The chair Tessa sat in had a high, carved wooden back, hammered through with massive nails, the dull ends of which poked into her back. In front of her was a wide desk, weighed down by books on one end. Before her on the desk was a clean tablet of paper, a jar of ink, and a quill. Beside the paper sat John Shade's pocket watch.
On either side of her stood two massive automatons. Little effort had been expended to make them resemble humans. Each was nearly triangular, with thick arms protruding from either side of their bodies, each arm ending in a razor-sharp blade. They were frightening enough, but Tessa could not help but feel that if Will were there, he would have commented that they looked like turnips, and perhaps made up a song about it.
"Take up the watch," said Mortmain. "And Change."
He sat across from her, in a chair much like hers, with the same high curving back. They were in another cave room, which she had been led to by automatons; the only light in the room came from an enormous fireplace, large enough to roast an entire cow in. Mortmain's face was cast into shadows, his fingers steepled below his chin.
Tessa lifted the watch. It felt heavy and cool in her hands. She closed her eyes.
She had only Mortmain's word that he had sent the yin fen, and yet she believed him. He had no reason not to do it, after all. What difference did it make to him whether Jem Carstairs lived a little longer? It had only ever been a bargaining tool to get her into his hands, and here she was, yin fen or not.
She heard Mortmain's breath hiss out between his teeth, and she tightened her fingers' grip on the watch. It seemed to throb suddenly in her grasp, the way the clockwork angel sometimes did, as if it had its own life within it. She felt her hand jerk, and then suddenly the Change was on her--without her having to will it or reach for it as she usually did. She gave a little gasp as she felt the Change take her like a harsh wind, pushing her down and under. John Shade was suddenly all around her, his presence enveloping hers. Pain drove up her arm, and she let go of the watch. It thumped to the desk, but the Change was unstoppable. Her shoulders broadened under the dressing gown, her fingers turning green, the color spreading up her body like verdigris over copper.
Her head jerked upright. She felt heavy, as if an enormous weight were pressing on her. Looking down, she saw that she had a man's heavy arms, the skin a dark, textured green, the hands large and curved. A feeling of panic rose in her, but it was tiny, a small spark within an immense gulf of darkness. She had never been so lost inside a Change before.
Mortmain had sat upright. He was staring at her fixedly, his firm lips compressed, his eyes shining with a hard dark light. "Father," he said.
Tessa did not answer. Could not answer. The voice that rose within her was not hers; it was Shade's. "My clockwork prince," Shade said.
The light in Mortmain's eyes grew. He leaned forward, pushing the papers eagerly across the table toward Tessa. "Father," he said. "I need your help, and quickly. I have a Pyxis. I have the means to open it. I have the automaton bodies. I need only the spell you created, the binding spell. Write it down for me, and I will have the last piece of the puzzle."
The tiny flare of panic inside Tessa was growing and spreading. This was no touching reunion between father and son. This was something Mortmain wanted, needed from the warlock John Shade. She began to struggle, to try to extricate herself from the Change, but it held her with a grip like iron. Not since the Dark Sisters had trained her had she been unable to extricate herself from a Change, but though John Shade was dead, she could feel the steely hold of his will on her, keeping her prisoned in his body and forcing that body into action. In horror she saw her own hand reach for the pen, dip the nib in the ink, and begin to write.
The pen scratched across the paper. Mortmain leaned forward. He was breathing hard, as if running. Behind him the fire crackled, high and orange in the grate. "That is it," he said, his tongue licking over his bottom lip. "I can see how that would work, yes. Finally. That's it exactly."
Tessa stared. What was coming from her pen seemed a stream of gibberish to her: numbers, signs, and symbols she could not comprehend. Again she tried to struggle, succeeding only in blotting the page. There went the pen again--ink, paper, more scratching. The hand that held the pen was shaking violently, but the symbols continued to flow. Tessa began to bite her lip: hard, then harder. She tasted blood in her mouth. Some of the blood dripped onto the page. The pen continued to write through it, smearing scarlet fluid across the page.
"That is it," Mortmain said. "Father--"
The nib of the pen snapped, as loud as a gunshot, echoing off the walls of the cave. The pen fell broken from Tessa's hand, and she slumped back against the chair, exhausted. The green was draining from her skin, her body was shrinking, her own brown hair was tumbling loose over her shoulders. She could still taste blood in her mouth. "No," she gasped, and reached for the papers. "No--"
But her movements were made slow by pain and the Change, and Mortmain was faster. Laughing, he snatched the papers out from under her hand and rose to his feet. "Very good," he said. "Thank you, my little warlock girl. You have given me everything I need. Automatons, escort Miss Gray back to her room."
A metal hand closed on the back of Tessa's gown and lifted her to her feet. The world seemed to swing dizzily in front of her. She saw Mortmain reach down and lift up the gold watch that had fallen on the table.
He smiled at it, a feral, vicious smile. "I will make you proud, Father," he said. "Never doubt it."
Tessa, no longer able to bear watching, closed her eyes. What have I done? she thought as the automaton began to push her from the room. My God, what have I done?
17
ONLY NOBLE TO BE GOOD
Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Lady Clara Vere de Vere"
Charlotte's dark head was bent over a letter when Gabriel came into the drawing room. It was chilly in the room, the fire dead in the grate. Gabriel wondered why Sophie had not built it up--too much time spent training. His father wouldn't have had patience with that. He liked servants who were trained to fight, but he preferred them to acquire that knowledge before they entered his service.
Charlotte looked up. "Gabriel," she said.
"You wanted to see me?" Gabriel did his best to keep his voice even. He couldn't help the feeling that Charlotte's dark eyes could see through him, as if he were made of glass. His eyes flicked toward the paper on her desk. "What is that?"
She hesitated. "A letter from the Consul." Her mouth was twisted into a tight, unhappy line. She glanced down again and sighed. "All I ever wanted was to run this Institute as my father had. I never thought it would be quite so hard. I shall write to him again, but--" She broke off then, with a tight, false smile. "But I did not ask you here to talk about myself," she said. "Gabriel, you have looked tired these past few days, and tense. I know we are all distressed, and I fear that in that distress your--situation--may have been forgotten."
"My situation?"
"Your father," she clarified, rising from her chair and approaching him. "You must be grieving him."
"What of Gideon?" he said. "He was his father too."
"Gideon grieved your father some time ago," she said, and to his surprise she was standing at his elbow. "For you it must be new and raw. I did not want you to think I had forgotten."
"After everything that's happened," he said, his throat starting to close with bewilderment--and something else, something he did not want to identify too closely--"after Jem, and Will, and Jessamine, and Tessa, after your household has been very nearly cut in half, you do not wish me to believe that you have forgotten me?"
She laid a hand on his arm. "Those losses do not make your loss nothing--"
"That cannot be it," he said. "You cannot want to comfort me. You asked me to find out if my loyalty is still to my fat
her, or to the Institute--"
"Gabriel, no. Nothing like that."
"I can't give you the answer you want," Gabriel said. "I cannot forget that he stayed with me. My mother died--and Gideon left--and Tatiana is a useless fool--and there was never anyone else, never anyone else to bring me up, and I had nothing, just my father, just the two of us, and now you, you and Gideon, you expect me to despise him, but I can't. He was my father, and I--" His voice broke.
"Loved him," she said gently. "You know, I remember you when you were just a little boy, and I remember your mother. And I remember your brother, always standing next to you. And your father's hand on your shoulder. If it matters, I do believe he loved you, too."
"It doesn't matter. Because I killed my father," Gabriel said in a shaking voice. "I put an arrow through his eye--I spilled his blood. Patricide--"
"It was not patricide. He wasn't your father anymore."
"If that was not my father, if I did not end my father's life, then where is he?" Gabriel whispered "Where is my father?" and felt Charlotte reach up to draw him down, to embrace him as a mother would, holding him as he choked dryly against her shoulder, tasting tears in his throat but unable to shed them. "Where is my father?" he said again, and when she tightened her hold on him, he felt the iron in her grip, the strength of her holding him up, and wondered how he had ever thought this small woman was weak.
To: Charlotte Branwell
From: Consul Josiah Wayland
My Dear Mrs. Branwell,