The Lantern's Ember

by Colleen Houck

The lab shifted, tilting at an angle, and the doctor clutched the table, grabbing a beaker just before it toppled.

  “Where are we?” Dev asked.

  “In my private skyship. Thanks to Ember, I’m now able to escape the ghost storm that trapped me here.”

  “Trapped?” Dev said. “I thought you liked hiding behind it and wanted to use it for experimentation.”

  “Oh, I did, my boy. Learned quite a bit. But those pesky ghosts haunt my island for a reason. I was the one responsible for their creation, you see.”

  Ember swallowed. “Their creation? Do you mean you killed them?”

  “Why, yes. I thought that much was obvious.”

  A flask of blood moved through the air. The doctor took it. “Thank you, Yegor. Now the wolf.”

  “What are you doing with our blood?” Graydon asked. “I understand why you’d want witch blood, but a werewolf’s blood does very little, and a mortal’s blood even less.”

  The doctor sighed. “It’s so tiring for a genius to have to explain himself to those with tiny minds. I am retooling the bombs so that they will not separate the two worlds. Instead, when detonated, they will split the souls from every mortal. The vials of your blood will serve as a marker so the devices won’t target your kind. You’ll be able to live on as you always have. Upon consideration, you should thank me.”

  “Thank you for destroying an entire race of beings?”

  “They won’t be destroyed, technically. The disembodied souls will gather in a great storm in the Otherworld. Since they always materialize over water, they will head in that direction. It’s possible they will hinder life for ocean-goers. I’m the first to admit that it’s somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory, at least for the Otherworld.

  “On the plus side, the mortal world will be cleansed, leaving it for me. The empty bodies the mortal souls leave behind will be easy enough to rule, especially with my clockwork technology to help. With no souls to haunt me on that side, it will be a marvelous place indeed, especially knowing I’ll have my own lovely witch by my side.”

  “A world full of automatons bowing down to you as a king,” Jack marveled, with a disgusted sneer on his face.

  “Do you consider Frank an automaton?” the doctor spat, gesturing to the large green man in the corner. “You’ve seen him. He has a heart, a mind of his own.”

  “Not when you don’t want him to,” Graydon replied. “But you couldn’t do that to Delia.”

  The doctor slammed down his tool. “Not because of any special strength on her part, I assure you. Delia isn’t split from her soul like the lanterns. I simply put her soul back into her body, because it hadn’t gone far.”

  “You can put a soul back in a body? Does that mean the lantern process is reversible?” Ember asked.

  “Yes, of course. If the soul is isolated, then yes, it can be reattached.”

  “So you’re saying you could put Jack’s soul back into his body,” Ember said.

  The doctor glanced up quickly. He looked over at the pumpkin and then at Jack. He shrugged. “It’s possible. The thing about lanterns is that their souls are tied to an ember. It holds the soul in place, keeps it from skittering away. Doesn’t matter in Jack’s case, though. I won’t be fusing him back together. For this to work, I need a lantern’s blood too. Fusing him back together would make him human again.” He glanced over at Ember. “Besides, his fate won’t matter much to you, my dear. Not after the device has detonated.”

  Ember’s voice went hard. “I won’t be your witch.”

  The doctor laughed so hard tears trickled from the corners of his eyes. “No,” he said finally. “I shouldn’t think so.” He picked up the next vial of blood and poured it carefully into the slot fashioned for it. “It’s taken time to gather everything,” he said. “And you, Ember, were the most vital piece. I had to wait for you to mature, for your blood to be ripe. Finally, it is. Of all the witches hiding in the mortal world, only you were powerful enough to hear the call, and come to help me realize my dream. Why is that, I wonder?”

  “It was you,” Ember murmured. “You were the one drawing me to the Otherworld.”

  “Of course, if I hadn’t bribed several unscrupulous individuals such as your good friend Payne, and suggested to him that he might want to spike your tea with devil’s breath to make you more pliable, you might never have arrived. And again, if I hadn’t sent Frank a message to escape the dreadnaught by using the submersible, you might have been caught then as well. It would have been very unfortunate indeed if you’d been captured by the despicable Lord of the Otherworld. Even Graydon might not have been able to rescue you in time. Having Dev bring you was a far simpler way to do things.”

  “But you didn’t hire me,” Dev protested.

  “Didn’t I?” The doctor lowered his goggles and waggled his eyebrows dramatically. He sealed the finished section shut. When he was done, he checked his pocket watch. “Bah. I’m getting distracted by minutiae.” He pointed to Dev. “The vampire next, if you will, Yegor.” A sharp needle jabbed Dev in the arm.

  A tiny firefly drifted down from the ceiling when the doctor turned his back. It zapped Ember’s restraints, and the belt at her waist slipped down. She looked up quickly. The doctor couldn’t see her, but a black cat watched her sleepily, its tail twitching. When the cat didn’t move and nothing happened, she yanked the needle from her arm and flipped her skirt up, reaching for the holster on her thigh. Relieved to find her weapons still strapped on, she pulled out both guns, aimed them at the doctor’s back, and fired.

  Ember’s shots—an acid spell and a sleeping potion—hit their mark. Then she picked up a scalpel with her mind and slammed it into the doctor’s hand, pinning it to the wall.

  Immediately, the doctor’s lab coat began to dissolve, and he howled in pain. He wrenched out the blade and turned, clutching the table as the sleeping spell did its work. His eyes closed and he staggered. Before Ember could shoot a second time, the gun in her left hand was ripped away by an invisible force: Yegor.

  She pointed the other gun at the empty space nearby and clicked the weapon so the new spell, the one that would reveal hidden things, locked into place. Ember fired again and again. Finally, she hit Yegor, and his naked chest and arms and half of his face materialized. It surprised him as much as her, but then the spell faded and he disappeared again. She just had time enough to think that the next batch would need to be stronger, before someone grabbed her arms.

  Ember hissed and bucked, trying to draw on her witch power to stop the doctor’s minion. Her skin sizzled with energy, and a burst of light shot out from her body in a wide arc. It funneled over Yegor’s frame, pushing him back, and he briefly appeared again, but when the wave passed, he was gone.

  The doctor straightened, his skin healing where the acid had eaten through. “Enough!” he shouted, and raised his hand in the air. Ember’s second weapon was lifted out of her hands and drifted over toward him. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t draw it back.

  The doctor slammed the weapon down on the table. “How very clever to combine those two spells,” he said. “Both at the same time proved more difficult to overcome than I bargained for. You’re quite a witch indeed. So much potential.” He sighed. “I thought letting you keep your weapons would make you feel more secure. Make you listen and understand. It’s too bad, little witch. I even brought along a box of chocolates to give you as a sort of token gift, since you missed dessert last night. Now I’ve a mind to let you go without.”

  There was a settling of the ship and a groan. “Ah, I believe we have arrived.” The doctor approached Ember and gestured to Yegor to release her. “You’ll be coming with me. Frank, I’ll need both you and Yegor to set up a device on either side of the crossroad. Once they’re in place, you’ll scuttle this ship.”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Frank and Yegor said at the same time.

  “As for the rest of you, I bid you adieu. Come along,
Ember.”

  Desperate and just as unable to transform as Graydon, Jack summoned his errant pumpkin and bathed the doctor in a spotlight so powerful it should have destroyed him in an instant. But the doctor just gave the lantern a pointed look then flicked the orb with his finger to move it out of his way. “Trying to nip the hand that created you is poor manners.”

  As Ember passed the men, they all bucked and heaved in an attempt to escape and help her, but they were tightly bound. She could see a different solution draining into each man, preventing them from using their various abilities, just as the doctor had said.

  Ember tried to summon her inner witch power again and blast him like she’d done with Yegor. She sent shock after shock into the doctor, but he wasn’t even fazed. “Don’t waste your strength, my dear,” he said as he yanked her out the door and through a passageway, following Frank and Yegor, who were each carrying a cylinder. “No one—not a werewolf, not a vampire, not a lantern, not even a witch as powerful as you—can affect me. Besides, I’ll need all your energy for the transfer.”

  * * *

  * * *

  As soon as Ember and the doctor disappeared, Rune sprang into action. He took his human form and freed all the others, removing their restraints and pulling the needles from their veins. Then he led the recovering men to the place where he’d hidden all of Ember’s clever little bewitched brooms.

  “I must leave now,” he explained to Jack. “The Lord of the Otherworld is summoning me through his witch. I cannot ignore it, but know that I am on your side. The last thing I want is to have your Ember fall into his hands. I will help as I am able.”

  Jack clapped his mentor on the shoulder and smiled warmly. “Thank you. I always knew there was someone noble hiding beneath that rough exterior.”

  Rune grunted, nodded at the vampire and the human boy, and then turned to fog and headed out of the skyship. While he sped to his leader’s side, he wondered if Jack had said such to him because he wished it to be true or because he’d used his ability to look into Rune’s soul.

  * * *

  * * *

  Transfer? Ember thought. “What are you?” she asked as she stumbled behind him.

  “Ah, finally another good question. All will be revealed in time, young witch.”

  “You keep saying that,” Ember said. “But you never explain anything.”

  “Now, that’s not true,” Dr. Farragut said. “I’ve told you far too much as it is. It’s not my fault none of you are bright enough to connect the dots.”

  Something grazed Ember’s leg and she looked down. The black cat was following her. It was soon joined by an orange cat and a white one with patchwork spots. Then she spotted six more, then another dozen. Noticing the felines, the doctor frowned. “I don’t believe I invited all of you onto my ship,” he said. “I have no further need of you at this time. Be off.”

  There was a hiss and a meow, but none obeyed. He sighed. The cats quietly padded after them as they emerged into the daylight.

  The ramp had been extended, and the group headed down into a cave—a yawning black opening in the mountain of another island. “Come, girl,” Dr. Farragut said to Ember. “Don’t dawdle.”

  When they entered the cave, a series of embedded lights powered up, fueled by Ember’s presence. Just as there had been at the other crossroad, there was a membranous barrier separating the Otherworld from the mortal one. The doctor turned. “Frank, set up your device on the Otherworld side of the barrier. Once it’s ready, head back and destroy the ship. Save the boy, and the painting. I’d hate to waste the technology I used to trap the good captain. Yegor, you’re with me.”

  Once they stepped through to the other side to the mortal realm, the lights disappeared; the only illumination came from an opening ahead. Soft yellow light beckoned them forward.

  They moved along, the device floating eerily next to them as they made their way out of the cave. The cats, to the doctor’s chagrin, still followed them, passing as easily to the other side as they had. Their eyes were trained on Ember in a way that made her nervous.

  When they reached the opening, Ember saw that they were on a beach. A vast ocean stretched out before them. Yegor planted his device in the sand, wriggling it until it was steady, its pointed end angled straight up into the air. Once it was secure, he moved to hold her while the doctor fussed with the device.

  He dialed a few buttons, pumped a bar, and touched his hand to a lever. Then he opened the bottom level of the tube. Dozens of little compartments popped out with a pneumatic hiss, most of them full of vials. In the empty ones, he inserted the vials containing the blood samples he’d recently collected. Ember saw that each one had been carefully labeled—goblin, troll, gremlin, and so on. He added the ones labeled witch, vampire, werewolf, lantern, and, last, Finney.

  He pushed a nob and all the slots closed until they were flush with the weapon. “Done. Now we wait,” he said with a satisfied smile on his face.

  “Wait for what?” Ember asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  Soon there was a rumble underfoot. The sand shifted, and a broad rotating cone burst from the ground a hundred feet away, followed by a vehicle. When it was settled on top of the sand, the cone stopped rotating and steam shot out the sides. A hatch opened and a man stepped out, leading a thin, frail woman by the arm, followed by Jack’s boss.

  Rune trailed behind the couple. The woman was so emaciated she looked to be near death. Her stringy hair, which hung down to her waist, was so wispy and fine that Ember could see right through it to her scalp. Her reedy arm clutched the man as he guided her forward.

  The closer they came, the more Ember noticed a gleam in the woman’s toffee-brown eyes, one that said her mind was still very much alert, despite the decrepitude of her body. The doctor shifted his feet nervously in the sand.

  “Monroe, you deserter, what is the meaning of this?” the man said.

  “Ember, I’d like to introduce you to Melichor Lockett, otherwise known as the Lord of the Otherworld. And this lovely lady standing beside him is Loren, the high witch and…Melichor’s wife,” he finished with a grimace of distaste. “The man standing behind them is Rune. The first lantern I ever created.”

  The lantern’s face flashed with shock, but he quickly hid his surprise. “Doctor.” Rune inclined his head respectfully.

  “We got your cryptic invitation,” the Lord of the Otherworld said. “Why have you summoned us here, Monroe? Do you mean to worm your way back into my favor by stealing away the very witch I’ve been seeking?” Melichor turned feverish eyes on Ember. She took a step back, slightly behind the doctor.

  “I can assure you that I have no intention of ever attempting to garner your favor again, Melichor. In fact, it is you who should be seeking mine,” Farragut said.

  The Lord of the Otherworld laughed. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten who housed you and fed you when you wandered in as a poor metallurgist,” Melichor replied. “Stealing my device and quitting your post, not to mention kidnapping this young witch, is a shameful way to repay the kindnesses I’ve showed to you over the years.”

  “Kindnesses? The only reason your body isn’t currently moldering in the ground is because I have been sustaining the woman who sustains you!”

  Frowning, the Lord of the Otherworld glanced at his aged wife. Her eyes weren’t downcast as they usually were, but were trained on the girl standing next to the metallurgist. “What does all this have to do with the high witch?” he sputtered.

  “I’ll tell you exactly what this has to do with her!” Monroe went on. “All these centuries, you’ve kept her and used her.” He pointed to the high witch. “You’ve called her Loren Lockett, when that’s not even her real name. You care nothing for her. Not even after all she’s given you. At this very moment, your devious mind is plotting how you’ll steal away the little witch at my side and force her into marriage, finally allowing you to do away
with your old wife.”

  Ember gasped and studied the poor witch. Her thin, wrinkled mouth curled in a smile, but it wasn’t one of trickery or deception, which surprised Ember, considering the high witch had sent Dev to fetch her. Instead, it was a tired smile, and full of kindness and warmth.

  A cat brushed past Ember’s legs, meowing, and then trotted over to the high witch and kneaded its claws into the sand next to her feet. It rolled on its side and began purring.

  “Why were you looking for me?” Ember asked the witch, but the Lord of the Otherworld answered, assuming she was speaking to him.

  “Monroe is right. She’s growing old,” the man said coldly to Ember. “There’s not much life left in her to keep me young, let alone power the Otherworld. My people have needs. Once you’ve taken on the duty of replenishing the stores of witchlight and everything is stable, I’ll perform the spell that binds us together for as long as we both live and we’ll drain the rest of her energy, allowing her to finally waste away like she’s wanted all these years.”

  The witch shuffled closer and touched her hand to Ember’s cheek. “I’ve waited so long to meet you,” she said. Ember felt the hum of the woman’s ebbing power beneath her fingertips. Waves of sadness and exhaustion burrowed beneath her skin. “You’re so lovely,” the woman said.

  Monroe frowned, confused, as he watched the high witch and Ember.

  “She’s pretty enough,” the Lord of the Otherworld observed, thinking his failing wife was losing what remained of her faculties. “Not that it really matters. Now hand her over, Monroe. Or do you intend to cause more problems?”

  “Oh, there’s no problem,” the doctor said. “In fact, everything is going according to my plan. Yegor, turn the dial to level one and initiate a pulse. That should be a wide-enough band for the moment.”

  The machine hummed to life. Immediately, the Lord of the Otherworld began to shake. His skin turned pink, and the color deepened until his face was purple. His eyes rolled up, and he thrust out his arms and threw back his head.