatures strive to do: survive.”

  “Where’s N’yotsu?” he asked.

  Andras raised a clawed finger and tapped his forehead. “Where he’s always been. He’s here. And so am I.”

  “He’s insane,” muttered Pearce.

  “No!” Andras snapped. “For the first time in a long while I am thinking clearly. You do not understand just how much trouble you are all in: we are all in. You children have had long enough to mess this all up; now it’s the turn of the grown-ups to sort it out.”

  “I remember the last time you stepped in to sort things out,” I said. “Didn’t go so well then, did it?”

  “Ah Kate, always a pleasure. I know you’re still smarting over the things I said back then, but now is really not the time.”

  I clenched my fists and took a step towards the creature, ignoring Pearce’s hissed warning. “Not the time?” I said slowly. “You crippled my friend, scarred me, said…” I bit back the wave of shame, disgust and terror that threatened to flood over me as those memories rushed back. My fists were balled tight, making my arms so tense I thought they would snap. “And that’s not saying anything about the whole nearly-destroying-the-world thing. So we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to talk with a monster. You’ve got a choice: either give us back N’yotsu or we’ll fill you so full of lead…”

  Andras laughed, holding up his right hand as he wiped his eyes with his left. “I’m sorry, but do you really think that that sort of threat works on the likes of me? You and I both know that it takes more than those little toy guns to hurt me.”

  I pulled my LeMat pistol from the band at my waist. “Recognise this?” I asked. “Seem to remember this smarted a bit the last time I shot you with it.”

  Pearce grunted. “I’ve got one of those too. Been itching to use it.”

  The slightest flicker of a flinch passed across the demon’s face. “You won’t use those. Want to know how I know? Because you don’t want to harm your dear old friend N’yotsu.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “So give him back to us.”

  He shook his head. “We are one and the same; always have been, always will be. I am N’yotsu, and I am Andras. One cannot be without the other, just like you cannot be without your anger or hate or joy.”

  “Any of this making sense to you?” Pearce asked me.

  “Not really. How about we shoot first and ask questions later? Not to kill him, just make him squeal a bit.” I cocked my pistol and pointed it at his knee. “It’d make me feel better, if nothing else.”

  “N’yotsu—I—was dying,” Andras said. “And now I am very much in rude health. And I have more important matters to attend to than standing here bickering with you two, so if you don’t mind…” He flew towards us, that hideous face filling the whole world, blotting out the light as I lurched backwards and fired blindly. I heard yells from around me as I landed hard on the roof slates then looked up to see the soldiers crouching and casting around wildly with their rifles.

  Andras was gone.

  Pearce helped me to my feet. “Did we get him?” I asked. “Where’d he go?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said, turning to his men. “Sergeant! I want everyone out searching: a tight radius, search parties of no less than three men apiece. If anyone sees the demon they are to engage immediately with lethal force.”

  “Sir!”

  As we looked around from the rooftop we knew it was a pointless effort. Andras was long gone. “Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…” I muttered.

  I followed Captain Pearce and General Gordon into Downing Street, trying to look like I went there all the time. The first thing that struck me was how ordinary it all looked: this was supposed to be where the geezer who ran our country worked and I’d expected it to be bigger and more organised. Instead it was a fairly dingy house just like Max’s or any other wealthy person’s.

  Pearce grinned at me. “I know that face, Kate,” he said. “You’re itching to order them all to get this place sorted.”

  “What, just because I’m a woman you expect me to be obsessed with tidying up?” I bristled. “But if you’re saying it’s messy, I have to say I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Personally I think it’s a bit of a shithole, if you’ll pardon my French ma’am,” said General Gordon with a wink. There were few men in their kind of society who’d comfortably swear in front of a woman, but Chinese Gordon, the Hero of Taiping, had been around us long enough to know I didn’t care for airs and graces. “You’d expect our seat of government to at least look vaguely presentable. But then again, we are at war.” He led us through a door and into a large room filled with a long table and lots of very pale old men.

  A tall man with a face like an unhappy horse topped off with a shock of curly hair looked up from the other side of the table. “Ah, General, so good of you to join us,” he said.

  “I came as soon as I was able, sir,” he said. “Although I apologise for the slight delay; I had to receive an update from one of my men. I brought him with me as I believe you should all hear what he has to say for yourselves. This is Captain Pearce.”

  As they greeted him I could feel the eyes of the men on me and tried my best to ignore them, forcing myself to stand tall and straight.

  “Pleased to meet you, Captain Pearce,” said a short, balding man nearest to us. “Shall we receive your report in, ah, private?”

  I glared at him, my cheeks flushing; he wasn’t saying it direct but I knew exactly what he meant.

  The horse-faced man had been watching and came round the table to stand in front of me. “Am I right to assume that we have the pleasure of meeting Miss Kate Thatcher?” he asked.

  “That’s me,” I said slowly.

  He took my hand and kissed it. “I am Benjamin Disraeli and have the ho
nour of being Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. Madame, I believe we all owe you a huge debt. I have heard of the great work you have done supporting Messrs Potts and N’yotsu.”

  General Gordon chuckled from behind me. “I think you will find, sir, that she has been the driving force behind a lot of what they have done. She is a rather formidable young lady, wouldn’t you say Captain?”

  “I would, sir,” said Pearce. I could hear the grin in his voice and felt the heat in my cheeks grow stronger.

  “In which case,” said Disraeli, leading me to the table, “I do not believe anyone here would begrudge you a place at this council. After all, you have more experience in these matters than all of us combined.”

  “Hear, hear,” muttered a few voices. I looked around as I sat down in the chair Disraeli held out for me, forcing myself to look them in the eyes and show them I wasn’t just some weak woman. Those that met my gaze nodded with smiles that were almost patronising, but most just looked down or chatted among themselves, ignoring me.

  Disraeli sat opposite me and then gestured to Gordon and Pearce. “If you please, gentlemen, let us hear your report.”

  I sat and fidgeted as Pearce set out what had happened over the past day or so: Max’s disappearance, the fake Dr Smith, the return of Andras. “We have men scouring the city for the demon,” he finished, “although from past experience he will not be easy to find, let alone capture.”

  Disraeli drummed his fingertips on the table. “So we are now without all three of our champions, and have yet another enemy to contend with.”

  “Sir, now is the time to invoke Martial Law,” said one man. “Use it to get the Queen’s men under our control as well, and then we can properly funnel our resources where they are really needed.”

  “Funnel them? Into what?” asked another. “We still do not know whether we’re fighting one unified threat or lots of autonomous individuals. The country needs to see a presence on the streets and the current arrangements achieve that just fine. We should avoid unnecessarily centralising the army until we know whether the benefits of such a step really do outweigh the risks.”

  They all started shouting and talking at once and I gave up trying to follow what was being said.

  Disraeli held up a hand and quiet slowly fell on the room. “Miss Thatcher, I am interested in hearing your views.” He gestured to me with an open palm.

  I gaped at him for a moment, wondering if he was being serious. I was suddenly aware of all their eyes upon me. Pearce and Gordon nodded and smiled, while the rest of the men tried their best to look like they were interested in what I had to say.

  I took a deep breath. “Well, Andras is the big threat here.” My voice cracked but I cleared my throat and forced myself to continue. “Him coming back has to be linked to Max going missing. But I don’t think N’yotsu knew this or planned it.”

  “Surely though N’yotsu had to be involved somehow?” asked a man next to me. “Could he have been turned back into that demonic creature against his will?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.” I frowned as I remembered the dream from just a few nights ago; it seemed like a lot longer since it happened. In the dream it was almost like Dr Smith was forcing N’yotsu to do something he didn’t want to do. “We know that Max’s doctor wasn’t who he said he was, and I’m pretty sure he was really a demon.”

  “Sent to bring back Andras?” someone asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I think Max was the real prize he was after. Andras didn’t have anything to do with Max disappearing.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” asked Pearce.

  I turned to him. “He wasn’t trying to hide when we found him on that rooftop earlier. Behind all that bluster I think he was as confused and lost as the rest of us. Maybe him coming back was a great distraction for the doctor—or whatever he is—to snatch Max from under our noses.”

  “So where is Andras now?”

  I shrugged. “Last time, Andras wanted to create a portal to bring his demon chums through and create Hell on Earth. I’d bet on him having another bash at that. There’s only one person who can make that portal though: Max.”

  “So if we find Mr Potts then the chances are that we’ll find the demon as well,” said Disraeli slowly. “The question is, where?”

  They all started talking at once, just as some thoughts hit me. “Shush!” I yelled. To my surprise, they fell silent and stared at me. “Max was working on a few things. He kept bangin’ on about the Fulcrum: he reckoned there was a place where it would all start to happen, magic taking over, demons coming through, that sort of thing. Him, Lexie and Joshua were working on figuring out where it was.”

  “Sounds sensible,” said someone. “Did they find it?”

  “He thought it was somewhere called Nonsuch. That was where we were when Gus turned…”

  “Indeed,” said Pearce quickly. “And the fact that we were attacked there by demons might point to it being the place we were looking for.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Except Max seemed to think the readings said something different. ‘Hit a dead-end’ were his exact words.”

  “That’s not like Mr Potts,” said another man. “I always found him stubborn to a fault.”

  “Maybe it was the Fulcrum,” I suggested. “He’d been getting more and more worried about it coming and making all his beloved science redundant. That’s why we brought Josh down to work with him.”

  “The young man from Sheffield?” asked Disraeli. “Did he disappear as well?”

  “No. He and his sister are safely under guard back at Maxwell’s laboratory,” said Pearce.

  I clapped my hands together. “They’ve been working really closely with Max: chances are they can figure out where the Fulcrum is. If we find that, surely we’ll find Max.”

  “Could it have a connection to Nonsuch even in spite of Maxwell’s comments?” asked Pearce.

  “Maybe,” I said. “It’s worth sending some men there. Josh and Lexie’ll know better than me whether it could be an option. If you’ll let me and the genius twins have a go at Max’s lab we might be able to figure something out.”

  “Very well,” said Disraeli. “For the time being we have to assume that there is a real risk of demonic invasion through a portal created by Mr Potts, Andras or both.”

  “Again,” muttered someone.

  “Max wouldn’t do anything to harm us,” I protested.

  “I am sure he would not. Voluntarily, in any case. But we cannot rule out the risk of him being coerced into acting against his will,” said Disraeli.

  “Never,” I said. “Last time, Andras couldn’t get him to work with him even after breaking his legs.”

  “But there are these new demons that Mr N’yotsu said he encountered in Sheffield. Mages, I believe they are called?”

  I nodded slowly. Gus and N’yotsu had seemed pretty shaken up after meeting the Mage up north. “The creature could make people do things. Might explain why no one saw Max leave his lab and how Andras managed to break into the Tower and steal the obsidian stone from under the noses of London’s finest.”

  “If there are demons here that can make people act against their will,” said a man next to Disraeli, “then how can we trust anyone any more?”

  “We cannot,” said Disraeli simply. “Which is why it is imperative that we act quickly. General, investigate this Nonsuch connection and keep in contact with Miss Thatcher. I am charging you to act in the interests of the country; if I or any of your other superiors order you to act against those interests, then you have my express authority to disregard those orders. Do you understand?”

  General Gordon nodded as the suits in the room started to protest. Disraeli silenced them with a barked word. “Enough! Unless you forget, General Gordon was one of the few people who stood firm against Andras’ influence a few years ago. Indeed, there are many in this room who were not as steadfast.” He glared round before fixing his gaze on me. “Miss Thatcher, gather the two youths and d
o what you need to do. Please keep us appraised, but be in no doubt: your priority is to find Mr Potts before Andras does. I shall go and update Her Majesty.”

  Chapter 18

  We stood in the doorway to Max’s lab, staring at what was left of his experiments and notes. “What a mess,” muttered Joshua. “Where do we start?”

  “He will have taken everything he needed,” said Lexie. “So we start by figuring out what isn’t here.”

  “They’d have been in a rush,” I added. “Hopefully they left something that’ll give us a clue where they’ve gone.”

  “Agreed,” said Lexie. “Maxwell will kill us for this, but we need to organise everything properly.” She started clearing a space in the middle of the room and Joshua and I rushed to help her. “So we shall start by categorising what is here.” She picked up a bundle of papers and worked through them, placing them on the floor one at a time. “Anything to do with Nonsuch goes here, general portals here, the compound here…” She looked at Joshua and me. “Well, if you’d like to help?”

  Joshua grabbed a nearby pile and started to follow suit, but I stood there and glared at her. She knew I couldn’t help; was she really going to make me say it? After a moment of staring at me, the penny dropped. “Of course,” she said. “I am so sorry. You don’t… you can’t…”

  “No, I can’t read,” I said. “So maybe I’ll just gather and move stuff, and leave you two to the sifting through and whatever else it is you’re doing.”

  Half an hour later I realised I wasn’t being much help so I decided to take a breather, offering to get them both a drink. The kitchen was upstairs, the pot piled high with dregs, and so I stepped outside to empty it. As I emptied the tea leaves out into a flowerbed I had a feeling I wasn’t alone. I turned slowly to see a grinning demon perched on the far wall.