She made one more search of the room, paying particular attention to possible illusion switches. There was a walk-in wardrobe full of Brimstone's clothes. The enclosed space had a nasty, old-man smell so she'd only taken a quick look before. Now she held her breath and actually stepped inside to tap the woodpanelled walls.
There was a false back to the wardrobe! She'd no doubt at all. The wall sounded hollow. She pushed and prodded, pulled, rapped, even kicked it, but the wall remained firm. She fiddled with the wardrobe rails, searched for secret catches and illusion triggers. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. 'Oh, open up, you stupid thing!' she screamed in frustration. The back panel of the wardrobe slid back silently. Low-level glowglobes lit beyond.
There was another staircase. Blue hesitated. It led upwards, clearly a secret entrance to the attic. But it also led downwards into gloomy depths. Where to?
This was stupid, Blue thought. She knew Brimstone had hidden something in the attic. She knew she shouldn't really waste time investigating anywhere else. She knew that if she went down into those dark depths, she might run into more illusion spells… or worse. She knew all this, but she also knew she couldn't resist -she simply had to find out where those stairs led if she went downwards.
Blue moved forward, then stopped. This was too easy. If she'd learned anything in the last hour, it was that Brimstone was one of the trickiest characters she'd ever come across. The whole house was full of magical illusions and traps, yet the panel in the back of the wardrobe – the panel that had to lead to Brimstone's secret attic room – was a mechanical device with the simplest possible sesame lock. Anybody could open it with a standard spoken Open up. And if she was honest, the panel itself hadn't been that difficult to find. She'd have found it far sooner if she hadn't been put off by the smell of Brimstone's clothes.
Blue took a cloth cap from a peg behind her and threw it on to the staircase, then watched with horror as it passed right through the tread and tumbled down into the depths below. The stairs did not really exist at all. They were another illusion.
If she'd stepped on to them, she'd have fallen to her death.
Twenty-four
Tithonus coughed discreetly.
'Yes, Gatekeeper?' the Emperor asked.
'Sire, there is the question of which portal we should use.' When the Emperor looked at him without speaking, Tithonus went on, 'We may use the House Iris portal, which I assume is what you had in mind – '
The Emperor nodded. 'Yes.'
'But we also have the option of using Mr Fogarty's portal – with Mr Fogarty's consent and co-operation, of course – which might give us some indication of where Crown Prince Pyrgus ended up when he used it.'
For the first time in an hour, the Emperor's face lightened. 'Sound thinking, Tithonus! So obvious now you've mentioned it, but that had not occurred to me.' He turned to Fogarty, who was standing by the door now with his shotgun presented to point up at the ceiling. 'Mr Fogarty, will you permit us to use the portal you constructed?'
Fogarty shrugged. 'Don't see why not,' he said.
Blue thought she had it figured out, but she wasn't sure. If she was right, the trigger she'd applied would make the staircase solid again. If she wasn't, it would remain an illusion. She found another of Brimstone's caps and tossed it on the stairs. This time it stayed. It looked as if she'd stabilised the illusion, but there was really only one way to find out. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and stepped on to the staircase.
She released the breath explosively. She hadn't fallen. The stairs were real and solid now.
Blue opened her eyes and started downwards without a second's hesitation. Brimstone's house was far too dangerous for a return visit. If she was ever going to find out where this staircase went, it had to be now.
The stairs went down the full three storeys but didn't stop at ground level. If her calculation was correct, they continued for at least another twenty feet. When she reached the bottom, she found herself in a long, straight corridor where glowglobes were already lighting automatically at her presence. She had a good sense of direction and, so far as she could judge, the corridor ran underneath Seething Lane in the direction of Brimstone's glue factory. Which was probably exactly where it led. Heaven only knew what was brought from the factory to Brimstone's rooms and vice versa. Pyrgus himself might have been marched along this corridor for all she knew.
Should she follow the passage? She didn't think so. If Brimstone had information about Pyrgus in the factory, that would have to be another day's work. She still had to find the attic room and search there. Blue headed back up the stairs. In minutes she was standing outside what she knew must be the door to Brimstone's secret attic.
She pushed it open.
A long, carpeted corridor stretched directly ahead, illuminated by elaborate crystal chandeliers.
'Not the chapel,' murmured the Purple Emperor, 'but clearly still the palace.'
'I believe this is the east wing, somewhere near the quarters of your daughter, sire,' Tithonus put in, looking around.
'Yes, I think you may be right. So if we're here, Pyrgus must have made it home safely.'
'Assuming this man Fogarty has been telling us the truth,' Tithonus said, his voice scarcely more than a whisper.
'My instinct is to trust him,' the Emperor whispered back. 'For now.' He raised his voice. 'Are we all safely through?'
'All accounted for, Your Majesty,' said Chief Portal Engineer Peacock briskly.
'Mr Fogarty, is this the same place you saw when you came through before?'
Fogarty sniffed. 'Looks like it,' he said.
'It seems my son may have taken himself off somewhere. But at least he is back in his own world.' The Purple Emperor gathered his cloak around him. He felt reassured by events, but there was still the possibility Pyrgus had set the portal wrongly and translated several miles away. The boy had a genius for getting into trouble. 'Mr Fogarty, I should like you to go with Chief Portal Engineer Peacock. He will arrange to have you comfortably quartered. I appreciate it's late and you must be tired, but first thing in the morning I hope you will be able to assist our engineers.'
'Do my best,' Fogarty said drily. He took a control from his pocket and switched off the portal.
'Gatekeeper Tithonus, come with me,' the Emperor said and strode off briskly in the direction of the stairs. They were approaching his private quarters when a harassed servant caught up with the news that his daughter had now disappeared as well.
The attic smelled of blood. Strips of animal pelt had been nailed to the floor to make a crude and nasty circle. There were weird bits of equipment at the far side of the room. She'd never seen anything like them before, but they had the look of machinery for trapping lightning. Some of them were lying on their sides and possibly broken. There was an ornate metal incense burner filled with ash. Several bowls were strewn around and somebody had inscribed a triangle on the floor at the far side of the circle. There was a bunch of asafoetida grass in one corner. The walls were decorated with banners displaying mystic sigils. The whole place reeked of magic of the most debased sort.
Was it a trap?
Nervous and impatient though she was, Blue took time to think. After careful consideration she decided traps were unlikely. This was Brimstone's demonic workspace. It was well protected from intruders and she could imagine the grotty old sorcerer wouldn't want protection or illusion spells interfering with his magic. If you had too many spells going in the same place, they set up peculiar resonances that could sometimes shake a whole building apart. Chances were the attic was the one room in the house that Brimstone would keep absolutely free of magic until he started calling up his demons. That's if she was right. The only way to find out for certain was to walk in.