The Alchemist's Key (17 page)

‘It’s nothing to worry about,’ Hugh yelled back.

But, judging from the speed at which the young folk were moving, somehow Talbot didn’t feel very reassured.

Upon their arrival in the kitchen, Louisa and Hugh found Winston preparing food.

‘Where’s Wade?’ Hugh inquired of the cook.

Winston looked stunned by the question, as he was about the last person who should be questioned about the Baron’s whereabouts. ‘I haven’t seen him all day, Sir.’

‘Didn’t he just rush through here?’ There was a panicked uneasiness in Louisa’s voice as she motioned to the enclosed staircase by the back door that led directly to Wade’s chambers.

‘No, my Lady,’ Winston stated. ‘I would surely have seen him if he had.’

Hugh raced over to have a quick check around the servant’s dining area, thinking Wade might have slipped in there unseen. He found the space devoid of life, however, and so started to panic himself. ‘Quick, call the Contessa.’

‘And tell her what?’ Louisa beseeched him. ‘Besides, I don’t have her mobile number.’

‘I can help you there.’ Talbot hurried to the little
phone table that was behind the staircase in the Great Hall to retrieve the manor’s telephone index.

In the conference room at Glenoak, the Contessa greeted her patrons and investors. Naturally, they were all eager to learn if the story the newspapers were printing about Wade’s arrest was true.

‘If you will all be seated,’ the Contessa invited, not at all eager to break the news.

At this point, the lights in the room began fading in and out.

‘We must have a faulty fuse,’ she advised. ‘If you will all excuse me for just a moment, I’ll see what can be done.’

The Contessa entered the outside office, where Hannah sat behind the reception desk staring curiously at the telephone receiver in her hand.

‘What’s the matter?’ The Contessa closed the door behind her.

‘There’s something wrong with my phone.’ Hannah passed the receiver to the Contessa so that she could hear for herself. ‘I was going to call maintenance about the power, but the interference is too great.’

The Contessa replaced the receiver back on the hook. ‘Then be a dear and run down there for me. I can’t just leave the investors waiting.’

‘Sure.’ Hannah forced a smile and rose, seeing no alternative.

With Hannah on the case, the Contessa was about to return to the conference when she heard her mobile phone ringing in the office beyond. She thought to ignore it, but as the meeting was already delayed and she was halfway there, she quickly moved into her office to take the call.

‘This is the Contessa Montagu speaking, how can I help you?’ she tried not to sound annoyed as she spoke.

‘Contessa, please forgive the intrusion,’ Hugh began in a polite tone, ahead of explaining who he was.

‘Yes, Mr Prescott, I remember you. Although I am in the middle of a meeting at present, if this could perhaps wait —’

‘I’m afraid it can’t.’ Hugh cringed at his own rudeness. ‘Have you experienced anything strange going on with the power at the school.’

‘As a matter of fact, we seem to be having some trouble with our fuses.’ The Contessa glanced at the lamp on her desk that was flickering on and off, when it was suddenly beset by waves of blue energy. The bulb shattered under the pressure, and the Contessa jumped away. ‘My goodness, we
must have had a power surge, my light —’ she began to explain, whereby she looked up to see that all the lights overhead had been overrun by the same blue waves. ‘In fact, all the lights have —’

‘Have what, Contessa?’ Hugh implored.

But the Contessa could not answer. The strange blue energy seemed to be reaching out to her. ‘No, go away!’ she cried and, on impulse, cast the phone away from herself.

It didn’t even hit the ground. The pulsing force claimed the phone and held it in midair until it had sucked it dry of all power. The smoking remains dropped to the ground, before each of the overhead lights shattered in turn.

The Contessa ran for the outer office to escape the shattering glass, only to find that a similar situation had erupted out there. In the conference room she found her investors taking cover under the huge table. ‘Dear God, what is happening?’

Andrew was thinking exactly the same thing as he drove down the manor’s drive and saw the spectacular exchange of energy running between the house and the spike rising from the dig site. What’s more, an electrical storm was spreading across the horizon, adding to the dramatics of the already incredible scene.

He didn’t bother returning the car to the garage. Andrew parked out front and raced up the stairs into the manor. Grace and his father were foremost in his mind.

‘What happened?’ Andrew aimed his query at Louisa and Hugh, as he joined them in the kitchen. ‘I thought you were going to shut it down.’

‘I’m afraid your theory proved incorrect this time,’ Hugh informed. ‘The key didn’t shut the machine down, it started it off.’

‘Where is the Baron?’

Hugh didn’t know quite how to answer this question. ‘He’s … missing.’

‘Missing!’ Andrew echoed in horror, looking to his father. ‘Where is Grace?’

‘Last I saw of her, she was cleaning upstairs with Rosia.’

Andrew went to take off, when Hugh restrained him. ‘Keys,’ he explained in a word, holding out his hand to take possession.

‘Where are you going?’ The chauffeur handed them over.

‘To Glenoak.’

‘To Glenoak! Why?’ Andrew accompanied Hugh and Louisa as far as the staircase in the Great Hall, where they were to part ways.

‘Because they could be in more trouble than we
are.’ Hugh continued on to the front doors, and opened one for Louisa to exit through.

‘What about the Baron? Aren’t you going to wait and see if he shows up?’

Hugh shook his head. ‘Hardly any time elapses here during the episodes, so if Wade was still in the house he would have found us by now. Hannah is at the school, so Wade is sure to head there,’ Hugh concluded with a shrug. He wanted to caution Andrew against wandering off into the house alone, but he knew there was little point whilst Grace was still unaccounted for. ‘Beware of the cat,’ was Hugh’s parting advice.

Andrew nodded in acknowledgment of the warning and raced up the stairs.

As Hugh rounded the car to the driver’s side door, a loud clap of thunder chilled him to the bone. He looked up to the darkening sky, where great flashes of lightning lashed out at distant ground.

‘Hurry, Hugh,’ Louisa noticed Tace and her cameraman rushing towards them in the rear-view mirror.

‘Hey you!’ Rex shouted ahead. ‘Your experiment just ate my camera.’

‘I warned you, didn’t I,’ Hugh advised, as he started the car up and took off round the fountain.

Rex bolted across country and threw himself into the path of the oncoming vehicle.

Hugh slammed on the brakes and managed to stop only inches from the man. ‘Are you insane?’

‘I think I deserve an explanation,’ Rex advised calmly. ‘And you’re not going to shake me until I get one.’

‘So, I guess we’ll just have to tag along.’ Tace climbed into the back seat of the Rolls.

‘Get out!’ Louisa demanded, but a gentle touch on the arm from Hugh subdued her protest.

He didn’t feel right about leaving Tace and Rex to their own devices when they had no idea what they were up against.

‘Well then. Where are we going?’ Tace enquired, as Rex joined her in the back seat.

‘You ask too many questions.’ Hugh took off down the drive, throwing his unwanted passengers back into their seats.

W
hen Wade reached the bottom of the stairs that led from his quarters to the kitchen, he was horrified to find Arthur awaiting him. ‘Not now,’ he pleaded, hesitant to proceed.

The cat looked rather indifferent to his plea, as if to say,
well, it’s your own damn fault.

Wade thought about returning upstairs and attempting to reach the kitchen via another route, but his decision did not come quickly enough.

The room that housed the stairwell vanished from around him and Wade was left standing in the middle of the manor kitchen, which was a hive of activity. Many cooks and servants rushed around preparing food over large open fireplaces. Wade, who was no great expert on history, couldn’t begin to guess at the era, but the dress of
the people around him was what he would consider medieval attire.

‘Hey Arthur, old buddy, old pal.’ Wade crouched down to quietly address the animal. ‘Any chance of getting me out of here, and back to where I belong?’

The cat, who was sitting, appeared to be most put out by the request, but raised itself nevertheless. It meandered over to the back door through which it disappeared.

Although a few of the servants eyed Wade as he moved to exit in the wake of the cat, nobody bothered to come after him. Wade gathered there was a big feast being prepared and everybody was too busy to be distracted from their duties.

Arthur led him down an old cobblestone path, and Wade followed without question until he realised where the cat was going.

‘Why are you taking me to the stables?’ Wade whispered. ‘How about the garage? Couldn’t we go there instead?’

The cat only gave him a supercilious glance, as there was no garage in this day and age.

In through the stable door the cat wandered and proceeded down the long aisle. Arthur browsed left and right, as if perusing the selection of horses on offer. Three-quarters of the way
down the stables, the cat came to a stop and took a seat facing the left row of stalls. He then meowed as if demanding the urgent attention of someone therein.

The horse perhaps?
thought Wade.

‘Hello there. Where hast thou sprung from?’ The voice came from inside the chosen horse’s stall.

Wade was startled to find someone else present, and unsure of what the cat was up to, he was also undecided about how he should react. When a lad emerged from the stall, Wade didn’t have time to be startled or to think, he just ducked for cover into the closest horse box.

The stablehand moved to pat the cat, but Arthur drew away from him and meowed again.

‘Art thou thirsty, or hungry perhaps? Well … I might be able to rustle thee up something quickly. Come on, puss.’ The stablehand led the cat towards a room at the far end of the aisle, and Arthur glanced back at Wade, victorious.

Once the coast was clear, Wade crept from his hiding place. ‘What does he expect me to do?’ He approached the stable the lad had vacated, hoping it might hold a clue.

The large, dark stallion therein was fully saddled and ready to ride.

‘You’re kidding me?’ Wade mumbled to himself. ‘Surely he doesn’t expect me to ride this thing out of here? Why on earth can’t I just walk?’

Then the thought occurred to Wade that perhaps the time phenomenon had spread further than he imagined? Now that John Ashby’s machine was feeding off the school’s power, could the same strange occurrences have spread as far as the school?

‘Hannah.’

With the thought of her, Wade found himself in the saddle. It wasn’t until he was charging down the aisle on his way to the door that he wondered how he would know where to go to get out of this time-zone without Arthur to guide him?

‘Halt, thief!’

He heard the stablehand cry out behind him. But the cover of darkness rushed over Wade as he cleared the doorway and blindly rode off into the night.

The lad didn’t even attempt a chase, with no other horse saddled to ride. Instead, he headed back into the room where the cat had led him. In the quarters beyond, the head stablehand was resting, and he must report the theft to him at once.

‘Thou hast got me in big trouble, cat.’ He glanced over to where he’d left the animal. The
bowls of food were still there, but the feline was nowhere to be seen. ‘Puss?’

Wade clung to the horse for dear life, realising that one riding lesson with Louisa was not enough to handle this little escapade. Staying low, he dared to look about him in an attempt to get his bearings when he spotted a light up ahead in a patch of trees.

Head for the light, Wade, as fast as you can
, a voice in his head advised; a voice that Wade recognised, though he had not heard it in quite some time.

‘Dad?’ Wade sat taller in the saddle, somewhat stunned.

No response was forthcoming, but as Wade was confident of what he’d heard, he did as his father instructed.

‘Ya, ya,’ he urged his steed to hasten its speed, and as the light grew brighter, Wade realised it was Arthur marking the way out.

‘Thanks puss,’ he turned and shouted on his way past the cat. Then, looking back to view where he was headed, Wade discovered a large hedge. ‘Oh shit!’ he cried as the horse took a great bounding leap to clear it. Upon landing on the other side, Wade was thrown from the saddle. He landed with an almighty thud and rolled across
the hard earth, finding the surface was somewhat harsher than expected. That’s when he realised he was laying down on bitumen. ‘Oh no.’ He looked up to see the oncoming headlights, and only just managed to leap clear of the speeding car honking its horn in protest on its way past him. ‘Ouch!’ Wade found the gravel on the roadside to be an even more unpleasant landing pad.

The horse had escaped unscathed, however, and stood by waiting for its rider to resume the saddle.

‘Do you think me suicidal?’ Wade put to the animal as he rose, picking dirt and rocks from his grazed hands.

Even in the poor light, Wade knew where he was. The town of Ashbury was just down the road a way, and Glenoak wasn’t too far beyond that. To walk would take him half an hour or so — if he rode, perhaps ten minutes.

‘Alright, I am nuts.’ He reached for the horse’s reins, placed a foot in the stirrup and raised himself into the saddle. ‘Let’s just take it a little slower this time.’ Wade turned the animal around and headed towards town.

‘Was that idiot riding a horse?’ Hugh enquired of the others who were all still breathing a sigh of relief in the wake of the near miss.

‘I believe so.’ Tace turned to confirm the sighting out the back window.

‘Well, I wish they would stick to the bloody fields where they belong. Fancy riding a horse on the road at night, and in this frightful weather.’ Hugh shook his head in disbelief and then looked to the electrical activity that was now almost directly overhead.

‘Here it comes,’ he commented, as a loud clap of thunder brought the rain pouring down.

Grace was cleaning one of the large, long gallery windows that overlooked the gardens, when she noticed the bright activity surrounding the dig outside. ‘Ma’am. She motioned the older housemaid to come and see.

Rosia, who was polishing a coffee table, struggled to her feet. ‘What is the matter, child?’ She was slightly annoyed to have to make the effort.

‘I’m sorry, but this doesn’t look right to me.’ Grace pointed to the glowing light show. It could have been a regular occurrence, but knowing little about the century she was living in, Grace thought it best to make sure.

When Rosia spotted the cause of the girl’s concern, she gasped. ‘Great mother of God.’ She
pulled the younger maid back a couple of paces. ‘It most certainly is not right.’

‘Should I run and tell Mr Jenkins?’ Grace suggested, becoming slightly panicky. She knew her ticket to freedom here in the future was tied up with the strange machine that now glowed like a second sun. Grace feared that Time was coming for her.

‘Yes, child, tell Talbot at once. I’ll be right behind you.’

Grace hurried off and Rosia looked back to the frightful mass of energy outside, which even outshone the extensive storm front that closed in over it. The thunder boomed and a great bolt of lightning shot from the sky to latch onto the towering, glowing rod in the garden.

A burst of matter shot forth from the dig in all directions. It hit Rosia with the force of a large ocean wave, throwing her backwards into the pool table. Her head collided with the solid timber trim, knocking her unconscious.

Grace was more fortunate, as she was cast forward onto the carpet. As she fell she could hear Andrew calling her from the other end of the house, then silence. She lay there a second, recovering from the surprise attack, before raising herself up onto her elbows and giving her head a shake.

‘So, you finally decided to come back, did you?’

The voice sent shudders through Grace’s entire being, as she slowly turned to see the dominating form of Frances Ashby the second.

No!
She screamed inside, as the Lord’s hand stung her face with a sharp slap.

Andrew had begun his search for Grace and Rosia in Wade’s quarters, and was heading back across the domed picture gallery when the wave of matter hit him.

‘Grace!’ he cried, and was sent hurtling backwards into the stair banister. On the rebound Andrew lost his footing on the top stair of the long, grand staircase, and was sent toppling down to the marble floor of the Great Hall, where he landed with a thud.

He was too scared to move right away, fearing that he’d broken every bone in his body; he’d certainly managed to bruise every inch. He rolled onto his back, and managed to raise his battered carcass to a seated position.

At first glance everything around him appeared normal, but then the subtle differences in the decor began to register.

‘Are you alright, Mister?’

Andrew turned to find the young Ernest
Ashby addressing him, a boy about seven or eight years old.

‘Oh, God no, anywhere but here!’ Andrew staggered to his feet. He had to find Grace before Ernest’s father did. ‘How can this be?’ Andrew mumbled, propelling his bruised body back up the stairs with the help of the timber stair railing. ‘I never even glimpsed the cat.’

Upon reaching the domed saloon Andrew hobbled through the drawing room, concluding that Arthur’s appearance obviously had nothing to do with the time-slips. It now seemed more likely that the cat was the only one who could see the portholes that led between one time and another.

By the time Wade reached the centre of Ashbury, the rain was bucketing down. Hence, he was forced to bring the horse to a halt, under the shelter of one of the shop awnings in the main street.

Most of the town was deserted, normal business trading having ended hours ago, but the pub up the road was still looking lively, along with a couple of restaurants close by.

‘Nice night for a ride, Your Excellency.’

Wade turned in his saddle to find the young constable who had taken his confession the night
before walking down the steps of the police station.

‘I mean, the locals have reported seeing some pretty outrageous things in the last couple of hours,’ the policeman added, fit to laugh, ‘but if this don’t beat all.’

Wade did feel rather ridiculous, considering the circumstances, but as he had no explanation, he didn’t bother trying to come up with one.

‘What kind of outrageous things have been reported?’ Wade, sopping wet, climbed from his mount.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ the officer assured. ‘This happens every full moon … people hit the bottle a tad harder than usual.’

As the constable made a move for his car, a great gust of wind knocked him to the ground.

Wade went flying backwards, although one of the store pillars prevented his fall. Caught by surprise, Wade let go of the horse’s reins, whereby it reared up and bolted off up the street. ‘Damn it!’ He leant back against the pylon, still winded from the collision, when his support suddenly collapsed behind him and Wade fell backwards onto the ground.

By the time he and the young constable got to their feet, they found themselves standing on the
side of a narrow cobblestone road in a little baroque-style township. The pub was still in the same place, only it appeared more like a tavern now, and the rain had gone.

The young policeman didn’t know what to say. ‘It’s the wrong time of year for Allhallows Eve, isn’t it?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ Wade mumbled, rather stunned himself. For although he’d had this experience before, he’d never imagined it on such a grand scale.

As they stood gaping at their remodelled surroundings, a coach pulled to a halt beside them and a beautiful eighteenth century madam leant out the window.

‘Could either of you fine gentlemen tell me how much further it is to the asylum?’

The young policeman was rather captivated by the sight of her. ‘There hasn’t been an asylum around here for hundreds of years.’ When he realised what he was saying, and took another quick glance at his surroundings, he pointed up the road towards the college. ‘I think you’ll find it just a few minutes down the road.’

‘Much obliged,’ she smiled, and withdrew into the carriage.

‘Hold on.’ Wade approached the constable,
worried by his perception. ‘Are you saying that the asylum was somewhere near Glenoak?’

‘I’m saying,’ the policeman emphasised, ‘that it was Glenoak.’

‘Oh no.’ Wade gripped both sides of his head, as if his brain might explode. ‘And I thought our ghosts were bad.’

The young constable was stunned as the Baron suddenly took off after the carriage and jumped onto the rear of it to catch a ride.

‘Wait on, you’re not just going to leave me here.’ The police officer launched into a sprint to catch up to Wade, finally hopping onto the back of the coach alongside him.

Glenoak College was in virtual darkness when Hugh’s party arrived out front. Due to the widespread electrical faults, the students and faculty had evacuated the buildings and were waiting around in the car park for help to arrive or power to be restored. Most had found a car to cram into to escape the dreadful weather, and the school buses were also being utilised.