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Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. One: Into the Storm
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Two: London Calling
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Three: The Malignant Seven
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Four: Squirrels and Cats
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Five: Revelation
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. About the Author

Who went by the title of Cardinal Black. Matthew could see nothing in that one but an avarice for power … demonic power, at that … and Matthew doubted very seriously that Black had any humanitarian motivations for his association with his ‘master’. What Black might do if he had gotten hold of that mirror … well, the whole thing was insane, anyway. A mirror created by a sorcerer to summon up a demon from Hell?

Insane.

“Black,” Matthew said. “Do you think he’s still out there?”

Julian considered it. He said, “If he’s not, someone like him will always be.”

With Matthew’s help, because Julian’s strength was at a low ebb, Julian returned to his room and slept until midday, when he came hobbling out of his chamber and announced to Ann Varney that he craved something substantial to eat, and preferred beef if she had it. A bowl of beef stew served the purpose. Matthew went out walking on another sunny afternoon with Firebaugh, who maintained the act of keeping the cord around his wrists to soothe the Varneys’ fears that he might attempt an escape.

On the following morning, Doctor Clark arrived to take an inspection of his patient, who at the moment was dressed in a robe and seated in the parlor involved in a game of whist with the Varneys and Matthew. Clark pronounced Julian still in precarious condition, but apparently on the road to recovery. About three hours after the doctor left, a coach pulled up out front and out of it came a well-dressed man and woman, their daughter of about fourteen years of age, and two businessmen all on their way to London from Plymouth. It was determined that this new group of travellers would need to stay the night, and therefore the time had come for goodbyes to be said to the Varneys, and for Matthew and Julian in their newly-clean clothes and that foul murderer Firebaugh in his not-very-clean and obviously ill-sized clothing to be on their way.

Matthew was able to purchase a spare coat and cap from Varney, since the innkeeper could easily buy their replacements in Whistler Green. Added to the purchase were two good woolen blankets to ease the comfort of the passengers in the semi-open-aired landship.

Thus, with bellies full, as much sleep as they had required, and the parchment of passage and the book of potions within the coach, they set out under a blue sky with Matthew at the reins. As he urged the rested team into a brisk canter away from the Flying Dragon he hoped the carnage on the road to the southeast had already been discovered by a coach travelling to the northwest, and that the lovely and charming fourteen-year-old daughter would never have to lay eyes upon such evidence of violence.

Five: Revelation

Five

Revelation

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Three