The Relic Guild (15 page)

Clara slapped his face, hard. ‘That’s
for making me kill your friend,’ she hissed.

His legs
buckling, Hemlock held a hand to his cheek. Clearly the
blow had aggravated the earlier wounds. Samuel kept him upright
and made him face the changeling again.

‘He wasn’t
exactly my friend,’ Hemlock told her sourly, ‘but I
hope that made you feel better all the same—’

He
yelled as Clara kicked him between the legs. ‘And that’
s for Marney!’ she shouted.

Good girl,
Gideon chuckled.

With
a look of amusement, Samuel allowed Hemlock to fall to
the floor. As Hemlock writhed and cupped his crotch, Clara
loomed over him, her hands balled into fists. It was
quite apparent she did not feel that he had received
just punishment yet. The colours of her small, pointed face
shone with some of the wolf
’s fury.

‘Enough, Clara,’
Van Bam said. ‘I think your point has been well
made.’

She seemed reluctant as she moved away.

Samuel grabbed
Hemlock by the collar and hoisted him up into the
chair at Hamir’s desk. The smirk on his old
features suggested he approved of Clara’s actions as much
as Gideon did.

‘Prepare yourself, Charlie,’ Samuel said, clamping both hands down on Hemlock’s shoulders. ‘It only gets worse from here.’

By this time, Hamir, aloof and silent, had made his way to the back of his laboratory, where he stood watching Hemlock. The necromancer’s colours remained impassive to Van Bam’s vision, but the lights of his eyes were darkening.

Holding Hemlock down, Samuel wheeled the chair towards Hamir. Hemlock’s eyes were wide with pain and fear. Beside Hamir was a tall object, covered with a silk sheet. The necromancer pulled the sheet away, and there stood an obscene mannequin. The body and limbs were a wire frame of thin metal, but upon its neck was fixed a head of flesh, the head of Fat Jacob, the owner of the Lazy House.

Hemlock emitted a choking sound. ‘Oh, Timewatcher! What is this?’

Atop the mannequin body, Jacob’s milky eyes snapped open, and his expression was furious. ‘Hemlock, you shit!’ he screamed, his voice distorted and gurgling.

Hemlock squeezed his eyes shut.

‘You said no one would know. You said it was easy business – just one of my whores. You bastard! You liar!’

Van Bam nodded to Hamir, and instantly he silenced the whorehouse owner. Fat Jacob’s eyes closed and his features dropped as if dead. Hamir did not cover him with the sheet again.

‘Your business associate, Charlie,’ said Samuel. ‘You should be more careful who you get involved with.’

‘I didn’t do anything,’ Hemlock shouted. He struggled in vain against Samuel’s grip. ‘You’ve got the wrong man!’

‘Indeed,’ Van Bam said. He moved to stand between the captive and Hamir’s handiwork. ‘Charlie, this is what I know for a fact. You were recently employed by Fabian Moor, and thus far you have performed questionable deeds in his name.’

Hemlock shook his head feverishly. ‘Moor double-crossed me. I want nothing to do with him.’

‘Too late,’ Van Bam said. ‘You know as well as we who and what Fabian Moor is, and you will tell us now where he has taken Marney.’

‘And, Charlie,’ Samuel added, ‘if you lie, he’ll know.’

‘Lie?’ Hemlock looked up at Samuel, and then at the Resident. ‘You think I’d protect Moor after he left me high and dry? I don’t care why you want him, but I hope it’s as bad as it gets.’

‘So start talking,’ said Clara.

Hemlock’s eyes flitted to the grisly sight of Fat Jacob’s head atop the mannequin’s wire body and he licked his lips. ‘It’s not that simple.’

He’
s stalling
, Gideon said to Van Bam. He sounded almost bored.
He knows that information is the only thing keeping
him alive.

‘Look,’ Hemlock continued. ‘Moor said a lot of things. He told me who you are – the Relic Guild, right? He said he could make Labrys Town a better place, only you want to prevent it.’ His expression flashed the perfect degree of helplessness. ‘He said that you’re the real enemy.’

Clara scoffed. ‘So you just went along with him, for a pocketful of money, no questions asked.’

‘Oh, I know what you’re thinking,’ Hemlock said earnestly, ‘typical me, right? But, for the first time in my life, Moor gave me something to hope for. He said he could reopen the doorways in the Great Labyrinth. He said we could see the Aelfir again.’

‘Hemlock, you aren’t even old enough to remember the Aelfir,’ Samuel said scathingly.

‘So what?’ Hemlock replied. ‘Moor said he could bring them back, and I believed in him.’

‘Believing the word of a Genii is a dangerous thing to do,’ Van Bam said, ‘and a sure way to meet death, one could say.’

‘Don’t get me wrong,’ Hemlock continued quickly. ‘I see Moor for what he is now, but he convinced me that things could really change, started me dreaming. You must know what I mean – you live here too!’

Behind Hemlock, Samuel’s face darkened and he looked to the floor, obviously suffering some inner turmoil. Again, Van Bam wondered what the mysterious avatar had offered his old comrade in exchange for Clara’s life.

Hemlock is lying
, Van Bam thought to Gideon.
He is saying all the
things he thinks we wish to hear.

Then play his
game
,
my idiot, at least until his usefulness is diminished
. Let him think compliance will keep him alive.

Van Bam took a step forward. ‘Please understand,’ he said to Hemlock. ‘You have been party to the schemes of a Genii, and I have many questions. If you refuse to answer them, Charlie, then you will never see the outside of the Nightshade again. Now, first of all, where is Fabian Moor hiding Marney?’

Hemlock licked his lips. ‘Listen, he only employed me to set a trap for Marney. I don’t know why he wants her. Moor never told me the details of his plans.’

‘That is not what I asked you, Charlie.’

‘I know, but … but I can’t tell you.’

‘Not good enough,’ Samuel growled. He drew his revolver, and pushed the barrel against the side of Hemlock’s head. ‘Tell us where she is or I’ll shoot off your ear.’

‘
Wait
!’ Hemlock shouted, shying away from the weapon. ‘I want to tell you, I really do, but I just
can’t
! Something’s stopping me.’

‘Is that right?’ Samuel said, and he primed the power stone.

‘You have to believe me!’ Hemlock was pleading now, on the verge of panic. His expression convinced even Van Bam. ‘I know where he’s taken Marney. I’ve seen the place. I could tell you how to get there, but …’ His breathing became laboured and he pressed a hand to his chest. ‘Every time I try to put it into words, it … it gets stuck.’

I think he’
s telling the truth
, Gideon said.
Can’t you see
it, my idiot?

Samuel reacted first. Abruptly he stepped away from Hemlock, aiming the revolver at the back of his head. ‘Magic!’ he hissed.

And he was right. Van Bam’s vision detected a flare of colour inside Hemlock’s chest.

‘Keep clear,’ he snapped. ‘Everybody.’

‘What is it?’ Clara said.

The Resident addressed Hemlock. ‘What are you feeling, Charlie?’

‘I’m not—’ Hemlock groaned, clutching his chest, and fell out of the chair to the floor. He screamed and then convulsed, entering some kind of fit.

Oh, this is
interesting
, Gideon chuckled.

‘Hamir!’ Van Bam shouted, and the necromancer quickly stepped over from the back of the room. He placed a hand on Hemlock’s forehead and whispered a single word:

‘Sleep.’

Instantly Hemlock ceased writhing and was still, though the magic in his chest continued to bloom to Van Bam’s inner sight.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Samuel asked.

‘He’s been cursed,’ Hamir replied. His eyes were closed as he lightly felt down Hemlock’s body. ‘There is magic wrapped around his heart. It’s burning him from the inside out.’

‘Is he dead?’ Clara asked.

‘No, not yet.’ Hamir placed his hands on either side of Hemlock’s head. ‘Interesting,’ he whispered. ‘He didn’t know he was cursed.’

Van Bam said, ‘Can you dispel it, Hamir?’

The ageing necromancer shook his head. ‘Not easily. This is the magic of a Genii.’

‘There must be something we can do?’ Clara said.

‘Perhaps,’ said Hamir. ‘But he must be placed in stasis, and quickly.’

‘Samuel,’ Van Bam snapped, and together they lifted Hemlock and carried him from the laboratory.

Forty Years Earlier

Thaumaturgist

Although dawn had broken and the sun had cleared the boundary wall, it was not yet high enough to banish the twilight that loitered over Labrys Town. Slowly, inexorably, its warm rays chased the shadows from the cold corners of town and evaporated the night’s moisture. A light mist hung in the air, clinging to the last chill of Silver Moon, and Marney pulled her jacket tighter around her body.

Standing in the gloomy forecourt outside the Nightshade, she waited for Denton’s arrival. She had projected a shield of empathic magic around her, like a cloak of emotions that hid her in plain sight by steering the perceptions of others away from her physical presence. For Marney was not the only person under the scrutiny of the security eyes in the forecourt, and it was important that she conceal herself from those who did not know the identities of the Relic Guild agents.

The forecourt gates were open and before the tunnel that led to Resident Approach was a large cargo tram. A team of warehousemen stood around the tram, waiting for delivery of the goods they would load into it. They chatted with a duo of armed police officers as they waited, entirely unaware of the young empath watching them.

To Marney’s left stood a huge stone archway. The space within it was as black as a shroud of starless night. Its surface rippled like dark, glassy water, filling the morning air with a gentle humming as it prepared to receive cargo from somewhere far beyond the realm of the Labyrinth. Officially, this arched portal was the only one that connected directly to the Aelfir and was not a doorway of the Great Labyrinth. It was also the only portal currently permitted to function in town, and it did so for most of the hours in a day, every day. Since the war with Spiral had begun, trade with the Aelfir had been rationed to the importing of essential goods only. All export had ceased. All travel to and from the Labyrinth was prohibited.

Six months ago, when Marney had been a student at the Central District University, studying for a degree in history, she had been due to conduct a special project which would have allowed her to spend an entire term studying at a designated Aelfirian House. She could have learnt so much history, seen so much culture, while being guided by the Aelfir themselves. Of course, the war had put paid to such excursions – and Marney’s student career had been cut short by her recruitment into the Relic Guild, anyway – but she always dreamed that one day she would get the chance to visit the realms outside the Labyrinth. Now that day had arrived, she did not feel so sure of herself.

She wished she and Van Bam could have spent more time together, but he and Samuel were already off following Gideon’s orders, investigating the movements of Carrick the treasure hunter. Marney always felt more confident when Van Bam was around.

The humming of the arched portal dipped in pitch. The warehousemen and the police officers jumped to attention. From the portal, a floating platform was emerging, piled high with supplies. The glassy blackness clung to the cargo with fingers of viscous fluid that slowly raked over the crates and metal storage containers as more of the platform drifted into the forecourt. When it finally cleared the portal, two transport guards appeared, ushering it along, protecting the cargo stacked high and wide. Marney resisted the urge to step back from them, for these were no ordinary guards. They were automaton sentries.

Humanoid, the automatons stood eight feet tall at least. Their metal bodies were thin and skeletal, exposing their internal mechanisms like monstrous clockwork toys. Their faces were smoothly silver, lacking any kind of feature. The sounds of their feet clanged metallically against the hard stone of the forecourt floor, but there was something graceful about their movements as they pushed the loaded platform towards the cargo tram.

Beautiful, aren’t they?
Denton said in Marney’s mind.

The old empath came to stand beside her. He was dressed in another rumpled three-piece-suit, his tatty coat and floppy hat, and he had shielded his presence to all but her.

Such a
grand achievement in metallurgy, don’t you think?

Marney nodded in agreement with ‘grand’, but she wasn’t so sure the term ‘beautiful’ was strictly apt.

She had seen automatons before; they always acted as transport guards for these cargo deliveries, and they were the only things allowed to travel back out of the portal. Their impressive aesthetics were matched only by their intimidating size and incredible strength. They stood silent, their featureless faces moving slowly from side to side as if scanning the area, as the warehousemen began loading the tram with the crates and containers from the platform. The police supervised the transaction, while a smartly dressed official from the Merchants’ Guild matched goods with his checklist. Every man worked in silence, clearly uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the automatons, and Marney did not blame them.

If so ordered, these intricate, ‘beautiful’ machines would become vicious warriors. Bullets would have no effect on them, and they were protected against magic. They were powered by a kind of energy the denizens of Labrys Town could barely understand. The automatons were the creations, the servants, of the Thaumaturgists.

Come
, Denton thought to her.
We should be going.

He led Marney away from the importing of cargo, and she gave one final glance back at the automatons before following her mentor along the towering south wall of the Nightshade. The old empath was in good cheer and he emoted a sense of joy to Marney, which she accepted gratefully – though, even with its help, she couldn’t block her sense of nervousness entirely. Once they had walked beyond earshot of the warehousemen, Denton gave a flourish of his hand.

‘The Great Labyrinth is larger than imagination, Marney.’

She nodded. ‘I know.’

‘And it sometimes seems that the doorways to the Houses of the Aelfir are too numerous to count.’

‘I know.’

‘However, identifying which Aelfirian House you wish to travel to is one thing, finding its doorway among the never ending alleyways of the Great Labyrinth is entirely another.’

Marney rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, I
know
.’

But Denton wasn’t deterred by the irritation in her voice.

‘On foot, it could take days of wandering the alleyways – weeks, months,
years
– to find the doorway you seek. And that just won’t do, will it? We’re busy people, Marney, with little spare time on our hands.’

Marney sighed. ‘Denton, I’m tired, I’m nervous, and you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. Is there some point you’re trying to make here?’

‘Always!’ Denton grinned and put a big arm around her shoulders. ‘If I have taught you anything it is of the vast gulf between knowing a thing and experiencing it. And you, Marney, are about to experience what you have only read about in books.’

She gave her mentor a timid smile. ‘I know.’

‘That’s my girl,’ Denton beamed. ‘Come on.’

Reaching the end of the south wall, they turned left and followed the Nightshade’s eastern face all the way to its northern side. Halfway along the north wall, they came to a place where a slim column of light-coloured stone protruded from the ground, set back from the pedestals that held the security eyes. Between the column and the towering boundary wall, another arched portal was positioned, this one shorter and thinner than its counterpart on the south side.

Denton drew Marney up to the column. She looked into a square stone box fixed at the top of it. The box was filled with a thick, gelatinous substance that gave off a faint purple glow.

Denton said, ‘To find the doorway to your desired destination, Marney, you need three things. The first is a portal.’

So saying, he pressed his hand into the gelatinous substance. When he withdrew, the perfect indent of his handprint glowed purple for a moment before sinking down deep into the substance. The stone archway before the column hummed and a rippling veil of glassy darkness appeared within it.

Denton raised a finger. ‘Second, you need the correct House symbol for the House you wish to travel to,’ and he used his finger to draw the shape of a diamond inside a circle into the gelatinous substance. It, too, glowed and sank.

‘The third and final ingredient,’ Denton said, ‘is the means to connect the portal to the doorway of the House you are seeking – a shadow carriage.’

On the floor between the column and the portal, a large, black circle appeared, darker than the shadows cast by the Nightshade. Denton took Marney’s hand and led her towards it. Together they stood upon the dark disc, and instantly Marney felt disorientated.

She gripped her mentor’s hand tighter. Denton sent her a wave of confidence to dispel her uncertainty.

‘Your trepidation is understandable,’ he told her, ‘but this trip is long overdue for you, Marney. You have nothing to fear.’

The edge of the dark circle began to ruffle and lift – folding upwards like a dying leaf. Tentacles of black matter stretched out and up over the empaths, thinning as they crisscrossed above them to form a mesh-like covering. The process continued until they stood inside a sphere made of thousands of wire-thin shadows that began to spin around them. The humming of the portal was drowned out by the high whine of gathering energy.

‘Here it comes,’ Denton said happily. ‘Wait for it …’

As the lines of shadow spun faster and faster, Marney’s stomach fluttered and gravity failed. She and Denton rose into the air within the sphere, floating as if they were in water. Marney’s only thought was of escaping the cage.

‘Don’t panic!’ Denton laughed, gripping her hand as she tried to wriggle free. ‘It’s quite normal.’ With his free hand, he pointed through the lines of shadow at the portal outside. ‘But brace yourself,’ he warned. ‘The trip can get a little rough.’

The dark lines were spinning so fast now that Marney felt sick to look at them. The high whining reached a crescendo, and then the sphere shot forwards with such a lurch, with such speed, she had no time to control her emotions.

She screamed as the shadow carriage shot into the portal.

Sudden darkness engulfed her. There was a
whomping
sound, as if someone had wobbled a thin sheet of wood, and then she was hurtling through the alleyways of the Great Labyrinth.

Black bricks flashed by with a steady stream of blurred motion. The sphere travelled the alleyways so fast it was impossible to tell if it took the twists and turns without slowing, or if it passed straight through the walls without hindrance.

Marney screamed again.

Denton’s
laugh was loud, full of joy, and his excited voice
filled Marney’s head.

When I first used a shadow
carriage
,
I was sick all over my travelling companions!
And
he laughed again.

Marney found no joy in the experience.
She still floated inside the sphere, quite gently, and felt
no sense of movement beyond what her eyes perceived, not
even the rush of wind upon her face. She felt
dizzy, nauseated, as the alleyways sped by, and she desperately
wanted something more solid than Denton’s hand to cling
to. She decided her mentor’s arm, as free-floating
as her own, would have to suffice. She clasped it
tightly with both hands. She squeezed her eyes shut and
buried her face in Denton’s shoulder as the sphere
flew deeper and deeper into the Great Labyrinth …

Marney’s
feet touched ground.

A moment passed, and she found the
courage to open her eyes. The shadow carriage was once
again a dark, flat disc on the floor beneath her
feet, and this time it was cast upon the cobbles
of an alleyway. The journey had ended.

‘Are you all
right?’ Denton asked.

Marney realised she was still gripping his
arm and she released it. The moment she did, a
wave of dizziness swamped her, and she had to steady
herself against the alley wall.

Denton helped her to stay
upright. ‘Deep breaths,’ he urged.

The dizziness passed, and Marney
looked down the alleyway that stretched away into the gloom
without turn. She could be anywhere in the Great Labyrinth,
she realised, and she had no idea how far they
had travelled from the Nightshade.

Turning around, she was surprised
to be confronted by a wooden door set into the
alley’s end wall. Unassuming, it could have belonged to
any house in Labrys Town. Above it, attached to the
brickwork, was a plate of dulled metal into which was
engraved a symbol depicting a diamond within a circle.

Denton
said, ‘When we again know a time of peace, Marney,
you will learn the symbols that represent the Houses and
realms beyond the
Labyrinth. And you can use these symbols to visit the Aelfir whenever you choose.’ He grinned at her. ‘Duties permitting, of course.’

When Marney replied, her voice was tight. ‘But Gideon’s not sending us to visit the Aelfir, is he?’ She took a breath. ‘We’re going to see a Thaumaturgist.’

‘Ah,’ said Denton. ‘Not just any Thaumaturgist, Marney. You’re going to meet Lady Amilee – a Skywatcher.’ He pointed at the diamond within a circle above the door. ‘And that is her House symbol.’

The old empath moved his large bulk over to the door, which he opened to reveal a swirling whiteness on the other side.

Marney heard a low moaning like distant wind. The whiteness seemed almost fluid, as thick as churning glue, and she knew that it stretched back much further than the depth of the alley wall.