Downstairs, Elle could hear Loisa making most vicious fighting noises punctuated by the groans and dull thud of undead tumbling down the stairs and hitting the floor below.
Clothilde laughed. “Do you honestly think that silly thing could hurt me?” She waved a hand and Elle felt a sharp tug of power as the Colt was wrenched from her hand. The revolver fell to the floor, discharging a bullet with deafening force. The glass panes to one side of the mezzanine shattered in a million pieces.
Elle felt tendrils of power snake around her arms and legs, restraining her as she made to retrieve the gun. Clothilde’s hold on her tightened painfully as she was lifted into the air.
“Ah, always so stubborn, you oracles.” Clothilde said. “I am looking forward to killing you.” She paused to sneer at Elle.
“I’d like to see you try!” Elle said, struggling against the power that held her.
“See, you can do nothing against me, you frivolous little fool. And now I am going to do to you what I did to your husband.”
“Over my dead body,” Elle growled.
“Exactement!” Clothilde said. “Your silly little heart is going to end up in a jar in my laboratory right next to his where you can be separated by fluids and glass for eternity. But before we proceed, you are going to tell me where he is. You see, I am quite taken by your husband. Such a handsome man.” She gave Elle a little shake. “He is mine now, do you understand?”
“Oh no he is not,” Elle said.
Clothilde laughed. “A woman like you does not deserve a man like that.” She tightened her grip on Elle’s throat. “Now tell me where he is, or I will kill you and that ridiculous little Nightwalker who came here with you.”
Elle turned her head to see Loisa land on the stone floor by two surly undead. Loisa’s face was covered in blood and she was breathing heavily.
“Thank you, boys,” Clothilde said to the undead barring the entranceway. “Now I have both of you in my grasp.” Elle felt the tendrils of power move as Clothilde grabbed hold of Loisa. The Nightwalker put her hands to her throat gasping. She looked up at Elle from under her beautiful curls and shook her head to signal defeat. Loisa had fought bravely, but there were too many of them for her to handle.
“Wait!” Elle said.
Clothilde paused and looked at Elle.
“He is here, close by. If you let us go I will tell you where he is.”
“Elle, no!” Loisa said.
Elle felt the tendrils loosen and she fell to the ground. “I’m listening,” Clothilde said.
Elle stood up and dusted herself off. She kept her face impassive. Jack had said that the Shadow was hers to command. She closed her eyes and focused on the energy that was swirling around her. She felt the dark fog rise. It was the same fog she had seen in the Shadow Realm. In that moment, Shadow and Light seemed to merge into one. It was as if she could see the two dimensions at the same time. The blurry double vision was nauseating and extremely disconcerting, but she gritted her teeth and grabbed hold of the fog, that could only be Clothilde’s power.
“I am Pythia!” she said in her strange booming Oracle voice. “You will heed my command, Shadow creature!”
Clothilde gasped as Elle grabbed hold of her, but she managed to slip through Elle’s fingers.
“So you do know a trick or two?” she said. “But your grasp of your power is rather clumsy. Ineffectual, despite all the booming commands.”
“Unwill my husband’s heart. I command you!” Elle said as she grabbed hold tightened her grip on Clothilde’s power.
Elle noticed the witch flinch slightly.
“Very well then,” Clothilde said sweetly. “But we will have to go to my laboratory. I cannot do it from here.”
“Take us there then,” Elle said.
“First you must let me go.”
“I will not,” Elle boomed.
“Well, then, we will simply stand here staring at one another until you loose that incredibly clumsy grip you have on my power,” Clothilde said. “And by the looks of things, that won’t take too long.” She flicked her wrist and Elle felt her grip on the woman slip again. She hated to admit it, but the woman was right. She could not hold on to her for much longer.
“I will let you go for now. But know that I will not hesitate to take action if you try to trick us,” Elle said with as much bravado as she could muster. She let go of Clothilde.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Clothilde said shaking herself free from Elle. “In fact, I”m always extremely happy to show people my work. There are so few who truly appreciate the intricacy of it.” She sashayed toward the door and the undead parted to allow her to pass. “This way, if you please,” she motioned for them to stand. “I believe the two gentlemen in your company are already waiting for us there.”
Loisa gave Elle a look, warning her to keep silent and follow the lady.
The narrow halls and winding staircases of the spark monastery were all dark as they passed through them. The only light seemed to radiate from Clothilde herself.
“Where are the monks?” Elle said.
“Oh, here and there,” Clothilde said noncommittally.
“But the city needs them to make spark. Without the electromancers we have no means to drive our machines.”
Clothilde smiled at her. “Most inconvenient, isn’t it? That the Realm of Light has to rely on the electromancers so. It is an irony that is not lost on many of us who dwell on the other side.”
They had reached another set of doors, which Clothilde pushed open with her palms pointed outward. “Inside!” She stood aside so the undead could shove Elle and Loisa through the entrance. Elle stumbled into the room.
“In the cage!” Clothilde commanded as she opened the gate of what looked to be a large metal construction of bars that made up a cell. The professor and the doctor were both inside.
“Papa, doctor, are you hurt?” Elle said as soon as they were shoved inside.
“We’re fine,” the professor whispered. He gave Elle a little wink. “We have a plan.”
Loisa rolled her eyes and set about cleaning her face with the fine silk handkerchief she had produced from one of her pockets.
“Behold, my laboratory!” Clothilde swept her arms through the air and the row of spark lights that hung from the roof lit up in sequence.
Elle and Loisa stared open-mouthed. Clothilde’s laboratory was huge. It was a long narrow room that spanned almost the entire length of the building. The roof was a network of wood and metal beams. From them, an array of tubes and pipes led down into vast rows of glass jars lined up neatly on shelves that lined the walls. The glass jars, which were all in turn interconnected by various copper and rubber tubes, glowed with an eerie blue light.
All the tubes led into a console of dials and gauges that seemed to regulate the flow of whatever was in the pipes.
“My goodness, that is quite something,” was all Elle could say. There was enough spark in the laboratory to power a hundred airships for a very long time.
“Necromancy,” Loisa whispered. “I can smell it.”
“Welcome to my chamber of hearts, I’m so pleased you like it,” Clothilde said as she gestured at the rows of jars.
Elle repressed a surge of revulsion as she looked closer at the jars on the shelves. A lot of them were empty, but many were not, and their gory contents made bitter bile rise up into the back of her throat.
“Mon Dieu,” Loisa said as her gaze followed Elle’s around the room.
Inside each jar, suspended in the blue glowing liquid, was what appeared to be a pulsating human heart. And they all seemed to be beating in unison.
“There must be thousands of jars,” the professor said.
“There are,” Clothilde said “But sadly we have not quite managed to be up to full capacity just yet. But we are making progress.”
“Why are you doing all this?” Elle said.
Clothilde laughed. “Oh, don’t be so stupid.”
“I want to
hear you say it.” Elle steadily met her gaze, challenging Clothilde to continue.
“Well, if you must know, we are building an army of soldiers that feel no fear or pain. An army that requires no supplies. Made up of soldiers who can fight night and day and who obey every command fearlessly and without question.”
“But this is madness,” Elle said as Clothilde’s words sank in.
“Only for those who are on the receiving side,” Clothilde said. “And with my unlimited spark production upstairs, soon no one will be able to stop me.”
“Who are your masters?” Elle said, grabbing on to the only piece of information that made any sense to her.
“The Consortium. That is all you need to know. That and the fact that they have a most skilled clockmaker in their ranks. He is the one who designed the beautiful mechanical hearts.”
“The Clockmaker?” Elle felt a cold shiver of apprehension move through her.
“But we digress. Would you like to see your husband’s heart now?” She ran her pale hand along the row of jars. Elle noticed that each jar had a number on a little brass tag that around the top.
Clothilde stopped in front of one of the rows and studied the tags. “Ah, here he is. Number 493.” She peered at the heart, which was a strange shade of purple in the blue light. To Elle’s dismay, she noticed that Marsh’s heart beat ever so slightly quicker when Clothilde rested her hand against the glass.
“You mean to bring war and destruction to this world,” Loisa said. “And we cannot allow it.”
Clothilde arched one of her finely curved eyebrows at Loisa. “Oh, and your kind has not preyed on the living for centuries? You may dress and act civilized, but for more centuries than anyone cares to remember, your kind treated the Realm of Light as nothing more than a feeding ground. So I would be slow to criticize if I were you, Nightwalker.”
Loisa hissed and bared her fangs.
Clothilde just laughed. “Don’t forget that you are still within my power. One flick of my wrist and your head rolls over the floor.”
“I would like to see you try,” Loisa growled.
“Ah, she shows her true nature,” Clothilde said. “You are lucky that I need you alive for the experiments I am planning. Having Nightwalkers in the ranks is going to be an exciting addition to the armies. But we can have a little duel of wills before we proceed, if that would make you happy.”
Loisa sprang toward the bars of the cage with such force that the entire structure wobbled.
Clothilde turned away from her to the elaborately fitted out operating table that took pride of place in the center of the laboratory as if Loisa’s anger was insignificant.
Suddenly, they heard a loud thump, like metal hitting stone. Clothilde’s expression froze as she was suddenly engulfed in a shroud of blue spark. Before anyone could say anything, she sank to her knees and vaporized before their very eyes.
“What on earth?” Elle said as Neville holding the spark-blaster at the ready stepped forward.
“Ah, Neville old chap. Right on time as expected. That was a jolly good shot. Would have been a six if you were on the Oval,” the professor said.
Neville grinned from ear to ear at the compliment.
“Look out!” Loisa said, for the four undead soldiers grunted and came at Neville in a sudden rush. Neville blasted them with the spark blaster, which knocked them to the floor.
“Stand back!” Loisa shouted. She kicked the door of the cage with such force that the lock cracked and the door sprung open.
“Well, that wasn’t much of a difficulty then,” the professor said examining the lock.
“Clearly not,” Elle said drily. “And neither was the Lady in White, by the looks of things. Let’s herd those guards into the cage. Quickly. I’ll see if I can find something to secure the gate.”
“Shall I bring his lordship in now?” Neville asked as soon they had secured the gate with an old chain and a padlock they had found in one of the cupboards.
“Without delay, my dear man. Without delay,” the doctor said.
Neville whistled and Caruthers appeared at the door with Marsh. They had loosed his feet from the canvas and somehow he had managed to walk Marsh here. Marsh moaned. It was a terrible sound that emanated from the back of his throat as soon as he saw the other undead.
“Neville, you stay and guard the entrance while my father and the doctor get to work. Vanquishing Madame Blanche seemed a little bit too easy to be believed. No offense meant, of course,” Elle said.
“None taken, my lady,” Neville said. “But this thing seems to work really well on those undead.” He shifted the spark blaster to a more comfortable position. “Well, see if you can refill the canister. Heavens knows, there is enough spark around here for that.”
“I don’t trust the silence either,” Loisa said. “We had better go and make sure she is really dead.”
“Lead the way, Loisa,” Elle said. She picked up a shifting spanner the length of her arm off one of the shelves and lifted it over her shoulder. “Besides, the evil old hag stole my Colt too. And I want it back along with my husband and my life before we go home this evening.”
CHAPTER 34
“How many did you fight while you were on the stairs, Loisa?” Elle asked as they crept along the narrow passageway that led back to the main hall.
“Oh, I think about a dozen or so. The problem is that they won’t stay down. You have to break their legs so they can’t come after you.” She made a face. “Also they taste really awful if you bite them.”
“Let’s hope I never have the need to have to sample them,” Elle said, grateful for the fact that she was not a Nightwalker.
The soft sound of rustling caught their attention.
“What was that?” Elle whispered.
Up ahead of them in the passageway something was shuffling around in the dark.
Quietly as they could, Elle and Loisa crept up to the doorway to see what it was.
“Who’s there?” Elle switched on her spark lamp and a beam of light revealed a small man in a gray robe.
“P–please don’t hurt me,” he muttered lifting his hands before his face to ward of the blinding light of the lamp.
“An electromancer!” Loisa said.
“Where are the rest of your brothers?” Elle said.
“We hide in the tunnels below the building. She hasn’t found those yet,” he said.
“Well, we’ve come to liberate you,” Elle said.
The electromancer’s face lit up but fell again. “You won’t get past the lady. And if she gets angry, you end up being food for the troops.”
Elle shuddered at the mental image of Marsh gorging on fresh liver, but pushed the thought firmly from her mind. “Well, the lady is gone for the moment, so I would suggest you get your people out of here as quickly as you can,” Elle said, “in case there is more trouble.”
The little man nodded and gripped her hand. “Thank you ever so much!” He opened a small hatch in the floor and disappeared into it.
“Well, that solves one of the mysteries,” Loisa said.
“Indeed it does,” Elle said. “I think those are the stairs to the control room up ahead.” The control room seemed like as good a place as any to look, she thought as they walked along. Around them, the building echoed and creaked eerily like a giant ghost ship.
Elle was not wrong, for a sudden screeching, wailing noise met them halfway up the stairs.
“Head for open ground!” Loisa said to Elle and they turned and ran down the stairs.
A white cloud of mist boiled out of the stairwell behind them as they burst into the turbine hall and great big flashes of lightning flashed in the sky above them.
“I cannot be vanquished with spark, you stupid fools. I am the very element that spark is made of!” Clothilde yowled. She rose up before them in a vast cloud of roiling mist that gradually diminished, leaving the elemental standing before them. “I was foolish to allow you mercy before.” She was seething with
anger.
“I bet you she’s cross because you maimed some of her soldiers,” Elle said to Loisa.
“Livid, it seems,” Loisa replied.
“Those soldiers were part of a shipment that you have now ruined!” Clothilde said. “The time for playing games is over. You must die without delay.” She lifted her arms and rose up above them, ready to strike the deathblow.
As that moment, bright light of search lights flooded through the glass roof of the turbine hall. Elle looked up and her eyes widened with surprise. Above her, the hull of a giant airship loomed from the darkness. It was hovering so low that its bottom almost touched the glass panes of the roof.
Clothilde started laughing hysterically. “Such brilliant timing! They are here. Vargo, start preparing the soldiers to embark! Find whoever you can to make up the hundred. Do not leave the Consortium waiting. I will see to these,” she said motioning toward Elle.
Vargo and two other men appeared from the doorway to the stairwell behind Clothilde. They were the same men from the park, Elle realized with a shudder.
“I said move!” Clothilde bellowed.
“Yes, mistress,” Vargo stared at Clothilde as if she had gone completely mad, which was, it seemed, a conclusion that did not require a huge amount of deductive reasoning. But he shrugged and strode off into the distance.
“Where are you taking those people?” Elle demanded.
“They are a special order for the Emperor of Japan, if you must know. And he will be very pleased with his consignment,” Clothilde said rather smugly.
“She really loves the sound of her own voice, doesn’t she?” Elle said out the side of her mouth to Loisa.
Loisa snickered in reply.
“I will not abide such insolence. Neither you, nor or anyone else is going to stop me,” Clothilde said.
Elle shook her head. “Did you know, your voice is becoming shriller by the moment? You are liable to start shattering glass soon if you don’t watch out.”
“Don’t you shake your head at me, Oracle!” The final pitch of her voice was like nails dragging on a chalkboard and despite their best efforts, Elle and Loisa both flinched.
A Clockwork Heart Page 27