Alchemist (28 page)

“What did you do
with the guard?” asked Connor, peering back up to him.

Lyle merely looked
at him. It did not have to be said. Connor leant his head against
Faye’s.

The general
sighed, a heavy sound. “And now there could be an invasion...” he
shook his head; “all because of one man...”

Terry suddenly
stood. “This temporal machine you said about earlier, where is
it?”

“It arrived here a
couple of hours ago. Why?”

“Can we use it
now?”

Lyle’s eyes
narrowed. “Please don’t even suggest it...”

“Why not?”

Lyle rose from the
chair. “Because if we left without his leave he’ll come after us
and we’d have an invasion anyway.”

“Not if we break
it.”

For one of the
first times and one of the few times she saw fear on his face.
“Terry...”

“Please don’t
start.” She asked, holding a hand out to him. She was not in the
mood. “I know you know how to work those things. You might not be
able to build one, but I’m pretty sure you could break it.”

He leant against
the desk, levelling his gaze at her. “And then what? They will find
another one and come anyway.”

Terry raised her
hand again to him, but this time it was gesture for silence. She
was wary of unwanted ears listening in. Lowering her voice she
said, “They’ve had ten years to find a temporal device and they
never have but managed to in a couple of days. And no-one in this
colony certainly knows how to build one.”

Lyle shook his
head. “That was different. Your father was honouring the agreement
of your exile and your wishes for him not to start a war with the
south. But that has now all changed. You have seen him lately. He
even told you himself he would go to war with the Southlands if it
meant he could keep you here. This time he won’t stop.”

Terry walked to
the desk, facing him from the other side. “What other choice do we
have? There’s only two ways out of this and one of them is us
sitting back and allowing an invasion to happen. This is the best
we’ve got. We’ve dealt with Edward on our own before, we can do it
again.”

Reluctantly Lyle
knew she had a point, no matter how much he begrudged with every
last inch of his body betraying his King. The thought made him sick
to the stomach, something owed to millions of years of instinctive
obedience to the monarch that had been bred into his race.

“If we do this and
we get caught, you know I will be put to death.”

“Then we’ll go.
Just don’t tell anyone that we had this conversation.”

He shook his head.
“It won’t work. You know I can’t lie to your father even if I
wanted too. He’ll order the truth out of me sooner or later.
Besides,” he stood back, “I’ve taken care of you for these last
nine years, I’m not going to let you go off and get killed
now.”

“You’re sure about
this?”

“Yes.”

Terry smiled.
“Thank you.” She turned to Connor, who had been watching the
exchange.

“Faye?” he
whispered. “What do you want to do?”

She lifted her
head, tears streaming down her face. Swallowing the lump in her
throat, her gaze hardened. “I want to kill that son of a
bitch.”

******

In the city high
above, a guard nervously entered the King’s chambers. He turned
from the fireplace, his eyes ablaze at the intrusion. “I said I did
not want to be disturbed!”

The guard bowed.
“Forgive me my lord, but I come bearing a message, from your
daughter.”

Fallo stormed
across the distance between them, his primeval incarnation
inclining his head from where he lay. Snatching the letter from the
guard, he ripped it open. His face drained of colour. Then he
screamed. The primeval stood, roaring in outrage. Fallo threw the
guard from his path and stormed passed, his primeval form
destroying their quarters as it followed.

In the catacombs
beneath the city, the band of four ran, knowing that their absence
would soon be realised and that a swarm of Alchemists would be hot
on their heels. Reaching the cave where they had stored the
temporal manipulator, Lyle dismissed the guards and ordered
everyone working on the device out.

One of his
lieutenants questioned what was going on, but he was quickly
silenced by shouts from his general and he hurried off without a
further word. The temporal device was a ramshackle affair, with
heavy duty cables running to all manners of machinery scattered
everywhere. It had clearly seen better days.

“Check all the
cables are connected.” Lyle ordered as he ran over to the main
conduit.

Connor threw up
his arms. “What if they’re connected to the wrong things?”

“They’re colour
coded!”

The three of them
set to work while Lyle began the arduous task of starting up the
machine. Temporal technology was not an exact science and operated
in four dimensions. But that alone was not enough. You needed to
know your geography of where you were going and what that would
calculate into in basic numbers.

A few minutes
later Connor shouted from a far that all the cables appeared to be
ok.

“Alright, stand
back then! I don’t know if this will work!” Lyle shouted, waiting
for them to retreat a safe distance. Punching in the final numbers,
he activated the machine.

A hot, bitter,
copper taste filled Terry’s mouth as the hairs on her neck stood on
end as the portal formed. Running toward them, Lyle shouted, “Let’s
go!” Deliberately holding back while the others crossed the
rippling threshold, he stopped and looked back. Then he followed,
the portal closing down behind him.

Terry struck the
floor face first. Like last time, the portal had materialised
several foot above where it had supposed too. “Why does that always
happen?” she asked, picking herself up.

“At least we are
in the right place.” Connor said, wincing from a smashed knee. “At
least we’re in the right place though.” Hundreds of lights twinkled
on the coast below, the rising sun painting Edinburgh in hues of
pink and orange.

“I didn’t realise
we would appear so far from the estate. We better get going.” Lyle
said, turning away from the city and heading in the opposite
direction into the hills.

They entered the
caves beneath the mansion via one of the underground tunnels.
Fearing an ambush, they spent an hour scouting the building and
immediate grounds.

“Anything?” Lyle
asked as he and Faye regrouped with Terry and Connor in the
underground caverns.

“Nothing, no-one
has been here since we left.” Terry replied. Her stomach grumbled.
“Excuse me.” She said, embarrassed. “I thought the place would have
been raided.”

“Darius might have
got a good look for Edward while he was here. We weren’t watching
his all the time.”

Connor motioned to
Terry. She appeared reluctant.

“What?” Lyle asked
picking up on the exchange.

Connor and Terry
looked at one another again.

Sighing, Terry
said: “We think we should go find Rufus. He could help.”

Lyle’s expression
darkened. “We’ve already discussed this...”

“You’ll do
as your
told
general.”

His eyes
narrowed. “Don’t you
dare
...”

Terry lowered her
voice. “I out rank you if you’ve forgotten and I’ve made my
decision.”

Lyle stared at her
for the longest time. For a moment Terry did not think he would
obey. Then, finally, he gave a slight nod. “My lady,” he said, his
courteously dripping with contempt.

Ignoring her
uncle’s flippancy, Terry turned to Faye and Connor. “I think we
should get some rest before we start looking for him.”

“What if they get
the machine up and running and come here?” Faye asked.

“I don’t think
they’ll be able to fix it that fast, if ever. Besides, my father
doesn’t know exactly where we live. He’s never been here
before.”

“I thought he did
visit once, years ago, or am I just imagining it?” Connor asked,
struggling to recall.

“Yeah, he did
once, when they were still debating the terms of my exile. But that
was still when we lived outside Dundee.”

Realisation dawned
on him. “That’s right, it was Dundee, I remember now.” His
expression grew sombre. “I’m going to go see Jo.”

Terry nodded
understandingly. “Do you want someone to go with you?”

“Thanks, but I
think I’ll be fine. But I’ll let you know if I see anyone
suspicious.” He declined. When do you want me back, by?”

Terry looked at
Lyle for his counsel but he was not forthcoming. She turned back to
the Pyrovite. “A few hours would probably be best. We need time to
track down Rufus before we do anything else.”

“Alright then.” He
looked at Faye. “Will you be ok?” he asked, putting a reassuring
hand on her arm. He felt guilty about leaving her. “I’m sorry, I
would stay, but I have to see her...”

She covered his
hand with her own and pressed it. She smiled but he saw the sadness
in her eyes. “You don’t need to explain, I understand. I will be
ok.”

Giving her a
cuddle, he said his goodbyes and left.

******

Terry looked up
and down the hallway before entering the bedroom. Certain no-one
was around she shut the door. Checking the time on the alarm clock,
she pulled a small, metallic, oval device from her pocket. Holding
it to her mouth, she pressed the black button on its narrow side.
Noisy static came over the intercom, so she adjusted the frequency
until it became dim. “Hello?” Static was her only reply. “Is anyone
there?” she asked, beginning to pace about the room.

There was a
crackle. “Daughter.” Replied Fallo, his voice muffled.

“Father.”

“Is everything
going according to plan?”

“Yes, there’s no
sign him.”

“Where are
you?”

“Lyle’s house.” A
blood-curdling whining noise rang in her ears. “Dad, get away from
the equipment!” she yelled, pulling it away from her face.

The device
suddenly fell silent. “Apologies child, I did not realise I was
standing so close.” Her father said flatly, more matter-of-factly
than an apology.

Terry rolled her
eyes. “Yeah thanks for that, I was nearly deafened.” She put a
finger in her ear, convinced the ringing would never cease.

Fallo glanced at
his primeval incarnation who returned an equally unimpressed
expression. “Remember you have until dawn in three days. If you are
not back by then, I’m coming through.”

Terry rolled her
eyes again. “Yeah, you keep telling me.”

“Then you better
get looking daughter.”

“Right, I’ll speak
to you this time tomorrow then if I can.” She said, reaching for
the off button on the device.

“Daughter.”

“Yes?” she asked,
raising it to her mouth.

“Take care.”

Terry was
surprised. “You too.”

The link went
dead.

******

Connor’s cheek
stung. His wife had slapped him. Jo’s face was streaked with
mascara from the constant stream of tears that she had shed since
he had walked through their front door. She covered her mouth,
stifling a cry, before running into his arms.

“Where the hell
have you been?” she screamed, pulling away just as fast. Connor
looked at her but did not say a word. He lowered his gaze.
“Connor...” she muttered, little more than a whisper.

“I can’t tell
you...”

She stood away
from him as that point, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.
“You’re seeing someone else aren’t you?”

He shook his head.
“No. Never.” He reached for her, but she drew away.

“You can tell me
if there is...”

“There isn’t, I
swear! Jo honestly, I have not been seeing someone else, I would
never do that.”

She lowered her
gaze, shutting her eyes to fight back the tears. Looking back up at
him she asked: “Is it Terry?”

“What?”

“I tried ringing
her when you didn’t come back from your trip. I’ve been round to
her house. I’ve tried phoning her every day but there’s been no
answer!” she shouted, pointing in no particular direction.

Connor sunk his
face into his hands. Drawing a deep breath he straightened up. “I
swear to you I am not sleeping with her or anyone. But Terry was
with me and so was her uncle. We had to go away and do
something.”

“Do what?” Jo
screamed, her face turning red from desperation.

He hesitated. “I
don’t know how to explain it...you’d never believe me.”

“Connor, what is
going on? I just want to know!” she screamed, thumping the
wall.

Connor wiped his
eyes, remembering how tired he was. He looked up, gazing back into
the eyes of the woman he loved, across the chasm of suspicion that
now separated them. “Ok.”

******

Lyle’s armour sunk
with the fall of his chest. The general had fallen asleep on his
favourite white leather couch. Two hours earlier he has gorged his
primeval form on more than two hundred pounds of fish and now he
reeked of it. He shifted to get more comfortable.

Connor peered
around the doorway. He turned to Jo holding his finger to his lips,
indicating silence. He led her into the room.

Jo walked forward,
her expression confused at the sight of the strange metal-clad man
who lay before her. She looked at her husband, baffled.

“It isn’t a
costume.” He whispered, as if reading her thoughts.

“What?”

Lyle came awake at
the sound of an unfamiliar voice. In an instant he was on his feet.
He looked at Connor and then his wife. “What the hell do you think
you’re doing bringing her here?” he demanded.

Jo flinched,
retreating half-way behind her husband.

“Answer me!” Lyle
shouted, taking a step forward.