The Conquering Dark: Crown (24 page)

A large shape sped past Malcolm in the opposite direction and Charlotte bounded into the air, lunging at the charging monster. The werewolf landed on its snout, knocking the stone head down, causing it to stumble. Malcolm vaulted up onto the portico with Jane in his arms.

Charlotte cried out in pain and leapt into the air from the monster's head. She trailed smoke and her fur showed red singe lines from the lava secretions. She fell heavily and rolled in the dirt to smother the flames.

The huge dog turned toward her with steam boiling from its nostrils. It opened its mouth to reveal that instead of teeth, both the upper and lower surfaces were covered in long jagged stalactites. Charlotte struggled up awkwardly onto her feet despite the agonizing burns.

A high arcing object spiraled in from the sky with a long smoke trail behind it. The beast glanced up at it, then its head exploded. Penny whooped in excitement from the roof of Hartley Hall and loaded another canister into her blunderbuss. The decapitated stone dog spewed streams of magma from its throat. Charlotte yelped in fear and scrambled away from the moving fountain of lava that wandered in a circle.

When the first dog had gone for Malcolm and Jane, the second had immediately lunged for Simon. Before the scribe could react, a small object whizzed past his ear and black treacle blossomed at the monster dog's feet. t halted, trying to pull free. Kate appeared at Simon's side, watching the immobile beast with some pride. Then the monster began to regurgitate magma from its mouth onto the ground around it.

Nick raised his hands and immediately the great hound began to sizzle. Steam poured off the monster and it shook its head, looking around for the source of the disturbance. It ripped a huge stone paw from the burning treacle. Nick grunted and redoubled his efforts. Soon a slight sheen of ice began to appear over the creature. It started to boil in a frothy black-and-yellow amalgam. Cooling black bubbles formed on its back. Still Nick fought on and the ice on the steaming monster grew thicker. The bright lava glowed under the thick frosty layer, deteriorating the ice from every angle. Brittle fractures crackled across the stone. Magma oozed from the fissures and dripped down the dog's sides.

Simon ran forward. The monstrous golem turned slowly to face him, creaking like bronze. Simon shouted an ancient word and slammed himself against the head. He strained, glowing green with the aether of his tattoos. The muscles of his arms were bulging cords. The beast fought, struggling to free itself again. Simon arched his back and wrenched the igneous head in the opposite direction. Rock ruptured with a groaning crack and the monster split open. Lava gushed out. Simon ran to escape the spreading pool of magma, which Nick fought to cool quickly.

Then, over the remnant of the canine golem, Simon saw Gaios rise to his feet. The elemental's eyes were clear now and filled with hate. The earth trembled.

“Everyone back!” Simon yelled. There was no chance at Gaios now. The only tactic was retreat and survive. Simon moved back slowly, holding the elemental's attention. He then felt Kate at his side. He snapped at her, “Aren't you part of
everyone
?”

“No.”

Gaios bellowed at Simon, “What did you do?” The ground heaved violently with his rage. Dead trees began to roll with the undulating earth.

Simon faced the wrathful demigod. “Just a little magic trick. I rendered the stone inert.”

The ground rushed toward them in a wave. Simon and Kate were flung into the air like insects off a twig. The thunderous wave of earth crashed near Hartley Hall and the once-grand estate shook. Another section of the roof collapsed and what was left of an upper wall toppled. Fissures appeared in the ground near Simon and Kate, separating them from the house.

Malcolm stepped out onto the wrecked portico. “Jump!”

Simon didn't see any place to jump as the crack widened into a crevasse. Suddenly the air turned an ocher color in front of him. It solidified into a chunk of amber that provided solid footing over the widening crack. Simon grabbed Kate and leapt the distance to the rock.

Gaios waved his hand toward them and the scrap of land shifted again, the amber careening with it. As they were being dragged farther away from safety, Simon whispered strength into his limbs, then lifted Kate and tossed her toward the house. She fell on the edge of the growing canyon where Malcolm seized her and pulled her up. From the roof above, Penny fired her cannon. The explosive shell impacted in front of the demigod on a wall of rock he hastily raised. It delayed Gaios long enough for Simon to make a frantic leap. His feet hit the rim of the crevasse and he found multiple hands ready to drag him forward.

“Inside!” Simon shouted.

Kate tried to stay upright on the undulating steps. She practically crawled into the house with Simon and Malcolm following after.

The house shuddered and shifted. Malcolm's stomach turned as if the great house were suddenly lifted and dropped, then lifted again. The sounds of glass shattering and wood breaking came from all around them. He heard Jane's fearful cries. Even Charlotte and Imogen screamed. An internal gas line ruptured and a geyser of flame roared from the wall. Nick shoved clear of Jane and her father, and flung out his arms. The flames veered toward him. He directed the deadly fire out through the roof.

The violent tremors stopped. Hartley Hall still stood, even if it was in a worse shambles. Simon rose from the cracked floor and ran for a jagged gap in the front wall. The ground outside was gone. The house stood on a pinnacle of sorts, and it was surrounded by a canyon some half a mile wide. Gaios had torn the earth away from the house, leaving it on a new mountain.

On the far edge of the new deep gash of a moat, Gaios lowered his arms, panting heavily at the futile exertion against the warded house. He stood atop his stone chariot again and the earth around him moved like boiling liquid. The two doglike rock creatures rose anew out of it, weeping hot magma.

“You haven't stopped me! I'll destroy this land acre by acre if need be. Starting with its heart!” With a wave of his hands, the snarling beasts turned and dragged the stone chariot through the ruined grounds on a straight course for London.

Simon spun around to face the others. “We must stop him. Gather what you can. We leave for London as soon as possible.”

“London is huge. He could be anywhere in the city!” growled Malcolm.

Jane rose to her feet, staring at Malcolm with tear-stricken eyes. “I know where we can find him.”

They ran up out of the cellars at Somerset House where the portal was located in London and into the grand courtyard. They had allowed only enough time to collect and reload weapons before slipping into the portal hardly twenty minutes after Gaios had vanished from the front of Hartley Hall. Nothing seemed amiss on the street outside the gateway arch. Traffic streamed along the Strand as normal. A few heads turned to peer at the strangely disheveled group, particularly given the fact that the women were dressed in inappropriate buccaneer leathers and wore heavy weapons and strange contraptions. Simon noted a passing unit of the militia on the street.

Malcolm supported Jane by the elbow because the woman was still shaky from her first passage through the portal. “What's our first move?”

Just as they exited under the classical front, they felt a shaking beneath their feet. They all stopped dead. Jane clutched Malcolm's arm. Her face was frozen, trying to hide the dread she felt. She was unsuccessful, but probably no less than any of them.

A deep rumbling sound rose from the earth. Windows shattered all around. Church bells began to ring out in raucous disharmony as steeples across London swayed in the tumult.

People in the courtyard stumbled like drunkards and many hit the ground. Some managed to reach out for anything solid in an attempt to hold themselves up. Seconds passed that seemed like minutes. The quaking intensified and the surprised people who hung on to cracking stone balustrades or clutched the trembling bricks started to show fear.

The rolling of the ground lessened. A blessed stability returned. Those who had just been thrown about gaped in shock or grasped loved ones. They started rising from the cracked uneven ground hesitantly, as if not trusting their feet. The air was filled with shouts and crying and the sound of horses. The militia attempted to calm and gather people out of the buildings.

Simon stopped to set a pram right on its wheels. He inspected the squalling baby quickly as Kate helped the mother to her feet. Simon handed the child, who was more surprised than hurt, to the woman and continued weaving through stragglers.

They started off on foot eastward along the Strand. The traffic was nearly at a standstill, with many cries of alarm, but little cursing or aggression, as if the earthquake had shocked the impatience out of citizens. Crowds streamed out of shops and offices, gathering in clutches to discuss the event. Broken glass and shattered bricks littered the walkways. Those unlucky enough to be struck were tended by others. The bells of St. Mary's and St. Clement's were still clanging as they passed. The venerable old arch of the Temple Bar was intact, but the congestion was extreme. It took anxious minutes for them to navigate their way through the melee.

They made better time on wide Fleet Street when the ground began to shake again. Screams erupted all around. The vibrations were violent and wracking. The coaches swayed and horses reared in terror. Chunks of stone cornices cracked from rooftops and smashed to the ground on both sides of the street. Figures fled in random directions, unsure of how to find safety.

“These poor people!” Jane alternated gripping Malcolm's arm and reaching out to the frightened crowd.

Simon couldn't help but run to a man who knelt on the sidewalk with blood running down his face. The man pointed toward a pile of rubble, so Simon shoved aside the heavy wreckage to find a woman trapped beneath. She was alive and the bloody man embraced her. Simon called for a nearby lad to come to their assistance, which he did with no hesitation.

He stared around him at the staggering crowds, distraught and frightened. Men and women and children lay injured and crying. People shouted for help. Simon wanted to go to each of them.

Kate took his arm. “Come on, Simon. I know what you want. I want it too. But we can help best by stopping Gaios. Others can assist these people. Only we can stop him.”

They were just reaching the environs of St. Paul's when a huge explosion roared from the south. They all turned, as did everyone in the vicinity, and felt heat on their faces. A massive red-and-black fireball rose over the Thames.

“The gasworks,” said Penny.

Several members of the militia spurred their horses toward the south, for all the good they could do. At least they were trying.

Kate watched the smoke rising in the distance. “Where the hell is Ash? Isn't there something she can do with all her power?”

Simon shook his head. “She's gone. There is no way under heaven that she is still in London. We're on our own.” He took her hand. “As always.”

London east of St. Paul's was a vision of Hell. People fled in mass confusion and panic as buildings collapsed. Fires raged everywhere as gas lines burst. Ashes drifted in the air like a snowy day in December.

As Simon and his team rounded onto Walbrook Street, where Jane had indicated Gaios would be, they came upon an incredible massive structure of glistening black obsidian. It was long and rectangular, with columns lining the sides. It was a classical Roman temple, but on a gargantuan scale. The long peaked roof dwarfed St. Paul's dome in the distance. The huge edifice steamed as if the black stone was newly formed and the earth around it was wet and warm, the loamy scent of it filling the air.

“Well, this is new,” Nick commented.

Kate stared up with awe on her face. “Gaios created his own temple.”

“Just in time to have his new Vesuvius destroy it.” Simon was grim.

“If he's in there, how do we get him?” Malcolm demanded.

Simon pointed to a huge ebony door set in the front of the structure, large enough to allow several carriages to ride inside. To their surprise it opened. A wave of insufferable heat hit them. They could feel it even through the fire-retardant gel slathered on their skin.

“That doesn't smell of a trap,” mumbled Malcolm, but still he led them to the door of the temple of Gaios.

The interior was a single vast gallery. They passed along the nave, which was divided from raised aisles by sleeper-walls, each of which carried glistening columns. The constellations of the night sky crawled across the ceiling as if they were journeying across the heavens.

As they moved inside, it was clear the temple was still forming and reshaping around them. Walls and floors shifted before their eyes with hypnotic effect. Stalagmites rose in groups and fused into single broad columns. The interior was illuminated not by torches or candles but by a river of lava glowing between the cracks in the floor. At the distant end of the temple, a cascade of magma passed under a raised platform and disappeared into a black cave hewn from solid rock. From its depths could be heard the crackling and shifting of the earth.

Simon couldn't help but recall a line from Shakespeare. “Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, and make the earth devour her own sweet brood.”

“Please tell me we're not going down into the pit,” Nick said, but despite his hesitation, his hands were already aflame.

“Of course we are.” Simon inclined his head and they continued forward. He noticed that Imogen paused with a look of fear at the dim cavern, falling to the rear of the group.

The shadows of the dark hole behind the dais shifted. From out of the subterranean depths stepped Baroness Conrad. Her torso was encased by a steel-lined corset and chain mail. An elaborate mechanical helmet with goggles that glowed like enormous inhuman red eyes covered her head and face. One goggle eye had the audacity to have crosshairs over it. The helmet covered her facial expressions, but her walk was a nearly bawdy strut, grotesque in its execution.

“How fortunate,” the Baroness's voice projected from her helmet, “that you've come. Now we won't have to seek you out to ensure you've been extinguished. I look forward to remaking you in the future.” She nodded toward Simon. “Particularly you.”

At her side was another of her silverbacked apes. She had a hand on its hip. This beast was no less massive in size than the previous gorillas, but now it was entirely covered in armor with a coppery sheen that gave it the look of a horrific bronze statue. Thin seams in the plate showed that it was still mostly flesh and blood underneath. Like its mistress, smoke and steam wafted out of numerous orifices as machined parts moved and shifted. The Baroness had learned, and adjusted her arsenal because of it. She boldly approached with her arm raised, preparing to make some further pronouncement of villainy.

Simon cast a sharp glance over at Malcolm. “Take her.”

Malcolm nodded. His Lancasters rose and the barrels spun furiously, spitting bullet after bullet at the Baroness, interrupting her speech. Penny's blunderbuss flipped to her shoulder and the startled Baroness barely avoided the canister by ducking behind one of the columns.

The team split smoothly with Simon striding for the cavern with Kate, Nick, and Charlotte while Malcolm drew Penny, Imogen, Hogarth, and the stunned Jane with him. The ape roared in defiance and leapt at Malcolm. Jane covered her ears in shock. It landed in front of him, its iron knuckles slammed into the floor hard enough to crack the black surface. Hogarth attacked and his hammer of steel slammed into the silverback. Weird threads sliced the air and struck the metal ape but did no damage. It took Malcolm a moment to realize they were poison filaments from Imogen. She slipped around to get a better angle, her quills quivering straight up on her bare arm. Hogarth moved to stand beside her and the ape pounded the floor.

Penny started across the temple, following the Baroness. Malcolm trusted that Hogarth and Imogen could handle the ape and he ran to support Penny. Just then, two odd-shaped metal stars suddenly bounced on the floor around Malcolm. He grabbed Penny and ran for cover behind one of the tall pillars. He covered the engineer, but after a moment of silence he looked back. The metal stars had failed to go off.

“Ha! They're duds!” exulted Penny.

Malcolm shook his head at her exclamation.

Penny hefted her stovepipe blunderbuss and took aim on the column the Baroness hid behind. A shot shattered it. The structure rumbled and bits of ash drifted down from above.

“You're going to bring the roof down on us!” Malcolm shouted. “An engineer should know better!”

Penny's angry countenance when she turned to him spoke volumes. Her fury wasn't directed at him. His gut wanted to tell her to blast the Baroness to kingdom come no matter the risk, but thankfully, Penny flipped the weapon across her back once more.

A ratcheting noise sounded and one of the Baroness's mechanical arms transformed into a new contraption. Instead of a hand, three gun barrels with twice the bore of Malcolm's quad Lancasters trained on them. The Baroness laid down a murderous swathe of gunfire and chunks of stone flew up into the air.

When the barrage ended, Malcolm spun out of cover and returned one of his own. Penny stepped out with him. In her hand, she held the wee sonic pistol. Penny was a walking means of annihilation in her own right, but most of her weapons were as harmful to her as to her enemies.

She darted as close to the Baroness as she dared with bullets flying and unleashed a sonic wave aimed not directly at the pillar obscuring the Baroness, but near it. The noise and pressure built until Penny collapsed to the floor on her hands and knees with blood dripping from her nose and ears. Malcolm could only spare her a glance as the Baroness fled from her refuge, holding her head. He shot at her fleeting shape. Her rapid-fire gun arm lifted even though she wasn't looking at him. Malcolm dove to the floor. She tossed two more of the star-shaped objects, forcing Malcolm to roll farther away. Strangely, these failed as well.

On the other side of the temple, the ape ran at Hogarth. The muscled man performed an uppercut with his hammer, clapping the steel jaw of the ape shut with a clang. When a huge metal forearm lifted, Imogen closed the distance and flung quills out. The steel-plated chest deflected them all.

Jane screamed as a thick fist slammed into the pillar beside her. Her arms rose in front of her. A bolt of lightning cracked in the confined space. It struck the ape's head and skittered over the metal armor, making its yellowish brown color glow a bright copper. The bolt discharged into the wall. A roll of thunder echoed in the chamber. The gorilla stood as if stunned.

Imogen dragged the terrified Jane away. Her mechanical eye rotated over to Hogarth. “I only need to hit something flesh and I can slow it down.”

“Yes, miss.” The manservant breathed heavily and roared at the beast again, careening his hammer off its armored pauldron. He pounded the same spot over and over in a maddening onslaught. The sound clanged like a team of men driving pilings. The ape's steel shoulder plate began to bend and a tuft of fur popped out. Imogen stepped up. Her bare arm snapped out and a volley of quills embedded in the monster's flesh.

The ape weaved on its feet. It raised a fist to crush Hogarth, but then the silverback stiffened and fell over in a great tumult that sounded like an armory collapsing.

Meanwhile, Malcolm scrambled for Penny, who had regained her senses. The back of her hand smeared the blood across her face. She got to her feet and held out a pair of dice. “Cover your eyes,” she cautioned as she brought her goggles down. She tossed the dice. A bright light filled the front of the temple.

Penny didn't wait. She was running toward the Baroness even before the flash faded. But the Baroness wore her own goggles. Thin protective membranes now lifted from the lens on her eyes. Penny's steel-and-bone fan flicked open.

Just as the Baroness trained her gun on Penny, Malcolm steadied his Lancaster and shot the woman. The shell hit her high and wide, sparking off the armor. It didn't strike flesh, but it did jerk the Baroness aside. Penny darted past the Baroness and her fan sliced cables and tubes running to her mechanized-gun arm. Black and green chemicals spewed, and the arm dropped limp.

Malcolm could have shouted his delight at Penny's brashness even if it was foolhardy. The petite engineer quickly maneuvered behind the stunned Baroness. The villain still had three working arms, and one smacked Penny aside before she could raise her fan once more. Malcolm targeted for a head shot, but the Baroness scurried away like an insect. Malcolm's bullets raked after her as he raced forward to cover Penny.