Nick shook his hands into flame. “Come on!”
Malcolm turned to Penny. “Keep on the machine. You’re the only thing that can dent it.” He then ran with Nick, barely keeping ahead of the group of wee beasties scuttling toward Hartley Hall.
Penny lifted her blunderbuss and took aim, this time firing into the bared belly from where the spiders had dropped. The explosion shook the mecha violently and flames roared out of one of the hatches.
Malcolm reached the door just before the first of the small mechanical things skittered up the portico at his heels. He opened fire. Bullets struck the metal body and to his surprise, it stopped and raised its green abdomen. Then it slammed its body against the step, shattering the translucent bulb and spewing green fumes. Malcolm’s throat closed abruptly as if the air was gone. He hacked and covered his mouth with his sleeve.
Nick pulled him back toward the door. “Deadly little buggers.”
Malcolm wheezed. “Poison.”
“Don’t fret, Angus.” Nick waved his hand and set the air in front of them on fire, burning off the noxious gas.
Another mechanical spider scurried along the wall, closing on the door where they stood. Instead of a green abdomen, this one was red. It rose up high on its legs, lifting a swollen belly. Malcolm grabbed Nick just as the creature tapped its abdomen on the bricks. The explosion blew them both back inside the foyer.
More insect-things filled the door and the broken windows. Malcolm aimed for the colorful bellies and fired again. Green spiders exploded and toxic gas billowed in the hall.
“What the hell are you doing shooting them?” Nick yelled.
“Burn off the gas. We can’t let them get past us and spread into the house.” Malcolm reloaded with practiced speed.
Nick’s flames torched the poisonous vapors and scorched the walls. Malcolm spun and fired, hitting a red spider and detonating it in the doorway. Several nearby companions blew up around it, creating a massive fireball. Nick cursed and held out his hands, controlling the fire as it rushed toward them. He deftly swirled the flames like a tornado in the high space of the foyer, then pushed them to a fireplace. The twisting fire rushed up through the chimney and out of the house.
There was a great grinding sound. The claw from the mecha ripped off a section of the roof. Nick barely leapt aside as a huge oaken beam plummeted to the floor.
Malcolm threw himself against the wall to avoid an avalanche of wood, plaster, and marble. “I thought the bloody house could withstand an earthquake.”
“This isn’t Gaios. It’s just a demolisher and if we can’t stop it, we’re in trouble.”
“You worry too much, Nick,” came a voice from behind.
“Simon.” Malcolm spun with renewed hope. Then he noted the state of undress of both Simon and Kate. “What the hell were you two doing? Time and place, for God’s sake.” He also noticed that Simon was wearing the steel gauntlets.
The spell hadn’t worked. And they had monsters at the door.
Chapter 12
Kate kicked her way through the destroyed foyer with barely a glance at the damage done to her childhood home. Too much had already passed to afford this anything more than a brief scowl. Simon activated his steel gauntlets with a sharp snap of electricity. Malcolm’s eyes briefly registered disappointment before he ducked as a huge section of the front fa?ade was ripped off. Kate pressed against the wall to avoid the raining thunderous wreckage. She heard shouting from above.
Hogarth appeared at the top of the staircase assisting a pale and unsteady Charlotte. Imogen waved a group of servants to follow. Most of them gaped at the open sky visible now through the wall of the house.
“Everyone move down below!” Kate yelled to Hogarth. “Hurry!”
Charlotte tried to straighten off Hogarth’s firm arm. “I can help.”
“No!” Malcolm ordered before even Kate could respond. “Go with the rest.”
Charlotte’s lower lip immediately protruded in a defiant manner so Kate quickly interceded. “Help Imogen protect the servants.”
Nodding, Charlotte looked at her friend and together she and Imogen led the parade down the stairs and to the back of the house toward hopeful safety.
More spiders appeared, scrambling over detritus. Kate responded immediately by throwing several vials of black treacle at the approaching cluster. The sticky substance held them fast, both legs and abdomens.
Malcolm raised a pistol. “Everyone stand back.” He fired at a red spider. It exploded and again set off its struggling companions.
More bricks and plaster rained down. Nick scorched the rising cloud of poison and sent the flames out into the open air. Malcolm slammed new cartridges into his pistols.