by G. P. Taylor
Thomas nodded, keeping tight-lipped.
‘Obadiah and I are brothers in a fraternity. We are bound by sworn oaths. My life has been set on the discovery of the soul and capturing its essence on death. His has been to find the nature of God and tame it for our use. If it hadn’t been for you then we would have succeeded in our task and the world would be a better place. When you escaped Whitby we first thought our task would never be complete. Then my crystal showed me that someone you knew well was still alive and it gave us hope. The Ethio has travelled far to find you all and as we speak he is just about to walk on Salamander Street – look for yourself.’
Galphus thrust the crystal towards Thomas. He could see the face of Raphah edged in the darkness. Quickly it changed to the face of Demurral and then, just as it was about to fade, Thomas saw the head of a black dog. Its eyes glowed red, its teeth were bared and white as it spat and growled.
Galphus laughed. ‘That is another of our companions – a man who can change from man to dog in the twinkling of an eye. He was the bait to bring your friend to us. With every day he gave him another clue as to who he was. Calmly and cleverly he waited his time. Every night he met with Obadiah and told him the good news. Every day, he brought them another step closer to us.’
‘He won’t be cheated by you. Raphah knows Riathamus – he can speak to him,’ shouted Crane.
‘Then Riathamus can sit and listen to his screams as we steal the lad’s soul and capture his final words. Not mortal words, Thomas, but the words of an angel. Your friend has lied to you. He is not a man but a Keruvim. That Ethio is the keeper of secrets that would explode our mortal minds like a spiked cannon if we knew. Soon, Obadiah and I will have all of his power and more. When I take his soul from him he is bound by eternal oath to utter a name so powerful that it is the key that will open time and heaven forever.’
‘And what of us?’ Crane asked.
‘What do you think, my pirate friend? Shall I set you free or take you to your ship and burn you upon it?’
‘Do what you want with me but let them go,’ Crane shouted.
‘Never. Spoil my enjoyment? Since I was a child that picked the wings from a butterfly, I have delighted in times such as this. I would no more set them free than cut off my right hand.’
‘Set them free or as Riathamus is my witness I will sever your hand and dip it in wax and it will light my way to bed,’ Crane said.
‘Spirit,’ Galphus said as he banged his cane against Isabella’s portrait. ‘How much room do you have in that world of yours?’
‘Don’t torment me, Galphus,’ a shrill voice said from somewhere very near. ‘Let me from this prison.’
‘I would invite Captain Crane to join with you and Thomas as well, they could keep you company.’ Galphus laughed.
‘Then let me from this place and I will take them to be with me,’ the ghost of Isabella replied. The picture rattled upon the wall, the teeth and bones jangling like Christmas merriments.
‘Did you hear that? She would take you with her and my problems would be solved. Sadly, that will not be so. I must await Obadiah. But first I shall prepare my dearest Kate. She is the screaming bait that will lead the Keruvim rushing to bring her salvation.’
Galphus looked at Kate as he spoke. Behind her was a handle connected to a large wooden box that resembled a hurdy-gurdy. He saw Crane stare at the device. ‘If you are wondering what this machine can do, it takes a charge like lightning and forces it to travel along the copper threads and then into the metal bracelets upon her wrist.’
Galphus took a hat made of goose feathers from the mantle and threaded more copper wire within each quill.
‘A Jobbernol Goosecap,’ he said pleasingly. ‘Placing this on the head adds to the charge and takes her life. Her screams should be enough to bring him here. When he comes to this place he shall find his own death. Living and dying becomes a matter of turning the handle.’
Galphus signalled for the Druggles to hide themselves and make ready. Thomas frantically eyed Crane, as if to ask him what to do. He sat rigidly still. He was frozen and icy to the bone, unable to move. His teeth chattered and rattled his jaw. Thomas couldn’t move or think a single thought.
‘Hurt her, Galphus, and I will give you thrice the pain and it will pleasure me to do so,’ Crane said as he rattled the chains that held him fast.
‘You sound like an old ghost, a Bard’s King, dead and futile. How can you hurt me, chained like that?’ Galphus asked, taunting the man.
With that, Galphus thrust his cane into the floorboards. A sudden bright light shone from the crystal and cast a vision upon the high ceiling. There, played out before them, was the scene of Raphah’s approach. It looked as if the whole of Salamander Street was cast on the plaster above their heads. Raphah walked side by side with two others, whilst stalking them in the shadows was a red-eyed beast, a dog so terrible that Thomas turned his face from the sight of the creature.
Along the cobbled road they walked, the creature always a few feet behind them, lurking in the thick black shadows. Thomas saw Raphah turn as if he realised that something followed. He could see him speak but could not hear the words.
Isabella began to scream as she rattled the bars of her prison, desperate to be free of the picture and walk in the world of men. As she appeared, captured by the frame, she looked up. There on the ceiling, dressed as a man, she saw Tanville. Isabella shrieked her name again and again and shouted a warning.
Tanville looked about her, as if she could her the calling of her name from far away. Galphus smiled, knowing that the screams of the spectre would draw them quickly. He took the handle of the machine and slowly began to turn it the way of the sun. It whirred and groaned like it would give song, and the copper threads began to spark. Kate was pricked from her sleeping as the first jolts of lightning shot through her fingers. She twitched in spasm and her back arched. Galphus turned the device even faster.
Kate began to howl like a dying cat as sparks burst from her forehead and the blue essence of her departing soul shimmered above her. Thomas jumped to his feet to intervene but a Druggle stepped from the shadows and with a blow from his cudgel knocked him to the floor.
Crane shouted and kicked out with his feet as the whole room became like a night in Bedlam, spitting with madness and writhing with insanity.
Galphus laughed, a smile on his face. It was like he had woken to a great remembrance of some incredible feasting. He gave no attention to the pandemonium, the crying, shouting and wailing that was all about him. Kate’s pain oozed from her with each breath that she snatched from the air.
In the vision from the crystal, they saw Raphah begin to run towards the house. The crystal followed his every step, watching him as he ran. It chased him like an eagle’s eye following a mouse through the cornfield. On and on he raced. He panted his breaths as he looked to each building to spy out the sound that in his heart he knew to be Kate.
From outside they all could hear Pallium shouting. He hollered like a Judas, calling Raphah by name, in words that betrayed them more than a kiss. It was then that the crystal eye turned to reveal the thoughts of the beast, shining through its eyes and seeing what it saw.
There in the street far behind Raphah was an older man. With every step he aged a day, as if the centuries chased him from afar. What was once vital and alive was now crumbling and aged. Barghast was transforming as the dirt of the street sullied his boots and the air he breathed speeded his death.
He fell behind, slowing to a walking pace, unable to keep up with the lad ahead. The beast made ready, tracking him from the shadows. It waited as he took several faltering steps and then stopped for breath.
In the light of the tallow lamps they saw the man smile and wave for the other to go on and find Kate. Barghast sat upon an empty barrel, his hair turning bright white and falling to the floor strand by strand. As he had walked Salamander Street, the curse upon him was broken. He bent slowly and picked a handful of dirt from the grou
nd and held it in his hand. Barghast stared at the rooftops that hemmed in this tiny world. He was delighted that he had taken such feeble steps along Salamander Street. Even as the frailty of age took hold of his bones and tepid blood coursed in his veins, he gave thanks.
Then, giving no warning as it lurched from the blackness, the dog leapt for him. The hell-hound took Barghast by the throat. There was a spinning of flesh and in the vision upon the ceiling Thomas thought that he could see two beasts fighting. He could hear their cries as they battled to death, tearing at each other. For the briefest of moments he thought he saw a lion’s head and then, from just outside the house, came the sound of a single shot.
The aura upon the ceiling faded as a shadowed figure stepped into the room. Even Galphus himself gasped in its presence.
‘Just in time,’ he said with a hint of nervousness as he tussled a lock of hair in his fingers. ‘I am so glad that you could make it, Parson Demurral.’
A Republic of Heathens
IN a dazzling moment, as if the sun had exploded, the street echoed with the shot from the pistol. Lady Tanville stood perfectly still, her eye still gazing along the line of the barrel. The dog lay dead, blood seeping from its ears and from the small bullet hole through what had been its eye. In death it was silent, and before her eyes the corpse began to change to that of Ergott.
Raphah turned as he ran, taking a final glimpse of Barghast as he lay in the mud. He rushed up the flight of stone steps and as he passed Pallium he stared at him eye to eye. It was as if a friend was greeting him. Pallium held open his arms and welcomed him to the house, ushering him onwards towards Kate’s cries. It was then, as Raphah took his first racing steps into the long hallway, that he felt an intense sense of foreboding. A dart of anguish blasted through his spirit, telling him to turn away. As he cast a look back, he saw the large varnished door closing behind him and Pallium sniggering in the lamplight.
Ahead, Kate’s screams and the whirring of the electrometer billowed from the room. Without hesitation or concern for himself, he dashed in. A thin hand grabbed him by the throat and threw him with the strength of a hundred men towards the fireplace.
‘Raphah,’ the voice said.
‘Demurral?’ he replied.
Raphah looked about the room. Thomas and Crane sat against the wall, and Kate was strapped into the chair by the fire. Galphus nodded and the Druggles stepped from the shadows as Thomas jumped to his feet to welcome his friend.
‘Take him,’ Galphus said, as if he were calling a dog.
Raphah was snatched from the floor and dragged to his feet as Demurral began to laugh.
‘How things change. I knew that Riathamus would not have you dead so quickly. It was easy to bring you all here. I had Ergott follow Beadle from the day he left Whitby. Does anyone ever notice a dog? Beadle did well for me,’ Demurral said. Then he pulled the bag from Raphah and looked inside at the Chalice.
‘Beadle?’ Raphah asked. ‘Did well for you?’
‘Not that he knew it, but I knew he would find Thomas and Kate. I wasn’t sure if the magic would work on Crane and that my suggestions to bring them to Salamander Street would be heard. Obviously all was well. New friends always impress Beadle. He would have searched them out no matter what. Meeting you was a gratuity, a bonus. All I had to do was follow on behind. Ergott kept me informed. As for Beadle, when I have done with you I will make sure whatever ounce of life he has left will become a misery.’
‘So it was you. And we walked into your trap,’ Raphah said.
‘It was me on the road and it was me in the cave. Bragg knew too much and had to die. He found out that Ergott had devoured Mister Shrume and wanted him for his own. Promised him the Grail – which I believe is carried in your bag. The others were just food for dear Ergott. His appetites are insatiable …’
‘But it’s over – Raphah told us …’ Thomas said.
‘You were lied to. It is never over, Thomas. It is not just I who seek the desires of our hearts – there are many people who would like to see heaven overthrown. It is time for a new nation and an old order to take power. A republic of the damned. Goodness and mercy are things of the past. Our desires are all that matter. Think of it, Thomas, think of you and Kate as the key to a better future for the whole world.’
‘Don’t think you’ll be killing them, Demurral,’ Crane shouted.
‘Jacob Crane, how peculiar. Is that a chain I see around your neck? I thought you were a man of action, one who would never be caught, and here you are trussed like a Christmas turkey.’
‘A matter of coincidence,’ Crane replied. ‘But should I ever be free from these chains I shall cut the gizzard from your throat and serve it for breakfast.’
‘And hell shall freeze over,’ Demurral replied as he looked at Kate. ‘Do we have the Magenta?’ he asked.
‘Still in the dock,’ Galphus replied. ‘Taken without a fuss.’
‘Ready to sail?’ Demurral asked. ‘So you believed the priest and the scoundrels we had paid to take your ship, Jacob? Taken in by a fallen cleric, how quaint.’
Galphus paused and looked around him. Kate stared at him through eyes that bulged with the pain of the electrodes.
‘I … only have the Druggles and they have never sailed such a ship,’ Galphus said.
‘Why do you only have Druggles? Is there not a man who can sail amongst them?’ Demurral asked.
‘The people think the Magenta to be carrying the plague,’ Galphus replied. ‘But,’ he said quickly, ‘it is prepared to sail and everything is ready at Dog Island.’
Crane cast a look to Thomas and gave him a sly wink and half a smile. ‘The ship, wait until we are on the ship,’ he said in a whisper.
Demurral turned, his stare telling them to be silent. ‘Did you think you had won? Escaped? Free to live your life as you desired?’ he shouted. ‘I could not rest in the grave until I have seen this day.’
‘What will you do to us?’ Thomas asked.
‘What I should have done days ago, had an angel not interfered with things. Meddling wingless wonder, fit for hell. Take the manacles from them and bind them, Galphus. Bind them tightly for we take them all to Dog Island. Then our work will be complete. Pallium,’ Demurral shouted. ‘This is not the place to take Kate’s life, that shall be kept for Dog Island. Go and find Mister Ergott, he should have made a feast of Raphah’s companions.’
They heard the door open and Pallium step into the street. This was followed quickly by a scream and the clattering of the handle. Pallium rushed back along the hallway and into the room.
‘The man is dead,’ he said, shuddering at the sight he had witnessed. ‘Shot in the eye … and …’
He did not say another word. Tanville Chilnam pushed Pallium into the study, holding the pistol to his back. She looked about the room. There was Galphus dressed in his finery. A girl was strapped in a chair with a goose wing-hat upon her head. A man was chained to the door and a lad skulked nervously by his side.
‘I’ve come for Isabella,’ she said as she pointed the gun at Galphus’s head. ‘The picture was stolen from my family and I seek its return.’
Demurral looked at her and laughed. ‘My dear girl, if that is what you are,’ he said through his teeth, ‘the picture is all a part of what I seek to do. Once I am finished I will gladly give it to you.’
‘But he’ll kill them first,’ Raphah said.
‘The picture and your guests,’ she demanded, knowing in an instant that they had to be set free.
‘A request too far,’ Demurral replied. ‘I would suggest that you do the honourable thing and shoot me as you shot Mister Ergott – for I will not let them go.’
Tanville Chilnam clicked the hammer of the pistol and took aim. All that Demurral could do was smile. Galphus gulped nervously as the moments seemed to last for a lifetime.
Thomas noticed the woman swallow, and the scarf around her neck quivered slightly as her eye flickered from Demurral to the picture of Isabella. The
ghost hung to the bars, staring out like a lost child.
‘Kill him, Tanville!’ she screamed from within the confines of her prison.
‘No!’ shouted Crane. ‘Leave that to my men – they wait this night for The Prospect of Whitby – let them kill him. Remember, tell Beadle – The Prospect of Whitby.’
For a brief instant she looked at him. Lady Tanville licked her lips and then, as her hand slightly trembled she pulled the trigger. Again the gun exploded. The shot blasted from the pistol and instantly hit Demurral in the chest, sending flecks of blood and linen cloth across the room. He reeled backwards, clutching the wound. Then with his right hand he thrust his fingers into the skin, burrowing them deeper.
Demurral gave a sudden and sharp cough as if he cleared his throat of a fishbone. He shook his head, pulled his fingers from the wound and dropped the lead shot to the floor.
‘I am beyond dying,’ he said like a man tired of the day. ‘It will heal. I am a curser of God and cannot be destroyed until he himself comes for me.’ As Demurral spoke, the blood stopped in its flow.
‘Take her,’ Galphus shouted to the Druggles, who appeared from the shadows and took hold of Tanville. ‘See she causes no more trouble. This has to be done tonight. In the morning, I will test her to see if she has a soul.’
‘And so you shall,’ Demurral said, looking closely at Kate. ‘To the ship and then to Dog Island. Nothing shall end this day until I command it.’
Like a forlorn caravan of wastrels, Raphah, his companions and Isabella’s portrait were bound and marched from the house and into the street. An old carriage was drawn up by the door. It filled the width of Salamander Street from wall to wall, and its flaking black-lacquered doors could barely open to allow them inside. Thomas was pushed to the roof and tied like an old hen to the luggage rail. When all were gathered in, the carriage took flight.