Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key

by Derek Benz; Jon S. Lewis

  “Right now?” Brooke asked, her cheeks flushed.

  Max was about to protest, but he didn’t know what to say.

  “It’s not like your dad is going to kick you out of the academy if he catches you,” Smoke said, trying to entice her.

  “You don’t know her father,” Max said.

  Smoke ignored him, keeping his eyes on Brooke. “Come on. He’ll never even know that you were gone.”

  To everyone’s surprise, Brooke took Smoke’s outstretched hand. “Okay,” she said.

  In a flash, they were gone.

  “Please tell me that didn’t just happen.” Max jumped up.

  “What’s wrong?” Natalia smiled. “Are you jealous?”

  “No!” Max exclaimed. “But we have to tell somebody. It’s too dangerous out there.”

  “I’ll get Logan,” Ernie said.

  In a flash, Agent Thunderbolt was off, but before he returned, Smoke was already back. Brooke wasn’t with him.

  “Where is she?” Max asked as he grabbed Smoke by the collar.

  “Right where I left her,” Smoke replied, snorting as he pushed Max away. “I didn’t have enough juice to take her with me, but she can handle herself.”

  Max saw a small flash of blue light flicker behind Smoke’s ear. Smoke winced and reached back to scratch his neck. “Somebody just turned my power off!”

  “That would be me,” Logan said, stepping out of the shadows. “You’ve got exactly five seconds to tell me where you left Brooke Lundgren before I reach down your throat and pull the words out of you.”

  30

  DON’T FEAR THE REAPER

  Max struck his head against the side of the carriage as Logan slammed on the air brakes. The force sent the vehicle drifting through a cobblestone turn before the carriage raced under the gate that separated Iron Bridge from the rest of the island. Then, like a comet, the carriage shot toward the Ward Forest.

  The vehicle looked like the hybrid of a nineteenth-century carriage and a sleek bullet, but there were no horses. Instead, Logan guided two hovering spheres of light that pulled the carriage, while Max rode alone in the coach below. The rest of the Griffins were back at Iron Bridge, being debriefed by an outraged Dean Nipkin. That Smoke had managed to teleport outside the school was both a shock and an outrage.

  Max’s stomach felt like a sack of spiders as he thought about Brooke. She was alone out there, in a dark forest that could very well be inhabited by monsters.

  “I need you to stay focused,” Logan said. “Don’t let your emotions take control. We need you on this one… Brooke needs you.”

  No pressure, Max thought. He wished that Iver were here to keep him calm and focused.

  Soon they entered a section of the forest known as Gimble Eaves, and when Logan hit the retro-engines, the carriage slid to a frictionless stop. Max could see several hovercycles parked on the edge of the wood, white steam rising from their idling tailpipes. THOR agents had been called in to locate and, if possible, rescue Brooke Lundgren.

  “Miss Lundgren has taken shelter in the cottage,” one of the THOR agents relayed over the communicator. “She’s safe for now. But she’s afraid to come out. Says there’s something outside waiting for her. She’s asking for her father.”

  Logan shook his head as he replied. “He’s five thousand miles away and unreachable. Just tell her I’m on my way. Max is with me.” The Scotsman growled. “I’ve got a bad feeling about what we’re walking into, Grasshopper. You better activate your gauntlet. Whatever happens, stay close.”

  Max twisted the silver ring on his finger. It shimmered before spreading over his hand to form the Codex Gauntlet. As Max flexed his fingers inside the metal glove, a spark of blue flame ignited on his fingers. He was ready.

  It wasn’t long before they found the cottage, but an ominous stretch of moonlit grass lay between them and Brooke. As Max ventured a foot onto the meadow, a chill crept over him. Something very evil was near. He backed into the safety of the trees.

  Logan looked down at a handheld device and tapped on the screen with his gloved finger. “The temperature just dropped thirty degrees,” he whispered, his breath visible in the night air. “Stay sharp.”

  Max saw several figures emerge from the foliage like wraiths. Some wore ski masks, and others had grease paint streaked across their faces. They all wore black uniforms, Spectral Vision goggles, and a hammer insignia on their shoulders. Logan’s THOR agents had arrived.

  “Status?” Logan asked.

  “Sensors confirm that she’s inside,” answered a stoic soldier named Søren. “Vitals are normal, and the cottage, a temporal rifting nest, is currently providing adequate defense against the assailant. She’s lucky she found it.”

  “Our baddie?”

  “Delta Class Reaper.”

  “Options?”

  “The Baron’s gargoyle has a theory, sir,” Søren said, and he fell back.

  A figure draped in a dark overcoat stepped forward. His skin was limestone grey, his eyes were smoky orbs of yellow, and his hands were like finely chiseled rock.

  “Evening, Throckmorton,” Logan greeted the creature.

  The gargoyle was Baron Lundgren’s personal Bounder Faerie, sworn to serve the Lundgren family until the end of days. Apart from his imposing fangs and colossal strength, he was a Round Table Grandmaster, as well as a renowned expert in the fields of Faerie Biology and Ancient Ciphers.

  “This fiend is a relative of the Djinns of Arabia.” The gargoyle spoke in a soft German accent. “They feed on fear before they feed on their victims.”

  Logan took a deep breath. “I thought Reapers were supposed to be extinct. In fact, didn’t the boy’s grandfather lock up the last one during the war?” He nodded toward Max.

  The gargoyle stared back at Logan with his yellow eyes, unblinking.

  “That’s what I thought you’d say.” The Scotsman sighed. He unzipped his duffel bag and began to piece together a cylindrical metal rod, spinning a handle onto the back end, before popping a scope on the top rail. “Look lively, gents. This one isn’t going to be easy.”

  Then Throckmorton pulled a card from his jacket and handed it to the Scotsman.

  Logan growled as he looked at the empty face on the card. He turned to Max. “You gave her one of those cards you found in the bunker, didn’t you?”

  Max gasped. “Yeah, but why is it blank like that? Do you think whatever attacked her came out of the card?”

  Before Logan could answer, a shadowy form dropped from the tree above them, crushing Max to the ground. Max tried to fight back, but the Reaper had pinned his gauntlet. It was a shadowy beast with ghostly eyes and silver teeth, but there was something else. The creature had been modified, like the boy in Max’s dream. Mechanical bits and whirring clock gears were fused with its dark flesh. The cyborg monster gripped Max’s neck with a hand of cold steel.

  The THOR agents responded with a barrage from their MVX pulse rifles, but the Reaper dissolved into mist faster than they could pull their triggers, only to reform after the barrage had ceased, keeping Max pinned to the ground.

  “Delta Class. We have a lock!” a soldier called out.

  Max managed to open his watering eyes to see a metal ball hit the ground next to him. A small green light blinked, followed by the disembodied voice of a Scottish woman: “Sonic grenade detonation in T-minus three… two… one…”

  The explosion rattled Max’s teeth, but it had done the trick. The Reaper released its grasp and fell to the ground, convulsing. Another weapon fired. In an instant, the flailing Reaper was enmeshed in a net of sparking electricity, meant to short-circuit its ability to phase. Unfortunately, the net had been designed for Gamma Class monsters, and the Reaper wasn’t going to give up so easily. With a roar, it ripped the net apart and phased into the ground.

  The clearing grew deathly quiet. The agents quietly spread out.

  “Shhh…” the Scotsman warned Max. He pointed to the ground. “It’s waiting for us
to make a mistake.”

  As Logan spoke, the air in the clearing seemed to crystallize. Max watched helplessly as a wave of frost shot up, rooting everyone to the ground. There were shouts, but no matter what they seemed to do, the ice only latched on more tenaciously. It continued to sweep up their bodies.

  Max was the first overcome by the cursed frost. It constricted his chest and wrung its icy fingers around his neck. As he opened his mouth to cough, the frost swept inside and down his throat. He coughed and gagged, unable to move. His heart thudded. It was difficult to breathe. Then Max felt something move inside his jacket. A moment later, one of the Round Table cards from the Chinnery deck managed to wiggle its way out of Max’s pocket and onto the ground. It was a red dragon known as Shadowbane.

  Max watched through watery eyes as the image exploded from the card and into the air. Crimson particles swirled in the night until they coalesced into a menacing dragon the size of a truck. Its armored tail pounded the earth and its mouth glowed with fire.

  Belowground, the Reaper snarled.

  Shadowbane roared its challenge, gliding through the air under the power of its great wings. The dragon circled the clearing, its radiating heat melting the frost. Max could breathe again. Logan quickly scooped him up and carried him to safety.

  Seeking the Reaper like a hawk hunting after a field mouse, the dragon struck the ground in a tumult of fiery earth. With a roar, it plunged its armored head through the soil and plucked the Reaper out like a weed.

  The monster lashed at the dragon’s eyes, frantically trying to break free. There was no escape. In three short bites, the Reaper had disappeared into the dragon’s molten jaws.

  With a roar of victory, Shadowbane shot into the air and made a triumphant pass over the battlefield before finally dissolving into a red mist that was sucked back into the Round Table card in Max’s hand—the same card with Oswald Chinnery’s mark on it.

  After examining Max for wounds, Logan stood back. “Two cards from that deck of yours have come to life now. That means you’re going to help me track them down before someone else gets hurt. Understood?”

  Max nodded slowly.

  Throckmorton passed over the clearing and ripped the cottage door from its hinges. Brooke raced out and into his arms. Max started after her, but Logan held him back. “Give her some time, Grasshopper. She’s had quite a scare. Besides, you’ve got work to do.”

  31

  CONSEQUENCES

  The Griffins walked off the Zephyr and onto the platform below the school. It was October, and the subway’s eccentricities had become commonplace to everyone except Natalia—it hadn’t forgiven her in the slightest. It would often remove the springs from her seat or ensure her window was covered in smelly slime.

  “This thing hates me,” she complained.

  Max laughed. “Well, at least you have the three of us.”

  “I’d prefer a ride to school where I didn’t have to worry about getting tossed into the bottom of the lake. I can feel it watching me all the time. The other day I ended up stepping in a bucket of fish heads that hadn’t been there until I walked into the compartment. Fish heads!”

  Max swallowed his smile. “So, Harley, did you find anything in that clockwork manual?”

  Harley whistled. “Monti was right; Von Strife was a genius. If you gave me a hundred years, I still don’t think I could replicate half of the machines he designed… even with the blueprints. He was way before his time.”

  “Does the manual mention anything about artificial intelligence?”

  “Not a word,” Harley replied. “But I found a chart in the back with a bunch of names I didn’t recognize,” he said. “I think they’re all changelings, but I’m not sure.”

  Ernie took the book and scanned the list. “Oh my gosh. Flight… molecular restructuring… transmutation…. These are definitely changelings. I wonder why he wrote all this down.”

  “Who knows,” Harley said, before he put his copy of the manual back in his bag. “He was a teacher. Maybe those were some of his students.”

  “Does anyone know what’s going on with Brooke?” Natalia asked. “I haven’t heard from her since Smoke dumped her in that forest.”

  “She hasn’t been answering her phone.” Max sighed in worry. “Logan said she’s going to take a break from school for a while…”

  “I hope Smoke gets what’s coming to him,” Natalia muttered as the Griffins passed through the pillared gates and into the Green Corridor.

  “Baron Lundgren shut his powers off,” Ernie said. “I guess Dean Nipkin had him locked up somewhere in Sendak Hall.”

  The Griffins fell into silent thoughts as they passed through the halls of the school. As they neared homeroom, they found Dean Nipkin and Ms. Merical locked in another heated discussion. The difference was that Dean Nipkin won this time. She was holding Robert’s arm in her bony fingers as she turned to leave.

  He reached out to fuse himself to the wall, but his power disappeared like a dead battery.

  “No!” Ernie shouted. In a burst of speed, he tore down the hall, placing himself in front of Dean Nipkin. “Where are you taking him?”

  The dean looked down at Ernie with tired eyes. “You know very well where he’s going. You of all people should understand that Robert needs special attention until he can control his talents.”

  “I don’t want to go!” Robert complained. “I want to stay here with all the normal kids.”

  “What would happen if you blew up in the middle of a classroom? Do you really think we should put the entire student body at risk because you prefer to roam around the campus unfettered? Do you really want a repeat of our tragic history?”

  “What about Ernie?” Robert maintained. “Why does he get to stay?”

  Ernie felt exposed as the dean turned to eye him carefully. “I’m working on it.” With that, she brushed past Ernie and disappeared through the doors with Robert in tow.

  Ms. Merical placed a hand on Ernie’s shoulders. “As much as I hate to admit it, Dean Nipkin is right. Robert needs to learn how to control his abilities, or we’re all at risk.”

  “Am I next?”

  Ms. Merical shook her head as she smiled at Ernie. “I don’t think you need to worry about it.”

  “Dean Nipkin mentioned a tragedy,” Natalia began. “What was she talking about?”

  “Naomi…” Ms. Merical answered after a sigh.

  “Who?”

  “Many years ago, a young girl named Naomi attended this academy. She was a fire elemental like Yi, and she had extraordinary potential. In fact, she might have been one of the most powerful changelings in recorded history.”

  “Why haven’t I heard about her before?” Ernie wanted to know.

  “Because something went very wrong…” Ms. Merical’s voice trailed off. After a moment she blew her nose, wiped her eyes, and continued. “As difficult as it may seem right now, the rules are here to protect us. One day you will understand.”

  “No. I won’t,” Ernie said flatly.

  32

  AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

  Ernie stewed through the rest of the morning, refusing to talk to anyone unless it was on the topic of food. He always ate a lot, but when he was depressed, his appetite went into overdrive. He was lucky that he never gained weight. When the bell announced lunch, he shot out the door. A stack of papers swirled behind him as he raced to his locker, where he opened the small refrigerator door that the maintenance team had installed. He grabbed a stick of summer sausage and bottle of Plumples before slamming his locker shut.

  “I thought you weren’t supposed to use your super speed unless it was an emergency,” Max said, placing his books in the locker next to Ernie’s.

  “I was hungry,” Ernie grumbled before turning to walk to the dining hall.

  “I’m sure Robert is going to be fine,” Max said, trying to catch up.

  Ernie stuffed half the sausage into his mouth before tearing a chunk off. “Look, I know you�
��re trying to make me feel better, but you don’t get it,” he said as he smacked his lips. “Eventually I’m going to turn into some kind of a freak all covered in fur, or feathers, or who knows what. It’s the same for Robert, and all the other changelings. Instead of trying to help us find a cure, they want to lock us away like we’re criminals.”

  “Maybe we could talk to Brooke’s dad,” Max suggested.

  “Yeah, right,” Ernie said. “He probably gave Dean Nipkin permission to take Robert away. I bet you anything that I’m next. Besides, what’s going to happen when they see this?” Ernie pulled up his shirtsleeve to reveal a series of faint spots on his arm.

  “Have you shown that to Doc Trimble?” Max asked.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Ernie said, rolling his sleeve back down.

  By the time Harley and Max grabbed their lunches, Ernie had already rushed through the line. He was sitting with the Toad brothers, eating with the rest of the social outcasts. The room was packed with chattering students.

  “What the heck is going on?” Harley asked as he wove through the crowd.

  “Beats me,” Max replied.

  “You’re just the two we were hoping to see,” Todd said, as Max took a seat next to him. “Where’s Romanov?”

  “I don’t know. She told me that she would meet us here before class started,” Max replied. “It’s usually better not to ask. Why? What’s going on?”

  Ross finished scribbling something into his little black notebook. “They just released the pairings for the Round Table tournament.”

  “You aren’t going to believe this,” Todd said, looking at Ernie. “You’re dueling against Smoke.”

  “Smoke?” Ernie asked, nearly choking on his macaroni salad. “I thought he was locked away.”

  “Apparently he’s still eligible for the tournament,” Ross replied indifferently.

  “Who am I dueling?” asked Harley.

  “Cricket Willoughby,” Todd answered. “You two have a similar style, but you should be in good shape if you don’t do anything stupid.”