The Curse of Salamander Street (28 page)

Slowly they managed to track Ergott from a closer distance. He kept to the wide streets and walked in the middle, away from the shadows.

Within the hour they had walked half of London and Ergott stood before a large wall of cut stones. Raphah and Tanville hid themselves behind a stack of handcarts that had been made
ready for a morning market that never came. The road had opened to a large square; on one side was a building with a large tower that looked out over the city. It looked like a prison or an old fortress.

Ergott suddenly transformed, the dowsing wand appearing in his hand. He walked backwards and forwards along the wall. The dowsing rod danced in his hands and it took all in his power to stop it leaping towards the wall.

‘Lubberly louts and flouting milksops,’ he shouted, his words of frustration echoing around the square. ‘It has to be here … They have to be here …’

Then he stopped and looked along the wall. Far to the right was a small arched door the size of half a man. The dowsing wand led him closer. Raphah and Tanville watched as he walked towards it and turned the handle. Before he entered, he read the sign that was embedded in the plaster. They heard him laugh as he stooped through the entrance and quietly closed it behind him.

Barghast appeared from the shadows. He panted, out of breath, a broad smile on his face. ‘It is behind the wall – Salamander Street. I have been up on the roofs and it is here, though it cannot be seen with the eye. My journey is done, Raphah. Can you believe it?’

‘It comes to us all. I pray we will find Thomas and Kate.’

There was a clatter of horses’ hooves as a black mare cantered along the road and into the square. The rider wore a long black cloak; his long white hair was tied back. He wore a parson’s collared shirt and sea-boots. The man jumped from the horse and looked about him. He surveyed the square and waited as if making sure he had not been followed.

Raphah was not surprised by the man he now stared at from the shadows. He turned to Barghast, who nodded to him as if he too had seen the man and knew who he was.

The man left the horse and slipped through the door.

‘
Demurral
,’ Raphah said. ‘He has been with us all the way.’

‘Then they are all in this together,’ Barghast said.

‘So why send Ergott if he knew where they would be?’ Raphah asked.

‘To make sure the job would be done. He couldn’t leave it to chance. Every step of our journey has been followed intently. We are expected to follow and the door will be open to us,’ Barghast said.

‘What business does he have here?’ Tanville asked.

‘Kate and Thomas. He said he would never let them go. Something binds him to them. He would have had them killed. Slaughtered like innocents. If they are here then their fate is sealed.’

‘Not if we take them from him,’ Tanville said, and she pulled a dandy gun from her pocket. ‘We shall each endure our fate in Salamander Street and I shall have an advantage when I meet with Galphus.’

One by one, they crept across the square to the small wooden door. Raphah looked at the plaque above it.
The Eye of the
Needle
– he read the scrawled letters plastered into the wall.

Barghast smiled as he stooped through the entrance. ‘I know I will not see this place again, Raphah. You have been a good and unlikely companion. Whatever comes to pass, I pray that we will stand together when the sun rises in the east.’

‘A sure and certain hope,’ Raphah said quietly as he closed the door behind him and shut out the light of the hunter’s moon.

A
thick slime trickled across the ceiling before it dripped to the floor by Crane’s feet. Thomas and Kate huddled together in the corner to keep warm. Thomas thought how unnaturally cold she was – it was as if she was made of ice, or that death itself had already taken hold of her and the heart that warmed had stopped beating. She had tried to smile with her blue lips and muttered something in her stupor, and Thomas thought how she was no longer the Kate he knew. She had gone, without the chance for him to say goodbye. All he now embraced was a cold skin, an empty bag, a wrinkled carcass.

‘I let you down,’ Crane said, his shoulders drooped and head lowered. ‘Should have known things were not that easy. All the time, I could think of nothing but Salamander Street. Even on the ship I could hear the word in my head. When the priests seized the ship this was the first place I thought of to run to. We were tricked, well deceived.’

‘We can escape,’ Thomas said, his breath a cold vapour.

‘It’s gone from me, Thomas. Something has taken the will. With every day in this place I have resigned myself more to
what will come. Wouldn’t be right to cheat fate. Payment – it’s payment for all that happened in Whitby.’

‘I feared you Jacob,’ Thomas said. ‘The very mention of your name made me quake in my boots. But you’re the man, Jacob. The man we all wanted to be.’

‘It was just a lie, I can see it now. Strip everything away and here I am. There is nothing here to be proud of, nothing at all.’ Crane’s voice sounded strained. He panted, as if each word were coated in broken glass.

‘I won’t wait to die, Jacob. And I won’t let them kill you and Kate. That’s what Galphus will do, kill us all. I’ve seen what the man does. He takes the moment of death and puts it in a jar. He’ll not take me, the old shite-a-bed.’

Crane laughed. He rattled the manacles that held his wrists to the long metal chain that was coiled about his feet and braced to a metal ring wedged in the cobbled floor.

‘Think we could take ’em?’ he asked.

‘We could die trying.’ Thomas replied.

‘Wait until I say the word, and then …’ Crane paused and looked at Kate. ‘He’s killed her with the
Gaudium
, Thomas. I’ve seen it before. If all else fails, run and leave us both. Take the
Magenta
. There is a drinking house by the river, the Devil’s Inn, and close by is
The Prospect of Whitby
. If I have counted the days rightly then tonight is the feast of St Sola the Hermit. All my men will gather at the inn. Tell them my fate and take sail. With me dead the revenue men will auction the ship. Steal it before it can be sold and head for France. Will you do this for me?’

‘I won’t leave you,’ Thomas replied.

‘You’ll do what I say and have done with it. Would be stupid for us all to die, and Galphus will get what he deserves before he takes me. Whatever happens I promise he will not kill her. Even if I have …’

Crane’s words were cut short. There was a jangling of a key
in the lock and a bright light crept in through the cracks around the door. Muffled voices moaned and groaned from the far side and as the door was pushed open, Pallium and several Druggles stepped into the cell.

‘Galphus requests your company,’ Pallium snivelled, wiping more slug trails from his nose and across his sleeve. ‘I am to take you to him, all of you.’

Thomas thought how he looked thinner than before. It was as if he were being eaten from inside, as if something took a pound of flesh every day and consumed him by the minute.

They were taken without fuss. Crane was held by a long chain and a metal hoop on a long pole was placed around his neck as he was walked ahead of the rest. A Druggle carried Kate. Unaware of her condition, in her blissful slumber she lolled from side to side. Through several tunnels and then out across a cold yard they were taken into the back of a large house that stood near to the factory, just away from the Salamander Inn. Thomas could hear the constant singing just like the time before. He thought of the warm fire and Pallium’s deceitful words.

Along a bare passageway, they were taken into what was once a drawing room. In the centre of the room was a long, narrow table. By its side were a bell jar and other primitive equipment, and near to the table was a wooden chair fitted with wrist-locks and strands of copper wire. Above the ornate fireplace was Isabella’s picture.

The grime of a hundred years had been cleaned from the paint. Within the bars across the pciture, Isabella stood proudly in death, looking down upon them. About the frame was wrapped more copper wire and hanging from it were pieces of teeth and bone. A small writ dangled from the frame; Thomas could make out an inscription on the parchment and could see the red wax seal that bound the spell.

Kate was taken and placed in the chair. Her head was
strapped to the high back and her hands and feet callipered to the wood. Crane was tethered like an old horse to the door; what was left of the chain was wrapped around him and tied to the large chair that he had been forced to sit upon. Thomas stood by the door, a Druggle holding him with the chain of the manacle.

No one spoke. Pallium stood by the raging fire that gulped the chimney and sucked and seethed air into the room. They waited. The clock on the mantel chimed the quarter, the half and then the hour. They still waited.

From the far end of the house the tap, tap, tap of a cane and footsteps could be heard – it was Galphus. He walked proudly, hitting the tip of his cane against the floorboards to match every step he took. Galphus entered the room.

Thomas held back his laughter as he looked at him. Galphus had changed his attire. Gone were the day clothes of a dandy. Now the man dressed in a black silk gown that billowed as he walked. On his head he wore a tiger skull with silver teeth and emerald eyes; his hands were covered in red silk gloves and on his feet were Persian shoes that curled at the toes.

Galphus smiled at Kate. He tapped the cane several times on the floor and then looked into the crystal ball.

‘All is well,’ he said smugly. ‘The doors to Salamander Street have been opened and the trap is set.’ Galphus looked at Pallium before he spoke again. ‘We have visitors, Mister Pallium, you know what to do.’

Pallium turned and was gone. A Druggle followed him from the room.

‘I feel I must explain,’ Galphus said as he looked at Thomas. ‘This has all been an elaborate hoax on my behalf. Please do not feel let down but I have to say that I actually work in concert with an old friend. Obadiah Demurral. I believe you are familiar with him?’ Galphus asked.

Thomas nodded, keeping tight-lipped.

‘Obadiah and I are brothers in a fraternity. We are bound by sworn oaths. My life has been set on the discovery of the soul and capturing its essence on death. His has been to find the nature of God and tame it for our use. If it hadn’t been for you then we would have succeeded in our task and the world would be a better place. When you escaped Whitby we first thought our task would never be complete. Then my crystal showed me that someone you knew well was still alive and it gave us hope. The Ethio has travelled far to find you all and as we speak he is just about to walk on Salamander Street – look for yourself.’

Galphus thrust the crystal towards Thomas. He could see the face of Raphah edged in the darkness. Quickly it changed to the face of Demurral and then, just as it was about to fade, Thomas saw the head of a black dog. Its eyes glowed red, its teeth were bared and white as it spat and growled.

Galphus laughed. ‘That is another of our companions – a man who can change from man to dog in the twinkling of an eye. He was the bait to bring your friend to us. With every day he gave him another clue as to who he was. Calmly and cleverly he waited his time. Every night he met with Obadiah and told him the good news. Every day, he brought them another step closer to us.’

‘He won’t be cheated by you. Raphah knows Riathamus – he can speak to him,’ shouted Crane.

‘Then Riathamus can sit and listen to his screams as we steal the lad’s soul and capture his final words. Not mortal words, Thomas, but the words of an angel. Your friend has lied to you. He is not a man but a Keruvim. That Ethio is the keeper of secrets that would explode our mortal minds like a spiked cannon if we knew. Soon, Obadiah and I will have all of his power and more. When I take his soul from him he is bound by eternal oath to utter a name so powerful that it is the key that will open time and heaven forever.’

‘And what of us?’ Crane asked.

‘What do you think, my pirate friend? Shall I set you free or take you to your ship and burn you upon it?’

‘Do what you want with me but let them go,’ Crane shouted.

‘Never. Spoil my enjoyment? Since I was a child that picked the wings from a butterfly, I have delighted in times such as this. I would no more set them free than cut off my right hand.’

‘Set them free or as Riathamus is my witness I will sever your hand and dip it in wax and it will light my way to bed,’ Crane said.

‘Spirit,’ Galphus said as he banged his cane against Isabella’s portrait. ‘How much room do you have in that world of yours?’

‘Don’t torment me, Galphus,’ a shrill voice said from somewhere very near. ‘Let me from this prison.’

‘I would invite Captain Crane to join with you and Thomas as well, they could keep you company.’ Galphus laughed.

‘Then let me from this place and I will take them to be with me,’ the ghost of Isabella replied. The picture rattled upon the wall, the teeth and bones jangling like Christmas merriments.

‘Did you hear that? She would take you with her and my problems would be solved. Sadly, that will not be so. I must await Obadiah. But first I shall prepare my dearest Kate. She is the screaming bait that will lead the Keruvim rushing to bring her salvation.’

Galphus looked at Kate as he spoke. Behind her was a handle connected to a large wooden box that resembled a hurdy-gurdy. He saw Crane stare at the device. ‘If you are wondering what this machine can do, it takes a charge like lightning and forces it to travel along the copper threads and then into the metal bracelets upon her wrist.’

Galphus took a hat made of goose feathers from the mantle and threaded more copper wire within each quill.

‘A Jobbernol Goosecap,’ he said pleasingly. ‘Placing this on
the head adds to the charge and takes her life. Her screams should be enough to bring him here. When he comes to this place he shall find his own death. Living and dying becomes a matter of turning the handle.’

Galphus signalled for the Druggles to hide themselves and make ready. Thomas frantically eyed Crane, as if to ask him what to do. He sat rigidly still. He was frozen and icy to the bone, unable to move. His teeth chattered and rattled his jaw. Thomas couldn’t move or think a single thought.

‘Hurt her, Galphus, and I will give you thrice the pain and it will pleasure me to do so,’ Crane said as he rattled the chains that held him fast.

‘You sound like an old ghost, a Bard’s King, dead and futile. How can you hurt me, chained like that?’ Galphus asked, taunting the man.

With that, Galphus thrust his cane into the floorboards. A sudden bright light shone from the crystal and cast a vision upon the high ceiling. There, played out before them, was the scene of Raphah’s approach. It looked as if the whole of Salamander Street was cast on the plaster above their heads. Raphah walked side by side with two others, whilst stalking them in the shadows was a red-eyed beast, a dog so terrible that Thomas turned his face from the sight of the creature.

Along the cobbled road they walked, the creature always a few feet behind them, lurking in the thick black shadows. Thomas saw Raphah turn as if he realised that something followed. He could see him speak but could not hear the words.

Isabella began to scream as she rattled the bars of her prison, desperate to be free of the picture and walk in the world of men. As she appeared, captured by the frame, she looked up. There on the ceiling, dressed as a man, she saw Tanville. Isabella shrieked her name again and again and shouted a warning.

Tanville looked about her, as if she could her the calling of
her name from far away. Galphus smiled, knowing that the screams of the spectre would draw them quickly. He took the handle of the machine and slowly began to turn it the way of the sun. It whirred and groaned like it would give song, and the copper threads began to spark. Kate was pricked from her sleeping as the first jolts of lightning shot through her fingers. She twitched in spasm and her back arched. Galphus turned the device even faster.

Kate began to howl like a dying cat as sparks burst from her forehead and the blue essence of her departing soul shimmered above her. Thomas jumped to his feet to intervene but a Druggle stepped from the shadows and with a blow from his cudgel knocked him to the floor.

Crane shouted and kicked out with his feet as the whole room became like a night in Bedlam, spitting with madness and writhing with insanity.

Galphus laughed, a smile on his face. It was like he had woken to a great remembrance of some incredible feasting. He gave no attention to the pandemonium, the crying, shouting and wailing that was all about him. Kate’s pain oozed from her with each breath that she snatched from the air.