Pallport city was two hundred miles from Orowen if we were to take the road. And the ticket for the air carriage was expensive enough to buy us all meals for a week. So we took the cheapest route--the steamboat that was travelling via the Fallstone river. Since Lily and I had our gear with us, we left for the port with Hopper right away. By half past seven in the evening, we were on the boat.

The vessel was as big as a two story building, made of steel plates and wrought iron rivets. Just behind the foremast was a thick frosted glass cabin filled with blue steam that writhed in ghostly shapes. Exhaust pipes ran out of the glass chamber, emitting the steam that propelled the boat forward.

We took our seat in one of the benches in a quiet corner. As we sailed further from the shore, the captain pulled out a whistle from his coat and blew into it. That meant we were out of sight of the shore.

Smokewell got on my lap and pulled out her ivory pipe. She turned to Asmod who was next to me. “Can I get a light?” she said.

I held back a groan and took the pipe from her. The cat glared daggers at me. “Not here,” I muttered to her, gesturing to the other passengers who had snuck a glance at the cat when she pulled out the pipe. “And keep your mouth shut. The only thing weirder than a cat that talks is a cat that smokes opium.”

Smokwell narrowed her eyes at me before turning to Asmod again. “How long is the journey?” she said.

“About three hours,” the man said.

Smokwell gave a quiet hiss and hopped onto Lily's lap, making herself comfortable before closing her eyes. I let out a sigh and slid the pipe into my satchel.

Then I noticed Hopper who was shuffling in his spot next to me. I expected him to be nervous, sitting alongside a bunch of witches. But it was a surprise to find him sitting cross-legged, his gloved hands resting calmly on his walking cane. His leather hold-all (that he had pulled out from under the counter at Rosa's House) was next to his foot.

For someone who was rumored to be genuinely scared of witchcraft he was quite relaxed. And that reminded me something else–reminded me of the way he had carried himself at Rosa's House. The place was very obviously cursed, yet he walked around with barely a shred of nervousness.

“This is not a trap,” Hopper said, looking at me from the corner of his eyes. “I know that’s what you are thinking.”

I held back from perking up at his sudden attention. I kept a straight face and looked straight ahead. “I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little suspicious of your offer.”

“I don't blame you,” he said. “I would be careful of me if I was you. I'm careful even now.”

My eye twitched a little. I couldn't help but think of what Clyde Desmond's Abyss had told us. Hopper was supposed to be scared of us. Why was he being this calm? And he had even gone as far as to work with us.

"I'll just say it. What's making you want to offer the job to us?" I asked.

Hopper leaned ahead on his cane and looked out over the gunwale of the boat as if counting the passing buildings. "Time," he said quietly.

I felt my eyebrows coming together as I stared at him. "That sounds very cryptic and intriguing, I admit. But it also seems like a blatant attempt to evade my question."

Hopper's face remained calm and serious. "The time, Elsa Grimly. The time is changing. The first big change happened when we befriended the Steam Elemental. Yet, that's not the last big change that this country has seen. A much, much bigger change awaits us," he said, "The happenings that will lead to that change are already in motion. We are one of the pieces that will be making that change happen."

The frown still hadn't left my face. I knew I was puzzled and confused but a part of me, for some reason, also felt scared of Hopper.

****

We arrived at Pallport around half past eight. Hopper led us away from the docks and paid for a steam carriage to a place none of us had heard of. As I looked out the window, the difference between this city and Orowen was quite obvious.

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Where the latter was a hybrid of stainless steel and concrete, Pallport on the other hand seemed to be just bricks and wrought iron–making it look a bit more foreboding and the density of architecture gave everything a lot more claustrophobic feel. The one thing that was visibly common between both the cities, however, was the steam.

There were almost double the numbers of carriages running down the roads. Not just for passengers but also cargoes. The sidewalks were also bustling with people (your regular homo sapiens alongside those who obviously weren't the same species). And they looked like they were either on their way home or to a sleepless graveyard shift at whatever work that paid them.

That realization came as a prelude to something else that I noticed about the city--there weren't as many independent businesses as there were in Orowen. Pallport looked like the home of factories. And it was to a degree that I felt convinced that if I flung a brick without taking an aim, I’ll probably end up shattering some industry window.

We got off at a street that was just as crowded as the others we had passed by. As the carriage drove away, Hopper led us inside an apartment building and up the stairs straight to the roof.

He locked the door behind us as we entered and set his hold-all down on the floor. He walked over to the edge of the roof and took in the sight of the city where commerce and steam throbbed within its urban heart.

I decided to bring up the question that had been gnawing at me. “Let's just say we succeed in breaking out Hammer, have you considered how we are going to get away with him?”

“He is going to leave that part to us,” Smokewell said. “That’s why he brought us along. So we can deal with the tricky parts.”

“The cat is certainly smart,” Hopper said, looking at us over his shoulder.

Asmod scratched his chin. “While I can't really turn the people completely invisible but there's something that I brought along that can help.” He dug into his pouch and pulled out a mask that looked like it was made of paper but had an unnatural shine to it. With a pen that had a brush on its tip, he made a symbol on the front of the mask and handed it to Lily.

The girl shrugged and put on the mask. I frowned. Because the mask disappeared. And Lily's face had been switched with a woman whom I didn't know.

“The symbol will trigger a memory of a face you saw in a crowd and the mask will appear like that face,” Asmod said.

Lily took off the mask and her face was back. “Wow!” she said looking at the mask.

“Unfortunately, I can't make them look a certain way,” he said. “We won't appear like prison guards to the other guards.”

“This is still more than helpful,” I said. “We can give one of those masks to Hammer to hide his face. Now how are we actually going to break them out? That's still your job to explain, Hopper.”

Hopper gave a quiet nod and pointed a gloved finger at a building a couple of blocks away from us. I noticed the pointy spire above the gate archway. “That's the prison,” he said. “We'll go in there, wearing our disguise. I know the way to the cell where they have kept Hammer. I'll lead you to him. We bring him out, put a mask on him. Then we escape.”

“Okay, you make it sound too simple,” Asmod said. “What about the guards?”

“I can use one of my familiars to keep them at bay,” Lily said.

“What about the gates?” Asmod said.

“I'll take care of the gates,” Hopper said.

“And if things get dire, Grimly and I will use our powers as a last resort,” Smokewell said.

“Yeah, Miss Elsa can just squash the enemies with one of her Abyssal servants,” Lily said.

I swallowed hard and gripped my reticule tighter, remembering the bottles I'd borrowed from Lily and the contents inside them. “Let's hope it doesn't come to that.” I said.

****

We walked our way to the prison, heads down, even though our faces were hidden behind Asmod's enchanted masks. We came to a halt on the street opposite to the main gate. Uncertainty drummed within me.

“You were going to handle the gate,” Lily said, turning to Hopper.

The man lifted his head, tipped back his hat and pulled out a glinting stainless steel pistol from his coat pocket. He aimed at the gate. My eyes went wide. Asmod's jaw went slack. Smokewell whistled as she took in the shine of the weapon.

Hopper pulled the trigger.

What came out of the gun wasn't what I expected. It was a bar of neon green energy, fizzing with electricity. It hit the thick iron gate and made the kind of sound that lightning would've made if it struck the thing instead. For a moment, there was a brilliant flash of light, like the sun was taking a peek at the earth for a moment and then there was darkness.

We had to squint our eyes for a few minutes before vision came back to us. Then the alarms were going off and people were running around, screaming.

As for the gate…there were a few scraps of burnt metal sticking at jagged angles from the hinges in the archway. And a curtain of smoke was hovering in its place.

Hopper slid the gun back into his coat and adjusted the hat on his head again. “Hammer is in the third wing of the prison,” he said. “Let's go and get him now.”