Malcolm gave a grim nod as he reloaded. “The way looks open now.”
Simon breathed heavily with a hand braced against the wall and said to Malcolm with a fevered grin, “That fight was glorious!”
Malcolm grunted. “You have that mad air about you.”
“Nonsense!” Simon waved an arm whose sleeve was shredded like lace. “That went much better than the last time, don’t you agree?”
The Scotsman rolled his eyes. “Bloody fantastic.”
Simon laughed, the echo of which made it sound louder and more manic than it was. He took another swig of the rejuvenation potion. “A bit of Kate’s elixir vitae and we’re right as rain.”
Nick grabbed Simon’s arm, and said, “You’re getting aether drunk. We can’t have it.”
Simon sobered a bit at his friend’s warning and patted Nick’s chest in understanding.
“We’re down two already,” Malcolm noted. “And we haven’t even met up with Gretta yet.”
Simon whispered to him to keep the others from hearing, “Our core is still intact. We have our most powerful.”
Malcolm plucked at Simon’s torn coat spattered red. “Do we?”
“Near enough. I won’t feel this till tomorrow. And we’ve winnowed Gretta’s forces considerably.”
Malcolm turned his suspicious attention to Charlotte. “Still one left.”
The girl pressed her back against the putrid wall. Her fear was palatable, but she stood her ground, obviously something more important than her safety was keeping her here. She glanced at Malcolm, then back to Simon, who stepped toward her. When he saw her state of dress, he diverted his eyes and removed his torn coat, handing it to the girl.
“Here, put this on. It’s better than what’s left of your dress.” And once she had, he said, “It seems we must thank you again, Charlotte.”
“What do you want here?” Malcolm thundered at her.
Charlotte stood defiantly away from the wall. “They have her. The lady who was nice to me. They’re doing terrible things to her. You have to help her!”
That’s all Simon needed to hear. “Do you know where she is?”
“Yes! She’s in the lower rooms.” She started running up one of the tunnels.
Simon went to follow her when Malcolm grabbed him and spun him about. “It could be leading us into a trap!”
“We’ve played this scene before. I’ll do anything to find Kate.” The timbre of Simon’s voice deepened unnaturally as he felt the aether rising unbidden in him. The stone of the tunnels seemed to take on a greenish hue.
Malcolm muttered something to himself and backed away from Simon. He turned to Hogarth, who was leaning on Nick. “How bad?”
“It won’t stop me from finding Miss Kate or Miss Imogen,” the powerful man wheezed through gritted teeth.
Nick shook his head.
Malcolm helped Penny rise. “And you?”
“Never better,” Penny piped up, but her face was pinched in pain. Malcolm took hold of her good arm and helped her balance.
Simon hurried forward until he reached Charlotte, who was waiting impatiently at the next juncture. She led them all through the twisting labyrinth for several more minutes. Whatever confidence Simon had had about finding their way without Charlotte’s help faded. They would have been lost if not for her. The tunnel went on for hundreds of yards before finally stopping at a heavy iron gate locked with thick chains.
“Bedlam,” Charlotte announced.
Simon cracked his knuckles.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Kate was witnessing the unthinkable. Dr. White was performing a grotesque surgery on her sister. The smell of the blood and the sound of flesh being mangled would never be wiped from her memory. The doctor had narrated certain portions of the procedure, crowing about how his mastery of alchemy allowed him to achieve techniques that no other surgeon could. The pain of even a simple operation made it unendurable for most patients for more than a few minutes. However, Dr. White had potions that deadened pain so successfully that he could perform extraordinarily lengthy and complex surgeries; he would change the future of medicine. Kate took small comfort that perhaps Imogen felt no pain.
The surgeon labored under flickering gas lamps with the homunculi assisting him, handing him his glittering instruments or reaching into Imogen to hold something aside so he could work better. When he claimed he was preparing to remove her arm so he could replace it with automata, Kate lost consciousness.
When she came to, she saw Dr. White still standing alongside the operating table in a pool of thin yellow light. The homunculi were no longer present. A large glass canister of pale red liquid hung from a rack over the table with a tube ending in a sharp, beveled piece of metal that was inserted in the abdomen of a bleached figure stretched out under the doctor’s hand.
Kate moaned.