Necropolis

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘No,’ Elias’s mouth curved slowly, ‘just trying to stop someone else finding trouble.’

  Ulysses nodded. If he’d guessed who Elias was talking about, he generously chose not to mention it.

  Elias unfolded himself from the table and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small red leather volume with black filigree etched into the cover and spine. The title, embossed in gold, read ‘Homer’s Odyssey.’

  ‘Here,’ he handed the book to Ulysses. ‘I thought you could put this with your copy of the Iliad, not in the original Greek by the way,’ he added with a smile.

  Ulysses took the book with a shaky hand, his eyes wide.

  ‘A gift for me?’

  ‘May luck favor you my friend,’ Elias patted his shoulder as he stood slowly.

  Ulysses watched as Elias settled his homburg on his head and with a final nod of farewell, he headed out the back door.

  Turning back to the gift in his hand, Ulysses opened the cover and fanned the gold edged pages and as he did an envelope dropped onto the table in front of him.

  Picking it up curiously, he set the book down with great care and tore the letter open. His mouth fell open in shock as he pulled out a neatly folded stack of bankers’ notes, totaling twenty-five pounds. He quickly reached for the accompanying note and began to read.

  Dear Mr Brown,

  Please accept this donation with deepest gratitude for the service you extended to me in my hour of need. I can assure you these monies were honestly come by and it is my fond hope that perhaps it can help others in need. You truly are the most unique of men and I am humbled by your deep generosity of spirit. I sincerely hope our paths may cross again one day.

  Until then I remain, your friend,

  Elias Black.

  Ulysses jumped up from the table, knocking it with such force Toad gave a squeal of alarm and dug his claws into the wood. Ulysses reached the door and yanked it open fiercely, the hinges rattling ominously, but as his gaze scanned the back streets Elias Black was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘What I wouldn’t give for a tube of Crest right now,’ Olivia sighed as she eyed the tin of tooth powder before spitting the grainy concoction into a bowl. She rinsed her mouth, but it was no good, it still felt like she’d been chewing sand.

  Setting down the wooden toothbrush she picked up the small white, round pot and began to read aloud.

  ‘Saponaceous Tooth Powder prepared from pure white soap, as recommended by Dr Bowditch. Being the only Dentifrice calculated to preserve and thoroughly cleanse the teeth. Rendered agreeable for use & delicately scented by F.S Cleaver, 32 & 33 Red Lion Street, Holborn, London…’

  ‘Agreeable for use…’ Olivia muttered sourly as she placed the pot down. ‘What the hell is saponaceous?’

  ‘It means soapy,’ Scarlett smiled as she buttoned up the front of her gown.

  ‘So, I have literally just washed my mouth out with soap?’ Olivia complained.

  ‘Where do you think the saying came from?’

  ‘What saying?’ Olivia frowned.

  ‘Never mind,’ Scarlett laughed as she watched Olivia lace her petticoats.

  ‘I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this,’ Olivia sighed as Scarlett crossed the room and helped her into her gown.

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ Scarlett assured her as she fastened the long row of tiny buttons running the length of her spine. ‘We’re just keeping it simple. The Hourglass is being kept in the Queen’s bedroom, which isn’t currently being used as she’s in Scotland. It’s only cleaned once a week and is considered low priority. The chances of running into anyone are pretty non-existent, but just in case we’ll use one of your glamor spells so if anyone sees us, they’ll simply mistake us for servants. Once we retrieve the Hourglass, we can hopefully use it straight away to send us back to our present.’

  ‘But how?’ Olivia frowned, ‘we don’t actually know how it works.’

  ‘That’s what we’ll find out from Elias.’ She turned to look out of the frosted windowpane and down into the street below to find a familiar figure standing on the street corner waiting patiently. ‘I’ll give him this,’ she murmured, ‘he’s prompt.’

  Olivia pulled on her coat and buttoned it as she too glanced out of the window.

  ‘I wish I could’ve spent more time with him,’ she said quietly, ‘he seems so… alone.’

  ‘Olivia,’ Scarlett reached out and laid her hand on her arm comfortingly, ‘you can’t save everyone. There are some things he’s just going to have to work through on his own.’

  ‘I guess,’ Olivia murmured as she watched him from the window.

  ‘Look at it this way,’ Scarlett told her, ‘at least you’ll have the chance to say goodbye.’

  Olivia turned from the window and retrieved her gloves.

  ‘I guess we should get going,’ she glanced around at the room. ‘Should we take anything else with us? I mean, if we’re not coming back here.’

  Scarlett shook her head.

  ‘There’s not much point,’ she replied. ‘If everything goes according to plan we’ll be back in our present by the end of the night.’

  ‘There’s a lot of hours between now and then,’ Olivia lifted her hat and pinned it in place. ‘Plenty can go wrong.’

  ‘That’s it,’ Scarlett buttoned her coat, ‘keep thinking positively.’

  Olivia started laughing. ‘I know, I know, I’m being a little pessimistic but then again it’s my first-time royal heist.’

  ‘Come on,’ Scarlett smiled as she held out her hand which Olivia stepped forward and took, ‘we’ll be back in Mercy before you know it.’

  Scarlett opened the door but as they took a step forward Olivia gave a little squeak and jumped back, lifting her skirt slightly as a brown mouse scurried across the room and out of the door.

  ‘Well I certainly won’t be missing the mice,’ she grimaced as they headed out the door and down the narrow, dimly lit staircase.

  Being so early in the day the pub was closed and pretty much empty. Eve was nowhere to be seen and neither was the landlord. Olivia found herself oddly disappointed not to be able to say goodbye to the strange and silent woman.

  Scarlett had scribbled a note and left it along with some coins upon the neatly made bed in their room and since their business in the Drunken Duck was now concluded, they headed toward the back entrance and let themselves out into a narrow alleyway.

  The wind was ice cold as it swept in between the tall, soot blackened brick buildings causing Olivia to suck in a sharp breath.

  ‘And I thought Massachusetts in the winter was cold,’ she gasped.

  ‘I don’t think there’s much difference in the temperatures,’ Scarlett remarked conversationally as they began walking toward the narrow mouth of the alley, ‘just the wrong clothes. What you need is a good set of thermal underwear and some fleece lined snow boots,’ she smiled.

  ‘If only,’ Olivia sighed.

  They reached the archway and stepped out onto the street, unaware of the vivid blue eyes watching them curiously from a small alcove in the alley behind them. Instead, they crossed the street as Elias caught sight of them and raised his hand, tipping his hat in greeting.

  ‘Well, don’t you look smart,’ Olivia smiled.

  ‘I thought it time I stopped looking like some crazy mountain man,’ he replied as his eyes, for the barest hint of a second, flickered to the pub they had just exited.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Olivia answered, ‘I kinda liked the whiskers.’

  His dark eyes settled on hers and for a moment her stomach clenched painfully. He looked so much like Theo, even more so now that he’d shaved and trimmed his hair. It was times like this that it would hit her with a ferocity that made her heart ache.

  She missed Theo so badly, it felt like a part of her was missing. She missed his laugh, his quiet contemplative gaze and his deep rumbling voice. She missed his hands on her face and lying in his arms, feeling the warmth of his skin.

 
; She swallowed hard and forced a smile.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Elias asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied her face.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she forced the lie from her lips.

  Elias nodded, seemingly content, or polite enough not to press the matter.

  ‘Shall we?’ he offered his arm which she took without question, linking her own through the crook of his elbow. ‘Lady Rebecca?’ he offered his other arm to Scarlett.

  ‘Elias, you may as well call me Scarlett,’ she took his arm, ‘as it’s just the three of us.’

  ‘As you wish Scarlett,’ he nodded as they began to walk along the street.

  ‘You’re really going through with it then?’ Elias sked stiffly.

  ‘Elias,’ Olivia sighed, ‘we’ve been over this. You don’t need to come with us, we just need a little more information that’s all.’

  ‘What information?’

  ‘Um, an instruction manual for the Hourglass would be good,’ she replied. ‘We need to know how to use it once we get into the Palace and get our hands on it.’

  ‘You can’t use it inside the Palace,’ Elias murmured.

  ‘What?’ Olivia glanced up at him, her brow creasing.

  ‘Well I mean you can, but I wouldn’t.’

  ‘Why?’ she replied in confusion.

  ‘Because the Hourglass cannot cross distances, only time,’ he explained. ‘It’s not incredibly accurate but it will get you back to your time, however it will plant you in the middle of Buckingham Palace in your present day. I don’t know what it’s like in your time, but I’m guessing you don’t want to be caught there.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Scarlett agreed. ‘Even if we smoke straight out as soon as we get there, there’s all that security, alarms, surveillance systems, not to mention all the staff. There’s practically zero chance we’d get out undetected. We can’t risk it.’

  ‘Okay,’ Olivia blew out a slow thoughtful breath, ‘so we need to choose a location that still exists in the 21st century and where no one will notice if we appear out of thin air.’

  Scarlett nodded.

  ‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ Olivia frowned. ‘I’m not very familiar with London, except for the usual tourist traps. I have no clue which would be the best location. Do you?’

  She turned to Scarlett who pursed her lips thoughtfully.

  ‘I’ll have to think this one through,’ she murmured in consideration, ‘we still have until nightfall. We’ll retrieve the Hourglass once it gets dark, then we’ll have to take temporary lodgings for a night or two until we figure out a suitable location for us to jump to, but it’s a lot more complicated than you think. It’s not just choosing somewhere that no one will see us, we also need to make sure that we’re not jumping into a location where they’ve built a main road or a railway track.’

  Olivia groaned. ‘I’d sell my soul for five minutes on Google right now.’

  ‘What’s a Google?’ Elias frowned.

  ‘Never mind,’ Olivia shook her head. ‘Okay, so jump point aside for the moment, how does the Hourglass actually work?’

  ‘You turn the top a quarter turn to the left, then press the five-pointed star on the top,’ Elias explained. ‘A small compartment will open in the base revealing three tiny brass cylinders, similar to the barrel of a music box. The first cylinder is minutes, the second days and the third years. Each of these cylinders are divided into sections with numbers etched into the metal and each section has a dial. Turn it to set your destination dependent on how many days or years you want to jump forward.

  Once this is done, turn the Hourglass back up the right way. You must make sure you are both touching it as the sand drains away. Once it empties you should find yourself at your destination.’

  ‘Not exactly a flux capacitor is it?’ Olivia murmured earning a small huff of amusement from Scarlett. ‘We’re going to need pretty precise calculations to get us to the right day, month and year.’

  Elias nodded.

  ‘Nothing’s ever simple is it?’ Olivia sighed as they stopped in front of a familiar shop.

  ‘No,’ Scarlett replied, ‘it’s not, but this is the best we can hope for. Even if we lose a few days, it doesn’t matter. As long as we get back to the present in roughly the right time frame, we can work everything else out. Besides, once we get back to the present, we still need to find a way back to Mercy as we’ll still be in London.’

  ‘I’m not leaving London,’ Olivia’s whiskey eyes hardened dangerously, ‘until I’ve found Faraday and rammed the god-damned Veritas down his throat. I’m going to find out what he’s done with my husband, get my compass back and once my family is safe, I’m going to spend however long it takes to completely eradicate the Veritas from the face of the planet.’

  ‘There’s something we can drink to,’ Scarlett murmured, ‘I may just help you with that.’

  ‘I think you’re right about one thing Olivia,’ Elias agreed.

  ‘Just one?’ her brow rose questioningly.

  ‘Something needs to be done about the Veritas,’ he replied quietly, his voice filled with hurt. ‘If what you’ve told me is true, what they’ve become’… he shook his head slowly. ‘That wasn’t what Justin and I intended when we created the Veritas. We were trying to save lives, not destroy them.’

  Olivia looked up at the sign which read, T.R Billingsworth, Taxidermist.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she assured him, ‘we’re going to make this right, whatever it takes.’

  Elias nodded silently as he reached for the door and opened it. One by one they stepped through the strange doorway leaving the Underside behind and stepping out onto the streets of London proper.

  As the door creaked quietly closed behind them, they didn’t see a small brown mouse scamper past the door. Weaving in and out of the crowds it scurried past slushy wet snowdrifts, its tiny claws digging in as it skittered across icy patches. It hugged the edges of the buildings before turning down a narrow alleyway which opened up into a tiny courtyard.

  It shivered, its nose wrinkling and its whiskers twitching. It hunched its back and rolled its shoulders, rising up on its hind legs in a surprisingly human like fashion.

  Slowly, it began to grow, its brown fur retreating and its limbs elongating. Its head became more rounded and the tail began to disappear into its body as its shiny claws blunted into dirty, cracked fingernails.

  After a moment, the mouse was nowhere to be seen and, in its place, stood a rather short, dumpy man wearing a faded moth-eaten old brown suit and scuffed boots. His hair was thick, and unkempt, and from it two rather large ears protruded. They stuck out either side of his head at almost a ninety-degree angle and were curiously rounded. His eyes were dark and watery, and his nose, which was long and narrow, twitched slightly.

  The curious looking fellow turned upon hearing a rustling sound behind him and found himself face to face with a rather finely dressed gentleman, wearing a bowler hat.

  ‘Mr Bower,’ the small man greeted with a slight lisp, due to an unsightly overbite and rather prominent front teeth.

  ‘Mr Mouse,’ came the reply, ‘I trust you are not going to disappoint me.’

  ‘No Sir,’ he shook his head, ‘I got plenty for you. The woman with the red ‘air, she’s got ‘erself a fine-looking pair of wings, all red and gold they was.’

  ‘Wings?’ Mr Bower raised a brow in interest, ‘you don’t say.’

  ‘And the other woman, dark ‘aired one, she’s definitely a witch, could smell the magic on ‘er a mile off. Stunk of it she did.’

  ‘That is not news to me,’ Mr Bower replied, ‘is that all you have?’

  ‘No Sir,’ he shook his head, his narrow nose twitching faster now as his beady dark eyes narrowed. ‘They says they’s gonna break into the Palace and steal somethin’ from the Queen.’

  Mr Bower scoffed, ‘really? You think I’m going to believe that? Even with the Queen no longer in residence it’s still well guarded and besides, why would
they even want to? What are they planning on stealing?’

  ‘Somethin’ called the Hourglass.’

  Mr Bower’s gaze snapped up, his pupils sharpening almost to pinpricks.

  ‘The Hourglass?’ he demanded, ‘you’re absolutely sure, they said the Hourglass?’

  The small man named Mr Mouse nodded rapidly.

  ‘They said they had to find a safe location to use it, cus they were going to jump through time. Said they didn’t belong ‘ere.’

  ‘Time travelers?’ Mr Bower mused as he tapped the shiny silver pommel of his cane against his chin. ‘Is it possible they’ve actually located De Pereda’s Hourglass?’

  Mr Bower looked at the small man thoughtfully.

  ‘Very well,’ he took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into Mr Mouse’s outstretched palm. ‘Off you go, I’ll be in touch.’

  Mr Mouse shoved the coins into his pocket and crouched down on the cold hard ground. Mr Bowers didn’t notice when the strange little man disappeared, neither did he notice when a fat brown mouse scurried out of the courtyard and down the alleyway. He was too lost in his thoughts.

  Reaching into his heavy coat he pulled out a pocket watch and flicked it open. It was early but not too early.

  Having reached a decision of some sort he slipped the pocket watch back into his coat and wrapping his gloved fingers around the small cylindrical silver pommel of his cane he twisted it counterclockwise and then rapped his cane against the ground three times, closing his eyes.

  There was a faint whoosh of air and a second of disorientation. When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer standing in the small brick courtyard but in front of a smart, dark blue door. The building had a pale facade and was surrounded by a black iron railing. To the right was a polished silver plaque which read, Worthington’s Gentlemen’s Club.

  Climbing the single wide step to the door, Mr Bower lifted his hand and rapped the knocker loudly.

  A moment later the door opened, and a butler dressed in a stiff white collar and a black suit appeared.

  ‘I’m here to see Mr Prentice,’ he withdrew a small plain white card embossed simply with a gold ankh and presented it to the butler.