by Mark Hayden
‘Why is it impossible?’ said Mina.
‘Because you don’t live long enough. You would be dead before you could turn a pyramid upside down. Or make Alchemical Gold.’
Mina nodded. ‘Thank you, Master. If I find some, should I bring it to you?’
‘Where would you find it?’
‘There are over half a million Troy ounces sitting in the First Mine of Clan Flint.’
Lloyd choked on his ale. ‘What the fuck are you on about?’
It was Niði’s reaction that shocked me most. He pulled a great chunk of hair out of his beard. ‘By the Mother, you lie!’
Saffron, sitting on the other side of the table, shot back and nearly fell off the bench.
Mina re-crossed her legs in the opposite direction. ‘I may be wrong, Master, but I would not lie to you. There is, or was, Alchemical Gold on deposit with Clan Flint that could only have been created by humans.’
‘Gnome!’ said Niði. ‘What do you know of this?’
‘Nothing, Master,’ spluttered Lloyd. ‘I swear by the Mother that this is the first that I have heard of it.’ He turned to me. ‘What is this? What in the Mother’s name are you on about?’
‘I once said to you, “What if I come to the First Mine with a warrant?”’
Lloyd looked sick. ‘And I said, “As Swordbearer, you wouldn’t need one.” Is there no other way?’
I shook my head. ‘I brought you down here so that you’d see how serious we are, and how seriously we’re taking this. You’re innocent, Lloyd. I believe that.’
‘This could tear the clan apart.’
‘If Irina’s already moved the gold, we’ll follow it and say nothing about the clan. But if it’s still there…’
‘Let’s go.’ He turned to the Dwarf. ‘Thank you, Master.’
The Dwarf nodded to Lloyd, Saffron and me. To Mina, he said, ‘If I never hear from you again, I know that you lied. If you tell the truth, you will come back and Niði will make amends. Go well, mortal.’
We were back on the boat before anyone spoke.
‘I don’t know about you lot, but I need summat to eat,’ said Lloyd.
It was the first thing we’d all agreed on.
11 — A Miner Scale
And it was just about the last thing we agreed on. Lloyd is a modern Gnome, but he’s still a Gnome. He was very reluctant to allow Mina or Saffron to enter the First Mine, but he couldn’t bring himself to say because they’re women.
When Mina suggested they be classed as guests of the Swordbearer, Saffron mutinied. She was no one’s guest, and wanted to be there by right. When she knows Mina better, she’ll understand that Mina fully agrees with her. After all, it was Mina’s stance on women in temples that had got her tattooed with boiling ink.
Things nearly fell apart when Mina took Saffron away from Lloyd and said to her, ‘Saffy, this is not our Locus Lucis…’
‘My name is Saffron, alright? I am not a character from Absolutely Fabulous. Are we clear?’
I will never get to meet Mina’s parents, but just for a moment, I got a glimpse of her mother. Mina put her left hand on her left hip, jutted her right hip out and pointed a finger in Saffron’s face. ‘No, you are not from Ab Fab, because then you would be funny, and I am not laughing. What do you think Conrad is going to do next?’
I was agog. I had no idea what I was going to do next.
Saffron squared up to Mina. ‘He’s going to stand up for the rights of the King’s Watch. I hope.’
Mina shook her head. ‘He is going to accomplish his mission. For that he needs both you and me inside the Mine with him. He has found a way to achieve that. Don’t make him order you.’
Saffron moved some of her hair around and gave Mina a big smile. ‘Let’s go, shall we?’
Anna had collected us from Coseley Station in the people carrier, then dropped us at a pub in the middle of nowhere to eat and make plans. This was one of Lloyds safe places, and we left in a smaller vehicle with me at the wheel. The one thing Clan Flint’s First Mine did not have was a back door, and we had to approach the front as discreetly as possible.
‘Why would this Irina woman put CCTV on Niði’s Hall but not your First Mine?’ said Mina. That question was worrying me, too.
‘Because the Clan Second is the custodian of the mine. When Conrad called me, I went over every inch of the entrance with magickal and mundane detectors. It’s clean.’
That was reassuring. Less reassuring was the question of accomplices. ‘Irina never had access to the mine on her own, did she?’
Lloyd looked out of the window. ‘Turn left here. No, she didn’t.’
‘Then she must have had at least one Gnome working for her.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that. Park by the fence.’
The Black Country is covered by hundreds of small housing estates, workshops, industrial sites and pockets of history. We were above that, on a slight hill to the west. To our left was a golf course and ahead were some scraggy fields. Just beyond them, I could see the tanks and rotating arms of a sewage works. I really did take Mina to the most romantic places.
Lloyd got out and when he’d locked the car, he pointed down the slope. ‘The main entrance is off the access road to the sewage works. We just have to cross a couple of fields.’
Mina looked at her trainers. ‘It’s a good job we haven’t had rain, or you’d be carrying me,’ she said.
‘Which part of “First Mine” made you think it would be clean down there?’
‘The part where you said it was a centre of Gnomish faith and heritage. No one has mud in their temple. What do they grow here?’
‘Grass. It’s a meadow. They’ll be making the first cut soon.’
We stuck to the edge of the field, because the grass really was too long to walk through comfortably. Lloyd stopped at another gate. ‘Let me check this out. It’s just down there.’
We hung back as he moved quickly, ducking to keep his head below the hedge. When he turned a corner, he stopped and stayed still for nearly a minute, then waved us down. This hedge was much older and thicker than most of them, and bursting with life. Lloyd was squatting by a slight gap which had a wooden panel in it, nearly swallowed by the hedge on either side.
‘Give us a hand, Conrad. It should lift out.’
With a bit of tugging and shaking, we lifted the panel out, and I got to see what was on the other side. A sheer drop was the answer. ‘You two, follow that track down and wait for us.’
Mina and Saffron wobbled down the barest of tracks to the side of the drop while we re-fitted the panel. By the time we’d caught up with them, Saffron was already casting her Sight over the entrance to the First Mine of Clan Flint.
No one said it, but we all thought the same: is this it? Lloyd knew exactly what we were thinking, and a big grin spread over his face.
The only sign that this was a site of major magickal importance was the road. They’d done their best to camouflage it using the natural lie of the land, but a well-made road of tarmac ran up from the side of the waste water treatment works. I’m sure it’s well Warded, but any naturally gifted human who walked up that track would find only a pair of steel plates set into the hill. No locks, no warning notices, no visible hinges, nothing on which to let the mind take a grip and imagine going inside. I found myself already looking at the sewage plant as being more interesting, and that’s how Occulting works: the magickal art of hiding things. Sometimes you bend light, if you want your object to be invisible on Google Earth, but usually a mis-direction Work will do the job. Look away now. Nothing to see here.
‘What did you expect?’ said Lloyd. ‘The west front of St Paul’s Cathedral? This is for Gnomes, not humans. Take out your sword, Conrad.’
I’m not just called the Swordbearer, I have an actual sword to go with the job. Its name is the Anvil. I took it off my back and drew the sword from the sheath. Most of the magick in the Anvil simply doesn’t work for me, because I’m not a Gnome, but
I’d never brought it here before. Lines of power crawled up and down the blade, like eels in a bucket. Sometimes they made shapes – a flash of lightning, a wild boar – and sometimes they lined up geometrically, but this sword knew where it was.
‘Is it just me?’ I said.
‘Or are those doors glowing red?’ said Mina.
‘You can open up,’ said Lloyd.
It was a test. Could I find the key to the mine within the sword. Or within myself. I walked up to the doors and closed my eyes.
I felt the heat of Lux radiate from the door and from the Anvil. It was like holding a burning brand in front of my face. I let the heat wash over me, like emerging into the midday sun after being inside. I tried to feel for patterns, for differences in the temperature. There. Just there, on my right hip, the Lux was moving slowly in a circle. I followed the movement across my body and found counter-currents moving up my chest and down my left arm. But not my right arm.
A different pattern was playing out, starting at the wrist holding the Anvil. This was more fleeting, like eddies in a fast-moving stream. Great. Now what?
It was the movement that gave me a clue. A physical key does not change. It always fits the lock, and if it breaks, it is no longer the key. This key was dynamic, as was the lock. They both changed continuously, never quite fitting together. Now, was I supposed to wait for them to align, or was I supposed to do something? A key must be turned…
I felt a spiral of Lux forming over my chest, a clear enough shape, and I willed a circle of heat on my arm to grow, to spawn and to break, to form its own mini-spiral. The shape changed slowly, almost too slowly to catch up with the one on my chest, and I thought I was going to fail, until the little spiral wormed its way up my arm and merged with the big one. Like a coiled spring, the combined spirals unravelled and blew away. Two satisfying clunks echoed from the steel plates.
‘Welcome, Swordbearer,’ said Lloyd. ‘You are now bonded to the First Mine.’
‘Does that mean he’s going to turn into a Gnome?’ said Mina, with real worry.
‘Wrong way round, love. The mine is now a little bit human.’
Saffron was well away from Lloyd, but closer to me. I heard her mutter, ‘Mina is not your love, Mr Gnome.’
I opened my eyes, and saw that two great gilded handles had appeared on the steel plates, along with twin engravings of the clan coat of arms. Across the top of the arms was the clan name Flint and underneath were crossed double-headed axes. Lloyd has an axe just like that. The centre of the arms was the traditional Gnomish blacksmith’s brazier. Instead of floating on the shield, it stood on firm ground, and that was echoed in the motto: Vom Felsen. German, From the Rock.
‘Not bad, for a human,’ said Lloyd. The look on Saffron’s face said differently. She thought I’d made the magickal equivalent of unzipping my flies look like winning a marathon. Mina was more impressed.
Lloyd grabbed the right handle in his hand and stuck the prong of his prosthetic on the other one. With a surge of Lux, I realised that it wasn’t just a prong – it was magnetic, and he was creating the magnetic field. He used his arm and his magick to pull back the doors. ‘After you,’ he said. ‘I need to close them in such a way that the mine looks unoccupied. That might be beyond Conrad for today.’
There was plenty of headroom for me, and plenty of light from the lightsticks mounted in iron sconces on the walls. I looked down, partly out of curiosity, partly to see if Mina was going to be asking for a piggyback. Marble. The Gnomes had imported marble to floor their mine. Beyond the short entrance, the floor sloped steeply down, and marble gave way to finished sandstone. The daylight behind me faded and the doors clunked again.
I have been doing some research into Gnomes, as much as I can without actually going to the Esoteric Library. I know that every clan has a First Mine, and that they dig them in magickally rather than minerally favourable locations. Gnomes are laid to rest here, and their family covers the body with rocks. One at a time, over generations and generations, on the anniversary of the death. And not just any rock, they have to chip it from the First Mine as part of extending the space. The First Mine is also where they make offerings to Mother Earth. And keep their treasure. The last bit is the one that most people care about.
We descended quickly and were soon well under the hill. The Chamber of the Mother would be next, and I prepared myself for glory. This time it really was a case of Is this it?
The Chamber was like the inside of a circus tent, with a shallow ceiling on top of plain walls only three metres high. It wasn’t all open space: in the centre of the Chamber, a pillar rose to the top of the conical ceiling. I looked closer and realised that the pillar wasn’t a structural feature, it was a solid piece of cast iron, about a metre in diameter, and a conductor of Lux. Like the biggest magnet you’ve ever seen.
‘Mutters Nadel,’ said Lloyd. Mother’s Needle. Their symbol of Mother Earth wasn’t female, or about crops and fertility, it was a tribute to the molten, magnetic core of the planet. Iron. ‘It would be an honour if you would join me. All of you. We make a ring around the needle and take a moment. Don’t worry, there won’t be dancing today.’
Someone had to hold Lloyd’s prosthetic. Mina was nearest, and did so with a smile. I held her hand, and Saffron moved slowly to complete the circle. We all felt the Lux, in our own ways. I closed my eyes and it throbbed against me like waves. Mina jerked my hand down, reflexively, and I opened my eyes to look. She was staring at the spot under her blouse where the tattoo was. It had obviously sprung into life when we joined hands.
Lloyd said a short prayer in Old High North Germanic. I made out the words Mother and Death. Sounds about right.
He let go of Saffron, and we all stepped back. ‘What do you reckon?’ he said.
The plain walls of the Chamber had sprouted doorways, or we’d acquired the power to see them. The largest and most ornate was opposite the entrance, with the doors themselves a good eight or nine feet high and made of iron, with gold and silver carvings repeating the clan crest in the centre and other illustrations surrounding it.
Other than this one, I counted eight doorways, four on each side, and all different. All had some sort of pillars, pediments and other architectural features around a single, deep set door. Some of the pillars were Gnomish figures holding up the lintels, others were simple and classical, one pair even had trees. All were ornate except one, close to the entrance, and all but that one had the clan crest – with a difference. Instead of the central brazier, there were two, three, four… up to eight smaller braziers under the crossed axes.
As Lloyd spoke, the words of the travellers tale I’d read echoed in my head. Word for word, they were the same: ‘Eight dug the First Mine, and One was chosen for the Mother, and here he lies.’ Lloyd pointed to the double doors.
‘Really?’ said Mina. ‘They murdered him?’
‘A self-sacrifice,’ said Lloyd. ‘Every Gnome of Clan Flint is descended from one of the other seven.’ He nodded at the doorway with five braziers and the trees for columns. ‘I am of the fifth house, and all my ancestors lie down there. I will, too.’
Saffron pointed to the lesser door, the one with no crest. ‘What’s that?’
‘Storage and utility room. We don’t leave the chairs and tables out normally, and there’s even water and a bathroom in there. That’s the only door you can open, because it’s not locked. Even I can’t open any door but first and fifth. Conrad can open first.’
The look on Saffron’s face said she disagreed, and that it was time and energy not blood that made the difference. I am agnostic on questions like that.
He moved to the biggest door and placed his hand and his prosthetic on the braziers. Another reason for the prongs: he couldn’t have reached the centre of the carvings with only one arm. The doors swung back soundlessly. ‘It gets a bit more complicated after here.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t go wandering, unless you’re with me or you’re a Navigator.’
‘Yeah. Lik
e there’s a Navigator here,’ said Saffron.
‘Didn’t Victoria tell you?’ said Mina. She pointed to me. ‘Him. He’s one. I don’t know how good he is, though.’
‘Oh. No. She said you did a bit of Geomancy, that’s all.’
I shrugged. ‘Let’s go, shall we?’
The tunnels beyond the first door (or should that be First Door?) were short, branched a lot and often re-connected with themselves, as well as sloping up and down. They were not laid out to a grid pattern. ‘We have a lot of stuff in the fifth house,’ said Lloyd, ‘but everything which belongs to the whole clan is kept in the first house. The most important site, to us, is the first cairn. That’s where the first was laid to rest. Most human visitors are more interested in the treasury.’
‘Should the Swordbearer add to the first cairn?’ I said, so as not to offend.
‘If you’re around on the twenty-third of October, then yes, that would be good. And join the party afterwards of course.’
Saffron had been fingering the rather rough-hewn walls. ‘I’ve also heard there are workshops here.’
‘There were, in the early days. It’s hard to organise ventilation on a big scale. Some still come down to do small jobs. See?’ He led us down a short tunnel that ended in an iron door. He pulled it open and showed us an arch-shaped long space, way too low for me to work in. On one side, there was a bench formed from the native rock that had stains and depressions. It was otherwise empty. ‘My grandfather made rings in there, but there’s nothing left. We clean up after ourselves.’
We came to a longer, straighter tunnel. I was sure that Lloyd had deliberately taken us on a slightly roundabout route, whether that was to test me or confuse Saffron, I don’t know. Along the left hand wall of the tunnel was a series of doors. These were all plain, adorned only with single wrought iron braziers.