“Oh bugger,” the Former Baron said once more as the Stoneskins, still glowing with hypostatick energy, advanced towards them with furtive, feral motion. They really were everywhere, some standing tall and marching almost like a human, others crawling over the supports for the machine, swinging from pipelines, or virtually slithering along the floor. Ellis even saw the hulking shapes of Grinders in their midst, surrounded by slender figures which seemed to be controlling them by placing their hands on their slate-like scales. It was an entire army of Stoneskins, all looking their way.
“We should be running,” Siren said, suddenly sounding very frightened, something which made Ellis tremble all the more.
“Yes,” replied the Former Baron, his own voice shaking, “yes, we should.”
Ellis heard what they were saying. It made sense. They couldn’t fight an entire army. If they tried, they would be lucky if they lasted for more than a few seconds. Standing where they were, in plain sight, and not moving, was akin to suicide, and yet he couldn’t bring his muscles to obey his even his most panicked mental commands.
“So, why aren’t we?” Siren asked, sounding even more frightened than before. “Why the hell can’t I move?”
So it’s not just me, Ellis thought, but it wasn’t much of a relief to know that he wasn’t alone. In truth it only made things worse. This wasn’t just fear, it was-
“Foul play,” the Former Baron said, finishing off Ellis’ thoughts for him as if he was telepathic. “Amy’s behind this, I wouldn’t wonder.”
“Then what can we do?” Siren was almost sobbing, “I don’t want to be torn apart here!”
“I don’t know,” Von Spektr replied, “I really have no idea whatsoever.”
And then the Stoneskins charged.
Ellis saw the crawling things spring forwards, the taller creatures stretch their legs into long strides, the Grinders released. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain. Maybe it would be quick. Maybe it would be agony. He screwed his eyelids shut, bracing for the impact and the-
“Stop!”
The voice was loud, but devoid of any passion that might have loaned it the air of a shout of a scream. It was a command, imperious. Ellis opened his eyes.
The Stoneskins were all standing still, staring at them, clearly visible in the glow of their own souls, but that was fading now. Soon only the fiery orbs of their eyes were visible, twitching slightly, but fixed to the spot. They were silent and the only sounds to echo out of the hall were the clanks, whirrs and constant humming of the machine itself.
Then another sound reached Ellis’ ears – the sharp clack of heels on stone. Amy stepped out of the shadows before them and it was all Ellis could do to suppress a gasp.
She was solid now, made of flesh and bone just like anyone else, but still with a faint lingering glow which made her look younger than the lines on her face would suggest. She moved differently now, or rather, her real movements were no longer masked by the flickering, gliding effect of being little more than a ghost. She had a powerful stride, her thighs held close beneath her skirt in a way which caught Ellis’ eye, despite his better judgment. Her arms were crossed beneath her breasts, completing the image. She was like a stern, but enticing schoolteacher. Only her age marred the image.
“Amy,” the Former Baron said in a tone more sad than Ellis had been expecting.
“My name isn’t Amy,” the woman snapped. Her voice held the cool, rational tones of the philosopher, without a trace of the warmth of the poet hidden within. “Although I appreciate your logic for choosing such a moniker for me, it is, I’m afraid, entirely inappropriate. It holds none of the aristocratic legacy my parents endowed me with when they chose my true name, nor does it do justice to my education, my passion, my vocation. I am a philosopher – you, Von Spektr, of all people should know how important that is – so I would appreciate it if you would use my proper title and call me Doctor.”
“Doctor what?” Siren asked.
“You’re supposed to ask ‘Doctor Who?’,” Ellis corrected, hoping to find some comfort in flippancy. He was quickly disappointed.
“Doctor Rosetta Barkham,” the woman they had known as Amy replied, “Countess of Skullbridge and President of the Noble Society of Hypostatick Philosophers.”
“Preposterous!” the Former Baron spat. “There is no such thing. I have never heard of such a society!”
“That’s because you are no longer part of any noble society, Former Baron. The Noble Society is young, but full of promise. Your nephew is a member. You should be proud.”
Siren and Ellis took advantage of their limited range of movement to stare at each other past Von Spektr’s head. They shared an expression of confusion and intrigue.
“Tiberius!?” the Former Baron said in disbelief, “but he has never showed any interest in the philosophickal arts!”
“Oh, you underestimate him, Franck. He’s one of the finest philosophers in the society. He’s helping us make the world anew.”
“Is that what you’re doing here,” Ellis asked with contempt, “with them?” He nodded in the direction of the glowing eyes of the Stoneskins.
“The first step to recreating the world, young Ellis, is to unite all the forces within it. I see no future for Shadow if humans and Lithoderms continue their pointless war. Besides, they were as keen to visit your world as I was.”
“So, that’s why you summoned me?”
“Oh, poor thing, your pretty little head is filled with delusions of grandeur. No, I did not summon you. The experiment which brought you here and trapped me in that bloody ring was not designed to bring you, or anyone else, over from the other world. It had but one purpose, to return the Silverspire to its rightful place, here, in the forest of Blackfeather, so that the real experiments could begin.”
“So why am I here?”
“I don’t know,” Doctor Barkham shrugged, “the ring must have reached further than I had calculated and scooped you up out of your meaningless life and into Shadow. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. This isn’t about you.”
Ellis glared back at her, but found, instead, his own reflection looking back at him, hollow and meaningless, just like Sarah had said, just like his dreams were saying every night, just like the whispering voice in the back of his mind. Just one cut, he could remember it saying as the fog began to life from his mind, it’s only honest. It’s only fair. It’s only right.
His train of thought was interrupted by Von Spektr, who had more to say.
“So, now you’re here, you have the machine up and running – I assume you are going to reattempt the breakthrough?”
“What else?”
“I’m intrigued now. How do you intend to survive it?”
“I’m sorry?”
“The breakthrough! Last time it happened the rift was unstable, the whole of Blackfeather was reduced to charred ruin and the Silverspire lost phase with reality. Just how do you plan to survive such an event?”
“Oh, Franck, it seems you underestimate us all! Whilst you were trying to work out what the ring meant and how to get Ellis back home, I’ve had a legion of Lithoderms pouring over the machine, fixing every little flaw, tweaking every inaccuracy, and preparing wards on every pipeline so that the destruction of Blackfeather will not happen a second time.”
“Oh,” Von Spektr said, sounding strangely impressed, “just one more question then.”
“Go on.”
“Why have you spared us from your Lithoderm horde. I’m sure if they’ve been as busy as you say they have, then they must be hungry.”
“Because it would be distasteful, and because I would rather have an audience intelligent enough to really marvel at what I am about to achieve, so you can stay there and you can admire the artistry of my Philosophy.”
She turned on the spot and walked back into the dark expanse of the room. The Stoneskins moved to let her pass, then turned to follow her. Siren, the Former Baron and Ellis remained frozen to the spot.
“I remember now,” Ellis whispered.
“Remember what?” asked Siren.
“What happened before you found me, all of it.”
“Perhaps now is not the time,” the Former Baron suggested, “we ought to be thinking of ways to escape.”
“But this is relevant,” Ellis continued, “I think I learned something about Amy – I mean, the Doctor – and about this place.”
Von Spektr raised an eyebrow, “Go on.”
“I met a group of adventurers who said they had got lost in the forest after leading a woman, a noble woman, through it as part of what they thought was a tour, but the whole time she was looking for something, and then, one night, she disappeared and they were attacked by Stoneskins, forcing them deeper and deeper into the forest, where they found me… And then they were ambushed again the night before last and… didn’t survive.”
“These adventures,” Von Spektr began, “they weren’t brothers were they?”
“The Horne Brothers, yes.”
“Oh, oh my.”
“You know them?”
“You could say that.”
“So,” interrupted Siren, “your story confirms that Doctor Barkham is an evil old witch, but that’s not really new information any more. What did you learn about the Silverspire?”
“I’m not sure, but… how did you find me again?”
“You were lying in the entrance corridor with a knife by your side-”
“That was Galen Horne’s knife,” Ellis said, fitting the pieces together.
“-and your arms were slashed open. There was blood everywhere. It looked like… like you had tried to kill yourself.” Siren swallowed hard, then looked away.
“I had. I’d just spent a night and a day running from monsters and watching my most recent companions become pin cushions for Stoneskin arrows, and then there was this dream and Sarah… she was telling me how worthless I was… I stumbled into the clearing before the Silverspire and lay down in the entranceway, exhausted and… a voice whispered to me, telling me to end it all. I remember it was so convincing, like the sound of my own soul and… it just sounded so right, so I took the knife and-”
“Then the Silverspire seems to have picked up a stowaway during its ten thousand year journey through the Aether,” Von Spektr said suddenly, his already pale face turning bone white.
“What do you mean?” Ellis asked.
“The voice you heard. I think… I think it might be some kind of daemon and it lives somewhere in here, now.” His eyes flicked towards the moving shadows of the machine. Ellis could hear him swallow. “I think we may have bigger things to worry about than just a repeat of the first breakthrough,” he said at last.
The lights flickered on revealing again the full extent of the Stoneskin army, but they paled into insignificance compared to the size of the chamber and monstrous machine which filled it with rotating gears and cams and flywheels, loops of brass that could encircle whole buildings, pistons that could crush ships. Rising to the top of all this in a tiny-looking elevator, Doctor Barkham stared down at them with a look of supreme satisfaction.
The three companions watched, literally a captive audience, as she reached the distant platform at the top of the machine, stepped over to a large lever and then hauled on it with all her might. there was a loud, echoing click, audible even over all the other sounds of the massive machine, and then everything began to glow and spin and speed up and make noise.
“This is it!” Von Spektr shouted over the rising cacophony.
There was a flash of greenish, purplish light and then suddenly everything was bathed in daylight. Ellis couldn’t see the source of it, but there was something odd about the light and it took him a moment to realise just what that was. The light was silvery, not green, or purple, or amber. It was light made strange by its very familiarity, for, unlike everyone else in that chamber, Ellis had experienced it for the best part of two decades without ever having to question it. It was that uniquely dull kind of light which told him one thing: he was in England. He was home.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY: So, we finally find out who Amy is. How many of you were guessing super-villain, I wonder? Also, for the first time, we get to see the vastness of the Stoneskin threat and meet a few of that race other than Grinders. I really want to explore the Stoneskins more in future, but the opportunity has not yet arisen. There's so much I can do in the world of Shadow, it can be a bit difficult to stay focused on the current arc, but hopefully I get the balance between plot progression and exploration about right. If I don't, do feel free to tell me - I can always moderate how I proceed in some later episodes.
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