She nodded in agreement. “Try it. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Simon pursed his lips sourly at her. “You should never tempt fate, my dear.” He pulled his sword and sparked it to life, holding it out to Kate. She sheathed her own sword and took his, mindful not to touch the blade. Simon looked at the wall carefully. He pressed his right foot onto the floor. “Daros Marthsyl.”
“What are you saying? Door in ancient Celtic?”
“Yes. I can feel something starting to happen. I don’t know if it will work, or how long it will take.”
“Where is the key?” Kate asked.
“In my boot. Monkey, darling.” Then Simon stiffened and his mouth clamped shut.
“Monkey darling what?” Kate caught a glimpse of one of the little hairy figures hanging from the beams overhead. “Jesus!”
A fireball streaked at the dangling beast, but it squealed and swung up out of sight. Nick slapped his hand against the column. “Damn it! We’re in for it now.”
“Simon,” Kate began, but as she turned back to him, she saw he was frozen with his eyes closed. He was in a deep trance. Tendrils of aether were rising from the ground around his foot. The power of the key had locked him in place. She spun back, glowing sword in hand. “Everyone get ready. We have to hold this ground.”
Seconds later a shout came from outside, “Who is up there? There are no more monks so you must be new arrivals.” Walker came striding up the steps onto the veranda. He was framed by the thickening snow blowing in the wind. He held his massive bow with a javelin-sized arrow already notched, but it was pointing at the ground. A monkey crouched on Walker’s steel arm, eating fruit, no doubt a reward for its spying prowess. The hunter stared between the columns at the group inside the entry hall. He grinned with delight. “Katie Anstruther! Is that you? The Baroness said you were looking for the Stone too.”
Kate froze. She and Nick peered out at the huge mechanical man on the edge of the terrace.
“I was hoping you would come,” Walker continued. “Do I look different to you now, Katie?” He flexed one of his steel arms with a mechanical whine. “I don’t think I had these little appendages when we last met, did I? No, I couldn’t have because I acquired them thanks to your father. He left me for dead, Katie. If Baroness Conrad hadn’t saved me, well, I’d be as dead as this fellow.” Walker kicked the decapitated body of the monk. His gogglelike eyes glowed red. “Speak up, Katie! Nothing to say about your murdering father? Do all you Anstruthers stick together? Oh, and how is your sister, Imogen?”
Kate gripped Nick’s arm so tightly she was in danger of tearing it off.
The hunter came closer with thudding steps. “Did my old friend, Colonel Hibbert, enjoy her? I’m sure he did.” He grinned.
Walker raised his bow. Only then did he see the second Ishwar standing behind Kate, and he hesitated in surprise. He looked toward his prisoner, still tied to the column, and back up at the other Ishwar in confusion.
Kate popped the treacle out of her crossbow an took some grim pleasure in seizing a different load. She raised her crossbow and fired between a column. A potion smashed against Walker’s chest. The drenching chemical solution transformed into a bilious green cloud. He gagged on the toxic fumes and ducked back, swinging the bow wide.
Kate shouted orders. “Ishwar, free yourself! Hogarth, Nick, on Walker!”
Hogarth leapt between the columns onto the terrace and leveled his mace into the hunter’s chest. Walker gasped and staggered back toward the steps. His evil glare went to Hogarth. When the mace swung for another blow, a metal claw met it. The heavy weapon bounced off as if it had struck a mountain. Walker reached out and grabbed Hogarth.
“I remember you bowing and scraping at Hartley Hall,” Walked snarled at the burly servant. “I dislike being manhandled by stableboys.”
A pistol cracked and Kate stood with her arm straight and smoking weapon extended. The ball ricocheted off the plate beneath the hunter’s chest. Walker shouted in surprise and dropped Hogarth down the steps.
Kate threw the vial of treacle at Walker’s feet. The black ooze spread over his metal treads, locking him in place. The hunter glared down at the mess and started to raise one of his feet. It hung in the treacle for a second before tearing free. It appeared that he had actually sloughed off a thin layer of steel from his feet to escape. The metal looked to be knitting itself over, reinforcing the areas where he had lost coverage.
He stepped free of the treacle, none the worse for it. The hunter raised his bow and took the nock of the huge arrow into his claw. He aimed at Kate and drew back the string. The arrow began to glow.
“I’d hoped for better from you than trying to stop me with a little putty,” Walker growled. “Well, you’re not your father then, are you, Katie? He may’ve been a bastard, but he got a job done.”
Nick stepped in front of her.