Realms of Stone

by Sharon K Gilbert

  James began to smile broadly, causing his salt-and-pepper moustache to twitch. “A son, you think?”

  “Yes, James, I believe we will have a son, but also a daughter, though I cannot say which will be firstborn.”

  The faces ‘round the table reflected a mixture of mirth and confusion, and the marquess explained. “I’d planned to discuss this later, but perhaps now is best. It is a strange tale, but I assure you that it’s all true. As James mentioned in the prayer, my wedding night didn’t turn out as I’d expected. William Trent abducted Elizabeth and carried her to my old house in Whitechapel. We mounted a rescue, but our team was nearly stopped by a ferocious pack of wolf hybrids—a topic we must discuss at length tonight. I applaud the bravery of everyone who took part in that battle. I know some of you sustained injuries, but even those who didn’t must surely have nightmares about it. I know I do.

  “When the earl and I finally reached the house, it had caught fire. My memories of what happened next are rather imprecise, but I believe I tried to enter the house and was knocked unconscious.”

  “You were thrown against an iron post, Charles,” the earl told him. “The way your head bled, I’d feared we’d lost you.”

  “I cannot remember that, but I suppose it’s not surprising. However, that injury put me into a coma for seven days. I don’t know if everyone who sleeps in such a twilight world travels, but I did. And I was not alone in those travels. It turns out that, during that same time, Elizabeth also lay in a deep sleep of sorts, for she’d taken to bed with a high fever, caused by exposure to the frigid cold that night. Whilst in our individual states, she and I shared a visit to the same place, a hellish realm of living stones and sentient trees. Huge blackbirds populated the air, and most could talk, though their hideous language sounded nothing like English. I could, however, understand and converse with one of these birds, a creature that called itself the gatekeeper. This very annoying gatekeeper had the ability to transform from bird to a human-like appearance.”

  “You called it annoying,” Edward MacPherson noted. “How so, Lord Haimsbury?”

  “Annoying in its persistent ambiguity, I suppose, but also in its utterly frustrating riddles,” Charles answered. “You see, these living stones formed a high and very complicated maze of concentric stone rings. Each ring could only be accessed by selecting one of seven gates, which would then lead to the next ring within the maze, and so forth. Each ring had one true gate, whilst the others led to oblivion. One wrong turn, just one mistake, and I’d be forever lost. However, this noisome gatekeeper told me that if I navigated the maze without error, it would lead me to the centre, where a cottage stood. This tiny house would, in turn, take me home.”

  Charles reached for a glass of water. Cornelius Baxter, sitting near the back beside Reggie Whitmore, raised his hand. “My lord, per your request, I set out only water for the meeting, but if you prefer tea or something stronger, I’d be happy to fetch whatever you wish. I’ve decanted several choices for after supper.”

  “No, thank you, Mr. Baxter, water is sufficient. I’ll keep my head clear for the present. When we’ve finished our discussion, then we’ll all indulge in a meal and after dinner drinks. I’m told Mrs. Anderson has prepared a delicious selection of dishes, and if the aroma is any indication, her sister baked fresh bread and cakes this morning.” He emptied the glass and poured it full again from the carafe. “As I was saying, the cottage was my only means to escape this awful place, but with seven choices, multiplied by seven stone rings, it felt like an impossibility. The bird-like gatekeeper repeatedly asked for payment in exchange for a hint, and his eyes fell upon my watch again and again.”

  Charles held up the Sir John Bennett to show the members. “It is a fine watch, but hardly unique. One might buy it at any jeweller’s shop. However, my wife had this watch engraved for me, and I would never part with it. Not ever, for her words touch my heart and strengthen me, each time I see them. So, my dilemma was this: Find my way through the stone maze with no instructions. A daunting task, and I worried that I should fail. Therefore, I prayed for guidance.”

  Sinclair smiled, and his blue eyes grew wistful. “The Lord works in mysterious ways, and never more mysteriously than during that long, terrifying night. After praying, I heard a sweet voice, asking me why I was crying, and when I looked, I saw a child. A dark-haired girl in a white dress with pink ribbons. She looked identical to Elizabeth at eleven years old.”

  “As she looked when you first met her,” Reid observed. “Are you saying the Lord brought you the duchess as his answer?”

  “In a way,” Sinclair replied, “but not exactly. I asked the girl her name. She told me it was Georgianna, and she called me Father.”

  Drummond’s mouth and its moustache companion slowly widened into a massive grin. “Charles has told me this tale before, but it always gives me chills. This Georgianna claimed to be your own daughter, come to help you. Is that right, son?”

  “Yes, sir. That’s right. My daughter Georgianna is—or rather will be—just as precocious, bright, loving, and fearless as her mother. She informed me that many of the things she knew about my future were to remain secret. Apparently, I shall one day tell her all about this event, and she’ll spend years learning everything she can about this stone world through dreams. I cannot tell you what a strange experience it was, but Georgie—she informed me that very few call her Georgianna—well, she remained completely calm and focused the entire time, and she led me to the cottage refuge. Once there, she had to leave, but promised to tell the future version of myself all about our adventure.”

  “Aye, that sounds like our Beth,” Drummond laughed. “Georgie, is it? She sounds like my kind o’ girl! I’ll wager I taught her everything she knows.”

  “I’ve no doubt of that, sir, and I suspect that much of her persistent nature will be formed by you,” Sinclair answered with a smile. “As I said, Georgie insisted she must go, so after bidding my future daughter goodbye, I entered this haven, where I found a pleasant woman, who called herself Hope. She asked who had brought me, and I mentioned Georgie. This Hope explained that the children never enter the house.”

  “Children?” Whitmore asked. “Plural?”

  “Yes, plural,” Charles replied, smiling again. “It will become clear in a moment, Reggie. All around this quaint house, were carvings, paintings, and even needlework images of entwined hearts, but at first I didn’t notice that two other hearts, wrought in gold, were within these larger hearts. After I gained my bearings, Hope told me that a woman had arrived shortly before me, and that she slept in the next room.”

  “Elizabeth,” MacAlpin said softly.

  “Yes. My beloved wife. God had answered my prayer in a way that still seems impossible, yet Beth tells the same story. Only her guide through the maze was a boy, who looked, according to my wife, like a younger version of myself.”

  “Twins!” Drummond shouted, excitedly. “A boy and a girl! But has it been confirmed?”

  “Yes, sir, I believe it has. I spoke with Treves and this new specialist, Anthony Gehlen, and both men believe Elizabeth’s rapid physical changes, as well as early and very strong symptoms of nausea and balance problems, indicate twins.”

  Drummond jumped to his feet and pulled his nephew into a fond embrace. “Son, that is the best news this old man’s heard in a month o’ Sundays! Two wee ones who look like their parents. Two ta teach all I know ‘bout fishin’ and huntin’!”

  “Two children who must be protected at all costs,” MacPherson warned the group.

  Henry MacAlpin stood. “May I speak?”

  Charles cleared his throat as Drummond returned to his chair. “Of course. Do forgive me, everyone. My manners fail me. You heard the duke mention an expansion to our growing family, a cousin, in fact. Allow me to introduce that cousin. Dr. Henry MacAlpin, 7th Viscount Salperton. Henry, feel free to speak.”

 
“Thank you, Charles,” he began as he stood. “I am honoured to serve at this table amongst such a remarkable circle of Christ’s warriors. As Charles mentioned, my late mother was the duke’s first cousin, making the earl, Charles, and myself second cousins. In fact, Paul and I’ve been friends since Eton. He and Sir Thomas Galton always bested me at fencing and boxing, but I usually got my own back when it came to the sciences.”

  Galton laughed. “Ah, but you showed up the earl more than once on horseback, Henry. Polo is surely your sport.”

  “That’s kind of you, Thomas, but untrue. I’m a rather poor athlete, but the Lord has given me other abilities to make up for the lack. And before I explain those gifts, let me say that I agree with Gehlen and Treves. I think it very likely that the duchess is carrying twins, which makes it doubly important that she rest as often as possible. I’ve come to know that gracious lady a little in the past week, and she strikes me as singularly brave, but also rather persistent.”

  Paul laughed. “Stubborn is the word, Henry.”

  “Well, I shouldn’t wish to say so, but I shall call her tenacious. However, I suspect that aspect of her personality derives not from an unruly nature but from a lifetime of endurance. I shan’t get into fine details, but I understand her experiences. My own are similar. My mother died when I was six. For all of her life, Mother saw angels and sketched and even painted what she perceived. I’m not sure how it all works, but I seem to have inherited that ability. However, I don’t see angels in the way she did. I see other things. Dark spiritual entities and living shadows. I can sense them, whenever they’re nearby, and I understand the burden it places on a person. It weighs you down, brick by hellish brick, until it feels as though you cannot even rise from your bed some days. The duchess sees the world this way, and I marvel that she’s survived with her mind intact. However, if my understanding of the Plantagenet twins is correct, then does it not strike you as curious that she now bears twins? Paul and Sir Thomas tell me that Redwing plans to use any children born to Charles and Elizabeth for their own purposes. Twins give them a double opportunity. Twins began all this, and twins may conclude it. Rather like a snake eating its own tail.”

  Charles agreed. “Henry, you may be right, but I choose to rejoice rather than despair. I cannot explain how a child, not yet born, can rescue her father, yet it happened. I am convinced that it all truly happened. Georgie’s positivity and energy are a reality, and they cause me to conclude that she will thrive, as will her brother.” He took another sip of water. “Now, let us move to other business. Everyone who plans to serve as an agent for the ICI, please, raise your hand.”

  Paul Stuart, Edmund Reid, Arthur France, Sir Thomas Galton, Sir Anthony Meadows, Lord Malcolm Risling, Sir Percy Smythe-Daniels, Algernon Winters, and Sir Ralph Epperson raised their hands.

  “Thank you. Counting myself, that makes ten of us. If you’ll take a look at the ICI information in your folders, you’ll see there are three tiers to the organisational structure. Command, Central Operations, and Field Operations. The duke will be our primary advisor, and he asked me to serve as Director General, but Salisbury and Matthews have created this new Intelligence Branch for the Home Office and asked me to head it. Therefore, Lord Aubrey will serve as DG in my stead, and I can think of no man more qualified. The earl will liaise with the Home and Prime Minister’s Offices, as well as with my branch. I’ll inform Her Majesty, as required. Our founding Commander of Operations is Sir Thomas Galton. He’ll select men to oversee three branches of field operations: London, Kingdom, and International. Most of our investigations will occur in London for the present, but it is quite likely that some will take us beyond the metropolis into greater England and even other countries. Thomas, I trust you to select the best men—or women,” he added with a nod towards Victoria and Diedra Kimberley, “for the job. Each of those who raised a hand should plan to recruit ten others whom we may trust with our lives. These will undergo an extensive background investigation, no matter what their connexions to us, and those who make the final cut will begin training at Loudain House in two months.

  “My contractors have already begun the transformation, and by then it will be model of efficiency. Today, we commence our first assignment with a smaller membership. The Prime Minister asks us to unmask the killer or killers behind a series of recent murders in London. Edmund Reid has further information, and I’m placing Lord Aubrey in charge, warranted by both the Intelligence Branch and the ICI. I suggest someone with contacts in publishing keep watch on any pertinent newspaper articles. Lord Salisbury is painfully aware that two victims attended Redwing meetings, but he hopes that fact never reaches the public. It’s our job to make that hope a reality. Paul and I shall meet with all agents at Queen Anne tomorrow morning for our first briefing, when we’ll discuss the investigation in depth. Ten o’clock in the main library. It is imperative that we discover who is behind these murders and how they connect to Elizabeth.”

  “Do you think they do?” asked Henry.

  “If Redwing is involved, then they must. Now, to another topic, this mirror used by Trent to take Beth. Is it still inside the shed behind Queen Anne?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” the earl asked. “No one has moved it.”

  “That doesn’t preclude it from travelling,” Charles argued. “I put no limitations on our enemy’s abilities. Lorena MacKey begged me to destroy it, but I doubt doing so would be an easy task. Is the shed guarded? If not, then a human might have removed it, or perhaps...”

  Henry’s hand went up again, and he stood. “Forgive the interruption, Charles, but Mr. Blinkmire told me that a very strange person gave him a rather nasty fright earlier today. Blinkmire isn’t the sort to be easily intimidated, yet this man did so. Stephen described him as looking a great deal like Prince Anatole.”

  “Like Romanov?” Paul Stuart asked. “He’s been annoyingly absent since the fire. I begin to wonder if he didn’t start it! Why is it he constantly interferes in our lives?” The marquess started to object, but the earl would not allow it. “No, Charles, do not defend him! The Russian cannot be trusted, no matter how many times he offers friendship. My experience in political matters outweighs your own, and I tell you that Romanov plays our government and us like a virtuoso!”

  “Yet, the prince did rescue the duchess,” Salperton argued. “I place no particular trust in this fellow either, Lord Aubrey, but thus far he’s proven an ally.”

  “Even Lucifer can appear as an angel of light,” MacPherson warned the gathering. “We must not seek guidance or advice from the spirit realm.”

  “I agree,” Sinclair said, “but let us return to Mr. Blinkmire’s visitation. Henry, you say this man looked like the Russian, but he was not. How did Blinkmire know the difference?”

  “Our friend has known the prince for many years. Romanov rescued him when Stephen was sixteen. And, let me remind this assembly, that the prince also rescued Ida Ross as well as others. I do not make excuses for him; I merely ask that we keep an open mind. Blinkmire said this stranger called Anatole a traitor. Perhaps, we may begin there.”

  Both Charles and Paul stared at the viscount.

  “Traitor? That is how Raziel and Rasha refer to Romanov,” the earl told them. “Charles, we’ve seen nothing from Rasha since the wedding, and Raziel, his so-called father, has wandered these grounds before as though he owns them. Do you think he’d dare do so again?”

  “Without a doubt. These creatures have the ability to appear and disappear at will, as if crossing from one world to the next. And Reid insists that the prince’s horseless carriage arrived in similar fashion. How do they manage it? Is it science or magic?”

  “We might call it magic,” MacPherson answered, “but then inventions we consider commonplace today might be called magic by our ancestors. It’s likely these spirit beings have knowledge of creation’s secrets well beyond our own, but we must never seek knowledge from them. Tha
t is the mistake Adam made. Most will lie and try to cajole us into surrendering our free will, just as this gatekeeper tried to coax Charles into trading his watch for instruction.”

  “And the mirror?” Sinclair asked. “Dare we keep it on the grounds?”

  “I vote we destroy it,” the earl said. “If such can be done.”

  MacPherson offered an opinion. “If this mirror was created through demonic knowledge, then it may not yield to any manmade science. Lord Aubrey, do I remember a plot you told us involving a series of mirrors? Might this be one of them?”

  The earl stood to address the members. “Susanna Morgan told me of such a plot. She may have lost her life because she betrayed their plans to me.”

  “Yet, Sunders doubts the body was Morgan’s,” Reid reminded the earl.

  “Regardless, I owe Clive Urquhart a visit,” Stuart declared.

  “Careful, Paul,” Sinclair warned his cousin. “If Susanna is dead, it is up to God to avenge it. Not you.”

  “What plans did this woman reveal?” Henry asked.

  “A plan to release an entire cadre of evil by unlocking thirteen mirrored prisons,” Aubrey answered. “Susanna told me little more than that, but she implied that human blood, provided by the Ripper murders, fueled the ritual to unleash one of these Watchers.”

  The clergyman shuddered visibly. “Watchers! Trent was a great fool and paid the ultimate price for his folly! Believe me, my friends, mortal men are no match for one of these beings without God’s aid! They can travel from realm to realm as quick as lightning, and most of the original two hundred formed ranks within Eden’s first rebellion. We know very little about the Watchers, or Grigori as some texts call them. They are created beings, and as such, must have limits. However, they surpass us, just as we surpass the animals. Yet, one day, when we stand in the heavenly council as co-rulers with Christ, St. Paul tells us that we shall judge these angels. Therefore, they both fear and hate those who serve Christ. That is why we must employ all the spiritual weapons within our arsenal, not just material alone. Else we will fail.”