To Mend a Broken Heart
Ned fought the urge to run to Benissimo’s side – he could not let the Ringmaster’s sacrifice be in vain. He ran to Lucy and put his hand on hers, and as he did so their rings touched. And suddenly he saw her floating in his mind, in a darkness, cold and still. A great abyss making ready to take her.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, and the Medic stirred.
All around them the cavern echoed with the breaking of stone. The Source was coming to its end.
“Ned, how did you …?” she managed, still groggy from Barbarossa’s blow.
“The same way we’re going to mend the Source. We’re the blueprints and the medicine, Lucy.” He could see it all so clearly now. “When I asked Kitty what we needed to do she said – ‘You have to give it your all’. I thought she meant I had to learn it all, memorise the Manual exactly, follow the ways of all the Armstrongs that Engineered before me … but I’m not them. When I follow my heart – my Feeling – and not the Manual, that’s when I Engineer best. That’s how I made you that flower, how I ended the battle at the convent. And that’s how we’ll mend this heart, Lucy. With Feeling – together.”
KAROOM.
There was another scream of exploding stone.
Lucy looked Ned straight in the eye and smiled.
And together they placed their hands on the Source’s heart.
As they touched the metal, there was an almighty hum from all around them.
Under their skins, the tendrils of their rings coursed with power, running through their bodies like a howling wind, connecting with the Veil’s heart. For the tiniest fraction of a second, Ned felt the many factions of the world’s people, on both sides of the Veil. Their hopes, dreams and fears. The link he’d achieved with Kitty paled in comparison – this was a connection to the heart of everything. He felt the world’s joy, the weight of its sorrow, and the Source’s desire to protect it.
Magic, science, even nature, were all related. The Source’s heart drew its power from them all.
Ned sent all that he was into the living metal heart – he Felt rather than Saw its many shattered chambers and dislocated components, and willed them back into order without really knowing what that order was, only knowing that it mattered more to him than anything ever had before. As he did so, he thought of his quietly heroic dad, of the mum that he had only just found but already couldn’t bear to be without, of all his new friends – some of whom had given their lives FOR HIM; had believed in him even when he himself did not. He might never see any of them again, but right here, right now, he was where he was meant to be, doing what he was meant to do, and he wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
As Ned and Lucy mended and healed, Ned sensed something else, a retreating darkness. He felt it watching him, and only him, even as it fled.
“Ned,” it whispered.
And it was gone.
For the briefest of moments, everything was still and the great cavern lit up with a light so pure and bright that all that seemed to be left of the world was the beating hum of the Source and its now blooming chamber, resuscitated and alive once more.
Half delirious, half broken, Ned and Lucy pulled themselves up and staggered towards their dying Ringmaster, strewn out across the floor. His face was drained of colour, with no sign of his miraculous gift bringing him back to life. Beside him his brother twitched, and one of his fingers stirred.
“He could still make it, Ned,” said Lucy, quickly checking the Ringmaster’s pulse.
Ned nodded towards Barbarossa.
“So could he. Help me get Bene up; we’ve got to get out of here.”
Despite their own exhaustion, they managed to raise the Ringmaster between them, half dragging his body along the street that led back to the cavern’s entrance.
“I don’t understand. We fixed the Source – why is the mountain still falling apart?” asked Ned, as he wrestled with his half of their burden, while dodging yet another falling boulder.
“I don’t know, aftershocks maybe? Look over there – the rock ledge above the entrance – it’s about to collapse. That’s our only way out!”
“Hurry!”
They staggered their way up the last, long stretch of street, every step became more difficult, every breath harder to catch. Ahead of them cracks were starting to show in the great pillars either side of the city’s entrance and the floor tremored. Benissimo stirred, his legs moved slightly, and his eyes opened.
“I … knew you could … do it,” he managed, as they made it through the chamber’s entrance and up the steps just in time, a wave of rocks shattering behind them.
“If you’re healing then so is Barba! Hurry!” said Ned, pushing the Ringmaster ahead of him and turning to look behind.
But Benissimo’s brother was already there, just behind them on the bottom step, cleaver in hand and murder written clear across his face.
A huge tremor threw Ned to the floor, but Lucy stepped forward, pulling out the dagger she’d kept from St Clotilde’s and clenching it in her fist, she moved in front of the still weakened Benissimo.
“You don’t scare me,” she hissed through gritted teeth. And every inch of her face told Barba it was true.
“Really? WELL I SHOULD!” he roared.
This was the man that had killed her parents, Ned realised. Foolhardy as it was, she had probably been waiting for this moment ever since she’d been told about her past.
The butcher paced forwards and Lucy held her ground, her delicate hand wrapped around the dagger’s handle and her arm tensing to strike.
Just then, from further up the stairs came the pounding of boots followed by the breathless arrival of a man in high-altitude gear, straight from the surface of the mountain and still covered in fresh snow.
The newcomer raised his hand in a sudden violent motion and the air in front of him crackled. Its atoms were thrust with such force, such incredible power, that they tore down the entrance tunnel’s staircase, swerving past Ned, Lucy and Benissimo, before hitting the incredulous Barbarossa with the force of a rocket. He flew into the roof of the tunnel, cracking its stone surface in half. When he landed on the floor again, he did so with a thousand tonnes of stone fury collapsing about his ears, leaving the way back down the stairs to the Source’s chamber sealed and Barbarossa lost from view. As Ned watched their newly-arrived saviour tear off his goggles, his mouth fell open. There could not – in all the world – have been anyone he wanted to see more.
Amazed by their sudden rescue, Lucy stared up at the welcome stranger. “Who are you?” she breathed.
It was Ned who answered.
“Lucy, I’d like you to meet Terrence Armstrong. My dad.”
Home
A moment later, both Ned and Lucy had collapsed with exhaustion, clearly more drained from the effort of healing the Source than they had realised.
When Ned woke again, it was in the shikari village of Mutu, to the beaming and slightly worn faces of Terrence and Olivia Armstrong. His mum, his actual mum, was sitting by his bedside. This time he was determined to do better.
But “I …I, um,” was all he could muster.
“Just give her a hug, Ned,” said his dad with a smile.
And that’s exactly what he did. If a hug could talk, this one would have told Ned’s mum everything he’d ever felt, everything he’d ever missed, or it might just have said thank you – for being alive.
“Ned, darling, I’m here now and I’m not leaving you. Ever again,” said Olivia Armstrong firmly.
Ned breathed a sigh of relief, but as the fog in his mind lifted, he remembered Benissimo’s broken body and George and the others being swept away by the ice shelf.
“Where’s everyone else?” he asked, already dreading the answer.
“Everyone’s fine, Ned, at least they will be,” answered his dad. “Thanks to the Tinker’s calculations we managed to find your location on the mountain, quickly enough to dig everyone out of the ice befo
re they froze too. It’s a near miracle, but nothing worse than a few scrapes here and there, and all on the mend.”
There was a fluttering by the tent’s entrance, followed by a voice that Ned had been longing to hear.
“Hello, old bean.”
“George!”
The king-sized ape was more bandages than fur, and had a noticeable limp, but nothing could mask his big toothy grin. Ned jumped out of bed and flung his arms around his friend.
“Ouch! I say, steady on, that toaster gave me a bit of a pummelling. Now then, who fancies one of my angel cakes?”
Gorrn, who had appeared by Ned’s side the moment he’d stirred from his ordeal, now satisfied that his master was in good hands, slipped back into the shadows with an “Arr” and an angel cake of his own. Ned made a mental note to thank him later for his help inside the mountain.
As they ate their cakes, George and his parents filled Ned in on what had happened after he’d left the town of Fessler. Ned’s dad had been leading a vicious pack of Darkling nightmongers on a goose chase around Hong Kong, when a newly recovered Olivia had finally got word to him of how things stood. He’d rushed immediately to the base of the mountain by every means possible to rendezvous with Ned’s mum and the Circus of Marvels on what reinforcements the Twelve might be able to muster.
The shikari of Mutu had watched in awe, as ship after ship of the world’s greatest circuses had arrived at their humble village. Oublier’s second in command, Atticus Fife, had been the first on the scene, closely followed by other members of the council brave enough and fast enough to make the climb.
Both Abi and Squire Wormroot had miraculously come out of their enchantings when the Tinker’s wind-wrangler had trapped Mystero. With his wife conscious once more, Rocky had been instrumental in leading the gathering reinforcements, including Ned’s dad who had then left them to their search and rescue and raced on ahead.
The collapsing entrance to the Source’s cavern had been the mountain’s final tremor. With its heart fully functioning and protected once more, the mountain had settled quietly back into slumber. Search parties had scoured the area, but there’d been no sign of Barbarossa and they now unanimously agreed that the butcher must have been killed by the mountain’s rocky embrace. How Benissimo was still alive if his brother wasn’t was a mystery that not even the Ringmaster could answer.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the day had been the frozen bodies of the Source’s shy guardians, the yetis. Not one of George’s maybe-relatives had been found alive.
“I’m so sorry, George,” said Ned.
“I’d have loved some answers. But now I know I’m not as alone as I thought I was, I can start looking afresh. Now, old bean, if you wouldn’t mind accompanying us outside, there are some folk out there that would rather like to see you.”
When Ned walked out of the infirmary, he was met by the deafening cheers of the Circus of Marvels and all its allies. Horns, drums, cymbals – and of course, Alice – blasted out their welcome. With every sound and every holler, Ned’s chest swelled. Josser, Engineer, Waddlesworth or Armstrong, whatever he was, he was most assuredly theirs, as much as they were his.
To his left, he saw Lucy was brought out of her tent at the same time, lifted high up on Rocky’s shoulders, and was waving in his direction – and despite his aching limbs, George managed to lift Ned up on to his. Benissimo carved his way through the crowd towards them, top hat jauntily to one side, whip coiled excitedly in his hand.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” boomed the Ringmaster as he reached the front of the crowd, “from the mystic depths of faraway Grittlesby an Engineer arrived, and on the haunting slopes of the Val Lumnezia, our Medic was finally found. Two children of immeasurable talent and courage …” he continued as the crowd oohed and aahed, “… watch in awe, watch in wonder, prepare to have your ears blinded and your eyes deafened, MAY I PRESENT … NED AND LUCY, SAVIOURS OF THE VEIL AND THE REST OF THE WORLD WITH IT!”
The crowd went even wilder than before, if that was possible, and the party that ensued carried on till sunrise. Jugglers with three sets of arms juggled, chameleon-skinned dancers changed colour as they pranced, and fire-sprites breathed their fire, in great arcs of orange light. Alice took to the skies in a flying race against a winged horse, a golden goose laid eggs for all the children, and the Ringmaster … well, he actually seemed to enjoy himself for the first time since Ned had met him. Everywhere Ned looked, his extended family of oddities and wonders celebrated and cheered as only the fair-folk could. While Daisy the Dagger presented him with a sword he’d most likely never use, the Guffstavson brothers filled the sky with great bolts of lightning, and the Tortellini boys spun dinner plates on their fingers atop a makeshift high wire, and all of course completely blindfolded, whilst Monsieur Couteau carved a vast roast into paper thin slices using his favourite rapier and a set of throwing knives.
But it was the sight of his parents that warmed Ned the most. It was the quiet way they looked at each other when they weren’t laughing. The way they held each other’s hands when they thought no one was watching. But above all, it was the fact that they were together. If anyone had told him on the morning of his thirteenth birthday that this was how his month would end, he would never have believed them. But then that was before he had found himself in the Circus of Marvels. That was before he became both an Armstrong and an Engineer – with a sprinkling of Waddlesworth thrown in for good measure.
EPILOGUE
A few days later, the ‘Waddlesworth’ family decided to return to Grittlesby.
Ned’s parents were adamant they owed their son a childhood, and ‘home’ was the best place for it. Until he’d finished school, at least. Though Barbarossa was no longer a threat, he had mentioned a cabal of allies. After everything their family had done for the Veil, the Twelve had agreed to keep a protective eye on them, at least until Barbarossa’s conspirators were found and apprehended. They were already on the trail of the Shar, who did not yet know that his coat of arms had been seen on Barbarossa’s dreadnought.
With the Veil restored to full strength and the remaining Darklings and Demons who had crossed over having been rounded up by the frantic efforts of the circuses, the papers of the human world were now full of far-fetched explanations for the apparent hallucinations that seemed to have gripped its people. Experts laughed at eye-witness accounts of dragons in flight, fairy wickedness and whole magical worlds that had appeared overnight – in the desert, in a garden, and even in a kitchen cupboard! – only to disappear just as quickly a week later. The most commonly accepted explanation seemed to be a combination of infected drinking water and mass hysteria.
With the Marilyn still in need of extensive repairs, Benissimo was loaned one of the Twelve’s airships to take them home. Landing on the green under the foginator’s protective blanket, the airship’s great engines were kept running as Ned said his goodbyes. Rocky and Abigail almost crushed the wind out of him and Alice had to be dragged away by Norman and at least ten other hands when she’d refused to let go of Ned’s arm with her trunk. Even Finn managed a nod. And George was completely overcome.
“I shall miss having a roommate rather horribly I think. Here, a little bedtime reading,” he said between sniffles, planting his enormous tome, From Shalazaar to Karakoum, into Ned’s hands. “Now, do keep up your studies, old bean, make sure you eat a lot of fruit, and try and stay out of trouble, will you?”
“Thanks, George,” said Ned with a teary smile, “I will. I wish you could come with us …”
But the heavy-hearted pile of fur had already turned and was skulking back to his trailer.
Back on his feet, the Glimmerman had presented Ned with a small hand mirror. It was a one-way key and would crack after a single use. If Ned ever found himself in trouble, this one-way journey would take him to an undisclosed safe house run by the Twelve.
“Thanks, Ignatius, but I don’t think there’ll be too much call for this where I’m going.”
/> The Tinker also had a gift for him, which was by far his favourite.
“Well, sir, I know you’re an Engineer and more than proficient when it comes to fixing, but I hoped you wouldn’t mind me taking a look at this for you.”
“Whiskers!” Ned shouted in delight as the Tinker presented his old pet to him.
After painstakingly collecting up what he could of the robot mouse’s parts from the avalanche’s trail of destruction, the Tinker had locked himself away for days, and in that time he had finally managed to get Whiskers operational again. Apparently, with a few custom-made enhancements. Ned’s shadow rippled with approval – Gorrn had taken rather a liking to his pet.
“You better look after him, I’ll miss that little mouse,” said Lucy, walking up to him at last.
“You do know he’s not real, don’t you?” said Ned with a smile.
“After everything we’ve been through, I’m not sure I’ll ever know what’s real again.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do?” asked Ned.
“I don’t think I can go back to the Order now. Not just because of the convent, I’m sure they’ll have found somewhere else by now. There’s just too much to see in the world; and I wouldn’t fit in on your side of the Veil. So I think I’ll stay on with Bene and the others, if they’ll have me.”
The ring on Ned’s finger hummed and his chest hurt at the thought of Lucy leaving.
“They’d be lucky to,” he said, looking at his feet. “It’s been an adventure, Lucy. I hope I see you again some day.”
Lucy gave him a knowing smile.
“Don’t worry, Ned, I’ll be seeing you soon enough.”
“You sound very … sure.”
She leant in closer and kissed him on the cheek.
As he looked at her, he noticed something different about her eyes. They had a mischievous twinkle he’d seen before, but on someone else, someone older. In her hair there was something new too – a plastic pink and white cat on a pink hair slide, was it … was it Kitty’s? But before he could ask her about it, they were joined by Benissimo, and Lucy slipped away.
Circus of Marvels Page 25
