Rebel Mechanics (31 page)

“Can we discuss it later?” I asked. “We have other priorities right now—such as the British troops who'll be here at any moment.”

When we returned to the station, the others had sent several more loads and were working with the calliope, which required some tricky maneuvering. It wouldn't fit through the tunnel to the rail station, so it had to be partially dismantled. While the Mechanics were frantically separating the largest pipes from the machine, Nat ran into the tunnel, shouting, “The soldiers are coming! They're almost at the theater!”

“This will have to be the last load, then,” Henry said.

“This is almost everything. Our other big machines are stored out of town,” Alec said.

“We can buy some time,” Henry said, gesturing to one of his friends. They ran to the door, and I wasn't sure what they did, but I felt the magic. The Mechanics doubled their efforts on the calliope, while Lizzie and I made one more pass around the theater to make sure we had removed every last trace of the Mechanics' presence.

The soldiers were pounding on the theater's front doors when the calliope at last made it through the tunnel into the station. “It will take them a while to get past those seals,” Henry said when he rejoined us.

Alec and the Mechanics closed the door that led into the tunnels and bolted it from the inside. “With any luck, they won't find the passage,” Alec said. “I'd hate to lose the railway.”

With a grin, Henry placed his hand on the door, and I shivered as his spell took effect. “Unless they have a magister with them, they won't see it,” he said.

I heard shouting in the theater as we ran down the tunnel into the rail station. It seemed like an eternity before the pilot car came back from its last trip uptown, and the entire time we waited, I cast frequent glances at the tunnel, fearing that the locks and Henry's spells wouldn't hold. I went weak with relief when at last the car arrived. The Mechanics got it turned around, then connected it to a flatbed car loaded with odds and ends and small machines. “Looks like we'll have to find a new headquarters,” Alec said wistfully as he took a seat on the pilot car.

“I don't think I was cut out for a life in the theater,” Colin quipped. Then he looked at his sister, who hadn't yet boarded the car. “Aren't you coming, Liz?”

She shook her head. “No, I've got work to do here, and I'm useless with machines. I'll get out through one of the other exits. Someone will have to report on how the mysterious disappearance of the Rebel Mechanics baffled the British.”

Nat stood by her side. “And that's gonna sell a lot of papers for me.”

“Verity, we'll talk,” Lizzie said, her tone pleading. I gave her a curt nod before boarding the car with the others.

When the car shot down the tunnel, Henry threw back his head and laughed. “Amazing!” he shouted, grinning widely, and some of the Mechanics grinned back at him. Alec still gave him wary glances, but the others had warmed to him. I couldn't blame them. This Henry, a blend of the boyish enthusiasm of his cover persona and the daring intensity of his Bandit identity, was irresistible.

Some of the Mechanics and magisters had gone ahead with the other machines, and they were waiting at the end of the line. They'd hooked the flatbed cars carrying the machines that didn't move of their own accord to the engines. Now we had to get them out of the tunnels and into the city—and then out of the city.

Alec sent a scouting team that included the Mechanic who'd been my guide the week before and one of the magister bandits to reconnoiter. They returned with a report that the immediate area was clear. At that signal, the Mechanics opened a wide set of doors at the end of the tunnel.

The doors led to a ramp, and the magisters got all the machines moving up it. The ramp ended in a barnlike building. The magisters gathered around the machines and did the silencing spell Henry had performed on his roadster, and then at Henry's signal, the mechanics opened the doors, and we went out into the street.

Henry and I rode on Bessie with Alec at the head of the line. It had seemed as though we'd been underground for hours, but it was still pitch-dark, just past three in the morning. The city slept as the machines moved silently through the streets.

There weren't any barricades this far uptown because the police and soldiers assumed all the other barriers would have stopped any rebels, and they were focusing their efforts downtown in the rebel stronghold. It looked like we might be home free, until the scouts who'd traveled ahead returned, reporting that the bridge leading off the island to the north was guarded.

Alec turned to Henry. “Now what do we do?”

“Let me take a look,” Henry said. He climbed down off the engine, and I went with him. I felt like he was my responsibility, and I wanted to make sure he neither came to harm nor did anything foolish. We went down the riverbank to where we could observe the bridge unseen. Henry took a pair of field glasses from his coat pocket and studied the bridge. “They're only guarding this end,” he said. “Looks like half a dozen men.” He put the glasses in his pocket and turned to head back to the machines.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked as I hurried to catch up with his rapid, long-legged stride.

“I think so.” When we reached the machines, he gestured for everyone to gather around him. “It will take at least two of us to entrance that many guards long enough for us to get by. I think the rest can move the machines magically so they make no noise, but it will be a strain. We won't be of much help beyond the bridge.”

“We'll be fine from that point,” Alec said.

“Why don't we just shoot the soldiers? Or conk 'em on the head?” Mick asked.

“Because then they'd know someone had been past, and they'd know to look for us,” I said. “This way, no one will know the machines left the city.”

Henry gave me an appreciative look. “Yes, Verity's right,” he said. “If they find dead or injured soldiers, you'll have a manhunt. They won't realize they've been entranced, so you'll disappear—as if by magic.”

“I don't suppose you could just wave your hand and make us disappear,” Colin said with a grin.

“I wish I could, but we're not that powerful,” Henry said. “You're fortunate to find this many magisters who even know how to use their powers properly.”

The magisters tasked with entrancing the soldiers went ahead. Once we'd moved out of the more settled parts of the city, the machines had run on their own steam power, but now the Mechanics cut the engines, and it was up to the magisters to power them. Even without the engines, the machines weren't entirely silent. The wheels crunched on the road surface, the moving parts clanked and squeaked, and the loose pieces of metal in the cargo rattled at every bump.

I held my breath as the engines approached the bridge. The soldiers stood there on either side, looking like they were on guard. I waited for them to raise their weapons and challenge us, but they didn't move at all under the spell.

The machines had to go over the bridge one at a time because they were so heavy. The smaller engine went first. The calliope was heavier, and while Bessie waited her turn to cross, Henry jumped off and joined the crew moving the calliope. The bridge groaned alarmingly as the calliope crossed, but it held. Henry and two other magisters ran back across the bridge to Bessie.

Henry swung himself up onto the engine to talk to Alec. “I don't think the bridge will take this engine and the dynamo.”

“There's no other way off the island,” Alec protested. “The railway bridge is too busy and the area around it too populated. I suppose we could find somewhere else to hide them. They won't look for them up here, but I'd rather have all the machines where we can use them instead of keeping them hidden.”

“We could levitate them slightly, just enough to take some of the weight off the bridge,” Henry suggested.

“You can do that?” Alec asked, his skepticism clear on his face.

“It will take a lot of power, but I believe we can.”

“If you fail, we'll lose our most important engines. I'd rather keep them hidden,” Alec said. “Now, are you absolutely certain you can make this work? Don't overstate your abilities, magister.”

“We can do it,” Henry insisted, his jaw set stubbornly. He waved to the rest of the magisters, and they gathered by the engine, discussing how to manage the spell. Then they took their places, some on the dynamo and a few on the ground to walk beside the engine and dynamo. Henry sent all the Mechanics other than Alec ahead over the bridge before climbing onto the engine with Alec and me.

“Verity, you should go on, too,” Alec said.

“I told you, we can do this. She'll be safe,” Henry said.

“I'd rather not take the chance with her life, and that will lighten the weight you have to lift.”

“I need a lookout. You'll be steering and I'll be deep into the spell. She's hardly any extra weight. She stays.” Henry's voice left no room for argument.

Alec glared at him, and I thought for a moment it might come to a fight. “I'm willing to stay as lookout,” I said. “I'm not afraid.”

“Then that settles it. We should get started,” Henry said, rubbing his hands together, then placing them on the engine. I felt the surge of magic as the engine crept forward and onto the bridge.

I couldn't tell when they began lifting some of the engine's weight, but the bridge didn't make any frightening sounds, so I assumed it was working. I shifted my attention back and forth between the group waiting at the other end and the group holding the guards in thrall. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Then when we were just past the middle of the bridge, I heard a distant drum cadence. “I think it's the shift change for the guards,” I said, wondering if Henry could hear me, as deep as he was into the spell.

“We'll have to hurry, then,” he said without opening his eyes. The engine moved faster, but the strain was showing on Henry's face, and the sound of groaning metal told me the bridge was taking more weight than it should.

 

IN WHICH I MUST DECIDE MY FUTURE

We weren't going to make it across the bridge. More soldiers were coming, and the magisters didn't have enough power to move the engine faster while lifting its weight enough for the bridge to bear it. Either we'd be caught or the bridge would collapse and plunge us into the river below. I didn't know much about using magic, but I could channel power from the ether. Perhaps that would provide the needed boost. However, doing so would reveal my biggest secret. It was a revelation that could cost me my freedom.

The bridge groaned again, sounding like its metal trusses were crying out in pain. Alec kept the engine pointed straight down the bridge, but I could see the tension in his shoulders as he focused on the other end that seemed so far away. A look at Henry's sweat-beaded face convinced me I had no choice but to trust him. He knew a thing or two about secrets and breaking the law. If any magister could accept a half-breed in his household, it would be Henry Lyndon. I removed my glove and placed my hand on top of his, then lowered my magical shields and opened myself to the ether, pouring the power I channeled into him.

He gasped out loud in surprise as my power connected to his. A moment later, the bridge quit groaning and the engine gained speed. My instinct was to hold my breath until we were safe, but I forced myself to keep breathing to maintain the flow of the ether. All the while, the sound of approaching drumbeats grew louder.

At last, the engine moved off the bridge, so we no longer needed to levitate it. Henry signaled to the magisters enthralling the guards, and they ran across the bridge to join us. I felt as though I'd been drained completely by the time we were far enough away for Alec to fire up the engine. I sagged against Henry, and he turned his hand around to clasp mine. “Well done, Verity,” he whispered in my ear. “You are full of surprises, aren't you?”

About half an hour later, the machines had all moved a safe distance from the city into the wilds beyond the Bronx. The engines stopped, and all of us—magisters and Mechanics—piled off to say our farewells before the Mechanics went on and the magisters returned to the city.

“Thank you for your help,” Alec said, extending a hand to Henry. “It was a good plan.” It looked as though the admission pained him, but he was being a good sport about it.

“You have good machines that helped it work,” Henry said. “That underground railway of yours is amazing. What will you do now?”

“We'll go somewhere west—we have some allies among the native tribes, and they'll give us refuge in their land—and do what you said we should do. We'll make plans for a real revolution, build more machines, get ready to really turn things upside down throughout the colonies. You'll be doing the same?”

“I'll keep undermining the government, and we have other things in the works. I'm sure our respective groups will encounter each other again.” He glanced around, then gave a sheepish smile. “There is one small flaw in my plan: how are we to get home?”

“Stewart's meeting us with his carriage,” one of the magisters said.

“That's well enough for you. You're known for being out until the wee hours. But even if I left this moment, I'd be caught sneaking through the kitchen door after being out all night with my governess,” Henry said. “The servants would be up by the time we drove home, and I'm sure my housekeeper is a spy for the governor.”

“We can get you home faster without having to go through the kitchen door,” Alec said. “As I told you, some of the machines were already out of town. Get back on board.”

The carriage arrived and the rest of Henry's gang piled into it. We waved goodbye as the engines moved onward. A few minutes later, we stopped in front of an enormous barn, and the Mechanics opened the doors to reveal the airship
Liberty
. Everett came out to meet us, and after Alec explained the situation to him, he said to Henry, “If you can get in through your bedroom windows, we can keep you out of sight of any nosy servants.”