12. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Hugh
H ugh walked beside Falcon as they made their way to a part of York he didn’t know that well. They walked closely, their hands occasionally touching, and at one point, Falcon wrapped his fingers around Hugh’s and squeezed.
He grinned as they crossed Dean’s Park, where a school party was in the process of demolishing their packed lunches. They weaved around the children who despite their teachers’ attempts at order, were running around and playing. After walking past the Treasurer’s House where Harry Martindale had seen the Roman ghosts, they turned into an old street called Ogleforth.
Hugh let out a whoosh of air as he saw the old medieval overhang houses on the right of the street.
“Wow!” he remarked. The others laughed at him.
“Just a bit further,” Falcon said, holding his hand once more. “The building we’re heading towards was once offices for people who worked at the Minster. It’s recently been turned into accommodation, but it’s a much older building that’s been through several changes.”
“And that’s the entrance?” Andrew asked from behind them.
Hugh turned as Falcon did to address the other two. The road was narrow here and there wasn’t room to walk four abreast.
“It’s one of them,” Falcon answered. “This one is in the old boiler room, which is in the basement of the building. I have a key.”
He grinned as he held up the key and gestured for them to follow him through a wooden gate and round the back of the tall brick building. They then wended their way past parked cars and a couple of other buildings and down some steps. When they reached the door, Falcon opened it with his key.
Following behind, Hugh found himself in a fairly large room with machinery humming away to itself. Presumably the aforesaid boiler.
“This way.” Falcon herded them towards the back of the room to another door, which opened with the same key. Behind this door was a flight of stairs and Hugh followed him down.
“Is this the route you came with Robin?” Hugh asked as they neared the bottom.
This was the second entrance to the tunnels he’d been in, and he was confused as to how many there were.
Falcon shook his head as he switched on the large torch he’d brought and gestured for the others to do the same.
Andrew followed behind Hugh and asked, “How deep are we?”
“At the moment,” Hugh replied, “we’re about 12 metres under the surface of York. The rooms we’re heading to are about 15 metres.”
Percy whistled. “As deep as that?”
“You have to remember that York’s an ancient city and there have been several ‘Yorks’ built up over the ages. The Romans were only the first.”
“Yeah,” Percy replied as he looked around in the torchlight with fascination. They traversed through the tunnels for about 15 minutes until they came to an open area, and Hugh held up his hand to stop them going further. He swept his torch over the floor and drew in a startled breath. What he’d thought he’d seen in the gloom really was there. A body was lying perfectly still in the open area. He gasped as he realised he recognised him.
“What the fuck!” Falcon exploded as he joined Hugh, the others coming up to peer over their shoulders.
“I think he ran afoul of one of the spell traps Hugh told us about,” Andrew said, stretching his neck trying to see further.
“I can’t see any other spell traps,” Hugh said as he moved forward. Percy agreed with him as they cautiously approached the body and knelt to examine it. Hugh put two fingers on his neck and sighed.
“Definitely dead,” he announced before standing up and moving away. “I recognise him. He was one of Swales’s goons that helped kidnap me a couple of weeks ago. His name was Parkin, I think. He was the one who tasered me.”
Falcon reached over and rubbed his shoulder in sympathy at the remembered pain of the taser.
“Now what do we do?” Andrew asked. “We can’t leave him here.”
“No,” Falcon agreed. “I’ll sort something out. We can’t let the police know where we found him, at least not yet. I’ll get a couple of my brothers to move the body topside, and someone can ‘find’ it in the morning.”
Hugh nodded. He couldn’t think of anything else to do. It wasn’t as though they could do anything for him now. He’d quite clearly died some time ago, maybe overnight?
Whilst Andrew, Percy and Falcon moved the body further towards the tunnel they’d come through, Hugh opened his inner eye and looked around the area, looking for more spell traps. There were none immediately visible and he examined the three tunnels that led off from the open area.
“Which one?” he asked Falcon when he came back.
“Falcon pointed to the one on the left. “That’s the one that joins up with the tunnel that we followed from the Minster. That one in the middle is a dead end and the one on the right is the one that Parkin must have come down. It comes from under the Minster library. It was on John’s map. The real one.”
Hugh shook his head. There were far too many entrances to these tunnels than he was comfortable with. How no-one had stumbled on them in the last fifty years, he didn’t know. Unless… maybe they had and had got caught out by the spell traps like Parkin. But then, he argued with himself, where were the bodies? He glanced at the tunnel on the right and wondered how easy it would be to block it up.
“How did he know it was there?” Andrew asked.
“When they took John, they got hold of a copy of the map of the tunnels,” Falcon explained. “John had managed to fudge it, so it wasn’t complete, and sent the original to Francis. Still, they must have been down here exploring. We have no way of knowing if there’s anyone else down here or how much they’ve found.”
“Let’s hope he was the advance party and hadn’t reported back to Ian yet,” Hugh replied.
They made their way further along and Hugh realised they’d entered a part of the tunnels he recognized. Before too much longer they arrived at the door they’d found the other day that had the spell trap on the handle strap.
Hugh sighed in relief as he saw it was still there. Hopefully it meant no-one else had been this way.
He pointed out the tell-tale sparkles to Percy and Andrew, who both moved to examine them closer. After a few moments, they held hands, then both held up their free hands. Hugh saw a bright light come out from their hands and join together, which destroyed the spell trap.
Hugh let out his breath as the spell trap dissipated, leaving the handle strap free of any spells. They looked around the door and proceeded to knock the other spell trap out in a similar manner.
“That should do it,” Andrew said. He leant across and kissed Percy, his paler face showing up in the torchlight.
“Who’d like the honours?” Hugh asked.
“I’ll do it,” Falcon said as he stepped forward. Hugh held his breath as Falcon pulled the strap towards him. Nothing happened.
“Hmm.” Falcon examined the strap further. “Huh.”
With a twist and a pull-push movement, the door opened a sliver. Falcon pushed and it opened a little more.
“Here,” Hugh said, joining him at the door. Together they pushed and it opened even further. In the end it took all four of them to get it open and then they walked into an antechamber. It was dark and foreboding and smelled musty and deserted. It was also empty. Its stone-flagged floor was bare and the whole room felt cold and disquieting.
Hugh looked around carefully, shining his torch about the place. There was nothing else to see. It was empty. Another door loomed out of the darkness and Hugh immediately spotted the spell trap on it. Damn!
“Let’s have a break,” Falcon announced. Pulling his backpack from his shoulders, he handed out water bottles and some snacks. Hugh drank the water and inhaled his fruit bar quickly. The carbohydrates and sugar were welcome. As he ate and drank, he examined the spell trap, his forehead creased in confusion.
“I’m not sure this is of the same age as the others,” he addressed Percy who was also examining the spell trap.
“I think you’re right,” he replied as he joined hands with Andrew. The sparkles in the spell trap brightened. “It’s a bit older and laid down by someone different.”
“Can you tell how old?” Falcon asked.
Percy shrugged, eyeing the spell trap again. “The ones of the outer door were of the 1960s. This one is older.”
Andrew nodded, agreeing with Percy.
“It looks as though you were right, Hugh, and there’s more than one layer of spell traps. Whoever used these tunnels and rooms weren’t taking any chances on being discovered.”
Falcon
Falcon swallowed the last of his water and screwed the cap back on. He placed it in the rubbish bag Andrew held out to him. He shoved his empty fruit bar wrapper in there as well. After everyone had finished, Andrew put the bag in his backpack to throw out later.
“How many entrances to these rooms are there?” Percy asked as he examined the spell trap again.
“I’m not sure,” he answered. “We’ve been in the ‘gentleman’s club’ room and the one that leads off that with that weird sarcophagus in it. Then this one. The map John sent to my father only showed the tunnels leading up to it, and one area which wasn’t divided into rooms.
“Good job I brought these then,” Andrew piped up, brandishing a sketch pad and some pencils. “Another time we can measure the size of the rooms, but for now let’s just record them.”
“Great idea.” Hugh smiled at the other man. Falcon could see the crease between his eyes showing he was looking with his inner eye at the spell trap.
Percy’s gaze focused inwards as he examined the spell. He reached for Andrew and Hugh and pulled them both into the connection. Falcon watched as the spell trap lit up and individual sparks flew from it as the three manipulated it.
After a couple of moments, the sparks merged together, and with a flash that made him jump, the spell burst from the wall and washed over them. He smelt smoke and ozone, before the spell dissipated in the air.
“Wow,” Hugh said, losing the use of his legs and flopping onto the floor. Falcon moved towards him.
“You okay?”
“Just a bit overwhelmed. That’s one of the largest workings I’ve been involved in. I’ll be okay.” He smiled up at Falcon. “Just give me a couple of moments to recover.”
Falcon nodded and turned to Andrew and Percy, who were holding each other up. Percy nodded at him.
“It was difficult, but also old and had deteriorated. I was concerned it would go off before we could defuse it.”
“Are there any others?” Falcon asked.
“Not here. Do you want to try the inner door?”
Falcon nodded, and Hugh reached up a hand for help to get back on his feet. He wobbled a bit as he stood up and Falcon leaned in and planted a kiss on the other man’s lips.
“Okay?”
“Better,” Hugh agreed.
They crossed the flagstone floor to the other door. Not knowing where it led, Percy ran his fingers over it, checking it out with his inner eye.
“It’s okay. Inert. Shall we?”
Hugh nodded and joined Percy. Lending his strength, they pushed. The door didn’t move. They tried pulling, but again, nothing happened.
“Again,” Falcon urged, and they pushed once more. This time something gave, but only a very small amount.
Hugh opened his backpack, and with a grin, brought out a long cable with a tiny camera on the end. He plugged it into his iPhone and then inserted the cable, camera first, into the small opening.
It didn’t get far before it bumped into something dark. Hugh manoeuvred it so it went upwards, and after a short while, the camera showed a view of the sarcophagus room.
They all crowded around Hugh’s phone and watched as the camera panned around, showing the wall where the door was. Paneling on the wall was stopping them from opening the door. The entrance between the two rooms had been effectively closed off.
“Now what?” Andrew asked.
“Are you okay to head around to the other tunnel and go in that way?” said Hugh. “Sure, we’ve got all day.” Andrew replied.
Falcon agreed and led them around to the room he, Francis and Hugh had gone into the other day.
Opening the door at the other end, Falcon stepped back, letting Andrew and Percy get the whole experience of the ‘gentleman’s club’ room.
He and Hugh watched as the other two men walked inside and looked around in surprise and wonder. Andrew gaped at the room, before turning back to them with a grimace. He looked pale.
“I know this room,” he announced.
“What!” Falcon asked, looking at his friend.
“It’s weird,” Andrew said. “Familiar, but not. I’ve certainly never been here underground before. But this room is…”
“What?” Percy asked his partner, kissing his cheek.
“I think it’s based on a different room,” he mused as he wandered around before sitting in one of the large wingback chairs. “It’s as though they reproduced a room I’m semi-familiar with here – underground.”
Hugh looked confused. “Where did you see it? A museum?” “No,” Andrew replied. “In York in late 1874.”
It was Hugh’s turn to gape and Falcon drew in a breath. How had he forgotten that Andrew was not from their time?
“I’m sorry!” Hugh exclaimed, as he dropped into another of the large wingback chairs. A small cloud of dust flew up from the seat.
“I was born in 1849 in San Francisco in the States,” Andrew began, smiling at Hugh’s shock. “In 1872 I met Edward Harling. He was visiting San Francisco on behalf of his father who had business in the US. We fell in love.”
He stopped and Percy leaned over to press his arm in sympathy, whispering soft words to him for a couple of moments. Andrew smiled then turned his attention back to Hugh.
“I accompanied Edward to New York where we found his father had died and he had to return to the UK. I decided to go with him. When we were in London, his sister Minnie got an invite to visit with Lady Emma Valois in Yorkshire. To cut a long story short, I became part of a magical coterie and was pulled through time to 2024 and Pollie’s coterie.”
“That’s… amazing,” Hugh replied. He looked at Falcon. “You knew?” “Yes, I’ve known the guys a couple of years now.”
“So you visited a club here in York like this?” Hugh asked.
Andrew shook his head. “Yes, near the Lendal Bridge.” He laughed. “We were in there last summer on a family day out. It’s a Pizza Express now.”
Hugh joined in the laughter. “I’ve been in there. I didn’t know it used to be a gentleman’s club.”
“It opened in 1869, so was only a few years old when I visited.” He looked around him again.
“It’s weird,” Falcon agreed. “Do you have any idea of anyone you met back then who might have been involved?”
“I’ll think on it,” he said, pursing his lips.
“Right.” Percy stood up. “Where’s this mysterious sarcophagus?”