Lodestone Book 1: Of Flood & Wrath & Thorn

Lodestone Book 1: Of Flood & Wrath & Thorn Part 4

'How can you live like this?' Irene grumbled as she hauled a drum of lamp oil onto a wooden pallet. The rotten wood sagged and made and audible crack under the weight.

Now lit by gas lamps, the chapel interior presented its squalor to view and the routes around the heaps of rubbish, and discarded, rotting things.

'I got it just the way I like it. Never was one for housework anyway,' Henry grumbled.

Henry gave a close look at the drum, tapped the label and sniffed the spout. 'Ah, that's the new paraffin stuff. That's good that is; it'll keep the chapel and paths lit for days at a time. "Only the best for our Company workers." Henry gave a sarcastic chuckle then began raking out the coals that were doused by his turnip stew.

Dale, Irene, Flora, Percy, Zachary and Aisling stacked their gear inside the chapel entrance. They then made to settle down and leave it there.

They flinched as Henry sprang up from what he was doing.

'You can't leave those there!' Henry roared. 'Mining equipment goes here, foodstuffs go there, and the coal goes over here!' Henry pointed in turn at a rusting heap of iron scrap, decaying crates then an inky-black mound of dirt by the fireplace.

'How can you seriously say that?' Zachary shouted, once he recovered from the outburst. 'This place is wretched! It's tragic! I for one refuse to stay in such filthy surroundings. It's bad enough that we were sent down here, but I will not catch some disease living like this!'

'This is my home! I'll say what it's like!' Henry yelled back.

Dale ushered the others outside for a word.

'This poor blighter's plainly been down here for too long, and on his own. He claims he knows how things work, or so he keeps saying. I don't know what he means by that, and he's clearly confused about this magic business,' Dale said to the others in a low voice.

'What I want to know is, what is he talking about? What did he mean about things that go bump in the night, and not touching the light?' Frustration was audible in Irene's voice.

'It matches up with what the Duchess told us,' said Percy.

'I don't feel safe with him around. He's wearing all that armour, he's got a weapon, and he's very unpleasant,' Flora said, again on the verge of tears. 'And he stinks.'

'If he tries anything, I'll rip his head off,' Aisling offered.

'This is too awful, I feel sick with worry. And from the smell!' Zachary wailed.

'I'll agree with you on that one. We had better work out some sort of peace deal with him and see what he has to say, but we've got to be firm on cleaning this place up. And also for things to start making sense. Agreed?' said Dale.

Back in the chapel, Dale called Henry over.

'Okay, Henry; we'll put the stuff where you want it, but first we must insist on tidying this place up. Do we have a deal?' Dale said.

With his back to them, Henry slapped kindling down in the hearth and fiddled with some matches. All that could be heard was incoherent, furious grumbling from within his helmet.

'I think that's the best we're going to get,' remarked Irene to the others, with frustration audible in her own voice, and made sure Henry heard.

Leaving Henry to fiddle with the hearth and mutter to himself, the new miners began to toss out filth from years of living in the tiny building. They found a chasm from which the rush of an underground river could be heard and tossed down bucketfuls of unrecognisable, decayed matter.