The Stone of Madness

by Nick Baker

  Two days after Lily’s disappearance, the boys were watching the house from afar when a man they had never seen before crept up to the front door and deposited a note into the manservant’s outstretched hand before turning tail. Minutes later, the manservant emerged from the house to ready the car. Henry Price appeared soon after and jumped in the vehicle without delay. Following a wheel spin that sent gravel spraying in all directions, Price left at great speed. The boys did not hesitate, and immediately set off after him, having earmarked a vehicle parked across the road to be ready at a moment’s notice. It was a great testimony to the boys’ tracking skills that neither Price nor Lily’s abductors were aware of their pursuit, and Lily was overcome with pride when they described how they had successfully arrived at the tower hot on the heels of her father.

  And that, of course, brought them up to date, leading naturally to a further debate about what they should do next. The chorus of yawns that rang out as their discussion went round in circles made them realise it would be wiser to sleep on it, and after a succession of goodnights, they sloped off to bed, vowing to be up early the next morning.

  They were all as good as their word and awoke at first light. After a hasty breakfast, they cast off and got the boat underway. After all that had happened, they chose to return to the city instead of their earlier plans to head north, and after passing through the recently repaired Thames Lock, they reached the great river at long last.

  Aedh set the engine to full throttle, wary that their enemies might still be on the lookout for anyone so obviously visible on the open river. After heading east, they picked up the Grand Union Canal at Brentford, away from the hubbub of the busy river traffic. From there, they followed the waterway’s snaking route and travelled eastwards towards the relative safety of a backwater in Paddington known as Little Venice, where they moored the boat in a run-down basin that was reassuringly empty apart from a decrepit houseboat that was listing badly. After a light meal Seoc had miraculously conjured up from scraps and leftovers, they sat down to discuss their next move. They eventually decided it would be prudent to visit Lily’s house to see if anything was happening there. Lily argued, convincingly she thought, that she should be the one to make the short journey across the river, but the boys vehemently disagreed. In the end, after being thoroughly overruled, she grudgingly accepted that Aedh should make the trip, and once the decision had been made, he set off without further ado just before nightfall.

  Lily and Seoc awoke early the next morning. A fine drizzle had been falling since the early hours that had turned to a more persistent light rain, but even the quiet pitter-patter of rain striking the boat’s canopy was insufficient to distract them while they sat waiting nervously for Aedh’s return. He had promised to be back in time for breakfast, but as the rain continued to drum ceaselessly on the boat’s awning, they became increasingly anxious at his failure to show. Once they finished eating, they sat staring vacantly at an untouched bowl of porridge they had left for Aedh.

  ‘Do you think one of us should go and look for him?’ asked Lily, jumping to her feet and banging her head on a lantern dangling from the galley’s ceiling.

  Seoc shook his head. ‘No. We should wait. Aedh knows what he’s doing. He’ll be back soon,’ he said, sounding more certain of himself than he looked.

  Lily sighed. She was desperate to do something and waiting around for Aedh was only adding to her already frayed nerves.

  ‘Come and sit down,’ Seoc called to her as she paced nervously around the cabin.

  ‘Lily. Why do you think Mickey didn’t just do me and Aedh in?’ Seoc asked. ‘It wasn’t like she didn’t have the opportunity.’

  Lily realised that this was a ploy meant to distract her, and while she was in no mood for conversation, anything was better than worrying about something she could not control. She sat down opposite Seoc and thought for a while before she responded.

  ‘I’m not sure, Seoc. I thought I was pretty good at reading people, but evidently, I was wrong. I was sure Mickey … Aurelia … whatever you want to call her—’

  ‘Let’s just stick with bitch, shall we?’ Seoc cut in, doing his best to lighten the mood.

  Lily raised her eyebrows but then laughed and nodded. ‘Very well, bitch it is. I was sure the bitch enjoyed the time we were with her. I genuinely felt it, Seoc.’

  ‘Mm. Me too,’ Seoc agreed.

  ‘Maybe she was overcome by guilt or something. I don’t know. She probably thought you were no threat to her, and in any case, she got what she wanted.’

  Seoc shook his head. ‘It still doesn’t add up,’ he concluded. ‘After some of the things she’s supposed to have done, her behaviour seems a bit out of character. She gave Cornelius half a chance to live and then she just dumps Aedh and me back on our boat. She doesn’t sound like a callous murderer to me. Maybe what you’ve heard about her isn’t true.’

  ‘Maybe, Seoc, I don’t know. You’re just too forgiving, that’s all. She behaved pretty maliciously towards me when I was trapped in the tower.’

  ‘I don’t suppose we’ll ever find out, but I just wonder whether she’s trying to impress someone or she’s being manipulated.’

  Lily vehemently shook her head. ‘Oh, come on, Seoc. Do you really—?

  Just then, Lily’s words were cut short by the sound of footsteps splashing hurriedly through large puddles of water that had settled on the towpath.

  Seoc jumped to his feet and poked his head through the galley’s double doors. ‘It’s Aedh!’ he called out gleefully to Lily, who was craning her neck over his shoulder to see for herself. They ushered the bedraggled looking figure into the galley and noted the grim expression set like granite on his face. Lily passed him a towel to dry his hair, which was dripping steadily onto the wooden floorboards.

  ‘I’m afraid there’s no sign of your father,’ began Aedh, warming his hands in front of a small stove.

  ‘I wasn’t expecting anything else,’ replied Lily glumly, yet still managing to force a smile to mask the sudden lurch in the pit of her stomach.

  ‘What happened?’ said Seoc, pushing a cup of steaming tea into his brother’s grateful hands.

  ‘It was difficult to get close enough to find anything out without being seen,’ said Aedh. ‘That’s why I was so late getting back … I’m sorry,’ he added, ‘I knew you’d be worried.’

  Lily and Seoc glanced uneasily at one another before simultaneously throwing Aedh reassuring smiles.

  ‘There were two men keeping watch over the house. They weren’t in uniform, so I don’t think they were police. I guess they’re something to do with this Fox you’ve told us about, Lily,’ said Aedh.

  ‘I’m sure you’re right,’ she replied, nodding her head. ‘If Fox knows my father’s missing, he’ll be watching the place like a hawk.’

  ‘I only managed to get close to the house once it was dark, although the men on duty were a surly old pair and barely said a word all night. It was only this morning when the shift changed that I managed to learn something, although the replacements didn’t seem to know much either, I’m afraid. I did hear them say that no one’s seen your father since he set off, though.’

  ‘It’s taken you all this time to find out what we already know,’ said Seoc sarcastically. ‘Well done, bruv!’

  ‘I did find out a little more,’ replied Aedh, casting his brother a withering look. ‘Here, Lily, take a look at this,’ he added, withdrawing a rolled-up newspaper from his coat.

  ‘It’s a few days old now, but look inside,’ said Aedh, gesturing to her to turn the pages.

  Lily unfurled a creased copy of the Comet and rapidly scanned the headlines until she found what Aedh was referring to. Seoc elbowed his brother out of the way so that he could read over Lily’s shoulder, and their heads moved in unison as they followed the words in silence across the page, eager to read the contents of the article as fast as they could.

  Price and Daughter in Double Abduction

  The w
hereabouts of Professor Henry Price, alchemist and self-appointed leader of the Council for Home Affairs, are unclear following reports of his disappearance from the family residence in London two days ago. Early indications suggesting that Price had set out in search of his daughter, Lily, after she had absconded following a family rift have been discounted with the appearance of Nicolas Fox, Chief of Internal Security, and a posse of his operatives at the family home in the past twenty-four hours.

  Following Lily’s unforeseen departure, unconfirmed reports suggest that a ransom note was delivered to Price bearing details of his daughter’s kidnap. Price’s subsequent disappearance remains open to speculation, although it is possible that he has taken matters into his own hands and instituted negotiations with his daughter’s abductors.

  A spokesman for Internal Security would neither deny nor corroborate the story, but a source close to the organisation has confirmed that the investigation is now proceeding along the lines of a double abduction. Our undisclosed source has also intimated that the kidnappings are related to Pearly Black, a long-standing adversary of Price. Internal Security believes that the current predicament is related to Black’s death following a botched robbery at a chemical plant in the East End over ten years ago. The role Price played in the death of his rival has been a perennial source of speculation, and in light of recent developments, concerns have been raised that Black’s allies from the once respected Order of Eternal Enlightenment have regrouped and are behind the plot.

  The Order was an ultra-secretive organisation that emerged under the auspices of Black, tacitly at least, to offer charitable aid to needy areas of society. After Black’s death, the Order was exposed as a front for a secret society heavily involved in organised crime, although there has always been conjecture regarding the true nature of the Order’s activities, and in particular, the role of their leader. The charitable work carried out in Black’s name, however, is indisputable, throwing considerable doubt on whether Black’s former allies would be capable of a heinous act of vengeance such as this. If we are to assume that the Order is not responsible for these unexplained disappearances, then the role of Internal Security in this sorry state of affairs must be seriously brought into question. After all, it would not be the first time for the shadowy organisation to promulgate an outrageous conspiracy theory as a means to further its own dubious motives.

  One fact, however, is incontrovertible—the undoubted rivalry that existed between Henry Price and Pearly Black, originating from their time as students at the Academy of Arcane and Alchemical Arts, first as friends, but ultimately as bitter enemies. This doomed relationship was fuelled by intense academic feuding and their mutual love for Saskia Schalk, who herself died in mysterious circumstances from a single bullet wound to the chest minutes before Black’s fatal plunge from the rooftops.

  Following a coroner’s inquest into Black’s death, a verdict of death by misadventure was met with universal surprise bearing in mind the rumours regarding the true events of that night, and in particular, the role played by Price in the death of both parties.

  Whether current circumstances are linked to earlier events in Price’s life is, at present, unclear, but a greater in-depth exposé of this intriguing mystery will be considered in today’s copy of The Evening Star.

  ‘What do you make of it?’ said Aedh tentatively.

  Lily paused for a moment, clutching the newspaper tightly to her chest as if she was trying to digest the unpalatable contents of the article. ‘I think some of what’s written here may be based on fact, but there are just as many obvious inconsistencies,’ she said finally.

  ‘I thought as much,’ Aedh conceded. ‘Maybe we should just concentrate on what we know.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Lily pensively.

  ‘What do you think, Lily?’ Aedh prompted.

  ‘Well, firstly, Aurelia Nightshade was undoubtedly involved in the plot to steal the manuscript from the library in Amsterdam by creating a diversion to delay my father. Secondly, she was also responsible for luring him into a trap. She was most definitely very close to Black and she was doubtlessly involved with the Order the paper refers to. I’m not sure where the information comes from, but whoever wrote the article seems to know an awful lot about what’s been going on, both past and present.’

  ‘What do you think we should we do?’ Aedh asked.

  ‘First, let’s get a copy of the Star, and after that, we’ll arrange a meeting with whoever’s behind this article.’

  ‘Any clue who that might be?’ quizzed Seoc.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ replied Lily, handing him the newspaper. ‘Take a look for yourself; it was written by Zoë Tsing.’

  ‘Zoë Tsing?’ repeated Aedh. ‘Do you know her?’

  ‘No …’ replied Lily, throwing the boys an enigmatic smile, ‘but I soon will.’

  32

  THE STONE OF MADNESS

  The Vault

  PRICE WAS TUMBLING TO the ground even before he was struck by Black’s bolt of defiled energy. The force of the blow sent him spinning round within the constraints of the pentagram, lifting him from his feet. In that freeze-frame of an instant, his limbs jerked spasmodically like a marionette on a puppeteer’s strings, and his lips were drawn into a garish rictus under the sway of the tainted power.

  Strange gasped at the unnatural smile that appeared on Price’s face and felt sure it was directed at him. He turned away, unable to watch as Price slumped ingloriously to the ground once the macabre dance of his possessed body had waned. Price’s arms and legs twitched fitfully before coming to rest at improbable angles about his torso.

  The silence was absolute as smoke wafted up from the lifeless form strewn across the floor. The nauseating smell of charred flesh filled the air, testimony to the livid scorch mark, black as ebony, indelibly etched on Price’s chest.

  Dark rings had gathered like storm clouds around Black’s eyes following the exertion of his effort, yet he looked on in fascination, daring not to believe what he had finally achieved. Aurelia stood nonchalantly inspecting her fingernails as if what she had just witnessed hardly mattered compared with the cracks that had appeared in her jet black nail varnish while Lex was silently retching and Frankl looked on with indifference.

  ‘Perhaps you’d be kind enough to check the body?’ said Black, addressing Strange in a voice that was hoarse and unyielding.

  Strange straightened his spectacles despite the uncontrollable shaking of his hands. He jerked forwards then hesitated before kneeling beside the prostrate form. Gently, almost reverently, he straightened out the body and placed the flat of a palm on Price’s chest before feeling for a pulse in his neck. Next, he reached for a candle, which he held aloft to inspect Price’s ashen face.

  Strange took a moment to compose himself before he looked at Black. He stepped back, startled by the expectant look burning brightly on Black’s face. ‘He’s not breathing, and there’s no pulse. His pupils are, er, fixed and miotic,’ he said.

  ‘What …?’ said Black.

  ‘He’s dead,’ responded Strange, and with great finality, he got up and turned his back on the body.

  Black frowned before he allowed himself a smile, banishing the spiteful malevolence he had demonstrated while tormenting Price in his final moments. ‘It’s been a long and arduous path that has brought us to this point, my friends,’ he announced, demonstrating his irrepressible charm of old. ‘You’ve all made many sacrifices, but, at last, the greatest obstacle to our plans has been eliminated. Now is a new beginning. You’ve all done well and I thank you. You cannot imagine how amply you’ll be rewarded,’ he added enigmatically. ‘There’s no time for delay; we must begin our preparations … but first, we celebrate!’

  So spoke Pearly Black, who turned promptly on his heels and disappeared from the shadowy depths of the vault with his ragtag medley of followers trailing up the stairs behind him.

  Barely an hour later, Strange trudged disconsolately down the steep stone steps that ret
urned him to the vault. He had always hated this place for the unpleasant memories it invoked, and that feeling had only intensified with the cold-blooded murder of a man he had known for almost as long as he could remember.

  It was the second time in as many hours that Strange had made his way into the vault, only this time with the memory of Price’s death still fresh in his mind. His head was spinning from a combination of chaotic thoughts he could not purge, and the mind-numbing effect of the vintage Moët Pearly had forced on him. It seemed perverse to be drinking champagne at a time like this, but he was thankful for the temporary release it afforded him from the memory of an event he dearly wished to expunge.

  With each step, Strange reflected on how he had ended up on the opposite side to Price in a battle that had never been of his making. After Pearly’s death, he had never anticipated that he would encounter a situation like this, but how wrong he had been. After Pearly’s unexpected reappearance, it was as if a train of events had been set in motion that, no matter what, was destined to culminate in the same inevitable conclusion; circumstances, he reflected ruefully, over which he had no control.

  Strange had always found it impossible to resist Pearly’s irrepressible charm, and this, more than anything else, was the reason why he had always been drawn to him rather than the more level-headed and lugubrious Henry Price. Unsurprisingly, when circumstances dictated, he had always ended up siding with Pearly rather than the only other person to befriend him as a student all those years ago. Now Price was dead, and while it was easy to blame Pearly, he knew deep down that it was just as much his fault, despite knowing only too well what Pearly would have done had he not obeyed; but that was no excuse, there was always a choice.