Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #2: The Relic Hunters

by Derek Benz; J. S. Lewis

  “No way,” Ernie said. “That thing makes you invisible?”

  “Oh, it does much more than that. You see, the IPA is a favorite tool of the THOR agents,” Strange said, referring to the Tactical Headquarters for Operations and Research, a Templar Special Forces unit. “I’m surprised that Logan hasn’t told you and the Grey Griffins about it. This amazing bit of technology will turn you into a ghost.”

  “A ghost?”

  “Not technically, of course. It vibrates your molecules at a rate that lets you occupy space in two or more dimensions at one time. You’ll be invisible to the naked eye. You can scream and nobody will hear you. In fact, you’ll even be able to walk through walls.”

  Ernie looked at the device. “Are you sure I should have one of these?”

  “I’m unaware of any laws that would keep you from owning it, if that’s what you mean.”

  “But it had to be really expensive.”

  “Nonsense,” Strange said. “Besides, when you’ve lived as long as I have, you tend to accumulate more money than you know what to do with.”

  “It’s incredible.”

  “I’m glad you like it,” Strange said. “I was hoping it might come in handy during your adventures in Bludgeon Town.”

  Ernie’s heart started pounding, and his hands began to sweat.

  “Relax,” Strange said after a wink. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  “How did you know?”

  “For better or worse, there isn’t much in this world that goes on without my notice. Besides, you’re the talk of the town. You can’t walk into a pub or barbershop without hearing about the Agents of Justice.”

  “Really?” A smile crept across Ernie’s lips.

  “May I give you a bit of advice?”

  “Sure.”

  “Getting a mention on the front page of the Chronicle is impressive,” Strange said. “But fame has its disadvantages.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s hard to maintain the element of surprise if everyone knows who you are.”

  “I didn’t think about that.”

  “You’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest,” Strange said. “Are you willing to lead the other changelings to war? Because there will be casualties.”

  “All we want to do is scare the slavers so they leave us alone.”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way,” Strange said. “They’ll be out for blood.”

  Ernie sighed.

  “Don’t misunderstand,” Strange said. “Until changelings are treated equally, you’ll never get the protection you deserve. If the Templar aren’t going to protect you, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve a right to protect yourself. Besides, if you’re half the leader I know you are, the other changelings will follow you to the Shadowlands and back.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I haven’t a doubt.”

  “What am I going to do about the chief constable?”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Strange said. “He’s a little slow on the uptake, if you catch my meaning. Besides, if any of them were doing their jobs properly, you wouldn’t need to be out there, now would you?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Can you believe that we’re going to be Relic Hunters?” Todd asked as some of the archaeology students lingered on the lawn outside their new classroom.

  “You guys know that Strange is immortal, right?” Ross asked.

  “Whatever,” Denton said.

  “No, he really is. That’s his changeling power. You can even ask Ernie. Those two are tight.” Ross turned to look for Ernie, but he wasn’t there. “Hey, have you guys seen him?”

  “He’s still inside,” Max said, nodding toward the door. “He’s probably getting more of that dragon dung tea.”

  “That sounds disgusting,” Denton said.

  Max frowned when he saw Raven talking to Natalia in hushed tones.

  “She can’t come tonight, but I was thinking that Brooke could join us Wednesday,” he heard Natalia say. Raven frowned. “I can still study tonight, though.”

  Raven narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, I guess,” she said.

  “Wait a minute,” Harley said as he cut into their conversation. “I thought we were going to the Spider’s Web Wednesday.”

  “Oh, no. I forgot,” Natalia said.

  “Obviously.”

  “Do you two mind going without me?” she asked.

  “I guess,” Harley said, shrugging. Max just stood there. It was bad enough that Brooke wasn’t talking to him. Now Natalia was blowing him off.

  SENDAK HALL

  Natalia had been looking forward to the final bell on Wednesday. She had to fight the urge to watch the clock during Strange’s Relic Hunting class, and when they were finally dismissed, she jumped out of her chair to pack her things.

  Until she transferred to Iron Bridge she had never had a friend who was a girl. Now she had two, and she was hoping they would all get along.

  “I’m a little nervous,” Natalia said as her heels clicked on the cobbled path that led to Sendak Hall.

  “It’s strange, but I am, too,” Brooke said while Honeysuckle flew ahead. “I hope we don’t run into Dean Nipkin.”

  “That makes three of us,” Raven said, “but I wouldn’t worry about it. She left for some kind of conference this morning. She’s not supposed to be back until Monday.”

  Sendak Hall was never meant to be a prison, yet to the changelings at Iron Bridge Academy, that’s exactly what it had become. There were guards at the front entrance and watchful gargoyles on the rooftops. Changelings weren’t allowed to wander the campus without supervision. They weren’t even allowed to eat lunch with the other students, although other students could choose to sit with the changelings.

  Dean Nipkin insisted the rules were in place to protect the changelings from further attacks. She also wanted to protect the other students from any potential accidents. After all, Iron Bridge Academy was once closed after a changeling lost control of her powers. The explosion was so devastating that most of the campus was destroyed, and it had taken nearly a century to reopen the school.

  “I didn’t think you were allowed to have visitors,” Natalia said as the three girls closed in on Sendak Hall. The trees along the path kept most of the rain from reaching them. Natalia’s umbrella handled the rest.

  “Technically, we’re not, but I took care of it,” Raven said. She walked up the front steps and right past the guard. He didn’t move. Neither did Natalia and Brooke. “Are you two coming or not?”

  “We’re not going to get in trouble, are we?” Natalia asked as she eyed the guard.

  Honeysuckle looked at Raven before whispering something into Brooke’s ear. Brooke whispered something back behind a cupped hand. Honeysuckle didn’t look happy, but when Brooke raised her eyebrow, the pixie flew away.

  “Sorry,” Brooke said before she hurried up the steps.

  Natalia followed, though slowly. Her eyes never left the guard. “How did you do that?”

  “I didn’t,” Raven said. Then she pointed to a boy wearing a linen duster jacket with a tweed vest, black pants, boots, and brass goggles pulled on top of his driving cap. He waved to the girls as they walked by.

  “Who’s that?” Natalia asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

  “I’m not sure if anybody knows his real name, but we call him Geppetto,” Raven said.

  “Why?”

  “Because if he gets inside your head, he can control you like a puppet.”

  Natalia and Brooke looked at each other with wide eyes.

  “Don’t worry,” Raven said. “As long as you’re with me, he’ll leave you alone.”

  The girls walked past a large room filled with clusters of sofas and chairs. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper, and paintings hung inside ornate frames. Three boys were playing Round Table. Natalia recognized Tejan from the tournament, but she hadn’t seen the other two before.

  When they got to Raven�
�s room, it wasn’t anything like what Natalia had expected. The space was surprisingly large. Sheer curtains let in what little sunlight there was, her bedspread was covered in a floral pattern, and the walls were a soft yellow. She even had a painting of wildflowers.

  “This is amazing,” Brooke said as she walked over to the window. “You can see the entire city. Look, there’s the Cathedral of St. Peter.”

  “Yeah, it’s great,” Raven said. “It reminds me of all the amazing things in the world that I’ll never get to be a part of.”

  “That’s not true,” Natalia said. “Besides, I thought that Annie found a way to override the inhibitors. You can go anywhere you want.”

  “It’s not the same thing,” Raven said. “Why should we have to sneak around? Do you know what Dean Nipkin does if she catches one of us outside Sendak Hall?”

  Brooke shook her head. Natalia just stood there.

  “We get placed in solitary confinement,” Raven said. “It’s a room about as big as a broom closet. There aren’t any windows, and the only furniture is a toilet.”

  “That’s terrible,” Brooke said. “Does my dad know about it?”

  Raven shrugged. “Why wouldn’t he? He’s the director of the school, right?”

  It looked as though Brooke was about to defend her father, but she must have thought better of it. Instead, she closed her mouth and turned back to the window.

  “That’s what I thought,” Raven said loud enough for Brooke to hear. Then she walked over to a steamer trunk and opened it. She pulled out something wrapped in cloth and tied with a string. Inside was the mangled cover of a journal. “I’ll probably get expelled for showing you this.”

  “Why?” Natalia asked.

  “Because it belonged to Otto Von Strife.”

  Natalia frowned.

  “You know,” Raven said, “as in the guy who is kidnapping changelings to steal their souls?”

  “Of course,” Natalia said, “but how did you get it?”

  “Smoke left it in his dorm room,” Raven said. “The pages were missing, but I was still able to lift the memories. Von Strife is crazy, but now I understand why Smoke thinks the guy is trying to protect us.” Raven paused as she bit the inside of her cheek. “Well, at least his daughter, anyway.”

  “She had leukemia, right?” Natalia asked.

  Raven nodded. “It’s probably better if I just show you.”

  “You can do that?” Natalia asked.

  “I’ve never tried with two people before, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. Are you game?”

  “I am,” Natalia said, glancing at Brooke.

  Brooke looked hesitant, but she nodded.

  “Okay,” Raven said, leading the girls over to a small sofa. She set the cover of the journal on the table before sitting down in a chair next to the other two. “Now I can only see what an object wants to show me, but this journal doesn’t seem to hold much back.”

  “How does it work?” Natalia asked.

  “Just set your hand on top of mine, close your eyes, and if you feel like you have to barf… well, don’t.”

  SHARED MEMORIES

  Raven placed both of her hands on the scarred leather cover, and then she closed her eyes. As Natalia and Brooke set their hands on top of Raven’s, the world appeared to slip away. They soon found themselves in a stark room with a desk and a metal table, and though the girls knew they weren’t there physically, everything seemed so real.

  Natalia was overwhelmed by the smell of rubbing alcohol and kerosene as a girl about her age came into focus. She was sitting on the table wearing a nightgown with the right sleeve pushed up. It looked as if the sun hadn’t touched her skin for months, and she was frighteningly thin.

  A tall man in a white lab coat was standing next to her. His silver hair was pulled back over his forehead, and he was holding a syringe with a long needle.

  “That’s Von Strife,” Natalia said, though she wasn’t sure if anyone could hear her.

  “Just watch,” Raven said.

  “All right, Sophia,” Von Strife said. “I know you’ve been stuck with needles more times than you can count, but we need to make sure that everything is progressing as it should be.”

  “I know,” Sophia said. She smiled at her father.

  He pushed back her corn-silk hair before kissing her forehead. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

  Sophia nodded. The smile never left her lips, even as he plunged the needle into her flesh. Von Strife waited until the syringe was filled with her blood before pulling it back out. When he went to dab the wound, it had already disappeared.

  “You’re healing exponentially faster than a normal human,” Von Strife said. “It’s an extraordinary side effect of the serum that helped us get rid of your cancer.”

  “When can I go back to school?”

  “Hopefully soon,” he said before standing to his full height. Von Strife walked over to his desk, where he filled a vial with the blood sample. As he did, his eyes drifted to a picture that hung on the wall. It was Von Strife, with a striking woman holding a much younger Sophia on her lap.

  “You have your mother’s eyes,” he said.

  Sophia walked over to her father and placed her hand in his. He looked down at her, his eyes red.

  “She was so beautiful,” Sophia said.

  “As are you, my dear. Now run along so I can finish my notes. If you’re feeling up to it, perhaps we’ll take a stroll when I finish.”

  Sophia started toward the door, but Von Strife called her back. “I almost forgot,” he said. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out a package wrapped with a golden bow.

  “Is that for me?” she asked, her blue eyes wide with excitement.

  “As a matter of fact, it is,” Von Strife said.

  He smiled as Sophia carefully untied the bow. Inside was a wooden box with brass accents and a cherry finish. She looked to her father, who nodded. Then she unhooked the latch and opened the lid. A soft melody started to play as a porcelain ballerina inside the box spun in pirouettes.

  “It’s amazing,” Sophia said.

  “I thought you might enjoy it. Now run along, and I’ll be with you shortly.”

  Sophia took her music box and left the room. Von Strife stared at the door long after his daughter was gone. Then he sat down at his desk, slumped over with his head in his hand as he wrote in his medical journal.

  “The infusion of changeling blood into the test subject was successful; however, her conversion process from human to faerie continues to accelerate exponentially,” he muttered as he wrote. “All tests to stunt the transformation have failed. If I am unable to stabilize her soon, the subject will lose every shred of her humanity within a month.”

  “Hold on,” Raven said. “I’m going to flash forward.”

  The image went out of focus before it resumed. Von Strife was now standing in front of an iron door that was bolted shut. “Sophia, dear,” he said, “I promise I will fix this.”

  There was a crash on the other side. Then the wailing began. “Father… please. Help me!” Sophia managed amid the snarling.

  Von Strife stood with his back against the door. He held the music box in his hands, and the melody played as Sophia battered the door from the other side. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

  The scene shifted once more.

  Von Strife was standing in an observatory with a glass ceiling as flashes of lightning tore through the sky. Medical clockworks moved about the room, checking the conduits and readying the condensing rods.

  Sophia lay on a gurney, unconscious. Her body was covered in soft green fur that looked like moss. Long feather-like tufts swept over her forehead. It was obvious why Von Strife had to sedate her. Her mouth was a beak, talons had replaced Sophia’s feet, and her hands ended in sharp nails that looked like they could cut through rock.

  At the end of the gurney, near her feet, stood an iron ring filled with shimmering light. Inside the base, gears
turned as the machine hummed.

  “I hope you can forgive me, but this is the only way,” Von Strife said through trembling lips. “I’ll come for you as soon as I can.”

  He looked over to a table where Sophia’s music box sat open as the melody played. Von Strife closed his eyes before breathing deeply. Then he gave the order.

  A pair of clockworks pulled on chains to raise lightning catchers that jutted into the angry sky outside. Another clockwork connected the wires from the lightning catchers to the machine at the base of the iron ring. Lightning flashed before shooting down the copper wires. It wound around the coils. The light inside the ring flared before it swirled into a vortex.

  Von Strife looked down to realize he was clutching his daughter’s hand. Her claws cut into his skin, but he didn’t care. Sophia’s body began to move toward the ring. Her feet were the first to pass through. Then, as the machine swallowed the rest of her body, she started convulsing.

  “What have I done?” Von Strife wailed. He tightened his grip, trying to hold on, but the machine wouldn’t let go. His hand slipped, and she was lost. He turned to stare at the porcelain ballerina as it twirled inside Sophia’s music box.

  Raven removed her hands from the journal, and the girls found themselves back in the dorm room.

  “What just happened?” Natalia asked.

  “As far as I can tell,” Raven said, “Von Strife sent his daughter into the Shadowlands.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Natalia said. “Von Strife was going to break into the Shadowlands to bring her back. Why would he send her there?”

  A SURPRISE GUEST

  The dark sky opened, releasing heavy rainfall over the entire campus. Harley and Max had forgotten their umbrellas, so they decided to cut through the school on their way to the subway depot. Sprig had morphed into a white tiger again. She was tormenting the nervous students, who gave her a wide berth.

  “What do you suppose they’re up to?” Max asked now that the girls were safely out of earshot.

  “I doubt they’re talking about you, if that’s what you mean.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Then why were you acting so weird in class?” Harley said.