Angel of Brass (24 page)

Malachi rose to his feet and walked over to
the shrouded form in the corner. “That’s all any parent wants,
really: to make a better world for his children. Despite your
betrayal, despite the fact that you colluded with small minds like
that filthy spymaster, I stand willing to forgive everything.”

Gibson
. The memory of blood made Jin
shudder.
He didn’t deserve to die like that. He was a good man;
he helped me, and now he’s gone and Winifred is a widow
.

“I had hoped that our conversation would go
better,” Malachi went on sadly. He pulled a rope, and the tarp
crumpled to the floor, revealing the object beneath.

My rig.

Jin’s heart filled with such longing that it
stole his breath. He knew how to hide pain, but didn’t have enough
experience with joy to have learned the same lesson, and he knew
that Malachi read the yearning on his face.

“If you had proved more repentant, all would
have been forgiven, and you could have joined Delilah on her
mission. As it is, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait, at least until
the transfer of power has been completed.” Malachi crossed the room
again, stopping a few feet away from Jin. “I won’t lie, Jin—you’ve
hurt me. We’re going to have to work very hard to rebuild our
relationship. I won’t have time to give you the attention you
deserve for a little while to come, but as soon my work is
finished, we’ll take a vacation somewhere nice, where we can talk
things through. I love you, son. Nothing will ever change
that.”

Malachi nodded to the smiling men. “Please
escort Jin to his room. Jin, if you need anything, just let the
captain know. I’ll see you in a few days.”

Jin thought about resisting, but the idea of
being manhandled by the creatures that had killed Gibson made his
skin crawl. So he walked quickly to the door on his own, not
looking back at his father.

I’ll keep my eyes open
, he told
himself as the smiling men led him down a narrow corridor.
If I
can find out where Del is, maybe we can still escape together. I
can’t give up hope. Not yet
.

He was lying to himself, he knew. Malachi
would take every precaution to make sure that the siblings had no
contact. But if a lie was the only thing he had to comfort himself
with...well, it was still better than nothing at all.

* * *

Molly sat in a chair at Ellington House, numb
with grief and weariness. The ornate clock over the mantelpiece
told her that the old day had died a long time ago and that dawn
couldn’t be far off. A new day, when people would get out of bed
and go to work, or class, unaware that the world was slowly
crumbling to dust around them.

Winifred was upstairs, under the influence of
a strong sedative, while their mother looked after her. Molly sat
in the study with her father, who seemed lost in shock. “Terrible
thing,” he murmured; it was probably the fifth time he’d repeated
the same words. “Terrible.”

“Yes,” Molly agreed, yet again.

This time, however, he actually focused on
her. “Where did your friend—Mr. Malachi—go?”

A lump rose in Molly’s throat, threatening to
cut off her breath.
He went back into the hands of a
monster.

Oh, Jin. Please be all right. Please.

“He didn’t want to intrude on the family at
such a time,” she managed to lie. “But he offered whatever help we
need.”

“Very handsome of him. Very polite. He seems
a nice young man.”

Molly looked down at her hands, her eyes
burning with unshed tears. “He is.”

“Is he Xatlian?” her mother asked from the
doorway. “He didn’t have the accent, but one can never tell.”

There was a hard edge to her voice that Molly
didn’t think she’d ever heard before. Who cared about Jin’s
ethnicity, when Gibson was dead and Winifred shattering from the
force of her grief?

“How is Winifred?” she asked.

“Sleeping, the poor dear. Still, it will only
postpone the inevitable.” Gwendolyn Feldman sank down on the love
seat by her husband and took his hand. “I was asking about your Mr.
Malachi, though.”

Molly wet her lips. “I don’t know. He’s lived
here all his life, and he was raised Eroevian. What does it
matter?”

“Didn’t you hear what they were saying at the
palace?” her mother asked with a raised eyebrow. “About Gibson’s
death?”

“I was busy taking care of Winifred, Mother,”
Molly replied sharply.

“They’re saying that Prince Five Jaguar
unleashed another of his mechanical abominations on the palace
grounds, and that’s what killed Gibson.”

Saints’ blood
. “And why in the world
would he do that?”

“The same reason he sent his creations
against the crowd at the celebration!”

“Which was...?”

“The Xatlians are looking to re-conquer us,
of course.” Her mother let out a small sniff. “They’ve always
resented the fact that we threw them out.”

This must be a joke
. “That was
hundreds of years ago.”

“And they still interfere with us today. If
you don’t believe me, ask your father who threatened to bring force
against Eroe when we invaded Dirna forty years ago.”

Molly shook her head, not wanting to get into
old politics. “Maybe, but—”

“The point is, they don’t mind their own
business. They’re always telling us how to run our affairs. Now
they’re killing us, and I hate to say it, but anyone of Xatlian
ancestry may be on their side and not ours.”

The fine hairs on Molly’s neck rose.
It
might be nothing. I might be too tired to be thinking
straight.

But...Jin and his sister look Xatlian. Was
that part of the reason Reynard approached Dr. Malachi? Obviously
Malachi was helpful in other ways, but was it a factor? Is Reynard
going to pin the assassination of Queen Rowena on the Xatlians?

“There’s no evidence that the prince is
responsible for any of it,” Molly said. “And even if he was, to say
that everyone of Xatlian ancestry is in league with him...I’d
expected better, Mother. Even from you.”

Her mother’s face went white with anger.
“Considering that they murdered your brother-in-law, I would have
expected better from
you!”

Molly clenched her hands until her
fingernails bit into the flesh of her palms. “You don’t know
anything.”

Her mother shouted after her as she stalked
from the room, but she no longer cared. What did it matter? What
did any of it matter? Gibson was dead and Jin taken, and there
wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop what was to come.

Gibson was right when he said we had powerful
enemies. I can’t stand up to Reynard alone—I’ll look like a
lunatic. Like a stupid girl. And if Gibson was betrayed by one of
his own people, I can’t turn to them for help.

“Miss?” Crowley asked from behind her.

Molly jumped, so lost in her own thoughts
that she hadn’t paid the slightest attention to anything else. “Oh!
Crowley, you frightened me.”

“Forgive me, Miss.” He held his hat in his
hands, twisting it violently. “I saw that you were leaving, and I
thought I should take you home. Make sure you get there safe and
all.”

Gibson said that Crowley was his
right-hand man. Surely he, of all people, can be trusted
. She
opened her mouth, prepared to tell him that the smiling men had
killed Gibson, but the arrival of her father cut her off.

“I’ll take her home, Crowley,” he said
kindly, putting his hand to her arm. “Come along, dear.”

“Oh, but it’s no trouble at all,” Crowley
objected. “You should stay here, sir, in case my lady needs
you.”

“She’ll sleep for the next few hours. And my
wife...needs time alone to compose herself. Therefore, I will
escort my youngest to her home.”

Crowley’s eyes darted between them, and for a
moment Molly thought she saw a gleam of desperation.

If I’m right...if someone sold Gibson
out...

Not Crowley. It couldn’t have been.

Crowley nodded reluctantly. “Very good,
sir.”

“Come, my dear,” her father said. “Do you
have all of your things?”

“Yes, sir,” she managed to say, tearing her
gaze away from Crowley and turning to her father. “I have my bag.
Thank you.”

Her father patted her awkwardly on her arm.
“Yes, well. Least I could do.”

Crowley followed them to the door, watching
as they went to the carriage. A part of Molly fancied that his eyes
were still on her when they went down the drive and out into the
street.

Chapter 17

Rather than have her father take her to the
boarding house, she asked him to drop her off at Liam’s flat. He
seemed a bit taken aback, but didn’t ask any awkward questions.

It took Liam a while to answer her ring;
considering that the sun was just creeping over the horizon, he’d
probably been in bed. Indeed, he was disheveled when he opened the
door, his shirt untucked and his hair mussed. Squinting at her
through the lingering haze of sleep, he said, “Molly? What are you
doing here? I don’t think Jin’s come in yet...”

At the sound of Jin’s name, she felt the
tears well up again. Alarmed, Liam drew her inside and shut the
door.

“Molly? Did something happen to Jin?” he
asked as he put his good arm around her.

She cried into his shoulder, pouring out the
horrible events of the evening while he held her. When she was
done, he said, “I’m so sorry. I never met Gibson, but he did me a
great kindness, sending the doctor down here to help when I was
sick. He was a good man.”

“Yuh-yes,” she sniffled. Pulling loose from
him, she sank to the floor, her back against the wall.

Liam crouched down opposite her, absently
rearranging the position of his sling as he did so. “What can I do
to help?”

“Nothing.” Molly wiped the tears from her
face. “Gibson’s dead, and Jin’s been taken, and we don’t know who
we can trust to go to for help. We’ve lost. The conspiracy will
carry out their plans, Queen Rowena will be killed, who knows how
many other people will die, and they’ll probably blame it all on
the Xatlian prince. From what Mother said, they’ll run you out of
the country along with the Xatlians, just because you look the
same.”

“Yes, that is quite the catalog of woe,” Liam
agreed. “Is that all, or do you have something else to add?”

If he was trying to be funny, he wasn’t doing
a good job of it. “I think that’s quite enough, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes. Quite. Let’s tackle one problem at
a time, shall we? We can’t do anything about Gibson, obviously,
except to help Winifred any way we can. So, on to problem two:
rescuing Jin.”

“I appreciate the attempt to cheer me up,”
she said, “but we don’t have any idea where he might be.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about the
conspirators the last few days. First they abandoned Malachi’s
estate, then the resurrectionist headquarters. Obviously, they went
somewhere else, probably somewhere in Chartown. So, assuming the
smiling men took Jin to Malachi...if we find them, then we find
him.”

Molly stared at him for a long moment. She
wanted to point out that it wouldn’t be half as easy as he made it
sound, that Jin had been looking for Del for days and had never
found her, that their hope of success was vanishingly small.

But trying has to be better than lying down
and waiting for Crowley—or someone else—to come and kill me.

“All right, Two-Gears,” she said with a
shadow of a smile. “Let’s get to work.”

* * *

Instead of the cell that Jin expected, the
smiling men escorted him to a bedroom. The chamber itself had
probably begun life as an office of some sort. A single window,
heavily barred against thieves, looked out onto the early light of
dawn. A violin case lay on the small cot, no doubt intended as a
peace offering from Malachi.

He sank down slowly onto the bed and opened
the case to reveal his violin nestled within.
I never got the
chance to play for Molly.

Molly.
He wondered if she knew what
had happened to him. What would become of her, with Gibson dead and
all their plans torn down around them?

Perhaps I can barter for her safety. Tell
Father that I’ll be a good little monster if he’ll just leave her
alone. Would he do that for me?

Maybe. Or maybe he’d decide to take her
prisoner as a “gift” for Jin.
Saints, anything but that.

I’ve got to get out of here.

Leaping to his feet, Jin went to the window,
intending to test the bars. But at that moment, the door behind him
opened. Turning hastily, he saw Del standing in the doorway.

Jin let out a cry of joy and crossed the room
in a flash. He flung his arms around his sister, hugging her tight.
He’d been so sure Dr. Malachi would keep them separated, to prevent
him from telling her about the outside world.

I won’t make the same mistake twice. I’m not
leaving her here again. This time, we’ll escape together.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, giving her a last
squeeze before letting go. “I’m sorry I left you, Del.”

She took a step back and smiled, a bit sadly.
“You know that I forgive you. But...it did hurt, Jin. I thought we
were closer than that.”

“I always meant to come back for you, I
swear. I just—I saw my opportunity, and I had to take it. I thought
it would be easier to rescue you if I was already free.”

“Rescue me?”

“Yes, of course.” For the first time since
she’d come in, Jin took a close look at her. “By all the saints,
what are you wearing?”

The top and skirt were made from bright
cotton cloth, patterned in the Xatlian manner with stylized birds
and animals. Feathers festooned everything, and a jaguar hide lay
over her shoulders. Both hide and shirt were fashioned in such a
way that her back was left bare, the sockets for the rig attachment
gleaming bright along either side of her spine. Neither shoe nor
glove hid the bright brass of her forearms and legs.