The Witch Watch (43 page)

“I would love to sleep, but I must correspond with my helpers, or I will find myself blind and dumb. They write me short, obfuscated notes, and I reply in kind. It’s a time consuming process, and it must be done properly to protect both them and myself. Speaking of which, if you are going to continue to call on me like this, I will have to teach you how to do the same. It’s much too risky to have you traveling here every day.”

“Understood. Although, we were careful to follow your directions on the way here. We might have been noticed on the way, but I’m confident we weren’t followed.”

“We?” he replied with sudden alarm. “You did not come alone?”

“No. Both Simon and Gilbert came with me.”

His eyes went wide with alarm, “Here? Please don’t tell me you left them loitering outside!”

“I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t think you’d want all of us in this tiny place, and I didn’t think you’d want to meet Gilbert.”

“You left them standing outside! The neighbors here are spies, gossips, and busybodies. All of that instruction I gave you yesterday on how to move without being followed,” his voice trailed off for a moment in frustration, “It does you no good if you simply stand in the open by my door! I thought it would go without saying that you should disappear from sight as quickly as possible once you arrived.”

“So I should invite them in?”

“Or flee. Whichever will more quickly remove them from public view.”

“Then I think I should flee. I don’t think it would help your work to have all three of us crammed into this room.”

Alice was about to leave when she stopped suddenly and turned back to Moxley. She gave him a kiss on the head. “Good luck Sir!” she said earnestly.

Moxley rolled his eyes and waved her off, but for a fleeting moment his mask cracked and he expressed something perilously close to affection.

Outside, she found that Gilbert and Simon were indeed standing right in the street. Gilbert was holding out his arm, and Simon was trying to use it to perform a chin-up.

They hurried away.

The rest of the day was spent ducking the growing number of soldiers milling about in London. As they walked, they took turns proposing increasingly large and complex theories on what Mordaunt might be planning.

“Three! That’s three streets in a row,” Simon said abruptly and somewhat randomly.

“Three streets? What are you talking about?” Gilbert asked with mild irritation.

“The last three streets we’ve passed have been lined with gas lanterns instead of electric lights.”

“Not this again,” Alice sighed.

“Before that was one street with electric lights, and of course this street has electric lights.”

It was nearing sundown. The lamps were currently dark. Simon had asked many times about when they were normally lit. The group had been walking for most of the afternoon, looking for signs of trouble or activity from Alice’s ethergram.

“I don’t understand your fixation with them. I would have expected their novelty to have worn off by now,” Gilbert said.

Simon stopped at the street corner and turned slowly around, noting the types of lights used on all of the adjacent streets. “I just find it interesting. Why are some streets lit with gas, while others are electric, and others left dark? Doesn’t it seem odd?”

“I expect it’s mostly to do with the affluence of the neighborhood,” Alice shrugged.

“I thought so, too,” Simon nodded. “And that theory seems to hold in some places. But there are many exceptions, and I can’t figure out what reasoning led to this arrangement.”

“I see your problem now,” Gilbert replied. “You are looking for reason in a project undertaken by a bureaucracy. The two are mutually exclusive.”

Simon grunted, slightly dissatisfied with this answer but content to keep it to himself for the time being. He continued to crane his neck as they walked, counting streets and lights to himself.

“Interesting!” Alice exclaimed, looking at her ethergram.

“That would be a welcome change,” Gilbert said dryly.

“The needle has swung around and is pointing north. Which suggests there is strong activity in that direction. Strong enough to overcome your proximity.”

“I hope you were talking to Simon. Or to yourself. Because I have no idea what that means.”

“It means we’re headed north,” she said, and led them that way at the next intersection.

“Drat,” said Simon. “This is taking us away from the electric lights.”

After several blocks Alice stopped and turned around in place. Then she turned around in the opposite direction. “This can’t be right,” she said with frustration. “We should have arrived at the source by now, unless the magic is moving away from us. We’ve come far, but the needle is still pointing straight north.”

“So now your device is nothing more than an ugly compass?” Gilbert suggested.

“I think the dials have an elegant beauty to them, thank you very much. Let’s head west and see if the needle moves.”

She led them west, then east again, and then north, stopping often to flick the dial or spin in place to make sure it was still working properly. “This is absurd!” she exclaimed.

“Couldn’t it just mean the magic is really far away?” Simon asked.

“Yes. But distance is affected by power, and even exceptionally strong magic isn’t detectable until I’m within a few hundred paces of it. Remember how close we needed to be on Callisto?”

“Where is everyone?” Gilbert said suddenly.

They stopped and Alice looked up from her device. He was right. The streets were now empty. Soldiers had been running back and forth all day, and there should certainly have been numerous Londoners hurrying from place to place. It was late enough now that candles should have begun appearing in windows, but the houses were all dark.

“You’re right, this is very odd,” Alice said slowly.

“Perhaps this area has been evacuated?” Simon suggested.

“Then we should have passed the evacuees,” Alice replied. “Ravenstead is north of London, and I doubt anyone would flee towards danger. No. Even the soldiers seemed to have withdrawn.”

“Now that you mention it, doesn’t it seem strange that we’ve seen so many groups of soldiers in the past hour, yet none of them have marched past us?” Gilbert asked. “They always turn away or move to a side street as we approach.”

“I doubt the troop movements have anything to do with us,” Alice said without conviction.

They slowed as they reached the mid-point of the current block. The houses were built shoulder-to-shoulder here, and the way suddenly seemed very claustrophobic. They felt hemmed in. The streets were silent and watchful.

“I saw a curtain move in that house,” Gilbert said, indicating the house with a nod. “There are people about. They’re simply hiding. Perhaps they’ve been driven into their homes by a danger we have yet to see?”

“Let’s turn back and head south,” Simon said, stopping in his tracks.

Alice turned. “The magic is still north of us. We need to spy it out before we run away. Who else remains to protect the city, if not us?”

A whistle blew, echoing over the rooftops. Another whistle answered. There was a thunder of boots ahead, and a large number of soldiers ran out and blocked the way in front of them. They turned south, but found that way was similarly blocked. The doors of the surrounding houses were thrown open, and soldiers emerged from those as well.

"I really wish you hadn't left my sword behind," Gilbert said.

“Fighting would be pointless,” Alice replied. “Would you really attempt to cut your way through all of these men?”

They were quickly hedged in with bayonets. The soldiers called Alice by name and commanded the group to stand still. Some of the men knocked Gilbert down and began kicking him. He lay still. The scene might have been comical in less dire circumstances. Men kicked him until they were red-faced and out of breath, at which point he rose up and stood beside Alice without comment.

The prisoners were taken north. The soldiers walked close behind them with bayonets at the ready, so that if any of them slowed they would quickly feel the point on their back, encouraging them to keep up.

By the time they arrived at the northern edge of the city, the street lights had begun to come on. Simon was obviously frustrated that he couldn’t examine them closely.

The company halted, and a man rode out to meet them. He dismounted quickly, barking orders to the massed soldiers. They ran off to fortify in diverse places in his commend, leaving a much smaller group to stand over the prisoners. When the men had been put in order, the officer turned to Alice.

“Lieutenant Stanway!” Alice said in surprise.

“It’s Major now, Miss White,” he corrected her firmly.

“Of course,” she said, nodding at his new uniform. “You seem to be ascending the ranks at an unprecedented rate,” she marveled.

The Major drew in a slow breath. “This recent business has been hard on our officer corps. Apparently many were loyal, or perhaps sympathetic, or simply frightened of this Mordaunt fellow.” Then he raised his voice, “But the men, the men are loyal to the queen!”

The men cheered at this. Major Jack seemed like a changed man. He was less proud, yet surer of himself. He was less angry, yet more aggressive.

“It would seem we are after the same foe,” Alice said. “So I must wonder why you’ve gone to so much trouble to arrest us.”

“You dare feign ignorance? Has the possession of abominations been legitimized since I left the ministry?”

Alice sighed, “Major, surely you can see the value-“

“Witches, sorcerers, and abominations,” he pointed at each of them in turn as he said this, “Isn’t that what the ministry is to fight against? Why then is that the entirety of your roster?”

“Your job is to protect us from foreign armies, is it not?” she shot back. “Why then do you seem to be leading an army yourself?”

The Major shook his head. “I’ve always been fond of you, Miss White. Professionally, I mean,” he said this with a sideways glance at his men. “But I think your dalliances with the dark arts have clouded your judgment.”

“And I think your hatred of the arts has clouded yours. Do you plan to oppose Mordaunt with nothing more than swords and guns?”

“The ministry never had even ten guns, and now we have no less than two hundred at the ready. Back at Buckingham, there are thousands more. Yes, I think swords and guns will suffice.”

“His own servants claim he will command the might of a nation,” she countered. “That sounds like more than a match for a few hundred men.”

“Then you know more than I’ve been told,” the Major replied skeptically. “And perhaps more than is true.”

“Are you really suggesting that I’m in alliance with him?” she asked with such abrupt fury that Major Jack flinched. “I shot one of his men last night. In public.”

“Yes, yes,” he said hastily, “I’m not suggesting you’re in league with the Dark Lord, as it were. But his servant may have misled you.”

“He was good enough to announce the attack and thus bring us here to challenge him, rather than taking us by surprise. Would he have done so if he doubted his ability to win in an open battle against a prepared enemy? That would have been foolish and reckless of him, and therefore out of character.”

Jack considered this for a moment before replying, “You say he will command the might of a nation. What do you suppose that means? He’s stolen the loyalty of many, but mostly the wealthy and powerful. There is power in that, but you don’t win battles with bankers and barristers.”

“Historically, the truly great challenges have come from necromancers who command armies of the undead. The knowledge of powers so broad always dies with their master, but evil men rise, and sooner or later the old secrets are again unraveled. I expect that is what we are facing.”

“It would take many graveyards to fill out such a force. We have no reports of empty graves, anywhere in the realm. I can’t believe he could marshal a force to challenge our army without creating at least the rumor of necromancy. And you said yourself in the past that it requires vigor to animate them. We should also have reports of slain animals.”

“True,” Alice conceded. “It would be hard to conceal the building of an army, even if it were done gradually over time. But not impossible. So either our foes are cunning enough to conceal the raising of a great number of undead, or they are foolish enough to warn us of their assault ahead of time and then show up with insufficient numbers to win. Which outcome seems most likely to you?”

Jack conceded the point with silence. Finally he spoke, “Well, if he has nothing more than marching undead, then he’s chosen a poor battleground. I’d rather face undead in these narrow streets than have them coming at us out of the dark, out in the wilderness.”

The men nodded at this with approval. To the Major’s annoyance, Gilbert was nodding as well.

Jack’s anger was kindled again. “As for your companions: The abomination will be destroyed, as he should have been weeks ago. The boy – I’m assuming this is the boy who created the abomination - will stand trial for his crime.”

“No! I need them both if we’re to save the princess!”