A Clockwork Heart (21 page)

“Er, yes. I am Pythia. And I would that we speak of these matters,” Elle said, trying to sound as official as she could.

Florica bowed her head. “The Fey says you can be trusted and that you have the power of the Shadow within you. And so I shall comply, for my people have followed the Pythia for more centuries than anyone can count.”

“Thank you so much,” Elle said as she leaned back on the bench. “But I am only here as a concerned wife, looking for her husband.”

Florica folded her hands in her lap and her face softened. “Only someone as powerful as the Oracle could stop her evilness.”

“Her evilness?” Elle frowned.

“
La
Dame
Blanche
, a Lady in White,” Florica sighed. “It is a difficult situation.” She opened the laces of her dress to reveal a small brass plate embedded in her skin, just above her heart. “She let me keep my heart, but one misstep by either Emilian or myself and I am dead. She has the power to stop my heart in an instant.”

Elle recognized the metalwork and her mouth went dry in alarm. She didn't know exactly what Florica meant by a Lady in White, but the ominous way in which the girl said the words was enough to tell her that this was the answer she had come for.

Florica rubbed her forehead. “And so we do her bidding. Emilian goes to her every day and I help with the … recruitment. So many awful things she has commanded us to do, but there is nothing we can do to resist her.” Her eyes grew hard. “But she must be stopped, o0f that I grow more sure every day.”

Elle leaned forward. “If there is anything I can do to help, I will.”

Florica nodded. “So it is for that reason that I shall help.” She pressed her lips together. “But only if you agree that neither Emilian nor myself are ever to be mentioned, for we shall surely be put to death if it is ever known that I have spoke to you.”

“Your secret will be safe with me,” Elle said. “I give you my word as the Oracle. I will do everything in my power to stop whoever is behind this.”

“Then I shall make us some tea,” Florica said.

“That would be lovely,” Elle said, feeling her hopes rise.

And so Adele settled on the edge of the table, legs crossed at the ankles as Florica filled up the copper kettle that hung from a hook by the stove.

CHAPTER 28

About an hour later, Elle cursed under her breath as she took yet another wrong turn that brought her to yet another blind alley. She turned back and started trudging the way she came. The walk back from Florica's wagon was turning out to be rather trying. It was late and she was cold, tired and desperately annoyed.

The houses and buildings in this area of London were slapped together in such a haphazard way that they formed an almost impenetrable maze. She rounded another corner and her spirits rose as she spotted cobbles that signaled the fact that she had found a main road.

She walked on and was even happier when, to her amazement, she spotted Neville waiting for her in the motor which was parked under a streetlight.

At that moment, he was hard at work defending the car from a clutch of dirty children led by a stray gin fairy. They were hovering around him, each looking to distract Neville so another could try to steal something. Neville was brandishing a large black umbrella and threatening to thump anyone who stepped too close. The fairy keened with delight as it hovered above Neville's head, attempting to knock his bowler hat off his head.

“Hey, over here!” Elle fished a handful of pennies from her pocket and held them out to the children.

In a heartbeat they abandoned Neville and were flocking around her, all the while grabbing at the pennies she was offering. They pushed and thronged until the money fell to the cobbles and little hands and bodies darted for them.

“Neville! My goodness, you are a sight for sore eyes,” Elle said barely escaping the scuffle of children and fairy that had erupted around her.

“Thank heavens you are safe, my lady,” Neville said. He leaned over and opened the front passenger door for her.

Elle climbed into the car, grateful for the reassuring feel of the leather seat against her back. “Oh Neville, I have no idea how you found me, but thank goodness you came. Let's go home,” she said.

Neville did not wait to be asked a second time. He revved up the engine, which had been softly puttering in the background. They were in motion almost instantly and barreling down the road, leaving the rank squalor behind them.

“The baroness said you might be here so I took a chance to try and find you,” he said after a mile or so when they had slowed down a little.

“Is Loisa awake?”

“She woke this evening after you left, but she is still resting. The doctor checked in on her again on his way home, and he says she is much improved.”

“And how is he?” She leaned forward to speak.

“Same as before, my lady. The doctor says he thinks the ticking is still increasing, it grieves me to say.” Neville's profile was grave as he drove.

Elle closed her eyes and rested her head against the seat. Despite her initial willingness to help it had taken two cups of tea, a generous glug of cheap whisky and the tender of her stiletto as payment for the information, before Florica had finally talked. And talked she did.

Adele, as it turned out, was rather taken with living with the traveling folk, despite her dramatic entrance earlier that evening.

In the end the three of them had agreed a compromise: the fairy was to stay with Florica for the moment, mostly because the charm that bound her to the wagon was too complicated to undo quickly. Elle had promised to return and as a token of trust, Florica had given her a brass button off her coat. With it Elle would always be able to find the wagon. Florica had also given her a potion that was said to cure Nightwalkers who accidentally ingested silver. And so she had parted on good terms with Florica and with a promise to return once her quest to save Marsh was over.

And that was a most excellent result. Because now she had a plan.

The sky had turned to murky gray by the time they pulled up to Greychester House.

Elle took off her coat as she strode across the black and white squares of the hallway floor and up the stairs.

Loisa was still in bed, pale as moonlight.

“Loisa, I have found help,” Elle said. “She gave me this potion for you to take.”

Loisa did not answer and without hesitating, Elle pulled the stopper from the bottle and dripped the amber liquid into Loisa's mouth.

Loisa almost choked once, but she managed to swallow the medicine without waking up.

“Rest now, dear friend. I will be in to check on you a little later.”

The Nightwalker lay as still as death, but it looked like the black tracks that still spidered under her skin were fading now.

Elle said a quiet prayer to anyone who might be listening that Loisa would be all right before she turned and left Loisa's room to see her next patient.

In the library, Marsh's cot was empty and her heart leapt into her throat.

“We've put him in the cold larder,” Mrs. Hinges said behind her.

Elle spun round. “Mrs. Hinges! You startled me. What are you doing up so early?”

“I'm sorry, my dear. I didn't mean to do that.” She smiled at Elle. “This house now runs at all hours with the baroness and his lordship being so ill. Mr. Caruthers and I are manning the fort in shifts in order to keep an eye on things.”

Elle hugged her. “Oh, Mrs. Hinges, I'm so sorry about that. You must be exhausted. All this is my fault. All I seem to do is bring misery and destruction upon everyone unfortunate to cross paths with me.”

“Oh, what utter nonsense! I will not stand here and listen to you spout such silliness.” The older woman patted her reassuringly. “But we haven't any time for feeling sorry for ourselves right now.” She let go of Elle and stared at her with concern. “How about a nice hot cup of tea? You look like you are chilled to the bone. And we can check in on his lordship while we are at it as well.”

Elle smiled. After two cups of Florca's brew, tea was the last thing she fancied, but a talk with Mrs. Hinges would certainly help and so she followed the older woman downstairs.

In the kitchen Elle stood on tiptoes and peered through the little glass window of the door of the cold larder.

A row of large blocks of ice had been placed around the bottom of the stone floor in order to keep everything inside the room cold. The room was completely empty except for Marsh. He stood perfectly still in the middle of the room, trussed up in his muzzle and canvas jacket. At that moment he was looking up at the ceiling as if he was listening for a sound that wouldn't come.

Elle tapped against the glass with her wedding band. He turned his head ever so slightly at the sound and she felt her heart contract at the sight of him.

“The cold seems to slow him down a little. Doctor thinks that the less he moves about the slower that thing in his chest will wind down. And don't worry, dear, I made sure they put an extra cardigan on him before they strapped that canvas thing on. I couldn't very well let the poor man suffer.” Mrs. Hinges said. “I'm also rather grateful the butcher hasn't been for this week's delivery or we would have had a real problem on our hands. The smell of raw meat sends him into a right fit of bother.”

Elle smiled at her. “Thank you for doing all this.”

Mrs. Hinges patted her on the arm. “Never you mind. Let's go and have that cup of tea and you can tell me all about what you've been up to tonight.”

Elle shook her head and gripped the older woman's hand. “There is no time to waste, Mrs. Hinges. Every moment we sit here is a moment wasted. I must go to my rooms now. Please see that I am not disturbed for the next few hours.”

The house was very quiet as she made her way up to her room. All the curtains were drawn. Loisa, she was assured, was fast asleep in her coffin and she had no idea where the professor was.

Elle felt bone tired as she undid her hair and brushed it. Her whole body ached from lack of sleep and physical exhaustion. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed, coddled in the warm lusciousness of deep, dreamless sleep. But she could not rest. Not yet.

She retied her hair in a braid that fell down her back and slipped on her linen robes. She was ready to go to the Realm of Shadow. There were a few people she needed to see before she could rest.

Inside her secret chamber, she did not even bother to light the candles. She stepped into the circle and closed her eyes, willing herself to the place where she wanted to be.

Travel to the other side was becoming easier and within moments she felt the rush of energy that filled her senses as she slipped through the barrier.

Finding the dark woods took almost no time at all once she had crossed over. The bare branches of the trees stretched up to a sky that was the color of watered-down milk.

No matter what the time, it never seemed to grow completely dark here, almost as if the sky was afraid to surrender this place to the shadows.

The ever-present dip-dibs watched her with large eyes. They chattered their sharp little teeth at her as she passed them by. And above her, the magpies kept silent watch from the gallery of boughs, peering down at her with eyes like shiny black beads.

Elle walked until she found the largest tree she could. The elm stood in silence as it if had been waiting there for her.

She looked up into its branches and shouted, “Jack!”

“Here! Here!” the magpies above her said, but otherwise there was nothing but silence. Even the bloodthirsty dip-dibs held their breaths.

“Jack!” she called again. Her voice echoed a few times in the silence before it too was swallowed up by the woods.

Elle took another deep breath and shouted one last time “Jack!”

The magpies took to the sky, circling in a flurry of squawks and black and white feathers.

“All right, all right. Here I am. No need to be so impatient.” Jack hobbled out from behind the tree. He opened his cloak and peered at her in the light of his lantern. “Oh, it”s you, he said. “Any news on my holiday?”

“Hello, Jack. I've come to ask you a favor,” Elle said, getting to the point.

“Favors, favors. Everyone always wants a favor,” Jack muttered. He leaned over and rested his lantern on a tree root. “No one spares a thought for old Jack. Not a single thought, I tell you.”

“I need you to tell me how one stops a Lady in White.”

Jack gave her a wily look. “
La
Dames
Blanche
? Sounds like you have got yourself into a spot of trouble, young lady. Those elemental witches hold grudges for more years than you have to live.”

“But how does one stop one? And I need to make her undo something she”s done.”

“Ah, an undoing,” Jack leaned forward with an air of amusement. “Even more tricky because it requires reversing the intent of the doer.”

“There must be a way. There always is with these things.”

Jack smiled and looked up into the branches above him. “So impatient. Always wanting the answers immediately, don't you?”

“Jack, please. I don't have a lot of time. I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't an emergency.”

Jack looked at her for a few long moments. “Tell me first, what are you going to do for old Jack? What news do you bring about my holiday?”

“News! News!” The magpies squawked.

“I haven”t had a chance to discuss the matter with anyone yet.”

He shook his head. “There is nothing to discuss. All I need is for you to say yes. It's a very simple matter.”

Elle was starting to wonder whether coming here had been a good idea. She had been warned about Jack. But right now, she didn't have very many options and there was no one else she could ask. “I think a short visit would be fine as long as you promise not to harm anyone.”

Jack narrowed his eyes. “This is a trick. You know I cannot promise that. What control do I have over the universe? What if I step on an ant or accidentally squash a worm while I'm there? I would be punished by bursting into flames and that, my dear, is most unfair.”

“Jack, I don't make the rules. I am bound to obey the Council just as much as you are.”

“The Council of Warlocks. Now there is a fine institution if I've ever seen one. Not a fan of them, I gather.”

“Not really, no,” Elle had to admit.

“But back to my holiday. Do you think I would be harming something if I ate anything? You know I am very fond of a bit of fried bacon with butter on bread in the morning. Would I be harming the pig if I did that?”

“I don't know, I never thought about it like that,” Elle admitted.

“You see, it's a very old and very stupid rule.”

She sighed. “Very well, but as long as you promise not to harm anyone on purpose.”

Jack grinned at her and held out his hand. “I accept. The bargain is struck.”

As Elle took his hand, and immediately she felt a cold ripple of magic spill over her arm and run all the way up to her shoulders. She shivered and let go of Jack's knobbly old fingers.

“Deal! Deal! Deal!” The magpies squawked as they flew off into the darkness of the forest.

“Now tell me about the lady and how I make her undo something.”

Jack shook his head. “That was payment for the last favor. When I let you out of the forest. This one costs different.”

Elle closed her eyes in exasperation. “My patience is wearing thin, Jack. You are being tricksy and I don't have time for that, I'm afraid. How do I even know that you are telling the truth? You could be pretending that you know when you don't.”

Jack looked indignant. “Do you know who I am? Do you even comprehend who you are speaking to?”

“No, sir, it is I who must ask you that question.” Elle felt herself grow angry. She was not going to allow this twisted creature to trick her again.

Jack stared at her for a long moment. “It seems, little Oracle, that you and I have reached an impasse. How can there be a bargain when both parties carry tricks up their sleeves?”

“I have told you why I am here and what I want. Now it is time for you to do the same. Or else I will revoke my permission and you shall have no entry into the Realm of Light. Ever.”