by Glenn Dakin
‘Where’s Magnus?’ Chloe asked.
‘Alive,’ Sam replied. ‘As far as we know. He was taken away somewhere else. I suppose he was too old for this kind of work.’ Sam tried to sound cheerful, but Theo could tell he was deeply anxious.
‘OK – Magnus is tough,’ Chloe said. ‘We’ll worry about him in a minute. First of all, what’s going on down here?’
‘This is the ash tunnel,’ Sam said. ‘We’ve been slaving down here, scraping burnt waste away from the furnaces. There’s a whole load of different heat chambers.’
‘It’s awful,’ Freddie said. ‘Back-breaking work and only cave-water and a bowl of moss at tea break.’ He poked the foul sludge in the bowl on his lap. ‘No doubt this is rather a treat for Sam, but I expect my seven courses when it’s nosebag time.’
Chloe gave a patient smile. ‘I’m talking big picture,’ she said. ‘It looks like someone is trying to get some ancient alchemy working. Something big. Have you seen the boss?’
Sam clouded over. ‘A menace from the Victorian age,’ he said. ‘Dr Pyre.’
Chloe started. She looked shocked for a moment, but swiftly covered it up.
‘We’ve seen him,’ Freddie whispered. ‘He hasn’t got a face. Just that head-shaped, burnt scab. Horrible.’
Theo gulped. ‘Is he on my list of enemies?’ he asked Chloe.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Chloe quietly.
Freddie picked up a pinch of feathery moss from his bowl and sniffed it. ‘He would be on anyone’s list of enemies,’ he said, ‘according to the legends of my Society.’
Freddie popped the spinach-coloured morsel into his mouth and made a face.
‘Go on,’ Theo urged.
‘Quietly and in a bored voice,’ advised Chloe, glancing around.
‘Back in the Victorian days there was the Candle Man and there was the Philanthropist, and people had to take sides, for one or the other.’
Theo felt a special tingle crawl up his spine. He loved, and yet feared tales about his formidable ancestor.
‘Except, Dr Pyre was different. He was against everybody. He had crazy ideas – a philosophy, he called it. Hated the world, apparently. What they call a nihilist. He wanted to tear creation down and start again. A prize nutter.’
Sam swigged his cracked beaker of filthy water. ‘But how did he get that . . . that face?’
‘My father – back when I was a nipper and he still had time to talk to me – said Dr Pyre saw himself as a rival to the great Philanthropist. Wanted to be master of the elements.’
‘You mean he’s another alchemist?’ Theo was scared but intrigued.
Freddie nodded and beckoned them closer. He seemed to be enjoying the attention. ‘He gained some kind of control over fire – but at a terrible cost. Ended up a walking pile of cinders. “The Incinerated Man”, the newspapers called him.’
‘But how –’ Sam frowned. ‘How can he still be alive now?’
‘Blame it on Lord Wickland, the original Candle Man,’ Freddie said with a bitter smile, and a meaningful look in Theo’s direction. ‘According to the legends of the Society of Good Works, not everyone the Candle Man touched was melted. His power was unpredictable. Some of his enemies were transfigured – doomed to act out their madness forever.’
Theo nodded. That fitted in with some of the things that he had discovered in his adventures. One of Lord Wickland’s enemies, the Dodo, had been turned into an immortal by the Candle Man’s touch. Theo shivered. Now he had inherited the same terrible power – and its consequences.
‘But why is Dr Pyre firing up this old furnace?’ Theo asked. ‘What’s he up to?’
‘You don’t know the power of this place,’ Freddie said. ‘According to our legends there are . . . machines down here, built in ancient days. It’s bad news – for all of us.’
‘Told you.’ Chloe glanced at Theo. ‘The Wonderful Machines.’
Freddie nodded. ‘If Dr Pyre wants to burn down the world and start again,’ he said with a sudden tremor in his voice, ‘well, these machines might just give him the power to do that.’
‘Cheerful pair, aren’t they?’ Sam commented.
Theo wanted to say something to cheer Sam up but he couldn’t think of anything. He puzzled over his old problem of how – and where – to deliver an encouraging pat on the back, then gave up.
Clang, clang, clang.
The distant gong sounded once more. Freddie sprang to his feet, knocking his bowl to the floor. ‘Phase Two must be finished,’ he said. ‘Look, they’re sending people back to work.’
Sewer Rats had started to urge slaves back to their feet. Theo and the others rose slowly.
‘We’ll have to get back to the raking station, or there’ll be trouble,’ Freddie said, trying to drag Sam away.
‘But what are we going to do?’ Theo asked.
‘You have got to get out of here,’ Sam said with a determined look. ‘Go and get help. This is too big for just the Society of Unrelenting Vigilance. Theo, even you can’t beat this lot on your own. There’s old No-face, then there’s the crelp and on top of that these underground thugs called the Sewer Rats,’ he added.
‘Dr Pyre was the bane of the original Candle Man,’ said Freddie darkly. ‘According to Society legends, old No-face was the one your famous ancestor never defeated. His last enemy.’
Theo looked to Chloe for confirmation. She nodded.
Freddie was eager to carry on. ‘Some say, he –’
‘All right,’ snapped Chloe. ‘I think we’ve had enough yarns for one day.’ She threw a quick glance at Theo.
‘I think this is worth telling!’ Freddie snapped back. He gave Chloe a shrewd gaze. ‘And I think you know it already!’
‘Now isn’t the time,’ Chloe insisted.
‘You people and your secrets!’ Freddie exclaimed. ‘You’re as bad as my father!’
Theo interrupted. ‘Tell me – tell me about Dr Pyre,’ he said. ‘I – I want to know.’
‘I only wanted to say,’ Freddie sighed, looking warily across at Chloe, ‘that it rather looks like Dr Pyre was the one who finally blew out the original Candle Man.’
Theo gulped.
Suddenly Sam cried out as a sharp tentacle snatched at his ankle. While they had been talking, a crelp had slithered up behind them.
‘Get a move on,’ yelled Queasley. Insistent pulling and prickling from spiny tentacles forced them all to get up and head down the tunnel. Theo and Chloe exchanged anxious glances. If ever they were going to be exposed as intruders it was now.
‘Right,’ said Chloe quickly, ‘here’s what we do –’
‘Silence!’
The bellowing of a harsh voice made them all stop. Striding towards them, through the ranks of Sewer Rat guards, was an imperious, cloaked figure.
It’s him, Theo thought, his insides quaking. The one who blew out the first Candle Man.
The ashen head, that hideous ball of cauterized scars, turned towards Theo and Chloe.
‘These will do,’ Dr Pyre growled. ‘Bring them!’
Chapter Eighteen
The Fool
‘These ones?’ The giant form of Hollister, the chief Sewer Rat, peered down at Theo with a puzzled frown. He sniffed him, like a wary rodent, and frowned. ‘I don’t remember the crelp bringing ’em in.’
‘There’s a lot you don’t notice, Sewer Rat,’ Dr Pyre snapped. The faceless man studied Theo and Chloe again. ‘This feeble pair are useless to me as workers,’ Dr Pyre said, ‘but perfect for a special task I have in mind. Now get the others back to work.’
Through his soot-crusted fringe, Theo peered at the man he was doomed to call his enemy, even though he had never met him before, never personally angered him. Theo stared at that dark blot of a head, the glimmering pits of eyes, the cracked and crusted skin, grey like the scarred-over surface of a dormant volcano. Was this the last sight the original Candle Man had ever seen?
‘Get down there,’ Hollister snarled, pointing Theo towards
a narrow tunnel that branched off from the chamber. Theo kept his head down. Trying to act the part of an obedient slave, he walked between two crelp guards towards the tunnel.
‘Stop!’
Theo froze in his tracks at the voice of Dr Pyre. He heard two heavy feet crunching through the ash behind him.
‘What is your name?’ the harsh voice demanded. Theo’s heart pounded. He stared fearfully at his hands.
Not now, he told them. Don’t glow now. He must not know who I am.
His heart was pounding.
‘I – I . . .’ Theo’s mind went blank. He was terrified and simply didn’t know what to say.
‘No matter,’ rumbled Dr Pyre. ‘Henceforth, you shall be known in my realm as Fool!’
The faceless man peered at Theo curiously, eyeing the bandage around his head, the ash-smeared face.
‘All my other slaves avoid the murdering crelp like the plague,’ he breathed. Theo could see into those eyes now, strangely bright and liquid amidst that dry, ashen ball of a face. ‘Yet you, Fool, choose to take a shortcut through them!’
Theo closed his eyes, wishing himself miles away. What an idiot he had been. Of course, all the other slaves kept away from the vicious crelp as much as possible. But Theo had already spoken to them, defeated a whole horde of them. Deep down he didn’t have the same fear of the creatures that every other slave had. Now, his lack of fear had made him stand out – the last thing he wanted.
In his anxiety, Theo fell back on the ways of his cloistered upbringing. He gave a little, deferential bow, the kind his antique Book of Manners recommended when addressing someone of superior standing. It occurred to Theo that the faceless man was a doctor after all.
‘I – I’m sorry, sir,’ he said. ‘If it was impolite of me not to be afraid.’
There was silence. Dr Pyre glowered at him. Then he made a curious unearthly noise, a wheezing, gasping sound that turned into a raucous cackle.
Theo realised with astonishment – Dr Pyre was laughing.
‘Impolite?’ The man roared again and the strange laughter changed into a terrible racking cough.
‘The Fool talks of manners when he stands on the edge of doom,’ Dr Pyre muttered. He groaned and bent over in pain; the unexpected outburst of laughter had hurt him.
‘Get going, Fool!’ he said. ‘Your good manners will be the death of me!’
Relieved beyond words, Theo trudged on into the tunnel.
‘Nice work,’ muttered Freddie to Sam. ‘I hardly think Dr Pyre noticed him at all.’
Theo heard Sam cry out as Hollister landed a nasty kick on him.
‘Quit gawping, you – and back to the ash tunnel!’
Sam gave Theo a hopeless look as he and Freddie were taken back towards the furnaces.
Dr Pyre strode to follow Theo, bringing Chloe with him. Crelp shadowed Chloe’s every step.
‘To the Crypt,’ roared Dr Pyre.
The stairway spiralled down into blackness. The ancient stonework was slippery with water leeching through the rocks. Dr Pyre was somewhere behind them, out of sight. Crelp guards straggled ahead.
‘What’s the Crypt?’ Theo asked Chloe in a whisper.
Crypt, crypt, crypt . . . the echoes of Theo’s voice whispered around him as if they had a life of their own.
Chloe turned and put her finger sharply to her lips. Before disappearing into the darkness ahead she made a motion that was either a shrug or a shudder.
We have to get away, Theo thought. I can’t fight this Dr Pyre, not if he defeated the original Candle Man. That would be just throwing my life away. I have to get back to the surface – tell the police what’s going on.
They finally emerged from the stairway into a lower tunnel. It was damp and smelly, filled with puddles and pools in the rocks. Dr Pyre’s fiery glow reflected and danced in the mirroring pools around him.
Exhausted after the long descent, Theo bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. All the ash he had inhaled made him feel sick.
By the light of Dr Pyre’s smouldering form, Theo could make out some details of the tunnel they were now in. Glancing up, he could see the long smooth curve of one of the great pipes he had seen earlier, when he had been travelling with the crelp. It curled along the top of the ridge above, before vanishing into darkness. Dr Pyre was taking them – by a different route – close to the caverns where his adventure had started.
‘This is bad,’ Chloe said. ‘We want to get further up so we can slip away to the surface, not further down.’
Theo gave her a faint smile. ‘Remember my story of how I got down here?’ he said. ‘There is a way back up – that only the head of the Society of Good Works knows about.’
Chloe shushed Theo, nodding towards their sinister guide. He was standing before a stone doorway, studying it with great interest. Fire flared from his hands as he touched the door here and there, inspecting it.
Theo could see there were fine lines and symbols carved into the stone.
‘You see,’ came a thin, troubled voice. The crelp had massed around the door and were quivering strangely.
‘The doorway is closed. We telling – told you. A something has happened – very bad. You promised the crelp we can be free.’
Dr Pyre glowered. ‘Don’t fling my promises at me, you inhuman filth,’ he said, but fire flickered through the cracks in his skin, and he seemed disturbed. ‘This place is old. The Crypt has – it has ideas of its own,’ the faceless man said, more to himself than the creatures. ‘The doorway may have closed by some ancient design.’
Dr Pyre placed his hand on a round shape in the centre of the door. As he did, a spiral of little dots glowed into life. The door began to slide open.
‘Reports came today of more police,’ he muttered, ‘more spies in the tunnels above. I want you creatures to rise upwards and flood those passages. Choke them with your tentacles and your rage. Let no one through.’
The crelp assented with an excited sizzling sound.
‘It’s the police that must be stopped – at all costs,’ Dr Pyre said.
‘Free more of our kind,’ begged the crelp, ‘and we will letting no human into the network – that, we promise!’
‘When my work is done,’ Dr Pyre said, ‘the crelp can have these tunnels to live in forever. I, for one, will be finished with this world.’
The crelp gave a satisfied hiss and seethed around the foot of the door. Suddenly the faceless man looked across the tunnel towards Theo and Chloe.
‘Come, my Fool,’ he said, ‘and your friend. Fate has brought you to me.’
‘What – what do you want us to do?’ Theo asked nervously.
‘I want you to come with me, to a place where few mortal men have ever set foot. You will serve me . . . as my canaries.’
Bewildered and afraid, Theo stepped into the dark.
Chapter Nineteen
Canaries
The stairway down towards the Crypt was narrow, slippery and so dark Theo had to feel his way along the damp walls.
‘Why are we leading the way?’ Theo asked. ‘We don’t know where we’re going!’
‘Good question,’ muttered Chloe darkly.
At least the air is clean here, Theo thought. He took a deep breath, but it was damp and chilled his heart.
Behind them the slurping of crelp guards and the heavy tread of Dr Pyre were magnified by the stone tunnels. With the far-off dripping of pools and the occasional shifting and settling of rocks, the cavern sounded full of restless, unhappy life.
‘Why does he want us as canaries?’ Theo asked Chloe. ‘Does he expect us to sing?’
‘Not exactly . . .’ Chloe started to reply.
‘You obviously know nothing of the mining industry.’ Dr Pyre’s voice echoed eerily down the passage, as if he were speaking from everywhere at once. ‘Miners take caged canaries with them as they work beneath the ground. If poisonous gases lurk nearby, the little birds will reveal that by dying first.’
‘Is there poison gas down here?’ Theo asked in alarm.
‘No,’ Dr Pyre answered, his words echoing all around. ‘But there are evil spirits – malign powers – which can prove just as deadly.’
Now Theo and Chloe emerged on to a metal platform built into the rock. The cave suddenly opened into a cathedral-like vault of extravagant limestone shapes.
‘Beautiful,’ Theo said quietly.
Dr Pyre stood beside him.
‘I chose you well, Fool,’ he muttered. ‘One of the most dangerous places on earth, and you admire its beauty.’
‘Why is it dangerous?’ Theo asked.
‘You are in the Crypt,’ the faceless man growled. ‘This is the secret that has given birth to all the other secrets.’
‘What – what do you mean?’
‘There is a crack in the world,’ Dr Pyre continued. ‘A crack beneath London. It is a way through to another realm – an underworld of creatures that do not belong in our age.’
Chloe was still standing as if frozen. Theo reached out a hand to grab her arm. She paid no attention.
‘This is where they all come through,’ the faceless man croaked. ‘The smoglodytes, the garghouls and worse. That is why I need my canaries.’
‘Oh, I see!’
Chloe’s voice suddenly rang out around the cavern. It was filled with an unexpected delight. Theo looked on in surprise as she turned to face him. By the eerie glow of Dr Pyre’s smouldering form, he saw her eyes were bright and she was smiling.
‘Thank goodness!’ Chloe cried.
‘Are – are you all right?’ Theo asked.
‘All right?’ Chloe laughed. ‘I’ve never been better.’
There is something fixed about her smile – like the grin on a portrait, or a waxwork, thought Theo. He felt puzzled at first, but soon the happy feeling seemed to spread over him too.
Chloe took Theo by the arm and led him forwards.
‘It’s OK, Theo. I understand now,’ she said. ‘I thought this was a dangerous place. But now I’m here I can sense only . . . kindness.’
‘Kindness?’ Theo sighed with relief.
