A column of blistering flame rose before them. Simon covered Victoria. The copper-headed Ferghus glared at them from the nave, his fiery hand feeding the flames that blocked their way.
“This line ends here!” Ferghus laughed. “If I can’t have the king, I’ll take the wee one.”
“We’re not done!” came Malcolm’s ragged voice as he kicked his way free of a barricade of smoldering chairs beneath the burning choir screen. He aimed his heavy pistols.
Fire shot out of Ferghus’s gesturing hand to form a barrier between him and Scotsman. The bullets never reached him but melted into slag and went astray.
“Bloody hell!” Malcolm cursed.
“Malcolm, get out of the way!” shouted a woman’s voice from the tiers of graceful arches above. A pert figure aimed a long tube at the Irishman amidst the flames.
Malcolm MacFarlane dove between the empty pews as Penny Carter fired a canister. Ferghus flared again, renewing the wall of flame around him. The canister struck the barrier and exploded. The concussion blasted Ferghus off his feet.
Young Victoria looked up at Simon. “He breathes fire like a dragon.”
With the princess still in his arms, Simon ran past the guttering fire column into the south transept. “Have no fear. We’ve slain many.”
Victoria’s eyes widened farther when Simon deposited her in front of a young girl not much older than the princess herself, slender and dressed in a simple white shift. The blond-haired girl was staring angrily into the church as if straining to join the fight herself. “Mr. Simon, the lady with the arms is up. Do you want me to—”
“I’ll see to it, thank you, Charlotte.” Simon coolly took up his sword and started toward the Kaliesque woman whose form wavered beyond the flames. She had seized hold of the legendary chair of King Edward. “That won’t do.” He nodded knowingly to himself and called back to Charlotte, “Take Princess Victoria to Kate.”
Charlotte gasped at the princess and attempted a panicked curtsy. “Your Majesty!”
Victoria kept her eyes locked on Simon as he charged back into the fiery maw. “Who is he? Who are you all?”
Charlotte was already pulling the princess out the door, away from the blistering heat of the flames. “His name is Simon Archer. I’m Charlotte. We fight monsters.”
Chapter 2
Kate trailed the nobles, who hurried as best they could in their elaborate regalia. She ached to push them through the passages of Westminster, force them along so she could return to fight beside Simon. No ordinary man could stand against Baroness Conrad. She knew that Simon was extraordinary, but his reliance on aether was ingrained in him and could mean disaster. Simon had been the one who brought them all together and had sacrificed so much for her, and for all of them. Kate couldn’t stand to see him lose anything more. And she couldn’t stand the chilling thought of losing him. But she had a task at hand to protect these innocent people. She exhaled impatiently and continued to attend her frightened charges.
Ahead of the crowd, screams sounded as a huge shape filled an archway. Kate stared at it, barely comprehending. It was a terrible sight. It appeared to be an incredible mechanized great ape. She had never seen a gorilla before, nor most likely had anyone around her, but her father was an intrepid explorer and had numerous journals on exotic animals including gorillas. None had looked quite like this one, particularly with its inhuman silver back clicking and shifting with every movement.
Kate raised the sleek crossbow and fired a vial of amber solution over the heads of the grandees, who were surging backward. Thankfully none spoiled her aim. The glass crashed against the chest of the hairy ape, spewing forth a fine ocher mist that enveloped the creature. The gorilla flailed at the thickening cloud with a muscular arm, making its metal tubing clank together. The beast raged as the mist turned denser to become a block of solid amber.
“Move on!” Kate extended her arms to prevent the crowd from fleeing back into the sanctuary where the main battle raged. “Run past it! It can’t harm you!”
They balked at the sight of the frozen monstrosity, but a woman dressed in a gown of finest satin and velvet stepped toward the fearsome creature and turned her delicate back on it. Grace North, the wife of the prime minister, regarded the horrified crowd with a strangely calm face like delicate porcelain.
With complete confidence in Kate’s amber, Grace called, “The beast is secured. Move on!”
King William responded first, escorting the queen past the trapped monster. The other nobles were prodded to do likewise, although some of the women and a few of the men were close to fainting and had to be manhandled along by others. Grace North resisted the tugging grasp of her husband, Prime Minister North, and stood staring at the trapped ape.