by P M Cole
This was my chance, I ran as fast as I could, my godly senses being my guide and then I saw him slipping out of a door, shrinking in size to move through it. I sprinted across the nave and through the same exit, just as a carriage with four horses at its helm was pulling away.
“Not this time, father…”
I threw my hands forward and felt the metal in the chassis across the wooden wheels and gripped it fast. The carriage jolted to a stop, causing the front horses to rear up. Then I pulled them and the carriage back, back across the snow-covered, cobbled street until it was just mere yards away.
As more roars rang out behind me and the ground shook, the carriage door sprung open and out leaned Lord Cannington, the human mask of the demon within.
“Must we always play these games?” He walked down the carriage steps. “You are strong. You truly are of my blood! You do not need to die here tonight. Come with—”
The metal had been detaching from the carriage as the poisonous words were dripping from his mouth, and now they wrapped around his neck, squeezing the life from him. He dropped his stick, but I pulled it through the air and into my hand before it hit the ice. I let the silver top melt between my fingers.
Hades' arms and legs briefly increased in size before falling back to the more human facade, his skin colour changing to red, then doing the same. He wanted to change to his natural form but fighting for his life was preventing it. I looked to a nearby shop, ripping the nails from its boards, then the metal from its machinery inside, all of which flew under my control and further wrapped itself around the man in front of me. He fought against it, but my rage meant this time I was stronger.
I turned and walked back to the entrance to the Cathedral, my abilities dragging my father and his metal cage with me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Rasping came from the god of the underworld just a few yards behind me as I walked along the aisle, his body suspended like a doll, encased in metal. It was hard to see what had become of Lucas and Melanie as the nave was full of dust, and I noticed more large chunks were missing from a number of columns. Also missing was Cerberus. No doubt returned to the hell it was charged to protect.
I ran forward into the central area. “Lucas! Colin! Melanie!”
“We’re here!” shouted Lucas from somewhere within a cloud of particulate.
I walked forward, the wooden scaffolding the bomb was sitting on revealed itself from the mist, and then so did Lucas and the others.
I looked around the broken floor of the cathedral, noticing Hades' foster children were nowhere to be seen. One though was still there. A man with some wrinkles around his eyes walked towards me, smiling, then looked at my captive. “You did it!” said Daniel.
“I thought he killed you!”
Daniel slid his hand across his neck. “Take’s more than a broken neck for that.”
I gulped as I felt Hades fighting against his restraint, and with my mind, tightened it. I then remembered what Cassandra said. I ran to the wooden beams and climbed up upon them, looking for any indication of how long we had before the infernal weapon destroyed the city. Luckily amongst the various dials on the side of the metal casing, was a clock face. Both hands were almost exactly aligned on midnight.
“We don’t have long! It’s going to explode!” I looked at Lucas and Melanie, who had now joined hands with Daniel and even Colin. The former two chanting in unison. Lucas then threw the knife, its blade glowing, to the base of the wood supporting the bomb.
“Whatever you are going to do, you need to do it now!” he shouted. “We can’t keep this going for long without the necessary power to enhance the spell.”
I had known this moment was going to come about, and I had tried to prepare for it, but now I wasn’t sure if I would have the strength to complete the task.
I jumped down from the scaffolding and stepped back, and back again, taking the others with me, knowing each step could be our last. I stopped when the bomb was twenty yards away.
I looked at the others, I wanted to tell them to leave, to get as far away as they could in the remaining seconds, but I knew it would be pointless. We were all in this together. So instead, I closed my eyes, pushing my senses out, through the stone walls, columns, and arches, out past the borders of the property to the buildings beyond, sensing what metal there was, and pulling it towards me. Nails, cans, sewing machines, tools, metal window frames, railings, spokes, pans, cutlery of all kinds and then onto the larger pieces, safes, boilers, pipes which lurked in the nearby businesses. I feared for any passersby that might get caught in the metallic storm, but I had no choice. For my plan to work, I needed it all.
It poured in through the main entrance and then through the gaps which Cassandra had created. A torrent of useful items from homes and businesses. As they streamed past us, I began to melt and meld the items to form a shell around the bomb. The first layer crushing the wooden supports. The bomb dropped a few feet until the bottom of the metal sphere that was forming, caught it. More metal, all warping and combining completed the first layer which sealed the bomb inside, then more, thousands of items collecting and becoming perfectly smooth layers, one on top of another, the sphere growing larger and larger. Ten feet wide, then fifteen, then twenty-five. I kept thickening the circular walls not knowing how strong it would need to be but added my own abilities to the construction for extra effect. An immense metal ball now completely filled the centre of the nave, but still I piled the metal into it, until… I blacked out.
An age or a moment could have passed, I did not know, but I opened my eyes to dust, shadows, and flickering light from lanterns.
A hand was on my shoulder. “You did it!” said Colin, who then coughed. His face and hair were covered in a light grey dust.
I looked around me. I was on the floor near one of the broken benches, but ahead of me, in the centre of the building were two almighty hemispheres, fallen to their sides. Between them a swirling vortex of colour and fizzing energy lit the whole area with a blue ethereal light.
A number of hands helped me to my feet. I felt light-headed then panic came over me. While I was unconscious had he escaped? “Hades! I—” I looked a few yards away, near what was left of a pillar. Daniel’s eyes were aflame. Dimmer than before, but fixed on his foster father, who was bent over, his human form weak and diseased.
“Daniel has it under control, Cog,” said Lucas. He held my shoulders. “You did it!” I meekly smiled.
A worry then came to me. I turned to Lucas. “What’s stopping him from just returning once we send him back?”
Lucas smiled. “The spell that was cast merely reverses Chronus’s spell. It unbinds him from this realm but binds him to the other. He will never return.”
I walked to the pitiful figure of my father on the ground, pieces of metal still surrounding some of his limbs.
“Clever girl,” he croaked. “Using the power of the device to open the portal—” I waved my hand, and the metal he was still chained to tugged, pulling him towards the portal. “— Wait! That witch hag, she lives!” I stopped his momentum just yards from the portal. “What do you mean? Charlotte is alive?”
“He’s lying, Cog!” shouted Lucas.
Hades smiled. “She was alive when I sent here there. She’s a strong witch that one. She could well be alive. If you send me through—”
Daniel wavered. “I can’t hold him forever, Cog, send him through!”
“—You’re sealing her fate forever, daughter…” Hades laughed, each chortle like a dagger in my chest.
Daniel fell back against a piece of masonry. “Quickly! He’s breaking free of my influence!”
Hades looked up at me and knew his fate was sealed. With a flick of my wrist he sailed through the air and in a burst of immense light he and the portal were gone.
*****
The coach ride to Grayton I undertook alone, only Auto as my company. After Hades was returned to his former realm, another figure emerged through the dust.
It was Melanie’s sister, Katerina. She had been in the carriage which I rendered useless. Evidently Hades wanted to use her to secure his own protection and escape but as it turned out, he never got the chance.
As the snow-covered streets, lit by gas flame, gave way to more leafy boroughs, and then a field or two, I tried to gather my thoughts. The three men I had come to trust all tried to convince me that they should go with me, but I brushed away their attempts. If any of Hades' foster children were in the underground palace, I would deal with them, but I had a suspicion I would only find one person in the subterranean home. One person that had been in her own kind of prison for the entirety of my life. I hoped I could convince her to leave it.
The coach stopped outside the main gates. I stepped down onto the snow, gave a shilling to the driver and noticed that for the first time in weeks, I could see the stars in the sky unencumbered by cloud. The dark grey constant backdrop to London had gone, replaced with a brilliant canopy of sparkles. I walked towards the iron gates, which parted with a moment’s thought and kept on going.
As I walked up the icy track, the manor looked devoid of life, with no windows showing any light. I felt Auto flying above me, but there were no chirps to warn me of impending danger, and my only anxiety came from how my mother would react to the news I was bringing her.
I walked down the side of the monolithic building, to the grounds at the rear. My mind returned to the times I had been inside the infernal place. I had no intention of entering it ever again. I walked between ice-covered hedgerows and along avenues bordered by small statues, until I saw the circular arrangement of stone columns at the centre of the grounds, the section of earth and sand that would descend and take me to Hades' former home.
A lone figure sat on one of the smaller stones, dressed in black as she was the first time I had seen her in Hyde park. I hesitated then continued forward until I was just a few yards from her.
She looked up at me, her face covered in a veil. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”
I nodded.
She looked down. “I somehow always knew it would be you who would do it.”
“He told me you said for you and him to survive, I must not.” I awaited her contradiction of my account. None came. “You wanted me dead?” The words burst from me, as tears escaped from my eyes.
She looked back up at me, anger visible behind the black lace. “You gave us no choice! He would have changed the world, Corine!”
“He wanted to destroy it! He was going to kill thousands of people! I thought…” Fantasies of reclaiming my mother from the years he had her were quickly fading from my mind. I fell to my knees in front of her. “He’s gone! You can be free now,” I pleaded.
She looked away from me. “The others. Did you kill them too?”
I sighed, my throat tight with anguish. “I don’t know where they are.” I pushed away the pain of her indifference to me and went to hold her hand, but she moved it before I could. “You are free!” I cried out. “Whatever hold he had on you went with him to the other realm. You can live your life! You can be my mother once more…”
She stood, making me lean back. “I have matters to attend to. I will now become the custodian of his estate. Please do not return to this place again.”
She walked away towards the main house as I sat in the cold, tears running down my cheeks.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I lay in my bed in my basement. Colin suggested we should use Mr Gladwell’s, but I still wasn’t ready for that despite the comfort the extra room would afford. Colin’s arm was draped across my shoulder, and I lay listening to his breathing, which contained the faintest of wheezes. But he was soundly asleep. I wondered what dreams he was having now the traumatic interlude in our lives was over.
A stream of thoughts cascaded through my mind. Was Charlotte alive in the hell that was the underworld? Despite the weight that Hades' final comments impressed on me, I couldn’t help but feel that if anyone could survive that place, even in the condition she was in, it was Charlotte Claxton, the most feared user of magic in London.
London… my home, was waking up as if having been kissed by a prince. In the sewer behind me a constant stream of water heralded the pavements and streets above were shedding their icy skin and returning to something the citizens of the capital could make use of.
I thought about the others that were born with godly powers. Where were they and what would they do, now the shackles of their guardian had been removed. Would they seek revenge on me or those I cared about? My heart quickened. I hoped they would not, but each of us would need to be vigilant.
Daniel said he would not be returning to his role as medical student. He figured he was now a man in his late thirties, such was his foster sister's effect on him, and none of his seniors at the hospital would believe he was the same person. So instead he had decided to catch a ship to the continent in a few days' time, to make use of his training elsewhere, with a new identity.
The two sisters had returned to Scotland, Gloria’s body in tow. I asked them to inform me when the burial would take place so if they wished, I could attend.
Lucas had said that at sun up he would be making enquiries with the appropriate authorities to find the whereabouts of Bernard and Olivia and would not stop until they had been found. There was also the small matter of the very same authorities still thinking I was to blame for the murder of the Prime Minister. Lucas assured me though, with himself and Daniel’s testimonies speaking to events being different, he felt all blame would be dropped. And if that failed, there were always magical ways to convince those that needed persuading.
Finally, I gulped, suppressing the lingering pain that were my thoughts of my mother. The woman that would read to me when I was a child, was gone. She had died seventeen years earlier with my true father, Gideon.
I took in a deep breath, letting my body realise that for now my troubles were over, and suddenly felt something inside me that I hadn’t before. Hope.
I then promptly turned my head to the side of the bed and threw up.
Colin sat up, blinking. “What… Are you OK? What’s happening?”
My head was light. I tried to sit up but lost the battle when I threw up again. The sickness coming in waves.
Colin jumped out of bed, looking for his undergarments. “I… I’ll get Mrs Ballingsworth!”
As I lay back, my head feeling as if it contained lead, I wondered if this was one final farewell from my father. Some kind of dark curse. I ought to have known my victory would come at an even greater cost.
As I fought with the urge to relieve my stomach once again, scuffling came from the boards upstairs and then the staircase.
I looked at the frayed dress, under a winter coat, belonging to Mrs Ballingsworth. I went to speak but doing so only made me feel worse.
The wife of the innkeeper held her nose for a moment, then sat with me on the bed. “How long have you been feeling poorly, child?”
“It… just came on me. I just started feeling sick.”
“And you are well in all other ways?”
I nodded. “I think so.” I wondered if Colin should run and get Lucas. He might know what magical affliction had been cast upon me.
She looked at Colin, in his breeches, then to me. “I do not wish to talk out of turn. But taken ill like this, with no stomach pains or other ailments. Umm… moments of nausea in the morning…”
“Oh…”
The End.
Thank you for reading The Cog Chronicles! I hope you enjoyed them. Books 4, 5 and 6 will be released early next year.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave me a review on Amazon. As an indie author that really helps.
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Thank you again.
Phil.
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About the Author
P.M. Cole is a forty somet
hing author, living at the top of a Victorian house in greater London. This is his first historical fantasy novel, but he has always had a love of Victoriana. He's looking forward to continuing the adventures of Cog in 2020.
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Acknowledgements
Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.