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the two big ones were down, and they weren’t moving.
    ‘Now, now, remember who started this,’ blurted Julius. He was backed into a corner and suddenly took on a frightened-rabbit demeanour. ‘I have a right to defend myself.’
    ‘Shush,’ said Thaddeus, dropping the cudgel to the floor; this he wanted to do with his hands. ‘No fucking talking until I say so.’
    ‘All right! I’ll tell you what you want to know.’ Julius’s voice had grown shrill, and his arrogance seemed to have fled.
    ‘I know you will,’ Thaddeus replied, reaching forward with those big, grasping hands.
    ‘Not the face!’ Julius covered his head with his arms. A balled fist hit him right in the guts, punching every ounce of wind from his lungs. Immediately his arms dropped and Blaklok wasted no time, driving a fist into his victim’s pinched and imperious features. Blood immediately spread from a bust nose and lip. Another fist to the face and Julius was beginning to redden around the eyes.
    ‘It opens gates,’ blurted Julius.
    Blaklok paused, his fist still raised. ‘Gates to where?’
    ‘Dangerous places. It’s forbidden. Just leave it well alone.’ Blaklok reached back once more, his knuckles itching to strike. ‘The Nine Gates! The Nine Gates!’ screeched Julius. ‘It can open any of the gates to Hell!’
    Blaklok loosed his grip on Julius and took a step back. ‘So it would be extremely valuable to anyone wanting to open one of those gates? Someone mad enough to let loose the joys of the Pit?’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ said Julius, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at the blood on his face. ‘But for the moment it’s quite safe within the Repository. Security on that place is tighter than a fish’s fanny. You’d have more chance of robbing the Bank of the Houses than stealing an exhibit from the Repository. And less chance of dying in the attempt. Take my advice, Thaddeus, leave well alone.’
    ‘When I need advice from a stuck up outcast with more money than the sense to hire good bodyguards, I’ll be sure to check with you.’
    ‘I’ll have you know these men came with perfectly splendid references,’ Julius replied, starting to regain some of his former composure. ‘So what is it? You want the Key of Lunos for the money? Someone hired you to procure it?’
    ‘I told you once, mind your own fucking business.’
    ‘Well, suit yourself, but you did come to me. I do have a right to know.’
    ‘I came to you because you know everything concerning the Houses, and most things about our ‘business’. Not because you’re a great conversationalist. And no, you don’t have the right to know anything. Speaking of which, this Darian of House Hopplite. Does he know what the Key’s for?’
    ‘I very much doubt it. And even if he did, it wouldn’t interest him. All Darian is concerned with is his own prestige and how much tipple and tit he can secure for himself.’
    Blaklok had heard enough. He left Julius bleeding in his drawing room and exited the manor, this time by the front door.
    As he crossed the grounds towards the cloying confines of the Manufactory, he thought of poor unwitting Duke Darian and his unlucky find. It was clear the Duke might be about to get a rather nasty surprise. If Blaklok’s ‘benefactors’ wanted this item, you could be damn sure there would be other interested parties. And if this Key could open the gates of Hell, it was damn sure that things would heat up in the Manufactory in the very near future.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    The Repository of Unnatural History, like most prominent edifices of the Manufactory, stood on an innocuous street, in a nondescript part of the city. Gull Road was a quite ordinary byway, and followed the Cutter’s River most of the way through the city. It was largely residential, with some parts set aside for warehousing and others strictly commercial. The Repository stood in a busy part of one such commercial section, sandwiched between an exotic meat