by P M Cole
Ropes dropped to the roof, and the dirigible smoothly took to the sky.
“What if there’s an attack on the Palace when we’re not here?” I said.
“Then better for us!” she replied.
“Oh…”
She smiled. “I jest. Let them try. The Palace was designed to focus magical energy of those inside. Those glass windows might look easy to penetrate, but there are powerful forces that keep the building standing. Dax is in charge of its defence. It will still be there when we return.”
“It’s not a long-term solution though,” said Lucas.
“It was never meant to be,” said Charlotte. “Let’s concentrate on the task ahead. I will land on the first Chimney, but we are not going to be using the elevator to descend. Instead we are going to move down within the chimney itself…”
“Umm… I… er… can’t fly,” said Colin.
“I was hoping the young lady next to you, could help with that.”
The eyes of the two next to me looked in my direction. “I’m fairly certain I can’t fly either. I’ve tried.” A chirp came from the inside of my coat. “Yes, you can, I cannot,” I said to Auto.
“Actually, you can… in a manner of speaking. Remember the bridge in the factory you floated to the floor?”
“Yes…”
“That was full of people, and they were flying until they hit the ground.”
She had a point. Frozen homes and factories sailed by beneath us.
“I… don’t know if I can do that when I’m the one being… lifted.”
“There are five of us, the bridge contained twenty at least. This will be easy for you…just as long as the wards are still not working, we should be fine.” She turned the steering wheel, banking the craft to the right, and we started to descend.
“Wards?” Everyone said at once.
“Yes, the ones that I hoped would keep Hades out. The stone demons.”
“What?!” I said.
“I’m sure it will be fine! No need to worry.” She pulled her side window down and leaned out. “We are directly above the chimney. You can get out.”
I pushed the door open and looked down at the metal grating above the void beneath it. The metal rungs were covered in ice and glistened in the moonlight. Snow fluttered past my face, and I stepped out then dropped down, making a loud crunching noise on landing. Lucas did the same, bringing a rope with him and tied it to the grating, then he and Daniel helped Charlotte descend once the engine had been powered down.
The wind swirled and the large craft above us, strained against its rope. “We shouldn’t be too long, or it might not be here when we come back up!” shouted Lucas.
Charlotte nodded and pointed downwards. “Your turn!” she shouted to me. “Takes us down to the bottom.”
Lucas lit an oil lamp, and we moved towards the centre of the metal floor covering the chimney, making sure to stand close to each other.
“Quickly now dear. The wards might be activating as I speak.”
Hell…
Even though I was losing the feeling in my nose and fingers, I focused as best I could on the metal below us. A whining came from the beams, and it dropped a few inches on one side, making us lose our balance. Lucas went to hold Charlotte's arm, which she promptly brushed away. Then the other side fell, and I was fairly sure we were floating free. Charlotte pointed down with one finger, her hands encased in black leather gloves.
“Yes, um… I’ll try…”
We started to descend, slowly at first, but then faster as the bricks around us slid upwards. The smell of soot filled the air, becoming thicker the deeper we got.
“Ground!” shouted Lucas, startled by our impending crash.
I halted our movement and we all fell awkwardly to the side before recapturing our balance.
Charlotte held out her hand. A green light formed in her palm, which then floated ahead of her, lighting a ledge and door against the far wall. Immediately she marched forward and floated across the gap. “This way,” she said.
She opened the door and we jumped across and followed her into a grey-walled corridor, with the occasional vertical iron beam to support the roof.
Lucas stayed at the rear, making sure nothing was following us, while Charlotte's strange green orb lit our path ahead. Left then right, then another ten yards of corridor, until we reached a dead end and another piece of tunnel which looked like all the others we had just passed.
“We’re here,” she said.
Before anyone could comment on what appeared to be a plain wall, she uttered some words, then thrust both of her hands out in front. The wall flew backwards as if on a pulley, and before we knew it, we were all looking at more corridor, but this one had a door to the side. She walked forward and pulled a chain from around her neck. From it she took a small key and slid it into a hardly noticeable hole. The tunnel filled with a churning, then a clicking sound, and the door popped open.
“Follow me,” she said, ducking slightly to move into the new enclosure. Her green orb went with her.
“I’ll wait here,” said Daniel. “See if anyone comes up on us.”
“I would prefer to wait. Why don’t you go inside with the others?” said Lucas.
Daniel frowned and followed Charlotte inside, taking Colin with him.
I looked at Lucas, but he remained resolute.
I shook my head and moved inside with the others. The room was small, being only ten or so feet square, a lamp of some type burned on the far wall, and each side was lined with shelves. Charlotte though was ignoring most of the items, moving from one to another looking for something specific.
“Cor, what did this used to be?” said Colin, holding a small lizard-like skull in his hands, but with horns across its centre.
I silently mouthed, ‘Put it down,’ to him. He frowned and did so.
Suddenly she stopped and reached to the back of a shelf, pulling out a small cylindrical leather box. Her eyes were wide as she brought it close to her face. “This is all we need.”
“What is it?” said Daniel.
She looked at him suspiciously. “You’ll find out later, but now we go.”
We moved quickly outside, and she closed the vault.
“Seems clear still,” said Lucas, waving his lamp back the way we came.
He led and we hurried through the tunnels, quickly coming upon the entrance to the chimney. I looked up at the snow, now heavier, falling towards us. Charlotte drifted across, while the others jumped back on the grating. I went to do the same, when dust began to fall with the icy flakes, some landing on my shoulder. I looked back up trying to make sense of the darkness above.
“I think there’s—”
“Demons!” shouted Charlotte. “Back into the tunnels!”
A chunk of masonry fell through the air, just missing Lucas, and slammed into the grating, but not before they had jumped free back to the ledge and inside the doorway.
“Come on!” shouted Charlotte, moving away from me. I looked at the grating, then in a moment’s thought, sent it careering upwards, it smashed into dark shapes climbing down.
I turned and ran inside, not getting ten feet before bricks and metal flew past me. I decided not to look back but instead caught up with the others who were now running along the corridors.
“Where are we going!” I shouted to them.
“There should be a tunnel which leads to the sewers, from there I have no idea!” shouted Charlotte from the gloom up ahead.
The crunching and crashing sounds behind us had now stopped. And we descended a small staircase, into an even narrower space, this one with an arched ceiling covered in green, frozen lichen.
“This is a sewer that runs parallel with the river,” said Charlotte.
“You recognise any of this?” I said to Colin in front of me.
“Ain’t never been down this way before. But it don’t matter. We just gotta get to the river and out of this place.”
The air grew c
older, and a haze of white mist moved with us as we breathed heavily, trying to keep up the pace.
“Look! Up ahead,” said Lucas.
We arrived at an outlet covered in iron bars. I waved my hand and they bent backwards, creating an opening to the ice and snow outside. We moved through the gap and onto the frozen surface of the river. Opposite, the banks were lit with lamps, highlighting the warehouses looming into the night sky.
“We safe now?” said Daniel. “Will those things follow us?”
Charlotte pulled her coat around her neck. “No, they stay within the grounds of the Factory. But anyone else there will know their defences have been penetrated. They might come looking. We should leave this area immediately.”
CHAPTER FOUR
We walked along the river bank, trying not to slip on the ice or worse, fall into the still flowing channels which littered the crystalline surface.
Auto flew above, landing on masts and cranes alike.
Lucas moved closer to me, his lamp lighting his face. “If we make it to the train line from Victoria, we could follow it back south to the Palace, but it means a three hour walk in these conditions. I don’t think we’ll make it…”
“I’m old, not deaf warlock,” said Charlotte. “Unfortunately, though, I think the journey you proposed might be a bit too much for me.”
“My shop,” I said. I looked up at the cranes and warehouses trying to understand where we were along the river. I looked at Colin. “Do you know where we are?”
“Coming up on the London docks. Tower bridge is just around the next bend.”
We skirted along the barnacled wooden planks of the hull of a clipper, its sails lowered.
“Once we get near the tower, we can go back into the sewers. I’ll lead you to the—”
Charlotte fell to the ground. We all lunged to stop her fall from being any worse and helped her to her feet.
“I can carry you,” said Daniel.
She pushed his hand away. “You will do no such thing!”
Lucas shook his head at me and frowned. I wasn’t sure of her new age, but she was deathly pale in the light from his lamp. I looked up at the nearby wharf and the crane which stood on it.
“Everyone stand where you are,” I said.
“We have to keep moving to keep warm,” said Daniel.
“Oh…” said Colin as he saw the iron hook on the end of the crane descend and stop just next to us.
“Everyone grab hold of that. I’m going to put us up top.”
“We’ll be seen!” said Lucas.
I looked up. “Auto!” I said as loudly and quietly as possible.
The mechanical bird swooped and landed on the snow in front of me.
“Let me know if there is anyone around.”
He chirped and took to the sky.
“We need to get back to my shop as quickly as possible, we can’t stay out here any longer,” I said to Lucas.
He nodded and held onto the large iron ball. The others did the same and finally, I did too. With a thought, it sailed high into the air, and then slowly drifted back down to the path that ran alongside the river bank.
No light came from any of the windows of the warehouses around us. We were completely alone for now.
“Still some way to the tunnels,” said Colin.
“We’re not taking the tunnels,” I said. “Follow me.”
We walked over a salted path and then along a barely lit alleyway which led to the main street. It was deserted, but I quickly saw what I needed. A number of carts, minus their horses were parked, half burred in snow on the other side of the road.
“Ere look,” said Colin, standing next to a streetlamp. A wooden board was attached to it, and to that, almost lost to moisture, an artist’s sketch of my face. One of the many wanted posters I featured in that now peppered the city.
He pulled it off, scrunching it up and dropped it to the ground.
I looked back to the carts. Despite the amount of wood, they contained, there was still enough metal in the spokes and undercarriage for me to pull it free with some effort from the ice. It trundled slowly making a large track, then came to a gentle stop in front of us.
I smiled. “Our carriage awaits.”
Lucas and Daniel did the same, while Colin laughed. “Ha!” he exclaimed.
With a little help Charlotte clambered onto it, then the others joined her. Finally, I climbed on the back, my thoughts already causing the wooden vehicle to start to roll forward.
*****
I stoked the fire, which was now raging in the back room of the shop. It had been an hour since we had got back, and I was only just beginning to get feeling back in my hands.
Charlotte was asleep in Mr Gladwell’s old chair. Oddly, she reminded me of him, with her small glass of gin about to fall from her grasp. I leaned forward and placed it on the table nearby.
I heard a noise behind me. I turned to Daniel standing in the doorway. “Do you mind if I find a space in one of the rooms upstairs to sleep?”
“Mr Gladwell's—”
“No, no, I don’t mean the proprietors room.”
“Yes, of course wherever you want.”
He nodded and went to move off.
“Umm, thank you for helping tonight.”
He nodded again with a smile and moved into the other room, then up the stairs.
The rear door opened, and Lucas appeared, brushing the snow from his shoulders. “The home is warded. It will not take much to remove it, but it should mask the smoke coming from the chimney and will give us some warning if we are attacked.”
He looked at what remained of the stove. “What happened there?” I went to answer but he lifted his hand briefly. “I don’t need to know. Right. I need to sleep; do you have any more blankets?”
“Take them from Mr Gladwell’s room.”
“It will be sun up in a little under four hours. We need a plan to how to get back, but for now if I don’t lie down I’m going to fall down.”
I smiled. “Wake me when you rise.”
He nodded and followed Daniel’s path.
I made sure the fire was safe, slid the bolts across on the back door, and made my way to the basement. The four lamps were burning but it was still cold enough to see my breath. Colin smiled, his eyelids heavy. He was seated at my work desk.
“Everyone off to bed?” he said.
“Yes.”
He stood and moved past me to the stairs.
I grabbed his hand, stopping him, and looked into his eyes. “Keep me warm tonight.”
CHAPTER FIVE
A shout came from the top of the basement stairs. My mind was full of cobwebs, but then I realised it was Lucas’s voice, and Colin was still in bed next to me!
I leapt up, quickly stepping into my skirt and top. “Yes, I’ll be up, wait there!”
I heard Colin laughing from behind me and gave him a frown. He leaned back, placing his hands behind his head. “Just say you were showing me some clocks and we fell asleep!” He laughed again.
Auto chirped from a nearby shelf. I removed the cloth that I had covered him with hours before.
“I…S…e…e…N…o…w…?”
“Yes, you can see now.”
“C…r…e…t…i…n…H…e…r…e…?”
I giggled.
“That owl talking about me again?”
“Noo…”
“You both awake?” shouted Lucas. “Sun’s about to rise. Any of you know where we can find some food?”
Mrs Ballingsworth’s face came to mind, but could I trust her? “There might be someone that may help. A neighbour, across the street from us. The lady who runs the inn. I’ll go across. Her and her husband are usually awake around now.”
Colin sat up, swinging his feet around to the floor. “You can’t go out there! You’re the most wanted woman in the whole of London!”
“Probably the whole of the country by now,” said Lucas, still not wanting to venture any further than the top
step.
“She knows me. I… helped her husband not so long ago. I think we might be able to trust her.”
“That’s a big risk, Cog,” said Lucas. “One of us should come with you.”
“I have to go alone, at least that way none of you get caught as well. But I think I’ll be OK…”
A short while later I left by the rear of the property, wearing my coat and a scarf wrapped around my face and made my way via the alley to the main street. The silence and lack of the usual frantic motion of London’s workers made it feel as if I had stepped into a fairy tale. Not out front of my shop, but in a far-off land that had died a long time ago.
At least some of the second- and third-floor windows from the inn were aglow, and a constant stream of smoke came from one of the chimneys.
I lifted my skirt and stomped through the fresh snowfall to the side alley, and then to the place where Mr Ballingsworth had his misfortune. I walked up the few wooden steps to the deck which surrounded the back of the premises and knocked on the door.
“The inn’s closed to new lodgers!” said Mrs Ballingsworth.
“Mrs Ballingsworth it’s me! Cog!” There was silence from the other side. “Mrs—”
“You can’t be here, Cog. All of London is looking for you!”
“I didn’t do it! Please believe me, I’m innocent! You know I’m a good person, I wouldn’t do what they are accusing me of!”
More silence.
“If anyone knows you have been here, they’ll hang me next to you!”
“I just need some food, anything you have…”
I heard more movement from the other side and a muffled male voice. The door then opened, and Mr Ballingsworth stood, looking back at me. His hand and arm were in a sling.
“Get inside quick!” he said.
I walked into the warmth of a hallway, with a table, few chairs, and a shelf full of iron tools. Mrs Ballingsworth had an oil lamp in her hand.
“Thank you,” I said.
He looked to his wife. “See what we can spare from the larder. And make sure no one comes down 'ere.”
She placed the lamp down, then moved off down the hallway. He sat and nodded for me to do the same, which I did.