The Conquering Dark: Crown (21 page)

Nick snarled, “What the hell is that crazy old fakir talking about? This lunatic is the Ishwar we came to find?”

The elderly man glowered at Nick, then turned back to Kate. “If you care to observe, Miss Anstruther, I will explain.” He quivered and grew very still. His wrinkled skin darkened like soil. The contours of muscles and joints grew rough and indistinct. The man transformed into a lifeless, vaguely man-shaped pile of mud.

“Holy Mother,” Kate exclaimed.

“Is it a golem?” Simon stared at the muck that used to be Ishwar without touching it.

“No, I think it's vivimancy,” Nick said, impressed. “Looks like he's mastered vitalism. I was wrong. He's no crazy old fakir.”

Kate tore her stunned gaze from the glistening mound of mud and raised the spyglass. The figure tied to the distant stone column had his head slumped against his chest. As Kate watched, he lifted his face. He nodded toward her in desperation. It was clearly Ishwar. She turned back to watch the mud on the ground re-form into the shape of the elderly magician.

Ishwar blinked his shining eyes at Kate as if waking from a pleasant nap. “There isn't much time. You must seize the Stone and take it away.”

“Where is it?” Kate asked.

“I will take you.” Ishwar motioned them to follow and walked toward a small temple behind him.

Kate exchanged a glance with Simon. They didn't hesitate and strode after Ishwar. Nick grumbled, obviously ill at ease with the whole situation.

As Ishwar led them inside, Simon looked at the stonework around them. “Is it in here?”

“No.” Ishwar took the arm of a carved god on the wall and pulled it. A portion of the floor pivoted down to reveal a dark tunnel into the ground. “This route will save us from being unfortunately skewered.”

“Wait a damn second.” Nick fixed Simon with a look of incredulity. “Are you just going to trust this man?”

Simon started into the tunnel. “It's either him or the metal man and his death traps outside.”

Kate followed, then Hogarth. Ishwar waited until finally Nick growled and also dropped into the dark tunnel. Ishwar came after and worked some counterweight to return the cover stone to its place.

In the darkness ahead, Simon paused to make a show of removing a stone from his boot. In fact, he quickly drew the gold key from his coat pocket, keeping it hidden from Ishwar with crafty sleight of hand, and dropped it into his right boot.

Ishwar smiled approvingly at the fire that burst from Nick's hand to light the darkness. “Good trick. The light is unnecessary. Go forward. There is only forward now.”

“I'll keep it if you don't mind.” Nick let Ishwar pass in front of him so he was bringing up the rear and could keep an eye on the wizened man.

Simon stamped his boot back on. “Kate, what more can you tell us about this Walker chap?”

“He traveled with my father occasionally, as I mentioned. Died in India on my father's last expedition there. Or so I thought. He had been an infrequent hunting companion of my father. When I was a little girl, he would come out to Hartley Hall at times for shooting parties, like many people did.”

“And what did you think of him?”

“He was a brute. He treated animals harshly. I saw him beat horses. Once Aethelstan, Aethelred's mother, bit him and Walker went to shoot her.”

“Did he?”

“No. I stopped him long enough for father to come and smooth things over.” Kate grinned with righteous anger. “He deserved to be bitten, and worse.”

Ishwar said, “You brought your father's key, yes?” When no one replied, the old man smiled. “Do you not trust me, Miss Anstruther?”

Kate looked back, “Shri Ishwar, do you know where my father is?”

“No, Miss Anstruther. I haven't heard from him in the years since he hid the Stone here. You have not either?”

“No.” Kate shook her head. “Why not simply destroy the Stone?”

“No!” Ishwar leaned forward with a look of distress. “No, Miss Anstruther. Your father knew the karma from such an atrocity. The Stone is a great relic and more important than our lives.”

“More important than your life maybe,” Nick muttered.

Ishwar didn't even glance at the sour man. “Hide it far away. If Gaios finds it again, then hide it again. As many times as necessary.”

Kate shook her head in confusion. “Why would he hide it here so close to Baroness Conrad's home? He knew she was in league with Gaios.”

“He believed he had killed the Baroness years ago in revenge for her slaughter of his expedition. He was wrong.”

“My father battled with the Baroness?”

“Yes, Miss Anstruther. He came here many years ago trying to find more information about Gaios's plans. She trapped his expedition and killed most of them.”

Kate exhaled heavily. “Damn it, he never told me.”

“Your father believed she was dead. And he believed the intrinsic power of this temple would help hide the Stone from the potential gaze of an earth elemental, even one as powerful as Gaios. He was wrong again. But even the great Gaios must have his limits. He obviously cannot tell the hunter the exact location of the Stone, or it would be on its way to England now. He only knows that it is somewhere here in this vast temple city. That is why Walker tortured the poor monks who reside here, but they did not know.”

“But you know?”

“I do. I helped your father put it here three years ago. And I have watched it ever since.”

Simon noticed Kate pulling her coat tighter. He knew her chills were not completely from the cold. The memories of her father were near and she was unnerved by them. “How did you contact us in England, Shri Ishwar? Do you have a key of your own?”

“I have this.” Ishwar hopped, showing a small silver chain around his bare ankle. Dangling from the chain was a metal trinket shaped like the compass or sunrise rune from the key. “Your father made these speaking charms and gave me one. It is drained of aether now and useless. Fortunately, I reached you, Miss Anstruther, and you came. And you will keep the Stone safe with your life, as I have done.”

As they continued, the tunnel grew narrow so they had to drop to their hands and knees, and crawl, pushing their packs ahead of them. The oppressive sense of surrounding earth began to trouble Simon, but he refused to show it. The dirt of the tunnel scraped both shoulders and the top of his head. He could not turn or look back. He only knew that Kate was there by her breath, and he could hear the sounds of the others crawling behind. The pale light of the tunnel grew even smaller ahead so he had to drop to his chest and wriggle through an opening barely wide enough for a human shape.

The other side opened into a broader chamber that allowed him to stand. He stooped to pull Kate out and she took a deep breath of relief. Hogarth struggled from the tunnel as if it were giving birth to an elephant.

Ishwar sidled to the front of the group. He fumbled his fingers along the wall and a small rectangular section swung open. One by one, they followed him onto a tiled floor. They found themselves next to a statue of a cross-legged Shiva holding a trident in one hand.

“We are in the northwest corner of the great temple where Walker has me prisoner,” announced Ishwar.

“That can't be wise.” Simon regarded the old man.

“Unfortunately, the Stone rests in this very temple. Did I neglect to say this to you?”

Simon laughed.

Kate rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You find that funny?”

He shook his head with great solemnity. “Not funny in the traditional sense, no.”

Ishwar pointed. “The Stone is in that direction. I am being held at the east terrace.”

Ishwar silently led the way forward across the vast chamber. Diffused moonlight filtering through the exterior lattice walls created long silvery shadows. They passed cautiously through the voluptuous interior thick with statues. Many sculptures wore frightening faces and did not appear to be any of the Hindu deities Simon knew.

At the far side of the crowded deity room, they came to an open archway. Simon and Ishwar peered through the arch, looking into a grand entry hall. Fifty feet away was a row of widely spaced columns separating the hall from the main veranda with its bonfire crackling. The true Ishwar was tied to one of those pillars. He sat on the frigid stone floor, head down, apparently unconscious. There was no sign of Walker at the moment.

Kneeling beside Simon, Ishwar stared through the gap. The elderly man put a hesitant hand up as if gesturing to his own distant form. “I may not live much longer.”

Simon said, “Aren't you a vivimancer of some sort? You have the power of life. Why can't you heal yourself?”

“I have, which is why I am still alive at all. I cannot now spare the power to heal and keep myself”—he touched his chest—“up and about. I can only imbue life to one form at a time.”

“The sooner we get the Stone, the sooner we can rescue you,” Nick hissed. “So where is it?”

Ishwar started from the edge of the archway and moved along the wall of the deity room, counting stones across, then up. He touched a mottled grey stone, which was the proper size of the relic they sought.

Simon reached up. It felt like any other cold rock. “You're sure?”

“This is the location. From the arch, nine stones across and six up. Nine for Katherine. Six for Imogen.”

Kate put a hand over her mouth to stifle an uncharacteristic sob. Her eyes suddenly glistened.

Simon understood her emotional reaction to Sir Roland using his daughter's names as a guide to hide this relic from Gaios. It was like overhearing an unexpected word of praise from her father. “Odd that something this powerful seems so normal.”

“This one is normal. That isn't the Stone of Scone.”

“What?”

Ishwar looked embarrassed. “Your Stone is at this spot, but it is on the other side of this wall.”

“In the entry hall? In full view of the enemy.” Simon leaned heavily against the wall with an exhale of defeat. He quickly recovered; it was untoward for him to show any weakness or frustration in front of the others. “How thick is this wall? Can we get to the Stone from this side?”

“It is very thick. Many layers of stone. Even if you had the power to tear through it, the hunter would hear you first, or perhaps the wall would collapse. Your Stone is facing out on the far side. You have but to loosen it and go.”

“Oh, is that all?” Simon pinched the bridge of his nose and smiled. “Fine. There's no point in waiting. Walker isn't around so let's get you and the Stone, and be off.”

They went through the archway from the deity room into the entry hall. Frigid wind blew through the row of columns open to the outside. Simon counted off along the interior wall until he put his hand on the proper stone. It too felt like a normal rock and it looked exactly like every stone on the wall. But Ishwar nodded with a slight smile. Simon ran his fingers over the rough surface of the Stone of Scone, trapped here so far from home in the wall of a temple in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Kate moved to the front of the entry hall and knelt by the slumped form of the real Ishwar. Nick crouched behind a neighboring column, staring out onto the snowy terrace and city beyond. He swore.

“Those damned monkeys are everywhere out there. Can you get the Stone back through the tunnel?”

Simon shook his head. “I don't think so. There were spots where it was far too narrow. We barely squeezed through.”

“If we try to stroll out of here,” Nick said, “Walker will be on us. And he seems unpleasant. Plus, this city is riddled with death traps.”

Simon pressed his foot against the floor. “I have an idea, but don't know exactly how it will work. I believe I can create a new portal with the key. Here. And we can simply drop the Stone back to London.”

Kate looked up. “You can do that?”

“I'm not sure, but our discovery of the creation phrase put me on the right path.”

She nodded in agreement. “Try it. What's the worst that can happen?”

Simon pursed his lips sourly at her. “You should never tempt fate, my dear.” He pulled his sword and sparked it to life, holding it out to Kate. She sheathed her own sword and took his, mindful not to touch the blade. Simon looked at the wall carefully. He pressed his right foot onto the floor. “Daros Marthsyl.”

“What are you saying?
Door
in ancient Celtic?”

“Yes. I can feel something starting to happen. I don't know if it will work, or how long it will take.”

“Where is the key?” Kate asked.

“In my boot. Monkey, darling.” Then Simon stiffened and his mouth clamped shut.

“Monkey darling what?” Kate caught a glimpse of one of the little hairy figures hanging from the beams overhead. “Jesus!”

A fireball streaked at the dangling beast, but it squealed and swung up out of sight. Nick slapped his hand against the column. “Damn it! We're in for it now.”

“Simon,” Kate began, but as she turned back to him, she saw he was frozen with his eyes closed. He was in a deep trance. Tendrils of aether were rising from the ground around his foot. The power of the key had locked him in place. She spun back, glowing sword in hand. “Everyone get ready. We have to hold this ground.”

Seconds later a shout came from outside, “Who is up there? There are no more monks so you must be new arrivals.” Walker came striding up the steps onto the veranda. He was framed by the thickening snow blowing in the wind. He held his massive bow with a javelin-sized arrow already notched, but it was pointing at the ground. A monkey crouched on Walker's steel arm, eating fruit, no doubt a reward for its spying prowess. The hunter stared between the columns at the group inside the entry hall. He grinned with delight. “Katie Anstruther! Is that you? The Baroness said you were looking for the Stone too.”

Kate froze. She and Nick peered out at the huge mechanical man on the edge of the terrace.

“I was hoping you would come,” Walker continued. “Do I look different to you now, Katie?” He flexed one of his steel arms with a mechanical whine. “I don't think I had these little appendages when we last met, did I? No, I couldn't have because I acquired them thanks to your father. He left me for dead, Katie. If Baroness Conrad hadn't saved me, well, I'd be as dead as this fellow.” Walker kicked the decapitated body of the monk. His gogglelike eyes glowed red. “Speak up, Katie! Nothing to say about your murdering father? Do all you Anstruthers stick together? Oh, and how is your sister, Imogen?”

Kate gripped Nick's arm so tightly she was in danger of tearing it off.

The hunter came closer with thudding steps. “Did my old friend, Colonel Hibbert, enjoy her? I'm sure he did.” He grinned.

Walker raised his bow. Only then did he see the second Ishwar standing behind Kate, and he hesitated in surprise. He looked toward his prisoner, still tied to the column, and back up at the other Ishwar in confusion.

Kate popped the treacle out of her crossbow an took some grim pleasure in seizing a different load. She raised her crossbow and fired between a column. A potion smashed against Walker's chest. The drenching chemical solution transformed into a bilious green cloud. He gagged on the toxic fumes and ducked back, swinging the bow wide.

Kate shouted orders. “Ishwar, free yourself! Hogarth, Nick, on Walker!”

Hogarth leapt between the columns onto the terrace and leveled his mace into the hunter's chest. Walker gasped and staggered back toward the steps. His evil glare went to Hogarth. When the mace swung for another blow, a metal claw met it. The heavy weapon bounced off as if it had struck a mountain. Walker reached out and grabbed Hogarth.

“I remember you bowing and scraping at Hartley Hall,” Walked snarled at the burly servant. “I dislike being manhandled by stableboys.”

A pistol cracked and Kate stood with her arm straight and smoking weapon extended. The ball ricocheted off the plate beneath the hunter's chest. Walker shouted in surprise and dropped Hogarth down the steps.

Kate threw the vial of treacle at Walker's feet. The black ooze spread over his metal treads, locking him in place. The hunter glared down at the mess and started to raise one of his feet. It hung in the treacle for a second before tearing free. It appeared that he had actually sloughed off a thin layer of steel from his feet to escape. The metal looked to be knitting itself over, reinforcing the areas where he had lost coverage.

He stepped free of the treacle, none the worse for it. The hunter raised his bow and took the nock of the huge arrow into his claw. He aimed at Kate and drew back the string. The arrow began to glow.

“I'd hoped for better from you than trying to stop me with a little putty,” Walker growled. “Well, you're not your father then, are you, Katie? He may've been a bastard, but he got a job done.”

Nick stepped in front of her.

Walker narrowed his eyes. “Your heroism won't save her.”

“I don't do heroism, mate.” Nick raised his hands again and closed his eyes. He gritted his teeth and suppressed a scream. His fingers twisted into a fist. An arc of lightning crackled out and enveloped Walker in a sheen of blue. The hunter shrieked, but it was silent under the snapping of electricity. Walker convulsed, bending at the waist. The javelin arrow blackened and fell from his fingers. Smoke rose from around his torso and he took two steps back. His metal feet hit the edge of an icy patch and he dropped hard, cracking the stones. Walker rolled back down the steps with a thundering sound, then crashed to a wheezing halt of powerless machinery.

Nick gasped for breath and fell against a pillar. Kate reached for him, but he waved her off. His hands were red and blistered.

Kate said quietly, “I didn't know you could summon lightning.”

“I don't do it often.” Nick tried to sound tough, but he wasn't successful. “Now I remember why.”

Hogarth staggered back up the steps to the veranda, sparing an impressed glance at Nick, and went to where Ishwar was still struggling to untie the cords around his true self. Hogarth pulled a small dagger from his boot and cut the ropes. The real Ishwar flopped onto the floor and groaned. Their Ishwar suddenly froze in place and began to transform into loamy soil. Hogarth and Kate helped the newly conscious vivimancer into a sitting position. She looked at the collapsing mound of mud with some regret.

Nick pushed himself to his feet with a groan and started unsteadily toward the edge of the terrace, muttering something to himself. Kate turned to warn him to be careful when his body jerked as if hit by a powerful blow and he flew back to slam into one of the columns. He hung there, shaking uncontrollably, his feet dangling above the paving stones. A glowing javelin protruded from his chest, pinning him to the stone pillar like an insect in a collection.

“Nick!” Kate shouted and started toward him.

A steady stream of blood ran from Nick's body and stained the snowdrift red. His eyes were open and he struggled to breathe. His jaw hung slack and red liquid dribbled from his lips. Hogarth joined her and put his strong hand on the now cold javelin. Behind them, they heard the whirring of Walker's machinery and thudding footfalls coming up the steps. Kate motioned for Hogarth to free Nick as she turned to look out over the snowy terrace. She brandished her weapons, listening to the grinding sound of metal limbs drawing nearer.

Ishwar leaned weakly between columns. “I will see to your friend.”

Hogarth slowly pulled the long steel lance from Nick's chest, eliciting a pathetic grunt of pain from the wounded man. He caught the bloody figure in his powerful arms and set Nick down next to Ishwar, who was struggling to his knees.

“Katie!” Walker's voice rang out. He was still out of sight and the sounds of his movement had ceased. “Come out, Katie! I can come in and get you, but make it easy on yourself. I'm going to kill you and cut off your head so I can show it to your father one day, just before I dismember him.”

Kate stayed quiet, watching Ishwar place his swollen bloody hands on Nick's slack face. The vivimancer closed his eyes and began to chant quietly.

From inside the entry hall, a sudden blinding light shot up from the floor beneath Simon's boot and knocked him onto his back. The key's runic symbol glowed from the flagstone and the air began to shimmer a few feet above it. The usual circle of disruption swirled into being. This time, however, it was horizontal, like a pool of weirdness a few inches thick hanging above the ground. The world map appeared and a new dot flickered to life nearly on top of the spot already located in Nepal.

From the floor, Simon laughed in triumph and turned expectantly to find the others. When he took in the frightful faces on the far side of the columns, and saw the blood-drenched form of Nick, he scrambled toward them frantically. “Good God. What happened?”

A shadow rose up at the edge of the terrace with a sudden roar of machinery. Walker appeared again and charged at Kate. She had been looking at Nick, and was surprised by the sudden appearance of Simon. He rushed past her, shouting an ancient word in a fury. Walker was fast and a metal fist swept out. Simon barely had time to get his hands up before a great weight crashed against him like a battering ram. Before he could recover, a steel hand clamped his neck.

Simon grabbed the metal fingers in a grip to rival the hunter's. His other hand struck at Walker's unprotected head, tearing at the inhuman eyes. The hunter howled and flung his head back, but his grip only loosened slightly. Sparks flared in Simon's vision as more and more oxygen was denied him.

Kate appeared and inserted Simon's glowing sword into Walker's side. It slipped through the metal easily. She spun with a ragged cry, dragging the blade out Walker's back, hoping to rip through his spine. The big man reeled backward and kicked out at Kate, forcing her to leap away.

Simon slammed his palm into the elbow of the arm that held him, inward and down, forcing him closer. He crashed his forehead into the hunter's face. Blood spurted as Walker's lips and nose split. He roared. The hold lessoned and Simon sucked in a lungful of air. He took Walker's arm and twisted it around, forcing the steel ball and joint at the shoulder to creak with unexpected strain. A whine built up as the gears tried to compensate.

Walker's eyes widened, realizing Simon was much more than human. The hunter released his hold because his arm was partially torn from its socket. Simon leaned back, yanking Walker off balance. Slowly rotating into a spin like a hammer thrower, he pulled the stumbling hunter along. The mechanical man couldn't keep up, hopping and finally lifting off the ground. Simon let go and hurled the huge man away. Stones and ice broke away as the mechanized man slid along the terrace. The metal body collided with several columns, which cracked at their bases and toppled in a ground-shaking crash.

Steel hands pressed against the ground and Walker gained his feet, rotating his shoulder and loosening the laboring pistons and joints. To Simon's stunned surprise, Walker's machinery shifted and moved like a living thing as the dangling arm was pulled back into its socket. The metal was repairing itself.

Kate fired two vials at once and they crashed against Walker's chest in a cloud of green smoke. Acid began to eat away at the steel, but as fast as it was destroyed, new sections ratcheted into its place.

Simon grabbed one of the broken columns. It was thick and pitted and cold under his hands. His fingers dug deep into the cracks. Then he swung it at Walker who put out his arms to catch it. The force of the blow struck the hunter square in the chest and sent him airborne. He flew off the terrace, crashed once on the steps with an explosion of stone, bounced, and rolled uncontrollably through the dirt over the lip of a temple tank where he landed with a high plume of water.

Simon was already in motion, racing for the cistern. He would have preferred Nick's assistance, but there was no time. If Nick was even still alive. Shoving the image of his friend's bleeding body from his mind, Simon vaulted down the steps and slid onto his knees in front of the temple tank. Its expanse would call for ample quantities of aether and Simon beckoned all he could.

Walker was already striding along the bottom of the cistern beneath ten feet of water. Simon scrabbled in his pocket and found the stump of chalk he usually carried. He scribed a simple rune on one corner of the tank. Walker looked up through the churning water and actually grinned at Simon.

Freezing water was one of the first spells any scribe practiced. Simon had barely placed his hand on the rune and spoke a word when ice began to crystallize faster than nature allowed. The fracturing crystals groaned and creaked as a thin layer of ice spread across the surface of the tank. Walker still moved unencumbered at the bottom, but the ice was reproducing wildly thanks to the aether urging it on. The crystals extended deeper, growing larger as they went. Simon watched as Walker's movements became slower and slower in the thickening water. The hunter abruptly stopped in midstep, trapped in the embrace of the ice.