“He said, ‘assets,’” Jack chortled, and again his brother guffawed in appreciation of the most simple-minded tavern humor.
“Important elements,” Pons went on, “to the professor’s operations. For them both to be removed…doesn’t that bode ill for future plans?”
“‘Bode ill,’ he says,” was Mack’s comment. “Buck can’t speak a man’s English.”
Matthew had reached his fill of this particular meal. “Why don’t you two shut up? You look dumber than hell. Quit proving it by speaking.”
The expressions on the faces of the Thackers froze. Mack’s chin trembled a little bit, as the rage worked on him. Jack sopped a piece of bread in fish sauce and chewed it as if tearing out Matthew’s throat with his teeth.
“To answer,” said Mother Deare. “Yes, those two men were important. You hear me say ‘were.’ But there are always other talents in the organization to take their places. You can be sure the professor has planned for that beforehand. I am empowered to be the professor’s eyes, voice and hands in London, and to adjust persons into their proper places. To promote, so to speak. And I will perform that task to the best of my ability and for the best of the organization. Thank you for asking.”
“Pleasure,” said Pons, returning his mouth to Toy’s waiting fork.
Matthew continued his crawl down the wall of Fell’s castle. His right foot slipped in its search for a crevice, he knew he was in for a tumble so he flung himself off into space and headed for the hedges. They were fortunately not laden with anything sharp or stickery, and therefore he landed amid them with the most minor of scrapes. Then it was a matter of getting himself unentangled from them, putting his feet on firm ground and heading toward the road. There was a yellow moon just past full, the night held a slight breeze, and Matthew was in his element of silence and stealth.
He was only on his way across the gardens a moment or two when he knew someone was coming toward him from the left: a dark shape though moon-painted, a lithe figure converging upon him with little or no hesitation and a confident stride.
“Are you planning on walking the distance?” Minx asked quietly when she got close enough. She was wearing a hooded cape over her clothes, and again Matthew had to wonder if she had been last night’s visitor to his room.
“I suppose that was my plan, yes.”
“You need,” she said, “a new plan. Starting with a horse. Come with me.”
“Going where?”
“Going,” she answered, “to break into the stable, saddle our two horses and go do your task of exploding some gunpowder. That is the task, correct?”
“It is.”
“Then come on, we’re wasting time.”
“Minx,” Matthew said, “you don’t have to go with me. I can do this by myself.”
“Can you?” Though he couldn’t make out her face, he knew her expression would be wry, her blonde brows upraised. “I don’t think so. Come along, and you should be grateful I’ve arrived to save your legs and possibly your neck.”
“Two necks can be stretched by a noose the same as one. In fact, I’d imagine we’d lose our heads if we’re caught.”
“I agree. That’s why we shouldn’t be caught.” Dummy, was her unspoken comment. “Stop wrangling and come along. Now.”
On the way to the stable, Matthew asked Minx how she’d gotten out of the castle unnoticed, and the reply was: “I walked out the front door and spoke kindly to the servant standing there. I’m sure he thinks I’ve gone for a solitary stroll. Being unnoticed was not my goal…getting out was. Didn’t you leave by the front door?”
“No, I chose a more scenic way.”
“Whatever it takes, I suppose. There’s the stable ahead. Keep your voice low, we don’t want to spook the horses and have them announcing us.”
Breaking into the stable was as simple as Minx inserting the business end of a blade into a lock that secured a chain across the doors. The lock was broken, the chain removed, and though the horses within grumbled and stomped their hooves none let out any tell-tale whinnies. Minx and Matthew went to work saddling their mounts of choice, Esmerelda and Athena, and within a few minutes were out of the stable and following their moon-shadows along the road.
“I’m presuming you were smart enough to bring something to light a flame,” Minx said.
“A tinderbox and candle, yes.”
“I brought the same,” she revealed. “Just in case.”
“Very kind of you.”
Minx was silent for a while, as their horses trotted the road side by side. Then she said, “Perhaps you are a bit like Nathan.”
“How so?”
“Foolish. Headstrong. A man who dares the Devil, if you want the truth. And who makes others think they can dare the Devil, too.” She cast a quick glance at him from under her hood. “I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.”
“You can always decline the dare,” Matthew told her, “and turn back.”
“Oh no, there’s no turning back. But before I set foot on that ship, I am going to kill Aria Chillany. You can count on that, my friend.”
Matthew had no doubt she would at least try. Just as he must try to get Fancy out of the grip of the Thackers, in honor of Walker In Two Worlds. It seemed both he and Minx were daring their own devils today, and what devils they were.
The moon had sunk lower by the time they reached the skull-guarded road. “Not here,” said Minx when Matthew started to rein Athena in. He followed Minx perhaps another hundred yards, and then dismounted when she did so. Minx tied Esmerelda’s reins to a low shrub and Matthew did the same with Athena’s.
“Listen well,” Minx whispered as they stood at the edge of the dense thicket that protected Fell’s powderworks. “I don’t know what’s in there. Probably there are men up on watchtowers hidden in the trees. There may be bogs and quicksand. We don’t dare show a light. The guards would be on us like blood-hungry ticks. We have to move silently and cautiously, and if one of us gets into trouble there can be no shouting for the sake of both our necks…or heads, as you say. If we are separated and one is captured, there can be no talking even if it means…you know what it would mean.”
“I do,” said Matthew. His nerves were on edge, but his resolution firm.
“All right. Let’s go.”
Two words that meant: this is the point of no return. Matthew and Minx entered the thicket together, and within sixty seconds were facing a yellow-moonlit wall of leaves and thorns the size of a man’s thumbnail, on coiled stalks that snaked out in every direction. They spent some time trying to find a way around this obstruction, and yet had to enter the portion of it that seemed the most penetrable. Even so, it was a torment on the flesh and a hazard on the clothing. Matthew felt that if his coat snagged one more time it would fall in shreds from his shoulders. His stockings were ragged and his legs streaked with blood by the time they reached more hospitable forest, which wasn’t saying much. The ground became soggy, held together by massive clumps of tree-roots. Even Minx, for all her sure-footed confidence, tripped and fell into the muck several times, and as the bog deepened Matthew’s boots were almost sucked from his feet.
They had to stop and rest, for the exertion of travelling through this sticky slop was extreme. “Ready?” Minx whispered after a few minutes, and Matthew answered that he was. On her next step Minx sank into brackish water nearly waist-deep. She continued on, and Matthew followed with one hand guarding the cotton in his tinderbox from being soaked.