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

by Derek Benz; Jon S. Lewis

  “It seems that you impressed Obadiah,” Cain said. “So much so, that he has reconsidered our request for his assistance.”

  Strange pointed his pipe stem toward Max. “You’re William Caliburn’s grandson.”

  “You knew my grandpa?”

  Strange nodded and chewed thoughtfully on the tip of his pipe. “I did, though he may not have known me. I wasn’t really myself at the time we crossed paths, but he saved my life in a manner of speaking. I owe him a debt. No doubt Lundgren knew that when he sent you.” His eyes flicked over to the Baron, then back to Max. “Now where is your father, boy?”

  Max shrugged. “Dead, I think.”

  “Missing,” Cain corrected. “Lord Sumner, as you no doubt know, was last seen at the battlefield of the World Tree. If it weren’t for Max, things would have turned out much differently.”

  “So I’ve been told,” Strange replied. He took a long pull from his pipe before turning to Cain. “You know, a gentleman would offer me a sarsaparilla.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Cain replied as someone knocked on the door. It opened, and Natalia slipped in, with Harley on her heels.

  Obadiah walked over to a worktable where several maps were spread out next to Saxon’s diary. “Now then, I’ve made progress, but we have one puzzle left to solve. The true brilliance of Saxon’s work is that he never followed a distinct pattern with his ciphers. No two puzzles were ever alike,” he said, as he opened the diary. He paused for a few moments over the pages, like a painter examining the works of his master and weighing his own worth.

  “As you know, the entire book is written in code,” he continued. “Some I understood, most I didn’t. In order to appreciate Saxon, you needed to be a master of languages, symbols, mathematics, and even a little backwater sorcery. Unfortunately, every time I solved one of the codes, it unlocked a dozen more. Each of them had a different encryption and new key to work from.”

  “But?” the Baron prompted.

  Strange pulled out a piece of parchment from his breast pocket. He unfolded the paper and spread it across the table to reveal a jumbled mess of codes. “It all comes down to this.”

  “What is it?” Natalia asked, drawing a frown from Strange before he responded.

  “Each puzzle was a part of a larger set of directions,” he said, pointing to a tangle of symbols, drawings, and meandering lines. “Much like the pieces of an engine that are linked together, each one is dependent on the other. Discovering how they fit together is the real mystery. This parchment is the key… the final cipher.”

  “We enlisted Montifer’s Babbage Difference Engines yesterday, but he hasn’t had any luck,” Cain added.

  Natalia pulled out her Phantasmoscope and pored over the parchment. “So if we can’t solve this last step, is it game over?”

  Strange chewed on the tip of his pipe. “Not necessarily. I already know where to find the Brimstone Key. We’re missing information to show us how to unlock the impenetrable safe where the key is kept. That’s what this parchment is for.”

  Cain and Obadiah discussed the implications of Von Strife finding the key first. The Bishop might know where to find the key, but opening the safe would be a different game. As they explored these possibilities, Natalia continued to study the parchment, walking from one end of the table to the other, then circling it from time to time.

  After a few minutes, Natalia turned to Strange. “Is this the only copy of the parchment?”

  Strange shook his head. “The original is in Montifer’s lab. Why do you ask?”

  “Good, then you won’t mind if I try something out.”

  With that, she began folding the parchment at one corner, then bending it backward and folding it in another direction. She continued the process, sometimes undoing what she had done before and starting in a new direction. All the while she softly hummed a tune. Then, after folding the last corner and tucking it beneath a slat, she set the parchment back on the desk.

  “There,” she said triumphantly.

  No longer a flat sheet of paper, the parchment looked like two triangles overlapping each other. The first pointed down, the second up, and where they intersected sat a small star. Codes that previously made no sense were suddenly aligned, and as Strange looked it over, his eyes grew wide.

  “How did you do that?” Ernie asked her.

  “I got the idea from Dr. Thistlebrow. Remember when he made that dove out of paper? You know, the one he set on fire? Well, that was just origami, and so was this.”

  “Unbelievable,” Strange announced, picking up the folded parchment to hold it to the light. “Now all I’ll need is a quiet room and a pot of black coffee. If I don’t run into any more snags, we’ll know how to unlock the Brimstone Key by morning.”

  After Strange left the room, everyone but Max was dismissed.

  “I am afraid that I have some bad news,” the Baron began as he leaned on his cane. “Archimedes has returned.”

  “Did he find Smoke?”

  “Yes,” Cain replied. “Along with Stephen, Becca, and Robert. There were others that Archimedes could not identify. Apparently Von Strife is keeping them all in an underground laboratory somewhere in Eastern Europe. I’ll spare you the details, as they are rather ghastly. However, it would appear that Von Strife has picked up right where he left off.”

  55

  THE GRAF ZEPPELIN

  It was agreed that the Baron would remain at Iron Bridge, along with his contingent of gargoyles, to protect the remaining students. At the same time, an expeditionary force would be setting off to secure the Brimstone Key before it fell into the hands of Otto Von Strife.

  It was not supposed to be a dangerous mission. Simply a race there and back again. For that reason, Monti and his airship were required. The ship was fast and could land anywhere, and she traveled through portals like a porpoise through the surf. Obadiah would act as navigator and mission leader. Logan was the muscle, and the Griffins were to go along as well. However, Cain maintained that if there was the slightest indication of danger, Logan was to turn the ship around and call in reinforcements.

  Never one to miss an opportunity for trying out his inventions, Monti had outfitted everyone with his latest gadgetry. There were sub-zero weather gloves with remote controls for a host of devices that included jump boots, cameras in their goggles, wireless earpieces, holograph projectors, and a special language translator that allowed them to speak in at least thirty different languages, including some faerie dialects and Clockwork Binary v.4. The gadgets were nothing compared to the vehicle that would be taking them on their journey.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this!” Harley exclaimed, as the Griffins approached a colossal airship that hovered above its mooring like a silver cloud. Similar to a blimp, it was streamlined like a bullet and was the length of nearly three football fields from nose to tail. What looked like two pectoral fins extended down from the front third of the airship, upon which were affixed sleek turbines. They rumbled and strained against the mooring ropes, with more wings and additional engines lining the body before giving way to four red tail fins where the Templar symbol was emblazoned.

  Diminutive figures were dotted across the vessel, hanging from ropes, polishing walls, wiping the windows, checking the turbines, and measuring the fuel mixture.

  “That’s the flight crew,” Logan explained. “Gnomes.”

  Max headed up the boarding ramp and glanced overhead, feeling like a fly beneath the belly of a whale.

  Natalia marveled at the airship, pushing back her amber goggles to restrain her wind-tossed hair. Then she saw the name of the ship painted on its flank: Graf Zeppelin.

  “I read about this airship in our history book!” Natalia exclaimed. “They said it was destroyed. Where did you find it, Monti?”

  The Templar engineer offered a melancholy sigh. “In a rundown off-dimension port where she was left to rot. Can you believe that? I can’t even tell you how bad she looked, but I recognized her
immediately. And thankfully I did… they were about to sell her for parts!”

  “You restored this whole thing?” asked Harley, amazed.

  Monti shrugged. “Restored, modified, enhanced… a few tweaks here and there with the MERLIN engines, and now she’s a fine lady. She can even pull three hundred miles an hour with the static discharge engines online.”

  “What’s the deal with all the gnomes?” Ernie asked as one passed by on its way up the gangplank, several life vests in its lanky arms.

  “The previous owner converted the Graf to handle inter-dimensional flight, and somewhere along the way the airship acquired a crew of gnomes. They’re tied to her by a faerie contract and they pretty much do most of the work. Trust me, I’d rather have gnomes than acid-belching basilisks. I got off lucky if you ask me.”

  The Griffins entered the airship through wide double doors that led into a foyer of cherry wood paneling and tall mirrors.

  “So, I’ve been wanting to ask…” Natalia caught Obadiah Strange’s arm as he walked past. “You were Lord Saxon’s apprentice, right?”

  He stopped and narrowed his eyes. “I was.”

  “I think I might have been a pretty good apprentice for someone like that. I mean, I solved the puzzle last night, didn’t I? Admittedly, I am only in sixth grade, but I’ve got potential, right?”

  Obadiah looked at her as one might stare at a two-headed baboon with fleas. He said nothing and then continued on his way, leaving Natalia standing there dumbstruck. She didn’t know if she wanted to cry or call him a jerk.

  Then there was a lurch, and the ship rose up into the air.

  56

  A STRANGE BREW

  “Our destination is the city of Durban,” Obadiah Strange explained later that evening as the Graf Zeppelin passed through a veil of silver-lined clouds. “Like Iron Bridge, Durban resides in the Land of Mist, which separates the human world from the Shadowlands. Several dimensions overlap within its borders, allowing it to act as a trade and commerce center for hundreds of kingdoms. Because of its economic importance, it is considered completely neutral and nobody—not even the Black Wolves—would dare move against Durban.”

  “Why haven’t I ever heard of it?” Natalia asked.

  “There are no roads that lead there. No sea charts describing it. And there are no satellites capable of spying on it,” Strange said, sounding slightly agitated. “What was Iverson teaching you?”

  “We didn’t talk much about geography,” Natalia shot back.

  Strange shook his head. “Its location is known only by those who need to know, and clearly you don’t need to know.”

  Natalia rolled her eyes.

  Strange continued. “Once we land, we must be careful. If Saxon’s agreement with the Durban dwarves is still binding, they should allow us to conduct our business.”

  “What was it like to work for Lord Saxon?” Ernie asked.

  “Difficult,” Strange replied. “He was a towering personality, notoriously impatient and prone to dangerous bouts of rage, particularly when it came to opposing views on his theories. When I first met him in the summer of 1857, I wanted nothing to do with him.”

  “1857? You’re that old?” Natalia exclaimed.

  Strange smiled as he adjusted his glasses. “I’m much older than that, thanks to my changeling blood.”

  As if struck by a jolt of electricity, Ernie’s eyes grew wide. “Did you just say that you were a changeling?”

  “We’re not as rare as you think, Ernie Tweeny.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Natalia pressed.

  “You didn’t ask.”

  “So what’s your changeling power?” asked Ernie. A wide smile was stretched across his cheeks.

  “I’m indestructible.”

  “What?” exclaimed Natalia. “You can’t be hurt at all?”

  Strange snorted. “Of course I can be hurt. I just can’t be destroyed. There’s a difference.”

  “What if a building fell on your head?” asked Ernie.

  “It can happen,” Strange replied with indifference. “A piano. A building. It’s all the same. I can’t die.”

  “What if something eats you?”

  Obadiah shook his head. “Whatever it is will have severe indigestion, I can assure you….”

  “But” began Ernie after a moment of reflection. “Don’t we change into faeries if we use our power too much? I mean, this kid told me that there aren’t any changeling adults.”

  “It’s not about your age,” Obadiah replied. “It’s about preventing the faerie blood from taking over. If you can do that, then you can be a changeling forever. If that’s what you want.”

  “You’ve found a way to suppress the change?” Natalia exclaimed, a smile of hope spreading across her face as she placed her hand on Ernie’s shoulder.

  “Would I be here if I hadn’t?”

  “Would it work for Ernie?”

  Strange placed his hand inside his green robes and pulled out a packet, which he unbound. A wad of dark, loamy substance rolled onto his palm. It might have been dirt, or perhaps coffee grounds. Either way, it smelled like a cross between roadkill and rotten eggs. Natalia, her eyes watering, had to stumble away to avoid gagging.

  “This is it,” Strange explained, pushing the substance around on his palm. “A pinch of this once every few weeks is all I need. Keep in mind, it’s not a cure. It only freezes the changing process.”

  “What is it?” Ernie asked, standing a few steps away from the pungent substance.

  “Dragon dung,” the hermit replied offhandedly. “Or more particularly, dung from the nest of the Sabine Cave Drake. Very difficult to acquire, as you might imagine, Sabines being what they are.”

  “So what do you do with it?”

  Strange pulled an elegant cup from the nearby tea service and deposited a wad of dung inside. Next, he placed the cup on a saucer next to him, took the teapot in hand, and filled the cup with steaming water. “You take it as tea.”

  Strange drank down the liquid, smiling broadly afterward, exposing two grainy black bits on his teeth. “I have studied you, Ernest. Your changeling physiology is very similar to my own. Probably a strain of Holfessen-Streigsin faerie blood, I’d guess. It’s a powerful, but relatively stable, form of transformation that responds well to this treatment.”

  Ernie glanced at the teacup skeptically. “If I drink that, I can use my powers all I want?”

  “There is only one way to know for sure.”

  “How does he know it’s safe?” Natalia argued. “What if it makes it worse, not better?”

  “Your concern is noted, Miss Romanov. However, this conversation is between two changelings. Until you understand what it is like to be one of us, you don’t have any right to force your opinion on him.” He looked over at Ernie. “Are you ready?” Ernie glanced at a glowering Natalia, then back at the steaming teacup.

  “Maybe just one sip.”

  Strange nodded as he prepared the concoction. Ernie took the cup into his shaking hands and, plugging his nose, swallowed the liquid in a single gulp. Natalia watched in horror as Ernie shuddered. Then he froze, his unblinking eyes locked on the bottom of the cup. He wasn’t breathing.

  “Ernie, are you okay?” she cried. “Speak to me!”

  He blinked suddenly and looked back at Natalia. “I could really use a breath mint.”

  57

  TRAINING

  Ernie and Natalia turned in early, leaving Max on the ship’s bridge. Monti was settled into his captain’s chair, surveying the stars through the window. Across the room, Harley flipped quietly through a book of shipping charts. He spent most of his free time with Monti, trying to learn everything he could about the wonders of MERLIN Tech.

  “I just wish I knew what I was supposed to do,” Max confessed.

  Monti looked over at him. “That would take all the fun out of life, if you ask me.”

  “Perhaps,” came the voice of Obadiah Strange as he entered
the bridge. He looked over at Max. “If you could ask any question and be assured of an answer, what would it be?”

  Max studied Obadiah. “Are you saying that you have the answers?”

  “Answers are easy. Forming the right question is the difficult part.”

  Max looked over at Harley, wondering if this was just a game. Harley shrugged.

  “I guess I’d start with the Codex. How can I use it if I don’t really know what it is? Is it a weapon? Is it a book? Since the Baron showed me how it could change into the gauntlet and channel my Skyfire, I’ve barely looked at it in book form. But I know there’s a whole world inside its pages.”

  “Fascinating,” Obadiah commented. “Keep going.”

  “Everyone calls me the Guardian of the Codex, but I don’t know what that means or what I am supposed to do. I know I can release creatures from the pages of the book. Sometimes I can capture things and put them inside. But what’s the point? Am I just some sort of zookeeper for monsters?”

  “So you’ve used your Captivity Orbs?” Strange inquired. “I’m impressed. That takes tremendous concentration.”

  Max shrugged. “I sort of figured it out when a monster climbed in my window one morning. Too bad it doesn’t work against clockworks.”

  “At the moment, that may seem true. But you are young yet. If I recall, Guardians aren’t usually given the Codex until they are at least sixteen years old. You’re barely twelve.”

  “That’s what the Baron keeps telling me. But if I don’t learn how to use it soon, I may not live until my sixteenth birthday.”

  “He’s got a good point.” Monti laughed nervously.

  Obadiah nodded. “Well, let’s see if I can help. I’m certainly not an expert, but Lord Saxon was particularly interested in the book. He had me look into it quite extensively.

  “The first thing you need to know is that the Codex is a part of you. It’s not a separate thing, like an umbrella or a sword. Once you touched it, you became fused to it, like two bodies sharing the same soul. The bright side is that the Codex can respond to your every thought in an instant. On the other hand, if you are separated from it for any lengthy period of time, you will die. Not in a week. Perhaps not in a month, but you will most certainly wither and die.”