Kate gave an impatient gesture. “On your way, Mrs. North. This isn’t a salon for God’s sake.”
Grace gave Kate a curious, almost humorous, glance before taking her husband’s hand and following the crowd out. Kate urged the elegantly bundled grandees through a courtyard of grey-and-buff stone and into another small room. She motioned them toward the door on the far side of the room that would lead them to safety outside.
Just then, that door smashed apart and a huge gruesome ape filled the exit. Its massive head almost pushed against the ceiling. It reached out with an arm twice the girth of its leg and grabbed the nearest person in a hairy fist. Screams of terror filled the halls as the group tried to shift around a long table that took up the full length of the chamber.
Kate pushed forward against the tide of terrified nobles. The tight space left little room to use her deadly arsenal of toxic dust and gas. Two andirons stood propped against the wall near an empty fireplace. She grabbed one of them, gripping a circular end as a handle. She hooked the crossbow onto her belt and drew a pistol.
Kate pushed her way in front of the fierce gorilla and screaming woman, whom she recognized as the queen’s sister, the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar. She swung the andiron and slammed it into the gorilla’s chest. To Kate’s relief, the ape cried out in surprise and pain. It looked down with dark yellow eyes. Its thin lips curled back over buttery tusks that were five inches long. A thick-barreled arm swung down at the slender woman.
Kate braced her arm over her head with the cold cast-iron set along her forearm. It absorbed the majority of the blow, protecting her bones, but the force brought her onto one knee and the hard iron bent inward. She aimed her pistol at the broad chest and fired point-blank. Blood spurted over Kate and flowed with a rhythmic flush that meant she had struck a major vein. The gorilla stayed on its feet, perhaps kept so by the attached machinery, but it dropped the unconscious duchess and turned all its attention on its attacker. The ape growled and foamed a frothy red mix.
“Run! All of you outside!” Kate tossed the spent pistol aside and pulled a short sword from the scabbard at her waist. The silverback reared up into the ceiling, beating its broad chest, baring its teeth at her in an earsplitting challenge. It followed her a few steps from the door, giving space for the nobles to flee. Several hands grabbed the unfortunate duchess and carried her out. As the last of the grandees disappeared into the daylight, Kate snarled and shoved the sword into the ape a scant distance from the bullet wound. She tried to twist the blade but couldn’t because of the solid muscle around the steel.
The ape’s high-domed cranium and bulging forehead loomed over Kate. Her father would find it ironic for her to be killed in the heart of London by one of the exotic beasts he had written to her about from the wilds of Africa.
Suddenly a new roar shook the room. Even the gorilla’s head jerked toward the horrific sound. Kate recognized it instantly.
“Charlotte!”
The once child stood beside a gaping Princess Victoria, now as a towering werewolf. Kate had no time to wonder how the two children had found each other.
“Get her out of here,” Kate shouted.
The ape’s attention returned to Kate and its large fist rose into the air. She lifted her iron-braced arm to intercept another crushing blow.
Lanky canine legs bunched and launched Charlotte across the table onto the mountainous shoulders of the silverback. Her long snout bit deep into the ape’s bulging neck. The gorilla dwarfed even Charlotte’s impressive werewolf form. It roared and flung itself against the wall. She clung to its back, twisting away from the ape’s massive hands as it reached for her with meaty fingers.
Kate had the moment she needed. She grabbed a vial from her bandolier. Inside it, a fine grey dust swirled. Dodging the ape’s desperate grappling, Kate slapped the vial inside its gaping mouth between the extended tusks. Then before the animal could spit it out, she slammed the heavy andiron straight up under its chin. Large jaws snapped shut and the vial shattered inside its mouth.
“Charlotte! Move away!” Kate warned as she scrambled back herself.
The agile werewolf leapt aside as a cloud of toxic dust swirled out from between the gorilla’s hairless lips. The beast gagged, coughing violently, its muscular chest seizing with a rigid spasm. It swayed and toppled forward, crashing through the solid wooden table.
Kate grabbed Charlotte’s long-fingered hand and turned to the princess. She knelt, and Charlotte did so also but only because she followed Kate’s example. Victoria couldn’t draw her stunned attention away from the werewolf hunched awkwardly in front of her.
“Your Highness,” Kate said, “don’t be afraid. Charlotte is a friend.”
“Is she afflicted? She was a little girl like me just a moment ago.”
Amazed by Victoria’s presence of mind, Kate replied, “She still is at heart. Charlotte can do remarkable things.”