by Peter Oxley
Gaap looked back uncertainly and so Maxwell continued.
“Before you spirited me away, I took the opportunity to modify my wheelchair. You will find that, rather than being hollow like conventional appliances, the frame of this particular wheelchair is filled with large quantities of that compound. It is rather more potent than the one I used previously, so you will die in quite some agony. Unless, of course, you do as I say.”
“But… you wouldn’t dare—you would die too.”
“I would, but it would be worth it to know that I had taken you with me. As well as any other creatures standing close enough to the portal, of course.”
Andras growled next to me. “I do not want that bastard to get away.”
I shared his feelings but was also keen to not lose my brother, and watched the exchange in front of us with bated breath.
Gaap stared at Maxwell, his face alternating between sceptical amusement and genuine fear. After a few moments he backed away slowly and then disappeared into the portal, alone.
Chapter 30
For a moment we stared at the portal, frozen in place as we reassured ourselves that no more demons were coming through. Then Maxwell started gesturing to us. “Lexie, Joshua: I need you here, now!”
They ran over and Kate and I followed in case we could be of some use in their scientific tinkerings. Predictably, we were not.
Maxwell had them wheel him round to the rear of the portal, where the bulk of the device was still evident. Kate and I followed, ducking warily round the edges of the portal that shimmered with an impossible malevolence. As I passed I noted that it seemed to be the same from whichever angle we viewed it, as though it were a perfect and uniform sphere.
“This is basically iteration number 14 of the device I showed you when you first joined us in London,” said Maxwell to Lexie and Joshua. “Do you recall?”
“I do,” said Lexie slowly. “We did a bit of work on it but you then said it was an irrelevant mistake and ordered us to do something else. Does this mean it did work after all?”
“Yes. Ah, I am afraid I must confess to not having been totally truthful with you over the past few months.”
“What a surprise,” muttered Kate.
“But in my defence,” Maxwell glared back at her, “I was not acting under my own volition. I now understand that I was acting under the influence of Gaap and his Mage.”
“So they forced you to work for them? They made you want to help them invade our world?”
“Yes. And no. I did not realise that they were demons until they kidnapped me and brought me here. I promise you, I really did think that I was acting against the demons, not for them.”
He looked at us all for reassurance and I saw in his eyes the same helpless terror I had felt when I was first controlled by the Mage, the disgust that my body and mind could have betrayed me so easily. I nodded and he turned back to the device.
“Lexie, you recall the calculations you were working on before I sent you to Portsmouth with Kate? Well, you were right: they will enable us to create a barrier over the portal.”
“I knew it,” she smiled triumphantly.
“We need to adjust the flow from this dial here,” Maxwell said. “The Fulcrum is not yet strong enough to sustain the portal on its own, so we needed to use artificial means to fuel it.”
“You mean it’s powered by steam?” asked Kate.
He turned a pale face to us. “Not quite. My God, what have we done? You need to get in there now: follow the pipes. You need to help them.”
We didn’t wait for an explanation but ran towards the house. I could hear footsteps behind me and glanced back to see Andras, Byron and Kingdom following Kate and I. The pipes led over and through the rubble of the room that we had seen Maxwell in earlier. Thankfully the house was showing no signs of disintegrating further; it was open to question whether that was due to high quality workmanship or because the portal was propping it up. We did not stop to consider this but charged across the room and through a large door into a long hallway. The pipes flowed straight through and then took a right turn up a grand oak staircase. I took the stairs two at a time, following them round as they cut back on themselves and then headed out onto the first floor landing. The pipes ran into the leftmost room and I burst through the door, stopping short as I took in the scene before me.
Until very recently the room had clearly been a grand bedroom with a lavish sitting area. The furniture, or at least as much as had been allowed to remain, had been cast roughly to the sides of the room to make space for the horrors in its centre. The five pipes flowed straight into the space, like a Kraken’s tentacles reaching in hungrily for food that lay prone on the tables scattered around the room: Pooka. Or rather, what was left of their bodies, as they were mere husks, drained by the pipes that fed the portal on the lawn outside. Around the outskirts of the room cowered a dozen or more Pooka in chains, clearly awaiting their turn once their friends had been exsanguinated. A rage grew in me; there was no limit to the depths to which the Almadites would not plumb. Max, I thought, what have you done?
“Of course,” said Andras. “The portal is powered by blood. Demonic life-forces originating from beyond the Aether. Forged in one realm and shaped in another, as the texts say: the perfect way to build a bridge between worlds. Ingenious!”
“If I were you,” rumbled Kingdom, “I would keep your opinions to yourself.” He ran over to the nearest table.
We did what we could to release the victims without harming them any further. One, who resembled more an ancient mummified Egyptian than Pooka, was already dead. The other four still showed signs of life, although we could not be sure for how much longer that would be the case. Kate had managed to gather together a couple of soldiers from outside who had medical training and they busied themselves with doing what they could to save the poor, unfortunate creatures.
“What can we do?” I asked.
“They have lost a lot of blood,” a medic said. “We need to replace it as soon as possible but I do not have the equipment here and I cannot risk moving them in this state.” He ran a hand across his brow. “I don’t even know if their bodies have blood like ours.”
“We do,” said Byron. “Whatever you need, we can help.”
Joshua burst into the room. “They need blood,” he shouted.
“We got that memorandum,” I said and then noted the pipes in his hands. “What have you got there?”
He squatted in front of us and showed us two rubberised pipes that he had fashioned together with a bulb in between them. He squeezed the bulb and the medic nodded. “That should create enough of a pumping action to transfer blood from one to another. Very inventive.” He glanced approvingly up at Joshua. “Can you make more of these?”
Joshua nodded. “Gus, if you can cut me some lengths of these tubes, I can do the rest.”
I obliged and then helped him create more of the simple contraptions. “That’s really clever,” I said. “Is it your idea?”
“No. A friend of our family works at Sheffield Hospital for Women. Dr Aveling. It’s something he showed me last year. He’s been dying to try it out, so he’ll be really interested to know how we get on.”
Byron and Kingdom volunteered to provide blood and we shouted out the window for two more Pooka to do likewise. I looked down at the creatures while we waited. “I am part-demon: could you use my blood?”
“I suspect you would not be compatible,” said the medic, frowning over a tube as he struggled to insert it into a vein.
“What about me?” asked Andras. We all looked up at him in surprise and he shrugged. “I would like to do something to help.”
Byron glared at him. “Why would we want your help?”
“You weren’t so slow to accept my assistance out there when we were fighting—” He stopped himself and held up a hand. “There is no love lost between our people, I grant you. But I am as much an enemy of them as you are. They exiled me from my home, stranded me in
the Aether for millennia.”
“While we just lost our home and our people thanks to your invasion,” snapped Byron.
I was about to wade in and try to broker peace when Kingdom spoke up. “It will take more than one battle for us to trust you, Andras,” he said. “But if you are determined to win our confidence then we are willing to let you try. But if you so much as think of double-crossing us, then…” He let the threat hang in the air and Andras quickly looked away.
The medic cleared his throat. “In any case, I suspect you may not be compatible either. After all, there appear to be as many different types of demons as there are creatures on our own world.”
“At last you understand it,” grinned Byron. “Maybe there is hope for you all yet.”
“You and your people fought alongside us and helped us beat back those creatures,” said the medic. “That makes you a friend of mine, whatever you look like or wherever you came from. Now sit still, this might hurt a little.”
Kate sidled up to Andras. “Of course, there is one thing that would help us trust you: bring back N’yotsu.”
He sighed. “I am getting rather tired of explaining this. I am—”
“N’yotsu as well as Andras,” she cut in, “yes, I get it. But while you still have the bad bits of you—”
“—I am alive and can function. As you saw rather graphically not too long ago, I cannot survive without those parts of me. But just because I have some rather unsavoury demonic characteristics, that does not make me completely evil. Just ask Gus.”
I bristled at the implication. “What makes you evil is the fact that you are Andras,” I said.
He shrugged. “I have changed. I will just have to try to prove it to you. But allow me one small victory: surely your adventures into being a demon have shown you one or two things to prove me right?”
I grunted. When Kate stared quizzically at me I nodded reluctantly. “I am part-demon and have accepted that fact. I did think that being a demon would mean I could not help but be evil but, as the doctor so rightly said, there are many different types of demon. I choose to be one of the benign ones.”
“As do I,” grinned Andras. “For the moment at least. Especially if it means I get to beat Gaap to Hell and back.”
“Speaking of which,” I said, “it all looks to be in hand up here. We should see how Maxwell is getting on.”
As we made our way down the stairs Kate could not resist one last shot at Andras. “So you’re planning on staying like that?” she asked.
“I think so,” he snapped back. “Why, are you?”
Outside, the chaos that I remembered from the battle and its immediate aftermath had subsided into the restrained, dull horror that I had seen too many times before. All of the soldiers who were still fit were stood in wary watch over the portal, weapons trained and ready for the slightest motion from beyond. Meanwhile, just beyond the ha-ha a makeshift field hospital had been set up where the injured were being tended to. Fires blazed around and about, their flickering illumination merging with the swirling cold lights of the portal to cast the scene in a stark, almost hellish tinge.
I nodded to Pearce as we passed him. “Any change?” I asked.
“None yet. With any luck they will lick their wounds for long enough to allow Maxwell to do whatever it is he is doing.”
We approached Maxwell and Lexie. “How are you getting on?”
“We would be getting on a lot quicker if we did not have to keep answering questions about how we are getting on,” he mumbled. I grinned: clearly he was feeling better already.
“As far as I can tell, Max,” I said, “it is Lexie and Joshua who are doing all the work. Why don’t you try explaining what’s going on to us while you’re sitting there supervising them?”
He frowned at me and then shook his head in resignation. “The power to the portal has been extinguished and we are in the process of attempting to contain the field that provides the porous qualities to the fabric of space.” When we stared at him blankly he sighed: “Think of it like trying to put a barrier in place over the portal. Hopefully it will not take too much longer.” He glanced up at the swirling lights of the portal and I followed suit, relieved to see nothing untoward there. Yet.
“If there’s no power,” said Kate, “then why’s it still here?”
“The… ah… elements that were powering the portal—”
“The blood of the Pooka,” I said. “Let’s be clear about that. The blood of innocent demons was powering the portal.”
He looked at me. “Yes. Indeed. Something I regret and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. Are they all right?”
“One is dead. The others… we are doing the best we can.”
He nodded. “You must believe me. I had no control…” Tears sprang to his eyes.
Kate walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry Max. We understand, don’t we?” She looked pointedly at me.
Empathy cracked the hard shell of my anger. “Yes, we do. The Mage made us all do things that we wouldn’t have otherwise done.”
“Like try to choke ourselves to death,” said Kate.
“By the by,” said Andras, “you’re welcome. For me stopping the Mage. I did that you know.”
We ignored him. “Max, you were saying about the portal?” I said.
“Yes, well,” he said, flicking back into his usual matter-of-fact tone of speech. “The elements—the blood—powering the portal served the purpose of punching a hole through the aforementioned fabric of space. Unlocking the door, as it were. A door that was made possible due to the existence of the Fulcrum. Turning off the source of power has simply stopped it from wedging itself open any wider, but does not reverse the fact that it is already open.”
“So how do we close it?” asked Pearce.
“I am not sure we can,” said Maxwell. “At least, not now; although the implications of Lexie’s formula may point us to a way of being able to do so in time. As I have said on numerous occasions, the Fulcrum is a force of nature, an irreversible event.” Lexie cleared her throat and Maxwell held up a hand. “Very well, yes, in time it will reverse, when the balance between science and magic once again tips the other way. But that could be centuries or even millennia from now.”
“So you’re just stopping it getting bigger?” Kate asked.
“No. We are also in the process of amending the frequencies of the portal so that it will abhor any matter that comes into contact with it.” In reply to our blank gazes he added: “So nothing will be able to get through.”
“How much longer will it take?” I asked.
“A few minutes,” called back Lexie.
Pearce shuffled uncomfortably, he and his fellow soldiers keeping their unwavering vigil on the portal. I looked back at Maxwell and for the first time noticed how tired he looked. “How are you?” I asked, kneeling down beside him.
“I am fine,” he lied. “It has been a long day.”
I nodded and patted the arm of his wheelchair. “By the way, what you did earlier with Gaap: that was very brave.”
He let out a short laugh. “It was, wasn’t it? I am not really used to that sort of thing.”
“Quite a bluff though,” said Kate.
He looked up at her. “Oh, it was no bluff.”
I pulled my hand away from the wheelchair and jumped back, imagining myself once more being contaminated by that malignant gas. “What do you mean? You really have filled your wheelchair with that poisonous compound?” He nodded and I threw my hands in the air. “You idiot!”
He chuckled. “Even while I was under the Mage’s sway I knew that I could not let something as potent as the compound fall into the wrong hands. This was the safest place I have. In any case, I knew that I needed a back-up plan: that seemed like the most logical way to achieve it.”
“But you wouldn’t seriously have done it, would you? Released the gas?”
“If I had needed to, yes. Without hesitation.”
He held up a hand. “I am fed up with you all thinking I am helpless. Surely you of all people should understand that.”
I nodded slowly, my face reddening as I thought about how I had treated him since his accident, like little more than a wounded child. “I am sorry, I meant no offence,” I said quietly.
“Before we go all weepy,” said Kate, “can we just agree that you’re going to take the compound out of the wheelchair as soon as possible and put it somewhere safe?”
He pulled a face. “I am not so sure. It has been quite liberating knowing that I am dangerous once more.”
“Max,” Kate said firmly, “you are the most accident-prone person I know, after your brother.” She waved away our protests. “You bang into one sharp table edge and suddenly wipe out half of Whitehall. Do you want that on your conscience?”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. I promise. Besides, I have other ideas of how I can improve the utility of this device… speaking of which, I had a brainwave earlier and I believe that I know how I can cure you of your… affliction.”
“Affliction?” I asked.
“The demonic changes brought on by the runic sword. I believe I can reverse them. Without almost killing you this time.”
I looked down at my hands, once again recognisably human. “You know,” I said, “I think I’m all right as I am.”
Before he could respond, our attention was diverted by Pearce shouting at his men to make ready. I looked over to see dark forms starting to swim into focus from within the portal once more. My heart sank as I drew my sword; I was not sure how many more of these assaults we would be able to withstand.
“Don’t get any clever ideas about that stuff in your wheelchair,” Kate said to Maxwell. “We need you in the land of the living for the moment.”
He was already focused on other matters, though. “Lexie?” he shouted.
“One more minute!” She ran round the front of the portal, ignoring our cries of alarm. Joshua was on her heels, clearly doing all he could to put himself into harm’s way first.
