by P M Cole
“Help Lucas!” I cried out to Estelle. She swung around her bow and fired off an arrow, but just before it struck its target there was a breeze and it fell to the ground.
We can’t win this.
Lucas fell limp onto the ground, his skin a deathly blue. I went to run towards him when Arges roared.
Grace’s sword was through his centre. His massive axe fell to the ground as he staggered back.
“No…”
“We have to go!” shouted Colin from behind me.
I spun around, ready to run from the carnage when I stopped. A pool of blood formed on the front of Colin’s chest.
He looked down, then at me.
“Cog?” His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the ground. Byron stood behind him, a dagger in his hand, dripping with blood, and a smile… an evil grinning smile.
I went to charge forward, intent on his destruction when out of nowhere the Oracle’s prophecy came to me.
‘You have to die…’
I promptly came to a halt, then looked at all the death around me. The Ratters were running. Estelle lay dead, Vernon, Colin…
There was only one way that Hades would never get what he wanted. I looked down at the blades that extruded from my forearms. The metal stretched, bent around, then plunged into my chest.
“No!” shouted Cannington, reappearing in front of me.
I slumped to the ground. It wasn’t pain I felt, but contentment that, ultimately, he would not win. I had taken that from him. I looked up and smiled. For a moment his was a face of fury, but then it changed to one of surprise as his eyes looked behind me. “You! No… the council said they would find you!”
I felt a hand on the back of my head. “What has he done to you, child.” I recognised the voice. I twisted my head to the side. It was Mr Gladwell, looking older even than his senior years.
“You’re alive…”
He smiled and nodded, but I could see the tears on his face.
He ripped the pocket watch from his neck.
“You want to use that for this?” said Cannington.
Mr Gladwell looked up at Cannington, his face full of hate.
“Very well.”
Byron went to move forward, but Cannington raised his hand.
“But she will know I betrayed her! She will know everything!” said Byron.
“This is how it has to be. We will find another way,” said Cannington.
As the last embers of my life slipped into the void, Mr Gladwell looked down at me. “Go to the shop.”
Before I could even attempt a reply, he smashed the watch into the ground.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“I… You know after we lost touch, back when we was kids, I always wondered what happened to you, and then I saw you in that alleyway, and—”
I looked at Colin then the sewer, then back to Colin and rushed forward, hugging him. Momentarily surprised, he then kissed me, and I kissed him back. We were both alive and I had no idea how.
I pulled back and took my pocket watch out from inside my dress and noted the time. Still forty minutes to go for the start of the Ball. “I have to go to the shop.”
“What?” said Colin. Lucas walked to his side.
“What’s going on?” said Lucas. “We need to get going to make it to Grayton in time. There’s no time to go back to the shop.”
I smiled on seeing him too. “No time to explain, but we’re not going to the ball. I have to get back to the shop. Tell the others to return. I’m not facing… Hades tonight.”
I unfastened Olivia’s dress, slipped out of it and handed it to Lucas. “Tell Olivia it’s a beautiful dress, but she should wear it.” Everyone looked at me confused. “I’ll explain later, but I have to go!” I then took the lantern from Lucas and made my way back the way we came, taking another route.
As I rushed along the sewer tunnels heading northeast, I kept touching the damp walls around me to confirm they were real. I moved faster and faster, while images of what had just happened played through my mind. They all died. Colin, Lucas, Bernard… I died. Byron tricked me. I know who the six are. I know everything…
After what felt like an eternity, I ran into the sewer that ran alongside my basement home. Pulling on the weight, I climbed through the hole and ran up the stairs. As I neared the top, I felt the heat from a fire.
Mr Gladwell was sitting in his usual chair next to the roaring flames. He turned to me, smiling. I ran across the small room and threw my arms around him. So many questions spiralled around my mind. “I… what…”
“Sit.”
I pulled the nearby chair to me and sat. That’s when I realised how tired he looked.
“You must be very confused.”
I nodded.
He prodded the fire with the poker. “There are three things that I need to confess…”
“OK…”
He briefly looked at me, his eyes glistening in the glow of the fire. “It was no coincidence that we met on Carver Street all those years ago… I had been trying to find you for many years. Ever since I learned Hades had brought seven into the world with the powers of the gods.”
I had no words, only emotions flowed through me, and then as tears from my eyes.
“When I learned of this fact, some years had passed, and all of you were already children. The others I could not get to. They were too well protected by Hades, but I also heard there was one that he never managed to capture. That was you, Cog. So I set about trying to find you, but you were lost in a system not created for children to be found. Eventually, after much searching, I heard of a young girl who was making toys for tourists on the streets.”
A tinge of anger flashed through me. “Why did you not tell me?”
He nodded. “Perhaps I should have, but I wanted to protect you, keep you hidden… and I wanted you to have a human life for as long as possible, but in the end, even I was not able to shield you from him.”
“You’re not… just a clock maker and repairer, are you?”
He smiled. “No… that is my second confession. My given name is Chronus.”
I vaguely remembered the name being mentioned by Bernard during our time discussing the contents of the old books.
He continued. “As you are the forger and Hades is the god of the underworld, I am the keeper of time… or I was.”
“Was?”
“Many aeons ago, I fought with Hades. Despite what he agreed with his brothers, I knew his thirst for power would never allow him to be content with his lot. So I watched him closely. On learning of his travel to this realm, I tried to force him to return from where he came. I… unfortunately lost that battle. He took my power from me, but not before I was able to curse him to remain trapped in this realm. That was his price for victory, but I became just another human, with the only magic I had remaining, in this…”
He held up his pocket watch.
“I thought that was destroyed? Or did I dream that…”
He fell back in his chair, his arm and watch falling into his lap.
I quickly leaned forward, holding his hand. “What is wrong?”
He smiled. “That is the final thing I have to confess. This watch allowed me to live one more hour again, but if used, it would be my last ever hour… and—” He looked down at the watch. “— That is almost up.”
Tears ran from my eyes. “No… I don’t want to lose you!”
He placed his hand on mine. “We all must return from where we came. But Hades will not stop. You know who he is now, and that means you are in even greater danger… I—”
As if made from dust, particles of him started to rise and a glow emanated from his being.
“—Am sorry I could not be here to help you stop him…”
“You saved me! You saved us all!”
As he disintegrated in front of my eyes, his grip tightened one last time on my hand. “Remember, this is your time!”
And he was gone.
*****
<
br /> I stood behind the counter in the shop. Bernard stood next to me and a man of equal age, and just as smartly dressed, stood in front of us.
“Mr Gladwell contacted me by telegram a few days ago and asked for me to draw up the necessary paperwork to transfer the shop into your name.” He pulled a few sheets of paper from his leather case and placed them on the counter. “Can you double print your name at the bottom and date both of them,” said the lawyer.
My eyes felt moist as I placed the pen in the ink as I had seen Mr Gladwell do a hundred times before. Steadying myself, I did as the lawyer asked.
He looked at Bernard. “And now for the witness to sign.”
Bernard quickly wrote his name.
“And finally, what name are you going to use for this establishment?”
I wrote in the new name.
“And that concludes our business for today.” The lawyer shook both of our hands and left.
I hugged Bernard.
“You’re going to need some new stock!” he said.
The boards were now clear of the broken pieces of wood and copper having been placed in boxes in the basement. The upstairs was as Mr Gladwell had left it as I couldn’t bring myself to spend too much time on the upper floors.
“I have a lot of parts. I just have to put them back together.”
Bernard nodded. He placed his hat back on his head. “I need to be getting back, Mrs Hayward will wonder where I have gotten to. Lucas has returned to his manor, and the meeting will be there tomorrow evening.”
I nodded. “I’ll be there.” I didn’t want to think about Hades right now, that was tomorrow’s problem.
He smiled and left.
Colin walked in from the back room, a hessian sack in his hand. “That took forever!”
I smiled.
“How you feel now it’s all yours?”
I looked around the blank walls, remembering how it used to look. “I miss how it used to be.”
He stepped forward, rummaging around in the sack. “Yeah, about that… this is your birthday present.” He pulled out something which clunked and clanged.
“I saw you take this that day, and I know you didn’t have time to fix it, so I tried to do it myself, but—” In his hand was the clock I salvaged from before. The top was misaligned and one of the hands was pointing in completely the wrong direction, but it was the best gift I had ever gotten.
I leaned in and kissed him, then took the clock and placed it on the wall.
A knock came on the newly repaired door. I waved the workman inside.
“Sorry to disturb you, miss, but the sign is finished.”
I looked at Colin. He smiled and held out his hand, which I took, and we walked outside onto the pavement.
“Hey, that looks really good!” said Colin.
I looked up with a feeling of sadness and pride, reading the freshly painted sign above the shop.
‘Cog’s Clock and Pocket Watch Seller and Repair. Est. 1872.’
Continued in book 2…
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER ONE
In the basement room of Wraith manor, the fire burned brightly. Several people, including me, sat around the reading table. Outside, night had already fallen, bringing with it a covering of snow.
“I have taken precautions. We are now quite safe in my home and the surrounding grounds from Hades' soldiers, cohorts, or whatever you want to call them,” said Lucas. He looked down momentarily. “It has been a while since I have had to cast such a powerful spell. It’s quite draining.” He looked at me. “So, do we call you Corine or Cog?”
“Umm… whatever you wish.” I wasn’t sure myself.
He smiled. “I’ll stick with Cog. Firstly, let me give you my condolences on the passing of Mr… well Chronus.”
I nodded.
“If only he had informed us of his true identity. There is so much we could have learned,” said Bernard.
“He was trying to protect me, protect all of us…He saved us all…”
Lucas continued. “Indeed. If what you have told us is true, then we owe all of our lives to a primordial—” He could see the word was lost on me. “A primordial is one of the original gods, immensely powerful. They are also known as Titans… and to think one of them was running a clock repair shop in Holborn…”
“And Hades still defeated him and took his power…” said Bernard.
“That is what Mr Gladwell told me,” I said. To me, the old man that pulled me from the hell that was the streets of London and gave me a chance of a good life was just Mr Gladwell. Not a Titan, or Chronus, or whatever else was mentioned in dusty volumes, but my personal guardian. And now, like my original parents, he was gone, and I had returned to my natural state. Alone.
The events of Byron's birthday ball and what transpired felt like a dream, but I knew them to be true. My life, and the lives of those around the table depended upon us believing they were.
Hate was obvious on Colin's face. “I never trusted Ashmore…next time I lay eyes on him…”
“He’s not human,” said Olivia sitting next to Colin. She immediately looked at me. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
I shook my head. “It’s fine.” She was right. I wasn’t, or at least not fully. I was something else, and I was fine with that.
“Olivia is right Colin. If you see him? You run or hide,” said Lucas.
“I’m not useless! The Ratters can take care of ourselves!”
I sighed. “Colin, we know that, it's just Byron… he has abilities. Different to mine, but I think he can move really fast; so quick that we cannot even see him.”
Lucas turned, then pulled back a sheet he had covering a chalk board. On it were the names of those I had been introduced to at the ball.
“Yes. I have noted down here what Cog has told us of the six, and from what she could remember of their actions at the… battle in the grounds, what their abilities are, and from that—”
“What godly power they inherited,” said Bernard.
“Exactly,” said Lucas. “It might at least help us in finding out what might work against them.”
I looked at each of the names.
‘Byron – Speed: Hermes. Grace – Strength and fighting skill: Ares. Cassandra - Ability to control nature: Demeter? Danielle - unknown. Heather - unknown. Alexander - unknown.’ I skipped past the monsters Lucas thought Hades had also brought to his cause.
“So, it’s easy. We find a way to slow down Byron, defeat Grace without physically fighting her, and maybe use fire to defeat Cassandra,” I said.
Lucas’s eyes widened and he waved his fist. “That’s the spirit! Chr…Mr Gladwell gave us all a second chance, we owe it to him to make good on it.”
“Do you still want Finlay dead?” said Bernard.
I wanted to answer ‘yes’, but after the events of the night I had come to realise, even if I had killed Finlay, there would still be Hades pulling the strings in the background. He was my true enemy. “Hades needs to be stopped.”
Lucas looked back at his board, then sat on the edge of the table. “Why did he give you seven godly powers…” he said more to himself than those of us nearby. “What’s his larger plan…”
“Nothing good…” said Olivia.
Lucas nodded. “No doubt…” He looked at me. “Mr Gladwell told you Hades was trapped in this realm?”
I nodded.
“He couldn’t have liked that,” said Bernard, smirking.
“What if he wants to leave?” I said. “To go back to where he came from, and he needs the seven of us to create some kind of grand spell?”
“Then why would he need to force anyone to do that? I’m sure most would be happy to help the god of the underworld return to where he came from,” said Lucas.
He had a point.
We all sat in silence, looking at the black slate and white chalk trying to see what was hidden from us. The ‘why’ to everything.
A memory returned to me, one that I hadn
’t mentioned yet to the others. “I have just remembered something else. Hades mentioned a ‘council?’”
I noticed Lucas and Bernard exchange a look.
“What? Do you know what that means?” I said.
Bernard averted his eyes. “It’s not real.”
“What exactly did he say about the council?” said Lucas.
I tried to force the memory into the light, but it remained in the shadows. “I just remember him talking about the council… What happened that night is fading from me.”
“What is the council?” said Olivia.
“There have been rumours and comments better ignored, that there is a council made up of gods from all mythology,” said Lucas.
“What’s their purpose?” I said.
“Even amongst magic users and beings, it’s seen as an old wife tale!” said Bernard.
“Hades wouldn’t have said it if it was,” said Lucas. He looked back to me. “They are asked to pass judgement. Think of it as justice for gods. A god can go to the council and ask for help.”
“Ah! I remember. Hades remarked that the council have been looking for Mr Gladwell…”
Lucas looked perplexed. “Why would they be looking for him…you said he went away for a few days?”
I nodded.
“But he did not say where he went?”
“He said he went to meet some old acquaintances…could he have gone to see this ‘council’?”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. “If anyone would know where the council resided, it would be a Titan.” He looked at Bernard. “What if it were true?”
Bernard frowned, then sighed. “Then… why would he have gone to them? What did he need help with?”
He and Lucas both looked at me. “What?” I said.
Lucas suddenly got up from the table. “He went to the council for you Cog! He must have asked for their help in protecting you—”
“From Hades!” said Bernard.
“Yes!” said Lucas.
