by P M Cole
Melanie looked at the sky. “Darkness will be upon us within the hour. We won’t make it there in time!”
I looked away to the larger buildings and wider streets ahead. “We’ll make it.”
As we moved into the heart of the city and passed three- and four-storey buildings hosting shops on their ground floors, I saw a bridge up ahead. One which I hoped moved over railway lines rather than water.
I pointed at it and Lucas climbed up and told Gloria to stop on the grand iron bridge. Carriages flew past us as I jumped down and ran to the small staircase which allowed for a view to what was below, and to my relief a multitude of snow-covered tracks moved into the station which was just a few hundred yards away.
“This will do!” I shouted to the others and soon we were rushing down the iron steps onto a path which wound alongside the tracks. Three locomotives sat not far ahead, housed in a three-storey-high iron train shed, which fed into the station at the back, bordered by four platforms. One of the trains already had steam coming from its funnel, but that was not the one I wanted, for any modification would likely result in blowing the whole train apart. I needed one that had been sitting for a while. The furthest train from us was without any operators and looked as if it had not seen use for some time, and even more heartening it only had one carriage attached to it. It also had ‘London’ on a small wooden board attached to its front. Perfect.
I pointed to it and we all looked to the platform to see where the inspectors were. Most were preoccupied with passengers. This was our chance.
We jumped over the small fence and made our way across the tracks, until we jumped back up onto the platform that ran parallel with the locomotive I indicated. It was a fine piece of engineering and I almost did not want to implement my design. But I knew if I did not, there would be no way we would make it to London before night came.
I went to close my mind off to outside influence when screams echoed off the iron beams around me, causing a flock of birds to take to the darkening sky.
“Look!” shouted Colin pointing to the other platforms to our right.
People were running, panic in their eyes. An elderly woman fell, others ignoring her plight, desperate to get away from whatever was beyond our view, due to the train in front of us.
Lucas and Gloria were already moving up the platform so they could see across the tracks and soon stopped in their tracks. I went to ask what they were witnessing, but the words never left my mouth as flame enveloped Lucas’s hand, and a blue fireball flew through the air.
“Do your modifications!” he shouted over his shoulder to me, then promptly threw another magical projectile. Melanie too had joined her sister, one hand locked to Gloria’s while their other was emanating light, which then suddenly burst forth in a stream of magical energy.
I looked at Daniel and Colin, the latter still having trouble walking; both nodded to me then walked away. It was then I saw what they and the casuals had seen, for at the far end of the concrete platform where it became the station, Furies staggered into view, but they were not alone. Running towards us with them were other winged creatures, smaller but just as demonic in nature. Their black eyes and expressions of hate were visible even from a hundred yards away.
“Gargoyles!” shouted Gloria.
I turned back to the train, more determined than ever to accomplish my task quickly. I pushed my senses out to absorb the layout and structure of the transport machinery in front of me. Every piston, valve, and chamber which contained the power of the furnace became illuminated in my mind, and in turn I set about changing what I could, intuitively feeling what would make the engine go faster. More screams rang out, but I closed my mind from them as the train started to change and morph into something the world had not seen before.
I heard a clump a yard from me, a sound that I could not ignore. I turned then ducked just as a claw at the end of a wing slashed across the space where my nose had just been. Instinctively one of the iron cylinders that was about to fit into its new position flew across the track and hit the lizard-like creature in its chest, sending it barrelling across the platform. I looked back to the others; each were now fighting to keep the horde from engulfing us.
“Get in the carriage!” I screamed at them, hoping they would hear. Daniel, his eyes aflame, pulled away and jumped up the few steps, imploring the others to join him.
I looked back at the engine, placing the iron piece I had just used as a weapon back in its proper spot.
I was done.
The locomotive was sleek, with a sharp trough at its front to remove any obstructions, and its internals carefully crafted to extract maximum power from the heat from the furnace.
The furnace…
It had completely slipped my mind; we would need to get the fire up to heat. Lucas was the last to leave the platform, and with Gloria, was hanging off the side of the train, sending magic against the demons that were almost upon us.
There was no time to get the furnace heated. I jumped up into the driver's cab, just as a demon lunged at my foot. I turned and with an instant thought, brought an iron shovel through the air, smacking it smartly in the centre of its head and knocking it off the train back to the platform.
We needed to go.
I closed my eyes, then felt the large iron wheels beneath me. The weight of the train was immense, but I just needed to get us moving. A sound came from my right and I was just about to repeat the same manoeuvre with the shovel when Lucas appeared, briefly pausing before entering the cab to let go another ball of flame back down the platform.
“What’s the hold up?” he said.
“We don’t have any fire!” I nodded to the heap of coal behind us. “Start shovelling that into the furnace. While I try another method to get us out of here!”
He nodded and started on my order.
I returned to straining every part of my mind. We jolted, then a piston started to move.
“It's working!” said Lucas.
The breaking of glass heralded Hades' creatures tearing into the carriage behind me. We needed to go faster, but the weight was too great for me. We were hardly moving. I needed another plan. I looked around the cab.
“What are you doing! Don’t stop!” shouted Lucas, out of breath.
“Stand aside!” I said to him. Despite his expression of confusion, he stepped back. I looked up at the iron roof, immediately a strip peeled from it, exposing the glass panels and iron beams of the shed high above. The metal I had excavated stretched and warped, until it became a simple chute, which coal quickly started to roll along straight into the furnace.
Lucas helped even more coal into its required place.
I then made the chute drop to the floor. “Ignite the coal! Quickly!”
Without hesitation his hand became enflamed, which he flicked towards the opening, sending a bolt of flame, and causing an explosion of light amongst the black rocks. I slammed the furnace door shot and steam escaped from all round us. The pistons shot back and forward, the wheels spun, and we surged forward as if shot from a gun.
From the hole in the roof, I saw the shed quickly pass from view, being replaced by a dark grey sky, and snowflakes falling through the gap.
We both hung out the side looking back at the creatures who were running and taking to the air, but we were increasing in speed, so much so that even they were having trouble keeping up.
More magic flew in the attacker's direction from Lucas and from someone leaning out of the end of the train who I presumed was Gloria.
A screech came from above, as the factories and workhouses of Manchester flashed by. One of the Furies was hovering above, almost lost in the steam now coming from the train's chimney. It flapped its immense wings, threatening to pull Lucas up into the air. Flame shot from his hand into the sky, but I noticed each ball of fire was diminishing in size, and the Fury was deftly avoiding being hit.
With a moment's thought, I looked up and then at the Fury. The rest of the roof detached a
nd swept upwards crashing into the winged nightmare. It screamed in pain, disappearing into the gloom that was creeping across the sky. But I was not done. Lucas looked on in amazement as the five-foot square piece of metal sheet warped and splintered into hundreds of darts, each a few inches long. I walked forward, climbing up the small hill of coal, and looked back along the tracks. Hades' small army of flying creatures were still there, still trying to catch us. The swarm of daggers floated above me, and in a sudden burst I set them free. They sailed through the air and within a second slammed into those chasing us. As if they had crashed into a wall, the demons fell to the snow-covered ground, and as our speed kept on increasing our would-be assassins became swallowed by the coming night.
*****
I leaned against the right window of the cab, holding my coat tight around me. Every part of me was as frozen as the landscape we were passing through. Opening the furnace door to pile more coal in momentarily eased the chill, but as soon as the door closed, it was like being plunged into the icy waters of a lake. Lucas was similarly disposed, leaning against the opposite side. Both of us taking turns to look along the track and further to see any flashes of light on the horizon. So far there hadn’t been.
Hades must have known we were coming for him, but if he had detonated the bomb, we had seen no evidence of it. Was he waiting for me to arrive? Wanting me to see how much death he could cast upon my home? I wouldn’t be surprised. I hoped his arrogance would be his downfall. Either way, every yard we got closer to London, was a yard closer to stopping him.
I thought back to Mr Gladwell, and the morning I read him the story of the Haywards being mugged. I wondered how different my life would had been if that had not happened. I couldn’t help but feel though, even if I hadn’t read that newspaper article, I still would have ended up on this roofless train hurtling towards London to send a god back to his previous realm.
“Do you know what station in London we come in to?” shouted Lucas.
“I have no idea. It doesn’t matter as long as we get there.” I pulled the fishermen’s watch from my coat. 5: 46 p.m.
“Any plan for what happens if the bomb goes off just as we arrive?”
I shook my head. It was an honest response. From my dream a week earlier, there was nothing anyone would be able to do if they were too close. And we were definitely going to be that.
“So, the plan is to distract Hades, while I cast the unbinding spell, and then when the time is right, we detonate the bomb, which somehow doesn’t kill us all?”
I nodded.
He looked away. “Right.”
“If we fail it won’t matter anyway.”
He snorted out a laugh. “That’s not much of a comfort.”
As the wheels pounded the iron tracks below us, taking us ever closer to our fate, I smiled. He was right, it wasn’t, and that’s why we had to succeed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
As the shovel-shaped front of the train I had conjured from my imagination tore through mounds of snow, the lights of the capital beckoned to us, just tens of miles ahead. We were almost at our destination.
Both of us had become buried within our own clothes, but that still did not stop our eyelashes becoming frozen sticks, which fractured on opening and closing our eyes. Apart from Hades, if the journey had been any longer, the conditions themselves would have been enough to put an end to us.
I noticed the track we were on had become just one of many, and at the top of the steep embankments homes and taller buildings stood to attention.
As bridge after bridge passed over us, I tried to get a sense of where we were, but somewhere in North London was the best I could do.
“I think we will need to stop soon!” I shouted between nattering teeth.
Lucas nodded, or shook I wasn’t sure which. He leaned out, looking forward along the tracks just visible in the dark. His eyes suddenly widened.
“What is it?” I shouted. Instead of waiting for an answer, I did the same on my side, the force of wind causing me to narrow my field of view, but it was still enough to see there was something wrong up ahead.
“We’re heading for trouble!” he shouted.
Standing on a bridge, lit by the street lamps was a huge human form, but this was no larger than average person, for they stood almost as tall as the lamp next to them. Suddenly they jumped down onto the track, and even with the roar of the engine in front of us, I could hear the sound of metal being pulled apart.
Realising what was about to befall the train, I pulled hard on the brake lever, causing us to fly forward into the front of the cab. My elbow cracked one of the glass dials, but I was more interested in getting the train to stop before we came to whatever the giant had done to the track. As the tender pushed against us and the carriage the same behind it, I extended my thoughts out to the wheels and pistons doing my best to slow their movement, as I did, the momentum pinned me to the metal wall. As the wheels screeched in defiance, I had no idea if my efforts would be enough.
The engine shunted, but we slowed to a stop. Then the ground shook, and something bellowed out ahead of us. I gathered my strength and both I and Lucas peered out of the open doors of the cab.
“It’s an ogre!” he shouted. His hand briefly came alight with flame, but then stuttered and quickly distinguished. “I don’t have the magic in me to—”
The cab suddenly lunged to the left, the world around us and the engine, tipping over. I managed to scramble towards the tender and climbed up then leaped free as the whole train became detached from the rails, and I landed heavily on the ice-covered gravel to the side of the tracks. The air filled with an almighty crash, as the carriage, tender, and locomotive all slammed into the snow and dirt.
In the gloom, moving in and out of shadow I could see the leviathan of a man, his tree-like arms letting go of the front of the engine. He then swung his head in my direction. I was his next target.
He thundered towards me, his torn and ragged clothes flapping in the wind, each forward step sending a judder through the ground.
I focused my thoughts, but I was still so frozen that the pain of that was overcoming my efforts. The shovel that had somehow been thrown free, flew through the air and pinged off the creature's beige skin-coloured skull, without him even noticing.
Was this to be my fate? Our mission ending on some forgotten embankment in north London. I redoubled my concentration, but I was too late, and his shadow loomed over me.
“Argh!” The ogre boomed out into the night, then staggered back with his hand covering a stream of blood running down the right side of his face. Auto buzzed around his head, swaying, and ducking beneath the giant man’s swipes, although now he only had one eye to try and catch the mechanical bird with.
I still only had seconds. I felt the train engine with my mind and started to rip it apart. Pieces of metal pulled from the main frame of the locomotive, melted together and then slammed into the towering creature, wrapping around his arms and legs, and bringing him to the ground. I got back to my feet as he struggled to do the same, but I tightened my metal grip on him, tighter and tighter until there was a snap, and he fell, motionless.
“She’s a witch!” shouted a man above me. I looked up to an audience of casuals, some with lanterns.
Ignoring them I ran across the track, first going to the engine cab. Lucas was nowhere to be seen. I then ran along the carriage.
‘M…o…r…e…B…a…d…C…o…m…i…n…g…!’ chirped Auto above me.
“Can anyone here me!” I shouted as I got to the rearmost door. No one replied but I could hear movement inside.
I climbed into the horizontal open doorway. Colin was kneeling next to someone, but I couldn’t see who. As I went to move forward, a noise came from behind, and I whirled around. Lucas fell forward into the carriage, blood covering his face. Caught between which way to move, I moved further into the carriage, walking across broken glass where the windows used to be. Melanie and Colin were kneeling next to Gl
oria, the former crying. Colin looked up at me with red eyes.
“Where’s Daniel!” I screamed. “He can heal her!”
“I can’t bring the dead back,” said Daniel, behind me. “But I tried anyway.” I turned around as he walked away towards Lucas.
“Try again!” I demanded.
Melanie sprang up and pushed me back against the awkwardly positioned seat. “You did this! You killed her!”
‘B…a…d…C…o…m…i…n…g…!’ chirped Auto from outside one of the broken windows above me, which snow was now falling through.
“We have to go! There’s more of Hades' creatures coming for us!” I said, just a few inches from her face. My expression softened. “I’m sorry, but we have to go!”
Her lip trembled. “I won’t leave her!”
For a moment I was a sea of conflicting emotions, then numbness started to creep across my battered mind. Too many times I had seen tragedy, and I knew the only way to stop it from happening again was to keep going.
Lucas climbed onboard the carriage, seemingly in better shape. “Then we take her with us. Help me carry her.”
Colin who appeared to be thankfully unscathed, lifted Gloria’s body, along with Daniel and Lucas, and we all moved along the carriage into the deteriorating weather conditions outside. Nearby was a muddy path and a set of stairs which moved up to the street above. Police whistles rang out in the distance. We needed to leave before we had more problems to deal with. Daniel placed the fallen witch over his shoulder, and we all staggered onto the path, and then up the brick steps, splitting a small crowd of onlookers at the top of it, who instinctively stepped back.
A carriage rolled by; the driver seemingly oblivious to what had happened just yards down the slope. I ran out in front of the horses causing them to rear up.
He grumbled something in my direction as one of the doors opened and a man holding onto his tall hat peered out. A railing from a nearby metal fence flew through the air and hovered in front of the driver who looked at it hypnotised, then as if waking from a dream, jumped down. The passenger, seeing the same, also quickly made his escape.