The Conquering Dark: Crown (13 page)

Kate arched off the table, crying out. Simon held her down through the spasm. Her breathing took a last deep gasp and she collapsed. He desperately sought for the rise and fall of her chest under his hand. Several seconds passed with no further breaths. Simon grabbed the blade again, his thoughts plunging dark. Turning the blade inward, he looked back at Kate, memorizing her face.

Her eyelashes fluttered and at last she took a breath, normal and gentle as if she were just waking from a distant dream. The scalpel dropped to the floor with a clatter as he gathered her in his arms.

“Kate!”

She opened her eyes. “Simon. You're all right.”

He clutched her tight and in her surprise she held him, her hand cupping the back of his head as it pressed against her neck.

“I knew you would save me,” she whispered.

He couldn't answer her, the state of his voice was precarious. She was alive, that was all that mattered.

“Your powers? Have they returned?” Kate pushed him back, taking in his torso, blank but for the single tattoo over his heart. Such hope filled her, not even concerned about her own present state. “Please tell me this wasn't all in vain.”

“I don't know. I feel different. My blood feels like it's on fire, but I can't command the aether.”

“Then how did you—?” It was then she noticed the state of her undress and the runic patterns of ink and blood smeared across her chest. “Oh!”

“It was my blood that halted the flow of energy passing between us.”

Just over Kate's heart, like Simon's, an inverted rune was burned into her flesh. The skin was puckered and tight like a brand. It was then she noticed his hand dripping blood. She ripped what was left of her blouse and quickly tied it around his palm.

“Blood against blood,” she realized.

“More specifically your blood to begin and mine to end. It took me precious minutes to figure it out. I almost lost you in my folly. I am not familiar with the illogic of blood magic.”

The house shook violently again. Wide-eyed, Kate regarded him with questions.

“We have visitors,” Simon said.

“Jesus. You'd think I was running a bloody public house.” Her mouth quirked into a weary smile. “We need a holiday.”

“I know a spot by a stream in the Scottish highlands near Ft. Augustus,” Simon offered.

Kate's eyes softened as she slid off the table. “It sounds lovely. I'll meet you there when this is all over.” She retrieved a bandolier of vials and slung it over her bare shoulder. She lifted her special crossbow and snapped it open, ready for battle. “Shall we go greet our guests?”

Malcolm dodged a smashing blow by a mechanical arm. He fired his massive Lancasters, but the heavy balls merely bounced off the metal beast that rose before him. Hogarth's mace slammed down against the steel limb, sending flakes of paint flying. That was the extent of the damage he did to the same mechanical monstrosity they had faced on Old London Bridge and which now crawled on its piston-driven legs over the ruined north grounds toward Hartley Hall.

“Where the hell is Penny?” Malcolm shouted. “This thing will tear us to pieces.”

In answer came a thunderous boom over their heads, and the front of the mecha blossomed into smoke and fire. It fell off balance, kicking up dirt and dust.

“Keep your kilt on,” the engineer yelled back, a bit out of breath and lugging her long brass blunderbuss. “I'm right here. Holy God, I need to make this gun more portable.”

Malcolm helped her bring the cannon back onto her shoulder and shoved another canister in. “Keep it away from the house.”

She fired the blunderbuss at the crawler's undercarriage just as it propped itself up on its long arm, trying to get its flailing legs under it again. The blast knocked it face-first onto the gravel drive.

“Find Barker!” Malcolm yelled to Hogarth. “We need him.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And then go to Charlotte and keep her out of the fight. She's still too weak.”

“Yes, sir.” Hogarth raced for the house.

“Look at you, giving orders.” Penny smirked.

“Just take that bloody thing down!”

“With pleasure. I loaded more powder in these canisters. I could take down a cathedral.” Penny let another canister fly. The blast impact sent both Malcolm and Penny to the ground as a wave of smoke and dirt rained down on them.

Nick appeared through the haze. He pulled Penny to her feet and stared at the metal monster. “Great. Just what we need. We fared so well against it last time.”

“Got anything more helpful than that?” growled Malcolm just as the machine lurched back to its feet. The mecha abruptly vented steam. The pistons in the legs contracted and it crouched on the ground like a huge elephant settling. Gears ground and numerous panels lifted and shifted aside along its back and abdomen.

“I don't like this,” muttered Nick.

Things began falling from the body of the giant machine. Each one moved on spindly legs out of the way of other objects dropping behind it. They were the size of large cats, but resembled metal spiders with bulbous translucent abdomens of different colors.

“They're heading for the house!” Penny shouted in alarm.

Nick shook his hands into flame. “Come on!”

Malcolm turned to Penny. “Keep on the machine. You're the only thing that can dent it.” He then ran with Nick, barely keeping ahead of the group of wee beasties scuttling toward Hartley Hall.

Penny lifted her blunderbuss and took aim, this time firing into the bared belly from where the spiders had dropped. The explosion shook the mecha violently and flames roared out of one of the hatches.

Malcolm reached the door just before the first of the small mechanical things skittered up the portico at his heels. He opened fire. Bullets struck the metal body and to his surprise, it stopped and raised its green abdomen. Then it slammed its body against the step, shattering the translucent bulb and spewing green fumes. Malcolm's throat closed abruptly as if the air was gone. He hacked and covered his mouth with his sleeve.

Nick pulled him back toward the door. “Deadly little buggers.”

Malcolm wheezed. “Poison.”

“Don't fret, Angus.” Nick waved his hand and set the air in front of them on fire, burning off the noxious gas.

Another mechanical spider scurried along the wall, closing on the door where they stood. Instead of a green abdomen, this one was red. It rose up high on its legs, lifting a swollen belly. Malcolm grabbed Nick just as the creature tapped its abdomen on the bricks. The explosion blew them both back inside the foyer.

More insect-things filled the door and the broken windows. Malcolm aimed for the colorful bellies and fired again. Green spiders exploded and toxic gas billowed in the hall.

“What the hell are you doing shooting them?” Nick yelled.

“Burn off the gas. We can't let them get past us and spread into the house.” Malcolm reloaded with practiced speed.

Nick's flames torched the poisonous vapors and scorched the walls. Malcolm spun and fired, hitting a red spider and detonating it in the doorway. Several nearby companions blew up around it, creating a massive fireball. Nick cursed and held out his hands, controlling the fire as it rushed toward them. He deftly swirled the flames like a tornado in the high space of the foyer, then pushed them to a fireplace. The twisting fire rushed up through the chimney and out of the house.

There was a great grinding sound. The claw from the mecha ripped off a section of the roof. Nick barely leapt aside as a huge oaken beam plummeted to the floor.

Malcolm threw himself against the wall to avoid an avalanche of wood, plaster, and marble. “I thought the bloody house could withstand an earthquake.”

“This isn't Gaios. It's just a demolisher and if we can't stop it, we're in trouble.”

“You worry too much, Nick,” came a voice from behind.

“Simon.” Malcolm spun with renewed hope. Then he noted the state of undress of both Simon and Kate. “What the hell were you two doing? Time and place, for God's sake.” He also noticed that Simon was wearing the steel gauntlets.

The spell hadn't worked. And they had monsters at the door.

Kate kicked her way through the destroyed foyer with barely a glance at the damage done to her childhood home. Too much had already passed to afford this anything more than a brief scowl. Simon activated his steel gauntlets with a sharp snap of electricity. Malcolm's eyes briefly registered disappointment before he ducked as a huge section of the front façade was ripped off. Kate pressed against the wall to avoid the raining thunderous wreckage. She heard shouting from above.

Hogarth appeared at the top of the staircase assisting a pale and unsteady Charlotte. Imogen waved a group of servants to follow. Most of them gaped at the open sky visible now through the wall of the house.

“Everyone move down below!” Kate yelled to Hogarth. “Hurry!”

Charlotte tried to straighten off Hogarth's firm arm. “I can help.”

“No!” Malcolm ordered before even Kate could respond. “Go with the rest.”

Charlotte's lower lip immediately protruded in a defiant manner so Kate quickly interceded. “Help Imogen protect the servants.”

Nodding, Charlotte looked at her friend and together she and Imogen led the parade down the stairs and to the back of the house toward hopeful safety.

More spiders appeared, scrambling over detritus. Kate responded immediately by throwing several vials of black treacle at the approaching cluster. The sticky substance held them fast, both legs and abdomens.

Malcolm raised a pistol. “Everyone stand back.” He fired at a red spider. It exploded and again set off its struggling companions.

More bricks and plaster rained down. Nick scorched the rising cloud of poison and sent the flames out into the open air. Malcolm slammed new cartridges into his pistols.

Simon pointed back into the house. “Malcolm, sweep the premises for more of these insects. We must protect the others. And we don't want them to find Ferghus because we don't know if they can communicate. The rest of you come with me.”

The Scotsman took off down the corridor toward the library while Simon led the way out with Kate and Nick, scrambling around mounds of brick and plaster past the shattered front wall of the once-magnificent home. The huge machine crawled toward the eastern corner, paying no attention to the humans. It stretched its long arm upward and smashed its fingers through windows. Penny knelt fifty yards away across the churned lawn with her blunderbuss ready. Simon waved her to the right, signaling her to the far side of the machine.

He motioned Nick away from the house. “Stand by to strike with fire. We're going for the brain, and hopefully we'll short it out. Kate, I want you to do what you can to immobilize the legs.” Simon suddenly clutched at his tattooed breast and cried out with pain. He bent over at the waist though there was no enemy around him.

“Simon!” Kate reached for him.

“Something's wrong,” Simon hissed through clenched teeth, trying to catch his breath before the next wave of pain washed over him. “My skin … it's burning.”

Kate took Simon's arm, but the instant her bare hand touched him, flashes of color sparked in her vision and her own rune seared with pain. The world around her flared with emerald aether. Simon arched backward. Bright green lines cut a path across his torso and arms. The tattoos were rewriting themselves. He let out a sharp cry. Beneath her hands, Simon's muscles strained. Amazement and terror ripped through her. He was draped in emerald flame, the outline of a god. His features were no longer flesh and bone. He was living aether. It poured into him like a flood. His eyes flashed open and aether boiled out.

He slumped over, gasping for breath. Together they collapsed to their knees. Only Kate's hold kept him from falling flat on the ground. He slowly straightened, his lips parted in wonder and relief. Aether swirled around them like the flames of an inferno. There was no heat, but she felt it nonetheless. The world glowed. It was beautiful.

Simon stood, slipping away from her and the world abruptly reverted to its usual state so fast it made her dizzy. She put a hand down in the dirt to steady herself. Simon looked normal too, but she knew he wasn't. He would never be.

“I'm all right.” He smiled calmly down at her as he removed the iron gauntlets and tossed them aside. He raised a hand to Penny and pointed at the machine, which was busy ripping heavy stones off the eastern corner of Hartley Hall. “Aim for the head!”

Nick took a step toward him in alarm, but Simon sent him at the mechanized beast with a nod. With a whispered word on his lips, a green line swiftly traced a tattoo high on his shoulder. Simon ran at the mecha. Just as he reached it, a small vial flew past him, shot out of Kate's crossbow, and a sizeable chunk of amber swallowed the machine's back legs, holding it firm. Grabbing one of its free legs, Simon lifted it easily off the ground. Gears whined and hot steam blew furiously as the machine tried to adjust. Simon bent the steel leg in half, then he grasped another beside it.

The machine seemed to recognize its predicament. The long segmented arm released the side of the house and swung at Simon. The blow would have crushed him, but he dove to the side and the red fingers gouged a long furrow in the ground.

Nick sent a steady stream of fire at the machine's bulbous head, hopefully blinding it as well as doing damage. Penny's blunderbuss roared yet again. The canister sailed overhead and slammed into the center of Nick's fireball. The explosion that resulted pounded them all. When the smoke cleared, there was a new dent in the metallic surface.

The machine slammed its fist down again at Simon but he grabbed hold. The mecha tried to retract its arm, but Simon roared, the muscles of his back rolling like marble. With the grinding sound of twisting metal, he ripped the arm off the machine. It reared back, off balance. Penny fired another shell directly at the indentation she already made. The blast forced the machine to stumble. Nick flung two fireballs at the round eye. It erupted in a shower of sparks and ash.

“Keep it up!” Simon shouted. The central eye pivoted with difficulty to face him. Multiple piston-driven legs stabbed furiously at him, but he dodged the pounding attacks. Then he leapt straight up. “Now!”

Penny and Nick let loose with all they had left. Above the chaos, Kate heard Simon shout, and he plunged down on top of the mecha. He smashed through the softened metal into the heart of the thing. Kate cried out in alarm, but then saw Simon crash out the bottom and fall heavily beneath the monstrosity. He hit the ground like a meteor. He had cast his stone spell on the way down and had plummeted all the way through the machine like a catapult boulder.

The mecha staggered with a horrific whine building inside. The smoke blew away from the machine to reveal a large jagged hole through its crown. Fires ignited in what was left of its brain. Gears and wires were in a tangled ruin. An explosion in its belly erupted, casting debris everywhere. The great mechanical creature shuddered and froze. Then it toppled backward with a horrific creak of metal and collapsed in the dirt in a cloud of dust and smoke.

Nick hooted in triumph. Kate ran past him, diving into the smoke, coming as close as she dared to the flaming wreckage. She searched frantically for a sign of Simon. Through the haze and flying cinders, she saw him in a hollowed-out crater, still bent in a silent motionless crouch. She turned back, searching for Nick through the impenetrable choking cloud.

Malcolm sprinted into view, with Nick at his side. The Scotsman followed Kate's frantic gesture. “Barker, clear off the fire. He can only stay in stone form for a few minutes.”

Nick was already waving his arms, gathering the flames. He dumped them somewhere to the north where the grounds were more dirt than forest and the fire would burn itself out quickly. Nick then made another gesture and a stiff wind drove the smoke away from the crater.

The stone spell wore off and Simon stood up in the midst of the smoldering debris. He saw the group surrounding him, staring down in concern, and he took a bow. A low formal bow. And then he raised his arms like an actor at the end of a bravura performance. “And
that
is how you destroy an infernal machine.”

“Show-off,” Malcolm mumbled, giving him a hand out of the crater.

Simon laughed with unrestrained glee. “It felt damn good to do that.” He was breathing hard though Kate doubted it was from exertion.

“You're aether drunk.” Malcolm steadied Simon as he weaved slightly.

“I am indeed.” Simon grinned. “And I hope soon to be conventionally drunk!”

Penny was already scrabbling through mechanical debris. “Damn it, the brain's in pieces.”

“My sincerest apologies, Miss Carter,” Simon offered. “But I have no doubt you'll have it back together and thinking good thoughts in no time.”

Penny beamed at the praise and immediately pulled out a thick leather glove and began rooting through the shattered pieces. Kate swore she heard humming.

She looked at her side and saw Nick staring at Simon with his mouth agape. The older magician was in pure wonder at his former student. Kate said with a bubbling laugh, “You've never seen him like that, have you? He's amazing.”

“God Almighty,” Nick breathed.

Simon lurched forward, planting a kiss on Kate's forehead. Her perception of the world did not shift at his touch, but she wasn't sure if she was relieved or not. While she didn't see aether surrounding them, she did feel his muscular tattooed arms warm around her waist.

“So, it worked, did it?” she asked with mock humility.

Simon stepped back and slid his hands along her bare arms until he was clasping both of her hands. “Kate, do you know what you did? I'm sure you do,” he raised his voice, “but for everyone's benefit, you have converted blood magic into white magic. There are none in this world, the history of the world, who have ever done such a thing. None. Not Pendragon. Not Merlin. Not Hermes Trismegistus.”

“It was nothing.” Kate blushed in spite of herself. Seeing Simon whole and unharmed made her chest ache with joy. “If I'm such a wizard, why can't I keep my house from being destroyed?”

“A house? What's a house? Some sticks and mud? Anyone can build a house.” Simon touched the tattoo above Kate's heart, the mirror image of the one above his. “Only you could make this.”

“Simon, darling.” Kate put her hand over his.

“Yes, my dear?”

“Might I cover my bosom? I feel a bit tawdry.”

“If you must.” Simon kissed her.

Simon stood in front of the ornate silver mirror in his room. It was late and shadows crowded around him. A lantern lit by sparkling brownies stood on the night table, but the glow was feeble. The little fae inside chattered away incessantly, staring at Simon through the glass, whispering foul things, but he turned a deaf ear. He was too mesmerized by the new tattoo over his heart. The raw red lines made it stand out from the others. The rune looked remarkably different, less identifiable but more personal. It burned against his flesh, a constant reminder that it was there. The well of aether inside him bubbled like an incessant cauldron. He could call it forth and touch it with but a word if he so wanted. The temptation to do so forever on his lips.

He drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his lips curving into a smile instead, remembering the feel of Kate's hands on his skin. A well of fire burned suddenly in him that had nothing to do with aether. Her light feather touch had struck cleanly and rhythmically, searing his soul as well as his flesh.

Leaning over a porcelain basin, he madly splashed the cool water over his face. It did nothing to soothe him. His hands rubbed his face hard with a towel and he turned to the bed, slipping under a single sheet. With damaged Hartley Hall open to the night airs, the house was even cooler than usual, but Simon was flushed and warm.

There would be no rest tonight. His mind and heart raced with indecent thoughts of Kate. On any other night he would have welcomed them, but there were plans to make and a war to fight. Even with his added strength, Simon wasn't sure it was enough to take Gaios down, but their fortunes did seem improved suddenly thanks to Kate.

Gaios could not remain free. Pendragon had contained him once. Simon could do no less. And he knew just where to find what he needed. Tomorrow morning, they would take the key portal to Paris. Pendragon's old prison might hold the answers.

A creak at the door made him turn. It opened and Kate stood there, draped in a light night shift. His breath caught in his chest, thoughts of business scattered like leaves on the wind. The glow of a small lantern in her hand illuminated the soft curves of her body through the delicate material. Simon's mouth went dry.

She walked softly to him, holding the light steady, her small feet padding quietly to the edge of the bed. Like a moth to a flame, she came forward slowly. With great deliberateness she placed her light on the table, then returned her attention to Simon. In her other hand she held a small vial.

“What's that?” Simon's voice was barely above a whisper.

She didn't reply, but merely uncapped the container. A thick honey liquid oozed into her palm. Her finger dipped into the liquid. Then she applied it to his bare chest, tracing the rune on his heart. Immediately the burning eased. He sucked in a deep breath.

“Is that better?” she asked.

“Much,” he breathed.

Simon took her open palm and brushed his own fingers through the honeylike balm. He sat up and gently pulled the neck of her shift aside to expose the scar above her breast. Her own inhale was sharp and long. He pressed his lips lightly against it. He stroked the inverted rune, spreading the gel over her smooth skin. The burnt symbol was still inflamed. Kate sighed and closed her eyes.

“Better?” he asked her.

“Much.” The word was low and full of need.

Kate slipped between the sheets, the length of her stretching out alongside him. Her chilled body against his rising heat. He gently arranged her hair on his pillow. She was quiet and there were no lines on her face as if she were in a dream world where her life was always sweet and pleasant. Her green eyes remained warm and inviting.