Emerald City Blues (10 page)

The enormity of everything that had happened still h
adn't quite sunk in. The context mattered, but I'd been betrayed, struck unconscious, hung from chains, suffered interrogation - twice - and shot a man to death, all in the last twelve hours. And now I felt nothing but exhaustion and a mounting sense of anticipation at the prospect of meeting Dasha. Shouldn't I feel something more? Guilt, perhaps? Relief? All I felt was a tension, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Promising I'd feel something all right, and soon
at that, I straightened my back and walked down the hall to room 37. I rapped on the door and waited forever, give or take. I rapped again. The sound was hollow. No answer. Then I tried the handle. It was open.

The room was empty. The bed had not been slept in.

I don't remember walking in. I just remember standing at the window looking out over Elliot Bay, reading the handwritten note I'd found on the sill.

The primstav for my measure. That is my price. Meet me in Belgorod-Dnestrovskaya Citadel, Odessa. Hurry, vozlyublennaya. Hurry. -D

A cold wind blew in off Elliot Bay and lodged itself inside my chest. At least now I knew who'd commandeered the
Lenin.
Though just how she had guessed that I found her measure on Nikolai's body, I wasn't so sure. I put a hand in my pocket and touched the knotted-cord bracelet I had fashioned just this morning from the long silk thread stained with her blood. Maybe it was too late for some things between us, but there were definitely other possibilities to be explored instead.

I would find a way to go to Odessa. I would find her again. With her measure wrapped around my wris
t, she would make a fine master indeed.

The world of Maddie Sheehan is modeled closely on our own, including many pieces of history the careful reader will have noticed already. Set in a version of Seattle, Washington circa 1929, the story features
historical events such as the Klondike Gold Rush, the Denny Regrade, and the building of Harbor Island. Important historical personages from the colorful history of Seattle are encountered, including John Considine and Ah King, and all of the streets and buildings mentioned are as close to accuracy as my research could make them, right down to the Horseshoe Liquor Company and the date on which the Ford Motor Company released the Model T. The (deliberately spare) details regarding Meister Gerd, the Circle, and topics relating to the Art were drawn from pre-Germanic magical traditions, and required much more creative additions than did other parts of the setting.

It bears mention that, as often happens in works of speculative fiction, certain
factual details must be amended in order to facilitate the story. To any true historians who have read this work, I assure you such alterations were made with deliberation and not caprice. It is, however grounded in loving amounts of research, a work of fiction.

Though the story of Maddie Sheehan and the Circle
resides firmly within the borders of the realm of fantasy, I trust the reader will understand that the lessons learned there need not necessarily remain there. Certainly I have found it so.

Peter Smalley

Seattle, Washington

April 11, 2013