by Steve McHugh
I glanced around at the five large exits from the cavern. “And those?”
“Bedroom, storage, food, whatever else you want them to be. This was someone’s house.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Ellie said. “Have you, Nate?”
“Underground caverns and the like are fairly common. Magic keeps them safe from external damage, so they just sit there untouched for years. Or someone finds one and takes it for their own personal use. The water thing, that’s new. I’ve never seen that before.”
“So, Felix is down here?” Remy asked. “I smell . . . chickens.”
“The tunnel there leads to a small farm. Chickens, vegetables, fruit, stuff like that. This place uses a similar method to get natural sunlight into here that The Hole uses. Only this place is several thousand years older.”
“Where’s Felix?” I asked, managing to pull myself away from the interesting sights of the cavern.
“He’s probably waiting to see if the newcomers are a danger to him. Technically only him and me can come in here, but he’s a paranoid bastard. He’ll be out shortly.”
I walked over to one of the tunnels. “What’s down here?”
“Go look.”
I did as suggested and soon found myself in a second, much smaller, cavern. It had artifacts covering the tables and cupboards that were scattered around the room. I walked over to a nearby chest and pulled it open. The gleaming white skull of a giant stared back at me, its massive head maybe five or six times the size of mine. I closed the lid and walked back to the rest of the group.
“See anything nice?” Alan asked with a smirk.
“Giant skull,” I said.
Ellie and Remy shared a glance and then ran off in the direction I’d just come back from.
“You know how old that must be,” Remy asked, astonished.
“The last giants in England were killed by Brutus over two thousand years ago. In fact, everything here looks new. Does Felix clean it all?”
Alan shook his head. “That enchanter friend of mine who performed miracles with the doors, yeah, well he told me that the amount of rune work and magic poured into this place was obscene. Everything was done to keep the contents pristine. He told me there wasn’t enough money in the world for him to start meddling with the runes already here. The word dwarf was thrown about.”
“How’d you find this place?”
“I was running from some rather nasty people with pitchforks and torches. You know the usual kind. I was heading toward the river Don, fell down here. Fifty feet straight into darkness. Thought I’d died. Managed to drag myself through the mud to this place. No one was here, so I claimed it as my own.”
“You need to see some of the stuff in this place,” Remy said as he returned. “You could live here for years and years based on the food here. And there are runes inscribed everywhere. I’m half terrified to touch anything.” He said it with the kind of laugh that suggests he’d rather not take the chance though.
“There’s enough weapons back there to start a small war,” Ellie said. “How much of this stuff is stolen?”
“Most of it,” Alan said. “I wasn’t always a law-abiding citizen.”
I coughed.
“Okay, I was never a law-abiding citizen. But I am trying to be.”
“I know,” I admitted. I really did believe that Alan—for all of his bluster and attitude—was trying to become a model citizen. He’d given himself over to prison in order to wipe his slate clean so that Fiona and he would have a future together. The man I’d known a few centuries ago wouldn’t have even entertained the idea.
“So, where is Felix?” I asked.
“Maybe he hasn’t heard us arrive,” Alan said. “This way.”
“Is he a prisoner here?” Ellie asked.
“He can come and go as he likes,” Alan said. “But when he’s down here, the runes shield him from tracking. He prefers to work down here in safety, only going up for short periods to buy anything he might need.”
We walked after him down one of the tunnels. About half way down, the sound of music began to fill the immediate surroundings. The small cavern beyond contained a bed, a desk, and books. Lots and lots of books. Librarians would have glanced upon the sight and groaned with envy. There were more books there than any one person could possibly read in a lifetime. They had been put into the dozens of cupboards here, until they’d been full and then the books had been piled head high all around the floor. Littered among the space between the stacks of books were piles of paper.
The desk in the center of the room was occupied by a man with long gray hair, hunched over something. He was writing furiously. He stopped, appeared to think of something else, and then re-commenced writing.
“Did you hear the alarm to say someone had arrived?” Alan asked.
“Yeah, I heard. Knew it was you. It’s always you.”
“That’s not exactly the point of a security system,” Alan argued, but the man waved him away.
“Felix,” I said.
Felix stopped writing and turned. “Nathan,” he said and got up from the desk chair. He limped over and hugged me tightly. “Why are you here? It’s dangerous. The Reavers, they’re back.”
“I know. They’ve killed people, hurt others. They’re trying to kill you and me,” I said.
“How do you know?” Remy asked Felix.
Felix tapped his head. “I might be down here, but I can still use my mind magic. It’s how I’ve been able to collate all of this information. How I’ve been able to track them. I link with someone on the surface and use them to do some searching.”
“You take over someone’s mind without their permission?” Ellie asked. “Isn’t that sort of . . . illegal?”
“I’m not taking it over,” Felix snapped. “I’m just pushing them toward doing something I need them to do. Influencing them, if you wish. It lets me read their thoughts without them ever knowing I was there. I originally discovered the Reavers were back by accident. I’ve been monitoring them ever since. Been about twenty years now.”
“Anything you can tell us?”
Felix nodded enthusiastically. “Lots. But I’m trying to get a pinpoint on whoever is in charge this time round. Until I do that, I can’t give you anything.”
“Why?”
“Because despite all of the names I’ve discovered, the dozens of them, I’ve never been able to track down those in charge. The leaders of this resurgence of Reavers elude me.”
“My wife was looking into them too,” Alan said. “It got her hospitalized.”
“I heard. One of those whose mind I took knew about it. I’m very sorry, Alan. And while this may sound callous, is there any chance you have some of her research?”
I shook my head. “She’s got it all booby-trapped. We can’t get to it until she wakes up.”
Felix looked deflated, but he placed his hand on Alan’s shoulder. “She’ll be okay. She’s tougher than you.”
Alan barely nodded.
“So why can’t you find those in charge?” Remy asked.
“I don’t know. No one knows who it is. And I mean no one. I haven’t been able to risk taking anyone too high up in the organization, only lower or mid-level members. Nothing is shared about the hierarchy that happens outside of the individual groups of Reavers. It’s very insular.”
“But you think you have something?” Ellie asked.
Felix nodded enthusiastically. “I picked up some information about high-level members a few weeks ago from one of those I controlled. The same one who told me about Fiona’s attack. They were worried she knew something she shouldn’t. I couldn’t get the names of those in charge, but I did get the name of some SOA agents who are helping.”
“Any you feel like sharing?” I asked.
“One of them is Agent Kelly Jensen.”
“Oh shit,” I whispered.
“You know her?”
I nodded and explained how she was the one who got m
e to go to the hostage situation in West Quay. How she was the one in charge. “You sure?”
“A hundred percent. She works with a small team, including a griffin and a man by the name of Mortimer.”
“Fucking hell, the whole lot of them were in it together.” I very much wanted to punch something in the face. “How long do you need?”
“Twenty-four hours. I’m so close, Nathan, so very close. We can destroy them this time. Once and for all. Purge the stinking cancerous bastards from our midst.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “In twenty-four hours, whether you have those in charge or not, I’m going after Kelly Jensen. Just one more thing. Is Merlin involved?”
Felix shook his head, pushing his hair back over his shoulders before he spoke. “No, not this time. Elaine has him by the balls on this one. If Merlin does anything so brazen again, she can get him removed from his position. He won’t risk that. No, this is someone else. This is something else too. The beginning of something bad, Nathan. Something, evil.” Felix paused and glanced up at me, a slight smile on his face. “I’ve been getting hints about things. About a change in the air. The ball has been rolling for years and now it’s gathered enough speed to make it dangerous.”
“How do we stop it?” Remy asked.
Felix’s smile broadened. “Now that Nathan’s here, we blow it into tiny little chunks.”
“Yeah, I’ll go get started, should I?” I said. “Look, you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous. We’ll all go to a hotel in Sheffield or Leeds, somewhere far enough away.”
“I can’t leave, Nate. I’m safe here. No one can get in except me or Alan.”
“In that case, Alan and I will go see what we can find out around the town. If the Reavers are coming, I want to know who they’re bringing and when they get here. They might know you’re in Doncaster, but I doubt they know you’re here. I want to be able to thin their ranks somewhat.”
“I’m coming,” Ellie said. “My nose is better than yours. And besides if I have to stay in here, I may just go crazy.”
Everyone turned to look at Remy.
“He has live chickens and enough weapons for me to have tingly thoughts. I’m staying,” he said, his voice suddenly serious. “Someone has to. Just in case those bastards do get through.”
“We’re going to make getting to you a death trap,” I said. “By the time we’re finished whoever the Reavers send are going to wish they hadn’t bothered arriving in the city.”
We said our goodbyes, and then Alan led us out of the cavern and up the ladder to the street outside. We all stood in the cool air as Alan replaced the door, which rematerialized just as miraculously as it had vanished originally.
I took a step and felt like I’d been punched in the chest. I stumbled back and looked down as blood spread out across my chest. I dropped to one knee, while my friends shouted and rushed to me.
“Nate, Nate, what happened?” Ellie asked, fear dripping from every word.
“I don’t know,” I admitted and touched my chest. The initial pain had vanished, replaced with numbness.
“There’s some sort of weird residue on you,” Alan said.
A growl sounded from Ellie’s throat as several people walked through the open gate. Ellie and Alan sprang to action, but they were quickly subdued, each of them shot with some sort of dart.
Agent Kelly Jensen stood before me, with a smile on her face. The SOA agent I’d grabbed by the shirt was beside her, hatred burning in his eyes.
“Don’t worry,” she told me, crouching down to look in my eyes as she spoke. “Tranquilizers.” She touched my shirt. “Had to use something a bit more impressive for you. An old friend wanted a shot.” She moved my head and I saw Mortimer—the man who had murdered Liz and Edward Williams—a rifle over one shoulder, walking across the scrubland on the other side of the road from us.
“Not burning,” I said.
“It’s not silver. You’re not allowed to die yet. You’re to witness the death of everything you hold dear, that’s your punishment for trying to destroy us all those years ago. That wasn’t a normal bullet, though. You want to know what it is?”
I nodded, although it was difficult to raise my head afterwards.
Kelly placed her mouth next to my ear. “A manticore spine crafted into a bullet. You’re going to be paralyzed in a few seconds. You won’t die, but you’re not going to be able to do anything to help your friends. I’m curious to see what happens to the venom already in your body.”
“Don’t kill them,” I managed.
“Oh, no one here is going to die today. You’ve brought us to Felix. So they get to live for a while longer. At least until you wake up.”
“How did you find me?” My eyelids felt heavy.
“I’m fae, and you lost blood at the hostage situation in West Quay. Which, by the way I was in charge of. When those idiots fucked up taking the Williamses and turned it into a clusterfuck, it was my idea to get you to go in. I figured maybe we could salvage something from the mess they’d created. Unfortunately, I couldn’t kill you myself, not with so many non-Reaver witnesses. So you lost all that blood and I used it to track you. It takes ages to get going, but once it does, boom, nowhere you can run.” She stood up and stretched, while a griffin landed beside her. “Don’t kill him,” she commanded.
The griffin walked toward me. “You should be grateful there’s someone who wants you dead more than I do.” He smashed the end of his spear into my head and the world went dark.
CHAPTER 24
November 1888. London.
What the fuck does this mean?” I asked Fiona, waving the paper I’d found in her face.
She took it off me and read it through. “It says you went through the Harbinger trials at the age of thirteen. That Merlin and Felix were the ones responsible, and that Felix wasn’t very happy with the idea.”
“I know what it says,” I snapped. “But I don’t understand it. How is this even possible?”
“I . . . I don’t know. I’ve never heard of such a thing. The minimum age for the Harbinger trials is a hundred. Putting a thirteen-year-old boy through that would be . . . insane. He’d be lucky to survive without permanent brain damage.”
I glared at Fiona.
“Sorry, but I have no idea if this is even real.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Felix left a note saying sorry about everything. We’ve got to find him. The Reavers have him. We need to find him, I need to know if this is . . . is real.” I felt light-headed, felt like someone had hit me in the head with a brick. I stepped back and sat down on the cold stone floor.
“Are you okay?” Fiona asked.
I shook my head. “If this is true, how many years of my life are a lie? A fabrication caused by Merlin and Felix for whatever reason they decided to fuck around with the head of a child . . . of me.”
I wanted to storm off to find Merlin and force him to tell me the truth. But that wouldn’t get me anywhere. And it would mean that Felix would still be missing, that Jack and his merry band of lunatics would still be free to kill. One job at a time.
There was a bang upstairs. Fiona and I froze.
“That was the front door,” she whispered.
I closed the cabinets beside us and switched off the lamp. “Can you conceal us?” I asked Fiona.
“Of course,” she said, and we backed up against the wall opposite the cabinets, beside the staircase a new arrival would have to descend. “If you move quickly this illusion will shatter though.”
“That’s fine, if I need to move quickly the illusion won’t be needed anymore.”
Illusions being created over a person by a conjurer feel tingly, as if your entire body is dying to be scratched. The sensation only lasts a few seconds, but a few seconds is still a long time when you have the notion that small insects are crawling all over your body. Standing in a basement full of various bugs didn’t help matters.
“We’ll just look like part of the wall, now,” she said whe
n finished. “You can talk, but only whisper. The illusion isn’t calibrated for normal voice levels.”
I glanced down and a large spider crawled over my shoe. I resisted the temptation to punt it across the room and it quickly crawled away when the door opened and light was cast down from the floor above.
“They could be hiding down there,” one voice said. He had an accent that placed him from east London.
“Go fuckin’ look then,” the second man said. He was also English, but his accent was northern, possibly from up Newcastle way.
“We’ll go together, there’s two of them. I watched them come into the house.”
“You don’t think you can take two of them then? You can kill whores and people who don’t fight back, but not some Avalon bitch and bastard?”
“You think you can take them both, be my fucking guest. Those drugs we got from Baker won’t keep the trolls asleep for long. Do you wanna wake up with a bunch of trolls in a rage, because I know I don’t. You down there,” the man shouted.
“Are you fuckin’ touched in the head?” the second man asked. “What fuckin’ idiot is going to say, ‘Yes, I’m right fuckin’ here. Feel free to come down and stab me.’”
“Right, well we’ll go together then.”
Boots touched the top step, which creaked. There was a pause and then more steps, until they reached the bottom.
“There better be a light,” the first man said.
“It’s here,” the second man told him and soon after the oil lamp was lit. “See there’s fuck all here.”
The second man was a good head taller than me, but slimmer. He had short hair that appeared to be balding at the front, and the appearance of someone who worked hard for a living. His chin jutted forward in an exaggerated way. He wore a long black coat that he had unbuttoned, and a curved dagger sat on his belt. The dagger was sheathed, but his left hand constantly hovered around the hilt of the weapon, waiting to use it. He played with a set of brass knuckles on his right hand, which was slightly red with blood. He’d used those knuckles recently.
The first man was barely five feet tall and stout, like a large barrel. He wore no coat, but was in a nice-looking gray suit. He removed a pocket watch from the breast pocket and flicked it open. “Got half hour,” he told his comrade. He glanced around the cellar we were in and I noticed he had a waxed moustache. He appeared elegant and more refined than his friend, who had opened the cabinets with abandon.