Sadie Madison and the Boy in the Crimson Scarf

37 | The Journey Home

Doktor Merrick's long, black, important looking automobile smelt of lavender, stale cigar smoke, and gasoline. The seats were well-worn and comfortable, the backs stuffed with maps and well-thumbed atlases.

Doktor Merrick had exchanged his white gloves for parchment driving ones, his top hat nestled on the passenger seat beside him. He fiddled around with, what looked to Sadie, a wireless. She had never seen one inside an automobile before. After a few minutes he managed to find a signal and, with it, music. Sadie had not heard it before, but sat back and enjoyed it all the same.

Leaving Iron Bridge behind, they followed the River Myr for many miles towards the Southern Seas. Michael had taken the Madison family this way one summer for a week at the Fort Campion, the large fishing town at the tip of the Shadow Valley. Sadie remembered the excitement of that family holiday with fondness. Larissa had been pregnant with Eli, and Natalia was high on childhood dreams. Sadie sat amongst the traders and crafters on the floating market with her monster comics—a pre-cursor to her Penny Dreadfuls and horror novels—and watched the water rise and fall, the ships gliding in and out of port, the sun sailing the sky.

Doktor Robey Merrick took the Fort Campion turn off and manoeuvred the automobile through the twisty streets and onto the crescent harbour. A catacomb of steep, winding alleyways and overhanging balconies sprouted around them. The boardwalk buzzed with New Year's celebrations. Lantern light shone on the automobile's windows as they glided past busy taverns, hotels, and restaurants. Leaving Fort Campion, Doctor Merrick followed the coast road to the west.

"I'm doing the right thing, aren't I?" Sadie said, breaking the monotony of the thrumming engine.

"Are you asking me?" the doktor replied. "Because it's a little late to be having second thoughts. You know, whatever you choose to do will be the right thing—if you believe in fate and destiny, the clockwork universe, in the Foretelling." He looked over his shoulder. "It'll be fine, Sadie. Hurtmore House is the only place you should be right now."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, your father thinks he can protect you. But he's a mortal man, Sadie. Flesh and blood are such fragile things."

"I happen to disagree," she said. She wondered about her father again. She wondered what he was. The son of a billion-year-old spirit from the beginning of time had to be something more than just a man, more than mere flesh and blood.

"What do you think your father would have done if you'd stayed? The Narrowers would have done their little tests on you, concluded that you are the child to will bring about the end of all things, and have their agents dispatch you without a second thought."

The wireless crackled, the music becoming broken and distorted. A voice fought to get through. Doktor Merrick twisted the dials, trying to remedy the problem. Finally, a woman's voice came forward. "Merrick? Do you have her? Tell me you have her."

Sadie recognised the voice immediately.

"Yes. I have her."

"Oh, thank the Gods," Rhiannon said.

Sadie jumped forward in her seat, staring inexplicably at the wireless. "How are you doing this? How are you speaking to each other through the wireless?"

The doktor looked at her in the rear view mirror. "It's a sort of two-way wireless. A voice transmitter, if you will. Much like a Farspeaker."

"Hello, Sadie," said Rhiannon, her voice crackling.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Sadie said, feeling awkward talking to the wireless. "Why didn't you tell me I could get to Hurtmore House with the doktor?"