The Infernal Aether Box Set: All Four Books In The Series

by Peter Oxley

  “A tavern?” I asked. “You are right, I am indeed starting to feel at home. It has been far too long since I last had a sup.”

  He put a hand on my shoulder as we entered. “You need to make sure you remain inconspicuous. We don’t know who to trust in here yet, and you’re quite a striking-looking chap. So keep your head down and don’t talk to anyone.”

  I nodded. “That is my favoured modus operandi in these establishments. Put an ale in my hand, and I shall be the model of an antisocial gent.”

  We stepped inside and were greeted by a wall of smoke and noise, a blanket that I embraced like an old friend. Groups of demons gathered in various places around the room, enjoying themselves in time-honoured fashion. Byron led me to the bar where we grabbed two jars of beer before walking over to a corner where a group of demons conspired around a long table. Byron gestured for me to remain in the background while he approached the largest one, a fat demon with features strikingly similar to my friend’s. I allowed myself a wry smile. I was becoming so familiar with the demons that I was beginning to be able to tell them apart as individuals, rather than them being just a generic bunch of undesirables.

  Byron barked something in a tongue that I did not recognise, a guttural mix of consonants merging together in a way that reminded me of the Welsh language at its most obscure. The big demon responded in an almost offhand manner, prompting laughter from the others. Byron joined in, an uneasy smile on his face.

  The conversation continued for a few minutes until Byron gestured in my direction. Unsure what to do, I kept myself in the shadows and took a long drink, the tip of my hat hiding my features.

  With a resigned sigh, Byron beckoned for me to step forwards. “He wants to see what you look like,” he said.

  “Who does?” I asked, staying where I was.

  “The one person who can help us. His name’s Kingdom. Step forwards so he can see you.”

  I reluctantly complied, removing my hat as I did so. The impact on the group was immediate; they muttered what were clearly curses and made gestures with their hands. The big demon, Kingdom, barked something and Byron translated: “Put the hat back on now.”

  I did as I was told and Kingdom made a series of noises. When I failed to respond, he said in faltering English: “Byron here says you’re a human.”

  “That is correct,” I said. “Or at least I used to be. I am not quite sure what I am now.”

  “Almadite scum,” snarled a demon next to me, who then shirked away when I turned to look at him.

  Kingdom held up his hands to quell any further comments. “Byron vouches for you and that’s good enough for me. Your name?”

  I cleared my throat and looked around nervously. I had been pretty prolific in my demon-slaying activities and the thought of revealing my identity to this mob worried me, particularly as there were a large number of bodies between me and the exit.

  Byron nodded to me. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

  I took a deep breath. “My name is Augustus Potts.”

  They collectively shrugged in indifference. I was incensed: did they not realise who they had in front of them? The threats I posed to their wellbeing? “Augustus Merriwether Potts,” I said a little louder and firmer, reasoning that maybe they just had not heard me clearly enough. There was still a complete absence of any recognition from around the room and I waved my beer to make my point as I continued. “With my brother, Maxwell, and our friend N’yotsu, we fought back the invasion of Greenwich a couple of years ago.”

  “Wait,” said Kingdom. “Maxwell Potts? And N’yotsu? I know of them. So you’re the other one, eh?”

  I bit back the affront at only being known through association. After all, they were not reacting by trying to tear my head off, and for that I was grateful.

  The demon gestured for me to sit at his table. “So you know N’yotsu?” He held up a hand as I tried to explain that my friend was not evil. “Do not worry, I am aware of his status since he created the obsidian stone. I am also aware of his rapidly declining state of health. There is very little that I am not aware of among demon-kind.”

  “Then why didn’t you know about me?” I was painfully aware that I was almost whining as I said this.

  “I did. I just wanted to be sure you were who you purported to be. So, tell us about your encounter with Gaap.” The crowd around the table grew silent as I described our trip to Sheffield, the battle with Gaap and the Mage and then our escape back to London.

  When I had finished, Kingdom nodded. “Your instincts were correct; Gaap is in London. And there is a wider plan involving your friends and you as well.”

  I felt a chill run down my spine. “What do you mean?”

  “I believe that your brother calls it the Fulcrum, the approaching confluence that will bring science and magic back into balance in this realm. It is coming very soon and Gaap intends to use it for his own ends.”

  “His own ends?”

  Kingdom nodded. “An army approaches from the Aether. That is why we depart in the morning.”

  I gaped at the sea of nodding faces around me. “Depart… for where?”

  “Over the Channel. There is an access to the Eternal Mines in the mountains known to you as the Alps. We plan to escape to another world: this one is lost.”

  Chapter 25

  I stared at them for a long moment, trying to comprehend what I had just heard. “So the world is falling to pieces, the Almadites are going to invade and you’re planning to just run away? That’s your plan in its entirety?”

  Kingdom met my gaze with eyes that were bottomless pits of indifference. “It is not our fight. Our priority is to save our people.”

  “And what about my people?”

  He sighed. “Some humans have been good to us, true, but the vast majority have been anything but. Especially recently. Since the events of a few years ago, your people have been increasingly hostile towards us and our kind. There’s not a person in this tavern that hasn’t been driven away from places they called home by vicious lynch mobs led by your precious Witchfinder Generals. And then there are those who just disappear, probably killed and dumped at the bottom of the sea for all we know.”

  “But they do not represent my people…”

  “Really?” he said. “What was your instinct when you first met a demon?”

  I looked around the room for support, to Byron who was supposed to be on my side. It was clear, though, that I was on my own. “We had to defend ourselves. We were under attack.”

  “Not from my people you weren’t. And yet did you distinguish between Pooka and Almadite?”

  I threw my hands in the air. “I didn’t know there was such a distinction! It was just—”

  “Demon or human. No other distinction, eh?”

  “I didn’t know,” I repeated lamely.

  “You never bothered to find out. Instead, you relied on the word of an Almadite. Reformed or not, N’yotsu is still an Almadite. Completely different to us.”

  “I know that now,” I said. “I realise that there are many different shades of demon, just like there are human. But we are not all evil and bigoted. Please give us a chance to prove that to you. Help us.” They glared at me and I turned to Byron. “You said that some of your kind, the Pooka, have lived alongside humanity for many years?”

  “That’s right,” he said slowly. “In the past there’s rarely been any quarrels between Pooka and human. On the whole they’ve been welcoming to us.”

  “Until now,” grunted a demon in the corner, to an accompaniment of muttered agreements. “The Witchfinders have made it very clear we don’t belong any more. Better to go somewhere we won’t get hounded out every other day.”

  Kingdom looked around at his people and then turned back to me. “So you see, whatever goodwill your people may have had has been destroyed by bigotry, personalised by the Witchfinders.”

  “Which only really cropped up in the past few years,” I mused.

  “What?”


  I felt lightheaded as my mind skipped around thoughts and connections that were in the process of being made even as I spoke. “All was fine until a few years ago, when the Almadites started coming through here in numbers, correct?”

  Kingdom shrugged. “Well, maybe not completely rosy, but certainly we were able to live without fear of being lynched.”

  “And the… negativity has increased over the past few years, at the same time as the Almadite activity increased, yes?”

  “Yes. But as we said, your kind will not admit to a distinction between—”

  “Maybe,” I cut across him, “but isn’t there a chance that there’s more to this than what we see on the surface?”

  A few of the demons were muttering among themselves and Kingdom was clearly growing impatient with me. “I do not follow what you are saying.”

  “I know from bitter experience that the Almadites are masters at playing very long-term games. You said yourself that Gaap no doubt has at least one other plan in play, possibly more.”

  “Yes…”

  “And you are all warriors?” I asked.

  The company gathered around that long table nodded and grunted. “If you are going to berate us for running from a fight then you are either exceptionally brave or more stupid than you appear,” growled Kingdom.

  “A bit of both,” I said. “More the latter than the former, if I’m honest. But that’s not the point. What if you were Gaap and wanted to invade a realm? What would you do to minimise the risk of failure?”

  Byron rubbed his chin and joined in, warming to my talk of strategies. “I would look to disable or distract the incumbent army. They invaded our home by making us believe that they would attack the Eternal Mines, taking advantage of the main body of our force being deployed to defend those places.”

  I nodded. “Leading up to the Battle of Greenwich, Andras managed to influence the Generals of our armies, distracting them with promises gleaned from their wildest dreams. It’s not a huge leap to expect something like that again. But what if you not only had an incumbent army to deal with but another army that was scattered around the realm, already fleeing your forces because you had previously invaded their homeland?”

  “I would want to keep them scattered and preferably on the run. Make sure that there was no chance of them banding up to offer help to the incumbent army.” Byron looked at me with wide eyes. “Gods, can it be possible?”

  “I had never quite understood why the Queen had created the Witchfinder General posts,” I said. “They served no real purpose apart from uniting human against demon, regardless of how benign they might appear, and spreading fear and hatred across the land. I had thought that there was no way that the Almadites would want such a thing. But if they were looking to unite humanity against all demons, to make sure there was no chance of us working together with the Pooka, for example…”

  “It is a very effective way of doing so,” mused Kingdom. He looked at Byron, who had been watching me speak with a broad grin on his face. “What do you think?”

  “Makes sense to me,” said Byron. “Of course—”

  There was a shout from the front of the tavern. “We got company!”

  I fought my way to the windows and then cursed. “Speak of the devil.”

  Outside stood a mob of people holding flaming torches, cudgels and swords, a familiar dark figure at their head. “Come out or we burn you out!” shouted Witchfinder General Morley.

  The tavern descended into a confused mass of panic, fear and anger. “Stop!” shouted Kingdom after a few moments. He looked around as everyone subsided, all eyes drawn to him. “We have never willingly killed humans and we will not start now. If what Mr Potts here says is true, then we would just be playing into the Almadites’ hands.”

  “So what, we just wait for them to kill us?” shouted back a huge figure from a corner.

  “The plan is unchanged. We will fall back. There are other exits from this place, we will leave before they have a chance to attack.”

  “And in the meantime they’ll set fire to this place and those who manage to get away in time will be cut down in the streets!”

  “You need a distraction,” I said. “I will go out and speak to them. I am not sure how much time I’ll be able to buy you, but hopefully it will be long enough.”

  Byron shook his head. “Look at you. They will not hesitate to cut you down.”

  I grinned, trying to appear braver than I felt. “I’m a good talker. And when that fails, I can run bloody fast. You just make sure you all get out in time.”

  I walked to the door, taking deep breaths and nodding as the Pooka moved aside to clear a path for me. I was not quite sure what I was doing but I knew that I had to do something. As I reached the door, Kingdom put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  “Not in the slightest,” I replied. “But there’s every chance that I am the prize Morley seeks. And I cannot watch while innocent people are killed. I saw women and children in the streets when we came here.”

  “Yes,” said Kingdom. “Hopefully they have gone into hiding. We will make sure they get away safely.”

  “Do that,” I said. “I will buy you as much time as I can. Hopefully this will prove to you that we are not all as bad as you thought.”

  Kingdom frowned, then nodded. “When you get away from here, make your way back to your friends. I believe they are close to understanding where the Fulcrum will take place. Make sure you stop it before it’s too late.”

  I nodded and then opened the door, stepping out into the night air and staring at the mass of men and flames in front of me.

  The mob shouted as they saw me, the ones to the front shirking away in fear while others—many more in number although notably the ones further back—hefted their weapons, faces twisted in animalistic loathing.

  “Morley!” I shouted. “I cannot let you do this. These creatures are peaceful, they mean no harm.”

  He stared at me. “How do you know my name?” he called back.

  My lips set into a rictus that stuck to my cheeks like it had been painted on. “Why, everyone knows of you, the famous Witchfinder General. You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?

  “What do you mean?” He frowned, thrown off-guard by my comment.

  “I thought you were Nottingham’s resident bigot. What brings you this far south?”

  “I go where my orders take me,” he said, then shook his head and raised his truncheon. “I am not here to converse with the likes of you.”

  I stiffened. “There is nothing for you here.”

  “I beg to differ.” He sneered at me as he spoke.

  “These people are peaceful. They mean no harm to anyone.”

  “Demons always mean harm to someone. That is your nature. You cannot deny it.” He stared at me. “You seem somewhat familiar. Have we met before?”

  I shuffled uneasily, trying to think of a way to deflect the conversation. “You said you act on orders. Whose orders, exactly?”

  He sneered at me again. “I do not answer to the likes of you. In fact, I don’t even know why I am wasting my breath talking with you. We shall storm this place and drive all of you abominations away.” He gestured to the crowd behind and they shambled into an advance.

  I drew my sword. “I cannot let you do that,” I said. “There are innocent people here: women and children.”

  He laughed, a manic cackle that was echoed by the rest of his mob. “There are no such things as innocent demons, fool,” he said. “You are all the same and will be driven from our land.” An even bigger roar erupted from the crowd at these words and I raised my sword, stealing myself for the upcoming battle that I surely could not win.

  The crowd staggered to an unruly halt and I allowed myself a small rush of pride at how the mere sight of me in arms was enough to stop this murderous mob in their tracks. Then I turned to see Byron and Kingdom standing either side of me, with more demons streaming out of the
building behind us. “Gus,” said Byron. “We stand with you.”

  Morley had clearly been close enough to hear these words and gaped at me. “Augustus Potts,” he said slowly. “I had been told… but I did not realise that it was this severe.” He laughed again. “This is all too perfect. But your little band of deviants cannot stand against us.”

  I glanced at the demons to either side of me, noting that more and more of them were stepping out to join us, makeshift weapons and pieces of broken furniture in their hands. “What are you doing?” I asked. “I thought this was not your fight?”

  “Sometimes even an old, stubborn demon like myself needs to admit when they are wrong,” said Kingdom. “Byron here has made me realise that you are correct. This is our home as much as anywhere, and we cannot allow it to fall the way that our home did.”

  I looked back at the mob tentatively advancing on us. “Well, I’m pleased for the company. I hope you’re ready for a fight.” I raised my sword above my head and stepped forwards.

  Byron grabbed my arm. “No,” he said. “Not you. You need to get back to London and your friends to end all of this madness before it goes any further. We will deal with these idiots.”

  I stared at him. “But I cannot…” I said.

  He grinned. “Yes you can. We all have our roles to play and mine—ours—is to fight, something we have not done for far too long.”

  Kingdom then thrust me aside with a massive paw. “Do not worry,” he said. “We will not hurt them. At least, not too much.” With a roar he charged towards the oncoming mob, Byron and the others following him. I watched for a moment and then started away into the night.

  I had only managed to get a few streets away when there was a shout from behind me. “Mr Potts!”

  I stopped and turned to see the dark, hateful figure of Morley advancing on me. He stopped a few paces away, his eyes glinting maliciously in the lamplight.