“That stupid piece of jewelry?” Kate tried to appear amazed and confused, but she instantly felt there was power in that key that she hadn’t been able to understand. “That’s what all this is about?”
“Being obtuse won’t free you from that chair. I know this isn’t a stupid piece of jewelry. We’ve been looking for this thing for years. Your father and a man named Edward Cavendish developed it decades ago. Cavendish died alone. We tried to run your father to ground but failed. Then we began to suspect he might have hidden the device in his house of wonders or with his living relatives.” White walked over to Kate’s sister, lifting her chin with a finger. Imogen’s eyes remained wide open and vacant. “Lovely Imogen fit my needs perfectly. So eager to escape her domineering sister. So eager to experience that which was forbidden by you. Colonel Hibbert gave her an enticing taste. A glimpse of her father’s world.”
The doctor stepped to a cabinet along one wall and slid back a panel. He removed a human skull. It had thin metal rods dangling from it, and Kate recognized it as the skull of the homunculus that she and Simon had destroyed at Hartley Hall. White held it up and examined it, fitting his fingers into a space near the jaw and manipulating something inside, as if turning a small wheel. The skull’s jaw began to go up and down, over and over, in a mockery of speech.
Kate heard a thin reedy voice emanating from the skull. It sounded familiar. Then she realized, with an incredulous shock, that it was Imogen’s voice. The skull was a machine for recording and playing back sounds. As the bare teeth grinned, she heard the skull say as Imogen would, “My sister has a gold key that our father made. It’s what you want. My sister has a gold key that our father made. It’s what you want. My sister has a gold key that our father made. It’s what you want.”
“Stop it!” Kate screamed, barely holding back sobs. She couldn’t have driven Imogen to this. She couldn’t.
White nodded contentedly and placed the skull on a countertop. “Thanks to Imogen, I have the device in my possession. So you will tell me how it works.”
“If your scheme was for me to talk, welcome to the end of your plan. I can’t tell you something I don’t know. If she told you I discovered the secret of how it works, she was wrong.”
“Please, Miss Anstruther, you’ll need to be a better actress for me to believe that your father would create a device that allows instantaneous translocation and leave it with you but not tell you how it works.”
“Instantaneous translocation?” Kate stared at the gold key. Her father, and Simon’s, created something so powerful.
“Stop playing stupid. You don’t do it well.” Dr. White approached the crouching homunculus as if it were a dog and placed a hand on its hairless head. He then walked toward Kate, with the thing shambling after him. She couldn’t help but shudder as it came closer and its appalling details became more pronounced, the milky skin, its mouth sewn shut with thick hemp twine.
Kate stammered as bravely as she could, “How do you dare do anything to me without your master here? Gretta wanted me alive obviously.”
“Gretta is hardly my master. At best, she is a junior partner. We were in the Bastille together. She’s useful, yes, but only for very specific duties. Clawing, biting, and such. I make wulfsyl for her, and she comes when I whistle.” The doctor waved the homunculus close.
Kate leaned back in the chair, desperate to get away. Never before had she felt so helpless. The white thing dragged its damp torso onto her legs. A long-fingered hand coated with a thick glistening slime slithered over her face, pulling at her skin, leaving a film. It reeked of decay. She didn’t cry out or scream for she had locked that down in her throat, refusing to give the doctor any satisfaction. Still, her terrified exhalations sounded loud and fitful as she tried to twist her face away.
“You’re far stronger than your sister. She started sobbing just at the sight of them. No matter.” Dr. White leaned over Kate and tapped her mouth with his finger.
Immediately the creature’s hand slipped down her cheek to cover her lips and nose. She thrashed wildly, but there was no means to get away. Viscous flesh from the thing’s palm pushed its way into her mouth. Her eyes bulged above the creature’s hand as her lungs fought. A minute went by, then two. Kate glanced frantically at her sister, who stood completely dispassionate at the traumatic scene being played out. Kate’s heart broke. Imogen! Kate bucked again, trying desperately to dislodge the creature, but failed. Her vision started to grey and her struggles weakened.
“Release her,” White commanded. Immediately, the homunculus slid away.
Kate gasped painfully, drawing in rough breath after rough breath, spitting out slime. Her chest ached. Her head hung as limp as her sister’s across the room. In her heart she knew Simon and the others were coming for her. They would! Simon would not leave her to this fate.