Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key (3 page)

“Look,” she said, her hands trembling as she examined the beetle. “There are seven symbols on the wings, and seven wheels on the door. So the beetle has to be the key.”

“Then let’s match the symbols and see if the door will open,” Max said.

“Whatever you do, you’d better do it quickly,” Harley warned as the water approached his waist. “We have only a couple minutes before this place fills up to the ceiling.”

Natalia spun the first wheel, then the second, aligning
the symbols to match the beetle’s wings. The water continued to pour into the room as she quickly turned three more wheels, moving from top to bottom.

“Oh no!” she shouted, realizing her mistake as the water rose to her chest. “The last two wheels are underwater.”

“Tell me the symbols, and I’ll match them,” Max said.

Natalia flipped the beetle over to get a better look, but it slipped from her hand and fell into the water. As she fought back tears, Max dove to grab one of the flares. As advertised, it was still burning when he resurfaced to catch his breath. Max could see Ernie standing on his tiptoes, trying not to swallow any of the water that was quickly approaching his nose.

Max took a deep breath and dove once more. His fingers scraped frantically against the floor as he gripped the flare in his other hand. Then he caught the glint of brass from the corner of his eye. Max stretched and took the beetle in his hand just as the oxygen in his lungs started to run out.

As he broke the surface of the water, Max could see that Harley had found one of the other flares. Ernie was flailing about as Harley struggled to help him tread water. It wasn’t an easy task, even for someone as strong as Harley.

Natalia was close enough that Max could see the panic in her eyes. “We’re going to make it,” he told her. Natalia
nodded, her teeth chattering as Max fumbled to find the last two symbols on the beetle’s wings: an iron cross and an anchor.

He tossed the beetle aside before plunging back into the dark water. He found the wheels easily enough, but he had to drop the flare so that he could use both hands to spin them. Without the light to guide him, Max could barely make out the symbols. He was reasonably sure that he had lined up the iron cross. Aligning the anchor symbol, though, wouldn’t be as easy.

The last wheel was locked by decades of rust, and it wouldn’t budge. Max struggled, his lungs screaming for oxygen. As he started to black out, Max closed his eyes and succumbed to the darkness. Memories washed over him like a torrent: family gatherings around the Thanksgiving table… Iver smiling down at him like jolly old St. Nick… Logan protecting Max from an onslaught of werewolves… his mother kissing him on the cheek… his father’s last words—
“If you turn your back on me, you turn your back on your destiny…”

With a jolt, Max opened his eyes and tightened his grip on the wheel. He gave it one last twist, spending the last of his energy. This time the wheel moved. As Max struggled to stay conscious, he thought he could see the anchor symbol lined up. Suddenly there was a rumble, and the entire chamber shook. Then the water around him started to swirl until it became an uncontrollable vortex, pulling Max in its deadly current.

The crashing water was violent. Max was smashed against the walls until he was nearly senseless. Then all at once, the water fell away, disappearing down the drain in the floor. The Griffins were thrown to the ground, where they lay like marooned fish gasping for breath. Max stumbled to his feet. “Is everyone all right?”

“Alive and kicking,” Harley announced with a groan, helping Natalia and Ernie to their feet.

“Thanks to Natalia,” Max added. “Nice work.”

Natalia smiled as she wrung out her braids. Then she pointed at the door. A piece of it had slid away, revealing a small circular inset. They all watched as the beetle crept
inside the opening, extending its legs into tiny holes. Then, with a whir of gears, the beetle began to spin, first one way, then another, like a combination lock. Finally, with a
click
, the door began to rumble, rolling away to unveil a dark room beyond.

“Whoa,” exclaimed Harley, stepping through the doorway with his flare held high. “You need to see this.”

The Griffins followed him into the circular control room. Against one wall was a wide console covered with buttons, switches, and levers. Blueprint diagrams hung in procession on the other walls. The floor was littered with concrete that had fallen from the ceiling, and there were several rotting chairs.

“I think it was some sort of testing laboratory,” Harley remarked as he examined the blueprints more closely.

“Or a control room,” added Ernie. “But for what?”

“A mechanical army,” Harley said, looking at schematics. Each machine was bristling with weapons and shielded with armor. “Maybe that’s what all those spare parts were back there.”

“Vesper rockets?” Max exclaimed, reading through an inventory manifest. “And magneto rifles?” One machine looked like a cross between a minotaur and a tank. “Whoever designed this stuff had a crazy imagination.”

“That person is also very dead,” Natalia added. “This blueprint is dated May 1916. That was during World War I. It’s for something called the Brimstone Key, but this drawing doesn’t look anything like a key.”

Max looked at the strange rendering of a cylindrical object with the words meteoric iron written next to it.

“I can’t believe that technology like this existed back then,” Harley remarked as he picked up another set of schematics. “This thing is a walking fortress. It even has retractable Gatling guns and rocket boosters. Can you imagine running into one of these?”

“It’s called a Dreadnaught,” Max read from the paper Harley was holding.

“Do you think that beetle was delivered to us by accident?” Natalia asked. “I mean, why would it lead
us
down here?”

“Check this out,” Harley said. He placed the Dreadnaught blueprint back on the table and walked over to a floor-to-ceiling mirror. Attached around the frame were cylinders with compression hoses linked to an array of glass canisters. They were filled with a hazy blue liquid. Four motors, one in each corner, were arranged at angles, and they powered hundreds of interconnected gears.

“It’s a portal,” Max said.

Natalia frowned. “Are you sure?”

Max placed his hand on the surface of the mirror. It chilled his skin. “I’m positive.”

Portals, known scientifically as interdimensional teleportation singularities, were enchanted doorways that could take a person anywhere in the blink of an eye. Some opened doorways to a particular place, while other portals could move a traveler through time. They were incredibly rare because
they were simply impossible to find—that is, unless someone had a special talent. Max was just such a person.

“So how does it work?” Ernie wanted to know. He was getting anxious to leave.

Harley examined the motors and cylinders. “I think you have to turn it on first… you know, like a motor.” He indicated a switch on the right side.

“Aren’t portals powered by some kind of enchantment? Why would you have to turn it on?” Natalia wondered.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Harley answered. Then he took hold of a crank on the side of the frame and began to turn it. As he did, the blue liquid in the glass vials began to boil. After a minute of hard cranking, Harley flipped the starter switch. All at once the motors rumbled to life and soon they were driving the array of gears in a circular parade of motion. Harley stepped back. “That’s incredible…”

Natalia studied the mirror. Its surface rolled like a windblown lake, and when Max touched it, a ripple went out from his finger in a series of rings. “Okay, you’re right,” she conceded. “It’s a portal, but how do we know where it leads?”

“I think I can answer that,” Max began, placing his hand on a series of dials on the left side of the frame. Taking in a breath, he turned one of the dials and all at once a brilliant shaft of sunlight poured through the mirror’s surface, blinding the Griffins in momentary wonder. As their eyes adjusted, they could see that the portal led to the roof of a tall building in the midst of a sprawling city.

“That’s Minneapolis!” Harley exclaimed.

“Which gives me an idea.” Max began to turn the dials in different directions, sometimes together, sometimes one at a time, each time changing the scene on the other side of the mirror. “I think I have it!” he exclaimed a few moments later. “The first dial has some preprogrammed places that the mirror usually connects to, but the others let you control the destination.” He turned the final dial two clicks, then stepped back with a smile.

The interior of their familiar tree-house headquarters appeared before them. It was just as they had left it a few hours earlier, with the box that held the beetle still sitting on the table.

“How did you do that?” Natalia asked.

Max thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s like I always knew how to use it, but I’ve never seen one of these before.”

“That’s weird,” Ernie said. “But I don’t care. All I know is that I want to get out of here.”

He started to step toward the mirror, but Max held him back. “Wait a minute. What did the note say that came with the beetle? ‘Wind stem to find him’? Who were we supposed to find?”

“Anyone who would hang out down here has to be insane,” Ernie noted. “And that means I don’t want to meet him.”

“You should take a look at this, Max,” Natalia said as she stood next to a glass display case.

“Are those Round Table cards?” Ernie asked, reaching out to grab them.

“Ernie, don’t… it might be a trap!” Natalia warned.

Once again, it was too late.

In his excitement, Ernie had already pulled the deck out of the case. The other Griffins held their breath, waiting for the ceiling to fall or for the floor to open up and reveal a pit of vipers. Luckily, none of that happened.

“See, they’re just cards,” Ernie said, holding them out triumphantly.

Round Table was a popular trading-card game with Templar youth, but it was also used as a training tool so they could learn the strengths and weaknesses of enemies without the fear of injury.

Harley took the cards and started shuffling through them. “I haven’t seen any of these before,” he said. “Look, there’s a Reaper, a Dreadnaught, and… wait, who the heck is this guy?” He handed the card to Max.

Across the top he read the words
CLOCKWORK KING
. There was a cadre of mechanical soldiers in the background, similar to the machines from the blueprints. The focal point, however, was a hard-edged man. His skin was etched with fine lines, his silver hair and mustache were trimmed to military efficiency, and his nose was as straight as his posture. He was dressed in attire from the last century, with a black dress jacket, a high collar lined with the emblems of his rank, and a red sash draped from his left shoulder.

The man’s eyes struck Max like a hammer, and he staggered backward. “That’s him.”

“Who?” Harley asked.

“The guy from my dream.”

“We need to show this to Logan,” Natalia advised. “He’ll know what to do.”

“Wait a minute. Did you guys see that?” Ernie asked. “His eyes just blinked.”

Max looked at the Clockwork King. He had the impression that the man on the card was examining him with great interest, and it was unnerving. Then, with a smile of horrifying malevolence, he winked. There was a flash and the card disintegrated into a shower of dust. The Griffins stared at the floor in stunned silence.

“Okay, that was C-R-double-E-P-Y,” Ernie announced.

At that moment there was a deep rumble. A massive fissure raced along the ceiling, sending dust raining down on their heads. It was followed by a series of timed explosions. All at once, the world began to fall.

“The portal!” Max shouted, pushing his friends toward the mirror.

“What about the blueprints?” Natalia cried. “It’s the only evidence we have…”

There was another explosion.

“No time!” Max ordered.

With a shove, Natalia followed Ernie and Harley through the portal mirror. Max took one last look at the mysterious control room and then dove after his friends.

A rift opened up in midair, and the Griffins tumbled back into the tree house like apples dumped out of a basket. They had just enough time to look through the hovering portal to see the ceiling of the control room collapse. There was a flicker, and then it was gone.

Max staggered to his feet, helping the others to do the same. Their faces were white, their breath labored.

“I feel like I was turned inside out,” Ernie confessed, checking his body for missing parts. Max agreed. Only he would have described it as being disassembled and reconstructed without anesthesia.

“I wish I had brought a camera,” Harley said with regret. “The schematics for those machines were amazing.”

“At least we found these,” Max said, fanning the Round Table cards across the coffee table in the center of the room.

As the Griffins recounted their adventure, a small dragon floated through the window to perch lazily on the refrigerator. There was a flash of light, and suddenly the dragon was gone, leaving behind the form of a furry spriggan. It was a catlike faerie with large eyes, a coat of spiky fur, and a leathery tail. Spriggans were shape-shifters, but this particular faerie was more. It was a Bounder Faerie. After Max had freed the spriggan from her prison, she had sworn to protect him for the rest of his life. The only problem was that she wasn’t around much.

“You missed out on another adventure, Sprig!” Ernie exclaimed. “There was this cave with killer traps, and a pile of dead robots… oh and…”

Uninterested, the spriggan yawned before licking her paw absently.

“I just wish we knew how the scarab beetle got here,” Natalia said as she examined the note that had come in the package. She held the parchment up to the light before pulling out her Phantasmoscope to check for traces of magic. “Nothing!” Natalia complained. “Not even a fingerprint or a loose hair. I can’t solve a mystery if there aren’t any clues.”