The Inventor's Son

Chapter 8: In Which a Raven Swoops Down

THE ELDERLY MAN, cloaked in darkness, slipped into the old, dirty kitchen. He stayed his hand against the inspector only because he wanted to know what Marlowe would do next.

He watched Marlowe open a cabinet or two before he drew out a tea cup. He went to the sink and filled it with water, then placed it on the dusty counter top and opened his fountain pen. Marlowe placed several drops of black ink in the water, then swirled it around to turn all the water black. In this way, he constructed a makeshift Dark Mirror. The elderly gentleman surmised that Marlowe would be speaking to someone in particular at once.

"Great Priest, are you there?" Marlowe sounded nervous speaking over the cup. The elderly man cloaked in darkness listened to him pace a bit and clear his throat while waiting for Pierce Warren, Great Priest of the Order of the Crystal Star, to answer him.

At length, a disembodied voice answered, "I am here, Child of our Mother."

"Praise the Goddess that you are there. Lady Sophia's grandson is being watched!" Marlowe reported in a slightly panicked voice.

"Is that so?" Great Priest Warren sounded alarmed.

"Please forgive me. The boy is being taken out of London, and I placed a Devoid with him. I had no choice but to make use of our enemy," Marlowe confessed.

"It will be only temporary, I am certain. Do you know where the boy is being taken?" The Great Priest asked.

"No, Inspector Huntington did not know anything about where they might be going."

"Very well. Some of our eyes shall be following him. It is inauspicious that one of those who basks in darkness should be following the boy," the Great Priest commented.

The elderly man wanted to growl, but kept silent. Not only had this meddling fool placed the boy with a Devoid, but he didn't even know where they were going to take the child! He would soon have to be paying a call to Malcolm Stanwood as well, thanks to him! It would have to be tomorrow. The rest of this day was lost.

"It makes me uneasy as well. I did send Lady Sophia a note. I believe I made it very plain to her that there is danger..."

The elderly man had heard enough. He swept the handle of his walking stick before Marlowe's face. The tea cup flew from his fingers and shattered against one of the baseboards. Marlowe looked up and saw the elderly man materialize from his invisible state before him. His black top hat shadowed some of the elderly man's features, though his eyes glowed with a bright azure gray.

"It's you!" Marlowe gasped.

The elderly man's voice penetrated Marlowe's mind. "Were you just chatting with Great Priest Warren?"

"Yes, I was," Marlowe answered. Thanks to that peculiar quality to the older man's voice, it never occurred to Marlowe to disobey and not answer him.

"And you sent a Devoid to guard the boy from me?"

"Yes, I did."

The older gentleman's lips curled with apparent disgust. He dropped the Voice in the Dark and snarled, "You are a traitor to your own kind, placing that horrible Devoid creature anywhere near a witch!"

"It is your damned kind that puts the rest of us in danger of being outlawed once again!" Marlowe argued.

The older man's laugh held no humor. "Imagine that! Humans telling me that I am 'outlawed.' You must be joking. Either that, or you are no witch!"

"The Stanwood boy is Priest Warren's great-grandson! You can be certain that none of the Order will allow the likes of you near him," Marlowe told him.

Now, the older man's smile was genuine. "Ah, but you see, that is what will make the moment all the more enjoyable! Imagine how that old fool Pierce Warren will feel when I put the shackles on that boy!"

Marlowe raised his wand, but so did the elderly man. Those gray fire eyes were the last things Marlowe saw in this world as the blood in his veins suddenly boiled and burst out of his body...

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BACK AT THE BALLARD HOUSE, Sophia and Ethan were making their final preparations for departure. Ethan's most important possessions, Sam, and the prototype were all ready to go. When she got a moment, Sophia asked Ethan, "I've already asked Inspector Marlowe earlier, but I would like your input. What does your intuition tell you about Inspector Huntington?"

"I trust him," Ethan said immediately.

Sophia's gray eyes widened. "Indeed? I wonder how you came to trust him so quickly."

"I had the bad manners to actually ask him the nature of the debt he owed my father," Ethan answered with a grim smile.

"And what did he tell you?" Sophia asked.

"I told him, 'Your father saved my life once.' It's the truth, Mrs. Ballard." Liam ambled in with a small case packed at his side. "I got your trunk from your old house, lad. Thankfully Marlowe wants us leaving here as soon as we are able, otherwise I'm sure there would have been more fuss."

"I am grateful to you, Inspector Huntington. You should know that Uncle Malcolm appeared at our doorstep here not ten minutes ago. I'm hoping I fooled him into thinking that I know very little of what really transpired between him and my father. So he thinks I'm going to his home in Southampton. But we're really going to take the next airship to Paris. I've figured out a clue about 'the Road of Martyrs' being the road on which an old friend of my father's lives, in the Montmartre."

After a few moments, Liam asked, "I reckon you mean Arsenault, don't you?"

Ethan gasped. "How do you know him?"

Liam shrugged. "Lad, I confess I never met him personally. But your father, while he was saving my life, was calling upon Arsenault for aid as well, and mentioned him many times. It makes plenty of sense to me that he would go to him. But we'll need to catch the train there," Liam pointed out to them. "It's too late in the day to catch any more dirigible airships."

"Oh, that's true," Ethan sighed.

"You mean, you want us to travel by train to Paris? Through that dark tunnel?" Sophia complained.

"Grandmother, are you afraid of the Channel Tunnel?" Ethan asked her.

"Truth be told, I don't relish it either, Mrs. Ballard. But we haven't any more time to waste. Inspector Marlowe asked me to give this to you." Liam handed her the note.

Ethan watched her read it. Her eyes widened considerably. "What is it, Grandmother?" Ethan asked.

Sophia glared at Liam. "Did he explain any of this to you?" she asked with a sharp tone of worry in her voice.

Liam looked helpless. "He only mentioned that as you were from the Warren family and such, that it would be of interest to you."

"Of interest? That is putting it very mildly, Inspector Huntington!" Sophia nearly laughed, though there was not the least bit of humor in it. She proceeded to take the Dark Mirror and wrap it in a heavy blanket so that it would not break while in transit.

"Inspector Marlowe seemed to think it was imperative that the lad leave this city at once," Liam explained further.

"Apparently so! Inspector Huntington, what is wrong?" Ethan asked.

"Ah, lad, your father is in trouble, and even more important, so are you. I have discovered that this Kearney has a terrible history, not one fit for a child's ears, but suffice to say that there is a specific reason that he is so keen on killing you. Your father helped me once. More than once. I'm prepared to do whatever I have to do until this terrible situation is resolved and you are out of danger." Liam picked up his suitcase once more.

Ethan did not argue, as he was grateful for Inspector Huntington's help. But he wondered, nearly to the point of physical pain, just what Marlowe had written in that note... 

*****

Sorry about the delay with this chapter, I hope to get the chapters updated more often in the near future! Enjoy!