Page 58 of Across Space and Time

“Yes,” Jack said, scooping him up in his arms and starting down the tunnel. “But we have to go, I saw someone coming just as I dropped.”

Hugh nodded, holding tightly to Jack’s coat. The foul air whistled past him as Jack hurried along with no fear of the dark. His feet splashed in the water, and he heard the scuttle of rats away from them. He didn’t even want to know what else might lurk down in the sewers. His ears strained to catch any sound of someone following them, but he could hear nothing besides Jack’s plashy boots.

They had gone on for some distance before Jack spotted another set of rungs leading upward in the dark. “Here,” he said. “We should be far enough away from Eden to come out on the surface. I’m going to set you down.”

Hugh nodded, making a face as his feet once again found the disgusting muck that was the London sewers. Jack suddenly sprang upward, arms outstretched, and Hugh heard him hit something heavy and metallic above them before a spotlight of light shone from above, and Jack landed on ground next to him. He scooped Hugh off his feet, wrapping him up with his chest to Hugh’s back instead of like a baby. “Hold on,” he said before he leaped straight up. The tunnel rushed past them, and then they were suddenly out in the open air. Jack shifted and landed on the pavement, and Hugh sagged against him as Jack set him carefully on his feet.

There was a scream nearby, and Hugh turned to see a woman in a long dress and apron standing nearby, watching them with her hands thrown up to her mouth, her eyes wide. Hugh was sure that in the night’s darkness and the illumination from the streetlamps, Jack looked positively terrifying. Jack slid the manhole cover back in place, then turned to the woman. “I do beg your pardon,” he said with a magnificent bow. The woman turned and fled, still screaming.

Hugh frowned. “That’s going to draw attention really quickly. Can you get us to the rooftops?”

Jack laughed and scooped him up. He leaped, his foot catching a wrought iron railing to give him another boost, before he soared up and onto the roof of the nearest house, clambering up it to where the chimney was. Hugh glanced around, taking a moment to orient himself. The sun was not yet dawning, so it took him a little while to figure out their location. But eventually he spotted a few familiar buildings in the distance. “That’s Greyminster Church. Scotland Yard would be… that way,” he swung his hand around to point.

“The Duke’s estate is north,” Jack said, and Hugh pointed again.

“That way then.” When he glanced over at him, Jack was leaning against the chimney, studying the area. “Isn’t that hot?” he asked.

Jack glanced in surprise at it, as if just noticing what it was. “Oh, yes, quite.” Hugh chuckled in spite of himself.

Jack scooped up Hugh in his arms. “I’m going to run to the Duke’s estate, and I’m not going to stop unless we absolutely must, all right?”

Hugh nodded and held tightly to him. “Yes.”

Jack took a running leap, and suddenly they were sailing across London’s rooftops, the way they had on the night to Elysium. Hugh clung tightly to Jack, the wind whipping his hair and stinging his eyes. He would have to find some sort of goggles if this was going to keep happening. He hoped it would.

Chapter seventeen

Jack only slowed when he ran out of roofs and had to take to the streets, but still he ran on, tireless, holding Hugh as gently as a baby in a crib. The city eventually gave way to less populated areas. The sky was just beginning to lighten into purple and blue when Jack slowed outside of what looked like an enormous estate. Jack set Hugh down and gave him a smile, but Hugh could see him breathing deeply. He did not know how many miles they had run, but it had been quite a few, with Jack carrying his weight the whole way. “Will you be able to use your fire?” Hugh asked worriedly as Jack put his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

Jack nodded. Somewhere along the run, he had lost his top hat, and his horns gleamed in the early morning light. “Yes. This way.” He swung his arm dramatically at the orchard a little way away.

Into the trees they plunged, down the neat rows, the scent of apples strong in the early morning air. Jack seemed to know exactly where he was going, and Hugh followed closely after him.

He saw the fence before he saw the Tree. The Tree had a vaguely golden glow around it, barely perceptible since most of the Tree was obscured by the large fence. Jack stepped up next to him. “I will get inside the fence and light it on fire that way. Hopefully the flames will be contained to the Tree then.”

“You won’t get burned?” Hugh asked.

Jack shook his head. “I am impervious to my own fire. Don’t worry, I shall be as careful as a seahorse in a clam shell.”

Hugh hoped that was very careful, but he had no chance to think on it further, because two figures stepped out from around the fence.

One of them he recognized immediately, as the boy still wore the purple silk and nothing else. Anthony stared back at him, his eyes still a little glassy, his feet not quite steady under him, though he was being held upright by someone else who had a grip on the back of his neck. It took Hugh a moment to realize who it was, because his gold mask was gone from his handsome face. It was Adam. And he remembered now where he had seen him before. The gentleman who had been talking to Mr. Galloway on his first visit to The Bull and Parasol, who had given him the salacious look. The one Mr. Galloway had called ‘Your Grace.’

Adam’s hand that did not have a hold of Anthony held a double-barrel pistol pointed at the young man’s head. “My, you did make good time,” he said, giving Hugh and Jack a small smile.

Hugh frowned, realizing with consternation that he was unarmed, and Adam was slightly taller and more built than he was. He slowly held his hands up. “Let Anthony go,” he said.

Adam gave the boy a shake, and Anthony stumbled, his bare feet scrabbling for purchase in the dirt, his body slow to react from the drugs still in his system. “Oh, so you do care for this whore.”

Hugh gritted his teeth. “What do you want?”

“Unfortunately, what I want is you and your horned friend dead,” Adam said, smiling a bit. “But I doubt you are going to give that to me so easily.”

He had that right. Hugh and Jack were the only people outside of Eden that knew about the existence of the Tree and what it could do. Jack held up his hands wide. “Come now, do not be a coward and hide behind the innocent. Release the boy and face us like a gentleman.”

“I’m afraid not,” Adam said with a cold smile. “My father was a fool to trust you so readily, Jack. But I am not my father.”

“Certainly not. Your father at least is a man of his word,” Jack replied.

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