The Nightmare Garden

that ran through the Crosley house like the vapor trails of dirigibles. “It’s kind of dreary in here.”

“I know,” Valentina sighed. “It’s meant to be a summerhouse. Open windows, cool ocean breezes and all that.”

“Maybe just for an hour or two a night?” I wheedled. “You can even watch me if you want.”

“You’re a big girl, Aoife,” Valentina said. “I trust you’ve learned your lesson?”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “I won’t touch the journals. I just want a little peace and quiet and space.”

“Fine,” Valentina said. “Honestly, I’m glad to see someone so enamored of the old bucket. Always hated the damn thing when my father would pile us all in it for family trips.”

“It’s a beautiful craft,” I said. It was a relief to say one thing, at least, that wasn’t a lie.

“You know what it means, Munin?” Valentina asked. She absently straightened a few books on the shelf before her. “Before the Storm, the Vikings and such worshiped a father-god, a man who put out his own eye for the wisdom of the world.” Valentina brushed a stray curl behind her ear and looked past me, to something only she could see. “To replace the eye, the Allfather had two ravens named Hunin and Munin that flew out into the world every day and brought back what they had seen. Hunin and Munin—‘thought’ and ‘memory.’ ” Valentina smiled. “My father always did have a flair for the dramatic.”

“So does mine,” I murmured.

“Anyway, the dusty wisdom of that particular bird is all yours,” Valentina said. “But you and that boy are not to canoodle in there. You get me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “Loud and clear.”

“I thought you were a brat when we first met,” Valentina said. “Sheltered and petulant. I’m glad I was wrong.”

“Me too,” I said as she brushed past me and left the library. When I turned back to take stock of the books, I was startled by a gleam of metal from the shelf where she’d stood. I pulled out a few volumes, then a fat handful. I recognized the simple brass box, the aether tube and the speaker and receiver. It was an aethervox, a long-range variety, wired into an antenna on the top of the house. Valentina hadn’t been talking to herself.

I turned the dial, watched the aether swirl inside the clear glass tube at the top of the vox for a moment as it warmed up, but only static greeted me when the speaker clicked on. The vox was tuned to a dead channel.

Whoever Valentina had been speaking to, she didn’t want anyone else to know.

I covered the vox again. It couldn’t help me now, and I knew I couldn’t afford to accuse Valentina of anything; I’d just lose all the credibility I’d gained with her and my father, and I’d never be able to slip away and find the Brotherhood.

After I’d hidden the vox, I went up to my room to pack a few things and meet Dean before I lost my nerve.

Despite Conrad’s naysaying, running away went pretty smoothly. Dean and I slipped out separately to the Munin, where I made sure to turn on all the lights and find a station on the aether tubes to send noise back toward the house. Cal and Bethina waited in the shadow of the boxwoods by the porch. The hard part was up to me.

The Crosley house had bright arc lamps mounted on the four corners, a standard precaution against ghouls in unprotected areas. Dean glared at them. “You got an idea for those? Your old man is gonna see us the minute we make a break.”

I hefted the small ditty bag I’d picked up from Valentina’s dressing table. “I’ve got it covered. Help me find the transformer box.”

We crept around the house, keeping below the windows. Valentina was at the piano again, Archie was sitting near her scribbling in his journal, and Conrad was sitting across from him doing the same. The very image of the good son. I guessed that left the black sheep role for me.

Dean helped me get the cover off the box that controlled the aether flow to the exterior lanterns, the transformer hissing as it converted the elemental gas to electrical impulses.

I pulled a handful of Valentina’s hair curlers out of the bag and, using a careful, delicate touch, shoved them one by one between all the circuits. The ceramic protected me from an electrical current, and the fat rollers pushed the wires off the contacts.

There was a shower of sparks, the snap of aether against air, the scent of burnt paper, and then the gardens all around the house went dark. Only the glowing hulk of the Munin was visible in the shadows, like a lamprey floating in a black sea.

We crept back to the ladder. My heart thudded. We didn’t have a lot of time before Archie noticed the house was dark outside and came to see what had happened.

Dean started to climb after me, but I stopped him. “No. It’ll be less dangerous if there’s only one of us.”

We’d gone over the plan, all four of us, again and again that afternoon, but I was still nervous. Dean stayed behind, grumbling. “Be careful, all right?”

I nodded my assent as I scrambled up the ladder and across the cabin into the pilothouse. I flipped the switches to turn on the fans and felt the Munin strain against its ties.

Now it was a race against time and physics. Almost sick to my stomach, I skidded back to the ladder and slid down it, skinning one of my knees. I hit the ground as the first tie-down snapped, a whip crack that echoed through the black night like a bullet.

Dean ran to me and helped me up, and together we ran.

As far as distractions went, a runaway airship was a pretty good one. We were already a hundred yards from the house when the outside lamps came back on. I could hear Archie and Conrad shouting.

I felt one last stab of guilt for what I’d done, and then it was washed away by the cold night air stinging my chest. Dean and I moved, holding hands, our feet striking the frozen earth. The branches of the topiary animals tugged at my jacket as we ran through the darkness.

I knew it was only my imagination turning every rasp and rustle of icy branches and wind into prowling ghouls and hungering nightjars, but I still gripped Dean as hard as I could.

We’d arranged to meet Cal and Bethina beyond the grounds, and we stayed quiet until we were well down the road. Not only because of my father, but also in case anything else was watching. Traveling at night was dangerous, but it was our only chance to make it to Innsmouth unobserved by either Archie or Proctors.

I just wished Conrad hadn’t been so stubborn. I wished he could have been here with me.

But what I wanted rarely came to be, so I just hunched deeper into my jacket, shouldering the small bag of things I’d taken from Valentina’s house, and ran.

The house already seemed infinitely distant, and I turned back to the gravel road, lit to a white ribbon by moonlight, spotted with black where the ice had melted and formed reflecting pools for the stars above us.

We came to a signpost, CAPE COD and GLOUCESTER and INNSMOUTH written in faded lettering on its crooked arms. It creaked in the wind, swaying back and forth.

I didn’t bother looking behind me again as the four of us took the fork to Innsmouth. Archie would be furious, Conrad would be irritable, and Valentina would probably hit the roof, but it didn’t matter to me.

In my mind, I was already on my way to the Arctic.

10 Ravens over Innsmouth

DEAN, CAL, BETHINA and I dozed for a few hours in a barn, taking turns sitting watch with Dean’s lighter trembling between our palms both for warmth and to ward off the night-dwelling creatures we could hear hooting and crying in the darkness beyond. Fire would keep them at bay—for a while, anyway.

When the sun was just a stain on the horizon, we resumed walking. I was numb everywhere, especially in my heart and mind, but the horrible weight I’d been carrying since we left Lovecraft had lessened a little. Just to be doing something, instead of sitting and waiting for someone else to figure out the plan, was freeing enough that I actually hopped over an icy puddle.

Dean gave me a crooked grin. “You’re in a good mood.”