The Cog Chronicles Box Set

by P M Cole

  I frowned. “I haven’t been moping. Just needed to be alone.”

  She looked at Auto. “I want one. Can you build another?”

  ‘O…n…l…y…O…n…e…!’ chirped Auto.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Hmm. He would make you a pretty penny in New York, but we have other things to attend to. I’ve had word that Lucas is returning today, and he won’t be alone.”

  *****

  I stood with Charlotte in a courtyard at the back of the Shadow Factory. It was midday, although you would not know that as the fog was doing its best to stop any sun from reaching the ground. In front of us was a double gate, with imposing pillars to each side, and stone gargoyles perched on top of them. I was sure I saw one of them move.

  There was a fizz of magic, and one of the gates opened towards us. In walked Lucas, his stubbly chin now almost approaching a beard. He looked at Charlotte and stepped to one side, allowing his travelling partner to enter.

  A tall, elderly man walked forward, wearing a heavy-looking, dark-green coat. His hair was mostly grey and looked as if it hadn’t been washed for a good while. His face was stern, but his eyes said otherwise when he lay them upon the woman by my side. They both walked to us.

  Charlotte moved forwards and hugged the much taller man. It was a show of affection I had not seen from her before. She stepped back, almost embarrassed by her own reaction.

  “I’m glad you returned,” she said.

  The old man smiled. “It’s been long enough, although the tides of time have affected me more than you…”

  She nodded but avoided his gaze.

  Lucas looked at me. “This is Cog. Cog this is Mr Kaylock.”

  The tall man placed his leather suitcase on the ground and held out his hand which I briefly shook. “Please, call me Dax if you so wish.”

  I smiled.

  He looked up at the towering brick walls behind us. “I have heard many things about this establishment over the years. Some good, some not so good.”

  Charlotte smiled, although I could tell it was just to mask her true emotions. “All the good tales were lies.”

  He nodded, producing his own grin.

  There was a chirp from high above, causing everyone but me to look up. Auto came soaring out of the white gloom and landed on my shoulder. He chirped again.

  “Yes, he’s a friend,” I said.

  Dax looked down at the mechanical bird, bemusement across his face. I noticed the same reaction on Lucas’s.

  “You made this machine?” said Dax.

  “Yes.”

  “Then any doubts I had that you are what Lucas told me you are, have already been dispelled.”

  Lucas smiled.

  “I’m trying to get her to make another,” said Charlotte.

  “I suspect this little mechanical creature is a one of I kind,” said Dax.

  I wasn’t sure why he thought that, but I felt he was probably right.

  Charlotte turned to the entrance behind us, where the noise of the market was coming from. "Let me show you to your accommodation.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “The league is in session once again!” said Lucas in Charlotte’s living room.

  Dax sighed, while Charlotte frowned.

  “You always were the optimist amongst us, Lucas,” said Dax.

  “And look where it got him!” said Charlotte.

  “And look what your betrayal of the league got you?” replied Lucas.

  Arguing ensued, all of which I had not the slightest interest in. Auto sat on a shelf at the back of the room doing his best impression of an inanimate object.

  “I want to join…” They continued their pointless bickering, so I tried again, but louder. “I want to join!”

  They stopped and looked at me.

  “You want to join what?” said Charlotte.

  “The league.”

  They all looked at each other, before Lucas replied. “There is no league.”

  “But you just said—”

  “I was trying to lift our spirits…”

  I sat forward. “Then let's re-form the league, and I will be its newest member!”

  Dax looked at me with fondness, then to Charlotte. “She reminds me of you, when you were…well the first time you were her age.”

  Charlotte grumbled something.

  “Maybe we should return to the Palace,” said Lucas.

  “I cannot return there…too many memories,” said Charlotte.

  Dax looked to the two older individuals in the room. “Then let's make this Shadow Factory our new home.”

  All eyes were on Charlotte.

  She shook her head. “My magic is no longer pure… it has been tainted by misdeeds and regret.”

  Lucas moved closer to her. “I’ll bet you’re still the most powerful magic user in London.”

  She looked up at him and smiled.

  Dax whispered some arcane words and held out his open hand. A small sphere of red light appeared within it.

  Charlotte looked at him. “You trust me?”

  “To do this, yes.”

  She nodded thoughtfully, then held out her own hand. A similar ball of light appeared although this one was green.

  I looked at Lucas, a ball of blue light resided in his upturned palm.

  They all looked at me.

  “Now you,” said Charlotte.

  “Now me what?”

  “You combine a tiny part of your magic with ours, and you are a member of the league.”

  “I… make things, I don’t have magic like this…”

  Dax looked at Charlotte. “You haven’t taught her to manifest her magic?”

  Charlotte frowned. “We only got to lesson two!”

  Lucas stood close to me, and with his free hand took mine, holding it out in front of me, palm open. “Your magic is part of who you are but also separate. Just calm your thoughts and focus on something that makes you happy.”

  “Ok…” I bent metals to my will. I didn't produce glowing magical balls, but I did as requested and allowed my mind to quieten. It took some doing to quell the images from earlier in the morning, but after a few moments. I pictured my days working with Mr Gladwell and fixing the clocks. Suddenly a tingling built inside me.

  “That’s it. Good. Now allow your magic to flow from you,” continued Lucas.

  The tingling flowed throughout my limbs, but I focused on my hand and a purple light sparked and spluttered then grew in intensity. “I’m doing it!”

  Auto chirped something behind me.

  “Now, project it from you, to meet the others and repeat what we say,” said Lucas.

  Each of them chanted in unison, and I did my best to repeat their words, but I was more fascinated by the light show in front of me, including the strange purple fizzing sphere which was floating towards the other lights. The voices of the three around me became louder and more potent, and suddenly, in a final rush, the spheres combined in a flash, and a wave of energy burst forth, knocking all of us backwards slightly on our heels.

  A few seconds passed while we gathered our composure.

  “Feels strange to be linked again,” said Charlotte.

  “Linked?” I asked.

  “Yes, stronger than before, because of Cog no doubt,” said Dax.

  Lucas looked at me, slightly out of breath. “A part of us is now linked through our magic. We will now know if any of us are in danger; we will feel it.”

  I wasn’t sure if I liked the idea of being linked to anyone else, but for now I felt no different.

  “OK…”

  Lucas smiled and held my shoulder. “It’s a good thing, trust me.”

  I produced a faltering smile in return.

  Lucas looked at the other two and smiled. “The league is united once again.”

  Charlotte frowned. “I need a drink.”

  “We have a lot to discuss,” said Dax.

  Charlotte moved to a drinks cabinet and poured herself some golde
n liquid into a glass which sparkled in the nearby gaslight. She looked back at Dax. “I don’t have your favourite, but do—”

  He shook his head. “Been teetotal going on three years.”

  “Good for you.” She looked away, lifted her glass, and drank her spirit in one mouthful. “So, we are really going up against Hades.” It was said as more of a statement than a question, as if the thought had just come to her.

  “From what Lucas has told me, it’s a battle that will come to all of us, whether we like it or not,” said Dax.

  She poured herself another small amount, downed it again, and turned around. “Then we need to figure out how to kill a god.”

  “Maybe we don’t have to do that,” said Lucas. We all looked at him for an alternative solution. “I’ve been giving this some thought. Even a Titan was unable to defeat him, nor would the council intervene. Brute force is not the answer.”

  “Might keep us alive long enough to come up with a plan though,” said Charlotte.

  Lucas nodded. “Yes, that is very true. But to ultimately rid him from us, perhaps we just need to undo Chronus’s spell.”

  “Oh, just that, for a moment I thought you were going to say something not impossible!” said Charlotte.

  “Send him back to the underworld?” I said.

  “Yes,” said Lucas.

  I thought about what I had been told earlier. “I’m not sure he wants to go back… my mother said he wants to stay in this realm.”

  “Your mother told you that?” said Charlotte.

  I nodded.

  Lucas sat on the back of the arm of the sofa in thought. “From the legends, Hades never wanted to be god of the underworld. He got the short straw as it were. It is no surprise he prefers the earthly realm to his former home.”

  Something confused me. “But then why would Mr Gladwell trap him here? If Hades wanted to be here anyway?”

  Dax looked at me. “Celestial beings can usually move between realms. He may prefer this place to the underworld, but he was free to move between realms before, to play as he pleased. To be permanently locked to an earthly realm would be… like being in prison for a being such as Hades.”

  “It would be like you not being able to leave this building,” said Charlotte.

  I thought about the rest that my mother mentioned. “She believes he wants to turn this realm into paradise…”

  Charlotte scoffed. “Wow she really is under his spell—” she looked at me as the last word left her mouth. “I didn’t—”

  “It’s OK.” A strange nonsensical thought then entered my mind which I vocalised before giving it any credence. “Could… she be talking the truth?”

  “About what?” said Lucas.

  “Maybe that is what he wants?”

  Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Maybe you stay away from your mother for the time being." She looked at the others. “This is what he—”

  I noticed Lucas shoot her a look, at which she ended her thought, and frowned. He then looked at me. “You saw Hades in the other time. You saw and heard from his own mouth what he is willing to do for whatever his plan is, and I can tell you as honestly as I am sitting here now, that it’s not paradise. He is only interested in bringing death to this realm.”

  I nodded although the other ‘time’ was almost completely gone from my mind. Only fragments of images and ideas remained. But, despite how horrible and gut wrenching those memories were, my mother seemed so convinced, so sincere.

  “Do we know what kind of spell the Titan cast to trap him here?” said Dax, looking at the others.

  Lucas looked at Charlotte.

  “A basic entrapment spell would not hold a celestial. But regardless of what it was, it would have only worked with some of Hades blood,” she said.

  Lucas sighed. “I see.”

  “Like I said, impossible.”

  An idea came to me that left a pit in my stomach “What if I go to him. I think my mother would protect me…” Auto chirped a derogatory remark which I ignored. All but Lucas looked at me in surprise. “And I can get you his blood somehow.”

  “You won’t be able to get near him,” said Charlotte. “And even if you do, and you failed…”

  Dax and Lucas remained silent.

  “It might work,” said Lucas.

  Charlotte’s eyes widened. “You want to just give him our best weapon?” She quickly looked at me. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “I don’t see any other way to get his blood,” said Lucas.

  “And if the mother is honest with her intentions. It would give Cog some protection from Hades,” said Dax.

  As they talked, I hated the idea more and more, but it was now out there. No pulling it back.

  *****

  The discussions went on long into the night, some of which were quite heated. I nodded and asked questions when I was lost, which was quite often but eventually I needed sleep, and I lay back on the sofa and let their voices take me away.

  Something was pushing me. I opened my eyes to a ratlike face, a foot from mine. I swung my arm around, going to point my crossbow at this creature who had somehow found its way into Charlotte’s domain when its eyes grew wide, and it jumped back.

  “No… no, I’m not here to harm you, Miss Cog!” he said, holding his arms in front of his face.

  “Who are you?” I shouted. As the mists of sleep started to leave my mind, the being in front of me became vaguely recognisable.

  “Miss Charlotte sent me to wake you. She said to tell you, they are here.”

  I scrunched my face in confusion. “Who is here?”

  “And I am to take you downstairs as quickly as possible.”

  I aimed my arm at his head. “Who is here?”

  “I… I think they are known to you. But I have not seen them myself.”

  I shook my head in frustration and sat up. Apart from the rat-man, the room was quite empty. I looked around for Auto, then spotted him perched on the balcony guard rail outside.

  “She’s downstairs?” I said to the man.

  “Yes, she is in one of the monitoring stations, and I am to—”

  “Yes, I heard you the first time.” I took a breath, blinked, then stood, stretching as I did. “Right. Take me to this station.” I went to move away but stopped. “Just Cog. Not Miss Cog, and what’s your name again?”

  “Bastian Fishbone… umm, Cog.”

  I walked to the elevator and climbed inside, letting Mr Fishbone navigate. I tried not to look at the grey fur which covered his face and hands, or his protruding features, but he was an extraordinary-looking creature.

  “How long have you been working for Charlotte?”

  “Umm… some years.”

  The elevator moved near the ground floor, and I prepared to disembark, but it kept on going, moving below the ground. I stood in shock. “What… it goes down as well?”

  “Yes Cog. Up and down.”

  “OK…”

  The temperature grew cold as we descended. The elevator shuddered to a stop, and he slid the door back. A tunnel with flat, square walls appeared in front of us.

  “After you Cog,” he said.

  I stepped out and the animal man moved ahead, and we moved to a junction with no discernible features to tell one direction from another. He chose the right-hand route and I followed along. We soon came to a set of stairs, which ended at another tunnel, this one even longer than the first. Eventually we came to a door.

  He pulled it open, revealing… more stairs, although these did not climb too high.

  “How far is it?”

  “We are here.”

  At the top we emerged into a busy room. It was of a wooden construction, and had a wall completely covered in what appeared to be flat open boxes of some kind, all of which were manned by individuals of various heights according to the height from the floor of the box they were lookIng into.

  Charlotte was talking to Lucas and a particularly rough-looking man. His leather j
acket was weathered, like his face. They all looked at me as I approached.

  “Took you long enough. Some of your friends are here,” said Charlotte. “Take a look in shaft four.”

  My confusion must have been obvious.

  She rolled her eyes and looked towards the wall of people. “Elijah, show Cog here what you can see.”

  A tall man turned and frowned, then dragged a small box from a nearby wall and gestured to me to stand on it. I did and realised that everyone was looking into some form of viewing device.

  “Fascinating…” I said as I leaned in to better see, then quickly backed away on seeing why I had been called. Within a slightly out of focus, warped image I saw one of the floors of the market. A sea of people and creatures walked past, but in the centre, not moving, were Daniel and Grace standing at one of the stalls. “How do they know I’m here?”

  “I don’t think they do. They come here sometimes,” said Charlotte.

  “Maybe we can use this to our advantage,” said Lucas.

  I looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe they bump into you while you’re here?”

  The idea seemed absurd. “But they will remember Byron’s birthday. They will know I know of their intentions!”

  “Yes, which is why they will be even more surprised when you tell them you want to talk to them. Tell them what your mother said that started you thinking. That perhaps you want to know more.”

  “We don’t even know they know I met my mother.” Strangely I was worried about betraying her confidence. In my head I mocked the idea but couldn’t shake the feeling.

  “That’s a risk we have to take.”

  A flush of anxiety filled me, and I looked back into the shaft.

  “We might not have long, Cog, you have to decide,” said Lucas.

  As I watched the two tall individuals that only a few weeks previous were in battle with me, I nodded. “OK.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Batwing avenue, first floor,” I said under my breath as I pushed past the creatures and people all looking for a good deal. I had to keep repeating the location where Daniel, the young doctor and Grace, the young warrior, were last seen, to stop my nerves from getting the better of me. As I walked up a staircase to the next floor, images of Daniel’s eyes aflame, sucking the life from Lucas, and Grace's sword sticking from the chest of Arges, kept playing on loop in my mind.