His next movements spoke of extreme care. He slowly unscrewed the top of the cylinder, then placed the cylinder on the ground with exquisite caution, making sure it was steady, pausing, waiting with every tiny movement. Finally, when he was sure it was stable, he took the tongs. Delicately, he reached into the cylinder and withdrew a small black object, the size and shape of a golf ball.
George adjusted his field glasses and whistled. ‘That’s coal?’
‘It can’t be ordinary coal,’ Aubrey said. His mind was spinning. He was already thinking of ways in which coal could be compressed, enriched, but every one of them was crazily dangerous. The Law of Amplification? The Law of Compression? ‘It must be enhanced coal, the same way these are enhanced golems.’
The white coat managed the difficult task of leaning away while thrusting the laden tongs into the chest cavity of the mechanical soldier. A jerk or two of his shoulders and he withdrew with every sign of relief.
A blast of smoke shot from the mechanical soldier’s chimney. It straightened. Its arms swung like pendulums, making the white coat and the sergeant-major fling themselves aside. It twisted at the hips, then set off after the last of its comrades.
The sergeant-major climbed to his feet and dusted himself off sourly. The white coat stared after the retreating mechanical soldier, then stood and absently wiped the tongs on his coat.
The sergeant-major recoiled, shouting. Instantly, the white coat whipped off his coat and flung it on the ground – just before it burst into flame. As he stamped on it, the sergeant-major berated him roundly.
‘Astounding,’ George said. He lowered his field glasses.
‘Super soldiers and super coal,’ Caroline said. She looked grim.
More than ever, the mission weighed on Aubrey. Holmland’s military build-up had long been feared, but its magical preparations were proving to be equally formidable. Could Albion and its allies hope to combat such terror?
Forewarned is forearmed, he thought. ‘We’ll get this back to the Directorate. But before we do, we have to find Théo.’
‘So it’s time to get some people out of a building, quickly,’ Caroline said.
Aubrey held up a finger. ‘It’s time to abandon the elephant.’
‘Which isn’t a phrase we get to use enough, to my mind,’ George said as he lifted the trapdoor.
‘Keep it for your next dinner party,’ Aubrey suggested. ‘“I’m sorry, Duchess, but it’s time to abandon the elephant.”’
Caroline stifled a laugh and Aubrey was inordinately pleased.
Twenty-nine
George led them via a circuitous route. He took them through a maze of sheds and workshops, dark and quiet at this time, for which Aubrey was grateful. Then they skirted the building that held the electrical generator. Aubrey could feel the turbine at work, with the concrete underfoot vibrating and an almost tangible hum in the air.
They kept to the shadows, listening before moving. Sophie was no handicap either, moving silently and proving to have excellent night vision. She was the one who pointed out a guard who was leaning against a supply hut, asleep and unmoving, an observation that prevented them from bumping right into him.
The barracks was a collection of long, single-storeyed timber buildings raised on piles. They looked new, to Aubrey’s eye, and he noted how each one of them was linked by electrical wires. The windows were dark, but each building was easily big enough to sleep fifty.
They crept close, then stopped in the shadows of a lone oak tree.
‘Caroline?’ Aubrey whispered. ‘Do you need any help?’
‘I’d be happy of it. Follow me.’
With that, they slipped off, shadows among shadows.
Fifteen minutes later, after they’d completed their mischief and climbed the oak tree, Aubrey found that it was festooned with coloured electric light globes, a remnant of a celebration from happier days. He hoped that they had been disconnected.
From their position in the branches, he shook his head in admiration at the chaos below. ‘Nicely done, Caroline. The actual fire was a master stroke.’
At the far end of the barracks, a metal drum was ablaze with the most noxious and smoke-producing materials they’d been able to find, grandly topped off with what George assured them was a damp dog blanket.
The result was a horde of Holmland soldiers bolting from the front doors, stumbling and wheezing, pouring down the stairs into the open air. When someone activated the fire alarm for the second time that day, the commotion was complete.
‘There!’ Sophie pointed, so eagerly that George had to throw out an arm to stop her slipping from their perch. ‘There! It is Théo!’
Aubrey had to trust the spell was helping her identification. In the gloom and smoke, all the soldiers looked the same, but he saw the way that Sophie kept shifting her position, tracking one particular infantryman as they bumped and blundered before one – smarter, or less smoke-dazed than the others – managed to stagger through the smoke to find its source. He kicked it over, shouting for help.
‘Excellent,’ George said, ‘but now we’ve found him, how are we going to spirit him out of here?’
‘I wonder if these soldiers ever go to the town,’ Caroline said. ‘We might be able to separate Théo from the others.’
‘Separate him,’ Aubrey mused. ‘That’s the trick, isn’t it?’ He peered through the leaves. The milling about was dying down as NCOs reasserted their control. ‘Sophie, what’s your brother’s health like?’
Sophie frowned, then she glanced at George and Caroline, who both shrugged. ‘Aubrey’s irrelevant questions sometimes aren’t,’ Caroline explained.
Sophie didn’t look entirely convinced. ‘Théo is strong, even though he is small.’
‘Childhood illnesses? Accidents?’
‘He had bleeding noses when he was little, but not any more.’
Aubrey rubbed his forehead. ‘And his teeth?’
‘Teeth?’ Sophie shook her head in bewilderment. ‘I do not know. Why is it important?’
‘Teeth are good,’ Aubrey said, rubbing his hands together. ‘I can do something with teeth.’
From their position in the once-festive oak tree, they could hear the groans. Piteous, heart-wrenching groans that made Sophie greatly distressed. ‘Oh, I did not know it would be so!’ she said softly as they watched the figure being helped down the stairs of one of the huts by two comrades.
‘Did you have to give Théo such a corker of a toothache?’ George said to Aubrey. ‘The poor fellow looks completely knocked about.’
Medical magic not being one of Aubrey’s specialities, he was actually quite pleased with the result. He’d been able to invert a pain-relieving spell and keep its location confined to a single tooth, with only Sophie’s orientation and distance estimate to guide him. Building in a sympathy element so it would home in on Théo and not some poor unfortunate nearby was also quite a coup, so Aubrey was a little miffed at the criticism.
‘It won’t last,’ he assured Sophie. ‘An hour at the outside. Just enough to get him to the infirmary.’
‘Where we can talk to him,’ Caroline said. ‘A neat plan, Aubrey.’
The criticism was forgotten as he warmed to her praise. Even while he noted the effect it had on him, he was promising himself to do his best to earn more. ‘And shall we follow, then?’
George snorted and tapped the trunk with a fist. ‘I know it should be Prince Albert saying this, but as far as secret refuges go, this was an excellent branch office.’
‘Hush,’ Caroline said at the groans that followed George’s dreadful pun, but Aubrey saw her smiling. ‘If we’re going to shadow Théo, then let’s do it quietly.’