Through a hole up in the chapel’s roof, Percy watched as Zachary stood in a secluded area.

Zachary’s lips moved as he rehearsed Prospero’s lines with his chest puffed out and chin raised nobly. The words he spoke couldn’t be heard, but he would walk one way, give an expansive sweep of his cloak, glance back down at the script, then recite once more.

Aisling could be seen through the floorboards in the kitchen below. She watched the clock’s many hands make their rounds and buffed a speck of dust, imaginary or not, from the case. She kept the clock wound and set chimes for this, chimes for that, and tried to measure out every part of her day with such precision that the time she spent with the clock took the most time of all.

Irene lay on her bedding and gazed at the portraits of her mother and father in the locket. Her lips moved in silent prayer as she ran her fingertip over the detail of the metalwork.

Henry sat at the dining table, which had seen no new food laid on it in a long time. By a lantern’s glow he examined every detail on the map with intense care. After a long while, he sat back and rolled his head around on his shoulders to loosen it off. In doing so he caught sight of Percy watching him.

‘Percy, what in blazes are you doing, watching me with that spyglass?’ Henry rasped in anger. ‘What good’s a looking glass that can see the moon down here in the caverns anyway?’

‘Come on, now. Look at you all, you’ve done nothing but sit around staring at these things all day. We’re supposed to be digging ore for Edwald. The Company will pay us two pounds per ounce for the gold we produce. Edwald said he would give us half a pound of gold, so that’s a whole sixteen pounds per week. We could be rich. Edwald also said you would get another item, if that’s what moves you,’ Henry called out so that everyone in the chapel could hear him.

With resentful grumbles, people got to their feet, donned their uniform jackets and gathered mining tools.

‘Why didn’t I get a special item, anyway?’ Henry griped as he smoothed over his map. Irene came over to look at the map, but Henry spread his arms over it so she couldn’t see.

‘Get away from it. Don’t look at it. It’s for my eyes only. It was entrusted to me,’ Henry growled before rolling it up and sliding it in the canister with the utmost care.

‘I’ve memorised several ore seams we can travel to. It pains me that we don’t have writing materials to copy bits of the map. Let’s dig Flora out of that blasted garden and see which places aren’t occupied by Gifrey’s statues,’ Henry ordered.

The miners regrouped and set off for work. At a signal from Henry, the six of them stopped walking alongside the beam of light and headed off into a low, broad cave that was marked by countless hundreds, or even thousands, of little stalagmites that dotted the cavern floor.

‘How much further is it? We’ve come such a long way,’ Irene whined.

‘We’ve never been this way before. I’m scared,’ complained Flora. ‘And I’m hungry. All I’ve had is some raw turnip from Garden. Since I got my tiara I’ve done so much gardening I’ve worked my fingers to the bone.’

‘I’m famished too, and, oh! I just rolled my ankle again on these bloody rocks,’ Zachary whined. ‘Why are you gardening so much if you’re hungry?’

‘I have a new standard to live up to, if I am to wear the tiara of the gardening queen,’ Flora said with a haughty conceit.

‘You’re still wearing it under that cap, aren’t you? Gardening queen, that’s daft.’ Zachary retorted in scorn. ‘Gosh, my throat is raw from reciting wizard Prospero’s lines.’

‘You’re the one that’s daft. Wizards are daft,’ Flora retaliated.

‘Shakespeare is not daft!’ Zachary rasped in anger.

‘Will you two knock it off?’ Aisling groaned. ‘I feel lost as it is.’

‘We’re not lost,’ Henry snapped.

‘I didn’t say we were lost! I’ve lost track of time, so I feel lost,’ Aisling countered. ‘I just know it should be lunch time. I’m starving.’

‘The seam should be somewhere ahead. Can you see anything, Percy?’ asked Henry.

‘No, it’s too dark,’ mumbled Percy.

‘Why don’t you use the world’s most powerful spyglass and look on ahead?’ Irene said, in a cutting tone.

‘Because it’s too dark!’ Percy shouted.

‘Useless. Only using it to spy on the rest of us,’ grumbled Henry.

To the miners’ horror, two infernal orange orbs came into view, and were accompanied by the steady padding sound of a large creature’s steps.

The huge, demonic hound that menaced Zachary, Aisling and Percy came towards them and stood before them all. Its shaggy fur was the colour of soot and it opened its jaws to show a purple tongue the size of an adult’s forearm between teeth like spear heads.

On top of the hound perched a young woman in a cloak and shawl, who rode along with a dainty weightlessness. A will-o-the-wisp hovered at her fingertip that illuminated her humoured, smug expression.

‘Gladys,’ Zachary said through gritted teeth, as the miners wielded their tools like weapons.

‘Back in human form again I see. Not some crow flapping about,’ Irene said in a scathing voice.

‘We’re wise to you. You’re not going to trick us again!’ scolded Aisling, and her cheeks flushed pink with anger.

‘So you won’t go wading into a sea of brambles to pluck an imaginary flower? How delightful!’ The sound of Gladys’ laugh tinkled like the high notes of a piano.

Gladys hopped off the hound and struck a smart poise like an acrobat as she landed. The hound sat and regarded the miners with a baleful contempt.

‘Some of you will recognise Bertrand here. He gave you a gentle nudge towards finding the dreadful puppet-master’s iron seam. Although, I am curious to know what you are doing in these parts, being such a long way from home as you are. You look so dreadfully hungry; all drawn and haggard.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘What is it that moves you? I see a gleam of gold in your eye and the promise of riches to come. It’s an infatuation that compels you. Tell me you’re not eating someone else’s words again?

‘Oh dear, it is too precious to see you traipse about all forlorn like this. And after you said you are wise to it!’ Gladys laughed again.

‘Now, I know that you have come a long way. I didn’t merely come here to mock you. If you are looking for lodestone you can find it yonder, this way.

‘One small piece of advice for you, miners; if the time should ever come for those two brutish, greedy men to bang heads, do try to stay out of the way. There’s no more fun to be had when all have come to a sticky end!’ Gladys told the silent, glowering miners with a self-satisfied glee.

‘Bye for now!’ Gladys leapt onto Bertrand’s front haunches, and the pair of them whirled off into the cavern’s depths.

‘God, I hate that evil little witch,’ remarked Henry.

‘Eating another’s words? Is that all we’re doing?’ Flora asked, as bewilderment creased her brow. ‘The gift I got is real. I can hold it, it’s valuable, and we were told we would get more. What else is there to understand?’

‘The Duchess said we could pay off our debt in gold. At the rate that Edwald will convert ore into gold, we would soon be free of our debt, and we were promised we would get a bonus for ourselves by way of a gift,’ Irene reasoned.

‘I thought our luck changed for the better,’ said Percy.

‘I would do anything for another gift like the one I got,’ said Zachary.

The others agreed, except Henry. ‘If the Company gives you a bonus for the gold you bring back, what are you going to do with it? What have you got to spend it on down here?’ Henry asked.

‘But it’s gold,’ Aisling said in a small voice, although uncertainty crept in.

‘You’ve been so preoccupied with the gifts that you’re not looking after yourselves. You’ve lost food and sleep, and we’ve lost days when we could have been mining – when we should have been mining,’ Henry said.

‘You’re no better! You always stare at that map!’ Irene retorted.

‘It’s useful! There’s so much information! Do you realise how large the caverns are? The map has it all marked out, along with bodies of water and mineral deposits. It’s useful, not like some locket, or a costume, or a spyglass that can look at the moon,’ Henry fired back.

‘Hey!’ Irene cried in a sad wail.

‘I think it’s just the same!’ Percy responded in anger.

‘Wow. Come on, Henry. That locket has Irene’s parents in it. That’s uncalled for,’ said Zachary. ‘And my costume means a lot to me. Acting’s what I want to do.’

‘Come on, we should get going.’ Flora’s voice was heavy with weariness.

After a trudge onwards, the miners came to a halt and looked about for any tell-tale glint of iron or trace of a path.

‘There’s something up ahead!’ Percy hissed and dropped to a crouch. With trembling hands, he drew out his spyglass and looked ahead. Although he would never admit it, the dimness of the cave showed nothing but blackness in the spyglass’ lens.

Percy scuttled onward, and sure enough, the faint shape he saw was that of a lone automaton that stood watch. Percy circled behind it, then after a moment of readying his nerves, he removed the padded cloth cap from his mining uniform, and pulled it over the automaton’s eyes.

The mechanical figure remained motionless. Percy smiled with satisfaction; on the ground in front of the automaton was the dark gleam of iron ore.

‘Take a closer look inside,’ a woman’s voice whispered by his ear, and startled him.

Awoken by the exclamation of surprise that Percy made, the automaton began to turn around, and Percy did a hasty tap-dance to stay out of view behind it.

For the briefest moment, Percy saw that in amongst a confusing mass of ticking cogs, brass valves, and pipes, a glass jar was embedded in the mechanical chest.

Within the jar, lit by the glow of whatever powered the machine, was a tiny fae. It looked like a person with the wings of a dragonfly. Its arms and legs were spread out as if bound there by manacles.

The automaton reached up and pulled the cap from over its head, then broke into a steady run into the caves.

‘After it! Before it goes and gets the others,’ Henry yelled, and the miners gave chase.

The miners caught up with the mechanical puppet and swung their pickaxes and shovels at it. The tools pounded on the wood and metal of the machine’s form and made it stumble, but it kept trying to flee. One strong blow made it trip and fall to the ground.

With relentless will, the automaton kept attempting to rise back to its feet as the miners hammered down on it, until one pickaxe blow pierced the glass jar. The machine froze in position and the tiny fae inside shot out and fluttered away in the form of a moth.

The miners sat around in exhaustion. They mopped their brows and drank water from their flasks.

‘Do you think more will come?’ asked Flora.

Henry shook his head. ‘Who knows,’ he replied, in a drained voice.

‘We can’t go looking for another seam now,’ said Aisling.

‘Might as well fill our bags. Mine what we can,’ murmured Henry.

A crow strutted along the top of a nearby rock, and then took flight.

After days of trekking an exhausting distance before they even began their labour, the miners set off to deliver their ore to Edwald.

‘My legs feel as though they’re made of lead. Can we stop for breath?’ Zachary groaned.

‘We stopped two minutes ago,’ snapped Henry.

Flora threw her bag on the ground and curled up. ‘I can’t go any further. Please, someone take my bag,’ she whimpered. ‘My stomach’s growling and I’m so tired.’

‘I’m not doing it. I have my bag and my clock in the other arm. I’m not happy that I had to share the ore I dug anyway, if we’re all getting paid the same,’ snapped Aisling.

‘We’ve been over this! You picked at the ore and I shovelled it. Others used a mallet and chisel. We worked together!’ Flora argued.

‘Which job is harder? Digging! So I deserve more!’ shouted Aisling. ‘I timed myself and how much work I put in with my clock. I work the longest and the hardest.’

‘Why don’t you prove it? Show it to me on your bloody clock!’ Flora shrieked.

‘Don’t call my clock bloody! Don’t even look at it. It belongs to me!’ Aisling roared.

‘Why have you brought your clock with you anyway?’ Henry demanded.

‘So I can tell the time!’ Aisling raged. ‘I’m not leaving it unguarded.’

Upon their eventual arrival at the mansion set into the stone, they met with Edwald at his garden gates. He walked along one of his neat pathways, and laid his lightning-musket on the base of a beautiful cherub statue.

‘Ah, my good children. Come, bring those heavy bags over here, and we shall talk business,’ Edwald greeted them. His tone seemed eager and calculating as he rubbed his human hand against the other whose many digits were made of clicking, twitching metal.

Bard, or Wakeman, hovered nearby with a smile that was a little too broad, and a little too happy, for comfort.

‘You even brought your treasured keepsakes! Can’t bear to part with them? How precious,’ Edwald commented, as the miners laid their sacks onto a large set of scales. With some degree of stiffness and difficulty in movement, Edwald added metal counterweights on to the scales until they balanced out.

‘That’s one hundred and eighteen pounds, wouldn’t you agree? Between the six of you, it’s a little underweight. The same as could be said for some these days!’ Edwald remarked.

‘Our agreement was for half a pound of gold for every twenty-six pounds. I feel generous, so let’s call your delivery a rounded one hundred and twenty pounds, for simplicity’s sake. Good job I brought an abacus; that’s two point three pounds of gold that I owe you total. Are we happy?’ Edwald addressed the miners in a very reasonable tone.

The mention of such a sum of gold made many a haggard face light up with eagerness.

‘My good man, would you mind?’ Edwald asked of Bard, who gave a solemn nod. Bard loaded the sacks into a wheelbarrow then walked them into Edwald’s house.

‘We urgently need it by tomorrow,’ said Henry.

‘Oh, but it will take a couple of days at least,’ Edwald frowned, but still maintained his reasonable tone.

‘You promised us you could exchange it!’ Irene exclaimed, with alarm in her voice.

‘Yes, of course I promised I could exchange it, however these things take time. I regret that no promise was made on the delivery date.’ Edwald spread his hands wide and shrugged.

‘The Company will arrive tomorrow and expect to find the gold ready!’ Irene replied with rising panic in her voice.

‘Oh, you would bleed me dry!’ Edwald exclaimed. ‘I may work miracles, but these things don’t happen at a snap of the fingers. Now, if supply is an issue for you, you could borrow gold from my reserves. Although, there are fees and interest of course. Interest would calculate at no higher than the principal, I assure you.’

‘How could you?’ Flora wailed.

‘I offer loans for you to meet your obligations at very competitive rates,’ assured Edwald.

‘What competition?’ Henry snarled.

‘I suppose I do offer a unique service,’ mused Edwald. ‘Would you prefer to face the displeasure of your company?’

There was a commotion that came from nearby in the caverns.

Marching feet stamped in unison and the angry raving of a bellicose man in great displeasure could be heard.